Conventions of a trailer
There are many film trailers
in the psychological thriller genre that I have analysed to get ideas for
conventions to use in my own film trailer. For example I looked at the trailer
for Shutter Island and The Shining. The Shutter Island trailer starts of with
an equilibrium, this introduces the main character and his occupation. We learn
information about the main character Teddy through titles which appear on the screen;
they tell us how Teddy is visits a mental asylum. This is followed the other
characters in a mental institution. This leaves the audience asking questions
and wanting to find out what happened to him. The trailer follows Todorov’s narrative structure as the equilibrium is
followed by a disturbance/dilemma as the main character begins to find out what
has happened in the past. The types of edit typically used are cut however
there are some scenes with a fade to black transition which makes scene changes
more varied and interesting. It becomes
clear that this is a psychological horror early on in the trailer as straight
away we get an element of madness as the main character visits a mental
institution. From there on other characters set about trying to remind him of
his past crimes. 36 seconds within the trailer a old women catches his eye who
then slowly raises her finger to symbol him to ‘keep quite’, this is
foreshadowing the interrogation that is to take place.
The Shining trailer starts with calm and
serene shots of mountains and the countryside; there is a voice over playing
over these shots. This is effective as it allows the viewer to understand the
main story that the film will follow.
The main type of edit used is a cut transition. This I quite an old film
so there are not many special effects and the trailer is quite basic with not
many fast scene changes unlike the trailer for Shutter Island which had fast
paced scene changes. In this trailer, the music is accompanying the action in
the shots and building tension. The music uses a lot of drums to make the
audience feel tense and on edge; this is also imitating a heartbeat sound. In some places the sound cuts out to allow a
shot to make full impact on the audience and then returns to surprise
them. I think this would be really
effective towards the audience, keeping them captivated. I will use these conventions
in my film trailer to get my theme of madness and make it seem realistic.
Marketing
The target audience for my film is young
adults and teenagers. This is because of the main character in my film being a
teenager, the audience will be able to relate to her situation more. As the
youth today rely a lot on social media and technology, one of the most popular
ways to advertise to young people would be on a social media site such as
Facebook, magazines or on TV between shows popular with teenagers. There are many ways to advertise such as;
radio, TV, billboards, online websites ect.
This is the website for shutter island. This
is a good way to market a film and allow people to find out more about the cast
and making of the film. There are also wallpaper downloads available for your
computer. This use of computer advertising shold be popular amongst teenagers and young adults as
it is easily accessable and easy to navigate. This enables potential vewers to
find out more about the film before they see it . The adress for the website
can be found on movie posters, at the end of the trailer or by using scannable
QR codes whuch direct you to the correct website immidiately. The website has
used a dark colour scheme to match the sinister themes of the film. This shows
the audience the genre of the film as it is clearly not a romantic comedy due
to the serious expression on Leonardo Dicaprio’s face. They have included the
face of the main character on the website and his name as he is very popular
and has many fans, this makes it more likely that the audience will see the
movie doe to the inclusion of a well known actor.
This
is the official film poster for Gothika. These would be posted at bus stops and
in magazines. These are places were
young adults would likely be able to see the poster. Young people are more likely to be reading
magazines so this could be easily viewable by them. At bus stops, people are
often waiting around so this gives them somethig to look at while waiting and
it might spike their interest. The poster is very eye catching as Halle berry
is usng direct address to engage with the viewer. The fact that her arms are
pressed against the glass show that she is trapped and maybe requires help.
This will also make the viewer more interested to understand what the film is
about. The blue colours in the poster
conote sadness and depression which is a theme in the film. The vacant look on
the actress’s face and the raindrops suggest that she is looking for something
with determination but also ou of duty regardless of the weather. The words
‘not alone’ in her arm seem un natural and odd making the audience curious to
find out more about the story of this woman. I think this film poster is very
effective.
Film Classification
For our film we have decided to use the 15
certificate as we believe this is most appropriate for our film and most suited
to our target audience. We have gathered
this information from the bbfc website. The parts of the 15 film classification
which are relevant to our trailer include:
· Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
· There may be frequent use of strong language, repetitive or aggressive
use of stong language is unadvised.
· Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of
injuries. no strong gore.
I believe that this classification is
appropriate for our trailer because the trailer contains some swear words and
violence.
