Experimenting with shot types and angles

To prepare for our final trailer, we have experimented with shot types and angles. This clip includes an action match, extreme close up, an over the shoulder shot and a shot reverse shot. We are planning to include several different shot types in our trailer including these ones that we have experimented with. However, in our final piece we will use a tripod so that the camera does not appear handheld like in this clip. We also experimented with speeding up the action in a clip, which is shown at the very beginning of this video, which would be an effective graphic to use in our genre. 

Audience/market research

To gain some audience feedback on our ideas for our trailer, we decided to ask a few selected people in order to develop an understanding about the audience that we have decided to target. We asked 5 questions, including;

1. Are you interested in the horror genre?
2. What age group do you think this film would appeal to?
3. Who would you watch the film with and where?
4. Would you prefer female or male main character?
5. Would you go and view this film if it came out?

The general response from these questions were quite positive and as all the people we asked were are targeted age group at 17/18 years of age, we therefore feel that we have chosen the most appropriate age group to target with our trailer. 

Props

One main prop that we aim to use in our trailer, is a mask for the spooky stalker in our film. Our inspiration for this was the existing horror movie 'You're next', where characters wear a scary wolf mask to disguise their identity. We feel this would make the film more mysterious, leading to the audience wanting to watch the upcoming film to find out who's beneath it. We will purchase this mask from a fancy dress shop or online. Another significant prop that we aim to use in our trailer, is a mobile phone, that appears regularly in the film. Our inspiration for this is 'When a stranger calls' which is a film we have previously used as influence in terms of its structure. The mobile phone will be perhaps a warning for the characters in the film, and the audience that something bad is soon to happen. We aim to have the phone ring from an unknown number, giving a sense of mystery and fear towards the audience. The person on the end of the line will have a deep, scary voice and will not reveal their identity. This again will build up tension and fear. The Ring tone of this mobile will also be a significant factor in our trailer because it will again be a premonition of bad things to occur. Below on the right is an example of the significance of the mobile phone in the film 'when a stranger calls', we aim to use a similar phone to this.

We have began to search for masks online that we can purchase for filming our trailer. We found a scary animal mask, on amazon which we feel would be a perfect prop for our trailer: (above on the left)

Film title

We have been thinking about the title of our film, and have come up with a few possibilities

• Mask
• Who's calling
• The mask project
• Signal
• Trapped 
• No way out
• The unknown
• New arrival

Out of these possibilities we feel that the most effective is 'The Mask project' as the mask is one of the most significant aspects in our trailer. It suggests that the masked man is committing the attack as part of a project, revealing his psychological issues. The other title that we liked is 'The unknown' as it emphasises the mystery in the film, making the audience want to discover what the film entails. However, we felt that 'The mask project' was more personable to our film in particular as it addresses the mask.

We began to think about the type of font and style we want our film title to be. Firstly we used photoshop and downloaded appropriate fonts from dafont.com, to use for our film title. The images below are our initial choices of font. 

From these 3 fonts, we decided that the most effective is the 2nd one 'Horror sketch' as we feel it is the most appropriate for our genre and releases a sense of spookiness. To develop this title further, we imported everything onto the motion app, so that we could add effects to the font and enable movement, so that it looks effective emerging into the trailer. Firstly we added a glow to the font, and increased the tracking of the letters, to make the title appear more sharp and intense. We also altered the colour slightly from white, to a cream colour to make the font less bold. We then added a behaviour to the title- 'fade in centre left', which we feel was quite a simple behaviour yet very effective. 

Below is a preview of our film title with edited visual aspects and movement. We will show the title at the end of the trailer, so that it remains in the audiences mind making the trailer more memorable. We feel that our final outcome is effective and will suit the mood of our trailer. We aim to maintain this font throughout the whole trailer, and on our poster and magazine cover.

Choice of music

We have began to think about what type of music and sound effects we will use in our trailer in order to emphasise our genre, and make the trailer more interesting for the audience. We aim to use this sinister soundtrack consistent in the background and to add our sound effects on top to suit our trailer. We feel sinister sound track would be an effective choice as it includes a lot of spooky and deep undertones along with high pitched stretching instruments in some parts to give a spooky dark feel to it. We also aim to use a voice over, over the top of this sound track, to help introduce the plot and story line of the film to the audience. This voice over will be deep and slow, again giving a sense of fear towards the audience relating to our chosen genre. Below is another soundtrack that we have found which we also think will suit our trailer. We aim to play this music right at the very end over the credits etc. This song is called Carousel by Melanie Martinez. We feel that it suits our genre and will be very effective at the end of the trailer, to leave the audience wanting to watch the upcoming film.

To add our own twist to these soundtracks, we aim to use the given sound tracks on Final cut pro, and possibly even record some of our own. This could include things like screams, whispers and voices of characters from our film. This would help to layer the sounds and build them up gradually, building tension and fear for the audience. 

