Our group filming schedule

When filming our trailer our group made a schedule we could work by to make things easier and know how much more we have to do and when. It looked something like this:

Cast and positions taken place: Katie Evans and Hannah Bray- Filming
Josh Cuncarr- Filming and acting
Steph James, Mus Moroglu and Dan Banner- Acting

Locations- Katie's house, Cheshunt park, in a science lab, St Mary's church and graveyard and Outside Dan's house.

Tuesday November 9th- To do all indoor scenes e.g. Katies house

Time- 4:30-6:30

Wednesday November 10th - Half outdoor scenes e.g. Cheshunt park
Extra cast needed- Micheal Grayston- Transport
Dan Banner- Technical equipment/lighting

Time: 5:30-6:30 as darkness is needed for a scarier effect.

Tuesday November 16th - Final Outdoor scenes e.g. St Mary's church

Time: 5:30-6:30 darkness is needed again.

Re-shoots: TBC

Analysed film posters

Again me and my group have to make a film poster for our trailer. So i thought i would analyse well known horror film posters to help me decide what would be best for our own poster to attract our target audience.

This film poster is quite simple, its got a dark, cold feeling about it which is typical of horror. Also what makes it more mysterious is it doesn't have much writing other than a tag line on the left hand side in a smallish font saying "I will do anything to live" which already suggests to the audience this is a horror and will inlove nar death or even death experiences. Themain image is the background of this poster, it is quite intresting the main protagonist (a woman) looking in the mirror which she could be doing as a day to day basis as she could be getting ready for bed or something as she is by the sink in a which looks like bathroom whilst not dressed in many clothes. However there is a strange looking man/boy in the mirror but quite fadded out so looks almost like a ghost. However when the audience look at this poster its almost like the audience themselves are that ghost as we are looking behind the protagonist into the mirror.
The only other bit of writing on this poster is the actual title of the film 'The Unborn' it is used in a very simple yet bold letters, its a bright white colour which comes out of the image as the rest of it is dark and black. Also the colour white gives it a ghostly effect to the poster.

This film poster for saw is very different to the one above for many reasons. First of all unlike most horror films and posters, its not dark infact there are is alot of white, like the background. The thing that hits the audience most of all is the image in the middle of the poster, which is a chopped off hand. This is a disturbing image yet its clever because you have no idea who the hand belongs to as there isn't a picture ofthe protagonist like the poster above. This poster is clever to make the audience wonder alot about this certain poster and what the film is to do with as it doesn't give anything away the only clue on the poster is again in a small font which doesn't stand out from the rest of the poster and that is "every piece has a puzzle". All this mystery makes the audience interested in the film as no one is to know what the films about untill you watch it.
The only other thing that stands out from the rest of the poster is the actual title of the film "saw" it is a browny red colour which makes it look like old stained blood as its all scruffy writing aswell.

This is the final film poster i have analysed. Again this is different from the other two, its more busy to the other two above, however like the unborn poster the main image is the background. The protagonist is again used in this poster, it shows her looking in pain with hands that look as if they belong to a creature grabbing her down. However the fire around her is hiding what the creature is thats pulling the woman down. The fire has been used well in this poster as hell is asociated with hire and devils, hense why they have used fire in this poster. This is also different to the other two posters in the sense it gives more away about the film, as the background of this image has lots of old looking houses which shows the audience the film will involve houses like moving into a new one which is haunted or the protagonist gets lost and stays in a house for the night but just with the wrong type of person. It can sugest anything. Also this posters has more writing to the other two posters, its tag line says "Christine Brown has a good job a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days she's going to hell" just by those lines its already given away some of the plot but cleverly leaves the audience still wondering about the films plot. Again the poster is dark even if there is abit of colour from the fire, the background is night time which again is typical of horror films but this makes the title stand out from the image, just using the colour white and having it old fashion bold writing gives it all a creepy effect.

After looking at all 3 posters i have realised they all put the title at the bottom of the poster, it is also always in capital letters to make it stand out from the the poster. The colours they use aswell are always very bland because of the background colour/image is userally dark. If light then the title would be a bland drk colour. It also gives me an idea of using our protagonist in the picture either just having a small section of her like her eye as she imagins things or having her looking scared in some sort of way. I also realised that they do not give much away about the ghost/creatur/villian so i think me and my group will take that into account. The last thing is we wont put many words on our poster as its more likely they don't have much written just a small catch line to make the audience wonder.

