Animatic Props List

This is the list of props out group gathered to aid us in the production of our animatic trailer. Using these props, it allows us to gain a better understanding of whether or animatic works effectively and if we there any improvements to be made, as using the props allows the animatic to be more realistic of the real trailer we are later producing.

• camera
• storyboard
• costumes
• teddy bear
• boxes
• football
• dishcloth
• vase
• flour
• make up
• laptop
• scissors
• bucket
• lace (as rope was unavailable to us)
• clock
• cross

Target Audience Mood Board

This is the mood board of the target audience of my group's horror trailer 'Delirium'. We found that our trailer would target women from around twenty to thirty years of age, more specifically mothers, who enjoy films. By aiming to appeal to a target audience, a professional trailer would boost profits, rather than trying to appeal to a wide range of people with different interests.

Initial Animatic Billing Block

This is the billing block I produced for the animatic of our horror trailer 'Delirium'. I created it to understand how to make one for practice, as from looking at other trailer examples of posters and trailers of various genres, it is suggested that a billing block in key to a realistic and professional layout.

I used a black background with white text to ensure that the poster relates to gothic tone of the horror genre the rest of the trailer embodies. This allows means it has the aspect of simplicity, which I felt was extremely important, the content may be overwhelming if the background was cluttered, which seemed to also be shown amongst other examples of billing blocks I had observed. I tried to include our group's names within the billing block, however, to maintain the realistic and professional presentation, I randomly created a number of other names to fill, as a film company would have a great deal of contributors working on a film and all of it's aspects. For the font, I searched for one that would best compare to the standard professionally used one, and found DIN Condensed. For improvement, once i had completed the billing block, I realised that the text was too small for the picture. This is a simple error that I will attempt to avoid during the production a our group's horror trailer.

Firstly I used the software of Apple Mac Pages to creates the content, aided with a professional billing block I had researched. Once this was completed, I exported the file to PDF format which I could then use preview to export to a JPEG, which allowed me to transfer the picture on to the animatic my group had created, helping to portray a professional look and give us a more realistic view of what our trailer would look like, the experience of creating it and how to improve to ensure that the trailer we create would be the best that we could achieve.

Warner Bros. Billing Block:

My Group's Initial First Attempt at a Billing Block:

Target Audience Questionnaire Results

These are the results of our questionnaire we conducted on the public to estimate an audience to target our horror film for.

The questionnaire gives our group a rough guide to which types of people best prefer our genre and other aspects of our film's content. For example, perhaps the film would appeal more to females rather than males, so that gender. This will help us with our marketing of the film (ie, poster), to ensure the film appeals to this type of person, too boost the potential profit. The understanding behind this is that by target a specific group, there will be a higher gross of sales as it is likely a good portion of that group will be attracted to the film and watch it, rather than attempting to appeal to a wide range of audience, which may lead to unpopularity.

The estimation of our target audience, from our results, is 20-30 year old females, who are mothers in particular.

Audience Research: Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that my group has decided to use as an effective way to research our genre and audience's preferences. It is effective, as my group will be able to tell the age range of our target audience, gender, the preferred title, etc. From this, it allows my group to determine if our plot idea is appealing well, giving us a greater understanding of how aspects of our trailer would be theoretically be perceived as if it were genuine, giving us an idea of how to improve our trailer and choices to be made to ensure our trailer presents itself as professional and realistic as a promotional tool.

My skills improved on developing my understanding of what information would be needed from the audience, and displaying it in a way that all participants would be able to understand, so that the data my group would collect would be valuable and useful in improving our trailer.

 Our Questionnaire:

Horror Trailer Storyboard

This is the storyboard my group and I designed to incorporate all the all that we had learnt. We used the plot from our group that we thought would be more realistic as a film plot for the horror genre, which was Gethin's. However, because of the availability of characters, location, props and further comparisons to the horror repertoire, we decided to change certain aspects, that may have worked well with a professional production company, it wouldn't have been produceable with the time, equipment and finance we had. Although, having said this, the plot we finalised was not disliked, and we felt that this plot had only been improved so as to be made more realistic and allowing us to present a stronger code of enigma in the trailer, when showing certain aspects.

