Final Decisions and Storyboard

After our audience research, we made our final decisions as a group regarding plot and genres. We discussed the plot of the film trailer as a group and made notes. We later worked on a storyboard, showing the different scenes of the trailer. 

Genre

Our audience research helped up determine the genre for our film trailer; this will be thriller paranormal.

This mood board shows some photos and fonts that are associated with our chosen genre. We decided to make a mood board as we felt it would give us some idea of what we could use in our own trailer, magazine cover and film poster.

Plot

We decided that the plot would consist of a demented woman luring and attacking a young student whilst they are out conducting a survey for their work. The victim will knock on the demented woman's door, unaware of the danger she poses. They will then be shown tied up and gagged to show they've been captured. We have also decided to include a 'home video' at the beginning of the trailer showing the demented woman as a happy young child, which will deepen the plot and give the audience some questions to think about the story of the film.

Scripting
We have decided that we don't need a script for our film trailer as we don't have any dialogue in our trailer. However, we intend to use superimposition throughout of trailer. It will say the following:

Costume

The Demented Woman:  

This costume will consist of a dark vest top, black leggings and a dark over sized cardigan. The dark colours represent the negativity of her character. The over sized cardigan also portrays her as fragile and mentally unstable which is significant for this character, as she has to be portrayed as demented.

The Victim:

The costume for the victim should consist of casual clothing to show she is a teenager. It always makes her appear normal and ordinary, suggesting that this type of attack can happen to anyone at all, making the audience feel more fear. Her costume is representative of what young people today typically wear, ensuring the audience relate to her.

Props

The most significant prop we have used in our trailer and publications is the hammer. The hammer is representative of the danger the victim is in and also portrays the demented woman as dangerous and mentally unstable. The hammer should look old and rusted, suggesting the amount of times the hammer has been used by the demented woman, reinforcing her as a dangerous character.

We also used a school ringbinder folder as a prop. The victim holds the folder whilst she is doing her door to door questionnaire. The folder makes her appear innocent due to the fact that folders are often accociated with school children. It also makes the audience able to relate to her more.

We also used tape (masking tape) as a gag on the victim. This portrays the demented woman and dangerous and evil as she has captured the victim and gagged her. This prop adds to the fear factor of the trailer and is also a prop commonly used in films of this genre suggesting that we have portrayed the genre well.

Casting

Emma: We decided to cast Emma as the role of the demented woman due to her eyes. Her eyes are very big and she can make them look evil, which adds to the fear the audience will have of this character. 

Ruby: We decided to cast Ruby as the role of teenager as she looks around the age we would like our character - typically 17-18years old (student age). As some of our target audience are this age, we feel they'll be able to relate to her the best out of the other actors we auditioned. 

 Beth: We decided against casting Beth as the role of the demented woman as she looks too cute to play this role. Her cuteness also makes her appear younger and we wanted the demented woman to look slightly more mature. She also looks very innocent and we didn't want the character of the demented woman to appear this way. We also considered Beth for the role of the teenager, however we thought she looked slightly too young to play this part. 

 Steph: We considered Steph for the role of demented woman and teenager, however, we decided her look was too innocent and cute for the role of both: the demented woman can not appear cute or innocent and although the teenager is supposed to be innocent, we felt Steph looked slightly too young for the role.

Rosie: We considered Rosie for the role of demented woman due to her long hair, as we felt this would be easy to create messy, crazy looking hairstyles. However, we decided against it as we felt she looked too innocent and cute compared to Emma.

Location

We have decided to film our film trailer at my house. As you can see, my house has brown window frames that appear quite thin and because the paint is slightly flaking off them, this gives it a scary, thriller kind of feel. The grass outside my house is slightly overgrown, which again, relates to the thriller theme as many films of this genre use locations that are slightly unruly and messy. The location of my house is in a quiet close, which gives the audience the impression that bad things can happen even in the quietest, normal areas. The quiet, privateness of the area also made it easier to film here as we weren't interrupted by distractions such as cars or pedestrians.  

Storyboard
We have drawn up a storyboard as a group showing each scene of the trailer. My storyboard along with analysis, shows the different shots we intend to use, along with other apsects of the trailer such as costume, camera effects and how we intend to edit each scene.

