Editing and touch ups of our trailer

In recent days, I have been editing some of the work me and Imogen have been working on. As we plan to complete an Empire magazine cover, we need to use there title, however, as we are doing a horror film, we are editing the text to make it look abit more frightening. Empire original text is already deep red and therefore we do not tend to alter it as of its strong connotations with blood. the text is all in capitals and very bold and eye catching as it main purpose is to attract someone attention as they are searching for magazines.

I have found a few Empire magazine covers, for example, this special collectors edition Empire, is showing some of the greatest horror films ever made. Even from a single glimpse the audience can tell that is is aimed at the horror generation. "THE SHINING" takes up the centre image and looks so threatening and obscene. the smaller images below include films such as Halloween, NightMare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Masacree and Frankenstein. All rated at 18+ mainly because of psychological horror and gore/ bloody violence. Our trailer is a psychological horror that doesn't contain any bloody violence. it is more about trying to scare the audience about the fact that our characters are being stalked in a forest by the someone that is dead.

Our Magazine Cover

We are currently changing the picture on our Empire front cover. At first, we had a picture of Emma and Liam, facing the camera and it quite clearly showed that they knew the camera was there. This lack ecological validity as it takes the realistic factor away and clearly shows them being actors instead of real characters. So, we decided to choose a more realistic shot from our movie and we choose a shot from behind Liam and Emma walking into the deepest part of the forest. The fact that we cannot see their faces makes them seem more mysterious and unidentifiable. It also gives the impression that “Ruby” (the girl in our myth), will kill anyone regardless of who they are.

Research into print products

Many modern day horror films have seemed to stray away from the typical black and white setting and them to prefer the tinted image more. For example, "The Orphanage" and "The Unborn" ( both shown below), both have had their images tinted to a more dark and bluely colour. The blue tint is very effective as the film is called The Unborn and the blue symbolises a lack of oxygen that the character has had, which is relevant to the title. Also, in both of these images, there is only one main lone character. This tells the audience straight away that they are the focus of the film and the fact that they are standing alone makes them seem even more haunting and someone will recognise straight away that these films are in the horror genre just by a simple image.

All of our clips are now in the correct order and to cut to the appropriated length. We are now just mainly using editing tools such as dips to black and fade out. the problem i thought our trailer had, was that it looked quite similar to our AS project, in that it looked more like an opening compared to a trailer. At this moment in time, I am searching for Empire Magazine articles to copy there title for our print front cover project and also to get some inspiration to make our magazine cover look even better. I got inspiration from the two images above, however, in our film, both of the characters are of similar importance, even though they play very different roles and have different personalities that are portrayed in the film. Another point i also discovered from further research is that the setting in many horror print products seem to be irrelevant compared to the characters. Even though the setting the characters are in, are less important compared to the characters in these pictures, both of the backgrounds still have a haunting image, for example, the first one, looks like a empty, emotionless room and The Unborn picture, is in a uninhibited setting. A problem we came across while filming was that as we knew from the start the cameras didn't pick up on light very well, so we arrived early and decided to be safe by filming the majority of it in day light as the sun was setting. We plan to use a tint as it doesn't create a very scary image when everything in your setting is clearly visible and we want our film to have a lot of mystery about the killer. Also, relating back to The Unborn, the lack of oxygen is very relevant in our film, considering our myth, is about a young girl who was trapped down a mine and it also relates back to our blue tent which was used in the film to represent this.

This it the final art work we decided on

We thought this poster had a much dark tone, however, the font, we knew we were going to have that from the start as it perfectly reflected the idea of blood and gore for our horror film. also, as Liam is our main character, it shows right from the beginning that he will be the focus of the film. as he has very pale skin it makes him stand out even more from the dark environment, like he is not meant to be there and he doesn't fit in. the red font, was made from an online site and i typed in our film name and alters the different letters angles and sizes. for example, we wanted the "S" at the end of the title, to be very blurred and indistinctive, whereas the "R" at the beginning is the clearest and the largest. however, most film posters that i have researched tend to have to title in the centre of the posters, however as Liam is the centre of our poster, we made the text lie under the body to make it look abit more sinister. also, as Liam is covered by a fallen branch and is lying on a floor of leaves straight away gives the impression to the audience that he is in the woods and also helps to sell our setting to the audience before they even see it. the lack of colour in the background draws the main focus to the striking text and victim.

