Experimenting with make-up effects

Before we started filming our trailers we experimnetd with make up effects which we could use for our own trailer.

Final Trailer (with annotations)

The Demented Annotations

Below are the annotations you can see in the video for The Demented.

We used these to analyse and evaluate our final product.

0.01

This shows the audience the film is rated 15, clearly indicating it is a psychological horror rather than a gory one.

0.07

Here we used a handheld camera which adds to the sense of chaos.

0.18

We zoomed in on Frankie here to show a close-up of her walking towards the house. The close-up adds to the emotion of the moment, and tells us she’s walking towards somewhere important.

0.21

We filmed a point of view shot at this moment, to establish that someone is behind the tree as if watching the car. Seeing through the eyes of the antagonist is unsettling for the audience.

0.32

We panned the camera here to create a sense of drama and scale to the enclosed location.

0.37

This shot shows the psycho/serial killer peering behind a tree. Her black hair connotes evil, but her white gown connotes innocence. This creates a conflict in the audience’s minds. Can she be trusted?

0.42

For this shot we had the psychotic serial killer on a swing. Reminiscent of similar shots from The Conjuring, this again shows her child-like side.

0.56

A close-up of Libby’s face shows the audience her terrified emotions. It also introduces the idea that the psychotic killer is targeting the group of teenagers.

1.08

The psychotic killer smears blood on the wall, connoting the sense of a murder and the general life threatening danger of the narrative.

1.20

The heartbeat sound effect in the background create a sense of urgency, and offsets the continuous shot to maintain the energy and tension of the trailer.

1.25

This is the vital “jump scare” that features at the end of all horror trailers. This utilises collision cutting – moving from a lengthy, slow shot to a quick one – to suddenly shock the audience.

The Demented: Evaluation Screening

Evaluation 4

 

Evaluation 3

 

Evaluation 1

 

Evaluation 2

 

Magazine Cover Analysis

The Demented Horror Poster Analysis

Shotlist For My Trailer

Theese images show the shotlists in which my froup all discussed and filled in before we went out and filmed our trailer. We tried as much as possible to stick to the shotlist becasue it, shows the order of what we ant to film in our trailer and what shot angles we want to capture.

Final Poster

 

Final Magazine Cover

Choice of Trailer Type

For part of my planning I looked at two different types of trailers, both fitting into the horror genre. The first type of trailer I looked at was called a "highlight" trailer which takes the best bits of the film to establish narrative/genre. 90% of trailers are highlighted trailers. An example trailer I looked at was Evil Dead (2013).

The second type of trailer I studied for the planning stages is called a "scene" trailer. A scene trailer is made up of a suspenseful and shocking scene from the film. These trailers are used 10% of the time to advertise a film. An example trailer I looked at was Cloverfield (2008).

Practice First Year Trailer

For my first year practice trailer we shot a remake of "dont be afraid of the dark". For this trailer i helped film our footage, using a HD video camera. The aim for this practice trailer was to ka eus fell comfortable for when we create our own trailer in our second year.

Horror Trailer: Focus Group Feedback

What did you like about the trailer?

• The music used was appropriate
• The titles were effective
• Location
• The story line for the film
• The use of hand held camera
• The music
• The use of a lot of close ups
• The psycho serial killer looked good
• The text looked really good
• Handheld camera to show someone was watching
• How the jump scare changes to a different person
• The use of the text and sound
• The pace worked really well
• The titles are good
• The setting of the trailer
• Multiple shot types
• The use of dark fade on the scene with the psycho serial killer on the swing
• The jump scare
• The handheld camera being used in the ca
• Good text style
• The beginning music worked effectively
• The derelict building location
• The grainy filter at the start
• Easily understood
   What did you think could be improved in the trailer?

