Captions

These are screen grabs of the captions in the first draft of the trailer. There are seven of them all together. We used a black screen as this represents the horror genre and the white writing to make it stand out. We experimented with the postioning of them. Looking at all seven there is a pattern begining with the top right hand corner and then the left bottom corner and so on. The last caption reading 'Your Not alone' is placed in the middle to emphasise the effect it will have on the audience. They have to read it and it is large in the middle of the screen grabbing there attention. After each sentence we used dots to follow on to the next caption telling audiences there is more to come, creating suspense.

However after showing the first draft to our core audience there was lots of feedback on the captions. These are some of the comments our audience had on them.

'Black screen works well, looks scary, captions should be bigger' Male aged 21

'Captions should be more central' Female aged 18

'Captions should be in a bolder font, maybe with some colour' Male aged 40

After reading the comments and doing a larger amount of reasearch I realised these captions do not follow the conventions of the horror genre entirely. Looking at other film trailers I looked closely at the captions and found some examples of what ours should look like and what we should change.Also the last caption has a spelling mistake and should read 'You're Not Alone. This will also have to be changed.
From my research i found these captions below that are from the film trailer 'The Last House On The Left' which is the one I thought was the best example of what the conventions of captions are.

The caption above is the one i find most interesting and effective. Here there is two statments that dissolve into each other with the second using the same previous words. 'If Someone hurt' fades away, however the word someone then becomes 'Someone you love'. These captions keeps the audience intreaged and will think this is clever, i would like our captions to have the same effect and plan to use something similar when re-editing.

My first inital thoughts on the captions in our trailer was that there were too many, however looking at 'The Last House On The Left' there is roughly the same amount and they work extremely well together. What I found out from this research was that captions are positioned in the centre of the screen in the majority of trailers. The font is usually solid and in a bright colour standing out against a dark background. Usually in captial letters the writing usually has effects such as dissolving , moving and fading in and out of each other. The one i have commented on above is the perfect example of this. I found in our trailer the dots after each sentence do not fit with this genre and are usually found more in the comedy genre trailers, which is not what we are aiming for in our trailer.

The font in the new captions will also match the film poster we will create later.

All of these will be taken into consideration when re-editing the trailer.

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We have now re edited our trailer with the new improved captions, which now follow the conventions of a horror film trailer . Also using a comment posted on my blog the spelling and placing of the captions have been changed as well as the things noted above.Below is the last caption from our trailer. The caption is now in the middle with colour filled text and an effect around it. I believe this has worked better than the original captions we used in the first draft.

Audience Feedback On First Viewing Of Trailer

Draft of Trailer
As the trailer is the most important element of a campaign it is important that it attracts the target audience in order for them to want to see the film. It is important that the audience sees a draft of the trailer so that their opinions are taken into consideration.
I showed our core audience the first version of our trailer and provided them with a short questionaire to answer, in order to collect the feedback and improve the trailer.
I asked a total of twenty people from our target audience to find out their opinions.

Creating a questionnaire was a great form of research as audience feedback can be collected easily and I found this to be very useful. Individually I created it in word and handed it to our target audiences. Once they had completed it I counted up and observed the results.

Questionnaire results

1. Did you immediately know the genre of the trailer?
Yes 16 No 4
This is a good result as the majority of people we asked immediately knew the genre which is what we want. To improve it we could emphasise the conventions of the horror genre in order to make it so every member of the audience can see it is a horror film trailer.

2. What is the most intense part of a horror film trailer? The Music 9 The Characters 3 The Build Up 5 Graphic Images 3
These results are what I expected. I previously knew the music is important to our audience from the feedback i got from them when presenting them with my initial ideas on music and sounds. The build up is also similar to this as the music takes a part in it. From these results i believe there is nothing that vastly needs improving.

3. Did you anticipate what was going to happen?
Yes 5 No 15 Knowing what is going to happen in a horror film is typical because of the build up and music used(as discussed above). I think 15 is a good number as the majority of our audience is on edge and unaware of whats coming.

4. Was the trailer believable?
Yes 17 No 3 I am most impressed with this result as my initial worry was that the horror trail would not be believable and in some way commical.However, knowing that my audience believe in the trailer I am more confident that it is on the way to being a successful trailer.

5. Do you think it met the conventions of the horror genre?
Yes 18 No 2 This results proves that research and planning has proven to work well as we have followed the conventions well and the audience agrees.

