Research Of Branding

Branding is a huge part of making a teaser trailer as you need to make something stand out in the trailer either the actors or the genre, but you want that thing to stand out so it can be resembled on other media source's such as the poster or magazine cover. You need to keep all the source's within the same style

For my research of branding i have chosen to look at the movie 'Watchmen' I have chosen this film because I believe it has one of the best branding and how it effects the viewer as soon as they see the same style it automatically makes them think of Watchmen.

Firstly the colouring of the way it is branded and how the title 'WATCHMEN' is written is an easy way in which the viewer can see its watchmen as its the same in the posters and also the magazine covers.

POSTER

MAGAZINE COVER


















As you can see on both of the different kind of media text they have the same kind of features which apply to both. Firstly we can see that the writing down the side of the poster and magazine cover are very much similar and the colouring also is similar in the yellow writing and dark background which makes the yellow in the writing stand out and catch the eye of people who have seen the film or poster and make them interested in either reading in what the film is about or even watching the film.


DVD COVER


Even with the dvd cover the colours are the same, also it has the stars  of the film on the dvd cover which they have on both the poster and the magazine cover. Which helps the audience see who the actors are but mainly keeps all the media source's alike.









I believe that the branding used by 'Watchmen' would be a perfect example to get some ideas from as it is always the same and also will attract the people that it is wanting to and also makes everything relate back to the film by using the colours they do and also by using the main characters keeping it all linked to the actual film. Keeping the branding the same is a key element in branding as it always brings everything to relate back to the film.

So as a group we need to remember to keep everything related to the trailer and making sure we make the genre easy to spot for the audience we are aiming for. So if we are making the dvd cover with the actors on the front we should use the actors on the magazine cover also keeping the colours the same and  little things like the same font makes things easier for the eye to realise its about our film.

Horror Genre.

We are focusing on the supernatural horror genre for our teaser trailer and have looked at alot of teaser trailers which have given us inspiration for our own project. Below are some trailers in which helped us think of a story line;

From this trailer of Paranormal Activity 2, we liked the idea of the canted angle at the beginning as this gave away to the audience that something isn't right and so we thought this would be a good idea for our trailer. We also liked how it was the actors that filmed but didn't chose to do this as we would then be copying the whole of the trailer. from this trailer we also thought that the shot of the girl stood in the door way with low key lighting suited the genre well and so we chose to use this idea in our trailer but not in the same location.




The Last Exorcism is another example of a supernatural horror trailer in which we got inspiration from. From this trailer we found that the color grading was very effective as it showed a contrast from when something is normal to where the girl is possessed. We thought this would work well in our trailer but we intend to use alot of drained colors in ours when the woman becomes possessed. The music for this trailer relates well to the story line of the film as it is about an exorcism and uses church like music and so for ours we shall use a quiet style of music and we intend to discuss this when all our footage has been done. In this trailer we liked the idea of the girl holding the camera as she walks and so we intend to do this for our trailer but use a blared effect showing that she has done something wrong.


 We have also looked a old film trailers and found that Beyond The Door is a very good trailer showing supernatural as it is set in a house and seems very realistic. From this trailer we have decided to use the idea of the door but have expanded the idea and slamming the door with a scream to follow. In this trailer there is a smash of a plate but no body does this and so this causes excitement from an audience point of view and so throughout our trailer we intend to do this, we will discuss this when filming. The costumes work well as they relate to the time period and in our trailer we will keep this going and use up to date fashion showing it is a 21st century film. We also will dress Grace (our possessed) girl in a white nighty which is typical for a horror genre film.

Analysis Of The Blair Witch

I have decided to analyse the trailer of 'The Blair Witch Project'. I have chosen this film trailer because I believe it has a number of concepts in which we want to achieve, in our teaser trailer. From the non diegetic sounds to the tittles used in the trailer and the way it is acted and how they have put the film in the sequence they have. Also the main reason in which i have chosen to analyse this teaser trailer is because they use a hand held camera within the film, which is what we are wanting to do in our teaser trailer, so i believe analyzing a teaser trailer using a hand held camera could help me see all the conventions used to create this film.