Above is a storyboard showing the first four scenes of our film trailer.

This is the second part of our storyboard

Scene One

For the first scene of our film trailer, we plan to show a 'home video' style clip of a happy, normal young girl - this turns out to be the demented woman in the future. The significance of the clip is to show the audience how normal the demented woman was before the present time. We intend to use a sepia effect for the filming of this scene, which will show the age of the 'home video'. We will also use hand held camera, which will show the fact that it is supposed to be a home video. We plan to use a child for this part as the use of child often signifys innocense and purity, similar to the main characters in films such as The Orphan and Insidious. The innocense of the child contrasts completely to the next scene, which shows a the demented woman in the present time. The sound in this scene will be diegetic sound, showing the child laughing and having fun and also showing her mother talking to her. We may also use a non diegetic soundtrack of a child's mobile or lullabies/nursery rhymes, as these all link to the innocense of the child. Props we intend to use are outdoor toys, which also symbolise the innocense of the child, completely contrasting to the following scene.  

Scene Two

Scene one will suddenly cut out, revealing scene two. The sudden cut will show the significant contrast of the two scenes. This scene shows a woman sitting in a rocking chair/old sofa chair looking out of the window. We intend to use a dim colour effect to make the room appear dark, which links to the dark genre of the film trailer. There will be silence in the room, apart from the creaking of the rocking chair, which will instantly represent the eeriness of the scene. If we can't use a rocking chair, we will use a sofa instead and replace the rocking chair creaking with the ticking of a clock. We have decided to use a long shot for this scene, which shows the whole of the room, giving the impression of space around the woman, suggesting that she is lonely. We have also decided to use a long take, which will create tension and suspense for the audience, along with the creaking/ticking sound.

Scene Three

A straight cut will be used to show the transition from scene two to scene three. A mid shot will show the woman sitting in her chair, with her head down and all of her hair hanging over her face. The camera will slowly zoom in closer and closer, until the shot changes from a mid shot to a close up. The slow zoom will create tension for the audience as it is obvious something is going to happen. The woman will then lift her head up suddenly and a horror thudding sound will play, in order to shock the audience, along with the shock of her suddenly lifting her head. The costume of the demented woman will consist of a baggy cardigan, and her hair will be messy and unruley. We intend to use make-up to make her appear paler and her eyes darker. At the editing stage, we hope to make her have red eyes, which will coinside with the demented theme. The sound in this clip will be silence, except for the thudding sound when the woman lifts her head.

Scene Four

Scene three will slowly fade to reveal scene four, which creates a sinister atmosphere and gives the impression that something is going to happen. Scene four shows a young female student walking up the path towards the demented woman's home. We hope to use a long shot showing the girl from behind as she's walking towards the door - the fact she is shown from behind suggests she is vulnerable and gives the impression that something is behind her. We intend to use slow mo as she walks up the path, but also jump her forward which makes the clip seem disorientated which links to our paranormal/thriller genre. The costume of the girl will consist of casual wear and a backpack, which could represent her innocense which instantly shows she is a victim and in danger. She will also have a clipboard - this prop will also support her innocense as her motives are not to harm, but to simply take a survey. Whilst the girl is walking up the window, the demented woman is looking out at her. We intend to show this by using an over the shoulder shot, to show the woman looking out of the window and the girl actually outside the window. We will also use deep focus, which will highlight the girl and again, make her appear innocent. The non diegetic sound used throughout this scene will be slow, eerie music, which will indicate the danger the girl is in. Also, as the girl is edited to jump forward, a thumping, horror sound will play at each jump, which will further emphaise the danger the girl is in. A high angle shot will be used to show the girl from below as she is knocking on the door. Use of the shot makes the girl appear small and vulnerable, which portrays her role as a victim. The girl will then look up, causing the woman to step back from the window.


