Lesson 4: Trailer Screening

Aladdin Trailer (Thriller)

We originally intended to convert Aladdin into a horror trailer, but we decided that thriller might be more suitable. What was challenging is that Aladdin is meant to appeal to children, and even the scariest scenes have a cheery feel to them. I think that our choice of music, which is quite dark / heavy, was helpful with changing the atmosphere to something more horror / thriller-like and create a sense of suspense. We picked out important scenes from the movie to convey the storyline, for example, we used scenes of Aladdin and Jasmine falling in love at first to establish their relationship and afterwards, scenes of Aladdin fighting the villain (snake / genie) of the movie. At the very end, we included the scene of the tiger roar as a jump scare to further intensify the atmosphere.

Of course, our trailer has its weaknesses as well. The audio in the beginning is a bit too soft and we could've made the audio throughout the film more echoey to heighten the sense of terror. My peers also suggested that the trailer belongs more to the horror genre rather the thriller genre. The colour tone of the shots are a bit too bright / too cheery - we could've distorted / darkened the colour scheme using different effects to make the trailer more horror-like. Scary scenes could've been used in a devil movie, especially with demonic moments like the creepy man in the prison. Last but not least, some transitions are not very smooth. The pace of the trailer changes too suddenly because the transition between scenes is sometimes too abrupt, i.e. between the scene where Jasmine / Aladdin gets kidnapped to the scene in the prison. 

Ratatouille (Horror)

This group did a great job converting Ratatouille into a horror film. The choice of soundtracks were excellent as they helped with intensifying the atmosphere and building suspense. The transitions between scenes were smooth, and the sequence of the scenes as well as the pace of the trailer was controlled well as the trailer starts off normal and eventually reaches the climax. Since this is also originally a Disney film, the scenes from the original movie were quite cheery, and this group did a great job picking out darker images to create a horror movie trailer. However, I was a bit confused about the storyline and the role of the characters, but some of my peers pointed out that the ambiguity is what brings the mysteriousness / scary feeling to the trailer. I also think that the volume of the music can be increased towards the end of the trailer to make it more dramatic. Ms. Ward suggested to the group that they could leave more of a cliffhanger in the end. 

Saving Jaws 

I was confused about the storyline of this group's trailer. I wasn't sure what the climax was, until the group introduced their idea to the class - that the story is supposed to be about animal cruelty, with the protagonist trying to save the sharks. The choice of scenes supported the genre, but it does not really translate the storyline to the audience, mostly due to the choice of music. The group said that they tried to portray the beach as a bright, happy place, but the atmosphere that the background music was creating seem to contradict their idea. The music was giving an ominous impression to the audience. I think that some narration / more text is needed to explain what is going on.

Jurassic Park (Romantic Comedy)

This group chose "Just the Way You Are" as the soundtrack for the trailer, which seemed to fit the storyline perfectly in the beginning, where the male lead and female lead were introduced to the audience. Due to the music and the placing of the introductions of characters, we were expecting that it would be about the romantic relationship between the male lead and female lead, but the trailer took an unexpected turn and was instead meant to convey interspecies love. I think that the introduction of the female lead may have been unnecessary, and instead, the group should include an introduction of the dinosaur. The soundtrack can also be cut off halfway through the film and can be replaced with more dialogue / voiceover. The audio cuts / drop offs could've been fine tuned, but otherwise, this group did a great job turning Jurassic Park into a romantic comedy film and approached this task in a very unique and creative way.