The Crazies Trailer

The MPAA green screen starts the trailer and the first few clips are establishing long shots and pans of the village the film is set in. Soft calm piano music is used in the background – represents the kind of town it is. A very small, calm, homely town. Each shot slowly fades into one another.

The feel of the trailer changes quickly as a man with a shotgun appears at a safe town event (like a baseball game) with a gun. There’s a few close ups/medium close ups of peoples faces, we can see how they change. This is where the scratchy high pitch sound effects start. A series of over the shoulder shots follows, keeping camera angles different and interesting. The sound effects increase and intensify as the risk does. As David shoots the man, there’s a loud gun shot then a sharp bang as the screen cuts to black.

The film company screen fades in (Overture films). Sound effect and dialogue used, throughout the next few shots. There are establishing shots so we remember it’s a small calm tranquil town where trouble does not often happen. The caption screens start, the first one, in simple font reading ‘your NEIGHBORS’, a breathing sound effect in the background. Clever shots flicker through, they’re less than a second each with the noise of a running insect/instrument over the top. With every caption screen – the same breathing noise followed by the flickering shots happens.

At 57seconds, the noise intensifies, the violin sounds increase as the build up of tension does then it goes silent as a small boy says ‘he has a knife’ and we cut to an interesting close up of a shoe going up the stairs and a ‘bmm’ noise. Buzzing shots start to occur, buzzing in and out of eachother like a light that doesn’t work properly, there is a series of around 10 of these, the noise increasing. Dialogue is used throughout over the top of the music and sound effects.

At 1minute 28seconds is the real turning point of the trailer happens, a zombie tries to escape out of his cage, a clever side angle shot is used so we just see his arms shoot out of the cage. This would make most of the audience jump. Quick cuts now follow not fades. There’s no longer a calm feel about the trailer.

A very busy feel is present, lots of noises, gunshots, effects, music, footsteps and talking are used. A very busy style trailer but every now and again, there is dead silence. One important scene is of the girl hiding somewhere in a house. There is no noise except man walking along dragging knife along the wall, we don’t see his face – his identity is a secret, it’s a very uncomfortable squeaking noise. It allows the viewer to hear what she hears which is clever.

The scene is followed by a big beat of noise and a sharp cut to a black screen.
The next part of the trailer is significantly different to the rest of it. The next shot is a long shot pan of a wrecked town with the song ‘Mad world’ by ‘Gary Jules’ in the background, it’s a minor piano song. This challenges conventions of a horror trailer as normally they build up and music intensifies towards the end, it gives the film more of an emotional feeling to it.

The music continues for around 10 seconds, accompanying quick 2 second shots cutting into each other showing panic and destruction. Most of the shots are unsteady, handheld medium to long shots. Then, the noises start, more violin/scratchy music starts and intensifies, the dialogue gets introduced, footsteps, gasps, and breathing until a lot of layers are on top of one another.

A big beat of noise and the trailer cuts to the title ‘The Crazies’, in the same font as the captions. As it cuts to the title, all music and sound effects stops except the original Gary Jules song is left. This then fades into the final shot of a bloody pitchfork being dragged around in a hospital type place with a man going to stab a woman with it but cuts just before it does. The last screen contains the website, film logos etc. A simple black background is used.