As we have decided to make the killer a female being played by Laura, we decided to try and experiment with some shot types of her to see as to whether we could create some effect around the female character and still give the feeling of unease and tension within the audience, as a male killer would do.
In this shot we have done shoulder shot, but form the back which gives the impression of the audience watching the killer. This gives the audience a sense of authority and the idea of being unseen which is what the audience would feel comfortable. I think that we need to use a different shot as to make the audience feel uncomfortable and vulnerable and which will make the killer (Laura) look powerful.
Here we have decided to do an over the shoulder shot. I think this connects the audience more with the killer, forcing them to look at the scene from her POV. I think this could be an effective shot if we are able angle the camera so, that it is clear what the shot is intending to focus on e.g the victim from the killer's POV.
In this shot we decided to use a high angle shot. In this picture you are able to see Laura's facial features, but when we film our teaser trailer she will be wearing a mask and so no facial features will be seen. This again makes the audience feel powerful and Laura look vulnerable. I think this shot is very good at pointing out things such as height and the physiology of the killer.
Here we have done the opposite shot, looking at a low angle shot. The roles are reversed where the audience in turn feel vulnerable and the killer looks powerful and significant. This would be a great opening introduction of the Killer I feel for our teaser trailer.
Hopefully when it comes to filming we will be able to reflect on the shots here used and decide the best shot for each scene.
Milly: Milly will be one of our cult leaders, she is has a feminine voice that you would not expect to find in a conventional horror film, which again would add a twist to our trailer. You will never see Milly’s face as it will be masked and this adds to the mystery of her character.
We have found it hard to look for a correct comparison between Milly and another character from a film. The only thought I had was the KKK leader from the film 'Time to kill'. However in the film the leader is a strong middle aged male character whereas milly role is still a strong character but young, female, blonde, blue eyed like a stereo typical victum, which I feel pulls on a less conventional horror teaser trialer.
Hannah (me): I will be playing the character of the best friend, who accompanies Alana on her quest to be a part of the clan. However I shall only be in one of the shots and then nothing is none as to what has happened to me. This fulfils the stereo-type that blonde girls don’t survive.
I have compared myself to Drew Barreymore and the role she plays in scream. Barreymore fits all the stereo types of a horror victum with the blonde hair blue eyes and this is exactly the same as my physical apperance. This will show the audience who will think that I will bve the victum when infact it is Alana who will be murdered. This enhances a more postmodern take on our horror trialer.
Laura: Laura was willing to be the killer within our trailer. Her USP was that she is not the conventional killer stereo-typed in horror films. This gives us the advantage to create something that is new and our own. This gives us an unlimited amount of flexibility within the storyline and filming the trailer.
I have compared Laura to the character also off of 'The Strangers'. I have compared her to the murderers in 'The Strangers'. I have chosen to do this comparison due to the hidden identity that the characters share, where the audience never discover their true face, which is constantly hidden behind a mask, their names are never mentioned, and what is probably most frightening is that the murderers although working together never communicate to one another. I think this would be a real added mood creator, in making the audeince feel un-nerved.
Alana: We chose Alana for the character of the victim. Alana has the characteristics of a modern day girl, due to her fashionable contemporary hair style and her ability to create a character who can go on an emotional journey from weak to strong, which is needed for our horror trailer. Alana will be seen in her normal clothes giving the impression of an average modern day teenager who the audience can relate to.
I have compared Alana to the actress Liv Tyler, who plays the iconic role in the horror film 'The Strangers'. I have chosen this comparison for many reasons, both Alana and Tyler play the role of victim, but the main reason is because of the similar pyshicalsimilarities such as the brown hair, not like the stereo typical victim with blond hair that always is killed. They both have a slender figures which gives them audience appeal, making the audience admire them in a way.
Alana: We chose Alana for the character of the victim. Alana has the characteristics of a modern day girl, due to her fashionable contemporary hair style and her ability to create a character who can go on an emotional journey from weak to strong, which is needed for our horror trailer. Alana will be seen in her normal clothes giving the impression of an average modern day teenager who the audience can relate to.
Laura: Laura was willing to be the killer within our trailer. Her USP was that she is not the conventional killer stereo-typed in horror films. This gives us the advantage to create something that is new and our own. This gives us an unlimited amount of flexibility within the storyline and filming the trailer.
Paul: Milly’s elder brother has offered to help with some of the more athletic parts of our trailer. For example dragging Alana and also hanging her upside down from the tree, simply because Laura would not have the physical strength.
Hannah (me): I will be playing the character of the best friend, who accompanies Alana on her quest to be a part of the clan. However I shall only be in one of the shots and then nothing is none as to what has happened to me. This fulfils the stereo-type that blonde girls don’t survive.
Milly: Milly will be one of our cult leaders, she is has a feminine voice that you would not expect to find in a conventional horror film, which again would add a twist to our trailer. You will never see Milly’s face as it will be masked and this adds to the mystery of her character.
Laura T: My sister will be playing the extra role of a cult member. She will only have joint lines and have a mask on her face.
