First draft of trailer

Final Poster

(Click to enlarge)

Final Magazine Front Cover

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Narrative structure in full

Our Trailer's Narrative Structure

The trailer will start off in a library scene with the idea of a old tale that the characters are discussing, however there been watched by the killer. The students are not aware of this, this shows that were following the conventions of horror films as the equilibrium is showing the students having a good time and not aware of the danger that is surrounding them.

After a jump cut is used to show that the unknown killer is socialising and persuading the group to go visit the location in where the old tale was created. This shows how the story line is progressing into the next stage, a change in the equilibrium.

The killer then invites them to visit a church and grave yard as a joke, knowing that the popular teenagers would take up the offer. This is a stereotypical location for a horror setting as we connote churches and graveyards with death, blood and isolation.

Once the students are standing outside the church, there will be a panning shot of the killer watching the teenagers outside the church gate, thus giving the impression of a sinister atmosphere, which adds to the conventions of a typical horror film trailer.

When the students are in the church, we will use the effects of shadows, non-digetic and digetic music such as a young female character screaming, the sound of the killers shovel and other sound effects used. This will effectively make it a good value production horror trailer that will appeal to our target audience.

In the horror trailer there will be only two killings that are shown through fast editing, this again follows the convention of horror trailers. The decision to have the killer kill two characters was because we didn’t want to reveal the whole story and wanted to keep the audience interested in the trailer. 

Throughout the horror trailer the killer’s identity is never revealed to the audience, we wanted to do this as it would create a darker atmosphere within the trailer and will scare our target audience.

The most significant prop used in the trailer will be the killers shovel and the sound of the shovel this shows the audience how a garden utensil can become such a violent weapon which will show our unique selling point of the trailer and brand our own identity.

Story Board & Planning of the trailer

Here is the storyboard which our group created...

This was our plan and structure of the trailer we are going to film.

Setting of our trailer

Draft magazine cover & poster

This is my first draft of the magazine front cover. As you can see there isn't much you can see at the moment but it does include all the codes and conventions of a usual film magazine front cover. I've included a masthead which stands out with the bright white font and a shade of black on the outline. I have also included the main picture which shows what the genre is about and also the sub stories of what would be inside of the story. And lastly I've included the barcode and price is what you would usually see on a normal front page of a magazine cover.

This is the first design of my poster for the horror trailer. As you can see at first glance this doesn't really seem to look like a horror poster but I tried to use different fonts which would at least make it a bit scarier. I've included the billing block which is a convention of what you would see on a average movie poster. The rating of the film was added to give the effect of adult themes are in this film e.g sex, violence, blood & gore.  One thing you may have spotted is the title of my movie, our group decided to change it from 'Disterbance' to 'House of Sins' as we felt the new title rated to the setting of where we want to shoot our trailer.

Horror mood board

These are the type of things which gets me scared in general....

Analysis for horror poster

I have decided to analyse this particular horror poster as I feel it has all the conventions needed to promote their film. As you can see from the mise en scene this poster has a main image of a vulnerable female character screaming in stress shows how this film follows a basic convention of maybe the female character getting hurt first or getting killed first. The image is placed in the center of the page which shows the importance and how effective it is to grab the audiences attention. The colour of the background also plays a important part, because it is filled with dark blue and black it shows the mysterious side and makes the audience want to know more about the film. Stereotypically, the colours on the poster follows the convention of horror films using dark colours, which clearly demonstrates to the audience the genre of the film. The significance use of the colour black represents the theme of death and evil. When looking at the poster on first sight, the first element you are able to notice is the Title, which is in a clear white font, which contrasts the dark background. The fact that final destination has been presented in a white font, suggests that its not just horror, otherwise they could of just picked a title that clearly presents the theme horror, for example it has a illuminating flash on the title which could suggest that there is light for the survivors. The audience are able to tell that the sub-genre is sci-fi by the use of the white font. The colour white connotes purity and innocence, which could relate to the genre of sci-fi, as its more fact than fiction.

Final Ideas of narrative structure

Myth/Old tale, that there is a serial killer who killed his victims at a deserted church and buried their bodies at the church grave. 
- Students hear about this tale through news articles as people begin to go missing around the area. 
- One of the students dare/peer presser the whole group to visit the church. 
- They visit the church during the night. 
- They begin to joke around and scare each other. 
- The joke begins to turn into actual killings, implying that the tale is true. 
- However, the serial killer is actually one of the group members who is copying the old tale.

Evaluation of questionnaire

Overall, I have found out:

• Males take more of an interest than females in horror films/trailers 
• The most frightening settings are abandoned places or locations people feel the safest at 
• Production value of the trailer is important 
• The use of music in the trailer is significant 

When handing out my questionnaires to the students, I found out that males were more eager to fill out the questionnaire than females, which shows which sex is more interested in the genre of horror. I was surprised that  females didn't fill out the forms as I would of thought that they would be more reliable than males. 

Questionnaire on horror

-How old are you?

.......................................

-Are you male or female?

.......................................

-How often do you watch a horror movie?

.................................................................

-What elements do you like within the horror films?

