The questionnaires showed the audience were all aged 17, and varying in
gender. This is younger than our originally planned target audience, so
the content in the trailer may need to be altered slightly.
A quarter of the audience show to like horrors, whereas none appear to
like gore, this can influence how graphic the scenes included in the
trailer are.
The majority of the audience feel that titles would be best to include
within the film trailer, so the plan will be to use them within my work.
This shows that low, deep music would be best to be used within our film trailers.
It was also found that high pitched instruments such as pianos and violins should be used within the trailer.
The audience research also said a fast paced editing in the trailer would be best.
Parnormal activity four is good as it can be recreated, it is full of lots of fades and screaming, with very little action. However, thee is a problem that the audience in the cinema featured within this trailer we cannot get to view our film, nor can we get such well respected reviews, since our film trailer won't be distributed to quite so many people.
Bad Trailer
This trailer would be far too difficult to create as the settings and many camera and editing techniques are far too difficult to recreate. The settings of a big American city, in a skyscraper would be far too expensive to go to and film in, as well as not having the equipment or software to create our own upside down version of a huge city like Manhattan and also we would have no access to a lift shaft.
A trailer is a short segment often shown before other films at the cinema, or on a television advert to introduce a film which is soon to be shown. It contains clips from the film, usually peaks, to entice viewers to go and watch the films.
The following features are used in many trailers:
Montage: A series of scenes strung together by non-diegetic music playing over the top. They often show expansion of time.
Peaks and Troughs: Peaks are elements of high action or exiting moments within the plot of a film, and troughs are more relaxed, less thrilling, often dialogue.
Voice-over: Dialogue (Non-Diegetic) over the top of the clips.
Titles: Text appearing on the screen, usually over a plain single colour background
Film Title: The title of the film that the trailer is advertising.
Release Date: It's essential that the audience are told from what date they can go and see the film.
Certificate: The audience must be shown what rating the film has as it can affect whether they watch it and tells of things such as how violent a film will be.
Studio Name: The company who created the film must be mentioned within the trailer.
This is a list of the 40 most popular films according to my target audience. Interestingly it shows that the target audience of 18-21 year olds do not appear to like horrors. I plan to find out how the horror trailer I will create can appeal to this audience.
Discussed camera techniques, practice with camera in the bathroom mirror. There are many scenes featuring bathroom mirrors in horror films, they are iconic and eerie scenes, so practicing this in the mirror to check the camera and cameraman/woman are not in the scene would be of huge benefit, since this technique allows a much more iconic scene to be included in our trailer if it can be done well.
Hypodermic Model: Suggests the message of the film goes directly into the brain
Cultivation theory:
TV can become the main source of storytelling. Watching 4+ hours a day can make someone belive the world is worse than it is.
Desensitisation:
With time things become less shocking to people as they experience them far more frequently, for example blood in films is so much more commonly seen now.
Modelling or Copycat Theory:
Copying what has been seen and then going and doing it themself.
Uses and Gratifications Theory:
Users search for gratification in what they see, for example social media to combat loneliness.
Today me and my partner discussed the roles we plan to take on when creating the film trailer. We decided that we would equally share responsibilities such as storyboarding and scripting, however the roles of Editing and Sound work have been given to me and she will be in charge of Mise-En-Scene and Cinematography. The reasons for this are that I am very interested in the production aspects of film-making and so would love the chance to work on that. Also, having a twitch, it would be a bad idea for me to operate the camera.
GENRE:
The style featured in this film is typical of horrors, the dark eerie setting, trapped protagonists, and screaming and running all add to the atmosphere of terror for the protagonists. This supports Andrew Sarris' theory that the genre draws on existing audiences with a recognisable style, in this case the audience will know they are going to be thrilled and scared, and that the content will keep their adrenaline high.
REPRESENTATION: The stereotype that the villains are deformed and ugly in horrors is continued here, with the ugly monsters tightly framed in a close up, making them seem very overwhelming and powerful, much more so than the protagonists who are being shown as weak and fearful. There is also a stereotype that women are weaker than men and are passive, here the women are shown as fun loving when one of them jumps on the bed, and weak and fearful where she screams and is sent flying across the room.
NARRATIVE:
The narrative in this trailer appears to follow Todorov's theory, it begins with an equilibrium where things seem fairly normal, then strange occurrences happen such as the falling stack of cars, then the peaks and troughs will continue throughout, though in a trailer, as is the case here, there will be many more peaks shown.
