Our Trailer

This is our final trailer, Cyberspace! I am quite happy with the outcome as it does look scary and it gives off the spooky feel that I think we all hoped for! However, in the black cut outs we added text using a programme called Live Type in which we could make the text appear on the screen how we wanted it to. We had it as though it was being typed but it hasn’t worked. This was one of my favourite effects in our trailer as I think it fitted perfectly with the connotations and the story of our film.

To make our trailer we had to change many of the clips we had already filmed. We had to cut majority of the scenes to just being seconds long as what we had filmed didn’t give the right effect we where looking for, they didn’t create an atmosphere with snappy and an edgy suspense. To begin with we had our trailer with all the events of the film in sequence. We received some criticism so we jumbled the scenes around making it more of a taster rather than it being a short film.

The program we used to make our trailer was called IMovie. This enabled us to shorten scenes, add music and pre-logged sounds, and font and also change the lighting and brightness in our trailer. We made the outside scenes darker to make it seem scarier and more mysterious than it would have been with the bright light. We used some of the pre-loaded sound effects from IMovie into our trailer helping us to give that finishing touch to our scenes. We searched some websites called Sound Jay and Partners in Rhyme to help us find the perfect sounds for our trailer. In the beginning scene when our main character ‘Charlie’ is walking through the underpass we added footstep sounds to make the viewer feel as though she is alone vulnerable and scared. For other scenes like where our title ‘Cyberspace’ is supposed to appear we added computer like sounds giving an eerie, almost out of space feel to our film. In our trailer we included a voiceover to give more information to the audience about what our film is based on. It lets the audience know that ‘Charlie’ has gone missing in a radio report kind of voice. This makes it seem more life like and means the audience can relate to the film. We also added in the images that we had taken previously to break up the clips and give the audience a mysterious and almost intrigued feeling towards our trailer.

When we showed our trailer to a group of people the main comments where that we had used sound very well, by not over doing it but adding enough to give our trailer a scarier effect. They also said we used a decent range of different and interesting camera angles, from tracking, to long shots, to tilting the camera slightly as Charlie ran up the stairs. Some of the people we showed it to said that they really liked how we kept the killer a secret as it made them want to find out who the killer is. However the focal criticism that we got about our trailer was that it was too short, which we had already found an issue after we had to cut the long scenes. We felt as though we couldn’t add any more clips into our trailer otherwise our plot would be given away to easily. By lengthening the original clips we had cut down would have destroyed the whole effect of it being short, snappy and memorable.

My favorite clip in our trailer is the last one where we have a random man standing at the end of the tunnel with his hands in his pockets. I love the emptiness of the tunnel and will hopefully make the audience feel vulnerable and scared.

Website

This is the 'enter site' page that most websites have. I decided to use a fuzzy screen as this is quite effective. I added in an 'on/off' button so that when the page opens it plays the sound that the fuzzy screen makes. This will create an atmostphere when people go on my page. When i asked for feedback, most people said that the font was too small, however this is a smaller copy of the page so this will not be an issue. They liked, the simplicity and how clear the website was.

Website

This is my final website design for our trailer. I am really pleased with the outcome. Instead of using powerpoint I used photoshop, this made it easier for me to create a fuzzy screen effect on the image and allowed me to make it black an white an black out the distracting areas around her face. When I asked people for feedback they said that they would have said to include the date it comes out on it, but they then said that it looks better without it, keeping it simple and minimalistic. My favorite bit on this design is the effect that the photoshop editing had on the font. I like thats it not too bright yet is still effective. I also love the way the binary code on the eyes has come out, i only used a couple of green letters because green seems like a very artificial and computer like colour. I switched the placing of the trailer and the slogan around aswell. This is because the picture that i was using would have been blocked if the trailer was at the top. However, I really like this changeand having the slogan underneath the title. I will make an enter site page as this is what most other websites had.

Creating Our Trailer

We managed to get everything that we needed to film within two days, meaning that we have more time to edit and put the images that we’d taken for the film into it and allowing us to experiment with all the different software and programmes that we are not used to. However, it could mean that we might not have enough to put in our trailer, but i hope we do. We filmed in five different places; a canal, my garage, charlottes house and car, at school and in an underpass.

Website Design

This is the first design for my website, I'm not so keen on it, but I can change things around when I make it using powerpoint. I will use a photograph that we took to put in our trailer for my main image.

Poster

This is my final poster idea. I used this image because it looks like most of the posters i looked at before as the lighting is the main feature in the photo. To create this image we used a light source and moved the angles around to find which one the light reflected on best. I think this is an appropriate photograph as it looks as though a computer light is reflecting on her face. However, I think that the picture is too dark, but changing the saturation and contrast makes the face blend in to the background. When I asked people what they thought about my poster they said to make the face lighter. This is hard to do as the actual photograph was dark already. They said however that it looks sinister and disturbing. I will use photoshop to create another better image with more effects and I will try and make the face a bit more visible.

