Call-sheets for Trailer

For each day of shooting, we were required to create and distribute a call sheet to each of our actors to ensure that they were aware of the scenes being shot, the locations, the costume and make-up and other actors and crew present on the day. These also proved to be useful to Dania, Sonia and myself as it gave us a stronger idea of our restrictions for the day in regards to time and therefore focused us more on the task at hand. These sheets also aided our organisation and made the filming much easier as we knew who and what needed to be in the scene at all times.

First Filming Schedule

As you can see in this schedule, two scenes haven't been accounted for as this is only a temporary one. These two scenes, "Stairs" and "Bathroom Sting", are to be included in the next filming schedule when they have been allocated a date a time slot.

List of scenes and shots

Scene 1: 

• News Report

Scene 2:

• Estabishing Shot of Hospital
• Hospital Hallway
• Hospital Room

Scene 3:

• Entering House
• Putting Clothes Away
• William In Hallway
• William/Ella Kitchen

Scene 4:

• Dining Room
• William/Ella/Logan Kitchen

Scene 5:

• Flashlight
• Ella Running
• Stairs
• William Knees
• Mary Disjointed

Scene 6:

• Bathroom Sting

Characters and Actors

Ella: Charleigh Kirby

William: Stephen Yu

Logan: Jacob 

Doctor: Mr. Urquhart

News Reporter: Nicolle Broderick

Flashback Daughter: Sophia Scott

Storyboard of Film Trailer

Mock-up of Film Magazine Front Cover

The idea behind our film magazine front cover was set in our minds from early on after researching existing products. "Total Film" and "Empire" are the main film magazines sold in stores, and both follow a very similar set of conventions and guidelines in regards to layout and style that have proved to be very successful, so we decided to take inspiration from them. Upon research, however, we also discovered that not many horror films are given the front cover of a film magazine, so in order to adhere to codes and conventions and still complete the task given, we decided that in order to create a realistic magazine front cover featuring a horror movie, we would have to create a special edition issue for Halloween that would be dedicated to horror films. Upon that decision, the design laid itself out with the stereotypical pumpkin for Halloween and the classic cartoon 'sludge' font for our banner; "Halloween Special".

Mock-up for magazine front cover:

Mock-up of Film Poster

The first mock-up that we created for "Darkness Within" was to feature our antagonists hand holding an image of her and her family when they were all younger with the deceased's faces scratched out whilst standing in a hospital ward. After creating this, we discussed the practicality of our design as well as how it adhered to codes and conventions and deduced that whilst the design would be aesthetically pleasing, it doesn't exactly fit the codes and conventions of our sub-genre, and so we went back to the drawing board.

First mock-up of film poster:

Our second attempt at our film poster proved to be much more successful. After examining existing products and identifying the commonalities, we each had a much better idea of what our poster should look like. We then combined each of our ideas for this product together to create an entirely new poster that is seen below. We decided to use the conventional medium shot instead of a close up, and wanted to show the two sides to this character by using a mirror. This came from the old myth that if a vampire walks past a mirror, he has no reflection. Playing on this, we thought that if a person was possessed, would they see their true self in the mirror, or what everybody else sees? We were also influenced by the gif seen below, and began to play around with the idea of using a mirror as the focal point of our poster.

Gif:

Second and final mock up of film poster:

Trailer Script

Scene 1: Reporting on street

(Scene dissolves in from static. A reporter is on screen with a news report of a murder with banners detailing the report and box containing photos of murders. Diegetic sounds of the street are heard with a non-diegetic sound of police and ambulance sirens and a light chatter in the background.)

Reporter: We are live on the scene at a brutal attack in which a mother of 3 is alleged to have murdered her husband and children (camera pans to view of house) but leaving her youngest daughter as a sole survivor thanks to police intervention. (Pans to view of woman by car) Reports are coming in that the woman in question has no history of mental illness and the police are currently not aware of the cause of this vicious assault. (Woman is put in the car by “plain-clothes” police officer.)