AUDIENCE:
The uses and gratifications that can be taken by audience here are different for each viewer. For example a younger viewer may see this trailer and be scared by it so presume the final product would be for an older, less fearful audience, and not want to be so scared. This can also work with any other audience member, for example a girl fearful of horror films who rarely watches them because she has nightmares may see this as terrifying and steer clear of the film, yet perhaps a male horror fanatic would see this as a thrill with lots of twists to excite them as they watch a film, and so would watch the film.
MEDIA LANGUAGE:
The trailer is filmed in almost entirely low key lighting, keeping a dark and eerie atmosphere, designed to scare and audience and keep them agitated and worried, anticipating a thrill or scare in which they know is right around the corner.
The trailer has a blue tint over the majority of it, with the exception of when the protagonists are not in the same place as the ghosts. This could be to link the blue tint with the supernatural, and shows that there is safety until they enter the ghosts realms. The victims of attacks and scares are mostly shot from high angle medium close-ups to show they are both fearful and weak in comparison to the villain ghosts they are being terrorised by.
There is a non-diegetic voice over, with a typically deep voice, creating the atmosphere, telling the audience of the plot, in which the protagonists are trapped in the house with ghosts. This adds to the atmosphere and also entices the audience to find out what will happen to the protagonists.
There are lots of fast editing transitions, especially dissolves, which provide continuity, as well as suggesting there is a lot of action and that the film is crammed with excitement to thrill an audience.
Pans and Tracking Shots are used in very short one or two second clips in order to create an eeriness about the location that is used, in this case the house. They are repeated to keep the fear of the place there even after multiple viewings.
Slow zooms are also used to continue the theme of an eerie, dark setting, keeping the audience hostile and building their tension for the thrills which will be within the film.
Non-diegetic background music is also used to keep the excitement, at the start of the trailer it sounds fun and slightly upbeat, making the film seem quite fun, which is appealing, then as the trailer progresses it becomes slower and eerier yet keeping the fun sound, which allows it to link to the horror theme, whilst maintaining the idea it would be enjoyable to watch the entire film.
This is a poll with 5 questions designed in order to help me research what an audience would like about a horror film. It will influence my decisions when making a film trailer.
Although the film trailer does make the film appear to be a romance, as is mentioned by one of the viewers of this trailer on youtube, (see above) it is a horror about a twisted girl looking out for a boy who is bullied. This goes along with Steve Neale's theory that genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations, i this case the variation is the romance mixed with the horror. It has a sweet sentiment, however it is dark and twisted, which the trailer shows, particularly in the mise en scene of the trailer; the dark colours, dimly lit alleys and night-time setting all add to an eerie, dark atmosphere which is typical of horror.
There is a lot of on-screen diegetic sound through dialogue, showing that there is complexity in the film as the male lead obviously is confused a lot by something, it is also clear the female lead knows this secret. Even tough this usually the opposite way around with the male sex having a secret, it still is a typical feature of a horror film, like in Seven with John Doe for example.
REPRESENTATION
The stereotype of males being more powerful than females is challenged here, although a main character is male getting picked on by other males and chasing a girl, the girl has power with her dark or mysterious secret. The girl here seems to have the most power and control, however she maintains the stereotypical mystery that women seem to have in films when a male is chasing after them.
The stereotype of a strange character that nobody knows much about is typical of a horror film. The girl in this film is strange, eerie and has a dark twist that must become clear when the film is watched. This is to entice an audience as they would already be horror fans and would recognise this, then go and watch the film to find out what the girl's secret is.
NARRATIVE
There is a slow build-up in the narrative where the setting is established slowly and pieces of the story are given away, though in very little detail, until the last few seconds establishes that the girl is possibly a villain, and the text tells that she wants the boy or has power over the boy.
It does not give away whether she is a hero or villain, however she does seem to have characteristics of an anti-hero. For example she appears to be involved in murders and attacks, though she has a sweetness about her and things are good when the male and female protagonists are together, for example close ups of either of them smiling in each others company. AUDIENCE
The trailer here was approved for all audiences to watch, which is a bit of a surprise for a horror, however it does mean that the film can be marketed on daytime television slots, as many more people can see it, such as teenagers who would have younger siblings in the room and would not see it had it not been allowed on television until after the watershed.
This trailer also lets the audience be very passive, not much thought is needed when watching it, since it tells the audience all they need to know about the narrative of the film, as well as showing just enough of the film to let them know there will be action, violence, and quite a few scares, causing it to seem an appealing horror.
