Institutional Mode of Representation

IMR stands for Institutional Mode of Representation, which is the dominant mode of film construction. In 1914 this was a particular style that was developed after the turn of the century and became the norm. The purpose of the IMR was to try and attempt to create a fictional world on screen that the audience would feel a part of, almost like they are taking part of the story. 

Although horror scenes isn't exactly an ideal world to want to be in, people still imagine themselves in the characters position and say what they would do differently and imagine fighting and defeating the creature/killer themselves. This is how IMR links to my genre of film.

!0 Horror movie ratings

1. The Conjuring - Rotton Tomatoes Rating: 86%, 4.5/5 stars
2. Insidious - IMDB Rating 66% 3.5/5 stars
3. Silent hill - Rotton Tomatoes Rating 29%, 1.5/5 stars
4. Creep - IMDB Rating 5.5/10, 3/5 stars
5. Paranormal Activity -6.4/10, 3 stars
6. The devil Inside IMDB Rating 4.1/10, 2 stars
7. House of wax - IMDB Rating 5.2/10, 2.5/5 stars
8. The possession - IMDB Rating 5.8/10, 3 stars
9. Mama - Rotten Tomatoes Rating 88%, 3.5/5 stars
10. Evil dead - IMDB 6.5/10, 3/5 stars

Health and safety

I have chosen three central locations to film, which are relatively easy to access. The first being a woods, as my questionnaires showed that people generally prefer horrors that contain woods and big open spaces. So my second place will be a large open field near a train track. My third my bedroom as its convient. I will now talk about the health and saftey of the locations. 

Health & Safety- Will need to carry an umbrella to cover camera in case it rains.- Need to make sure I keep all of my equipment near me so the public don't fall over it.- As its used as a walk way to get to and from school we need to not film until roughly 3:45pm to avoid the public as much as possible.- Be carful not to trip over wires or fall of step ladders if used for filming.

Digital technologies

The most important digital technology I am using is by far the iMac. Unfortunately I don't have access to one at home, however I do at school and can, if I need to work on one in my spare time. I will be using the iMac, when all my filming is finished and when I am ready to edit, putting my trailer together. The software I will be using is Final cut pro. Although I haven't really used this before, I do feel comfortable using this because I do usually get used to this sort of software after some time. Not only this but the fact that I have used iMovie before on the iMac, which is very similar to Final cut pro, makes me feel much more comfortable about usinf it for the first time, as I got the hang of iMovie quite quickly.

Google Chrome is also a big part of my research and planning stage, which I am currently on. I have access to google chrome, pretty much everywhere I am, at school, home and even on my phone. Google chrome allows me to be able to do more than one things at once, meaning that I can view existing trailers, whilst blogging up my thoughts and opinions.

Blogger is a very useful website where I can write down any posts and keep them in a relative order. I will be updating on my progress regularly, uploading my drafts and showing how the have been improved, all my thoughts of existing videos, etc. Blogger will also be the place where I write up my evaluations and conclude what I did good and what and how I can improve on.

Another very important digital technology I am currently using is YouTube. YouTube has allowed me to do some effective research, as there are all sorts of videos on the website, including old, new, low budget and high budget movie trailers, that I have access to and can do a textual analysis on, all to help me with the making of my trailer. The videos I looked up and did research on using YouTube allowed me to take inspiration from existing trailers, giving me ideas on mine.

The digital technology I will be using most, at first will probably be the schools video camera. I am lucky that I didn't need the camcorder anywhere else other than school, as m trailer is going to be bases in a school. This meant that not having access to one at home wasn't a problem. The thing I like most about the camcorder is that it is simple to use and it takes good and effective recordings and photos.

I am lucky enough to have my own camera, which played to my advantage hugely, as I know how that particular camera worked and how to take good and effective photos, which gives me more of a chance of my ancillary tasks to look more professional.

Final cut pro is the technology that I am going to be spending most of my time on, as this is the software I will be using to create a professional looking movie trailer. This is what we edited our short one minute film on, so I sort of already know how to use it, which will benefit me when I come to editing the footage I have captured for my horror trailer.

Inspirational trailers

Here a a few trailers that I have taken inspiration from to get a firm idea of what I want to include in mine. Although none of them are to do with zombies, I can still take inspiration from these and be able to identify important codes and conventions I need to stick to, to create a successful trailer.

