Evaluation

Drafting and planning + Research into similar products - Ending

To End the trailer i am going to have a coming soon sign to show to the viewers that they wont have to wait long to see this film. When constructing this end sign, it is important that the: Font, colour, size and duration is perfect so people still feel spooked after seeing the trailer. If one of these elements is off then people could feel that it is just silly and ruins the trailer. In order to find what i am after, i need to do research into other products to see what they have done. This is the Insidious trailer ending.

I felt this was Quite good, however it seemed a bit too plain for my liking.
This is the Jessabelle trailer ending

I feel this is prefect and gave me a great inspiration for the ending. I intend to have a picture of the back ground and slowly have Lucifer and Coming soon fading in.

Research and development - Annapurna

As i am using Annapurna as my distributor for my film, it is vital that i get an understanding of the type of distributor they are. Recently Annapurna has helped distribute some very high quality films such as: Zero dark thirty, Killing them softly, Lawless and American hustle. They are even involved in the distribution of the Fox catcher coming in 2015.

When i was looking on the Annapurna website. I looked on there about section and found a statement from them which i felt made them the perfect distributor for my film. The quote was "Annapurna Pictures is a film production and finance company founded with the goal of creating sophisticated, high-quality films that might otherwise be deemed risky by contemporary Hollywood studios. The company, which many consider to be a one-stop shop for filmmakers, has provided the industry with a critical boost of mature, adult dramas in recent years."  This gave me great confidence that Annapurna was the right choice for my film and that using this distribution company would give the film the leap forward it needs.

Furthermore, my magazine is going to be made by Little white lies. Lots of Annapurna films have had articles made about them by little white lies with films such as Lawless and the Master taking the main front cover. This gave me further confidence that the choice i made was right as it builds a sense of continuity throughout my film trailer and magazine.

Drafting and planning - film indents

To start my film trailer off, I am going to have a indent at the beginning which will show the company who is most likely to distribute my magazine. As my film is relatively indie and doesn't follow main stream horror movie conventions, i cant use big corporations and distributors such as: Universal, Columbia or Warner bros. Instead i am going for more discrete companies who specialise in this specific area. There are several distributors i could choose, One of which being studio canal.

This studio canal indent is very good. However, i do not feel it suits the overall genre of my film as it looks very classy and has a more calm/gentle feel to it almost as if it should be starting off a documentary, thus meaning i wont be using it throughout my film. It is important i find a film indent with a darker feel to it.

This Lions gate after dark indent is very good. I feel it captures the darkness of my film trailer and looks aesthetically pleasing. However, i feel it looks to bold and is too short to last throughout the phone call so i wont be using this one.

This film indent is from Annapurna, this film trailer captures the darkness of my film trailer with its extra terrestrial feel to it and is long enough to last through the phone call of my film trailer. This is the indent i will be using in my film trailer as i can easily manipulate it to fit my requirements.

research and development - starting phone call

To start my film trailer off I am going to have a phone call between one of the victims and the police. On you tube I have found a resource called the sound effect factory which provides me with videos of everyday sounds which I could combine with my film trailer to create a chilling effect. The video below is what I will use when Lucifer hangs up the phone after stating 'They are all dead'.

This next one will be the scream when the victim gets dragged away.

This will be the one when Lucifer is laughing.

At the start when the phone is ringing, I will use this video below: This will create a very realistic effect as when people use there mobile phones, this is what they hear.

Drafting and planning - effects on film poster image

As previously stated I am adding an effect called brief encounter onto the image. However there is a lot of wide space around the image creating negative space. What I have decided to do is by using shapes on page plus X6 I have made black square as the background, I removed the excess parts of the image in a circular way and put inner blur on the picture. This created an black effect around the image which made it seem as if the darkness was closing I around Lucifer. This picture is shown below.

Research and development - Tracking shot development

I personally felt my original tracking shot was decent. However, i didn't feel it suited the intensity i wanted to capture. In my film, i wanted to express a more dramatic sense of fear than having Lucifer slowly approaching the victim. On Movie plus X6, i edited the play speed under General which sped up the film creating a more dramatic effect. An example of this is shown below.

This was 3 times the original speed and I felt that this was sped up a little bit to much. I felt this high speed reduced the quality of movement as it looked a bit too fake. so slowed it down to find the right balance which is shown below.

I felt this was a lot better as it looks as if Lucifer is rushing, but the victim is still unaware. Furthermore it hasn't damaged the quality of the clip which is an essential factor which makes it the clip i will use in my film trailer. 

