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Planning - Trailer

Research - Magazine Cover

Planning - Magazine Cover

Research - Poster

Planning - Poster

Evaluation

Target Audience

Our target audience will be both male and female aged between 15 and 35. We chose this as our audience because we feel that we can relate to this age group, and therefore we will be able to give our personal input as well as carrying out extensive research. Though this is our target audience it does not mean that we will exclude others from outside bracket from using our product, it just means that we can focus our time and effort on a specific group of people who are more likely to purchase our product. This way, production is more efficient and is an effective way of reaching out target audience. With a clearly defined audience it is much easier to determine where and how to market our product.

We aim to create our trailer to be a certificate 15. Therefore it will reach out to our desired audience of 15 to 35, by having it as this certificate we hope to attract the younger end of our age range as they feel that it is specifically targeted at them.

We also decided that our target audience would be the type of viewer that would use this media as a form of escapism from their daily lives, they may enjoy gore and things that you do not see everyday. They find the idea of death and distress fascinating, they may not be open about this when in general conversation with other people, but their attitudes towards this are allowed to come through when watching films. This may be because it is seen as the norm to watch horror movies and is not seen as anything out of the ordinary.

What is 'Horror Genre'?

Films within the genre of horror often strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness, they also often include a central villain. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

There are many respected film directors in relation to the genre of horror, including Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, and Francis Ford Coppola.

We had the choice of many genres of film such as action, science fiction, romance, comedy etc. We could have also chosen to create a hybrid genre where a genre borrows certain codes and conventions from other genres and becomes a mixture of more than one genre. After consideration we chose horror genre because we thought about our resources practically and thought that we could not create professional looking special effects for a science fiction or action movie trailer. We also decided that we would enjoy creating a horror genre trailer more than any other genre and so thought we would make a better final product if we enjoyed it.

Horror Genre - James Whale: Frankenstein

Before deciding on the plot line and various other aspects of our film trailer we did some research into our chosen genre of 'horror'. We looked into existing films by various directors and producers.

James Whale

(1889-1957)

James Whale is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre.

He directed,

Frankenstein(1931)

The Old Dark House (1932)

The Invisible Man (1933)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

these are all recognized as classics of the genre.

In his film Frankenstein it represents:

*Alienation
*Disorientation
*Extreme loneliness
*Scapegoat of our fears and prejudices
*Confusion – from an enquiring child to a tormented teenage and finally the beast, madness and violence.
*The monsters childlike gestures towards the light speak of incredulity and desire for answers and comfort.

Within this film there were also various codes and conventions used to confirm the genre of the film.

*Screen fades from black to the monster chained in the cellar.
*Black represents it is not his body that is imprisoned but his mind (confusion, frustration, ill treatment).
*Chiaroscuro lighting and distorted elements create tension and horror and show disfigurement of society.
*Nothing the cellar is straight, everything distorted.
*Sloping walls, tiny barred window.

Conventions of Horror Movies

We did some research into the conventions within many horror movies. We can then use these conventions to help us create our trailer.

Conventions of horror movies
· Blood
· Death
· Killing
· Villain
· Victims
· Isolated settings
· Evil
· Darkness
· Storms
· Chase sequences
· Gore
· Violence
· Screams

Production

The production phase itself is split up into 3 sections:

Pre-production: planning, design, storyboarding, casting etc.

Production: the actual shooting of the trailer.

Post-production: editing the trailer together, adding sound and special effects.

We will spend many hours in the pre-production phase planning what we will be doing for our production stage. This way when we reach the production stage it will be easier as it is so thoroughly planned out. We will then also spend a lot of time on the post-production stage to make sure that our final product is to the highest standard of our ability.

Vladimir Propp - Narrative Theory

According to Propp's narrative theory he says that film narratives follow the structure of,

Equilibrium

Disruption of equilibrium

New state of equilibrium

However we are only creating a film trailer, not a film in its entirety therefore we do not want to give away the new state of equilibrium as that would give away the films plot.

Where would our media product be distributed?

These are a few ideas we had for places we could distribute our trailer:

• Cinema
• DVD - rental and sales
• Satellite/ Digital TV
• Box Office
• Terrestrial TV

The distributors are the ones with the money such as Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. These are usually part of huge media conglomerates such as News Corporation.

Questionnaire

As part of our research we decided to create a questionnaire to distribute to 40 people within our target 15-35 age range. This questionnaire consisted of 10 questions and will help us to create an artifact that hits our target audience's requirements.

1) How old are you?

2) Are you?
Male? Female?

3) What genre of film do you most enjoy?

4)Where are you most likely to watch films?
Home? Cinema? Friends? Other?...please specify

5)Do you prefer films containing?
Celebrities? Unknown actors/actresses?

6)Do you prefer trailers which?
Leave a cliff-hanger? Explain the storyline clearly?

7)Do you prefer low budget or high budget films?
Low (Blair Witch Project)? High (Friday the 13th)?

8)Which colour/s do you associate with the horror genre?

9)Which gender do you consider to be the stereotypical victim?

10)Do you prefer short film titles or longer film titles which give you more insight into what the film may be about?
Short? Long?

Questionnaire Results

Once we gathered our data from our questionnaires we placed the results into pie charts to show clearly what we had found.

Here are our results.

