Graphics- Idents

TS

Reccee

TS + JT

Storyboard

JT

Props

Clip Board/ Note Book 

The estate agent will carry a clipboard with his notes on the house on it. An alternative to a clipboard may be an A4 notebook. He will also carry a pen.





Laptop

one of the most important props in our trailer is the main character's laptop. the main character is a writer and he works on his laptop. we will see the laptop fairly early on in the trailer when he unpacks it as they move in. This will highlight to the audience that the laptop, and his work, is very important to him as it is the first thing he unpacks as they move in to a new home. he will also unpack a mug, a pad of paper and some pens.





Laptop Carrier


as the wife is in a high power job she will carry a laptop case when she comes in and out of the house in the evening and the morning.






Brief Case


The Doctor will carry a briefcase and a notepad and pen.










TS

Movie Posters

I believe the poster for 'The Strangers' is effective as it tells us a very basic plot line just using an image. From the man in the background we can tell that the story is based around an intruder, or intruders, in the character (Liv Tyler) in the foreground's home. From the image we can also tell that a theme in this film may be isolation as Liv Tyler's character is standing in the middle of the room alone and not actually doing anything.  The fact that she is unaware of the character in the background suggesting that the film is more psychological than it is gory. The poster also tells us that the film is "inspired by true events", which it vaguely is (The Manson Family murders), this is is often a pull factor for horror fans films based on true events often have a tone to them that makes them more believable and therefore more scary.

The poster for 'The Orphanage' also works well as again it tells us something about the story without giving too much away. The almost transparent characters in the background suggest that the story will be revolved around the paranormal/supernatural and the old fashioned stately home backdrop and the fact that it is made by Guillermo Del Toro suggests that it will be visually pleasing.

The poster for 'The Ring' is very simple yet still very chilling. The distortion in the picture gives it a creepy vibe as does the font that is used. The tagline is scary in the way that it does not give anything away except that there is something to fear. The poster tells us nothing about the cast or director outside of the billing block at the bottom suggesting that the main selling point for the film is the story line which would appeal very much to the indie film audience as they are 'too cool' to be bothered by famous actors and directors.

TS

Graphics Influences- Fonts

The 'children of the Corn' titles are sinister and bold. However the flecks of blood are a little over the top and would possibly be to unsubtle to fit in with the tone of our film.

                                 

The graphics used in 'The Orphanage are a little more subtle with relatively plane text on a black background. the weathered effect of the font would fit well with the tone of our film. However the 'rose stalk' that appears to extend from the latter A would not.

'The Others' has a slightly more modern font  but it is still relatively plane text on a dark background. this would fit in the tone of the film as it is a relatively modern horror. The light that seems to radiate from the letters gives it a modern paranormal feel.

The font for 'The Hills Have Eyes' is also relatively simple. The block capital letters make it standout even thought it is against a coloured background. The letters seem to fade into an almost red colour (especially the S in hills) and they seem to vary slightly in size making the text more interesting than if it was just plane text. This may suit our film if it were put on to a relatively plane background.

TS

Costume

Estate Agent

As the estate agent is trying to impress the couple to encourage them to buy the house, he will therefore be 'dressed to impress'.  He will be dressed in:

A blue shirt with white collars and cuffs, often seen on young inexperienced businessmen.

Grey pinstripe trousers. They are smart but not as formal as a black pair of trousers.

A predominately red tie but with little pattern, bright but not to garish.

Brown brogues. not overly formal but not too casual either. The estate agent is still young and will therefore care about his image.













Husband


The husband will be casually dressed throughout as he does not have a formal job.
When they are shown around the house he may wear just a T-shirt and jeans with casual trainers.

Once they have moved in he will mostly wear plain pyjama trousers and a t-shirt, possibly with a dressing gown and slippers to take away the divide between day and night and to show his abnormal behaviour, as most people get dressed during the day.

 Wife


The wife will be dressed very formally throughout as she is a high powered business woman. she will therefore be dressed in a formal business suit for almost the entirety of the trailer.

