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.