After Choosing the image we would use as our poster, using photoshop, I began to edit the brightness, colour and contrast of the photo to ensure it could be easily seen as the photo was taken in a dark location:
I then inserted the title/logo of our film into the top of the image, and added a Vignette to the title to make it blend in more with the poster:
I then added the details of the film, including the release date, tag line, who was involved in it and production crew. I used the same font on the tag line that was used in the screen caps in the trailer to ensure consistency. I also used a compact font for the production and crew details to be able to fit in all the information without taking up all of the poster:
Finally, using 'GreatPhotoPro', I edited the colour and brightness and applied various different colour effects to the poster to make all the text, logos and images 'blend' in more. This will make all the elements of the poster appear as a whole. The final result in seen below:
One of the most important bits of our trailer is the end, we subverted Todorov's Narrative Theory by starting in equilibrium and ending in disequilibrium. Therefore our final scene needed to grab and scare the audience, it needed to be unexpected. We decided on having Millie Mae scene as our final one. We had a 5.5 second long clip and were unsure whether to keep it long or cut it short, almost like a jump cut.
We edited the scene by changing it to a green filter making it look like it was in night vision, this was reinforced by using a torch when filming to add a two toned effect.
We inserted a blank text slide between a title slide and edited clip. We then made the screen black for 0.4 seconds to give the audience a sense of calm to think that the trailer had ended before the disequilibrium of the scream.
We also decided to divide the clip and mute the first half and placed a heavy breathing recording over it to create suspense as the camera moved jerkily around the room and then reached our villain.
We used the site wix.com to create our own teaser trailer website. It was simple to navigate and allowed us to be creative with our website.
Fig1
Due to the nature of Wix, the height and width of our website would vary on laptops and computers used by the viewer to combat this we decided to have the background a generic black and then add our time lapse on top of this. We ensured the time lapse was a smaller size so it would still be seen fully on whatever device the viewer was using. The black background was used to ensure the sight looked professional all the time.
Fig 2.
We also added active links to other pages on our website. We did this to ensure a professional exterior. We named the pages to give the impression that the teaser trailer was based on real events, so instead of having a page named "Gallery" for cast photos or posters we chose to call it "Evidence", similarly we named another page "News Clippings" instead of for example "Klinger in the News". This was following conventions of other films such as Amityville Horror.
Fig 3.
We also added our title "Klinger" as an image as we had downloaded and edited a specific font, this also helped to ensure our media texts were cohesive as a media package. We moved the title to the left of the page we did this as we wanted the main focus to be on the moving image of the Klinger factory we had as a background. We ensured the font was a dominant size so to be obvious to the audience it was linked to our trailer.
We had a number of different ideas for our poster but agreed it must include a shot of the factory or inside, one of the victims and a shot of the villain but making sure his face is not shown.
We narrowed down the photos we captured to 4 where 2 showed a silhouette/shadow of the villain and 2 others showed a hand:
These are the 4 photos unedited:
The 4 images all included a shot of the factory, the victim and a partial shot of the villain. The 2nd and 4th images however were shot in the day, which made the poster seem less scary and took away some of the conventions of a horror poster (dark, scary etc.)
The shot of the villain as well made him appear less threatening.
I then narrowed it down to 3 images, added the title and edited the image:
Sound: Using Youtube, We researched and deconstructed the sound in different trailers. We were influenced by the trailers of films such as 'Chernobyl Dairies' and 'Paranormal Activity 4'. Using Logic, I then began to construct the sound that would be used in our trailer. We used synthesisers and samplers including ES2, EXS24 and Ultrabeat to We still referred to different trailers and used them as guide tracks. We layered the different sounds and effects alongside the audio from the camera footage. We then processed and compressed the audio file to give it a professional sound. Once we mastered it, again using compressors...
