Trailer ideas - Charlotte Reid

I have watched a few trailers today and I found a few ideas that I would like to use
In 30 days of night I saw a scene that told us vampires don't exist. I thought as our protagonist has seen his dad being attacked he is going to be a bit messed up afterwards. I like the thought of him telling his mum that he saw a vampire and her telling him that they don't exist. But before that I thought I would start of with him sitting alone in his room and thinking back to the day when his dad was attacked. Then at the end a few short shots, one of the vampire, one of him standing in the woods before he gets turned, maybe a close up of the vampire with blood around his mouth and then as my last shot I would like a close up of our protagonist opening his eyes for the first time after he has been turned.

Music

I know no one probably likes Miley Cyrus but there is a bit in this song that I found quite inspirational and I would like to copy. It starts and 2:46 and what I like about it is that it starts of quite low and then the music builds up. I thought about putting it in the scene where our protagonist is about to find the vampire, as it builds up it's almost like he's scared but then he gets the courage to do it. Also as the music is quite pop I can make it sound a bit darker if thats what you would like.
 So please listen to it and tell me what you think.

Charlotte Reid =]

PITCH

Make some comments underneath about the feedback you received and how you will respond to this.  If changes are needed please post these also:

Megan's Trailer

For my trailer i am going to focus on the supernatural elements of the vampire. I am going to have a brief background, with a bit of voice over and then see the main character get turned. The majority of shots are going to show the strength and power of the newborn vampire.

Title Sequence Ideas

True Blood
We watched the True Blood title sequence to see if we could get some ideas for our own title sequence. In the True Blood one, there was lots of short little clips no longer than 4/5 seconds. In the clips they were the ideas of church's, religion, a ran over possum. There was also lots of sex type scenes were girls were dancing slowly and being intimate with men. There was a shot of kids eating berries which gives the audience a crude idea of blood and when its little grinning kids- it seems really out of place and shocking.
A clip that i found interesting was a short sped-up clip of a dead fox deteriorating, decaying and with all its hair floating about. It was really disturbing and disgusting but very effective in scaring the audience and showing them something shocking.
We can use the idea of filming lots of extra scenes and merging them into a title sequence. This will also make it easier to make our trailer at a later date.

My role as sound designer - Charlotte Reid

As sound designer my role is to make all the music for the we have to do. I have recently been told that if the music does not go with the film that it can wreak the whole film. So I have to make sure the music suits the film, what I have decided to do is make a few differents sounds and then let the rest of the group listen to them and see which one they like best.
Megan and I will be working together when the film has been filmed to see where the music would fit best.
I am looking forward to start making the music because I have always liked music and playd an untrument, so I am happy that I can finally do something with it.

Charlotte Reid =]

Twilight saga: Eclipse analysis

Sound-
The one part of the opening that really stands out for me is when the two main character Bella and Edward collide  with Jacob, Edward's rival, Jacob turns around moodily, and sexily, and the non diegetic sound track get very loud and one burst of rocky music sounds when he faces the main character- suggesting that he is bad and a rebel.

Threat is introduced-

At the beginning of the film, the threat is introduced straight away. This is a very good technique as it gets the audience scared straight away and it is also introduces you to the threat straight away. Without the first couple of minutes- you would just think it was a chick flick for a while until you get to see some action again.
Is it scary? -
No it is not, because the threat is introduced in the previous film and also the way it is acted out is pretty bad. I know they are meant to be vampires but they look wooden and like bad actors which i dont think are. This could be a fault of the directors' and we will take this into account as we want our film to look good and genuine.

Blog changes

By the way people, i changed the background because it was really dull. I though this one looked a bit horror-y without being really black and dark (like blood). Feel free to change it if you want. Was sick of seeing the standard template.
Megan :)

My role as a Editor- Megan Wildsmith

A editors role is not just editing the final product. I've learnt that an editor also has to take responsibility for story boarding and making sure the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule isn't broken in filming because no matter how good an editor you are- you can't edit a badly shot film. I will also be collaborating with the sound designer (Charlotte Reid) so that we can get the music in time with the scene changes and so on.
I think this role is applied to our horror film because as well as needing a director and cinematographer to shoot and plan out the shots, you also need an editor to look ahead and see what shots will go nice together and what will look good when it's all stitched together. Also you need someone in a group who is good at and willing to storyboard- and that is me.
I think i will know if i've done a good job when the finished product is on the big screen and you cannot see the editing. I know i've done a good job if the film is seamless and everything just flows together. Of course everyone else will contribute with this, for example the sound has to flow with the film, but it will mainly be my responsibility for the film not looking amateur and jumpy.