Here Alana, Laura and I spent the lesson creating the script for our teaser trailer we used little dialogue as we wish to let the audience susupense build throughout the trailer, making them want to know more. We created the script by going through each shot one by one and then putting in the dialouge where needed after discussion.
Script
Opening of shot 2:
Alana: (scream) let go/please/help me (panic) (scramble)
Opening of shot 3:
All girls synchronised chanting: and forgive us our tress passes, for we forgive those who trespass against us. (monotone whisper)
Opening shot 5:
Alana: (scream) let go/please/help me (panic) (scramble)
Shot 6:
Main Leader (Milly?): To join you must under go a series of tasks, to prove your strength only then can you show your commitment and worth.
Shot 7:
Killer (Laura): Thou shalt not kill. Motions knife towards Alana’s ankle.
Shot 9:
All girls synchronised chanting: And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. (monotone whisper)
We have also settled on a place for our inside footage to be shot. This will be done at my own home.
My house is situated near a large open space with fields but also very close to some woods where the out doors footage could indeed be filmed. Within my garden I also have a space where we have bonfires and this would be the perfect place to do the clan/cult scenes, as there is enough space for the fire to be large enough and deep enough for the scene, not mention the area we have to place the characters around the fire. Another reason why we can do this scene here is that we have permission, which is something we could not do on the school's premises.
My bedroom will be where Alana is dragged from the bed by the killer, which hopefully work as we have story boarded previously.
Here I have displayed some pictures of the places we wish to shot our scenes.
Here I have created a mood board on the types of masks that we may want to use in our teaser trailer. We will be using two types of masks one for the killer and one for the uniformed cult group.
I think that we are leaning towards perhaps the plain masks that are easily available but also can look effective because they have no expression and hide the people behind them making them all look the same. We may want to use a more scary mask for the killer such as scream mask, but a different style otherwise it could be associated with the previous film scream, and we want to create something new. Perhaps a mask like a sack from the film 'the strangers'. See below:
Here I have made an animated story board on power point, containing commentary and directions as to what will be the rough plan for our teaser trailer.
Within our media class today we analysed the new Cowboys Vs. Aliens trailer, an ultra postmodern, hybrid movie.
Genre: The genre within this trailer is somewhere between the cowboy westerns and then introduced half way through the trailer a sci-fi twist, making this film of a hybrid genre.
Narrative: little is know about the narrative of the trailer, only that Daniel Craig has been previously abducted by aliens and has the ability to bring down some the rampant aliens that are threatening their small western town.
USP: The unique Selling Point of the trailer has to be the never before seen genre and the stars involved from Daniel Craig (James Bond) to Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones).
Target Audience: The film is aimed at the male audience with the violent scenes and damsels in distress, really pulling at the action adventure elements within it.
Music: There is very subtle and eerie non-diegetic music playing quietly in the background throughout the entire trailer until the action actually starts to happen. The music creates the uneasy tension in the audience and is slightly clinical giving the sci-fi impression.
Shot types/Camera angels: The main shot types that we see in the trailer are lots of long shots and mid shots introducing the character and scenes in which the action takes place. This gives the audience the impression of magnitude and grander. Low camera angles also give the impression of the characters vulnerability.
Pace: To begin with the trailer is slow, then suddenly when the first alien shot is introduced the pace quickens and stays fast throughout the rest of the trailer. making the audience excited and intrigued.
Dialogue: The dialogue acts as the narration for the trailer and introduces the time era the characters and the relationship between the characters.
Voice over: There is no voice over only dialogue.
Special effects: There are alot of explosions, beams and spaceships striking the western town. not to mention the abduction strobes. There are fast paced flashing of on/off editing that gives a sense of disorientation and lack of control from the people within the film.
Credits and inter titles: These only come in towards the end showing only vital peices of information like the release date, title and the Director (Steven Spielberg).
here I have created a horror mood board to see the broad spectrum of images and genres of horror. As well as the recurring images and themes present for example the colours of black and red. and lots of masks involved, to create the secret identity. I can definitely refer to this in the future.
Within our media lesson today we were given task to create the most believable scenario that we were given using our own knowledge and eye for what we could put into the shot to indicate where we were and also what happening within the shot. the scenario's given to us were:
A dentist waiting room
A romantic date
waiting at a train station
a busy office
The hardest scene that I found to do was waiting at a train station, this was because it was hard to find an area around the school where we could set up a platform situation with people waiting and looking as if they are expecting a train to pull up. We managed to tackle this by using Alana and Laura looking like they were sitting at different levels on a bench or leaning against the wall. I then gave a signal as to when a 'train' would be arriving and then watching it drive past.
The most convincing scene was the dentist waiting room as we had all the chairs set out with posters but you could not see the detail on it and so looked believable as if a they were relevant to a dentist practice. we also had some magazines, classic music playing and decorative flowers dotted around.
In conclusion this proved to be a useful task as it made me focus on what I can include and exclude in the shot to make the scene the most realistic and believable as it can be.
