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Certificate research

U:

This means that the film is suitable for audiences aged four years and over. If a film is certificated 'U' it means that infrequent use of very mild bad language. It also means that the characters may also be seen kissing or cuddling and there may be some references to sexual behaviour, this also is very mild. Violence will normally again be very mild. A 'U' rated film also may include small, brief fight scenes or some characters may be in danger but no violence is ever shown. 

We immediately ruled out this rating for our film as soon as we chose to continue with horror. Horror films are always at least a 12 unless based on a book like in the case of the women in black then you can sometimes get away with it being a 12A.

PG:

'PG' stands for Parental Guidance. 'PG' films are generally aimed at children ages eight or older and this should not unsettle them. A 'PG' film will not contain any theme which is inappropriate for a child, instead of this it can make children aware of different situations as some scenes can contain bullying, bereavement or even racism. Some mild bad language can be used such as 'shit' or 'son of a bitch'. violence is usually very mild and is not shown regularly  through the different scenes. 

12A:

The certificate '12A' is not suitable for children under the age of 12. '12A' requires an adult to accompany them at the cinema and if the staff do not think that they are 12 years or older then they will ask for ID. Moderate language may be used in a '12A' such as bitch or twat. Sex may be shown but very discreetly and this is the same with violence which means it is allowed but again is not shown in a lot of detail. 

Although we did consider trying to make our trailer a 12A we realised it would be very difficult and we would have to seriously think about content, because of this we decided a 12A was possibly to low of a rating to give.

15:

In a fifteen rated film there is strong violence, frequent strong language such as, fuck and very rarely stronger terms may be used. a fifteen rated movie allows sexual activity to be shown, sexual nudity and something sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence and finally allows to show drug taking. 

18:

An eighteen rate movie is allowed to screen the following: Strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex, very strong violence, frequent strong language and finally discriminatory language and behaviour. 
We didn't want out trailer to be an 18 as a large part of the target audience are teenagers, if we would have had to increase our rating we would then limit the success of our film.

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   We have decided that the certificate of our film should be a 15, we came to this decision after doing multiple pieces of research into the popularity of horror films and learnt that they were very popular amongst teenagers. Our film will contain violence and strong language but not enough to grant it an 18 certificate. As previously discussed we realised that all of the other films we had studied within this genre had been given a 15 certificate so we agreed this would be most appropriate for our trailer also.  

Location research

 
When discussing where we would like our film to be located we had to think of quiet areas out of public eye, this is also useful when filming a horror as we did not want to concern any local people. We decided our local woods would be a good place to start the trailer as it has a more mysterious vibe and is also a very good genre indicator. However we didn't want this to be our only location used so we had an idea of filming in a house because everyone can relate to being at home, therefore helping to build tension and rapport.

For our trailer we plan to film in the Norbury Woods, the reason we chose this destination is because it is well known to the group and much quieter than some local woods. The particular part we decided to film in had lots of overhanging branches so appears much darker and more eerie. This will help top build tension and act as a good genre indicator from the start. This part of the woods is a very good place for filming as it less popular for dog walkers and we didn't want to get in the way of anyone. This also worked in out favour because we did not have to focus as much on extraneous movements e.g. people walking around in the background when something shocking is about to happen.

We also plan to use Hannah's house to film. It conforms to the stereotypes of a horror film because it is a quiet road which suggests its a deserted location and it will make the audience sympathise for the girl who has gone missing. Not only this but when viewers are watching this film at home it will help build tension as they are in a similar location.

Costume research

Costume of the protagonist: The Protagonist will be wearing day to day clothes in the beginning of the trailer to imply that she is just going about her daily walk routine. This will help to connote her innocence and to show she isn't expecting anything bad to happen to her. This will portray a more calming vibe to the audience, however they may predict something is going to happen, although they don't know when.. As the trailer goes on the protagonist (Hannah) will be wearing a white baggy top, the white colour will connote her purity and her innocence. The top will show how she has escaped her capture, when she was kept in simple basic clothing. We decided to change her outfit to make the trailer more realistic as Hannah capturer is not likely to  allow her to keep her coat. The white t-shirt will also have blood on it and rips to illustrate the ordeal she has been through.

