Magazine cover

Final version of film poster

After making many changes to the original film poster we created, we have finally made a poster we pleased with and think reflects are trailer in an effective way encorperating the conventions of a horror movie poster in.

Production: Filming the cut throat scene

As one of our killing scenes we decided to have a throat cut in which you would see the arm reaching our and slitting the victims throat however, apart from the torso, arm and hand the killer's (Cameron) identity 

would not be known therefore creating an engima code in our trailer.

In order to conduct the throat cut we followed this tutorial on youtube which allowed us to understand how exactly we would make the blood splatter out creating an effective and realistic shot. Combined with this Christine Blundell's make up academy trip also came in very handy as it allowed us to put our makeup techniques to practice by concealing the plaster of paris on Miranda's neck making it look like a realistic throat cut.

We collected the following ingredients:

Fake blood, Plastic tubing, liquid latex, plaster of paris, a garden sprayer, baby powder and concealing makeup.

Below are some shots of the filming process

Planning for production: Filming the office scene

For tomorrows filming we are planning to film the first couple of shots in which we see Cameron's work colleagues (journalists) being spoken to by Detective Matthews about the recent murders/abduction of girls. For these shots we are planning to get some point of view shots from Cameron's perspective, and over the shoulder shots of the detective speaking at a high angle to show his level of authority and the significance of his speech to the journalists about the deaths. 

Photo's from filming: 

This is the layout in which we filmed the shots, with the detective stood at the head of the table overlooking everyone. We chose this layout because it creates a tense, serious atmosphere as everyone is gathered together- we aim to have short clips of dialogue playing over the top of a sound track which enhances the serious mood of the shots.

This is the angle in which we shot the point of view shots from, this is to put the viewer into Cameron's shoes and give them a feel of what it's like to be him seeing thing's from his perspective. This also provides a variation in the shot types.

Audience feedback: Facebook page

So far we have received a considerable amount of very helpful feedback from our facebook page which has allowed us to improve the quality and standard of our work.
Firstly, the image selected for our film poster recieved positive comments from several people

 Many people commented on the composition of this picture a swell as the effectiveness of the low key lighting and the shadows cast upon our actors face, as well as the beam of light in the background of the picture

This is our production sequence, as you can see below we received lot's of comments and feedback for this. Some of the most useful included the one's that included direct advice on what to change/ exactly how we could improve it, see examples below. 

''Amazing production sequence it looks really professional, like adam says the Deceptive Film section is really strong. My only suggestion would be to perhaps edit the'Thriller Productions' part, as although it looks good on its own, I think it breaks the continuity of the sequence as it is allot lighter than the other sections''

''I agree maybe have a black background''

Love it, agree with the jarring of the second seq though I don't think many companies use the whole scene for their logos (I'm probs wrong there though) , perhaps a fade in, my head felt like it should have lasted a second longer with the clouds continuing over the titles

In response to these suggestions, we made an new version of the production sequence encorperating everyone's advice and adding some new features to it. Overall we were much happier with the updated version

Production work: Film poster ideas

In order to get inspiration for our film poster we decided to look at other posters within the horror genre and found the following:

We particularly liked the poster for Gamer because of the creative effect used on it- the idea of two faces showing on one poster would be reflective of our plot in which the protaganist has two sides to him/ a split personality and we liked the idea of showing the two sides to his face.
However, we did feel this could give the plot away slightly as it's a horror trailer showing two of the same face's would suggest more than intended about the characters role/ plot of the film.

We also liked certain aspects of the poster 'Mirrors' for example the colour scheme and font' dark colours such as red and black lend themselves to the horror genre and immediately imply darkness, blood and death. The simplicity of the poster is also good as there is not too much going on which allows you to focus on the image and title which already tells you enough about the plot- no more pictures or text are required.

Production: Facebook page teaser

Social Networking Campain: Audience Feedback

In order to get some audience feedback from our target audience and to raise awareness of trailer we have set up a Facebook page in which we have posted our ideas for production logo's, image choices for magazine and front covers and teaser posters which all give our audience a taste of our film and what to expect from the trailer.

Production: Social Media Campaign

This is our facebook page that we have created as part of our social media campaign. Sites such as facebook and twitter are very effective promotional tools in a trailer campaign as they allow the film to be promoted quickly through a wide range of people and in this way excitement and anticipation is created through sharing teaser clips, print based designs (movie posters and teaser posters) and discussion and updates of upcoming events to promote the trailer.

Production: Filming the street shots

Today we filmed some shots of Cameron walking down the street of his road, entering his house and other filler shots of him on the phone talking about the murders. This was to convey a sense of threat and danger about the area due to the killer thats walking around free. We shot these at eye level to convey a sense of understanding with Jack's character and to be able to connect with him

Production: First set of filming

For our first stage of filming we plan to film the following shots

• An establishing shot Cameron's (protaganist and killers house)
• Some shots in the home environment (reflecting normality within his home life, wife and career choice) so we can show a disruption in the equilibrium after this
• A scene at work in which Cameron discusses the recent murders in the area and local girls dissapearance
• A paranormal activity inspired scene in the bedroom (with a night vision effect to be added- using a grainy filter and making saturation changes)
• Some hand held camera shots of Cameron talking to the camera

Inspiration from Dexter

In our trailer we decided to feature a shot of the protagonists wife Sarah dead in the bath tub, as this would be the trigger and spiral of Cameron's madness. Despite giving away the fact she dies the plot line is not actually given away as really it is Cameron who kills his own wife as part of his night time killing spree as he sees her as evil and a danger to him. When watching the programme Dexter, Dominic noticed the scene of Rita's death would be very interesting to try and remake with our own spin on it as it fit's the horror genre (blood- typical horror iconography, female victim)

These are some images of the death scene from Dexter.
The second shot is particularly interesting as it contrasts innocence with death and danger (note the young baby boy covered in blood.
  

In our version of Sarah's death scene we are planning to use some point of view shots- to allow us to empathise with Cameron and see things from his perspective, an over the shoulder shot which allows us to see Sarah from behind and her body lying in the blood and a mid shot similar to the one above allowing us to see Cameron's body outline but not his facial expression.

Research: Conventions of a horror poster

Feedback for our trailer so far

Despite having filmed a small amount of our trailer so far, through group feedback of work so far in our film school on Tuesday we learnt what the strong points of our footage are and therefore what we should hope to include in the rest of our footage and the features that should remain consistent throughout the trailer. One of these being the Paranormal activity grainy/night cam vision effect used in certain shots of our footage- this was something that was commented a lot on as it is stylistic and people automatically associate it with the horror genre as it commonly used in horror movies.