...we inserted it into Final Cut Pro along side a muted copy of our trailer and exported it. Editing: We used Apple Macs and Final Cut Pro to edit our footage. Final Cut Pro allowed us to add effects to our footage. These effects could make our footage look older or appear as if they were filmed using Night Vision. Using GreatPhoto Pro, I edited the Hisrogram of the photo to create the effect:
Un edited
Edited
We used YouTube and various Websites to see how a night vision camera works and what picture they produce. Graphics: We used a typeface from 'MyFonts' called 'Seedy Motel'. We then edited the font on GreatPhotoPro. We heavily processed the font by tweaking with the histogram, adding different colour effects and vignettes. We added a vintage style effect and 'scratch' like surface to produce a 'weathered' effect:
We used the internet to research and deconstruct different posters. After looking at the conventions we began to create ours. After taking several pictures inside the factory, we settled on the photo we thought had the biggest impact. After editing the photo in GreatPhotoPro, again by editing the colours, adding colour effects and 'vintage' effects, we added the film title, tag line, release date and information on the production of the film.
We used 'WIX.com' to create the website. We used a time lapse shot of the factory as the background which we created using Final Cut Pro, uploaded it to YouTube and embedded it on our website.
We used to create a news report from the 80's. We researched retro news reports and designed a backdrop using iStudio Publisher that would suit our 'plot':
Using a BBC news report backdrop from the
1980’s, we applied the 80’s style background to a green screen behind our actress:
Using a BBC news report backdrop from the
1980’s, we applied the 80’s style background to a green screen behind our actress:
Research:
We used YouTube to research existing trailers and music. YouTube provided us with a vast amount of horror films which we could deconstruct to gain knowledge on the conventions of our genre. We used the internet to research posters and websites.
Survey Monkey was used to create a survey to gather information on what our audience want to see in a horror film. By asking them a series of questions, for example; 'What age would you prefer the victim to be?', we could incorporate the information into the trailer to create a trailer our audience wants to see.
To produce our media products (teaser trailer, poster and website), we had to consider the codes and conventions of the horror genre. We deconstructed a number of trailers, posters and websites to identify these codes and conventions and hence either follow and/or challenge them in our product. TEASER TRAILER
For our trailer, our location used forms and conventions from similar trailers of the same genre such as Chernobyl Diaries and Grave Encounters. When researching these films, we found out that both of these films had groups exploring around derelict/abandoned buildings which are haunted or contaminated. After some extensive location scouting, we decided on using the Klinger Factory in Sidcup which has been a derelict building for a number of years.
The mood and atmosphere within the factory (derelict, has an eerie and austere presence) allowed the audience to identify that the genre for our film was horror. We felt as though it followed the convention of genre because it was a large, vast environment which gave the characters more areas to explore and more places for the exploring to go wrong.
Another important convention of horror is the use of sound in the trailer. When deconstructing sound in horror trailers such as Paranormal Activity 4 and Chernobyl Diaries, we found that throughout both trailers, a mix of diegetic sound and sound effects were used to make the horror trailer seem realistic and relatable yet make the audience uncomfortable at certain points in the trailer. We applied this research to our trailer where we used diegetic sound such as voiceovers but used a number of sound effects such as screams and booms using synthesisers and compressors on logic to emphasis certain scenes in our trailer.
We also used a number of narrative theories to relate to our teaser trailer. We challenged Todorov’s Theory of starting and ending in equilibrium and subverting his theory with our trailer beginning in equilibrium and ending in disequilibrium. When researching trailers such as Hill Have Eyes and Session 9 we found out that a convention of horror is to end suddenly in disequilibrium to give the audience a shock. We also looked at Syd Field’s three act plot structure. Due to our coursework being a teaser trailer, we only used two of the three acts (setup and confrontation) and not the third (resolution) to not give away too much of plot to the audience. This is similar with Freytag’s dramatic structure where he divides his act in five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Our trailer did not reach a resolution and concentrated more on the first four parts instead with the exposition of the Klinger factory, the rising action throughout the film of the exploration of the factory, the falling action of a scene of silence with one of the characters being terrified and the climax with the fast paced shots of the characters towards the end of the trailer.
POSTER
When researching for our poster, we saw in posters such as Quarantine and Children Of Men that there was only one victim on the poster and so we followed this convention in our poster where there is only a victim in a cold dark basement. We then see a light shown on the victim to show the contrasts between good and evil (binary opposition) which is a convention in horror.
We also used a big and bold typography for our poster. We researched other films such as Orphan and Amityville Horror, they both used classic or clinical colours of their genre and then had a twist on their typeface to relate to the plot of the film.
