When we're filming!

We are going to film on the 2nd of november and then whenever we have free time to create our trailer! :)

Storyboard and name ideas

This was created before we decided on a title idea.

We have created a vague storyboard just to give us an idea as to what we want to involve in our trailer. This will help give us an understanding and develop into our trailer as we create it.

TITLE FONT IDEAS

These are our title font ideas and we went around the class asking people what font they preferred. They then ticked which one they liked. As you can see two have the same amount of voted, yet we have decided between us that the second one is going to be our title. We can incorporate this in my ways, for example even scratching it into a tree. This logo will of course be put on the poster and our magazine front cover. It has a 'creepy' feeling and fits well into the horror genre of our film.

Character Profiles

In our film trailer there are only three characters that will be shown as these are the main characters.

Anonymous Stalker


This character is mysterious and his face is never shown within the trailer. Not much is known about him other than he is a male and in his mid 20's. It is suggested that he lives in the woods and has cannibalistic tendencies, feeding off passers by and luring people into his trap.

Rosie

Rosie is an innocent 18 year old girl who is quite timid and feels most comfortable in the company of her friends. She has light hair and blue eyes. She has no sense of direction and therefore gets lost easily and has a fear of the dark.


Alex


Alex is the opposite to Rosie and is confident and not afraid of the dark or woods. She has dark hair and dark eyes and tries to stay in control of situations.

Narrative idea!

The teaser trailer we are going to make will keep a vague narrative to keep the audience engaged.
It will show two friends going into the woods, they receive a text saying 'party in the woods' from an unknown number and are lured into a false sense of security.
They enter Gundymoor Woods in a cheerful mood and wanting to find the party. It falls dark very quickly and they can't find a party and decide to split up. A scream is heard from one of the girls and the race is on to get them back together. It becomes clear that there is no party. A unknown man is in the woods and hopes to kill one of the girls. A series of clues will be left throughout the woods and one of the girls find this. This includes a mobile phone ringing which is covered in blood, with the name of one of the girls name popping up as they try to communicate with each other, yet this being impossible.
The stalker will appear in the background to create suspense throughout the trailer. One of the girls will be seen being dragged away, yet it will be unclear as to whether she is alive or dead.
The last shot will be one of the girls on their own screaming due to being alone and then blackout to the titles.

Location Scouting

Gundymoor

This is the entrance to the forest we are using. The location is next to college which is convenient for filming, and very local. It is a typical forest location, and in the darker light it will create an atmosphere that will be ideal for our trailer. 

Map of chosen area

This map shows the proximity of the filming area (Gundymoor) next to college. The location offers various areas for filming such as:

• main forest paths
• other small paths
• flat landscapes (fields)
• motorway bridge

these offer a wide variety of options for filming. The area also has pylons and power lines, these could offer more opportunities to create different scenarios that can add a creepy look. The location is central to everyone taking part in the film and convenient to access.

Horror magazine cover

I have used the front cover of Fangoria which immediately stood out to me as Megan Fox was on the cover, who is well known for her role in Transformers. On the front cover there is a consistent theme of the colour red, which represents blood and there is blood also around here mouth, to suggest pain or death. Also the title Fangoria is shaped in fang like ways which is connected with Jenifer's teeth which are very sharp. The tag line is Megan Fox will eat you alive! which of course links in with her teeth and the blood around her mouth. Also the captions around the picture are connected with the theme of death and blood. They also advertise horror films, with keeping in the connection of the 'halloween' themed magazine.

What presence can offer the audience

Helplessness: The experience of helplessness is one of the most uncomfortable things the audience can offer, an inability to react and help yourself, everyone can relate to helplessness, and it gives the audience satisfaction when the victim overcomes the odds, however in many horror films this does not happen

Urgency: A sense of urgency keeps the audience in suspense, and is a gripping and stressful for the audience, the audience feels part of the storyline.

Pressure: suspense and tension, the tension builds, peaks, then releases, the audience is kept on edge.

