Second Day, Second Attempt

Hi. Today's filming has been delayed an hour due to bad weather conditions, however we are not giving up! I dropped into college today to pick up a tripod for the establishing shots, and we thought id update the blog on how our filming is going. Last Friday, we (including Sam's actor friend, Justin) made our way to Cowplain to begin filming the all important opening sequence, the pub scene. Truthfully, we had no choice but to film the pub scene, because we noticed that it got so dark, it was impossible to see anything in the forest we filmed. This is when we decided to stretch the schedule a bit, and film some shots today.
Filming went along smoothly though. Sam's friend did extremely well in presenting ideas, and acting out his role. He was happy to take part in our work and we were honestly surprised that he doesn't mind being thrown to the floor in the midst of our trailer (Getting muddy and wet perhaps). Also, Sam decided to play a supporting role as 'Toby's' friend, who helps take the mink out of who's now called Lauren (Alice's role). The character name was changed to Lauren, because incidentally, Toby/Justin confused it around when we said Laura before. So now, we have footage of the pub scene, with him calling my character Lauren.
The location of the pub scene was good, for we found a small corner to film in, where no one was around and gave us a chance to be ourselves when filming. We didn't want people in the footage to be looking around at the lens as we filmed, it'll be off-putting.

Today, we're hopefully going to film all of the establishing shots, the tracking shots and the hopefully the running scene with me running alone through the woods. It's gonna be tough, because Alice has got to force herself to get exhausted in order to create realistic footage, and that she's got to look scared and petrified and maybe have to scream too!
Matt will be in charge of the camera work, whilst Sam will be there to fill in maybe some empty roles, and to give his personal opinion on the footage. We need opinions! So feel free to comment.
The lighting of the area is causing some major issues at the moment, and for one thing, its getting us worried whether if its alright to film from a dark pub scene, into a sort of bright, running scene. Of course, we can edit it into a dusk atmosphere, but what about the edited night-vision shot? We can't edit two things in one piece of footage at once. I guess we'll find out later after the holidays during the editing process. One thing for sure, we hope we'll get some really cool photos today like we took before. You'll find these photos on the photos bar on the right. The photos taken during our last location scouting; the ones that were taken and edited by and Matt has downloaded on his iphone. They were beautiful if you ask.
We can't wait for our next filming session, for it includes Sam dressing up as the Antagonist, and its Matt we have to rely on to get just the right shot of the grabbing moment. One thing that gets to us, is how Sam is going to see when he's wearing a mask AND a white shirt over his face to make a blank face. It's surely going to be a funny day of filming indeed. Right we're off, with the tripod, to begin our second day of filming :)

Updated Script and Filming

Last session, we updated the script. New lines have been written in, and hopefully, it's all been sorted out and ticked off ready for filming. Filming will start in about 2 hours, and hopefully we'll get most of the shots done and out of the way tonight. Next week, we are doing some of the more complex hard scenes, and re-shoot some the footage we may have not quite liked beforehand. Sam is dressing himself up as the antagonist, and Alice is getting ready to play the role of Laura. She's a little nervous but hopefully it'll go smoothly tonight. She's bringing with her an array of lighting equipment, including a large torch to help get around the dark forest with and hopefully to pick out good lighting in the footage. Matt may also be playing a guest role too, as one of Toby's best friends at the pub, who pick on laura for not being old enough to have a drink. Toby is going to be played by Sam's friend who offered himself kindly to play it, thank goodness. And Matt will be the person behind the camera, hopefully to get all the right shots and camera angles in there.

Anyways, below is the updated, script:

Script and Basic Updates

Last week, we began writing the script to our trailer. we attempted to piece together our ideas, characters and expected shots into it, however it didn't turn out as expected for Matt. This is normal though, since now we began developing upon it, cutting out sections, writing new ones in, and starting to REALLY bring our trailer into the light. The beginning of the trailer, she wrote both characters Laura, and Toby talking about villains of movies and what they do to their victims. Matt didn't like this, for he wanted the trailer to start out with a warm atmosphere, where students are just chilling and having fun. So we cut that section, and replaced the conversation with a normal, non-hollywood cliche conversation about drinking and ID's, and how Laura is picked on by Toby and probably his other friends. One other thing, is that we wanted to present Laura, as an innocent, sane heroine character, as for Toby, a sort of drunk stupid character who always dies first. This works well with the plot, for they've all just finished their night out and walking home. Laura asks if Toby could walk her home since the shortcut to her house is through the woods, and that its pitch black. He accepts, however he doesn't know what is about to come.

