Evaluation Question 3

How your audience feedback influenced the decisions made in your productions?

Firstly, we all discussed and brainstormed the theme of the teaser trailer. Many different themes were brought up and discussed as we wanted to pick the perfect one. We first realised we were going to make a horror teaser trailer, but the main decision was what sub-genre to choose. We looked closely  into posession and religion, looking at past and current films that were released. For example, we looked closely  into the paranormal activity films and child related films such as orphan. After this initial research we decided to create a survey on survey monkey online. We further sent this out to friends and family within our age range and waited for replies. After this we analysed the results and used them to form our storyline and plot of our teaser trailer.

• We researched different genres of horror film and narrowed it down to just a few sub-genres
• Asked this question above on survey monkey, got responses and supernatural came out the most popular.
• We then looked into conventions of supernatural films and teaser trailers.
• By taking the advice of the survey results we based it all on supernatural horror
• We filmed scenes such as the staring over the bed and the bath scene which involve supernatural power
• By editing the footage filmed we could create effects, such as by reversing the smoke backwards back into her mouth this looks supernatural
• 
• \We played alot of teaser trailers on youtube and researched what location they were set in, we quickly realise that they varied and alot of them had a mixed selection in just one trailer. From this we decided to have a mixed location to be interesting.
• From the survey results the top two locations were home and graveyard, so we decided to have a combination of the two.
• In filming, we filmed panning shots to show graveyard location and we also filmed scenes in the bedroom and other rooms within her family house. This gives a close to home freaky feel to the teaser trailer
• We edited the clips so that the locations were shown, we had a panning shot on the graveyard and it was fully showcased and in the house it was clearly shown that it had different rooms such as the bed was shown in the bedroom.

• We looked at past and present teaser trailers and noticed that many of them had captions and subtitles within their teaser trailer, that shows small lines of text, often giving away small details of the plot
• We added a question in the survey relating to this and the results came out that they would like this
• When we was editing we added in black screens and entered in white text in time to our police 911 call sound

Poster Editing

The poster is a very important part of the trio of promotion, we used the same font for the title which was imported using photoshop. The eye was also distorted and blurred using photoshop iris blur. The eye ball its self was in focus with the rest of the photo being out of focus. Creating a realistic effect, especially the blood. The text at the bottom was all typed and positioned in photoshop and the logos were imported on there too.

Website Editing

For the website, we performed several different tasks. Firstly, Creating the colour scheme which was the red and black. Mainly because these are generic colours for horror movies and their websites which we found from research. Then we had to download the font for our title "ultinoem" and import that into the website. All of this was done using WIX editor online. Then the tag line was typed and the font was chosen.

Then using the editor tools we imported and positioned the youtube video of our teaser trailer into the centre of the website. This is extremely important to have in prime position on the website as it is the most important factor of our promotion.

The Image on the left of the website was editied online and then the edges were faded on photoshop. This was imported and positioned in an irregular place than websites we had researched.

Music Editing

This is where we imported the music for the teaser trailer, again using the sliders we moved around the balances and levels of the music to make it most effective and horror themed. Volume was also changed. we also muted the sounds from the original clip to give a clearer sound of the music.

Colour Editing

In this certain still shot of our antagonist, we zoomed in close up to get a better view of the makeup and styling of the character. To make her look even more pale, we played around with the contrast and brightness of the image. This is all done through the easy to use tab by sliders. By increasing the brightness, we could make her skin whiter which gives a more horror effect.

Panning Editing

We used a panning shot for the graveyard shot in the early stages of our teaser trailer, we moved the camera whilst shooting aswell, but this didnt prove effective. So by trying many different effects and movements we tried to change the clip for the better. The speed of the clip was changed as we filmed it very slowly panning and we wanted a faster panning effect to match in with the speed of the montage. The speed can be easily changed through the panel in imovie with a slider. The duration was also cut down and altered to the most scenic part of the clip.

Survey Results




1. We are filming a teaser trailer in the horror genre, but what sub-genre would you prefer?

From the results of this survey we have found that most of our audience would prefer a supernatural horror, examples of this is the twilight. 


2. What sounds do you think would be most effective?

We had mixed results from this question, but the highest voted was sound effects, this infulenced us to research into film trailers using sound effects. Which lead to us finding a clip of jewellery box music.

3. What location would you find most effective for a horror movie?

Many different locations are used in many different trailers, but from this survey we can tell that people preferred a graveyard or cemetry setting, followed by a home setting. Because of this we aimed to feature both.

4. We would like our main character to be the antagonist, Specifically, what would you prefer?

Serial killer was not a popular option, this could be for our age range. Although, possessed and ghost haunting mother were popular so we thought we would try to combine the two or have aspects of both.

5. What age range of actors would you like to see the most?

A younger generation was most popular, maybe this is so our Target audience can relate to the story and characters.