6. What is your opinion on the captions?
'Need to be central' - 'Solid Font' - 'Brighter Font' - 'Dark Background works well, captions stand out against them'- 'Font could have some colour'- ' Font needs to be larger'- ' Needs to be in captical letters' - ' Could use alternative white background/black writing'- ' Dots after writing make it look less believable'- 'Black screen to plain'- 'Larger font, in a solid colour' - 'Writing is very good, helps fits the trailer together'- 'Wording adds suspense to trailer' - 'Words are tense doesn't tell to much of the stroy' - ' Captions are positioned into many places' - 'Black and white too plain, maybe use colour such as blue'-' Captions need to be in one place' - 'Could use an image in the background'- 'Words work well along side images'-'Captions dont give too much away'.
All of these comments have been a great help and will be taken into great consideration when re-editing and improving our trailer. I agree with the majority of them and will use the ideas as much as we can.

7. Do you think the locations fit the horror image?
Yes 13 No 7 I think this is a resonably good result and agree with some of the feedback i got. Our initial idea for the house was a abandoned american style house, however we were unable to find this. So the house we did use I tried the best I could in order to make it look as horrific as possible. Taking this into consideration we have another part to film so this could be improved.

8. Does the fast editing build up enough tension?
Yes 16 No 4 I am please with these results as I also agree that the fast editing with short sharp shots adds a great amount of tension, meeting the conventions of the horror genre.

9. Does the music add an intense feeling?
Yes 17 No 3 As I have already discussed above the music is important to our audience and these results show me that they like the music and sounds there are in the trailer.

10. Does this trailer make you want to see the film?
Yes 14 No 6 These results are promising that the trailer can be successful as the majority of our audience would want to see the film. I believe with the above things improved the trailer would be convincing and attract even more of the audience into wanting to see the film.

Editing

Now the filming is completed we can begin to edit and creat the trailer. To create the trailer we are using the programme Adobe Premiere Pro. Previously i have only used I Movie on the MACs so this is a new experience for me. Below is a photo of the programme Adobe Premier Pro.

At first glance of the software I was overwhelmed with the amount that can be done with the footage. However after experimenting I found it relatively easy and enjoyable to use, so I was looking forward to creating the trailer.




















Above is a photograph taken of me whilst editing the trailer. Each time we filmed we transferred the footage on to our assigned computer. I found this quite hard as we had assigned computers but we were not the only people using it, limiting when we can get on them to continue editing.

Now we have begun to edit, and are quite a way through, we have experimented with what works well, what shots are most successful we know the definate locations, characters and propps we are using which are listed below as well as the reasons why.

Locations- Front of house- This includes the shots of the couple walking to the door, opening it and going in. Here the lighting was most difficult however we improvised using car headlights which created effective shadows on the side of the house.

Back of house- Here we used the most interesting shot. It was a hand held unsteady camera running towards the house. Here the lighting was not a problem as we used the light from inside the house.

Inside the house- Here we used the
Bathroom: shots of the hand in the shower and the writing that read 'IM HOME'

Staircase: This location is used for the shots of Stacy and the 'Man in Black' run up the stairs. A door at the top of the stairs is used when someone can be seen being dragged into a bedroom and the door slapped behind them.

Kitchen-Shots filmed in this location were walking with the knife, going through the knife draw franticaly, 'Man in Black' stomping towards screen and the back door where Stacy is banging on the door for help.


Charcters- Man (Ryan)The man out of the couple is not featured in it much. He appears coming into the house and that is the last time we see him. This adds a sense of mistery to the trailer as audiences will want to know what has happened to him.

Woman(Stacy)-This characters is the main and the one that features in the trailer the most. She was very reliable and acted what we told her to well, in order to make it look as realistic as possible. Audiences also do not see what happens to her adding more mystery and tension.

'Man in Black' (Ryan)- We chose Ryan to act as the 'Man in black' also because he was the perfect build to play a mysterious scary man that has power over the other characters. Altough he was not the best actor it was successful as he had a mask over his face making him look more horrific. His movements however where perfect to represent someone out to kill.

Propps:
Knife and Machette: For the film trailer we included weapons in order to show there will be killings and characters trying to protect them selves. The most ignificant shot for me regarding weapons is when Stacy is franticaly searching through the knife draw showing the panic and how scared she is ading mystery to the trailer as audiences will want to know 'why and what does she need a knife for?' and 'Whst is she protecting herself from?' making them want to see the film.

The machette features in the shot where the 'Man in black' appears sudddenly and is lit up by car lights. It was hard to see the weapon and I was disapointed as it was a real weapon which adds a realistic element to the trailer.

Costumes:The 'Man in black's costume is the most important. We dressed him all in black and in a mask covering his face to add mystery as you never see his face and not knowing who he is or what he wants will scare audiences, which is what we want to achieve as it is a horror film trailer.

