My main product and ancillary texts have quite a clear link between the two. I have included an image of the character yet kept it quite obscure keeping the character mysterious and her face hidden to leave it up to the viewer what she looks like.
Another aspect of the keeping the theme between the main product and ancillary tasks is the colour scheme. Throughout the film and the front cover of the magazine I have kept the film consistently dark colours and tones as it's a horror film and darkness usually connotes fear and unhappiness. I used a black and white image for the main image on the front cover of my magazine with white writing and bold red headlines to connote the image of blood. Black and white are also quite contrasting colours. Aswell as this I aimed to keep that horror feel by making the character act in different ways and move around in a really scary way so that it's quite haunting to the audience. I chose the main image with her hiding behidn a tree as within our film trailer our scenes and encounters with the main character are filmed withing a forest therefore I wanted to re-enforce that scene and to remind the audience of our whereabouts within the film. The text on the magazine and poster stand out and I decided to make them bold with the character remaining quite secretive and hidden just like in the teaser trailer the character isn't revealed.
Friday, 26 April 2013
Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research
At the very beginning once we had formed our basic ideas for our media trailer we began researching using the internet with browsers such as http://www.google.co.uk/ and http://www.bing.com/ which made it easier for us to access research into chosen films. When it came to watching trailers and browsing around for ideas and inspirations of previous famous horror films http://www.youtube.com/ was the first place to go, it made it easy for us to access film trailers. Watching the film trailers also helped us to understand the horror genre within film and we could always refer back to these trailers if we needed to. As well as this as it was in video form we could break down the video by pausing it at certain points and print screening it to turn it into an image which we could assess and understand the different types of shots and camera angles. When it came to creating our focus groups we kept it very simple by using a large screen with a projector to show the video to a wider audience rather than just keeping it to a small computer screen which only two could view at a time. We felt that we covered a lot more time by using this method for our focus group and they could then discuss the weaknesses and strengths of our film. I used Microsoft powerpoint to create slideshows for large pieces of information such as deconstructions, images of my own and camera shots taken from a trailer off of youtube which I talked about previously. I then uploaded it to http://www.slideshare.net/ so that it would create a slideshow without taking up a lot of space and it was easy to just click and press for the next slide. I also chose slideshare as it was compatible with blogger and I was able to embed the code and copy it into blogger whereas if it was just a powerpoint it wouldn't be compatible and wouldn't upload to blogger.
Construction
Constructing the film was completely new to me, I hadn't made a film trailer before and had never really done any filming therefore I had to learn new technologies. As I had said before I used slideshare to account all of my information and research that I had to discovered and from there we began to create our film trailer. After we went to our location and got our filming done we uploaded all of our camera shots onto each of our computers to begin creating our teaser trailer. To create our teaser trailer I used adobe premiere pro which is a film editing software which enabled us to use our film shots and edit it together aswell as cutting and clipping the shots to it's best effects. When filming on the shot I used my own digital camera to capture images of our scary character lurking in the forest for my ancillary task. When playing around with the camera I discovered the settings film grain and pinhole which I used to create a vignette around the images and to instantly take a black and white image.When creating my magazine and poster I used the progamme Adobe photoshop. I imported my chosen images, once I had deconstructed them, into photoshop and edited them. I decided to go with black and white film grain images as I could easily make the shadows darker and the white part brighter to give a sharp contrast. Aswell as this on Photoshop there is a setting which allows you to add text to images. I used this method to create my information on my poster aswell as the heading and for the title and sweet spots on my magazine front cover. I decided to make the writing red as I thought these parts would stand out and draw the audience attention straight to the important information on the magazine front cover. Also on the poster is our wight noise productions logo and an age certificate for our film. It was quite tricky to get these images straight onto my poster without having to adapt them. I opened up my film poster and the logo in seperate places on photoshop. I then cut around the edge of our logo and cut and pasted it onto my poster however it came out quite large which I then had to re-size it down so that it would fit nicely in the bottom corner. I did the same thing with the age certificate however I retrieved an image from google of this age certificate. For our finished final draft teaser trailer which we were happy with, we decided to change up the music. Our first recording was an old chime from a memory box which played love me tender as you wound it up. We recorded it using Adobe audition as this software was specifically for recording music. To do this, we placed a microphone in a quiet room next to the music box and played it for around 1 minute so that we could pick and choose where we wanted the song to start and finish. We then downloaded it and saved it as a compatible file that could be imported into Adobe premiere pro and play as non-diegetic music to create an uneasy feeling within the audience and put them on the edge, however this recording wasn't scary enough and wasn't powerful. We then found a small recording online of just a generic scary beat and decided to cut the sound from it and save it as an mp3 audio which would then allow us to import it into Premiere pro. We added this scary beat into the film over the clips where the action started to build up toward the end of the trailer which created suspense and was thrilling. To get our film from Adobe premiere I had to import it onto youtube. This was quite difficult as it wasn't the right film format which meant that I had to encode it into a youtube file format. Once this had been done I imported my trailers into youtube. I came onto blogger and clicked on attach a video and went into myyoutube videos where all of my trailers were and then placed them into blogger.
At the very beginning once we had formed our basic ideas for our media trailer we began researching using the internet with browsers such as http://www.google.co.uk/ and http://www.bing.com/ which made it easier for us to access research into chosen films. When it came to watching trailers and browsing around for ideas and inspirations of previous famous horror films http://www.youtube.com/ was the first place to go, it made it easy for us to access film trailers. Watching the film trailers also helped us to understand the horror genre within film and we could always refer back to these trailers if we needed to. As well as this as it was in video form we could break down the video by pausing it at certain points and print screening it to turn it into an image which we could assess and understand the different types of shots and camera angles. When it came to creating our focus groups we kept it very simple by using a large screen with a projector to show the video to a wider audience rather than just keeping it to a small computer screen which only two could view at a time. We felt that we covered a lot more time by using this method for our focus group and they could then discuss the weaknesses and strengths of our film. I used Microsoft powerpoint to create slideshows for large pieces of information such as deconstructions, images of my own and camera shots taken from a trailer off of youtube which I talked about previously. I then uploaded it to http://www.slideshare.net/ so that it would create a slideshow without taking up a lot of space and it was easy to just click and press for the next slide. I also chose slideshare as it was compatible with blogger and I was able to embed the code and copy it into blogger whereas if it was just a powerpoint it wouldn't be compatible and wouldn't upload to blogger.