Scene 2: Hospital

(Establishing shot of the hospital at a low angle. Scene cuts to a long 2 shot of a young woman and a doctor walking down a hospital hallway. The doctor is leading her and detailing the status of her mother’s case.)

Doctor: The discharge papers are almost finished; you just need to sign a form to assert that your mother will be staying with your family during her recuperation.

Ella: You really think that’ll help?

Doctor: Simply visiting over this past year has improved her recovery process, Mrs. Garcia. She’s no longer showing any signs of schizophrenia and we have no reason to keep her here any longer (they stop outside of the hospital door). She is cured. (Ella peeks around him into the door window) And here’s the copy of her medical history you requested (he hands over a file and she opens it but is interrupted) I think it’s time we tell her. (They enter.)

Scene 3: Hospital bedroom
(The camera tilts upwards to a long/medium shot behind the mother. She is facing a corner window on a rocking chair with a knitted blanket over her, slowly rocking. Ella walks up behind her.)

Ella: Mum? You’re gonna be coming home with me, okay? William and I are gonna take care of you for a while.

Scene 7: Kitchen
(Ella is doing the dishes as William comes in and grabs her attention. The camera is a medium long shot of the two.)
William: Ella, I’m telling you, there’s something wrong.

Ella: Will, she’s just out of hospital. She’s just transitioning.

William: There’s transitioning and then there’s…her.

Ella: Just drop it. She was in there for 15 years after a psychotic break! She’s home and she’s cured. Leave it be. (Walks out).

William: I just… don’t trust her.

Scene 8: Dinner Table

Ella: Finish of your peas, Logan. No desert ‘til that plate’s clean. (Ella and William leave the table.)

(Mary stares at Logan until he looks up at her. She shakes then he eyes roll back in her head, before turning white. Logan screams and runs away from the table.)

Ella: Honey, what’s wrong?

Logan: Mum! Mum! Don’t make me- don’t make me-

Ella: Logan! What?

Logan: Mum…her eyes. (Ella and William exchange a worried look.)

Symbiotic Link

A symbiotic link needs to connect each product so that upon viewing, the audience immediately know which movie the product belongs to.  To achieve this, we will use the same tagline, main image of the antagonist, font, clothing and colour scheme across the entire package. The tagline, “She can’t be cured”, will feature towards the end of the trailer and the base of the movie poster, however it will not be featured on the magazine front cover as it is not a convention. The main image is of our antagonist wearing a Victorian-style white nightgown with a brown cardigan and this will feature throughout our products. Font and colour scheme will be the same in the trailer and poster only due to the fact that the magazines have their own colour scheme. The clothing would be the same throughout the production package that we will be creating; this is to represent her age and her ethereal like image.  In all three of the products the antagonist will always have backcombed, scruffy hair and white tinted eyes to create the possessed look. 

Practice Shots and Reconnaissance

  

   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Pitch of Film Narrative etc. and Analysis

Our pitch included every element of our promotional package. We mentioned the sub-genre our horror movie falls into, the target audience, inspiration from other directors and horror movies, the film title of our movie, the narrative of the movie and the trailer, locations we will use and costume and make-up featured in our movie. When explaining each of these topics, we discussed how they would be added to our promotional package, how we came up with them and also what we learnt from our target audience research.

 From the video that we have recorded of our pitch, you can see that there was a lot of detail within the powerpoint which therefore did not leave many reasons for questions or suggestions at the end of the presentation.

 These are some of the questions that were asked by our audience:

1. Who will play this part?
2. What is your poster going to look like?
3. How is the mother going to torment the family?
4. What type of special effects will you add?
5. Do you think people would want to see it?

