Second Set of Filming

On Saturday, I returned to the location of my film. My actors were only available between 1pm and 4pm and, because of this, I will place filters over my shots to make them seem like night-time. Fortunately, the weather was extremely foggy. This created a more spooky atmosphere for my film. It created a sense of mystery and a fear of the unknown. The mist also suggests that my characters are trapped within the confides of the forest as visibility of the outside world is obstructed.

Opinions of my first draft

Today, I presented the first draft of my trailer to the class. The feedback that I was given was to increase the tension within my trailer. I can do this by taking shots that last for a longer duration and using music or silence. Another aspect of my feedback was that I will need to film during the night as this setting is a convention within horror trailers.

Editing My First Draft

Today, I began editing together the shots that I took. I began with a image of a red band which conveys to the viewer that the trailer is not suitable for children. I downloaded music entitled 'creepy doll music' from the website Orange Free Sounds (http://www.orangefreesounds.com/). This suits my trailer as it is high pitched piano music that is also suspenseful. The high pitch of the music effectively compliments the clown antagonist as this creepiness suggests that the innocent image of child-friendly clowns is being subverted. 'Creepy' piano music is a convention of horror trailers where a childhood image is made dark such as trailers with a doll as its antagonist. I placed a red filter over my shots as I will be presenting this draft tomorrow and will inform my audience that shots with a red filter are to be filmed again at night.

First Set of Filming

Today I began filming. We had an hour to do this and I got a variety of shots from tracking shots to close ups. However, this was filmed during the daytime and therefore the lighting was too bright and I want to film at night to give my trailer a darker tone and atmosphere. Due to this, I will reshoot during next week at a later time. I do think that today was successful due to the fact that it allowed me to become more familiar with how to work the camera and to improve my directing skills. Although these shots will not be used in my final product, I will create a daft of my trailer with these shots in the place of their reshoots. This will allow me to get a sense of the timing of my trailer and also gather opinions of others who I will present it to.

Planing Horror Trailer Creation

I have created a storyboard for my trailer and will begin filming this week. My storyboard gives me an indication as to what shots I will have to take and the timings of my trailer. I will film the beginning of my trailer during the day time as it is easier to arrange filming my actors in a school day. After that, I will begin filming at night. The fact that it is currently Winter allows me to film these parts at earlier and more convenient times. I will also film establishing shots when in the car driving past my local park.

Costumes for my Horror Trailer

Danny's costume
In my trailer, Danny will wear a large coat accompanied by a hat, gloves and jumper. This will convey a wintery setting for my trailer as the weather is misty. He will also wear boots as the characters are camping within a forest and therefore are implied to have spent the whole day walking. In the trailer, his jumper will change to convey that the film takes place on several days. He will wear jeans to appear casual.

Lydia's costume
Similar to Danny's costume, Lydia will wear a hat, gloves and coat to show the coldness of their trip. She will also wear boots and a scarf. She will wear leggings to also seem casual.

Clown costume
I used a clown outfit from a previous Halloween for my antagonist. It consists of a jester-style one piece and mask.

Actors For My Horror Trailer

Daniel Probbing
For my trailer, I will use Daniel Probbing as one of my protagonists due to the fact that he studies drama and therefore is familiar with acting and being directed.

Lydia Foxley
Lydia Foxley will be the other protagonist in my piece. She also studies drama which is why I chose her to star. Her and Danny are close friends and, because of this, both of their characters will have chemistry.


MyselfI will play the clown in my trailer. This will prevent my time management being impacted by needing another actor to portray the role. I am quite tall so the character will seem more threatening.

Style Models-The Forest

The Forest (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hW8hUcXR-A

The trailer for 'The Forest' (which is a supernatural horror directed by Jason Zada) follows a plot which echoes what I desire the plot my trailer to be. It is set in a forest and is a horror about people camping, just like my trailer. One shot that I took inspiration from was a shot that shown an antagonist overlooking at a far distance with the appearance of the figure being distorted, creating an ominous effect.

Style Models-Ouija:Origin of Evil

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-eSWIZkAH8While researching horror trailers, I discovered the trailer for Ouija prequel entitled 'Ouija: Origin of evil'. This is a movie by Universal Pictures and it is directed by Mike Flanagan. I was inspired by how the trailer ends with a jump cut montage which presents multiple action packed shots from the movie. I aspire to make use of this in the creation of my own trailer. Also, there was a particular shot that I wish to reenact consists of a character crawling backwards away from a predator in the antagonist's point of view shot.

