Thursday 9 December 2010

Editing

The editing is still at work, we hope to finish our first draft by Saturday, therefore allowing us to further improve our work with Mrs. Blacks help after she has seen the trailer. I had realised that in our interrogation filming there was too many background noises that were distorted. This means that we have to re film those scenes, which may slow down our editing process. We have already started to re film the scenes. After we finish our first draft we are also thinking of making a video documentary, which will explain where we got our ideas for the trailer, interview with the characters, why we chose the locations that we did and so on.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Blog Updates

Our blog will be updated very soon, at the moment we are concentrating on editing our footage and we are also planning to do a little documentary of the making of the trailer. This will take us a while and we will upload everything everything on the blog when we finished the edited trailer and the making of. This will not be the final edited trailer but it'll be the first try of editig, maybe we won't change much, we're going to find out later.


Written by Henri Yueksel
Candidate Number 4450

Friday 3 December 2010

Editing

The group had finally completed all the filming and now we are starting to edit our shots.
The programs that we are using to create the poster/magazine cover and title of the film is Photoshop CS2 and for the editing we will be using Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0

Photoshop CS2





















Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0






















Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Recent Activity.

Recently we haven't been updating the blog so much as we have been spending most of out class and free time finishing the final bits of filming that we have missed or that we had to go back and re-shoot. We have also started our editing or film, which has started coming together well. During the class time we went back to the area where we were filming to begin with and also found a new suitable location. As the story line changed quite dramatically this also ment that a lot of our shots had to be re done. This time we made sure we had as many different angles of the shots, so that when it came time to edit, we had a lot to work with and we could try lots of different things.

The main thing about the editing has been trying to fit all the suitable shots together. As we filmed at 2/3 different locations its important that the trailer looks flowing and doesn't have any random jumps to a sudden different place too dramatically- it needs to make sense.

We have also had to spend quite a lot of time shortening the clip as some of them are a bit long, we don't want the trailer to become uninteresting or boring at any point.

For the next 2 weeks coming up to the end of term we will still be carrying on now with the editing. We would like to finish it a little before the deadline so that if there is anything we don't particularly like or thing can be changes, we can go back and change it.

By Sonia Routledge

Thursday 25 November 2010

New Storyline

Due to some mistakes we made, we decided to change the storyline and came up with a very good story and we already started filming/editing the footage that we took.

The new storyline will be starring Henri Yueksel (Narrator/Main Character) and Sultan MacKinnon that will be playing a dead man that has been killed by the Main Character.

New Story:

Henri is a young adult aged 19, his life was pretty normal until the day his sister got murdered in a forest by a drunk man. Henri's parents died a few years ago, the only thing that he had left was his sister but she got killed recently after a big rave she attended near a little forest. The court did let the man free because he was heavily drunk and he couldn't control himself, so they sentenced him to 5 years in a medical institution to get rid of his alcohol problems.
Henri couldn' take the pressure because of that unfair judgement and had to be sent to an aslylum after trying to kill the judge in the court day.
After he got released from the asylum, he went to the forest where his sister got killed and started to live there and stop every person from passing this place. The ones that entered the forest wouldn't get out again...
After this the police arrested Henri for murder, even though they had no proof they interrogated him and he told the police his story and what happened in the forest...

Written by Henri Yueksel
Candidate Number 4450

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Re-Planning

Changes
Due to a few changes in the storyline we will be re filming some of the footage as we thought the filming was boring. There will be change in location shots maybe actors/actresses. The trailer may be more mature and intelligent as the story has changed. As a result this may not only attract young teenagers, but also older generations of people. This is a positive change as we are trying to maximise our capacity utilisation.

Mistakes
We realised that the filming was quite boring. We were unsure how to illustrate our story in the trailer, therefore we decided that we will re film our footage for a few reasons such as the changes in the story line (that will be posted by Henri Yueksel). Also our group did not use the tripod very effectively therefore making the footage groggy and unprofessional. When we were filming we did not use the key conventions of filming such as close up shots, pan, low/high angle shots and tracking shots. We decided that the film would be much more appealing to people if it was more realistic as it is a teenage horror/thriller based genre.

We will try and learn form our mistakes and include all of the above shots and conventions.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Second Day of Filming

Today we went up to a little forest close to the field where the young man (me) was running away from something. We couldn't take a loot of footage due the weather condition. It was a bit too sunny and the grass was frozen, so that we could see quite a big difference between the first filming and the one we did today. Even though we didn't get a lot of footage, we realised that the sun actually made a better picture while filming in a right angle so that we could use the sun as a natural light, even though we hadn't had the foil they use in professional movies to light specific areas, for example a person.
Our conclusion was that we're going to try and reshoot some of the scenes of the first filming we did in this kind of weather we had today, sunny and a bit cloudy and frozen ground. I think this might be better weather condition for filming. We'll have to try different types of filming including filming methods and we'll need as well a lot of good footage.

