Disturbia
Directed by D. J. Caruso
Release Date:
14 September 2007 (UK)
Length:2.24
Genre: Disturbia is a hybrid genre of horror and thriller. It contains typical conventions of horror/thriller films such as; keeping the audience on the edge of their seat, shown for example through a shot of a character screaming as if she is being attacked. This creates enigma as the audience are not given a full explanation of what is going on but they have an instinct that she is going to die. Creating a hybrid genre appeals to a wider audience this is because people that enjoy both horror films and thriller films will want to watch it.
Audience: The main target audience is teenagers and young adults, this is shown through the age of the characters as they are mostly good looking and young therefore the audience will be able to relate to the characters. The audience are also attracted by the fast pace and action of the trailer. The age certification is age 15 which widens the potential audience, although the film has a lot of sex appeal but it does not show full on sex scenes which is why the age rating is lower than 18. There are also scenes of violence in the trailer which explains why it has a higher age certification. The narrative that is portrayed also shows who the target audience is because older audiences would most probably find the narrative uninteresting because it is about young teenagers trying to find out if their neighbor is a serial killer, this will seem very mediocre to an older more sophisticated audience. Audiences would be attracted to this narrative because of the main focus, at the start of the trailer is focused on sex appeal such as scenes of kissing or scenes with half nudity and then the trailer goes into violent scenes which would also attract the main target audience. The music would also be appealing to a younger audience because it is contemporary pop kind of music which is usually associated with young people.
Institutional Identity: DreamWorks SKG and A Montecito Picture Company Production- the logo’s of both companies are shown for 2 second in the beginning of the trailer. This is a convention of most film trailers because it is a legal requirement and the audience can also relate this film to a film they have previously seen by the same institutions’. 
Characters:There are four main characters which include Kale, his best friend, the girl next door and the antagonist. Most of the characters are young and good looking except for the antagonist; this will appeal to the target audience as they are also young. The characters facial expressions and personalities are emphasized through close up shots and scenes, such as when there is a medium shot of the antagonists face in the window of his house; his facial expression was scary because he was staring at Kale as if he knew that Kale was spying on him and he had a glaze in his eyes. He is expressionless and the connotations of this is that he is hard faced, remorseless and this makes the audience believe he is the ‘baddy’.This is one of the main questions raised in the trailer, ‘Is the man really a killer?’ another question for the trailer is 'will the good guys stay alive?' The audience will want to find out this question therefore the only way they can know is if they watch the film. There are stereotypical characters for example the scary middle aged man as the antagonist and good looking teenagers as the protagonists.
The audience is made to sympathise with the younger characters for example the ‘sexy’ girl is a convention used in a lot of horror films to attract the young teenage audience and because the audience will feel sorry for her if she gets killed. They have also created a link between her and the young male, making their relationship something the audience want to see grow and not threatened by the killer.
Pace: The pace of the trailer starts slowly, but as the narrative unravels at 45 seconds it speeds up. The speed is picked up by the use of quick transitions and shorter shots, giving the impression of a more action packed and thrilling film. This effect creates excitement and suspense to the audience; therefore it is a good strategy to use in trailers as it will draw the audience in.
Unique Selling Point: The unique selling point of the film is the horror/thriller genre. This is a typical way of making a film sell more as having a hybrid of two genres doesn't just target one specific audience, instead it allows two types of people that like two different genres to enjoy this film as it meets the needs of both types of audience.
Narrative: The narrative of the trailer is that Kale who is a teenage boy and the main protagonist in the film gets in trouble with the police which ultimately makes him have a tag. He was put under house arrest and the audience knows this as in the trailer there is a close up of the tag being put on his foot in the beginning of the trailer. The tag is shown in three close ups which emphasizes the fact that he is a bit of a ‘bad boy’ this will appeal to a teenage audience as it creates a bit of excitement. It has a picture of a skull on it which adds enigma as the audience will be wondering why he has something that resembles death on the tag; this brings up various connotations such as death.
Whilst he was on house arrest he became bored quickly but soon found interesting things to do while he was at home 24/7; one of them being spying on the neighbours! As days went on him and his friend noticed that a girl had just moved in next door, conveniently she was around the same age as him and very pretty, the two soon became good friends. The trailer shows that the film has a romantic aspect and also quite a lot of sex appeal to it as there is are shots where girls are shown in bikinis, a woman dancing in ‘a sexy way’ and couples kissing and one man is even shown cheating on his wife, this widens the target audience but it mainly appeals to young people as they are interested in sex. Whilst they spent more time together, Ashley also got involved with the spying and they soon discovered something that they wished they hadn’t; they were living next door to a heartless and manipulating serial killer! 
