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.

Soundtrack research

Here is an article, that helped me in finding/creating a sound track

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/24083243

Incompetech is a good website also that i’ll be using to help me search some music for my tailer, as it is royalty free, copyright will not be an issue

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Horror&page=1 

Extended research for my poster

I typed into google images ‘paintings of schizophrenia’ and here is what came up:

From this research I can see that most paintings/pictures show two faces,

The literal definition of schizophrenia is :

‘a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought (as delusions), perception (as hallucinations), and behavior —called also dementia praecox‘

These paintings confirm the different personalities that someone can have with schizophrenia, the different faces highlight this even further, therefore…

In my production piece I have made sure that different pictures of Jack pulling different faces represent the alternative personalities that someone with schizophrenia has; therefore in my horror trailer, the different faces will represent the personalities that Josh has in the poster… All in all, showing the audiences the beginning of Josh’s schizophrenic journey that is about to be unraveled in LUCID.

By doing this I was able to add the different photos in photoshop, and layering them on top of one another. In order to show the different faces that he is pulling, the opacity is turned down for every single picture, to show the obscurity within a schizophrenic mind, I have used different filters and colours to represent this.

Changes made to my drafted storyboard…

• As my original storyboard idea may be a bit minimal as far as the camera editing, I have taken some pictures of locations that I am going to use and drawn on the pictures to describe the movement of Josh, I have also taken some pictures of the scenes where Josh will show himself in a normal light

First storyboard ideas:

Second storyboard ideas:

• On reflection, the original story board that I came up with was not enough, after asking people in my class about the ideas of my first draft of my story board, they said ‘the audience needs to get to know Josh a bit better, so if you show the audience a bit about what he does in the morning in a more normal environment, the contrasting of the normal environment will really juxtapose with the any abnormal psychotic scenes shown later on in the trailer.
• I am also considering changing around a few scenes as the original story board does not make enough sense, as it needs a bit more detail on Josh’s life and psychosis…

Final storyboard ideas:

Here are my progressed and changed ideas….

When Josh is normal and when the audience get to know Josh a bit more (These scenes will be added into my trailer:):

When Josh’s psychosis comes out, these scenes will be juxtaposed against the scenes of Josh’s normal day to day routines:

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

Horror film trailer analysis

I have chosen to do the genre Psychological Horror and I have analysied films that indicate psychology as this will specifically help me with creating my trailer more than a for example a ‘Slasher’ horror trailer would.

These types of films feature a disturbed individual whose mental problems unnerve and frighten audiences. The ‘psycho’ will appear like a ‘normal’ human-being, before revealing their monstrous and sadistic nature. There is less need for masses of death, violence and gore as they scare audiences by reminding them of reality. Psychological horrors give the impression that we may be living amongst danger.

As I’ve chosen this genre it would be easier to film because it involves less violence and gore. This could possibly mean that my film trailer would have more chance of appearing professional. Conventionally, there is a clever and complex storyline attached to psychological horrors and it would be intriguing to construct a plot so in-depth and intricate. However, it would be challenging in the sense of producing an authentic storyline for this genre. As I have been able to develop a good enough storyline around the idea of a psychological horror I have used certain trailers to help me understand how I can make this genre scary in a trailer.

What is a psychological horror?

Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction, film, and video games (as a narrative) which relies on the characters’ fears and emotional instability to build tension.

Donnie Darko (2002) Analysis:

The film is a massive inspiration for me  The ideas of the hallucinations initiated further ideas and also the the horror posters and the different pictures involved in this film added to my palette of knowledge for my trailer too.

I will be analysing three different trailers that are similar to my ideas, this will be a part of my primary research as it will provide me with some inspiration for when I start shooting my own trailer.

Synopsis: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

• Although Donnie Darko is not explicitly a horror film I feel as though it has been the most inspiration for my ideas other than the normal slasher horror films. The film does include elements of horror and it certainly scared me, but the reason for analysing this trailer because it holds a psychological element of the film therefore it is extremely relevant to the research for my horror trailer.
  
  

Analysis:

• Before the trailer starts a green screen picture comes and and says ‘Restricted’ and suggests that those who are under the age of 17 should be accompanied by an adult. immediately this green image implies that the content of the film is going to be scary/ grusome/ rude.

• As the trailer continues, the difference between the diagetic sound and non diagetic sound is apparent to me when. When Donnie has the hallucinations, the non-diagetic hallucinatory sounds highlight his psychosis even further. The diegetic sounds includes Donnie’s conversations with the characters who are also involved in the film. At the beginning, it shows that he is a normal/ perhaps stable teenager, even though he is not. As the trailer moves on, sounds are fitted over the top to signify the change in Donnie’s perception. The sound over the top of Donnie’s hallucinations really imply that something is going to happen. Obviously the audience do not understand or know what it is as the movie has to be watched however, when this is shown a psychological aspect of the film is certainly portrayed to the audience. The sounds as well as his psychosis increases the tension of whats to come next.

• After this bit of the trailer, we can see that when Donnie has his hallucinations he sees something wearing a mask named ‘Frank’, he is the villain in Donnie’s head and this is reinforced through the character wearing the mask; this is scary. Masks distort the wearer’s appearance, causing him to look strange and unusual. Most masks do not feature moving mouths, so when Frank speaks the sound appears to come out of nowhere putting the watcher in the same position as the character in the film.

Why are masks scary:

Maskaphobia is believed to be related to automatonophobia, or fear of humanoid figures . A precise cause has not been determined. Nonetheless, a common theory states that these phobias may be rooted in our expectations of human appearance and behavior.

