On wednesday 20th, we decided when and where we wanted to shoot our trailer. We have carried out a substantial amount of research and planning which has helped us gain our understanding of the horror genre and trailers.
The date we will start shooting out trailer is on Wednesday 27th October 2010. We have also decided on our location of the movie. The trailer will be shot at one of the groups members house and garden. We have decided on his location because our synopsis is all about a man, who steals kids on Halloween and makes them play horrifying and gruesome games with him inside his house. The garden will be used a burial ground where he digs up holes for the children.
We are going to film after 6pm when it starts to get dark as this gives the trailer the full horror effect and keeps the audience more alert, feeling like they need to keep their eyes closed and peak through their fingers.
Synopsis for '31.10.10'
In a small town called Camden the man behind door number '31' isn't who the neighbours think he is. To them he's just a vulnerable man who's never had anyone but himself. On the night of trick or treat, one man changes everything in the spine-tingling horror, written and directed by an extraordinary collaboration of Naresa Azemi, Rema Kadir and Asma Begum, who have all been previous award winning horror directors and writers.
The man (Jason Shrew) kills the children one by one after he puts them through a roller coaster of hell with his horrifying Halloween games that he plans all year. When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, the man dissappears to his family farm in the countryside and leaves the parents wondering what happened on the night of celebration?
Jason Shrew has a troubled life growing up, his parents abused him, they were both alcoholics. He tried to find an escape. He attempted every possible thing in the book to be seen as a popular kid by his classmates but regardless he remained the outcast. One day everything changed. He realized that if he turned to crime and deviance he would finally get some attention. The journey to hell for many people started on that day.
The gifted cast of '31.10.10' take the audience into the mind of a very troubled man, longing for some attention and love, but he goes about things the wrong way and takes kids and families through some gruesome and chilling encounters. How many murders will it take for the parents to figure who the killer is? Will someone survive? Embrace yourselves for this award-nomiated horror movie and strap yourselves in because you are in for the fright of your life.
Initial title ideas and changes
On tuesday the 19th, we had a group discussion about our current film title. Even though we have based all our research around our initial title '31', we have decided to change our idea after doing some extra research. We have decided that we are going to change our title to '31.10.10'. All the planning and research we have carried out and blogged will still apply to our new title. We had decided to change the name of our horror movie title simple because we thought having just the number '31' isn't enough to excite the audience, although it represents the date of Halloween, we thought we could take it a step further and represent the actual date of Halloween this year. There will also never be another October 2010, so the '10.10' really has a lot of significance to the present day. It also signifies that the film is going to be very modern and will always be remembered for its date.
Our movie title was influened by other films whose titles consisted of number. For example, Friday the 13th and Case 39. These numbrs also had a huge significance in the film and really informed their audiences on what the film is about and this is what we hope to achieve with our film also.
Horror title styles
Below I have taken the time to test out different fonts and colours to see what would be suitable for our horror movie title '31'. I have evaluated four fonts and have shown reasons to why we considered using these fonts and reasons to why we have rejected using them.
Possible styles for horror movie title:
Style 1: For some reasons, this is a good style to use for our horror movie title as the colour red can represent Halloween in some ways. Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. However, we have all disaggred on the font as it doesn't really express the fact that the film is based around the horror genre.
Style 2: We have decided not to use this style for our horror movie title. This is because blue is the colour of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue it strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. It is also mostly used to promote products or servies related to cleanliness.
Style 3:
We have decided as a group that this is the style of font we are going to use for our horror movie name. This is simple because the handwriting has horror written all over it and the colours represent Halloweena lot. Orange has a very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the important elements. It will draw the audience in. Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Black usually has a negative connotation which is what we are aiming for. Combined with orange, black gives a very aggressive colour scheme.
Style 4: Our last idea was the easiest to say no to as the font is very comedy like and it does not represent the horror genre in any way. Purple as a colour does not have much of a relationship with horror/Halloween as it is associated with royalty, symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and amibiton. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, disnity, indepedence, creativity, mystery, and magic.
Our Concept:
In our groups, we came up with a concept which will be everything from mise-en-scene to props, plot and story line and all the other conventions we will need to include in our trailer.
We have decided to call our film 31, as it really grasps onto the horror idea as 31 is a significant date in October as it is Halloween. It is also the number 13 if you flip it around which isn't the luckiest number/day on a Friday. Our storyline is about a man who no one sees all year round, until the 31st October, which can be no other day than Halloween. He snatches any children who trick or treat at his door and puts them through a roller-coaster of hell with his horrifying Halloween games he plans all year. He then viciously kills them but who will survive? Will he get away with his cold-blooded, sick minded games? Why does he do this? All will be revealed if you patiently wait. Embrace yourselves for an inviting trailer which will make you want to come and watch 31 at a cinema NEAR YOU !
Settings in Horror films
Below I have done research on settings used in horror films and have presented my information in slide form.
It is a good idea to research into other people's opinion on horror movie settings because it is important to know what atmosphere frightens people and makes them feel uncomfortable, and from this we can conclude on a suitable setting for our movie setting.
Friday 22 October 2010
Music and Sound
One of the most overlooked aspects of films is the sound. An audience can easily forget that if the music and sound effects were taken away from a horror, the fear factor would decrease dramatically, possibly even disappear completely. If you was to watch a horror movie and turn the sound down, you would suddenly forget how scared you were and the images on the screen wont scare you half as much as they would if the volume was up.
