All most all trailers will feature titles, be they the name of the director, the accolades of the featured crew or some chilling slogan designed to lure you in such as 'The Animals Will Hunt You' or 'United We Purge' as they build up an expectation of the experience the film goer will be subjected to. Since trailers are one of the first features of a movie's marketing campaign alongside press screenings, reviews, public stunts and interviews, they must create a good impression, establishing a mood that will entice through fear.
In up and coming Nicholas Cage thriller 'Pay The Ghost', the trailer kicks off its hype building after only 14 seconds, displaying in large, plain, off-yellow serif text underscored by a drop-shadows the words 'This Halloween', creating both a context for the images on screen and highlighting to the viewer the release period for the movie. It takes only four seconds more for it to slap another in-camera heading up in the form of the single word 'Evil' written all in bold, attention catching capitals paired, rather appropriately, with the iconography of a paper-mashie devil, foreshadowing the sinister themes of the picture. Not only that but by the time the next one shows up at 0:21 saying 'Walks Among Us', we have been subjected to tonally conflicting shots of our protagonist and his son having a fun, happy time which immediately ups the feeling of discomfort in knowing something will happen; that cognitive dissonance fuels almost all horror films. From there the expository narrative and visual language are left to sell the story, titles appearing once again at 1:37 with 'Oscar Winner Nicholas Cage' spread over two lines, emphasising the actors name for recognition sales. Literally three seconds on from that 'Sarah Wayne Callies' of The Walking Dead fame is emblazoned across the window for the same reason. We get the ramp up of disturbing images until we finally get the title, 'Pay The Ghost' phasing in word by word in irregular sizes, stressing their significance through difference from the prior titles. The combination of mixed typefaces as well as the stand-out font allows the titles to punctuate the imagery of the film rather that just explain the obvious as many bad horror movie trailers do, a trait we hope to mimic in our own.
The Voices is a comedy horror detailing the rose tinted descent of a troubled man from child like innocent to serial killer, putting a new spin on the Angel and Devil angle through Bosco and Mr. Whiskers, his loyal dog and evil cat. The trailer does a fantastic job of establishing 'The Voices's whimsically black sense of humor, going as far as to use it as one of its main selling points. At 1:10, our first title pops up as the music kicks in with the slanted, italic bold writing capitalized and emphasizing the words 'WEIRD', 'FUNNY' and 'PERFECTLY-PITCHED' in order to attract the audience looking for a more comical take on the subject. I think it is also at least worth addressing how the centered text credits the writer in the smaller font, presumably to dissuade the notion that the small independent film site is just appreciating it to be niche. Our next title flies by in a similar fashion, inking the words 'TERRIFIC PERFORMANCE' and 'RYAN REYNOLDS' at 1:15 to push the name recognition of a potential comeback star who suffered a string of awfully received movies. I suppose the next credit at 1:40, the repetition of 'RYAN REYNOLDS', is just for the sake of consistency with the lead actress' 'GEMMA ARTERTON' and 'ANNA KENDRICK' showing up at 1:43 and 1:45 respectively. Having said that, it could also be to emphasize the fact that Reynolds does the voices of, well, his voices with Mr. Whiskers and Bosco under his reigns as well. We get out title at 1:48 with 'The Voices' showing up in its own unique pink stencil aesthetic splattered at the corner to stress the oddity of this film even further and to make it in keeping with the humble, factory worker style that lends itself well to an independent feature. The last annotation we get slashes onto the screen at bang on 2:00 with a suggestive yet satisfying slice sound effect only seconds after we get our main actor laughing with the same pink stencil typeface. The date of February 6 stands out due to a basic visual distinction and the method by which the film may be obtained is put in block capitals, providing those crucial details to the customer. However, I personally think leaving the release date until the end is a little risky as people may have turned off by this point as they've already taken in the tonally fluctuating content of the trailer. Whilst there's a case to be made that the film will only then be viewed by people with an actual interest in the content, from a a marketing standpoint the sales data has to come first so that it has the best chance of reeling its money back.
Now for a trailer for a film that, by its very rights, probably shouldn't have had a trailer as a result of its content yet still manages to be a shining example of how to make an effective sequence for both advertising and consumer excitement. Kicking things off we have a top-to-bottom swipe transition of color degraded and saturated capitalized text glinting with sickly lights that not only imbues the sense of something being wrong through its actual language, after all, it literally says 'YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY' but through the typography as well. The dynamic background art also mimics the hexagonal pattern of the scene at 1:01, establishing a consistent theme and some very quick foreshadowing. At 0:54 we get a more specific annotation through 'YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE PLACE' which plays up the subversion element to the film that has earned it its reputation. As to its specific design intent, it is odd that the fonts are on different lines with different spacing, the style is only really done for the first two stings but you could argue that the inconsistency of the text is just enforcement of that theme. Before moving onto the main accolades, notice how the artwork prior to the directors name is tinged green very subtly whilst all those further on are red, which could be to draw a parallel between the facade of green that the forest provides or could just be to give the trailer a more engaging style as green and red are contrasting colors. It is at 1:02 that we receive in large, equally sized text the words 'THINK AGAIN' in time with the audio cue to trigger the action scenes beyond the original contextualization. From here on, starting with 'FROM PRODUCER JOSS WHEDON' at 1:23 the typeface is tinted by a red lens flare in-keeping with the clinical, controlled theme of the films narrative. Although all is still capitalized, the name of 'JOSS WHEDON' is larger seeing as how his name carries a decent heft in the movie going community that this film is made for. Lesser known component to the film 'DREW GODDARD' also shows up later around 1:28 with the necessary credit affiliation of 'CLOVERFIELD' underneath since he doesn't have the same reputation as the director of The Avengers. 1:37 sees a date, 'THIS APRIL' with the red lens flare starting strong before falling in opacity with the rest of the title cards into the next shot which is repeated again at 1:50 with 'DISCOVER'. It is interesting to point out that the back drop here in a gun metal grey scratched up which flips the hexagonal pattern into something more oppressive, retro and in keeping with the 'sweaty' aesthetic of modern horror. 1:52 tells us of 'THE SECRET' and sets up what director J.J Abrams refers to as the Mystery Box technique by creating an illusive element that might entice viewers into the theater more openly than a film they know everything about. Moving on, we get our main hook with 'BEHIND THE CABIN' that creates a lexical context for the soon to be showcased main title at 2:06 which, in it's own right, combines the different backdrop styles together with a steely red flared image overlaid by the technical shine of the green tinted hexagonal pattern. The interesting thing about the main title is that it puts the words 'CABIN' and 'WOODS' in a larger font whilst the connectives of 'the' and 'in' are in a duller font, smaller and non-central, drawing the users attention to the cliche horror it so evokes. Finally, there is reinforcement that the film will be available to the user with the 'COMING SOON' stamp in the post-credits as well as links to the social media surrounding the marketing campaign, allowing those not already sold on the film to visit and learn more with the end goal being the get them paying for their tickets. Panning out with no fancy fade or transition we are given some tertiary credits emblazoning the names of the important contributors, one again instilling to their existing fan bases that this film is worth their time and money therefore it is also worth yours. On our last shot, the social media is given the limelight with the respective hashtag and Facebook page being handed out as platforms for hype and discussion in the same style.