StoryBoard

Below is a picture of a brief storyboard that I designed for my film trailer:

Film Slogans

Below are my choices for the slogan of my film trailer:

1) Oh Yes, There Will Be Blood!, there will be blood!h Yes, there will be blood!

2) Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid.

3) We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes

4) Everyones a Victim

5) Not Today, Not Tommorow...

6) If It Doesn't Get You, You're Already Dead.

Film Titles

Below are six choices for the title of my film trailer. I asked 20 people which title they thought the best was and from this I recieved some results which can be found below the choices.

1) Splinter

2) Bits and Pieces

3) Bad Luck

4) The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday

5) Dejected

6) Thorn

Of the 20 people that I asked, 0 people chose the titles 'Bad Luck' and 'Dejected', making them the least popular choice. 1 person chose 'Bad Luck', 2 people chose 'Bits and Pieces', 2 people chose 'The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday' and 4 people chose 'Splinter'. 'Thorn' gained the most votes gathering 11; hence it was my most popular title out of the choices.

Plot/Trailer Summary

Like all horror film trailers, mine will follow a sequence of going from the beginning where the setting is balanced to the end where there has been some kind of twist and a disruption in the middle of it. I came up with several ideas when it came to my plot but in the end I decided to go down the classic horror film route.

Below is a breif summary of what I would like my filmtrailer to be like. I will use this plot as a guide when I come to filming my horror film trailer.

- Begins in a Graveyard with somebody looking at a grave of sombody that once knew.

- They decide to take a different route home which proves costly.

- Something follows them, but the audience will never see this.

- Quickish camera cuts will speed up the tempo of trailer.

- Camera cuts begin to slow down.

- Title appears just as something important is about to happen, such as an attack.

Professional Poster: Hostel

To the left is an image of a poster for the horror film 'Hostel' which was released in the year 2005. The poster is just one of several posters which were designed for the release of the movie.

A first point about the poster itself is the colour scheme. The colour scheme that they have decided to go with is a very dark and dull colour scheme just like most other horror films that I have looked at. The background of the poster is a piece of old roughed up paper and this basically highlights what the film is all about. It makes the film look extremly evil and violent and as if you should stay away from it. But this is the sort of factor which makes the audience want to watch it, almost as if they have used reverse psychology.

Another point that can be made is the use of red for the title of the film 'Hostel'. The use of red shoes that the film is very aggresive, violent and dangerous and this relates to the point that I have made above and how it aims at the type of thrill seekers who love to watch horror films.

A final point that makes this poster so good is the little sentences that are scattered around the poster itself. These are the sentences such as 'The scariest American movie in a decade' and 'Based on true events'. These are the sentences that will make people want to watch the film, even if they are not neccessarily true. When I eventually come to producing my movie poster I will try to add some of these tags somewhere in my poster.

Professional Trailer: Hostel

Above is a trailer of the horror film called 'Hostel'. Hostel is a recent horror film that was released in the year 2005. Several techniques are used in this film trailer of horror, most of whcih relate to horror films. Below I will be discussing just some of the techniques that are used in this trailer.

As soon as the trailer begins, there is an establishing shot which portrays an abandoned building with no sign of life. However, as gloomy as this building may seem, there is a glimmer of sunlight that shines through part of the building and this has been used to show that there is hope.

In this trailer, I like the way in which they have paired up camera shots with the text on screen. By doing this everytime some text appears on screen, there is a camera shot to follow it straght after. At the begining, the pace of this is quite slow, but as the trailer gets further and further towards its climax, the text on screen is appearing much quicker and therefore so does the camera shots which are used. The effect of this is that it sets the tempo of the trailer and as the trailer builds to its climax the pace increases and the overall impact of this on the audience is that it raises their heart rate.

Professional Poster: House Of Wax

To the left is an image of a film poster of the film called 'House of Wax'. House of Wax is a fairly recent modern horror film and this is reflected in the poster to the left. Several effective techniques can be discussed when studying this poster and below I will be discussing just some of the good techniques that this poster has used.

The first effect that I will be talking about is the colour scheme. From the image on the left of the poster you can clearly see that the main colour used is black, and this is extremly common with almost every horror film poster. Due to this it makes the colour scheme for this poster conventional and the effect of this is that it means that the audience can relate to the poster as being of that of a horror film.

A second technique that can be discussed is the effect of how the wax drips downwards from the face on the poster. It is unconventional how the image of the womans face is sideways because as a person you never look at somebody when they are lying down. This is a relation because it shows that the film is unusual, wierd and contains a twist.

A final technique that can be discussed is the tagline and that is 'Prey, Slay, Display'. This is an extremly clever tagline becuase it has been spread out meaning that as the audience reads it, they are also moving down the poster and therefore get to see what the film is called. It is clearly a tagline they want the audience to read because even though the font they have used is not that big, it has been put in a vast amount of space in the poster taking up around a fifth of the poster with just six words. The final point that can be discussed about this technique is that it ryhmes and the effect of this is that it helps the taglune to flow fluently, making it easy to read.

Professional Trailer: House Of Wax

Above is a trailer of a horror film called 'House of Wax'. House of Wax is a horror film which has been released within the last decade, hence making it a fairly recent film. The first effect that this trailer offers is with its editing. This is the tehnique of how everytime a sentence or word appeasrs on screen, after about 1 second of it being on, the letters begin to drip giving the effect of melting wax. This is extremly clever because it helps to relate these sentences and words to the title of the film, 'House of Wax'.

Like every trailer of the highest quality, this trailer doesn't leave any of its camera shots on screen for over 4 seconds. This helps the audience to get to grips with what the main story of the film is at a fluent pace.