From the information I have read about horror films, I have found out that music in horror movies are probably more powerful than in any other film genre. The music in a film is used to communicate with the audience, so we must interpret it. You can watch a horror film without music, but it isn't frightening, however it can be gruesome. If you add the music, you add the tension.
Orchestral music is seen as the most recognised and common type of music used in horror hilms. Orchestral music has been used since the start of the horror genre and is still the most popular type of music used in horrors and thrillers. The reason why orchestral music is used so much in horror films is because the composer can vary compositions following each event happening in the film. Orchestral music can be seen as a very neutral type of music and it appeals to a wide audience. This sort of music helps set a certain mood and gets across different emotions in a horror film. As well as the classical orchestral music, we have to consider that modern alternative horror music is also used in many films. This genre uses synth-based music and industrial music. An example of this music genre is used in horrors such as Blair Witch 2, which consists of alternative rock and heavy metal music. This music works well with horrors as it is quite dark and brooding, which suits the visual style of the film.
From doing all this research about music and sound effect in horror films, I have realised how important it is to use the right kind of music in our horror trailer. Without effective horror music in our trailer, the audience won't be drawn to the movie and they won't feel like it is going to be a scary horror. We have decided that we are going to use Modern Alternative Music for our horror trailer as our film name is 30/10/10 and this represents the present day and comes across as very modern. It is always the right music to use when linking it to our overall concept.
Props
What is the significance of props in a horror film?
When you try to examine characters without props, they are meaningless. In other words, they are not scary at all. For example, try to imagine Jason Vorhess without his machete, Freddy without his claws or Michael Myers without his mask. Many great horror films have a lot of memorable moments and the use of their unique props helps to add value to their character. It is a known fact that every killer in a horror film has a good prop beside them. Even the normal protagonists who don't kill anyone, for example ghosts or vampies have props. An actor in a horror film can only do so much to scare the audience without their props. If Jason Vorhees stood over a victim, looking very plain-like and his shouting would not give anyone a fright. But if you add his machete, mask and ripped clothes, then you are sure to get frightened and want to run away.
This research is significant to our horror concept; because we have thought about the idea of using crops such as a mask to keep the killer anonymous - for him to have a hidden personality. This therefore has a scare; as nobody knows who the killer really is. Suspicion causes fear.
Mise en scene
Mise en scene:These are all the things that are put into the scene e.g. the setting and decor. Narrative filsm often manipulate the elements of mise en scene to intensify or undermine the ostensible significance of a particular scene.
Lighting:Light effects the way colours are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and focus attention on particulare elements of composition. Most mainsteam films rely on the three point lighting style and its genre variations.
There are three typical horror elements found in many horror movies:
A fierce creatre is the first typical element found in horror movies. A lot of movies in this genre use fierce animals to make a plot, making that animal huge; savage and intelligent without a doubt to horrify people. Using characters who are frightened all the time and are running away from the creature also excites people. These characters always succeed in escaping from some danger, but sometimes fail to escape from other dangers.
The supernatural is the second thing which is used as a typical horror element in this movie category. Supernatural things are often used to scare people and have a unique style and have become very popular.
The third horror element is murderer. Filmmakers often use a scary human character to be the typical element. In some movies, the character wears scary clothes and a mask as he commits the murders. These movies nearly always start with a group of friends or random people, and each on gets killed until there is a revelation of the murdered at the end of the movie. During this time the audience anticipated who is the murderer and most of the time is incorrect. These are also conflicts at the end of the movies, which suprise people as most of the conflict is related to revenge.
Mise en scene is important to when we start producing our concept because we have to consider the key elements, as shown above, that will showcase our trailer to be of a horror genre. These ideas influence us on how our character should look and what type of lightening would be suitable.
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Costumes
The concept of our film trailer was to focus on the idea of keeping the Antagonist anonymous. To do this, we had chosen to use a mask to keep the face hidden. I have researched other films and had seen certain masks used for the killer. This has influenced me into how our Antagonist should look.
Friday the 13th
On the left is shown the Antagonist in the film 'Friday the 13th'. He is shown wearing a mask to keep his identity hidden. This is a good way to go about what we want our Antagonist wearing as the mask is quite scary as only holes for the nose and eyes are shown. The mask is a way of keep a personality hidden and this is what we want to achieve in our film trailer.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
On the right hand side you can see the Antagonist from the movie 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Here he has a more distorted face, this is another way to have the Antagonist look scary as it is not something that you would come across everyday, due it to not being normal.
Analysis on Horror Film Posters
Below I have shown a PowerPoint SlideShow on slideshare on the analysis of film posters. The information consists of what makes the film poster appeal to the horror genre.
I looked at teaser trailers, and found out that they are different than normal film trailers.
Below I have identified the differences, as I would have to take this into account when producing my trailer.
Teaser trailers are usually made for big-budget and popularity themed movies. The purpose is to tell the audience less about a movie's content than simple to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release.
Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film.
The following videos are of a teaser trailer and an official trailer:
Below I have shown in bullet points the conventions found in teaser trailers.
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Synopsis
A synopsis is a short summary of what takes place in the story.
Below I researched on horror film synopsis and carefully found key elements in the summary which would help me to focus on certain aspects which I would have to include in my synopsis when producing my movie trailer.
