blog 3. horror conventions of Tangled's recut (part 1)

Welcome back! Given that we are now just about halfway through the entire project, I decided to further move things along and focus on a broader picture this week. Instead of choosing another specific element to study, I decided to research the general structure and conventions of a horror film, which will culminate in me attempting to imitate an existing recut of Disney's Tangled trailer. Tangled has long been one of my favorite Disney movies 9 (after Mulan, of course). In comparing the original and recut trailers, I found them to have the most polarizing differences, so I thought it'd be a good one to start off with. (see bottom of page)

Right off the bat, the opening scene for either trailer sets up the mood and purpose. The original begins with a montage of Flynn Rider cracking witty jokes, while the recut features a closeup of a lantern being lit on fire (pictured bottom right).


Horror films use close ups in order to restrict the viewer's vision in order to create intrigue. The close shot is most popularly used to achieve this, as illustrated by the recut opening scene. Similar angles are used on characters' faces, such as Mother Gothel (left).

The lantern scene is immediately followed by a slow fade transition to a glass door opening by itself against a dark backdrop of moonlight. A slow fade-to-black transition is commonly employed in horror films to increase suspense and mystery. The original trailer features exactly the opposite, using simple click transitions between various scenes of Flynn Rider's antics.

Looking at the two videos as a whole, the recut trailer is significantly darker in lighting than the original. The colors are either muted or tinted with black/blue, while the original is consistently brightly colored. Just take a look at the iconic Disney castle.



The pseudo black-and-white color scheme of the recut trailer is used throughout the entire trailer to mimic common lighting techniques used by film directors to elicit fear and dread.


The soundtrack to the two trailers are also drastically different. As I discussed in the last blog, volume, tempo, and key of the music play a critical role in determining the overall mood. In horror films, nonlinear sounds such as a baby crying or dissonant chords can set the audience on edge. In the recut Tangled trailer, the original score is replaced with an eerie song highlighted by intense buildups and sudden cuts. Children's voices are also common elements in horrors. Because they are generally considered paragons of innocence, bringing direct contrast to this perceived image can elicit subconscious feelings of discomfort, as per this scene in the recut trailer:

After completing this analysis, I took it upon myself to attempt to recreate the edits of the Tangled trailer. This will be a two week project, and I'll hopefully have a cohesive product by next cycle. I will also be documenting my process in the video blog, so stay tuned!


Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycoY201RTRo
Recut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30T0lHR5_eo

Research: 
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3943&context=honors_theses
Dreyer, Courtney. “Crafting Fear: The Horror Film Trailer.” Western Michigan University, 2018.

https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82n5571/fulltext.pdf

Fu, Xiangyi. “Horror Movie Aesthetics: How Color, Time, Space and Sound Elicit Fear in an Audience.” Northeastern University, 2016.