The narrative of a story or production refers to the way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story. A story refers to what happens or what is depicted, this refers to actions,events and characters. Some trailers and productions have a narration, which describes the way the story is told, how the information is presented to viewers, for example visual style and the point of view of how the story is told. Horror film narratives usually follow this structure: The film first focuses on central characters, beginning a venture into a strange and ultimately threatening setting. Stumbling into a forbidden setting unleashes a wave of violence and leaves many of the protagonists dead. Those who survive the initial onslaught begin to fight back, fear and fatigue provoke dissenton within the group, putting them at a greater risk. The climax of a horror film is the most imperative part, generating fear and adrenaline is what makes a horror film successful. We feel that we adhered to these narrative conventions in our trailer.
Throughout our trailer, it is clear that the basic structure of our trailer follows a non linear structure, due to the fact that it is not in a chronological order. Identifiably, a trailer would not be in chronological order, as the trailer has to express viewpoints and ideas from the whole film, so the trailer is essentially jumbled up. The effect of having a non linear structure to our trailer helps to make it more engaging and enticing for our audience. The is primarily due to the fact that the trailer and production is unpredictable, therefore the audience don't know what to expect, in a horror film creating suspense is imperative, as scaring and jumping the audience is a way of generating fear- the basic accomplishment of a horror film. In our trailer, we used dramatic irony, whereby we see events from multiple viewpoints. This can add suspense as we are privy to information that other characters are not, this can also be called ' Omniscient narration'. An example of where events are seen from different viewpoints can be seen in the first establishing shot of the two girls in the kitchen. The long angled shot is taken from outside, which gives the idea that someone is watching or looking at the girls. In comparison, a different viewpoint can be witnessed when the clown is shown through medium shots of it swinging on the swing. This gives the impression that the clown is taking over and almost hoarding the camera, so the viewpoint is now switched to the clown as opposed to the three, innocent girls. Todorov's theory of equilibrium can be applied to our trailer, whereby we have adhered to the five key stages of a film. The first, a state of equilibrium on the outset ( Three young girls walking home from school to their home, creates the idea of a calm setting that the audience can relate to). Second, a disruption of the equilibrium ( which can be seen through the long shot of the clown walking across the train tracks. The shot clearly suggests that something is about to disrupt the calm and initial equilibrium, due to the soundtrack and the camera work shown here.) Thirdly, a recognition that there has been a disruption ( which can be applied when the protagonist looks into the interior mirror of the car, suggesting that she is now aware and has recognised that something isn't correct.
Vladimir Propps suggested that characters took on the role of narratives 'sphere of action' or 'functions', from a comprehensive study of folktales, Propp came up with seven different character types: The hero, villain, doner, helper, princess, dispatcher and the false hero. This can link to our production with the characters shown in our trailer. The villain can clearly be identified as the clown. Due to the mise en scene of the appearance of the clown, the sheer and frightening mask along with the dark clothing clearly identifies to the audience that the clown is the antagonist in the production. The victim can be clearly shown through the long shots of the girls running away from the camera- suggesting that they are running from a negative aspect. This can also be seen within the editing of our trailer, where fast paced editing of the girls in the car is shown to create confusion and also to suggest that the girls are in hurry to escape something, projecting their personas to be vulnerable and innocent- common connotations of what a 'victim' would portray. We have only included two binary oppositions of 'good and evil' in our production, therefore our trailer can only relate to two of Propps character definitions.
Roland Barthes enigma codes can be conveyed in our production. An enigma code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader. 'Mystery' is a significant element to a horror film, it's what keeps the audience gripped and enticed into the film, so the enigma codes that we portrayed were very important to get right so that our audience were as on edge as possible. One enigma code can be depicted through the unexpected appearances of the clown in the different locations. One scene the clown is shown at a train station, then a park and then a car, which creates mystery towards the audience of how the clown can be in many different places at once- generating the idea of dehumanisation and a paranormal atmosphere because no 'human' can be in two places. This idea can be further looked upon through the editing of the transitions that we used. We used a transition called the 'non additive-dissolve' this particular effect faded out the previous shot into the current one. With this effect you could select areas that you wanted to duplicate, so it meant that we could fade the clowns outline into different parts of the same scene. This again, reflects the idea of duplication and how the clown can be seen in different places at the same time, this conforms to an enigma code of a horror film. Another enigma code can be demonstrated through the use of the record player. We used the concept of repetition with the record player, so the trailer kept refering back to the record player, playing the same song in the same location. This creates mystery and an enigma code as the audience are getting confused as to why the record player is being referred back to again and again, it suggests that the record player is a significant concept in the trailer, creating confusion, thus making the audience want to see the film to uncover the true meaning behind the record player.
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