I was able to use my skill of analysing and representation to discuss what would be best for each shot. We felt it was very important to get the camera shots specific to a message we wanted to convey to appeal to our audience better. I had gained further understanding from my analysis of film trailers, previously posted also, in addition to the work I did in the previous year textually analysing TV drama extracts based of a specific theme. Therefore, when it came to developing ideas for the storyboard, we all contributed by discussing every aspect of the shots and editing together, and I used my skill to put forward my suggestions to the storyboard, many of which were used, such as the representation of the long shot of the mother character entering the barn, but I also wrote each shot analysis next to the drawn image. This shot not only continues the plot of the trailer, but the dark almost silhouette of the shadowed character foreshadows the possession that is about to happen as of that scene. As well as this, the light behind her represents her leaving the positive life, breaking the equilibrium in this barn and entering into a darker one, suggested through the dim lighting of the inside of the old barn. Another point is that we also took into consideration the transitions, intertitles and the length of time of each shot, to deliver a pace we had imagined. An example of one of the editing concepts I put forward that was used was, the use of a clock. My idea was to have the clock tick asychronous in time with the following shots, which would be those with the most horror impact, to increase the tension after the music had reached it's climax.

Our Storyboard:

 

Our Horror Film Plot

This is the plot that my Media Studies group intends to use to create a trailer for. It is based on the genre of horror/thriller, focusing on the paranormal as the disturbance. This will allow minimal technology and effects to create, which is needed to be kept in mind when considering a plot and the resources are limited. It plays on fears the audience may develop from their own day to day lives, in this case, their home, and this way it will allow a more realistic portrayal of the film, which then will lead to a more memorable experience of the trailer. Which is what the trailer should aim to achieve, as it is a promotional device for the film, from which the hypothetical profit would be collected.

Our Plot:

A family move into a quiet farm house within a small mountainous town in Wales. The family comprises of two parents, a young child and pet dog. They move into the house and in the opening scene the dog refuses to go in the house as if something is wrong and doesn’t feel safe inside. The family then go out into the garden where the young boy and his father are playing with a football but the young boy accidently ends up kicking it into the barn in the garden. The mother goes into the barn to fetch the ball, as she does this she knocks over an object which is situated around clutter. She takes a breath and a gulp as if something had gone into her body, but completely dismisses it and gives the ball back to her child.
The family leave the dog outside for the night and in the morning they wake in shock as it seems that the dog has died within its sleep on its first night stay at the house. The family continue their day to day business within the house but the mother of the family day by day is waking up with bruises on her legs and arms, they are increasing in size and colour. The family start to experience strange experiences through the night, the father and mother often hear their young boy playing late at night with someone and the sounds of footsteps can be heard throughout the hollow farmhouse. The shaking of paintings downstairs and pots and pans smashing together booming throughout the house.
The family began to notice as the first two weeks passed within staying in the house and the strange experiences occurring in the house. They decide to look into these experiences on the internet and on here they find a number for paranormal investigators and they decide to call them up to investigate the house and see if the house is in need of an exorcism after what they have discovered. The investigators ring up a Catholic church to see if they would be available to perform such thing but they said no on the terms of the religion of the house owners.At arrival of the house the crew are quick to set up the equipment within the house, when the one investigator goes within the house he is getting bad instincts about the house and that it could be possessed by a witch who once guarded the house and the witch has reached out to the mother and has trapped herself within her body and she is trying to kill the son. The mother cannot leave the house as the witch has attached herself to the house and if she tries to leave it will put her in increasing pain the further away she moves from the house.
During the first night of investigation the little boy begins sleep walking and setting off triggered alarms which cannot be set by humans and only extra-terrestrial beings, this means that he was being guided out but by who remains a mystery, he is lead to the barn outside where his favourite toy can be found with a load of old fashioned toys which were going off in a simultaneous matter. As the mothers condition gets worse as the investigators leave her in the house on her own there is then a screaming from inside the barn which can be heard from the investigators and it is an horrifying image of the mother trying to cut her sons throat open with a pair of scissors.

The spirit of the witch has almost taken over her complete body functions and is almost uncontrollable and is unable to see what she is doing is wrong. One of the team investigators believe it is too late and unless the exorcism is performed now she will be possessed by the witch and will have to be killed. Three men pin the mother down to a chair but she is stronger than ever before swatting them like flies off her and laughing smiling at them whilst she has blood dripping down her face from the struggle. The men chuck a blanket over her head and tie her up to the chair and the investigators are forced to do a exorcist themselves. The mother is seen screaming and biting her way through the blanket which is over her head and blood is slowly covering the sheet as the exorcist continues the blood is a sign of the witch leaving the mothers body. She struggles again as the witch that has possessed her gives one last fight and screams out. She is smiling as she is slowly breaking the rope which is tired around her arms. The exorcist is complete as she breaks herself free.
The family then quickly rush upstairs whilst the mother is laying recovering back to her old self, a few minutes pass and she walks through the front door whilst everyone is outside staring at her as she smiles and joins the family outside and everything is now free from her and the house is restored to its natural self. 