Other Characters:  There man be other characters in parts of the film but they will be dressed in normal clothes because they will represent how people are carrying on living their ordinary lives. There is a mystery Antagonist in the trailer but no one will be introduced to this character because we want to keep it a mystery during the trailer, hopefully working as a way to encourage people to watch the film. The only part of the antagonist which will be seen is their hands and when their face is shown it will be covered in a mask, hiding their identity.

Script

In our trailer we decided to not incorporate any dialogue as we felt it would lose the tension. We did however have a voice over at the beginning of Lydia (playing the part of the protagonists friend/relative) expressing her feelings about her missing sister, we plan for it to go something like:
'My sister went missing six months ago, although the police may have given up we haven't. I know there was something in the woods that day, whatever it is I will find her'.
We felt a voice over would be more effective in making it feel like a trailer as the dialogue may make it more like an opening two minutes. The voice over meant that we could use any shot over the top of the sound also helping to keep the pace of the trailer going.

Another piece of non-diegetic sound we were planning on using is the nursery rhyme the teddy bears picnic, we felt this was effective because it is well known and it mentions the woods during the song. Not only this but it connotes children who would normally associated with innocence and fun so it sort of juxtaposes and makes it more creepy.
Teddy bears picnic:
If you go down to the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise!

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain,
Because today's the day the
Teddy Bears have their picnic

 

If you go down to the woods today,
You'd better not go alone!
It's lovely down in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home!

 

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the
Teddy Bears have their picnic.

Influences of production

A huge influence for our protagonist character came from the television series 'The Missing' as we thought the main character in this was very similar to the one we wanted to incorporate into our trailer. As I watched both series of the show it made you appreciate the hard work that had gone into sculpting the character, done by use of mise-en-scene, editing, sound and camera angles. Particularly in the trailer for series 2 of the missing, the shot of Alice Webster, the missing girl, walks through a busy market, she is placed in the middle of the screen with the whole focus on her, we noted this as a shot that we would like to include. Also the use of mise-en-scene in this shot is particularly important because Alice is dressed in very basic light coloured clothing and very basic make up is used to illustrate the ordeal she has been through. Another thing about series 2 is that the protagonist character of Alice is made out to be the enemy at certain points during the series, which we wanted to explore more when making our trailer as we felt it was a very captivating individual selling point of the series.
The make up used encouraged us to research more into make up tutorials online as we felt it would benefit us to explore different looks. We felt that using make up would make the whole trailer more realistic thus helping capture the audiences attention for longer. The concept of realism allows the audience to sympathise with the character allowing them to become more emotionally invested.
For our location we wanted to go for like a 'Cabin in the Woods' sort of vibe hence why we decided that our local woods would be the main location for the trailer. We did consider using other locations like an abandoned house or in one of the group members houses but we wanted the location to act as an immediate genre indicator while we also wanted to feel comfortable in our surroundings when filming.
Finally the decision for our antagonist was not directly influenced by any other films but more from a combination of them all. We personally felt that the antagonist was more scary when their identity was not revealed hence why in our trailer we intend for the antagonist to be dressed all in black with a mask over their face. By doing this is keeps that character a mystery to the audience and hopefully encourages them to come and see the whole film to discover more.

Green screen

When planning for our trailer we thought having a new report include may make the trailer more realistic and the story more believable, so we decided to film a news report using the green screen. it worked very well and allowed us to develop new editing skills but we decided not to include it in our main trailer as we felt it didn't fit the storyline as well as we had originally hoped. The lighting we used was very effective because it put full attention on to Hannah and again made it more realistic. The only part of the green screen filming we were not happy with was the original sound so we had to re record this part. Using the green screen allowed us to develop new skills and experiment with different filming materials and if I was making a film trailer again I would definitely consider incorporating the green screen one way or another.

