Trailer Progress

Filming and changes to what we planned
So far, we have completed all of our filming and transferred the footage onto a Mac book. There have been some changes to what we planned - the main one is the teddy bear. We have decided to completely remove this idea from the trailer because it wouldn't be as scary as we first thought it would be. There have been some shots that have worked really well, such as, the girl screaming whilst getting dragged. This action shot will give the effect we want on the trailer as it is a horror trailer. We haven't used half the props we planned to use such as, balloons and confetti - this was because we think it would create a more comedy effect to our film so we have decided to not use them.

Editing
We have began to edit our trailer on 'Final Cut'. We are still playing with the clips and cutting it where needed and fixing the order of it. We also need to add in text and a voice over.

Changes to the schedule
We didn't plan enough time for our filming. We found that we ran out of time when wanting to film what we planned, because filming took longer than we thought it would. Also, because we filmed the same action but from different actions. To keep on track and to be able to meet the deadline, we simply fixed this by booking out the camera on extra days to film other shots we needed to. By doing so, we are now on track and are able to meet the coursework deadline.

Feedback
The feedback we received from our class was that most of our footage was too dark and therefore we need to brighten some of it using 'Motion'. We can also use 'Motion' to experiment with the different effects to make the trailer as good as we can.

Trailer Plan

Trailer - Time Schedule

Date	Action
5th December’12	Begin first stages of filming. Film scenes that are during the day, e.g. shot of house to set the location
6th December’12	Continue filming the scenes from previous day e.g. Sam getting pulled
15th December’12	Film the clown and where he will be making his appearance
19th December’12	Watch over footage and ask for feedback. Re-record any that didn't work/need improving
23rd December’12	Film scenes with Rekha in
29th December’12	Film the creepy scenes within the dark house such as doors opening, watching the girls sleep in their rooms and creaks.
30th December’12	Film the clown attacks
10th January’13	Filmed Samantha looking outside for Mya and vice versa
16th January’13	Filmed dialogues for the whole trailer e.g. "what the hell is that"
1st February’13	Film in the school dark room for two different parts. One: clown laying out his weapons. Two: girls walk in to find the room
18th February’13	Film the road where the house is, camera from inside the car view to again set location
20th February’13	Film the girls doing casual home things e.g. sitting in the kitchen chopping food and putting clothes away in drawer
23rd February’13	Film the clown walking in the hallways, long shots of his figure. Still shots of places in the house e.g. hallway and bedrooms
24th February ‘13	Re-film any footage that didn't work. Start editing on Final Cut
17th March’13	Research into suitable soundtracks and sound effects
20th March ’13	Complete by adding effects using Motion

Production Schedule

Job allocation for the poster and magazine:

Names	Job Allocation
Lisa, Pavita	Pictures for magazine
Lisa, Linh, Pavita	Pictures for poster
Everyone	Audience feedback for magazine
Everyone	Audience feedback for poster
Everyone	Layout of magazine
Everyone	Layout of poster
Lisa	Making of poster
Lisa	Making of magazine
Own Research individually	Research into magazine covers
Own Research individually	Research into posters
Lisa and Linh	Research into target audience

Magazine and Poster - Time Schedule

Date	Action
5th December’12	Do some research into current movie posters Do some research into current movie magazine front covers
6th December’12	Analysis of the poster, looking at the conventions of what appears, both similarities and differences
15th December’12	Analysis of the magazine front covers, looking at the mise en scene, similarities and differences
19th December’12	Design a mock up of the poster layout
23rd December’12	Design a mock up of the magazine layout
29th December’12	Think about the images going to be used on both the magazine front cover and also the poster
30th December’12	Make the poster and get audience feedback
10th January’13	Make changes from audience feedback
16th January’13	Make the magazine front cover and get audience feedback
1st February’13	Make changes from audience feedback
18th February’13	Make sure the layout is suitable and looks professional

Costume Idea

After gaining some research from the costume ideas, we decided to go with the suit and the clown mask, rather than the cloak.