The first draft of the script, and the updates we made to it are presented below:

Location, Location, Location... scouting

For a tenth session, it really wasn't a session, heck we weren't in the classroom. Instead, we were given permission to go location scouting! Regardless of how far away we live! We trekked to the specific locations we found on Google maps to observe and learn how much an effort it'll take to work on there. The fields were fantastic, perfect for the night-vision POV shot of the slender man himself, along with long walkways and paths where we took a lot of photos of. Sam also introduced the pub which surprisingly, wasn't so far from the fields and rural areas we were planning to film on. For one thing, i'm glad i wore my walking shoes today, for we continued down some roads and past town into a forest with the perfect dense environment which we'll take advantage of later when we start filming. Matt and Sam took plenty of photos, specifically one which included a reflection in the water which we all particularly liked. Theres also one sample film of a tracking shot moving through the wooded plains Matt took, which he will hopefully upload later on along with the photos. For one thing, i'm glad we got this sorted out today because now we got the location and area sorted and out of the way. A friend of Sam has agreed to play the part of the stupid character, whilst Alice is playing the main girl who gets chased primarily through the film. She's totally up for it, even mentioning about how she can run a few laps around the area just to get the high breathing action going for just a few seconds of footage. We're thinking of cutting the boyfriend character out for we were unable to find an actor to play him, and we've also discussed equipment that we needed to bring. Matt has bought online a tripod specific for the iPhone and a wide angle lens, which will both come in VERY handy, just so we can film it without the lens moving so much and in capturing more within the scene. Alice is going to bring her families large torch, with other lighting equipment and such just we can see in the dark whilst filming.

Filming Scheduled to start the Monday after the next,
             3rd December to 10th December 2012

Piano Keys are the Key +New Art

This afternoon whilst at home, i conducted a piano key test using the application 'Garageband', afterwards recording my voice and editing it all into this sound test video which you should see below.
A screenshot shows how the app presents its piano keys, and how i can use the keyboard as the actual piano.

The artwork displayed is of my own work. Our group is thinking that sticking to classic instruments and beats, we can create a very tensive atmosphere within our trailer. What do you think? Feel free to comment.

'Painting on the blank canvas'... Session 9

Todays lesson is all about the storyboards. The entire group was here today so we managed to get plenty of work done unlike last week which went a little slow. Alice and Matt discussed camera angles and how our strategy of guerilla filmmaking will take hold. The script, is not going along quite as great as we planned, however were hoping to draw inspiration from the story boards which is progressing nicely. Sam managed to find new locations and areas to possibly film in, with motorways (A3+ Park lane), extensive fields, and narrow woodland areas (Public Bridleway). We're confident on our locations now, and the synopsis of our plot is gradually enhancing. Story boards will definitely be uploaded soon, along with character profiles and details of the plot later updated.
Matt mentioned plenty of useful facts and information today, informing the group as this special lens we can get for the iphone, and how we can specialize in using for our film. We also discussed travel to our film locations, and also the fact that lighting is of vital importance in our trailer. Alice informs that she has a large torch at her house which she can possibly bring and use, whilst a smaller one too for the characters to use in the trailer maybe. Matt also started the health and safety sheet which we needed to fill out before filming, just so we can notify that our production stage is fully revised and set up without hesitations or problems coming up later in the project. Were still having problems finding actors, but i think it has come up to the conclusion that Alice is playing the main female role. We just need two more actors, male and reliable that we can trust to come back for at least a second day of filming. We're deciding on the role of the stupid character, and that this character is of vital importance for theres going to be a thrilling scene involving him getting grabbed.

Possible Film Name: 'INFERUS'
    Latin for 'faceless', it makes a good movie title because  of not only it points out the antagonist himself, but how much of a mystery he is, and unknown. It connotes infection, inferiority and fear. Its not exactly straight away our main title, but it is highly likely that it wont be changed.
                                                                                                   "Repeat, this is not a movie..."

Were looking forward to the editing process, for thats when we can get creative, and decide which clips and cuts are well suited for the trailer. The music will be mostly in Alice's, the editing in Matts, and the photoshop developments in Sam's.

The huit hour

Todays lesson was a bit slow and general today unlike our previous lessons. Alice is back now, however Matt was unable to attend so its just a repeat of every week now, with only two people in the group. It was slow today because because most of the work that had to done had to be written by hand, otherwise drawn. As usual, Alice the perfectionist, felt that the characters appearance had to be just right, and that their details had to be well suited and done for the plot of our trailer. We didn't really get much done for a story boards because the process of character creation took quite a long while.
(Alice) "Just a quick comment for this lesson, i cannot help but worry that we'll never find the right actors to play the roles of our characters. We need people that are reliable, and are able to get the work done, and lets face it, actually act instead of straight away laugh about it later. Im considering that if all hope is lost, ill probably step up to play the main female role, and leave all the trust of the camera to Matt, since Sam is playing the villain. This has been considered one of the most stressful weeks for me, and that i wanted to make sure that everything was just right and ordered, most of all done and out the way. It'll get better after the filming, for the editing is the fun part of the movie production"

Today we moved onto the filming process of our project. We looked at the locations we would film from and took screenshots and uploaded them onto the blog. We also started to design and get a feel for the characters we would have in our film. We did this by drawing them out and writing about their background and what they are like as a person. Also today we started looking into the script and getting a feel for the locations we would use and for what type of narrative the film would take and be like.

Se7enth Lesson

Today we have continued to make our blog as multi media as possible by doing a podcast for a recent post and start looking into the music/sound aspect of our trailer. We looked at other slasher films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw along with Slenderman (of what our film is most similar to). We also further looked into how we can do our special effects and our post-production techniques and software that we could possibly use. Also we made sure that our blog had enough research and depth to make our trailer because this is our last lesson in the research stage before we move to starting the production stage after half term. Our blog has also had a revamp in it's design to make it fit in with our genre idea as we intend to film in a wooded or field area.

Things to do over half term:

Finish all research.

To upload the podcast on horror and understanding of the genre itself.

