Props

The props we will need for the trailer across the days of filming are listed below:

Heston Park Requirements:
Fire
Logs
Tents x3
A Sports Bag
Torch

Osterley Lane Requirements:
A Volkswagen Polo 9n3 (Preferably anthracite grey)

Heston Graveyard Requirements:
Black Cloak
Black Rubber Gloves

Cranford Park Requirements:
Baseball Bat (Knife was tested at time of filming however did not show in the camera)
Red Ink x2
Torch

Osterley Park Requirements:
None

Staff List

Below is the staff/crew list which contains all the members contact details. This is a very important document due to the fact if we need to contact a member of our crew, we have their details to do so.

Filming Schedule

We completed a filming schedule in order to break down our filming and make it easier. We mentioned the shot number and the location along with the props needed and crew. This helped us majorly when we were filming as we identified the location and looked at the shot number and filmed that shot. This ensured we didn't forget to film a shot in a location and saved us going back to film that shot again. Below are the 7 documents containing the filming schedules:

Treatment

The treatment is more of an information document which contains information on what our task was, what our trailer is about, types of shot we would use and why, schedule as to when we will do what, our budget for our film, contingency planning, a bit about the actors, our crew and last but not least some about our research.

Mood Board

I created a mood board in order to represent what image we are trying to represent in the different locations. In total, throughout our trailer we have 4 locations, which are a graveyard scene, a forest scene, the arrival and lastly the alleyway. We went to the locations to take pictures ourselves and below is the final mood board:

Risk Assessment

We have filled in a risk assessment which simply highlights the possible risks involved in the locations we will be using. There is one for each location:

Test Filming

Location Visit Sheets

The purpose of a location visit sheet is for the production crew to visually see the location, state how equipment and people will commute, the risks involved with that particular location as well as highlighting the address and telephone number of that particular location. This will help us when we come to filming our trailer, as we will hand everyone a copy so they know the easiest way of getting to that location as well as the address and risks involved.

Daily Filming Sheet

The daily filming sheet will help us on the day of filming as this document highlights the location and the shot numbers which take place there. As well as highlighting the shot numbers and location, it also mentions the cast and the props needed for that location which is useful as this would ensure we will not forget everything or forget to film a shot at that location. We have filled in 1 for each location:

Shooting Script

The shooting script is a list of all the shots we will have in our trailer and the type of shot it is. An example is a shot of the vehicle pulling on the near side curb which is a establishing shot. This will help us as when we are filming as we can refer back to what shot type it should be and conduct it.

Animatics

Below is our animatics video which we created in order to visually show us what our trailer should look like. We made a few changes when we put the animatics together as we felt the trailer was not as good as it could be. We made some shots shorter and added and took out a few shots in order for the animatics to meet our standards.

Storyboard's

Below are the storyboards we completed by hand which simply shows the shot number, a rough sketch of the shot, type of shot, the time of the shot and lastly any sounds or dialogue. The reason for this is that we are able to see roughly what our trailer will look like and what order it will follow. It made it much easier for us to add shots in before hand on the storyboard then after when we are in the middle of filming. Please note, the below storyboards are not in order:

Production Schedule

The production schedule is a document which contains the task and when we will complete it. This is a useful document to ensure that we are working on time as well as us being aware of the location we need to be in and the equipment and crew needed for that task.

Character Analysis

The narrative structure was complete and we decided to go into more detail and start to write up on what we want the characters to be. This included their personality and their appearance within the film. In our trailer, there are five characters which are four 18 year old boys and a killer. I have presented this in a prezi below:

Film Proposal & Narrative Structure

Once we analysed some trailers, the next step was to decide upon a storyline which our trailer will follow. This required group input and a lot of thought as we needed to be different from the rest which was our unique selling point. We all created our own narratives structures following different storylines and decided on the best one and improved it. The chosen narrative structure was mine which we all improved and is located below alongside the film proposal:



Narrative Structure:

Four 18 year old male students are on a road trip having just passed their exams. They were on their way to Bournemouth excited about their trip, some characters are drinking, and the music is loud. Suddenly the car is out of control and crashes. The students find that they are in the middle of a country road with no houses, or people in sight. It’s getting dark and they have no reception on their phones.

They notice a forest area in the distance and decide to camp for the night seeing as it is getting dark. As they approach the forest they see signs saying no entry, they ignore these and trespass in as they set out their camp.

As they begin to set out the tent, Josh who is holding the camera films the area, he walks around thinking he is making a documentary, as he zooms the camera out he catches sight of a strange man who seems to be wearing a mask, the camera is out of focus so this cant be seen very clearly. As the camera‘s autofocus kicks in, the masked figure seems to have vanished. Josh rushes back to the group to inform them of what he saw. They all appear to be frightened, but decide to carry on setting up the camp.

The spot is enclosed by many bushes and trees which restrict the sight of them, they gather firewood into their campsite to start a fire and they start to construct their tent. As night falls all the students sit around the fire, sharing stories discussing the masked figure, one of the characters starts to get really scared. Saif left the group to go to the toilet and strolls deep into the forest. After a few minutes, the group hears a loud scream and somebody choking and believes that it’s Saif trying to scare them and it’s all a big joke. The group slowly approach the bushes calling out “Saif.. Stop playing around.. jokes over..”. Josh was scared so was walking behind the other members when suddenly he trips over something on the floor. He turns around whilst on the floor and sees Saif dead next to him with blood on his face and his eyes open. The group began to stress and ran back to the campsite to find their tents and belongings demolished. The boys are all speechless and don’t know what to do.

