Constructing my final draft of my horror magazine

Final production pieces

Trailer:

Poster:

Magazine:

Construction of my Horror Trailer

• Here is a video that I have put together to show you all of the original footage of my horror trailer… I have done this so it makes it easier to show the changes that I have made to the origional clips, these changes include the effects, the diegetic/non-diagetic sound and the editing of the footage.

• Firstly I have imported my footage into I-movie, I did this by clicking on the drop-down menu called ‘File’, i then went to ‘Import’, and then went to ‘Movies’. I made sure that I had all my footage already saved on the computer to easily import it into i movie. This saved me time and effort as importing one piece of footage at a time would have been tedious and time consuming.

• The clips were imported into ‘The clip bank’
• Even though some of the footage that I imported I did not use, I still made sure that all of the footage was there because I may have ended up using other clips
• The clip bank enabled me to navigate with ease around every single clip that I imported, if I decided against using a certain clip after all, I could easily drag the clip up from the timeline and back into the clip bank.

 

When reading my explanation for the construction of my horror trailer, I will be referring to certain clips (they are numbered in the above video) this will make it easier to show the changes that I’ve made and the reasons why.

Here are my clips in list form also:

Clip 1: Josh’s eyes, falling asleep
Clip 2: Josh’s feet
Clip 3: Josh waking up in bed
Clip 4: Josh turning the alarm off
Clip 5: Josh turning the light on
Clip 6: kettle boiling
Clip 7: Josh turning the kettle on
Clip 8: Josh swirling his tea
Clip 9: Josh sipping his tea
Clip 10: Josh in the mirror
Clip 11: Josh tying his shoelaces
Clip 12: Following Josh on his bike
Clip 13: Josh looking at tree
Clip 14: Josh in the woods
Clip 15: Dead girl in the woods
Clip 16: Josh walking up path with bloody toy
Clip 17: Josh’s feet running in the woods
Clip 18: Bloody toy in the tree
Clip 19: Private property
Clip 20: Josh walking towards the camera
Clip 21: Josh slams hand on door window

• To start of even before any of my clips have been added to the trailer, I have added and image of a certificate identifying my trailer as an 18.
• As I chose for my horror trailer to be distributed using an independent film distributor I chose Film 4, to distribute my film
• I know that adding this at the beginning of my trailer isn’t necessary however, I have done it to make my trailer look and feel more realistic for my audience.

• I have added a black transition for 5 seconds ( I had add another one because 5 seconds was not long enough), as seen when i researched ‘Don’t be afraid of the dark’ the first 30 seconds of the trailer have been devoted to just a black screen with a bit of talking over the top of it:

• I felt this suited the idea of a dreamy situation so I decided to put this effect at the beginning of my trailer because it adds tension, it makes the audience feel disorientated and immediately scared.
• Here are the screen shots showing you how I created this beginning bit of my trailer… its very simple, the ‘title’ selection was clicked on and then animated gradient clicked on afterwards. I moved the 5 second long titles to the beginning of the trailer.

• Over the top of the clip I have extracted the audio from one of the clips of Josh moving around in the bedroom and put it over the dark transition, I also added footsteps over the top of this clip (up until when Josh wakes up) as it gives the audience a real sense that Josh is dreaming:
• As I right click on the actual clip (the transition in this case) the extract audio button was pressed
• The extracted piece of audio was then copied and pasted to the beginning of my trailer.
• [ADD] THE EXTRACT AUDIO SCREEN SHOT & ADDED FOOTSTEPS SCREEN SHOT
• Here is what the piece of audio looks like as an extracted sound, as you can see the sound of the footsteps (which has been an added sound effect from i movie
• It has been layered underneath the original extracted piece of audio as shown:

• The idea of my trailer beginning with just darkness initiates the fears of the audience too as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_the_dark explains nyctophobia is a very common phobia of many people, therefore this will increase the horror factor of my trailer, whilst slowly increasing the tension.
• https://a2mediasarah.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/reflecting-on-the-responses-from-the-horror-film-questionnaire/ In my previous blog post called ‘reflecting on the responses from the horror film questionnaire’ the question ‘what scares you the most’ was asked : here were the responses and as you can see, someone replied with ‘the dark’.

• In order to make my horror trailer the best to my ability I have responded to my audiences answers by making sure that a bit of ‘the dark’ is involved in my overall trailer. This ultimately making my trailer scarier and more horrific for the audience to watch.
•  The Clip 1 was used to start my trailer off
• As the name of my trailer is ‘lucid’, this is refered to the idea of ‘lucid dreaming’. Define Lucid: A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In relation to this phenomenon, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed: “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream. The idea of lucid dreaming encompasses the whole idea of my horror film.
• I have used Clip 1 to show the audience that Josh is falling into a sleep, to show the effect of Josh dreaming, I have cut up the clip every 0.22 frames per second (or near to 0.22 frames)  Apple T was pressed at every 0.22 interval.
• I then worked on the clips individually.
• I left the first cut of Clip 1 in its original form

• From then on over as the cuts of Clip 1 went on I increased the brightness of the individual cuts.
• I did this by clicking on the ‘Video fx’

• I then clicked on the ‘Brightness & Contrast’ tool

• I slowly increased the brightness using the drag tool highlighted by red….

