Reaserch into similar products (Dialog in trailers)

in trailers one of the ways you attract the audience is the dialog. alot of trailers in horror contain quite alot of dialog such as the trailers at the bottom of the post. because i am not very confident in the quality of the micraphones in the video cameras we will be using i have decided that my trailer wont be dialog driven. becasue i wont be using dialog to explain the plot i will have to use visual storytelling to make the viewer put the plot together in their head. luckily i have chosen to make a slasher trailer so the plot isnt too complicated as a group of friends get lost on a walk and are hunted by a axe weilding maniac. because my plot is quite simple it will be easy to show the plot through the small pecies of dialog that i will use and the fact that there will be afew hints to what is happening by the close ups of the axe.
the trailer below is for the 2012 horror movie Sinister. throughout the trailer they use dialog to tell the audience the plot such as the voice saying that there was a killing in the house and then the voice of the little girl complaining about that she had to move house. this dialog is used so the audience can get the grasp of what the film is going to be about. the trailer uses an equal amount of visual storytelling as it does dialog storytelling as the dialog explains the start of the story and then the visual comes into play when the farther starts to watch the videos which expands on the plot as it shows that the demon has been killing through the images.

Target Audience

for my trailer i will need to set a target audience so i know what i need to include in the trailer to get the attention of my selected audience. looking into the horror genre it is easily seen that the age certificate for near to all horror movies is 18 examples of this is A Nightmare On Elm Street 18, Friday The 13th 18, Scream 18, Disturbia 18 and i could go on. this is a clear indication that my audience is going to be people aged over the age of 18. according to the BBFC to make a film the 18 certificate it must have a variety of things included in the film such as very strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g Fu*k), strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore and discriminatory language and behavior. for obvious reasons i wont include all of these things in my trailer but i will have to make sure my trailer looks horrific enough to make it look like an 18 certificate to get the attention of my audience.

to the left there is the banner that is included in trailers to indicate that the film has been approved by the company that made it to be viewed by their audience and in this situation there audience is referred to as R which means restricted. this is the age rating that has been given to the film and it means that it isn't suitable for anyone under the age of 18. this is a good place to start my trailer as it will indicate the
                                                                                    nature of the trailer.

The trailer below is of a film that is rated 18. looking at the trailer it is easy to see why the film is rated an 18 as it shows torture, death of both adults and children and alot of gore. i will have to take a similar approach when i make my trailer as i want to make it easy for my audience to see that my film is a 18. because my film is going to be a slasher film i will have to show the rating by using alot of fake blood to show that there is strong violence.

Organisation (location of my trailer)

for the location of my horror trailer i have decided to film in a wood/forest. i have chosen a forest as it already holds a sense of fear as no one wants to be lost in the woods at night. there are plenty of woods/forests in Birmingham that i could choose from but i have chosen to film in Uffmoor woods in halseowen. Uffmoor is 209 acres of walking paths and dense trees. this is going to be the perfect location for my trailer as there are plenty of open areas to film in.

the picture on the left is about a six minuet walk into the woods and the perfect place for my opening shot. it is the ideal shot as there is a rise in the ground to give me the perfect spot to film from a high angle and the tree line above the bridge isnt too thick to block the light which means the shot wont be too dark.
because the woods is mainly paths to film the scenes where the group gets lost and took off the path i will have to leave the path and go into the thickness of the trees. filming in the tree line might be abit difficult for lighting reasons but there wont be any people walking off the paths so i wont be distrubed or have people                                                                                  walking there dogs caught in the background of my                                                                                shots.

Organisation

having researched a number of horror movies and started my storyboard/shot list for my trailer i now know what i will need for my trailer. in this post i am going to make a small list of the items i will need for the filming of my trailer.

Costume:
in horror films the costume will define the character as it will show the audience from the start whether this is a character which will be feared of liked. an example could be Jason's costume from Friday the 13th as his costume is ripped and groggy looking which even without the mask makes him look scary. the villain in my trailer is an axe wielding psychopath so i have want his costume to consist of CAT boots, muddy and worn out jeans with a large muddy and torn coat or hoodie. in my trailer im not going to show the face of the villain as i believe that its what we don't see that is truly terrifying. i think that this costume choice for my villain is a smart  v                                                                                         one as when put together the messy and dark                                                                                           clothing will make him look menacing.

Another prop i will need is an axe. i don't think that a toy axe will look realistic or help in the making of my trailer so i have decided to purchase a real axe but never film fast movement of the axe as it will be a health hazard. this prop will not be used as a toy as it is anything but so the usage of this prop will be handled with the most care. because harsh and fast movements will be dangerous im only going to use the prop for still and slow moving shots to avoid hurting anyone.
the rest the characters in the trailer are hikers/walkers so their costume will be very easy to obtain as it will be walking shoes a shirt and the choice of joggers or shorts.

Drafting and Planning (My Horror Trailer So Far)

For my A2 media project i am going to make a film trailer. I have chosen to make a horror trailer as i believe that it is one of the best genres for trailers as the fast paced editing and sound that can be used in the trailer.
Below is my shot for shot plan of my trailer so far  i think that my plot is big enough for me to be able to make a trailer of at least 2 minuets
Plot summary: Group of walkers get lost whilst walking in the woods and are cut down one by one by an unseen axe wielding man.
Shot Plan:
Establishing shot: The group walking along the path in the woods talking.
From the establishing shot fade into a medium close up of the group and a female member of the group realizing they have strayed from the path and are now lost.
Fade into a close up of a male member of the group saying that its getting too dark let’s stop for the night and look for the path when we have the light.
Quick fade to a long shot of the group around a small fire, cut to a medium shot of a member of the group looking into the flame :shot holds for around 5 seconds: (no sound other than the fire flickering for 5 seconds and then branches are heard breaking)
Quick cut to one of the male members walking towards the noise to investigate whilst yelling "everyone stay by the fire.

Research into Similar products (Genre Crossovers)

 

After looking at my chosen genre for my trailer i am looking into other genres that have crossed over with the horror genre.
alot of films have been released under the genre of horror comedy but none of them have done it better than  Ruben Fleischer 2009 hit Zombie Land. Zombie Land mixed the perfect amount of fear with the perfect amount of comedy by using characters such as Woody Harrelson to be a man that enjoyed killing zombies whilst being with Jesse Eisenberg who is scared of everything that makes a noise. The horror aspect of the film is seen in the trailer at 0:31 to 0:47 where it shows the fear of everyday people as they are chased by bloody and horrific zombies and the comedy shown at 1:40 by Woody Harrelson. the two genre mixed together so well mainly because of the attitude of the characters as most of them make a game out of it and the horror that comes with the hordes of zombies chasing people throughout the film.

Research into similar products (mise-en-scene of the horror genre)

Mise-en-scene:

Setting:
the setting in horror films will typically be a haunted, abandoned or isolated area. these types of locations are used because just by looking at them they will create a large sense of tension or eeriness. typically if the setting is a normal modern day house the majority of the film will be shot at night as that is the best way to make a harmless location seem scary.


Lighting:
the lighting in horror films will mainly be low key. low key lighting will make it easier to make the scene look scary. using low key lighting will make it easier to scare the audience as you can have anything pop out from the shadows which is the case in most slasher films such as Friday the 13th and Scream.

Costume:
the costume in horror films will be something that will hide the villains face. this is because like Steven Spielberg said when making Jaws "its what we don't see that is truly terrifying".

Body Language:
the body language in horror films needs to portray
the villain as power full by having the character
standing up straight shown by a low angle and the
other characters need to be shown as small and
insignificant. this is because the villain will be the
one with the power to kill so he needs to be shown
with the power.