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.

Horror Movie Questionnaire Results

I created a Horror Movie questionnaire to see what various age groups opinion on the genre currently stood at. I asked a multitude of questions to peers and teachers, asking questions about genre, content and opinion. Below are my finding of my questionnaire.



Don't you like in a Horror Movie?

What in Horror Movies scare you?

What Would you like to see in a Death scene?

Communication


What my brief has asked of me is to create a short film or film trailer that creates or emotion of both, creating an atmosphere that will keep the viewers eyes on the screen throughout.

By using what I know from films that have influenced mine the, camera techniques, music, story and  look of my film, will hopefully pull of an atmospheric suspense trailer, that as a bonus will inflict fear to the viewer not to the stage that they won't want to see the film but more that they will want to know what the film is about.

By looking at the camera techniques getting the suspense across to the viewer will be helped along with the long shots, that lead up to events that happen to the main character.

Evaluating my test film 'Videotape', I found the viewers being intrigued in what was happening in the film but led to them saying they didn't really know what was happening. this feedback helps me realise I'm getting the filming in the right area but not so much the story telling.

looking back at the test film, in my opinion it was too dark and hard to see, so I'm not going to use dark outside scenes in my film and if i do I will use them very minimally. I find horror films using the dark to create suspense is an easy technique, films that create scary scenes without the use of darkness are much more clever and have much more impact because horror film viewers are so used to dark scary scenes.

First Major Ideas


After analysing what I finally have researched so far, I have got some ideas together for my film that I will elaborate in this post.

The main story of the film is that a male or group of friends have taken a extremely rare and dangerous hallucinogenic drug and the basis of the horror film is that main character wakes up thinking he has just passed out from the night before until certain factors make him believe he is in some sort of an unescapable trip.

The trailer will be made up of long takes, this will create the suspense, that will be the opening of the film, the shot will include bottles of drink and a set that makes it look like a party has taken place and then cut to the main character passed out in an unusual environment, with a knife in his hand the film goes to show him exploring the house that he is in.

The trailer will then go onto show scenes of the character realising the environment he is in isn't quite as it seems. Not knowing what happens to the character or how he will go onto the save himself will make the viewer want to see the film.

The idea comes from grasping a younger audience whilst throwing in the fear of a good horror film with classic suspense.


After reviewing this idea I have decided to use some elements and try and leave the party style of this idea.

I've moved on to a second idea that I am much more happy about and personally will be much much more successful as a film trailer and film overall

The trailer will mainly revolve around a captured male in a windowless room where he is fed notes through a cat flap to keep him updated why he's there, if the viewer wants to know why they will have to see the film so this is creating the foundations of suspense for the trailer.

It will mainly come under the psychological horror sub-genre which is in my opinion one of the better genres, i this idea that I'm slowly but surely putting together will be the main idea for my trailer. What I have realised is that if the character is put into a realistic situation that the viewer could imagine themselves in, is much more scarier than monsters and unrealistic sub genres inside the horror genre.

I am looking forward on expanding on this idea much more than my first, and I think it ill prove to be a success in creating suspense and emotion.

Influences

The director that has influenced me mainly is Stanley Kubrick and how he sets atmosphere and mood, just through different camera shots and angles, the most famous being the corridors of the The Overlook hotel in the film The Shining, but I also want the fresh modern look Danny Boyle achieves across his movies, hopefully what I want to get from my film is something different and maybe new.

This is a shot from the corridors in the film The Shining the camera work is very still and very little movement in the camera work and it follows a very straight path, I feel that this scene and others similar in the film create suspense and fear for what is going to happen next, what creates even more dread for the viewer is the music which sets alongside brilliantly. Stanley Kubrick's camera work in this film makes this film much more memorable and adds to the storytelling which makes it in my opinion the perfect horror film. when I come to film my final piece I will replicate in parts the camera work which will create the suspense in my film.