The decision was to leave the area as soon as possible but they could hear a creeping sound coming from the bushes. They all slowly approach the sound trying to find out what the sound is but suddenly an axe comes flying through the bush. Josh gets scared and falls on the floor. The two other boys leave Josh and run for their lives and make it over the fence into a neighboring graveyard. Josh gets up quickly and starts to run after his friends whilst getting chased by the killer. He manages to get half way over the fence and just as he is about to get over but the killer grabs his leg and pulls him back in the forest. We, as an audience, only see Josh’s head over the fence then him getting pulled in suddenly. We hear him scream and shout for help which suddenly comes to a stop when he dies. The boys start running through the graveyard looking for a place to escape. They are lost and have no idea as to where they are.

They sit down behind a tree trunk where they cannot be seen and are stressing as to what to do. They hear a dog barking and leafs rustling fast and they panic. They both jump up and run different ways. One of the boys tries to run away from the dog and find a way out whilst the other sprinted the other direction finding a place to hide. The boy trying to hide keeps glancing back to see if the dog is behind him and suddenly he falls into a dug up hole ready for a burial ceremony. He falls in to the 6-foot deep hole and is lying down as he broke his leg therefore unable to get up. He looks up and sees a dark shadowy figure holding a shovel with a dog beside him. The antagonist begins to fill the grave with dirt and the boy is shouting for help but there is no response to help him.

The other boy stops running and begins to pace walk through the graveyard and can hear a voice. He shouts out “ is anyone there? Help me.. please.. please somebody’s after me!”. He then has visuals on a torch and sprints towards it in hope for help. The member was a police officer on patrol who has come to investigate a reported issue of some abnormal activity in the forest. The last survivor begins to explain what happened and the police officer tries to calm him down and calls for backup. Several police cars and officers with dogs arrive on the area and cordon it off. The dogs are patrolling the area along with armed police officers trying to catch the reported antagonist. Suddenly, there is a scream from one of the officers in the forest and a dog howl. This comes to a stop and all the police officers at the scene sprint towards that area but there is no one to be seen. The boy was sitting down in the police car wrapped in a blanket and is unaware of what is happening outside his secure environment. Suddenly blood splashes on the front windscreen and all the police officers start to emerge from the darkness with red eyes and vampire teeth. The boy doesn’t have a clue what is happening and tries to get out the car and run but was unfortunately unsuccessful. The camera cuts out and the audience is left in a question.

Purpose Of A Trailer

Creating films can be very expensive due to the duration and skills involved in order to bring it together. This concludes that they will operate in a loss for the first couple of years in the making until the launch of the film when they start to get a return on their investment. Many films do not break even due to not selling enough copies to fund the investment they put in to it, therefore, in order to make a return on investment, the film will need to become a ‘box office hit’ where it is the centre of attention. The marketing campaign is therefore very important as this could make or break the success of the film. It needs to be effective to gather a wide audience as well as being short as long types of media can be boring and may deter the consumer. This is one of the reasons why £100,000s are invested into the marketing campaign as a high interest in the film suggests a high return on investment.
New technology has enabled many viral campaigns to become very wide spread in a short amount of time. The new blackberry’s and iphones are equipped with instant messaging software where information can be widespread as many forward things to each other resulting in a huge audience. This means film companies can easily create a website or another source of communication in order to get in touch with the audience.
A trailer is an advertisement of a film that will be released at some point in the near future. It explains the story in the film but in a condensed way in around 1 minute to 1.5 minutes (maximum 2.5 minutes) in order to inform the audience of what the film is about. The creation of the trailer is done in line with the editing of the film

It consists of the best scenes in the film in order to attract a wide audience, however, not too many scenes to create a spoiler. They normally follow a three-act structure where they begin with the first act which sets the scene, then one from the middle where it drives more into the film and has a bit of a climax and lastly the last section of the trailer which makes the audience question what they see and want to know more. In the trailer, information is also presented such as the release date, producer, director, where it will be released and other conventions. Sometimes, the trailer contains scenes which you won’t find in the film which is due to the fact that at the time the trailer is made, the final edited version of the film doesn’t exist and trailer editors work from rushes or dailies.

The most important convention of a trailer is a sound; in particular, voiceover as it is an unseen voice which helps the audience understands what is happening by either setting the scene in the beginning to providing an explanation when necessary. However, in some cases, no dialogue will be more effective in conjunction with sound effects as this will ensure certain feelings which the writer wants to deliver can be achieved. In my case, there is not much dialogue present in horror trailers but sharp, quick and scary sounds in replacement.

Trailer Analysis

Introduction

The task that we were set was to create a horror movie trailer, a poster and a magazine front cover. We broke down the task into three sectors as we came to conclusion that this would make it easier for us to carry out the work as we would focus on one part at a time rather then everything. We decided to produce the trailer first then the magazine and poster after which was because we would be able to use the material gathered from the trailer to fund the magazine and poster, which would save time and money.

The trailer would need to follow the horror conventions however, we decided that as a group, we would challenge some of the conventions to make our trailer stand out from the rest and gather a wide audience before the movie was released. The same sort of theme would continue in the magazine front cover and poster.

The first step was to decide on a group. The final group consisted of Me, Anil, Rishi and Ashwin and once we decided on our group, the next step was to research on what a trailer is and why is it used as well as some analysis of some trailers in the same genre to get a feel for what we were looking at to produce in the breakdown of the different types of horror such as psychological horror, comedy horror and romance horror, for example. The reason for this is because the different types of horror contain different conventions and it is important to understand and acknowledge them before the production part of the process begins.