6. What type of camera work would you find most effective?

7. What gender should our main character be?

8. In the teaser trailer, how would you prefer our female Antagonist to look, to show that she is the bad character?

9. What horror conventions would you like to be included?



10. Do you think titles to give clues about the plot incorporated into the teaser trailer would be effective?

 From the results, we found out that viewers like clues about the plot, we will include subtitles and small clues about the overall plot to please the viewers of the teaser trailer.

Case 39 Film Deconstruction

Case 39 

Camera Angles:

• High angle looking down on the social worker, usually she’d have more dominance in a situation but from this camera angle looking down on her she is looking as if she’s smaller/insignificant and the others are more in control
• Close up of the young girl’s emotions looking scared and uncomfortable
• Camera shots cut between the tired mum showing her pale face, dark sunken eyes, the angry dad and little girl looking scared
• Medium shot to show both characters in the frame, whole the mother is hiding behind the door acting as a barrier between her and the social worker it’s evident she doesn’t want to let her into their lives

Mise En Scene:

• When the social worker arrives children are playing together in the background, dogs are barking normal diegetic sounds from a community
• When it shows the house, the atmosphere shifts; eerie music starts to play in the background things are more echoed and dark
• When the mum is shown looking out of window the curtains are protecting her by covering up her face could symbolise what they are covering from authorities. She looks worried, the house looks run down not looked after by the use of dull colours
• Her face very pale red tired eyes, girl looks scared, they sit away from the mother maybe emphasising that they don’t have a good relationship
• He kicks her under the table doesn’t speak for himself
• Contrast to when they come in to the police station looking smart with the suits make-up and hair done, they try to make a good impression on the authorities by dressing smartly

Sound:

• When the social worker arrives children are playing together in the background, dogs are barking normal diegetic sounds from a community
• When the camera turns to show the house, the atmosphere shifts, eerie music starts to play in the background things are more echoed and dark
• When she sees child music starts to sound as if it’s a wind up doll thing type of music typical of child nursery rhymes but sounds quite sinister creepy music box, footsteps are loud 

Camera Angles:

• Close up angle of the eye is effective in making the viewer uncomfortable and awkward watching it as it’s such a disturbing image
• They use an overhead  shot of him when he is going crazy ripping his head backwards, you can see the blood dripping down and the clothes on the floor

Mise En Scene:

• He wears a white shirt unbuttoned at the top showing maybe he’s stressed or now relaxing at home
• He is in a white room which has connotations of something clinical or a mental hospital which adds to the dramatic action of him turning mad before he dies
• Everything looks clean and clinical, this shows a stark contrast to then when the blood goes everywhere around the room

Sound:

• They use high pitch screeching noises then sharply stops repeatedly
• The continual noise of bugs flying around
• The noise that was building up the suspense stops when he flushes the bug away, as he thinks he has got away with it
• When the bugs come back the noise comes back again but more deep sounds as opposed to the high pitch sound
• Noises speed up builds up the pace
• Then fades out when he’s dead on the floor

Editing:

• Camera spinning around the room 360 degrees making him seems crazy, anxiously looking around quickly
• Uses unsteady looking like hand-held camera moving it in different angles to make him look more unbalanced

Camera angles:

• Close up of locks and bolts to prevent little girl from getting in
• Close up of her face, showing Emily’s fear
• They focused on the markings on the floor just as the parents had showing the full cycle which can’t be broken

Mise En Scene:

• Conforms to the conventional bedroom nothing subverting this to indicate a difference in what will happen
• Role reversal the woman is hiding under the bed while the girl tries to coax her out
• She shows fear as opposed to the little girl who shows authority

         Sound:

• The moving of furniture and the little girl breaking through the bedroom are all emphasised and louder than usual, this is done to symbolise how destructive she can be and the effect she has on people
• When the girl bursts through the room and then stabs the floor with the knife the music is all dramatic but suddenly changes when she shows her face to almost nursery rhyme, innocent music which seems quite creepy and evil reflecting her character. 

Shooting Script

December 10th-

Location : Becca's house
Time: 2.00pm

We aim to film all the bedroom scenes and the burning of the photographs, we don't require any props for these particular scenes. we will need dark lighting for the burning of the photographs so this will be done later in the evening.



Camera angles and movement

-Hand held camera for the bedroom scene
-Birdseye shot for the burning of the photographs
-High angle shot for the bedroom scene
-Point of view shot for the mirror scene

Costumes needed-

Rebecca- Bed and Makeup Scene/plain white nightdress, no shoes or braclets
Jane-  Bed Scene/plain top, plain pyjama bottoms
            Makeup Scene/dark top, plain jeans, no jewellery

Makeup needed-

Rebecca- white face makeup, heavy eye liner, dark eye shadow, thick mascara, pale lips
Jane- dark eye shadow, light mascara, dark lips

Editing (Videos)

As well as inserting our own clips that we had filmed with our flip camera, we downloaded clips from YouTube. Originally we wanted to film our own TV to create the same 'fuzzy' effect, however we weren't satisfied with the outcome, the clips didn't look as authentic as we wanted them to be so we decided to download an already existing clip from YouTube.