Construction
Constructing the film was completely new to me, I hadn't made a film trailer before and had never really done any filming therefore I had to learn new technologies. As I had said before I used slideshare to account all of my information and research that I had to discovered and from there we began to create our film trailer. After we went to our location and got our filming done we uploaded all of our camera shots onto each of our computers to begin creating our teaser trailer. To create our teaser trailer I used adobe premiere pro which is a film editing software which enabled us to use our film shots and edit it together aswell as cutting and clipping the shots to it's best effects. When filming on the shot I used my own digital camera to capture images of our scary character lurking in the forest for my ancillary task. When playing around with the camera I discovered the settings film grain and pinhole which I used to create a vignette around the images and to instantly take a black and white image.When creating my magazine and poster I used the progamme Adobe photoshop. I imported my chosen images, once I had deconstructed them, into photoshop and edited them. I decided to go with black and white film grain images as I could easily make the shadows darker and the white part brighter to give a sharp contrast. Aswell as this on Photoshop there is a setting which allows you to add text to images. I used this method to create my information on my poster aswell as the heading and for the title and sweet spots on my magazine front cover. I decided to make the writing red as I thought these parts would stand out and draw the audience attention straight to the important information on the magazine front cover. Also on the poster is our wight noise productions logo and an age certificate for our film. It was quite tricky to get these images straight onto my poster without having to adapt them. I opened up my film poster and the logo in seperate places on photoshop. I then cut around the edge of our logo and cut and pasted it onto my poster however it came out quite large which I then had to re-size it down so that it would fit nicely in the bottom corner. I did the same thing with the age certificate however I retrieved an image from google of this age certificate. For our finished final draft teaser trailer which we were happy with, we decided to change up the music. Our first recording was an old chime from a memory box which played love me tender as you wound it up. We recorded it using Adobe audition as this software was specifically for recording music. To do this, we placed a microphone in a quiet room next to the music box and played it for around 1 minute so that we could pick and choose where we wanted the song to start and finish. We then downloaded it and saved it as a compatible file that could be imported into Adobe premiere pro and play as non-diegetic music to create an uneasy feeling within the audience and put them on the edge, however this recording wasn't scary enough and wasn't powerful. We then found a small recording online of just a generic scary beat and decided to cut the sound from it and save it as an mp3 audio which would then allow us to import it into Premiere pro. We added this scary beat into the film over the clips where the action started to build up toward the end of the trailer which created suspense and was thrilling. To get our film from Adobe premiere I had to import it onto youtube. This was quite difficult as it wasn't the right film format which meant that I had to encode it into a youtube file format. Once this had been done I imported my trailers into youtube. I came onto blogger and clicked on attach a video and went into myyoutube videos where all of my trailers were and then placed them into blogger.
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Evaluation- Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our audience feedback was a vital part in making out film trailer. We had to assess and get some raw opinions on our film trailer so that it would enable us to altar our film trailer if it needed it to make it as successful as we could.
At the very beginning of our project we did a large questionnaire to find out which was the most popular choices within film genre so that it would give us a broader audience to work with. Coming in at the most popular choice was horror, which is what we decided to go with. We discussed the target audience as being 15-25 as 15 was the generic age of most horror films that we researched and ranging it to around young adults gave us a much more vast audience. When we first started our project we ensured that we would have numerous focus groups throughout each stage of editing to tell us what we needed to change and keep the same.
Once we had begun to create our draft trailers everytime we finished one we had to ensure that we showed it to a focus group of people in our year to ensure that they'd give us feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the film trailer. Due to doing this we then discovered that they played a very important role in the success of our film. Had we released our first draft trailer into the cinema these feedbacks would have had a negative effect on the success of the film. It was also at a benefit for us as the people that we asked fit into the audience age group aswell as the fact that we're also the same age so we're able to relate with what we'd expect from the film.
At the very beginning of our project we did a large questionnaire to find out which was the most popular choices within film genre so that it would give us a broader audience to work with. Coming in at the most popular choice was horror, which is what we decided to go with. We discussed the target audience as being 15-25 as 15 was the generic age of most horror films that we researched and ranging it to around young adults gave us a much more vast audience. When we first started our project we ensured that we would have numerous focus groups throughout each stage of editing to tell us what we needed to change and keep the same.
Once we had begun to create our draft trailers everytime we finished one we had to ensure that we showed it to a focus group of people in our year to ensure that they'd give us feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the film trailer. Due to doing this we then discovered that they played a very important role in the success of our film. Had we released our first draft trailer into the cinema these feedbacks would have had a negative effect on the success of the film. It was also at a benefit for us as the people that we asked fit into the audience age group aswell as the fact that we're also the same age so we're able to relate with what we'd expect from the film.
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Evaluation- Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
At the beginning of our project we each did individual research into different film trailers and decided to pin point the standard conventions of teaser trailers so that we can use these as a basis for our film. This also revealed the successful ways in which film trailers worked.
I then went on to do some deeper research into the horror film genre and the standard forms of a horror film teaser trailer. I discovered that horror film trailers often start off with slow paced shots and a range of camera angles to obscure the protagonist and build suspense within the audience and to reach a frightening climax at the end of the trailer which is what is needed to connect with the audience revealing not too much to them but enough to entice them to want to view the entire film. Our trailer begins with a long distant shot across the classroom focusing on our teacher giving the assignment. This as an establishing shot works well as it begins with a narrative for the audience to follow and begins to introduce them to the story line without giving too much away. Our trailer begins very slow paced and builds suspension.
I then went on to do some deeper research into the horror film genre and the standard forms of a horror film teaser trailer. I discovered that horror film trailers often start off with slow paced shots and a range of camera angles to obscure the protagonist and build suspense within the audience and to reach a frightening climax at the end of the trailer which is what is needed to connect with the audience revealing not too much to them but enough to entice them to want to view the entire film. Our trailer begins with a long distant shot across the classroom focusing on our teacher giving the assignment. This as an establishing shot works well as it begins with a narrative for the audience to follow and begins to introduce them to the story line without giving too much away. Our trailer begins very slow paced and builds suspension.
FINAL TRAILER
Final draft trailer and focus group
We felt that the music was too slow and not exciting to keep the audience on the edge therefore decided to import a file that we discovered on the internet where the music raises at the point of suspense.
Own trailer
Strengths: Smooth transitions.
Good 180 degree angles.
Dark effects.
Weaknesses: Word titles in the wrong places.
Black and white needs to be consistent or not in the film.
New storyboard
These are my updated storyboards. We sat together and discussed the arrangement of the updated trailer taking on board everything that our focus group and our teacher had said to improve. We made the narrative less abstract and re-arranged the order of the clips so that it would be easier to comprehend. This story we felt had more of a narrative however it wasn't linear which is what we wanted. We added in some image of words to flash up so that the audience can follow the trailer almost like a story is being told.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Teacher feedback
As well as our focus group we got our teacher to view our initial trailer in which she gave us some constructive critisism.
