Storyboard and Animatic

Below is my storyboard that I created to help me when filming my trailer. I did this my numbering the shots to see how many shots I was going to do and I also commented on shot size, camera movement, camera angle, lighting, setting, props, costume and music. This was useful to refer to, to remind me what I had planned out to do. When doing this I only planned 13 shots, however, I found out that actually there is many more shots than that because I decided to do a teaser short, fast pace editing is needed and because the shots were so shots more shots where needed.

Here is my animatic

 

Location details and photographs

My main location for my trailer is Macclesfield Forest. I will be doing most my filming here at dusk so I have tried to show the effect of what it is going to look like on my images.

I have weighed up the pros and cons of the location which I used:

Risk Assesment

Here is a risk assesment I have completed to make sure that I am aware of the risks of my locations so that I can make sure me and my actors will be safe at all times.

Script

 Below is the official theatrical trialer for Women In Black I have analysed this and the teaser in the documents below showing what they use e.g. voiceovers and how this is effective. I have also analysed the Gone Girl teaser trailer.        

The teaser and the theatrical of Women In Black have many similarities and differences. The similarities are that the protagonist is the main focus in both aswell as

The key learning point from analysing these trailers is that you dont need to use all the conventions for it to be effective. Having no voiceover for example can actually be very effective as people focus on other things that are more important e.g. the images and music which can be a better way for some films as it can raise questions and mystery making people want to go and see the film which is the purpose.

Actors list

The following people I have chosen to be in my trailer are because they are my friends so I know that they are reliable to the times I need them and also the main character has previous experience of acting.

Alice who is my main character and protagonist a vulnerable shy character.

Gabby who is the loud one.

Joe who is the ring leader of the group.

Music track

Above I have created a Premier Pro on the different soundtracks I am looking to use in my trailer. I have listened to a non copywright CD called Trailer Addict and selected tracks that I thought were suitable for the genre of horror. I have chosen music which increases in tempo and has music like voilens and drums which create the eery atomasphere that I want in my trailer.

Research into Film Magazine Covers

Here I have created a slide share on some of the most popular film magazine front covers. I have done this by looking at things like the publisher and price and seeing how these vary. I have also looked at how many times a year people can actually buy the magazine and who buy it. The parts of the magazine with are very important is the layout and design and the content of what is on there. I have looked at this by seeing what the photograph is like e.g close up and usually the protagonist or what the common colour scheme is.



 The key learning point I have got from doing about these different magazine covers is that they all have a distinctive factor in each magazine which separates them from the rest, this could be from the design of the magazine like how 'Little White Lies' don't use real images or the layout of the magazine, 'Empire' is commonly in red.

Gaining Permission

Macclesfield Forest- to gain permission to use this I had to contact Macclesfield Forest by their contact number asking them for permission to use there forest on a specific date and made them fully aware I had completed a risk assesment and said that it was for educational purposes. They agreed that it was fine for me to use the forest to film my trailer in.



Below I have attached the email showing that I have permission to use the forest to film.

Planning Ideas

I have created a prezi to show the planning ideas for my film trailer.

Audience Research

Audience research is a major part of any media company's work. They use questionnaires, focus groups and comparisons to existing media texts, and spend a great deal of time and money finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.

It's a serious business; media producers basically want to know the;

• income bracket/status
• age
• gender
• race
• location

of their potential audience, a method of categorising known as demographics. Once they know this they can begin to shape their text to appeal to a group with known reading/viewing/listening habits.


One common way of describing audiences is to use a letter code to show their income bracket:

A Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly salaried professionals

B

Middle management, teachers, many 'creatives' e.g. graphic designers

C1

Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff

C2

Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar)

D

Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)

E

Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers  They also consider very carefully how that audience might react to, or engage with, their text. The following are all factors in analysing or predicting this reaction. Audience Engagement- This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text. Audience Expectations- These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don't forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations. Audience Foreknowledge-This is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product. Audience Identification- This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle. Audience Placement- This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially 'for them'. Audience Research- Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text, and, once produced, audience will be continually monitored.

I have found this information from mediaknowall.

In my lesson I have been discussing what market researchers do to determine audiences likes and interests I have used BFI to get some statistics on audiences. This has confirmed for me that my target age range of 15-24 as the horror film 'World War Z' is 5th ranked for the % of the films target audience of that age.