Regarding these questions, we managed to successfully answer them to our full potential, which shows that we have planned our project thoroughly and we know exactly how we want our practical pieces to look.  The questions asked gave us reason to push further into our own ideas for inspiration on things that we had yet to plan out, such as the film poster, and gain their feedback on our ideas as they came to us. Overall, they enjoyed our pitch and reacted in a positive manner, offering useful questioning and advice which in turn allowed us to develop our work and made us all feel much more confident in our products. We will take into account all our feedback that we received from our pitch, and attempt to have their input within our promotional package.

Masthead Brainstorm

The masthead of a magazine sets the standard for the entire magazine and also creates an opinion in the reader on the magazine and whether they would want to read it or not. Our magazine would appeal to our target audience, and would therefore need to contain aspects that would appeal to them. We created a brainstorm of potential mastheads in order to narrow down our ideas to a final decision. The options were varied, each trying to hit a certain target. Total Horror, whilst straightforward and powerful, it is to similar to an existing product, and therefore cannot be used. Now Horror, Movies 101, Box Office, Scene Stealer, Movie Galore and Blockbuster all seemed to be to cliche for our target audience. Frame was too ambiguous and could be mistaken for a photography magazine, as was Scene. This left us choosing between Shutter, Gore, and Shocker to choose from. Shocker seemed far too childish for our demographic, and so it was removed, however the choice between Gore and Shutter was more difficult. Gore would immediately connotate horror films, however Shutter encapsulates cinema as a whole. In the end, we decided to go with Shutter as it has a stronger connotation the film industry  and also provides us with a wide range of possibilities in regards to the design of the masthead. As Shutter is a film magazine, we decided to create a special Halloween edition to feature our film and focus on the genre specifically. This is so that we can play around with the fonts and colour schemes without having to adhere to codes and conventions as strictly as would be necessary with an average film magazine.

Film Tagline Brainstorm

Approaching the tagline for this film, we already had a clear idea for the narrative and film title, so the tagline had to tie in with both neatly. The primary idea was to have a theme of curing, healing and saving that is commonly tied to people with a possession; the idea of salvation. We also tried to connect the family aspect and came up with “How do you protect yourself from your own family?”, “Mother’s coming to visit. Forever.”, “Eternal damnation is hereditary.” and “A mother’s vendetta.”. After deliberating each of these, they were all ruled out though. The first, second and fourth seemed far too much like that of the slasher genre, and the third just didn’t fit in with our narrative as the possession doesn’t pass down through generations. “The darkness wants you.” also didn’t quite fit the narrative as whilst the “darkness” is driving the mother to attack her daughter and her family, the tagline is slightly ambiguous in that it seems as if the daughter is in danger of being possessed, and that isn’t in the narrative. From that we came up with “They thought she was better, but she can’t be healed.”, but it seemed far too long as we wanted to keep the tagline short like the title. Upon that decision, we tried shortening it to just the last 4 words “She can’t be saved.”. As of there, we tried “cured” and “healed”, but decided that “cured” was in fact the best fit and so our tagline is “She can’t be cured.”

Film Title Brainstorm

To begin these brainstorms, we first looked over various existing film titles and observed the conventions that they contain. The titles can be split into two halves; one word titles and two or more word titles, each excluding “the”. The titles with 2 or more words tend to be limited to four words, and in some cases five as with “Last House on the Left” and those with one word have a single striking adjective that resonates with the audience. Essentially, the aim is to have a title that the audience will remember whether that is through its brevity, or the foreshadowing of terror that it gives. Whilst looking into titles, it became apparent to us that we mainly wanted a single word title, but none that we looked at fit our project properly. It was evident that we needed two words to do the narrative justice. However, forming coherent and effective two word titles proved challenging as our expectations for this title grew higher. In the end, we came up with three 2 or more word titles that were to be considered for our project. Overall, we found that “Darkness Within” had a much scarier connotation, as “Demon Within” was too obvious and “Last One Standing” seemed far more suited to an action movie. “Darkness Within” also has the connotations with possession, and therefore fits in with our narrative much more effectively.