• This effect was done because not only does it portray a dream like state, it also portrays Josh’s vulnerability.
• As the audience have immediate eye contact with Josh this enables a connection to occur with the audience and Josh, this is extremely important for my trailer, as the more the audience connects with the main character the more chance that the audience will want to watch on and find out in more detail about ‘Josh’s story’, the extreme close up and dream-like effect stimulates the audiences imagination into thinking whether Josh, the story and the rest of the trailer is a dream or a reality.
• To increase the connectivity between the audience and Josh the ‘letterbox’ effect was also used.

• I have done some additional research into why it is important to get an extreme close up shot, here is the link: ‘6 reasons why to get an extreme close up shot’
• My previous research in the blog post called ‘The different uses of the camera shot, angles, lighting, cinematography and mise-en-scene, I found out that generally extreme the technique is quite common in horror films. This type of shot creates an intense mood and a dramatic effect, thus creating interatction between the audience and the character, this is important for my horror trailer as I want the audience to be involved in the trailer, the more involved they get with the story the more viewers I will get for my horror film.
• The extreme close up intensified by the ‘letterbox’ will also increase tension and unease, adding to the overall horror element of my trailer.
• Another effect added to Clip 1 was the ‘flash effect’
• Again, I went to the ‘Video fx’ option and clicked on ‘flash effect’

• To incorporate the dream-like situation even more, certain clips are used as Josh’s dream to foreshadow the events that are coming up later on in the trailer. I added a small snippet of Clip 12, only for 0.15 of a second, as Josh is falling into his sleep this image will flash up, showing the audience how he is dreaming. Clip 12  is normal footage of Josh cycling to school, but the second flash (Clip 15) is a bit more gruesome. Again this foreshadows to the scenes that will happen later on in the trailer.
• HOWEVER…. as the audience believe that Josh is falling into a dream-like state, we believe that these flashes are just snippets of Josh’s dream. This is not true. Again, the flash of Clip 15 foreshadows to the events later shown in the trailer. As the brightness is extremely high, it again reinforces the idea that Josh is only dreaming.
• As the audience are beginning to gain an insight into what the movie is about now, the confusing flashes and increased brightness of the clips creates more tension, atmosphere and horror for the audience.

• As the genre of horror that I chose was a Psychological horror, therefore, elements of Josh’s psyche has to be involved in the initial trailer as the audience slowly understands and sees Josh’s psychosis turn from good to bad, and in this situation, from his dream, to his reality.
• From the responses that I got on my survey state that 80% of the people asked prefer psychological horror films and 100% said ‘yes’ to having psychological elements in a horror film. Therefore I have made it the most fundamental part of my trailer, and as a result, I have added a psychological element into it. This can be shown through Josh’s psychosis.

• I have used my research to make sure that I am able to provide for my audiences needs and preferred choices of horror.
• I have shown Josh’s psychosis through the different uses of effects, such as; the brightness effect to show Josh’s dream/reality, and the flash effect to show how turbulent Josh can be.
• To distinguish between Josh’s normal side and psychosis side, Clips from 2-9 have not been edited. This has been done so that the audience can really see the opposite sides to Josh. No effects have been added, I have only shortened the clips to keep the fast past of my trailer consistent.
• The clips used have been cut short because I do not want the audience to get bored, as I want to keep them interested so that  they will watch my actual film.
• The lack of effects symbolises Josh’s normal side.

• The start of my trailer Clip 10; is devoted to allowing the audience to see that his psychosis is slowly creeping up on him, the flashes of his dream when he is awake are from Clips 15 and Clip 18, this is a pivotal point of my trailer as it shows the audience how his dream may have been real and that he lived his nightmare. It also foreshadows what the rest of the trailer is going to be about.
• It is imperative to also see from the audiences perspective that Josh is surprised and worried by seeing flashes in the mirror, again showing the audience that is is a psychological horror; playing with their minds.
• I have increased the brightness effect: on both Clip 15 and Clip 18, to show his flashbacks are in a dream like situation- separating the parallels between his dream and his reality. Furthermore reinforcing the trailer as being a psychological horror.
• As there is no effect over the clip of Josh doing his hair, this increases how normal and relatable Josh is which is important for my audience as I want them to feel sympathy towards Josh as a character. To then making the horror of the story (when Josh sets out to kill people) more surprising.