First of all the non diegetic sound at the start with the heavy drum sends an instant shiver down the viewers spine and with it just being a black screen, i believe this sets the genre straight away giving of the impression of it being a horror film. Then the tittle that comes up giving us information on the film again agrees and shows the viewer that it is definitely a horror. Then it goes on to the main characters questioning locals, from where they have gone to, asking them about the blair witch. This diegetic sound shows the audience what the film is going to be about and it will either interest them or not. Then again the tittle that comes up saying 'one of the creepiest films since the exorcism' showing the viewers that it is like 'the exorcism' so if they have watched that and liked it they will be interested in watching this one. The way they have the really quick clip of the dark and then a shot of the tree, then the big gasp gives it an element of scariness, and leaves the viewers with an enigma. The constant black screen with that beat of the drum then how the noise fades out slowly is a great affect of non diegetic sound gives the audience a sense of shock. Then when they are arguing about the map makes the viewers wonder why they need the map so desperately and they see the actors in a state of panic and wonder why they are like this. Then the scene were the person is running makes it alot more scarier as they are using a hand held camera which makes it alot more realistic and makes the audience get into the actors shoes. Once again the non diegetic sound used when the black screen is up puts the viewer into a mind of wondering if anything is going to happen, then when they show us the sort of person made out of trees the diegetic sound of someone saying 'holy sh*t' shows us that they are afraid and wonder what it is, or they know what it is but us viewers dont and we want to know what it is and why its there making us want to view the film in full. Then again it cuts to the running scene using the hand held camera and the lighting used in this scene is just the light from the camera which gives it a sense of reality. Then we get the close up of the girl speaking into the camera and she is speaking with a terrified voice showing us the audience that something has happened which we don't know and she tells us how its all her fault why there like they are, and as she finished when she says 'hunted' straight after the black screen comes on again with that same drum sound which gives the audience a sense of them being frightened or something is going to happen or has happened. And as it ends the last thing heard is a high pitched scream then goes straight to the black screen again with the same sound, then the tittle 'The Blair Witch Project'.

I believe this is a great low budget film in the same genre in which we are wanting to achieve, analyzing this has given me more inspiration and many more ideas on how to get around achieving this genre. And also gave me a few ideas on how to use non diegetic sound and lighting to achieve this genre which will also tease the audience and hopefully get them to want to watch the actual film.

Saw 6 trailer analysis

As a group were are making a supernatural horror teaser trailer, so as a group we need to analyse diffrerent aspects of that. for example somebody will investigate into the supernatural part, someone will look into horror in general. and somebody will look into the teaser trailer part, as a pose to a full length trailer. i will be looking and comparing the difference between the teaser trailer and full length trailer to the same film and then looking to the teaser trailer in more detail. as we are doing a teaser trailer so it is very important that we know what we are doing.

The film i will be looking at is saw 6. And the teaser trailer for your information is the shorter one.

To view the video's full screen double click on the video.






As you can see the difference between these two video's is that one video concentrates on one clip from the film itself and its just like your watching the film. it is complete film footage, no different editing or sound, and that is usually what you would expect from a trailer, whereas in the teaser trailer.

with the teaser trailer , it gets straight to the point and starts telling you facts about the film. which is the difference between a teaser trailer and an official trailer, as this is important as we are doing a teaser trailer. The release dates and roles the teaser trailer and official trailer have correspond to each other. the teaser trailer is released first as the role of that is to make the viewer aware that the film is being released and show a little bit of content what the film has in it. it is usually released around 4 months before the film is released. whereas the official trailer comes is usually released around 2-3 months before the official release date of the film. the role of this is to tell the film viewers what the film story line is going to consist of and to give you a slight better insight of the film than the teaser trailer. it gives away all the key characters which some film viewers like as some people watch films due to the actors that are in it.

so when we are producing our teaser trailer we need to take all of this into consideration. and make sure we have all the contents of a teaser trailer not a full official trailer.

