Developing the Narrative

The genre of the trailer I am creating is dark fantasy. This is a hybrid genre, combining horror and fantasy. It is also a sub genre of fantasy. I have not yet confirmed the target audience, but I am thinking of targeting the 12-30 age group.

My trailer will follow a linear structure to allow the audience to understand the story, though trailers often follow a non linear structure because editors usually include the 'best bits' of the film, and these may not appear in the order that they do in the story. The characters are: a female fantasy character, Evil Queen and children and/or people who have been cursed.

There is no clear disequilibrium because I want to make clear from the start of the trailer that the setting is a dystopian world where fairytales are getting forgotten. The inciting moment is when the Evil Queen is announcing her plans. From this point onwards, I want the trailer to become more fast paced.

I am going to end my trailer on a cliffhanger/mid story to build suspense. This is because trailers are produced to build up anticipation surrounding the film, so the full narrative is never revealed. Ending with lots of ambiguity also helps to increase the impact and effect that the trailer has on the audience. The thing to overcome in the trailer is the antagonist (Evil Queen) banishing every fairytale but her own. I want to end the trailer with a voice over - a plea for help directed at the audience.

I hope to use editing effectively to help the story progress. I plan to use fade to blacks to build tension and add to the fluidity of the story. As the trailer progresses, I want the editing to gain pace to make it more engaging for the audience, evoking audience pleasures such as excitement.