Magazine feadback

Just like we did about the film trailer we went round with another survey this time it was about a magazine we could do for film genre. Again we went to the cinema as they are likey to know about film genres and this time went to WH smiths as they are a good magazine selling company. We showed different people mainly ages 15+ because that is our target audience, our detailed designs such as name, layout and articles that would interest readers.

The different names we had for our music magazine that people had to choose from were:

- Asylum

- Freakshow

- Slaughterhouse

- Filmfest

Most people prefered 'Asylum' out of our choises this was because they said it fitted well with a horror genre which would be best to advertise our film, all the others seemed boring to 'Asylum'. We then showed different people layouts of what our magazine will look like,

Example:

However this was chosen to be the best layout, the reasons as followed were people liked where the title was and how it stood out, so it would straight away catch the readers eye, it is also typical of a magazine to have the title of it, in the left hand corner. They also said they liked how the main image was going to be the background of the front cover of the magazine, it makes its effective and stand out grabbing the readers attention. When we asked them about what colour scheme would be best most chose a mixture of reds and black because this would relate to horror and they like the fact the title 'ASYLUM' was in red showing blood stains, making it seems scarier.

Analysed film magazines

As I am doing a film magazine aswell as a trailer and poster, i thought to make my magazine like a real magazine front cover and suit my target audience i would analyse some exsisting film magazines that are near to what me and my group are trying to aim at.

This is the first magazine I am analysing, called 'Empire'. It is one of the most popular film magazine avaliable. Whenever there is a new film out they will use it on the front cover, this is inteligent because it will attract the trget audience as they would want to know more about the new film due out. With this magazine they have stuck to a colour scheme which is mostly reds and blacks, beause of the main image is red and so the masthead has been made red with a fire effect coming off it. This is all standing out aswell because behind all the images it is just plain back, this is so the magazine wont seem too busy unlike if you had a totally different colour as the background. Its been kept plain and simple. The magazine has also made the sub titles white and in a normal bold font, this is so it doesn't make the reader take there eyes off the main image and read the sub headings.

The second maggazine I am analysing is "Fangoria" this is another popular magazine in America. Already by reading the masthead you can tell this is aimed at horror films because of the title has the word 'Fang' in it which iconography for vampires and dangerous/scary creatures. The lyout for this magazine is interesting and different from the the magazine above, this one seems alot more busy and more aimed at horror films than films in general. The reasons for this are, there are more vivid images the main image is of a dead man in some sort of trap with his stomache ripped off with a catch phrase saying "lets it all hang out" but literatuly, already by the image you can tell this is from the horror film 'Saw' even though it says in big words over the image. Also on the left handside of the magazine cover there are small pictures of other disturbing pictures which the reader would be able to tell are from horror fims. This is different from the magazine above because that only had one image which showed it was more based on the new realised film. 'Fangoria' has many images which gives more away about the magazine and whats inside.
Again The magazine has stuck to the colour red as a colour scheme which represents blood and gore, how ever this front cover is more busy compared to the above, it involves more colours and images which makes the magazine seem more busy and full of stuff to do with horror.

After analysing these different film magazines, I have come to conclusion that 'Empire' is good in the sence they put the new realised film on the front cover and has many good ideas I could use in my own magazine. However it is too sparse when it comes to genre as it could be based on any genre film. Whereas for 'Fangoria' it is more spacific at what genre its aimed at which is horror which is what I want my magazine to be based on. So therefore I will use ideas from this magazine aswell.

Audience Feedback

To make our ideas for our movie trailer better, we showed our storyboard to 20 people from our target audience. We went to a mixture of places, one was the mac rooms in our school and asked a handful of year 12's and 13's as they are 15+ which is our target audience mad would be interested in the media therefore know what they are talking about.

We also went to the cinema in enfield, we looked for people who were interested in the horror genre and are likely to go regular.

Our results were varied and most of the people we asked thought it was a good story idea with an interesting twist and would like to watch it. However others we asked thought it would be a hard story to follow and get confused by the twist.