Written by Henri Yueksel
Candidate Number 4450

Sunday 14 November 2010

Beginning of Filming

On Friday we started to being the filming of our trailer. the weather was good as it was both over cast and windy. This is the sirt of weather we are looking to film in as it sets the mood of our film. The place where we dicided to start our filming was on our school campus in one of the more "darker" areas. We used dead dogs wood to film the walking of the girl (myself). I was carrying books to give the impression that I was walking back from school along a woodland path. We got various different shots and angles and took lots of footage so that we had many clips to edit. We also filmed the chase of Henri (male actor) through one of the stubble fields which also involved a lot of different shots from different angles. As we didnt have a huge amount of time, we didnt manage to get a huge amount of footage, however have got enough to begin editing the beginning of our trailer. We need to make sure that the next time e film the weather is similar to how it was on Friday so that the clips match and work together.
Obviously we have had to look at the weather forcast as you can see on the below posts to see when will be appropriate to film.
  Some of the next pieces of footage will need to be filmed later in the afternoon as we will begin to need a little darker light for some of the shots. This means that our filming will now need to take place outside of class time after lessons.

By Sonia Routledge

Thursday 11 November 2010

Importance of Weather Condition

Sultan already posted the Weather conditions for the next few days, we are going to have the perfect weather tomorrow, so we'll be able to start filming. The weather is very important because of the lighting and other characteristics of weather that affect a piece of film. We'll need gray, possibly rainy weather to create the atmosphere that we want, the problem would be if there's not enough light, the picture will come over quite boring and will not have the specific effect on the audience, the feeling of the picture.

Today we started filming in the weather we thought was ideal, but we realized a bit of sun would have perfected the picture. Unfortunately we cannot change the weather so we'll have to try and shoot in different weather conditions and see which is the best.


Written by Henri Yueksel
Candidate Number 4450

Weather Conditions for Filming

Our group have decided that we are going to start filming tomorrow. We have checked the weather for the rest of the week.




As you can see the weather for Friday and Saturday is rainy, therefore this is perfect for our trailer as the genre is teenage horror/thriller. The advantage of this is that it really brings out an the atmosphere in the trailer.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Tuesday 9 November 2010

The Beginning of Our Film

We spent the lesson today looking at the voice recording and the voice over we are going to use in our trailer. We used the storyboard to decide what was appropriate conversation for each shot and wrote out what we wanted to say. Henri was doing the voice over whereas myself and Sultan were speaking as the actors and continuing with random conversation. We had to make sure that we were recording in a quiet area and that there were no background noices going on whilst we were recording. We decided to use the Cumming house mixed come where it was quiet and undisruptive.

We didnt manage to finish all of the recording today and need to make sure that we know exactly what we're going to be doing next lesson. We managed to get upto image 3 on the storyboard but need to look into what other conversation is going to be intwined through the trailer. We will make sure we know what is going to be said for next lesson so that we can finish it relatively quickly. 

By Sonia Routlege 

The Actor(s) and Actresses We are Using for our Trailer

For our Trailer as a group we decided to choose people within our classroom. It would be less risky and it would allow our filming to be more flexible, as we could use them anytime throughout the lesson. At the end we decided to actually choose the actors/actresses from our shs-media group as it would be  much easier and as a result we all know what we are aiming for and what are potential targets could be. However we lack of one actor who is the the male couple that plays the part with Sonia Routlage. We hope to find this actor soon. We decided that the stalker will be represented through the camera (point of view of the stalker character).


Henri Yueksel (Injured Man/Narrator)





















Sonia Routlage (Female character of the couple)





















Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Friday 5 November 2010

Audience and Film Analysis

We already did one audience analysis, but personally I really do not agree with the UK Tribes page, it a too vague, stereotypical classification of the youth now a days. I even did the UK Tribes test and apparently I am a scene kid, what is not true at all. My character is very specific like everyone elses character. Even though there might be youth groups in today's society you cannot count on adress these groups, you have to adress the interests of the people. It is way more difficult to attract an audience for a certain movie, for the highest success you need money, that's all about it now a days. But that does not mean that the movie is going to be good, it is just going to attract a very big audience. A good example for that is the movie "Avatar", one of the most expensive movie ever made and as well one of the most seen. Personally I thought the movie was average and I haven't even seen the whole movie because I always fell asleep close to the ending. No one really talks about this movie anymore and I don't think a lot of people are going to watch it on dvd more than once.
My theory is, if you want to attract a great number of audience withiout having a big budget, you have to adress the audience in a very specific way, with good adverts and other advertisment methods.
I still believe in good movies, that means movies that contain a good story, good locations, good music etc. all of this must not be very well know, for example famous actors and/or famous songs... Most of the movies that are good in my opinion and that I like are quite unknown, with unknown actors and stories that do not follow Hollywoods "checklist". Most of the movies that I like, are very international and from america to turkey and even china and japan have got a great variety of masterpieces, that most of the people don't know about or haven't ever heard of it. That is probably because it is not, what I call, "mainstream".
I describe mainstream as money making, qualities are not matching masterpieces from long ago as well as masterpieces that are created today. I still think filming is art and do not like now a days "mainstream" movies. (All of this is my opinion and I understand that others aren't obliged to agree with it, everyone has their own taste and character)

