Research into similar products (Text in trailers)

The use of text in trailers is mainly used for the replacement of a Narrator/ Voice over. The text used in the trailers is usually to give the audience information on the film for example it will say something about the location where the film is set and it may even talk about the reputation of said location. Using text in the replacement of a voice over is cheaper and easier but non the less i think it it outdated and awful. i think that if you cant get your story across using acting or dialogue then your story isn't going to be a very good one. if anything the use of text in trailers is just to be used as a filler so they can make their trailer longer with no real help towards the story or the promotion of the film. in my trailer i wont be using text or a voice over as i feel that it will look awful so i don't want to risk losing marks over it. i will only use text in my trailer if my target audience strongly requests or recommends it as that will be the only way i would ever consider using text.

Drafting & Planning (Completed Storyboard)

this is the final storyboard for my trailer. after researching into multiple film trailers i am confident that my trailer contains enough content and detail to be believable and of a decent quality. in this storyboard i have described how i will transition from one scene to the next and the most recurring transition is cut to fade which i covered in a blog post a few weeks ago which is linked at the bottom of this post. this trailer will be of a decent length so it wont class as a teaser trailer. i mainly hope to achieve suspense in this trailer through editing as using fades and quick cuts will be most effective when building towards the end of my trailer which is where the trailer will be ended on a cliff hanger. i will later create a shot list so i will know how many long shots or close ups i will use as it is good to have a balance of shots as i don't want to film my entire trailer in a long shot as it wont look good and will be associated with trailers if such quality as fan trailers. each of the shots in my trailer will be played in chronological order as i don't want to go back on myself when playing the trailer as myself and the audience will just be confused. 

http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/research-into-similar-products-fades.html 

Organisation (Deadline and Conduction of filming)

With the Christmas deadline rapidly approaching it is time to start thinking about filming. With my storyboard extremely close to completion i am setting myself the deadline to have all of my filming done by at least the 15th of December. I should be ready to start filming by the 3rd of December which will give me just under two weeks to complete my filming. i am planning to film my entire trailer in one day preferably on a Saturday, this is to give my trailer the belief that these people have been looking for their friend all day as im going to film the trailer in the correct order from start to finish so i as the day progresses the it will get darker outside and as my trailer plays it will slowly get darker and darker. we are going to start editing our footage when we come back from the Christmas holiday but i am going to edit mine during the holiday so when i get back i can focus on my exam section of the course. by filming my trailer in one day it will give me more opportunity to re-shoot scenes i am not happy with as we will be filming al day so i can shoot the same scene 20 times and there wont be any continuity errors as the light will be near enough the exact same through every one re-shoot of the same scene. im going to film Amy's (The missing girl) scenes and the group's scenes on different days as Amy is never filmed in the same shot as the large group so it would be pointless having Amy come out to film three or four scenes and then wait around for the rest of use to film the groups 20-30 scenes for the rest of the day.

Organisation (Casting)

I have decided who will be in my horror trailer. My full cast consists of three girls and two boys. The person who will play the missing girl fits the role as she is 18 and around 5ft 3inc in height which fits the role as for the few shots the missing girl is seen in i need her too look quite vulnerable and my thought is that because of her height she will be seen as vulnerable, im not trying to be mean im only following the stereotype of women and modifying it for my use of vulnerability.
The two girls that will be in the group that is looking for Amy will be my two friends in my media class, Megan and Paige. i wanted to use megan and paige because they are two very close friends and their connection might show through the trailer which will make it alot more believable which benefits me and because they are both in my media class they both understand how important this project is as they are both in the same situation as i am so i know that they will take the filming seriously so i don't have to re-shoot every scene because people were messing around. Out of the two boys i will be playing one which is believable as im 18 which fits the age range im looking for and i wanted the character im playing to show as quite dominant around the group and because im 6ft 3inc it will be easy as i can show myself looking down using high angles which will more than likely be needed because i am alot taller than my co-stars. The second boy in my trailer has unfortunately had to drop out of filming so i will need to look for someone to replace him as the missing role is needed to make the group look more believable as they need to be shown being like a family which will e hard without the second boy in the group