There were quite a few things that needed to be improved for our film trailer to be successful.
We felt that the storyboard we used was quite linear so decided to change the initial shot to the clip of us walking into the forest approaching the 'girl'. When viewing this our teacher felt that it was too random. We needed to use a different shot so that it would give the audience some kind of introduction to the narrative of the film and so that it wouldn't be completely abstract. As well as this part of someone's ear came into view of the shot at the side of the camera which took away the focus from the scary character which is what we wanted the audience to really look at. It was also said that the camera was too wobbly and that we needed to incorporate the idea that we were filming by using a tripod. Also the jittering of the camera made it harder to focus on certain things. The scene in which Nusrat and I are talking both of us aren't completely in the shot and we kept turning our backs to the camera. Once again this made it hard to focus on us as we weren't still and didn't seem involved, we weren't connecting with the audience by using our dialect to grab their attention. The dialect also needed to be louder and clearer so that the audience could hear what we were saying. As well as this the ending was too linear, as characters in horror film trailers are often silent and mysterious and aren't revealed in the teaser trailers however our ending was almost like the ending of a film and our teacher felt that she should be silent. Like our focus group it felt that more narration was needed so we thought about incorporating a narrator to speak over the film or even adding in words to flash up in between clips to guide the audience through what's going on. Another thing that we had to change was the music, after hearing it in the film it became to soft and innocent and wasn't striking enough to make the audience feel uneasy.
There were quite a few things that needed to be improved for our film trailer to be successful.
We felt that the storyboard we used was quite linear so decided to change the initial shot to the clip of us walking into the forest approaching the 'girl'. When viewing this our teacher felt that it was too random. We needed to use a different shot so that it would give the audience some kind of introduction to the narrative of the film and so that it wouldn't be completely abstract. As well as this part of someone's ear came into view of the shot at the side of the camera which took away the focus from the scary character which is what we wanted the audience to really look at. It was also said that the camera was too wobbly and that we needed to incorporate the idea that we were filming by using a tripod. Also the jittering of the camera made it harder to focus on certain things. The scene in which Nusrat and I are talking both of us aren't completely in the shot and we kept turning our backs to the camera. Once again this made it hard to focus on us as we weren't still and didn't seem involved, we weren't connecting with the audience by using our dialect to grab their attention. The dialect also needed to be louder and clearer so that the audience could hear what we were saying. As well as this the ending was too linear, as characters in horror film trailers are often silent and mysterious and aren't revealed in the teaser trailers however our ending was almost like the ending of a film and our teacher felt that she should be silent. Like our focus group it felt that more narration was needed so we thought about incorporating a narrator to speak over the film or even adding in words to flash up in between clips to guide the audience through what's going on. Another thing that we had to change was the music, after hearing it in the film it became to soft and innocent and wasn't striking enough to make the audience feel uneasy.
Focus group
We gathered a group of people from our 6form to sit and watch our film so far and to give us feeback on particular parts that they thought worked well and the parts of the film that they didn't particularly like and thought that we could improve. Here are their thoughts.
Stephanie Woodberry, 18
Good points: She thought that the music was quite eerie and that it worked well.
She also felt that it was jumpy and that added to the mystery affect.
Bad points: She felt that when Nusrat and I are talking it's too sudden between that clip and the next shot.
She also felt that the trailer itself was quite short and very confusing and that to improve that we could use some narration to guide the audience.
Liam Mulkerrins: 17
Good points: He particularly liked the panoramic view and thought that worked well. He also liked the zoom effect that we had sometimes.
Bad points: He thought that we could make the clips darker and maybe add some effects to it.
He also thought that we should have less echoing noises and that the audio of us speaking should be louder.
Nikki Robinson: 18
Good points: She really liked the make up and costume of the character and the scream at the end of the trailer.
Bad points: She also felt that the trailer had too many cuts and it was too fast in between.
Kayleigh Wood: 18
Good points: She liked the music and thought that it was innocent yet connoted an eeriness and also really liked the newspaper clipping and thought it made it all the more realistic. She also found the way in which Zuzie moved really interesting and very uneasy.
Bad points: Unlike others she felt that the music should stand out more at the end to draw the audience in and hype it up. Like Liam she felt that the trailer should be darker and have an effect. An improvement she had suggested is that we should make the newspaper clipping longer.
Stephanie Woodberry, 18
Good points: She thought that the music was quite eerie and that it worked well.
She also felt that it was jumpy and that added to the mystery affect.
Bad points: She felt that when Nusrat and I are talking it's too sudden between that clip and the next shot.
She also felt that the trailer itself was quite short and very confusing and that to improve that we could use some narration to guide the audience.
Liam Mulkerrins: 17
Good points: He particularly liked the panoramic view and thought that worked well. He also liked the zoom effect that we had sometimes.
Bad points: He thought that we could make the clips darker and maybe add some effects to it.
He also thought that we should have less echoing noises and that the audio of us speaking should be louder.
Nikki Robinson: 18
Good points: She really liked the make up and costume of the character and the scream at the end of the trailer.
Bad points: She also felt that the trailer had too many cuts and it was too fast in between.
Kayleigh Wood: 18
Good points: She liked the music and thought that it was innocent yet connoted an eeriness and also really liked the newspaper clipping and thought it made it all the more realistic. She also found the way in which Zuzie moved really interesting and very uneasy.
Bad points: Unlike others she felt that the music should stand out more at the end to draw the audience in and hype it up. Like Liam she felt that the trailer should be darker and have an effect. An improvement she had suggested is that we should make the newspaper clipping longer.
Draft trailer
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Panning shot
Establishing shot
This was going to be our initial establishing shot that we had decided for the storyboard. We felt that by putting this at the beginning of the sequence it would let the audience in on the narrative and give them some kind of insight into what the film was about. However after negotiating we felt that this wasn't a strong enough entrance and didn't give that power and excitement that we wanted the audience to feel.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Music
For the music choice, we wanted to have something quite eerie, like children laughing or something that portrays innocence as we wanted to keep that consistent. We researched into 70's vinyl songs and quite liked the idea of a scratched record.
We researched on Youtube into 70's records to see if we could download any scratched cd's or old recordings.
We found a selection of songs:
The beach boys- wouldn't it be nice- This song wasn't powerful enough for us. The chime at the beginning we thought would work well, however it felt a bit too jolly and connoted a cheeriness.
