Final Plan.

We all put our final ideas together and came up with our final plan for our trailer that we can film in our found destinations.

This is our Final Plan.

Rough plot

We made a rough plot so that we had something to base our final plan on.

PLOT.

Where: Classroom, plantation, house no.1, house no.2.
When: To be decided
Who: Rosie, Charlotte, Mathew and Amy
What: - home video/found footage
          - Road trip
          - Camping
          - Everything goes wrong
This was a really rough plot but it meant that we had a basis for a trailer. After making this rough plan, we all went away and put our own separate plans together so that we could make one final plan, a storyboard and a script based on that plot.

Destinations.

In order for us to do a horror trailer, we decided that we would need to film in places that either were or looked scary. We thought that if we went to places that were dark and abandoned then our reaction shots for the trailer would be more realistic because we would actually feel a little unnerved by the place.
We made a list of all the words that we thought would make up a good destination to film and once we had done this, we decided that we would go out and look for places that fitted more than one of the below:

Dark                                             Scary                                         Empty                                                    Abandoned                                   Messy                                        Smelly

Old                                               Neglected                                   Gross

Overgrown                                    Prohibited

We then went out with our list in mind and looked for these places.
We found, abandoned houses, plantations, dark lanes, caves, old barns, unused rooms and glens.
Out of all these places, we chose to use 3 of them: St Marks Plantation, Empty room (Matt's house) and an abandoned house.

We chose to use this plantation as one of our destinations because we needed a forest setting for the camping trip in the trailer and we couldn't find any forests on the isle of man. The plantation has trees and an open space where we can set up a tent so we thought it could work. It's also quite dark in there during the day so we're going to film there in the daytime and if it doesn't come out dark enough on the camera, we can use our editing skills to make it look like it is night time in the finished trailer.

  We found this abandoned house by chance when we were on our way back to our media class. It's completely empty of furniture apart from a wooden chair and it's filthy. There's old newspapers, milk cartons and a filthy bath in there. We thought that we could use this as the place that we find as someone wanders off in the 'forest'. Our plot is that this house is haunted by a girl who was abandoned herself and now she haunts the house and anyone who enters it. This plot won't be too obvious to the audience in the trailer though so it'll make them want to watch the whole film.

One of our group members, Matt has an old house that isn't used for anything other than storage. It's quite old and rustic so we thought we could use the two upstairs room to film in. These rooms will be in place of the upstairs of the abandoned house. One of these rooms are quite big and spacious which is good because it means we have more room to play around with when we are practising the 'supernatural' things, eg - smashing cups, pulling chairs across the room. The other room is quite small like the ones in the abandoned house so we plan to use this one to stand in as if its in the other house and the larger room to pull things into when they move (chair etc). The stairs leading upto these rooms are also quite loud and make an echoing sound so we thought we would use these in our trailer as sound effects.

Web-page research.

I researched different horror movie sites to see what their web-pages looked like.


http://www.paranormal-activity-movie.co.uk/ - You can see it has a fancy preloader whilst the site is loading, Then straight into a big trailer of the movie and then it gives you the option to visit another site. I think that it is a really good idea to have a link out to Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter , info about the film etc which this site does on the bottom right hand corner. It also has the age certification in the bottom right hand corner. I think this web-page works because all the colours match the theme and feel of the trailer and all the extra bits like the words 'DON'T GO ALONE' make the target audience go and watch it even though they know it will scare them becuse the target audience for this film is 14-15 year olds and typically when teenagers that age are told not to do something, they will, therefore going and watching this movie.


http://www.insidious-movie.com/ - This web-page is slightly different to paranormal activity in the way that it has more 'pop-ups', for example the 'spectral sightings'. I personally don't think this site is as good as paranormal activity's site because I think the bright blue and red colours distract from the actual film and make it seem less scary as a whole. This site does however, have some similarities to the above one. It also has links to social networking sites and it also tells you the age certificate.These are two things that are most likely to come up on any movie web-page so I need to make sure I have them on mine when I make it.

Poster research.

A poster is one of the two options I have chosen to do along side my horror trailer so I researched same genre trailers that have posters to get some idea of what mine should look like.

Insidious was made by the same people who made paranormal activity and Saw. From looking at this poster, I can see that the background is quite grey, grainy and cloudy. The fact that we can see clouds tells us that the weather isn't too good which gives us the impression that 'a storm is coming', either with the actual weather or that something dangerous is going to happen in the film which probably will considering its a horror genre. I think this poster works because with the boy being the focal point, it makes you wonder whats wrong with him or what happens to him and the caption underneath the boy reads 'it's not the house that's haunted' so it makes you intrigued as to what is haunted and what trouble its causing.

The film Piranha doesn't come under the same sub-genre as insidious or paranormal activity but its a horror film nonetheless. The piranha's underneath the girl are obviously what the film is about if the title doesn't give it away enough. They are shown swimming with their mouths wide open showing their teeth which indicates to us as the audience that they are going to eat something  or probably someone in the film.
I'm not too sure if this poster works because nothing on it grabs my attention or makes me wonder what will happen because it is obvious.
That's why I've chosen to do a paranormal trailer because it won't be as obvious to people which will make them want to watch it more to find out what will happen.


When researching different posters, I noticed that they all have writing on the bottom. These are institutional details. They tell you who made it, who produced it, who funded it etc.
On my poster, I'll put these because it will make my poster conventional so that it looks like a real trailer. If I didn't put them on, I would risk my poster not looking believable. I also need to think of a slogan to put on my poster because the majority of film posters have slogan's like the two above that I have researched.

Group work.

The majority of people in our media class have decided to do the same brief that I'm doing so we thought it would make sense if we worked in groups of 3-4 people because it would make the editing and producing of the trailer easier and if we all work together then we're bound to be more reliable because we're all working towards the same thing as opposed to friends helping out who could easily cancel because it won't be that important to them.


We're all doing separate research and planning our own ideas and then we're going to put all our ideas together and come up with a script for our horror trailer in a couple of weeks.

Our Group.

Matt

Charlotte

Amy

Rosie (me)

Trailer research.

Paranormal activity.


This is the main film that I will probably take most inspiration from for my trailer ideas.
Below are the links to Paranormal activity 1, 2 and 3. I've watched all 3 and every time, I find them scary because its the unexpected.

Paranormal Activity 1.

Paranormal Activity 2.

Paranormal Activity 3.

 

I really like these trailers because although you don't actually see any monsters or animals, they're probably more scary than other trailers where you do. I like the fact that they make you think because you can't see whats causing them all the problems but you want to know.
I think these trailers work because they have an element of surprise. You're constantly on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. Unlike normal movie trailers, in these, there is no music. Music usually causes a sense of excitement but these trailers are completely silent. In my opinion, this is done purposely because they're meant to be 'home filmed' by the people in them and music wouldn't be played then. This makes it more real for the watcher. The trailers are scary enought that they don't need music.


Fetile Ground.


I'd never heard of this trailer until I found it but I really like the storyline.
I like the whole concept of the house being haunted by this man. It's different to paranormal activity in the way that you actually see the man but only a flash of him which makes you want to watch the rest of the film because you want to find out how this mysterious man is linked to the house.
I like the idea of someone or something haunting the house and scaring the people who have moved into it. I also like the fact that its a new house. I think I may try to re-create a few of these ideas in my trailer.

Fertile Ground.

I think this trailer works because it has an element of surprise in it which makes you want to watch the actual film. The majority of the trailer is in quite dark lighting which creates a more scary atmosphere for the watcher. The beginning of the trailer shows the couple having dinner with the family celebrating them buying this new house. Throughout the trailer, this mood deteriorates which is typical of a scary movie but we don't get to see the ending so we don't know how it turns out which makes us want to watch it more, therefore, the trailer has its desired effect.

BBFC

Because my trailer will be a horror trailer, I thought it would be a good idea to research what sort of certification my movie would receive if I were to actually produce the film. Knowing the certification that horror movies get will also help me know my target audience so I know what sort of age range I'm aiming my trailer at.


All classification decisions are based on the BBFC’s published and regularly updated Guidelines. The Guidelines are the product of extensive public consultation, research and the accumulated experience of the BBFC over many years.

The BBFC endeavours to classify submitted works in one of the following categories:

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.


The film 'paranormal activity' is a 15 and seeing as I am basing my trailer on supernatural and paranormal happenings, I think this would be the certificate that my trailer would get as long as I make sure that I stick to the guidlines fully otherwise if my film were to be made, it would be rejected as a 15.

Horror sub-genres.

I was interested to know whether there was different types of horror movies or if they all came under one specific genre. I got all my research off Wiki.

From researching this, I now know that there are different types of horror movies. There's:

Slasher horror -

type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. Although the term "slasher" may be used as a generic term for any horror movie involving graphic acts of murder, the slasher as a genre has its own set of characteristics which set it apart from related genres like the splatter film.

Stalker horror (often overlaps with Slasher horror)  

Psychological horror/Suspense - a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot. Psychological horror is different from the type of horror found in "splatter films"' which derive their effects from gore and violence, and from the sub-genre of horror-of-personality, in which the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until well into the work, or even at the very end.

Paranormal horror - is a genre of filmmaking,  in which all or a substantial part of a film is presented as discovered film or video recordings, often left behind by missing or dead protagonists. The events onscreen are seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, who often speaks offscreen. Filming may be done by the actors themselves as they recite their lines, and shaky camerawork is often employed for realism. While the genre dates back at least as far as 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, it was popularised after the release of such films as The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007) and Cloverfield (2008).

Torture horror - watching the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.

Splatter horror - hearing the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively, for example, a body or someone's bones.

Science Fiction - Sci-fi horror films are a sub-genre of science fiction and horror films, often revolving around subjects that include but are not limited to alien invasions, mad scientists, and/or experiments gone wrong.

Vampire horror - Usually involves and shows a vampire sucking a 'mortal's' blood in order for them to survive. Usually involves a twist, eg, vampire being next door neighbour. The first few vampire horrors involved the typical 'Dracula character', with pale skin and who couldn't go out in the light.

I think for my movie trailer, I will do a paranormal horror genre because it means i can be more flexible with my ideas.

Horror

My chosen genre is Horror.
I have chosen this genre because I think horror movies are generally more interesting than any other genres and they are the films that I watch the most.
I think making a horror movie will be a lot more fun than making an action movie for example. If I chose to make an action movie, it probably wouldn't be possible because I don't have the right type of equipment to make the trailer any good, like explosions for example or a stunt man.
It also wouldn't be practical to attempt a romantic comedy because I would need a male and female who are willing to act 'in love'. I don't want to do a rom com because most of the films of that genre are predictable and all end the same way whereas in horror, you never know how its going to end.
In my opinion, horror movies are more exciting to watch because they keep you on 'the edge of your seat' because you don't know whats going to happen and it makes it more unexpected.

Movie genres

I researched different types of movie genres to decide which one I wanted to use.

Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases. They occasionally have a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds such as, life-threatening situations, an evil villain, and/or being chased in several ways of transportation (car, bus, truck, etc), with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence. Story and character development are generally secondary to explosions, fist fights, gunplay and car chases.

Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily". Another definition states that its "primary distinguishing feature is a love plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled".

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with the thriller genre.

These are the three main genres that I am most interested in because I think they would be the most fun to make and research.