Friday the 13th - This trailer is definitely a inspiration to making my horror trailer, as it includes many conventions needed to create a successful trailer and it represents a horror trailer perfectly. When you think of a typical horror movie, all the aspects of this trailer comes into mind. For example, the location in this trailer is dark, set in an house in the middle of a forest, where there are no other houses near, it contains a screaming girl, someone backing away from the killer on their hands and knees and lots more. The thing I liked most and, as a member of that target audience, enjoyed most was the fast pace cuts. These proved to be very effective and hooked me in right from the start as I didn't know what to expect. I really liked how the first time we saw the killer, it was about half way through the trailer and only in little flashes. This is something I may add in to m trailer, as it really does prove to be effective. I also liked how in this trailer, there was a murder shown. This just tells the audience that there is much more of this to come in the actual movie, drawing them in even more, as this is what the want to see in a horror movie.

Whilst creating my trailer, I will definitely take inspiration from this trailer, using some of the camera shots and angles they used, as it worked really well and effectively and gave off a frightening vibe from the very start, which is exactly what I aim to do.

The ring - This trailer, from the very beginning creates that frightening vibe and immediately got me wanting more and really did draw me in. This was because, at the start of the trailer, there is a woman talking, telling us all what the movie is about, making us want to know what happens to the people who watch the tape, whether they do die or not and if the final girl can do anything to stop this from happening. This is the exact same effect I want in my trailer, I want my target audience to think a little, about if anyone will survive and who will defeat this creature and put an end to all of the deaths.

This trailer, again is set in a dim and sort of dusty location, which is something I'm definitely going to think about doing myself, as it seems all the successful horror trailers I have looked at has this factor in. Another thing I really liked about this trailer is that it shows the best bits of the film in flashes, the ones that contain the killer creature, but still manages to not give much away, which I really liked because that tells you that there is a lot more to come and to look forward to.

The devil inside - This trailer, again is one that is inspirational for the creation of mine. Again, from the very start there is a frightening vibe to it. Firstly it tells us that it was based on a true story then tells you that the call shown in the beginning of the clip was actually made in real life and because it's someone possessed, calling the police telling them the murdered three people, really frightens the audience, which is exactly what the want and what they look for in a film. The trailer then shows us the final girl, who is the daughter of the woman who made the call and, like it says in the beginning of the trailer, killed three people in the middle of an exorcist, which tells us that something is going to happen to her, especially as it shows that she is going to visit her mother.

In this film trailer a lot of the action is shown, however you could not predict what happens in the end of the movie, which is really effective, because they are showing the best bits, to invite the target audience in, however there is still a lot to come, as you couldn't tell what happens in the end of the actual movie by watching the trailer.

Evil dead - I especially liked and will take inspiration from this trailer. This is because, not only does it serve its purpose in frightening in the audience but the camera work in the trailer is really effective, creating that scary vibe. The best camera angle included in this trailer, to me was the low angle shot. This is because it created a really intimidating look that is important in the horror genre. Another thing I really like about this trailer is the soundtrack and effects. I think that the girl screaming in a really high pitched voice is most effective in the trailer, as I have noticed that that is a typical conventions in the horror genre and its a great way to engage the audience, as the may feel the need to scream with the girl because they're actually frightened.

This trailer includes many tropes of the horror genre, such as, a forbidden book, dark locations, abandoned house, forest, a car that doesn't work, etc. There are definitely certain aspect of this trailer I am going to carry through in the creation of my horror trailer. Some of these include, a creature with realistic make up to look frightening, dark locations, scary sound effects, close ups, low camera angles, girl screaming, someone whispering and a final girl.

This trailer, to me is probably the one that I will take most inspiration from, as this is very similar to the trailer I want to create and is by far the best one I have come across. As a big fan of the horror genre I feel that, this trailer has everything I want and would expect included, so I will mast likely base my trailer around the making of Evil dead, however will add a complete different story line, as I want to add a zombie in mine and base it around a school.

Overall, I can definitely say that I have learnt a lot and got a lot of inspiration just by looking and analysing existing trailers, which has helped me so much, as I have now gathered many ideas on what to include in the trailer I will be making.