                                                              Doctor 

The doctor will be dressed in very smart clothes as he is in a formal profession.  He will probably wear a smart suit and a beige work coat with smart work shoes and a tie.

TS

                        

Shutter Island- Symphony No. 3 Passacaglia- Allegro Moderato

This music is brooding and sinister which would fit with the tone of our film. It is also fairly slow paced which keeps tension. As the fear created in our film would be more based around tension than action this would be appropriate fast paced music, however, would be inappropriate. We particularly like the effect of the loud horn sounds at the beginning and we will try to find music that replicates this.

TS + JT

Studio

because of the nature of horror films the audience is fairly limited. it would therefore be beneficial for  us to extend our audience internationally. As we want to avoid using a mainstream Hollywood production company. To extend our audience internationally, in particular to the United States (where the biggest market for the horror genre is), we would therefore need to use two production companies. One would be a  British independent production company and the other would be an 'indiewood' production company.

UK production company: Hammer Film Productions:
Hammer Film Productions are a UK based company that are well known for making low key, not overdramatic, horror films. recently the have produced "The Woman in Black" a film about a man in an isolated position who falls victim to the serial and the supernatural, a film similar in style and tone to our own. The company has recently made a come back after a long pause between films.  A UK based company will also allow us to tap into the mainland european market.

http://www.imdb.com/company/co0103101/

US production company: Ghost House Pictures
Ghost house pictures is a US based company that specialises in Horror movies. although the horrors that they make are more high key they will allow us to release our film in the US with a greater chance of success as this is where the greatest market for horror films is. the company is known for films including The Grudge series, Drag Me to Hell and 30 Days of Night amongst many others.

http://www.imdb.com/company/co0116611/

TS

Location

The use of this window could prove to be very effective. There are curtians behind which something/someone could appear from the garden, but upon inspection in the room, it is clear that no such intruder was present.

So we see a young couple led round a delightful looking house in suburbia

It soon becomes clear that things arent as they seemed at first...

 Images appear momentarily that arent there on second glances

 when it's dark outside, lights shine in through the curtains

 apparitions appear throughout the house-

sillouhettes in doors- created simply with someone standing behind the glass panel and the light behind them showing an outline of their form.

JT

Character (Slideshare)

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TS

Trailer Plan: 'Writer's Block'

Our trailer will comprise of three acts:

Act 1:

• Slow pace.
• The first thing the audience sees is the ident- production company.
• An initially happy couple are shown around a house.
• The estate agent asks them what they do for a living wife says she's a lawyer and the husband a writer.
• When asked about previous owners the estate agent skirts round the question.
• The couple sign the papers and buy the house.
• They move in and everything is ok for a while and they are a happy young couple in a new house.

Act 2:

• Medium pace.
• While the wife goes out to work the husband sits down to begin writing.
• We see that he is struggling to write.
• Strange things begin to happen to him.
• The wife becomes aware that something isn't right.
• A doctor comes to talk to the husband and says he'll be back.

Act 3:

• Very fast pace.
• In this part of the trailer it becomes apparent that things are getting worse.
• The wife becomes very anxious as the husband appears to be more insane.
• The husband seems to be obsessed with the history of the house.
• The wife tries the doctor again and gets the answering machine
• The strange events become more frequent and more intense as shown in a montage where said strange events and behaviour from the husband are cross cut with images of the anxious wife.
• there is a sudden cut from the montage to the title of the film 'Writers Block' with the cast underneath.

JT+ TS

Storyline 'Writer's Block'

• A young writer and his wife move into a new house in a nice area- a nice place to write.
• They start as a happy couple- the wife goes out to work and the husband stays at home to write.
• The husband begins to suffer from writers block.
• He starts to notice strange things e.g apparitions and noises.
• The wife believes he's going insane and calls a doctor.
• The doctor visits and talks to the husband. He says that he'll come back in a few weeks.
• Things begin to get even worse and the wife begins to get scared.
• The husband looks into the history of the house a similar thing had occured a long time ago.
• It turns out the be paranormal rather than insanity- the husband commits suicide and the wife gets sectioned due to stress and grief reactions.