List of (imo) good movies:

Animal Kingdom (2010
Country: Australia




Ip Man (2008)
Country: China




The Loved Ones (2009)
Country: Australia




Winter's Bone (2010)
Country: USA




Nefes: Vatan Sagolsun aka. The Breath (2009)
Country: Turkey




Un Prophète aka. A Prophet (2009)
Country: France




Written by Henri Yueksel
Candidate Number 4450

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Here is the storyboard that I have drawn. It shows the synopsis of our story that was posted by Henri Yueksel a month ago.

Picture 1: this is a scene were the couple are walking in the woods looking at the beautiful scenery in Scotland.

Picture 2: this picture shows the couple have seen a shadow of a person next to the mysterious woods.

Picture 3: I drew this picture to try and show the characters facial expressions, therefore I would like to show this in the filming of the trailer.

Picture 4: this picture shows the couple ruining up to the man that seems to be injured as he has fallen on the ground.

Picture 5: this scene will show the man that has been injured. If you look closely the man is pointing towards a dark and mysterious woods, which will soon be explored by the young couple.

Picture 6: this picture is to illustrate that the man that has been injured is being taken to hospital. However we do not know if we will involve this scene.

Picture 7: this picture shows the couple trying to communicate with the injured man. In this scene we will try to kind of explain parts of the story, but not all of it as we would like to leave it in a cliff hanger.

Picture 8: this picture illustrates the couple coming back to the dark woods to try and find out what had happened to the injured man.

Picture 9: this picture will try and show the dark woods and will leave the audiences with a cliff hanger.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Thursday 21 October 2010

Location Shots (For Our Trailer)

As we have decided on our genre, have an idea of what our story is about and what we should involve in the trailer, I thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures of locations that we might film in our trailer.






































 































































Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
Candidate Number 3641

Key Elements That Should Be Included Within A Trailer (Of The Selected Genre)

The genre of our film is Teenage Horror/Thriller therefore there are obvious things that should be included in our trailer. I had undertaken some research with other trailers such as 'The Exorcisty, The Ring and Saw (Series).

Here are the trailers:

The Exorcist


As you can see the trailer for 'The Exorcist' is very old fashion, however it uses elements such as lighting, cinematography and the story throughout the trailer is understandable due to the clear editing of the trailer.

The Ring


'The Ring' is a film of the more modern year as the editing and cinematography within the trailer is much more different due to the modern techniques of producing a trailer, however the concept is still the same as they use lighting and story to get the message across to the audiences.

Saw


As you may have noticed my group has embedded the 'SAW' trailer several times. This is because the trailer is very inspiring, it has an interesting story it uses lighting incredibly well to build up the suspense and the story is clear. I do not like the 'SAW' movies, but what attracts me to watch the SAW Series are the trailers that are produced. They always bring something new and unexpected. The only thing that are predictable are the gruesome executions. Again this film uses the same techniques that are used by nearly all horror/thriller film genres therefore this is why their trailer are so successful.

Here are my key elements, which I would and should include in our movie trailer:

  • Quick Editing - as this gets the audiences into the mood of the film and give them the experience that they are actually there. 
  • Lighting - as this sets the atmosphere throughout the trailer, a good example of this is at the beginning of the 'SAW' trailer where the photographer can not see properly due to the dark room. 
  • Sound - this is very important as without sound the experience is not the same as you would not have a clew what is going on through the trailer and music really builds up the suspens in a certain scene, so for example in a scene if there is something unusual about to happen you can hear music, which gives you an ideas of what might happen therefore it makes you think and really concentrate on the film.
  • Title - should be introduced either at the beginning of the film or at the end so that the audiences know the title if they are interested to see it.
  • Time - is essential as a trailer can not be to long or to short for obvious reasons such as it might give to much of the story away or the audiences might not understand the storyline due to too much or too little information given to them. 
  • Actors/Actresses - are probably one of the most imortant elements in a film as they dictate what is going on. It is imortant for our tariler to include teenage characters as the genre of our film is teenage horror/thriller, it is also important that the chracters are good at acting as it spoils the film the if acting is poor. 
  • Cliff Hangers - this I believe is a technique that nearly all horror/thriller trailers use as it attracts audiences to actually see the film and find out what happens at the end. 
All these elements that I have listed are important as only one element can not make an effective or interesting trailer, therefore it is important for our group to include these key elements within our trailer.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon 
Candidate Number 3641

    Tuesday 19 October 2010

    Risk Assessment


    Here is our Risk Assessment all the risks and dangers are listed during the making of our Trailer.