Conventions of horror trailer

All horror trailers follow a set of conventions to make the trailer look successful. Conventions of horror hasn't really changed mych as usually by sticking to conventions are more appealing on the eye for the audience to watch. Here is a list of typical conventions of a horror trailer:

• Shows the 'best bits' of the film to attract viewers
• Deserted houses
• Unreadable book
• Death and blood
• Gore
• Titles at the end
• Dark locations
• Killer
• Masks
• Dark scary atmosphere - dark clouds
• Dramatic camera angles
• Actions is interupted with credits on screen
• Music indicated a frightful moment coming up
• Icolated location - not many people around
• Battle of good vs evil
• commanly used dialogue - 'who are you' 'what do you want'
• Disruption of normality

These two horror trailers show most of these conventions being used, resulting in successful trailers.

Tropes of horror genre

Horror is a very popular genre, they have certain tropes and memes that usually appear somewhere within the creation. This is because usually people are then able to associate their genre with those tropes.

Tropes of the horror genre include:

• Abandoned area - school, house, forest, etc.
• Ghost town
• Haunted castle
• Always nighttime
• Ankle drag
• Bat scare
• Bloody bath
• Body horror
• Cat scare
• Creepy child
• Dark world
• Evil hand
• Eyeless face
• Final girl
• Ghost story
• I can see you
• Jump scare
• Long neck
• Man-eating plant
• Mummy
• No face under mask
• Who you gonna call?
• Zombie apocalypse

Tropes meaning

Tropes: are reoccurring elements that continue to grow, from the repetition of someones original idea. A trope is a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression. Generally Tropes are building blocks of texts, meaning they are closely related to memes. For example, someone starts of a new trend in the music industry and word gets around, which then develops this small idea into a trope due to the copying of the initial idea.

Textual analysis

I am going to be analysing a horror movie trailer. I will be looking at many things such as:

• Camerawork
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en scene

The film trailer I will be analysing and looking for the conventions is Evil dead. This movie is about a man who reads from an forbidden book, written 'Leave this book alone' but he opens and reads it, unlocking a demon from the past, out to get the man who read from the book, as well as everyone around him.

Camerawork
There is a vast variety of camera shots used in the trailer of Evil dead. Some of these include close ups - showing the emotions and intensity of characters, over-shoulder shot - showing the face of the character clearly, the reaction and expression all caught, wide shot - showing the whole scene, including some of the setting making the shot more effective, ect. Panning was used in this trailer, which created a spooky effect, gettin the audience hooked on what the camera was panning up onto, in this case is introduced the scene, showing the abandoned house and the setting arond it. This showed the audience where this film was located and by panning behind sticks, while introducing the scene, which made it look as though the camera was sneakily taking a look at the house, allowing the audience to think there is something to be scared of.
An over-shoulder shot was also used when the woman was speaking to the man in an intense way, creating tension, not only for those in the scene but the audience too, as you can see the woman's body language, as well as her expression. When she says 'You have to get me out of here' you can really see the horror on her face

MES
In terms of the mise en scene, this covers many aspects that a conventional horror film will include such as the props, costume, location, people etc. This movie is set at a typical location that a horror movie would be in, in a abandoned house, right in the middle of the woods. For example, the movies Mama, Friday the 13th, House of wax, etc. The setting is dark, damp and dull and the house is small, messy and cramped, making it look effective as a horror, opening all possible outcomes. The forbodden book is wrapped up in black plastic wrapped around with barbwire, creating a scary effect and showing the audience that it should not be opened and if it is, something bad will happen. Also, by the book flicking pages on its own, shows us that by opening the book, he has set something off that they should be scared of. I have noticed that there seems to be a truck outside the house in nearly every current horror film trailer I have watched, which seems to be a typical convention of a horror trailer. Right at the end of this trailer, you see the demon coming out of a hatch in the ground, covered in chains, showing that by opening the book, they have unlocked and loosened the chains, dragging them to their own funerals.The windows, beds and doors slam to provoke fear and a "jumpy" and "creepy" scene to the audience. The use of childrens toys is a  representation of childhood, there are such things such as toys, dolls and a rocking horse. These things can be modified to the advantage of a horror genre. Toys can show an evil presence by getting them to move without anyone touching them. A rocking horse is used in many films as it is an object that many can relate to in their own childhood, this is commonly used to show a ghostly presence as it rocks back and forth.