• However, the use of diegetic sound in the trailer has been extracted and layered underneath the video, this is so that I can turn the sound of the alarm clock up:
• It is also to make sure that each sound is the same and in a melodic formation. This was done extracting the audio, and listening to the alarm clock ring. I cut the alarm clock sound after 1 ring, but pressing apple shift T, I then copied the original ring of the alarm clock and pasted it next to the first ring. I did this another five times. I made sure that they were an equal distance apart, I did this by using the left and right arrowed buttons on the keyboard.

• The sound of the alarm clock is a symbol that Josh’s psychosis is always present. As the sound of the alarm clock is used throughout the trailer when Josh’s changes personalities. Or something is shown on screen that reminds the audience that he has psychosis, although the audience may not get this first time from watching my trailer. (After all it is a psychological horror!).
• This can be read in more detail in my previous ‘Foreshadowing in my trailer’ blog post

•  Following on from the beginning of my trailer, the tension increases more by revealing through different clips Josh’s psychosis and what he has done is definitely real.
• Clip 12 of Following Josh on his bike and Clip 13 of Josh looking at the tree have been used here to show this difference.
• I have added a reverse effect and sped up the clip. This is to show the audience that the Josh is trying to ‘go back in time’ as it were to see whether he did actually kill anyone or if it was just a dream. The fast pace of the clip mirrors Josh’s psychosis even more, as though he is on a ‘manic high’, again reinforcing the genre of the trailer as it being a psychological horror.
• As the tension is increasingly building and the darkness of Josh is being revealed, I have made sure that I portrayed that through the effects of the clips by increasing the contrast.
• In all of my clips I have added a White Point Adjust to increase the trippy aesthetics of my trailer. Its also been added to show the audience what its like to be inside Josh’s head.
• In Clip 13 I have added the video effect of reverse and have also increased the speed to again play off from the clip of Josh cycling on his bike.
• I went to ‘Video fx‘ clicked on ‘Fast, slow, reverse‘ and ticked the box for ‘reverse‘ and also increased the speed. I have reversed it to imply to the audience that Josh is trying to go back in time to work out what had happened in his dream, and to then for him to realise that he is actually living his dream whist doing so.
• The clip of Josh staring at the tree also indicates to the audience how he has psychosis, and how perhaps he is ‘lost’ in his own mind – thus reinforcing that my trailer is in the psychological horror genre.

• Clip 1: Josh’s eyes, falling asleep features after Clip 12. This is so that the audience constantly knows that there are two sides to him and that he is split between his dream and his reality.
• Clip 12 also indicates that he is still dreaming even when in a state of psychosis, therefore he is not fully with it.

ADD CLIPS OF TRANSITIONS

• Next text over a black transition has been placed after Clip 13.
• ALSO,  Dead Black Outs (when the screen goes completely black or with text) is a convention of a horror trailer adding this to my horror trailer is important as represents something thrilling is about to happen or is going to happen therefore it adds tension and suspense to my overall trailer.

• After the black out, this is when the pace of my trailer changes… Clip 14 of  Josh in the woods is followed by someone who also is in the woods, and as a result another character behind the camera says ‘hello’ as he is creeping around. A noise triggers the ‘hello’ and the camera moves with it, following Josh round to show him on the camera standing in the woods staring at the character.
  
• Clip 14 of Josh has had added effects to it, to increase the horror of my trailer… the contrast again, has been increased to replicate the scariness of the woods. The colours have been adjusted so that there is a bit of colour, also implying to the audience that the camera is seeing what life is like through Josh’s eyes.
• I did this by going to ‘Video fx‘ and then clicking on ‘Adjust colours‘ and increasing the colour balancing showing the clip being a little bit pink and blue.
• This reinforces the trippy aspect of my trailer too.
• The convention of a ‘rural’ as this part of the trailer is featured int the woods. This also increases the tension of my trailer as it triggers the fear of the unknown and the idea of not knowing what is lurking around in the woods, and in this case, it is Josh following someone.

• The next  black transition has been placed after Clip 17 and the text on top of it says ‘To Hide’ following from the previous transition of ‘There’s no where’
• Again: Dead Black Outs (when the screen goes completely black or with text) is a convention of a horror trailer adding this to my horror trailer is important as represents something thrilling is about to happen or is going to happen therefore it adds tension and suspense to my overall trailer.(stated before)
  

• A snippet of Clip 20 has been used to foreshadow the events later happening in the my trailer
  
• A flash back of Josh is shown before he kills the girl… this shows that he is always present throughout the duration of the whole trailer
• It also adds horror to my trailer as the audience cannot hide from them either, showing that they’re constantly being watched by Josh.