Horror Trailer Conventions

• Disclaimer before trailer
• Begin with a 'calm before the storm'- Normal setting accompanied by ominous, eerie non-digetic music
• At start, long shots-little amount of cuts 
• Common dialogue of questions ("What's that?", "Who's there?")
• Dark atmosphere- Nighttime, imagery, pathetic fallacy 
• Dramatic angles- Extreme close up, high angle, low angle
• Isolated- Location gives the sense of no escape
• Loud digetic noises- Screams, breating, running, door slam 
• Purpose of scaring audience while also encouraging audience to watch- no plot points
• Text throughout to invite audience along with giving a hint towards the genre ("This October")
• Iconography indicates genre- Weapons, masks to disorientate audience, don't fully reveal villain unless at the end
• POV shots makes the audience empathise more with the character's fear
• Fast paced shots and editing, chase-builds tension. Speed increases throughout until trailer's peak. Music also gets louder throughout
• Some shots are complete black (Dead Black Out)
• Title shown at end-audience remembers title
• Voiceover of character dialogue over shots

Pre-Lim Music Video

Idea for my cousework

I would like to create a horror movie trailer based on the recent clown craze. This character could be a female, subverting gender roles as the majority of horror movie serial killers are male. A plot idea I has was having a group of people camping in the woods while a clown is also in the woods with them. This would create a sense of entrapment. The location of a woods is a convention of horror movies as there is a general feeling of mystery. An issue with my idea is safety when filming due to the fact that one of my actors will be dressed as a clown and with this recent 'plague of clowns', wearing a clown costume would worry members of the public and draw negative attention. In addition to this, the majority of my shots will be filmed at night as this is a more effective setting for a horror movie. I will research horror movie trailers to discover what conventions they contain so I can therefore, implement it into my trailer. A style model I will consider using is the trailer for 'It' as that is a horror movie about a clown as well. I will work alone for this task and will ask my friends to participate as actors. I have thought of some titles for my film- 'Giggle' and 'Chuckle'.

I have an idea for some shots such as an actor resting against a wall/boulder, clearly out of breath. The camera will pan around this actor as they are breathing heavily for about 5 seconds, building tension. A clown's gloved hand will then quickly reach around the boulder/wall and grab their mouth in a sort-of jump scare. I found a youtube video which compiled every mention of these 'clown sightings' in the news so I could use a small aspect of the video to represent that the serial killer is participating in this. Another idea I had was having my serial killer looking into a bathroom mirror with the camera circling the actor. The lights will flicker and they will be dressed as a clown, then the lights will flicker again and they will be back to normal, the lights will flicker a final time and they will be a clown again.

Music Video Pre-lim Task-Editing

Today we edited our music video together with the programme 'iMovie'. This is a simple but useful way of editing clips. We first uploaded all of our shots and then chose the ones that we believed were most effective and relevant. The song 'Problem' was downloaded and became the only noise in the video as we muted the clips. Making the song line up with the lip-syncing and clapping was a challenge but eventually, after cutting some clips, it was successful. We used a black and white filter for our clips to create a intimate atmosphere.

Music Video Pre Lim Task Filming

Today we went to the drama studio in school to film our music video. This is due to the fact that it is a black box studio and therefore, is effective for providing a blank background. There is a complex lighting system in this room as it is a space for performances. We took advantage of this to enhance our video. The shots we filmed are of our actors lip syncing in medium close up shots and clapping to the beat of the music. Our actors wore black tops and jeans for their costume as black is simplistic and not distracting for the audience of the video. We used a projection of a black and white swirl behind our actors in some shots to echo Ariana Grande's video as she also uses the same projection of this swirl. We projected it onto a white board as this is a clear surface. I believe that the shots we filmed were very effective due to the fact that our actors showed clear chemistry with each other. We want our music video to be attractive to teens and young adults and this is presented through the ages of our actors and the energetic, fast paced tone of the music video.

Music Video Pre-lim Task Style Model

Today we looked at multiple music videos and decided that we were going to create a shot music video to the song "Problem" by Ariana Grande. This song has distinct beats that can be mimicked in our video through clicking and clapping. The video also contains lip-syncing that can be recreated by us. We are going the film the music video in the school's drama studio as it has very good lighting and will also allow us to have a simplistic background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1g8G_njx8

Music video conventions

Conventions

Mise en scene
The mise en scene of a music video usually represents something. For example, walking alone could connote to feelings of isolation. The visuals of a music video further represents the emotions expressed by the songs's lyrics. The mise en scene can also echo the song's genre, bright and colourful represents pop music. The costume of the artist is also a factor. Black clothing can express sadness.

Lighting
Lighting represents many things in a music video, black and white helps emphasise a particular mood and artificial lighting puts the artist in an enhanced look.

Editing
Jump cuts are very prominent in music videos and allow for a sudden change between scenes. Other transitions like fade and dissolve are also sometimes used

Sound
Music videos use both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. It is mainly vocals or the song.

Props
These are of great significance in aiding music videos and help add to the scene. Props seen in music videos and commonly instruments that can be heard in the instrumentals.

Camera Movement
Low angles to give power to artist. Pans/tilts allow for movement to show different artists.

Camera shots
To focus on the artist and their location, music videos regularly use medium close up shots, long shots and close ups. Close ups are used to show emotions and also to reflect the words of the song through the movements of the artists lips