In class today we decided to plan out the shot list and how we will be filming the trailer and below I have written out the shots and angles that we have decided on (it may be easier to refer back to the story board when talking about each shot):
Shot 1: Long shot, with the camera on the tripod. We could possibly use a canted angle to give a uneasy feel to the shot. There will be a close up of Laura moving from marker to marker and continue the shot and so it looks like she is darting around in an un-natural way. for example on Paranormal Activity when they speed up the image to look like a long time has passed, we could use this but with Laura in different places.
Shot 2: This is going to be a mid-shot and hand held from the killers POV (point of view).
Shot 3: This is the dragging out of the bed scene. again we will use a mid-shot/establishing shot of the scene. With the 5/6 girls around the bonfire, we think a low angle shot will make the audience feel small and venerable and with it being hand held it will seem more realistic like the Blaire Witch Project (BWP), with the non-diegecticwhispering chanting of the lords prayer.
Shot 4: We have decided to make this a high angle shot/crane shot, which could possibly be canted. We will also be doing it in a 2 shot, and then decide which is best.
Shot 5: this is the shot where Alana will be dragged through the woodland. we will have the camera zoomed up on her face and then zoom back out onto the situation and the scene that she is in, with either myself or Laura running behind her with a torch to see her face and with the camera and so it looked like this was a real situation. With a evil or underlying dramatic music.
Shot 6: This will be the main leader of the religious group telling them what the girls need to do to get into the group. We have decided to do this in a close up.
Shot 7: This is going to be a two-shot and also a track or a pan moving with the action. With slow motion which we could try and do on the editing. especially when Laura brings the knife over onto Alana, but cut before we see anything else.
Shot 8:Intertitle.
Shot 9: This will be a repeat of shot 3 but the second half of the long scene.
Shot 10:Intertitle.
Shot 11: This will be the most disturbing shot in my opinion where we will have canted close-up of Alana's head and shoulder hanging from the tree.
Below I have posted the animated storyboard that we had created as a group which was based upon the rough draft we had done earlier presented on the PowerPoint that I had created.
I drew the pictures that made up the animated storyboard on a white board, this made it easy for me to wipe off previous drawings and also keep some of the background in each shot the same. We then took a picture of each shot and uploaded it onto Adobe Premiere Elements we then shortened each shot and so they flowed together and created a moving storyboard. By adding in inter-titles and non-diegetic music creating a detailed and will prove useful while filming.
Within our media class we decided to look through an article on horror cliches that we may be able to use within our own trailer, as we gain our audiences attention to the genre and narrative of our trailer. Here below I have highlighted and quoted some of the key points which I feel that we should use.
They are split into differnt catergories: slasher, zombie, vampire, mainstream horror, Asian horror and revolting Eli Roth films. ' I think that the catergory that we are thinking about doing will be the mainstream horror as we will be looking at some religious elements that have been taken to the extreme, with maybe a slasher element thrown in with the knifes and blood in some of the shots.
'All of these subgenres rely on worthy, battle-tested cliches that appear again and again. Indeed, horror is the one genre in which the absence of cliches would ruin everything.'
'Small children are often evil in horror movies.' We have decided to go with young teenage girls instead as they posess the same innocence as children but also keeps the target audience young and interested.
'Teenage in horror movies are usually spoiled brats who deserve to die.'
'Horror films work best in rural settings.' We will be setting our trailer in the rural areas like the isolated solitary house and the woods where there is no one to know what is happening there, creating lonley, isolated and eerie setings.
'Horror movies almost always contain a scene in which a woman washes her face in a sink, and when she straightens up and looks in the mirror, a girl missing half her face is staring directly back at her.' I think this would be a good scene for our trailer, however im not to sure as to how we could fit it into the narrative prehaps when we are filming we could try out some shots and see how they look.
'Horror movies also contain lots of scenes in which the living dead or the living undead zip past an open door or window, but nobody sees them.' I think again this would be an effective scene to do so if we can pull it off and this could cause alot of tense atmosphere if right.
'The more gruesome films in the genre require captives to sacrifice one section of their bodies in order to preserve others.'
'It is always a bad idea to go to sleep in horror films, or accept a ride from strangers, or resepond to personal ad. It is an even worse idea to get in an elevator, a popular hideout of the promiscuously dead.'
'Never purchase a dirt-cheap house or apartment.'
'Never have any kind of medical operation in a horror film.'
'Never go into a dark room alone.'
'Never answer the phone in a horror movie.'
I think that we could use many of the conventions stated here to make our trailer a very clear and effective horror trailer and will dicuss these with Alana and Laura.