Editing (Colours)

After becoming confident in using the video editing tools, there were three clips we wanted to create the effect that they were night vision. We did this by enhancing the exposure and contrast, darkening the brightness and saturation. But ultimately the tool we used to create the right colour and grainy film look was the 'White Point' tool, by changing the colour filter to blue we managed to create a night vision effect. blue also has cold and clinical connotations, and as the mother is unaware that she is standing over her it creates an eerie atmosphere.

We also used this editing technique for another clip of the main protagonist standing behind her mother. We chose to change the colour filter to red as this has connotations with the devil, blood and danger. This ties in with our plot and makes it obvious to the audience the character is evil and forebodes something bad is about to happen. Adding to this we also changed the exposure levels to make the image slightly unclear too add to the ambiguity, because the audience and the mother are unaware of the characters presence until the mother walks out of shot.

Editing (Clip Duration)

After editing the colour filter on the graveyard clip, the clip was still about 6 seconds long, we decided this was too long and as it was a panning shot it showed too much of only one place. To make the clip shorter we used the editing technique of changing the speed of the clip, rather than cutting the clip we changed the duration of it to only 2seconds.
This way we could show enough of the clip for the audience to see whats happening but not bore the viewers with a 6second clip of the same thing. The camera work was also slightly shaky on this clip as when we filmed it was windy so by speeding it up we eliminated the shaky element.
We also used this technique when creating our montage of clips at the end of the teaser trailer, a montage of clips is a common convention of film teaser trailers, horror trailers in particular. By showing a quick succession of clips you create tension and also give the audience an extra insight into the story plot.

Editing (Inserting Text)

We decided to insert text into our teaser trailer to offer a better explanation of the story to the audience, one slide we inserted was a transcript of an audio clip that was playing simultaneously. We did this so the sound clip was made more understandable to the viewers.
We positioned the text in the centre of the screen rather than at the top or bottom to create a more central focal point to make it easier to read. We chose to translate only one line of text so the audience were not overwhelmed with reading lots of a text in a short time, we also decided this line was the most important.







We also inserted text at the end of the trailer containing the release date of the film, after the name had appeared. This is a common convention of film teaser trailers as the audience need to be made aware of the release date, this is a form of promotion for the film informing the viewers when they can see the film in the cinema.
Again we followed the same colour scheme as we have used previously in the trailer, we felt simple white text on a black background makes the text stand out.

Editing (Video Editing)

When constructing our trailer we used editing techniques such as changing the colour using the brightness, contrast, saturation, exposure and also editing the colour filter for the clip.
In the clip shooting the graveyard originally it was bright and the colours were very vivid but we thought that to create a more solemn atmosphere we wanted to make the colours darker with more grey and dull tones.
We did this by putting down the contrast and saturation, also to make the quality clearer we heightened the exposure, which resulted in the clip reflecting a more stereotypical eerie graveyard scene.

Shrine Trailer Deconstruction

Shrine trailer deconstruction 

Sound:
·         It starts with diegetic speech, of two characters having a conversation
·         There is a fairly loud bang then goes more quiet and background spine-chilling music starts
·         Music is a mysterious type of music quite creepy throughout the whole trailer
·         It goes quieter then builds up again with short sharp loud noises followed by louder and quicker music building up the pace and tension of the storyline
·         Goes silent thinking it’s the end of the trailer then ends with a loud scream element of surprise/fear


Camera angles:

·         Starts with a low angle shot someone walking through the door. A low angle is used in order to give the character dominance or seem more powerful. It also seems like something is down there waiting for them to come in and scare them, using fear of the unknown to create tension
·         An aerial shot shows a lot of greenery sets, it’s used to set the scene showing that the film will be set in a countryside area rather than in an inner city
·         Close up shot is used to draw attention to specific detail, here it is showing something about to go into the actors eye this is a disturbing image for the viewer and is used to make us feel uncomfortable watching it
·         An over the shoulder shot  is used to show us the character’s perspective, the actor stands dead still which could emphasise her fear of what is in front of her not wanting to move towards it. Despite her still taking up the majority of the frame the figure still looks in perspective big, for something that far away, to enhance the fear. 

Mise en scene: 

·         One of the first images we see of this area is with someone looking like they are planting or digging something surrounded by bushes and plants looks like they could be on some type of farm or plantation. Thus shows they are in an isolated area.  All the people they see wear dark, long, clothing especially the girls/women.
·         The explorers wear casual clothes, before going into the forest when they see the mist it creates an eerie atmosphere and builds a fear of the unknown as they don’t know what they’re about to walk into or find in there
·         When they are captured it shows a dark room with minimal lighting, all the men are in long dark cloaks and the only bit in light is when the body is on the raised platform for everyone to see what is about to take place. The darkens of the room suggests something is going to happen that they don’t want people to see

Editing:
·         It uses basic continuity editing to create a sense of the narrative moving forward
·         It sometimes slows the actions down to add more effect
·         Between shots it fades into black before showing the next image
·         At the end the editing speeds up showing short fast clips to create pace which is enhanced by the parallel sound of the fast paced music