Lighting- This was one of the most important propps used. A horror film convention is the mood created in the trailer and lights are included in this. We found it difficult we needed it to be dark but not so dark that we could not see. To solve the problem we had we improvised using car headlights to light up the house. This added an eerie effect creating shadows and a spooky setting. We also used a small torch when an extra light was needed.

Filming

We started filming on Tuesday 10th Nov, using the filming schedule and storybroad, so we had it planned out well. However when we started filming I realised how much planning really needs to be done and that there are so many things that needed to be taken into consideration including, the weather , if locations and actors are available, camera shots whilst following the storyborad and trying to meet the criteria.

As we are filming a horror film trailer, we planned to film when it was getting dark. However as it is winter, it got dark very quickly limiting us as to how much we could film, so once it had got dark we found it hard to film as the lighting was difficult.


Having learnt from our previous attempt of filming, we went out days later ready to film again. We planned to go out earlier to allow ourselves more time to film. Witht the difficulty of lighting we improvised using car headlights to light up the house in that scene. Inside the house we had dim lighting to create the horror genre setting.A tourch was also used when a extra light was needed. We stuck to the filming scheudle and stroyborad and we got a considerable more amount of filming done, ready to start editing on the computer.
Below are photos of some of the propps used for film and the actually equipment.

The most difficult think I found about filming was trying to arrange when people were available to film. The difficulty was when people were unavailable but we had previously arranged to film which then set us back, or one person was available and the other not. However the actors we used were reliable and enabled us to film when and what we wanted, which made it easier to direct and to get a large amount of filming done.

Filming Schedule

Above is the filming schedule. Along with the storyboard we will follow this as much as we can. I believe this will be usefull to us as we have previously planned what and when we will film rather than wasting time desciding then. However in some ways I could find it restricting as it is such a tight schedule and we may come across problems where things may have to change.
Things to take into consideration and prepare for:
Weather
Actors are unavailable
Someone in my group is unavailable
Locations or Propps become unavailable.

Final StoryBoard

After more research(focused analysis), audience feedback and planning this is the final storyboard. Some of my initial storyboard is used in this as I thought it was a good beginning of a horror film trailer.

Plot- There is not too much of a plot in the trailer. If there was it would tell too much of a story which is not what a teaser trailer does. Using Todorov's theory at the beginning of the trailer there is a state of equilibrium. We see a couple returning to their house, there is an indication they have been away as they are pulling a suitcase. They walk up to the house and through the door. The woman walks to the cupboard, opens it and we see a girl dead. From this point on, there is now a state of disequilibrium and things start to get worse. The music and editing show this. From here the man is not seen again. This is too keep audiences interested as they will want to know what has happened to him. Continuing with the disequilibrium, there are now short, sharp shots showing a sequence of events in no particular order

Focused Analysis: Locations

The location is the part of the film trailer I found most difficult. I have done a large amount of research on the typical locations of horror film trailers. They usually consist of places where characters and audiences feel un-easy, dont no where they are or somewhere that is thoguth to be haunted or something previosuly has happpened there. From my research these are typical locations featured in horror films.

















































The orginal location we had in mind was an abandoned, american style house which would have been ideal for a horror trailer. However, we found it extreamely difficult to find this and had to go with another location. The location we have chosen is an ordinary house. As the plot of the trailer, is a couple coming home to an empty, dark house so with the right lighting we thought it could fit this image and would succesfully meet the conventions of the horror genre.

This is the house we are planning to use for the trailer with correct lighting, an empty drive and a dark house it will fit the horror image perfectly.This image has been taken from a range of photos taken for the poster and magazine cover.

Other locations include the inside of the house as well as the backgarden and bathroom. We also plan to use a shot where the camera is purposely shaking with heavy breathing all takin place running towards the house. My worry is that it will be too dark with no source of light to get a sufficient amount of footage.

Focused Analysis: Sound/Music

The sound and music is a vital element of the horror genre. It adds suspense, tension and builds up to the climax of the trailer. The sound also adds to what is going on , on the screen without the music, what is taking place would not have the same effect on audiences. Our trailer needs to have the same effect so music and sounds such as screaming are essential, following the conventions of the horror genre.

For our music we will not be able to use music where we have to ask for permission so using websites such as www.freeplaymusic.com we are able to download music that can be easily inserted into our film trailer.

The main conventions of music in horror film trailers is that the music begins of with a slow tempo eerie style, fitting with the editing a main event haooens and the whole video becomes more uptempo, meaning the music will become faster louder and more aggressive. This is the type of music we want to include in our trailer.
Below is a link to youtube where i found the perfect example of the music beginning slow and then gaining tempo.



Here are some other examples of music featured in horror film trailers. Using these as an idea we can find our own or even create our own using gargeband on the mac.





Sound effects are also used such as heavy breathing and sounds to exagerate actions. Again i have found some links to examples of these sounds.