Ideas: Props and Location

Props:

In any film, there is a selection of elements that make a movie work. These fundamental aspects are found in every movie and without them, the film is sure to fail. Supernatural horror movies generally keep to the same conventions of the elements of costume, props and locations of other horror movies but with subtle differences.

An element that is important is props and within the horror genre, if chosen appropriately props can increase the terror in a scene, or destroy it. A useful facet of the supernatural genre in terms of props is that any object can look terrifying when supposedly possessed or cursed. The most commonly used are children’s toys or antiques as the innocence and the aged quality give it a creepy effect.

 Children’s toys have always been popular in the horror genre because, as previously mentioned, they portray innocence. The reason innocence is so scary in this case is because that quality is corrupted by a curse or an evil spirit and that resonates with the audience. Being a child is associated with being safe and secure, and by destroying that the horror is enhanced as the audience no longer feel the safety they expected from the objects. A prime example of this is in “The Woman in Black” when the toys are combined with the contrapuntal sound of a wind-up toy. 

Another example of this is seen in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining when young Danny rides around an empty hotel on his tricycle. The image of something so innocent paired with the tense music creates tension that raises questions in the audience's minds; "Where is he going?", "What's he going to run into?", and "What's behind that door?", and as Danny rides away quickly, the audience are left in wonder and fear at what lurks behind the door of room 237.

Antique items are always popular, and in some cases this is combined with children’s toys as seen in The Woman in Black, as they have a mysterious history that could hide all sorts of supernatural surprises. As well as that, previous centuries were deemed much more superstitious than present day and held séances, exorcisms and other events that seem out of place nowadays. One such antique item is the ‘Dybbuk Box’. This wine cabinet is said to be haunted by a Dybbuk, a restless, and malevolent spirit in Jewish folklore, that is said to haunt and possess the living and was the inspiration for the film “The Possession”.

The Dybbuk Box

Religious imagery is widely used and follows along the theme of superstition. The Christian faith is riddled with superstition, the main portrayal of that being exorcisms. Even before the movie of the same name, exorcisms have been seen as a terrifying event of pulling a demon from a person through religious ceremony. The presence of crosses has given the crucifix itself horrific connotations and now religious imagery is present in most horror movies.

Other conventions in the supernatural genre are Ouija Boards, Tarot Cards, Pentagrams and other Satanic Symbols that are all used to contact the deceased. Each of these inevitably led to a possession or bodily harm to the person exposed to it or using it. This all ties in to the human nature of superstition; most people will admit that they believe that there are unknown forces such as spirits or ghosts and many of those people would admit to doing certain things to avoid spirits etc. whether that is burning sage to ward off spirits or not looking in mirrors at night.

Witchboard from 1986 is an example as it uses a ouija board at the centre of it's storyline as a line of communication from a group of friends to a deceased friend on the 'other side'. The spirit they contact however is an evil spirit that is impersonating their friend and wants to possess the protagonist so that it can come back to life and soon friends begin dying in it's quest. 

The conventions of props that we have decided to adhere to are antique style items, possibly children's toys and possibly religious imagery. As the main conventions in horror, these props seem necessary to add the extra “scare factor” to our project.  Children’s toys and religious imagery may feature in our trailer, but the antique style items may feature across all three items and it is through this style of prop that we can create a symbiotic link between the products.

Location:

The typical locations that tend to appear in horror movies are generally in very isolated. These locations consist of isolated homes in a suburban setting, a forest, motels or a lake side area.  An isolated location also allows for vast building with lots of rooms where the victim can be chased and complicated floor plans that create a maze-like feel and add more intensity to the chase. These locations consist of isolated home in a suburban setting, a forest, motels or a lake side area. These locations are used in horror movies to add to the effect of the victims not being able to get contact with anyone for help when they are in trouble. These locations tend to be dark and dull areas which again, allow the audience to feel on edge when seeing these locations because they are typical areas where everyday people tend to be in. In supernatural horror movies a normal family home is used in order to scare the audience further because tainting the comfort of their own home, and they can no longer feel safe in their home.

