Target audience feedback of final trailer production

Location pictures

Filming the scene where Sam researches about the Museum.

Problems and successes whilst shooting our production

• Time of day/out door shooting: Defined the quality of the shot with regards to lighting, which we had to plan carefully.
• Continuity: We started filming in the Winter, realising some footage was missing, or we decided another scene was necessary and re-shooting in Spring entering summer.
• Time management: Shooting at times when people within my group were present. Which was not always the case. Taking too long on certain scenes, to then not choose them in our final production.
• Uploading footage: Was a success, because we used an external hard drive, ensuring our files would not get lost and is there as a back-up.
• Range of shots: Enabling us to cut out ones which we did not prefer.
• Working as a group: Difficult at times when we all possessed different ideas, making it hard to decide on particular scene, leading to audience feedback- so it turned out to be a positive factor.

Storyboard of Final trailer production with analysis on my specialist area: Director.

Representation of characters in our production

The Ring (2002) The Fire Inside (2011)

This was a difficult shot to portray, as we wanted it to be dark, but it was not clear enough. To settle for a daytime shot was still effective, though because then we could incorporate the shot of Sam writing in her diary.

Sorrority Row (2009) The Fire Inside (2011)

Jennifer's Body (2009) The Fire Inside (2011)

Narrative structure of similar trailers and formulating a structure of our trailer

To come up with ideas for what we would shoot, it was necessary to break down the trailers for 'Twilight' and 'Jennifer's Body', our similar media texts:

Target audience research/Questionnaire for Storyline and Magazine Cover ideas

First, our team formulated ideas of what we might need to consider our target audience would like to see and what appeals to them most, before production:

Then we created a questionnaire:

Two of two focus film trailer/Carrie (1999).

One of two focus film trailers/Analysis - 'Jennifer's Body' (2009)

Group discussions

Working individually

And in class as a group.

Final story idea chosen.

Looking back on the story idea we produced earlier, our group decided to make some changes:

Seventeen year old Sam is in the process of moving house. Once she moves to her new home, she decides to have a gathering with friends. Things get out of control and they start playing loud music. Sam gets uncomfortable and moves away into another room, where she finds a guy [quiet/loner], who fills the silence by telling her a story, which she does not think anything of at first, but he sends her into a trance. He flicks his lighter and hypnotizes her and the chilling descriptions that wake her up in the middle of the night, are those that have been with him since he can remember.

This curse gets out of hand when Sam goes to school the following day, as little things bother her straight away and later we see major differences in her behaviour. Sam uncontrollably starts a cult, by hypnotizing two of her new friends. They perform vicious attacks to their high school enemies, and her boyfriend begins to worry for her. He manages to research about the mysterious hypnotist and finds out where he lives. They decide to go to his home address, but Sam gets too violent, to the extent that she ends up killing him and her boyfriend. Although the curse breaks, police find her and she is placed in a mental care home, as she starts to tell stories of how she is innocent and became the way she did.

Story idea chosen.

Out of the group's nine ideas, we decided to go with what story would look best as a trailer. We spent time agonising over the fact that some stories were better than others, realising that maybe some would look more appealing and suitable to be made into trailers.

The story we have chosen is Hamndeep's third storyline idea out of these three.

A teen girl attends a party, where she meets gaze with a mysterious man, sitting on the other side of the room in the dark. Without realising it, she is hypnotized by his stare and is unaware that he is an evil man trying to change/possess her. The young girl becomes possessed by a devil, begins to self-harm and has the ability to make people join her cult of evil-doings.

A class discussion made us think about how we should end our film, although it is solely a trailer we should produce. Our peers pointed out the idea that we should follow Tzvetan Todorov's theory, so as to show a balanced story, unlike Alexandre Aja's 'The Hills Have Eyes' (2006) and Iain Softley's 'The Skeleton Key' (2005).

Our group then made the point that a trailer does not necessarily reveal an ending, as well as the fact that a type of ending determines a sequel, therefore it could end either way.

Best ideas of the group.

My idea:

A story of boy meets girl- with problems! She's the most popular girl in school, but has never had a relationship. Rumours decide thats she's not an option as there's an 'evil' side to her. A boy finally has the chance, but she takes complete control over him, changing his behaviour, to suit her needs- the possessive girlfriend is real!