The plot line at the moment of my main project is that the film is going to be a horror which is based around a clan of girls who created a secret organisation which celebrates evil and the Devil. The girls that wish to join the clan must endure several initiation tasks that they must survive. The final 3 have to go through the worst task out of the 7 which is placed in the woods where the clan meet to do their riturals. The girls are 'kidnapped' from their houses and dragged out of bed with a sack over their head to stop them from seeing who has taken them and where they are going. (This then makes the audience think that the girls are being taken by the killer not the leaders of the clan) Whilst the task is happening in the woods, the girls are slowly being attacked by the killer one by one. However, they believe they are being followed, at first, by someone from the clan they are wishing to join. At the end, all of the clan members die apart from one girl who was doing the last iniation task. The killer reveals her identity to this girl who is hanging from a tree as the killer thinks she will die. Revealing that the killer is of course female and someone who was not allowed to become a clan member and has been plotting her revenge for a while
Here I have gathered the titles that Alana, Laura and I had brain stormed in one of our earlier lessons we have looked through them thoroughly and have picked out some of our favorites which are the highlighted below:
Reincarnation
The Clan
The Pact
The Deal
Burn in Hell
Temptation
Trespassers
Kingdom of Evil
Deliver from Evil
Save us from Evil
Religion
Masked
Stranger in the Woods
Beaten
Initiation
Silent but Deadly
Awaken
Disturbed
I think we really wanted to keep to the religious theme and aspects of the trailer which will act as the USP. I really like the title Religion, that I suggested in the lesson. The title religion does not give the immediate effect or suggestion of a horror film but after the images of the trailer we could use the lord's prayer with the inter title should suggest the uneasy and underlying horror aspect that we wish to force upon the audience.
During our lesson Alana, Lora and I decided that it would be a good idea that we would go and photograph some of the possibilities for the scenes we decided to start at a sight on school that was at the bottom of the sports feild. Here is a large woodland backing onto a river and would be the perfect setting to portray some of our characters in.
Here is the horizon of the woods which I feel gives an eerie and ominous tone and could also be seen as quite mysterious and also could hide things within it. Also we would be filming when it is dark to give the impression of distortion and disorientation, the outline could again give the underlying tone of danger as seen in many of the classic horror films e.g. The Blaire Witch Project.
Here I have taken some photos of some of the pathways and the also a small close in the woods. I feel that the paths would really give the sense of depth to the woods and also the plot line as things begin to look desperate and lost. This would also work really well in the dark, but also the sound of the leaves would create rustling and sounds that would enhance the mood. The close would also be a good idea for the ceremony part of the trailer, however I do not feel we would be permitted to start a bonfire on the school premises and so another setting may need to be found. but it again has the trees and twisted branches. The old building work, can also look like anchient ruins that could be important within the religion aspect of the trailer.
The river created another option for us if we wanted to use the reflection of the water for some disturbing image to occur or a 'he's behind you' moment where the vulnerable girl is captured by the killer. However the problem posed was that we would be filming in the dark and would therefore not see very much if at all.
The twisted branches again have the Eire classic effect but also would be a great place for one of the shots where the victim (Alana) would be hanging upside down as seen in the early story board. We did have a go at seeing how accessible the trees would be to climb and hang from.
Below are some planks of wood that we had stumbled across, and they were in the shape of a cross I said that we could perhaps use this later maybe in the film poster or the blog which ever we decide to do. It fits in with the religious theme that we have thought about that will play a vital role in the narrative and genre.
Overall I feel that this has been a good learning curve for us as we now know what we need to make a good setting for our trailer. We need to take into consideration the lighting and terrain and also the weather as we will be working outside.
In our media lesson today Alana, Lora and I thought we would begin by deciding our plot line after watching many of the teaser trailers of other successful horror films such as Blaire Witch Project and Paranormal activity. We decided to go down the hand held camera route and keep with the classic girls in trouble narrative. Alana came up with idea of a clan and the killer played by Lora would have been a rejected clan member out to get revenge. We then decided some of the other girls could want to join the clan and the camera follows them as they try to become part of the clan but instead the killer ends up striking their revenge on them. After we had tried to get down a rough idea of what the storyline will be we then decided to to a draft of the story board so we could see the way the plot line and shots would fit together and how we would include information and enough of the narrative without giving it all away. We plan to scan this in when I have finished the drawings. I also came up with the idea of using the Lord's Prayer or certain sections of it to fit in with the clan and maybe chanting girls would sound eire enough to spook people. it would also enhance the religious side of the film which would perhaps be the USP. We then came up with a few names such as:
Disturbed
The clan
Initiation
The promise
and my favourite The Religion
I feel this would really capture the eerie and unsettling mood as well as the USP and the narrative but does not suggest immediate horror but a ominous tone.
It begins with a dark screen and an instant tension building piece of non-diegetic music both high pitched and eerie. This is most likely created by the high pitched strings perhaps on a violin. the continuation of the music leads onto the first image of the production company. We used again in continuation of our fist 2 minutes of the film we made in year 12 we used 'Working Title' as it has funded many films of different genres and would fit into our teaser trailer. Again we use the transition of a fade to give the impression of a space in time and scene and the ominous black gives the impression of a dark mood to the trailer.