Improving our video with extra footage and removing clips

As our draft decline is quickly approaching, me and Immy had been removing certain clips that don’t quite make our movie scary or tense enough. However, we have also added some extra footage we didn’t think we need that actually turned out much better.  Some certain clips were very slow paced compared to the “fast dramatic pace” what we previously wanted. As we are using a voice over and now have a better range of music that we can access, we know that our A2 has a much better change of standing out compared to others.

At the start of our project, we were planning to use a red tent but we thought that the colour red could be too obvious and too alike other previous horror films. Also, blue stood out much better in the gloomy woods and it also stood out much better with the cameras, as they don’t pick up footage in a dark environment very well. However, blue symbolism also has some negative associations due to the connection between lack of oxygen and blue skin colour. This is perfect for our media work as our myth is that a girl became trapped down a mine.

from the picture above, we came up with acouple of designs. We tried a different range of both fonts and textured layers to see which suited our film better. nither of the 3 pictures above where the one we choose, however, the one we did choose, has a more dark tone.

Why i chose certain

·          Settings

As I live in the area, I often walk through the woods and thought it would be the perfect setting for I movie. Before we choose our setting, I took Immy to the setting and that is where we got some preview shots and setting ideas. After visiting it, we knew it would be perfect for our film, which we would shoot there in the following weeks. The only problem with this location is that it is quite hard to transport all of the casts, crew and our equipment considering most of them live at fram. Our biggest concern with filming was the lighting, but now that we have completed our trailer, it didn’t turn out to be problem at all. It wasn’t that dark when we were filming, but it was aery suitable as it was very dull and murky. Another problem we had when we were planning as that we were worried about being down the location as it got very dark very quickly and the woods were in the middle of nowhere with no man made lighting or local houses. To balance this out, we took some torches down and all of our actors had mobile phones (will coverage). Another advantage is that with our setting being so remote it meant that it was very unlikely that we would have anyone walking through are camera shot. This gives us a little more freedom on shooting as we were not limited to shooting any parts for the woods.

·          Characters and clothing

Emma Dixon (our female actor), doesn’t wear a lot of make up in our trailer. This came as an advantage as it made her look less artificial and more believable as an actor the audience. When we planned her outfit, we wanted basic clothes with not a lot of accessories or excess clothing items.  The point of this was to draw the audience attention to Emma’s emotions rather than what she was wearing. Giving the actor a more innocent, natural feel would make the audience feel more in common with her as she isn’t an “artificial actor”. Liam (our male actor) was meant to be the more dominant character who was there to scare Emma. An advantage is that he is very tall making him look very powerful and he also had a more dark range of clothing on, making Emma stand out for being even more innocent. Both of our actors costumes were “block colours” which means they very most visible, considering the woods is a very busy and overcrowded area. The audience will judge you by the clothes our actors wear and associate them clothes with their identity.

·          Our story and our myth

From the beginning, me and Imogen knew that we wanted to do a horror film. However, we knew we didn’t want to create a so called “part 2” to our AS project. From the experience we gained from that project, we wanted to show it in a more challenge way. When we visited the woods, we also went down there to look for ideas for our plot ( this was very early on in planning ). It was shortly after that we saw some mines and thought they would be a good basis for our myth. When we were finally established on a myth, we were stuck between 2 different scripts. We then asked all of our media class and outside members (aged between 15-22) on which they would where the best. This helped us to choose the script which was more suitable. After asking people why they choose that perfect script, we asked why and the main improvement they said would benefit us was that we should take out one line which was, “once upon a time”. The myth relates to both the setting ( the woods ) and what will happen if someone enters the forest.