Hamndeep's idea:

A teen girl attends a party, where she meets gaze with a mysterious man, sitting on the other side of the room in the dark. Without realising it, she is hypnotized by his stare and is unaware that he is an evil man trying to change/possess her. The young girl becomes possessed by a devil, begins to self-harm and has the ability to make people join her cult of evil-doings.

Amrita's idea:

A group of high school friends play an urban legend prank on a fellow student they dislike such as the ‘Bloody Mary legend’. The prank ends badly causing the student to commit suicide our of sheer terror. The student then haunts the high school group of friends, trying to convince them to think its ‘Bloody Mary’. She/he plays a series of different urban legend tricks, resulting in the deaths of each of them. Once the fellow student gets their revenge they move on to haunting every high school student who plays an urban legend prank.

Individual story ideas.

Storyline 1:

A group of teens go on a four-day holiday camping trip to a 'forbidden' and mysterious, rumoured-to-be-haunted/cursed forest for the summer and plan to get high and party, not realising the danger of what extreme highs they would face and the fact that the rumours are true. One member of the group goes missing, but instead of finding them and making an escape, they face problems of their own. Strange happenings ensue, figures in the distance, shadows at night, and although they try to run away, they get closer and closer.

Storyline 2:

A troubled young teenage girl has struggled all her life to adjust to mirrors, with the fear that they will shatter if she looks into one, after numerous dreams and counselling when it was at it's worse stage (when she was younger). After moving house, she realises how her fear is a curse inside her, from an entity that has been trying to get her to this place all along. This entity possesses her to commit dark deeds/murders. (The idea that spirits travel through mirrors in the house).

Storyline 3:

A story of boy meets girl- with problems! She's the most popular girl in school, but has never had a relationship. Rumours decide thats she's not an option as there's an 'evil' side to her. A boy finally has the chance, but she takes complete control over him, changing his behaviour, to suit her needs- the possessive girlfriend is real!

Deciding on the genre type/'A Nightmare On Elm Street' (2010) - Trailer Analysis

After brainstorming as a group, we came to the conclusion of making a trailer that fits the teen supernatural horror genre, as a result we decided to analyse a trailer most suitable and similar.

The 2010 version of 'A Nightmare On Elm Street', directed by Samuel Bayer, whose work I became aware of through his contribution to music videos [at first Green Day's "American Idiot"music video(s)] came to mind. Bayer's modern take of the 1984 horror, shows a distinctive difference to accommodate young, modern audiences.

The trailer begins with dark, lifeless establishing shots with smoke and thunder-like music, suggesting that something is coming. Panting of a person running away from a noisy car driving awkwardly and fast, creates an uneasy mood 18 seconds into the trailer. The subtle transition of Kreuger running fast and then in slow motion, slows down the chase and gives the effect that I have seen occurrent in most horror trailers, where there is fast-paced action and often a montage of shots, then quiet or slow footage before a shot that shocks the audience.

Uncanny in the Inception (2010) trailer towards the very end, I noticed the sound to be repetitive 'thud' noises, getting faster, frightens the audience by making them involved in the action. It could be perceived, that they have played with the idea that the sound of a heartbeat suggests life whereas the heartbeat sound, in the trailer, getting faster suggests terror, as opposed to the safety aspect that it is supposed to represent. I would like to bring in these techniques during the editing stages of our trailer using SFX, so that it has a similar, yet unique effect on the audience.

Looking at the titles/credit sequences, I have an idea of how we need to merge them in cleverly, so that it is fluent and maybe use the titles as a cue which hides action, and so keeps to the suspense in the trailer. On an editing note, I notice how some frames are just a black screen, which plays as a tool to scare the audience and has the effect of them not knowing the full story, so engaging more interest. The background sound of a child singing gives the trailer a sinister feel to it, and it shows that the story of Kreuger has always been true, bringing the audience out of reality and into the fictional story.

The tagline for the film at the end ("Don't fall asleep") sounds more like a warning, but is memorable and frightening. I hope to use a similar idea in our trailer, as it is one of the last things you see before it ends.