Filming locations

We used several locations to film our horror movie trailer. These are the images we took from the places we chose to film. As you can see from above, the first picture is a series of dark alley ways within a warehouse near to our school. We chose this location because we knew it was a low light area which gave us a dark and spooky feeling. This was chosen to create a horror type mise-en-scene. This was the only reason we chose to film here and that was due to the low light conditions which heightened the horror trailer effect.

The next place we chose to film was at our school. The picture makes it obvious due to the board clearly showing the words 'goffs school.' There were two reasons we chose this, the first being easy access. We could film here whenever we want and we didn't have to ask anyone to film. This made it extra easy for us and we used this location well as we got many shots from here. The next reason was that we could change the lighting to our choice in some places. An example of this is the girls phone-call in our trailer. We made this dull and dim in order to emphasize the horror mise-en-scene. So this was a good location i feel, simply due to the easy access and out choice of surrounding that we could create.

The bottom picture is where we got more of our film for our horror trailer. This is a dirty and dull subway which is a close walk from our 6th form. This is the first reason we chose this location due to the simple access to the location. It was literally a five minute walk from our classroom to the subway. It also fitted the horror mise-en-scene due to it being dirty, dark and dull. This again heightened the dramatic effect the me and Izel was trying to give off in our film trailer.

We had other locations but these were our three main ones in order to create a dramatic horror effect. So therefore i chose to show these three to show on my blog. The other two location was at my house and in a car park. We chose my house because this is a stereo-typical horror trailer location when someone is on their own and things begin to happen. The car park was used for literally 2 shots in our trailer and wasnt a big part at all. These are all the locations we chose for our horror trailer and we chose them due to our joint decision of us trying to find suitable horror trailer locations.

Re-shoot/Re-editing our horror trailer

During our creation period of our horror trailer, we did have to re shoot and re edit some parts to make it a better piece of coursework overall. The first point why we had to re shoot was due to our characters. Two of the characters we had, left the school and could no longer be part of our trailer. For this reason we had to find new characters and re shoot everything we had already done. At this point, we had about 30 percent of the footage we needed and then had to start from scratch. This was the main reason why we had to re shoot our movie trailer but was influenced by other factors as well. 

     We then visited each of our four locations to gain more footage and shot here until we had this. We then added it into Sony Vegas and found out that we needed more footage in order to maintain a trailer over 1 minute long. Also, some of our shots didn't end up looking good so we had to go back to the location and film this again.  This only took about 20 minutes at each location so it wasn't too bad. This was everything we encountered when it came to re shooting our footage. However, this was a long process that took a considerable amount of editing to go with it. 

     For the amount of filming we had to re shoot, there came a lot of re editing that went with this. For every time we changed our footage, we had to add this into Sony Vegas and cut the sequence. For all of our new footage, we had to cut it to fit in with the music of the film trailer. We also had to change the font we chose for our writing within our trailer. Our first choice was to have red text on a black background. We then changed it to white on black and changed the text to make it more effective. We also had to cut several shots down in length due to our teacher telling us that they were far too long. After this comment, we went onto Sony Vegas and cut down some shots in order to make it a more convincing horror trailer. 

     As you can see from the above, we encountered lots of re editing and re shooting and had to deal with it. This was a considerable amount of work that needed to be done in order for our coursework to be more of a success. We had to make sure we used our time wisely as we had other bits of work needed to be posted onto our blogs. I think we dealt with it well and re shot plus re edited our trailer well. 

**Important message**

For anyone who logs onto my blog and sees this post, i have added some questions down the side of my blog. Would you please respond to these as it will help me out with my media coursework. Thanks.

Mood Board (collection of images representing my chosen genre).

As part of my a2 coursework, i have to create a mood board for my pre production coursework. This mood board has to represent the effect and atmosphere i wat to create within my horror/thriller movie trailer. I have gone onto the internet and researched pictures that i could use on my mood board. I have found 6 pictures that i want to recreate within my trailer and they are shown above.

This is the selection of images i have added to create my mood board. Due to me and my team mate Izel creating a horror/thriller genre film, these pictures show the mood we want to try and create for our audience. They show different emotions as the lady screaming creates a scary atmosphere when the masked me show a more thrilling side to the film section of the media industry. This is the reason why i have collected these images at put them onto my mood board. I believe all of these pictures correlate to the genre and type of trailer we are aiming for.

My Movie Trailer Characters

There are five characters which me and Izel used for our horror trailer. The first character was me. I wanted to be in the horror trailer as I was reliable due to it being my piece of coursework the we had to get completed. I also looked like a jock with the skinhead and one of these always gets killed in a horror trailer. I was initially the camera man but halfway through the filming though of the jock idea and we used it. This fitted the mise-en-scene of the trailer due to there always being a mixture of boy and girl getting killed. We couldn't just have girls.