Horror Film Posters

These are the three posters that relate to the three film trailers I analysed for part of my research and planning. Although you could say that film trailers are more effective at promoting their film, as they can engage with the audience through sound and pace, where posters just use sight, posters still can promote their film effectively and it is because of such that time and effort is put into their production.

As for these three films, researching their posters proved difficult as there were many varieties. Therefore, I used the online site IMDb to research the official posters.

I have also created a collage of a variety of other posters of the horror genre from various times to show my research. Many points I have made within my previous analyses apply, strengthening  my points with examples. Some of these points were such like the colour schemes reoccurring the same three colours black, white and red, with the occasional off white(or even grey), representing the dark nature of the films and the possible deaths (red) but also perhaps the supernatural (white). This is shown at best through posters for films such as Sinister or The Last House on the Left. There is also the main image twist, that it alternates usually from using either a camera shot of a character's face (either victim or feared character) or the location of which the plot is set. Some may consider the facial shots more effective however, as the eye contact is more relatable for the audience, and connects them to the poster better than a location.

Analysis of Other Horror Film Trailers

Like my previous trailer analysis of The Woman In Black, I watched the trailer before watching the film or reading the plot summaries/synopsises online. This way, I can analyse purely on the content given through the trailer, without any background knowledge of the film. From there, I can understand, as part of the audience, why aspects of the trailer were used and make a judgement as of how effective they were on engaging and promoting their film. After many observations of trailer, I chose the three I have analysed because I believe they follow many of the genre's (horror) codes and conventions and work very effectively on the audience. Therefore, by analysing their content, I can improve my knowledge and understanding for the creation of my own horror film trailer.

I have chosen The Cabin in the Woods, as the plot uses the an everyday set up (holidaying in a cabin), however, we find that the cabin has a sinister twist, which the audience finds out later in the film accompanied by the horrific incidents that the plot entails. This difference from my earlier analysis of The Woman In Black, as it uses less paranormal activity, and more gore, which is another aspect of the horror/ thriller genre.

Plot Summary:
(Wikipedia)

Working from a hidden underground facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss plans for a mysterious ritual, reportedly one of several taking place around the world. Specialist Wendy Lin discloses that a similar operation undertaken by their Swedish counterparts has just ended in failure.

Meanwhile, American college students Dana Polk, Holden McCrea, Marty Mikalski, Jules Louden, and Curt Vaughan are spending their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest. It soon becomes clear that Sitterson and Hadley are manipulating this setting from afar, even intoxicating the teenagers with psychotropic drugs that gradually hinder rational thinking while increasing libido. After the door to the cabin's darkened cellar swings open on its own during a tipsy game of Truth or Dare, for example, both technicians coerce their charges into investigating the contents within.

The group soon uncovers a plentiful assortment of bizarre articles, including an old diary once maintained by Patience Buckner, onetime cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana, who takes an interest in Patience, subsequently recites incantations from the journal and inadvertently summons the zombified Buckner clan. Leaving Dana, Holden, and Marty behind with the book, Curt and Jules retire outside—where Hadley successfully induces them to have sex. Set upon by marauding Buckners, Jules is decapitated but Curt escapes, sounding the alarm. Marty, a frequent marijuana smoker, becomes justifiably paranoid, declaring that unseen forces have been toying with their crisis. Locating concealed surveillance equipment, he theorizes that the predicament may be a gimmick for reality television before being dragged off to be killed by Judah Buckner.

Terrified, Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt escape in their RV, though Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse, rendering the highway impassable. Curt jumps a ravine on his motorcycle in a desperate bid to reach an adjoining road, but is killed crashing into a camouflaged force shield—apparently erected by the technicians. His demise convinces Dana that Marty's concerns may have been founded.