Existing Movie Trailers

The Orphan Trailer

• Establishing shot – equilibrium
• Female voice over
• Medium close up, woman, nun
• Non diagetic sound, music, relaxing, not suspicious
• Medium close up of girl, colours, young child-like, innocent
• Two shot, closeness of parents, happy families
• Music becomes more sinister, ‘I don’t really see the point of it’
• ‘I’m different’
• We can’t initially tell by the trailer, however the music gives us an indication that the equilibrium will be disrupted.
• Girl is very charming and polite, gives impression of ‘perfect child’
• ‘an extraordinary little girl’ in more ways than one
• Closeness, holding hands
• Fade edit into next part of storyline
• Over head shot, shows that they live in a normal environment, normal family
• Overly nice to the son, ‘it’s a pleasure to meet you’
• In school, when girl comments on clothing, facial expression changes from content to angry/evil
• Change in sound, echoing
• Slight slow motion, teachers hand slides from her back
• Emphasises particular character and Esthers emotions towards her
• Dim lighting
• Relaxing music is no longer present, music is not very hollow and eerie
• Diagetic sound, kicking toilet wall, emphasises frustration, complements the non diagetic sound
• Quick cut edits, glimpse into frustration
• Low angle shot when angry shows power and status and control on the situation, audience is cowering down
• Rule of thirds to show distance and tension that is playing on the relationship of the parents
• Screaming continues over shots
• Close up of girl screaming, piercing, why is she screaming? Make the audience want to find out why she is screaming
• Simple white background, black blurred text, dripping like blood
• Serif sans
• 2 seconds blank screen with voice over, emphasises her speaking.

• The opening scene starts with a question drawing the audience in by making then think about the answer. The line ‘How would you like to go to the best private party of your life’ makes the audience feel like their being personally invited, yet intrigued to find out what is going to make it so exclusive and unique.

• The low pitched ongoing note creates an ambience of fear and tension yet is contradicts its self by the exited tones of the actors. This gives the impression that things are not going to go according to plan.
• The equilibrium is subtly destroyed when we get a flash of one of the characters later in the film, mixed in with shots from him earlier on. The initial shot is lit with natural light and it is clear that at this point in the film they are safe. The flashing image disrupts this equilibrium as the image is extremely dark, showing the same character is hunched looking extremely pale. The shot flicks back to the first shot however again flashes a scene from what appears to be inside of the hole. This time the same boy can be seen lying on the floor and appears to be dead. Although these shots are fast and hard to see, it is clear that this is not going to be the party they initially thought it was going to be and is an indication to the audience that it is going to go horribly wrong.
• The music at this point has intensified building the enigma and tension.
• The dialogue at this point is important as it introduces us to the main characters and the setting and general story line of the film.
• At this point the pace of the trailer increases, building up the suspense and swiftly moving the trailer on to the setting were the main events take place. This is done with the use of a faded blackout to move us from one scene to another. It also zooms in and out, giving us the impression that time has moved forwards.
• The shot moves to a low angle shot from inside the hole. The bright daylight from outside contrast with the darkness of the hole showing they are going to be cut off from all civilisation.
• There are a number of flashing images showing a torch being shone around the dark place. This creates a sense of mystery and apprehension for the audience as they are intrigued to know what the surroundings are.
• At this point the music has been built up by sound effects such as banging heavy metal doors, the sound of thunder and echoing voices. The ongoing sound of the music stops and we here a bang that echoes. This creates the feeling of suspense as we are unaware of what may happen next.
• The trailer once again contradicts itself as if it is trying to trick the audience into thinking something bad is going to happen when it isn’t. The next shot is of the teenagers enjoying themselves at what appears to the best party of their lives. The lights in the hole have been turned on and we can now see into what appears to be an old bomb shelter. The fact that we can see clearly were they are fills us with a sense of security and the confidence of the group shows us that we have no reason to be scared.
• The non-diagetic sound changes from the very sinister low note to upbeat ‘party’ music. This automatically destroys all sense of tension that had been built momentarily rebuilding the equilibrium. The teenagers can be seen acting irresponsibly yet enjoying their youth.
• The balance is once again destroyed by a shot of one of the boys being pulled by his hair by a hand. This is a medium close up therefore showing us his body and that he is at a lower and more vulnerable position that the person grabbing him. We cannot see at this point whether it is one of the four teenagers or someone else, however the freezing of this image and the change in colour to red connotes to us that he is in danger.
• The music immediately stops and the diagetic sound of a scream can be heard. This once again destroys the equilibrium and tells the audience that these people are in danger. This immediately rebuilds the tension, shocking the audience yet leading then into a state of suspence to find out what has just happened. The pause of the shot also enhances this.
• The diagetic sound of one of the boys shouting ‘What the fuck is wrong with you’ gives you an insight into the film as it is telling you that someone there is causing problems, the question is who. This short line leaves the audience questioning what is happening and anxious to find out who is causing the devastation that is about to take place.
• The flashing captions also enhance the build up to the climax as they say things such as ‘lies their worst fears’ and ‘the truth will be buried’ giving us the impression that they may be trapped down their forever. The writing is written in red which is a colour that symbolises blood, anger, fire and evil.
• There is also a shot of a blood splat on the wall giving us a clear indication that someone has been hurt or even killed. This links in with the red writing and the pictures changing to the colour red. It is a clear example of if the narrative however still keeping us in suspense about how this has happened.
• At the end of the trailer the pace begins to pick up rapidly building anticipation about what is going to happen. The diagetic sound of the high pitched scream tells us that something terrible has happened as well as the unexpectedness of it filling the audience with a sense of terror. At this point on the trailer the low pitched note has slowly crept back in to create an eerie ambience.