Saturday 20 February 2010

Evaluation Essay first draft

The very first thing we decided having already planned out a horror film trailer, was that the whole movie would be filmed on a hand held camera, (mainly due to the fact that all we had was a hand held camera, however it may make the film look uniquely different, which can only be a good thing).

The film's basic plot is about a small group of teenagers who wander into an abandoned school, they are just having fun playing around and even find a hand held camera. They start using the camera until all of a sudden they realise that one of their group (Sam) is missing. They look around for him and eventually find him in a room sitting in the corner on his own. Little do they know he has been possessed by a demon, this becomes evident to his friends as his physical appearance has become grim and he starts screaming like some kind of monster. Like a traditional modern day horror film he kills the others off in a gruesome and shocking manner that should frighten and maybe even disturb the audience (who will be adult). One friend will eventually survive and emotionally he kills his own friend who has been possessed by a demon.

The group first had to post ideas on this blog and were given certain tasks for research and planning. I chose to do some research on the films, Paranormal activity which is a new film, the Exorcist and Poltergeist which are both relatively old films. Looking at the details of these films gave me ideas which could be contributed to the making of our film trailer along with the actual story (which we still needed in order for the trailer to work).

We couldn't really point out any specific camera angels/shots since it's a hand held camera being held by the characters, but to name what shots we do have they would most probably be close up or extreme close up. We filmed the whole trailer in a corridor in the school and a couple of empty rooms provided fairly good scenery. We edited out several sounds and vocals that could of ruined the fearful mood in the trailer.

The group needed to decide on a soundtrack for the trailer and we were aided by a website with other soundtracks that could be used for films.

On the whole I think we produced a good horror film trailer with just a corridor, a couple of empty rooms and a spare hand held camera. I think the trailer will give the target audience a good insight into what the film is about and may do the job in advertising our horror film.





Saw film poster


Friday 19 February 2010

Twisted Pictures

Twisted pictures is an American production company founded in 2002. They are based in Los Angeles California. They specialise in producing films in the horror genre.
Twisted pictures gained worldwide attention through the production of the Saw films 1 to 6 along with other horror films such as dead silence and Catacombs. They are one of the few company's specialising in Horror films at present.

Target Audience

The target audience for our production is going to be adults over the age of eighteen (although if teenagers of a younger age made an effort to sneak in then that can only be good for our popularity). The reason for the age limit is because of the violent,frightening and disturbing content of the film. This film will appeal to anyone who is into horror films and most probably males as this isn't really a film you would wish to take your parents to see.
This is a supernatural type horror film and although I am not a great lover of what most horror films tend to be about nowadays,(a group of teens go into a abandoned place that gets haunted as they die one by one). This is probably just like that, but still worth watching I'm sure.
This will appeal to the target audience as it may be seen as a unique style of film as it is meant to be filmed on a hand held camera which our main characters find and use. I think on the whole it will appeal to the fans of the supernatural horror film.

Key Conventions

  • Making the audience interested by creating suspense.
  • Use short clips to create some suspense and tension.
  • The trailer needs something really scary at the very end.
  • Use a flash of a scary scene zoomed in, lasting only a second.
  • Use creepy voices to explain information rather than writing.
  • Music is very important in film trailers something very slow, monotonous or droning works well.
  • Use natural phobias that people are familiar with.
  • The element of surprise.

Monday 14 December 2009

Trailer comparisons

Having looked at the three horror film trailers (The Exorcist, Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity) I have noted some ideas for my own horror trailer to bring back to my group when we come back from our Christmas holidays. These include Having a narrator and making the trailer dark. I have also learned how horror film trailers have changed over time.

The first trailer I looked at (which you can also view on this blog) is the Exorcist , arguably the greatest and scariest horror film of all time. The trailer is dark and sets the tone for the film itself and unlike most film trailers it doesn't give away the best/scariest parts of the film, however you do see a small glimpse of the young girl in the film who gets possessed at her most shocking state.The trailer also has a narrator who with his low tone and deep voice makes the trailer seem even scarier just like the film.

The second film trailer I looked at was Poltergeist, a film about a family who finally find their dream home, they eventually find that an evil spirit does not want them in the house and horrible things start to happen as this evil spirit haunts them out.

The final trailer I reviewed is Paranormal Activity, I found this was a very smart trailer since it's different compared to most other trailers. You see a group of people viewing the film Paranormal Activity rather than bits of the film. Unfortunately this film does give away probably most of the scary moments in the ,however it still is a good film (baring in mind its just as funny as it is scary apart from the final scene which was very scary in my mind.)
This trailer shows people's reactions to the film and as you will see they are very scared and it is very tempting to see "what the big deal is all about" and go and see the film. This is a good idea to get people to come and see the film. Another thing that may suggest that you should see this film is the comments you see during the trailer which include "one of the scariest films of all time" which having already decided that the Exorcist is the scariest of all time (just ask the people who ran out of the cinemas scared and started fainting). This may persuade you to come and see the film to try and decide for yourself which is a very clever way of selling it. Having seen this film myself its also an unorthodox film as well as the trailer, as it is filmed like a documentary not a film with no credits before or even after the film.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

New trailer for Paranormal activity

This is a new trailer for paranormal activity. I will review all three trailers on my blog and compare the differences along with listing what I think are the best bits.



Narrative - About a girl, (Katie) that is being haunted by a demon ever since she was little. Katie is now a adult and has a boyfriend (micah) that she is living with because of the demon is haunting her and making her life a misery. Her boyfriend decides to catch the 'paranormal activity' on camera and in the end her boyfriend dies trying to protect katie.After the young, couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban “starter” tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that a demon but is certainly most active in the middle of the night.

Starring - Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong and Ashley Palmer.

Target audience - 18 to 30 year olds.

Music/sounds - Starts of with muted drum that's like a heart beat, this stops when the movie is about to start. This sounds makes it sound like something bad it about to happen, makes the audience feel tense. A sound of a spirit swooping pass the camera. Floor boards creak as if someone it sneaking about. These sounds makes the audience feel there's a spirit that it in the same room as them. A loud bang (with reactions of load screaming of fear from the audience). Shocks the audience as they don't know it is going to happen, makes them jump. All these sounds are very powerful and frightens the audience.

Camera angle/shot types - The camera is hand held throughout the whole trailer. There are a numerous camera angles, it starts off by showing the audience then it shows the film, this is done repeatedly throughout. This is a good affect as you get to see the audiences reactions to the film. The camera shots are long when showing the film but when the camera shows the audience it is a close-shot, this shows the audiences faces and shows them being scared.

Written Text - There are only written text at the beginning and the end of the trailer. The writing at the beginning of the trailer explains a bit about the film trailer its self. The next shot has white writing at the bottom left corner which tells you the date the first screening was, the 1st screening is the film trailer. The end of the film trailer it says 'one of the most scariest movies of all time' this persuades the viewer to watch it so they can say the have watched the most scariest movie ever and to see if they can handle it. It has more similar writing trying to persuade you to watch it.

How the audience was addressed - This film succeeds in it's purpose to scare the audience by raising tension and as this happens the slow scary low pitched music gets louder. Although the trailer gives away most of the scary moments apart from the final scene (which was very scary). This film doesn't rely overly on special effects but more on tension building and the audiences imagination.