'Obsession' The Finished Trailer

Horror Film Poster

Horror mood board

Initial Film Idea

Our initial idea for our horror trailer that we have decided to pursue is the idea of someone becoming obsessed with a piece of jewellery that we later find out has actual possessed them with some form of demon. The plot of this film begins with transitions between a calm opening scenes and a man who looks troubled and unsteady stumbling up towards a pier with a necklace/pendant in his hand. He throws the pendant into the ocean that he is standing in front of as if it has been troubling him and causing him grief, we see the pendant sink into the ocean and then the man collapses to the ground. We then see one of the main characters pick up the necklace from the beach, it is then that they go back too the house and things take a turn for the worst. There is then sequences of bad events where the character who finds the necklace has been possessed by the obsession of the necklace and has become evil and twisted. We then will bring the final girl theory into it as one of the main girls – Alex – is the survivor of the villains evil rage.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The beginning of my work was all about the research and planning. The research into horror film trailers and how they are created and constructed was a very important part of the task as a whole, a lot of the work that I collected for this was type-based, this meant that Microsoft word was very helpful to me when it came to writing and storing my work safely. The internet was my main source of gaining the information I needed in this part of my work, two websites that I found myself using a lot more than any others were Youtube and Wikipedia. Youtube was useful for watching other trailers to analyse and learn more about the genre conventions you can expect to see in a horror trailer. Wikipedia was helpful for learning more about horror films in general and gaining more knowledge about particular films, particular horror characters and the history of horror. To plan my work I had to create questionnaires to hand out to people to know what it is my audience would want to see, to collect these results into an organised and easy to read group I put them onto a graph using Microsoft Excel. When it came to construction for my ancillary products my main use of media technology was Photoshop, where I edited images and created posters and magazine covers to suit my particular idea and genre. To obtain these images I used a digital camera within a studio, from which I then put onto the computer to begin my poster and magazine cover. To obtain fonts that would be considered ‘Horror Fonts’ I used a website called ‘DaFonts’, I then copied the image of these fonts and edited and changed them on Photoshop. The construction of my main product – the horror trailer – began by filming all of our work on a HDR video camera. The work we had was then put onto our designated MacBook where we then used Premier Pro to organise all of separate shots and start putting them into trailer order on the timeline, this program also allowed us to cut scenes, slow them down, speed them up and also edit the actual image of the shot to add special effects. In this stage of construction I also used some sound effect websites, for example: Sounddogs’ and ‘stonewashed’. For the Evaluation stages of my coursework I have used this site, Blogger. Blogger has allowed me to collectively review and evaluate my own work as I have put it all together in an organised way making it easy for me to look at all of it together. Despite using Blogger in the AS year of this course, I feel this year it was a lot more useful too me and I have learnt lots of new skills in how to upload things too it including videos and pictures. I felt it was a very professional way to over-view all of my work to be able to critically analyse all of it.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I got a fair share of strengths and weaknesses which I all thought were fair comments after reviewing my trailer myself. One of the main downfalls of my trailer was the sounds used, as when presented one ‘eerie’ sound effect in particular was very distorted compared to what we were used to hearing, this made the sound odd and overwhelming as it was too loud compared to the rest of the sounds and the pace of the music does not pick up or quicken towards the ending of the trailer. This factor then meant that some of the speech used within the trailer was not audible. Another fault was that the trailer itself took a bit too long to build up and starts to create the feeling of fear and start having horror denotations. The fact that it took too long then made it lack the feeling of suspense and surprise and the ending then didn’t pick up the pace enough to create a shocking, unexpected ending. A lot of the shots we used got very good responses, for example the flashback shots where it had been edited to look grainy and blurred was