• Next, Clip 15: Dead girl in the woods.
• As the tensions is slowly building a shot of Josh’s psychosis needs to be shown.
• By doing this I left the camera recording in the grass, going hands free on the camera enabled me to be apart of my own trailer… as after all I was the one who did shout ‘hello’ and I can’t just not get killed after saying that especially as I stupidly followed someone into the woods…
• Therefore the close up shot of me falling in front of the camera with the added aspect of a trickle of blood dripping down my face 100% implies that I have been killed by Josh, therefore this increases the tension as the convention of blood (mise-en-scene) is used to show how Josh is psychotic and the terror is starting to happen.
• Now this scene if shown, the flashbacks of me at the beginning of the trailer will start to make sense to the  audience, things start to come clear as Clip 15 is fully shown.
• In all of my clips I have added a White Point Adjust to increase the trippy aesthetics of my trailer. Its also been added to show the audience what its like to be inside Josh’s head.
• Next Clip 18  is shown, which is of the bloody toy in the tree
  

• A flash of this clip increases the pace of my horror trailer, as it is important for a horror trailer to be fast as that is one of the main conventions (to keep a horror trailer fast paced).
• The close up shot of the toy is a symbol to Josh’s psychosis and what is yet to come in the film, obviously showing that there maybe children involved in the actual film, but as my trailer is on a trailer, I do not want to show the full breadth of my film, therefore a short snippet of this clip is only necessary.
• No extra effects have been added apart from White Point Adjust, as the clip on its own is scary and meaningful enough.
• The alternative short shots of Josh running of Clip 16  and Clip 17 have been used this is because the fast-paced shots are used to show that violence has occurred and also the chase/running scenes will make the audience feel disorientated and as a result this will increase the tension in my trailer.
• The speed increases throughout my trailer until it reaches the peak at the end
  
• After Clip 17 a transition called ‘overlap‘ has been added to lead into the next clip, this has been done to keep the flow of my trailer going, as the clip leads nicely into the next one. This is important as its nearly reaching the pinnacle of my trailer.
• This was done by clicking on ‘Transitions‘ and then ‘Overlap‘
• Clip 19: Private property
• No extra effects have been added apart from White Point Adjust, as the clip shows the location of where Josh is and how his psychosis has lead him to a private property which indicates to the audience that he does not know where he is
  
• Clip 20, of Josh walking towards the camera has been cut from 40 seconds down to about 5, keeping in tune with the fast pace and flow of my horror trailer, the shot is a location shot of Josh creeping up to the camera. Finally as the audience we get to see the face of Josh; the face of evil, and the protagonist behind the doings of my trailer.

• The next clip if Clip 20, throughout the clip I have used the effect of ‘N-square’.
• I clicked on the ‘video fx‘ button and then clicked on ‘n-squares‘
• I did this by cutting the original clip into smaller clips so I could edit the clips individually.
• I also copy and pasted some clips to add the tension more and therefore leading into my pinnacle moment of my trailer at the end.
• As the clips went on I increased the amount of N squares on the clips…. along with the dialogue of Josh saying ‘where am I and knocking on the camera’
• This makes the audience feel scared as though Josh is talking to them personally.
• The intrusive knock then leads on to Josh actually knocking on a door
• The fact that Josh is looking directly at the audience makes the audience feel on edge and therefore increases the tension for when the scariest more jumpy bit at the end happens; the knock
• The N square effect also increases the psychedelic feel of my trailer and therefore reinforces the psychological aspect of it too.

• The non-diegetic sound is also very important at this point of the trailer, as Josh starts saying ‘Where am I’ the alarm goes of really signifying the peak of his psychosis. This sound also makes the audience feel disorientated too as its a normal aspect of daily life being brought into a psychological trailer.
• The alarm also triggers the ideas of Josh still being in a dream like situation, when really he has just rein-acted his nightmare.
• The audio was extracted from Clip 4 to show that the sounds are the same and have just looped back round to the end of the trailer.
• This was done by copying the already extracted audio of Clip 4

• The next black transition with the text of ‘From the nightmare’ following from Clip 20, this has been done to build tension and atmosphere, as it is nearly reaching the final point of my trailer.
• The black transition with no sound and clips gives the impression to the audience that there is nothing more to come, however as the transition doesn’t make sense, the audience may feel tense watching and waiting as if there is something to hide from…

• Finally Clip 21, of Josh slamming his hand on the door is a close up shot showing the bloody hand moving slowly down the window of the door.
• This is the pinnacle point of my trailer and as its a loud bang, it has been positioned at the end intending on making the audience scared and thrilled, ultimately making them want to watch the film.
• Again: Dead Black Outs (when the screen goes completely black or with text) is a convention of a horror trailer adding this to my horror trailer is important as represents something thrilling is about to happen or is going to happen therefore it adds tension and suspense to my overall trailer.(stated before)
• No added effects have been added apart from the sound overlaying the footage.