Intensity: Both good and bad, heightens awareness and causes characters to enjoy life. The audience feels a sense of reality, though it usually is just another level of the film that is they 'eye of the storm'.

Rhythm: a rhythm of intensity building and falling, creates a rhythm to an eventual higher intensity until it is at its peak, adds random attacks and eats away at our intensity.

Release: when our tension is released, and the viewers world is returned to normal, then tension is lowered, and the audience feels at ease and a resolution is sought.

What absence can offer the audience

Unknown: This leaves the audience in fear, and uneasy, it is our basic fear as it is an umbrella for all other fears. Everything emerges from the unknown, and it causes opportunities as well as fear.

Unexpected: We fear what we don't know, when we deal with something unexpected our expectations are ruined and we cannot deal with the scenario. The audience does not like to deal with the unexpected and insane, so it's uncomfortable for the viewer when they come across this.

Unbelievable: This is where the innocent main character is not believed, or the audience cannot believe the scenario, the audience suspends their beliefs and if willing to view reality in a different way, one that is going to be viewed in other realities.

Unseen: What the audience does not see in everyday reality, such as blood and gore. what is new is gripping and this allows the audience to extend their sense of reality, and we are intruiged by curiosity and morbid fascination.

Unconscious: When we watch horror films, we explore our inner sub conscious selves, enticed by the film to look within ourselves at strange regions that would otherwise be left alone. They give the audience and excuse to look within themselves at inner desires and thoughts.

Unstoppable: Things such as death, something that happens to everyone, what is displayed through the cinema in a gory way lets the audience think about their own destiny's, and allows them to explore gory and unusual endings.

Thinking About Shots

All horror films follow certain conventions which make them seem more terrifying for the audience. Shots are crafted and manipulated to convey or imply ideas.

• Low angle shots - these shots can make a figure look more important or more daunting - so we could use this shot type with a tilt up to make the trees look taller and more intimidating
• High angle shots - these give the idea of being watched and makes people look more vulnerable. We could use this type of shot on our 'victims' 
• Establishing shots - these show the entire scene of the shot, we can use these in our trailer to shoe the location of our film
• Close ups/extreme close ups - these can be used in our trailer to focus on certain objects (such as the mobile phone) and also on faces and eyes to portray the idea of fear
• Black outs - in horror films blackouts are effective with sound over the top because they create the idea of mystery and the unknown which would fit perfectly into our teaser trailer. 
•  POV (point of view) - we can use these shots in our trailer from both the point of view of the victims and the stalker. From the victims point a view, a handheld camera would be effective because it makes them seem more helpless and realistic. From the stalkers point of view a more stabilized camera would be ideal to show that he is in control of the situation.  
• Cut ins - These show a part of something or someone -for example a body part. We can use this to show the body of the stalker but not his face again concealing the mystery.

What we've spoken about today..

Today we have discussed with our lecturer about possible narrative ideas. We still want to keep the concept of the woods and losing somewhere in there and a series of clues being found throughout the trailer without giving too much away. However we're now really going to really push on making the mobile phone perhaps the main object and this will lead the two girls in losing each other. We discussed the idea of being lured into the woods by a perhaps so called friend or a stranger who tells us there is a party in the woods. Phone shots will be used to show the text, it will of course be filmed in the dark, but start lighter and then rapily get darker.

By next week we will be finalising ideas :)

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark trailer analysis.

We have been looking at he Don't Be Afraid Of the dark trailer.

The first 48 seconds of the trailer is a black screen and a voice, this is to build up tension, and when the screen shows the film title, its intended to shock the viewer. the text showing the movie name are made of out clips of screaming people, this forces you to read the title and view the clips simultaneously which builds a new level of fear. Each scene fades in and out of black, with short clips, the clips do not give much away, but only strike fear. The scenes also show children, which are supposedly said to be more psychic than adults, and the vulnerability of a child helps set a frightening scene.