Mood board

These images are just a few we selected that we feel summarise our trailer quite well, from location to prop choice. The dark figure and the mask both relate to our antagonist as we wanted this to be a very mysterious character whos identity will not be revealed in the trailer hence why we used the mask. We wanted the antagonist to be dressed all in black to connote danger and hopefully create more tension. The picture of the blood splattered t-shirt is there because this will be one of our key props in order to illustrate to the audience the ordeal Hannah (the protagonist) has gone through. The picture of the woods just simply shows the location in which we intend to film our trailer. Finally the last two images relate to Hannah's character of the protagonist being a young vulnerable girl. We included an image from the television series the missing as this was the character we based our protagonist around. Overall from just glancing at the few images we have selected you can immediately tell the genre is horror which we were pleased with as we wanted to stick to a traditional cliché to the genre.

Diary of filming

01/12/2016:
We filmed the majority of our trailer this day and got used to the location we were filming in. On this day we decided to film more footage than we would need just to experiment with different shot types and different angles. This day was very productive as we felt we had more of a detailed plan of what we would like to include after going to the location as a group and filming different shots. We also came back the next day to film some more running shots of Hannah however after returning back to school we realised Hannah was wearing a different coat to the one she was originally wearing so we had to go back to the location to re film these bits.

10/01/2017:
On this day we decided to visit a different location so we went to the splash in Fetcham. The reason we decided to change location is because we wanted to get some establishing shots of a better location. This day was successful because we were able to film the last parts of our trailer and finally see it all coming together. We didn't think that changing the location would effect the continuity of our trailer because there is often location changes in trailers, this is because it doesn't have to be in a chronological order.

Opening titles

The title of our film links very well to the storyline, we decided on this because we wanted it to hint to the audience about what to expect but we also wanted it to be catchy. We picked a few different names that we liked and included them in our questionnaire so let other people decide on the most popular name.

We experimented using multiple different font types and colours these just being a couple of them, we did this on Adobe Premiere elements, with help from the snipping tools in order to cut the titles down to the size that we wanted which was very useful. After doing research on other horror titles we decided as a group that we wanted the font to be in capitals to help it stand out more. We also wanted the writing to be very bold so it sticks in peoples heads more and again acts as a genre indicator.

 

For all the titles we used we wanted to use contrast colours hence why we used white on a black background. The contrast allows it too stand out more and stick as an image in peoples mind so they are more likely to remember the title of the film. The white lettering connotes innocence and peace linking to our main character, shown later in the white t-shirt. By the white being on the black background it appears like the light in all the darkness, so although the story may be very dark and mysterious there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. The second title was created using a font called 'Adobe Casion Pro' and as a group we decided this was our favourite font as it created a slightly creepy effect but not so much that it took away from the actual words.

 

We decided that we included the name of our film at the end of the trailer so its the last thing the audience see making them more likely to remember the name therefore more likely to see the film. We aim to make the title fade in and fade out will the same non-diegetic music from the rest of the trailer is still being played, although we want the name to appear up quickly we don't want it to go too fast as we want people to remember its name.

 

Institution research

Hammer Film Productions is a company founded in 1934 which based in the UK. It is known for a series of gothic horror films produced mainly during the 70's. During the late 1960s and 1970s there was competition in the horror film market which causes the institution to close down in 1980s. Their well knows films include The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Phantom of the Opera. They have also produced the feature film The Woman in Black. During the opening weekend, the Woman in Black earned $20 million which was the largest US opening for the production in their history. I think that Hammer Films would be an appropriate intuition for our film because they have the best experience with producing horror films. As they are an independent film company it would be cheaper to produce the film.