TS + JT

Audience Research (Prezi)

Audience Research on Prezi

TS + JT

What are the conventions of your chosen film genre and which aspects of trailers in this genre influence you?

The genre I have chosen for my trailer is horror. Horror films often follow strict conventions with little deviation. However it is not unheard of for a horror trailer to deliberately deviate for effect. There are subgenres to the horror genre and it is arguable that they each have their own conventions. I will be writing about the conventions of the subgenre “psychological horror”. There are many examples of psychological horrors for example ‘The Strangers’. This subgenre often overlaps with supernatural/ paranormal horrors.

One common theme in horror films is mystery. This is particularly important in psychological horror films. The element of mystery is a gateway to the creation of tension and is therefore very useful for a director. A director will often use this tension to create an atmosphere that will induce fear. For example in ‘The Strangers’ atmosphere is built up with tension and often leads to nothing. In one scene we see one of the killers in the same room as the victim (without her knowledge) slightly out of focus. At this point we expect something to happen and it is very tense but then the killer leaves the room. This also keeps the element of mystery as the killer is out of focus so we don’t properly see him leaving the audience still ‘out of the loop’. Another common theme, an essential, is jeopardy. A film cannot be scary without an element of danger or struggle. As well as this is film cannot be scary unless there is an element of fear within the protagonist as through their emotions the audience recognises the danger. I.E. if the characters are not scared the film will struggle to frighten the audience. However the opposite can be used for effect. Again for example in ‘The Strangers’ one of the two protagonists is oblivious to what the other character and the audience are afraid of. In a way this helps to create tension. A third theme is violence. Violence is often used in horror films as it is something the audience can relate to. In other words a normal person will be terrified at the idea of being violently murdered whilst others will not find the concept of the paranormal as they may not believe in it and will therefore lack emphasis for the characters who are struggling against the occult for example ‘Paranormal Activity’. As well as a lack of emphasis with characters the audience will also find it hard to fear something they do not believe to have existence.

In the same way there are many character types that are seen in horror films. It is often the case that at least one of the main characters is an attractive young female. For example in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ the cast consists of young attractive individuals. It is also fairly common to have a couple. This helps us emphasise with the characters as we see the emotions that they share. There is also a character or sometimes an entity that acts as the antagonist and the object the audience’s fear is based on. In ‘The Strangers’ it is a group of people that act as the antagonists and in ‘Paranormal Activity’ it is a demon.

It is often the case that in horror films we are introduced to the characters and their back stories at the beginning of the film, unless this is kept a mystery for effect as seen in ‘Saw’, this helps the audience relate to the characters as they do not seem so much like strangers as we may have some understanding of why they act the way they do during the film. There is also often a brief period of the film where the characters do not know that there is something bad happening. For example in ‘When A Stranger Calls’ the main character thinks the mysterious and creepy home calls are from one of her friends trying to freak her out. However due to back story and our awareness of the film and its genre previous to viewing the audience is aware that everything is not as it seems. There is often a pinnacle moment when the protagonist begins to realise they are in jeopardy. This is often the turning point in the film when tension becomes horror.

Music is most often used to create tension in horror films, especially psychological horrors. For example the music may stop in a moment of silence before something bad happens or it may increase in pace or pitch. Both of these methods create tension however the silence creates the potential for the “jump effect”. Often these moments of tension are built up for nothing to happen. In these instances it is usually the non silence that is used. Music can also be used to create a negative atmosphere. For example in the opening sequence of ‘The Shining’ the music is very dark and brooding to match the film.

The style of the films in terms of camera work is varied. One method of filming horror films is the POV camera style. This is used in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ this fully immerses the viewer in the film. The lighting in horror films is often very dark. It is believed that mankind has a natural fear of the dark due to fear of the unknown. Therefore darkness in a film automatically creates fear in an audience.

The graphics in horror films are often relatively bold and eye catching. This may not be used to create fear but it does make it clear that the film is of the horror genre. However in psychological horrors the graphics may be more low key as in ‘The Shining’ where the graphics are very plain as it bolder more obvious graphics would be out of place and unfitting with the film.

