Editing;
'The Strangers' is a conventional to the horror genre, due to it's production in following Freytag's Triangle of the rise and fall of action in a trailer. It has the typical use of long and slow shots to draw the audience into the trailer, through the gradual increase of action. These longer, slower cuts that fade in and out of black to give the impression of a peaceful atmosphere around the protagonists, as well as fitting in time with the melodic 'music box' background music. As the trailer progresses the shots gradually increase in pace and more bluntly cut, which represents the peak of action. They connotate that the trailer as a whole is getting more hectic and is where the protagonists are confronted with the appearance of the antagonists.
The trailer begins with a variety of slow paced and medium to long timed shots which are designed to inform the audience of the location(s) of the film, the main characters and a small insight into their lives. For the 'The Strangers', the location was shown to predominantly be inside and outside a house within the boundaries of a rural settlement. The establishing shots show one male, and one female, which the audience assume are the protagonists of film as the first 20 seconds focus on them having passionate and romantic connection with each other. The small insight shown in the before the rise in action is that they are preparing for a romantic night alone, but alone in a horror movie always means trouble ahead. After this period of slow establishing shots there is a trigger that sets off the rise in action, in case being a crash and a bang coming from near the house, cut in time to the two protagonists turning around. After this happens the shots dramatically decrease in length and start to show more curiosity in the protagonist's actions. It keeps the fades between each shot because the music hasn't quite built up to the peak, therefore soft fades still represent the speed of the background music. Most often, these shots are broken up with with captions which inform or tell the audience a mini story or to give them a slight dictation of conscious thoughts they would be feeling if they were in that position. There then becomes a sudden turning point in the trailer were the music, sound effects and on screen shots will coincide create a very different atmosphere to which the trailer follows on to reach the peak of action. The purpose of this is to give the audience a scare, and let them know that the trailer they are watching is a horror. After this, shot length gradually gets shorter and slightly faster, which increases the overall tempo of the trailer. After the peak, the shots eventually slow back down to the pace of which the trailer started on. This is where shot increases again, along with the re-introduction of fades in and out of black between shots. At this point the music will be edited to slow right down, to to fade out completely, to either leave the trailer on a cliffhanger or to let the audience focus on the final few shots. This is subsequently followed by the release date and name of the film, which is accompanied by little or no music at all.
The idea of the Freytag Triangle in a horror movie, or in any movie it relates to, is to slowly reveal enough parts of the movie so that the target audience want to see it, but not giving too much away that they ruin the story line. The usual idea is that they reveal what or who the antagonists are, overviews of the plot, who or what are the protagonists are and the location they are surrounded by.
Camera and Shot Compositions;
The main effect used in this trailer is unconventional to most trailers because it plays to advantage the issue of an unstable camera, which is a predominant feature throughout. Instead of using the traditional steady shot, the use of a shaking camera give the viewer the experience of a first person view, that they are actually there witnessing the events unfolding behind the camera. This type of composition gives the audience an opportunity to feel like they are actually in the movie and the shaking screen is in fact caused by their breathing. By having the shaking camera, not only does it give the feel of a first person account, it doesn't distinguish what or who the first person account is of. Could the viewer be looking through the eyes of another protagonist, or are they looking though the eyes of a killer stalking them. This will often draw the audience in by getting them involved with the footage they see in front of the. Unlike actual handheld camera movies like 'The Blair Witch Project' or 'Cloverfield', which are done on hand cameras all the way through for a specific reason, 'The Strangers' uses it in certain parts of the trailer to specifically create a link between the audience and the trailer. This emphasizes the feeling of being inside the movie, which draws the audience in and concentrates their attention solely on the film/film clips being shown in front of them.
As well as showing the unsteady camera shots, 'The Strangers' uses a lot of long shots and establishing shots, with the camera low to the ground. Which keeps both the protagonists and antagonists and roughly the same height and level throughout the trailer. This is also rather unconventional for horror movies as they often show a large collection of high and low angled shots depending on who was in the frame. The high angled shots make the protagonists look inferior, helpless and small. Connotating that this certain character is in trouble and they can't escape it by themselves as they are weaker than their enemy. On the other side of the spectrum, low angle shots will usually be present when the antagonist is in the frame, which makes them look tall, powerful and overwhelming to their victims. Yet 'The Strangers' doesn't follow this convention by showing both sets of characters at a similar height. This fits in with the unidentifiable costume set up of the antagonist, as the audience can't tell what type of person is under the image portrayed in front of them, it would be harder to come to a judgement on who is the most powerful.
This equal height feature can be seen well for 9 seconds from 0:44 to 0:53. This shot - if it followed the conventions - should have the camera higher up in the air, so it portrayed the protagonist as small and weaker than the killer in the background. However, it places the camera roughly in the middle of the floor and ceiling, getting both characters at an equal level. This type of shot leaves a lot more interpretation for the audience, as they would think of it a way that they feel best suits the shot. In most cases, they would see it as the antagonist as being more powerful, due to fact that is usually always the way in the horror genre. But without the high or low angle shots, how do the audience even know this is a killer? The male protagonist isn't in the frame, could be him playing a prank? Leaving apparent clear cut decisions with a sense of doubt and resulting in a re think about the situation shown on screen. This creates a great deal of suspense, as well confusion and anxiety about what message that shot is actually trying to portray to the audience.