    Written and made by Henri Yueksel
    Candidate Number 4450

    Most Important Shots of a Trailer

    I spent a lot of time looking at different trailers to see the main things that all of them involve and the things that we will need to include in our trailer.
    There are a couple of main things that are quite obvious, and other things that needed a little more looking into and would have to be modified for use in our own trailer.
    The best thing i thought to do was to find a trailer that is pretty simple and makes it easy to identify the key points of the clip. Although this trailer isn't in a similar genre at all to what we are going to produce, i like the way the trailer has been created and found it easy to study and put in relation to our own trailer that we will be producing shortly.
    I have pulled out the main things that i find important and vital in a trailer and added shots to show evidence.

    1. The first thing that i identified in the trailer is what is included in all, the production company. This perticular one is Warner Bro.s but we would be looking to produce using soemthing like 20th Centuary Fox or New Line cinemas.





    2. The next thing that I was quick to identify was the introduction of the main character. In this case, a man (Josh Duhamel), a woman (Katherine Heigl) and a baby.


    3. The next most important thing is that you can identify is the main line of the story without giving away too much of the film. the audience should be able to identify what genre of film its going to be and what may potentially happen without finding out the story or being too much of a hint about whats going to happen. For example in this story, we see that this couple doesnt get along very well, however they are left a baby by their close friends to look after together. This lets us know what the story line is about but doesn't let us know what is going to happen in the rest of the movie. We see the relationship that the couple have with the baby and how it changes over the course of time.

    4. Another thing that is used differently in different trailers is either a voice over or some kind of naration. In this trailer it is written out across the screen between clips. In other it can be a voice over or somethimes there is nothing at all. It normally depends on the genre of film, whether there is music in the trailer, the atmosphere the trailer creates etc. We would possibly look at having a voice over in our trailer as our genre is teen horror, this would create a slightly more tense feeling.


    5. The other most imprtant thing is that as the trailer carried on we get to see a small amount of what the movie is going to be about. This will let us know the genre, the characters and the basic jist of what is going on. Its improtant however that the trailer doesn't give too much away of the movie. If the whole story is told in the trailer it makes the film a lot less interesting and the audience will probably be able to tell what is going to happen before they have even seen the film.

    6. Although the main characters have already probably been seen in the clips, its notmally not until later when their names are brought up on screen. A trailer will almost always include titles of the main stars in the film. This is usually followed by an image or quick clip of them.


    7. The seventh and final thing that we always identify in a trailer is obviously the title. This varies with all trailers as some are at the beginning and others are at the end, its unusual that the title will be shown in the middle of the trailer but can sometimes happen. With most horror films we are most likely to see the title come up at the end of the trailer. This is the case in "Life as we Know it" however this is a romantic comedy.


    This is the final outcome of the trailer.

    By Sonia Routledge










    Friday 15 October 2010

    Institutions and Film Companies

    Within out group, we all individually took a fair amount of time researching and looking into the film institutions that would be most likely or would want to publish our film.
    To do this, I looked at many trailer with the same genre of films as we have and looked to see which film institutions they were released by.

    The first institution I looked at was 20th Centaury Fox. Some of the recent films which they have produced have been things such as Date Night, Hot Tub Time Machine and the very popular Avatar. From looking further into this I decided that this possibly wasn’t one that was more likely to want to produce this genre of film.

    The next institution I looked at was Universal Studios. This is a particularly popular company and is well know for producing many different genres of film. Some of the films that they have produced are: The Harry Potter films, King Kong and more specifically My Soul to Take. My Soul to take is one of the main films that we looked into depth in as it was very much along the same lines of what we wanted to produce. It is a teen horror and seems to have quite simple filming. The story is believable yet interesting to watch and is gripping for the audience. In the production of our film we would very much look into Universal Studios.



    The last film institution that I looked into was Paramount Pictures. Paramount, again is another well known film institution and has produced thousands of films successfully. The newest film releases at this moment in time are: Waiting for Superman, Dinner for Smucks, Middle Men and Shrek Forever After. Although these are all highly popular films at the moment, none of them are really along the same lines of the genre of film we are looking to produce. I therefore came to the conclusion that it may not be the best institution to publish our film.

