The first task I did before starting my trailer was to go through all my clips and decide what order I wanted them to go in. I, then labelled all the clips in number order and uploaded them to adobe premiere pro using the import method. This then made it a lot easier when placing my clips in order to then edit together because I knew exactly what clip went first etc.
Once I had imported all my clips I placed them into the editing bar with gaps inbetween them. This then made it a lot easier for me to edit the length of the clips and add transitions. I soon realised that a lot of my clips were too long and made the editing of the trailer quite slow. From watching other popular trailers I had discovered that many of the trailers included short, snappy clips to keep the audience engaged. This then led me to cutting a lot of my clips to only a few seconds instead of 10-15 seconds.
To make the sound from each clip blend in better i used the fading tool to blend the different clips together. The yellow line of the clips represent how loud the sound is for that clip. Towards the ends of the clips I made the sound faded out slightly so that it didnt just suddnely stop. I then carrried this onto the next clip so that the sound blend in at the beginning as well.
Once placing all my clips and soundtrack in the right order for my trailer I soon realised the different sounds didnt all work together. Some sounds were losed due to others being too loud. I went to the audio editing and apdated how loud all my clips and sound tracks were so that all sounds could be heard at the right times.
These are some of the behind the scene shots before I did the make up and styling of the characters. At this point my actors and I were looking around the location and discovering what parts of the building we could use and where would be the best to shoot.
1st Draft
After placing all my clips in the right order and adding some sounds and text, I had my first draft of my trailer. I had made a green age warning sign to be placed at the beginning of the trailer, followed by a production company logo. After showing my first draft to the rest of my class, I got some feedback on what they thought. I took note of these comments and worked on.
clips too long
more sounds in background
overall trailer too long
2nd Draft
In my second draft I made many of the clips either shorter or sped them up. This made the editing pace of the trailer slightly quicker and more realist, like other trailers for popular horror movies. I also edited the lighting of some of the clips to make them a little bit lighter because where I had filmed my trailer was in a quite dark abandoned house. The house didn't have much lighting and all i had was a torch, therefore many of my clips were very dark. Using adobe premiere pro I was able to adjust the colour levels of each clip.
Within the feedback I got from my second viewing to the class of my trailer, a very good point was made. At the beginning of my trailer when the two cars walk out from the car, their voices are quite muffled due to poor camera quality and the fact we were outside on a road. I then came up with the idea to place a voice over at that point in the trailer so that the conversation would be much clearer to hear. I went away and arranged another time to meet with the girls and to record a voice over that would then match in with the timing and actions of the clip.
3rd Draft
In my 3rd draft of the trailer, I went away and worked on adding the voice over at the beginning. I placed it in and was very happy with the outcome. I think it works much better and is a lot clearer to hear. After showing my class the improvements, they agreed that it was much better with the voice over. At this point in my editing process I focused slightly more on the background sounds. I decided that I wanted to put in a beat of some sort to add tension to the trailer. I choose to use a heartbeat sound throughout nearly half of the trailer.
At this point in my editing I decided to change the text font, colour and size. I felt the font looked childish and didn't created a scary atmosphere. I decided to use a much ore simple font and white text on the black background.
4th Draft
For my 4 and 5th draft I was only making minor adaptions, such as the length of clips by a few seconds so that they all fitted in together better. I also worked on the sounds and how sound the background sounds were against the voices of the characters.
5th Draft
When editing my final trailer some of the trailer was missed out. This was due to a technical issue where some sound and clips were saved onto a memory stick so when rendering my clip so of it was lost. I soon realised this issue and managed to go back and fix it before producing my final trailer.
These are my first initial ideas of my film poster after researching other posters. I've made a rough sketch on paper to note down my ideas. I plan to make computer versions as well.
Feedback on Ideas
Jessica Brown- I prefer the second draft of the poster because of the use of the close up shot of the main characters face. It will show the expression of the characters emotions and show the scary side of the face. It also allows direct eye contact between the auidence and character. I much prefer the landscape design for your film.
Katie Elson- I like the landscape design better than the potrait because it shows more detail in the face. It also allows more writing to be placed on the left side of the page.