• The jump scare
• Music needs to be improved throughout the second half No use of real reactions
• More shots of the psychopath
• The narrative was slightly confusing
• Random close ups
• Music seemed to be quite slow
• The scene were Frankie was dragged through the hallway needs to be faster
•  The jump scare needs to be shortened
• Needed some more effects
• Shots need to be quicker in the middle of the trailer
• More music throughout the second half
• Herat beat needs to be louder
• The location
• The continuity of the swing
• The jump scare needs to be louder

Magazine Cover Analysis 2

Magazine Cover Analysis 1

Shooting Schedule

 

This shows the shooting schedule for my group. It shows the days when we are going to film and the days in which we are going to do our coursework.

6 Panel Practice StoryBoards

 

The Demented Rough Cut

 

Class Poster Idead

Horror Trailer Mood Board

Contact Sheet For Magazine and Poster

Here i have created a contact sheet showing the images which my group took Jordyn (Psycho Seriel Killer) in the studio at college. We have tried to capture a variety of shots including close ups, meduim shots and long shot/establishing shot. for my poster i want to use a close up image showing the Psycho Killers eyes and her emotion. For the magazine cover i plan to use a long shot/establishing shot or even a medium close up, to show the whole body.  

Class Research: Favourite Horror Sub-Genre

This pie chart shows the results of the class vote, of which was our favourite horror sub-genre. Each meneber of the clas had to vote for one sub-genre they like the most. the most popluar sub-genre in the class was psychological horror films having 12 votes in the class, whereas the least popular was action having 3 votes in the class

Insidious Trailer Reveiw

Insidious Trailer Review

Name of Film: Insidious

Year released: 2011

Genre of trailer: psychological horror

Your mark after viewing: 6/10

What happened in the trailer?

The trailer shows what appears to be a normal family living there normal life together. We see a metronome being used and hear the noise which it creates setting a slow pace to the trailer.  The sound of parallel music disrupts the happy life of the family, as this seems to be the part of the trailer where all the bad things start to go wrong. What appears to be the mother in the film is shown to be walking into a room where a rocking horse is moving on its own accord, suggesting a ghostly presence. At this stage of the trailer we see certain family members lurking around the house acting cautious, as if something is in the house.  

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

I liked the way in which the metronome is being played in the background creating a slow and steady pace at the start of the trailer. At the end of the trailer a wide open mouth is being zoomed in to and sounds as if the person is screaming, I like this part of the trailer because it adds a jump scare at the end.  

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

I didn’t like the pace of this trailer I thought the majority of it was slow and only picked up a little faster towards the end. I think if the trailer had a faster pace it would have been more effective to the genre of horror. I thought the scenes in the trailer where being dragged out revealing more of what is going to happen in the film.

I gave this trailer a 6/10 mainly because of the pace and how much of the film where shown in the trailer. I think it could have had more aspects from the genre checklist including a better glimpse of the slow moving monster/psycho serial killer.

 

 

 

The Conjuring Solo Trailer Reveiw

The Conjuring Trailer Review

Name of Film: The Conjuring

Year released: 2013

Genre of trailer: psychological horror

Your mark after viewing: 8/10

What happened in the trailer?

The trailer shows a mother and her children playing hide and seek. The mother is blindfolded and the children must clap to help the mother find them. The mother is in a bedroom and hears clapping coming from the wardrobe. She walks towards it but finds out her children were hiding in different rooms. When the children goes to bed the mum hears light laughter and clapping coming from downstairs, she looks over the landing banister to see that a load of photo frames have fallen of the wall. The mum then goes down to the basement where she thinks the clapping is coming from  and id locked inside it. the light bulb in the basement is then turned on and within a couople of seconds the bulb is blown creating darkness again.     

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

I liked the way in this trailer that the scenes all flowed well together, with fades to black. I thought the storyline of the trailer worked well to create suspense to the viewer. I liked the use of restricted narration in this trailer when the mum is locked in the basement and we gear her screaming. At the end of the trailer a light child’s lullaby is being played which again creates suspense and mystery about the film.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

There wasn’t anything that I spotted that I thought didn’t work well during this trailer. It is one of the best I have seen from the genre of horror. However if I was to pick at something I would say the pace in the middle of the trailer could have been faster than what it was.

