Mise en Scene, Props and Casting

CAST

Above is me, Director, Editor, Screenplay Writer and Actor along with Ben Garvey shown below.

  











      





Above is Ben my media partner who i also worked with last year for my AS coursework. Ben and I both feature in our film if one of us is acting the other will be behind the camera filming. Last year we had our film screened at the Bradford film festival and we aim to do the same again this year.

Above is Tom Hunter who plays one of the main characters. We chose Tom to be in our film because he is 18 around the age of the target audience for our film so therefore the audience can relate to him. It was useful to have Tom as and actor because he finished collage at midday on most days so he was always available to film, he also has a car so he helped get us to our filming locations at times.

Above is Theo Wightman, he is in our media class and is also making a horror film teaser trailer. He is also 18 which like Tom is the perfect age to reach out to our target audience, Theo also studies Drama so we hoped he would have some good acting skills. We were not disappointed.

PROPS

We wanted to use a typical movie style kitchen knife as it follows the conventions of a real media product. The knife helps people to easily identify what genre (horror) the trailer is. The main influence in the using of this knife was Halloween which made it iconic to the horror industry.

This is the black hoodie/mask we choose for the murderer to use in our film. There are two main reasons why we used this hoodie. The first reason is because it was black and this is very traditionally used in horror films. The second point is because it zips fully so hides the identity of the killer creating a narrative enigma. We wanted a hoodie that covers the face because in our horror research we watched a film called Dead Man's Shoes by Shane Meadows in which a mask is used by the killer near the start of the film and it made him look wierd and menacing.

Target Audience & (Notional) BBFC Classification

Age
The age rating in our film is a 15. We chose this because later on in our film it will become gorier and there would be some strong language. Under the BBFC ratings its says that a film with strong language and scenes of a moderate violence should be rated at a 15. Also the actors in the film are within the age range, the main characters are 17 and 18 years old so it helps appeal to an audience of 15-24.

Ethnicity
In our trailer the characters are caucasion as this tends to be typical of the horror genre, However we have not specifically just chosen to have caucasion actors it's also due to the fact that we couldn't get the actors. If we could get actors of different ethnicity we would as it would help to widen the appeal of the trailer.

Gender
Generally a common convention of horror films is to have a female as the protagonist who comes through the evil and ends up victorious .However we are challenging this convention a bit as did the film Dead Man's Shoes. Their is a risk that we could decrease our potential as we do not have a final girl in our trailer but it was also partially due to the lack of choice in actors and actresses that we decided to not include a final girl, the girls in our group were busy so much that it was too hard to find a day which suited them.

Economic groupings
I think our film will appeal will appeal to upper middle class (C1) and lower middle class (C2) and working class (DE) groupings because horror films are not usually aimed at upper class, they normally watch period drama or films of a higher intellectual level.

Nationality/Region
Our teaser trailer will appeal to an English audience because the actors and settings are English. Horror movies usually have a heavy American influence and are generally high budget if they do. The lower budget British horrors will appeal to a more niche audience primarily because they don't have any American actors. Also on a regioal scale our trailer will appeal to a yorkshire audience as it features a famous yorkshire landmark, the Cow and Calf.

Fans of
Fans of our trailer will probably also be fans of films like Halloween because the well known horrors were a big influence on the making of our trailer, we studied their shots as they have obviously been very successful in hope that incorporating their camera techniques will help us to get a better finished product on our horror film. Also fans of a britsh film which incorporates scary elements such as Dead Man's Shoes by shane meadows, the film isn't a horror film but has some very scary scenes and we have tried to use some of its ideas and camera shots. Also another group of fans who may enjoy our trailer would be fans who enjoy movies with a twist and riddle. We didnt want our idea to be straight forward, we liked the thought of the audience guessing through as it will keep them more interested, again links can be made towards Dead Man's Shoes as it was the inspiration behind a twist ending.

Sexuality
Our trailer has hetrosexual actors as this seems to be more typical of the horror genre, The trailer is prodominantley male based but we have considered for example adding female characters or homosexual characters in order to widen the appeal our trailer has but the lack of avilability of actors and actresses makes this aspect difficult.

Phychographic profile
Someone who i think would enjoy our trailer would be someone who likes gritty realism film such as Sweet Sixteen. I want to keep the trailer as real as possible and stray away from more american style big budget films with a hollywood feel. The fact that we have an extremely low budget works to our advantage in this area.

Teaser Trailer Definition

A teaser trailer, or teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.
Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.

Teasers are also commonly used in advertising. (source, Wikepedia, Teaser trailer)

Codes and Conventions (Trailers)

Wolfman 

Starts with a couple of seconds of eerie music.

Quick cut to a man and a sudden loud biting sound.

Shot of a man running a claw comes into shot, dripping with blood.

Low tone voice over.

Universal world image turns to a full moon.

Fades to black between each shot.

Quick Cuts.

Title appears in the moonlight.

Then a final scene where the Woldman turns and see's its prey.

Halloween 2

Boom sound as title appears.

Long sounds.

Semiconscious half drowned out sound.

Music builds in intensity.

Flashes to black with a bang.

Thunder sound (echo).

Black and white camera shot is used to show flashbacks.

The Edge of Darkness

Starts with a phone call.

Daughters voiceover through answer phone.

Shots of dad doing daily things.