• The final transition after the pinnacle of my trailer is that ‘That never sleeps’ This text implies that Josh is always around us and even though he believes that this is his actual nightmare, its not, hes reliving it in real life.
• The idea of it being split between a dream and a reality situation and all in all it reinforces my trailer as a psychological horror genre.
• Again: Dead Black Outs (when the screen goes completely black or with text) is a convention of a horror trailer adding this to my horror trailer is important as represents something thrilling is about to happen or is going to happen therefore it adds tension and suspense to my overall trailer.(stated before)

• The ending of my trailer finishes with 2 final transitions with text over the top of them, the first one is LUCID, this is obviously to show the audience what the name of my horror film
• The second text transition states that its coming soon, both of these transitions are imperative to being a good horror trailer as they are conventions of a horror trailer, therefore I have done this to make my horror trailer more realistic for the audience.

Soundtrack

• Although I have seen different websites that can provide me with the soundtrack of my horror trailer, I believe that creating my own soundtrack would be more suited to it and therefore increase the tension and horror of my trailer.
• I will be making it using the software called ‘Ableton Live.

Break down of shooting my trailer

On the 9th of January i started the very scary task of actually filming my horror trailer… I started with the end of my trailer, as I am not 100% on what shots I should use to introduce Josh as a character I have started with my final couple of scenes. Here is the link to my storyboard for additional recollection:

• page 1:
• page 2
• page 3
• page 4
• page 5

Costume:

• black jeans
• t-shirt
• trainers

Props

• Window
• Fake blood
• Children’s toy

Locations needed

• A house
• A room with window
• A long corridor
• a woods -> Cornwall

Other characters needed

• Josh
• Person he kills (Me)

The first bits of shooting were dedicated to the last 3 pages of my storyboard… Preparing Josh (jack)… In order to make sure that Jack was in role of Josh I made him wear black trousers, black jeans and black trainers, once his costume was all set we left to go and shoot in the woods, the reasons for Josh wearing such normal clothes is because it shows the audience how ordinary people can look with schizophrenia thus creating more angst for the audience.

Door scene: I used the front door window to use for the scene when Josh splatters blood on the door, this is because the window if kind of frosty looking, as I want Josh to uphold his secrecy throughout the whole trailer (as stated in the story board) I made sure that you could only see his eyes. This scene is important as it builds up tension showing the audience that Josh is clearly not OK, along with the foreshadow of the bell ringing, Josh will then have a psychotic episode and this will be shown through his face in the window. To build the tension even further I followed Josh towards the door slowly moving the camera into a closeup shot of Josh’s face. One of the hardest things to do was to hold the camera still whilst walking, however this also be used to add tension to the trailer because its as though the camera is from another characters point of view.

The path scene: As I followed Josh up the path, he holds a child’s toy, the problem I found with this was that it was hard to get the toy on show, in order to stop this problem, when I followed Josh up the path with the toy I made him drop the toy and moved the camera with the toy directly in front of the camera and in the background Josh running away. However  I shot this in portrait view therefore I am going to have to re-shoot the scene to make it into landscape view. This scene is important to execute it properly because it shows Josh as a vulnerable character (especially as he runs away), making sure that the audience are getting fully involved in Josh’s life. When I got the toy in focus, I used an extreme close up showing the blood on the toy, I want the audience to be able to see what he was holding as it is a representation of Josh’s psychosis.

Following Josh into the woods scene: Before being shocked by Josh’s presence in the woods I shot some footage of the surrounding scenery, a pan shot is done allowing the audience to establish the bearings before meeting Josh, a noise is made and I say ‘hello, hello, hello’ I am shocked, the camera stops on Josh, the pan is necessary as it builds up tension for when the audience finally meet Josh face to face.

Josh’s first killing scene: To show Josh’s destruction I have included a bit into a scene, to make sure that I could be involved as a character I laid the camera in the grass (this was definitely  an experiment), the scene shows Josh running away from something  through the woods though you cannot see his face yet. A low angle was used to view Josh, this was to make his character look more powerful to the audience and to scare them even more. After he is out of shot a girl drops dead in front of the camera, staring at the camera with a trickle of blood oozing out of her mouth, this makes the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character.

Finally seeing Josh face to face scene: An establishing shot is used here to again build up tension, Josh walks closer and closer to the camera. This builds tension because as he gets closer the audience are also getting closer to meeting the real monster behind all the destruction. And as he gets to the camera a close-up shot shows Josh’s face finally, and as he is at the camera he says ‘Where am I’, knocking on the glass of the camera. This makes the audience think that Josh’s reality is so distorted he doesn’t know what is what. (A camera to a door), and this therefore shows his overall confusion on whats gone on thus showing the audience that he has gone crazy…. and telling us that Josh doesn’t know what reality is.

Other pictures taken on the first day of shooting :

On the 16th of January the shooting continued!

Pictures taken today:

The path scene (x2): As I said before, I recorded some of my footage in portrait therefore I had to redo some scenes from the story board and film them in landscape this time.