A majority like the trailer but had a few opinions we could change an example of one was instead of the protagonist crying in the kitchen corner it would be better to lock herself in the bathroom to give more of an effect she's scared. Also we got told that some shots should be changed to make the film trailer seem more panicky and chaotic to put the target audience on edge.

Conventions of Horror films

Horror films are made to make the audience frightend and on edge whilst watcing the whole films. Most horror films have a twist or a shocking end, this is so the film isn't predictable, bcause when watching it from the start the audience think they know how the film is going to end, until the twist. In horror films there is always a main character the story will revolve around the (protagonist), who often starts off as a innocent, would'nt harm anyone, but all turns round and the protagonist turns out to be a survivor who either fights off the problem whch is normally a killer, or gets killed whilst trying to save people and themselves.

The villain/killer/demon creature normally is known for a certain way of killing victims this is almost a trademark, an example would be: A nightmare on elm street, the killers trade mark is he comes into peoples dreams as they sleep and he kills them. You cannot get away from him because everytime you sleep he will come into your dreams. For our own trailer we have looked into the conventions of the trailers and plan to make ours have its own twist making it effective to the audience putting them on edge.

Our plot for our trailer/ storyboard

Box 15 is a shot of the title of our film "Memoria" its against a black background so it will stand out. The title will slowly fade in and out from the background.
Box 16 the final shot is of the protagonist placing flowers on a grave with the ghost standing behind, she will be on her knees whilst the ghost is standing behind her. This will be a low shot.



Box 13 is another black out, which will last a second. It is the final black out as we didn't want to use too many.
Box 14 is the protagonist facing the ghost as it appears in the shot. One another are looking at eachother.



Box 11 is a close up shot of a scared face this shot will be a close up of the ghost/villian walking towards the camera.
Box 12 is a quick shot of the protagonist on the phone saying "its here", this will be a close up shot to show the protagonist expressions.



Box 9 is the protagonist running down a pathway using a tracking shot to follow her run. This will be quick scene.
Box 10 is a slow tilting shot of the protagonist washing her face then looking in the mirror the villian is behind her when she looks in the mirror.



Box 7 is the protagonist crying in a kitchen corner with her arms wrapped around her legs this is a high angle shot looking down on her to show vulnerbility.
Box 8 is silhouette of a front door with lights and banging noises to show someone wanting to get in. This is a medium long shot.



Box 5 is the protagonists boyfriend/friend shaking the protagonist whilst shouting "there's nothing there" showing that the protagonist is going crazy. This will be a long shot
Box 6 is another black out to give a better effect



Box 3 is a close up of the beaker leaking with the hazard sign to show its danger. There will also be half of the persons arm to show they have spilt it.
Box 4 is a quick black out, there is no sound but then becomes eerie or quiet.



Box 1 of the storyboard, there is a shot of the the protagonist on the sofa using an over shoulder of the psychologist so it looks as if your seeing it from the psychologists view. This open shot is of the protagonist talking about her childhood whilst laying on the sofa.
Box 2 is a boy walking between two tables in a chemistry lab, holding books. It is a low angle shot to show the foot of someone trip the boy up and show him falling on the floor with acid spilling. This will be in black and white to show a flashback with the voices of the protagonist and psychologist talking.

Target Audience

Our group has decided to set our target audience and the ages 15+ the reasons for this is it would be 12 viewing certificate if i was shown in the cinema or sold as a dvd. We decided to target our audience at ages 15 and upwards because we want our film to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible in order to increase the sucess for our movie. Also if i was 18+ it would be harder to make it suitable for the older audience, it would have to be scarier and more gory. Atleast this way it doesn't have to be so gory or scary. Also 15+ is a suitable age to be able to comprehend the complexity of ur plot aswell as being to enjoy the film without it being too far fetch or confusing. Also horror is very popular to ages 15+ s we have taken that into account and have chosen that as our final idea.

Focused analysis of mise en scene

This is one of the most important aspects to take into account. This is because the setting of where the film will be and what's around it creates most of the fear. For example if its dark and in an old house this can make the audience more fearful as you cannot see what could come up and scare you. This would be different if it was bright and was in a nice looking house, the audience wouldn't have the same fear within them and be afraid when the killer will appear. Typical horror films are set in a isolated area that no one knows much about, like when characters go out for a drive, break down and there is a house in the middle of no where, where the characters will end up staying and face near death.