MEDIA LANGUAGE
Cut away shots are featured heavily in this trailer to make the fast-paced editing give the audience a thrill, it gets the adrenaline pumping and tension built very quickly, just like any good horror should do.
Long shots are very focused on showing what is seen by the characters in the film, they are cleverly used to show that it can be seen something is amiss and also creates the idea of mystery in the film, again enticing an audience. These shots can also be considered as point of view shots in some cases.
Pans make the scenes flow smoothly, particularly when things are calm, they give the audience a feel of experiencing what is happening as it happens, creating confusion and interesting them to discover more.
There are plenty of fades to black with text on the page, as there is with almost any other horror trailer. This again tells the audience what kind of film Let Me In is.
Lots of the diegetic sound is dialogue, yet there is also eerie non-diegetic music each time suspense needs building, like with the girl in the tunnel before she attacks the man, another typical trait of horror. There is high key lighting at the start of the trailer, which sets a happy and cheerful tone, possibly making the trailer seem more like it is a romance, but gradually the colour seeps out and there is much more low-key lighting to show the dark gloominess of a horror film.
There is promise for the horror genre as people are keen to watch horrors. There is a strong focus on tension and fear being used within the films.
The 18 rating will suggest a film is very graphic. The supernatural content seems like it would possibly be a good idea
The atmosphere must be created in order for a horror to look good
I created a film poster using Photoshop skills I remembered from past years working with the software. I used an image from the internet which I cut out from the background using both the magic wand tool to select large areas of colour to remove, as well as then using the eraser tool and zooming into the image and rounding off jagged edges to make the final picture of Marylin Manson look more professional. I inserted a rectangle at the bottom of the page and used the black box as a background then I downloaded the "Steel Tongs" font and created a list of cast and crew for the film next to their job roles. I liked the freedom of creating the product and think the colour scheme turned out well, it has a distinct dark look to it with the blood red a striking contrast, reminiscent of a horror film, as well as the image being a dark, eerie looking one, which dominates the page.
I disliked the little I had to do, I feel there is a lot more that could have been done and so I could have included other features and even content, such as images, or shadow effects. These could have made the plotline a little clearer and be linked more closely to the film title.
For the trailer I intend to make I am aiming for it to be a 15 Certificate, so then it can be shown on daytime television on channels which will be watched by the target audience. For example it will not be featured on channels such as Disney Channel or Cartoon Network but may be shown on E4 and ITV2 as there will be young teens watching.
My actual film I intend to make an 18 rating as it will feature graphic images and be a thrill for the audience to watch, as with any horror, which may scar a younger audience who are unable to cope with some of the content which will be included.
Cinematography: I liked the way a variety of shot types and angles were used, such as the close-ups and high angle shots. These were done well to show the expressions on the actor's faces, even though the acting was not as emotive as it could, and should have been. Dave could have shown more signs of panic and worry over being unable to find Craig. I liked the cinematography aspect of film-making, however I feel it is an area in which I am less able than the rest of my class, and the person I am to work with will probably be better at organising and directing the shot types and camera angles, so I hope to assign them that task.
Editing: I liked the cut away shots for continuity as they looked effective, as well as the transitions to black, though there were far too many of the transitions and I do not intend to use as many in the project I am to create. The scrolling credits used were effective and looked good to finalise the product created. I enjoy the editing process of film-making and I feel I am good at finalising a product and making the decisions as to what should be included and removed and I feel I would be good at making a film look smooth and flowing after the production of it has been finalised, so I hope to have this task when creating my own film.
Mise-En-Scene: The mise-en-scene was very amateur looking and it was very clear that the shots were only filmed in and around college as well as the clothing of Dave and Craig being incredibly different to each other, which makes them seem less close as friends than they are designed to be. This could have a knock-on effect on the narrative and make an audience less responsive to a film, so I will make sure this mistake isn't made in the future.
Mise-En-Scene is my least favourite topic area of Film-Making and I am not very good at finding props, locations or clothing especially which fits with the ideas I have, so I will hope to assign my partner with this task as I expect they will have clearer ideas and so we will both end up with a far better final product because of this.
Sound: The sound is very clear in parts, however there are lots of extra sounds and background noise, some was added pointlessly and serves no purpose, and some of this was also unintentional but left in the clip anyway, such as when Dave is on the computer there is a lot of noise from the people who were in the room when those shots were being filmed.
I really like the sound aspect of production and I feel that even though in this chase task the sound is of a poor quality, I can create a far better overall product with the sound of a high, clear quality.
