Mask Mood Board

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:

Basic Story Board

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.

Storyboard teaser trailer

View more presentations from hthurlow.

Cowboys Vs. Aliens 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).

Horror Mood Board

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.

The films I have included are:

• Scream
• Halloween
• Pans Labyrinth
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• The grudge
• The Ring
• The last exorcism
• The exorcism of Emily Rose
• The Strangers
• The Blaire Witch Project
• Chucky
• One missed Call

Shot Composition

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.

Shot List

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-diegectic whispering 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.
• Shot 12: Intertitle.

Animated Storyboard

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.

Queenan's guide to horror film cliches

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 rough Plotline

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

Title Choices

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.

Scenes for our trailer

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.

Early Planning

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.