Creating Our Logo

I am creating a production company logo by using Photoshop. Using typical elements from the horror genre such as red for the colour and a shape such as an axe, I can create a logo which instantly illustrates our production company. I also hope to animate the logo so it can be used at the beginning of our trailer.

Saw 3D Teaser trailer analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg0go2b3ekY

We have been deconstructing the teaser trailer of Saw 3D to help us create ideas for our trailer.

Saw is a typical horror and torture film and creates a very dark feeling. This is created by many things, the main event being that it's set mostly at night time where people can be hidden from the dark and it's also seen as a typical 'scary' time of the day. Also very dark colours are used, for example in the warehouse the man, is in a dirty shirt and dark trousers, and the room he's in is full of dirty rusting metal. This could be to symbolise blood, as when it ages it goes a rusty like colour and also has a metallic taste. There is a small daytime part in this trailer, this could either be to show the victims faces or to show someone is innocent in this situation.

When watching the trailer I noticed that there were never whole scenes in it, this is to create the tension for the audience as they aren't sure as to what's going on. Also it fades to black, and this indicates a change in time and a change in victim that Jigsaw has kidnapped. This keeps the reader engaged if there is a shift in time throughout the trailer. They also quickly zoom in and out of certain scenes, this is to perhaps confuse the audience as they don't know where they are. Where they flash up scenes so quickly this suggests the place of unknown, no-one knows the location they are in, which creates a scary atmosphere. When we are shown the characters and notice they are in a torturing position, the overhead voice says 'this game has been designed', so it's all about getting yourself out of these situations because it's all a game.

Throughout the trailer, writing also appears in big writing so the audience sees it and automatically reads it, for example 'ALWAYS SAVE THEIR BEST TIL LAST'. Which creates a creepy and twisted feeling towards Jigsaw, as he has handpicked his victims. The audience are also introduced into the jumpy, low and high pitched music. It becomes high pitched when a woman is a shown, to perhaps show a high pitched scream and is low pitched when a man is shown, to indicate the more manly, deep scream. Screaming is shown nearer the end of the trailer, to keep that engagement throughout the trailer and it's also from a man, this is almost like an opposite and it's usually a woman that perhaps screams as they are more vulnerable. We also have a narrative voice throughout the trailer to give the audience clues and again to keep us engaged. No lines are said by the characters but again it keeps that mystery going throughout the trailer.

Planning Our Trailer

As a group, we have chosen to make the plot of our film based on the idea of a 'stalker'. We previously created a mind map which gave a range of options towards creating our final idea.

Location
Our first idea for film locations are the woods, as it is atmospheric for a stalker film.
Another location idea would be a local field which has dumped appliances in it. We could also use this in a scene for our film, as a place for where the stalker lives.

We have decided to film both during the night and the day, as the different lighting will be needed to help the plot of our trailer make sense. The daylight scenes will also help to contrast with the scarier scenes in the dark.

Narrative
We have also decided that we may have some lines of narrative in our trailer, as well as some writing on the screen to tell the story.
A few ideas for writing/ sound in our trailer includes words about 'shortcuts' and 'wrong turns', talking inspiration from massively successful horror films such as 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Wrong Turn'

Title Ideas

We will later work on our title ideas by making a mid map.

What we hope to create

In our group we have discussed as to what we would like to create for our teaser trailer.
The main plot of this is to have three characters,2 girls who are friends and one man, who is the stalker. He stalks one of the girls, who then goes missing and her friend is left alone in the woods. Clues will be given as to where her friend is and the stalker will appear now and then in the backgrounds, with him wearing the colour red as a symbolic meaning.

We will extend on this further when we develop more ideas.

About Film Trailers

• A film trailer is an insight into the genre and plot of the film, to create a buzz around the film and to gather the interest of the target audience.
• Trailers can often be seen on television and in the cinema before films of a similar genre or audience are shown, before it is to be released - again to create a buzz around the film. 
• Genre conventions are key elements in trailers. For the horror genre, dull colours and the sense of mystery within the trailers (such as the concealment of the villain) are typical of the genre. Black is a colour often used as it connotations include darkness, fear and the unknown. As for sound, eerie music and perhaps screaming is often used rather than narration of the story which would be more common in a genre such as a romance. The trailers for horror films generally do not reveal the full plot of the film, so as to get the audience excited to know what the film is about and entice them to watch it.
• By looking at trailers from various horror films, many do follow the conventions of concealment of the villain, such as 'The Hills Have Eyes' (2006) which only shows flashes of the mutants, and only body parts such as hands. It is also noticable that a key convention of horror is to have a 'damsel in distress' where a stereotypically weak woman becomes the victim in need of saving. 
• The difference between a teaser and a full trailer is that a teaser tends to give a lot less away, the complete narrative of the film is very unclear as it jumps from scene to scene very quickly. Also they tend to last up to a minute, whereas full trailers can last up for 4 minutes. So full trailers give you a more clearer picture of what is going to happen.

Idea Mindmap

This mind map shows our basic ideas for what our horror film could be about. We have circled the ideas that we like, and also listed some ideas which are typical within the horror genre. One idea we particularly liked was the idea of having a stalker.