Poster Photograph Ideas

Here are some photographs that we took for the trailer. I will use these photographs to create a new poster and website with the right girl in it. For the poster I will edit the photos before to make them all portrait as this is the angle that posters are usualy in. However for the website I will keep them all landscape.

Poster

This is my final design for my poster. I think that it is really plain and too minimalistic. However I really like the photograph, but because the girl i took photographs of in my poster is not the same girl that we used in our film, I will not keep this poster as my final idea.

Creating My Poster

To edit the photograph for my poster I used the programme Photoshop. I found it hard to use at first but then gradually adjusted to the softwear by trying eveything out. This is an edited version of one of the photographs that I took. I am happy with it however I don't think it links to my poster very well. I will edit it a bit more to try and make it agree with the idea's and connotations of our film.


I was playing around on my phone and found this setting so I took a picture of my unfinished poster. I think that this looks really effective but I don't think that my picture fits well in it.

Poster Photograph Ideas

These are some photographs I took for my poster. I prefer the first one to the second one as it fits well with the idea for my poster. I will edit the photograph to make it agree with the connotations of horror by blacking out the background and editing her face to make it whiter.

Poster Design

This is my second poster idea. I’m not happy with this idea because I think it looks to plain and simple even though this could be effective. I think for my poster I will use a picture of a girls face close up and keep the font and other things on the page simple and neat.

Poster Design

This is one of my ideas for the poster to go with our trailer, not very happy with the outcome but if I changed some things around it would look better and more effective. The white background makes it look to plain and simple and there are not enough connotations of horror within the poster.

Website Analysis

After analysing two websites it has shown me what Ben, Charlotte and I need to do to create our website for our film. Both the WebPages have another button to enter the main website with a starting page. There are more options to do with the film on the website and there is always an option to see the trailer for the film. They both had the picture from their poster on their website as well as other images to do with the film and to give off the overall impression of what their film is about both websites had red and black in them and followed the connotations of horror. However one was plain and the other was busy and full, both with their own effect over the audience.

Website Analysis

The orphan website is plain yet effective as the details in it make it more interesting than it would be if there was no horrific details that still make it look scary. I clicked on ‘Enter Site’ button.

After clicking on this it took me to another page with loads of family pictures in frames which shows that the film is about the family of the girl in the main image as well as her herself. It moves sideways through all the images all in black picture frames on a black work top. The backgrounds main colour is black still with the contrasting red title. There are more options at the top of the website giving the audience options to look at photos, special features and download the film.

Website Analysis

After looking at this webpage, it showed me that the main reason for it is to promote not only the film but also the DVD’s and products produced by the film. The main colour is black which gives off a frightening, chilling and scary effect, linking to the connotations of horror. The bright reds contrast and the blues make it chilling. The busy page with loads of options shows they have a lot to offer from their film. I then clicked on the ‘Enter Site’ button.

When the site was loading it was a white screen with person in the distance with the impression it was snowing. Once the page had loaded it has a black blood splattered like area with bits of red containing options to find out about the film, cast, filmmakers and options to download the film as well as games. The webpage enabled the person viewing to pan around the setting using their mouse to move across. When the night time setting kicked in the screen dripped into black night time and lights came on in the villages. This gives a great effect of being able to be part of the film and see it without watching the film. It gives an idea of what the film is about. Whilst looking around the setting there were options to view the trailer and click on characters to find out more about them. This makes the website far more interesting and exciting to look at drawing the audience into the film.

Poster Analysis

After looking at three different posters the connotations of horror films stand out a lot more. The main colours used are reds and blacks and the ones I looked at had creepy faces or faces in pain. The majority of posters advertising films have taken a photograph from the actual film and edited to fit in with the style of the poster and give the effect of what there trying to display in their film. The fonts are usually untidy and in capital letters. Some posters have reviews from newspapers, magazines and other types of media which lure the audience in to watch the film. To create our film poster I will use this information and use the connotations of horror to give our film the spooky and twisted effect.

Poster Analysis

Poster Analysis

Poster Analysis

Story Board

Once we decied the plot for our trailer we made a story board so we could see what we had to film so we didn't leave anything out.

Film Trailer Analysis

After looking at different film trailers it has given me a clear idea of what we need to do to give a scary effect in our trailer. Most of the trailers use fast short clips however starting with slow beginnings to introduce the plot. Most of them have reviews to show the audience the perspective of how good their film is. Some of the trailers have lots of dialogue if the plot is unclear; however some have none apart from screaming. Most of the trailers don’t have many special effects as none are needed. The camera is usually blurry and fast to keep upbeat and make the audiences heart beat faster and sit on the edge of their seat, making them want to watch the whole film. For our trailer I think we should start with a slow introduction introducing the characters and the story and then move into fast clips and scenes of violence.