Veering off the road, the RV plummets into a nearby lake after Father Buckner surfaces inside and stabs Holden. Dana survives the impact, but is confronted by Matthew Buckner when she swims ashore. As he delivers his final blow, the Facility staff celebrate the completion of their ritual. Sitterson receives a phone call informing him that Marty is still alive, having been smoking joints from a stash that had not been treated and rendering him immune to the effects of the psychotropic drugs. Rescuing Dana, Marty reveals that he was able to overpower his assailant upon being taken into an obscured elevator. They infiltrate the Facility, where a menagerie of monsters are imprisoned. Dana observes a cenobite-like creature clutching a globe she observed in the cabin's cellar, indicating that the items there dictate which monster will be unleashed on its concurrent occupants. She and Marty are cornered by a private security team, but before they can be captured, manage to release the monsters, which run rampant throughout and slaughter the Facility's staff.

Upon entering an underground temple, the two survivors meet the project Director who explains that every year worldwide rituals commence to appease malevolent beings identified only as "Ancient Ones" living beneath the Facility. The Ancient Ones are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual pars pro toto sacrifice of five young people embodying certain archetypes: the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). The order in which intended victims perish is flexible, as long as the Whore is first and the Virgin is last (or optionally survives, so long as the others die). The Director urges Dana to shoot Marty, completing the ritual, but they are interrupted by a werewolf which Marty fends off after it attacks Dana. Patience Buckner arrives, killing the Director, and Marty pushes them into a chasm.

Dana and Marty accept that it might be better for another species to take humanity's place if this is the price of its continued existence. They share a final joint as an Ancient One finally stirs, destroying the Facility as its giant hand emerges from beneath the cabin.

The Cabin in the Woods Trailer:

My Analysis:




I have also chosen to analyse the trailer for Insidious. Like the previous to trailers I have analysed, this trailer was produced in the last five years, allowing me to analyse what is relevant and beneficial to appeal to the audience of this present society. Insidious focuses on the mysterious occurrences, specifically focused on a child. This almost possessive hint is partially the reason why I chose this trailer to analyse, as I would ideally imagine the trailer I would create, to involve some paranormal possession, as it can be filmed very effectively to scare the audience, and yet not reveal too much of the plot, maintaining the enigma.

Plot Summary:
(Wikipedia)

Renai, (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) Lambert just recently moved into their new house with their two sons Dalton (Ty Simpkins), and Foster (Andrew Astor), and their baby daughter Cali.

One morning, Renai is looking at family photos with Dalton. Dalton then asks why there aren't any pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai explains that Josh is camera shy and also dislikes taking photos himself.

One night while Dalton is upstairs playing with his toys, he hears a mysterious creaking noise, and sees the door to the attic mysteriously opening by itself and then goes upstairs to investigate. He then falls off a ladder while trying to turn on the light, and stares into the darkness as if he was looking at something terrifying and then starts screaming and crying.

Renai and Josh both hear Dalton's screams, and they then tell him that the attic is off limits. The next morning, Dalton doesn't wake up from his sleep, and Renai and Josh, with panic, send him to the hospital where they find out that he is in a coma.

3 months later, Dalton is back home, but is still in his coma. While playing piano, Renai hears a sinister voice on the baby monitor saying "I want it... NOW!" Renai goes to Cali's room but finds no one there. Things get even more creepy when Foster tells Renai that he doesn't like it when Dalton "walks around" at night. That night, Renai sees a strange, but terrifying man in Cali's room, and the alarms to the house start to turn on by itself.

The next day, Renai sees a bloody handprint on Dalton's bed. That night, Renai sees the man from Cali's room in front of her room, and attacks her. Renai begs Josh if they could leave, and he agrees.

In the second house, Renai sees a little boy dancing to a record and follows it into Dalton's room where the boy pops out of the closet and runs away. Later that day, Josh's mother Lorraine, (Barbara Hershey) tells them about a dream that she had: she was in Dalton's room, but there was a strange demonic figure in there with them. When she asked it what it wanted, the figure replied, "I want Dalton." Lorraine then sees the same figure behind Josh roaring at her. Dalton is then violently attacked in his room.

Lorraine then calls paranormal investigators Elise Reiner (Lin Shaye), Specs (Leigh Whannell), and Tucker (Angus Sampson). While they are all in Dalton's room, Elise senses something, and Specs draws the same demonic figure Lorraine saw.