Some Furthur research added

While doing so extra research on film trailers, I came across the film “CABIN FEVER” with the tag line “CATCH IT”. It stood out very well as it is a very similar design as our movie poster. Both in similar ways such as

• Colour scheme – Black and Red. The black representing the darkness and evil with in the forest and blood having the common representation of blood or gore. Red and black scheme to be the most commonly recognisable colours when it comes to the horror generation. and as our film is breaking into the film market, we want the audience to straight away recognise our film with horror.
  We plan to use darkness giving the impression that everything is swallowed by the darkness and it  gives off a feeling of being trapped, away from anyone who can keep you safe.
• High angle shot - looking up at the trees – giving the impression they are more powerful than the house or the people within it. Furthermore, the fact that the camera is looking “up” at the woods, it makes them look also inescapable.
• And also where the cabin is placed in the poster is very similar as out tent is placed exactly in the middle to show to the audience that all attention and the following events are based within or around it. In both ours and CABIN FEVER’s poster, the cottage or tent looks remarkably small compared to its surroundings. The location ( in both movies)  takes centre stage. It is depicted almost like the cabin is fearful of the forest, giving the impression that anyone who stays there is doomed also. We really our audience to feel fear and anxiety when they see our poster.

Finished shooting and our Rought Edit

 We have finally completed all of our footage for our trailer. We also had a lot of outtakes that may come in useful if we decide to create a blooper reel. When we finally got the actors to agree on a time and date, they both acted and cooperated very well with the script that we both designed. After some unfortunate events from our AS project, we decided to shoot more footage than we actually needed, because if we went back to re-film a short section, we would have to make sure the

• Weather

• Appearance of the actors

• Lighting

Was exactly the same as when we first filmed. Before filming we had already filmed some extra clips from the woods when only one of our actors were available. These ranged from someone screaming, running in the woods and being chased and falling down. Doing this proved to be a good success, as one of the photos we took is now going to be our main picture on our poster design. However, constantly having to rearrange our production schedule has set us back around a week and a half compared to other members of our media class. To counterbalance this problem, me and Imogen have both being working in our free time to make sure we stay up to date and do not fall behind as this can cause a lot of problems further down the line. Last year, our project contained a lot of sound effects that we needed to add in. this means we had to spend around 3 hours just making sure the footage was in sync with the audio. This project is likely to be very similar as we are planning to add sound effects after our rough cut is completely this Friday, we plan to spend just as much time carefully cutting our audio to match our footage. If it is done incorrectly it can look very messy and unprofessional and that is not what we are aiming for as we have learnt a lot of skills from our first project, so we should have produced a better quality project that shows our experience.

A very strong advantage of our setting is that the woods make our environment very shaded and dark which gives the feeling for movie being in the horror genre. I was quite worried when we were shooting that the cameras would not be able to pick up a clearly enough image, but when our footage was uploaded, it turned out very well and useable.

Creating our posters

For all 3 of our designs, Me and Imogen used Adobe Photoshop C3S. We copied and pasted both our title and our blood splattered background on. The picture of the blood spatter was fine as it was; however, the text needed a lot of editing. We used the “Magic Wand” to select our text from the background; this took some time as our text is quite grainy and rough. Unlike our AS project, we have spent a lot more time researching into font type and colour schemes. We have decided on black and white with red. For example, our background pictures with the fonts over the top would be to light if the pictures were in colour. Black and white takes away the 'distraction' of colour. The viewer’s eye concentrates on the subject itself. Tones, shapes, textures, light play, shadows, and depth of field all become more apparent when the element of colour is removed.

The text was previously black and we tinted it up to a dark red – darker than the blood splatter on the page, to make sure it was too dull, as we didn’t want it to blend in and be unnoticeable. We then copied and pasted the finished text on top of our picture. We have to alter the size and we wanted it positioned at the top of page, were the page was lighter. We also, did exactly the same with the woodland pictures.

Title's for our trailer and Poster Design

These 3 photos we have made in this lesson. We have not yet committed to one photo as we plan to spend a lot of time and effort to make them perfect for representing our A2 project. Personally, I like the Red Woods design with the blood splatter on it as from the beginning it tells the audience that it is a horror film and is likely to shock. However, the other two, they both contain photo’s we took at the set, showing it is more connected with the film. Also the picture in the background is looking up at the trees and giving the audience the impression that the forest is more powerful than the characters that are about to camp there. It creates the illusion that the forest is never-ending as it looks like it is on such a large scale making it seem even more intimidating. So to resolve this problem, i have printed of 10 copies and getting different audience memebers to choose their favourite and i will be updating my findings soon.