Yasmin - is our classmate who also studies a level drama. Yasmin is the girl above in the blue top and the first reason we chose her was because she studies performing arts at a level and she was a convincing actor. She also fitted the stereo-typical blonde girl who always gets the chop in horror trailers. We knew that she would be available as she was in our classes and when we had a free lesson, so did she. This made her available to film whenever we was free making it easy for us to create our coursework.

Lauren - is the girl above wearing a black dress. She also fitted the blonde 'bimbo' character as there is usually the double act in most trailers. There are always two girls who are best friends in horror films and they usually both get killed. This fitted horror trailer conventions. She is also in all of our lessons so this made her available when we were and we knew that she would be reliable due to her being my team mate Izel's best-friend.

Mitchell - is one of my best-fiends which immediately told me that he would be reliable towards our trailer. This is the first reason that we chose him. He plays the killer within our trailer and his attitude made him very creepy once he had the mask on. Due to our story line being jealousy, he fitted in well with this kind of character. So the overall reasons we chose him was because he would be reliable and he really suited the character we was trying to create.

Izel - is my team mate who i am creating the horror trailer with. My reasons for making her the main characters were her being small and vulnerable and she also fitted in with the group of girls. She is also reliable as she is part of the group and if she didn't do well, we wouldn't do well overall. She fitted in as the main character with Mitchell as they also suited as best friends which is part of the story line.

My Filming Schedule

This is mine and Izel's filming schedule that we are going to carry out during the week of the 1st to the 5th of November. As you can see we will be filming tuesday and thursday but also will film some footage on friday. This is split into three sections which are Day, Where and Time. Day tells us what day we are going to be filming, Where shows us where we will be filming and the Time section shows us what time of day we will be shooting footage. We believe that this is an effective plan, due to the decision we put into this.

On tuesday we will be filming in the school grounds during the school day to give us part of our movie trailer. We will also film thursday but we will film in the school surroundings (alleys, parks etc). However, on friday we are going to shoot footage that we have forgotten or things that we haven't done to well. This will make it able for us to get all the footage we need and begin to edit.

We have chosen our filming times carefully as in school we need light and quite a busy surrounding. But we also need dark lighting which is why we chose to film after school as it gets dark early this time of year. On friday we will hand around and wait for evening if needs be.

Changes:

During our filming period, there were several changes that were made. Firstly, two of the girls we were meant to be filming dropped out so we had to find new characters. The reason for us not filming these girls was because they has the flu. However, we spoke to other students within out school and a girl called Celia White agreed to be one of our characters. For this reason, we had to delay our filming until the next week in order for us to have maximum chance of creating a convincing film trailer. We also got a new main character, who is the killer. We dropped Joe Potts and hired Mitchell Stone. These two reasons are why we had to adjust his filming schedule.

My Target Audience

For my groups A2 piece of coursework, we are going to produce a movie trailer. This trailer will consist of a horror genre and below is my target audience explained in full.

     As most horror fils are aimed at older people, we are going to stick with this convention of movie trailers. We are going to go for a 15 or 18 label which means this is the age limit. So our movie trailer will be aimed at people of this age and over but will also be aimed at both sexes. This is because there isn't a typical sex audience for horror films. This film will be aimed at literally anyone who like horror films apart from people below the age restriction. My partner in my  group loves horror film so she will be able to help us in the creation of our trailer in order to make sure it is aimed at this audience.

Freytags's Triangle

Freytag's triangle is split into five sections. These are explained below:

Exposition

The exposition provides the background information needed to properly understand the story, such as the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, and the setting. It ends with the inciting moment, which is the incident without which there would be no story. The inciting moment sets the remainder of the story in motion beginning with the second act, the rising action. While the exposition may employ the rhetorical mode also known as exposition, the two are not perfectly synonymous.

Rising action

During rising action, the basic internal conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist's attempt to reach his goal. Secondary conflicts can include adversaries of lesser importance than the story’s antagonist, who may work with the antagonist or separately, by and for themselves or actions unknown.

Climax

The third act is that of the climax, or turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s affairs. If the story is a comedy, things will have gone badly for the protagonist up to this point; now, the tide, so to speak, will turn, and things will begin to go well for him or her. If the story is a tragedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from good to bad for the protagonist.

Falling action

During the falling action, or resolution, which is the moment of reversal after the climax, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action might contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt.

Dénouement, resolution, or catastrophe

The dénouement  comprises events between the falling action and the actual end of the drama or narrative and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader.