I have made a questionnaire and asked people whose favourite genre is Horror to complete one from a variety of ages ranging between 15-50 year olds, I have then collected the data and represented each question in a form of either a pie chart using Microsoft Excel or a wordle on WordItOut.

Here is my questionnaire I gave to the people who I asked.

My first question asked what is their favourite horror film?

My second question asked why horror films are their favourite genre?

My third question is what persuades you to see a film?

My fourth question is can you list some examples of films from this genre?

The fifth question is what endings would you like to see in Horror films?

 My sixth question is what ideas do you think could be effective for the ending of my film?

My seventh question is what do you think the possible titles could be?

My eighth question is what do you think about the main character being possesed?
Everyone that I asked said it would be effective because possession is a popular theme for horror films so a large audience would be interested in the film.

In summary I think that it is clear that horror film based on possesion are the most popular type from my research as they said The Conjuring and Devil Inside where favourites. I think it will be important to end my trailer with a cliffhanger, this will then add more adrenaline for the watcher and this is two things that were clearly highlighted as being popular in the research I took out.

Music and Film Trailers

In lessons I have been learning about pieces of music and considering what links it to genre.

We listen to varities of music and have to match it up to the different genres without knowing what trailer it was. For example the snare drums in one made it clear that the trailer would be linked to military and war. Keys are also important when looking a music in film trailers, minor key is more mornful sounds and major key is positive music. Sound effects are also a powerful section of the trailer and this is consistant to genre e.g. screams for horror or for digital enhancements like a reverse symbol in trailers like thrillers as this is dramatic.

Award winning John Beal is a music composer for film trailers and I have conducted some research using Wikepedia. His list of major studio credits includes campaigns for such hit films as JFK, Titanic, The Matrix, Forrest Gump, The Last Samurai, Aladdin, the Star Wars trilogy, The Hunt for Red October, True Lies, In the Line of Fire, Patriot Games, The Mask of Zorro, Black Rain, Ghost and Finding Neverland. John Beal was the first of his kind a composer creating original scores for film trailers. "I realised the trailer was not being served as well as the picture was," he says. Beal has been the man behind the music for more than 2,000 trailers scoring everything from The Matrix to Mean Girls. "After 30 years of doing this, the soundtrack in my head as I'm doing the groceries is a lot more dramatic than other people's" he says. "I live in a constant state of hyperbole." The art of scoring a trailer requires not only a certain style of thinking, but an entirely different approach to composition. The typical trialer lasts two minutes and are split into three parts: beginning, middle and end, usually all containing different pieces and styles of music. The goal is to produce a heavily briefed, tightly wound and meticulously edited piece of work in which every second counts. I also used information from The Guardian to help me with this research. 

The industry has now developed into companies which make music for trailers these are 'trailer houses' and 'trailer libraries' and an example is Two Steps From Hell is an American production music company based in Los Angeles, California. The company focuses predominantly in movie and trailer music, and has supplied tracks to films such as Harry Potter.

The key learning point I have learnt from doing this task is how important music is when differentiating genre.

The video below is the trailer for Annabelle, it uses music in a effective way to support the horror film trailer. At the start it is silent but with some dialogue however loud drums and violins are quickly added into the background as it becomes instantly dramatic as voilins and strings can create an eary sound. The quite music/silence when there is dialogue makes people focus on this to understand the storyline. As more images are shown on the screen and some film titles e.g the director there is an uplifting song from a record player which is played in the background it then shows you an image on the screen for a while which is scary however this music doesn't fit in with the genre of horror but is actually very effective. It then goes on to the freaky sound of what sounds like a mobile twisting above a cot, which is sounds of a xylophone this gradually increases to a very fast pace which becomes the opposite of relaxing like it's supposed to be,  this is linking to the fact the main part of the film which is a doll and continues the tense atmosphere of what's going to happen next. The sound effects such as screams and loud bangs which are typical of a horror trailer and build the tension alongside the music as well as a very loud sounding horn which makes you jump towards the end. These also help make the genre obvious and adds to the drama.

A key learning point I have learnt from analysing music in a horror film trailer is that I am going to use music which builds tension up so maybe increases in tempo. Also sound effects like loud screams are very effective becomes sounds like this denote fear.

Research into Film Posters

Below I have created a poster in photoshop called 'Love Letter'.