Added snippets: As I had some inspiration from the location I shot a little extra footage rather than sticking to the origional story board I may add in a bit more footage of Josh’s psychotic journey, otherwise the trailer may not make sense, to add even more tension to the origional scenes I recorded some footage of the toy (Donald Duck) using close up shots of it. This may not be added into my final trailer but there is no harm in having more footage than needed.

On the 24th of January I continued shooting. As my original storyboard ended up being too minimal, there wasn’t enough material for me to create a trailer therefore I had to add in extra scenes. This is because I need the audience to build a relationship with Josh before the horror happens, as this makes the overall horror trailer more realistic. The clips that I had up until this point were too long and were not very explanatory of Josh as a character therefore I did some shooting of Josh in his normal habitat (in his room) – waking up, getting ready for school, making coffee to show the audience that Josh is normal. Adding in these scenes were absolutely necessary because a relationship with the audience needs to be created in order to highlight Josh’s psychosis even more and perhaps for the audience to be drawn into how normal Josh can be perceived.

Added props, costumes and locations: Props:

• A messy bedroom
• A bed
• A bed cover
• An alarm clock
• A light switch
• A coffee mug with toy story on it (to show Josh’s vulnerability)
• A kettle
• A mirror

Costume:

• Socks (shows that Josh puts the socks on in the original clip)
• Shoes (tying shoe laces)

Location:

• A bedroom
• A kitchen
• A house

Added scenes:

• Josh waked up, gets ready for school
• Josh sees things in the mirror
• Josh and Sarah meet, they talk.

In this added scene I have included a close up shot of Josh’s feet, this is to add tension and to increase the atmosphere and horror element of my trailer. Originally the proceeding scenes were filmed in the light, this was changed after realising  that he was about to wake up… It just made more sense. Furthermore, the darkness of the scenes following increase the realistic element of my trailer, especially when Josh turns the light on its made clear to the audience as an extreme close up shot has been used. The fact that Josh is also sleeping and the camera shows just his feet adds tension and vulnerability to Josh because he has no power. The camera also looks as though someone is watching Josh sleep (this will add to the idea of a psychological horror as it may show the audience that Josh is psychotic.)

Secondly, this shot is a close up of Josh turning the light on, this again represents Josh’s normal personality. The short snippets of film building up to the main bit of the trailer includes this scene of Josh turning the light on, this again increases tension for the audience as at the beinning of the trailer the audience have no idea what sort of character they about to meet because he hasn’t been on camera yet.

In this scene it shows a close up shot of Josh turning the kettle on, because I wanted to add scenes in at the beginning of Josh in a more of a normal environment so the psychosis of Josh builds up throughout the trailer, the short scenes at the beginning of my trailer are necessary in increasing the tension for the audience. Furthermore the diagetic sound of the kettle boiling and the button popping signifying the water has finished boiling, increases the tension even further, this is because any noise could be unsettling for the audience to endure at the beginning of my trailer as not horror has yet been shown in my trailer.

The finally added scene was off Josh in the mirror, as the mise-en-scene use of a mirror is one of the biggest conventions of a horror trailer, i thought this would be a perfect opportunity to build tension and anx for my trailer (this was inspired by the film Donny Darko). This scene is when the psychological horror creeps in and it is an extremely pivotal scene for my trailer as it starts to shows Josh’s psychosis. He believes that there is someone staring at him through the mirror.

Planning & Choosing my Film institution

The importance of film distribution:

• Choosing the right film distributor is really important as the reputation that the film distributor has with its previously distributed films will have effect on other films being distributed.
• The more copies of the film that can be made from the distributor the reputation of the distributing company will be better
• However, it is shown that the less successful films are distributed by independent distributors because these companies are limited to the amount of money that they have with campaigning, advertising and promoting the film.
• It is also important to choose the correct film distributor correlating to the nature of your film as it would be a bit obscure if you chose to have a major film distributor back your alternative film.
• This will therefore be something that I will take into consideration when choosing my Film distributor for LUCID.

In order to decide what film distributor is the best for my specific film I have done some research on both independent and major film distributors.

Independent Film Distributors:

I have looked at certain independent film institutions that are based in the Uk, because most other independant film institutions are based in the USA, but seen as my film has been planned, made and campaigned in the Uk, doing research in the uk is more important and suited to my film.

Here is what I have found:

Independent specializes in the development, financing, production and distribution of independent feature films. Led by CEO Luc Roeg, who has over twenty years experience in the film business, Independent has a team of highly motivated and experienced professionals with expertise in project development, production, structured finance, distribution, sales and marketing.

The first independent distributor that I found was actually named: the independent film company

• The Sea

Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by John Banville.

After the death of his wife, Max Morden retreats to a house by the Irish sea where he spent his childhood summers. Re-acquainting himself with places past brings back powerful memories from one fateful summer many years ago. Only an unforeseen revelation will provide a path to closure and redemption.

