Planning

This is the planning section of my blog. In this I will go into detail about what we will do during the planning stage of our coursework.

Initial Planning Ideas

Key Narrative Elements

The main key narrative elements are iconography & style, setting and narrative. Iconography is something that people can identify a film from, for example, blood and weapons in a slasher film. In our trailer, the iconography and style is going to be darkness and ill lit surroundings such as candle light. This creates a sense of “fear of the unknown” and mystery. The setting of our trailer is going to be a desolate house at night. This shows the audience the sense of the characters being alone and not being able to contact anyone for help. We are going to have some narrative elements in our trailer in the form of dialogue in a voice over. This will help create a better understanding for the audience since it is a teaser trailer.

We have looked at four key theorists that talk about the narrative aspects of film trailers. Narrative aspects are the actions, events and characters we see in a trailer. The narration of a trailer is how it is being narrated through visual style and point of view. Todorov spoke about narratology and how there is an equilibrium in traditional Hollywood films. This means that the order of them go in a set order which is it starts, then there is a disruption, after this there is a realisation of the distribution, then there is repairing the damage of disruption and finally the restoration. He found out that most of the Hollywood films stuck to this general theme of order. Another theory is the theory of the Hermeneutic Code which was the concept thought up by Barthes. This means that means that the narrative possesses a code which doesn't get answered. This creates a sense of enigma for the audience and also a sense of narrative surprise. Vladimir Propp conducted studies on folk tales and found out that most of them have a common narrative structure and a lot of them have similar functions. This is because these are the functions that seem to work in attracting a target audience so there is no reason for it to be changed. Finally, Levi-Strauss came up with the concept of binary oppositions and themes. This is where he looked at opposite values that reveal a structure of media text. He found that narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict, but more often functions at an ideological level. This is where a film or trailer has identifiable features for the genre. For example, in a sci-fi film he would question what the aliens and the people each represent.

Location For Filming

We fortunately have decided that we are only going to film in three different locations, this is efficient for time and also fits in with our story board. The first of these three locations is on a road called Pearl Street in Prestbury. We have chose this road because it is quiet and cars rarely go down it, it is also a one way street so it will be easier to stop a car coming down it whilst filming. As well as this, it is also lined with cottages on one side of the road, this means that if the houses do get in the background of the shot, they wont look out of place in our story line. The second location we are using is a friends house in Wilmslow, we are using this house because it fits in perfectly with our story line and genre. This is because it is desolate and has plenty of room so we can shoot the shots we need. The third and final location that we are using is undecided because we are yet to find somewhere with a swing in the garden. 

Shot List

This is the shot list that we have created to make it easier for us whilst filming so we know which order to do things in. It also will make sure we don't miss out any shots because we can tick them off as we do them. The reason that we have the last shot as a punch shot is because it will leave a lasting impact on the audience. This will leave them with the impression of the film that we desire which is to scare them.

Script

This is the script we have written out for the trailer. Due to it only being a teaser trailer we decided it would be more appropriate for the trailer to be more music and title orientated rather then dialogue. We still however decided to write a script because then the actors know what they are doing all of the time and they fully understand the synopsis and story line. It will also help us to keep track of where and what we need to film. 

Risk Assessment

This is a risk assessment document that we filled out and analysed any potential hazards and risks whilst filming for our trailer and also any precautions that we are going to take to avoid these potential threats.

Actors List

Alex Horne: She is Laura's sister which makes it convenient for filming and easy to get hold of since she is the main focus of the trailer. She plays the antagonist in the trailer.

Chris Jevons: Chris is a ex pupil from Fallibroome high school, there he studied drama for GCSE's and achieved an A*. Therefore he has had experience acting and understands the importance of body language and facial expressions.

Hannah Renshaw - A friend of ours which again is convenient for being able to contact for filming. She also has past experience of being in school productions so she understands the impotence of body language and facial expressions.