“We are currently shooting a horror trailer for our media A2 project and we would need some audience feedback to choose the appropriate material. We also have to create a magazine article and we are choosing between a range of different fonts that will suit our movie of the horror genre and even for the title in our trailer. Please select which font you like the best …"
We gave our questionnaire to 10 people and all of them preferred the same font which is featured below. We also worked on photo and added a blood splatter background to make it look more bloody and frightening. The design below is something we tried out today, however, we are also currently working on another title background but we are inserting a picture of trees from our setting which relates it back to our movie. From our research we have gathered that the font the audience preferred was the font that represented the slasher/jumpy genre in horror films.

We are currently shooting a horror trailer for our Media A2 project and we would need some audience feedback to choose the appropriate material. We also have to create a magazine article and we are choosing between a range of different fonts that will suit of movie of the horror genre and even for the title in our trailer. Please select which font you like the best ....( i have cunrrently handed out 8 of these to teenagers aged 15-18 (our target audience))

Research and planning

As you can see, I have recently just uploaded our script for our A2 project. Me and Immy have also lately conducted some class research as they are our target audience (15-19 years old) and we asked them to choose between two different voiceovers we plan to use in our trailer. We are still carrying out some research into our voiceover, however, if the results show that both versions are good, it would be very easy for me and Imogen to recorded both as it is only an audio track not actually footage and could easily been completed at home. The class majority preferred the second script which is more lengthy and we also found that 3 students disliked one line in the script. So we asked them what they would prefer and what would fit better with our script and we are finally making small alterations to our cast’s script and the voiceover script. As our trailer involves a lot of “cuts to black”, we still plan to use audio when it has cut to black. We already have some pre-recorded audio such as Emma D (Female Actor 1) screaming. From research we gathered from other horror films, we found that the fades to black are very effective as when it fades, the audience expect someone very frightening to happen or jump up.

we have recentlty been looking at this trailer and it is very similar to the voiceover we want in our trailer both in length and tone. it helps set the storyline straight away to the audience. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hatchet/trailers/10889295/

Our Script

Script

- A shot of the characters feet walking through the forest, e.g. river, mud -this will be for around 10-15 seconds. In that time they will be talking about the myth of the woods (of the last girl who died there). It will only be the male characters talking as in the story, they are continently trying to scare the girl (Emma Dixon) and from past horror films we have learnt that the female is normally the most innocent.

Liam (Males actor 1) - ‘Have you heard about this place?
- Shot of Emma’s feet as she walked
Emma (Female actor 1) – ‘No……’
-Back to close up of Liam-
Liam (Male actor 1) – ‘There’s a story about a girl who died here… Apparently she died in the mines in these woods”
Emma (Female actor 1) – “As if.
Liam - Male actor 1 - Seriously
(Pause)
- shot of the back of the actors head as they go down a steep hill
CAMERA SHOT- HIGH ANGLE – looking down making them look vulnerable
Emma (Female actor1) - ‘I’m not too sure about this…’
(Long pause)
We get to see all 3 characters setting up the tent. However, the female characters see's someone running behind the trees (only she sees it, making her stand out to the audience). The girl doesn’t want to let the boys not that they have got to her, and she turns around, shakes the sleeping bag and it cuts to black. We plan to have a large bang or thug as it fades.
-Shot from inside the trees of the actors-
Emma (female actor) = turns around and looks into the forest – looks worried
-Fade to black.-

