Planning of filming locations and lighting

I created this presentation on the website PowToon and uploaded it onto Youtube to embed it onto my blog. 

Creating the Production Company...

Creating the company from lydiag2

Sound Track inspirations for trailer:

Music is a key aspect of horror films, often used to create atmosphere and enhance certain emotions of the characters. Often, long suspensful notes are used to build tension and build up to a big event and then when the event happens, the music changes to short, sharp notes to help further shock the audience. Lots of voices are used in horror films to reflect fear and realism. Sound effects could include such things as echoed voices, giving a ghostly feel or classic sounds such as crows, bats, church bells and witches cackling. I have been browsing youtube a lot to try and find a sound track for my trailer in which the lyrics and image will be relevant and tie in. I have found some that I really like and will strongly consider using:

I feel like the chorus of this sound track could be really effective to use in my trailer. I feel the lyrics could link very well to Adams character profile and I can adjust it to fit the narrative. Instead of Adam just knowing Nicole at High School she could have been his disastrous 'First Love'. The line 'you better run now' and 'playing for fun' is really creepy, fitting into my narrative of Adam making Nicole his life size doll. The females high pitch voice could work really well with some editing all based round Adam, because it puts the listener into quite a trance. It build up suspense and causes excitement for the audience as they prepare for some action.

Full Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dashberlin/manontherun.html

Lyrics relevant to my trailer:
It's such a travesty
The way you say our love should be
Yeah, such a tragedy
Think you can just break my heart and leave me
Well, you better run now
Man on the run
Playing for fun
Wind me up
Leave me undone

Another track i've found and would like to consider using are these:

This Kate Bush track is also appropriate for my trailer therefore its a possibility, certain parts of the lyrics can also be used to suit by trailer. The voice is the most creepy part of this sound track, she has high pitched vocals which are quite trancing. This could be effective for scenes inside the house, something Adam might put on in the background so its diegetic sound as its part of the scene.

I really like this second one because it can be used quite multi-purposely, it would be a good consistent one. Despite this video being 56 minutes long, the sound that is built up throughout it, by adding different intrumsents, increases the intensity which i feel could suit the narrative of my trailer. It would also fit well the the thriller genre type music that i have listened to whilst researching. I think this could be effective to use after my voice commentary and despite originally wanting lyrics in the sound track I feel this is really effective without any distracting influences. 

Plot Narrative

The Plot Narrative and Theories from lydiag2

Brainstorm on Narratives, Shots, Sound, Props and Locations

http://imm.to/AdY95- To see my mind map through the site, here is the link, below I have provided a screenshot. I found brainstorming some of my ideas allowed me too make decisions on what i want to use and the purpose of it; the effect it will have on the viewers and why it will suit my genre. I found this activity was particulary helpful for looking at shots and camera angles, as I went into detail why each shot was effective and why i might want to use it.

Focus Group Video

Analysis of my Focus Group:

I had 5 student participants in my focus group, aged 17-18, which fits within the age group my trailer is going to be targeted at. I included a mixed group of males and females, to avoid gender bias and instead analyse both answers in order to make my trailer appeal to both genders. The focus group were great discussing and voicing there opinions and this will really help me in the planing and production of my trailer, I will analyse each of there answers below to give me a clearer picture of how the results have been summarized.

1- Do you prefer horror or thriller films? Or a hybrid horror/thriller?

This question was important to see if i was targeting my questions at the right mixture of people, because they had different opinions and answer i felt the hybrid genre was a good choice and suitable to question this group of people. They commented they preferred the narrative of a thriller because it was more psychological, giving them things to think about and consider. They felt horrors could get boring, as they're all quite the same, which makes horror films quite predictable. 

2- Do you prefer the trailer to give away a lot or a little?

The main answer here was that the focus group preferred the trailer to give away a little, but would like to include some of the peak bits of the narrative in order to excite and engage the viewers. Overall it was decided, the right balance needed to be acheived for the trailer to fulfill its purpose of attracting the audience. 

3- What codes and conventions do you expect to see in a horror film?

-Intense music-

-fast pace editing-

-blood and gore-

-low key lighting-

-colour representation- dark, dull gloomy colours (reds/blacks)- 

4- Do the codes and conventions of a horror differ from a thriller?

-horror conventions more set-

-differentiate one thriller from another-

-editng is different-

-they both however often have dark, sinister storylines-

-low key lighting-

-colour representations,dark, dull gloomy colours-

5- What locations do you expect to see in a) horror b) thriller?

Horror:

Abandoned houses

Road-Trips

Isolated Locations

Woods

Graveyards

secluded mansions

Thriller:

more modern story line so locations need to be more realistic, fit into everyday life so the narrative becomes more believable and has a sense of realism.

6- Is the film rating important when watching these genre films?

Overall, people found the age rating only meant the content would be deemed inappropriate for younger audience and this mainly included violence and language therefore they felt the age rating of an 18, wouldn't be any more scary then a 12. 

7- Favourite films!!

-Sinister-

-The Shining-

-The Conjuring-

-Silence of the Lambs-

-Psycho-

-Dr. strange love-

8- What do you expect to see in the narrative of these genres?

Jump scares!! 

Fake scares, to build the audience up to put them on the edge of their seat.

Varying opinions of whether it should be based on a true story

Progress Log- Reviewing genres

I have recorded myself reviewing genres options and posted it online onto sound cloud, here is the direct link to the audio: https://soundcloud.com/user695666251/reviewing-genres

Distribution and Marketing Trailers

My Target Audience...