Scene Five

Scene five will show the young student girl knocking at the demented woman'd door. We intend to use a mid shot, showing the girl from behind, which instantly makes her appear more vulnerable, as if someone is behind her. This supports our thriller genre. Diegetic sound used will be the knock of the door, which can be related to our thriller genre as it creates suspicion and suspense. We will continue to use the non diegetic thriller soundtrack throughout this scene which will be a heavy, beating sound. This will help to create tension for the audience and suggest that something bad is going to happen. During this scene, the woman will be looking down at the girl from the upstairs window, perhaps from behind a curtain. The use of curtain as a prop again creates suspicion and suspense and it relates to our thriller genre and also suggests that something is going to happen. It also makes the girl appear vulnerable as she is being spied on. A high angle shot will be used to show the girl from below, from the demented woman's point of view (so, also a point of view shot). This will make the girl appear vulnerable which portrays her firmly as the victim of the film, which relates to our genre of thriller. We also intend to show the demented woman's reflection in the window as she's looking out because this creates a eerie atmosphere and again, supports our thriller genre.


Scene Six

Scene five will quickly flash into scene six, using a straight cut; from this point, fast cross cutting and faster transitions will take place as the drama begins to become more shocking and exciting. Scene six will show the young girl tied to a chair, first showing her feet tied to the chair then slowly tilting upwards to show the rest of her body tied to the chair as she struggles to get free. The camera will also zoom in at this time too, so that when the shot reaches the girls face, it will be a close up, showing her fear and suffering, which relates to our thriller genre. The use of props, for example, the rope she is tied with and also the gag in the mouth also relates to our genre of thriller as they are props often used in films of this genre and they are also objects that symbolise fear and violence, which are common themes throughout films of this genre. We intend to use both diegetic and non diegetic sound during this scene: the non diegetic soundtrack will carry through from scene five, but will speed up, with the beats becoming deeper and faster, which will intensify the fear factor and the tension of the trailer. Diegetic sound we intend to use is the sound of the girl gagging and struggling to the break free from the ropes. The scene will also be quite dark, along with the other scenes in the trailer, as we intend to edit the trailer to make it look as if we've used a dim, blue coloured filter, which will give the illusion of darkness, which supports the dark thriller genre of the film.


Scene Seven

This scene shows the demented woman about to attack the innocent girl. We have decided to use a long shot to show the whole of the scene, as we feel it is important for the audience to see all of the action that is happening. We have decided to use an over the shoulder shot, showing the woman from behind with a hammer raised to the girl, who is sat in front of her. We also intend to use deep focus, switching it from the demented woman to the young girl, which will highlight the young girls fear and struggle to get free and also show the demented woman's actions as she is about to attack the girl. Whilst editing our trailer, we also intend to put a glint onto the top of the hammer, which will make it stand out and show it's significance - also, the use of prop, the hammer, is significant to our genre as it suggests violence which is a reoccurring theme in the majority of thriller films. The will carry through the sound onto this scene, which consists of the non diegetic soundtrack which is a heavy, fast paced beating, horror sound, which relates to our genre as it creates tension and fear for the audience and suggests that something bad is about to happen. Diegetic sounds will include the gagging and constant struggle of the girl as she tries to escape and also the footsteps of the woman as she approaches the victim. The footsteps will be slow and purposeful - we will also use editing to make the footsteps appear shadowy and echoey, which will create tension and suspension, which relates to the genre of our film.


Scene Eight

As the demented woman is approaching her victim, a close up will be used to show the fear on the young girls face. A close up is an effective shot to use to show her fear, as it is close to her face and can show her facial expressions for example, her wide eyes and her heavy breathing, which are all examples of fear, which will portray our thriller genre. The non diegetic soundtrack will continue from the previous scenes, however, it will now be at it's peak, going at a fast pace speed and beating really heavily, to show tension and fear to the audience. Diegetic sound will include heavy breathing and the gagging of the girl, along with her struggling to free herself from the ropes. All of this sound portrays the girl's fear, which supports our thriller genre. Other diegetic sound will include the demented woman's footsteps, which we will edit to become shadowy and echoey, in order to make the appear disorientated, which supports our thriller genre. This scene will suddenly cut to a black screen and the music will suddenly cut to silence, which will create tension and make the audience wonder what's happened to the victim. We then intend to keep the screen blank and keep the silence for a few seconds and then we will insert a sudden scream which will shock and scare the audience, and also suggest what has happened to the victim. A scream is also a sound often associated with fear, which is also associated with the thriller genre.