The trailer is fast paced, gripping and frightening as the audience will want to know if the killer gets caught. The audience know the neighbour is a killer because there are shots of him which convey this; for example the scene at 1.08 where he is holding a knife in his hand and twirling it in a disturbing way, this is shown through the view of Kale's video camera which makes it more effective as the audience can see what it is like from Kale's point of view. Then at 1.12 the woman is pushed onto the window as if she is being attacked and the audience can see her facial expressions through a close up shot of her face where she looks extremely distressed, this gives the audience the impression that she is being attacked by the man and finally at 1.18 there is the sound of her screaming thus the audience get the hint that she has been killed presumably by the knife he was holding earlier. There are more scenes where it is suggested that he is a serial killer such as at 0.50 where blood splatters on his window.
Whilst he was on house arrest he became bored quickly but soon found interesting things to do while he was at home 24/7; one of them being spying on the neighbours! As days went on him and his friend noticed that a girl had just moved in next door, conveniently she was around the same age as him and very pretty, the two soon became good friends. The trailer shows that the film has a romantic aspect and also quite a lot of sex appeal to it as there is are shots where girls are shown in bikinis, a woman dancing in ‘a sexy way’ and couples kissing and one man is even shown cheating on his wife, this widens the target audience but it mainly appeals to young people as they are interested in sex. Whilst they spent more time together, Ashley also got involved with the spying and they soon discovered something that they wished they hadn’t; they were living next door to a heartless and manipulating serial killer! The trailer is fast paced, gripping and frightening as the audience will want to know if the killer gets caught. The audience know the neighbour is a killer because there are shots of him which convey this; for example the scene at 1.08 where he is holding a knife in his hand and twirling it in a disturbing way, this is shown through the view of Kale's video camera which makes it more effective as the audience can see what it is like from Kale's point of view. Then at 1.12 the woman is pushed onto the window as if she is being attacked and the audience can see her facial expressions through a close up shot of her face where she looks extremely distressed, this gives the audience the impression that she is being attacked by the man and finally at 1.18 there is the sound of her screaming thus the audience get the hint that she has been killed presumably by the knife he was holding earlier. There are more scenes where it is suggested that he is a serial killer such as at 0.50 where blood splatters on his window. Whilst Kale is in the antagonist's house he is walking down to the basement and he says 'Mum' which tells the audience that the reason he went into the house was to find and save his mum. The trailer conveys the narrative a bit too well because it gives away too much of the narrative. The trailer tells you almost the plot of the film which can work against the film as the audience won’t be intrigued to find out more, the only question raised is if the protagonist will make sure the antagonist is caught and will Kale get caught by the killer as he is in his house. At 2.01 the killer is watching Kale from outside which is a typical convention of horror movies as the audience know where the killer is but the protagonist doesn't therefore it adds enigma as to whether he will get out alive or not.
Shot types: There are a lot of shots used to show the narrative of the trailer and get the audience drawn in by the amount of exciting scenes. Most of the shots are long shots from Kale’s point of view as he in spying and close up which emphasise the characters facial expressions which adds excitement and also enigma to the trailer. At 0.07 seconds there is a close up shot of half of Kale's face which shows his concentration, this gives the audience the feeling that he is doing something important but then the shots fades in a long shot of him sticking cakes together, this shows he is extremely bored.
At 0.22 minutes there is a shot of four scenes in one as a split screen effect, this is effective as it lets the audience see who Kale is spying on through the window. One of the images is a close up of Kale with his binoculars and then it changes to a man playing with a ball with his son. This is a sign of realism as it is something that happens every day. The others are long shots to give the impression that it is exactly what from Kale's point of view, there is a girl changing her bra in one of the ‘windows ‘this adds sex appeal to the trailer which will ultimately attract young people as they are interested in sex. Similarly there is another window of a girl in a bikini, this also adds sex appeal. The fourth window is of a man mowing his lawn; this creates a sense of realism as it is something that people do every day.
The shots are mostly from Kale's point of view or shots from a third person’s point of view. Such as when there are shots of scenes through the video camera this is from Kale's point of view as he is the one looking at it. At 0.51 seconds there is a shot of blood splattering across the window from Kale's point of view, this creates enigma as the audience would want to see whose blood it is because it could possibly be human blood.
At 0.22 minutes there is a shot of four scenes in one as a split screen effect, this is effective as it lets the audience see who Kale is spying on through the window. One of the images is a close up of Kale with his binoculars and then it changes to a man playing with a ball with his son. This is a sign of realism as it is something that happens every day. The others are long shots to give the impression that it is exactly what from Kale's point of view, there is a girl changing her bra in one of the ‘windows ‘this adds sex appeal to the trailer which will ultimately attract young people as they are interested in sex. Similarly there is another window of a girl in a bikini, this also adds sex appeal. The fourth window is of a man mowing his lawn; this creates a sense of realism as it is something that people do every day.