    By Sonia Routledge

    Soundtrack Inspiration For Our Trailer

    As you can see I have embedded a video from http://www.youtube.com/. This video has the soundtracks of the film 'The Exorcism Of Emily Rose'. This soundtrack has inspired me to have similar musical characteristics in our movie trailer as it contains a scary feel and atmosphere to it due to the chords in the background and the minimalist style it contains. This is what we will aim to do only we are not allowed to use copyright music as it is illegal, therefore myself and a friend will produce a minimalist style of music, which will contain a scary feel and atmosphere, you will hear the similarity to the soundtrack played in the Piano in 'The Exorcism Of Emily Rose'.



    Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
    Candidate Number 3641

    Wednesday 13 October 2010

    New Production Logo

    I have been surfing around on the internet and found a very good website to download font's for photoshop, so I downloaded a few fonts and tried different to create different styles of title.

    Here's the first title trial that I made with a very special font, that looks really "antique-like" fitting to our horror genre.

    As you can see there is a transparent background, this perfectly fits into the blog as well as the font. I just put some glow around the letters and that's about it. I haven't done much actually the credits go to the person that created the font. I might edit the logo a bit more and try different styles and colors to see what fits perfectly to the blog.


    Here is the actual logo, I thought that this one matched a bit more to our blog and as a production logo. I applied the same settings for this logo and think it is a bit more impressive than the first one and fits better to our Production.

    Even though we kept this logo for quite a while I might have a better idea and replace the actual one.

    Written and Designed by Henri Yueksel
    Candidate Number 4450

    Story Synopsis

    The story is situated in the very north of Scotland, where a young couple is staying for a few days for holidays. After a long walk in the forest until the sun goes down, they walk pass a big field where they see a human like silhouette.
    After getting a bit closer they see a man standing, only wearing trousers and covered in blood. The couple starts running towards the man that is very badly injured but the man falls onto the ground.
    The only thing that the man is able to do before he passes out, is pointing at the little forest right behind him.
    After the couple brought the man to the hospital they're trying to talk to him but he's not able to speak neither hear anything, something must have happened to him.
    A few days of holiday are left for the couple before they'll have to go back home. The next day they're still shocked about what has happened and walk pass the same field again where they found the injured man.
    After a quick talk they both decide to enter the forest that the man injured man pointed at. After walking up the path leading to the forest they already start getting the feeling that they aren't alone and that this forest is more than it is...



    Written by Henri Yueksel
    Candidate Number 4450

    Thursday 7 October 2010

    Media Institutions

    The media institution that I have chosen is called 'Platinum Dune'. Platinum Dune is a production company that works in the motion picture industry and was created in 2001 by filmmakers called Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The institution is based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The firm specialises in horror films, therefore it ideal for our trailer as our genre is teenage horror/thriller.



    Platinum Dune has produced numerous horror films such as:
    • The Amityville Horror
     
    • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning 

    • The Hitcher

    • The Unborn

    • Friday the 13th

    • A Nightmare on Elm Street


    As you can see the films that they have produced have a genre of either teenage horror or thriller. If you would like more information about Platinum Dune visit this website www.bloody-disgusting.com/platinumdunes/.

    I believe that Platinum Dune would be a good media institution for our product as they have experience with horror films, therefore they can give us ideas to what we can improve on in our trailer and film. Also the company is owned by a famous producer/director called Michael Bay (https://michaelbay.com/) who has botht produced or directed horror films that are listed above in bullet points. So if the institution decides to help us with the product then we can get professional help by experienced directors like Michael Bay. The institution is not yet well known, however this is not a problem as it is slowly getting bigger and bigger.

    The company that we could get to distribute our product could be New Line Cinema as they have distributed some of the horror films listed above. Because our genre is teenage horror/thriller it would be ideal to get New Line Cinema to distribute our film to the audiences that we are targeting, as they have distributed horror films such as Friday The 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Final Destination and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. If we decide to use New Line Cinema then I am confident that they will be able to distribute our film as they are an old enough company to have experience. Nearly everyone knows New Line Cinema as it is a major distributing company in the film industry, therefor this would mean that our film would attract much more customers due to the image of the media institution that that we are using. And these are the factors why I would pick the combination of Platinum Dune and New Line Cinema.

    Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
    Candidate Number 3641

    Key elements of a Trailer

    Here is a list of the Key elements of the Trailer that we are going to produce. We are going to create a checklist to facilitate our working process.

    Main aspects of a Trailer

    1. The Trailer has to be very short although it has to contain a brief summary of the movie, and make you want to watch it.

