Trailer Themes 

Death

The theme of death is one of the most important in our film trailer as it is all based on the 'hangings' of people, and what is causing them to do so.

Death begins in the trailer with the medium shot of Mary walking into the forest with the prop of the 'noose' which is an iconic image in our trailer. This shows what the narrative is based on overall, being the suicide Of Mary for being bullied, which triggers the other deaths in the film.

    The theme of death can also be seen through the long shot's of the 'noose' on it's own indicating another death soon to occur in the film leaving the audience scared.
Although not to give too much away in the trailer we didn't go into the death of the victims in great detail, but left the audience ones again questioning who is dead? and how did they do it? The long point of view shot from within the tent from one of the friends, shows death surrounding them as the male feet hang from outside indicating danger.

The theme of death also brings the horror elements to the trailer as it is what leaves the audience afraid as it is so realistic.

Isolation
Isolation was another theme we wanted to include in our trailer as we had followed the conventions of other media trailers. We found this to be common as it makes it seem as there is no way out of safety in the film and they must figure it out themselves. Some examples of films we followed conventionally of this is 'The Blair Witch Project' which includes the isolation of the woods, similar to our trailer. Also 'Insidious' which has the theme of isolation but of the mind. 

This theme links to the physiological element as it involves the audience to 'think' and 'problem solve' along with the characters in the film getting their minds ticking over.

An example of the effect this theme creates in the trailer is the close up shot of the mobile phone saying 'No signal'. This immediately uncertainty in the trailer as a teenagers mobile phone is known to be a necessity and there is no way of phoning to get help from anyone. This puts the audience in that situation as they imagine themselves there, in the middle of nowhere afraid of the unknown.

Also the use of diegetic dialogue of the of Connor shouting 'Where are you?!' reinforces the isolation and danger that they are in as they begin to loose everyone and can't find a way out.

The Unknown

The unknown is another theme we wanted to include in the trailer, as it is the main element that makes the audience what to see the trailer to found out what 'it' is. This can also be linked to the number of code of enigma's that our held in our trailer.

The main question of the unknown is what is it that Mary is? and what does she want?

We leave this message open in the trailer by the use of various shots, such as the long shot of Mary in the trees, with the night vision and blur effect. This gives the impression that Mary is something of the supernatural but it is still unclear to tell this because the shot does not give too much away of her appearance.

Another great example to represent this theme is the many point of view shots from someone behind the trees, this is used from the long shot of Sophie as she then turns around with diegetic dialogue 'Guys, what was that?'. This gives the impression to the audience that 'something is constantly watching them, making them scared of the unknown'.

The theme of the unknown is one of the most important elements of the trailer as it is what makes the audience go and see the film overall.

Past and Present
The past and present a theme we decided to explore as a group as we thought it added more narrative to the trailer, and gave reasoning for the story of 'Mary' as it wouldv'e felt pointless and disjointed if left out.
We did this in a flashback effect in the trailer, with the effect of sepia to give an oldern look effect.

This also brings the Physcological effect to the trailer as it makes the audience follow the flashback and work out themselves what has happened in the trailer.

The past and present is also seen through our mixture of genders shown in thee trailer, which is evident in the close up shot of the back of Mrs Kynch. The Old and young Mrs Kynch connection we made was used with the prop of the 'ring'. This was viewed on a Close up shot on her young hand and her young hand to show the link with Mary.