The shots are mostly from Kale's point of view or shots from a third person’s point of view. Such as when there are shots of scenes through the video camera this is from Kale's point of view as he is the one looking at it. At 0.51 seconds there is a shot of blood splattering across the window from Kale's point of view, this creates enigma as the audience would want to see whose blood it is because it could possibly be human blood.
Sound/ Dialogue / Voiceover: The sound in the trailer is not conventional horror type music but instead it is typical teenage style music which makes it obvious that this is a film targeted at a young audience. At 0.52 seconds the scene is of Kale walking the girl to her to her garden and they were about to kiss when the sound of Kale's tag starts beeping, this emphasizes the fact that the girl is attracted to ‘bad boys’. There are lots of music and sound effects to add emphasis on the scenes that are just a typical normal in the beginning. The sounds also changes as the shots get faster and the pace picks up, there are sound effects of bangs and tires screeching. At 1.03 the trailer starts to show conventions of horror films such as scenes of people being attacked and the antagonist looking at Kale in an remorseful way when Kale is getting arrested. The sound effects used are typical horror sound effects that add mystery and suspense to the trailer therefore it will add to the audience wanted to see the film.
Credits/ Intre- titles: 'For the next 90 days... All Kale has is the window... This spring... The quieter the street... The darker the secrets... The inter-titles are simple Times New Roman style font in the beginning this is because the scenes are just normal typical daily things people do but at 1.34 the inter-titles change to bold black font on a degraded/ slashed yellow background with steam coming out of it, this gives the illusion of looking through blinds which is what Kale does to spy on. They have chosen this style of graphics because it is a big change from the original times new roman font, therefore it establishes that the narrative of the film has changed suddenly to a typical horror type film. It also gives the audience an idea of narrative because some people may find it hard to follow the narrative by just watching, another point is that one of the inter-titles is 'this spring' which lets the audience know when the film is out because the film is set at the same time the film is released.
Credits/ Intre- titles: 'For the next 90 days... All Kale has is the window... This spring... The quieter the street... The darker the secrets... The inter-titles are simple Times New Roman style font in the beginning this is because the scenes are just normal typical daily things people do but at 1.34 the inter-titles change to bold black font on a degraded/ slashed yellow background with steam coming out of it, this gives the illusion of looking through blinds which is what Kale does to spy on. They have chosen this style of graphics because it is a big change from the original times new roman font, therefore it establishes that the narrative of the film has changed suddenly to a typical horror type film. It also gives the audience an idea of narrative because some people may find it hard to follow the narrative by just watching, another point is that one of the inter-titles is 'this spring' which lets the audience know when the film is out because the film is set at the same time the film is released. Transitions/ Editing/ Special Effects:The transitions shown in the beginning of the trailer are mostly fades; they have used these transitions because it shows a slow episodic build up over time, it gives a sense of back story to the narrative. As the trailer unravels the transactions become fast cuts to show the heightened drama as the story dynamically unfolds.
Mise En Scene: The mise en scene of this trailer starts off as typical everyday mise en scene, for example the lighting was just average day lighting but as the horror unraveled within the trailer the lighting became more dark and mysterious, this started happening at 44 seconds as the scenes started speeding up. The costumes and make-up within the trailer is typical teenage costume and make up but the girls are conveyed as 'sexy' teenagers by wearing bikinis, low cut tops and skirts, etc. which will appeal mainly to teenage males as they are attracted by sex appeal. The antagonists costume is dark which is a typical convention in horror films as the villain is always dressed in dark costume because the connotations of this are that they are mysterious and have something to hide. There is a major prop used in this trailer which is a pair of binoculars, these are important and are shown in many shots because they are the reason Kale is able to spy on his neighbours and ultimately found out there is a serial killer on his road. The setting of the trailer is mainly in Kale's house and garden because the narrative shows that he is under house arrest, therefore the setting establishes this fact. The setting then gets dark and mysterious as the horror starts so the house starts looking dark and therefore is more scary.
Mise En Scene: The mise en scene of this trailer starts off as typical everyday mise en scene, for example the lighting was just average day lighting but as the horror unraveled within the trailer the lighting became more dark and mysterious, this started happening at 44 seconds as the scenes started speeding up. The costumes and make-up within the trailer is typical teenage costume and make up but the girls are conveyed as 'sexy' teenagers by wearing bikinis, low cut tops and skirts, etc. which will appeal mainly to teenage males as they are attracted by sex appeal. The antagonists costume is dark which is a typical convention in horror films as the villain is always dressed in dark costume because the connotations of this are that they are mysterious and have something to hide. There is a major prop used in this trailer which is a pair of binoculars, these are important and are shown in many shots because they are the reason Kale is able to spy on his neighbours and ultimately found out there is a serial killer on his road. The setting of the trailer is mainly in Kale's house and garden because the narrative shows that he is under house arrest, therefore the setting establishes this fact. The setting then gets dark and mysterious as the horror starts so the house starts looking dark and therefore is more scary.
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