First draft of trailer

Final Poster

(Click to enlarge)

Final Magazine Front Cover

(Click to enlarge)

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?

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-Are you male or female?

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-How often do you watch a horror movie?

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-What elements do you like within the horror films?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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