For my trailer the protagonist is totally isolated from from the rest of society by moving far away from home but when she returns she is again isolated she hasn't been there in years, doesn't know anyone and has no longer got anyone to turn to.

Mise en scene is used in very clever ways to create a fear to the audience, often iconography is used throughout the films, and example of this would be repeated images of blood and a very close up of a face with either a mask or something not quite right about it.

Clothes are also key within the horror films for example the protagonist would be wearing normal clothes, sometimes nice clothes due to the characters going out for the night before something happens, by the end of the night the protagonists clothes are all torn up and covered in blood. The monster/villian is often in dark clothes and often has something on his face like a mask or scratched up face so you never see what the killer looks like so gives off a mysterious effect making the audience at ease.

Focused analysis of sound and music

The typical sound used in horror films/trailers are eerie and high pitched. This creates a fear in the audience, it normally starts off slow and then builds up getting louder and faster then stops to a sudden silence this shows the audience something is about to happen. Most music in horror films are dark and mysterious fitting perfectly for the scarier effect. However some horror films use more upbeat music which creates a disturbing contrast between the music and events. For my film trailer I have decided to use the eerie tune, this is because it will fit well with the type of horror trailer we are going to build up.

focused analysis of my characters

After analysing the different type of characters in different horror films, in my film trailor i have decided the protagonist is a female who at the start is a happy young woman. It all changes round when she vists her hometown, she becomes scared and paranoide. As its a supernatural circumstances nobody believes her. However as the film goes on she becomes stronger and braver as she fights against the thing thats haunting her. This fits the horror conventions because the protagonist changes her attitude when she has to deal with the situation.

Focused Analysis, Characters

Normally in horror films roughly in the twenty first century the protagonist who is originally naive, vulnerable, attractive and usually young. This doesnt always apply for all horror films. Normally the female will be terrified of the situation around her. However the character has to deal with the situation around her so the female will become brave and plans on doing anything to live so this includes forgetting original morals for example never to kill anyone as she was once a innocent sweet person. This doesn't always apply to horror films sometimes the protagonist is a male which can be slightly different to haing a male character because from the start they are normally brave an willing to take the challange to save his life. Sometimes if its a group of people the male would be the leader the one who helps the other survivors.
Occasionally in horror films to make their film slightly different the evil killer can be a child to put a slight twist on the story, as children are normally classed as innocent, sweet people who wouldn't think of doing such a bad crime. However if you make the child the killer the audience would be shocked to who the killer was all along. An example of this would be;

The orphan: A innocent family want to adopt a girl t add to the family. She is young, innocent and seems sweet, she likes to do things like paint which makes the audience think shes just doing what kids do. However she is found to be causing lots of problems with the family nearly killing all the family members apart from the father, firstly you'd just think shes jealous of the brother and sister because she doesn't get the same sort of attention as she is different and gets bullied at school. But the audience are soon to find out she is actually a 40 year old woman who is a killer this is a big shock to the audience because you wouldn't have expected that from the sweet, innocent girl from the start.

There are also your super natural films, which despite the sex of the protagonist nobody will believe them this therefore creates them to feel isolated which causes tension. An example of this would be;
Nightmare On Elm St: The protagonist is a happy young girl who doesn't believe in anything like supernatural horrors of Freddy Kruger untill the young girl had witnessed herself with him in her dream. No one believes her at first because of her age and the fact she didn't believe it to start with herself no one is convinced and thinks shes making up or has a good imagination. She finally stops trying to convnce people and tries to stop him by herself. This shows she is brave and gives her a change of attitude towards the situation.

With the villain its a different story, the character will always remain ominous and mysterious you hardly know anything about the or see them much, this causes more tension because you don't know who the character is, why they are doing so, are they taking revenage? Also you never really see their faces this shows more mysterious within the character. If nothing is really known about the character the villian is more likely to pop up when you least expect it, making the audience tense. A typical horror film would only show the villian when its dark making everything ten times worse as you cannot see much and whats going on, unless its a supernatural film there are more willing to show their identity.
An example of this would be:
Paranormal activity- You don't ever see who the villian is because it is invisable and the protagonists can't see it they just sence is presence. It also only comes out at night so the protagonist woman who is getting stalked by the villian has to put the video camera on video at night and set traps like flour on the floor to see if you see the foot prints, just to see where it is. However at the end the killer gets inside the woman therefore she kills her husband and she is the new villian.

