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.
Thursday 26 April 2012
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.
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.
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.
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