 Lionsgate is a Canadian-American film production and distribution studio. It’s the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. Majority of their films categories in similar genres these are usually drama, action and thriller.  Liongate have made some top horror film including Saw, The Last Exorcism, and My Bloody Valentine. Its first major box office was American Psycho; it earned $4,961,015 (USA) and £749,526 (UK) in the opening weekend. After researching horror films from Lionsgate they specialise in drama, action and thriller so would not be suitable to produce our horror film.

Twentieth Century Fox Film is one of the six major American film studios. The company was formed on 31 1935. Twentieth Century Fox distributes various successful films such as Avatar, Stars Wars. The majority of popular films that they have created are for the family for example Alvin the Chipmunks, Diary of the Wimpy Kid. They chose to produce this film genre as it produces the most money however when it comes to horror movies they distribute it as are not specialised in this genre.  They have also created some horror movies such as The Omen and Jennifer’s Body.  As we’re producing an opening scene to a horror film, the 20^th Century Fox is suitable institution as they do not specialise in horror films only in the distribution.

Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. is an american entertainment company that produces film television and music entertainment. As one of the major film studios with its headquarters in Burbank, California. Warner Bros, has several other companies, including Warner Bros.Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment and DC Entertainment. This was the institution that produced the Harry Potter films.

We decided that our trailer would be produced from a much smaller independent institution as it has a much lower budget. Despite this there has been a rise in success of films from more unknown institutions due to the increase in use in sites like Netflixs, this means films that wouldn't have previously been accessed by lots of people now are able to be.

Actors and props

Main actress:
Our main actress throughout the trailer is Hannah she plays the protagonist who is 'snatched' then begins to haunt her own family. Hannah conforms to the stereotype of protagonists in horror trailers as she portrayed as vulnerable and innocent, this will help the audience sympathise with her character more and become more emotionally involved in the storyline. Her clothing will also help to highlight her purity as she will start of wearing normal clothes, to illustrate how this was very unexpected situation that could happen to anyone, and she will end in a white blood splattered t-shirt again connoting her innocence.


Supporting actresses:
In parts of our trailer we will have other characters involved but they will only be featured for a short time as their role is not as important, this ensures that Hannah's character gets prevalence. We intend to include a few shots of Hannah sat in the back of the car while the driver (Lydia) is clearly distressed by this. This will hopefully cause the audience to ask multiple questions about why Hannah is in the back of the car. Other supporting characters we will be using is Hannah's friends who are searching for her after her mysterious disappearance.

Props:
We intend to use a mobile phone as one of our props to show the concern of Hannah's friends when she's not answering her phone, this will imply to the audience that she is in some form of trouble. We may incorporate other props to illustrate to the audience about the danger that Hannah is in but we are currently undecided on this.


Another prop that we may use is Hannah's dog to show how she is just going about her normal business and wasn't anticipating anything bad happening to her, this will also connote her innocence. We hope to include a shot of him running home alone, however this may not happen as we want to make sure he is safe.

Finally we may use some fake blood to help convey the horror genre and make it more realistic. The t-shirt that Hannah will be wearing will hopefully have fake blood on it and so may some of the surroundings to try conform to the clichés of horror films.

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Costumes on the day of filming

This is the mask that Lydia was wearing to become the character of the antagonist, we used this mask because it covered her whole facing disclosing her identity and was black so also connoted more danger and mystery. By using a mask it didn't matter that our antagonist was Lydia because you cannot see her face through it, this helps to make the trailer more scary. Lydia will also be wearing a large black coat so that her body is covered, and she can hide into the background more effectively, black also connotes danger and mystery etc. We got the idea of using the mask from the film 'The Purge' because people wear masks in that to dehumanise themselves therefore trying to justify their behaviour.

When we arrived at the location we covered the white top in blood and mud to show the ordeal that Hannah's character as gone through. The reason we decided to do it on the day is because we wanted it to look fresh and more realistic, especially the blood because we wanted Hannah to look as if she had been injured. I put blood on my hands also to make it look like a hand print on the top, this is also a hint to imply that the antagonist could also be covered in blood. The white t-shirt was effective because it made the blood and mud stand out thus helping to build tension.

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