Feedback

You have the start of some good research here but it needs a bit more development to really shine:

• Project ideas - punctuation and capital letters. Note it is colour "grading" !
• Target Audience - spelling of post title! Why not add the BBFC content outlines for a 15 rated film and discuss what this means for your film... Why a 15 and not an 18? - outline reasons for choice. Can this be, as you claim, aimed at a "young teen audience"???
• Audience Feedback - please adjust font colour, so this is easy to read; start by commenting on why conducting such a survey is useful; at the end underline the fact that you need to create a product that meets audience expectations in order to entice them to the film...Is there anything they didn't like to see and that you need to avoid?? Anything else you learned that you will need to keep in mind?
• Titles - why are titles vital in trailers - what do they do? Analysis is too minimal - you need to specify what titles are used  in both types of trailer and why? At the end reflect on what you can learn from this...
• Analysis of trailers - clarify focus - are you exploring what are the conventions of teaser trailers? (Jess check your trailer - at 2:16 it is more likely to be a standard theatrical trailer than a teaser)Or are you exploring the conventions of horror? You both need detailed analysis and reflection on what you have learnt and need to use in your own product development

You also need to specify what type/ sub-genre of horror you are focusing on - there are lots, all quite different - and what the codes and conventions of these are, as well as more sense of how trailers work. You need to find an institution and discuss how trailers are placed and work as part of a wider marketing campaign; you need to explore the conventions of your ancillary texts too.

Analysing The Last Exorcism.

I am going to analyse the teaser trailer for The Last Exorcism and discuss what trailers do and why? And also what this particular trailer does to appeal to it's audience. 
If you double click the video it will take you to the youtube website, where you can view the trailer on full screen.

The Last Exorcism is a horror film and the trailer has appealed to our group as we think it is a perfect example of a trailer in which we intend to produce. Throughout this analysis i intend to discuss what features are used and why in order to appeal to it's audience.

We are firstly shown a close up of an old house in the middle of no where which connotates a ghosts and demands, from this the genre is shown clearly just on one camera shot, this makes it easier for an audience to understand what may happen in the film and whether it is the genre they enjoy. A lot of fast pace editing is used throughout the teaser trailer but mainly used on the protagonist; this is usually used in horror teaser trailers to show that something bad is going to happen to this person. This is also brought across when using color grading and in The Last Exorcism teaser trailer we are shown a lot of color grading especially red which connotates; death and blood. 

From the teaser trailer for The Last Exorcism, a voice over of the protagonist is used when we cut to a close up of images from the bible, this is used to give away the story line to the audience which gives them a feel to the film and helps them decide whether they should see the film. Through out the teaser trailer we cut to a lot of long shots of the girl possessed which to an audience causes tension and a sense of something bad is about to happen this is also influenced by slow music, which as well causes tension. This is used a lot in horror teaser trailers because it scares the audience, where as if there was a lot of close ups of the evil character then to much would be given away. There are also a lot of close up of the evil character crying throughout the trailer to show emotion but also causing enigmas for the audience. They may wonder; why is she crying? What’s happening? In horror teaser trailers we are shown a lot of canted angle shots which are used to show something is wrong. This is an effective use of camera shots for a horror because it can connotate a lot for an audience. Teaser trailers often use a lot of over the shoulder camera action in order for the audience to feel more involved with the film and it feels more direct to them. This is used a lot in The Last Exorcism trailer as it is a documentary style film and is filmed by the characters themselves. So the use of using over the shoulder camera action in this particular trailer is effective as the audience may feel they are part of the film.

Every so often we cut to the scene of the exorcism which is used to show to the audience what happens and that this is the main scene in the film but only shows quick long shots of it so to much isn’t given away. This is effective for a teaser trailer because it is repeating throughout the trailer so becomes familiar to an audience. As well as a lot of fast pace editing used in the trailer to show horror, a lot of slow pace editing is also used as this is teasing the audience, making them seem more scared and to an audience comes across as a teaser as well as horror.

A lot of voice overs are used in the trailer instead of music which makes it seem more realistic to the audience but at one point in the trailer a lot of voice overs are used at once which blags the audience but connotates; noise and confusion. The use of mise en scene is important as this tells the audience a lot about individual characters and also gives the characters their own profile to an audience. We are shown throughout the trailer long shots of characters to become familiar with what they are wearing but also what sort of background they are from. We are shown a long shot of the protagonist wearing a suit and he wears this suit all the time and so from an audiences point of view i get a feel of the protagonists personality just from what he is wearing. This is very popular for trailers to have long shots of characters and this is so the audience can relate back to the trailer and become familiar with the character when going to watch the film. 

A lot of captions are used in the trailer using a white, bold color on a black background to advertise the film and the sponsors but also to inform the audience when the film is out at the cinema. The use of color connotates what the film could be about. The black background connotates; death, never ending and coldness. The white, bold writing connotates innocence.


