Trailer Research and Planning // Analysis

This trailer I thought had a good plot, and used specific scenes and shots to make it smooth and understandable. Again this trailer had a similar plot to ours, and so this trailer was good for inspiration, especially as it was related to teenagers in a house. We liked the beginning with the car driving up to the new house. This was an original idea that we had, and have seen it in many trailers before. In this trailer, there was also a voiceover that explained the background of the house to help the audience understand the horror element of it. This is something we will try hard to recreate. The supernatural theme of this trailer includes doors that open by themselves. This would be easy to recreate and will fit in well as a filler scene. Other aspects that we took note on what running down hall walls, appearing behind shower curtains, knives scraping towards the camera, the news article and banding on windows.









We came across this trailer and instantly liked everything it had including camera shots, the plot, and the build up of tension. We tried to recreate some scenes from this trailer as we feel it linked well with our plot, but how it portrayed the horror genre well. For example, the car scene in the beginning is a calm happy beginning. we will try to mimic this with our trailer. We also liked the way the lights completely cut out in the house. We had a theme of darkness and super natural in our plot, so this would be a good scene for us to recreate. I specifically liked the scene of the door opening to the house followed with a voiceover that gave a brief overview of the plot. This made it more interested and built up the tension.





Pre Production Survey

I created a survey of 7 questions in order to plan for my Poster, Magazine, and Trailer. I asked 8 people between the ages of 12-17, and of any gender and ethnicity to get the best results. The graphs below will help productively plan my 3 projects successfully.

 This question is to get an average percentage of people who enjoy watching horror films in this age group of 12-17 year olds. Most people said yes which was a good sign. This will make choosing our film classification easier. I was hoping to make it an age 15, and these responses suit that classification.

In order to start planning my horror trailer with story boards and a plot, I had to choose a subgenre. I had many to choose from but I had so many ideas for each sub genre. Therefore I decided to make it a question and go with the most popular. The outcome was a Psychological horror. From this I came up with brief ideas and put them into a pitch for my group.

So the main aim of a horror film is for it to be scary. So I decided to ask what people thought was the scariest thing they could think of from a film they had watched. I had my own ideas of what I found scary, however I wanted to make sure I had the ideal shot in order for my trailer to be successful. One person answered 'other' which they replied with 'woods'. Most people chose a house as this represented a realistic situation and made it feel real. I am more than likely to go with a house because I agree that it brings a lot of realism into the film and involves the audience much more than a graveyard would.

I knew that most people would of watched a horror film in their lifetime, and not of hated every second of it. For a horror to be a good horror, I wanted to know what people enjoyed so much about them. Apart from the odd jumpy scene, I gave a few of my ideas found from research to gain some responses. Out of 8 people, they said the plot and the suspense. This will help me focus on creating a good plot that people will enjoy around a psychological theme, which involves a lot of suspense. A way of getting suspense would be lighting and the music used.

The conventions of Horror from chloebowen

Mise-En-Scene 

Setting and Props

Costume, Hair and Makeup

Lighting and Colour 

Positioning of characters/ props in frame

Facial expressions

The Drama Queen/ The Girly Girl

Costume, Hair and Makeup: Her clothes display a lot of flesh and usually consist of pink to show her girly personality. Crop tops and short skirts were her main costume. They tend to be up to date with fashion and trends as this is what they revolve their life around.

Positioning of characters/ props in frame: The positions and stances of her character includes hands on her hip to indicate her confidence and temerity, almost in a seductive way. The lollipop was a significant prop because it adds to her image and represents her personality as cute, fun, and fulfilling her stereotype. Other props such as a mobile phone or a handbag would portray this well.
Facial Expressions: Her facial expression is almost smug and gives the impression that this character has a sense of arrogance about them.

This stereotype tends to be stupid due to their attention being on themselves most of the time rather than their education. Her character could come in handy in a horror film and these characters tend to die off pretty quickly.

For example Sasha in 'Urban Legend' (Tara Reid)

 The Goth/ The Cool One/ Relaxed

Costume, Hair and Makeup: Goths are known for their choice of black in almost anything. Her clothes of black and nothing else, along with her makeup. The makeup had to make a bold statement with heavy winged eyeliner and black lips. Her hair was slightly crimped in places to show her edginess. I felt this really helped her character come into perspective. We took inspiration from Draculas daughter, with the dark clothes and pale face.

