Choice of Trailer type

"Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction, film and video games (as a narrative) which relies on the characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension."(Definition of a psychological horror movie.)

I have decided to make a psychological horror trailer due to the fact I love the work of the auteur Hitchcock, I believe that the use of suspense works so much better at creating tension than any use of gore or modern thrillers. 

I personally am drawn to the more psychological horrors due to the fact they are often different and make the audience curious as to why these events are taking place, and what is going to have to happen to get rid of them.

I also believe that psychological horror trailers work at a higher level to other trailers. They are able to use both parallel and contrapuntal music and offer a variety of horror conventions to add into them. 

psychological horrors build the tension through creating uncomfortable situations in which the audience feel trapped and feel sympathy for the people in the horror film. Psychological horrors also work well at creating 'stereotypical characters' and therefor identity is being used more quickly to create a relationship between the audience and characters. 

I don't particularly like gore in horror films due to the fact they can often be over the top and frankly make me feel sick! so overall my general choice of trailer was based on what I like and what I believe I will be able to work with and make to a high level. 

Genre Aspects: Part Two

WHAT GENRE ASPECTS SHOULD I PUT IN MY TRAILER: 

THEMES

FEAR OF DEATH: For any horror trailer this is very important. The whole point of a horror trailer is to show the fear of the characters and how they are scared to lose their life. Horror fans thrive from this type of thing, and therefore to make any horror trailer good, we need to make sure that we get the fear of death an important and noticeable theme. 

LONELINESS: Loneliness often occurs in horror films, due to the fact many people feel more tense and on edge when a character is on their own without anyone to help them. This type of feeling makes us feel trapped and loneliness helps to enhance this. 

NARRATIVE: 
 Narrative is important for when making the actual film due to the fact it covers whether there will be an UNHAPPY ENDING or an OPEN ENDING and therefore I have mentioned this but do not think its entirely important for the trailer, due to the fact the trailer should not tell the end result. 

IDEOLOGIES: 

Ideologies often include 'sexism' 'cdi' and 'sadism' these are often used to create a particular character quickly that we feel empathy for. Sadism if often used in horror trailer to create sympathy for the characters lives. I believe that many horrors need this within their trailer to relate to other peoples lives. I think it would be quiet difficult to show these in-depth topics within a short trailer, however I will try to create a sense of hurt and loneliness. 

Genre Aspects: Part One

WHAT GENRE ASPECTS SHOULD I INCLUDE ON MY BLOG: part one 

I always believe that it is important to research and plan before I start my trailer. I have looked at many different horror trailers and picked up on the key horror conventions that make trailers stand out. I have categorised into sections what I am going to include in my own trailer and then giving statements as to why they are important for the development of my horror knowledge.

CHARACTERS AND REPRESENTATIONS: 

PSYCHO SERIAL KILLER: I have chosen to do a psychological horror trailer and therefor it is a necessity for me to have a psycho serial killer. I believe that by using this particular character will appeal to many people who don't particularly like the gore side of horror and prefer the more psychological types. My character is going to be a young childlike girl with long black hair and a pale white face. I believe that this particular type of killer will really stand out and bring the creepy affect that horror fans thrive from.

FEMALE SURVIVOR  (LAST GIRL): For many observers who love horror they get drawn to a particular character, for me I normally feel compassion for the 'final girl' and therefor feel it to be a necessity to have a female survivor. I also think it challenges the stereotypical female and therefor makes us more interested in the character and the film in general.

MISE-EN-SCENE: 

BLOOD AND GORE: I am going to include some minor aspects of blood and gore within my trailer, however my trailer is only a 15, and therefor I am going to have to be careful of the amount I add in. I think its important to only have a few shots of blood and gore, to make audiences aware that its present however also make it clear that it is not dominated by it.

RESTRICTED NARRATION: Restricted narration is going to be a very fun mise-en-scene aspect to play around with. This particular aspect allows the audience to use their own imagination and also doesn't give all of the story line away.

CREEPY LOCATION: A good creepy location is vital for the impact of the trailer and therefore I won't be settling for anything less than exceptional. I am looking to film inside a house, however would like shots of a forest and a creepy destination to help set the scene.

LOW KEY LIGHTING: I am going to have mostly low key lighting to connote lack of hope and the darkness to represent enclosure. Low key lighting is used in most horror trailers to show that there is no sign of escaping the new equilibrium that they have entered.

EDITING:

QUICK MONTAGE AND SLOW MONTAGE: I have selected both of these editing techniques to go together simply because I believe that they compliment each other well. A slow montage is used to introduce the story and topic and therefore is vital for introducing our context. The fast paced montage is a necessity and no horror trailer would work without it. It allows up to see quick snippets of the trailer and helps to create an unnerving feeling.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  

CLOSE UPS: Close ups are a very important part of the trailer, intact when i researched into this topic i  found out that the majority of successful trailer have at least 20 close ups throughout the trailer and some have many more. The close ups allow us to see facial expressions and help us to feel the emotions of the characters.

CANTED ANGLE: Canted angles give a feeling of disorientation and therefor work perfectly for our horror topic! horror needs to have canted angles to show confusion, and helps to show that the characters are scared. Horrors aren't going to go smoothly, and therefor this camera technique doesn't either! I am going to use this in my own trailer to increase the tension of each shot, and make the observers feel on edge.

