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