The beatles- Here comes the sun- Once again, this particular track connoted a happiness to the audience which wasn't what we wanted as we wanted a subtle kind of happiness that would portray innocence but create it sub-consiously.
John Lennon - Imagine This audio of this song was the opposite. This song was too sad and the track was too fast for what we wanted.
Elvis Pressley - Love me tender- We particularly liked this song, the beat was good and the speed of the song was a good length for what we had planned. We needed just the audio for this song so that we could play it over the teaser trailer as non-diegetic sound.
In the final decision, Bronte had remembered that she owned music box that playedLove me tender by Elvis Pressley. This was perfect as we could choose the length in which it was played so that it could go very slowly and make an uneasy kind of sound.
We researched on Youtube into 70's records to see if we could download any scratched cd's or old recordings.
We found a selection of songs:
The beach boys- wouldn't it be nice- This song wasn't powerful enough for us. The chime at the beginning we thought would work well, however it felt a bit too jolly and connoted a cheeriness.
The beatles- Here comes the sun- Once again, this particular track connoted a happiness to the audience which wasn't what we wanted as we wanted a subtle kind of happiness that would portray innocence but create it sub-consiously.
John Lennon - Imagine This audio of this song was the opposite. This song was too sad and the track was too fast for what we wanted.
Elvis Pressley - Love me tender- We particularly liked this song, the beat was good and the speed of the song was a good length for what we had planned. We needed just the audio for this song so that we could play it over the teaser trailer as non-diegetic sound.
In the final decision, Bronte had remembered that she owned music box that playedLove me tender by Elvis Pressley. This was perfect as we could choose the length in which it was played so that it could go very slowly and make an uneasy kind of sound.
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Film names
After much discussion about film names, we came up with a range of titles and eventually narrowed it down to one.
Idea 1; 1974- As this was the year she went missing, we thought that it was straight forward, simple and also quite powerful. It can also have a lot of contextual meaning, the audience initial thought of the title '1974' wouldn't be a horror film, it could mean anything. We decided against this as we thought it would be too simple, and not innocent enough.
Idea 2: MISSING- We once again liked the simplicity of this name however, we felt it was too cliche and because of this we felt it wouldn't grab the audience.
Idea 3: THE DISSAPEARANCE OF BONNIE LAWSON- We quite liked this name, as it seemed almost as though it was a clipping from a news article. However the downside was that it was quite long for a film name, and we preferred it to be snappy and striking.
Idea 4: DISSAPEARANCE- We then went on to narrow it down from The dissapearance of Bonnie Lawson to just dissaperance keeping to our rule that we'd use one word as our title. We thought this was also a bit too cliche and sounded more like a documentary than a film name.
Idea 5: EXODUS- As we liked Dissapearance so much we decided to research into synonyms for it. We found this name Exodus, and all decided that it was quite mysterious and really fit the film. It also sounds like a name you would associate with a horror film, and it has quite a deep meaning to it therefore we all decided this would be what our film is called.
Idea 1; 1974- As this was the year she went missing, we thought that it was straight forward, simple and also quite powerful. It can also have a lot of contextual meaning, the audience initial thought of the title '1974' wouldn't be a horror film, it could mean anything. We decided against this as we thought it would be too simple, and not innocent enough.
Idea 2: MISSING- We once again liked the simplicity of this name however, we felt it was too cliche and because of this we felt it wouldn't grab the audience.
Idea 3: THE DISSAPEARANCE OF BONNIE LAWSON- We quite liked this name, as it seemed almost as though it was a clipping from a news article. However the downside was that it was quite long for a film name, and we preferred it to be snappy and striking.
Idea 4: DISSAPEARANCE- We then went on to narrow it down from The dissapearance of Bonnie Lawson to just dissaperance keeping to our rule that we'd use one word as our title. We thought this was also a bit too cliche and sounded more like a documentary than a film name.
Idea 5: EXODUS- As we liked Dissapearance so much we decided to research into synonyms for it. We found this name Exodus, and all decided that it was quite mysterious and really fit the film. It also sounds like a name you would associate with a horror film, and it has quite a deep meaning to it therefore we all decided this would be what our film is called.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Costume
After deciding the character should portray a young innocent girl lost on her way home, we decided we needed quite an innocent costume. We decided it should be bright and young, as well as looking like quite a 70's costume as this was when she supposedly went missing. We decided to go to the local charity shops and search for these outfits as this would be the perfect place to find an aged old dress that was also quite cheap. We bought a couple of dresses just to try out, however we felt that one of them really fit the bill, although it was a size 20 and our model was a size 8, which meant that we needed to make adjustments and use safety pins to pin back as much as possible.
Costume 1:
Here is the first costume that we purchased. It was a plain black silk dress that looked quite like a nightie. Once we tried it on we decided that it wasn't very suitable for her character. This particular dress was too dark in comparison with the rest of her attire, for example her hair was already black and so were her tights. It was also too modern for our film, and as she's supposed to be portraying a young child, we felt that it was a bit too old and would possibly more likely be seen on teenagers and young adults which wasn't the image we wanted to portray.
Costume 1:
Here is the first costume that we purchased. It was a plain black silk dress that looked quite like a nightie. Once we tried it on we decided that it wasn't very suitable for her character. This particular dress was too dark in comparison with the rest of her attire, for example her hair was already black and so were her tights. It was also too modern for our film, and as she's supposed to be portraying a young child, we felt that it was a bit too old and would possibly more likely be seen on teenagers and young adults which wasn't the image we wanted to portray.
Costume 2:
We then also found a light blue dress with yellow flowers on which was a size 20. However once it was on, it seemed to fit better than we expected and used a few safety pins to pin it back. We really liked this outfit simply because it was very innocent. Yellows and baby blues are often associated with children and summer, so this is a slight condraction with the character that we wanted her to play. It's also very long, and isn't something that would be considered 'fashion' nowadays which is what we wanted because of the date she went missing. There was also a contrast between the dark hair and make up and the bright dress which is what we wanted to create an effect when the audience viewed our film. We decided this would be our FINAL DRESS.
However as it was quite a muddy field where it had been raining a lot, we couldn't have Zuzie running around in her socks like we had originally planned, therefore we had to wear wellies, but we tried not to film her feet at all and this dress also managed to cover it up quite well.
Hair and make- up
For the make-up we wanted it to be ghost like however not too obvious. Our aim was that she had been lost in this forest for a very long time and had somehow stayed the same age and had turned into quite a strange character. As we had decided in the skills audit that I was creative and I had the skill of hair and make-up I decided to do the costume and make up each day. We went to our local fancy dress shop to buy some white face paint and some black hairspray as her hair was quite light, but to give the full effect we needed it to be black. Her hair was quite long and straight aswell therefore it was easy to mess it up and drape it over her face.