To conclude there are many conventions for the horror genre and the subgenre psychological horror these are mostly followed but can be ignored for effect.

TS

Horror Trailers

Insidious

• The production information given in this trailer tells us that it is made by a company called 'Film District'. The written information also tells us that it is made by the makers of well known modern cult horror film 'Paranormal Activity'.
• The fact that it is made by those who made Paranormal Activity could be considered as a selling point as this is likely to bring in viewers who have seen Paranormal Activity with the expectation that it will work as a horror film.
• The trailer establishes genre early on with the ominous and exaggerated sound of the metronome. Genre is also clearly established with the presence of paranormal, supernatural beings who oppose a threat on the inhabitants of the house~ the classic haunted house story.
• The film, like most horror films, is targeted at young adults. This is indicated by the cast who are mostly fairly young. 

Scream 4

•  The trailer indicates that the film is produced by Dimension Films and directed by Wes Craven.
• The unique selling point of the film is that it is a sequel which may or may not have a conclusion to the series. Another selling point is that it is made by Wes Craven who is well known in the world of horror movies.
• The trailer establishes genre very simply with the talk of serial killers and gruesome murders. However it is arguable that it doesn't need to establish genre as most are familiar with the Scream series.
• The target audience for this film is clearly a young audience. This is indicated by the high school setting and the common stereotypical feature of a teen horror film, everybody is good looking.

Human Centipede

• As indicated in the trailer the film is produced by a company called IFC Films.
• The unique selling point of this film is the fact that it is a horror film that it totally unlike any that has come before it but at the same time obeying the rules of a horror film.
• The film establishes genre straight away with the familiar story of young attractive girls getting lost in a remote area of a foreign country. The mood of the film is established when they reach the house of the demented surgeon. in some respects the establishment of genre and mood, and certainly narrative is reliant on the information within the graphics.
• The target audience for this film would be relatively small due to the extreme nature of the narrative it may be the case that the film will only appeal to those who can 'stomach' films such as 'Saw' and 'Hostel' effectively tapping into an already established niche audience.

Let Me In

• As indicated at the beginning of the trailer the film is made by Overture Films and Hammer. It is Directed by Matt Reeves of Cloverfield.
• There are two main selling points to this film. The first is that it is an adaptation of a popular book. The second is that it is an Americanization of the original independent Swedish adaptation of the book. This allows the film to tap into two niche audiences that may overlap. The director could also be considered a selling point.
• Therefore the main audience for this film would be fans of the book and / or fans of the original Swedish version. However this audience is not directly addressed in the trailer so it is arguable that the target audience are fans of the film Cloverfield, which is mentioned as they share a director. The makers may have done this to distance themselves from the book and the Swedish film as they may like to have their version as a separate entity that cannot be compare d negatively.

The Strangers

• Straight away the trailer tells us that the movie is made by 'Rogue Pictures' and 'Intrepid Pictures'. We are not told who the director is. However at the end we are told that it stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.
• The selling point of this film is arguable the fact that it is 'based on true events' whether this is very loosely or otherwise. The story line may also be a selling point as the trailer tells us a fair bit about it.
• The trailer establishes genre slowly to start with. At the beginning one might assume that it is a romance film. however there is a sudden change in atmosphere and tone when a loud bang is heard. From that point on it is clear that it is a horror film. The lack of gore and the apparent tension and relatively slow pace suggest that it is a psychological horror film.
• The target audience for this film is the core audience of 15-26 year olds as it is fairly commercial and is based on something everybody would find scary, a group of masked intruders who's only motive is to frighten you.

There is definitely an identifiable format in these trailers as they all start of relatively slowly and then quicken in pace once the genre has been successfully established. It is arguable that the trailers for some of the other genres do not follow this format and may in some cases, for example independent dramas ignore all formats. The trailers are constructed in this way to show that they have depth, in the slow beginning, and action, in the fast paced section. All of these films are successful in selling the product through simplicity of the format, although some of the content of the actual film and some narratives may have been of questionable quality.

TS

Trailer Research

Inception
1) What cinematic techniques are used to establish mood and tone?

