Props

• In our trailer, we plan to use a few props in order to make our trailer more interesting and exciting. Our props are as follows -

• This white mask for our villain will be used to conceal his identity and will be painted to add horror to the face on the mask. The villain will also have black clothing and a hood to make sure that there are no parts of his body on show which could make him more humanised and less of a villain. We are hoping that the white mask against black clothing will give him the scariest look that we could possibly create.

• Another prop we will be using is this car. This car will be used for our beginning, where all that can be heard is an engine running and revving against a black screen, and during our trailer where lights project onto our victim showing the effect of 'a rabbit in headlights.' The car will be helpful at showing how alone one of our victims really is, as when the headlights turn on she will be the only thing in sight.

• We will also be using a van, to show the villain's change in location and change of victim/vehicle. A van may be scarier compared to a small car, as a van is like a tank, and is much higher up which can give the feel of more powerful, and the victim more helpless.

• Another prop we may use is a fake knife or a shoe lace, as we want our victim to have a weapon of choice. We may use a shoe lace as it stated in the nursery rhyme '1 2 buckle your shoe' which suggests to the audience; don't tie your shoes otherwise you may die. However we feel that this may be too much of a hidden meaning and not obvious to the audience therefore we may use a knife as it could be effective as it will look scary in our horror trailer. We would plan to buy a fake knife as it would be safer.

• A different prop we may use is tomate ketchup. We may use this as in our trailer we want something to look scary in very fast shots such as blood dripping from the victims face or their hands. We believe that it is very scary for the audience to see blood as it is not very common and makes people automatically feel frightened as the red could be a warning sign for danger. I feel this is a good thing to use as it is accessible and won't be too expensive for us to buy. The only disadvantage is that it may be too solid and not look realistic on the victims face and hands.

 

Questionnaire results

The results from our questionnaire were as follows -

• The results of our questionnaire were very successful as we have learnt a lot from them and plan to use the information that we received to our advantage. We surveyed ten people of varying ages and we asked an even number of each gender as we wanted our results to be equal and even. We had a really good response from our audience members with some really interesting opinions and suggestions.

• Before we start to film and plan our final film we will review these suggestions and work on improving the material we have so far. The questionnaire has proved to be very positive as it has helped us to form our final film and we will be working on implementing as many of them as possible and we will take the target audience advice on board.

• From our results we have learnt that our main target audience are 15-24 year old as they visit the cinema and watch trailers the most out of the age groups. We found out that the majority of people watch horror trailers 1-5 times a month with that result being 6 people out of 10. Our questionnaire result also informed as that there are two aspects of a horror trailer that audience members find vital. These are fast paced scenes and dark mysterious scenes. Four out of ten from the people that we surveyed preferred horror trailers to romance, comedy or action we think that this might be because they are more tension building and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. We also found that the scariest aspects for a villain include masks on the face (4 people) and face in full shadow (3 people). This information is valuable to us as it gives an idea of how we can make our villain scary as can be.

• Our results enlightened us that the most popular horror genre was real life which we feel could be down to it being more relatable to the audience member and their life in reality. From asking our target audience we found out that the most popular horror trailer is Paranormal Activity and The Strangers.This could be down to the fact that they are very realistic and relatable to the audience as they both take place in the home where the audience should feel most safe. Our results also instructed us that a split amount of people enjoy watching a horror trailer for their actual film. Music plays a very important part in a trailer according to our research and trailers really effect peoples view of a film.



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Masks

• We want our villain to have a hidden identity within a mask, so the research that we have done on various trailers that use masks have brought us to research masks that we can access easily. These masks below are masks that are available for us to use -

When looking at these masks which are grinning and angry, we have decided that we do not want to use them, as they may take away some of the horror factor as they look kind of jokey. Also we are not able to paint these masks, so we would not be able to get them to the standard that we want our masks to be.