Although Freytag's analysis of dramatic structure is based on five-act plays, it can be applied (sometimes in a modified manner) to short stories and novels as well. 

This information was found at www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure

Shooter Fan Movie Trailer (Location)

This trailer opens with an image with the Paramount trade mark sign. We then get an immediate establishing shot to clearly distinguish the location of the film. We are sent straight into a busy location that gives us a sense that we are in a busy city in America. The next few shots are cut with fast editing and we further establish that we are within a busy city.

We get a very fast series of editing that shows us mixed locations but with a lot of action, enforcing the genre of film. We get different locations in this section including a warehouse, a riverbank and busy city roads. There are also several clips showing the main character and his sidekick at war seeming to be in Iraq or Afghanistan. This further enforces action to the viewers and tells us that Mark Whalberg was a sniper in the war. All of these locations show the main character Mark Whalberg getting beat up, shit and in a constant fight for survival. But as we have seen he is a sniper. So the next section of shots, we see Mark Whalberg in his primary location fighting back. We see him in forests, on mountains and in other secretive places sniping people from a distance. This shows our main character fighting back and again enforces the genre of action. This brawl continues for a long period of the trailer and we see Mark Whalberg in his primary status. Its almost as if he has created another war by the amount of action we see and the locations we are shown.

The last location we are shown is Mark Whalberg in an orange prison suit trying to prove himself in some kind of court. He has his sniper with him that shows the court is trusting him. This trailer uses many different locations to emphasise the amount of action that the film encages.

The Grudge Official Trailer (Mis-en-scene)

The first horror movie trailer in which i analysed is the official trailer, the Grudge.

to start with the beginning of the movie trailer to this movie starts with creepy non-diagetic music and then it goes from shot to shot with the same slow and creepy atmosphere, the music then stops and it goes from short shots to the different locations of the movie to tell the story.

The first shot which shows the location is of a town which is a master shot which goes into another master shot with the camera held from a high angle to a lot of people walking on a street and to a house which then switches to text which tells parts of the stories with also the same font, non diagetic music and colours which builds up tension to the audience which are watching it to see what the movie is going to be about, this then cuts to another shot of a woman in a house looking around looking scared and then there is screaming from inside the house which also builds up a lot of tension. following this, the non diagetic music gets faster and faster which also builds up tension following a mixture of very fast shots in a dark location. after these shots it then goes back to text which tells another part of the story, all of these shots including the text starts off from the beginning with a normal and ordinary day with a lot of people on the streets, which then turns to a house and shows within the house that it is dark and creepy which is followed by the type of text which is shown. this then is all changed as it shows the main character which looks always a bit scared and the lighting at this time is dark and gloomy and also the location is like this as she arrives in the house. the trailer stops from being slow shots once again to going very fast again, the lighting is still dark and the location stays the same with the same people. when the trailer ends it finishes with the mis-en-scene being even darker and has much slower music and ends with the title and the credits with a loud noise, it also asks the audience a question which builds up tension to watch it.

Superbad trailer (characters)

There are several different characters that appear in the Superbad film trailer. The first two characters we come across are Seth and Evan. We immediately tell that Seth is going the be the main funny character due to his clothing and his image. He has funny hair, clothing and an all over funny attitude is what we can see. Whereas, we can tell Evan is a more serious character by the use of geeky clothing and serious facial expressions. We can tell that Evan has a crush on a girl when we see a point of view shot that shows him looking at her breasts. This is another character that we get involved with and we learn that she becomes quite a main part of Evans life within the film.

Our last main character is then shown in the trailer as we immediately take him as another funny, joking type of person. This is again related to his image with a funny look to him and his expressions give off humor. We learn from the trailer that his name is Fogel. Shortly after, we see a series of clips of our three main characters doing funny things where we distinguish that these three ,Seth, Evan and Fogel are good friends.

Next we are shown some more characters who play a big role in this film. These are the girls that Seth, Evan and Fogel try to buy alcohol for as the girls have a party. We can tell that the boys are trying to get in their good books by them doing this. Also at 1.04 we are introduced to some characters who are two policemen. We can tell that these are a big part of the film due to the series of clips that follow their appearance with Fogel. We establish these policemen as more main characters. At this point, all of our main characters have been introduced by the trailer makers and the fast series of clips show their attitudes within the film. Again, Seth has a funny attitude, Evan is continuing his serious appearance and Fogel is being a 'nutcase' with the two policemen. We also establish from these clips that the policemen have a very comical way within this film.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Cody McMahon and this is my A2 media blog. Throughout this year i will be constructing a movie trailer with a group of classmates. Along with my main piece of coursework (movie trailer) i will be constructing pre-production coursework which will make it easier for the viewers to see how things were made and how i come up with my ideas.