    2. The Trailer has to have an introduction of the main character(s) and maybe other characters.

    3.  Usually fast editing makes a trailer very exciting, or good timed transition are a very important point.

    4. It has to have a cliffhanger at the end, so the audience will actually want to watch the movie, because they want to know the ending etc.

    5. Our Trailer has to have teenage (main)characters, to represent the genre Teen Horror.

    6. It does not have to spoil the story! The Trailer has to be a brief summary of the movie, without revealing the ending nor the main story.

    7. It has to contain different companies, such as producer, distributor, (exhibitor) etc.

    8. Our genre is Teen Horror so it'll have to be quite scary obviously.


    9. The Trailer has to have the title either at the beginning or at the end. Big titles with special effects always make a good impact on the audience.


    10. Important things such as the characters should be filmed with a close up shot (or just as close as possible) so the audience is able to identify what they're seeing in this short time period of the clip and the less important things such as locations are often filmed with a shot where you can see the whole panorama, that tells briefly where the movie is going to play/ where the location(s) will be.


    Now I'm going to make a short analysis of the Trailer 'SAW' that is a very good example of a standard trailer that includes all of the points.




    First we don't really know what is going to happen. We can see a man in a dark location, probably his flat trying to find a way to turn the lights back on. But he hears something and uses the first object close to him to brighten the place up. He does that by taking photographs using the flash with his camera. This is already a quite scary part, imagining that there is somebody or something hidden in your flat and you cannot see a thing!
    After walking around, he finds were the noise is coming from and suddenly something jumps out of the dark and attacks him (shock effect). This again is a very common method to make a trailer scary. Shock effects are very short and make a huge impact on the audience, if you have watched a horror movie, you should know that feeling you get when suddenly something jumps out of nowhere or you hear a very loud noise, this reaction is instinctive and is manipulated in horror movies to give the audience this very specific horror feeling.
    After this short scene we get introduced to the different (main)characters and the mentioning of a killer. This is a very important part, so the audience can see with which characters/actors they are going to deal with. Some of the audience will just be watching the movie because of the actor. The introduction of the characters usually happens at the beginning of the trailer or in the middle (the introduction can be as well at the end but that is more for Thriller movies).
    The last part of the trailer is where the most happens, there's usually a lot of action involved, sfx such as explosions, in this trailer it is the man throwing something at the mirror and the other blond man is going crazy as well as the first man we're being introduced to. That is the part where the audience is being shown what great scenes the movie is going to contain, that is the best way to attract and address the audience and to really want to make them want to see the movie.
    At the very end of the trailer there's usually a comedown, where the title of the movie is shown and when the movie is going to be shown in the cinemas. This comedown, where the trailer suddenly stops is often used as a cliffhanger, to make the audience want to watch the movie.

    Written by Henri Yueksel
    Candidate Number 4450

    Uk Tribes Our Ideal Audience

    From looking at the genre of our film and the different things its going to invovle, it was relatively easy to see what our ideal audience was goingto be like. As our genre is teen horror the people we are looking to aim our movie towards are mainly teenagers. It is a film that probably wont appaeal to older generations so we decided that it would be  mainly aimed at teenagers and people that enjoy watching scary stuff!! It is a movie that would appeal to most teenagers we think but isn't a typical girly chick flick, meaning that i more appeal to boys more than girls. Although the film won't include anything such as death, it will still be something that gives an adrenaline rush and keeps people on their toes.

    Sonia Routledge

    Wednesday 6 October 2010

    Institutions research

    The making of a movie depends very much on which institution is going to produce, distribute and exhibit your movie.
    A very good example of what kind of production company would produce and exhibit our movie is "Troublemaker". There are several distribution companies that work with Troublemaker Studios, the most common one is Dimension Films.



    The production company was first called Los Hooligans. A few of their first productions was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and The Faculty (1998).
    Troublemaker is a very small production company that have produced movies (after having changed their company name in 2000) such as, Spy Kids (2001), Sin City (2005), Planet Terror (2007), Machete (2010)...

    I think Troublemaker is the perfect production company because it has it's own way of producing movies and they're doing it in their very own way. It cannot be compared with mainstream or anything like that.
    This makes it a very indie-like company but that is still very successfull as well as overseas.
    I think these very own characteristics of Troublemaker make a big difference now a days and makes a movie way more personal than just a simple mainstream company that just wants to make a profit, we actually want to entertain people and not just make porfit.
    The distribution in this company is very specific, other companies are distributing the movies that Troublemaker Studios produces.  This is another very important point because we'd have to plan first which audience we're going address to, which nationality and which languages the movie is going to have.
    For example, Troublemaker Studios is very American, their movies mainly take place in (South) America or Mexico and just a few movies take place in totally different locations, such as Predators (2010) that takes place (I think) in the rainforest.
    The main characteristic of Troublemaker Studios is that it has it's own ways of movie making that gives the movies a lot of personality and it's own character and that's exactly what we're looking for.

