Assignment 3 - Costume/props planning

In order to accurately portray characters on screen, costumes and props must be taken into account.

First of all, the teenage victim is always seen wearing normal clothes appropriate for today's demographic. Her outfits are always jeans and a t-shirt to relate to most of the audience, as this will then make them scared for her character more - out of a feeling of familiarity. Her clothes are always dark colors, reflecting the dark and scary tone of the trailer, and showing how the monster has affected her as well, in terms of personality reflecting through appearance.

The therapist in the trailer is seen wearing a lab coat, making the audience aware of her profession and allowing them to take her character more seriously in her approach. She also wears glasses to look mature and intellectual, indicating how talented at her job she is. The use of makeup on her face and her hairstyle also adds to her mature and adult-like appearance.










The killer is always seen masked and in black clothing. The mask causes a feeling of terror as it allows the killer to have a st
raight face, which never changes expression, this causes the audience to believe he may lack humanity of any kind for the other characters. His black clothing only emphasizes the effect of the white mask because it allows it to stand out of his outfit.
Along with this, his prop is a knife with a large and sharp blade, indicating the fact that he's a killer and intends on harming the teenage girl.

Assignment 3 - Location planning

We mainly plan on using 3 different locations in close vicinity to one another as this will allow more time for filming and less time wasted spent driving to different locations.

The first location is my house as it is the average house that belongs to a typical family and has rooms  that resemble those we picture the main character living in. This idea of a normal house and a normal family envokes more fear in the audience as it causes them to believe that the horrifying things the protagonist experiences can happen to anyone of them. We only plan on showing the interior of the house and not the exterior, as the exterior resembles houses in the Middle East which look very different to those in America or the UK, where most of the demographic live or originate from. The two rooms we have decided to film are: my bedroom, which resembles the main characters bedroom, and the living room downstairs, which has a nice antique mirror which is suitable for a scene we wish  to shoot.

The other location is the abandoned house next to my house and as it is the neighboring house and is abandoned it is easily accessible and gives the right kind of setting we need for our shots. The rooms located inside have chipped walls and no electricity. The windows are also left open which causes the curtains to blow around, creating a sinister atmosphere. The house also contains narrow dimly lit hallways perfect for filming the monster walking towards the camera.

For our therapist scenes, we plan on using the clubhouse as it has white walls, comfortable sofas and tables which comprise a therapists office perfectly, but we will most likely film at less busy hours to avoid noise in the background and to avoid disrupting people in the clubhouse.

Assignment 3 - Storyboard

Assignment 3 - Moodboard

Assignment 3 - Questionnaire results

Assignment 3 - Questionnaire

What is your gender?

Male
Female

Which of these options is the most compelling monster?

A masked spirit in the form of a killer
A creepy stalker
A creature who wants revenge

Which of these scenes would interest you most?

A girl being haunted by a spirit
A party game that is actually haunted
A spirit possessing someone

Which setting would be most effective in a horror genre?

An abandoned/ haunted house
A graveyard
An insane asylum

What kind of music would suit our horror genre?

Techno
Child-like (ie a music box)
Sinister

Should we reveal the plot?

Yes
No
Just a little

Which of these should we use

A voice over
Captions
Nothing at all

What should we call our film?

Haunted
Incubus
The Nightmare

Assignment 3 - Conventions of horror trailers

I believe that the majority of horror films follow the conventions of the genre to create more chilling and horrific film that the audience will enjoy.

Characters/ Scenes

1. A possessed character, item or monster.

Most horror movies focus around this convention, because the items used are usually found in every common household, causing the demographic to be more frightened, the same thing applies when a human is possessed as the audience begins to fear if this would happen in real life. A monster of some sort (a spirit, a killer or a creature) is always used as the thing that is the source of the terror or fear inflicted on the characters.

2. A religious figure, ie priest.

This character is often used to solve the horrific problem, usually possessions by performing an exorcism.

3. Jumpscares.

These are filmed to leave the audience shook and terrified after a painful moment of silence or a scene lacking action.

Shots/ Cuts

Shots that contain horrifying material are usually edited together with quick cuts to depict a constant feeling of fear and the idea that the characters are always being terrified, these are prevalent especially in chase scenes. Other scenes that consist of normal everyday actions or conversations between characters are edited in the normal way, the technique that is used in all films.

Setting

Trailers in this genre usually have the setting of an abandoned or haunted house to make the audience feel unsettled at the idea that something as average as houses could be the source of the character's terror, along with this the idea that all these terrible things are happening in or because of the house, it gives the idea of endless horror and hopelessness for the characters.

Graveyards are popular for movies containing the undead like zombies or vampires, as they in general are places people like to avoid, and in the movies are usually locked at night and obscured by thick mist, to create suspense.

Woodland or Forests are popular for movies with monsters that come from nature, like a swamp monster or werewolves. They are used because they are huge and the protagonist(s) usually find it difficult to navigate in them. Along with this, the trees are used as camouflage for the monsters and also provide difficulty when characters are running, as they have to dodge in and out of the trees to escape, diegetic sounds like the snap of a branch or the crunch of leaves are emphasized or singled out amongst silence, creating moments of suspense or tension as they alert the monster of the location of the character(s).

Lighting

The lighting in these trailers is almost always low key, as most of the scary things occur in the darkness or at night time. Scenes that depict daytime use high key lighting from the sun to make the scenes look realistic.