The trailer for inception uses a voice over to establish the tone of the film. The voice of the character played by Leonardo Dicaprio gives a general feeling of the mood of the film. The trailer also takes images of the movies to show the style in which it is filmed, almost noirish, and the music lets the viewer know that it is a film mostly based around action.

2)How does the trailer establish the themes and narrative?

The trailer tells us a lot about the story line of the film via the voice over. The key piece of information the voice over gives us is what inception actually means. The trailer also introduces us to the key characters through extracts of different scenes with different characters.


3) How does the trailer establish genre?


The trailer makes it clear to the viewer that the film is a cross between sci-fi and action. The voice over tells us it's sci-fi as it talks about the ideas in the film involving dreams and the images and music tell us it is an action film as we see action scenes and the music is fast paced. we also see that it is a sci-fi film when we see Paris fold in on itself. 


4) Who is the target audience and how is this audience targeted in this trailer?


This film is clearly targeted at the core audience. This is suggested in the trailer by the cast. The cast are very much a young adults cast with Dicaprio in the lead role and supported by actor such as Tom Hardy.

5) What is the reason/ effect for using the director's name and previous work?

The trailer uses Christopher Nolan's name to sell the film as he is well known for films of a similar tone that have been widely considered successful media products, for example 'The Dark Knight'. The intended effect is to use a directors name to attract a niche audience, Christopher Nolan fans, and to tell the audience that the film is made be someone with a good track record.

SALT

1) How does this trailer promote and focus on the big star? 


The main way the trailer promotes and focuses on the big star, Angelina Jolie, is by using her in nearly every shot of the trailer. The character is also introduced early on in the trailer confirming her as the main character.


2) Action films are thought to appeal to a predominately male audience. How does this trailer target both a female and male audience separately?


This trailer appeals to both a male and female audience through the main character. played by Jolie. The character appeals to females as she is a female action hero, this is not often seen in films of this genre. The character also appeals to men as she is attractive.


3) How does this trailer use editing to create atmosphere?


The trailer creates atmosphere by increasing in pace. The beginning of the trailer is slower than the end as the trailer becomes more action packed. The change of pace is created by a faster transition between shots and more shots in general and from more scenes.


Heartbreaker


Although the trailers are for the same film they differ for the different regions. The British trailer focuses on the fact that it is a romantic comedy, as this genre is very popular with the UK audience. whereas the European trailer focuses more on the slapstick comedy, this may be more popular in the mainland. The French version however focuses on the class of the film with the smooth french style. Another point to note is that the European version focuses largely on one scene of the film whereas the other trailers show small parts of lots of different films.


TS

AS- A2 Skills Development

1 skills development

a) With a digital video camera I can record high quality video images from a variety of different angles, movements and in a number of different places and lights.

b) We use external directional microphones as well as boom microphones in order to achieve better sound quality

c) we developed our editing skills- we learnt to edit together video and sound as well as bring in external sounds on which we learnt how to change the volume. We learnt how to add text and add non diegetic sound.

d) no but it would be a nice idea

e) we were not fans of the mac operating system- and forgot once or twice to turn the microphone on or off.

2 creativity

a) at AS we were as creative as possible, our narrative was very creative and original but our frames were relatively conventional. The lighting we used was exciting, but our location wasn’t particularly original.
b) Although our film was conventional for the genre, it was a relatively original film.

3 research and planning

a)our primary research involved taking inspiration from many films, as we were tapping into a popular genre. We used the internet to gather information on film genres as well as certain audiences.

c) I would improve my research levels into audience figures as well as to study a larger number of films with similar genres.
d) We used the Internet for research, as well as ideas, also on the internet there was blogger, a program used for displaying ones information in a personal form on the internet. Our YouTube channel was used to display our practice and then final piece. We would improve this by taking more footage of practice runs then upload it, as well as documenting everything we did on the blog. Keeping the blog up to date was something with which we struggled, so increased focus on blog uploads would be paramount.

