Sinister Analysis

Sinister is a horror/ thriller movie about a true crime writer who finds a cache of 8mm home movie films that suggest the murder he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose career dates back to the 1960s. I think it is a disturbing film due to the footage, it is definitely frightening.
The wide shot of the four people being hung is most definitely horrific, it would mess people’s minds up, this shot in the trailer gives the viewer the impression and idea that there are mysterious hangings involved.  The inter titles that sinister have used are very detailed it gives you an idea of the type of film they are producing. They are getting into the audiences minds by the type of words they use, diegetic and non diegetic sounds in a film trailer are important, they must use the right sound effects to give audiences that ery feeling. When the music is slow quiet pace it gives the audience an ery feeling, when the man finds the old film reels and plays them it shows videos of a family being watched and it shows the shot of the four people hanging the family that are shown playing in the swimming pool. This horror film meets the codes and conventions of horror movies with the fast pace shots, fast music, flashing images, facial emotions, objects.
The director of this movie also directed paranormal activity and insidious, he is a good  strong director and knows what a horror must and must not have. After watching this trailer it leaves me asking many questions such as who is filming, what is happening, why is this happening… trailers have to give the audience questions that the film will answer.
After watching this film trailer I would suggest the lowest age is 15 due to the film being age 15 round to about 26/27, this will reflect on the characters that appear in the film. Personally I do not think I could watch this film as video footage scares me, it gives the viewer a sudden heart stop and makes them think about things more carefully, this would definitely haunt over me.

Shooting schedule

Here is an example of our shooting schedule for two shoots that was shot on one day. 

Friday 29 November 1.20- 3:00
We are going to take photos for our animatic, we are planning to take photos of the shots with Katie and Lucas as they are the main characters and are available at this time. We also will take the establishing shot photos.

Friday 29 November 3:30- 4:30

We are going to do a final draft of our script we will use during our filming, it will be best to do this after we have taken our shots as we can see the shots in real life and see how they pan out and we can think about the dialogue based on the real life shots.  

Music ideas

By analysing other trailers, as a group we have concluded that the music for the trailers, can often include "popular" music at the opening 30-40 seconds to establish the trailer, then go into the 'eerie and creepy' type of music later on. For the animatic and trailer will possibly vary, for example, music in the trailer has to be copyright free, however, in the animatic we can use copyrighted music, as an EXAMPLE of the genre/style that will be used in the real thing, there will be 2/3 soundtracks one snippet of dance/chart music at the start where the trailer is established (uni students living a normal life partying) then one or two snippets of music, possibly classical in a minor key, to show signs of horror.

Ideas

Ideas which we could use in our horror movie for our actors/ location and props.

We were researching into the codes and conventions of horror movies and found this website link very useful, as a group we are going to adapt on to these scenes and use them for out trailer plot.

(http://screencrave.com/2012-04-04/trailer-park-10-cliches-of-the-modern-movie-trailer/)

Storyboards

These are our storyboards, we split the trailer plot in to three sections for each member of our group. We would communicate with each other during the drawing of each shot to make sure we all agreed on the type of shot and what was shown in the shot. 

 

Film titles and Intertitles

Film Title

Some classic examples (and the origin/meaning) are listed below:

Saw= Weapon which is the films icon.
Paranormal Activity= the basis of the plot.
The Shining= the unknown cause?  
The poltergeist= the basis.
The hauntings in Connecticut= Vague however sounds similar to a real historical event.
Scream= the effect of the horror.  
Bag of bones= Gruesome and strongly associated with the genre.  
Carrie= Names the pro/antagonist.  
The others= Fear of the unknown.  
The evil dead= the basis of the plot.

Generally all of horror movies use titles which reveal the source of the conflict. Therefore finding a suitable title for the trailer we compose should serve the same purpose. This will target directly the appropriate market as well as give the viewers a figure or a character to fear rather than an idea. It develops the realism.  