Friday, 8 February 2013
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Carving of the tree
We carved the date of when the young girl went missing into the tree. This was to incorporate it into our film so it was as though the young girl went missing and adapted her way of life there and started to go crazy. 
Location
This is our chosen filming location. We decided upon Roke Mead Copse as it was easy to access, not too far away from our school and as Bronte knew the person who owned it, we knew that it was safe to film in.
Both of the images above are on our way into the forest. As you can see as it had been raining and wasn't very warm, it was very muddy in which we had to wear our wellies. However as we were going into the forest it was sheltered and wasn't quite as muddy.
These 3 images above are from when we got into the forest. As it's a farm we found a small unused pen that we thought might be useful in the film as it seemed quite creepy and it was strangely placed. For the bottom image I used a pinhole setting which made the forest appear darker than it was. Going straight after school meant that it was still quite light out and might affect the effect of the footage, therefore I had to try and discover some way in which we could make it appear darker than it was.
Both of the images above are on our way into the forest. As you can see as it had been raining and wasn't very warm, it was very muddy in which we had to wear our wellies. However as we were going into the forest it was sheltered and wasn't quite as muddy.
These 3 images above are from when we got into the forest. As it's a farm we found a small unused pen that we thought might be useful in the film as it seemed quite creepy and it was strangely placed. For the bottom image I used a pinhole setting which made the forest appear darker than it was. Going straight after school meant that it was still quite light out and might affect the effect of the footage, therefore I had to try and discover some way in which we could make it appear darker than it was.
Friday, 25 January 2013
Names for our child character
As a group we researched into children's names which would be appropriate for the news article in which the young girl is going to be featured. After much thought we carefully considered that her name had to be archaic and a common name used in the 60's and 70's as this was the year she went missing. It also had to represent some innocence of the figure as we discussed with the exorcism of Emily Rose, that would portray the young innocent child being overpowered by the source of evil.
Here are some of the names:
Alice: We thought that Alice connated innocence quite well as people would think of other films such as Alice in Wonderland. It was also one of the common names used in the 70's, however we thought that this name was too modern.
Autumn: It's quite a unique name yet we didn't think that it would connotate that the girl was from the 70's, as it's also quite a modern name.
Sophie: This name like the others is also quite modern. We really wanted the name to stand out and really appear old fashioned.
Molly: We weren't sure about the name Molly. It would be our second choice however there are a large young population that are called Molly now.
Bonnie: We particularly liked Bonnie as it was quite an old fashioned name. It also seemed quite innocent as there is a Nursery rhyme called 'My Bonnie' which people might relate to their childhood.
Here are some of the names:
Alice: We thought that Alice connated innocence quite well as people would think of other films such as Alice in Wonderland. It was also one of the common names used in the 70's, however we thought that this name was too modern.
Autumn: It's quite a unique name yet we didn't think that it would connotate that the girl was from the 70's, as it's also quite a modern name.
Sophie: This name like the others is also quite modern. We really wanted the name to stand out and really appear old fashioned.
Molly: We weren't sure about the name Molly. It would be our second choice however there are a large young population that are called Molly now.
Bonnie: We particularly liked Bonnie as it was quite an old fashioned name. It also seemed quite innocent as there is a Nursery rhyme called 'My Bonnie' which people might relate to their childhood.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Character
After disscusions within the group about the character we would have, we decided upon our friend Zuzie to play the role of the haunted girl. We decided this because she fit the bill properly as she was quite small and could play a child. She also has long black hair that it was we wanted the character to have. As well as this she casts in all the school plays and is very good at acting which is one of the most important parts as we want her to be scary and this can also show that she can adapt to any character she's given.
New storyboards
As a group we decided to create a new and more defined story board. Deciding that I would be the illustrator for this, we got together and finalised our music choices, timings and shots.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Delay
Unfortunately our plans to film over the weekend had been halted due to the weather. As it had snowed it meant that travelling would be dangerous and it would also be too cold to stay out and film in the costumes that we wanted to. As well as that it's not a part of our scenery as we wanted it to be quite a cold and dark scene however the snow would make it a lot lighter and lessen the horror effect.
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Horror film names
I decided to research into some horror film names to see which were succesful and which ones we really liked so this could help us to think of a film name that would be really strong and outstanding that will strike the audience into wanting to find out more about it.
Here are a list of film names that are really powerful:
1. Sinister - This is a short yet effective name. One word named films are often striking and imply that they depict a lot. The word 'sinister' is a negative adjective and has the connotation of being dark. It's associated with people who have something quite shady about them or actions that are threatening or portend evil of some kind. I really like this idea of having a one word title with a word that's relevant to the genre and also striking to the audience.
2. The excorcism of Emily Rose- I particularly like the innocence surrounding this title. Including a young girls name next to the word exorcism is almost like a binary opposition. It's almost as though it's good vs evil, the young girl being overpowered by evil sources. As we're supposed to have a young girl in our film, we could use this kind of method to create a poweful title that will be quite shocking yet hooking.
3. Insidious - Once again, as with Sinister this film has only a single word title. Insidious has the meaning of proceeding gradually but in a harmful way. This also has a dark mysterious meaning to it, and that it's proceeding to mean the build up in the story will be harmful to the characters.
4. Halloween - Another 80's classic. Halloween is the 'festival of the dead' where every year on October 31st people dress up in scary outfits, carve pumpkins and do anything scary and because of this the fact a film was named after it it's now instantly associated with anything horror related.
9. Eden Lake - I particularly like that the film is named after the place that it was shot in. It's still powerful as it's impyling to the audience that this place has some mystery and secrets behind it and almost personifiying it. We could consider this when mind mapping our ideas as our location for our film trailer is set in an abandoned holiday centre, which used to be a place of happiness and now is riddled with debris and just left as it was.
Here are a list of film names that are really powerful:
1. Sinister - This is a short yet effective name. One word named films are often striking and imply that they depict a lot. The word 'sinister' is a negative adjective and has the connotation of being dark. It's associated with people who have something quite shady about them or actions that are threatening or portend evil of some kind. I really like this idea of having a one word title with a word that's relevant to the genre and also striking to the audience.
2. The excorcism of Emily Rose- I particularly like the innocence surrounding this title. Including a young girls name next to the word exorcism is almost like a binary opposition. It's almost as though it's good vs evil, the young girl being overpowered by evil sources. As we're supposed to have a young girl in our film, we could use this kind of method to create a poweful title that will be quite shocking yet hooking.