Music/Sound

Here are five other horror film franchise theme songs.

The theme songs here are quite dramatic, eery and moving to add to the horror and suspense of the films. This is something we would like to recreate especially from the Halloween music as it's mysterious and threatening which we would like to recreate because of our mysterious antagonist.




Here is the Slenderman music, as you can see (or rather hear!), it's very dramatic and suspenseful to fit in with the theme of the Slenderman and our trailer of which our antagonist is based on. At the moment we intend to use GarageBand to create our music and sound effects after we film our trailer.

Whilst doing some research on post production effects using imovie, I came across some interesting footage whereby a short film was shot using only an iphone 4S and some low budget consumer tech from Apple's app store.

This footage inspired me, as it shows that a very high standard, professional looking trailer can be made using just an iphone, and a little creativity (Both of which we have!)

Moreover, on follow up to this I also found a video tutorial from the same user explaining how to create professional looking special effects using the tools provided within the imovie software. Check out the video below.

And one more...



I then found another example of an excellent film made using only an iphone. This video also goes into how the film was made and what additional hardware/software was used such as apps, lighting, tripods and camera lenses. Well worth a watch!



...Anyway, after becoming sidetracked for hours I did eventually find a good post production app for the iphone, but primarily builds on the already impressive display on the iphone.

FiLMiC Pro.

This app features techniques such as 'Double reticle mode' which gives the user two separate adjustable reticles for spot sampling focus and exposure for precision shot set up.

The FilmMiC Pro control bar is thumb based to enable a rock solid grip on the camera. Designed by filmmakers, it provides the best camera UI in the business with perfect access to all camera controls from a fixed, two hand grip position.

ADVANCED FEATURES:
The FiLMiC Pro settings menu offers some features not offered in any other video camera app as well as a host of other useful tools.

Variable Frame Rates (1-25 and 30fps) including both the US (24p) and European (25p) film production standards.
Four Selectable Resolutions (iPhone 4 or 4th Gen iPod Touch).

Framing Guide Overlays (4:3, 16:9, & 2:35.1).
Thirds Guide for composition.
Audio Metering.

Color Bars for Post Production.

Film Production Style Slate for adding info to your clips, syncing dual system audio, and organizing your clips.

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Overall, this app seems worth a purchase as it provides professional settings at the low cost of £2.49 and I feel could give our product the edge it needs in order to stand out that little bit more.

I have also included reviews of the app below. 

App Craver review. Click me please!

The Sixth Lesson

Today in our sixth lesson, Alice was away on holiday so it was down to Sam and Matt to crack on with the work. We started to make our blog more multi-media based by using different methods to post our work on the blog rather than just have written text. We started using keynotes to present our audience marketing work to add to the diversity of technology. We also started to finish off previous posts and to give them more depth of research to aid us with our future production.

For the next week we will: Complete all of our research for our trailer and make sure the blog is as multi media as possible.

To start planning the script and the storyboard for our trailer.

To start shooting different shots to get a feel for what we're going to eventually shoot.

Magazine Cover for Shaun of the Dead

Here is a magazine cover with Shaun of the Dead on it. The main recurring theme is the use of the colour red. This is mainly to portray blood and to signify danger from the zombie threat present in the movie. As for a tagline there is a one liner at the bottom to highlight the comedy in the film. The film title that is present is also quite bold and boring and doesn't really fit in with the theme of the film because it's colour is gold. It will be in stark contrast to ours where our main colour will most likely be black or a dark colour. We wouldn't put any comedy in ours that is evident in the tagline here but we will include a tag line, of which will be discussed later in the production/ post production stage.

Sound Test...

The video you should see below, consists of a sound test we made through using the 'GarageBand' app. We combined a range of sounds and short songs, along with a voice recording of Alice edited to the similar style of the slender man voice on the slender man documentary video we posted a while ago.

The Fifth Commitance

And yes, we've made up the word 'commitance'. Today in a our fifth lesson, the group was back together working hard and as common as usual. We planned to finish off the trailer research today, but plans got delayed due to deep sufficient research into the terrible night vision ideal! One of our video cameras is unable to upload onto the mac since its recorded on small tapes, so were restricted to looking for specific iPhone apps. We found a few, which were not sure entirely at the moment, for some apps were crashing when we pressed 'record' and some other apps only aloud images to be taken. Oh the madness of everyday media! There's always that one problem to deal with. And we all definitely agreed to have night vision in our trailer for we KNOW it'll enhance the horror experience greatly. The app, Garageband was discussed today, along with a small search into horror and scary sounds. We found a sound provided by apple on iMovie called Ambient sound 2, which creates tension in the listener straight away for its awry, unnatural and Spellbinding. A sound test has been upload atop, WITH the sounds we found to be interesting for our trailer. We have also shown the group the slenderman documentary video, which provided a very intense audio recording, with powerful echoes and deep voices which we thought we can attempt to create in the sound test above. We finished the poster analysis today with the 'Blair Witch Project' poster, and re-finined the text and finished off the little details of the trailer posts.

Upcoming Week Directives:

• Finish off the Trailer Research
• Film and edit some footage to create a SUPERNATURAL effect
• Continue looking up Sounds and music
• Start thinking of a trailer story board.
• Discuss camera angles and why.
• Make a reference to the film 'Halloween' about the POV shots
• Attempt to do a podcast to add to the mixed media grade

Garageband saves the day!