HAND HELD: I believe that hand held cameras work really well, however I also think its important to notice that there should be other cameras used throughout as well. I like the idea of the hand held camera, due to the fact its being filmed from the characters in the story and therefore we feel like we are experiencing this journey with them.

POINT OF VIEW SHOT: Point of view shots are probably one of my favourites when capturing the psycho character, due to the fact we see things from the character eyes and therefore feel as though we are the character. This camera shot creates panic for us, and works well at making her heart race and wanting to know what is going to happen next.

Rough Cut Feedback Analysis

After receiving feedback from our class we are are going to make sure that we edit our trailer using the improvements that were listed. We won the majority vote of who has the 'best' trailer, this allowed us to notice that we were highly capable of making it even better with just a few minor improvements. We sat down and talked about things that we were going to add into our trailer to make it more successful. As a group we have decided to do some more shooting, simply because when researching into other horror trailers we noticed that the close ups of the psychopaths face worked really well to build tension and make the trailer look more appealing. We are now having to plan some more shooting time so that we can arrange to do more close ups of our characters face, and especially her eyes. Using the makeup we are going to make her face look pale white, with splatters of blood to connote danger and death. I believe that adding in these small aspects will help to create a unique look to our trailer, with a keen interest on attention to detail. From self evaluation we noticed that if our trailer had a change in pace and make some particular parts go very faster could really help to suspension to form. The writing was a try successful part of our trailer and everyone liked the way it cracked over the screen, they did suggest that we added more, however we tried this and it seemed to slow the pace that we so desperately are trying to keep, and therefor we decided that it looked better without.

Feedback On Rough Cut- improvements

 What did you think could be improved in the trailer?

•The jump scare

•Music needs to be improved throughout the second half No use of real reactions

•More shots of the psychopath

•The narrative was slightly confusing

•Random close ups

•Music seemed to be quite slow

•The scene were Frankie was dragged through the hallway needs to be faster

• The jump scare needs to be shortened

•Needed some more effects

 •Shots need to be quicker in the middle of the trailer

•More music throughout the second half

•Herat beat needs to be louder

•The location

 •The continuity of the swing

•The jump scare needs to be louder

Practice first year trailer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my first year we practiced making trailers to make us aware of the challenges we would face in our second year. I helped with the shooting side of this trailer due to the fact this was the part I needed to have most practice within.

 

 

Feedback On Rough Cut- positives

What did you like about the trailer?

•The music used was appropriate

•The titles were effective

•Location

•The story line for the film

•The use of hand held camera

•The music

•The use of a lot of close ups

•The psycho serial killer looked good

•The text looked really good

•Handheld camera to show someone was watching

•How the jump scare changes to a different person

•The use of the text and sound

 •The pace worked really well 

•The titles are good

•The setting of the trailer

•Multiple shot types

•The use of dark fades on the scene with the psycho serial killer on the swing

•The jump scare

•The handheld camera being used in the ca

•Good text style

•The beginning music worked effectively

•The derelict building location

•The grainy filter at the start

•Easily understood

 

Shooting Schedule

These are our shooting schedules, in the days we were not doing any shooting activity we were working on our blogs and exam preperation.

Horror Font Mood Board

Pusher Trilogy- Trailer Analysis

Pusher trilogy is a crime thriller released in 2005, as a class we reviewed the trailer so that we could take both good and bad aspects on board for our own trailers. After viewing the trailer it got an average mark of 6/10. The trailer had a good use of fast montages showing people killing each other, taking drugs or being brutally beaten up. The music was by far the best part of the trailer, the sound was a simple heartbeat, edited at a fast pace to build suspension and tension. I loved the use of quotes within this particular trailer and it worked better in comparison to voice overs that many other trailers use. The quotes allowed us to create a mental image of what was going to happen, leaving us on edge and nervous for the overall outcome. The only negativity from the trailer was the fact at times the trailer was going to rapidly, losing the story line and making it hard for me to understand what was happening at particular times. From this trailer I am going to take away the importance of the music, and the affect it has on the trailer. I am also going to remember that fast montages do work well as long as they are at a reasonable speed, so that the observers don’t get lost in the process. Another aspect that could be improved was the fact the trailer lacked horror conventions and could use more to make it available to a wider audience. 

Toxic Avenger- Trailer Analysis

Toxic avenger was released in 1985 at the time it was very scary and classed as a gory horror, however as the years have progressed people often find it difficult to believe that this was a serious horror film and often relate it to the comedy side of horror because it’s so shockingly different to horror films today.  I scored this trailer 1/10 simply because it was too long winded and lacked action/horror to make it remotely interesting. The editing was very minimalistic with only a depressing voice over to fall back on. The voice over was extremely cheesy, and I found it hard to take the trailer seriously. The trailer in general was very long, and basically told the whole story in the space of time. The trailer repeated ‘toxic avenger’ too many times making it become repetitive and common. The trailer was a shocking 3 minutes long, so you quickly lose attention throughout it. I found it difficult to find anything remotely good about this trailer simply because it lacked so many horror conventions and did everything to the extreme. If I had to select the aspect I like best I would have to settle for the comedy side, despite the fact that is not the horrors purpose I found it difficult to watch without laughing at this particular trailer. When taking my trailer into context I will remember that quality over quantity really helps for the success of the trailer.

My Horror Poster

Class research: Favourite Horror Sub-Genre