    Dimension Films





    Los Hooligans Productions




    From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) (co-production with A Band Apart; distributed by Dimension Films)



    The Faculty (1998) (distributed by Dimension Films)



    Troublemaker Studios


    Spy Kids (2001) (distributed by Dimension Films)



    Sin City (2005) (distributed by Dimension Films)




    Planet Terror (2007) (co-production with Rodriguez International Pictures; distributed by Dimension Films)





    Machete (2010) (co-production with Overnight Productions; distributed by 20th Century Fox)




    Written by Henri Yueksel
    Candidate Number 4450

    Mood Board

    As you can see the mood board contains different pictures and words such as "cannibal, hell, lost and captivity".  The pictures and the words in the mood board represent the genre(Teen/Horror Thriller) that we would like to achieve in our trailer. We want our trailer to be dark and frightening and as you can see our pictures contain dark colours, which represent and illustrate what atmosphere we would want to include in our product (trailer). We have chosen a wide variation of horror pictures from gruesome to strange and scary. We have included a lot of black and white pictures such as the man with the slinky, the woman with the man with the deformed face and Johnny Depp looking aroused, this is because I would like to make the trailer based in the past as it would be more of a classical teenage horror film. This is because in our generation old school horror movies are coming back in to fashion. Overall this is what we would like to achieve with our trailer, however things could change in the process of producing the trailer, therefore the mood board is not 100% accurate to what the finished product may look like at the end.

    Mood Board Picture:



















    Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
    Candidate Number 3641

    Tuesday 5 October 2010

    Our Mood Board

    Our mood board, as published below was inspired by various different things. As we decided to base our trailer on Tenn Horror, we tried to find as many images that showed both scary and dramatic things. Most of the images on out mood board show a lot of blood, death, or general dark images. We also choose to put on some words that related to the trailer, such as "Cannibal" and "Psycho". Altogether the images worked well and created the exact type of mood we were trying to make.

    Posted by Sonia Routledge

    9 Favorite Screen Shots, The Last Exorcism - Sonia Routledge

    9 screen shots of a suitable trailer

    The last exorcism

    From watching the trailer for the last exorcism, I tried to focus on 9 main shots that I thought made an impact on the viewer watching the trailer.  The editing in it is quite fast and can sometimes be quite difficult to recognise all the different shots that are going on. Another thing that made it quite difficult to do, was the fact that a lot of the trailer was relatively dark. However here are the shots I found most relevant and interesting as we carry on thinking about the composition of our own trailer.

    1. This is the first, right at the beginning of the trailer. It’s an establishing shot that firstly introduces us to the location where the main events are going to happen in the trailer. The tyre hanging from the tree is almost central and adds a spooky or ere feeling to the scene. We can also see the house in the background and the leaves on the floor. The house looks slightly derelict and run down and the garden looks not particularly well cared for. 

    2. The second shot I found quite interesting was this one where we are first introduced to a character, which is in fact one of the main ones. This is the first insight we get to a feeling of terror or being scared. We can see the man looking cautiously in his back mirror while driving away from a boy who he asked directions from and was quite abrupt. It could also potentially be one of the main reasons for the trouble he encounters at the house

    3. The third key shot I have come across is yet another establishing shot. Although basic, I think it’s important because it shows the setting of the encounters potentially going to occur. This time we can see the whole of the house and it is the main focus in this picture. We can also see the rope where the tyre swing is hanging from and a bench in the left hand corner. All of these small props have an impact on the shot and add to the feeling trying to be created.

    4. This key shot is the first introduction we have to the main girl in the trailer. In this shot we can see her having a conversation with the Baptist and can see most of what looks to be like her room. The girl looks scared and slightly apprehensive here and this first image plays a massive impact on our perception to what she is like. It is also one of the only times when we see her in the trailer when she isn’t possessed by the devil.

    5. This shot is one of the ones that show the beginning or the exorcism. There is a look of terror on the girls face and it’s visible that it is obviously taking place in a barn. We can also see that the girl’s frock is filthy which causes suspicion about what has happened before the exorcism took place.

    6. This screen shot I find particularly striking because of the contrast of colours. I like that you can only see the silhouette of the girl and the back of the man walking down the corridor but you can identify either of their faces. We can also see the inside of her house and adds to the creepiness of the film.

    7.  I think that this screen shot sums up a lot of the film. The girl in this shot looks totally possessed and is strangely sitting on the top of her closet. As this film is about a girl being possessed by the devil, I thought it was in important shot to put in to sum a lot of the movie.

