Web 2.0 

Rationale

To gain an understanding of how and why the internet is so important in making a professional product, we had to understand what the internet was. We looked into the programming of the internet and how previous products have utilised web 2.0's features.

Findings

Web 2.0 is the term given to the second generation of the world wide web. It is the technology that allows people to brows and communicate over the Internet. It refers to the transition from HTML, it is more dynamic and organized making it easier for people to brows and find what they are looking for easier on the Internet. Blogs, Wikis and web services are all components of Web 2.0. 

We used web 2.0 as a way to get feedback from our target audience, to do this we asked people within the ages 15-25 what they thought of certain fonts and what they expected to see in Horror film trailers etc. We did this make sure that we know what our target audience want to see in a Horror trailer and what they wouldn't like to see. This would help us to understand what kind of trailer to create and what not to involve to make sure it appeals to who we want it to appeal to. We did this via Facebook, twitter and other social networking sites. An example of this from twitter is:

We got many varied opinions on what different people wanted, we grouped together the different responses from twitter and Facebook etc. We did this to see what kind of stuff was more popular than others, doing this showed that our target audience were more interested in psychological horrors and 'creepy' music as the tweet above shows. As this was the main theme we created a psychological Horror so it would appeal to our target audience.

Another way we used web 2.0 was researching existing products such as trailers, Magazine covers and posters. To research into the trailers we used YouTube so we could watch existing products. We watched a variety of horror trailer such as 'The Cabin In The Woods', 'The Devil Inside', 'Insidious' etc. We did this so we could see what kind of shots and music were used so that we knew how to make sure it fit in with the horror genre.We noted down the main types of shots and sounds used and made sure to keep everything in mind when drawing out story board and searching for music and sound effects. We also used Google search engine to look at images to see what film magazine covers were like and what horror film posters were like, we gathered examples from Google images and analyzed them so that we had an idea as to how our print based stuff should look.

A

Props

Rationale
To acquire an understanding of what kind of props were used in Horror film trailers, we watched 2 different trailers and noted down the main 2 props that were used from each.

Findings
The most common:

• Bags
• Sat nav
• A journal
• Note/Sketch pad

To make sure that our horror film trailer matched professional trailers we incorporated some of these into our trailer, and to make ours unique we used some different props as well.

The first two props that we used in our trailer were the bags and the car. We used these as the characters are going on a camping trip, therefore giving the audience a good insight into what the characters were doing. The first few shots had them packing the bags into the car before they set off on their trip. This simply helps the film have an air of authenticity - if we didn't use bags as props, the audience wouldn't believe they're genuinely going on a camping trip.
We also used a car. If we had any selection of vehicle we'd have chosen a camper-van esque car to again develop the pieces authenticity. However, we could only use a normal car - although this is still believable as a group of teenagers would be unlikely to have a camper van.
The third main prop that we used was the sat nav, we got this idea from the trailer of 'The Cabin In The Woods' as one of the characters held the sat nav.  They stated that the place they were heading for didn't show up on the sat nav therefore giving the audience the feeling of worry as they will be going off the grid, hopefully making the audience feel on edge. The introduction of a common prop like a sat nav, gives the audience a point of references. They can relate to all the props in our piece which allows us to develop this sense that the characters are normal people. This also heightens the characters innocence - something we were originally going for.

The main prop that we used was a gold necklace. The point in which the necklace was introduced into the trailer is the turning point of the trailer, the necklace is found by one of the characters after this is when things begin to go wrong in the house. We decided to use a necklace as we do not know of a trailer which has used a necklace in this way, hopefully making our trailer unique to others. Using the necklace gave us a way to give the audience an idea as to what is happening to the characters and why. We have used it as a way to show that the character that has found the necklace and put it on that has been possessed by the spirit who owned the necklace and died in that house. As it is a psychological horror you don't see exactly what it is that is possessing the main character. Another prop that we used was a photo of a young girl, this is all you see of the woman that has possessed and messed with the characters. we only used one shot of this as we felt that it is all we needed and anymore shots of it would of been pointless as the point that it could be her was clear enough for a trailer, we didn't want to give too much away as trailers tend to keep the audience guessing and asking questions which would make them want to go and watch the film.

A

Shot types used throughout our trailer

Rationale

To create a realistic and professional horror trailer, we had to make sure that we used a range of shot types and angles to allow the trailer to flow. Therefore I have shown a few examples of the shot types we have used with images taken from our trailer itself.

 

Establishing Shots

We used two establishing shots throughout our trailer to allow the viewer to understand a change in location. Sometimes the viewer is guided in his understanding of the action. For example an exterior shot of a building at night followed by an interior shot of people talking implies that the conversation is taking place within that house at night, therefore without seeing the establishing shot location and seeing may be unknown.

 Long shot
We used a variety of long shots in our trailer to allow the viewer to not only see a character but also the setting.

Close up
Causes the viewer to focus on one specific area, this increases intensity and importance of the shot. Close ups are often used as cutaways from a distant shot to show detail of a specific object or character emotion e.g. necklace or eyes.

 Low Angle
We also used a range of angles such as low angle, we used this shot to create the 'paranormal villain  seem to be larger and more powerful than the vulnerable victim, this adds to the horror genre theme as it shows the clear power divide between villain and victim.

Over the shoulder shot

We used this shot a number of times throughout the trailer, as it is an effective way of allowing the viewer seeing who said the dialogue and the setting in front of the character, so therefore seeing what the character is seeing.

 

C

Editing our trailer

Rationale

After shooting our film and gathering sound and special effects to accompany scenes, we had to put them together in an authentic way. Here is a range of techniques that we used to edit our horror trailer such as jump cuts and transitions.

Jump Cuts
In the final sequence of our horror trailer, it features our 'possessed villain' walking towards the camera, we did this to try make the viewer feel 'on edge' and scared as it is like she is walking towards them. We decided to use jump cuts as it helps shock the viewer as the character 'jumps' towards them quickly and makes the character herself seem 'less human'. We ended this sequence on a close up of her eyes as makes the viewer feel watched and makes them feel apart of the trailer as she is 'looking at them'. These clips are once of the longest throughout the trailer which is used to create intensity and causes the viewer feel tense.

Fast-paced editing
Throughout the trailer, tension and action is increasing therefore as the trailer goes on the pace of it speeds up. Therefore towards the end of the trailer we have an extremely fast paced cut section where it goes from clip to clip within seconds, this is to increase tension, drama and urgency to the viewer and symbolise the fast pace known with horror films. These clips also aren't in chronological order and aren't related to one another, known as non-continuity editing.

Transition from locations and parts of film
During our trailer we go to many different locations, to take the viewers to different locations we used techniques such as titling and just basic cuts from setting to setting. The transition from the first house to the creepy house it accompanied by other changes such as music change, lighting change and mise-en-scene change (discussed more in other blogposts).

C

Editing

Rationale

After shooting our film and gathering sound and special effects to accompany scenes, we had to put them together in an authentic way. So to gain an understanding of how to make our film seamlessly flow and look professional, we had to analyse and break down existing products. We looked at Cabin in the Woods, Insidious and Paranormal Activity.

Findings

We looked at several different aspects of editing:

• Sound and image relationship.
• Transitions.
• Titling.

We used our favourite of the trailers, Cabin in the Woods:

Sound and image relationship

In all trailers, the relationship between sound and image is extremely important. The sound must compliment the image and add to the audiences experience, and visa versa. We found Cabin in the Woods to have the perfect image and sound relationship. 

 At the beginning of the trailer the scenes are light and have an air of excitement/happiness.

The scenes to the left are accompanied by happy and upbeat music. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YuSg4mts9E)

This upbeat start is done purposefully. It's designed to present a shift in dynamics. The start is happy so that contrasts can be drawn between emotions and sound.

Because the scenes are depicted as 'happy' the music must agree for the images to make sense. We need to get this balance in our film to make a professional piece. 

The scenes to the left are showing a complete shift in dynamics to the previous. They're longer, slower and darker shots. The mise-en-scene has changed to something more fitting for a horror piece. A long with this the sound has also changed. It's changed to a slower more intense piece that compliments the scenes to build up the audiences anticipation. A lot of screeching and sharp noises make up the music score. If the happy music continued then the dark and eery depiction would have less impact on the audience and the trailer would be unsuccessful. 

The titling to the left (which will later be reviewed) is accompained nicely by another sound effect. The loud screeching and bang as a climax is placed exactly when the wording or action occurs. This technique is very effective in putting the audience on edge - something we're aiming to do. The fact that the bang only leads to writing or a fairly regular scene keeps them guessing. We'll try and utilise this technique to make our product as professional as possible.

Transitions

Transitions are a very important aspect of horror trailers. The way that scenes link together is very important in building up the films overall style and 'fear-factor' for the audience. Different genres have different styles of transitions. We have found that horror films generally use 'straight cuts' where scene 'A' is directly followed by scene 'B.' This allows the trailer to build momentum and create an intense piece - this technique is perfect for what we're trying to achieve.
The other main transition is 'fade.' This includes a fade in or a fade out. This technique is often used at the slower part of the trailer - often the beginning. Fading allows two scenes, perhaps completely differently in style, to be joined. It can also cover and even present a time shift; sometimes from day to night. As we're aiming for a slightly slower start to our trailer, but a shift from day to night, this technique could be perfect. 

The images to the left show a jump cut in the trailer of 'Cabin in the Woods.' 

The scenes to the left show a dissolve transition in the 'Cabin in the Woods' trailer. 

Titling
Throughout all trailers, some sort of titling occurs. Often these include quotes, tag lines, film names and release information. This allows for information to be delivered to the audience while continuing the style of the trailer. 'Cabin in the Woods' uses this technique perfectly. They use 4/5 different titling yet introduce them with bangs or screeching - this keeps the audience guessing. The fonts are in cohesion with one another and the style of the film - the same goes for colouring. This is a technique we're going to try and utilise.

The screenshots to the left show the different titling at use in the 'Cabin in the Woods' trailer.












Uses
The three editing techniques we have analysed have all contributed to make a professional looking trailer. We'll try and utilise all three. The jump cuts and transitions are helpful in joining shots and the titling is helpful in presented the films information. As well as the image and audio relationship all three make for a brilliant trailer and we'll try and use every technique.

B

Finished product - film magazine cover

Textual Analysis of Magazine Covers

Rationale
To gain an understanding of how to achieve an authentic and professional looking magazine cover for our film , we had to look into existing magazines. We chose to analyse the most successful film magazine - 'Empire.' We looked at everything to do with the cover:

• Masthead
• P.O.A
• Font
• Titling
• Image
• Other features

We tried to analyse the horror publications they produced as they'll give us the best insight into making our horror publication as professional as possible. To show and map our findings we will use a mood-board format. This will allow us to quickly gather information and present it all in one place. 

Mood board study

Findings

We found many very helpful techniques that will allow our product to look 'shelf-worthy.'
Masthead - The masthead was always filled with the name of the magazine - in this case 'EMPIRE.' The name always began in the P.O.A (Primary optical area) and ended in the top right 'dead zone.' The titling was large and used the same font throughout all the publications - this technique allows the audience to create a connection with the product.

Main Image - The main image is almost always focused to the centre of the cover. Sometimes it's positioned slightly to the left or slightly to the right of centre. The image is large and covers around 2/3 of the page. The colouring of the image almost certainly determines what house style/colouring will be used. In the case of the 'Hellboy' cover; colours are generally white or red - some other colours are sparsely used.

Uses
Our findings are very helpful. We believe the consistency of colouring and fonts are very effective in creating an aesthetically pleasing product - so we'll try and use this technique. The large imagery and titling is also a technique we like and will try and re-create.

B

Conventions of our horror poster

Through conducting research on existing products we found there were 5 main similarities:

• 1 main image - darkish background
• colour scheme - black, red, white
• 1 main font - sell your soul
• Tagline - 2 short sentences, gripping, mysterious
• Release date

We then incorporated these five conventions into our own final product, however also challenged some conventions to make our product unique.

Images
We took a range of images varying from a close up of one of our actors faces, to shots of the woods to a close up of the necklace featured in the film. We then conducted a focus group where we showed all ten people these images and received their feedback, 8/10 preferred  the close up image of the hand holding the necklace due to it "fitting the horror genre" and it being "creepy and mysterious so makes you want to watch the film" but also liked the shots of the woods. Therefore we decided to use both images for our poster, use the hand as the focal point and the woods image as the background. This challenged the usual conventions of horror posters as our researched showed most posters featured a close up of the main character, however we didn't follow this due to our findings in market research/focus groups and the want to make our product unique.

Colour Scheme
After our findings from the market research we decided to stick with the trend of using red, black and white as the colour scheme as these colours represent the horror genre and allow the audience to easily identify the type of film we are portraying.

Font
We downloaded a range of fonts that we felt reflected the horror genre, such as Sell Your Soul, Bell MT and    Face Your Fears,these fonts were all quite simplistic but looked effective when placed onto a poster/magazine. We took these fonts and placed them onto a mock poster and showed them to the focus group, the group then unanimously agreed that Sell Your Soul was their favourite. Therefore we have used this font throughout our products to try and keep the font as a part of brand/product recognition.

Tagline
We found that most taglines were either one or two short sentences, that featured mysterious language which kept the reader guessing, which in turn makes them want to watch the film. We decided to go for 'You think you know the story. Think again' we used this as it makes the reader want to know more. We also incorporated these lines into our horror trailer itself.

C

Here is a copy of our final media product - the movie poster. 

Conventions of the Horror Genre

Rationale

To gain an understanding of what makes an authentic, professional and convincing horror trailer we'd have to undertake some research. 

We will research the following aspects of horror trailers:

• Clothing
• Make-up
• Lighting
• Framing
• Sound
• Mise-en-sene 
• Target Markets
• Naming
• Fonts

Our findings would not be definitive in creating our product. The conventions we find will not be seen as 'rules' to making a quality horror film trailer but, in-fact, will be seen as guidelines that we can challenge, develop and put our own 'twist' on. For example, we may not have conform to the way the characters dress in a common horror film - we can create and manipulate the aesthetics of our characters to fit our own imagery and ideas. 

B

Rationale

To make the sound in our trailer as professional and as creepy as possible we had to do some research into existing products. We looked at what different elements of sound were used in a horror trailer. We found several different aspects:

• Dialogue
• Music (main and underlying)
• Special Effects

Findings

Dialogue - In most horror trailers, we found that dialogue was kept to a minimum and, in some cases there was no dialogue at all. However, we focused largely on 'The Cabin in the Woods' as it has a similar theme to the trailer as our film does. Cabin in the Woods uses very little dialogue as a whole - the majority of the dialogue comes at the beginning of the trailer. This is something we're going to try and utilise as the microphones we have may be difficult to pick up quality sound. The Cabin in the Woods trailer uses small snippets of dialogue toward the end such as "we need to stick together". Again we're going to try and use this technique as little and quick dialogue can keep pace for our product.

Music - Throughout our study of music in a horror trailer we found that there's two main pieces - the beginning and the underlying. Again we looked at Cabin in the Woods, which showed an upbeat even happy song at the start; this music complimented the mood of the piece. However, as the scenes changed to a more creepy sense of style so did the music. Quiet, underlying and even harmonic tones created a sense of horror and even innocence. This is again a technique we'd like to exploit. Our piece involves a lot of loud bangs and scenes that try and surprise the viewer - the underlying tones add to this aim.

Special Effects -  All horror trailers use a lot of special effects from bangs to scratching to added dialogue. We tried to use all these effects. We've added sounds that escalate in noise quickly and produce a dramatic climax which will potentially heighten the impact of the following shots and scenes. Along with this we're planning on placing a heartbeat sound to compliment a certain run of shots with a character in a cellar. Our final use of sound comes through the added dialogue of a child's voice over the top of our film. Below is some of the audio clips we have used.

This video is a montage of the audio clips recorded to feature in our trailer. The recordings are of a young child, counting to 10 and singing a nursery rhymes. Throughout our research we found that audiences found young children featuring in horror films extremely creepy especially their young voices, therefore we decided to incorporate this into our trailer. 