Fright night- 1985 version

Use of camera-
The use of camera in the opening to fright night was very typical of classic horror. The starting image was of a moon and the off-screen diegetic somewhere in or around the house. The camera then pans around to the inside of a bedroom and we realise the sound is coming from the TV. But because the sounds were of a boy talking about how much his girlfriend looked pale and had very red lips we presumed that somewhere- a guy was going to get bitten and the slow pan added a lot of tension to the opening. We then realise that the actual characters are on the floor kissing and we feel silly for getting worked up about it.


Sound-
Sound is used very cleverly in the opening as we think that the offscreen diegetic was the actual characters but then realise that its just TV noise and this is a clever way of getting the audience to feel scared right from the beginning. Another way sound is used is things like insects in the night and traditional creepy night noises which would have probably been scary at the time but nowadays is just seen as cheesy and cliche.


Threat introduced- Strangely enough, the threat in this film is introduced to us straight away. The main character in the film gets suspicious one night when he sees someone putting a coffin in the house our threat has just moved into- the boys neighbour. Then when he sees people come in and never come out but seen to be dead on the news- he knows that the new neighbour is a killer. As the boy has seen a coffin, he presumes that their are vampires involved. Further along in the film- the boy meets the neighbour when he is blacking out his windows and we start to realise that he is a vamp. We see the threat although it is daylight and we find him only oddly creepy and not overly dangerous even though we know what he is.

By Megan Wildsmith

Buffy the vampire slayer

The original Buffy

Use of camera-
The film starts with a title saying, 'dark ages', or something like that suggesting that it is a flashback to what has happened in the past. There is a short sequences where a girl is being made a vampire slayer and this is crucial to the plot as the non-diegetic voice over explains that there is always a female vampire slayer, Then we get a title coming up and it flashes to the present and there is a group of cheerleaders doing a routine. The camera focuses on the girl in the centre of the formation and of all the shots- she is the main focus. This tells the audience that she is important and has something to do with the plot. Also when the two time periods overlap, the old slasher puts up her hands and then there is a graphic match to the head cheerleader with her pom pom in the air and then she carries on with the routine. This suggests to the audience that there is possibly a connection there.

Editing-
The editing in the opening is very classic and normal for a teen film. When the first part of the film was shown- the flashback- there was only two or three shot types which gave the clip a rigid, formal, old-fashioned feel to it. Then there is a contrast when it flicks to the present and it's faster paced, jumpy and with lots of different shot types and edited together quite quickly.

Sound-
At the very beginning there is a non-diegetic voice over and this introduces us to the film and explains about the title and starts the film very well. This may be something to consider when doing our film but we would have to find an adult to do it so that the audience would take us seriously. When the film flashes us back to the present, the cheerleaders as dancing and the diegetic cheer music changes the tone and pace of the film to an upbeat teen movie. But, as we've seen the previous sequence we start to look out for clues that more is to come.


Mise-en-scene-
Props in the opening were kept to a minimum and costume was typical of the time period that the film was original filmed in. There is a suspicious old man in a trench coat who we don't know if he is a good guy or a bad guy yet. Because he is in a trench and hat we suspect him to be bad but he doesn't have vampire style features like the pale skin with snaking veins or dark eyes and red lips. We have also been told that a vampire hunter needs to have a helper, like a coach to teach her to become a vampire slasher so we aren't sure whether to trust him yet.


Threat is introduced-
The antagonist is not introduced for a while and we start to wonder if there is one, and then a creepy old man in a long trench coat and a hat with an unshaven rough face appears in front of the main girl for a few seconds mysteriously and we as an audience realise there is more to the film than it seems and start wondering who he is and what purpose he has.


By Megan Wildsmith

My role as a director - Enna Rob

Directors are responsible for dealing with the creative aspects of a film. They often develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look. They are responsible for turning the script into shots and also direct what tone it should have, and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. Film directors, with the help of the cinematographer are responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting and set design with the production designer. They will often take part in hiring key crew members. They coordinate the actors' moves, or blocking, and also may be involved in the writing, financing, and editing of a film.

As a director for our Horror film I foreshadow this to be quite challenging. I will have to find a typical location which a vampire film usually takes place – this will be somewhere low lit, secluded, frightening, perhaps somewhere like a graveyard. Another responsibility which I will have take on and consider being important is costume and props. I think this is a debatable subject and sometimes using too much costume can have a negative effect on how the film looks, but also the conventional things are needed many of the times to stress certain aspects.

I think depending on how the location compliments the script, and how believable the characters look and can act will be a big pointer in judging how well my role as director went. In many ways, I have a leading role and hope to succeed in this.