teaser trailer test screening - rough cut

teaser trailer test screening

Today we showed the rough cut of our teaser trailer, without the soundtrack, and receiver honest, objective, and constructive feedback of how to improve it. The overall comments were positive, our main strengths were the use of costume, having the conventions of a horror movie, good use of title sequences, and well framed shots.

However there are improvements that need to be made, the main one being that it is too much like  an opening sequence rather than a teaser trailer. Therefore we need to shorten some shots, and take more risks with the editing. Also another criticism was that the titles were not clear enough to read, we might need to slow down the timing add some special affects. The final improvement is to have different ranges of shot.

We are going to take this criticism on board and try to edit our trailer to make it less like an opening sequence. We will do this by cutting the shots shorter and maybe adding more titles to break up the sequences.

magazine research

magzine research

We purchased this magazine due to its 'Horror Genre' specific articles in this issue. These included actors and actresses who have been type casted for horrors aswell as horror stories, and instructions on how to produce your own horror film for under £45. The images included were inspiring and the articles were extremelly helpful.

film poster analysis

film poster analysis

After finishing our trailer and analyzing a film magazine cover we also had to analyze a film poster. i decided that i would use the poster from the film that i did my marketing campaign on earlier in the blog. when looking at film posters its important to remember that posters are another way of advertising the film so the context of the poster should be eye catching and make you want to go and see the film which means that they will want to use major images that will make you think 'i want to see that'. they are another way for 'selling' the film. the title is in a relatively large font which is easy to read and you can straight away see the name of the film. quite a lot of posters usually have the title at the top of the poster but i like this one in particular as the image is the main focus and the text is underlining the image at the bottom quarter of the poster. on the poster on the right it is more of a teaser poster as the date of release is not actually on it , it just says 'coming soon' but on the poster on the left it tells us the date of release which was May the 29th. in the teaser poster the 'villain' of the film is not seen we just see the main character who is the victim having monster like hands round her. in the second poster which was released after the villain has been exposed to the public and this is the first time we see her. on the teaser  poster the tag-line of the film is shown which gives the audience an idea of what the film is about. the billing block on the teaser poster is in a colour which doesn't stand out too much against the fire and camouflages into the background of the poster. the colour in both posters are very vibrant and using red as the main colour can outline danger and give the audience an idea that the film contains danger.

magazine cover analysis

magazine cover analysis

As part of our trailer we have to make an analysis of a film cover. i found it really hard to find one which had relevance to our trailer but in the end i found these empire one.  i chose to look at the second magazine cover because it had the most relevant features when comparing it to our trailer.

I like this magazine cover as i feel its like the man is coming out of the magazine. I also like the way the eyes are so dark compared to his white face and his lips look like they are bleeding so i think that element looks quite effective to when you compare it to his pasty white face.

The title of the film that it is advertising is right below the title of the magazine. this means that as soon as the customer looks at the title of the magazine they will read the line direct below it that shows the film title, and then below that title is the tag-line for the film which can draw the customer to want to see the film by having a catchy tag-line.

above the magazine title it tells us that there are two magazine covers to collect. the second one is above the one i choose to look at with batman on the front of it. i don't feel this has as much in common as the other one but i noticed he has a mask on his face which could be the same as the way josh wears a mask on his face to be the clown in our trailer.

i like the way the text is surrounded by a green outline which looks like its glowing and its the same on the batman cover as the text is surrounded by a blue outline and i feel that this is very effective on both the covers.

both of the images on the covers are very close up which shows its importance of the character's in the film.

The two different images on the magazine covers are like a juxtaposition where they contrast against each other. the villain and the hero.

