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.

 

Chosen location

As a group we decided that we would use one of our houses for our student accommodation because it was not accessible for us to film in a real student house or halls, we wanted our student house to also look like a family home because the students move into one of the students old family house. However, we wanted to still give it that chilled, laid back student look. 

For our chosen location we chose to film at my house because mine was the most available at times we needed it and looked like a stereotypical family house and student house because it naturally has a family living there with two current university students.