This is where the main storyline of the trailer is put into place. it is the 2 boys holding torches telling the myth. The girl will ask and the boy 1 will says
Emma Dixon - "what have you heard?"
At this point, we cut to a voiceover of a small female child explaining the myth. As she is talking, it will cuts to varies shots of
-The girl looking very frightened
- The mine itself
-black and white shots of the forest and of the tent
Towards the end of our trailer, we will show the fire getting blown out and fade to black with a scream and the sound of people running and quick cuts of the characters running to add to the atmosphere.
(One of the male actors) – “It’s not a myth, it’s true. Around thirteen years ago.
CAMERA SHOT - An extreme close up of the actor’s mouth as they talk

-THE VOICE OVER – (lasts around 30 seconds )

Very fast paced clips of all the characters running through the woods and cutting to black.
The sound of
• Breathing
• Footsteps on the forest floor
Emma scream’s – and the film cuts to black

Storyboard

Planning

As our media trailer is a horror and is also in the "paranormal activity"/"Blair witch" genre, we plan to use some hand held shots while we use the voiceover. As we are filming in the woods, we will have to take certain precautions to ensure our actors or filming crew do not get injured. When the voiceover is in our trailer, we also plan to have the shots of the woods in black and white as it is representing the past ( and the myth). We plan to complete our shooting by this Friday 4th November. All of our actors are aware of this and Me and Imogen are already preparing our props that we will need to take down to our set.

This is the tent we will be using, the red will look very striking and bold whilst in a very dark woods, and also the colours red and black
correspond very well together. as the nights are getting darker, it is likely it will be very dark when we are packing up and leaving, so we are taking a large range of torches and we only have a short walking distance to our pick up point.

Research from our target audience
I have recently (in the last 2 weeks) conducted some research into the audience’s perception of horror films. We asked them what they found most frightening. The 3 main responses were
• Psychology – 8
• Gory/bloody – 2
• Jumpy – 5
I also, only asked our target audience from 15-19 and got 15 different responses. Our film is mainly psychology and jump which seem to be the highest rated of horror films from our audience. Also, on our budget, it would be difficult to create a realistic looking “gory” film with the effects needed.
Planning
Setting – we are only using one setting as that is where the whole movie would be filmed and it is in Sherburn Forest
• Safety procedures –
• Mobiles X5
• Water as we will be using fire
• Transport X1 Car
Equipment needed:
• Basic tent
• Sleeping bag X 3
• 1 large blanket, duvet
• BBQ equipment and some basic good and drink
• Our 3 actors
Technological equipment:
• 1 school digital camera
• 2 personal cameras ( as this became useful in our AS project)
• 1 school tripod
• Torches X 1 for extra light in a dark environment

Planning

We have two openings and we are planning to shoot both in our time period, as when we shot our AS project, we really needed more footage to work with. Our idea for an opening scene is
- A shot of the characters feet walking through the forest, e.g. river, mud -this will be for around 10-15 seconds. In that time they will be talking about the myth of the woods (of the last girl who died there). It will only be the male characters talking as in the story, they are contisnalty trying to scare the girl (Emma Dixon) and from past horror films we have learnt that the female is normally the most innocent.
Scene idea 1 is that we get to see all 3 characters setting up the tent. However, the female characters see's someone running behind the trees (only she sees it, making her stand out to the audience). The girl doesn’t want to let the boys not that they have got to her, and she turns around, shakes the sleeping bag and it cuts to black. We plan to have a large bang or thug as it fades.
Scene 2 cuts to a hand held shot of someone looking at the tent through the woods. Quickly, to keep the audience on their toes, we cut into the tent to keep the fast pace of the movie. This is where the main storyline of the trailer is put into place. it is the 2 boys holding torches telling the myth. The girl will ask and the boy 1 will says "what you having heard?". at this point, we cut to a voiceover of a small female child explaining the myth. As she is talking, it will cuts to varies shots of
-the girl looking very frightened
- the mine itself
-black and white shots of the forest and of the tent
towards the end of our trailer, we will show the fire getting blown out and fade to black with a scream and the sound of people running and quick cuts of the characters running to add to the atmosphere.