Elise then explains that Dalton was never in a coma and that falling off the ladder had nothing to do with it. She then explains that Dalton has the ability to astral project: the ability to leave your body and to travel to different places, but in astral form, and that he has fearlessly (he believes his projections are dreams) traveled too far and has consequently become lost in a spirit realm called "The Further"-a place for the tortured souls of the dead. Without Dalton's astral projection, he is just a lifeless body, explaining why Renai was seeing all of these ghosts. Josh is skeptical at first, but he then sees that almost all of Dalton's pictures were of the same demonic figure Elise drew, and then brings her back.

Elise then performs a seance to communicate with Dalton, but then the demon starts to talk to her, and starts shouting obscenities and extremely violent threats toward the group. Dalton then gets up, and starts attacking the group implying that the demon had finally possessed him. Elise is then able to get the demon out of Dalton's body. Elise then calls Lorraine over, and she explains that the reason why she knows Elise so well is because she called her herself once to help Josh, and Elise explains that the reason why Dalton is able to astral project is because he got it from Josh. When he was about 8 years old, Josh used to tell Lorraine about an old woman who would visit him at night. Lorraine obviously didn't believe him, but she then discovered that every time she took a photo of Josh, she would see a shadowy old woman in each picture, explaining Josh's fear of photos. Elise tells Josh that the only way to rescue Dalton is if he goes into the Further himself.

Elise then puts Josh in a trance, and he awakens to find out that he has astral projected. Josh finds the house where the Lamberts used to live in and goes to the attic, and finds a red door. Inside is the Further, and Josh then finds Dalton chained to the floor, and then frees him, but the demon catches them, and he and Josh get into a fight. Josh the escapes the lair with Dalton with the demon in pursuit. They then make it back to the house, and Josh then confronts the old woman. The old woman then fades into total darkness and Josh and Dalton wake up.

While Renai, Dalton, and Lorraine are chatting in the kitchen, Josh and Elise are packing up after the long night, but Elise senses something and quickly takes a photo of Josh. He then goes into rage, and starts to strangle her. Renai then hears Josh's yelling in the kitchen. And enters the living room to find Elise dead, Josh gone, and the house dead silent. She then picks up the camera, and lets out a horrifying gasp.

Apparently what Elise saw was Josh's dirty finger nails, similar to the old woman's implying that she possessed him. Josh then appears behind Renai and says, "Renai, I'm right here." Renai then faces the camera with her face frozen in horror.

In the post credits sequence, we see the old woman blowing out a candle making the screen fade to pitch black.

Insidious Trailer:

My Analysis:

PowerPoint Presentation of The Woman In Black Film Trailer

This is my in-depth media analysis of the trailer 'The Woman In Black' for the research section of my coursework. As previously blogged, I have chosen my genre to be horror for my trailer, and so I have chosen a similar genre trailer to analyse throughly. The analysis will help build the skills needed for understanding how to construct a successful trailer effectively, enabling me to produce the most realistic and professional looking trailer to the best of my ability. The thriller aspect comes from the supernatural nature of the film, containing a ghost, however it carries the same dark theme that I would imagine my trailer to hold.

The Woman In Black Trailer:

My Analysis:

For this presentation, I received 18/20, and equivalent of an A*. With this, my teacher also gave me points of improvement, such as I lacked stating what the estimated target audience would be, which I then included into my powerpoint.

My First Draft at a Film Horror Plot

This is my very basic plot of a horror film. I tried to use aspects repertoire, such as a young female victim, a male villain, the code of enigma (who is the man), a place usually of safety is turned into a place of vulnerability, etc. I also tried to play of real fears, that you are not by yourself when you are home alone, and that by doing this, I make the storyline more effective as the audience could imagine this to happen to them, as they have had this unnerving feeling before.

Plot:

My plot opens with a blonde young woman walking down an alley at night. She feels cold, lonely an vulnerable with the dark colour scheme to emphasize this, perhaps even the pathetic fallacy of rain. She then returns home, and we see her light the fire and make a cup of tea, before snuggling up into her sofa with the television. It seems as though she is at a place where she can feel relaxed and unguarded, a place where she can feel safe.

However, her shelves catch her eye, and her decorations are not what they were. Instead of her simplistic and basic, yet slightly irregular layout of ornaments and picture frames, they are organised from smallest to largest. Rubbing her eyes she feels as though the tire of the day has finally taken its toll and a good night’s sleep is what is needed. It is only when she settles into a deep sleep that the back door knob starts to gradually turn, footsteps slowly tread across her kitchen tiles, heel to toe. The large dark boots pause beside a table of which a picture lay, with a woman and a man’s smiling faces beam up to the figure. He picks up the frame with a gentle gloved grasp, but his emotions soon turn sour, his hand tensing and scratches across the male’s faces.