Despite this being a small sample, their is one outstanding result which doesn't fit in. So, this has shown me I wont be directing my trailer at older people, e.g Nicole who is 38 and upper class and doesn't show a particular interest or curiosity in horror or thriller films but does state she prefers a psychological thriller narrative to stimulate her mind. My choice to direct my trailer at middle/working class people isn't based on this factor however I just feel I will be able to appeal and attract a larger audience if I create a trailer for middle/working class. I also would prefer to direct my trailer to younger audiences, as they're much more up to date with sites and programmes you can use to watch upcoming films so are more likely to show an interest and watch the trailer. Its also because I can base a lot of my audience research on people around the age group 16-24, because these are the majority of people that surround me in my school and work environment therefore giving me lots of opportunities to ask for their feedback and opinions as to what appeals to them. I also feel I can use my own knowledge more, to create a trailer for a younger age group as i'm in that category therefore my expectations are likely to be similar to other peoples expectations.

Progress Log- Initial Ideas for my Trailer

Here are some of my initial ideas for my trailer:
https://soundcloud.com/user695666251/initial-ideas

Now, I'm going to create a brainstorm which should help further my understanding of what I'm going to be producing and what i need to plan it. I hope to communicate my ideas through a thought-web. 

Coursework Timeline

I've created a timeline on an excel sheet, which should ensure I stay on track with my tasks and get everything completed in time. I'm currently in the stage of researching my target audience and have started designing and planning a story board for my trailer. As I complete things I'm able to keep track of my progress which is really useful. 

Thriller Mood Boards

As part of my research for the production of my own trailer I have created various mood boards in order to explore sub-genre within Thrillers in more depth and I aim to spot out typical codes and conventions so I can decide whether or not to use or challenge them in my own production. I created the mood boards on Microsoft Publisher.

Trailer Analysis; Cabin in the Woods

Analysis presentation:

This trailer has inspired me to use masks, i think they're so creepy and will play on people fears. The fact they hide the characters identity, making them completely unrecognizable is effective to give a sense of enigma, which will help fit to Roland Barthes theory. I also fit to one of Jeremy Tunstalls character roles for women due to the fact my main character who is kidnapped and is the victim will be a female. I want to do this because the pre-built association will help my audience familiarize themself with the horror concept. I will not however present this female in a certain way of being sexualised or domestic as i think this is a wrong stereotype so i don't wish to promote it. 

The Shining Trailer Analysis

The build up of slow to fast pace editing is effective as it creates suspense and makes the audience feel unsettled. I like how only parts of the narrative have been shown and its not all been given away in the trailer straight away. Personally, i think this means more people will want to go and watch the film when it comes out. 

Researching Narrative Theories:

Todorov  (theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium)
This is split into 5 stages:
1) A state of equilibrium
2) A disruption of that order by an event
3) A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
4) An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5) A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium at the end of the narrative.

In these narratives its known as a circle narrative rather than a linear or chronological one. The narrative is driven by attempts to restore the equilibrium. The narrative usually ends with a new equilibrium, the characters and situation are transformed through the process of the disruption. The disruption usually takes place outside the 'normal' social framework. This type of narrative is usually applied to many mainstream films. 

Propp (character theory)
Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who developed Propps theory which explained that every story has to have the same character types to give it structure, Propp believed the characters were the main structure of the media. 

Propps theory is effective although it has flaws as it's not a theory that can be applied to every film, the theory was first introduced for fairytales, which the theory fit almost all of them however with the modern films being produced now days its not quite so fitting. 


Roland Barthes- Enigma Codes 

Levi Staruss- Binary Opposites 

Binary opposites are used a lot in films, especially the horror genre, used not only through characters but also props. Some examples of these could be:
- Good/evil
- Insane/Sane 
- Human/supernatural
- Rational/Irrational

Binary opposites usually aid our understanding of the narrative by making them conventional and enabling an equilibrium. Strauss Theories can be linked to heavily to our ideological values, of how we see the world. 

Survey Monkey Questionnaire

I decided to create a questionnaire using the website surveymonkey.com, I thought this would help me in creating my trailer, deciding what key components to include and getting some audience feedback. It will also help me determine my main target demographic by finding out there gender and age. I will be able to summarize the result easily, as its online the data will be a lot easier to gather. 

Here is a print screen of some of my questions:

The link to my FULL survey is here:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7PQ2R58

Questions&Answers

Summarizing the answers, I found the most popular genre was a thriller/horror hybrid, which i found surprising as its a mixture of two genres and isn't a super well known thing. I feel this could be a good direction to go with for my own trailer as it will allow me more experimentation and opportunitites for certain shot types, angles and editing.

This was quite a general question, it just gave me some insight whether females and males both felt the same about movie genres and how to produce a trailer who will appeal to both audiences.

Again, it just gave me more information about my target audience and what they expect and would like too see...

The most popular answer was 18+ which i thought it might be, this is because generally thrillers/horrors attract young people due to their narratives and so they want to see something suited to their age. 18+ ratings mean the trailer is likely to be more mature as a whole because they don't need to worry about other (younger) audiences. 

This will help me massively in the production of my trailer, i found out jump scares and atmospheric music are the most important things so will be sure to incorporate these in my trailer.

This helped me with further research as it could meant i watched some of the participants favorite trailers giving me more insight into what kind of things they like and maybe note down some particular things from each that i particularly like. 

Considerably more people said they would prefer to have little information given away to them in the trailer, asking people for their reasons they said the trailer is just meant to tease you and the film should still have surprises in. I will keep this in mind during the production and editing of my trailer. 

Analysing Shutter Island

The narrative of this trailer inspires me massively, as every time i watch i see something i didn't see the first time. This is the type of film that spurs conversations within groups as everyone has interpreted parts of it differently. I would love for my trailer to spur on this kind of chat after the film and i think the way i want to do this is by not resolving the equilibrium, like in this film, you think everything is going to be okay and then you're left on a cliff hanger. Its very effective as it engages interest in the film even after you've watched it.