Both the magazines still have the barcode, price, and date its released which are the normal features on any magazine but on these magazines you can hardly notice them as they focus it more on the characters, the film title and the title of the whole magazine

rehearsal schedule

rehearsal schedule

We were planning to film in half term but everyone was busy on the different days and we could not work around this.

we started filming on tuesday the 3rd of november during our media lesson. people present were the actresses Evie and Zoe and the three members from the media group - kate, josh and charlotte. the shots we captured in this session were all based in the prop room

we then filmed the last shots on the 5th of november after college when it got dark. people present were Evie and the three members of the media group again. the shots captured in this session were a couple in the prop room and the rest in the priory park.

to help make the trailer look more realistic we had to make sure Evie was wearing the same clothes on both days of filming. this helped with the continuity of the trailer.

sound research

Non-Diegetic sound: from looking at clown horror films the typical trend included typical circus high pitched music, voice overs, screaming, footsteps

Diegetic sound: all of the films that we used to look at different sounds all included these sounds; , heavy breathing,shouting,

our filming sessions

Overall our filming sessions went really well and we captured all the shots we needed, although we had to change some, it still worked really effectively and matched up with the genre we chose to base our trailer on. we could only do this in two sessions as we had to have our rough copy in on friday.

The first session we had was in the props room in p09 in college. this was with our new actresses Evie and Zoe. We got a good range of shots which we could use for the start of the film to set the mood. this was when we first get to see the clown behind the clothes rack.

The second session was on thursday 5th november after college at 4:15pm. in this session we had to get a last couple of shots in the props room that we didn't have time for in the first session. we then moved on to the priory park where we had to capture the main parts of the clown stalking Evie.

problems with filming

Our first set of actors decided they didn't want to be in our film trailer so changed groups without letting us know which means they were unreliable, so we had to find some other actors in time to capture the shots before we had to hand in our rough copy.

Zoe became ill, so we had to change the story-line because she wasn't able to come to all the filming.

Whilst filming in the priory park we started to lose light as it was getting late so the shots we wanted to get had to be changed because we had to find light, but in the end this was resolved because it started to look effective having silhouettes of the clown instead of seeing the clown in broad daylight.

font ideas for poster

We used the website www.dafont.com to research different types of texts we can use on the poster to be shown in the movie. We used the tag line from our movie 'welcome to the greatest show on earth' to test out different fonts.

Here are some examples that we tried out

we decided a font called JF Ringmaster was appropriate for our genre and type of film with clowns and circuses involved.

poster ideas

We have been designing a circus poster for our film, it will firstly be shown as a normal happy poster advertising the circus, the poster will then switch to a different poster with the same background but with the scary clown mask we are using as the main picture.

Here are some examples we have found that have given us ideas for our poster:

The conventions of this poster is showing the friendly side to clowns, and how they are usually entertainment for children at the circus. The bright colours used connote a positive atmosphere, and the quote underneath 'the children's favourite clown' conveys this clown is friendly.

We chose this poster as we liked the background as it was similar to a circus marquee, we also liked the magicians hands in the middle which conveyed mystery and magic.

These are some posters that we will use to inspire our scary poster:

Poster ideas

We have been designing a circus poster for our film, it will firstly be shown as a normal happy poster advertising the circus, the poster will then switch to a different poster with the same background but with the scary clown mask we are using as the main picture.

Here are some examples we have found that have given us ideas for our poster:

The conventions of this poster is showing the friendly side to clowns, and how they are usually entertainment for children at the circus. The bright colours used connote a positive atmosphere, and the quote underneath 'the children's favourite clown' conveys this clown is friendly.

We chose this poster as we liked the background as it was similar to a circus marquee, we also liked the magicians hands in the middle which conveyed mystery and magic.