Positioning of characters: As her character is all about being bold and mysterious, her personality had to come across quite firm, bossy, and in control of the group. The photos below back this up. Having her arms crossed allows her to look sharp and in control. The holding of the leather jacket imitates Danny Zuko from Greece, and although out of character, it helps her character look the cool one of the group, like a leader.

Facial Expressions: No smiles are coming from this character. This is a stereotype of Goths; they are thought of being independent, in deep thought, and have some sense of depression.

We wanted to have a Goth in our plot as she is a character full of darkness and mysteries. In our plot, audiences would think of her as the problem solver, or the one that calmed the others down, she's not afraid to unravel the mysteries of the house.

The Nerd/ Clever One/ Problem Solver

Costume, Hair and Makeup: For her look, it was compulsory for her to wear glasses as this makes her look more intelligent and fits her stereotype well. He clothes reveal the least amount of flesh, for example turtle neck jumpers and jeans, anything that isn't  up to date with fashion because nerds are stereotypically too busy to keep up with anything but homework. Her hair is naturally down, with no fancy styles. Many people feel nerds look pale, as they spend a lot of time indoors. Therefore, the lack of makeup gives a pale complexion.

Positioning of characters/ props in frame: Many nerds are prone to being bookworms. So the use of books helped image her as a bookworm. Her position in the photos below give the impression she's shy, quiet and very timid. This is usually how nerds are portrayed in films because they tend not to socialise, so this is the cause of their character. One image shows her hunched up to show she feels small and very uncomfortable.

Facial Expressions: Her character isn't making direct eye contact with the camera which shows how timid she is. She's very camera shy and looks awkward in her position.

There always seems to be a nerd in certain films, and we got this characters inspiration from Velma out of Scooby Doo. She is typically the shy, clever one who normally doesn't speak as much and keeps herself to herself. She could also be the problem solver as she is the one who is good at thinking and research.

Velma out of Scooby Doo

The Cool Guy / The Hero or Villain?  

Costume, Hair and Makeup: This character is seen to be very layed back, with not a care in the world. His clothing is seen to be in fashion and smart casual to represent hi personality. As for his hair, its in style with a sleek look. They are normally portrayed as the 'handsome' characters that the girls chase after.  

Positioning of characters: His choice of stance indicates he is confident and knows he is the top guy around. Here he comes across as masculine, and is the one that everybody looks up to.

Facial Expressions: His facial expression has a direct address with the camera to show he knows who he is and is confident with himself.

He plays our only guy teen in our plot. He is the boyfriend of the Drama Queen, and he comes across as a cool, popular sporty guy who looks out for himself. Because our trailer doesn't give too much information away, our audience could think this guy is the baddie. But again, he could also be the guy who becomes the hero, he is masculine and the only one who can do a 'mans' job supposedly.

The Ghost

Costume, Hair and Makeup: We took inspiration from the girl in 'The Ring', and wanted our ghostly character to have a washed out, unclean look. Her makeup consists of white and black face paint to create the illusion of pale dirty skin. Her hair was partially wet and covered her face to add mystery. This hair style is unusual and unsettles the audience because putting it in front of the face may signify something opposite to normal. Her costume was created with a white t-shirt that was ripped apart and covered in stains, as this illustrates her character as old, and obviously unhygienic.

Positioning of characters/ Facial Expressions: Its very hard to see the ghosts identity because she reveals only mystery. She hides her identity, but from what we can see she is miserable, and very old looking. She has a deathly facial expression with a look to kill.

Setting 

The setting for our trailer is in a  modern house. This is different to the usual horror house, but it has an updated feel to the setting and brings it into the 21st century. The reason for choosing a modern house like this was the effect we could achieve from the audience. The setting can relate to anybody in the audience and brings a sense of reality, which can make it instantly have a greater effect on the audience and make it 10 times scarier than a gothic abandoned mansion. We wanted the audience to find the setting 'real' and for them to think 'these supernatural elements could happen to me in my modern home'.