said to look very effective for its purpose. We also had very good responses about the shots where Aaron is picking up the necklace on the beach, the window shot where Aaron is watching the two other characters, the bloody hand shot and the opening draws shot. The blood on the hands was also commented on saying it was a very good horror effect. Our wide variation of shots used was another thing that people said made our trailer good, mainly the opening shots of our trailer. We also used a lot of different camera angles that people appreciated and had plenty of good establishing shots. Despite some of our sound effects being a downfall in our trailer, there were also some that the audience said were very fitting and had a good effect on the trailer overall, for example the clock ticking when on the clock shot and then also again at the end of the trailer.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When put all together my main product and two ancillary texts make a very good promotional package. I have continued the idea of the film and the villain over to every text so that they are all intertextual to one-another. I have used the same face of the villain in all of my final products and have also continued the themes within my film idea throughout each product. My film idea was all about a necklace that would possess someone with a ‘demon-like’ character, making them very obsessive and violent towards the people that mean the most too them. This character, despite being someone the other characters once knew and loved, becomes an object of fear and violence. A trailer is used to promote and preview a movie, giving the audience a feel for its plot and also making them aware of what people are starring in the movie (unique selling point). Trailers are used to make people aware of what is to come and produce ‘hype’ for the film by using fitting, exciting scenes to its genre and adding memorable moments to ensure it is not easily forgotten. A posters purpose is to further advertise the movie and be placed in particular locations where it will be taken notice of and a magazine cover would promote the film to a certain fan base, which when planned out properly would contain a large amount of this films target audience. Within my 3 products I have repeated the idea of ‘obsession’ over this necklace that turned an average character into a villain/monster. I have continued using the same fear-striking face for my villain so that the representation of my villain is repeated and the audience don’t get confused.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After looking at lots of trailers and researching into them and their conventions a lot it was clear to me what kind of aspects you needed to include in a trailer for it to be good and successful for its purpose – to attract its audience. Each trailer I looked at had a series of soft, non-scary scenes at the beginning, this is a convention that we used within our trailer as the ideology behind doing is it to set the scenes for the story and give the story a real-life effect. During our soft story setting scenes we decided to include some flash backs from a dark and dull scene that creates suspense, this is a part of our trailer that does not conform to the usual trailer conventions and challenges them, as we go from dark and sullen back to normal and happy. Doing so is quite risky as the audience for horror films are used to the way in which trailers are revealed to them and could go against this one due to it challenging these conventions. When trailers then go from the soft scenes to the build-up of bad events the transition between shots get progressively quicker, this is to build up to a big scary finale. This is also a very quick way of letting the audience know that something isn’t right and things are going to start going wrong. Within these quick transitions there are a lot of jumpy shots that are put here to get the audiences heart racing before the final shot. There is a wide variation of shots used, the two close up shots used to familiarise ourselves with the villain come towards the beginning of the trailer and then again at the end (these shots being the one of him on the beach after finding the necklace and at the end when he is popping out of the basement). Despite this not being a very conventional trait for all horror trailers, for our kind of trailer it makes a lot more sense as the ‘villain’ begins normal and begins to change as the story goes on. Throughout our trailer we use blacked out screen with text on to start telling people about the film and to build suspense by speaking to the audience directly. The title of the film and the date that it is released is conventionally left until the very end of the trailer as this means it is the last thing the audience will see, allowing it to stick in their mind for a much longer time. If the title and date was at the start the trailer by the time it finished people would barely be able to remember it.