The Uninvited (2009)

Taking into account existing locations for horror movies we have decided to use an isolated house for the majority of the trailer, because we feel that tainting the comfort of someone’s home will be key feature to scare our audience, some of the other scenes that we would consider using are an establishing shot of a mental hospital, a scene in the bathroom, a hallway of a mental hospital. We feel that these locations are reasonably isolated which fits in the conventions of a horror movie. The establishing shot of the metal hospital will allow the narrative to become clearer for the audience because this will show them that there is something wrong with the character “Mary”. We would film these locations in available lighting to give it a dull atmosphere that creates more of demonic feeling. As we progress more through our portfolio, we will have images of these locations and we will get feedback from our target audience to see if these locations are effective to make our horror movie successful. 

Our ideas:

Taking into account existing locations for horror movies we have decided to use an isolated house for the majority of the trailer, because we feel that tainting the comfort of someone’s home will be key feature to scare our audience, some of the other scenes that we would consider using are an establishing shot of a mental hospital, a scene in the bathroom, and a hallway of a mental hospital. We feel that these locations are reasonably isolated which fits in the conventions of a horror movie. The establishing shot of the metal hospital will allow the narrative to become clearer for the audience because this will show them that there is something wrong with the character “Mary”. We would film these locations in available lighting to give it a dull atmosphere that creates more of horror movie feel. As we progress more through our portfolio, we will have images of these locations and we will get feedback from our target audience to see if these locations are effective to make our horror movie successful. 

This is some of the locations which we have decided to use:

School Hallway for our hospital scene:

Corridor for a running scene

Ideas: Camera, Lighting and Non-Diegetic Sounds

Camera
Trailer:
The typical camera shots and angles that appear in a movie trailer range from long shots to extreme close ups. Generally they tend to start off with either an establishing shot of where the location is and where the whole horror scene is going to happen or a long shot of the protagonist. Throughout the trailer, we see a range of shots and angles to enhance a scene for example, a close up will be used in order to show the emotions of either the antagonist or protagonist, or to show us the demonic features. By using a range of angles it will give us an idea of how strong or weak the character at the certain scene, like a high angle shot looking down at the protagonist so represent that they are getting watched and make them seen vulnerable and weak as seen in The Shining in the image below.

Camera movement is also important in a horror movie trailer because it improves the scene and adds fluidity to the trailer. Camera movements include tracking shots, crane shots, zoom in/zoom out, pan, tilt, etc. In horror movie trailers, these movements are used frequently, which allows the transitions between shots to flow nicely. An example of a tracking shot is in the "Amityville Horror" is to show how the house is, the environment and the area in which it is located. This is a good way of getting a lot of information in a small amount of time but yet it doesn't give out a lot of the narrative. 

Poster and magazine:
When analysing posters and magazine front covers, we realised that there is a symbiotic link between the main images, as well as other features such as font, and that they are usually the same image but with less effects on the magazine cover or a still form the film is used as seen in the exorcist which uses a screenshot of the film for both poster and cover.



The shots that are used are usually long shots, mediums shots or a close up of the antagonist. A long shot is to show us the entire body and any deformities; it lets us see all of the it in one shot which gives us the idea of what is wrong with the antagonist.   A close up is to show us the intensity of the demotic possession of the antagonist. These shots have been cleverly used to show the audience exactly what the story is about but they have disguised it well. 

 

We have decided to use a range of shots and movement within our trailer to attract and retain audience attention. Were we to use only a single angle and technique of movement, the audience would soon become bored. To begin our trailer, we have decided to use an establishing shot of a house that pans to a medium shot of a reporter. We will use the movements to link our shots together to give the fluidity needed. Our idea is to show both sides of our character by placing her in front of a mirror and having her stand normally, but have her reflection showing her possessed side in a medium, over the shoulder shot to emphasise the contrast. By using a medium shot, the audience are able to see much clearer the difference between the character and her reflection. Our magazine front cover and poster will link together clearly by using the same image of our character for each product to show the audience the demonic possession of the antagonist.