When the woman awakes she begins her day as usual, taking a shower, having her breakfast, and so on. A few days later, she walks past the kitchen table and spots a beautifully hand-crafted blonde doll. Alarmed, the woman rings her boyfriend and asks if it was a practical joke, sincerely the boyfriend replies that he hadn't and that it isn't really a funny joke.

Months pass and we see the woman retreat further and further into isolation, cutting off more ties as the disturbances grow more severe. The police have no leads. She begins to get breathing phone calls, romantic letters, and photographs of her doing daily tasks around the house or getting a coffee at a café. Even sending threatening letters whenever she would meet her boyfriend, detailing her betrayal and his disgust. These intrusions escalate to the point where she exits her shower to find a romantic message written in the steam on her mirror, before finally, resigning her only social outlet as online, taking a profile picture and then receiving negative replies such as ‘It’s not Halloween yet!’, checking she sees a face in the window behind her, staring.

Eventually, is left completely cut off from all her friends and family, too scared to leave her home, when a knock on the door provides the answers. It is the police and they have finally figured out who the stalker is and arrested him, despite his plea of innocence. They sit with her and she is shown photographs of a man, early fourties, pale and unhealthily skinny. He minds is overwhelms and she is consumed with flashbacks of coffee shops lines, dry cleaning and grocery stores, even a passing a stranger on a bench. It was him, hidden in plain sight. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Two years later, she has moved states, changed her job, and made new friends, even going by her middle name. It was a fresh start, and this time she could live her life the way she wanted, without fear. Grabbing her coat and bag, she crossed the kitchen and heads for the front door. She stops. There, beautifully hand-crafted, was a little blonde doll.

Horror Film Trailer Repertoire

This is my basic list of the repertoire used for a stereotypical horror film and it's trailer. It was compiled by myself and a group of randomly selected media students to collect all of our ideas.

Iconography

• Blood
• Screaming
• Hooded figure 
• Vulnerable victim 
• Weapon (e.g, knife, gun)
• An attempt to get help
• Focus on one character
• Jump scares

Setting

• A setting that is believable to the audience
  (Somewhere considered either safe, like your home, or utterly vulnerable, such as an alley)
• At night
• A haunted house
• A dark forest
• An asylum
• A barn/cabin

Style

• Gothic tones (red,black,white,grey colour scheme)
• Pathetic fallacy (e.g, raining to represent a negative mood)

Narrative

• An everyday setting where your fears come true (home alone)
• Sometimes a twist in the plot or a cliffhanger
• Sometime a simple plot to focus on the scaring material
• Disrupting or breaking of the equilibrium
• Sometimes it ends with justice or where all hope is lost

Characters

• Relatable to the target audience of the film
• Victim is vulnerable, therefore usually a female or youthful (a child or teen)
• The villain is stereotypically a male
• The villain is usually either someone anonymous or someone the audience has been introduced to beforehand as a shock/twist
• Sometimes the use of children

Themes

• Growing up
• Relationships
• Good vs. evil

Film Trailer Initial Camera Ideas

This is only my basic thoughts of the camera shots and angles that could be used in the thriller/horror trailer I will produce, to create tension and suspense for the audience to intrigue them to watch the film, which is ultimately the goal of a trailer.

My trailer aims to entice the audience to a horror film. The basic outline (which is all the trailer should contain) is a group of teenage characters going into a forest and then being harassed and terrified by and unknown figure, leaving the outcome unclear. I believe that this would create a realistic and practical trailer as it would require little special effects, and the unidentifiable figure should allow the audience’s imaginations to create ideas of who or what this monster is, whilst simultaneously intriguing them to find out. To portray the mysterious figure, I imagine there should be no identification of their appearance, just a dark figure. The power and control could be represented through a low angle medium shot which then zooms into their face (or what the audience presumes as where a face should be) to intrigue the audience, yet leaving them wondering who or what it is by then cutting back to the girl running.

For the music, there may be the difficulty of gaining a realistic soundtrack. Therefore instead of a soundtrack, I do believe that a similar suspense could be created through diegetic sound, such as screams and rustling of the grass, even the pace of the shots speeding up.