Production Schedule - Resources

These are what we need to create each product, including software and props:

Trailer:

• A video camera
• Tripod
• Final Cut
• Motion
• Clown mask
• Clown suit
• Gloves
• Weapon (knives)
• Confetti
• Teddy
• Bow tie
• Balloons
• Laptop or iPad
• Photograph
• Newspaper
• Torch
• Suitcase

Poster and magazine:

• Adobe photoshop
• Digial camera
• Mask
• Costume

Production Schedule

Job allocation for the trailer:

Names	Job Allocation
Everyone	Filming
Everyone	Organising costumes
Everyone	Organising props
Pavita	Organising actors: clown and two girls
Everyone	Planning of scenes to film
Linh and Lisa	Editing on Final Cut
Mureum	Research into soundtracks
Linh	Research into film companies
Linh and Lisa	Research into layout of the trailer
Lisa, Linh	Directing while filming of actors
Linh, Pavita and Mureum	Inter titles and voiceover lines
Lisa	Creating the inter titles
Lisa	Photoshop work (editing and creating images)
Linh and Lisa	Adding effects using Motion
Lisa and Linh	Research into target audience

Harlequin Trailer Script

- shot of girl screaming
- cut to black
- girl hiding with weapon breathing heavily
- cut to black
- girl getting dragged
- cut to black
- knife to coming to camera, insert mini blackouts between
- cut to black
- film company (eary music playing throughout titles)
- "Hidden secrets from the past"
- slow zoom in of front of the house
- fade to black and hear door creakily shut
- silence
- "what the hell is that?" (Still in blackout)
- shot of photo
- cut to black
- shot of close up of window in the photo

- cuts to over shoulder shot of clown laying out his props and knives
- fade to black

- girl going upstairs, finds teddy with back to her picks it up and turns to realise mask is on teddy
- cut to close up of bow with symbol on
- hears bang, turns head

- cut to black
- shot of friends room
- shot of daughters room
- figure of clown in hallway
- shot of friends room with clown over her 

- cut to black
- girl goes to bathroom and sees symbols on arms
- looks ahead sees teddy
- cut to black
- holds teddy to arm and compares symbol
- cut to black
- girl on laptop, zoom into google search and results 
- as she realises what it means - shot of clown face appears in window
- cut to black
- shot of friend finding the clown's room with clown toys and knives
- clown in background watching her
- she looks up and sees him
- cut to black
- shot of daughter in bedroom working quietly with earphones in, music blasting
- clown in background walking back and forth outside bedroom door
- cut to black
- daughter finds teddy on bed with the picture
- whispers "I C U"
- head up, zoom in of eyes looking to side
- loud bang, hand grabs her mouth

- mini blackouts between this action
- cuts to closet
- shot of friend looking through the gap (from outside with ray of light on face)
- shot of friend looking through the gap (from inside)
- goes silent
- cuts to black
- shot of girl laying there
- shot of friend reaching out to help friend
- friend gets dragged past closet
- cut to black
- shot of closet
- friend opens closet door slowly (creak sound)
- clown face appears right in front of camera

Audience Feedback

After presenting our planning to the group, they gave us some opinions and ways to improve our story to make it more interesting:

• Harlequin - Good original name, easy to remember
• Unsolved mystery - someone has died before hand
• Should use newspaper to show this
• Clown should use a real kitchen knife as his weapon
• Sounds in trailer should include: heavy breathing, bangs and creaking
• Voiceover should be a deep mail sophisticated voice

We have decided to use all these ideas including creating a newspaper to show the story behind the house.

Question...

Should we use this symbol in our trailer for the clown's motif to show he is present?