Focused Analysis: Characters

Having studied many horror film trailers there is a clear structure of types of character in each of them.(Structurilism) This relates to Vladamir Propp's theory. He believes there are 8 character roles in every media text.In the trailers I have analysed there is always a villian and a victim, and in some even a hero.
Examples of Propp's idea of a Villian

















Propp's idea of a victim




















In our own trailer we have followed this theory and there is a villian(Killer)and victims, which one is already dead. This involves the theory of Diagesis. As the relative has already been killed out of the field of vision this is known as Non-Diagetic event, as it has taken place off screen before the movie has started.

Charcters- Man (Ryan)not featured in it much. He appears coming into the house and that is the last time we see him. Audience will be unaware of what happens to him

Woman(Stacy)-This characters is the main and the one that features in the trailer the most. This charcter is the main focus as well as the killer.Audiences do not see what happens to her in the end adding more mystery and tension.

'Man in Black' (Ryan)- 'Man in black'is the charcters creating all the problems and there would be no film without him. He is a killer having gone into someones house ready to attck.
Ellie- This character dies and this is the main event that cuases the disequilibrium(Todorov's theory). From this point is where things become worse.

The Campaign

For our campaign we will be creating a teaser trailer, film magazine cover and a film poster. However in the media industry they create a synergy in order to advertise and promote the film in the best way possible.
The trailer is the most important element of a film campaign. It is the first exposer of the film in the context and experience of the cinema, this includes the sounds and graphics and how the overall concept of the film, is portrayed.
There are also different types of trailer aiming to have different effects on the audience.


Teaser trailer- This is the type of trailer we will be producing. This can be made before production at the earliest stages, grabbing the audiences' attention.


Full Theatrical trailer- This is the trailer that is shown in the cinema before the film is released. This is the first time the audience has an insight to the film, and it is vital the trailer catches the audience's attention at this point, pursuading them to go and see the film.


Short Trailer- This is a shorter version of the full theatrical trailer. This is usually played in cinemas after the film is released as a reminder to audiences and another attempt to attract audiences to see the film.


There is also occasionally a tv version of the trailer. Again, to attract audiences in a different way via the television rather than the cinema. The producers of the film will buy a spot and the trailer, usually around 30 seconds, will fit in the slot as an advert. To amount to rent a slot is usually around 30,000 pounds, although prices will vary.
Within a campain each element will link to the others, creating a visual images the audience will remember and relate to that film. An example of this is the copy used throughout the campaign. Many producers will create a indivual font so when audiences see the font they will immediately recognise the film.
When creating our products we will create a copy to use on each one that will link them together this is known as a sinergy, making it rememberable to other audiences.These are all examples of fonts that have been created especially for the film campaigns and audiences will recognise these fonts immediately, reminding them of the film and persuading them to see it.


















Depending on genre, the types of copy vary. Usually in comedy film trailers a voice over is used, to create a comical effect. With drama/horror captions are usually used. They act as a bridge gap and the glue of the trailer, creating a mood, such as suspense and tension.

Poster-This is a teaser element of the campaign. This is created before filming in the early stages of the campaign. They are usually simple with a focus point of one image, with the title of the film logos and the release date. They are eye catching and act as a reminder for audiences to look out for the trailer and go to see the film.



Film Magazine Cover- These are used to promote the film. They usually consist of the actors in the film and also some images featured in the film. They advertised release dates and could include interviews and spoilers of the movie as well as the reviews. If people are into the horror genre they will be interested in these things there for buy the magazines.

Audience

When targeting an audience, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration in order to attract them to the film trailer,focusing on age, gender, race, location and income bracket/status. The target audience for our horror film trailer is both genders and people over the age of 18. The audience age range begins at 18 as this is the certificate of the film.

The film must have a USP(unique selling point)in order to attract audiences. Within the film industry the biggest and most frequent audiences are 15-24 or families. Due to the genre of our trailer being horror we are not aiming at families. Our trailer is aiming more at 18-30 maybe higher this is taking into consideration the main demographics. The tabke below shows the status levels of the audience.



Looking at the table,the audience we are aiming at would come under C1, C2 and D. I believe this is because the age ranges would come under these sections and are more likely to go and see the film. It is unlikely that anyone above C1 would visit the cinema so would not be attracted to seeing the film. Any one under the D category will not see the cinema as a priority as they have other needs that are more important. This would then have an effect on them being attracted to the film.

This relates to Abraham Maslowe's Heirachy of needs- if (like a student) we have a limited amount of money to spend, we spend it on the things we need before choosing from a range of luxuries such as cinema tickets - rather than hiring/borrowing DVDs or watching the telly!