• The Information

Powerful and psychological story that examines the minutiae of relationships in the most extraordinary of circumstances: two undercover police officers posing as a couple, living together in the middle of a massive crime-ridden tower block. Meanwhile their own partners are left sitting on the sidelines, awaiting discreet telephone calls, and stolen moments. We all occasionally take our work home with us, but what happens when work becomes our new home? How do you live as a believable couple when you are not one… and never make a mistake?

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by the Channel Four Television Corporation. Before 1998 Film4 Productions was known as Channel Four Films or FilmFour International. In 2006 the name Film4 Productions was introduced.

Another quite famous independent film distributor is ‘Film 4’

• The Inbetweeners film 2

• Macbeth
• Carol

Another independent film distributor is ‘BBC FIlms’

BBC Films is the film making arm of the BBC which has been responsible for co-producing some of the most successful British films in recent times. Until 2007 BBC Films was located in Mortimer Street, London, UK but now BBC Films is based at the BBC Television Centre, London, UK.

In cinemas now:

• Treatment of youth
  http://emp.bbc.co.uk/emp/embed/smpEmbed.html?playlist=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fcorporate2%2Fplaylist%2Fp02bn7ys&title=testament_of_youth_uk_trailer.mov&product=iplayer

Upcoming films:

• Man Up

• London Road

Warp Studios and FIlm 4 often combine when financing a film…

The final independent film distributor that I have researched is ‘Warp’:

Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is an independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, specialising in electronic music. Warp Films is one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed independent Film and TV production companies and is based in Sheffield & London, UK.

• ’71’

• Four Lions

Here’s a compilation an snippets of films distributed by Warp Studios that I found on youtube:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/GQtvw_01nQM&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe

Mainstream Film Distributors:

I will be researching Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MTV films and Happy Madison Productions 2005, here is a video of what there logos are.  This is often featured at the beginning of major distributed films:

1st major film distributor: Columbia Pictures (Sony pictures)

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution studio of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.^[1] It is one of the leading film studios in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Click on this link to show you a poll made by Columbia Pictures to show you peoples opinions on what was the best distributed film by Columbia Pictures

From this website it says:

1) Groundhog Day

2) The Shawshank Redemption

3) Misery

Paramount Pictures:

Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, and formerly known as Famous Players-Lasky Corporation) is a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the “Big Six” film studios of Hollywood. It is a subsidiary of US media conglomerate Viacom.

Top 3 films distributred by Paramount Pictures:

source of reference: IMDB

1) Titanic

2) Transformers Dark of the moon 3

3) Transformers: Age of Extinction

MTV films

MTV Films is the American motion picture production arm of the cable channel MTV. Founded in 1996, it has produced films based on MTV programs such as Beavis and Butt-head Do America and Jackass: The Movie, as well as other adaptations and original projects. Its films are released by fellow Viacom division Paramount Pictures.

•  Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

• Blades of Glory

• Justin Bieber, Never say Never
  

Happy Madison Productions

Happy Madison Productions is an American film and television production company founded in 1999 by Adam Sandler who is best known for his comedy films. Happy Madison takes its name from the films Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, two box office successes starring Sandler himself, both produced by Robert Simonds. The elderly man depicted in the logo is Sandler’s late father, Stanley.

• Zookeeper

After taking into account of both Mainstream and Independent distributors I think that best distributor for Lucid would be and Independent distributor so Warp Studios or Film 4. I believe that having an independent distributor will allow me to have more scope and choice in how I want my film to be. Although the budget will be minimal, I will not need much money as I’ve used local locations and my own idea for the making of LUCID.  Big successful independent films are rare however, there have been successful independent films in the past:

Click on this link: and it will show you the top ten indies at the box office.

When researching warp studios I watched some of the films and how they were produced, this is appealing to me because the aesthetics of some films will be similar to my film; LUCID

Continuing the construction of the final version of my horror poster

Please click on this link to show you my previous construction of my final version of my horror poster so it will make it easier to see how I have come up with my final product

Following on from that here is the final stages of the construction of my horror poster:

• Firstly I have  added the name of my horror trailer onto the poster called ‘LUCID’ in the font of ‘Cf Anarchy’
• A text box was drawn
• I used http://www.dafont.com to help me choose which font was best fit for my horror poster
• After much deliberation, CF Anarchy was the best choice.
• I have made the ID a bit bitter than the rest of the title as this will refer to my previous research of Freud and ‘the id’ (click on this link to show you the research)

• Next I have used a different font called  and written ‘The nightmare that never sleeps‘ which a allows the audience to immediately understand that its a psychological horror, the slogan of the poster draws the audience in so that they will want to watch my horror movie more
• A line has been drawn underneath the slogan of my film to emphasise its importance and to also aesthetically separate the different components of my poster.

• A text box was drawn and the size was adjusted to fit the poster best, this was the button that I pressed in Photoshop.