Plot

- Daughter and her friend are looking after a house whilst her Father has gone away on a business trip

- They both settle into the house and are enjoying their stay
- The daughter is reading a book then an old black and white photograph of the front of house with a weird face in the top window drops out

- They both see the photograph and are intrigued. The friend then spots the weird face in the top window but reckon it's nothing as it's just an old photo

- The clown is always in the background and therefore hear everything that is said
- The clown then 'frames' teddy with a bow tie on to be the one in the photograph

- The daughter goes up to the attic to find something then finds a teddy with that weird face sitting in the corner
- She then reassures her friend that it was only that teddy so there is nothing to worry about. She then continues with what she was doing

- The clown then comes heavy footed into the attic quickly and rips the face off the teddy then places it back on his face

- The two girls then begin to explore rest of the house

- The daughter shows friend to her bedroom where she's going to sleep

- They find the same teddy on the bed and the friend gets angry at the daughter and accuses her for putting the teddy on the bed

- The daughter laughs off the idea and says it wasn't her and that it isn't even the same teddy

- The friend spots the same bow tie that was on the teddy and from this point she begins to get paranoid and frightened
- The same night, both girls are asleep in their own rooms

- The house is calm and quiet, then the clown begins to appear in the hallways
- The clown then appears in the friend's bedroom as he has figured that she has sussed that something dodgy is going on. He leans over her bed and watches her sleep

- Over the next few days, the friend begins to hear sounds and see figures everywhere in the house
- The teddy also begins to appear everywhere and so the friend is totally spooked out by now and beats the teddy up
- The clown watches in the background and gets angry at her for doing this as the teddy is his favourite toy
- The friend constantly tells the daughter that she keeps hearing sounds and seeing things but daughter laughs it off and doesn't believe her
- The friend then finds the clown's room with clown toys such as balloons and balls and a blooded knife. The clown sees her looking so chases her but she manages to escape and hide in a closet
- The daughter is totally oblivious to what has just happened as she is in her room doing work
- The daughter then finds the teddy holding the same photograph sitting on her bed, with red writing saying "I C U" - looks around but doesn't see anyone/thing. From this point, she finally realises her friend was right. But it's too late
- The clown attacks the daughter and drags her past the closet door where the friend is hiding
- The friend watches all this through the gap of the closet doors and weeps as she is completely helpless. It suddenly then goes silent
- The friend thinks its safe to make a run for it and leans forward to open the closet door
- Suddenly the clown face appears right in front of her
- However, the friend attacks the clown with a knife and manages to escape safely

Ideas

Mask ideas for the killer

Weapon ideas

Costume ideas

Primary Research - Trailer

We carried out a questionnaire to see what people expected to see in horror films.

Research into target audience

The target audience for all our products will of course be those who enjoy the genre Horror. This could be teenagers, young adults and even children.

Poster and magazine
Our poster and magazine uses the dark bold colours such as purple, black and white. This housestyle is used throughout all our print products. 

To attract this audience, we will add 'From the directors of Insidious' as it is a horror film that causes huge suspense and tension, as ours will do to. This gives them an idea that our trailer Harlequin will have the same level of suspense.

On our magazine, we will aim to attract the same target audience by adding straplines which feature new films out in the year and interviews with the cast of Harlequin. 

Trailer
Horror films are usually aimed at teenagers, sometimes even children and young adults who enjoy having an adrenaline rush from the jumpy parts within them. As our trailer is a moving image, it will have a bigger impact on ensuring we achieve the correct target audience compared to the print products. We will be able to do this by creating suspense and tension by using e.g. dark shots, shots of the house being in silence etc.

Edited and Final Version

We added brightness to where the 'ghost' is to make it more visible. We also added noise at the end where the camera drops to add more effect and make it seem like the camera has become fuzzy.

Practice - Original Video

Empire Magazine Cover Analysis

The colours black white and green are used for the masthead, strap lines and pugs. It reflects a thriller type movie because the majority of poster is blacked out with this scary person looking directly at you. 'Empire' is a popular film company and therefore has different editions/issues for each genre and this particular one is of the genre horror, therefore attracting those that are into horrors and thrillers.

The image used is of the well known Joker, aligned right in the center taking up most of the cover. The white pale face and bold red make up reflecting blood which is typical for most horror movies. The red colour reflecting blood is all smudged around the lips, giving an idea that The character is well known therefore creates a bigger impact when trying to appeal to audiences. The font doesn't seem too scary but doesn't need to be, as the image alone makes the cover quite scary. His facial expression gives a scary idea of him searching for his next victim, as his eyes are looking directly straight ahead.

