Focus Group

Focus group results on print work

Film trailer survey response

Little White Lies

Horror Sound Board

  
This is an example of a practice soundscape that I made that included some examples of sound effects that I may use in my final trailer. It includes a lot of affects that can be used to change the atmosphere and the ambiance. I also wanted to try and convey a story using just sound, in this case a kind of journey that comes to an abrupt and potentially fatal end. I tried to convey this in many ways, setting a scene for example, the water dripping can make it feel hollow and quiet. It must be quiet, unsettlingly so if you can even hear small water droplets and even a clock ticking. It also connotes that it made be a rundown place there, old and unloved. The weather is rough, wintery and you know that it will be dark and frightening if there is the involvement of a thunderstorm which connotes the opposite of calm as do the frantic dog barking. The footsteps lead us to follow this person in a pathway, it creates a kind of flow to the story, a journey. The dial tone and failure to call someone also can  create a sense of disturbance, unsettling that they are not there and a feeling of iscolation. There is no one you can contact. After that it picks up, a turning point in the story and the music leads us to a chattering room, seemingly normal until there is an abrupt end which leads us to ask questions as to what happened, who in this gathering of people is hurt.

Scene pick out

This shows the picking out of scenes that I did of a teaser trailer for the film Shutter Island. It gives me an idea of how long the duration of each scene is, the type of angles used and such for when I plan my own movie trailer.

BBFC

Examples of movies within each age classification:

Universal: Monster's Inc.

PG: Night at the Museum

12: Pirates of the Caribbean, Woman in Black

15: Cabin in the Woods, Conjuring 

18: Hostel, Scream

I am interested in doing a film similar to Cabin in the Woods and Conjuring with the teenage aspect of the former and supernatural of the latter. In comparison, a 15 grade might be best for my film.

British Film Research

Film poster 2

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British horror deconstruction- Woman in Black

Deconstruction of film poster

• Quote from respective source reinforces how relevant and trustworthy the quote actually is.  
• Important words in the quote are bolder for emphasis. Words that stress on how scary the film is to reinforce how much so it is, saving the viewer from reading too much that isn't important.  
• The font from the trailer Is reused to add recognisability. 
• The eyes of the child are strange, eyes are an important part to create a relationship or a feeling of emotion and yet they are blocked which is even more unsettling. Where the mode of address is direct, it's almost like he is hypnotising us. 
• The eyes are covered with white which stands out stark against the black background and emphasises on them. They become a focal point and right in the centre of the page, it really brings your attention to them and as they are scary, it really adds to the horror aspect.  
• The house in the background looks like a common one in suburban USA, a family house but the windows are dark, you can't see in while the outside is light. It creates a mystery as to what is inside the house.  
• There is a viegnette affet whih makes it feel the like darkness is creeping in from around the edges of the image and this emphasises his eyes even more. It also brings attention to his face as a whole, framing the child. He is important, he is alone on the page, central and with direct address. We know he is key. The shot type is a close up of him, it really foces on his face and expression. 
• Even stranger about his expression, he lacks one. His face seems vacant and the lack of eyes really supports this. He is not snarling or looking threatening to the viewer but that a lot feels worse. He is blank and as a result, we have no idea what this important child is thinking, planning.  What part he plays.  
• The lighting on him is high contrast, we see large highlights and low lights. It creates and almost ethereal look to him especially against a more flat background. It seems more spooky. 
• There appears to be a shadow in the window of the house over the boy's shoulder in a  room upstairs which we presume then to be a bedroom. We then assume to what the actual plot is. I the child is the horrific being or whatever is in the window. It leads us to be curious of the plot and ask more questions.                                                               

Film Magazine Deconstruction

This is a strange film magazine that caught my attention. It defies many conventions of the everyday music magazine.

• It lacks in cover lines around the side to show what else is in the magazine, we just see one film shown on the front with no other indication of what is inside. 
• The barcode is central to the magazine at the top when it is usually hidden away at the side in the corners. 
• The masthead Is not the biggest text on the page, in fact smaller than the coverline for the main story and it is not at the top, but central and inside a circle.

• The image is shown central, almost a hand drawn image not a photograph.

These breaks of convention all help this magazine in what it does, it is a unique one and that is it's selling point. The cover images are almost collectable, the lack of adverts and commercialisation is another reason people will buy it. For the soul purpose of it being different. It is more artistic it seems, but perhaps because of it's abstract appearance and lack of commercial things it may appeal to a more niche market.

• The larger coverline shows importance of this story and as it is the specific issue for it, it is key. It almost seems as though the magazine does not want the attention due to the small masthead, but in fact they want to give all their attention to the movie. This may make it more of a people's choice.
• It still has a slogan or tagline under the masthead, this reads 'truth and movies' this is in stark contrast with the title 'little white lies' it creates an enigma. Which do we believe? The magazine is already mysterious as we have next to no idea what will be inside and now this. 
• The tagline is written in a cursive writing, this is classy and sophisticated and in itself, old fashioned.
• The font of the masthead is retro, the entire magazine doesn't look so modern as other magazines in the genre. This emphasised by a hand drawn image. Again, it is niche and different with the main coverline font looking hand written too, like the technology other magazines used isn't here. It's more old fashioned. 
• The image is the main focal point, the art. It is central with colours that juxtapose the background (the pale white skin on the black background with the bright red in contrast) It's not difficult to believe that someone may buy the magazine just for the art on the front, to keep it. It acts as a unique selling point.
• The pale white skin not only contrasts with the background but makes it seem more eerie, when someone is scared they often go pale.
• However, the expression of the person in the image itself is straight faced, calm and indifferent. This contrasts greatly with the blood that coats her. Is she used to it? Does she want it?
• The red we know as blood and due to it being the mainly colourful thing, our eyes are drawn to it. Some of the text is red too and as it is handwritten, it looks as though it is written in blood which is even scarier. 
• The image is a close up, we see direct address big eyes and untarnished skin. This all makes her seem young, pure and innocent. 