• Next the star of the film of ‘Jack Jordan’ has been features at the top of my poster using a different font which fitted in well with the rest of the poster, I used for this particular text
• Two circular shapes were drawn and placed besides the featured name. I did this to make the name stand out more so that the audience were able to see that he is a good actor… ect,
• This feature is also a convention that is on most horror posters therefore I thought it was imperative to add this to mine to ultimately make it look more realistic.
• It also makes the text match the rest of my poster, this is important as the aesthetics need to fit in with a psychological horror theme.

• The only font colour that is different to the rest is the ‘ID’ this is because its a very important aspect of my overall horror idea, as the ID symbolises that Josh (Jack) has an alter-ego in the film and again foreshadows about the later events occurring in my trailer and horror film.
• The ID also represents that Josh has an identity and that its identity is all about a person… as my trailer is all about Josh as a person, this links in and relates well to him.
• The red font colour also signifies and foreshadows that their is blood involved in the trailer and film… again linking to the ‘horror genre’
• This, I found is a very important convention of a horror poster, therefore it was important to use it in the making of my poster.

• ‘The best psychological horror’ has been added to the poster, this is because it is another convention of a horror poster that needs to be done, also it adds to the promotion and likeability factor of my trailer.
• A text box was drawn
• The font of Orator STD was used to make the poster loo even more fitting with the rest of it.
• And to add more impact and conventions to my poster the stars have been changed to red to match the ID, these are the two main elements of my poster, therefore the font colour of red makes them stand out even more.
• I did this by selecting the text that wanted to be changed to red and then chose the colour ‘red’ on the colour reel.
• A stroke was added around, the text was highlighted the ‘fx’ button was added and then the stroke option was cliced on and then the width of the stroe was increased to around 3mm
• ‘The Guardian’ to show the audience that it has had good reviews and promotion which will ultimately make the audience want to watch my horror movie more

• Finally, the ‘coming soon’ stamp was added to the poster to indicate to the audience that the movie is coming soon
• This also adds impact and excitement for the audience knowing that the movie will be coming soon.
• The same text as the title was used ‘CF Anarchy’ and the size changed
• It was then placed in the right bottom hand corner of my poster so that its not completely in the way of the picture.
• This is so that the main picture is not covered by text as it is really important for the audience to be able to have eye contact with the main protagonist in the movie, therefore all the text has been placed around the picture and eyes.

Here is my final version of my horror poster:

Draft of my Horror Poster

After creating the image I started putting the text on the poster, however, as I was just playing around to see what fonts worked best with my horror poster, I have decided that his version of my poster will be a draft:

The reason why I feel that this is not the appropriate font is because it does not fit in with the genre of a psychological horror, therefore I have made changes to my original poster.

Construction of my horror poster… continued

To edit my poster i used the ‘Fx’ button

The ‘R’ ‘G’ ‘B’ buttons were pressed so that the 3 different layers were made to be red green and blue

Another layer was added ‘Layer 7’, a filter was put on top of the pictures named ‘render’ and a cloud effect was used

Here is the effect:

Another layer added

This time a different filter used, ‘Pixelate’ and the effect ‘Crystallise’ was put on top

Here is the effect:

Another layer and another effect used to create a distorted ‘schizophrenic’ image

this image made one of the faces as a layer distorted and circular, now at this point in the poster, every layer and face is different representing the idea of a ‘schizophrenic mind’

Another filter used to add too the schizophrenic idea to the poster: ‘Liquify’

This affect distored the face even more, the brush was decreased in size and certain elements of the face were changed

As you can see the mouth has been widened and the eyes pulled closer together under the top layer:

These were my other ideas, and to do this I used the invert button to change the colours to the opposite spectrum of the the original picture

Finally I chose the origional image that I used, as the feedback I got on Facebook, the majority of people said that they liked my origional image the best: here is the link to the post: https://a2mediasarah.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/feedback-for-my-horror-poster/ 

I have added my title to the poster of ‘Lucid’ by doing this I used ‘Da font’

By doing this I added another layer ontop of the poster (and named it lucid)

to sustain the trippy and schizophrenic look about my poster (as it reflects the idea of my film)  I duplicated the layer and changed the font, and with the other titles, I turned the opacity down.

For every title name I used an effect called ‘outer glow’, this segregates the titles so that the audience can see the duplicated layers, this is important to me as it reinforces the idea of a ‘trippy’ look 

These are the different layers with the effect for an outer glow:

Here is the overal effect

Feedback for my Horror Poster

Here are my final posters…

In order to make sure the best poster was chosen I posted it onto my facebook page to ask for response

Here is the response:

Based from the feedback I have received online, everyone chose the original poster that I made. I also asked my teacher, and she said, the original one too because it shows different faces and personalities that Josh has, and the poster looks very tripy. This is a very important aspect of my poster because its based on how Josh’s nightmare becomes real.