Horror Movie Magazine Cover

History of a Horror Character

Stephen Kings - IT The character reffered to as 'It' is an unknown monster preys on Derry's children every three decades. Among Its powers is shape shifting into a form that induces fear while killing the victim, normally assuming the form of a fanged clown and calling itself "Pennywise the Dancing Clown", The Evil Clown who was designed after Bozo, Clarabell and Ronald McDonald. The fact that the shape it most commonly forms is the clown like figure leads the audience to believe that the killer is super-human. There was no sequel too this film which means the character has not evolved from the first film.

Magazine Cover Analysis 3

The Role of the Production Company

A production company provides the basis for all of the physical work withing realms such as performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio and video. A production company is responsible for the raising of money for the production or getting a grant for the production from a parent or partner company.They are responsible for the scheduling, budgeting, scripting, getting talented cast, getting resources, organising staff and creating the actual production and everything that comes with it. Such as: Post production, distribution and marketing. Production companies are more often than not owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company or a Motion Picture Company, who will act as the parent or partner company. Despite this they can also be mainstream independent or completely independent.

Magazine Cover Analysis 2

Magazine Cover Analysis 1

Woman in Black - Full film analysis

The Woman in Black is a 2012 British horror film directed by James Watkins and written by Jane Goldman, and is based on Susan Hill's novel of the same name. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. This film is one that does not start conventionally considering it is not a sequel from another film; it starts with what appears to be a soft narrative scene of 3 young girls in pretty dresses playing with dolls in what the audience presumes is a nursery. The 3 girls then stare at each other, then towards a blank empty wall, this is where the scene starts to build suspense as the audience is unaware of what is going to happen. Without saying a word to each other the stand up, hold hands and make their way towards the window, where they open it and jump out. There is then a moment of silence, to emphasise the shock of the event, followed by a scream, presumably from whoever found them. The film then makes a transition back to softer scenes again after confusing the audience with a violent opening. We then cut to the main character of the film Arthur Kipps, a lawyer, being given a stern talking too by his boss. It’s then cut to a shot of Arthur saying goodbye to his son, Joseph, who hands him a picture he had drawn of himself, his father and his mother in the form of an angel in the sky. Arthur asks his son why he looks so sad in the picture and Joseph replies ‘you just are’. To gain background information on Arthur and his family we see flashbacks of his sons birth during his train journey. In these flash backs we discover that Arthurs wife – Josephs mother – dies whilst giving birth to Joseph. When Arthur reaches the town he had to travel to for work we instantly see things take a dark and eerie tone. He stays in the attic of the local inn, a room which we are already familiar with from the start of the film where the 3 girls kill themselves, immediately foreboding something bad happening. Despite some being during the day, the scenes all appear very dark and run down, adding to the tense, suspense building effect. When Arthur first travels to the mansion in which he has to do his work he is told he has to stay there later than planned due to the tide, almost immediately after entering the house Arthur is startled by some ravens and then looks out of a window seeing a dark human like shadow across the garden, connoting that he is being watched or followed. When he looks out once again there is no one there, so he goes out to investigate. A sequence of quick transitions create the feeling that something bad is going to happen, but it is only the taxi driver coming to pick him up. It is when Arthur goes to the police station to attempt to report what he thinks is trespassing on the mansion that bad events begin to happen. When he is told that no one would trespass onto the mansion, 3 young children burst into the police station, one of which is very sick and appears to be dying. Before Arthur could even begin to help the young girl dies in his arms. Back at the lodge that evening the lodgers wife has a fit and has to be sedated, and her husband tells Arthur that there are many superstitions in the town. When Arthur comes across a girl who is imprisoned in a room who tells him to ‘leave her alone as he killed Victoria’ – the girl who died in his arms – we become aware that the towns superstitions towards the mansion which Arthur is investigating are very extreme. The next time Arthur returns to the mansion he decides to stay the night, which immediately leads the audience to believe that something bad will happen. It is later that evening that Arthur finds a box with the name ‘Nathaniel Drablow’ written on it – which we later discover is the woman in blacks son’s name. Arthur shortly sees the woman in blacks dark eyes which startles him. While he is looking through documents and photos a dark shadow passes over and the dog he has been lent starts to bark and follow the shadow, so Arthur does the same and is taken to the tombstone of Nathaniel. The shot then looks back towards the house and in one of the top windows Arthur sees the woman in black stood there briefly, so he hurries up to the room to investigate but finds nothing there. When he looks out of the window himself we see her face flash up over his shoulder, he does not see her himself but he feels an eerie presence. After more investigating through documents he discovers that the woman in black is a lady called Jennet and her son is Nathaniel, who she had to give up due to being ‘mentally unfit’. He then discovers that all of the marsh surrounding the mansion is where Nathaniel died, and his body was never found. When Arthur falls asleep that evening we see quick transitions of the dark figure getting closer and closer to him, but luckily the dog starts barking and the ghostly figure is scared off. Arthur then goes to try and open a room that has always been locked but finds it wide open, with a rocking chair in that appears to be moving itself, for a split second the audience can see the woman in black rocking herself in the chair. Underneath loose wallpaper Arthur finds writing in blood spelling out ‘YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM’ which the audience presume the woman in black wrote, talking about her son who died. Then outside he sees the faces of many children who have died due to the woman in blacks curse. Hastily Arthur runs back into the main part of the mansion, but then the shots speed up and he gets chased by the woman and black and encloses himself in a room, but her son then rises up from the bed. He manages to leave the mansion and finds Bentley, the man who has come to pick him up. On his journey home he comes across another suspicious and coincidental event, a local man. Jerome’s, house is on fire and the daughter is nowhere to be seen. In an attempt to help Arthur runs into the house and then sees the young girl being prompted by the Woman In Black, she then sets herself on fire without a wince. It is then that Bentley decides to inform Arthur of the story of the woman in black, how she makes herself present in young children, forcing them to kill themselves in spite of her own son being lost. Arthur and Bentley decide that to end the woman in blacks spiteful mourning they have to find the body of Nathaniel and reunite him with his mother, which is exactly what they did. A series of scary and tense events happen as the woman in black discovers what they have done, setting the audience on edge, and after the burial of Nathaniel with his mother it appears that she still can’t forgive. Days later Bentley takes Arthur to the train station where he is reunited with his son and the nurse who is taking care of him, while the nurse goes to get train tickets home Arthur and Bentley talk and Joseph lets go of his grip to his father’s hand. Arthur then sees the woman in black in train station and his eyes dart to his son, who is now on the train track, in attempt to save him he leaps onto the train track himself, covering his son. Bentley sees the faces of all the dead children on the train and through the gaps of the wagon he sees the woman in blacks figure. The scene fades up from white and Arthur and Joseph are still gripping tightly to each other, only now they are in a completely empty train station. This shot is very misleading for the audience, as at first we presume that they had managed to avoid the train and they were alive, but we soon realise that the emptiness and calmness of the scene is too good to be true. Stella, Arthurs deceased wife, welcomes them and hand in hand they walk along the train track.