Analysing Film Trailers

The Blaire Witch Project
Genre – Horror/mystery/thriller
Narrative – Students film their experience in some local woods that have is rumoured to be haunted
Unique Selling Point – Real camera footage to make it look realistic, the teenagers film themselves so the audience can relate to the film and belive that it is real
Target Audience – Teenagers
Music – Creepy music/spacey/fast paced
Shot Types/ Camera Angles – Blurry and shaky to show that it has not been filmed in a studio or with a real camera set to make it more real life like, close ups of hands and parts of people with dark woods in the background. Close ups of grass and trees
Pace – Music makes it appear fast however the pace is in slow motion
Dialogue – Screaming, no dialogue as everything is explained in intertitles
Voiceover – None
Special Effects – None as the teenagers are filming, makes it more belivable
Credits and Intertitles – Introduction sentence to give an insight to what the plot of the film is, reviews from papers and magazines to show that people have enjoyed it, title at the end

Analyising Film Trailers

Quarantine
Genre – Drama horror/thriller
Narrative – Documented on camera, a reporter and her camera man follow the fire department and get trapped in an apartment block, find an infected woman who attacks the people around her, the disease appears to spread, keep the audience in suspense of what is wrong with the diseased people
Unique Selling Point – Footage is part of a television programme, American remake of the original Spanish film REC, based on real events
Target Audience – Teenagers/adults
Music – Jumpy/spooky/low volume music throughout to keep suspense/slightly rock like music
Shot Types/Camera Angles – Camera man is a character, not homemade but not professional filming, only camera light so screen is dark
Pace – Remains fast throughout but speeds up as the trailer progresses
Dialogue – A lot to show you what’s going on, in snippets so you can link it together and work out the plot, lots of screams
Voiceover – None, woman talks to camera
Special Effects – Some stunts
Credits and Intertitles – Sentences between shots within the trailer to give more detail to the story, title at the end flashes on and is distorted

Analysing Film Traliers

I will analyse film traliers with the same genre as our film idea so that i can see what trailers use to appeal to their audience and to get a wider understanding of the horror/thriller/documentary genre.

The Fourth Kind
Genre – Scary/horror/documentary
Narrative – Town in Alaska, real events, actor speaks and plays a real person in the trailer as well as a character, about abductions, a real doctor that helps people with their dreams, goes wrong
Unique Selling Point – Based on real case studies, this will scare the audience as it ‘could actually happen’
Target Audience – Teenagers/adults
Music – Spooky/eerie at the beginning, gets faster as the shots speed up and trailer progresses, makes people scared as its fast, snappy and upbeat
Shot Types/Camera Angles – Split screen, close ups, interesting shot types- not many films use split screen. One side of the screen real footage and the other with the actor
Pace – Starts slower then speeds up as music speeds and as you get into the trailer, fast moving pace makes it look interesting and makes the audience feel anticipated.
Dialogue – Lots of dialogue to show what’s going on as it would be complicated without it
Voiceover – No voiceover as conversation and dialogue explains it
Special Effects – None, real footage, the only special effect is the owl which looks fake
Credits and Intertitles – Title at the end, the trailer builds up to it and creates suspense, makes the audience want to find out what actually happens

Analysing Film Trailers

To help us decide what we need to do to create a scary and thrilling atmosphere in our trailer we are going to analyse different film trailers of the same genre to gather ideas. from our slide show we found that the conventions of horror film are:

• darkness
• small amounts of colour, dark clothes
• murder
• creepy music
• victims
• screams
• isolated settings
• screams
• chases
• death/blood

To increase my knowlage and understanding of film trailers and the publicising of films i will analyse different trailers, posters and film websites and then will go on to creating our own for our media project.

Trailer Plot

Keeping to our first idea of using the story from the daily mail, we came to a decision to change around the names and make slight modifications to the actual story, however still keeping to the same plot of what the article was about.
Our main character Charlie, who is at the time 15, joins a website where she can publish details and images as well as her thoughts and other personal things on. After making a profile and logging on to the website a lot Charlie meets a guy called 'Sean'. Charlie and her new internet love 'Sean' start texting and forming a relationship. Her friends become weary as he starts asking her for naked pictures and asking to meet. We then find out that Charlie's internet boyfriend 'Sean' is in fact a twisted father and son team. As days go on, Charlie starts to feel like she's being stalked and followed. The film ends with Charlie getting raped, tourtured and killed by the internet duo.

Initial Idea for Trailer

Ben, Charlotte and myself decided that the genere of our movie trailer will be thriller/documentry. Our inspiration came from a news story about an australian girl which we found on the Daily Mail website http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1221429/Goth-girl-15-murdered-posting-profile-vampire-website.html