3. Insidious - Once again, as with Sinister this film has only a single word title. Insidious has the meaning of proceeding gradually but in a harmful way. This also has a dark mysterious meaning to it, and that it's proceeding to mean the build up in the story will be harmful to the characters.
4. Halloween - Another 80's classic. Halloween is the 'festival of the dead' where every year on October 31st people dress up in scary outfits, carve pumpkins and do anything scary and because of this the fact a film was named after it it's now instantly associated with anything horror related.
9. Eden Lake - I particularly like that the film is named after the place that it was shot in. It's still powerful as it's impyling to the audience that this place has some mystery and secrets behind it and almost personifiying it. We could consider this when mind mapping our ideas as our location for our film trailer is set in an abandoned holiday centre, which used to be a place of happiness and now is riddled with debris and just left as it was.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Oren Peli
Oren Peli is the director of low budget horror films. His films include the Paranormal Activity franchise, Insidious, Chernobyl Diaries and the Bay.
As a child Oren watched "The Exorcist"which traumatized him into not being able to watch anything that involved ghosts. This is one of the ideaoligies that could have influenced him into creating only horror films 'The thing I find really scary about ghosts and demons is that you don’t really know what they are or where they are.' This kind of mystery is his trademark in his films using the mysterious character that us as the audience are left to imagine what they look like.
His films are very conventional with some kind of evil characterisitic creature and unsuspecting victims who fall into the clutches of the 'villain'. I particularly like the idea that he starred less known actors as main characters as opposed to Quentin Tarantino who only used names who were already known in showbiz. By doing this he made it feel much more like a documentary rather than a fictional horror movie which added to the effect of the film and the intention of trying to impact and scare the audience. I feel that Oren Peli will be a big influence in our works as his films are made out to be like real life documentaries filmed by the characters in the film and that thought of it being real life really adds to the scare factor. In our film trailer one of our ideas is also to have it almost as though it were a documentary, that occurs in the characters lives so we will definitely be using him as our big influencer.
As a child Oren watched "The Exorcist"which traumatized him into not being able to watch anything that involved ghosts. This is one of the ideaoligies that could have influenced him into creating only horror films 'The thing I find really scary about ghosts and demons is that you don’t really know what they are or where they are.' This kind of mystery is his trademark in his films using the mysterious character that us as the audience are left to imagine what they look like.
His films are very conventional with some kind of evil characterisitic creature and unsuspecting victims who fall into the clutches of the 'villain'. I particularly like the idea that he starred less known actors as main characters as opposed to Quentin Tarantino who only used names who were already known in showbiz. By doing this he made it feel much more like a documentary rather than a fictional horror movie which added to the effect of the film and the intention of trying to impact and scare the audience. I feel that Oren Peli will be a big influence in our works as his films are made out to be like real life documentaries filmed by the characters in the film and that thought of it being real life really adds to the scare factor. In our film trailer one of our ideas is also to have it almost as though it were a documentary, that occurs in the characters lives so we will definitely be using him as our big influencer.
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino is a well known name in the media industry. As an American film director he has to ensure that the film narratives he creates will be successful and appealing to the audience. He also screen writes, produces and acts which shows he plays a major part behind the scenes of the films that he makes.
Some of his most successful films include:
Reservoir dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jackie Brown (1997)
True Romance (1993)
Kill Bill (2003)
He shows a consistent pattern throughout the genre and narrative of these films as these films all fall under the genre of crime/ thriller. Throughout his films he has applied Vladimir Propp's theory of the characters. There is always a villain in his films, whether it's main or a less noticeable character there is always a villain. There's a woman usually playing the role of the 'princess' however in Kill Bill he reverses roles and the most powerful character who plays the part of a hero is played by a woman. By doing this Tarantino broke the conventions of film and swapped the role making the female appear more powerful than the male.
Trademarking
His films contain a lot of trademarks that he's used as a ploy for the audience to remember his works and if they like a particular film they will be enticed to watch another upcoming film. His films will often include one long unbroken take where a certain character is followed around. This is one of his trademarking within films which will make people notice and recognise that it's one of his films. The long break is quite powerful as it has an element of the Enigma code, you don't know what's going to come next and the audience are left wondering what action is about to occur, which I really like. Other elements and trademarks that he uses in his films is there's always something Dutch which could be a name of a character or a brand name on an object the character is using. He uses unconventional storytelling devices such as the chapter format he uses for the film Kill Bill: Vol 1. This particular way of naming the film as though it were a book is a really unique idea and I think that we should incorporate something like this into our discussion of ideas for our film trailer name. His films are really influential and I like the idea of his trademarking on these films, that he always has something recognisable hidden somewhere in each film he makes. We should develop this trademarking within our trailer.
Some of his most successful films include:
Reservoir dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jackie Brown (1997)
True Romance (1993)
Kill Bill (2003)
He shows a consistent pattern throughout the genre and narrative of these films as these films all fall under the genre of crime/ thriller. Throughout his films he has applied Vladimir Propp's theory of the characters. There is always a villain in his films, whether it's main or a less noticeable character there is always a villain. There's a woman usually playing the role of the 'princess' however in Kill Bill he reverses roles and the most powerful character who plays the part of a hero is played by a woman. By doing this Tarantino broke the conventions of film and swapped the role making the female appear more powerful than the male.
Trademarking
His films contain a lot of trademarks that he's used as a ploy for the audience to remember his works and if they like a particular film they will be enticed to watch another upcoming film. His films will often include one long unbroken take where a certain character is followed around. This is one of his trademarking within films which will make people notice and recognise that it's one of his films. The long break is quite powerful as it has an element of the Enigma code, you don't know what's going to come next and the audience are left wondering what action is about to occur, which I really like. Other elements and trademarks that he uses in his films is there's always something Dutch which could be a name of a character or a brand name on an object the character is using. He uses unconventional storytelling devices such as the chapter format he uses for the film Kill Bill: Vol 1. This particular way of naming the film as though it were a book is a really unique idea and I think that we should incorporate something like this into our discussion of ideas for our film trailer name. His films are really influential and I like the idea of his trademarking on these films, that he always has something recognisable hidden somewhere in each film he makes. We should develop this trademarking within our trailer.
Theorists
Tzvetan Todorov
Todorov's theory is quite simple. His theory is that the narrative of a film begins with a state of equilibrium. In between in suffers the then equilibrium it suffers some disruption causing there to be disequilibrium, a then new equilibrium is produced at the end. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation, that the characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of disruption. This is a very specific theory that you can apply to all narratives. I do think we should apply this element when thinking about the narrative and story behind our trailer, although I think that maybe we should make something different and less cliche.