Mirrors Trailer Analysis

The film of this trailer that I am looking at is called ‘Mirrors’, it was released in 2008 and was directed by Alexandre Aja. The trailer starts conventionally, with soft day time scenes of a family altogether in their home. It then cuts to scenes of the father/husband of the family leaving a car and walking outside then into what looks like an abandoned building. There is a voice over from the film in this bit where we hear the father figure and another man who we presume is a police/detective talking about the building. We hear the other man say ‘the company wants us to patrol the premises every couple of hours’ and then later tells the main male character that the person who was working in this building was obsessed with the mirrors, making the audience question why and become curious and on edge. The scenes are then divided by a two logos from film companies/distributors and when it fades back into the film footage it is very dark and eerie and we straight away lead towards faster transitions and bad things happening. There is minimum amount of speech for about 25seconds as the man is just calling things out to whatever is in this building with him, and there is the sound over of screaming and crying which instantly connotes bad things to the audience. At the end of these 25 seconds there a black screen with texts comes up saying ‘The director of The Hills Have Eyes’, a unique selling point for this particular trailer as the film that they have mentioned was very popular and well-known, especially by people who are particularly interested in horrors. We then hear the lead male say ‘I need you to run a name for me’ whilst on the phone, we then see 4 fast clips, the first two being articles about the man whose name he’s going to run and the 3rd one is a long shot of the man and the 4th is a closer up shot of his face and shoulders. The next short scene we see is the man sobbing saying ‘I don’t want to die’ and in the next few shots we see how he dies and how it was his reflection that kills him. We then cut back to a scene with the main male and his wife in their home and he tells her he’s ‘seeing things’ it then does more quick transitions between shots showing some of the things he has seen, and then his voice over saying ‘bad things’. We then enter a longer scene once again, which is quite unconventional as once the transitions between scenes has become quick it tends to stay that way until the final shot. Within this shot we see the main characters wife walk into a room in which their sin seems to be talking to himself, but the woman then realises his reflection is not resembling her son as it is not following his movements. This is the realisation for someone other than the main character that there is something seriously wrong, and the young child doesn’t realise as he is naïve to and unaware of the strangeness and seriousness of the situation. We then get another series of quick transitions that start to get faster and faster, these scenes seem to match up and make sense even though within the film they may not even be close to each other. Sometimes trailers do this to make the audience think something has happened for a certain reason when it hasn’t, thus creating a false sense of fear and inquisitiveness towards what is going on, then if they then watch the film some events will become even more of a shock to them. After the quick transitions we then get the title of the film about 15 seconds before the end of the trailer, this is so that the name sticks in the audiences head for longer. The final scenes after the title of the film lead to two scenes after one another that create the jumpy tension that is conventional for horror film trailers, as if the final scare will hook you into wanting to watch it even more. To end it we then get a release date, to ensure that this also sticks into the audiences head.