Organisation

Although i have spoken about the start of my trailer quite alot and i have have touched on the film idents of trailers i have not yet looked into what production company i will use for my trailer. i will need to decide whether i will use a major or independent film company as this choice will determine the size of my target audience as with a major film company i will be able to attract a global audience compared to using an independent company which will attract a small audience as they don't have the funds for a large advertising campaign. i already know that i will use a major film company as i would like to think my film has the potential to attract a large audience instead of a small one so im going to make my choice out of major company's rather than independent ones. the two companies i am thinking of using are Dimension Films and New Line Cinema.
Dimension Films are a Mini Major film company that produces a wide range of films in many different genres. Dimension Films have produced plenty of famous films such as Scream, Halloween, Wolf Creek and Scary Movie which i analysed and researched as it is of the same genre as my my film http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/aaaa.html
Because Dimension Films have produced such classics like these if i decide to use this production company my audience will associate the films Dimension have produced with my film which could attract a larger audience which enjoyed the films Dimension have to their name.
New Line Cinema are the subsidiary to Warner Bros which are one of the most influential film company around and a high ranking member of the Big 6. New Line Cinema are a highly respected distribution company that has produced cult classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Lord Of The Rings. I needed to include New Line Cinema in my choices for a distribution company based on the fact that they distributed the best slasher film of all time A Nightmare On Elm Street. New Line would be a smart choice as they are the subsidiary of one of the biggest film company's in the world and have a reputation for producing incredibly popular films. Because New Line have the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare On Elm Street to there name by producing another slasher with this company would drag in a target audience twice the size of Dimension just because they produced the two best slashers ever made so by going with New Line i will have a major film company to back my film and a large pre set target audience waiting for the release of my film before it is even made.

Research into similar products (Fades)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDs_DYow7xA
The trailer for the forest uses cuts and fades to black to transition from near enough every scene in the trailer. in the trailer they don't fade out of scenes but they cut and then fade into the next shot, this is very useful when transitioning from small scenes to big ones as you have the added effect of spookiness an example of this is when they fade into the No Entry sign as it gives an added effect that it isn't just telling you to stay                                                                                         out because the land is private but its telling
                                                                                    you as a warning.

in my trailer my transitions are mainly going to consist of fades at the beginning of the trailer as the content at the start is going to be story building so it wont have alot of action to cut into so cuts to fades will work well with the beginning of the trailer but when i get near the end of my trailer i will use mainly straight cuts as towards the end of my trailer is when most of the action will happen so i will need to use fast paced cuts so i can keep the tension of the trailer flowing throughout the shots.

Target Audience

Recently i made a tweet asking my target audience (i went to twitter because all of my friends that would reply are 18+ which is my audience so i know that i can rely on their feedback) what i should call my trailer. i gave my audience three choices which were
The Path, Pista and Thanatos. the last two options are both Greek translations, my logic behind it was that if i called my film Death it sounds boring, plain and basic but by translating that to Thanatos which is the Greek God of death and the Greek translation to the word it gives my trailer a whole new meaning. i received feedback on all of the titles but i didn't include the feedback on Pista because they said it sounds like pasta so im choosing to not consider pista as people might think that is a film about pasta. From the feedback its easy to see that the majority prefer Thanatos to The Path. in my opinion i prefer The Path to Thanatos as the trailer revolves around the group straying from the path resulting in them being killed. but on the other hand i like Thanatos because of the link to the death but just from looking at the trailer it would make more sense to call it the path but i will do more questioning with my target audience to make sure im                                                                                                                not making a mistake.

Research into similar products (Film Titles)

Looking at horror movie titles it is easy to see that they don't complicated what they are getting across and they make the title itself quite simple yet they are very effective. the film title The Woman In Black in a sense summarizes the film with as it tells you the antagonist and by looking at the font and color they use on the picture you can see it is going to be a horror film which bases around ghosts (told by the ghostly font). Meanwhile the horror films sinister and insidious use very short yet very effective titles as even without the scary fonts we can see that the films are going to be horror movies as both of the titles use one word which both give off scary vibes as insidious means "proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects" and Sinister means "giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen". this shows how even using a simple and basic film title it can have a huge effect on the audience.
Because my film centers around a group of friends who stray from the path and become lost i want to include a reference to path. My ideas for my film title are: The Path, Pista (which means track) and Thanato's Touch 

Drafting and planning (slight change in the plot)

when we presented our idea to the class it was pointed out to me that the idea of a group of friends going for a walk wasn't really a realistic idea as a few people said that nobody goes for walks for no reason. this means i had to think of a reason for my cast to go for a walk in the woods which was difficult as i had to make sure that it ended with the cast becoming lost and killed. My class kindly provided some ideas to why they went for the walk and they all involved the group going to explore something like a haunted section of the forest or an old murder scene from a few years ago but i really didn't like the concepts as too me it seemed very cliche and generic. it wasn't until my friend said maybe they are going to find something in the woods and then i thought it would be a good concept to have the group looking for their missing friend. the idea can easily be placed into my trailer and it is going to make my trailer have alot more depth and it will be reasonably longer because of it. i will need to think of a more suitable title for my trailer as i was thinking of calling it ManHunt as the group were hunted by a mad man but i don't think that this title will go with my idea as well as it would have before the introduction of the new plot line.
i will need to have one more cast member to play the missing person but i think i will only show the missing person walk through the tree line in the distance drawing the group off the path to find that the missing person wasn't really there. im going to cast a female at the role of the missing person as im going to play on the stereotype that women are in need of help and assistance as they arnt able to do it for them self.