I gave this trailer a 9/10 becasue it drew me in wanting to see more of the film and making me go to see it at the cinema. i thought the jump scares whcich were used frewuently made the trailer more intense. i think this trailer links very well tto the genre checklist and for a psychological horror.

Clover field class trailer Reveiw

Cloverfield Trailer Review

Name of Film: Cloverfield

Year released: 2008

Genre of trailer: action horror

Your mark after viewing: 8/10

What happened in the trailer?

The trailer shows a group of people celebrating at what appears to be a leaving party for one of their friends. The party is disturbed by a loud, horrific noise coming from outside. The electricity is later cut of making everywhere dark. The guests at the party go up onto the roof to investigate, to see that the city is under stack.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

I liked the way in this trailer that the scenes all flowed well together, and the fast pace of the trailer, which I thought drew the audience in and made them interested in the film. I like the way the use of a handheld camera was used, making the audience feel a part of the film, and making the shot look disorientated showing chaos. There is dramatic irony used in this trailer when we get a glimpse of the city being attacked, and then we get a shot of a guest at the party saying “it’s going to be a good night” adding a sense of mystery to the trailer.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

Turing this trailer I didn’t notice any horror aspects from the genre checklist, which makes me think that the filmmakers are trying to sell this film as an action instead of a horror.      

What was the trailers average score in class? Why did it receive that mark?

The average score for this trailer was 7.5/10 making this the second popular trailer in the class. I thought the trailer deserved this score because of how well it was put together creating pace, and suspense. I think thi9s trailer would have received higher marks if it included more horror aspects.

 

Font Mood Board

 

 

 

 

I have created this mood board to show a variety of fonts which i found interesting. i found theese fonts on the website http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=110. Theese fonts link well to the horror genre for many reasons. The majority of the fonts appear to have sharp lines going through them making them look more dramitic and eye cathcing. some of the fonts i have looked at have a texctured like feel to them making them appear is if they have been written in blood, liniomg to the theme of horror.

 

i Have experimneted with using the title of my film "the Demented" for some of the fonts, and for the others i have experimneted with my horror magazine cover "Horrific". i will chooses one of theese fonts each for my poster and magazine cover.

Day of the Dead (1985) Class Trailer Review

Day of the Dead (1985) Trailer Review

Name of Film: Day of the Dead

Year released: 1985

Genre of trailer: horror

Your mark after viewing: 1/10

What happened in the trailer?

The trailer shows a group of people watching a film in a cinema. During the trailer the audience sees a zombie sitting in the cinema with the people watching the film.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

I didn’t really enjoy this trailer but I liked the originality of having a zombie sitting amongst an audience in the cinema watching a film.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

I thought there was a lot wrong with this trailer starting with the voice over. The voice over for me was too deep and annoying. The trailer didn’t scream horror to me because I didn’t see enough horror aspects from the genre checklist, for example there wasn’t enough gore being shown. I thought the pace was really slow for a horror trailer and didn’t speed up towards the end which it should have done. There wasn’t a clear storyline shown in the trailer so I didn’t really know what the film was about, it kept going back showing the audience in the cinema with the zombie. We see a close up popcorn falling out of someone’s hand which doesn’t have no relevance to the genre. There wasn’t a jump scare at the end of the trailer which would have made it more exciting. The contrapuntal music at the end of the trailer makes it seem like it is advertising a horror.  

What was the trailers average score in class? Why did it receive that mark?

The average score for this trailer was 2/10 making it one of the least popular trailers we viewed in class. I think this trailer got the response it got because it wasn’t as exciting as some of the others we viewed in class. The pace of the trailer was too slow making it rather boring to sit and watch and didn’t scream out the audience horror.

