Evidence of Use of Shot Transitions

This post shows all the shot transitions we have in our trailer.

Pans

These are all the pans we have used in our trailer. This allows the audience to get more detail and information from a scene but only as much as we are giving them. For example, the first one shows a slow pan towards a red door. We did this to slowly reveal the red door (connotes danger) but only for so long that the audience is curious as to what is behind this door.

Fade to Black

These are all the times that our trailer uses the shot transition fade to black. We used this because it created a calmness at the beginning during our equilibrium and then unease when we used it later on in the suspenseful parts of the trailer. We noticed that it was used a lot in current horror trailers so we decided to use it in ours.

Fade to White

We only used this transition once throughout the whole trailer. It was used to contrast all the other fade to blacks we had used. Also we used this transition when Sydney/Persephone is the villain so it contrasts the whole white = innocence with dark/evil = bad/dangerous.

Quick/Jump Cuts

These are all the quick/jump cuts in our trailer. Some of these are sequences rather than just one clip. We used quick and jump cuts to add/create suspense for the audience leading up to the climax and eventually the jump scare. It is especially effective in our action sequence where suspense is a must have.

Careful Use of Mise-en-Scene

This post will go though some of the careful uses of mise-en-scene that we have used within our trailer.

Setting:

Hallway

Hibah turned a light on downstairs to create the yellow shadowy glow. This was effective because when the "Villain" walked past you could see her shadow which created a scary atmosphere. The banister also looked black which gave the silhouette of it. This added eeriness to the trailer.

Bedroom

The bedroom we choose had two beds which allowed use to do pan shots of both beds if needed. The bedroom walls are red which connotes danger however, it also has white flowers on it which represent purity and innocence. We used this to contrast between innocent/good and dangerous/bad. The bed frame is also white, again to symbolize purity and good.

House

The house on the left has a red door to connote danger. This is Sydney's house and a little hint to the audience that something bad lies ahead/in this house.

Other:

Mirror

We use a hand mirror as it was easier to frame Sydney's face. In the background of this scene, the audience can see red curtains. Again was used to represent danger especially as later in the same spot the evil Sydney shows her face in the mirror.

Bad Mirror

There is a dark lighting use to create a scary, dark atmosphere. This framed Sydney well and made the villain look scarier. There is still the same setting in the same space, just zoomed in more to focus on Sydney. This shot helps the audience understand the connection between the girl and the spirit. 

Cupboard

We added a shot of Sydney shaking back and forth to add to the fact that the voice is within her and that she could have voices in her head. This is the last place a person should feel safe however Sydney went there for hiding.

Bad Cupboard

We use the cupboard again to show a jump scare. Someone opens the cupboard and a changed Sydney jumps out and scream showing the evil within her. She is wearing all black giving of a dark vibe and overall giving off a dark atmosphere.

Vinyl

We wanted to portray a dark, old vibe in our trailer and to do so we included a vinyl player. In this modern age, people tend to download music so to give off a old aesthetic we used a record which aren't as common nowadays. It added a creepiness to the trailer.

Knife

We used a bloody knife as it is a convention of the horror genre. it also gets the audience curious as to whose blood is on it and why is Anmol holding it.

Sink

We wanted to experiement with different household objects that could reflect our actresses face. We like this shot as the water looks like she is trying to wash the face off but in actualness it is her face.

Sleepover

This has bright lighting to show happiness and is kind of a reminder of the good old times. Sydney is smiling as she has just come out of the mental hospital. They are having a good time and playing spin the bottle. However, we have that red and white wallpaper in the background again connoting the mixture of good/innocence and bad/dangerous.

Use of Sound Effects

This post is about the sound effects we use in our trailer.

When everything seems to go wrong, we used a breaking glass sound effect to make the glass dropping look more effective and realistic.

This is the sound effect we used:

At the beginning of the trailer there is a phone ringing. We wanted a modern phone ringing noise so we used the one below. It fit our clip really well and made it look realistic that the phone actually was ringing.

This is the sound effect we used:

Titles and Use of Fonts

This post is about the titles in our trailer and the fonts we used.

These are some other titles we were trying before finding our final one:

Evidence of Controlled Use of the Camera & Exploring Shot Types and Sizes

This post I will be showing the different shots and sizes we used in our trailer and why we decided to use them.

Shot 1

This is our opening shot after the production company logo. It is an establishing pan where we introduce the audience to our film. It pans to a red door. We chose to use this shot as it connoted danger and when we were sorting through the footage this one gave off the right vibe/aesthetic for the introduction of our trailer.

Shot 2

This is the shot we filmed in the car. My partner and I left the camera in the car and just let it record which made it feel and look more real because if we had filmed outside then there would have been glares and bad audio. Then you see a shot my partner filmed using the rearview mirror to capture a great shot of Sydney's face. We did this to make Sydney look like an outsider.