C&B

Rationale
As part of our final product we had the task of creating a horror movie poster, we created this using our findings from existing movie posters and also challenged the conventions to try and create a unique product.

Creating the film trailer poster

Firstly I took two images, one of the woodland setting used in our trailer and secondly one of my little sister holding the necklace which is the key point in our trailer. The reason I used the woodland is because it is quite an eery setting used throughout horror films/trailers and also looks effective as a background. The reason I used a childs hand holding the necklace is because the small hand makes the image creepier and links with the child audio in the trailer and also holding the necklace as that is the key feature that turns the character in the trailer possessed. 

I then took the image of the hand and photo shopped it so that the image was purely of the hand, this allowed me to be able to copy it as a new layer onto the woodland image. I then positioned the hand into a chosen area on the woodland picture and used effects such as the smudge tool and the colour filter tool to make the hand look like it is 'coming out of the ground' and paler to make it look more 'dead'. I then edited the brightness/contrast to make the picture look creepier and darker. 

Finally, I installed two fonts (SteelTongs and Sell your soul) to use throughout the trailer, these fonts will be used throughout all 3 of our media tasks. I used these fonts to add the title of the film, name of actors/actresses, film slogan and film credits on the bottom.

C

Lighting and Framing Analysis

Rationale

Before we begin to shoot our horror film trailer, we had to understand what techniques are used to create a sense of fright - something vital to our piece. We have decided to research two key technical elements of shooting a horror film; this is lighting techniques and framing techniques. We have done research into why, how and what types of these are the most useful and successful in making a film that fits the horror genre.

Lighting

While we conducted our research we found a website (http://www.videomaker.com/article/15436) which gave us some insight into some techniques that can be used to create a convincing light. A lot of the time, we found that our dark shots were too dark - characters and scenery were completely lost. However, we found this technique called 'light and dark.' This technique allows us to film at any time in the day - light or dark. By turning down the cameras 'gain', a well lighted room can seem dim. This trick is commonly used in film production.

We found another technique which uses 'harsh light' that was in most horror trailers. The contrast between very dark framing and an extremely bright focus on an object or character creates a very creepy sense to the film. We utilised this technique to create such a sense. The image below shows the use of harsh lighting in a previously successful film.





Framing
As we undertook some research into the framing of horror films we found two main techniques that are successful in creating a 'scary' scene.
- Hot points.
Many of the horror films we have looked at use hot points in the shot to create a professional looking shot. The character, or the action in the scene (for example a door slamming) are never in the centre of the shot. This allows the audience to be surprised and shocked when something happens - the loud bang etc is never the focus of the scene. We shall utilise this technique, as our trailer is designed to make people jump and this is a very successful style to make this happen.
- Movement.
Movement, away from the focus of the scene is very important. Horror films, such as 'The Strangers' use this technique brilliantly. As the focus of the scene is the majority of the framing there's often spacing around the side of them. For example, in 'The Strangers' the character is sat scared and just to left hand side of the shot, slightly out of focus, there's a little bit of moving from the killer. The same is done with trees, shadows and darkness. This little bit of movement, only seen by the audience, places them in a position of power and knowledge - they know what could and probably will happen. We're going to try and use this technique in our trailer, as the idea of slow creepy scenes is what we're aiming to achieve.

Paranormal Activity
- One harsh light illuminates the focus of the shot; the rest is shadowed and dimly lit to create tension.
- This drops subtle shadows and allows for extra movement in the scene.
- The famous 'door slamming' scene uses varying framing techniques.
- It's a wide angle shot.
- The door is in the left hand hot-point.
- This means the door is not the apparent focus of attention.

Uses
From our findings we've chosen to use all of the techniques in some way shape or form. We like the harsh light technique - particularly when it's focused on a characters face. We like the way the light focuses the audience on the character and blacks out the rest of the image. A lot of our film is designed to make the audience jump and keep them in suspense. The 'hot-point' technique is perfect for this - a lot of the actions that make the audience jump is not the primary focus of the shot.

B