Fade out to a title screen with text.

Then fade into whiteish/blury image of father with young daughter.

Fade back to present shot of father meeting daughter.

Fade to black as car pulls in and eerie music played for a sec.

Quick flashs of a shot fire, father and a shooter.

Shot of father holding dead daughter.

Lots of fades/cuts to black after the death.

Lots of fast cuts aswell.

Babysitter Wanted

Long slow choir sound to begin with

Fades from black

Slow start

Magazine review comments in-between cuts

Dark scenery used

Sound of broken phone line

Music tempo builds

Finishes with scream

Awards and nominations dominate the screen

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Starts with 4 medium length shots of an abandoned area/street.

Can hear a person panting (from running)

Then he comes into shot being chased by 4 cars.

You see him chased into a house.

One of the chasers yells abuse at home and calls him Kruger.

They torch the house and you see him starting to burn.

Then cuts to black and the directors name appears in blood.

Cuts between 4 or 5 different shots of a girl talking, snaps to

black inbetween each shot with a thud.

Cuts to black with a thud between almost every shot.

Slow zoom onto a sign "Elm st"

Cuts to black near end, says name of film in blood then

cuts to one last shot scary shot.

Then finally cuts to the release date in blood.

The Legion

Starts with a shot of the sun rising.

Voice over from a young woman.

Shots in a bar, gentle calm music played and an old woman comes in.

Suddenly screaches and bites a mans throat out.

Man behind the bar gets a shotgun out and shoots her.

Cuts to a black screen with the production company on.

Silouetted shot of an angel, with a male voice over.

Shot of street lights going out one by one.

All the shots get darker and sudden noises to make you jump.

Flashes illuminating lots of angels come to kill.

Lots of fast cuts with a song rising to a crescendo.

Cuts out suddenly and snaps to a two shot of a girl asking if there safe.

He says no.

Common Conventions/ Summary

After analysing a few various film trailers (mainly focusing on those of the horror genre) i have noticed a few common features in most of them. First of all, sound is used in every trailer in various forms. In those of the horror genre music is used to create suspense and and keep the audience glued to the screen. A voice over is frequently used in horror trailers, this is to create ancourage and to get viewers heart rates up. Generally the horror films seem to start with a quick pace before slowing down and then speeding up once more towards the end of the trailer. However, ina couple of the horror trailers there is a slow start which then builds up to a fast paced climax. Both of these work well and do a good job in creating a scary and thrilling film trailer. Titles are also used in some of the trailers to either explain something to the audience or promote the film with comments on the film or the realease date.

Front Cover Analysis

These film magazine front covers all have things in common. For example all the covers have two main things standing out, the title of the magazine (EMPIRE and TOTAL FILM) and one main picture which relates to the main article in the magazine.

The main picture gives the reader an idea of what a section of the magazine is about e.g. if it's got the Joker on the cover then there's likely to be a large review of the new Batman film "The Dark Knight" inside. The Main picture also tends to be infront of the masthead therefore blocking out one or two of the letters in word. Although on one of the front covers (an Empire cover with Harry Potter) this is not the case and the main image is behind the masthead. The font and colour used for the title links to the main picture as does the background e.g. for the front cover of the Total Film Magazine with the New Moon article the text is sort of glowing like a moon and the background of woodland at night time reflects the genre of the film. For the articles with Megan Fox on the front cover the backgrounds are white possibly implying she is pure. You could say that each issue follows a kind of house style which depends on what the main focus of the magazine is on.

Some things to be aware of when creating our own front cover is how there should be none or minimal text obscuring the main picture and generally the text is kept to the sides, the top or the bottom. The price and bar code are shown on the front page of each magazine. It seems more common for the main image to be infront of the masthead so i think we will do it that was on our front cover.

Production Schedule

We intend to do most of our filming on the 4th of Febuary. We have two houses available to use and will use one as Tom's home, where some of the creepy things happen and the other for the killing house where the poker and killings happen. We intend to do get all the shots done on the 4th.

After looking at what weve got we have decided to do another filming session next thursday (the 11th of Febuary) This is to retake a couple of shots were not happy with and take a few new ones of some of the actually killings.

These two images are our storyboard which we brought with us when filming and used to check we had done each shot by ticking off the shot on the storyboard once we had done it.

Revised Idea

We were not happy with our first idea and decided we would much rather do a Trailer rather than a short film.

New Idea
Title:

Teaser Trailer
Genre: Horror

Characters: Tom, Theo, Jack, Ben, Joe, Alex

Starts with a flash back from 1 year earlier when two mates are out on the moors, but Tom is only their for revenge as Theo stole his girl and hes taken Theo onto the moor to kill him. Tom kills Theo and 1 year on hes still having nightmares about it.
Freaky things start happening to Tom on the aniversary of Theo's death. As Tom gets more and more creeped out throughout the day he is relieved when he meets up with 3 mates for their poker night.
The killer has planned it all and intends for none of them to leave the house alive. After the friends have had quite a lot to drink and played some poker, the killer first picks off two of Tom's friends when they go for more booze and to the toilet respectively.

Tom and Joe the two remaining realise what is going on but there is no way out of the house.

Theo's older brother is the killer and having figured out what he thinks happened on the night of his brothers death he is out for revenge. He toys with Tom and his mates and then kills the mates so only Tom and Theo's brother remain.