As we learnt from our AS project, we do not want to go back and refilm after we have already finished the majority of our project. Even though we still have our original plot for our trailer, we have still not fully decided on one ending yet. We are going to choose from either. also, from previous expierence, we have also already planned 2 backup actors, one female and male, just in case of furthur problems.
1. The girl is chased by bullies and she falls down the mine and breaks her ankle and is unable to get out
2. Or she decides to hide and becomes trapped
Shooting these will not be a long process, so we have decided to shoot both, as it would be easier when it comes to editing plus it would mean we don’t have to go back, where conformity would be an issue. We have told our actor this and she agrees it would be a good move. We have around 3 hours to film our footage before its get too dark to film. As it is becoming darker, we need to get down there around 3 or 4 and leave at 7pm. We have 2 cars that we are using as transport for our actors, cameras, tripod, food etc.
Different eye-catching shots for our trailer
We have already found the plot of where we plan to place our tent which is inside a circle of 5 trees which looks incredibly scary
• 360 degrees around camp site

Problems that have already occured before shooting

We have recently been told by one of our actors, who we were meant to be using in a few weeks is pregnant. it would be extremely unsafe to use her in our movie, as our actors are expected to be running around in a forest and getting in and out very quickly of a tent. However, we have already found a new, even better actor who is already good friends with our others actors which should make the acting look more realistic. We still plan to be shooing on the same day and have already checked that all 3 actors are available on the same day. Although, me and Imogen are still not sure on the 3rd actor and as our storyline keeps changing the actor we had in mind may not be appropriate. However, our other two are very well suited and they are Liam Stainbys and Emma Dixon.

Treatment

Treatment
Our plot consists of two boys and a girl who are camping in the woods, over the camp fire the boys decide to scare the girl by telling children's stories such as: The Candy Man Story, The Boogeyman story and The Bloody Mary story. The girl says she doesn't think it’s a good idea; however the boys think she's just being weak. After a few tricks from boys, the story becomes a reality. When doing research of films and trailers, the most popular genre of film, horror and comedy. with the experience we had doing our AS project, we found that we really like creating films that fall under the category of horror, as it is one of our expertise and we have interest in the genre itself.
I also did further research into more horrors and found that there is a gap in the section of the genre that holds the forlores urban legends and myths based type of films. We developed these ideas by looking up more folklores and myths to widen our variety and to give us a more of an insight o what we are basing our film on. I also looked at a film called "Hatchet" that was also set in the woods just like the Blair Witch Project, this helped give off a more creepy atmosphere, by using the woods as our location it gives the audience a sense of uncertainty, this is because our characters will be out of the comfort zone and by being in the woods where anything can happen and is out of their control. Our film is what all teenagers and adults can relate to because at one point or another everyone has dared or peer pressured into doing something stupid.
After we completed our pitch to our group, we were faced with a series of questions that challenged some aspects of our product. We also have to consider a risk assessment as there could be an issue as we plan to have a small camp fire in the woods, which is a flammable area. We plan to shoot in the next two weeks and all of our actors have been informed. Another issue is that, as it is getting close to winter, the weather could become a problem, as it is planned to snow next week. In the next two weeks we need a tripod, 1 school digital camera and both Me and Imogen are bringing our personal cameras as it worked out well last time, to achieve extra footage. An issue that occurred last time was that the camera wasn’t fully charged and we ended up wasting a whole night and having to reschedule our whole night, but as we are both taking a larger selection of cameras, this shouldn’t be a problem. We have two cars to transfer our actors and crew to the area and we are in very short distance from my house in case of an emergency and all of our crew and actors have mobile phones.
After we complete our trailer, we are taking down some food and drink for the actors. We plan to shoot between 4pm to 7pm. We were planning to shoot at a earlier time, but because the nights are getting darker quicker we have to manage our time more carefully. Possible problems could occur such as an actor becomes ill on the day we plan to shoot, but we also have some backup actors incase this happens.
Apart from our filming equipment, actors and food, we have also already planned what we want our actors to wear. We plan to have the 2 boy actors wearing more dark casual clothing, whereas, we want our female character to wear more innocent clothes to show how she differs from the boys who are taunting. Both me and Imogen and our 3 actors are all in the same age range so it will be more easy to organise and direct them. Also, when we show our trailer to the class, the actors will be able to connect with the audience better as they are the same age. We imagine that as we are filming our trailer, that a lot of what we have planned will change and we will keep the blog updated on our changes.