Representations
My film uses 3 main characters, all of whom
are female. The main character, Alice, is represented as a teenager with a
mental illness. She kills her own mother and struggles to accept what she has
done driving her to further insanity. In the film Shutter island the main
character kills his wife and struggles to accept his past, so he chooses to
bury the memory, however he sees hallucinations of her. Whereas Alice cannot
differentiate between real life and her imagination. This is similar to how
only Alice can see Olivia .
The Mother is also a figment of Alice’s
imagination as she has killed her real mother and now fills her place with a
hallucination. This character is similar to the deceased wife Dolores of the
main character Teddy in Shutter Island. Teddy killed Dolores but as he is
insane he still sees hallucinations of her as he cannot bear to let her go. He
does not realise that he is the one who killed her. The hallucination is
represented as a comforting figure, which is there to guide and comfort the
‘crazy one’. The hallucinations in both cases exist to set the main character’s
mind at ease and allow them to bury their past. Hallucinations are very common
in the psychological thriller genre as the main themes concern the human brain;
hallucinations are effective ways to add plot twists and tension to the film.
Shutter Island trailer analysis
The target audience for this theme is young
adults and adults. I think because it’s a subject that would attract a younger
audience, also its set in a mental institution. A lot of the characters have
deep rooted mental issues such as being murderers, psychopaths and committed
other major crimes due to psychological issues. This trailer would also probably
not appeal to an elderly audience as they are approaching an older age they
would not like seeing uncanny situations which they might end up finding
themselves in. A lot of elderly people develop mental illnesses with age and
most do not see it coming.
The genre of this film is
psychological horror. There are scenes of people covered in blood yet they are
smiling, which of course is abnormal. Blood conotes death and destruction, the normal
response is not to smile but be scared/frightened. This shows the characters are
not mentally stable.
Pitch Line: In.Sanity: A psychological,
thriller. A girl plagued by her homicidal past is desperate to forget her
deeds. As she rests in the comfort of her false reality, her memories begin to
find her.
Synopsis: In.Sanity is based around the
theme of mental illness and the main character is Alice who also has mental
issues. Tired of her mothers constant abuse Alice lashes out and kills her
mother. Her brain cannot cope with what she has done so it creates a hallucinated
life were she has the perfect mother and best friend.
This new state of mind would compensate for
any inconsistencies that she may come across in her day to day life; such as
the fake mother refusing to let Alice enter her bedroom. This was Alice’s
subconscious alerting her that if she were to enter she would stumble upon her
mother’s rotting body which would bring back the memories of the murder. The
hallucination of the mother is essentially the guardian of the memories from
the past.
As time goes on, Alice starts becoming more
wary of the false reality she has created. Her psychological condition has
rendered her powerless to think for herself as she lets her mind freely create
characters in her life to explain situations. This is how she meets her friend,
Olivia. Alice is a very lonely girl, usually avoiding human contact, However
she seems comfortable in the presence of Olivia. This is because she too, is a
figment of Alice’s imagination. Olivia knows Alice’s name the moment they meet
without exchanging any words. Olivia represents the rational thinking part of
Alice’s brain. Olivia is Alice’s subconscious breaking through the mind
barriers trying to get Alice to come to terms with her violent past.
As Alice and Olivia spend more time together
and become closer Olivia is making Alice more and more vulnerable and making
her remember certain things. Olivia even goes as far as to try and show Alice
that she is actually crazy by making her hurt herself with a pair of wire
clippers.
All this time Olivia is never allowed into
Alice’s home as her home is like her sanctuary, where her illusions are safe
from the outside world. However this changes when Olivia finally manages to
break through to Alice. Alice walks into the kitchen expecting to see her
mother, but in her place stands Olivia. Alice realises the imposter and without
thinking murders Olivia where she stands.
Alice banishes Olivia back into the depths of
her mind, showing that she will never accept her past, her will to believe in
the lie she has created is larger than the desire to remember the truth. When
Alice says ‘’Sweet mother, I will never leave you’’ It is shown that she will
never remember what she has done. Alice will stay by her fake mother’s side
until the day she dies, she herself will forever be the protector of her own
secret and for the rest of the life she will live surrounded by her own sea of
delusion.
Production Roles
Annette: directing, sets.
Fatima: directing, organisation, lighting,
camera
Zamzam: directing, camera
Schedule: we will begin shooting on
Sunday the 11th of November, we will film all of the scenes
including the mother and also the shots of Alice walking, Alice waking up and
walking to the kitchen, Alice surrounded by the circle of candles and some
general scenery shots of the graveyard.
