Initial ideas.

We all decided as a group that we wanted to produce a horror trailer. We then started thinking and brainstorming our initial ideas.

Plot - 6 friends go on a camping trip at the end of their a levels, on the journey on the way there, the car runs out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. They have so signal so decide to just camp where they are for the night and wait until the morning to go to get help. Set up camp then all go off to get wood and other things. Each one of them starts getting killed off in a unconventional order, the clever character dies first and the blonde survives till last. At the end their is a twist and they find out the killer is a girl that they used to bully and she is now getting revenge.

Characters - We wanted to use unconventional characters. A couple, a geek (who turns out to be not clever at all), a blonde (turns out to be clever). We also decided we want to use all girls.

Location - Long road - Luittenant ellis way shot from bridge, quiet country lanes, woods for the most part of the trailer and a school.

Film titles - Revenge, Eye for an Eye, Trapped.

Below are inital brainstorms about characters and locations:

Final storyboard.

This is our group’s final storyboard:

It includes all the ideas we inherited from our individual ideas and then put together the parts we thought would work best together. We have written and drawn in detail what we need to film and in what locations, as well as certain shots that could potentially be used in our horror trailer along with the timing. This will help us a great deal when we come to film our trailer as we can refer to the shots when filming and also when editing we can use it to help us have an idea of what order the sequence should be in and the timings etc.

Below is a list of all the different shots and camera angles we want to put in the begining, middle and end:

Inital storyboard.

Before we could start filming, we needed to think of a storyline for our genre of film and what shots would be more affective in the particular genre we choose. Therefore we all individually drew a storyboard of our own ideas and story lines to contribute to the group, as it would help us create several ideas and choose the best amongst them all, create our final shot by shot storyboard that would guide us through filming. By having a detailed storyboard, it will guide our group on the location, angle and mis-en-scene of the shot. Furthermore it conveys how we planned for our trailer to look, what our original ideas where and perhaps how we’ve improved it.

My initial storyboard:

After we all sketched an initial story board, we discussed what would and wouldn't work and adapted each of our ideas to create a final storyboard. By having four individual initial storyboards it meant we have lots more ideas to use and discuss which ones are the preferred and include them in our final shot by shot storyboard.

Location analysis.

The location for many horror films is conventionally an isolated place where there is no escape. The characters often feel trapped and end up in this mysterious place by accident. In many horror films it is usually a forest, house or somewhere the are trapped in e.g. a cave. Below is a photo of our loacation in the day time.




We choose this pacific place as we felt it fitted the genre well.

Mis-en Scene analysis.

The mis-en scene for a horror is very often similar in many films, as conventioally the murderer is dressed in dark, dull clothes so they are heardly revealed and the victims are running around trying to escape in ripped clothing, with blood down them. Therefore we will follow this convention by dressing our murderer in black clothing and some how dissguise her face to make her look mysterious.
The lighting tends to be dark as horrors are generaly filmed at night as most people fear the dark more as they feel vulnerable and at a greater risk, therefore we will film the majority of or trailer at night.
The camera angles say alot about a film and conventionlly in horror film they use behind shoots to convey someone is being watched or crept up on, close ups of the victims distraught and quick pae shots of the murder, therefore we will use all the ones i have listed plus more to make our trailer as interesting as possible.
As we wantedto stick to the above conventions because these are what make a horror genre easy to identify.



This is an example of a stereotypical murderer as he is dressed in dull, dark clothes and is hiding their identity.

Sound/ Music Analysis.

During horror films the sound and music helps to build the tension for the audience. We tested this by putting a horror film on mute and although it was still scary it wasn't as effective or jumpy. Therefore we assed what kind of music and sound effects they used to create maximum effect. We found that the music always begun low and peaceful then gradually built up towards the middle of the trailer getting louder and adding more bass. This connects with Freytags and Tzvetan Todorov theory as the music of a trailer tends to fit the pattern of the equilbrium triangle as the music begins slowly when everything is "normal" and as the equilbium is disrupted the music becomes louder and deeper to become more effective and convey the disequlibrium. Therefore we are going to use this theory in our trailer.

Character Analysis.

In any horror film you always have a villian, which is normally the killer and a victim/s that are being tortured. After watching many horror trailers the murderer is conventional male therefore we wanted to do a unconvetinal twist on the murderer to create a good selling point for our film. Therefore we decided to do a female killer as we could really use this to distinguish our film from many other horror films on the market. We had already planned the majority of our story line, our story line was that several a level students where heading off on a camping trip we needed more than one vitim. We decided to use five as we wanted to use an odd number to convey a sense of unsteadyness. To begin with we was going to use male and female victims with different personalities e.g. a nerd, a big headed one and a couple. However we then decided to do an all female horror as not only was it unconventional but it would appeal to males due to the male glance and them viewing the females fighting for their lives but also females as they can emphasise with other females easily and perhaps they have been camping or perhaps they are like a percific character. Below are the characters we used and the reasons we used them:

Jodie- The murderer.

We choose Jodie to be the murderer as we felt she was not a sterotypical killer, her long blonde hair and blue eyes are very unconvetional of a murderer. However we wanted to add a twist to all our characters and plot. Although she is not classed as a conventional killer her mis-en-scene was dull, dark and scary which is conventional of a killer therefore it was still easy for the audience to easily identify she was the killer. To begin with we was going to use a small timid character as the murderer, as our storyline was the murderer became a murderer after being bullyed over a period of time. However we felt Jodie worked better as she is very timid, shy,broad and tall. These adjectives are not normally ones you would associate together therefore it makes it clear to the audience why the other characters may be bullying her. Also Jodie was our final choice as she had some knowledge of what it was like to be bullyed and therefore could convey real emotions in the filming and also we knew she would be very reliable as she was a part of our group therefore she wouldn't let us down when we needed her for filming etc.

Philippa- The Survivor.

In most horror films it is conventional to have a survivor, however although we stuck to conventions we added a slight twist. As quite often the survivor is a man or a strong willed dominating character. As our cast was all females we had to choose a female survivor, however we choose Philippa as she is a short and blonde and conventionally blondes are seen as being dumb and fake, therefore we wanted to change conventions and show blonde women in a different intelligent light.

Chelsey- The Geek.

When we was anaylising conventional characters amongst a gang of friends, there always seemed to be "the geek". However the geek is conventionally very clever and seems to survive or be the last to die, however we wanted to convey the geek as being ditsy and not very clever meaning she was one of the first to die. We choose Chelsey for the role as we all thought she fitted the appearance of a geek well.

Miranda (me)- The loud one.

Amongst every group of friends there tends to be a leader, therefore I was chosen to be the loud one as I was the leader of the group. You can tell this in the trailer by the way I am driving the vehcle and also the way the other girls tend to follow me e.g. when the car broke down they all followed me.

Natalie- The dumb/ doopey one.

We all choose to have a doopey one as they tend to break the tension in a horror and add a little laugh to the story line. We choose Natalie to play this part as she natuarally comes across as dopey by the way she acts, therefore we thought she would be perfect for the role.

Kelsey- The tom boy.

Finally our last character was Kelsey acting like a tom boy, we decided to choose a tom boy as we did not have any male characters in our trailer therefore we wanted to add somebody who would have that masculine, sporty attitude. We choose Kelsey because her dress sense and style is slightly more casual than some of the other girls we choose for our cast.