We then decided to jump straight into the action as we set up an eerie happening of the blind role up revealing a white board with the jagged and creepy writing revealing the phrase ' It's Time' which we again felt had a very ominous tone to it. The only issue was that the writing is not seen clearly on the screen when watched on 'YouTube', I believe this is due to the bad quality of the transition form the 'WindowsMeida' to 'YouTube'. This is a shame as the audience are not able to feel the full effect of the composition of the frame, leading to a less immersiveexperience. At this point we then introduce a steady heart beat that slowly increases it's pace throughout the trailer. We made the heart beat magnified above all the other sounds as the pace of the heart increasing suggests anxiety and panic to the audience which are the emotions we wish for them to be feeling when watching the trailer. We purposely have left the heart beat as both diegetic and non-diegetic leaving it to the audiences interpretation as to what they think is happening within the frame and what we can interpret from the shot of the composition given.
After this brief action of the revealing of the words we then get a quick glimpse of Suzi's eye. This shot only last for a second and is very fuzzy, so the audience are lead into believing that they are not meant to have seen this quick shot and that something scary is about to happen, again with the aid of the increasing heart beat and the fast paced editing, the audience's tension and mood is enhanced. Straight after the audience are given the title of the film in a printed type of font and also a printed manner so as if a documentary was being written on a type writer. I love this effect and thinks it makes the film more realistic and believable to the audience, deepening their emotions of the film. The line of 'The Haunting of Therfeild' again fits into the font and the way the font is directed at the audience, rather like 'The Haunting of Connecticut'.
A black fade transition then leads to a more action filled shot of Suzi grinning in a sadistic way at directly at the camera which moves form a mid shot into a zoom and fixates on Suzi's eye which has the white contact lens in it, that gives the audience a knot in their stomach feeling of 'all is not right or as it seems'. The movement and shot of the camera is enhanced by an effect we found on 'Adobe Premiere' which was called ghosting, which seemed to blur the image making it a lot more disorientating for the audience to watch and focus on a particular are until it reachs the point of focus and our unique selling point Suzi's eye. Again the beating heart acts as the continuity through the trailer linking all the images together, being the main point of focus to the audiences ears with only slight back ground noises such as the water trickling out the tapes. This forces the audience to become more involved in the trailer.
We then use a fade transition from one shot to the next without the dipping to black, as this keeps the audience motivated and intrigued by the eye which is what we wanted the audience to be intrigued and frightened by. The direct shot of Suzi looking straight at the camera in a close up shot is very off putting for the audience and makes them feel again uncomfortable and frightened. The editing then becomes quick paced and more disorientating for the audience as it cuts to a shot of the 'Mathematics' sign which indicates the film to take place in a school. The shot is shot at a canted angle again forcing the audience to feel disorientated and frightened. The 'Mathematics' sign is shot from two angles again both canted and gives the illusion of things being repeated, giving an ominous tone. Within the quick sequence more images of Suzi's eye are introduced and reminded to the audience. Howver something more is introduced as we decided to capture some static and white noise on the trailer giving the impression of the documentary was that the film is filmed in much like 'Cloverfield' or 'The Blair Witch Project' which enhances the fact of it being realistic. And 'real' people are involved in the events that are filmed. The white noise hints that the film has been interrupted and manipulated which is why some of the scenes are repeated or fixated on frightening images.
The prolonged image again of Suzi's eye with the increasing heart beat, suggests that she is the thing to be afraid of in the story although we don't know the back ground of the story. A quick transition to the inter title of 'The lesson has begun' leaves the audience feeling uneasy and worried as if there is no choice in what will happen next or that they can decide to watch the film or not as the trailer is telling them what is happening and who is in control. The unorganised and almost frenziedcomposition of the words and some of the phrases in red attract the audience, giving the continuing theme that the film takes place in a school. The slow fade into the release date suggests that the trailer's pace has slowed down and that it is coming to an end. The hear beat has also reached the peak and is very fast paced meaning that the person who the heart belongs to has had meet their fate. The information is only giving what is necessary to the audience, which creates more hype around the trailer and makes them want to know more and leads the to finding out more on the trailer getting them to talk about it or look it up on the Internet. The rest of the trailer is white noise and more static, indicating to the audience the trailer is finished and that it has ended in a disjointed manner. The eerie ending again leaves the audience in a state of unease especially as to how long the shot is left for.
I really like our teaser trailer as I feel that is has all the convensions of a teaser trailer but also gives the audience as much of the action and curiosity to make them want to see more and watch the trailer again. I thought we worked well as a team and used all our ideas together incorporating them together to create our trailer which does look authentic and something that I would go and see for myself at the cinema.
Here I have posted probably one of the more well known horror films. Made in 1999 'The Blair Witch Project' was most likely one of the more well known films in the 1990's and was compared to the other famous horror films of the time such as 'The Exorcist'. Due to the way it is filmed and edited I believe much like the trailer for 'Paranormal Activity 2' atmosphere is created to the most fearful extent by just these two principles. Which is why I think it would be another good teaser trailer to look at to inspire our own trailer.
Genre: There is a clear indication that the film is going to be a horror film although the way in which it is filmed suggests a very realistic approach. This is hinted by the lighting, music and intertitles.
Narrative: The first intertitle that the audience is confronted with is the one that describes the narrative. Where typically a group of teenager who are up to mischief go into a wood and lots of strange and spooky things happen to them. But the format and blank text suggests the documented style, leading the audience to believe the film is actually real. The real events then seem to make the film the next level of horror.