Shot 3

This is a birds eye view of the glass bottle. They are playing spin the bottle and this shot cuts the majority of the actresses out of the shot. Then it goes onto a low angle shot of Sydney smiling at her friends. I took this shot because it showed Sydney as an isolated outsider again.

Shot 4:

This was taken at a low canted angle that my partner took of Sydney dropping the glass. The low angle makes the audience feel like they are below Sydney and that she is powerful. The canted angle gives the audience a feeling of somethings not right here. We chose to use this shot as it is the start of where everything goes wrong.

Shot 5

This was taken at a low angle of the light moving around and shaking. We decided to use this shot as it was there to signify the spirit and the paranormal events happening since Sydney had been back.

Shot 6

This is a shot reverse shot sequence of Sumiyyah waking up to the record player just starting to play without anyone touching it. As the scene plays out each shot gets closer to Sumiyyah and vice versa with the record player.

Shot 7

Here is a subjective view where the audience are meant to feel like they are in that characters shoes. In this shot Anmol has just woken up with scratches on her arms and we chose this shot because we wanted the audience to feel as if they are the ones with the scratches on their arms. It makes the audience think 'Where did they come from?' and I think this shot does that.

Shot 8

This is the shot on the sink. Me and my partner took several different shots using items that reflected around the house. I shot this from the side of the sink and got our actress to wash her face leaving the villain to be revealed. 

Shot 9

This is our action sequence which has multiple different shots. First off we have the body pan where the camera moves up Anmol's body from the knife in her hand. We have a dolly shot because our actress is moving towards the camera with a hammer. The camera is also shaking because we wanted to do a subjective view almost as if Sydney is chasing them with the hammer. Then we have a closeup that pans up to start the shot showing the knife and then showing the actresses bruised face. Lastly we have the shot from the floor where my partner placed the camera on the ground and recorded our actress running. We chose all these shots because they worked well together and created suspense.

Shot 10

This is our first jump scare where Sydney jumps from the cupboard. It starts with a side pan of Sydney's reflection in the hand mirror and then a pan and zoom to Sydney in the cupboard. We chose these shots because they were effective together and then when Sydney jumps out of the closet the previous two shots would have helped to create suspense for this jump scare.

Shot 11

This is the last shot of the trailer and it is a zoom on Sydney's face. Again it is a reflection in the hand mirror only Sydney is the villain. We chose to repeat this shot but with the villain to show what is really within Sydney.

Individual Contribution

This post is about what I contributed, when making our Horror products.

Research Into and Use of Music

This post is about the music used in horror trailers.

Research:

I watched a couple of horror trailers to see what type of music they used and if they used more than one music track or just stuck to one. I found that they tended to have a backing track that contained no lyrics and they used multiple different music pieces. Horror trailers also usually have the music speed up near the climax of the trailer and then suddenly go quiet before the jump scare. Me and my partner have decided that we will do this in our trailer as we think it will add to the scare element.

Examples:

Music We Used:

We wanted to start the trailer off with a calm atmosphere and then build to a more dramatic piece of music. These are the different options I looked at:

I listened to this piece of music and right off the bat didn't think it was right for our trailer. It is too suspenseful for this part of the trailer and didn't fit with the opening sequence.

I looked at this one because it said for film trailers in the title. After listening to it I felt that it was too fast pace and got very suspenseful quickly. I spoke to Hibah and she agreed with me that it wasn't what we were looking for to start our trailer.

Hibah suggested that I listened to this one so I did. I liked the beginning as it was soft and was calm. It also worked very well with the shots we had taken for the beginning of the trailer (the pan of the houses, Anmol (Brooke) on the phone etc.) So we decided to use this piece called ' The Light Between Oceans - Trailer Music - (Ethos Music - In The Beginning)'

When paranormal events started to occur in the house we wanted to build suspense and so I looked at some tense, loud pieces of music. The options I looked at were:

I felt like this one was too slow. It definitely was eerie but didn't suit the action scene where this was going to go. It was very slow paced even though it had that creep element.

I liked this music clip as it was definitely suspenseful. However, I think for our trailer it didn't suit as our action sequence near the end is much faster and I don't think that this music builds up as much as we wanted.

This is the music track my partner and I decided on. After listening to it together, we agreed that this would work well in our trailer. Then we played it behind our trailer and the action sequence fit perfectly with it. As we did this we found that we only needed the first two minutes which worked well with the visuals. It builds tension and the fright factor. It is called: 'Most Epic Scary Horror Music | album "Severed 2" preview by Colossal Trailer Music'.

Evidence of Filming

This post shows evidence of my partner (Hibah) and I filming shots for the trailer: