Final Evaluation

The production task me and my partner chose to do was a horror trailer and this was specifically due to it being my favourite movie genre therefore I should have some expertise in ensuring that conventions are included to maintain that the trailer looks professional. Being that I am a huge fan of movies in general, I believe I would be determined due to it being an interest of mine as I have made previous videos for my YouTube channel.

As I am doing a horror trailer, I analysed some intertexts of my trailer in order to ensure conventions were used. A trailer that strongly influenced me was for paranormal activity (Shown below) as I believed some of the ideas in the trailer we could pull off exceptionally. The use of handheld shots not only creates realism and tenseness the trailer but they are also simple to do with the Legria FS306. We decided that because the camera is not full HD we could not attempt to have a strongly professional amount of camera shots therefore the realism of a lower quality camera for the trailer fitted the conventions. I came up with the specific idea of security camera footage for our trailer with proof of success from the trailer (shown below) therefore we could create enigmas and hide the narrative from the audience which would create suspense.  Alongside this, we used colour correction for our security camera clips to insure they look conventional.

From watching the trailer for the women in black, we decided that we had to have a scary/creepy setting in order to pull of the eerie vibe feeling of a haunted house. Therefore we were lucky enough to have the availability of a large Victorian house in a near location. Being that this is my partner’s house, it meant a good level of access to filming therefore making the process much easier. The inside décor of the house fits the old fashioned criteria of a scary house, for example a diamond chandelier in the middle of the room. In this trailer, the majority of the production doesn’t revolve around the house however in my trailer I would like the whole focus to be on the house location therefore more similar to paranormal activity.

After watching the opening of the film, Seven, I decided that it was very crucial to have tense and powerful music as I believed this was key in appealing to the target audience and building up the trailer. I chose two different musical pieces for the trailer, one being a slow impulse sound that is discrete behind the diegetic sound and as the pace of the trailer increased, the other music is introduced fast paced and tense thumping sounds. There is a fade between the first and second piece to show the contrast and build up in the trailer and this is commonly used in intertexts trailers such as Insidious.

For my pre-production, I decided that I wanted to do a storyboard as it enabled a good time management of the production and also was efficient for writing all technical, audio and action codes to one document. When I was completing this I decided that I would use handheld shots significantly across the trailer in order to pull of the realism however, in order to show technical capability I have also established other realistic shots that fitted the trailer to make it seem less boring.

The actors in my trailer are my friends therefore making the process of filming much easier to organize. Being that all my friends are key actors anyway and all study drama at higher education meant that as well as it being an easy process to organize, it would also be effective and realistic if the actors can create the realism of the trailer. Originally I wanted to use three characters within the trailer however having 5 characters created the more party antics atmosphere and make the film more realistic. There is specifically be two main characters, the camera man, kieran and the possessed man, matt. This therefore means there can be more depth revealing this characters specifically, for example, cloverfield.

I chose conventional iconography for my trailer using intertexts of my trailer specifically paranormal activity. The handheld camera is the main prop of the trailer being that the trailer is mainly filmed on a handheld camera and we took advantage of the camera not being HD quality to create a realistic camera shot that could be filmed by the average person. Although the camera is only shown once, it is denoted through the shakey camera shots and the OSG showing the timecode and recording symbol. The other significant prop in the trailer is the ouija board. This is a very conventional prop for horror trailers revolving around the paranormal and therefore this is why we used it. It also helps solve the enigmas in the trailer of why Matt is acting strangely.

After analysing 3 intertexts, I realised that I would need a similar audience appeal in order for the trailer to be effective. From my survey results, I found out that the majority of my audience would be male aging from 15-18 and therefore I would have to specifically target them. However being that this is a niche audience, my target audience as a whole would be from 15-25 therefore I would overall appeal the trailer to that. My survey results showing the lack of interest in going to the cinema shows how good my trailer will have to be in order to affect the audience and enthuse them into going to the cinema and watching the film. Therefore to do this, my trailer had to be enigmatic but then also eye catching to entice the audience.

After multiple drafts and on-going feedback,  there was essentially a clear narrative, effective editing and enigmas and this was very key in the trailer appeal. The majority of feedback was positive specifically the use of handheld shots and the transitions making it seem like tv static, however the negative feedback mostly revolved around the choice of title and the content in the trailer. In the first draft there was very little happening on screen and this had gone past being enigmatic and was simply confusing. Therefore in the final production, we made sure that there was a clear narrative of the whole film showed within the trailer and it was relatively clear but leaving the audience with enigmas making them want to watch the film. We also realised that in the first draft, the simple use of handheld shots on its own was boring and had to have some variety therefore in the final production, we used a variety of shots for example , the security camera shot to show technical capablity. Since the pre-production piece, me and James have completely refurbished our production and therefore other than the house scenes, it looks completely different. We did this consciously as we knew that particularly the forest scenes were unclear and unneccessary. Therefore in the final piece, we made the narrative fully focused on the house location and therefore the narrative changed.

I used a variety of different technical skills whilst making my trailer and this was specifically camera shots and OSG. A handheld camera shot would stereotypically be boring if overused however we made the shot more interesting with the use of OSG. I used timecode on video effects using Adobe Premiere CS4 and this helped establish the time in the scene so the audience doesn't get confused also it provides another sense of realism to the shot. We made a variety of different titles however this time we used Sony Vegas Pro as this gave more freedom and capabilities in creating a simple but effective title. The final title of 'Incognito' was made using a TV crash and TV simulator effect in order to make the title look as if it was on a broken clip and therefore is going distorted.

After watching the trailer for The Devil Inside, it is conventional for a possessed persons voice to be unnatural and therefore I attempted to create this effect using Adobe Premiere. It sounds like a loud booming noise which will startle the audience when they are watching the trailer as it is unexpected.

We decided to name the trailer 'Incognito' after a long dispute of whether this fitted the horror genre or thriller. Incognito meant unknown and being that the trailer is highly enigmatic we thought that this would fit that incognito would fit the narrative in that sense. Helping my decision to chose this title was the feedback from my previous drafts and being that the feedback was from people within the niche audience meant that it would appeal overall.

Overall I think that mine and my partners trailer was of a high standard and this was shown through the amount of effort and time put into the trailer. It is a simple idea which has been made effectively by using conventions from intertexts in order to make it appeal to the audience. Although some of the narrative isnt originally e.g. handheld filming of party , the majority of the trailer is unique and therefore I think with the resources available the trailer was done to the best of our capabilities. Our key aim was to make the trailer eye catching and I believe we have accomplished this.

Final Production -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_pZwe9MDjc&feature=youtu.be