On Thursday the 15th of November we
will film the shot of the mother dragging her hand across the floor and also
the washing blood off the hands scene.
On Sunday the 18th we will be filming
all of the scenes with Olivia, this will conclude our filming
Design
Design wasn’t very important however we had
some. The mother character wears a bright yellow dress with pearl jewellery and
full makeup. She is acting the role of a perfect mother. It is important that
she looks like the perfect housewife as she needs to appear to be slightly
unrealistic and almost ‘’too perfect’’. Other characters in the trailer do not
have particular costumes, they’re shown wearing casual clothes common to
teenagers of their age group. A prop that plays an important role in the
trailer is the pair of wire clippers. We chose wire clippers as a prop such as
a knife would have not been appropriate for the task. The wire clippers also
made sense in the trailer as when Alice and Olivia were sitting in the
graveyard, wire clippers were a tool that could have been commonly found in
abandoned graveyards for tasks like breaking into the abandoned chapel.
Equipment
Camera, tripod, candles. We chose to not use a
hand held lamp as this looks very artificial and does not look effective on
camera. We decided to use as much natural light as possible as this makes the
set and the actors look much better on camera and adds an element of realism to
the trailer. This also means the we have less equipment to carry and look
after. We decided to use candles in one scene as they create a dark and
sadistic atmosphere which is perfect for the purpose of the shot.
Cast List
Alice
Alice is a young girl who is very lonely and
therefore has some psychological problems. In a fit of craziness she brutally
murders her mother. She is not able to accept what she has done; her guilty
conscience creates a hallucination/ projection of her mother as she refuses to
come to terms with her crime. She hides the past in her mind, her mental
barriers prevent her from gaining access to the true memories of the past.
However, the past starts to resurface by a new friend who is also a figment of
her imagination. Annette Jutt, will be playing Alice and she is also one of the members of the film
crew.
The Mother
The mother is very rarely seen within the
trailer. The audience mostly see her as a hallucination where she acts as the
perfect mother who cooks and cleans and who is very caring. Alice projects her
as the ideal mother, how she wants to remember her. However this isn’t her real
character as she was abuse towards Alice and controlling. The hallucination of
the mother is protecting Alice from finding out the secret of her death hidden
away in the mother’s bedroom. Aili Nurk
will play the mother character. This is Annette’s actual mother, which will
make their relationship in the film more convincing.
Olivia
Olivia seems to be plain and ordinary. She is
actually a figment of Alice’s imagination. The friend character represents
Alice’s logical thinking. She is Alice’s subconscious trying to break through
and tell her that she is living a lie and needs to get help. However her
efforts are pointless as Alice ends up killing her. This represents Alice’s
un-willingness to accept the truth showing that no one can save her now. The friend character will be played by Olivia
Gibbs Fairley, a good friend of the film crew and a top drama student.
Locations for filming
Average flat- kitchen, bathroom, bedroom,
hallway.
One of our filming locations is in a flat. We
will be using Annette’s flat for many reasons, there is easy access for all of
the crewmembers, there is also no time limit for filming as it is one of the
crew member’s homes. In addition to this we will not have to pay to shoot at
this location or ask special permission. We also chose this location, as we
need a neutral and non-distracting environment to shoot in. This flat also
includes all the features which we need in out trailer e.g. a roomy kitchen to
fit the actors and camera crew.
Park with swings
Another of our filming locations is a small park
with a swing set along with other playground equipment. We chose this location
to shoot in as we needed a neutral and realistic place where the characters
Alice and Olivia meet. This park seemed appropriate as people would not
question why someone would be hanging out in a play park as opposed to a
graveyard. We also chose this location as it is quite quiet and usually not
busy which gives us a peaceful environment to film in. This location is also
close to where all of the film crew and actors live so it is easy for us to get
to the location on time and with little hassle.
Graveyard
We chose this location because of the convenient
location. The graveyard is located directly next to the flat we are also filming
in. This saves us time when changing sets for filming which means we have more
time to focus on perfecting the scenes. We chose to film in a graveyard because
of the connotations to death that they carry. As our film is about mental
illness, death and decay, we thought the graveyard would provide a suitable and
captivating location for certain scenes in out film. It also adds to the
feelings of melancholy and creepiness to the whole piece.