Costume choices

To prepare for our trailer, we have to decide what types of costumes our characters will be wearing. We have gathered ideas about this, from previous horror films that have similar 

The main character in our trailer, Laura Jackson will be dressed as a typical teen, her costume will be a pair of plain jeans, and a t-shirt- as if no effort was made. This look will help to represent her attitude and characteristics - laid back and slightly grumpy. The young boy in our film- Oscar Palmer, will again be dressed as a stereotypical, male teenager. He will have a skater boy look, so tight black jeans, a baggy t-shirt, trainers and a cap.

We feel that costume is quite an important concept for our trailer, as it will give the audience an insight as to what the characters are like. From the costume above, the audience will be able to identify that Oscar is a typical young teen, who doesn't take things too seriously and is slightly immature. From this, the audience can relate to the characters, as our target audience is at a similar age to them. 

The older character, Laura's auntie - Maria Jackson will appear occasionally in phone calls and before she leaves to go away in the trailer, leading to Laura taking care of her home. We will dress her as a wealthy single mum, wearing a shirt and cardigan, a skirt and high heeled sandals. She will be holding suitcases, ready to depart. Her makeup and hair similar to the above image - this is a photograph of the mother from 'insidious' showing a typical costume choice for a middle aged woman in a horror movie. 

location shots

We aim to film our trailer mainly in a family house, and various shots also outside and around the house. We feel that the use of a family house creates a sense of comfort and everyone can relate to it. The use of a family home, invaded with horror makes the film more believable for the audience, such as 'paranormal activity', and 'When a stranger calls' making it more memorable and effective. Along with shots of this house, we will film outside and around it, as we aim to film in the night time, it will create a dark scary feel. This builds tension and frightens the audience, relating to our horror genre.  This is a location shot shown in the trailer of 'when a stranger calls'. The house is shown over a lake, with no surrounding houses creating a sense of vulnerability and isolation. 

For the inside of the house we will use a

typical family layout - a welcoming, and comfortable setting, to make the scary twist even more shocking, and frightening for the audience. for example paranormal activity is based in a house like this. It shows the house being very comforting and family orientated i.e not tidy, like any household with young children. It also shows the house in night vision, which shows the house in an isolated, empty way; a sign of danger. We feel using a family home makes the film more believable as most people can relate to the typical scenery, and therefore relates to the audience. We will hopefully be filming in Lianas house, which is a very family orientated household so we feel this would be an appropriate location for our trailer. Below are our chosen location shots of the inside of the of the home.

Actor/Actress shots

The two man in characters in our film are of a similar age of our target audience. They are young adults. We thought this was the best way to appeal to our target audience as they can relate to them e.g their interests, how they act and dress.We have Sophie Turner playing the young girl looking after her aunties house and Luca Tambini playing the boy that accompanies her for the night.  We also have included an older middle aged actor playing the aunty to also appeal to an older generation audience as well. We feel this is important to have a range of ages that watch our film. 

25 word pitch

When young Laura Jackson is left responsible for an isolated home of her aunts, things take an unexpected turn, and leave her to fend for her life.

Story board

Story board:

Our Story board is a rough idea/sketch as too what order our trailer goes in and what camera techniques, sound and angles we will use in each clip. Our Idea for our film is a baby sitter who is looking after her aunties house for the night, and has a boy over. They keep getting unknown calls with creepy messages and a distinctive whistling tune. This carries on and supernatural activities keep happening about the house they are in alone. Our trailer will give a glimpse to what the story is about but will also leave the audience wanting to see what happens in the film. For example does the boy and girl survive, how do they get out. This would leave the audience wanting to watch the full films when it comes out in cinema. Another important factor we will include is who the film is produced by and when the film will be out in the cinemas so people know when they can watch it. 

We aim to use flashing images, a contrast of slow music to create suspense, and fast action packed music to shock the audience. We also aim to include a variety of exaggerated sound effects e.g someone screaming to emphasis how frightened the main characters are. The use of dark dim lighting will create a mysterious atmosphere. Using voice overs over fishing images of different clips from the film will give the audience an idea what happens however doesn't give too much away. 

We began creating our storyboard by using a programme on the internet, however we found that the site did not contain the visuals and scenes that we needed for our story board. We therefore drew the rest out by hand.

Mood Board

This is our Genre mood board, of horror/thriller. We have used our photo shop skills in order to create this mood board. We have combined images of films that have influenced our horror/ thriller trailer, with spooky images that relate to our genre. For example- the 'When a stranger calls' poster, which is a film which we have taken a lot of inspiration from in terms of the type of film and the story line. Other films that appear in our mood board are 'Deliver us from evil' and 'Shutter island' which have both influenced us in terms of the structure of the trailer and visual aspects. We also imported a poster from the film 'You're next' which is where we got the idea of the mask from. We added a faded image of 2 hands pressed up against a screen, which we felt could represent that our characters are trapped inside a house of hell.