Vladimir Propp
Like Todorov Vladimirs theory was based on folk tales and legends that he has studied from. He had picked up on the fact that they were all quite similar characters and the same kind of characters kep on cropping up.
1. The Hero - usually male, restores narrative equilibrium and is the centre of the villians attention.
2. The villian opposes the hero and often creates the narrative disuption.
3. The donor- The character who helps out the hero by giving them a tool
4. The dispatcher - starts the hero on his way on his way and helps restore equilibrium.
5. The false hero- who tempts the hero away from his quest
6. The helper- assists the heroes
7. The princess- who is the reward for the hero
8. The Princess father- who rewards the hero for the rescuing of his daughter.
I think that within our film we'll use some kind of element of this theory however it would be using different characters. As it's a horror film using the Villain would be definite however maybe there wouldn't be a hero and there would be two weaker characters.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss was not as concerned with the plot as opposed to the binary oppositions of a narrative. A few Binary oppositions examples are good against bad, love against hate and past against present. This could also apply to Vladimir Propp's theory as there is always a binary opposition in stories and fairy tales. The hero against the villain and the prince against the princess. We should definitely apply this theory and use it in our film as it's a horror, and horror's typically have a villain and other characters working against the villain so there will be an obvious binary opposition of good vs evil. I feel that this is the strongest theory.
Roland Barthes
Barthes believes that all narratives share structural features which are bought together in different ways. He believed that texts may be open or closed which would either mean that the narrative is difficult to follow and has lots of different twists or that it's closed, cliche and easy to follow.
These are the 5 codes he used:
1. Action code - Applied to any action that implies a further action is coming.
2. Enigma code - Another word for a mystery. Refers to any any element in a story that is not explained and exists and enigma for the audience, making them question that demands explanation.
3. The Semantic code - This refers to connotation within the story that gives any additional meaning.
4. The cultural code - An element in the narrative that refers to a science. The cultural codes point out our shared knowledge about the way in which the world works
5 .The symbolic code - New meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas
This theory is also quite a strong theory. The codes together would make a great mystery and a thrilling trailer, the action code would leave the audience reeling and wondering what was about to occur as would the enigma code so applying these two codes specifically into our horror trailer would make it enticing and the sequence of shots and the music together with the uncertainty within the audience of what's going to happen next would be successful.
Todorov's theory is quite simple. His theory is that the narrative of a film begins with a state of equilibrium. In between in suffers the then equilibrium it suffers some disruption causing there to be disequilibrium, a then new equilibrium is produced at the end. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation, that the characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of disruption. This is a very specific theory that you can apply to all narratives. I do think we should apply this element when thinking about the narrative and story behind our trailer, although I think that maybe we should make something different and less cliche.
Vladimir Propp
Like Todorov Vladimirs theory was based on folk tales and legends that he has studied from. He had picked up on the fact that they were all quite similar characters and the same kind of characters kep on cropping up.
1. The Hero - usually male, restores narrative equilibrium and is the centre of the villians attention.
2. The villian opposes the hero and often creates the narrative disuption.
3. The donor- The character who helps out the hero by giving them a tool
4. The dispatcher - starts the hero on his way on his way and helps restore equilibrium.
5. The false hero- who tempts the hero away from his quest
6. The helper- assists the heroes
7. The princess- who is the reward for the hero
8. The Princess father- who rewards the hero for the rescuing of his daughter.
I think that within our film we'll use some kind of element of this theory however it would be using different characters. As it's a horror film using the Villain would be definite however maybe there wouldn't be a hero and there would be two weaker characters.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss was not as concerned with the plot as opposed to the binary oppositions of a narrative. A few Binary oppositions examples are good against bad, love against hate and past against present. This could also apply to Vladimir Propp's theory as there is always a binary opposition in stories and fairy tales. The hero against the villain and the prince against the princess. We should definitely apply this theory and use it in our film as it's a horror, and horror's typically have a villain and other characters working against the villain so there will be an obvious binary opposition of good vs evil. I feel that this is the strongest theory.
Roland Barthes
Barthes believes that all narratives share structural features which are bought together in different ways. He believed that texts may be open or closed which would either mean that the narrative is difficult to follow and has lots of different twists or that it's closed, cliche and easy to follow.
These are the 5 codes he used:
1. Action code - Applied to any action that implies a further action is coming.
2. Enigma code - Another word for a mystery. Refers to any any element in a story that is not explained and exists and enigma for the audience, making them question that demands explanation.
3. The Semantic code - This refers to connotation within the story that gives any additional meaning.
4. The cultural code - An element in the narrative that refers to a science. The cultural codes point out our shared knowledge about the way in which the world works
5 .The symbolic code - New meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas
This theory is also quite a strong theory. The codes together would make a great mystery and a thrilling trailer, the action code would leave the audience reeling and wondering what was about to occur as would the enigma code so applying these two codes specifically into our horror trailer would make it enticing and the sequence of shots and the music together with the uncertainty within the audience of what's going to happen next would be successful.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Narrative
Within our group we then went on to decide a basic description of our first idea for a narrative.
Idea
Two young girls researching on the internet derelict locations for a school project. They find a really interesting website in which they're intrigued to find a haunting story of a young girl who had been missing in our location.
The girls look into this and decide to research further, from curiosity. On arriving at the location the girls discover that everything is at it seems at this location, they see the young girl in a white dress, try to talk to her however she screams at them and dissapears. Mysterious things start to happen, they drop the camera and run away. The trailer will then end on some kind of cliff hanger that has to be really hooking and effective.
- Spooky location (forest, abandoned places)
- Researching of some kind within the film
- Spooky person
- Cliff hanger ending
Idea
Two young girls researching on the internet derelict locations for a school project. They find a really interesting website in which they're intrigued to find a haunting story of a young girl who had been missing in our location.
The girls look into this and decide to research further, from curiosity. On arriving at the location the girls discover that everything is at it seems at this location, they see the young girl in a white dress, try to talk to her however she screams at them and dissapears. Mysterious things start to happen, they drop the camera and run away. The trailer will then end on some kind of cliff hanger that has to be really hooking and effective.
Locations
After much discussion about ideas we came up with some locations.
Locations are:
1. Atherfield Bay
Atherfield bay is an old abandoned holiday camp on a long stretch of road. It's derelict and has smashed out windows and it's quite a grimey area which would be perfect for a horror thriller trailer. However there are lots of risks and we'd have to be quite safe here with all the glass and metal. However it involves quite a bit of travel
2. Harcourt Sands
This is another abandoned holiday camp that's close to where we live so it's easier to travel there. It would be another great place in the dark, however I do think that it's private property so we might not be able to get there.