The Mise-en scene used here is the costume, as we see the image of Frank, he is staring back at us, Frank is a representation of Donnie’s psychosis, as it shows the audience his hallucination, the lighting also used along with the prop of Franks mask. The lighting is dark showing that Frank is a dark concept and as a result triggering the audiences imagination. This is how props and lighting have been used to increase effect and tension; ultimately what the director wants to do to. This definitely suggests Donnie’s psychosis, once again reinforcing the psycho-horror element of the trailer.

• As the trailer ends it shows flashing images of him vs Franks; normal vs psychosis. A purple filter has been put over the top of the flashing images, purple symbolizes power. Purple is  associated with , independence, creativity, mystery, and magic, all of this subconsciously understand his omniscience. The fact that a filter can really change how someone looks at something will really help me when I am conveying certain messages in my horror trailer. The camera angle in this scene is looking straight at Donnie Darko suggesting that he has a lot of power. This creates the atmosphere of suspense for the viewer making them want to watch on to find out what happens next.

The Fight Club (horror trailer)

Synopsis: An insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more..

Analysis:

• Firstly I noticed that in a specific shot of Tyler in this scene, when he is asleep a black and white filter has been used, it then changes to a normal filter. The filters suggest that Tyler has two sides to his personality, the idea of a duality in character or personality reveals his psychotic tendencies, portraying to the audience that he is a danger as he is not completely himself all the time. This effect will be something that I will speculate on using in my horror trailer as it is a simple yet effective way of showing the audience that Josh has different personalities which reinforces the idea of it being a psychological horror trailer.

• The sound of the characters monologue almost reveals what goes on inside his head, later on scarier music is used over the clips chosen to portray the scary aspect of psychosis. The ring of the telephone signifies how the character has no control over what goes on his head, and as this is not possible, it implies that he is having and auditory hallucination. This had made me realise how important sound is, not just diegetic sound but non-diegetic sound too. This sound increases the atmospheric aspect of the trailer and leaves the audience  intrigued into what is next to come. This gave me a few ideas for my trailer as its really important for me to show the psychosis of Josh (but not too much) as I need to be able to leave the audience wanting more. Curiosity is key. (Bathes enigma code)

• In this part of the trailer the camera angle is looking up to the character, showing his superiority, this increases the tension involved as it makes the audience feel on edge about the characters capabilities. I will also consider the different camera angles to use in my trailer.

Shutter Island

Synopsis: In 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding near-by.

Analysis:

• In this part of the trailer, the lighting it shining onto the character emphasising the characters omniscience. This increases the character likeability factor as the lighting is pointing down onto him making him look vulnerable and scared. As there is a low level of lighting projecting onto the character, this makes the character look mysterious… again reinforcing the idea of a psychological thriller, as it can emphasis the enigma codes within the film trailer, which makes the audience want to watch the actual film. It is a good strategy to lure the audience and one that I will experiment with in my own horror trailer.

• The setting of the horror film is based around a mental institute and therefore the use of characters and narrative and slow track editing of this psychotic woman reinforces the conventions of a psychological horror. This woman gives an insight into what the mental institute is like which foreshadows to how scary the actual horror film is going to be.

• Another convention of a psychological horror trailer through the use of editing. This trailer uses Bathes hermeneutic code is the use of flashback, this inevitably builds necessary tension and makes the audience question what is actually going to happen at the end of the film… therefore it subconsciously reals them in to make them watch the actual film. Th

• When authors employ flashback as a literary device, they break with the traditional, chronological storytelling narrative. Therefore, when the flashback is included, it will likely bring information that had not been produced previously. There will be new details and facts that may help tie in the events taking place as part of the plot.

• Flashbacks can be included as a break in the narrative, or blended within the story of the characters as it happens in the style known as “stream of consciousness”. In this type of story, the narrator is the main character, and is in constant analysis of a situation speaking from his or her own point of view and using first person.

• Flashbacks can also come as dreams and memories, thus manifesting to the main character subconsciously. Whichever way they occur, their purpose is to add information, clarify issues, and perhaps be the solution to the story’s problem or main dilemma. Flashbacks are predominately found in psychological horrors, therefore I will make sure that this will definitely be something that speculate on when creating and involved in the post-production stages of my horror trailer (the editing part)

• Further conventions are revealed in this physiological horror to dictate it being a horror genre is the use of props again, specifically; blood. As the trailer also shows the main character have flashbacks of a woman, this tells more about the narrative of the story and as a result definitely categories this trailer as a psychological horror. As one of the main conventions of a horror film is the use of blood because it implies death and killing, I will make sure that my own includes bloods it is one of the definite conventions that indicate to the audience that my trailer will be a horror. However, Shutter Island is a psychological horror and I noticed that the use of blood was not excessive and did not show explicit clips of a lot of blood therefore I will make sure that when I make my psychological horror trailer that I will not go over board with the blood.

• Further conventions of a horror trailer are revealed in this part as the use of props (mise-en-scene) are shown. This makes it more scary for the audience. In order for the audience to want to watch the actual film, shots of the props in the mental hospital will increase the chances of a bigger audience for the horror film. I will make sure that I take this into consideration for my horror trailer as these props definitely fit into the convention of a psychological horror trailer , thus this will help me when i create my own horror trailer. Other props were used in this horror trailer such as a pen an piece of paper, which the word ‘run’ written on it, this again is the use of Barthes hermeneutic code as it avoids revealing the truth of the story all at one time and instead drops little fact, therefore I will certainly make sure that I use this technique in my trailer as it will engage the audience even more for my actual horror film

Freud – The ‘ID’

The id demands immediate satisfaction and when this happens we experience pleasure, when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or pain. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world.

On the contrary, it operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences.

The id engages in primary process thinking, which is primitive illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented.

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.