Question 1B - Thirty Minutes

The Conjuring For my advanced media project I had to analyse the codes and conventions of different trailers that could influence my personal horror trailer. The product that I will be evaluating is ‘The Conjuring’ trailer as it really influenced my ideas. The trailer shows a family who has a haunting in there house, and are helped by some type of ghost hunters/demonologist who are trying to get rid of the spirit. I believe that the theories of Todorov, Propp and Strauss are incorporated in this trailer. This is because the trailer applies these theories to a certain extent. Firstly, Todorov stated that all films have an: equilibrium, disequilibrium and a resolution. This is when there is a happy beginning followed by a disruption which is then solved at the end. I believe that this was applied to ‘The Conjuring’ trailer to a moderate extent. This is because it started off with a minor disequilibrium of the ghost hunters searching for a ghost. This automatically makes the audience know something wrong is happening, but it then transits into a slight equilibrium; as there isn’t a happy event taking place but there isn’t a disruption. During the equilibrium, there is a dialogue of the characters introducing themselves, this makes the audience familiar with them and feel able to confide in them throughout the trailer, alongside this there is a non-diegetic upbeat music playing in the background. Subsequently, the disequilibrium takes part as the background music has stopped playing and there are quick cuts and close ups being used to build tension of the evil spirit haunting the house. There is also a resolution in the film but it is to a slight degree. This is because The Warrens are trying to help the family but the final resolution isn’t included as it will spoil the movie for people who are excited to watch it. Secondly, Propp believed that every film has seven archetypes originating from Russian Fairtytales. In this trailer I believe that only three of these characters are applicable, as fairy tales and horror films are made based on entirely different codes and conventions. The first character that is in the trailer is the villain. This is the evil spirit, in the trailer she is hardly seen except from one scene. This is done to make her ambiguous, making the audience more frightened by her. In the scene where she is seen there is dark lighting and her makeup is very bloody and her hair is roughly hanging down her face. This is done to juxtapose her with the other archetype characters, the victims of the trailer; the family. The young girls tend to wear white night gowns and their hair is neatly done. This idea of the juxtaposition between these two characters links with Strauss’s theory of binary opposites. He believed that every film has a group/ people against each other. This is applied to this trailer to a major extent as the whole trailer depicts the battle between the good and evil characters in the film.