The Grudge Poster Analysis

The image of this eye peeking through long black hair gives a freak effect immediately as it gives a feeling as though it is watching you. It makes the audience wonder, who is this? What is this? And what does it do to people in the movie, which is a good way to persuade them to go and watch it. The blackness around the eye creates a good effect because in reality no one's eyes are like that, giving the idea that this person may be somewhat possessed.

The colours used are red, black and white which is rather typical for a horror movie genre which is why it works so well. The small text 'it never forgives, it never forgets', makes the audience wonder what is 'it'? And does it mean that it will be after everyone who does something wrong to it, or anything to make it angry. The use of even a little sentence on posters can create a huge effect and persuade people to watch them to figure out the plot of the film. My group and I will take this into consideration when creating our own poster.

One Missed Call Poster Analysis

The first impression suggests that this poster is of a horror film due to the colours used (black, red and white). The picture completely matches the name of the film 'One Missed Call' as there is this strange looking person holding a cellphone. However, although his person looks 'different' e.g. the huge eyes, holding a phone next to your ear a completely normal thing to do, therefore it creates a better effect as it will draw the audience in to look closely, then it is figured out that the eyes are made of screaming mouths.

The text above the imagine 'What will you sound like when you die?' is a rhetorical question and when the audience read this they may figure out the plot of the film. I think that although the font of the writing seems to be just normal capital letters, it still makes it the poster scary, simply because of the image.

Parancinema Magazine Cover Anaylsis

The first thing that catches the attention of the audience is of the image 'The Exorcist' although it looks like a painted version, it stills creates the same scary effect. It is right in the centre and takes up a majority of the poster. The masthead 'Paracinema' and strap lines are all in block capitals. Under the masthead says 'The film magazine for people who love genre movies!' shows that this magazine can be for anyone in general that loves movies of different genres. This suggests that inside the magazine has different sections for each genre with different movies. The colours yellow and white are used throughout giving a consistent look. Next to the main strap lines in big block letters have text to inform the audience about what each consists of.

The language is quite amusing 'shifty gender roles, hysterical moms & pissed off daughters' therefore could be targeting mainly adults, or even young teenagers. The text 'The women's issue' shows that this particular magazine's target audience are women.

Room 1408 Trailer Analysis

What attracts the audience to the film? What is the unique selling point? How is this highlighted?
The unique selling point of this film is the story line which attracts the audience to the film - it is about a hotel room '1408' which apparently is haunted and the main character is warned but doesn't listen and is in fact provoking these ghosts; this suggests that he will get what he is asking for. Also, the main character is John Cusack, who is a huge American star. Another character in the film is Samuel L. Jackson is also a well-known actor.

How is the trailer structured?
The trailer begins with the film company name. A brief introduction of the main character and his family is shown. The voiceover then basically tells us about him and what he is trying to do – when his daughter passed away, the afterlife became his obsession; a scene of him is then shown trying to find ghosts/spirits. The history of Room 1408 is told but he still wants to enter the room. The next part is the door opening; it then goes pitch black, which is shown using slow pace shots. The next clips are shown using fast past shots – the room is then empty and flooded with water. The ending of the trailer is of the daughter in the room. The credits then appear. These are shown by the use of slow pace shots.

How is sound used to create suspense/shock?
There are a variety of sounds used throughout which all add to the spooky atmosphere. These include: the background music, which is played throughout the whole trailer. This is rather slow and spooky which builds up tension. There is also drumming sound to show the corridor of the hotel which adds suspense and immediately lets the audience know that the hotel is ‘haunted’. When the door of Room 1408 opens, it opens squeakily, again adding to the atmosphere. The sound of silence even adds to the spookiness as it makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next.

What editing techniques are used? How do they help create suspense/shock?
There are many fast fades to blacks used, almost after every shot – this helps create suspense because we don’t know what is going to happen/appear next. There are also dissolves used to show the next shot.