Drafting and planning - Tracking shot

During my film trailer there will be a POV shot of Lucifer moving towards the victim with his hand coming out. During this shot i will edit it so just before his hand lands on the shoulder, it will go into blackness. This could symbolise the victims death, or it could mean something unexpected leaving the viewer in suspense. This is shown below

Drafting and planning + development - Music

As stated earlier in my blog, i am going to use tubular bells and sad horror music - a family tragedy in my film trailer. After further development i have decided to use this slender man soundtrack in my film trailer as the low drums add a sense tension in the film trailer. this is shown  in the link below. Slender man ambient drums. 

After combining all three types of music together, it didn't sound to well.This was because the volume for the family tragedy was too loud so i decided to turn down the volume of this shown below on the parameters being below negative.

 I then decided to slow down the tubular bells music and this combined with the slender man ambient drums and family tragedy music created a really good chilling effect. which is shown below. This is the music i am going to use in my film trailer.

Drafting and planning - Flashing camera scene

In my film Trailer, one key scene is when Lucifer walks up to camera with flashes of light on him. I originally thought that instead of having to use extrinsic flashes of lighting, i could use flashing picture of him getting closer to the camera shown below.

I felt this effect did not work properly and i couldn't make the effect any better. Instead i decided to record Lucifer walking towards the camera with flashes of light on him which is shown below.

I felt this was a lot better that the original but still required lots of editing onto the process. Below is one of my final drafts as i have slowed down the video, added music and created an effect that gives it a scary horror feel to it.

drafting and planning - effects used on film poster

On my film poster, the background image will contain several effects that will be used to manipulate the colour and shadow of the poster creating a dark sinister effect. The image below is a draft of some effects that I could potentially use on my film poster.

This effect is called red devil and manipulates the image expressing elements of red on the image. considering red symbolises death, I felt it didn't suit the overall theme so it wont be used.

This is another potential effect I could use which is radio active this effect adds a very dark shadowy effect onto the image which is exactly want I want for the theme. However it adds too much blue and green onto the picture and it is key there is some form of colour in there.

The effect I will use in the picture is shown below. This effect is called brief encounter and I feel this is perfect for the theme of my film.

research and development - character roles

Throughout my cast there will be various different characters who will all bring a different element into the film. The ideal cast for me is a cast that people can relate to and makes the audience feel as if they are very similar. By doing this is will make the audience feel that if this scenario has happened to the actors then it could easily happen to them creating a chilling/scary feeling. For this to work, my cast needs to cover a range of ethnicity and genders.

The main types of characters are:

Typical leading male - This type of character will the typical sporty male who is generally tall and well built, he will almost seem arrogant and overly confident to impress the female in the film.

'Girly girl' - This character will be a typical girly female who cares far too much for her looks and clothes, the other characters will take the mick out her for this.

Stoner geek - This character will generally be the nerdy/geeky weirdo who smokes too much weed and is generally quite strange. However, he will be quite smart and the one who is clever enough to survive.

signature hero - This character will seem the quite reserved lad, but will eventually turn out to be the bravest of them all, driving the killer away so some of his friends can survive. This will make the audience strive to be this type of character.

Person from different ethnicity to white - This will extend the audience range and can be normally referred to as the 'Signature black guy'.

Quite reserved girl - This quiet reserved girl will be very different from the girly girl as she will be more into books and less about looks. The girly girl will try to enforce her ways onto this character.


These types of characters are typical in horror movies. however, as previously stated, i do not want my movie to become another typical horror movie that people will forget about after they have watched it the first time. For this reason, i am going to have a cast that is more relate-able to the audience. I am going to have a bunch of teenage lads thus meaning i am going to have more than one typical leading male. I will also have someone from a different ethnicity to attract a wider audience and one girl who is somewhere between the quite reserved girl and the girly girl.

Organisation - idea for start of film trailer with script

To start my film trailer off, i am going to have a phone call between one of the victims and the police. Within this conversation the woman victim will be sounding extremely scared about the killer coming after them. Halfway through the conversation she will get dragged away screaming and shouting and the police officer will sound very confused and scared, then Lucifer will pick up the phone and say very deeply 'They are all dead'. After this the phone will hang up and the music will slowly fade in.

The script of the conversation:

Phone rings:
Police officer: 911 whats your emergency?
Victim: There all dead (crying voice)
Police officer: Sorry, please say that again.
Victim: Please help me
Police officer: Okay M'am, please tell us your location.
Victim: He's found me, noo (screaming)
Police officer: M'am?
Police officer: Are you okay?
Victim: shuffling on phone
Police officer: Excuse me? M'am
Lucifer: They are all dead (Psychopathic laughing)
Phone cuts out.

drafting and planning - Camera spiralling up on dead body

Another key scene throughout my film trailer will be when the camera spirals up on the dead body on the ground, the persons body will be unclear as they will be face down on the floor. whilst it is spiralling up the tubular bells playing in the headphones will become more clearer and then the action phase of the trailer will begin. here is an example of the scene.

drafting and planning / research and developement - music

On the 20/1/2015 I created a post saying about how I was going to have the killer approaching the camera with flashes of light as he approaches. As each individual flash of light happens I am going to add a bang on a drum and then when he finally attacks the camera I am going to add a scream of a woman expressing how Lucifer has taken a victim. I feel this extrinsic sound will add to the tension and create an effect of fear.

