Props

Rationale
To acquire an understanding of what kind of props were used in Horror film trailers, we watched 2 different trailers and noted down the main 2 props that were used from each.

Findings
The most common:

• Bags
• Sat nav
• A journal
• Note/Sketch pad

To make sure that our horror film trailer matched professional trailers we incorporated some of these into our trailer, and to make ours unique we used some different props as well.

The first two props that we used in our trailer were the bags and the car. We used these as the characters are going on a camping trip, therefore giving the audience a good insight into what the characters were doing. The first few shots had them packing the bags into the car before they set off on their trip. This simply helps the film have an air of authenticity - if we didn't use bags as props, the audience wouldn't believe they're genuinely going on a camping trip.
We also used a car. If we had any selection of vehicle we'd have chosen a camper-van esque car to again develop the pieces authenticity. However, we could only use a normal car - although this is still believable as a group of teenagers would be unlikely to have a camper van.
The third main prop that we used was the sat nav, we got this idea from the trailer of 'The Cabin In The Woods' as one of the characters held the sat nav.  They stated that the place they were heading for didn't show up on the sat nav therefore giving the audience the feeling of worry as they will be going off the grid, hopefully making the audience feel on edge. The introduction of a common prop like a sat nav, gives the audience a point of references. They can relate to all the props in our piece which allows us to develop this sense that the characters are normal people. This also heightens the characters innocence - something we were originally going for.

The main prop that we used was a gold necklace. The point in which the necklace was introduced into the trailer is the turning point of the trailer, the necklace is found by one of the characters after this is when things begin to go wrong in the house. We decided to use a necklace as we do not know of a trailer which has used a necklace in this way, hopefully making our trailer unique to others. Using the necklace gave us a way to give the audience an idea as to what is happening to the characters and why. We have used it as a way to show that the character that has found the necklace and put it on that has been possessed by the spirit who owned the necklace and died in that house. As it is a psychological horror you don't see exactly what it is that is possessing the main character. Another prop that we used was a photo of a young girl, this is all you see of the woman that has possessed and messed with the characters. we only used one shot of this as we felt that it is all we needed and anymore shots of it would of been pointless as the point that it could be her was clear enough for a trailer, we didn't want to give too much away as trailers tend to keep the audience guessing and asking questions which would make them want to go and watch the film.

A