Editing

There were many editing techniques used in this movie trailer to create a scary effect. For example the black flashes, used to close the scene and open up a new one that may be even more terrifying than the one before, creates a jumpy effect and allows the audience to wonder what happens next and really gets them hooked to the terrifying storyline. Fast forward mode was also used in this trailer. I have noticed that this is used in many movie trailers I have seen. The one used in this movie trailer is the camera moving fast in the woods. This is a good effect as it is almost as if the audience are there and they are the ones running, making the video effective and more 'real'.

Sound

The sound effects on this trailer creates a very intense atmosphere, as there are many loud crashes and bangs, making the audience watching the trailer frightened, however still managing to draw them into the film. I feel that the soundtrack of this trailer is perfect in the way that the music really does fit and compliment the trailer and works really well with the sound effects.

Survey I carried out

Free Online Surveys - Click link to see questionnaire.

I gave this to around 20 people and in the end found out that most of my audience:

• Are 15-17
• Male
• Mostly look for bllod and gore in the horror genre
• Are influenced by movie posters
• Thisnk that the more gore involved, the more appealing it is to them
• Prefere a plain one imaged photo in the middle of a poster
• Thinks that make up is most effective in a horror trailer

Target audience research

To get an idea of what my target audience want and what they like to see in a horror trailer I will carry out reserach which will involve me talking to them and finding out what they like to see, the things they expect and what they would change from existing horror movie promotion packages and . I will also produce a pre production questionnaire, analyse the results in order to get feedback which will influence my practical pieces. Carrying out a focus group will give me a specific idea of what my main target audience will want and so this again will influence my final promotional package pieces.

Uses and gratification theory

The 'Uses and Gratification' theory deals with the effect of people on the media. The theory describes mass communication, as it provides an approach that is audience-centered. It deals with how and why people adopt specific media to satisfy their needs.

Most of the theories on media explained about the effects media had on people. It is the theory which explains of how people use media for their need and gratification. In other words we can say this theory states what people do with media rather than what media does to people. Also this theory is contradictory to the magic bullet theory which states the audience is passive. According to uses and gratification theory, it is not so people make use of the media for their specific needs. This theory can be said to have a user/audience-centered approach .Even for communication (say inter-personal) people refer to the media for the topic they discuss with themselves. They gain more knowledge and that is knowledge is got by using media for reference. There are several needs and gratification for people they are categorized into five categories.

• Cognitive needs
• Affective needs
• Personal Integrative needs
• Social Integrative needs
• Tension free needs

Cognitive needs:

People use media for acquiring knowledge, information etc., Among the audience some of them have intellectual needs to acquire knowledge this is not common to all only certain people have their need, each person have a different need for e.g. quiz programs on TV, in order to acquire knowledge and information you will watch news to satisfy the need, search engines in the internet, they make use of these to gain more knowledge. Particularly for the internet search engine they can browse for any topic under the run with no time restriction.

Affective needs:

It includes all kinds of emotions, pleasure and other moods of the people. People use media like television to satisfy their emotional needs.The best example is people watch serials and if there is any emotional or sad scene means people used to cry.

Personal Integrative needs:

This is the self-esteem need. People use media to reassure their status, gain credibility and stabilize. so people watch TV and assure themselves that they have a status in society for e.g. people get to improve their status by watching media advertisements like jewelry ad , furniture’s ad and buy products, so the people change their life style and media helps them to do so.

Social Integrative needs:

It encompasses the need to socialize with family, friends and relations in the society. For social interaction now a days people do not seems to have social gathering in weekend, instead they do such social interaction using media like the social networking sites like my space, facebook, orkut etc to satisfy their need.

Another example is you may not watch the particular serial regularly but because your friend watching, you also start watching so that you have common topics for discussion.

Tension free needs:

People sometimes use the media as a means of escapism and to relieve from tension, eg, people tend to relax watching TV, listening to radio and for satisfying their need for entertainment there by relaxing from all the tension, people watch films, films on TV etc.

People normally mostly 

 watch reality shows because:

• It is more realistic
• More interesting
• In a way you can participate
• For entertainment
• New concepts

Relating back to my trailer, I think that most of these gratifications will link with what I am aiming to achieve. I believe that  my target audience will feel a sense of gratification when they see the one of my characters alive and fighting, being brave, strong and safe.

In the making of my trailer I will make sure that I consider and recognise the codes and conventions to catch my target audience's attention. I will also make sure that I get audience feedback through the process of my work, so that I can give my target audience a product that the would like and get a sense of gratification over.

Progress..