I believe that The Last Exorcism is a great example of a teaser trailer as it has the right aspects in which we want to achieve when making our own teaser trailer.Analysing this trailer has given me a more understanding of what is needed to for fill this genre. I now know why colour grading is an important aspect for this genre and connontates a lot about what the film is. 

Analysis of Paranormal Activity

I have decided to analyse the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity 2.



If you double clip on the clip then it will take you to the youtube site and there you will be able to view the clip in full screen.


Within this analysis i will be looking at all the shots used and the idea's i think they are wanting to illustrate through this supernatural horror teaser trailer. Also the connotions given through the mise-en scene. Ending with what a successful supernatural teaser trailer would need to consist.


Within the first few seconds of the trailer we see a clip, the ending, of the first Paranormal Activity. This shows that its a direct follow on also suggesting that  there could be some specific links with characters. Also the clip shown from the previous film is one of the most jumpiest parts of the film which helps catch the audiences attention straight away. There is a canted angle used within this little clip showing the possessed woman and an extreme close-up of her. Again which suggests to us there is something not right. There's also a part where there is a shot of some of the audience in the cinema actually watching the first Paranormal Activity. A lot of close-ups are used portraying the full emotion: they look frightened and are screaming, the body language shows there uncomfortable - all this relates with horror. The back tracking clips of the first film are ended with a shot of static/white noise which we know are shown a lot in horror movies and is again reinforcing the genre type.


The trailer then jumps to the first shot we see of Paranormal Activity and this is an establishing shot of a babies bedroom. The fact its a babies bedroom this gives off innocence and makes the viewers feel emotion and straight away creates enigma's- 'will the baby be hurt by the demon?.' Within the shot there's a dog led by the crib in the bedroom. This portrays a typical roll of a dog, used as a protector. We see 3 high angle shots of the kitchen, living room and garden area which probably last for around 5 seconds and show the view of the home set-up camera. The fact there's nothing happening within these shots intrigues the viewers and makes us focus on every little bit as we don't know if or what's going to happen. The shot of the babies bedroom re-appears on a number of occasions: again creating enigma's, 'will this be the main setting for the film?', 'is this where all the actions going to take place?.' Within one shot of the bedroom the dog makes a sudden move of its head, looking at something. This immediately puts the audience on edge as we want to know what's happening. Then thinking of the saying ' dogs can see/hear everything', this intrigues the audience even more.
Text is then used 'Nothing Can Prepare You'- plain white text against a bold background. The whiteness connotates pure and innocence but from the sharp black background it connotates evil and death. The text is very dramatic and creates an impact on the audience. Text is again used 'For Whats Next' again adding to that dramatic effect as its linking to the previous text we've just seen. Also creates enigma's as we wonder what it could possibly be. 
The shot of the babies room is again used but this time we see a disfigured image stood in the doorway, looks like a woman. This straight away creates enigmas as it makes the audience question could this woman be the link and what if its the possessed woman from the first Paranormal Activity. As well as creating emotion for the audience as we dont want her to hurt the baby. 
Also the teaser trailer uses no form of sound just silence and adds to effect by creating tension. If music was used i don't particularly the trailer would work as good as we know that its a supernatural horror. The teaser trailer then ends with the effect of white noise on screen. Again portraying that its a horror. 


What i think a successful supernatural teaser trailer should include.....

• Dramatic text
• silence but maybe with the odd naturalistic sound relating to the film
• To create plenty of enigmas
• Disfigured images
• The effect static/white noise used
• Previews of naturalist occurrences
• Shots included from home set up cameras

How to use titles in trailers.

Titles in trailers are a must. They could even possibly be the most important part to a trailer due to it actually telling you what the film is called, and all the other important information. ie, the release date, tag line, main characters. No matter what type of film trailer or film the trailer is advertising it will have a title in it.  Every film teaser trailer has some form of written writing in it. Usually there is more written titles in the shorter teasers trailers than in a official longer trailer, due to more footage being shown in film and not described in words. And we are doing a teaser trailer so i have learnt from this topic that to satisfy our target audience we should involve quite alot of written titles. 






To view videos on full screen double click it.