Before starting to produce my film poster which would go alongside my trailer, I decided to research into different film posters which are current on the market. These are some of the posters for the films that I have already anaylsed. I have realised that most of the posters follow a similar layout and style. They tend to have one main image which in most posters is just one person. I have already explored and anayalsed most of these posters in detail at the begin of the course but I just wanted to have a quick reminder of what a horror film trailer tends to look like.
At the beginning of most horror movie trailers there is a green warning sign which informs the audience of the age rating that the movie is suitable for. These are espeically found in the horror trailers as some of the content is unsuitable for certain ages. In all the horroe trailers I researched, they all had a green warning sign at the beginning of the trailer therfore I decided to create my own film rating warning sign. I used powerpoint software to create one and took screenshots as I did it.
In the village of Maidenhead, a horrible fire broke out in a family home leaving the house destroyed and the whole family dead. Apart from one little boy.
One day, two girls Sophie and Imy were travelling back from a concert when suddenly their camper van breaks down and leaves them stranded. With no signal, they venture of into the near by woods in search from some help. Not long after they come across the left behind house and have an unpleasent meeting with the little boy. However, he isn't too pleased to see them there and he soon lets them know this...
Iphone- The iphone is used in my film trailer when Sophie and Imy are discussing what to do about the broken camper. The iphone shows the audience that they have no signal. The iphone is a popular, well known phone therefore is recognisable to the audience. The phone also adds danger to the trailer as it enforces that they are alone and have no one to contact.
Camper Van- The prop of a camper van is used in my film trailer. The camper van implies that Sophie and Imy have been travelling and is used to show that they are broken down. The camper van breaking down is what begins the film and is what the story is based on, therefore it is vital that the audience view the camper van at some point in the trailer.
Dagger (made of wood)- This piece of wood, shaped like a dagger, is used by 'the little boy' in a close up shot. Actress Laura drags the dagger under her head, implying she is going to cut someones throat. The prop of the dagger shows that the little boy uses weapons to scary visitors.
Equipment Used
I used a tripod when filming my film trailer. This allowed me to avoid camera shake and to make my filming seem more realistic and professional. The tri-pod also helped to create different angles and heights when filming. I am very lucky to have this tripod as it did make it a lot easier to film the shots and clips I wanted.
I used this Sanyo 14,0 mega pixel camera as it was the only video camera that was available to me at the time of my production. The quality of the camera wasn't that good however I tried my best with what I had. Even though the quality wasn't the best I think that some of the out of focus shots can be quite effective.
Software Used
I used three different software's when creating my main production task and ancillary tasks.
Photoshop - Image shows an example of me editing an image in Photoshop for my poster.
InDesign- Images shows an example of me editing text on the software InDesign for my magazine cover,
Adobe Premiere Pro - Image shows me using the editing software Adobe Premiere Pro to create my trailer.
Actress Laura White plays the antagonist character of the 'Little Boy'. The little boy is the only family member that survived the tragic house fire. Rest of his family died in the house, over 100 years ago, but the little boy has remained there ever since. He lives there on his own and hates anyone who comes near so when sophie and imy arrive, its not going to be a good ending. Laura represents a hurt, lose little boy who been left to defend for himself.
Before and After
With Lauras character I decided to work on her make up. I got inspiration from the movie Orphan which I have researched into. The main character in the film is a young girl. I got the idea of having dark make up under her eyes from this clip in the Orphan movie.
Sophie is one of the main characters in the film and is the best friend of Imogen. Sophie plays the protagonist character. She is a 17 year old girl who is travelling in a camper van back from a concert along with Imy. She has long, ginger hair and plays a sterotypical teenage girl. She plays a moody character who doesnt seem concerned with the broken down car until she becomes scared in the abandoned house. She is wearing comfortable, causal clothing as they were travelling a long distance. Sophie appears to be quite a girly character, who is concerned about her appearance.
