The Blair Witch Project - Teaser Trailer Analysis

The trailer starts off with ‘Artisan Entertainment’s’ logo. This informs the audience of the film industry that created the film. If the audience enjoy watching ‘The Blair witch project’ then they be encouraged to go and watch other films created by them.

The screen then fades to black and some text appears on the screen which provides the audience with a brief introduction to the film. The sentence is very vague and simple and this has been done in order to keep the audiences attention.

From this point onwards, the screen fades to complete blackness and the first bit of dialogue is said. This is the only communication that the audeince has with the film and they are unware as to what is happening. The black screens upholds the suspence and mysery and succeeds in holding the audiences attention.

Critcis comments appear one after another onto the screen and when combined with the digetic sound of crying and heavy breathing/panting, a realistic atmosphere is created. When the girl says the word ‘Project’, the films logo appears on the screen and the volume of the soundtrack increases.

The trailer ends with a high pitched scream before jumping to two black slides where the audience is given an indication as to the time of year that the film is going to be released. The second black screen displays the films website. This information is given to the audience so they are aware of where to go if they want to find out more information about the film.

The teaser trailer gives very little away but the clever use of combining blackouts with Digetic sounds builds up tension and makes the audience unsure and weary as to what they should expect from the film. The use of blackouts and Digetic sounds leaves the audience with a number of unanswered questions, questions that can only be answered by them going and watching the film.