As you can see here are two trailers for the same film, one is a teaser trailer and one is a official trailer. And when watching the shorter teaser trailer you can see that there are more written parts to it. As it has to do this as there is not as much video footage as in the full trailer. 


the titles in the trailers mostly consist of captions, and parts to the film it puts in words instead of showing it. so there isn't really any showing of characters names or things like that. then obviously the release date and the title of the film nearer the end, if not at the end


From doing this task i have learnt that teaser trailers have more written titles in them than the normal standard trailers. i have watched other examples on the internet so i know that it is not just a one off. that statement is consistently true. this will help us in the production of our teaser trailer as we now know to include quite a lot of written titles. but this is all dependent on how we decide to structure and produce our teaser trailer

Audience Feedback

I personally created an audience feedback questionnaire, on this i included questions such as:
Q1. What is your favourite film?
Q2. Your favourite type of  film genre is?
Q3. Favourite actor/actress?
Q4. Of the top of your head think of a teaser trailer which stands out to you.
Q5. Name your favourite horror film. 
Q6. What one thing would you like to see in a teaser trailer that would really catch your eye?

A summery of our audience questionnaire - colour co-ordinated.

From this information gathered from the questionnaire i realized that out of the 10 questionnaires i distributed that horror/thriller appeared 3 times for the question 'your favourite type of film genre is?.'
Also that Paranormal Activity 2 was the most common favourite teaser trailer.
Aswell as Paranormal Activity was the most popular favourite horror film. 


The results we received go well with the genre and style of teaser trailer we are wanting to create- genre: horror/thriller and in the style of: Paranormal Activity 2/ The Last Exorcism teaser trailer




As you can see one of the questions asked where''What one thing would you like to see in a teaser trailer that would really catch your eye?'' and the answers we got where varying from thoughtful plots which raises enigma's, dramatic music, screaming and scary music. We are wanting to try and incorporate as many of these things as possible to try and catch the eye's of our target audience and for our teaser trailer and to be everything you have ever wanted to see.

Targert Audience.

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Box Office Figures for paranormal activity.

We wanted to find out if this genre of film, we are wanting to do,  appealed to a wide range of people so got the box office figures for some recent films done with this type of genre.
This information is for the film Paranormal Activity

Domestic Total Gross: $107,918,810
Distributor:Paramount	Release Date:September 25, 2009
Genre: Horror	Runtime: 1 hrs. 39 min.
MPAA Rating: R	Production Budget: $15,000

From this information we have found that this type of low budget horror film is a superb earner and would be a good investment for a distributor as it is low budget, but as you can see it has a huge following showing the money made on this film with only spending $15,000. This film is not in the top 20 earners but has made an enormous profit making distributors interested in this kind of film and how it is made so as it is big at the moment i see it as a perfect choice for making a teaser trailer of this genre.


Another recent film that has done well with this kind of genre is The Last Exorcism.

Domestic Total Gross: $41,034,350
Distributor:Lionsgate	Release Date:August 27, 2010
Genre: Horror	Runtime: 1 hrs. 40 min.
MPAA Rating: PG-13	Production Budget: $1.8 million

From this we see that it has made a massive profit but it doesn't compare to the $15,000 used for paranormal activity but from this information we can see that there is an audience out there for the type of genre we are wanting to produce in our trailer, therefore making it a good choice for us to produce a teaser trailer of this genre.

project idea.

As a group we have thought many great idea's. We have finally decided to do a super natural horror teaser trailer with idea's from the trailers Paranormal Activity, and Last Exorcism. We have decided to try and use as many effects as possible that will make stand out to our target audience, making them want to go and watch the film. We will do this by using, white noise and color grading. We do not want to over use the effects as we are wanting it to look professional and we believe if we use to many effects it could become unprofessional  and tacky. As a group we will all be taking part in the filming and directing of the trailer so we are all equal in the amount of work we are to do. For the choice of music we plan on sticking to the typical music used for a horror trailer and so we have decided on something tense and spooky but haven't yet chosen on the actual music.








To make these trailers bigger, double click the video.
 These are the trailers we chose to base our trailer around as we believe these are both good examples of what a trailer does to make an audience go and watch the film.

Introduction

hello and welcome to our blog- Leanne, Louis, Mike and Jess are the owners. 

This is us!

We are currently planning to create a teaser trailer as a promotion for a horror film.
We've decided this due to us having an ideal location which would be easy for us to use and feel it would appeal to our target audience we have chosen being 15+.