Pitch

Immy and Steph's Pitch from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Plot - two boys and a girl are camping in the woods, over the camp fire the boys decide to scare the girl by telling children's stories such as : The Candy Man Story, The Boogeyman story and The Bloody Mary story. The girl says she doesn't think its such a good idea however the boys think she's just being weak. after afew tricks from boys, the story becomes a reality.
when doing research of films and trailers, the most popular genre of film, horror and comedy. with the experience me and Stephanie had doing our AS project, we found that we really like creating films that fall under the category of horror, as it is one of our expertise and we have interest in the genre itself.
we also did further research into more horrors and we found that there is a gap in the section of the genre that holds the forlores urban legends and myths based type of films.
we developed these ideas by looking up more forklores and myths to widen our variety and to give us a more of an insight o what we are basing our film on.

we also looked at a film called "Hatchet" that was also set in the woods just like the Blair Witch Project, this helped give off a more creepy atmospshere. by using the woods as our location it gives the audience a sense of uncertainty, this is because our characters will be out of the comfort zone and by being in the woods where anything can happen and is out of their control.

we think this idea WILL work, as it is a film what will fall in the gap within the genre. its new, its change of pace and it is what all teenagers and adults can relate to because at one point or another everyone has dared or has been dared to try out these myths.

Planning and visiting the set

Today me and Immy visited the set today of our movie today and got a few shots of were we are going to be filming when we next bring the actors. we took down the school camera and tripod ( plus our own cameras) to make sure they could cope with the conditions we need to film, for example, it is quite dark in the woods. we are planning to have 3 actors, ( 2 male, 1 female) and both me and Imogen using the camera/tripod. we are planning to film in around 2 weeks and around 6pm-8pm, so it doesnt become to dark for the camera to be able to pick up the images. As it is a trailer, it is unlikely we will have very long clips of footage, rather, more short and choppy clips. the set is incredibly rural so it is unlikely their will be anyone walking threw out set while filming.

Planning and Shooting

We finally have an idea on where we will be shooting the majority of our trailer. Our setting is near Sherburn Hill, DH6 1QL and is set in forest around a mile away from a farm. A problem that we may face is that in the forest, it is very dark and shelter and this may be a problem with the school cameras. So we will have to choose carefully when we shoot and also the nights are now getting darker quicker causing more of a problem. I hope our trailer, with be similar to the Blair Witch trailer and we plan to have a voice over similar to the one on Hatchet (2006), to make is more chilling.
We hope to begin shooting within 1-2 weeks, when we havew hiring out a camera and tripod. Me and Imogen will both be operating the camera, and we are now in the process off getting our actors together.

Planning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wiSir2Cs18&feature=fvwrel

Me and Immy are planning to use a voice over in our trailer, for example, similar to the trailer of  Hatchet (2006).  Hatchet is a 2006 American slasher film written, produced, and directed by Adam Green. the trailer uses a very spooky surreal voiceover by a young child which really adds to the scary tention that a horror trailer should give its auudience.

Furthur Research - Empire magazines posters

Empire film magazine film covers

as part of our project, we also have to design front cover to a film magazine. these certain 3 film posters perfectly advertise the film. this is because they include no text and no other advertisement and just focus on the main character of the film. the kickass poster (picture 3) in particularly, is useful research as it looks quite gruesome and violent and it would be useful to use some of their ideas for when we being creating our front cover. in particular, the title on the kickass poster, also has a blood and gruesome looking font adding to the effect of the violent image.

I also choose the Dark Knight (2008), even though it isn't a horror, the poster gives the impression that is causes some "psychological" disturbance. it contains the words " ha ha ha" around the main characters face, the text also looks like it has been scrapped on with a knife, making the audience fill in the blanks. most of the cover is all black, making it seem more sinister. the stare from "batman" also looks very threatening .

Induction task and main project

we are planning to start editing our induction task tomorrow. as we are doing a mash up trailer of the hangover. we have already chosen certain clips that we thinking would be uprooted. we believe that the mash up trailer will be around 30 to a minute.