Target audience: Again due to the common and well known themes of a horror teaser trailer, the conventional target audience are expected to enjoy the trailer and watch the film. Being mainly teenagers-early 20 year old.
Music: The non-diegetic music is perhaps the most frightening part of the trailer. The gong sort of sound prolonged and with an eerie hint to it makes the audience literally feel goose-bumps. The repetitiveness of the music only scares the audience more as each of the intertitles appear the 'gong' sound penetrates the audience and their attention is drawn to the intertitle. This also becomes more frightening as the screams are added into the mixture of eerie sounds and music, almost creating a climax of sound which is then suddenly cut out, leaving the audience unnerved.
Shot types/camera angles: The film is entirely seen on hand-held camera, which gives the indication that the entire film is going to be from a point of view shot. This is somewhat more scary for the audience as they are placed in the characters shoes and can only see what they see. This creates a string link between audience and trailer.
Pace: The entire trailer is fast paced keeping the audience in a constant state of unease and visual captivation. This is shown through the fast editing and only being on one scene for no more than ten seconds. This doesn't give the audience a chance to rest or take a break from the intense footage which is why the trailer works so well to evoke a response from it's audience.
Dialogue/Voiceover: There is no voice over throughout the trailer only minute pieces of coherent dialogue. The dialogue is completely unaimed at the audience. We realise that the footage is far to realistic to explain what is happening and find we only can see and hear what the characters are saying to each other through the small hand held cameras. There is very little dialogue only screaming, shouting and calling to one another, giving a sense of pandemonium and panic.
Special effects: Again there are little to no special effects within the trailer giving the impression of a very real film/documentary. The black and white effect gives the impression of the disorientated state and the negative appearance of the film, making it look bleak and the lighting more dramatic. This puts the audience on edge as it places the thought of 'It could happen to me'. I think this is a great technique that we should definitelyconsider for our final teaser trailer.
Credits and Intertitles: The intertitle are what perhaps creates the mood of fear within the audience as they feel that they cannot grasp the full concept of how realistic the film actually is. The comments that appear while the footage is up and running, and the names mention again suggests how scary the film really is and that the target audience are subconsciously hinted.
I really like this trailer as when i watched it I too was actually quite frightened by it. I would love to evoke the same response to the audience who watch our teaser trailer, which we can hopefully do by following some of the ideas used in 'The Blair Witch Project' teaser trailer.
Today in class we discussed the difference in the two versions of the film 'Nightmare on Elm Street' trailers one from 1984 and the other 2009. I found this a great help as to see how the audience has changed and what we found scary back then we have become desensitised to gory horror as seen in the 80's trailer but are more afraid of the second because it is the psychological horror that we fear.
Here is the 1984 trailer of Nightmare on Elm Street:
Here is the 2009 trailer of Nightmare on Elm Street:
Genre: It is clear to see that both of the trailers are Horror films. The audience immediately can decide this by the burnt man frequently appearing in the 80's trailer and more of the silhouette shown in 09. Also the 09 shows the creepy chanting children which set and eerie ominous tone.
Narrative: Both of the trailers seem to keep closely to the same narrative. This follows the burnt man haunting people (mainly girls) before killing them in horrible ways. The audience are shown more of the storyline in the 09 trailer as we see Freddy Kruger before he is burnt and how it happens. The 80's trailer uses far more gore in the trailer which suggest the 80's audience were far more afraid of gore horror than the psychological horror shown in the 09 trailer. However both trailers follow the same catch phrase of 'Don't fall asleep.'
Representation: In the 09 trailer the 'bad guy' is never shown to the audience and so is more mysterious and therefore frightening when left the audiences own thoughts. This also gives focus to Freddy's hand with the many knives replace fingers. The innocent are dressed in varying light colours which suggest their innocence in the film. The 80's trailer uses the iconic hat and the red and black shirt that makes it so memorable. This seems to be a crucial part of both the trailers as the costumes seem to define that characters as the girls are dressed in white and Freddy in black, the colour of evil.
Audience: The classic horror theme throughout both trailer the audience know that this films target audience are teenagers ranging to 20 year old. however the 80's trailer suggests a younger audience from the more childish font shown in an not scary American font.
Media Language: In summary the trailer from 09 is defined by the characters and the location. however the 80's trailer has more blood and is set in a more suburban area with dated special effects, suggesting the change of horror from gore to psychological and the advance in technology over the past 20 years or so.
Target audience: wide range-from teenagers to 40 year old.
Music: non-diegetic daunting eerie music, projecting panic feeling of end of the world.
Shot types/camera angles: Wide shots showing the magnitude of the actions and the venerability of the human race and how fragile our structures are.
Pace: Fast paced with slow shots of the action giving the impression of the great magnitude of the events.
Dialogue: No dialogue makes the audience more intense and the intertitle act as the communication as to what is happening.
Voiceover: Again there is no voice over leaving the audience feeling they are on there own much like the characters in the trailer.