Saw 1- The killer controlls a puppet so you never see who the killer is. This gets the audience wondering about the type of person the killer is. All you know about this person is he supposed motive to be helping people.

A nightmare on Elm St Trailer

Editing: In this trailer it follows a typical horror trailer. The start of it is conventional it has slow shots which build up the tension and can sence somethings going to happen, then it fades into another shot making the audience on edge and know somethings not right. Then it changes to lots of fast shots of different events happening this shows panic within the audience and the characters themselves. Its interesting because the shots variey from slow, short shots to fast which the audience don't expect. Also another clever editing skill is the music is in time with the shots which makes it very effective.

Mise en scene: At the start of the trailer it is dark and in a place which pretty much looks empty, like people used to live in this area and don't anymore. Its very old and mysterious, theres no sound until a mysterious man is getting chased by 3 cars that the audience has absolutly no idea as to why. The fact the start is set when its dark fits in well with the film, this is because the killer kills people when they sleep so being chased in the dark gives off the impression thats why he does it at night. 1 min into the video we are shown a shot of the sign 'Elm st' and then shots of a normal streat with houses and people living in it, which is simular to the start of the trailer but the difference is people are living in this street and its not abandend.

Everyones dressed in light normal colours which is different to the villain who is wearing black and cant see his face, he also has blades on his hands to make him seem a little more abnormal and know somethings not right about this character and recognise straight off his the killer. There is a shot at 1.17 minutes which looks like an old factory/store room which keeps coming up in the trailer so its showing that this place must have a big part within the film, almost have a link to the villian. Also within the trailer you get disturbing images which are stereotypical of horror, its to make the audience feel at edge yet interested, an example is young girl is at a funeral with scratch lines down her clothes, they use children shows their innocence with the harsh realities of what happens to the victims.

Sound: The start of the trailer has heavy breathing which shows there is panic within the character which leaves the audience wondering whats going on, why is there panic? With the breathing you can also hear quick footsteps like someones running and you hear this before you see the actual character running away from cars. Suddenly there is a loud bang and thats when the music kicks in, its got a fast paced and goes with the man running, the sound of cars hitting there breaks aswell gives off the fact everythings in a panic rush. Already by 28 seconds the sounds and music has made the trailer seem very action-packed. Suddenly thats when we get talking, its not a voice over its the characters we here the mans name 'Kruegar' and whilst one of the chasers is banging on the door you here him say "come on you sick basterd" this already shows you he is a victim and has done something wrong to upset people, as he was mentioned as being a "sick bastard". Also you get a sence of feeling sorry for the man being chased as he says "what did i do, i didn't do anything" whilst this dramatic music builds up as one of the chasers is about to throw a can of petrol with fire on it through the window as you hear glass smash. There is a quick sudden silence after the dramati sound whilst the building is setting alight, then a caption appears in red, and then there are 4 quick shots with a loud beat to everyone that appears, with talking over about the villian. Then it goes into a longer shot of the sign of 'Elm st' and has singing of children, which is peaceful with an echo yet makes the audience slightly worried, there is a regular beat in time with the childrens singing that sounds like footsteps, this gives the impression that something bad is coming. Inbetween these sounds there is loud crashes, screaming of women etc. There is a silence for a quick second then it makes the audience jump with a scratching screechy noise of the vilians hand scraping across something metal. After there are short shots of different scenes and bad things happen to the characters, throughout this there is a heart beat sound everytime it changes to a different shot, and talking over it one is with a man saying "don't fall asleep" which is very important because thats when the villian will come and get you.
Towards the end there is lots of screaming, bangs, noises then the last thing you hear is a scream then a sudden thud noise with the title coming up on screan with the villian saying "you have nothing to worry about" when there clearly is and you finally see abit of the villians face before going onto another caption. Which is really effective as it says "dont fall asleep".