We then found different typefaces such as "Masterplan" and "Scorched Earth" that would be suitable for our trailer, poster and website and agreed on "Seedy Motel" because the erosion of the font looked similar to the abandoned factory and the stripes that run across the letters also reminded us of the blinds and the symbolisation of being trapped in the factory.
However, the colours used for our typography and poster subverted the normal conventional colours and even modern clinical colours used in horror films. We used a rusty brown to show the erosion in our typeface and a mix of brown and black in the poster to relate to our location in our trailer.
We also researched a number of taglines when trying to create our own. In the posters we researched, we found that the tagline was all in one line and not separated around the poster. Here, we decided to subvert this where the first part of our tagline "They thought they were alone..." is above the victim and the second part "they weren't." is in the middle towards the right-hand side. This would then make the audience look longer than half a second at the poster (the normal time for someone looking at a film poster in general).
WEBSITE
For our website, we decided to challenge the normal conventions of a website and use our time lapse as a moving background instead of a plain background or picture because it showed the factory in all its entirety and again related it back to the teaser trailer. We also decided to challenge the conventions of colours used for
our genre with the brown used in our typography but used clinical colours of
horror such as the blue sky of the location of the factory in the time lapse
and white text/links in the website.
However, we followed other conventions of a website to make the website look like it is easily navigable and user friendly, we had the links to different pages, reviews to our film, our production companies and social networking links. We also had our trailer playing automatically on our homepage which meant the audience already had access to our trailer without them having to find it.
3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We created a questionnaire using SurveyMonkey to ask one hundred people about our teaser trailer to gage opinion on certain aspects of what the audience expects.
The first question we asked was to find out what gender the audience would prefer the news reporter to be. This was so we could decide whether to follow the conventions of what the audience suggested or subvert them. In the time when this clip would be set there were more male news reporters than female as depicted in the post, so we were inclined to have a male reporter. However out of the 100 surveyed 66 said they would prefer a female news reporter subverting the conventions of the time. Therefore we went with those surveyed and used a female actress to be our news reporter.
Our female newsreporter.
The type of genre our teaser trailer would be means that if we followed convention, either the whole film would be shot in hand held or a mixture of hand held and tri-pod shots. As this type of style of film is relatively modern , inspired by The Blair Witch Project (1999), we asked those surveyed whether they would want the trailer to be shot in hand held.
Question number 2.
The answer was split almost evenly so we decided to film the majority of our teaser trailer in hand held to give the point of view of the actors, similar to the clip shown below from Blair Witch, and then to break it up we had tripod shots to create a sense of stillness.
A major issue we discovered when planning our teaser trailer was how much of the villains/monsters to show. The other teaser trailers or theatrical trailers we used for research seemed to vary in whether they had villains in masks and also whether the audience saw the villain straight away, never or just fleetingly at the end. As a group we were undecided how to proceed on this issue so created a question on our survey to see what the audience would prefer. To keep the villain hidden until the end would create enigma and suspense throughout the teaser trailer but to show it at the beginning may lead to an anti-climax. We first asked whether they would want to see the villains face or for them to be hidden for example by wearing a mask. The majority of those surveyed said they would not want to see the villains face. Therefore based on this result we decided to only show the villain briefly on two separate occasion creating suspense and enigma for the audience, securing this idea further we went to ask whether the audience would prefer our teaser trailer to focus on the victims, villains or a mixture of both.
The two scenes where our villians are shown
This was split 50/50 between focus on the victims and fair amount of both. Whilst taking into consideration these results we decided to focus on the victims leading on to their terror as they realise they aren’t alone. This ensured the audience could sense the disequilibrium but didn’t know what they were afraid of necessarily till the final few seconds.
Question number 3.
Another question we asked to those surveyed was whether they would expect to see a majority of male or female victims. Convention dictates normally victims are young females and as a group we were unsure whether we wanted to subvert or conform to this convention. We therefore also asked how old the audience expected our victims to be. The majority of those asked said they would expect our victims to be aged between 17-20 years old this conforms to conventions already set. We subsequently decided to choose actors from this age bracket as actors were easier to find but also it follows a natural convention set by horror films.
Our young actors aged between 17 and 18.
Linking on from this we decided based on result to our survey to have a majority of female victims; we had three female victims and one male victim. This was due to the fact the plot of our teaser trailer involved a group of young teenagers going in to an abandoned factory.