Imy plays the role of one of the main characters alongside Sophie. She is also 17 years old and travelling in the camper with Sophie. Imy has long, brunette hair and again is a typical teenage girl. Imy seems slightly more concerned and worried about what is happening. She is wearing a light grey hoody and black leggings. This represents her athletic personality. Using two teenage girls appeal to my audience of young adults as they will be able to relate to the characters themselves.
At first thought, I was going to include boy characters who were travelling with Sophie and Imy as well. However, I changed my mind on this idea as the boys made the girl characters seem less vulnerable.At the beginning, I did some filming with four characters, two girls and two boys, and i thought that the boys made the trailer seem less scary, and in fact, the trailer seem more like a comedy trailer. As director, I took the decision to re-film my trailer with only the girl characters.
This is a Gannt Chart showing when I will be completely different tasks over several months.
This location plan clearly shows where and when I will be filming my trailer. It also shows who will be there on set when filming. Choosing a Location
I knew I wanted an abandoned house to shoot in however didn't know which one I could or wanted to use. I went on the internet and searched for some abandoned locations around the area I lived in. I discovered a few and thought it would be best to take a look at them before taking my actors and equipment there to shoot. So a few weeks before I planned to shoot, I went with a friend to take a look at the potential locations. Here's some of the images I took while exploring these locations.
Some of locations I looked at I thought would be too dangerous to bring lots of people, plus I wasn't sure if I would have permission to shoot in particular locations. Overall, I decided to shoot in an abandoned house in Maidenhead. I was able to get permission from the owner and felt the location was safe to bring people to.
Audience Profile
From all the research I have collected and I have come to a decision on my target audience for my film trailer. I found out that the main gender who view horror films are male however only by a little difference. Therefore I will be aiming my film towards both genders but slightly more towards men. To attract the female audience I am going to use female characters that they can relate to. Males are more likely to be a fan of horror movies because men tend to be stereotypical thrill seekers. Violence is also a convention of horror movies which is often loved by males.
From my research I found out the usual age for someone watching a horror movie is between 15-24 years old. During young adulthood many people are in the key stages of developing themselves and seeking excitement. Many young adults want to experience new emotions and feelings therefore horror movies gives this thrill to a younger audience a lot easier than an older one. Also a young audience tend not to be put off a film by violence or unnatural images which may make an older viewer feel uncomfortable or negative towards a film.
In general, horror films are aimed towards the working class.This is most likely due to the level of thrill and excitement which is gained form a horror film. If a middle/upper class person watches a horror film they are usually watching a horror film which is related to another genre such as romance or history.
Research and Planning Into Soundtracks
After doing my research into popular, current trailers on the market I noticed that the soundtracks that went with the trailer played a very important role when advertising a film. The sound that I could hear made a extreme difference to the video I was seeing. After watching a few horror film trailers, I watched them again but without the sound and this then emphasised impact that a sound track could add. Especially when watching a horror movie trailer, the soundtrack could create and add a lot more tension and make a trailer a lot more scary.
I wanted to reinforce my horror theme genre by using typical scary sounds in my trailer. To begin with I tried searching into Google, 'horror sound effects.' Multiple website showed up with plenty of difference sound effects. I tried a lot of different websites and listened to a variety of sounds.
None of the sounds I found I was completely happy with apart from a heartbeat sound that I discover. I plan on having a heartbeat sound that can be heard throughout quite a lot of my trailer. I want the heartbeat to be heard but not take the attention away from what is being shown in the trailer. The heartbeat sound will create a rhythm to the trailer which will build up suspension. I think the sound will create more of a creepy atmosphere and add to my horror theme. I made sure the sound clip I was planning to use was from copy right free source before downloading it. The heartbeat sound was influenced by the pendulum sound I heard in the Insidious trailer and wanted to use the same style of building tension by having a continuous beat in the background of the trailer.
By college, students also had the opportunity to listen to and use some pre-recorded sound effects and sound tracks. I listened to many of these and found one that fitted my trailer well.
In my sound palette I wanted fairly sinister sounds which would represent a typical horror theme, such as dark beats and horror drones. I also want a high pitch sound that would echo which will be heard when my scary character appears on screen to show that the character isn't a nice one.