These are some posters that we will use to inspire our scary poster:

Camera Shot Research

here are some example of photos we took:

We have carried out a task to improve our shot composition. This will improve how we frame shots, including and excluding elements, shot distances, selecting mise-en-scene- including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting. The picture above shows the rule of thirds,The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

Questionaire to find target audience

Questionnaire about horror movies

1. Age

2. Are you male or female

3. Do you like horror films? Yes No

4. If you don’t like horror films then what is it that you don’t like about them?

5. What kind of horror film do you like to watch? 

6. What is it that you like about horror films?

7. What sort of things do you expect to see when you watch a horror film?

8. Do have a favorite actor/actress that you like to see in horror films (please state who and why)

9. What is your favourite horror film and why?

10. What is your least favourite horror film and why?

11. What time of day do you like to watch a horror film? 

12. What film certificate do you usually go to watch?

13. Where do you like to watch horror films? 

Cinema

Online

DVD

Other

We have carried out primary research in the form of a questionnaire to discover he target audience for horror films, and what they like/dislike about watching horror films.

We asked 6 males and 4 females, age 17-18. The results show that 90% of people like horror films. The only reason for a dislike was "because they are boring". All of the target market said the reason for liking horror movies was to keep you on the edge of their seat, they enjoy the suspense and adrenaline they get from being scared by the movies. The most popular type of scary movies were the ones that involve one main villain, for example Halloween and Friday the 13Th. Another popular type of horror movie was ones with infestations of weird characters or zombies. 

90% of people said they expect to see a villain, a victim and a lot of violence in horror movies; for example blood and gore and terrifying murders.The target market's favourite movies were; Halloween, Saw, Drag me to Hell, The grudge, The strangers, Friday the 13th, Shaun of the dead, and Stephen King's IT. The reasons people had for these movies being their favourite were good plot lines,based on true stories, really make you jump, or a particular character that is terrifying. 

People also had movies which they particularly disliked, their reasons for disliking them were because the movie was unrealistic, too violent and gory or the story line was too boring and the movie was slow moving. 

People generally see movies that are rated 15, with some people watching 18's. They tend to watch the movies at night; it makes it increasingly scary, 50% of people said they would rather watch scary movies at home than the cinema, maybe because of the rating of the film or the cost of watching it.

Marketing campaign - Drag me to Hell

Marketing campaign – Drag Me to Hell

Director – Sam Raimi

Release Date – 27th may 2009

Tagline - Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell.

Starring – Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver and Dileep Rao.

Distributor – Lionsgate UK

Word Of Mouth

In the teaser trailer of Drag Me to Hell the release date is not shown it just says ‘this may’ therefore there was a lot of people talking about the film discussing when they think it will finally be in the cinemas, therefore there was potential for the film. The tagline also helps to build up discussion on the film because they don’t know what’s going to happen in the film. 

TV/Press

The film was created from the director of spider man which made it a popular film to go and see. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in American theatres on Friday May 29, 2009. Drag Me to Hell closed from the cinemas on Thursday August 6, 2009, with a final domestic gross of $42,100,625, and an additional $36,318,225 internationally for a total of $80,498,545 worldwide.

Online/Mobile

There is a website which tells you more about the film and the release dates. It also contains pictures of the posters that were used to promote the film.

It also has the synopsis, cast, photo gallery and product features.

http://www.dragmetohell.net/

Complementary Media

On http://www.imdb.com the user rating for this film is 7.5/10 and was nominated for teen choice award. 

On the blog website called http://www.movieretriever.com the film gets a high rating. So from people talking about the film on blogs and giving it good reviews more people are likely to go and see the film or even buy it when it comes out on DVD.

On www.rottentomatoes.co.uk they have rated the film with 92% from critics giving it a ‘certified fresh’ 

Poster

The poster for drag me to hell is very popular because of how good it looks. A lot of people comment on website on how scary it looks and it promotes the film very well.

Trailers

There were two trailers for the film and in each of them only some of the main scenes are shown to create suspense and make people want to go and see the film to see what happens.

On imdb’s website they show the trailer. 

Click this link to watch it . . . http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3899917081/

Merchandising

There is a lack of merchandising for this film. This could be down to the fact that the film is not released on DVD till the 20th of October 2009.

Premieres

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on the 21st of may 2009.