Movie Trailer Deconstruction 2- Silent Hill

Film Magazine Deconstruction

Film Trailer Deconstruction

Insidious is a supernatural horror film, I am interested in doing this genre as my final film. On interesting point on this is the whole trailer is deemed a flashback, this is a strange part of temporal editing. It shows an unamed, unknown man to us in some kind of therapy session or hypnosis as though to try and recall a repressed or horrific memory. This starts by giving us an insight into how horrifying this film and the situation and film will be.  

We see the words 'Insidious is Insidious' repeated over and over among the clip. Each time it gets closer to us, this creates a feeling  of suspense, of an impending thing to come, it helps the pace because as it gets closer, it builds us up for something to come, for what happens when the word reaches us. It gets faster, the letters jumble as though in a panic and it acts as a raise of our pulse. Between it there are more cuts, faster. It shows a lot of clips in one sequence, a montage of fast jump cuts that get faster with the speeding up of the words on screen. The montages get shorter too, everything seems to lead to some sort of conclusion.  
 

The sound is also important pace wise as we actually see a metronome at the beginning which is an item use to keep the pace of music. We then see the jump cuts move in time with the beats of the metronome as it gets louder, it becomes more and more dramatic. It again leads us up to something. There is a silence so exaggerated between each beat as well which is just eerie. And then the beat is so pointed and deep when it comes, it disrupts the silence and we expect it. There is also cliché noises exaggerated, creaking of doors an floorboards that we expect from a horror film. A conventional part. 
 

We begin with being shown a happy house, we get a pan of their family home which looks idealistic. A large garden, no cliché looking haunted house like we might expect. We here the term 'Sweetie' used which is a fond word, it shows there is love in the family, caring. They laugh and lift their baby, clearly so pleased to have him. It's perfect family atmosphere. But the metronome keeps ticking, counting down. We know something is going to mess it up. And then the child falls, the rushed words are back on screen and the happy, family montage leaves and we know something bad has happened, this event is key, it even shows it in a close up so that we really see the importance of the event it is an iscolated clip and we don't miss the importance. We then see the clip of him in a coma, this acts as a kind of spatial editing, a cause and effect. The fall leads to a coma. We see him in a coma over the parent's shoulders as if we are stood with him, visiting him. We get an idea of what it's like as their family member. We empathise. It get's us emotionally involved. 
 

A lot of the shots are through hallways of the house, we follow them through it. The shots are travelling, we move with the camera like in a dolly shot, we are with them all the time. We don't feel like an outsider. We are part of it. That is even more unsettling. 
 

Voice overs are used a lot, paired with important scenes. It helps to clary what is happening. The 'there's something in Dalton's room' paired with an image of his room gives us an idea of the plot without giving to much away. It remains vague and leads us to asking questions. What is in his room? It's all make the suspense increase.  
 

The pace increases dramatically. Questions like 'what is it?' are actually asked, ones we are thinking ourselves. The whole time, the family are in the same position as us. We really do feel part of it. And then suddenly, when all these fast paced jump cuts of montages are done and quick music, we are suddenly hit with  sudden silence. It becomes even more frightening as it is so sudden. And then we have a dramatic conclusion and we find out something unusual which answers some questions bt not too many, enough to leave us wanting more. Te pace picks up in a climax of the faster cuts yet, all little tastes of the horror to come.

Shutter Island Recreation

Analysis of this work:

This was a piece of work I did in preparation for the real trailer. As opposed to doing a practice film, I felt that an experimental film trailer made more sense and would be more relevant for me in the future of this project thus helping me out a little more.

I remade the Shutter Island teaser trailer. I chose this film because it is of a similar genre I had considered doing. A psychological horror. On reflection however, I have decided against the psychological aspects as it can involve various difficult locations and a large cast. It steered me towards the choice of a supernatural horror. Creating this film trailer helped me to decide this in a trial and error bases.

If found that it improved my understanding of IMovie to edit films and such on Mac computers. I before hadn't known how to change the colour of the scenes to create a different feel and as lighting was difficult having only filmed at school, it helped me to edit the lighting post production.
It also helped me to get a greater understanding of how to decide locations and work with actors. I realise that I need to manage a fairly large team and in ways that will suit everyone which this gave me a taster of how to do.
It also helped me to understand other things with the planning of the movie. I had to create story boards and such in order to plan it and I had never done this before. I found it helped me greatly in breaking down the elements I needed to include.

 However, there were some things that I found were difficult to accomplish. This came in the form of sound and voice. It was difficult to record high quality sound and voice overs that matched the scenes so this will be something I shall have to practice to do in the future.