Special effects: As these are the USP there is a great use of them are done in great depth and detail giving the verisimilitude and immersive experience.
Credits and Intertitles: These are the main communication to the audience and are very simple and talking directly to the audience making the audience feel they have to watch the film, to continue with the rest of the film to see what will happen.
Here I have started to analyse some of the films from the horror genres that we had brain stormed earlier. This is the new and upcoming film 'Paranormal Activity 2' the success of the first indicates that the sequel is going to be just as successful.
Genre: This teaser trailer is clearly of the horror theme. The audience know this by the dark colours used the constant braking of the scenes and white noise not to mention we are confronted by the footage of an actualaudience in the cinema that have watched the first prequel 'Paranormal Activity' the audiences expression from the first film and the second is said to be even more scary.
Narrative: Little is known about the plot line of the upcoming film as no direct scene is given. The audience instead have to use their knowledge of the previous film and also the small pieces of footage given to them in the trailer. All the audience can establish from the trailer is the woman perhaps the main character is possessed and is a threat to the people in the house.
Unique Selling Point (USP): I think that the USP of this film will be the way in which it is filmed. The shots are taken in a 'security camera' type way revealing the date and time of the events that are taking place. This creates a whole new atmosphere for the audience making them feel that this is all the more real and it could happen to them.
Target Audience: Again the trailer helps the audience decide who the target audience is not only the clear definition of the horror genre suggests teenager/early 20's target audience. But the trailer also shows the target audeince in the cinema watching the prequal film, again showing teenagers and early aged people with the occasional elder audience memeber.
Music: There is no music throughout the entire trailer all the sound that the audince is given are the digetic sounds of the camera switching from scene to scene. By doing so the audience are put into the scene and there is no escapism for the audince, creating a more immersive experience.
Shot types/camera angles: Again the shot types are kept very simple in which we assume throughout the entire film. This is shown is a array of high angle shots, low angle and mid shots. This keeps in sinc with the 'security/documentary' type of filming, leading the audience to feel the film is more realistic than it is, they then become more emotionally involved and find themselves more immersed in the film.
Pace: The pace is a mixture of fast paced editing and slow blurring inter titles which give the impression of panic and unease. This creates more tension within the audience's atmosphere and they in turn wish to know what is going to happen next.
Dialogue/Voice over: Very similar to the music. Interestingly there is little to no dialogue within the trailer the only information that we get to know are from the inter titles, which makes it crucial for the audience to stay engaged and keep watching. The trailer seems to be focusing on the 'less is more' approach.
Special effects: There are very little special effects within the teaser trailer. The extent of which is a man flying towards the camera. I think this trailer is a good one for my group to focus on as it manages to produce fear in the audience without really doing anything dramatic. I believe that if we too want to do a horror this may be a very bold and good option for us to think about.
Credits and intertitle: The intertitles are the glue that holds the this trailer together, as they manage to speak to the audience give background information and also continue the flow from one scene to the next. However they only reveal what is necessary to know such as the title of the film, release date, previous background of the prequel and how this fits into the audience's relationship with the film.
I think that the 'Paranormal Activity 2' trailer really does show how grasping and exhilarating a teaser trailer can be using simple shots and timing effects. I really think that my group will look at this further as we develop the stages of which we are in to progressing to make our own teaser trailer.
I have tried to find the teaser trailer for the film 'The Haunting in Connecticut' but was unable to find one. I therefore have got the full length trailer for a few reasons.
Firstly I wanted to show Lora and Alana the music at the end of the trailer. The really creepy and eerie piano playing was really disturbing putting that audience on edge and very alarmed. I feel we should look for some sort of non-copy right music like this as I feel it would really enhance our preliminary task and would add to the effect that we are trying to create and I feel it would also flow with our main task if we choose to do a horror themed trailer as i expect, as we seem to be leaning towards it.
Secondly like the 'Super 8' teaser trailer the editing really sums up the theme of the film, the quick 'flash-on-flash-off' effect is displayed throughout between the narrative parts of the trailer. However unlike the 'Super 8' trailer there is a voice over of the woman character from the film. This gives the audience the impression they are being spoken to by the character. Also there is a lot of dialogue in the trailer which shows the plot line of the film and also its unique selling point the violent super natural effect. The film also has a great deal of shots and angles making the trailer look exciting and frightening, with all of the spooky happenings being shown at great length. The special effects are also shown and show that they are very effective and believable adding to the unique selling point as to the verisimilitude being involved where the audience are so immersed.
The film being broken up by the credits and intertitles give the audience a breather from the action but also the information given of the release date and name of the film. I think this is again very effective and should be taken into consideration in our own teaser trailer.