Another notable shot in the trailer is a close up of one of the protagonists, where you see his whole face, neck and shoulders. The shot is from about 1:27 to 1:29, and is very similar to the shot described above. However this time the shot composition shows an over the shoulder shot where you see an antagonist behind his right hand shoulder wielding an axe. The 2 second long piece of footage is cut up into smaller time frames and uses blunt cuts to switch between the angles. It creates a sense of anxiety again for a viewer, as they know what is behind the protagonist, where as he is completely oblivious to it. The last shot in the small section of footage lasts for a fraction of a second and shows a jump to the protagonist with his head slightly turned to the right, as if he has a suspicion that something is there, then it jumps to a caption. This again generates tension because you don't see the outcome of that confrontation, therefore the audience substitute their own possible outcome into the gap filled by the caption. They don't know what happens, but if they went to see the film they would know, which is a way of attracting them to see the film.
Mise-en-Scene;
'The Strangers' is an intense and unsettling trailer, due to the invasion of the protagonist's privacy of their home by the antagonists. Many people view their homes to be a place of safe haven where they can live free from fear and disruption of privacy, and it's this feeling that proves unsettling to the audience. They can see and sense that someone is in the house - within the build up of the trailer - when the protagonist cannot. This sense of obliviousness and not knowing can bring out the emotions of the audience because they would put themselves in the the same role and feel the fear that the protagonist would be feeling.
It isn't just the privacy issues in house that unease's the audience, it is also due to the fact that they cannot see the identity of the antagonists. They are left guessing as to who, or what, could be under those masks and what are their intentions for tormenting these people. Masks make an audience feel uneasy because it takes away one of our human instincts to look people in the face and make eye contact with them. When you make eye contact it reduces any feelings of unrest because you will be able to have a gut instinct whether or not that person could cause you harm. But if this instinct is taken away you will constantly be on edge about what the person beneath is like. This has been used in other horror movies such as Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday 13th due to the fright it delivers to the audience. Another feature that adds to unrest of the portrayal of the antagonists in the trailer/film is the fact that they are wearing casual clothing, they don't represent the conventional view of a killer with blood stained torn clothes. These clothing aspects of the mise-en-scene help a person make their mind up on the safety of a person if their face is covered up. However, because casual clothes have been used, the audience cannot decide whether the antagonists are playing a joke, or are actually driven by malicious intent. It makes the audience feel nervous, thus resulting in a build up of suspense in the trailer.
Music, dialogue Sound Effects;
In order to fit to the convention of Freytag's Triangle, the background music in the trailer must; start up slowly and melodically, gradually increase in tempo getting more dramatic, reach a point where the music is really fast or dramatic, then gradually quieten down to the way it started and then fade out to silence. Which is exactly that the background music to 'The Strangers' does. It starts of soft and peaceful,resembling a small chime music box or piano, very fitting to the slow start melodic start of the trailer. It gives an almost care free feel to the start, as if everything will be fine. Although the audience are aware it is a trailer for a horror movie they are watching. When the turning point arises, often signaled by a sound effect, it will have a match to action transition, where the next part of the song will start to play. This sound effect is the sound of crashing and banging for fractions of a second. You can't see where it's coming from, so in most cases will be as startled as the protagonists in the film. The sudden noise tries to make you feel the emotions that the characters are feeling in the trailer.
This doesn't happen spontaneously, instead there is a period of around 40 seconds where the back ground music stops altogether. This has been done so that the audience's attention is primarily focused on the footage and dialogue instead of the background music. Once this time period is over the music has changed from a romantic piano to low rumbles and heavier beats that build the audience up for the rise in action. This second piece of background music lasts for around 10 seconds, of which it then cuts out to the sound of one of the protagonists cautiously calling, "hello". To which you hear the sound of an old gramophone record playing softly in the background as more important dialogue is being exchanged between the two characters, then it goes quiet all of a sudden. This is then very quickly followed up the the sound effect of an axe crashing through a door, which is really loud and makes the audience jump. There is a match of transition to music again the peak of Freytag's Triangle is reached at this point in the trailer.
The peak of the background music has been reached in the trailer, and it is the sound of a stuck record playing the constant loop of sound over and over again. To which it gradually speeds up until the loop is just a fraction of a second long. This allows the footage to be cut really short for the peak in action, its the part where the audience are going to be most engrossed by what they are seeing on screen. The sound effects of screaming are present all the way through the height of action, and have been placed there specifically because of the genre this film is representing. They are being used to terrify the audience, to show them how scary this film actually is. The music then finally cuts out to nothing, where the music is replaced by dialogue between both protagonist and antagonist, which leaves the trailer on a cliff hanger, because it's hard to fully understand what is being said at the end of it. This cliff hanger makes the audience want to see the film in the cinema even more as they should be wanting to see the outcome of the film depicted in the trailer. When the dialogue fades out, there are faint whispers and low rumbles that accompany the title sequences.
The sound effects in the trailer have been specifically placed in strategic positions within the trailer to scare the audience and to really implant the horror genre into their memory. The main loud sound effects will always be placed at the end of a quiet sequence when they are not expected, in order to take the audience by surprise and make them jump. It also gets them ready for the next rise in action ahead.