• This single mask that has a plain expressions and plain face, is the mask that we are going to use. We are able to paint it which gives us a lot more options on how to make it scary, and a lot more options when it comes to filming. This way we are able to perfect the mask to how we want it. Also the eye holes for the mask look serious and creepy, and if the area around them was black or the person wearing the mask had black all around their eyes, the eyes would just look like a black hole against the white mask. The person wearing the mask is going to be male, so we do not need to worry about long blonde hair etc. Although the blonde hair on this mask does make her look scary as blonde girls are stereotypically innocent and victims, not the villain.
• Also the greenness of the mask does not look as creepy as the white mask, as the green ones do not look as intimidating and frightening, also the white mask is quite ghostly compared to the green one which looks like someone has painted it green.

Possible actors and actresses

Georgina (on the right) is one of our possible actresses. We may choose to use her as she is petite, so could be looked upon as vulnerable and she has brown hair, so is subverting the stereotype that the victim is a helpless blonde girl.

Greg (left) is one of our possible actors. He is very tall and slim so could be seen as threatening and powerful. Although he is blonde, he will have his hood up and have a mask on, so his hair and facial expressions will be hidden. We feel that someone tall wearing a mask would be very scary as they would look patronising and authoritive.






















Alex (left) is another possible actor for our trailer. We feel he may be a good choice for our villain as he is tall and has dark hair, so all areas of his face would be darkened out. Since we may have two villain's we may choose to use both Alex and Greg as they are both very different in appearance, so may be scarier in appearance as villain's.























Lauren (myself) on the right may be a good choice of victim for our trailer, as I also have brown hair, which subverts the stereotypical blonde, innocent stereotype, and I am also a lot smaller than both of our possible villain's which could show their authority and power over me, as being smaller it wouldn't take much for them to catch up with me and kill me. Also I have a lot of light coloured clothing, which could show my innocence and purity against the people trying to kill me, which could make me more relatable to an audience member.














Amy (left) and Kieran (right) are two more of our possible actors/actresses. *AMY* may be a good victim as she is blonde which conforms to the stereotypical 'silly blonde girl who dies first and makes bad decisions' but she is also quite tall which means she is either taller or the same height as our possible villains, which could make our trailer less scary as she may have the strength to over power them, meaning our trailer would not be realistic if they easily managed to kill her. Also *AMY* was in our AS film, and is now at uni, so filming would be very difficult.


*KIERAN* is a possible actor for our villain. Although he has dark hair which could make him scarier against a dark background, he is quite small so may be smaller than our victims which could take away some of the scare factor as again, the victims may easily be able to overpower him.

January editing schedule

7th January 2013

Today, Beth and I put our footage that was filmed on Saturday on to the computer. However, we found that it was not very successful as we felt that the footage was far to dark on the programme 'Adobe Premiere Elements'. This meant that the characters facial expressions could hardly be seen and didn't show the location in which the events were happening. This means that we will have to re-film all our footage that we have filmed so far earlier so that the footage is more effective.

14th January 2013

We put more of our footage on the computer today that we filmed on Saturday. We found that using more light and filming it a bit earlier in the day meant that our footage was clearer and a lot more effective although still being dark enough to make it look like the evening.

Film treatment

PLOT SYNOPSIS

• Parents have planned a few days trip together to celebrate their anniversary. They live in a big house near the woods but since their daughter is now 18 she wants her independance, so begs to be left home alone. As soon as they leave, the girl rings her boyfriend to tell him that she is home alone for a few days, and to come over. As the day continues and the darkness starts to approach, the girl swears she sees something outside in the dark. Whilst sat alone downstairs she starts to hear footsteps upstairs and starts seeing the same black figure reappearing on numerous occasions. When she tries to ring for help, her phoneline gets cut off and she ends up being scared into running into the woods.

UPDATE -

• This idea was our initial idea, but from discussing our trailer ideas in more detail, we have developed this idea into something we think will be more clever, and well thought out, in order to keep people interested in our trailer.