Drafting and planning

this is the first part of my storyboard for my project. after researching a number of trailers i am confident that my shot types and transitions will make my trailer look realistic and not like a fan trailer. i know what i am going to do for the rest of my trailer but i am yet to draw the next section of the storyboard. in past  blog posts i have said that i dont want to use alot of dialog in my trailer but i have been forced to change my mind as i have changed my plot and to get the story across to the audience i will need to use a fair amount of dialog. my one worry is that the cameras wont be able to pick up the voices of my cast but if that is a real problem i will have to attempt to do voice overs so i will record the                                                                                           dialog separately to the filming which will be a                                                                                       hassle but if it makes the trailer look better it will                                                                                     have to be done. the eighth shot of my                                                                                                       storyboard is a point of view show which will                                                                                         have to be filmed with a tripod as i don't have the                                                                                     equipment to film a point of view the                                                                                                       conventional way but my idea is to extend the                                                                                         tripod legs so it is taller than my cast and angle                                                                                       the camera just over the shoulder of one of my                                                                                         cast members so i can get their point of view of                                                                                       them trying to comfort another person.

Research into similar products

this is the trailer for the upcoming film the forest staring Natalie Dormer. this film is quite similar to mine as they are both set in the woods where if you stray from the path bad things will happen. the difference between my film and this one is that the forest deals with the supernatural as ghosts and spirits haunt and kill the people who leave the path where as in my film when you become lost you are brutally killed by a unseen pysco. because my film closely relates to the forest i can get some ideas from the trailer.

to start with the costume of the protagonists. this is how i would like my protagonists as it is casual and i cant have my cast wearing shorts when filming as we will be filming in the winter months so they will freeze.
Another thing i can use in my trailer is the transitions from day to night used in the trailer at 1:15 - 1:17. i like this transition because it creates the illusion that the characters have been walking for a long time as they don't stop walking but the light level lowers dramatically                                                                                         which shows that they have been walking for a                                                                                         long enough time for it to go dark.

Research into similar products

this is the poster for Eden lake, a film that closely relates for my film idea. i really like this poster as it is quite dark and frames multiple people yet our focus is drawn mainly to only one person. this is done to add mystery and fear as we can quite clearly see the female on the left yet all of the other people in the shot have been darkened out so we cant see their faces or intentions this adds to the mystery and intimidation shown by the characters as their body language isn't representing them as friendly or cheerful. however what i like about this poster is how simple and effective it is as the poster doesn't give much away yet we can make a whole story by just looking at it, as we can see                                                                                         that she isn't wanting to be seen by the people in                                                                                     the background and because we cant see the                                                                                             faces of the people we know that they are going                                                                                       to do something bad if they find her

This is the poster for Alone in the dark and this is the poster that inspired my poster idea. although this poster doesn't use photography and is drawn i still think it should be studied. the thing i like about this poster is the way the villain on the left has been framed as you cant see him/her which adds to the mystery that it could be anyone and mix that with the low angle which shows the mystery, intimidation and fear.
another thing i like is the way the axe is shown in his hand as its covered in blood which shows that it hasn't been chopping wood and the way its being held as the villain looks to have a tight grip on the blood soaked weapon which gives us an indication of his future intentions.

Organisation (sound in the trailer)

in our film trailers we are given a limit of 15 seconds for copyrighted music so it is important that i use the right music for the 15 seconds. i currently have no plans of using any mainstream music that includes lyrics so i am looking into using instrumental versions of songs.

i want to use instrumental music because it gives the song and story a whole new meaning when you don't have someone talking over the music, as the song is about not giving up on someone you love but by taking the lyrics away it makes the audience give the song a new meaning and with the right shots behind it they will be able to make the connection. one of the instrumental songs ive looked at is the opening to the instrumental version of say something. if i was going to use this i would probably use it for the whole 15 seconds but i will need to check if i can use the song for longer than 15 seconds because the creator of the video has given permission for people to download the instrumental from his sound cloud account.
as i said in a previous blog post i plan to have a short phone call at the start of my trailer whilst the film indents and certification screen are being displayed. my plan is to play this song at the start of the trailer after the film indents and certification when the opening shot of the friends walking along the path. in my last blog post i talked about the idea of creating a reason why the group go for a walk and i think that if i use the idea that they are going to investigate if the woods are haunted then the music will go extremely well with the plot. my reasons behind this is because the song itself is already quite sad and having the repeated piano key gives it a creepy feel.