 

We created this poster on a romance film in PhotoShop because it is practising how to use the different tools for when we will have to make one. It made me learn all of the key elements of a film poster e.g certificate, credit block, actors and title. I also learnt how to use PhotoShop more in a way that I will be needing to for my own for example editing the gradients of pictures so they are faded so it isn't as bold on the page and how how to place images into the image your making. This will influence my own poster because I am more aware of the specific tools that are needed for different elements so I will then be able to make my own easier as I know know more techniques.

Below I have created a WordItOut on the key conventions of Film Posters.

Below I have analysed a teaser and a theatrical poster to compare the differences between them.

This is the teaser poster analysis.

This is the theatrical trailer analysis.

In summary I prefer the first poster because I think it bolder as the blue and black creates good contrast which makes the 'creature' stand out clearly and this therefore makes the image more threatening and eye catching. I also think that due to the second poster having two characters on and some of the setting of the film it draws away from important things like the name of the film and the other films the director has done which are important to promote as films like 'titanic' are very popular.

Research into Film Trailers

Here I have created a Wordle on WordItOut to show the key conventions of trailers.

 I used a website Film Education to help me conduct my research into film trailers.

I have completed some research into film trailers, first of all I have realised that there are 3 different types of film trailers such as Teaser, Theatrical and TV spot. These all vary in length. A teaser is about 30-45 seconds, a TV spot is anything from 20-30 seconds and a theatrical is up to 2 minutes. Teasers are shown the most in advance, this is to 'tease' the audience in long advance of the film. TV spots will be shown with a channel appropriate for them, for example a horror movie which may have a target market of 16-30 year olds maybe be on television at around 9-10pm. I have also learnt about multi model texts such as written text on screen, spoken language, moving images, music and sound effects and this is more powerful than to me as it gives alot of information rather than for instance a poster which is more basic. I have also learnt about different production companies such as Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox which is important to know, these are legally shown on trailers but they can also be seen as well known with a good reputation.. This is also the same for directors as this can make the audience decide whether they want to see the film as it makes the genre more clear if they are specific directors known for there genres or if they are very popular, famous directors who have done many highly rated films e.g. Quentin Tarantino.



The key learning point I have got from analysing 2 horror film trailers is that there

Genre Research

Steve Neale suggests that a genre is useful because it allows the audience to form a 'set of expectations'. This is because it allows the audience to identify themes that a film could have and therefore what they like. Sometimes repetition may become tedious however Steve Neale argues that repetition is good for film audiences because it allows them to feel secure and familiar to the style of film. He describes this as 'pleasure is derived from repetition and difference'. 

A film can draw on a repertoire of generic elements-
1.      Iconography and style  
2.      Setting 
3.      Narrative 
4.      Characters 
5.      Theme 

 Above is my moodboard showing the repetitiore of elements of my chosen genre, horror. I feel like the audience gain an understanding about her genre through mise-en-scene this is through things such as make up and costume because this can create certain looks on humans like cuts and bruises and make people look scary in some way. Props are also used a lot in horror for example rocking chairs are commonly used in paranormal horrors to show there is something there (because it rocks). Another important element is the lighting particularly low key this is used to help create the atmosphere of horrors being gloomy and ominous, shadows are also created using this type of lighting which adds to the tension. Special effects is another very important part of horror, many parts of horror films are things that put physical boundaries on the line such as dead people, monsters and injuries to the actors playing the role. Special effects therefore help horror films be possible. Some of the representations presented in horrors are that women are commonly seen as the 'victims' this is something that is continued throughout horror films as they are seen as more vulnerable then the 'powerful' men. 







There are some directors associated with horrors whose films will draw attention to viewers, one being Wes Craven who has created many horror films such as the 'Scream' sequels and many other well-known horrors, he was famous for genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision. He also found the unknown Jonny Dept, which featured in one of his films 'Nightmare on Elm Street.'













John Carpenter is another famous Horror director, his horror films commonly include what he calls a "cheap scare", where something comes into view very fast and leaves just as quickly, intensified by musical cues. Carpenter makes open compositions that allow the villain, monster or object to pop into frame from the background, the immediate foreground or from either side of the frame. This was used effectively in one of his films 'Halloween.' He uses underlying sense of paranoia in horror stories and Graphic visual effects and body transformations.