We've finally got access to software that enables production of music possible! Looking on our mac applications, we found an app called 'Garageband'. We never checked it out at first but desperate, we clicked on it. (Face palm) How can it, that after all this worry and doubt for good music, a chance has been laying right under our noses all this time! Its gonna take us a while to get used to all the music terms and demonstrations, but other than that we're glad we found it. Its a huge step to making our trailer absolutely amazing! And practice makes perfect right? we'll have to look through all the various keyboards and piano's offered, and although its the not the best idea to play and create music through a laptop instead of a proper instrument, its the only chance we've got. Screw audacity! x)

Garageband, was developed by Apple, to be a part of the ilife software which came with all of ours macbook. Lucky us! On wikipedia, it says i can use it to record podcasts too. Its perfect!

Slender Man documentary... Check it out!

THE POWER OF YOUTUBE!

The other day, we began searching online for some more basic information on the Slender Man base and legend. We primarily looked on youtube, and one video in particular has caught our attention. The video has got millions of views, and we're uploading this because it strongly relates to our project. We particularly like the recorded audio content it presents in the middle of the video... and it makes us wonder if we can do something similar on 'audacity' software. The echo of the low voice is extremely fascinating. Its ghostly, and thrilling. Its very attention catching, and can freak a person out especially when you can't see what is saying it. We're not music experts, but we've all got to at least try and attempt some amateurish production x) for the sake of this project.

The Cuarto Hour

In our fourth lesson last week, Me and Sam continued on the research and trailer analysis'. Before we got back to working on the research, our blog suffered some minor errors for the video uploads from youtube were crashing, and freezing. The title and text had be changed, and some posts had to be rewritten. That day, we began working on the poster analyzing. We attempted to go on Microsoft Word, but once again i was influenced by the sheer built of boredom we gained from the blank document. Like before with the questions, we changed to adobe illustrator and got creative with the presentation. We managed to finish two posters, however we ran out of time to finish the last poster for we had to have an important chat with the teacher on schedules and softwares. We're beginning to worry about the music, and how we are going to produce it creatively without stealing some off the internet, and we really don't want to do that. We need to find a keyboard, or a piano somewhere. As we mentioned at the start, we worked into the trailer analysis'. If you scroll down to the older posts of the the three uploaded trailers, you should already know that plenty of text describes the impact of each trailer, and how they are each useful for our horror trailer.

Matt is back from his holiday now, so we should to get a heap load of work done and out of the way. we've set him some questions to answer next lesson, and for me and Sam, we need to refine the blog posts and texts, draw up some initial story boards and see if we can add some more to our research. We all need to sort out the camera tests, beginning with the supernatural footage that we can attempt to make by smart editing. We filmed a night vision screen test a few weeks ago, however the camera we have, films on tapes instead of a memory chip, and its difficult to upload onto the mac.

List of things we need to sort out:

• The Story 
• The Characters (Names, ethnicity, personality's, appearances)
• Storyboards (Selective Camera Shots)
• Supernatural Screenshots/Editions
• MORE PHOTOS! On outfits, 
• Discuss Actors, and who's part is who

This list we created, for we wanted them all to be sorted out, until the end of half term. We're running out of time, and good scheduling and organisation will hopefully boost our grades up a bit. We don't like to run behind either.

[NEW] Antagonist Artwork uploaded! Checkout the 'ART' page by clicking the page on the right.

Audience Marketing Campaign

Our target audience for our film will be for 15 - 25 year olds. This is because, horror is mainly for the younger generation as horror films have developed more in recent years. There is also no real target gender as both males and females equally enjoy horror films and will be the case for ours.

To engage the audience, our trailer will involve an antagonist that you know is there, however you can't see. Tension will be on of the main formats of our trailer, and will engage the audience to continue watching and to see what happens next. (to find out what the movie is called). One of the main factors, is that the characters are of the same age-range to the audience, so hopefully the audience will get to know the characters easier, and come to wonder what will happen to them. They'll connect with the characters.

We will position our film during the half term Halloween period at multiplex cinemas. The time slots that would be preferable are between 5-12 pm with extra showings on Wednesday to encourage the younger audience to view through discounted 'Orange Wednesdays.' Although we may experience stiff competition from films of a similar genre during this time. Our film is expected to be a blockbuster, therefore it will be released on an international scale.

The TV channels we will target for advertisement are: Channel 4 as much of their daily listing are aimed at the younger demographic, showing programs such as Hollyoaks. Channel 5 would also be a good choice as they target a working class 24-35 year old demographic. This would help expand our audience. Other channels that could promote our product are music channels such as MTV and Kerrang.

Good opportunities for promotion could come from mobile apps, viral marketing, memes and social networking that are used predominantly amongst  the younger generation in effort to drum up an interest though word of mouth.

The way we would advertise in newspapers is by targeting tabloids such as The Sun, The Mirror etc. The graphology would feature bold, sharp/knifelike font to stand out from the standard industry used font. Pictures could include a close up of our antagonist - much like Friday 13th's Jason.

The social background would be mainly aimed towards the working and middle classes as our three main characters are of them two classes. Their race would also be irrelevant as like with gender, horror films are for all who enjoy that genre.