I have now discovered and concluded the main conventions of a horror trailer, and am now gathering up ideas of what my story line is going to be about. I ave now decided on the genre and theme I would like for my task. I will have to do some more research around this particular genre and try to find certain songs and sound effects that will give my trailer the effect I want.

Research methods

There are four types of research methods:

• Qualitative
• Quantitative
• Primary
• Secondary

Qualitative research - It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota.

Quantitative research - This can be used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys –online surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors,online polls, and systematic observations.

Primary research - This is Experiments, investigations, or tests carried out to acquire data first-hand, rather than being gathered from published sources. There are variety of type of research I could use such as Interviews, Questionnaires, Observations, Surveys, Sampling and Focus Groups. The main advantage with primary data is that the individual can choose which method would suit their requirements the best. On the other hand, it is most suitable for an area of small collection of data. 

Secondary research - By far secondary research is the most widely used method for collecting data. This process involves collecting data from either the originator or a distributor of primary research. In other words, you are accessing information already gathered. Some secondary methods include: the Internet, the library, newspapers, magazines, data collection organisations etc. Secondary research is the most common way of collecting data as somebody else has already obtained the information for you. The main thing about this method, is that it is relatively low costing compared to primary research and there is no need to create new information as it is easy to find and get hold of.

For my research, I think the best type of research method out of the four is secondary research. This is because the internet is a huge part of my planning and research and is something I need to create a successful trailer. Not only this but as I have a deadline to meet, the other methods such as primary, will be more time consuming. 

Ideas for the main storyline

• The main plot I would like my movie trailer to be about, is a zombie invading a school looking for one Particular person but killing everyone who passes by. Because it is only a trailer, I don't want a continuous story, I want there to be a lot of good transitions, that will get the audience more hooked on what is going to happen, and don't want to give the ending away but maybe at the end, show a scene when the zombie finally finds that one person he has been searching for, leaving my trailer on that big cliff hanger.
• I am thinking that maybe a narrator wound make my video look all the more better, but I don't want a normal, human voice, I want a sort of unnatural and quite scary voice, to give my trailer that edge and make sound more like a horror trailer.

Horror movie trailer ideas

I have had a few ideas for what storyline I would like, the idea I like best is a zombie invasion at school. The videos on this post inspired me to do this storyline. I want to make the zombie look as effective and as 'real' as I possibly can, to make my trailer look the best I could make it.

I plan to go through this tutorial, getting someone to do this to my face, making me look like a frightening zombie. If this turns out successfully, I feel that my trailer will be much more scary and professional, which is the look I am going for.

High vs low budget films

Low budget - Accordind to denofgeek.com 'Pi' is the lowest budget film. This film had a budget of only $60,000 and was made in 1998.

'Darren Aronofsky was surely always destined to be a successful director. Arriving on the scene at the end of the 90s, his calling card was Pi, which is quite simply one of the most unique, stunning and confident pieces of film making ever made. Produced for a pittance, Pi decides to play by its own rules, with a story involving a maths genius who cracks a code which may be the key to the stock market as well as the secret name of God.

'Taking the viewer right into obsessive madness of the main character, as well as providing a head scratching and thrilling chase narrative. The themes which would dominate Aronofsky’s later work are all present here, as well as his much admired talent for both script and direction. Some believe that this is in fact his best work to date, and a part of me is inclined to agree with them.


Although this film doesn't have the highest budget, it is still classed as a good seller and even though they didn't have much money for equipment, they still managed to create a good film and trailer.

High budget film - 

Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Estimated Budget: $300 million

Value For Money: Disney certainly saw a great return on their outlay, with the third Pirates film scooping more than $960 million across the globe. On-screen however, it was a turgid snoozefest. Not that that stopped people going back for round four…

If It Had Been Low-Budget: They might have been forced to whittle the story down a little. No bad thing…

This proves that you don't necessarily need a large budget to create a good film, as if the highest budget film 'pirates of the Caribbean ' didn't have a large budget it will have still been a good film. The fact that people still watch 'Pi' the lowest budget film, tells us that money isn't always key, a good story line is however.

Subgenre

I now have to decide which genre I will be using to create my film trailer. My favourite genre and the one that I feel I will have most fun creating was a horror genre. Having become so involved in the world of horror, I immediately knew that I wanted to use this as inspiration. By doing this, this task is something that I can truly be passionate about. However, the challenging part was deciding on a subgenre. I have evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of the four sub genres in order to help me make a worthy and wise decision.