Drafting and planning - cutting out of awards on film poster

One key feature on my film poster is the awards listed on the bottom. when constructing my film poster I came across a slight problem which could be very costly to the authenticity of my film poster. the white background contrasted heavily against the darkness of the image creating a problem shown below.

This was overcome by cropping the background out on page plus, however the magic wand tool on page plus left behind very slight white parts of the background. To overcome that problem, I decided to add an effect called outline which blended in the white parts of the image into the outline solving my problem.

Research and development - more footage

research and development - Footage for trailer

This is some of the footage I will use throughout my film trailer. This will require a lot of editing to make this suit the theme of my film with cropping the starts and editing the sound to remove any laughing. Furthermore if i was to slow the video down, it will add to the suspense of the film. 

drafting and planning - flashing camera

After doing some research I found that making the camera flash and having a scary picture pop up is very effective in frightening the audience. The above clip shows a man looking into a camera a seeing a man pop up which frightens him. (at 2.10)
In my film trailer I intend to create something very similar to this but instead of having the man pop up, im going to have him starting far away and having him rapidly closing in almost expressing how he is moving to attack the camera. here is a draft of my creation

Drafting and planning - Cropped headphone scene brought together

This is the headphone scenes brought together with the unnecessary parts cropped out. I feel when it has been slowed down and with music playing in the background, it will be a essential part to the film trailer.

research and development - teaser trailer analysis

For my film trailer I will be making a teaser trailer. the main differences between a teaser trailer and a full theatrical trailer is that a teaser trailer is only a minute or 1.5 minutes long so doesn't express much about the film. instead of showing incredible amounts of the film, I will be showing little parts to create a sense of mystery and thus enticing the audience into seeing the film. Furthermore, I personally feel that if the audience is shown too much of the trailer then they wont both seeing the film at all.

drafting and planning - Headphone scene

One of the key clips throughout my film trailer will be a scene in which the headphones of one of the victims falls to the floor in slow motion covered in blood, almost hinting at the fact that one of the people have been killed. here are some of the drafts.

This draft was good but as I felt the clip was too dark and required more lighting, I reedited the clip placing more lighting on the headphones.

This clip felt a lot better and once this clip has slow motion editing attached with dramatic music in the background, then the clip will be very effective. I also created another video which shows the headphones covered in fake blood dropping from a higher level. I intend to combine these 2 clips together in slow motion to create a suspenseful effect.

drafting and planning - effects used on film magazine

During the construction phase of my film magazine, i put various effects onto the picture to generate different effects. One effect i found was the brief encounter effect which gave the image a dark mysterious look to it which is shown below.













Another effect i found was radioactive, this gave the image a blue/green tint to the picture which i thought was quite nice, however either though it gave it an extraterrestrial look, it wasn't suited tot he theme i wanted. this was shown below

After further searching i found the effect i desired which was 'Gettysburg' and this created a orange theme to the picture. At first i thought it didn't suit the theme but the story line was the main villain died in a fire so the orange theme actually flowed with the picture. This also created a dark shadowy effect over the main villain which is exactly what i wanted. This is shown below.

Organisation - costumes wore by victims

Throughout my film trailer it is essential that the victims express a sense of normality. By having just normal clothing it shows how the victims don't expect what is about to happen and how there deaths came unexpectedly. Furthermore, by wearing clothes that normal average people wear, it allows the audience something to relate to making them feel that if that horrific incident happened to them then it could happen to us creating a scarier effect.

organisation - lighting used for film poster picture

During the photo shoot for my film poster i used extrinsic lighting on one side of his face to create a show behind the main actor, this show will be manipulated into he shape of a devil almost to show how the darkness symbolized by the shadows is creeping up on him. Here are some previews of the pictures taken. These picture are only draft ideas of what i intend for my film poster put the shadows provides a good idea of the objective i am trying to achieve.

Drafting and planning - props/costume of Lucifer

The props my killer will wear are: Black leather gloves, Black hoodie/Jumper to hide the scars he has from the burns and a knife. This is very simplistic but the items are so simple they create a effect of darkness and by having them mostly black it creates a colour connotation of death.