Our film will be a blockbuster type of film and as such will be released around halloween, the mainstream time to release a horror film. As such this would result in us advertising in tabloid newspapers rather than broadsheets as tabloids are read by the younger generation that will watch our film.

As the sub-centre, comedy will definitely help enhance our intention of attracting the young adult demographic. At the start of the trailer, comedy is presented to initiate the characters' ordinary world, which will intentionally be similar to most of youth's social life style. Just having a good time, chatting with your friends. The couple, we have decided to include to hopefully attract a more of a feminine audience since generally and stereotypically, horror attracts more males than females.

The programmes that we would advertise on would be around the same type of films like on the Sky Movies horror channel where there are similar films and would such attract the audience we are targeting. Other programmes would be like on films at night on ITV or channel 4. Also it would be advertised on football ad breaks and other sporting events as they have a strong youth demographic.

We could use radio to reach our target audience by advertising on radio stations that have a strong youth demographic like on Capital, Heart and other youth orientated stations as they could then feel compelled to watch and see what it is like.

There is quite a lot of potential to speak directly to our fans like through social media sites, for example having a facebook page or a twitter account to ask fans their opinion like on a certain plot point. There will also be several advanced screenings beforehand to gage the target audiences views and reactions.

The social media will be of huge benefit to distributing our movie. Due to the recent upbringing and increase in popularity over the Slenderman base legend, our target audience (a fraction of them) will recognize the similarity between our antagonist character to the Slenderman legend. It'll not only attract the attention of the audience, but they'll talk about it too. Titter, Facebook, Youtube, all over! The publicity involved will heavily impact to our films success. What's more, we can take screen shots of our trailer footage and create memes which will entertain the audience online. We can create a twitter account, a facebook page and craft little teasers posters that challenge the reader 'Can you see it?' and the reader will attempt to find whatever they think they are looking for. It'll literally tease them, and draw there attention in.

Poster Analysis'

The poster below consists, of the Blair Witch project poster analysis. We compared the graphological presentation with the other two posters, and how we can probably use these posters as inspiration for own poster.

We decided to do all of the poster analyzing on Adobe Illustrator, for once again, we found Microsoft word a little too plain and boring. Below you will find the poster of 'Shaun of the dead', and text to quote of what we've found and learned.

Now the one below is the poster analysis of the Horror, Friday the 13th. Most of the presentation was similar to Shaun of the dead, besides the comedy aspects and color. Friday the 13th is very much more serious, and when people die, they are dead. end of story. The antagonist is like, 'Hey, wanna play?'

Story Plans

Synopsis,

There are three students. Two guys and a girl. A couple and best friend. They all go out to celebrate at a pub somewhere. On there way home, the stupid character suggests taking a short cut through a field, which the other two (who are a couple) slightly agree since it is cold out and they wanted to get home as soon as. The field they cross is dark, and barely visible. Suddenly, whilst arguing about scary movies, something kidnaps the stupid friend. Its a paranormal being that wears a black suit and very visible mask. You can't see him move, better yet see him at all and the girl just barely makes it across the field without a scratch, however without her boyfriend and her best friend. 

Light Narrative,

"We are NOT in a scary movie OK?! Just shut up!" The girl screamed, storm walking. The best mate looked at her boyfriend with a smirk and chuckled. He then shouted at the world, arms out.

"Repeat, this is not a scary movie!" and then laughed. The boyfriend shook his head as the girl friend stopped, twisted and gave him a hard glare. The best mate pretended to be scared and ran forward ahead of her. "C'mon, this is reality, but theres got to be some moments where reality is a movie. Usually in this part of the suppose 'film', a conflict triggers and..." 

Suddenly, he bumped into something, and in an instant, he was gone. He disappeared... into the shadows, with only a flicker of white face seen. The air was empty.

Digging Deeper: Trailer Analysis

Done on 'Adobe Illustrator'. We wanted to make the work more appealing for we found Microsoft word to be too plain and boring. 

[Additional information]

Where can a trailer be seen?

Due to the rapid growth in technology, viral marketing has become vast. Now that information regarding a product can be viewed from a number of different devices, such as the likes of personal computers, tablets, games consoles, smart phones and even mp3 players, viral marketing is now bigger than ever - and whats more - its free!

Advertisers can now use a variety of ways to outlet their product through these devices. this includes the use of social media, (such as Facebook, twitter and even instagram) personal websites, blogs and video upload websites like youtube. The list is ascending each and every day. Advertisers no longer need to advertise their product using expensive TV spots, or theatrical trailers anymore.

These types of trailers however, still prove to be very effective, but very expensive. For example:

A theatrical trailer 

This type of trailer can be seen almost anywhere now, but is designed to be seen before a newly released film at a multiplex cinema. This type of trailer usually follows the standard convention of the arc. The arc convention follows codes whereby it begins very slowly, using long takes and slow non-diagetic music. This is usually the point whereby we, as an audience are introduced to sound bites from the narrative of the characters. Following this, the pace increases slightly and we are then, either introduced to critical reviews or star credits. This is the trailers USP. From there we then witness the disequilibrium. The film makers make this prominent as to encourage the audience to find/restore the equilibrium by watching the whole film and its conclusion.

