Solo trailer review - The Collection (2012)

The Collection, 2012, is a green band action thriller/ horror directed by the American screenplay writer and director “Marcus Dunstan”.



What happened in the trailer?
In the 2 minute 15 trailer, an action pact narrative is explored through short clips, telling the story through a linear plot of a hotel that has been used as a place to hold hundreds of people hostage. Similar to the Saw trilogy, a masked figure kidnaps these people and attempts to torture them. Beginning the trailer with a group of people walking down into a dark alleyway to what they think is a night club; a similar frightening looking male opens the steel door with a controlled button. A quick paced montage shows the hundreds of people filling the night club in the strobe lights, exaggerating the pace and rhythm of the music. The assumed protagonist is seen walking into a thin low wire that triggers a machine to shut all doors and lock every person inside. Another quick paced montage illustrates the sharp spikes and blades as addition to the masked figure walking into shot.

To slow down the fast paced action and to give the audience a chance to evaluate what has gone on in the previous shot, a news headline is shown on a crackling TV as addition to showing the audience close friends and relatives of some of the individuals been kidnapped talking about how much they’re missed.

During slow montages of the people being tortured inside the hotel, small bits of text appears stating “only one survivor”, “only one chance”, “to escape pure evil”. At the end of the trailer, second long flickers of light appear on screen showing a male walking into a room. As each flicker appears on screen, the tension builds up until the masked serial killer walks into shot as a jump scare.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
As a starting point, I feel that the masked serial killer was effective and due to not being able to see the killer, the audience are unfamiliar as to what he looks like, meaning that this is left for their imaginations. 

Only seeing the killer a few times meant that when we did, it was more frightening and tense. I feel that in my trailer, I will be including a masked killer and will additionally only show the killer vaguely to let the audience of my trailer use their imaginations. At the end of the trailer, text appeared stating “The new face of American horror”. I feel that this statement is strong in the sense of representing a face that is said to be remembered by the audience.

The second aspect of the trailer I found clever was the use of the Kuleshov effect. At the beginning of the video, as mentioned, the group of people stand in front of a steel door, waiting for it to open. Behind them, a male pushes a button on a control and the camera cuts back to the door opening. Small aspects of this effect made the cinematography more interesting and more atmospheric due to not seeing every single action. I will be including this effect into my own trailer as addition to restricted narration that I also found added tension.

Towards the end of the trailer, the rhythm of the action was parallel to a heartbeat pumping. Doing this made the suspense build up and for the audience to acknowledge that something was about to happen to destroy the slow paced rhythm. As proved, at the end of the trailer, a small jump scare happens when flickers of light match the heart beat rhythm. I will be including a jump scare at the end of my trailer in a similar way and due to this rhythm, have had ideas about including a sound track similar to this. 

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
When focusing on aspects of the trailer that I felt were disappointing, I felt these were; the jump scare at the end, the jump scare half way through and the constant fade to blacks.

Both jump scares in the trailer were unsuccessful in the sense of personally making me jump. By making the jump scares quiet and slow paced, I was prepared for the scare and could then prepare myself. If I were to add jump scares into my trailer, I will make sure that the audience will not see it coming.

The fade to black effect is great itself, however I felt that it was over used and made the transitions appear slightly dull and uninteresting. If the effect was used less and others were also used, I feel that it would have been more effective and so feel I will attempt to do this in my trailer. 

Personal rating? Why did i give that mark?
As an overall rating, I would personally give the trailer an 8 out of 10 due to being action pact, visually eye catching, having a fantastic use of cinematography, using great montages and for the great rhythm. I haven’t given the trailer full marks due to the jump scares not being frightening enough and the repetition of the fade to black editing.