4. post production
a) we organised out editing by using a program called ‘final cut pro’ for mac. Each pair at AS had a mac assigned to themselves, on which it was possible to save all our work. We tried to come as regularly as was possible to the media suite to work on our project. The editing was done in stages; importing from external devices i.e. camera, then onto the general cutting to put together the basic story, and then the final stage was the ‘fine tuning’ which included putting in extra sound effects e.g. keys dropping onto a plate, and doorbells.

b) we used sound effects widely, but never so that they would sound out of place. We used a creak of a door for when the main character was opening a cupboard, we used a doorbell to signify when someone was at the door, and as a result of a user error, we had no sound on one of the takes that we used, so we had to find a sound effect for keys ‘jangling.’ We used music found on a copyright-free website to give us the atmosphere we desired, and we also achieved this by using effective fades in and out.

Using conventions from real media texts

a) we followed the conventions of a thriller film, and we created meaning for the audience by really trying to let them get involved with the characters and their lives. We see the main character’s emotions in the taxi, and get a feel for her current demeanour. Through our excellent editing, we had the audience on tenterhooks, as our narrative would lead them to believe that the woman was going to come home to find her partner lying dead on the floor but in reality she comes home and the house is in pristine condition. It is examples like this that would have meant that audiences would have been glued to the screen for the whole length of the feature film.

JT

Final Product

Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product follows many of the conventions of a thriller opening. It has a contrast in the pace of the scenes similar to many films of the genre. I took a lot of influence from the opening of the James Bond film ‘Casino Royal’ where there is a change in pace between the scene happening in the current time, in which Bond is talking to a double agent, and flashbacks to his first kill, in which he is fighting a man in a public bathroom. These intercutting scenes dramatically contrast in pace adding to suspension and audience excitement.

The film also grasps the negativity of many thrillers in that what is happening in the scene is clearly not a good thing. All thrillers are based around something that, although may end well, is essentially bad. In the case of my product the negativity comes not only from the violence but the tone of the product. The film starts as it means to go on.

Like most thrillers there is a degree of violence to our product. This is often what makes a thriller ‘thrilling’. But above all our product has tension and suspense. Tension and suspense are essential to the thriller genre. And it is arguable that without these attributes a film cannot be a thriller as they create a feeling that makes a product ‘thrilling’. An example of a thriller that successfully uses violence to create suspence is ‘Taken’

The main source of suspense in our product is the knowledge the audience has over the character ‘Sarah’ whose boyfriend has been kidnapped by someone she knows. The first way in which suspense is created is the journey of Sarah towards her home where the audience knows her boyfriend is being savagely beaten and possibly killed. Because of the way the film is cut the audience believes that as she approaches the house she will walk into a violent scene however there is little evidence of the struggle that has occurred. This tension is helped by an increase in volume of the music.

The second source of suspense is the arrival of the antagonist. Suspense is created here using slow ominous music creating a feeling eerier than silence. The suspense is relieved when we see the antagonist (Jonathan) and how Sarah reacts to his presence; she clearly is familiar with him. 

The title and font we used in our film is similar to many other films of this genre. It is simple, classy and not too flashy and in serif format. This is used in the opening to reservoir dogs. This sets the tone of an intelligent thriller that is not trashy and has a degree subtlety.

And the spacing between the letters is similar to that of the film Gattaca. The spacing makes the graphics more interesting and aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

The location of my product is common in many thrillers. It is in the suburbs of a big city in an area that isn’t too to ‘urban’ but not too high class either. Many thrillers are set primarily in cities. E.g ‘The Town which is set in suburban Boston; however a very run down area in Boston.

The camera work is similar to many thrillers. It is handheld in the car so it shakes slightly somehow giving an eerie ominous feel. There is no fancy camera movement which gives it the subtlety of films of the non action subgenres as they often use helicopter and rolling shots to make the scene seem bigger and more epic.

The costume in the product is mainly dark colours which give a negative mood to the piece. If the colour of the clothing is bright it will stand out and seem cheerful and out of place.

This also applies to much of the lighting. The car is dark which gives the ominous effect and the lighting during the fight is low key and looks cold. This is similar to  the lighting in the film Brick

TS