Between 1:17 and 1:28 the child is crawling underneath a duvet, which signifies safety and comfort, the dark scenes of the child crawling and the camera angles builds tension, and fades in and out of different duvet scenes. All of the scenes in the trailer are filmed in a dark light which adds a sense of morbidity, and the earlier clips are filmed in the night time rain, scary houses, and other traditionally horror movie settings, this fools you to believe that when the girl is under the duvet she is safe, and there is a brighter lighting, however she is not safe.

The text at the end of the trailer is bold and the background is foggy, with the text and background black and bold, this creates an eerie viewing, with eerie noise between each screen. there is no viewing of any monster, or culprit until the end with the girl scene, this builds up thinking its not that scary, until the girl is safe, then the shock hits.The scenes are all relatively general 'the dusty haunted mansion', and 'dark lighted vulnerable mother, protecting her child' which are template scenes for this kind of movie. The establishing shot is the black screen with the horrifying voice, this is very effective and is unusual and something I haven't seen before for such a long period of time, which is 48 seconds.

Deconstructing Saw 3d Posters

The trailer posters for Saw 3D are very clear in the fact they are connected with some sort of torture. The first poster is obviously a bear trap with the information inside of the trap, and the item that stands out the most for me is the saw logo which is directly linked to the character Jigsaw. They use the quote 'The trap comes alive' again showing a clear link with the poster due to the bear trap. So nothing is mismatched in this poster which I really like and would like to incorporate this into our trailer to keep a smooth flow. However although we know the supposed basis line of the story, the poster gives no real indication as to what will actually happen in the film, although perhaps a bear trap may be used. Yet nothing is given away.

The second poster is all in black , with the red writing which immediately draws you in due to it representing the colour of blood. They also put in capital letters 'IN HEART POUNDING 3-D' and again they link it directly to the picture used as it's a black heart with small fists punching out. Also this could represent people wanting to fight there way out of a space, they're trapped and there is no way out. Droplets are also coming out of the heart to represent blood and also sweat due to the pressure these people are under to win the 'game'. 

The third poster is a lot brighter, however the statue which is exploding is darker so it stands more from the light background. Again they have used a quote 'IN MIND BLOWING 3D' which links directly to the statue which is exploding. This may link directly to the film also but they are very vague in all the posters which is a key thing I think. It keeps the audience guessing and also keeps them engaged and wanting to know more about the film. They've also kept the saw logo to of course let the audience know what the film is and keep that constant flow throughout.

What I really like about all these posters is they connect the quotes with the pictures, which I find really clever and hope to do in our posters.

Liv-

Wrong Turn (2003) analysis

I chose to look at the trailer for this film (Wrong Turn) in particular because it follows a similar plot line to our horror film - the idea of getting lost and meeting unfriendly strangers. The main thing I noticed about the trailer in general was the editing, as before the characters meet the villains, the editing is continuous and there are longer shots with less jump cuts, however afterwards the cuts get faster and instead of continuing with the plot of the story, only the scary scenes are show in quick flashes. This is something what would be really useful when we make our trailer, as it creates a tension towards the end and also gives the idea of the entire film plot within a short space of time - also managing not to give too much information away.

Sound-wise, instead of using a voice-over narrative, text is shown to explain the plot instead. This in particular is a feature which could be used on our trailer as it is extremely effective. The text is written in a plain font in white, which is slightly animated but still very simple and creates an eerie effect. Throughout the trailer there is non-diagetic sound overlaying the scenes which consists of long high-pitched notes.

However, for the film 'Wrong Turn' the advertising posters were less effective in my opinion. The poster consists of a girl who looks distressed and a fainter image of the villain behind her on the opposite side. The poster also has a sepia colour scheme with red text, which is a colour often used within the horror genre as it connotates blood. Although the red text is effective and we would be likely to use this in our own film poster. The poster would be more effective if the girl looked more scared or in pain, or if the villain looked more mysterious. The poster also gives clue to the location of the film by having the woods in the background, which is also a feature that we could consider for our poster.