Film Poster Ideas

The main image of our poster is going to be a medium close up of Alex, the main antagonist, looking down, with her hair covering her face so you can barely see her eyes or facial features. This creates a sense of mystery and also fear because it makes her seem almost not human. We are also going to have chiaroscuro lighting so the background is black. This ensures that the main attention of the poster is her rather then on the background. As well as this, it also reinforces the horror genre and creates the sense of atmosphere for the audience which is the same as what they can expect from the trailer. The positioning of the text on our poster will be unique and unconventional. We are going to have the main text, which is the title, below the main image, which has dripped from blood from Alex's hair. This is something we will achieve by using Photoshop  We also are going to have the tagline of "She Was Waiting...". This also creates a sense of enigma and entices the audience because it will make them want to find out who "she" is, what she was waiting for and why. The ellipsis also suggests that there is more to come, which is more appealing for the audience.

This is the font off the website dafont.com that we hope to use as our main font for our film poster. It is because it has a bleeding effect and also reflects our genre of horror. It also looks like it has been scratched, this makes it more informal and again reinforces the genre. I think that the font is very important and you should be able to tell the genre of a film just from the font they use, and this is the case for this font.

This is an image of a poster for the film "The Uninvited", we are hoping to have something similar to it because we think that it would also fit well with our film. The main image of someone looking through a window was powerful and effective because it almost puts the audience in the position of main characters of the film, this, in my opinion, has more of an impact on the audience on the audience then a simple action shot of the antagonist.

This is the Flat plan for our film poster, this gives us an idea of how to construct the poster in the later stages of our work.

Film Magazine Ideas

For my film magazine I have decided that I will conform to the key conventions of a magazine. The first key convention that I am going to go with is the colour scheme with red white and black. I have chosen to do this because it is the standard colour scheme that most film magazines choose to go with. The reason I chose this is because it doesn't attract attention away from any of the key coverlines or the image. I chose to stick to just using one image on my magazine cover. My reasoning for this was to keep things simple whilst still attracting the attention to the main image that relates to the main coverlines. For the main image expression, I selected to have one of the actors of the trailer with a blank facial expression whilst making eye contact with the camera and a serious facial expression however he is out of character. This reflects the seriousness of the trailer yet at the same time shows a different side to the actor that is shown in the trailer. For the masthead of the magazine I am going to have the title "SHOOT" but instead of the two "O"'s I intend to have a silhouette of an old fashioned movie camera with the film representing the two O's. This makes it more identifiable as a brand and also makes it seem more professional. I also am planning to have a menu strip at the bottom of the page; this is again conforming to key conventions of a music magazine. I have selected to have this feature on my front cover because it is another way of showing the audience what is on the inside of the magazine without taking up both space and still maintaining its professionalism.

Animatic

This is an animatic of our trailer.

Feedback On Draft Trailer

Initially, we got some written feedback on our trailer and then a recorded video of feedback from different people in our target audience. This offered us both some positive feedback about what worked well and how we could improve it. The written feedback is as follows -

What worked well - 

• The choice of having rhyme and the "Paranormal" feel it has
• Good sound effects and editing
• Music was good and fit the genre
• The car hitting the girl idea was very good and very well edited, the background music was very well suited, there was a good range of shots and the titles were very good.

Even better if -

• The titles were animated
• Quicker shots
• The footage could be a bit darker to make a more creepy effect, the story line was a bit too obvious
• Slightly shorten/tighten the beginning when the car hits

Focus Group Feedback

We presented our pitch for our film to a focus group of people who are in our target audience to see if they would be interested in it, had any suggestions for how we could potentially change it or just general feedback. We recorded there response via a website called Wallwisher. Below is the "wall" containing the feedback we received. Judging from what people have said, we established that our plot synopsis was very stereotypical and we needed a twist in the trailer some where to make it different from others. We had a few suggestions but we decided on that we would change it so that the female character has run over and killed a child and then drove off. The child then waits for them at their house and haunts/torments them and eventually possess the female character to take revenge. This is different from other films but not so much that it breaks the conventions. We did this because the usual conventions that most horror films follow seem to work very well and still attract a massive audience however we didn't want it to be so similar that people found it predictable.