.............................................................................

-Where do you think is the most frightening setting for a horror movie? Why?

...................................................................................................................

-What type of characters do you find frightening in horror movies? Why?

..............................................................................................................

-Are you influenced by the budget and production value of a movie trailer? If so why?

.................................................................................................................................

-Do you think its more effective if younger characters act within the film/trailer rather than adults?

.................................................................................................................................................

-Are you influenced by the music/sounds in horror films? Why?

..................................................................................................

-How would you like horror films to be advertised? (e.g posters, websites)

..................................................................................................................

Analysing A Horror Movie Poster

The way this poster is shown to the audience is quite interesting, the way which the bold black background covers the page shows us a mysterious convention which the director wants to hide. It also gives the audience a feel of being lonely as the poster is plain, dark and full of mystery. The most important part of this poster would be the slogan where it says "Before you die, You see" showing that when you see "the ring" would be the cause the death of you. We assume this because the audience would usually read from the top of the page and follow it downwards, and like a puzzle you would see "before you die, you see... the ring". This would then bring a bit of fear into the minds of the audience whenever they see the shape of a circle or an actual ring. The poster also shows ghostly white smudges in the image to add that mysterious effect, I think this is important as this shows the audience there is something hidden behind this creepy looking ring.

History of horror

HORROR
• an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. a thing causing such a feeling. intense dismay. informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.
— ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.

Horror movies have been around since silent movies (Nosferatu). Obviously being scared is something the audience want. The horror movie received a huge revival in the late 70's early 80's (Omen and nightmare on elm street) but died a sad death in the late 80's and throughout most of the 90's.
However, with the advent of the horror smash parody scream the genre is, once again extremely popular.

What was frightening back in the silent movie days and what is frightening now may well have changed. As society changes so do our fears.
For example, when moving image was first invented footage of a moving train caused fear in the audience because people really believed that the train would come straight out of the screen.

First Ideas on narrative structure

Drama students (5-8) who have come from a different country to study.
- They visit a school in where they are rehearsing.
- All is normal, until one student is convinced someone  is watching them.
- One of the students get called to the office.
- The rest begin to get suspicious and begin to investigate, this is where each character becomes missing.
- Lead into classrooms and have to solve puzzles to get out safely. (The killer speaks to the characters through the intercom/loud speaker)

Production log

Here is the production which our group created. It also shows the people who is in charge of different task's and a deadline which each member should match.

(Click to enlarge)

Narrative Theory

Narrative: most, according to Propp, film narratives follow this structure:

Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - a new state of Equilibrium

According to Propp again, there are certain characters in films and stories with certain functions:

-The hero - the one on the quest and the one who saves the day

-The villain - the evil one who causes the diequilibrium

-The helper - a person who helps the hero on their quest/the sidekick

-The victim - at the mercy of the villain

-The donor - someone who has something special which will help the hero

The Genre Horror

In class we discussed on what genre we wanted to do on our movie trailers and decided that horror would be the genre we are going to focus our coursework on.
Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with the thriller genre.

Ive noticed that in every horror movie they start their trailers with a green background like the one below.

They usually use this before a film to prepare the audience for what they are about watch. I think that is a good effect to what the director wants to create in the minds of the audience.

The codes and conventions which make up horror are:

n-Blood
-Death
-Killing
-Villain
-Victims
-Haunted houses and isolated settings
-Monsters
-Evil

And also other conventions would be:

n-Weapons
-Darkness
-Storms
-Chase sequences
-Gore
-Violence
-Screams
-Ghosts

Some examples of films involving the genre of horror are:

The Ring, this would probably be the one that always get the chills into the audience. This particular "monster" comes  through the television to give you the fight of your life. The storyline of the ring is that there is a mysterious video tape when watched causes the death of you after viewing it.

The orphan is another thriller as this is based on a mysterious childs story. The plot in this one is that a husband and wife who recently lost their baby, adopt a 9 year old girl who isnt as innocent as she claims to be.

A killer known as "ghost face" begins killing off teenagers, and as the body count begins rising, one girl and her friends find themselves contemplating the "Rules" of horror films as they find themselves living in a real-life one.

In this film the plot is these two "monsters" are set out for a teenage killing massacre, and also to kill each other.

After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

Transformers 3 Dark of the moon - Review

Transformers 3 was probably the most anticipated film of the year 2011. After ending transformers 2 with the massive robot warfare in the desert, everyone was expecting this movie to be massive hit worldwide with more action and explosions. And it didn't disappoint, in this film there were numerous explosions, mind blowing robot fights, collapsing buildings, exciting car chases and plenty of running and dodging from the main character Sam Widwiki who is played by Shia Lebeouf. Before the releasing of this film there were rumours that there would be a new female actress to replace the lead female role of Megan Fox. The new female actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley does a good job on replacing Megan Fox although her acting might be a bit more different due to her accent and background.

I would say the movie Transformers would fit in the genres of action and sci-fi because of all the robots and machinery we see in this film. There would also be a bit of romance I guess if you include the love scenes which Sam has with Carly.

Here are some of the poster that the film released to draw the attention of the audience.