To create tension and suspense, my trailer would ideally have a pace that gradually gets faster (synchronised with a soundtrack) and quicker, less clear, shots (e.g, point-of-view shot from behind a girl running) with either dialogue ‘leave us alone’/ ‘who was it?’, or an intriguing sentence of split into intertitle, which are then interspersed between the rapidly speeding up pace of shots.

I would imagine the trailer to end gradually panning from the medium shot of the girl’s side to a close up of her face with eyes darting around and her frantic panting and whimpering, perhaps even a tear. At this point the soundtrack would be loud and at its peak. This is the shot that should cut to black with the details appearing in an intertitle ‘Coming soon to theatres, Nov 8^th ’. 

Deciding a Film Genre

Before I could begin my trailer, I first had to determine which genre would be the more achievable in the tight time frame and little resources I had on offer. The two genres that I considered practical were horror and a female friendship drama. I used the aforementioned factors to decide this, which included considering actors and actresses and the amount of them I would need for a realistic film trailer.

Therefore, I have analysed the two examples of the genres in basic (mainly focusing on the representation), in aim to conclude which would be more successful for me to attempt to  produce.

Horror Trailer:
Woman in Black

The narrative includes the equilibrium of an undisturbed house with a chilling house being broken by the arrival of the main character. The unique selling point could be the collection of cleshe, yet effective scaring techniques (e.g, there is something behind him), and the play on the main scare, which is the children's contrast of their innocence.

It could be fair to assume the target audience of this film is young adults as it relates to the age of the actor playing the main character. Not only this, they may recognise him from his recent success in the Harry Potter film series, potentially appealing to their audience.

The music uses the chimes of the toys to time the cutting of shots, tying the rhyme and the shots together. As for the camera shots, they contain a great deal of darkness, which could be representing the nature of the plot and the history of the house.

The pace of the trailer starts slow, however quickens as the music does, before slowing back down to cause tension and suspense for the shot.

The fact that the trailer displays no dialogue could be due to the fact that, unlike Sex and the City 2, this movie is more about the experience, rather than relationships). Instead the trailer uses the child's rhyme as asynchronous  over the camera shots to suggest that all the shots relate to one another.

There is little to none special effects used, which could convey the filmmaker's intention to allow the audience's imagination to creating some of the effect and suspense.

The credits and intertitles are used to intrigue the audience, 'DANIEL RADCLIFFE' is to ensure the audience of the famous actor involved, 'THE  WOMAN IN BLACK'  is directly after the shot of the most suspense in the trailer, and the 'COMING SOON' is used as it is ominous and unclear, embodying the essence of how the trailer wants to be perceived, with mystery.

Female Friendship Drama Trailer:

Sex and the City 2

The narrative of the film is established through the presentation of the four females, each presenting four different personalities (e.g, a mother, a wife). It could be said that these four women cover a lot of the female demographic, and their gender and similar age (30s-50s) could be the film-makers attempting to appeal to their ideal target audience. However, this equilibrium is hinted as disrupted/broken by the four characters deciding to go on a holiday together, which brings the drama of the film.

The intertitles also aid the trailer by portraying the narrative in an extremely basic form 'THE FUN', yet simultaneously drawing the audience in and emphasizing the main character 'TO CARRIE ON', Carrie. There is also use of voiceover of this character 'Sometimes, you just have to get away with the girls' which is a phrase of which is stereotypical of the target audience (30s-50s females), and therefore, not only summarises the plot, which is that the main four females go on vacation together and appeals to the target audience, but also personalises the film to the female watching by using the direct language of 'you'. This allows the audience to find this more agreeable as it urges them to reflect this statement upon their own lives, building a connection.

The music could reflect the women's class and location 'New York' , as well as setting the tone of the film which is female empowerment 'inspire you' (sung by a female artist, Alicia Keys). In terms of editing, the music used in this trailer could be noted as providing a rhythm for camera shot to cut with the beats.

The camera of the trailer suggest how the filmmaker aims to present the characters. For example, many low angle shots are used, such as the character of Carrie exiting a car, which represent importance and rich.

Conclusion:

In terms of creating a trailer with the greatest chance of success at being perceived as professional, the horror/thriller is superior in comparison to a female friendship drama. Some of the main reasons being that it requires less special effects within the trailer, the dark colour scheme would be easier to work with, more variety of character to chose from and the trailers have more of a structure.