This is the trailer for 28 Days Later, what I'm picking out is at 1 minute onwards at the hospital scene the film is very bright, fresh looking and modern, this is what I want to mix in with the camera work of my horror film. What I hopefully will finally achieve is a film that grabs the audience of the younger viewer with a modern look using the classic camera shots of the older more classic horror movies.

Target Audience

The horror genre has always focused on an older audience due to what they can show and put into their films to put fear into the viewer. A large majority of horror film viewers are older teenagers this is where the slasher genre inside of horror comes from, where a group of teenagers get murdered one by one. personally I am not a fan of this type of horror, because I think it's cheesy, non imaginative and their are too many. These films try to capture the younger adult to late teenage audience but no the older viewers who look down on these genres. This is where I have realised that I want my film to apply to a younger audience while keeping the older and more avid horror film fan. I think I can acheive this by using a younger actor but using a pyshcological horror of The shining, but using the fresh looking british look of the camera work in 28 days later directed by Danny Boyle, I will expand on this in my next post.

 Test Film

The film I've Published below is a short film trailer I created myself shot in the style of the Blair Witch and Cloverfield. I found the finished project was messy and disorganised, and that no real achievement in story telling had been accomplished. Obviously the viewer would pick up it's a film shot in the woods, the genre is horror and that something happens to the three students, buy being the creator I wasn't overall happy with the lack of a well structured trailer and that the way this film is shot I can imagine is a hard way to promote a film within a 2 minute time slot. From this I have learnt when it comes to creating my final film trailer/short film I have to imagine telling the story all within the 2-3 minute time slot without given too much away and leaving the viewer wanting to know more.

Test Film 'Videotape'

Initial ideas

Initial Ideas
 I have enjoyed watching films all my life, from a young age all the way up to know, I enjoy all genres of film, from action to foreign, documentaries to comedy, but if I had to choose an all time favourite it would have to be Horror. What interests me so much about this Genre is the added extra in creating a horror movie that is creating suspense and making the audience jump or look away and cover their ears. I believe this to be more of a talent than creating ordinary movies, because you create an emotion that passes over on a screen to the viewer. My passion for Horror came after watching Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, which is easily in my top 3 favourite films ever.

This trailer for the film shows a simple shot of the infamous elevators, whilst a string orchestra increases in sound and intensity, this easily creating the suspense in this short scene, the elevator then empties a large quantity of blood, adding the bit you weren't suspecting feeling to the trailer,  which is a necessity to any a trailer, this is yet so simple but really effective.

The next video I've selected is a trailer for Danny Boyle's epic Zombie film 28 Days later, what I love about this trailer, is again the music and sound is what makes the video so effective, but the less is more technique where it wants the viewer on the edge of the seat in fright but also in anticipation to what happens in the movie, this is an effective technique. Some of the shots in this film are incredible and they show off the film when put into the trailer, and I feel the scene walking through an abandoned London is a piece of art.

The last Film trailer I have selected is the Blair Witch Project which uses a unique camera angle which works so well films have adapted the use of telling a film through a camera, the likes of paranormal activity and used on all three movies, what I like about this trailer is the simplicity and how clear her voice is and what she says, then showing the girl right at the end puts a huge cliff hanger to the audience.

Introduction

The Beginning of my FMP film set out in my blog, This is my development of ideas for my Film that I am going to create for the FMP. This will involve initial ideas, this will be the building blocks of what my film will be based around. Once I am happy with my Initial ideas and I have a solid structure of what my film is based on I will Experiment with technique and camera angles. After that I will focus on the Health and Safety of the Project, this involves, the use of electrical and expensive equipment, and the filming on location. The ideas will then move on to what I am trying to achieve within my film this can range from making the audience laugh to creating suspense and why you have created the film, After that I am going to create a time plan which will keep me organised and up to date with how my schedule will run. I will finish on an evaluation of my Development of ideas and talk about what I considered a success and what didn't work quite as well. This is my introduction to the Development of FMP.