Evil Dead Class Trailer Reveiw

Evil Dead (2013) Trailer Review

Name of Film: Evil Dead

Year released: 2013

Genre of trailer: Gory horror

Your mark after viewing: 8/10

What happened in the trailer?

The trailer shows a group of friends who end up going to an abandoned cabin in the woods, after being there for a while they find an old book and a possessed like girl in one of the rooms within the cabin. The trailer later reveals that the book unleashes evil.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

I thought the speed of the trailer was good because it wasn’t too fast so the audience lost interest and it wasn’t too slow neither which made the audience get bored. There was a slow start to the trailer making the pace right as it sped up more towards the end. I also thought the trailer didn’t give too much information away to the viewer. The dialogue which was in the trailer added a dramatic effect with the music which as being played over the top of it.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

I think the trailer should have maybe had more gore as it was limited. The gore which was in the trailer also needed to be more accurate as the blood which was used was orange instead of a dark red colour.

What was the trailers average score in class? Why did it receive that mark?

The average score for this trailer was 8.5/10 making it one of the popular trailers we viewed in class. I think this trailer got the response it got because it was well created, in the sense of what clips it included and the pace of it. This trailer also drew the audience in, making them want to see the film.
 

History of Horror

Horror movies have long served both purposes. They deliver thrills by the hearseload, as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death) - cautionary tales for grownups. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time.

1920’s
Darkness and shadows, such important features of modern horror, were impossible to show on the film stock available at the time, so the sequences, for example in Nosferatu, where we see a vampire leaping amongst gravestones in what appears to be broad daylight, seem doubly surreal to us now.

1930’s
Horror movies were reborn in the 1930s. The advent of sound, as well as changing the whole nature of cinema forever, had a huge impact on the horror genre.The dreamlike imagery of the 1920s, the films peopled by ghostly wraiths floating silently through the terror of mortals, their grotesque death masks a visual representation of 'horror', were replaced by monsters that grunted and groaned and howled.

1940’s
if the horror movies of the 1930s had dealt in well-established fictional monsters, looking back towards the nineteenth century for inspiration, the 1940s reflected the internalisation of the horror market. The Americans looked at themselves as “safe”, whereas everything else, particularly anything hailing from that frightening, chaotic, unreasonable and uncontrolled place known as Europe was dangerous.

1950’s
In ten short years the concept of a horrific monster had altered irrevocably.  Faces who had fought on both sides in WW2, the developers of the atom bomb and the death camp, mad scientists indeed whose activities would have unnerved even Victor Frankenstein or Dr Moreau.

1960’s
The 1960s horror that was more rooted in reality, more believable, more sophisticated, that dealt with some of the issues they faced in a rapidly changing world.

1970’s
One genuine fear apparent in the horror films of the 1970s is the fear of children, and the fear of the messy, painful and often fatal process of childbirth. Children are the focus of horror in many key 1960s films Village of the Damned(1960) really reinforces that kids can be spooky  and unwanted.
1980’s
Horror movies of the 1980s (which begin in 1979 with Alien) exist at the glorious watershed when special visual effects finally caught up with the gory imaginings of horror fans and movie makers. Technical advances in the field of animatronics, and liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame could be distorted to an entirely new dimension, onscreen, in realistic close up.

1990’s

It can be argued that the so-called psychological thriller took precedence over horror in the first half of the 1990s, and indeed, many dark, disturbing films of this period describe themselves as thriller, not horror. Yet directors such as Jonathan Demme were adopting the codes and conventions of the horror genre, when pacing their plot, when representing their characters, and when manipulating the shock/suspense mechanisms of their audience.

2000

In It seems that audiences wanted a good, group scare as a form of escapism. The monsters have had to change, however. Gone were the lone psychopaths of the 1990s, far too reminiscent of media portrayals of bin Laden, the madman in his cave. As the shock and awe of twenty first century warfare spread across TV screens, cinematic horror had to offer an alternative, whilst still tapping into the prevailing cultural mood.