Research and Planning Feedback

Keep documenting your production using video diaries and personal responses - it's a real strength of your group's combined efforts in your G324 portfolio!  I can see your high level of enthusiasm for film campaigns from your blog - now show that you are an expert in your genre by including analysis of a few more trailers, magazines and posters using key theory and terminology.

Questionnaire

What is your gender?
Female 60%
Male 40%
Although we wanted to ask each gender equally as we believe it would be a provide balanced argument we ended up asking more females due to availability. 

What is your age?
12-14 1%
15-17 58%
18 + 41%
Here we can see the main audience ranges between 15-17, this is because we wanted to make our age certificate a 15.

What do you expect to see in a horror genre?
Possession 25%
Mystery 20%
Death 55%
By asking this question we can see that audiences mostly enjoy the topic being involved around a death therefore we could interpret our movie to involve some some of tragic event.

Which film title is best for our trailer?
Elle 70%
Back again 25%
The flashback 5%
The title is important for our trailer as it is the first thing that will attract an audience. Elle was the most popular by far, as names are quite a popular title allowing us to be certain that Elle is the right title for us. 

Where would you expect a horror to be set?
A rural setting e.g. forest 30%
A urban setting e.g town 35%
In a home 35%
In a home and an urban setting are the two most popular, this tells us that we could use both those settings to engage the audience. 

What type of non dietetic sound do you expect to hear?
Up paced 55%
Slow 3%
High pitched 15%
Low pitched 25%
No sound 2%
Up paced, low pitch music are the two that are most popular, this gives us an idea of what non diegetic and diegetic sound we can add to really add that tension and suspense. 

Would you expect an antagonist and victim in a horror?
Yes 50%
No 50%
Here we have a balanced argument between the two, which could give us more of an option to whether we are going to have one r not. 

Animatic Storyboard

Costume Research

When it came to costumes we wanted it to the fit in with the atmosphere of a happy family home, therefore the mother and father are dressed in casual wear to tell the audience that this is a normal day. The actor who plays the father is dressed wearing a casual jumper with a shirt underneath showing his relaxed format but sophistication due to this interpreting a middle class family.
The mother is similarly dressed to create the same feeling towards the audience.
The young girl fits well into this, coming home from school for a typical evening. The reason we want to succeed such a neutral and happy surrounding is because it exaggerates the difference between her life now and what it use to be like as a young child, adding curiosity to what happened. A school uniform shows her vulnerability. I believe this follows the codes and conventions of a drama as immediately  the audience we want the young girl to be safe and protected.

Soundtrack Research

For our film I decided to research some soundtracks to help me decide which type of soundtrack would be the best for our genre. I was looking for a soundtrack that starts of calm, gradually building up creating tension for the audience, reaching a climax when there appears to be a dead body in the house. Researching soundtracks also inspires me to what type of instruments would be most suitable for our film for example, in our film we knew a piano would be suitable as it is successful as creating an eerie and tense atmosphere which is what our group wish to succeed.

Due to our trailer being a horror genre, I decided to research music that would add tension and lead to a climax as I believe this will make our trailer seem more dramatic. I have found some soundtracks that I would like my trailer to incorporate. This is the soundtrack from the trailer 'Taken'. At the beginning of the track it involves the diegetic sound of a piano which is very similar to our opening trailer. It provides a fairly innocent atmosphere which for our trailer would make the young girl seem very vulnerable, however the music begins to become more upbeat which is effective as it helps lead the story that something bad is about to happen. The slow, calming introduction would be complimented by slow paced shots of the flashback in the girls life, which will help make everything seem neutral, however when it becomes more up beat that's when we will begin to see the troubles of the girls life, with the editing of the shots becoming much faster creating suspense for the audience.

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

The advantages of last year was that we knew a useful website that contained a variety of non copy right music to help get an insight into what would fit our piece. The first stage of this process is to choose what type of feel we wanted and we chose: Dark, Eerie, Intense, Unnerving, Mysterious. After listening to many results we came across "Controlled Chaos" where the instruments include synths and percussion. This year we are going to use two separate soundtracks and combine them together to create the perfect piece for our trailer. From this soundtrack the bit that is most appealing and suitable for our trailer begins at 1 minute as that is when the music becomes much more unnerving and begins to build up to create suspense. The unnerving quality is important for our group as we are looking for a mysterious soundtrack, to make the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy from the tension. However, the negatives of this soundtrack is that it doesn't seem to reach a climax which is what we look for in our trailer however the up paced soundtrack would fit perfectly in our trailer.

The second soundtrack we found of the website was called "Awkward Meeting" and appealed to me due to the instruments including piano and synths. The piano, being essential to our trailer. It begins with a slow rhythm of the piano, creating a calm atmosphere. As the soundtrack progresses we get a low beat added into the rhythm every few seconds which creates more of a dark atmosphere and can connote that everything is not fine. The silence in between each piece is effective where the music becomes quieter until it fades to silence, this will fit well with the flashback where we are fading in and out of black going through the girls life. The soundtrack then becomes louder and a it more paced, this is successful as it would be easier to blend in with "Controlled Chaos" which is a loud, up paced soundtrack overall.

Actors Interview

Actors Interview

Here we interviewed who would be the mother in our trailer. By interviewing our actors it allowed us to understand more about them and what type of style they had which could possibly affect how they performed in our trailer. As well as this we can see that Caroline would fit the loving mother role which will emphasise the scene where the family are shown as a happy, nuclear family. This is very similar to Patrick who will be playing the role of the father. They are both likable characters that the audience will be able to relate with as it shows them as normal people living everyday life.

Location Research

Our location of our film is set in a semi-detached house in a suburban town in England. We chose to set our trailer here due to the warming features of a family home. However, due to the codes and conventions of genres such as horrors we know that at night a house can be come eerie and ominous and create tension, which is what we aim to do. The piano in the bottom right of the left photo is essential in our trailer as the diegetic sound may make the audience feel on edge. This juxtaposes with the happy family home which relates with what happens in the story as well. Filming in a home allows us to do a variety of shots such as over the shoulder shots, close ups of features in the house and medium shots of characters. However, during this process we have to take extra precautions to make sure there isn't anything in the background that may ruin our trailer as it is a normal family home.