Horror Trailer

Trailers that have had an influence on our ideas

The Ward (2010)

The Ward trailer inspired our ideas as the story is set in a mental asylum and involves someone or something trying to kill some of the characters. We based other parts of our trailer on the ward for example the intertitles are similar to the ones we have created, simple and short to grab people’s attention.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The way The Blair Witch Project is filmed is different from most horror films as it is filmed on a handheld camera. This is where we got the inspiration to film our horror story handheld. It is a different way of filming and we thought it would coincide with the narrative we have created.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

After we had decided on a narrative for our horror film we chose to have base our characters on similar characters in The Cabin in the Woods. As our storyline was similar to The Cabin in the Woods where teenagers stay at abandoned cabin. Our storyline is based on teenagers who go to an abandoned mental hospital.

Shot List

Our group's individual ideas of a new horror movie

An individual idea that I came up with for a new horror movie was a slasher movie. The killer goes around picking off individual victims and in the end just leaves one person left. I suggest my idea to the group and we then voted out of the ideas that had been suggested. Also an idea was to record the film handheld, as a group we all agreed this was a good idea. Another idea suggested in our group was to do a zomcom which is a zombie comedy. However, we all decided that in order to make the film/trailer really good and funny would be difficult. We all voted on the suggested ideas and ended up with the idea of a group of teenagers investigating an old mental hospital, where a ‘villain’ takes the teenagers one by one.

Evalution Question 2: How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?

The role of a film distributor is that either a group of people or an individual who are responsible for the marketing of a film. The film distributor has to advertise the film, make it more appealing to the public and to make it more successful. The film distributor also sets a release date for the film and decides how the film will be available to the public via DVD, tv, download etc. They will create a campaign to advertise and promote the film. The film distributor will either specifically advertise to the target audience or advertise to all audiences to try and entice the public to see the film, which would create overall success for the film.

There are various different advertising and promotional techniques and platforms film distributors can advertise on. These are outdoor adverts; billboards and banners on buses, tv and cinema adverts, web adverts etc. In order to attract the target audience film distributors, need to choose the right platforms to advertise on so they can reach their target audience. The marketing differs depending on the potential audience of the film for example, if the target audience is teenagers it would make sense to advertise mainly on social media Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. and perhaps advertising on the side of buses as teenagers tend to get buses to school/college, choosing to advertise on the tv during day time would be wasted as most teenagers are at school and college so this would be wasted advertising. By advertising on a variety of platforms it would be more likely that the advertisement would reach the target audience.

Audience research is therefore important because the film distributor(s) need to know about and understand their audiences as the marketing will differ depending on the demographic and size of the audience. For our horror trailer we would advertise it at the cinema for films age restricted 15 as our horror film is a 15. We would also not advertise on tv before 9 as most children will be watching tv and our horror trailer would not be appropriate for them.

Depending on the target audience and the research that the film distributor has have found out depends on how the film will be presented. For example, the two film posters Zootopia and Kung fu panda 3 are designed to target children. Both film posters are bright and colourful with the main characters at the front of the poster with a happy or odd expression on their face. The characters are on the front of the poster because children can usually recognise them and can relate to the main characters. However, the horror film posters are both dark and fearful for the target audience. The main characters are not given away as there is only one character on the front of the film poster as to not give too much away. Not a lot of action is happening compare to the films aimed at children in order to not give the narrative away.

Film distributors create a marketing plan that can begin up to a year before the film is actually released. This is so they can ‘tease’ and ‘temp’ the audience by releasing short 10 second trailers and poster to make the audience excited for the trailer release and then make them excited for the actually release of the film. On the run up to the release date for the film the more advertisement there is. This is to make sure the audience know when it is and to get them to go see it. If the release day is further away the audience are more likely to forget and the same is if there isn’t enough advertisement closer to the release date, then the audience won’t know enough or anything about the film to go and see it.

A recent advertising campaign that was effective was Batman vs Superman. The film is based on the comic book series so it attracts comic book fans as its main audience. As many actors have played batman and superman over the years there was a lot of talk about who was going to play them. Batman vs Superman is the starting film for releasing sequels and spin offs so DC, who produced batman vs Superman had to choose actors who would be able to film future releases. The promotion for the run up to the film was the teaser trailers, cast release, the full length trailer and the soundtrack. The posters and the trailers all unified and formed a theme throughout so that the audience knew what poster or trailer were advertising as they related to the comic books and film. These promotions showed both super heroes against each other so the big question that left the audience wanting more was why were they against each other? The films budget was $250 million and on the first weekend of its release its gross domestic product (GDP) was just over $170.1 million alone. Batman vs Supermen was sponsored by Turkish Airlines they advertised the film on their own adverts. This was another key part of the advertising campaign and has helped the film become such a success so quickly even though the critics views we very negative the film was and still continues to be a success.

There has to be a unified identity for the film which carries on throughout all of the advertising products. For us that means the horror trailer has to consist of the same colour theme and images as the magazine cover and poster. This is so that all of the products together create a recognisable identity straight away. Throughout my poster, magazine cover and trailer I have tried to carry on using the same colour theme, texts and similar images so the audience can relate to the identity of the film whilst still making them appear fearful, scary and enticing.

What is a trailer?

What is a trailer from chloeabel9

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Risk Assessment for the film shoot

Sketch for magazine covr

Sketch fo my film poster

Evalution Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evalution Question 1: In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?