By taking these picture of the doll (a significant prop within the trailer) i experimented with the light, composition and position of the doll, to see which ones would look more effective. i used a lamp to focus the light on a specific part of the doll in order to create a shadow effect to make the doll look dark and mysterious-relating to a villain in horror . Most of the pictures I changed to black and white and then changed the contrast to create a more 'scary' effect of the doll. The doll has been placed in different locations - the reason for the doll on the bookshelf is to create the effect that the doll cannot be seen at first glance, its also a very odd setting to put a doll which relates to the representations of it within the trailer.

I placed the doll on the top of the stairs because it relates to a significant scene with in the trailer.

All these pictures will be useful for my movie poster and website.

Example Picture

This is an example of a possible picture that could be used for a film poster. i edited the picture by making it black and white and created a black background. i used low key lighting on the characters face so that it created a 'scary' effect. It is a mid shot so that you can establish who that character is and also the audience can see the bear which will be a significant prop with the trailer.

External factors influencing our teaser trailer

There are somethings that are out of our control which can effect the creation of the teaser trailers
- Weather could be a problem, as we will not be able to have snow if you wanted in our trailer, or the weather could be bad which would prevent from filming outside.
- Technology, it will be expensive, we might not have the best software to create our trailers with. There is also an element of health and safety, using the camera in a damp or wet setting.
- Setting, we will not be able to film on the top of a mountain , so settings will be restricted in the trailers
- permission, we will need to get permission if we wanted to film in a specific location, or if we wanted to use child actors or to use a famous piece of music.
- the time of day and year

Focus Group

In class we pitched our ideas for our trailers to are media teachers and the rest of the class. For my groups trailer, we were given some feedback and ideas on how we could start our storyline, the class also helped on ideas on how to make the story scary so it fits in with the horror genre. We were told to begin with that our storyline wasn't believable and it needing tweaking, we took this into account and thought of other alternatives, we now have a plot that we can use to help us create the best possible trailer in order to attract an audience.

Storyboard for Trailer

This is a first draft storyboard to to the trailer that my group will potentially produce, each box represents a scene within the trailer and there is a commentary to explain what is happening in each shot- sound, camera angle, edit.



Due to lack of technology we were unable to produce some scenes realistically, and therefore decided to change the plot of our trailer slightly.

Mock-up Posters

In a group we chose 3 posters that we had to copy ourselves by taking our own pictures and then editing them to create a similar looking posters to the original ones, but giving them a Sponne school influence.

I edited The Blair Witch Project poster. I chose this poster, because i thought it would be a challenge to try and create the same effects and i wanted to see if i could do so with the technology that i have. I tried to make it as similar as possible and edited the picture to show half a face and created a shadow effect. I changed the picture of the trees in to black and white using Paint Shop Pro so that the pictures blend together to create one whole image.

The predominate image in the original poster has a shadow covering half of their face, which is almost hiding their identity, which stereotypically is the antagonist within the film. however, the eyes of the character look quite scared and shocked, which may show the audience that they are a victim and are trying to hide from something or someone. In my poster the character's face is visible and they are looking straight at the camera (direct mode of address) which shows that they could be the villain, as they don't look scared but look quite dominant compared to the original image. This can create an enigma as the audience are not sure of the characters agenda.

The background is black, which immediate tells the audience that the film is quite mysterious and scary, as black can relate to death and evilness. Black goes very well with the colour red that has been used and can coincide with meanings of black. Red has conflicting connotations, because it can mean blood, danger and the devil but can also mean love and passion. In this case however, the red with the black shows danger and tells the audience that this film is a horror.

At the top of the poster you can see the woods (original) or trees (mock up), this suggests that the film is going to be set in the woods (hinting the narrative if the film) and that possibly the victims are lost in the woods hiding from the killer/villain (which is a common place for a horror movie to be set).

The text on the poster creates an enigma, as the audience ask the question 'what has happened to the students?', by creating an enigma it makes the audience want to go and see the film so that they can find out what has happened. the text also gives an idea of the basic plot if the film, without giving much away, this then lets the audience know a bit about it so that they can make up their mind whether or not they will enjoy it.

Here is another example of a poster that another member of my group produced.

Cloverfield

CLOVERFIELD AND MYSPACE
Before the release of the film Cloverfield and any of the trailers, the production company set up a MySpace pages for the characters in the film. People will then log onto their pages and believe that these characters really do exist. this is how the company generates hype for the film as people become interested in the characters and associate with their personalities.
It gives the effect that the characters are real and allow the audience to relate to them before they are seen onscreen. It will also generate hype about the film and will get people talking about it before it is released yet. Advantages of using this approach is that Myspace is a very popular global site that anyone in the world can gain access to, which will mean that the film will be advertised to anyone that logs on to the sight. However, its suggesting that the characters are real and it may upset and confuse people when the find out that the people are fictional,it may discourage them from watching the film.

Looking at the background information of the film Cloverfield and how they market the film will give me an insight on how to market my own trailer and how to make it effective towards my target audience

Cloverfield
Genre: Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Release Date:1st February 2008 (UK)
18th January 2008 (USA)
23rd January 2008 (France)
Certification:15 (UK)
PG 13 (USA)
Director:Matt Reeves
Writer:Drew Goddard
Actors:Lizzy Caplin, Jessica Lucas, TJ Miller
Institution:Paramount, Bad Robot
Marketing and Promotion:Website, Trailer, Posters

Conventions of Facebook/MySpace

• Display photographs


• User information - friends, general public, advertising
  
• Privacy Settings


• Free for users


• Instant messaging


• Global Community


• Isolating activity


• Elements of blogging


• Games

Levi Strauss came up with the theory of Binary Opposites, Facebook is an example as we log onto it alone, but then become a part of a global community and we can talk to anyone in the world.

BINARY OPPOSITES- Levi Strauss came up with an insight on how we understand certain words. We don't understand them because of the meaning that they portray but because of the difference between the word and its opposite. He realised that the words merely act as symbols for societies ideas and that the meaning of the words, therefore was a relationship (between opposing ideas)rather than a fixed thing.

For example how we understand the word evil will depend on the difference between it and its opposing word, Good. This theory is common within literature.

An example of the theory within my trailer would be adult vs child and good vs evil. However, the adult is scared of the child, which goes agianst what we would belive. We understan an adult as being more owerful and stonger than a child- in the trailer however, it i the opposite