Story Board

Evaluation

Evaluation FMP Jonathan Hardwick

My project brief asked me to create a Horror Movie trailer that creates emotion of suspense that makes the viewer keep their eye on the trailer at all times. I was particularly enthusiastic about this project as horror films are one my favourite genres and I thoroughly enjoy working with a camera and editing.

For primary source research I put together a short horror film trailer at the start, I created this to show progress of how I will have improved from the start and what I ultimately wanted to achieve, this helped me show where I was going wrong and what elements I was getting right, feedback from peers helped me achieve a much more structured trailer. I created a short video demonstrating different camera shots, that I could use in the final piece this helped me recap what looks right, and what looks effective.

I used secondary sources to show what my influences were towards creating my horror film trailer, these included clips from horror movies and trailers of other horror films. This gave my ideas and chance to show what sort of style I was trying to head down. During the editing process I used the song Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies, which I used in my test film trailer, but I felt I had not used it to its full potential, for such a creepy sounding intro to a song, especially the suspense the song creates as a whole.

In my research I looked at a directors that had filmed horror films that in my opinion were the best and groundbreaking in there own areas, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was one of the first films to really use the Steadi-cam to full potential creating a smooth motion, which creates huge suspense, I looked at other directors such as Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) and Films such as The Blair Witch Project and how they became such huge Horror hits, The way the are put together, how they use the camera and how they tell a story, but I wanted to focus mainly on their trailers for their films and how they advertise their films to the extent where they get the viewer to want to see the film and remember it  without giving to much away.

After looking at other Horror movie trailers I noticed that it has stay powerful and capturing during the whole of the trailer, the use of the music and the fast powered pace that my trailer gives of is equal to this of other horror trailers. I developed these ideas from my research.

Overall I feel my final trailer had hit the main objectives that I wanted to hit, and I am more than happy with the final piece, and happier with the feedback I have gained from it. What I feel successful about is the project as whole, how it is structured and how it is put across, and that a final outcome was reached with satisfying results.

I rarely use Premier as a program itself, so every time I do use it, I learn something new, during the process of crating my final film I used separate audio tracks and layered them for effective use, this appears in the final scene with then hand and the heavy breathing, I had not experimented with this before, I found it effective and look forward to using it in more detail next time I use the program as the sound of  any film and trailer or any moving picture is one of the most important factors of creating any genre of moving picture.

One of the problems I had when coming to the end of the final major project was timing when it came to filming the trailer, as the storyboard had only been drawn up days before, but once I set myself up, I filmed the whole trailer in one evening, with the help of an assistant. If I were to do the project again I would Start a off by doing a day by day plan of what happens when, as it got rather stressful towards the end, but I am pleased to see a finished production.

FInal Trailer

Camera Shots

Story Board

I have drawn out a story board which sets the horror film trailer scene by scene showing what happens in the scene to how it is shot and what is said and heard. A storyboard has a major advantage over the common script, it allows me as a director to see how the film will look like before actually filming. because my trailer will involve very little dialog a storyboard was the better to choose over the script too. I have managed to include the dialog in the storyboard as well. I haven't decided yet to use a soundtrack, or just stick with the films sound effects to create realism and create more suspense. This will be decided during the editing process.

The title of the film came to me whilst drawing out the story board  'The Reason Above' In my opinion has a good sound to it and is relevant to the film, but more subconsciously it has a rhetorical question sound to it, when the viewer sees it the trailer will have provided enough entertainment for the viewer to go and find out what The Reason Above is. It is not too ridiculous compared some modern and old horror movie titles, and has real potential behind it.

Health and Safety


Whilst filming I have to think about the health and safety of Myself, Actors and the equipment that I will be using, a risk assessment of the environment I will be filming is essential. The set of my trailer is set in a real workshop, with sharp props surrounding the director, actor and camera at alls times, and filming in such a small room could result it in injury or damage to the equipment, I will resolve this by clearing the workshop to the extent of it still looking like a real workshop without presenting any danger to the crew.

Because I am working in a small space, the camera has more chance to get damaged due to not all shots having me holding the camera to get the whole room in the shot. I will overcome this by creating a storyboard with all the shots in and a camera shot list, so i know specifically how the trailer will shoot out, increasing production time and editing, if I know how long the shots are going to be and how they will merge together.

Main Idea for Final Piece

The basis of the story is that a male has been taken hostage in a windowless workshop of some sort, inside a house, memorabilia, threatening work tools and and boxes surround the hostage, on the door in the left corner their is cat flap, in front of the hostage is a timer counting down, a creepy looking doll is pushed through the cat flap in the door reading if you escape you die, with a the key to the door attached to the note, the hostage is more confused whilst wondering what is going on, the time gets closer to 00.00, panic sets in to the hostage, when the time reaches zero, the lights go out, the trailer isn't over, a light turns on outside the door, the heavy breathing of the hostage sets in, the door opens someone walks in. This sets the suspense of the film and makes the viewer want to go to the cinema to see the film is all about, without given much away in the film.