Storyboard

I created this storyboard to use a plan of what I would be filming for my horror trailer. My main objective was to use the storyboard as a guideline to filming effective shots - whether close ups, long shot, short takes or high angles - so I would go one to editing effectively and formalise a montage of shots for my finished trailer product.

Secondly, another aim which is just as important as the first, was to establish a storyline which contain generic features of horror to look like a real horror trailer. This presented a problem as you can see that slides of my trailer contain moderate generic representations of bullying and anti social behaviour. The theme of anti social behaviour, or bullying specifically became the foundation of my narrative.

The narrative, entitled 'The Unexpected' is to clear about a victim figure whom is bullied to the point of desperation. But little do the bullies - also the protagonists - know that the victim, in revenge is planning to give them a taste of their own medicine. Only when a mysterious figure appears and people start vanishing do they realise it's too late...

I took care in producing the slides of my storyboard as I wanted to depict the diegesis of a summarised horror narrative, simple enough to establish Todorov's equilibrium as well as Propp's set of characters, but not over complicate the story by strictly adhering to Propp and Todorov's narrative theory as the trailer should preferably be minimum a minute/minute and a half.

 

Film trailer analysis

The diegesis of this trailer of this movie Tormented(2009) is based on the attack of a group of teenagers who taunt an asthmatic student Darren Mullet. Little do they know in his death, he returns the favour....

The trailer opens within the mise en scene of a house party. A low angle shot mid close up of a group of teenagers shows their amusement of playing pranks on each other, looking dominant and establishing their role as the protagonists of the trailer.  Presumably, this shot already show the audience that the protagonists are the popular "it" crowd whom like to make fun of others, even within their own group. An equilibrium is established.

An over the shoulder shot succeeding this shows the same group of teen protagonists in a school, surrounding a chubby, boy. This is presumably to bully him as his stooped body position suggests he has just been pushed. The target audience will recognise this stereotypical character as the victim and under the Audience and Gratifications sub section of personal relationships, the target audience may learn to identify and sympathise with the victim character.

This shot is a hint to the disequilibrium as the victim in close up shot is clutching his throat choking whilst the protagonists in the background are looking amused. This shot shows the target audience the explicit nature of the trailer, and indicates the group of protagonists' downfall will be their excessive pride in thinking they will get away with bullying the victim.

 The disequilibrium is established, as the shot succeeding the previous shows a funeral gathering  presumably the victim's family come to pay their respects. The low angle camera angle indicates how, even in death, everyone looks down on the victim. An ironic representation.

 The next shot particularly pinpoints the disequilibrium ; the protagonists are being taunted by an unknown force. This is shown by the close up shot display the frightened facial expression of one of the protagonist receiving a sinister text message. This shot is a long take, which creates a greater climate of fear among the audience.

This close up shot is shown as a match cut from the previous shot to show the protagonist reaction, and intensify the irrational climate of fear. An futile attempt to solve the disequilibrium is shown in this extreme close up high angle shot. The protagonist who received the text message assuming the person who sent the message in someone in her class, breaks her phone on the floor with her foot.

This last close up shot shows with little focus a close up shot of said victim staring sinisterly in the direction of the camera. This technique otherwise known as Breaking of the 4th Wall, makes the audience feel  like their being watched. This intensifies the climate of fear and the 'unknown factor' as the victim is meant to be dead! Notably, this is the first time in the trailer that the mysterious figure attacking the protagonists is shown, which is a generic convention of horror trailers as the unknown factor behind who is attacking whom in the trailer intensifies the climate of fear, inadvertently creating the horror appeal to viewers and encouraging them to find out more.

Website analysis

Audience Feedback - Piktochart

Audience Feedback: Analysis

The response from my survey monkey question 'What is your favourite horror movie?' produced a varied response. A popular response was either The Saw movies, their genre specific to fans of the thriller genre, as well as Paranormal Activity, whose fans are predominately consist of mainstreamers . This told me instinctively that the target audience for my trailer is quite mixed as they find different attributions of horror films appealing. From this response, I knew that I had to use another series of questions to pinpoint the specialised answers from my target audience. This told me that for my production stage, I would have to research popular horror films to attract the audiences attention and encourage them to watch my trailer. It was clear however that whilst my target audiences were active horror viewers, their response told me they did not watch film trailers on a regular basis. Therefore, I thought that by exploring an unconventional sub-genre of social realism (specifically theme of bullying and anti-social behaviour) , it's content would help attract a target audience whom are an explorer/aspirer as well as a mainstream Psychographic, typically young student demographic groups, attracted to the narrative of horror as well as my trailers undertones of social realism. This gave me the idea to use an unconventional design during my production stage on my front cover and it's content. Henceforth, the evidence has told me that my production of my film trailer had to have content would attract a mainstream demographic

Location+Setting , Actors, Costumes and props

Location
 I have decided to set the location of my trailer in school as this would be most appropriate because my film is set in the scene of a school. This would also be more convenient for casting students(preferably in the 6th form) and filming after school in addition. The reason I chose to film in this area is because this is near the scene of the sixth form common room, a secluded corner of the film. This will keep up the deliberate fear of the unknown when in a blackout cut off in a corner of the school. the filming will be indoors at all times to keep up the unique selling point of the character being trapped throughout in the dark. Preferably, I would like to direct scenes for my trailer with my chosen actor/s after school  as it would be best for convenience. Also, the winter term and early spring term will get quite dark after school, and this natural darkness will accelerate the scare factor for my trailer as the premise of the trailer is the protagonist and supporting actor/s are trapped in the dark.

Actors

The actor/s will be members of the CoLA Sixth Form. Preferably, a group of friends that would be willing to take their time out of their peer hours to take camera shots with me and let me direct them. 

Male or Female? The target audience of horror are predominantly young males. Typically the common protagonist in horror trailers is the sexually innocent female archetype, which would encourage the male mainstream to watch the trailer. However, I think it would make more of an impact to have a strong female character as the protagonist. If the protagonists is represented as less attractive and appealing but more strong and powerful, this may appeal to both genders, and women may find this more inspiring(there could relate more to strong female, link to personal identity feature of Users & Gratifications Theory). It will also appeal to the generally large group of male fans of Horror by having a strong female protagonist in the trailer who challenges the conventions of the female archetype, it may even interest more men into my trailer. Also, as  the premise of the trailer is a bullied victim trapping his bullies(protagonist + group) in the dark to exact revenge, my antagonist will be male. Typically the antagonist in horror trailers in male, but i won't feature the  psychical form of my antagonist in a lot of my scenes of the trailer to elevate the suspense and the classic 'unknown factor' that attracts people to watch horror trailer.

This is my consent form I will make my cast members sign for filming. It will ensure their permission to be filmed as well as the permission to issue the footage on my Blog and present it publicly as my work.

Costume

As the setting is part of a sixth form in school, the protagonist will be dressed as themselves and there won't be a distinct form of dress.This will appeal to the audience as they can familiarise themselves with the characters in the trailer. It is important the characters don't overdress as I am trying to emphasise the characters in the trailer as everyday characters.

Particularly, the antagonist in the trailer will be wearing a dark hood jacket to distinguish him from the rest of the protagonists as well as to maintain the sinister factor by not exposing his face, a typical generic conventions of protagonist in horror trailers. Examples in popular horror fiction is the Leatherface antagonist in Texas Chain Massacre Movies as well as Jason Voorhees central character in the Friday the 13th Movies.

Narrative Pitch Presentation