Psychological Horror
These types of films feature a disturbed individual whose mental problems unnerve and frighten audiences. The ‘psycho’ will appear like a ‘normal’ human-being, before revealing their monstrous and sadistic nature. There is less need for masses of death, violence and gore as they scare audiences by reminding them of reality. Psychological horrors give the impression that we may be living amongst danger.

Psychological horrors are movies that rely more on messing with your mind than on gore and violence. I think they are more scary because they often deal with things that could actually happen, or they tap into basic human fears. I think a good example if the movie Identity. This is a movie that definitely messes with your mind.

If I decided to use this genre, it would be easier to film as it involves less violence and gore. This could possibly mean that my film trailer would have more chance of appearing professional. Conventionally, there is a clever and complex storyline attached to psychological horrors and it would be intriguing to construct a plot so in-depth and intricate. However, it would be challenging in the sense of producing an authentic storyline for this genre.
Slasher Horror

These types of films include a masked psychopathic killer, who kills a series of victims in a gruesome and gore filled fashion. The weapons commonly used in Slasher films include knives, chainsaws and axes (used in 'Nightmare in Elm street' 'Texas chainsaw'). Usually a lone female will survive; she is known as the ‘Final Girl’. As I take this genre into consideration, I find the idea of blood, guts and gore appealing. The advantages include the convention of the killer being masked, with their identity hidden in some way, which I believe adds to the scare factor as we all fear the unknown. From my knowledge of Slasher Horrors, I have learned that the kills (death scenes) are quite graphic, which could be difficult to re-enact as limited resources could result in amateurism.
Supernatural Horror
The inclusion of ghosts and spirits and extra ordinary phenomena e.g. miracles, curses or strange ‘goings on’. Film examples of this are 'The devil inside', 'Paranormal activity' etc. I believe the most frightening of genres is supernatural horror because it is the one source of evil that one cannot fight or escape. It would be a challenge to make supernatural-being look believable on camera, without the effect looking cheap. Although, I do feel that producing a storyline for such a genre would be such a thrilling and exciting experience as everyone loves a good ghost story! I could truly channel my creativity into this genre as it is the one that fascinates me the most.
Gothic Horror
Gothic Horrors 
These films are traditional in style, harking back to original horror stories, like Frankenstein. Uses of wild landscapes, fog, shrouded towns, woodland, castles, old mansions, graveyards. Uses of ghostly apparitions, phantoms, monstrous demons are common. Often a handsome hero will enter the dark world to save the day. Women are represented as damsels in distress. Of all the horror genres listed, Gothic Horrors are my favourite. This is because I’m an old fashion girl who adores any film set in another era, that’s dark, tragic and compelling. I admire the traditional aspects of gothic horror and would like to combine certain aspects with another subgenre. I would not choose to use this subgenre alone because certain elements wouldn’t be possible to film, for example, old mansions or castles.
To conclude I have decided to use the genre of Psychological Horror. I like the uses of conventions such as masked killers, the use of weapons, forests, foggy locations, creepy and frightening music. I feel I can create a trailer so frightening, so mesmerizing, so chilling.

The devil inside trailer

Although this wasn't neccesarily the sub genre of horror I was going to be making, I sat down a focus group and showed this trailer to them, gathering thoughts and opinions.

I showed the “The Devil Inside” trailer to my focus group because it could give me an idea of what they like to see and a more precise idea of what my target audience will want to see in our trailer. Regarding this point. “The Devil Inside” movie made a box office of $101,386,096 which shows clearly that the movie was highly successful through its utilisation of codes and conventions and methods of appealing to the target audience. Through the research we have conducted and the responses we have received, it was easy to conclude that the promotional trailer is the most important aspect of the promotional package as it resonates with the audience and forms their decision of whether the film is worth watching.

 

Overall, my feedback from my focus group has shown me that from existing movie trailers, they should not show too much of the movie footage, because this will give away too much of the plot. The fact that the trailer said it was based on a true story allowed the movie to seem more realistic, which is something that I am also considering adding into my trailer for effectiveness. From the magazine front cover feedback, I am most likely going to make my front cover image really simple, just like the ones I showed the group, who really liked it. They did comment saying that less text was more appealing, which shows that my target audiense respond better to visuals. Bold colours will also be used on my movie poster, because they seem to catch the most attentionwhen looking at them. The film poster feedback was the most helpful, because the audience feels that a graphic and unusual image is very eye catching, which is something I plan to do for my poster. The font on the poster is appealing, which is something that I am going to take into consideration when choosing my font for my poster, and once again, based on a true story will most likely be included on our poster.