Teaser trailer

This type of trailer begins with fast cuts of intense action, and carries this on throughout the trailer's duration. This format is used primarily to give the audience a sense of tone and feel for the film. This type of trailer is predominantly used for viral marketing.

TV spots 

This is renowned for being very short, but very fast paced. Again it is used to give the viewers a sense of feel and tone of the film. This type of trailer is very highly priced, thus its reasoning for its length.

TV spot for friday 13th!

(Sorry its a link. The video was restricted by the user)

Trailers can also appear on the radio, whereby advertisers make prominent use of sound, narrative and the names of the stars included within the film.(USP)

From looking at a number of trailers, it is clear that its primary focus is to introduce a disequilibrium in order to encourage an audience to view the product in its entirety, where they are able to restore equilibrium in the closing conclusion of the film.

The legend of Slenderman

I bet, throughout reading this blog, you were wondering what our antagonist is going to be like. Well, the main point is, he's going to be inspired from the mysterious 'Slender man' legend.

Slender man, is a paranormal being, who wheres a black suit with a formidable black tie, and has a blank white face. He moves fast, and out of sight, and is believed to have the power to stretch his arms like rubber, and extend out a couple of black tentacles. Sample photos are uploaded below. 

*They are NOT my own photos. They were copied from the internet. The links to the websites i got the photos from are displayed below each photo*

(http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man)

(http://uk.ign.com/wikis/slender/Slender_Man)
This is a screenshot of the old mini game which is becoming exceptionally popular over social networking.

(http://theparanormalpastor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/archetypes-of-slenderman.html)

(http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man)
Can you see him? creepy isn't it. This is what we want for my trailer. A creature which is there but you cant always see. 

We chose this paranormal being to be an inspiration for his legend because he is starting to dominate the social media, for example Facebook, youtube, twitter, all over. We've discovered this last summer, for my usual subscriptions on youtube all started playing this old mini game called slender man, and on other videos (non-related to slender man) people kept on talking about him. The legend is slowly uprising, and a trailer inspired by it would be perfect, for the social media and networking will react fast to it, and will want to see it.

Third times the charm

Last weeks lesson has sought the leaving of Jake Moody, so the work load has piled up for us. Although Matt wasn't there that lesson, Alice and Sam managed to get plenty of work done. Sam brought in the mask he suggested we could use for our antagonist, which we found to be perfect. We found it very similar to the killer antagonist (Jason Voorhees) of the 'Friday the 13th', which therefore brought goosebumps along our arms. We took photos of the mask, testing various angle too, for example a low angle shot, to show the mighty of the character, or a close up shot, as if the character is challenging the viewer, which gives off a monstrous element.

*Photos of the mask, were uploaded onto the photos page. Get there by clicking the link on the right*

Other than the mask, we analysed the trailers today, breaking them down and uploading the analysis on the trailer posts. we did 'Shawn of the dead', displaying plenty of text and critical thinking into the trailer, and showing how the trailer can be used to help with our own. For me, we wanted to get the little basics done and out of the way. This the work Jake was meant to do actually, but we took it up instead and did his specific trailer research onto illustrator. Using adobe illustrator, we managed to make the document look more appealing, and eye catching. We wanted to draw in the viewers, for looking at a lot of text can put off some people, plus it relates to the genre were using; horror. We followed the genre conventions, and added a dark background, with direct contrast to the white text and stuck to a limited colour palette which made the page mix together well, and work. Alice does A level Graphics alongside media, so hopefully, that will help towards the development of the posters and covers later this year.
For the document, the design was inspired from typographic designer, 'tomato', who design a piece of typography in 1994 which we found appealing. The link to his website: http://www.tomato.co.uk/1994

Next Lesson Plans,
Finish off this trailer research, and get into designing the characters, looking at storyboards and begin writing the short trailer script. Begin to discuss actors, and who's going to play them, and type down how all of these decisions will impact on our trailer.

Things we need to do,
Finish storyboards and begin writing the script. Design more of the antagonist and see of the rest of the group will appeal to them.

Matt is on holiday next week so Alice and Sam will be doing the work again. However, he'll be back the week after this lesson coming up.

Genre

Genre is French for ‘type’. Genre is important for the film industry because it can then gage its target audience, which would in turn then help make the package for the prospected film. Audiences in turn find genre appealing because it allows them to know their expectations of a film. The genre for our film trailer that we will make will be mainly in the horror genre. However it will be more of a hybrid genre as we intend to have elements of comedy in our trailer and will thus be horror/comedy like the film Shaun of the Dead.

The key characteristics of a horror film are to depict, address or explore the audience’s hidden fears, nightmares and phobias. Horror tends to evoke emotions such as panic, fear, disgust or shock through the actions of an evil force, whether it is natural or supernatural. Like the slasher film franchise Friday the 13^th, these films focus on an evil person Jason who kills people systematically and without remorse for revenge of what happened to him. This plays on people’s nightmares as it looks to cause fear and panic in the audience about the methods he uses to target and kill his victims. It also focuses on blood and gore content to further emphasise this fear and shock. The Friday the 13^th films are very similar to what our film trailer will be like as it’s about a masked villain hunting down and killing people in a cold unremorseful manner.