In this trailer, the lighting is used very cleverly with it changing everytime the mood of the trailer cahnges. For example, at the start of the film trailer when they are in the woods, it is pitch black and there is only ever lighting on the boys and girls. This has almost been used to single them out and show that they are the targets or victims.

A final point that can be made about this trailer is the diegetic sounds in the background. The tempo of these sounds change to when people are in danger in the trailer. At the start of the film when they are in the woods, there is no noise at all and then when the setting changes to daylight, an eerie noise kicks in so that even though it is light, the audience knows that something is wrong still. Finally, the tempo of the sound quickens as the group of people become in more danger. This is a very important technique that I will use when producing my horror film trailer.

Professional Poster: The Ring

To the left is an image of the poster for the film called 'The Ring'. This poster is a very basic poster and this is partly due to it being a sort of teaser poster. However, the basic idea that this poster has is also very effective.

The first point that I can make about this poster is that they have used the common image of the white ring. This is used on most of 'The Ring's' film franchise products. This way people know what film the poster is advertising without even looking at the title of the film.

One effect of the poster which is very basic is the colour scheme and that is because they have only used the two colours black and white. These two colours are contrasting colours and due to this they both stand out when they are used together. The poster has chosen to have black as the background colour and white as the text. This helps to make the film look dark, evil and scary.

A final point that can be made about this poster is the tagline for the film at the top of the poster. This has been used with great effect as they have merged it cleverly with the title of the film, 'The Ring'. The tagline at the top of the poster states 'Before you die, you see'. This tagline has purposely being produces as part of a sentence and therefore when the audience reads it they will read on to see the title of the film. So in total the tagline actually reads 'Before you die, you see The Ring'

Professional Trailer: The Ring

Above is a trailer of a popular horror film called, 'The Ring'. A first point that can be made about this trailer is symbolism. For example, it shows how popular this film is when instead of showing the title for the film, they have opted to just show a picture of the white image that is known as 'The Ring' in this film. Due to this, audiences can instantly distinguish what the film is called without the title even popping up. This is heavily down to the fact that the image of the ring is used on most of their franchise products such as posters, DVD covers and clothing.

Conventions have been followed as each camera shot stays on screen for only around 4 seconds and this helps to build tension. The erery echo noise which plays throughout the trailer in the background adds the effect of the trailer being a horror.

A final point about the trailer is the setting and once again the footage has been shot in a rather gloomy setting. When I shoot the footage for my horror trailer I need to make sure that my setting is right. This trailer looks to have been shot at dawn and I will take this into account when producing my film trailer.

Professional Poster: Scream

On the left is an image of a poster advertising the film 'Scream', which is a fairly old horror film. However, even though it is an old horror film, it was a very successful horror and there are lots of tips that I can take from analysing the poster on the left that will help me when I come to producing my film poster.

The first point that I can make about this poster is that it has a very dull look to it. This may have been used to show how gloomy the film is and hence representing that it is a film of the horror genre.

The poster is unusual because the whole of the page is taken up by a womans face in an extreme close up shot. However, even though it is unusual, I can still see that it is effective as she is starring directly at the audience so that they look at her directly in the eye. For some people this creates a quite disturbing image and adds to the effect of the film being of the horror genre.

A final point that can be made about this poster is the use of gaps between the title of the film 'Scream'. This technique has been used so that the word spreads across the screen, leaving equal spaces between each letter. This is again another technique that I will take into account when producing my film poster.

Professional Trailer: Scream

Above is a trailer for the well known horror film called 'Scream'. Scream is a fairly old horror film that hit cinemas in the year 1996. However, even though the film itself is quite an old film, there are still lots of many useful tips that I can take from this video which will help me when I finally produce my movie trailer.

The first point that can be made about this film trailer is at the start when the woman is talking on the phone and as the logo of the film company 'Dimension' pops up, the audience can still here the woman talking in the background. This is a crossover effect and it keeps the audience involved because they are still following what is going on in the scene.

Once again, quick cuts are used frequently throughout the trailer and they are once again very effective. In this trailer each camera shot stays on for around four seconds. The effect of this is that it gives the trailer a far quicker pace, plus the ability of telling the audience what to expect if they went and watched the film as many camera shots can be used.

A few more points to make is that as the trailer gets progressively longer, the tempo of the music beats up and the effect of this is that it raises the beat of the audiences pulse. A final point is that this trailer has been shot at night time and this is the case in every camera shot. Overall this is a very conventional horror trailer and I will use what I have learnt from it when producing my film trailer.

Professional Poster: Paranormal Activity

To the left is and image of the paranormal activity poster. When the film came out, Paranormal Activity was not largely advertised and this was because the advertisers wanted the film to become popular via word of mouth.

The poster has a colour scheme which is very popular with horror films as they have tended to stick with darker colours including black and red; with the red being used as red.

The layout of the poster is very important as it is unique compared with other movie posters. It is unique because the image to do with the film only takes up about a third of the whole poster. This has been used to image a view from a handheld video camera. Due to this it makes the audience feel as if they are part of the action and involved in the film. The compressed image is also used to illustrate a tight confined space; hence giving away some of the movies storyline and therefore giving the audience an idea of what to expect.

The final point that can be made is the use of the kicker at the bottom of the poster which states 'Demand It' in a button like image. The first point that can be made about this kicker is that the colours (Red and Black) which have been used to make it are the same as the title 'Paranormal Activity', but reversed. Due to this there is the effect of the audiences eyes being drawn towards this kicker as the bold red stands out from the rest of the poster. The text itself, 'Demand It' jumps out to the audience because it acts as if it is a command that almost makes the audience watch the film.