Need to do list

• Firstly I need to complete the two tasks that come with the main task of a movie trailer, which are: a Dvd front cover and a movie poster.
• I then need to come up with a storyline/storyboard. I was planning on making a photo-storyboard, to make it look more effective.
• I need to gather together props and actors
• Blog findings and any sort of progress
• Make myself a shooting schedual, to allow myself to be more organised.
• I'll also need to film, going along with my schedual and taking photos whilst filming to complete a photo-storyboard.

Research of existing trailers

I was looking at this trailer as part of my research and planning stage. I really like the idea of the hand held camera, it create a scary vibe and gives the audience a feel of how the characters are feeling, as you can see that the camera is shaking, showing that they are frightened and that something is going to happen to them. I feel is really effective and frightening and might use this in the making of my trailer.

What I got from this trailer was that the contrast looks more effective when its dull and grey looking and really misty. It creates more of a frightening look.

When I do get down to creating my trailer, I think I may base it around this one, however not the same storyline, just a few features from the trailer, like the handheld shot and the misty look.

Typical convention of horror trailers

Typical convention of horror trailers

- Music that kicks in half way through.
- An equilibrum.
- A point of rising action.
- A calm start, generally showing happy shots, people laughing, familys and friends.
- A title.
- A realse date.
- From the directors/makers of.
- A series of fast pace shots.

Viewing pleasures

Emotional Pleasure; Meaning when a film has a strong effect on you, so you laugh a lot or cry. For example 'The sister keeper'. This film comes with strong emotions.

Visceral Pleasures; When a film has a physical effect on you. For example makes you physically sick, which could be a horror genre. 

Intellectual Puzzles; When a film makes you want to figure out the puzzle. For example in National Treasure you question whether they will solve the riddles or not, and you try and work them out for yourself. 

Counter-Culture Attraction; This is when a audience can view something that doesn't conform to the typically conventions of society or what they deem to be correct.

Who you need to make a film

In this post I will be saying who is needed to create a film. I did some research and this is what I found:

• Producer
• Director
• Executive director
• Planning and scheduling
• Distribution
• Product designer
• Editor
• Distribution company
• Actors
• Second unit
• Stunt doubles
• Casting director
• Film maker
• Film editor
• Sound designer
• Hair and make up
• Costume designers
• Legal and financial
• Accounts and payroll
• Camera operator

These are most of the people you will need to create a full length film. However, it would be a completely different situation if you were to make a short film. In the case of making a short film, one person may take on many different roles in order for the film to happen. There is a lot less budget, so often, all the different people can't be paid. The Director may also take on the role of distribution etc.

Final choice of task

My final choice of the task I want to do is a Horror movie trailer. I have decided to do this because it sounds more appealing to me than a music video and a short film. I have already came up with a few ideas but am currently working on a Film front cover and a DVD case, which are the tasks that come with this main product.

What I now need to do is to research on some existing movie posters and DVD cases, to do with horror and understand the conventions and add them into my two tasks.

As well as doing this I need to think and plan my main text, creating a storyboard and ideas of what to include in my trailer. This will mean to search existing trailers and to take some ideas and to post them up.

Developing knowledge on genres

I have been researching around genres , looking in further detail, giving myself ideas around different genres, enabling me to make a decision on what genre of film or music to chose and create the text.

Understanding Genre

Genre is something that confines a film buy its conventions and Mise-En-Scene. It concludes what sort of film should fit into each category(genre) depending on it's content, for example if a film has cartoon characters with unrealistic features, and unrealistic story lines then we would categorise that as a family film or an animation.

Short film evaluation

Problems faced whilst filming

Whilst editing, we did face a few problems, as we haven't really had much experience with Final Cut Pro and didn't know much about it. One of the problems we faced was getting the beat of the music in time for the change over of the titles. This took us a while to get right but in the end we worked out how to do it and successfully added this to our video. We also had a problem with the lighting in a few of our scenes, the sun didn't help with our filming, as it shone straight into the camera, making everything look dark except the sky. To remove this problem, we got a big piece of cardboard and blocked the sun from getting in our shoot, without it being in the way of the camera.