3. Woodside holiday camp
Once again this is in near range and can be easily accessed. It's also another abandoned holiday camp that has quite creepy drawings on the walls and a childrens area which could be extremely spooky in the dark. We'd also have to risk asess the place again.
4. Firestone Copse
This would be quite a good scenic area as it's just pure forest. It would be great to run around in and quite safe as there aren't any buildings or anything abandoned although we do feel that the buildings would add to the scariness and that's the kind of effect we want from the audience.
5. Roke mead copse
This is a very convenient place to film as it's very close to us, only a car drive away. Also Bronte knows the person who lives on the farm so it would be easy to get permission. It's a very secluded area so there wouldn't be any worry of dog walkers or people walking into the film. Also it's very shrouded and gets darker earlier as it's a thick forest.
Locations are:
1. Atherfield Bay
Atherfield bay is an old abandoned holiday camp on a long stretch of road. It's derelict and has smashed out windows and it's quite a grimey area which would be perfect for a horror thriller trailer. However there are lots of risks and we'd have to be quite safe here with all the glass and metal. However it involves quite a bit of travel
2. Harcourt Sands
This is another abandoned holiday camp that's close to where we live so it's easier to travel there. It would be another great place in the dark, however I do think that it's private property so we might not be able to get there.
3. Woodside holiday camp
Once again this is in near range and can be easily accessed. It's also another abandoned holiday camp that has quite creepy drawings on the walls and a childrens area which could be extremely spooky in the dark. We'd also have to risk asess the place again.
4. Firestone Copse
This would be quite a good scenic area as it's just pure forest. It would be great to run around in and quite safe as there aren't any buildings or anything abandoned although we do feel that the buildings would add to the scariness and that's the kind of effect we want from the audience.
5. Roke mead copse
This is a very convenient place to film as it's very close to us, only a car drive away. Also Bronte knows the person who lives on the farm so it would be easy to get permission. It's a very secluded area so there wouldn't be any worry of dog walkers or people walking into the film. Also it's very shrouded and gets darker earlier as it's a thick forest.
Monday, 7 January 2013
Horror movies
Here are a list of some classic 80's horror/slasher films. As these films were created in the 80's new forms of Media have been created since and new technology and software that can create a much sharper, clearer image and quicker cuts which have a big impact in a trailer. By researching these it will show us how they were filmed and the angles that were used to make them seem really thrilling and enticing enough to make them classic slasher films.
A nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Paranormal Activity is a low budget supernatural horror film. In the film the two main characters try to document the supernatural force that is haunting them by setting up cameras around their home to film the experience. I like the idea that within the film the characters are also filming what is going on in their house which makes it all the more realistic and makes the audience think that they're a part of the film in a way. Once again this film has been 'loosely based' on actual events, which on hearing this may reel the audience in. They could use this to manipulate the audience and make them believe that it is based on more of a true story than it actually is. The idea that it's film by the characters themselves make it more thrilling, as well as the fact it's filmed in their house and this is occuring in the place that they should be safest. It's something that would stay in people's minds once they left the cinema. It's also bending the rules of the codes and conventions of a typical horror film by making you see that the characters are filming throughout. I like the idea as it makes you feel like it's a real life document.
A nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A nightmare on Elm Street is the first franchise of the
films. It was written and directed by Wes Craven. The plot consists of a group
of teenagers who are stalked and murdered in their nightmares by a character
known as Freddie Krueger in which Wes Craven got inspiration from an old man
that stared at him whilst walking past his home. I like the plot of this film,
I think that it’s a unique concept and something that’s quite twisted and has a
reflective aspect that will stay in the readers mind and make them think about
it in the night which is the intention of a horror film. I like the idea of a
slasher movie however I feel it’s too original with the villain stereotypically
being a strong male and the female would be a victim represented as weak and
less powerful than the villain, therefore if we were to create a slasher movie
trailer, we would have to create some kind of twist or think outside the box to
make it the most effective.
Scream (1996)
In the 90's slasher film scream a mysterious murderer wearing a mask known as Ghostface begins killing teenagers. As more and more teens die a group of friends find themselves following the rules of a horror film and living a real life one. It is based partly on the real life case of the Gainsville Ripper, which I feel makes it more scary and slightly more realistic. The film was considered unique at the time of it's release and openly discussed the cliche that
scream tried to subvert. Once again with this film I think that the storyline is well thought out and for it's time, it re-established the horror genre into the 90's. However it is thought that this film inspired more violent crimes and murders. The main character is played by Courteney Cox who not so stereotypically portrays a powerful woman which changes the cliches and conventions of typical slasher films. The actors in this film could also have made this film successful as they were already well known from previous films and were recognisable to the audience and if there was one specific character that the audience liked, that may have persuaded them to watch this film simply to see that actor take on a different role.
In the 90's slasher film scream a mysterious murderer wearing a mask known as Ghostface begins killing teenagers. As more and more teens die a group of friends find themselves following the rules of a horror film and living a real life one. It is based partly on the real life case of the Gainsville Ripper, which I feel makes it more scary and slightly more realistic. The film was considered unique at the time of it's release and openly discussed the cliche that
scream tried to subvert. Once again with this film I think that the storyline is well thought out and for it's time, it re-established the horror genre into the 90's. However it is thought that this film inspired more violent crimes and murders. The main character is played by Courteney Cox who not so stereotypically portrays a powerful woman which changes the cliches and conventions of typical slasher films. The actors in this film could also have made this film successful as they were already well known from previous films and were recognisable to the audience and if there was one specific character that the audience liked, that may have persuaded them to watch this film simply to see that actor take on a different role.
Paranormal Activity (2007)Paranormal Activity is a low budget supernatural horror film. In the film the two main characters try to document the supernatural force that is haunting them by setting up cameras around their home to film the experience. I like the idea that within the film the characters are also filming what is going on in their house which makes it all the more realistic and makes the audience think that they're a part of the film in a way. Once again this film has been 'loosely based' on actual events, which on hearing this may reel the audience in. They could use this to manipulate the audience and make them believe that it is based on more of a true story than it actually is. The idea that it's film by the characters themselves make it more thrilling, as well as the fact it's filmed in their house and this is occuring in the place that they should be safest. It's something that would stay in people's minds once they left the cinema. It's also bending the rules of the codes and conventions of a typical horror film by making you see that the characters are filming throughout. I like the idea as it makes you feel like it's a real life document.
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