Lighting

Profile lighting in Halloween (1979)

One of the main elements of creating a movie, lighting can change the entire mood and perception of a scene. Horror movies utilize lighting to set the tone of a scene and also give foreshadowing of events to come. For example, if a girl is in a dark room with light only coming from her phone or natural lighting from an open window, then the audience sit in baited breath for something to jump out of the darkness. The reactions the audience have are also due to lighting conventions of horror such as profile lighting, back-lighting  low angle lighting, and ambient lighting. Each of these gives a specific tone to each scene that is unique.

Profile lighting is when light falls on only half of a person’s face. This gives a sinister tone to the scene and the character or it can highlight the shock on a victim’s face. Another use for this lighting is to highlight specific features that may be deemed grotesque, and this effect enhances that.  This image below is an example of profile lighting in Halloween.

Amityville Horror (2005)

Low angle lighting, lighting aimed upwards from below the character, is also used for all of these reasons but is achieved by having a high angle light shine on a character from below them to make them seem menacing. These effects may be used in our trailer to bring focus to the protagonist’s shocked face as the protagonist attacks her.

 Backlighting is the placement of a light in the background of the scene to create a silhouette of those in the foreground. This technique hides the features of those in the foreground and also gives a sinister effect, as seen in the "Amityville Horror" film poster. Backlighting is common convention for horror films as it brings darkness and shadows to the film and enhances the fear of the audience; it makes them question what it is that lurks in the darkness.

Wolfman (2010)

Ambient lighting is the available lighting in a scene, such as the sun or the moon. This gives a more realistic and natural look to the scene as in the still from "Wolfman". We will use this technique during the street scene as it will be outdoors and most styles of lighting will be rendered useless.

For our project, we will primarily use low-key, ambient lighting, however we will use it in a way as to create backlighting and profile lighting and we will do this by angling the camera and the actors to achieve appropriate shadowing. 


Non-Diegetic Sounds

Typical non diegetic sounds that feature in horror movie trailers tend to be big bangs, eerie sounds, added footsteps (as opposed to enhanced footsteps), tensional music, orchestra, piano, contrapuntal sounds and stabs. These non diegetic sounds are added in a horror movie to emphasise the moment of that scene. Music adds more tension to the scene because people get scared when there is a build up to a jumpy moment and so it gets us ready for something big. Usually the added music starts of slow and calm within the trailer then the pace gets faster as it goes on. A stab is one of the most effective types of non diegetic sound that is added in horror movies and its trailer, a stab is a short, sudden, burst of sound which is used to potentially make the audience jump. It can also coincide with a moment of drama and help to heighten the existing drama. A stab is a crucial sound to have in the trailer since its one thing that the target audience always remembers. Tense music enhances the fear the audience feel within a scene that dialogue alone cannot achieve, and makes the scene more effective. An example of this is seen below in an excerpt from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". The orchestral music, specifically violins, aids in the building of tension before, and whilst, the protagonist is attacked by the Birds.

We have decided to use existing sounds from other movies and trailers for our non diegetic sounds. This will be an easy option since we wouldn't have the high quality sound software to create these non diegetic sounds. We will use a range of sounds from non-diegetic sounds to stabs and tense, eerie music which will come from other types of media like games, music and TV programmes. The soundtracks that we would consider using are from "Grave Encounters", "The Devil Inside", "Call of Duty: Black Ops - Zombies", as well as from other sources such as websites that offer sound effects. All these would be added to the trailer to create a unique sound to it and effectively create a frightening trailer. We have included some examples of possible soundtracks that we may use below. These have been chosen as we believe that they can relate and fit in well with our narrative and sub-genre.