Possible titles which have the same effects and meaning as those above are listed below:

Knives

Entity revenge

Shattered

A human beast

Hidden deaths

Approaching

Lost bones

Helena

The unseen

Vengeful dead

After sitting down with the group to create a title for our film trailer we decided that we would ask other peers in our class what they thought a title could be for our horror trailer, each of them agreed with the title Shattered after listening to our plot because it fits in well with what happens during the plot, items shattering, characters looking shattered etc. 

Intertitles 

These are necessary to develop the trailer plot as well as engage the audience. Often they will question the audience and exaggerate the dangers found in normal life. They are impactful and informative.

Often they will create a code of enigma such as will anyone survive? and who is the killer?
We intend to use a relatively small amount of intertitles; nonetheless the ones we use will be important because they will focus the scenes.

Our film trailer planning

We have chosen our actors on the basis of our trailer, we need them to have different but similar personalitys as we need to show them being able to get along with each other living in there second year on university. We need to show them having a good bond and trust due to what happens in our plot. As a group we have chosen people our own age, two of us (me and Jordan) are acting in the trailer, there will be a house of 4, 2 girls and 2 boys. The costumes we will be using is also another important part of our film trailer because it identifies who people are and the type of person they may be.

Actors:

Jordan- Lucas

Ffion- Katie

Tessa- Sophie/ Lucy 

Jack- Matt

Props and costumes:

Katie wears dark clothes which are different for the initial scenes.

The three students wear normal clothing throughout, however as is the case with Katie they will wear the same clothes for the final scenes.
Jack- Sport clothes; tracksuit bottoms and a hoody

Tessa- Day to day clothes, stereotypical of a university girl

Jordan- Laid back, chilled clothes.. skinny jeans

Our main prop is the diary, this is what our film is based around, we want to leave the audience wondering who is doing it, why is it happening and what has caused it to happen.
As a group we are going to take time in making the diary making it look real and give it that scary feeling maybe by adding the spiderweb look showing its old/ dainty. 

Our other props are the typical student life props such as drink bottles, games, work books, food everywhere.
A mirror which gets broken and vases will be presenting in the haunting scenes, vases get broken

Shooting schedule

As a group we have talked about the shooting schedule of our film trailer and our animatic. The majority of our film trailer will be shooted at my house which we are going to make look like a typical student second year living accomodation.
We have sat down as a group and talked about how we are going to do the shots, whether we will split it or go and shoot footage together and we all need to be there as two of us are in the film trailer and the other person Jess will be filming, however there will be scenes that me and Jordan won't participate in so we can have a chance to film. 
We have designated weekday evenings and sundays to be our day of shooting.
We aim to start our animatic as soon as possible as this will give us a clear idea when we can start to shoot our film trailer. There will be many hours in the school week, our frees, lunch times that we have designated to shooting or even editing the shots.

Trailer shots

As a group we split our trailer plot in to three sections this helped us while we were planning our story board it gave us a clear and better understanding how we wanted our shots to plan out. 

Trailer plot shots!

First 30 shots- Establishes the friendships between Katie and the students, they are all living normal student lives. Katie gives them a tour around her home to show that it is her old family home that the students are moving into. Lucas one of the students in the house finds a diary upstairs which has the name Helena on the front page. He leaves it in Katie’s room on the desk by a picture of her parents. Matthew speaks to Katie about her mother’s death in prison saying how sorry he was for her but it was nice that her parents left her their home.

Second 30 shots- The objects in the house are being broken; the diary is seen again in the room which has been trashed. A mirror is broken in front of Katie’s face. There are footsteps throughout the house. It goes quiet and then Lucas, Katie and Lucy all scream out Matthews’s name. A figure is seen falling and blood can be seen spreading through the door.

A baby is heard crying upstairs and Lucas runs up to see them. Singing can be heard downstairs by Lucy and Lucas.

Final 30 shots- Lucas is seen running towards the house. A female is seen hidden in the dark holding a knife and then there is a scream. Lucas’s screams Katie’s name and runs in through the door and picks up the diary. It appears that Matthew is pushed out of the house and a car is seen speeding.