Script and filming guide
Scenes of graveyard- set to music
Eyes flutter
Walk into kitchen – mother ‘’ oh honey you're
awake, I made your favourite’’
Sky shot
Walking feet-behind- side
Sitting on swing set
Olivia walks over, POV, alice face- ‘’Hey alice,
is this seat taken’’
Confused= Do I know you face
Creepy smile Olivia
Bird flying away – graveyard shots
Walking shot
Screaming faces
Mother ‘’ I told you not to go in’’
Mothers dragging hand across floor
Washing blood off hands
‘’Honey I made your favourite’’ – deep growl
Flutter eyes
Walking
Graveyard
Olivia and wire clippers –‘’ its funny the
things you can hide behind closed doors’’
Passes Alice wire clippers, pressing into hand
‘’Ow, what the fuck are you doing’’
Olivia’s face – ‘’ you did that to yourself
Alice’’
Alice’s hand holding clippers to palm
‘’tell me about your mother Alice’’
Flashbacks to mother, screaming, dragging,
nice-breakfast
Creepy twisted up Olivia
Blink- normality –‘’you know what you’ve done’’
Blackout- open eyes
Enter kitchen –heartbeat
‘’oh honey you're awake I made your favourite’’
Olivia standing there instead of mum- flashes to
mum- back to Olivia
Alice runs at Olivia attacking- screams
Flashing through images
Creepy candle smile
‘’sweet mother, I’ll never leave you’’
In.Sanity
December 2012
Audience
survey graphs
The use of an audience survey helped on deciding what age should we set
the film classification and character age preference
EVALUATION
In a
group of three, we had similar ideas of what we wanted from our trailer. We all
wanted to satisfy the conventions of a psychological thriller so it was ideal
we would work together. We all had similar ideas however there was some
differences that we had to compromise on. To begin with our main focus was on
our audience and what was appropriate. We started research on bbfc and decided
that we should set the age boundary at 15.our surveys showed that 15+ enjoyed
psychological thrillers compared to a younger audience who enjoyed comedy. Also
we had the idea that our main character would be of a similar age and this
would attract a larger audience. Soon after we started to look at films that
are of the same genre, we partially liked the trailer Shutter Island; the
ambience scenes had me gripped straight from the beginning as the camera slowly
swept by an old mental institution which was on an island with surroundings of
dark water. By having a similar trailer, we hoped to achieve all the pros such
as the fast paced editing which we tried to incorporate into our trailer as
well as fast paced music and dark lighting. I thought that all these factors
added suspense and were part of the reason the trailer achieved a great number
of views.
Once we
all had a clear idea of what we wanted at of this trailer and where it was now,
we all realized that we had to put a lot of work in. we had to do a lot of
research and some of this research included looking up the Guidelines for of 15
certificate on bbf. We chose to do a 15 certificate as we felt that it would be
most suitable for our target audience, 15-25, and this certificate would allow
the lower range of target audience to view the movie. Also 15 allows more
bloody scene then 12 did and we were allowed to use swear words that allowed us
to develop the character more.
Even if I
didn’t mention what the genre of my film trailer was, it would be quite clear
when you watch the film trailer due to the convention that we included into our
trailer. There are the typical things you’d see within psychological thriller-
blood, a villain, graveyard, fear and an obvious danger. Our trailer contains a
mixture of bright natural lighting and low-key lighting. For example at the
beginning of our trailer the sun is shining directly at the main charter Alice
to show that everything is “perfect”, whilst towards the ending the lighting is
dark and dime which was mostly created with candles. The use of lighting is
important in our trailer because it sets the mood and portrays emotion. One
example of representation that I’ve used is the way self-harm is shown in the
trailer. I think this is effective because it meets one of the conventions of a
psychological thriller and it portrays madness.
I think
my trailer would be advertised online, on public transport and posters. Also I
think it should be shown on TV but should be shown pasted 9 o’clock due to it
being rated 15+ and wouldn’t be appropriate for any younger audience. A
Facebook/Twitter page would be created as well as an online website. These
places would all be appropriate as my target audience could easily view it. My
audience would be able to see the posters on public transport on their way to
school or work and would most likely have Internet access and would have social
networks. Also my target audience would be possibly seeing the trailer on TV at
9 o’clock.
www
·
Our
trailer meets all the conventions of a psychological thriller as well as the
representation of an schitzpherenic.
·
Completed
all of the planning and pre-production beforehand. This saved a lot of time
that we spent on making/editing our trailer.
·
Finished
our trailer early as we shot all scene’s within two days so this left time to
work on our portfolio
EBI
· What we could of done better was that some of the
scene’s were not steady so we could of used a tripod.
· There was some disagreement’s within our group that
wasted time.