Another horror film but is of a completely different nature to the Friday the 13^th films is the Paranormal Activity films which focuses on the psychological aspects of fear rather than being graphic. This also fits in with our trailer as the masked villain psychologically harasses his victims as he stalks them. This would also put the audience on edge as coupled with creepy sound effects would put the audience very much on edge as the trailer plays out.

My understanding of the horror genre will impact my decisions of how I will develop my coursework as I will try to keep true to the horror genre. However it is to be noted that I will add a bit of comedy to the trailer so that we could try to get a different angle and to try and surprise the audience by giving an element they might not expect. The initial ideas for our trailer is that a masked villain would stalk a group of friends taking a short cut through a field or wooded area home and how he systematically kills them one by one and to try and shock the audience by the methods of how he does this. This would coincide with both of the discussed movies above as it would use blood and gore like a slasher film would portray coupled with the psychological horror of them being stalked in an isolated dark area. However at the start of the trailer there would be an element of comedy to surprise and show the audience how their night has gone from being quite happy and innocent to being tortuous and a nightmare.

Genre Video

In this video, we are to describe to you what 'Genre' is, and lightly inform of our plans and ideas for our project.

Shaun of the Dead Trailer

Here is the Shaun of the Dead trailer. We have chosen to use this film because it is a horror/comedy, which is of a similar hybrid genre as we intend to use some comedy in our trailer.

Shaun of the Dead's style is mainly focused on the comedic effect rather than horror. That said it starts off very seriously and like a horror film but when the main characters are introduced and on the screen the comedy takes effect, whereas when they're not on the screen it is like any other horror zombie film. This would be similar for the start of our trailer when the characters are joking around but as our trailer continues the comedy would have all but wore off due to the seriousness of the film and the situation the characters are in.




Here's a screenshot of part of the trailer. This shot is used early on at 0:06 seconds to show the confusion and chaos that the start of trailer tries to convey before showing the characters which signifies it is a horror/comedy.




The music also starts off quite dark and serious however like said above, when the two main characters (Shaun and Ed) are on the screen the music turns all upbeat, silly and stupid to match in with the film itself. Our music will be quite eery and have a paranormal effect due to the fact that what is happening to the characters is surprising and a nightmare. There is a sound test of what we might do later in our blog. The stars of the film aren't huge Hollywood actors as it is a British made film with American financial backing. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who play Shaun and Ed respectively however were known to the British public as they had appeared in the TV series 'Spaced' beforehand.

The plot follows quite a similar narrative for a zombie related film, where a zombie apocalypse is threatening mankind as a virus spread by monkey's is spreading across the country, and if you are bit by an infected zombie you eventually turn into one. This is vastly different to our plot as our trailer and film doesn't feature zombies as it is the comedy that we would like to try and recreate. The editing is quite fast paced to try and emphasise the chaos and confusion along with the comedy to get the full effect of the film. Our trailer will also feature fast paced editing as it is a horror film and we intend to create tension and suspense for the audience for when the antagonist is around our main characters.

Here's another screenshot of Shaun of the Dead. In this clip Shaun is defending himself from zombies with a cricket bat. This is comedic due to the obscure object he's defending himself with instead of using a conventional weapon like a gun for example. There's also horror in this because of the zombie threat, thus fitting in with the horror/comedy aspect.



This trailer represents the working class 'manchild' where Shaun and Ed (the two main characters) are in their twenties and are effectively still acting like kids where Ed has no jobs and plays the PS2 all day and how Shaun is still doing his job he was doing when he was in college. This fits in perfectly with the slacker stereotype of person who is afraid of more adult responsibilities. This is in stark contrast to ours as our three main characters are all of the same age but are all middle class 'go getters' and for their age are fairly successful compared to Shaun and Ed.

The graphics features a little comic blood to emphasise that it is not a serious horror film. It would be quite similar to our trailer where there will not be a great deal of blood if any.






As you can see, there is blood in the trailer but it is very limited and comic like to emphasize it's a horror/comedy.








Now it is to note that our project will NOT feature comedy bedded with horror together, for it'll be difficult to follow and produce. However, it's comedy aspect will help us for we have planned that the start of our trailer will consist of a little comedy. We decided this just so the audience will connect to the characters better, whilst help to bring tension when they watch the characters they've come to like, are in danger.

Friday the 13th Trailer

Here's a screenshot of the teenagers/ young adults laughing and enjoying themselves.












Here's another screenshot of Jason about to kill another victim

Blair Witch Project Trailer

Blair Witch was one our first choices for our horror film trailers. Besides the psychological element, Blair Witch is a good movie to base our trailer round because in the trailer, viewers can't see whats chasing the students. Horror is about the unknown, and that people are afraid of the unknown, which therefore made the Blair Witch movie, a good one to base ours on. The only difference we see is the type of narrative, for we confirmed that third person was a better idea (since it has the advantage of creating various camera shots and POV shots, particularly of the antagonist.)

The style because of it being from a POV style is typical and jerky. Because it is supposedly found footage, there is no special effects, no real editing and no music as all the sounds are diegetic as it has been filmed from a POV perspective. The editing will be very similar to our trailer for the camera will be quite jerky to emphasize the horror and chaos. The music and sound however will be different for we will add eery and suspenseful music and sound to highlight the horror of the film. Due to the fact there are no special effects in this film, unlike Blair Witch there will be special effects in our trailer but at a bare minimum due to the fact that we are thinking of using night vision around the antagonist to further scare the audience.