These certain clips really portray the violence in the comedy, and we think that they clips added together can really make the trailer seem like a gangster film

• Car crash with M.R.Chow
• Where the meeting the desert for Doug (including fights and guns)
• When they leave white little chapel and get in fight in yobs
• Police and tazer ( screaming and weapons)
• Police storm in the house ( guns and screaming)
• Stu shouting in the back of the car ( he is also missing a tooth which makes him look like he has been in a fight )
• The gangsters hitting the car with bats and pointing guns
• Where the 3 main characters are in the prison

how we plan to add someone sound effects or a sound track over the top as music plays a huge part in making the movie seeming darker. the film portrays very adults issues such as drinking, fighting, drugs, violence etc.

Introduction Task

Me and Imogen are planning to do our mash up trailer as our introduction task. we are planning to create a mash up video of The Hangover in the next couple of weeks. we are aiming to make the film which is a comedy, look like a gangster movie. there is certain clips we have already chosen that make it look like a gangster genre of film such as the police and tazer scene, car crash, shooting, screaming and fighting. by adding on a "dark tone" of music over the top, will really help us to change the genre of film, from a comedy to a gangster.

Research into trailers

As our genre is not fully decided yet, i have been researching over a mass of different genres and seeing what makes them appealing to their target audience through their trailers. the first genre i have decided to research is horror.

For example, Amityville Horror ( the 2005 remake), straight after the films shows the different distributors, clearly shows the film have supernatural elements. it does that by showing a priest blessing the house and also it keeps on showing the clock with a time of 3:15, ( which has connotations to the bible and the hell).
As the film is based on the true story of the house, they use many camera shots tilting upwards to the house, to make the house seem more powerful and dominant.
it also has the words "BASED ON THE TRUE STORY" fade onto the screen and similar to nearly all films, the majority of the film is shot in the dark to add to intensity and increase the shock factor to the audience.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/amityville_horror/trailers/

Brief 2 - Setting

As our genre is still undecided, over the next couple of weeks, we are really going to be exploring a very large range of settings that are available.
The place we have in mind is Finchale Abbey. Depending on when we shoot, we will need to be more careful in the winter, as the surfaces could be dangerous. The area is very rural, so there will be no noise poulltion and is also surrounded by natural beauty, giving of the same appeal as our first movie, of being remote. However, we will have to take into consideration, what time of day we decide to shoot, because on certain days when the weather is nice, it can draw in large numbers ot tourists which could become a problem.

Brief 2

Me and Imogen Moore has decided to do Brief 2 ( the Trailer), however, we haven't yet decided whether is will be a follow  up from our AS sequel. Even though our genre is still undecided, already have an ideal setting in mind. Which happens to be local, however, has a great range of scenery and is very easy to get to. We are planing hopefully in the next 2 weeks to go down and see if it would be a good place to shoot. the only downside is that it is a public area and some tourists could get in the way of filming. This is the area were we are planning to included a few shots from, to include in our trailer.
http://www.finchaleabbey.co.uk/

Audience Feedback - Brief 2

A2 Media Studies

Questionnaires on trailers

Stephanie Martin and Imogen Moore

1.  What do you expect to see in a trailer?

•        Main actors

•        Music

•        Distributor

•        Wide range of shots

•        Fast pace

•        Name of the film

2. What makes a trailer appealing to you?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3 . What genre of film creates the most appealing trailers?

•        Horror

•        Action

•        Comedy

•        Fantasy

•        Sci Fi

•        Mystery

•        Romance

4. What trailers in the past have persuaded you to actually go and see the film? Give examples of 3?

1 .

2 .

3 .

5 .  What do you think are the key main features that should be included in a successful trailer?

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6 . Does a good use of music or the soundtrack in the trailer make a large influence to whether you want to see the film?

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7  . Are trailers that are better constructed more appealing?

•        Yes

•        No

8 . What is your favourite genre of film and why does this certain genre attract you?

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9 . Does classifications ever effect you decision on whether to see the film?

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10 . does a good use of shots make a trailer seem more tempting?

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