Psycho 1960 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg

Media Language:
Black and white, lots of close up shots at the beginning of the trailer=makes it seem mysterious because the audience do not know what the significance of them are, loud music at the beginning=engages the audience, music then changes and there is a man on the screen talking, costumes=old fashioned clothing, medium shot of woman looking scared, long shot of a house with dark lighting causes mystery because it obviously has some significance and because it is in the dark it creates a 'spooky' atmosphere, man in sunglasses=suspicious, police man=trouble, "what are you running away from?" = someone is in trouble for doing??? Blood, knife= phallic symbol=murder.

Institution:
Alfred Hitchcock= the audience are only aware that it is his film in the middle of the trailer, this is probably because he is a well established producer and people will recognise his films.

Genre:
Horror, this is suggested by the music and the expression on the characters faces, knife = killings.

Representation:
Girl gets killed=portrayed as vulnerable, man=killer.

Audience:
aimed at people who have probably seen Hitchchock films before or are a fan of his films, aimed at predominantly men because they are (suggestedly) more interested in horror movies than women.

Ideologies:
Men are shown as killers (psycho), male voice over=dominant, patriarchal society.

Narrative:
chronological order, the narrative fulfills the genre.


Halloween 2007 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kww5KSqzV9U

Media Language:
opens with a voice over=sounds scary because he has an exra deep voice, and is speaking slowly. Dark colours, green and black, set at night = spoooky, something scary is going to happen , animal cruelty-similar to that of Fatal Attraction. use of masks creates suspense, also apparent in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Genre:
horror, this is obvious to the audience because the music in the background and the slow voice over, colours used etc.

Representation:
the woman is represented as vulnerable at the beginning of the trailer because she is beoing groped by a man and is scantily clad.

Audience:
Fans of horror movies. Men because they supposedly prefer the horror genre.

Ideologies:
patriachal=male voice over

Similarities:
Both trailers have knives, male voice over, low key lighting and a woman screming.

ESSAY:

The Psycho trailer opens with a more engaging scene than the Halloween trailer because at the beginning of the Psycho trailer the audience instantly see one of the main clips of the movie and the music is very engaging (string instruments, a typical convention of slasher). This automatically engages the audience because it creates suspense right from the beginning of the trailer. However, the beginning of the Halloween there is a slow speaking male voice over. This connotes a patriarchal society because the trailer makers are relying on the voiceover to sell the movie. There is also a male voice over in the Psycho trailer but does not appear as quickly as the on in Halloween. Furthermore, the Halloween trailer also relies on on-screen text. This could portray that more recently (when Halloween, 2007) there are more slasher movies made resulting in more competition, whereas when Psycho was made there was not so much competition as opposed to Halloween.

Furthermore, both trailers use close-up-shots to create suspense and focus on the emotions of the characters. In both trailers the victims are women, again this suggests a patriarchal society because the male is dominant and has all power. The women are represented as victims suggesting that they should be punished for whatever sin they have committed. Similarly, this is also the case in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) where the female who is most sexually active (and coincidentally wearing red) gets killed first. Both films having the female victim shows that women are still under represented in society because they are still portrayed as victims and vulnerable as opposed to being successful. This could suggest that the target audience of both films are males because women may feel oppressed by watching women portrayed in such a way whereas, men may find it satisfying watching a woman being tortured especially with the use of close-ups the male can feel as if they are in control of the women on screen.

Moreover, another similarity of both trailers is that they both use knives. This is a typical convention of a slasher genre and shows that it is obviously successful because they still use knives. Again, this can suggest that the audience of these films are males because knives suggest a gruesome clips and it is a fact that women prefer to watch ‘chick flicks’ or ‘romantic comedies’. Another generic convention both trailers use is low-key lighting. Low-key lighting is used to create an eerie effect and cause suspense because people know that murders and generally ‘bad things’ happen during night time. Both trailers also focus on an isolated house. Again this is a convention of slasher movies as this is also apparent at the beginning of ‘I know what you did last summer’. This is done so the audience can sympathise with the characters because being alone during creates an uncanny feeling anyway. Finally, the female screaming is also used in both trailers. This is done to reassures the audience there is some kind of horror present in the film and makes them want to watch the movie because they will as to what happens, who it is that is screaming and whether the issue is resolved or not (creating suspense throughout the movie).

The Psycho trailer fulfils its genre by asking rhetorical questions: “What are you running away from?” This is done to scare the audience because they know someone is after another person in the film and again creates anticipation. In Halloween the narrator and on-screen texts states that “there exists a dark side in everybody”. This is done to create characterisation so the audience can sympathise and empathise with the characters. Equally, in both trailers the audience are addressed, the effect of this is that the audience will partially feel the victim throughout the film to make them feel frightened, therefore the film will be fulfilling its genre.

The main difference is that Psycho is a black and white film whereas Halloween is in colour. In the 60’s (when Psycho was produced) the technology was not as advanced as it was when Halloween was produced.
Halloween has the advantage and therefore seems more realistic as opposed to Psycho which because it looks so dated (to viewers now), seems like an unrealistic ‘story’. Therefore, the audience would find it easier to adapt to the settings making it easier for them to put themselves in the character’s situation and fulfilling the genres aim by making the audience feel as afraid as possible.