The plot is all about three students trying to find out about more of the local Blair Witch legend and go to the nearby woods to find it. However supernatural events plague them and eventually they all go missing. Then a year later, their footage was found in a bag under a 100 year abandoned house.

The characters are also quite relevant to our characters as ours will be middle class go getters like these three students. The theme will also be very similar due to the fact that the students have no idea whatsoever why they're getting chased and hunted down by an unknown antagonist which will be the same theme in our trailer.



Here is a screenshot of the trailer explaining the film to the audience

This is a screenshot from the actual film itself. Note there is no special effects as it is supposedly all found footage.

Second Lesson

In our second lesson, to begin with, Matt and Jake have joined the group. In total, theres now four of us, which should generally give us some major advantages since me and Sam can split the work load out more evenly. We discussed together the initial plans we already set up, and further developed them by adding little spices here and there.
We have set roles specifically for each person to focus on, primarily something they like or are willing to do. Alice is in charge of the writing and the art, since she approached this role enthusiastically, and gave many ideas to the group on what the horror (/part comedy) will tell. Matt is given the role of 'camera-man', who focuses on the filming, decisions of shot types and a slice of editing. He was given this role for he showed immediate interest with the camera shots, and discussed with Alice as to how the story will be shown through the eye of lens. Matt is in charge of props and costumes, whilst also conducting research on the conventions of basic horror exterior (what makes them scary?). Sam is able to supply a 'hockey mack' which Alice asked to bring in next week for the group to look at. Now finally, Jake has been given the heavy role of music/sound production or editing. Before Jake joined the group, Alice and Sam found it difficult as to how the music will be made since they had no real access to musical instruments and software. Sound is one the primary elements to making a horror, and since Jake said he has access to a keyboard and has some knowledge of the subject, he was given the role immediately.

Initial Story Boarding and Camera Shots,
Today, the group went through the details of what and how the trailer will be produced. A new location on Hayling island has been suggested, which comprises of a double field and a dark graveyard next to it (see the photos on the photos page). And then we discussed camera editing, and how we can make something ordinary into something supernatural by playing with the camera editing. We suggested the idea of the antagonist standing the field for a while, but in the trailer, the video could be sped up so the figure is standing there in a fidgety way. Theres also the idea of the antagonist suddenly appearing in different locations without seeing him move- almost like he's teleporting. Alice is able to supply a camera that works with night vision. Later, a video will be uploaded to show a screen test of this, to see if the night vision looks durable or not.

Actors,
Now the main problem we are facing at the moment is the sheer worry of getting the right actors for the roles. With no budget, we're restricted to asking our friends, but were worried they're not going to take it seriously enough. We guess were going to have to deal with it at the moment.
The antagonist will have to be someone tall and thin.
The protagonists will be easier to find. One note to spare, were sticking with the whole, couple + best mate idea. The couple will attract a feminine audience, the boyfriend will be the 'alpha male', and the best friend will just be the stupid character who always gets killed first. He could be the one who suggested the shortcut.

First Lesson

Today, we started off with some basic notes. We started throwing random ideas onto some pages and suggested our hybrid genre is going to be horror, for its the easiest genre to follow. However, we are walking on stilts here for we've also decided to include comedy into the movie. Producing comedy will be a tough one, but it's not impossible. We've watched various sitcoms, films and TV that involve comedy, for example, 30 rock, Friends, Seinfeld, Anchor Man, The big bang theory, and much more. The tough part is to find some example horror trailers and movies that share the same genre conventions, with maybe a little joke/laugh here and there. We're going to watch some trailers tonight, specifically Scream and Saw (for we haven't seen these films yet) and also, I'm going to watch Anchor Man since Sam wants the comedy to be of a similar style.

After a few minutes chatting and sharing opinions, we've come down to some conclusions, suggesting that our characters will compose of a female and two males. We haven't specifically chosen names yet but we're coming up to that. We've shared the confirmed idea of them exiting a pub and taking a shortcut back to their house in the middle of the night. We haven't set a confirmed location yet, but we have suggested filming this in the middle of a field at dawn.

Possible filming locations:

• West Lane, Hayling Island
• Rowlands castle forest

Now the villain of every horror is what makes the horror. He's got be frightening in a way that intrigues, and scares the audience. At the very start of the lesson, we proposed an inspirational aspect from the legend of 'Slender Man'. Its a no-name man who wears a black suit, tie and a white mask that stalks the far ends of the black night. His primary targets are young females, however he can chase leading males. The slender man is a our basic idea of the villain at the moment. On the other hand, since theres already a film coming later in halloween about the slender man, we've decided to make it our inspiration and create our own villain who dresses formally and probably wears a hockey mask to hide his identity. The hockey mask can be provided by Sam.

Either way, we're still working on it. We have decided that Alice can be the camera person, for she wanted to plan and film most of the camera shots. 

One other thing to note down, is that we're looking for software that provides the production of good music. Sound is the most important aspect to every horror trailer. If you go on youtube and watch 'lets plays' game videos that support the horror genre, its always the sound that warns the audience that something horrific is about to happen. 

A useful book we read today: 'The secrets to writing great comedy'

What makes a good horror movie?

This is a podcast discussing the horror movie genre.