The Scream trailer begins with diagetic sound of a phone ringing with a close-up of a phone as a hand picks it up. A woman answers the phone with "hello" and a deep, creepy voice answers back, she then says "who is this" as the production company pans across the screen. It then cuts back to the scene with the voice saying "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours" this is followed by an establishing shot of a house, this is not used at the start of the scene to make the audience feel as if they were there with the girl. Diagetic sound is used well here with tense music and the sound of popcorn cooking, this has been made louder to create tension and add a countdown effect as the popcorn is slowly cooking the tension is building to a climax in the scene. She then says "I'm getting ready to watch a video" with which he replies " really, what?" she then says, as a close-up of the popcorn is used to bring the element of time into the foreground again, "just a scary movie". As she says this the music becomes more fast paced and tracking is used for the first time as she approaches the t.v. The man then says "You never told me your name" she then says "Why do you want to know?" with this the man's voice becomes angry as he says "because i wanna know who I'm looking at". As he says this the mood changes as the woman realises she shouldn't have answered the phone and now has a panicked look on her face, she looks around and as she does the music changes to just the noise of the wind whistling. The camera then zooms into her face and then there is a quick shot of glass breaking and a shot of her screaming whilst looking at a reflection in a window.
This is followed by a montage of police cars with a voice over saying "someone is playing a deadly game" with a shot of a hooded character jumping on the woman following. A computer screen is then shown with the writing "What seems to be the emergency" scrolling across the scene, this then fades out as the camera pans round a cameraman to show a reporter who's voice becomes the voice over. She says "It all began with a scream over 911", the music then begins again in its tense manner and a shot of another woman character with a man is shown. This then fades out to show another woman laying on a sofa and then cuts back to the computer screen with the writing "The killers in the house". The voice over then begins again with "someone whose sen too many scary movies" over the top of a policeman creeping round a house, a loud crash is then heard as we see the hooded character run through a doorway. The voice over then says "Now he's taking his love of fear" this is interrupted by a woman answering a phone laying on a sofa with the mans voice from the other phone call on the other end of the line. We see a close-up of her shocked face as she looks out of the window, the next shot is of her walking around her house on the phone, the voice over then continues with "One step too far" as the man on the phone asks her "Do you like scary movies?". She replies with "What's the point they're all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act" as she says this a shot of a girl opening a door is shown as a visual bridge between the phone call and real-life. She then continues with "Whose always running up the stairs scared" again a shot of the woman running up the stairs is used as a visual bridge, she carries on with "when she should be running out the door" again a shot of this is used.
The action then flashes to police running into a dark house, it then cuts to a man in front of a TV talking about "the rules of how to successfully survive a scary movie". This is intertextuality and is used very well in this trailer to make itself hyper-conscious. He continues with "number 1- You can never have sex" this is then coupled with a shot of two people having sex, this is used to attract a certain audience. "Number 2- Never ever ever under any circumstances say I'll be right back, because you wont be right back" a shot of a girl walking through a door with it closing behind her is shown over this to create tension. We then cut back to the room with the guy explaining the rules, when one of the guys there says "I'm going to get a beer, I'll be right back!" and everyone laughs. The voice over then begins again with "He didn't make the rules" this used over the top of a girl crying whilst on the phone with tense atmospheric music in the background. The next shot is of a man being arrested, with the shot then cutting to the man who was explaining the rules earlier who says "If they'd watch Prom Night they'd save time" another use of intertextuality. The camera is now following a woman who is running when the voice over says "He just kills by them" as he says this the woman turns round, with this the camera zooms into her face and then flashes to white. The next shot flashes in which is the killer chasing the same woman through a house, text then appears in black and white; this is important because it is the same colour as the killer's costume. The writing says "Don't answer the phone" and the voice over reads this out as well, the action then cuts to the woman from the beginning of the trailer screaming as the phone rings. The next text on screen says "Don't open the door" and an over-the-shoulder shot of a woman answering a door is used with a close-up of her face to show her screaming. The music is becoming fast-paced now and is building to a climax, the next text says "Don't try to hide" with a shot of a woman peering under a toilet door and then a close-up of the lock turning being used to emphasise the writing. The next shot is the killer jumping on the woman in the toilets and then titles appear with "From the first name in suspense" this then fades out in blood red then "Director We Craven" appears, the action then cuts back in with the man with the rules shouting "Everybody's a suspect!". We then see a montage of shots starting with a woman falling off a roof and a then a car driving towards a couple who have to jump out of the way. The titles then continue with "Comes the last word in fear" then a shot of a policeman holding a torch up to his face and saying to a woman "your not scared are you?". The film title then appears in blood red writing, "Scream"; this writing is a different colour to the rest of the trailer's titles to symbolise it is the main title.
This trailer is effective because it uses a lot of different techniques like pastiche and hyper-consciousness to make it stand out from the genre.
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