    8. I put in this shot because I feel that the editing in it is quite good, and I also like the use of colour, again we can see an image of the main character looking possessed.

    9. The last shot I put in is an image of someone holding a cross up to a fire. This point is at the end of the trailer and has a great effect on the fast editing towards the end. As the shots quickly role through, I think that this image is one of the best as its colour and editing relates a lot to the mood of the movie.


    Posted by Sonia Routledge

    Monday 4 October 2010

    9 Key Screenshots of a Trailer (The Skeleton Key)

     The Film I have chosen to talk about the 9 key shots is called 'The Skeleton Key'.



    Here are the 9 Key Screen Shots That I have picked through the trailer:



    Screenshot 1.
    This shot is called a crane shot as it is high above looking down at the house. As our film is a Teen Horror/Thriller we would like to include a lot of landscape shots in the dark to really get some atmosphere to attract the audiences throughout the trailer.

    Screenshot 2.
    This shot is called a point of view and the reason why I really like this screenshot is because it uses props and for a film to be realistic props have to be included. It also gives information to the audiences that are watching the trailer as everything around the main writing is blurred, so this is a good filing technique to use to get the audiences to concentrated.

    Screenshot 3.
    I think this Screenshot is incredible as it really attracts the audiences and really creeps them out. The reason why I like it is because of the lighted up cross and the run down looking church.

    Screenshot 4.
    This screenshot is interesting as the audiences do not quite understand what is going on until the end of the trailer as their is some kind of mystery behind the movie. This technique of filming is very smart as it makes the audiences that are watching the trailer to get attracted and see what is the twist behind the story; in other words they are giving information, but not to much or to little to get the customers anxious.

    Screenshot 5.
    I think that this screenshot is really frightening as the audiences do not see it coming as it is a quick flash scene of the woman. It is obvious that she is a ghost as the picture is black and white and this represents the old generation as they did not have coloured photographs. Another reason why I like this shot is because the woman has a blank face and does not show any emotion.

    Screenshot 6.
    If you have watched the trailer that I had embedded then you will understand why I believe that is is an important screenshot as it really represents the story behind the film. It is an important prop as the line identifies and keeps the enemies/ghost away form the main character (Kate Hudson).

    Screenshot 7.
    I really like this screenshot for several reasons and they are because it shows that there is some kind of mystery in the film, good acting, good mise-en-scene, also the mascara that is trickling down is really nice as it shows that the character has been crying and is terrified.

    Screenshot 8.
    The reason why I like this screenshot is because the film is called 'The Skeleton Key' and you can see an eye looking through the keyhole, which I think is a really good idea as it shows that someone is staking the character and as a result this gets the audiences really scared and exited at the same time. This is just another classic horror movie/thriller filming.

    Screenshot 9.
    I thought that this was a good screenshot as it informed people what the title of the film is. And also because it is a horror/thriller movie it is written in a 'scary font' therefore it matches the theme of the film.

    My aim for our group is to produce a trailer that has good cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound and this trailer has inspired me to produce a good trailer as it is not difficult and does not involve any serious SFX.

    Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
    Candidate Number 3641

    Perfect Audience 'UK Tribes'

    Today I had checked out 'www.uktribes.com' where I tried to identify our perfect audience. As you know our genre of our film trailer will be Teen Horror/Thriller. As I undertook research for identify our perfect audience members I had realised that nearly all of them watch genres under Teen horror/Thriller. There where groups such:
    • Trendies
    • Townies
    • Indie Scenesters 
    • Young Alts 
    Screenshot of the main page of UK Tribes website:


    These were the most popular groups in the UK, however this is only a small segment as there were much more  groups and we are aiming to produce and show our product to all of them. I believe that we will able to achieve this even tho that there are different segments within the tribe groups nearly all teenagers have similar characteristics and this is why we can not classify our audience group accurately; For example 'chick flicks' will attract mostly female audiences of all ages, unlike teen horror/thriller, which is most likely to attracts all of the teenagers that are in sub groups.

    As I was in the surfing the 'UK Tribes' website I had taken the "Find Your Tribe" questionnaire and found out that I am in the 'Rahs' group, which I found strange as it did not identify my characteristics. After you complete the questionnaire there is a short video clip explaining what you are and it was definitely not me as I do not like shopping in 'Jack Wills', it also did not talk about any sports as I enjoy sports a lot, therefore the UK tribes questionnaire can be inaccurate.

    Screenshot of my "tribe"


    My group does not want only to attract a niche market but a market segment, therefore we will try and produce a trailer which is enjoyable for all audience groups with simular characteristics.

    Posted by Sultan Mackinnon
    Candidate Number 3641