We have begun to edit our preliminary task. We spent the first part of our time watching the footage that we have been able to film to see as to whether any of it was particularly exciting or would enhance the mood that we were wanting to create. After we had looked through the footage we began to try and edit it. We first looked through as to what we think would look good at the start of the trailer as an opening image, we settled on an eire shot of Suzi's eye that had a white contact in it. Lora had said that it would be effective if we used a 'flash on-flash off' type of shot. She then used some of the shots from the teaser trailer from 'super 8' to display the effect to Alana and I. I thought that this was a really good idea and had thought of something similar myself, however Lora had explained it far better. I also suggested whether it would be a good idea if we could add in some white noise to make the trailer seem as if it were made in a sort of documented style. Alana and Lora again thought this could work very effectively as seen in the films 'White Noise' and 'The Blair Witch Project'. We believed that if we did fast flashes of the same image of Suzi's eye but from different shots and angles this would look very distorted and scary. One of the shots were the shot was blurred turned out to be a very impressive and effective shot meaning that we will use it at some point in the teaser trailer. After we had ordered the shots that we wanted the trailer to run in we decided to look at the effects that we could use to enhance the mood and create a effect of verisimilitude. I pointed out an effect called 'Ghosting' we found this distorted the images of Suzi's eye further and thought it would become visually captivating to the audience. We also used some of the brightness balance on some of the shots either creating them darker of lighter depending as to whether the actual shot was to light or dark for the mood we were trying to create. We also tried to find some non-copy right music that would fit into the theme and effect of our trailer but have not found anything yet, we hope to continue this next lesson. We have not yet added into the trailer the narrative on a black screen between the shots due to the shortness of time, but we intend to continue this in our next lesson.
Yesterday we began to film our preliminary task. Our topic was 'Therfield'. As we are leaning towards the idea of doing a horror teaser trailer for our main task we thought it would be a good idea to begin to get to grasps with filming the horror genre on camera to try and adjust to the angles and movements in order to create a effect on our audience. We decided to go along the lines of a simple 'Stepford Wives' theme where everything seemed to perfect, we then looking back on the super 8 trailer and also 'The Unborn' decided to break up the footage into smaller clips with narrative on a black screen to set the plot line summary and hint to the audience the relevant information and also the tone of the film. We have thought up the title 'The haunting of Therfield' very much like 'The haunting of Connecticut' the almost documented effect of the title makes it seem all the more real. I also came up with the idea of a catch phrase for our teaser trailer for our priliminary task, as by watching 'Super 8' realised it stuck in the audiences head and would get the curious about what they had just seen and would want to know more. My own idea was that we use the phrase 'The lesson has started' as it relates back to the title 'The haunting of Therfield' but also through a simple phrase becomes more eiry and alarming to the audience. We only did a small number of shots as we wanted to keep the teaser trailer short as that seems to be almost a trade mark of teaser trailers. We used some classic images of a spooky school effect such a writing on a white board and canted angles of signs representing the school departments such as maths. However we used a very spontanious idea, as our friend Suzi had a white contact lense in her eye and we realised how eirey it was and asked if she would not mind appearing in the trailer. Watching back seemed the most effective after shotting 3 or 4 takes we saw one of the takes was rather blury and thought that it was rubbish but looking back at it, it looks rather effective and we could possibly use it in the trialer. We have started to translate the footage onto Adobe Premire. We plan this afternoon to look at the footage and begin to edit it into the teaser trailer which I am thouroughly looking forward to.
Here I have decided that it would be appropriate to look at many other genres and types of teaser trailers to allow my group and myself to gain a wider knowledge of the variety of teaser trailers and how they can be shown to the audience in a way to evoke different responses.
Here I have posted the teaser trailer 'Super 8' introduced with very little information not only from the marketing campaign but the teaser trailer itself.
The trailer begins with the logo of 'Paramount' however the entire screen has been darkened and so hints to the audience already the genre of the film, before showing any of the film. Hinting the darker more sinister the target audience are hinted, ranging for older teenagers- to the more 40-50 year old audience.
Plunging the audience into darkness of the night the audience are left feeling disorientated and curious as the the setting of the scene immediately asking questions to themselves. By showing only small glimpses of film, puts the audience into the question of what is the trailer about and what is going on? The film is broken up by sudden blackouts with minor parts off information displayed in a military fashion, suggesting the footage that the audience are seeing is classified.
The audience are also plunged into action, showing the mix of genres that the film is encompassing. With the train exploding, resulting in a secret almost monster type creature denting the turned up carriage. The audience can also interpret from the narrative shown that there is some sort of monsterinvolved from the quote 'It arrives.' which almost becomes the catch phrase for the film. The titles also show the directors Steven Spielberg and J.J Abrams. BY doing this more hype is created about the films and audiences begin to have high expectations of the films as such big names are mentioned in the trailer.
Overall I feel the trailer is very effective and uses great parts of the film without revealing the plot line, stars involved or characters or even what the audience is supposed to be afraid of. The only thing that i would comment on is that the length of teaser trailer is over 1:30 mins and so this is pushing on the cliches of teaser trailers.
Here is the horizon of the woods which I feel gives an eerie and ominous tone and could also be seen as quite mysterious and also could hide things within it. Also we would be filming when it is dark to give the impression of distortion and disorientation, the outline could again give the underlying tone of danger as seen in many of the classic horror films e.g. The Blaire Witch Project.
