Changes to our trailer

After receiving feedback on our trailer, the general opinion was that we needed an effect which would build tension. We have since then added a violin effect (which is common on many horror film trailers). 

Draft of our trailer

This is one of the drafts of our trailer - the editing of the visuals in the trailer is almost complete, however the sound is still unfinished. We are unsure how to edit the sound from that point, and so we will ask our peers for their opinion and change it accordingly. 

As you can see, we have stuck to most of the ideas that we originally looked at in the storyboards, however, we have then developed these ideas and added more shots (for example the enitre piano scene). I think that by adding these scenes, more tension has been created. 

Spectre House Ident

After looking at the Napoleon Dynamite introduction scene, we have had an idea for our trailer ident. As it would most likely be an independent film, we wanted to create something that gave it a slightly independant feel to it. We wanted to create some sort of either stop motion or animation clip of film, where the name of our production company 'Spectre house Productions' would appear, and we decided to have a go at making a flip book. I recently bought a small book which could be used in this way, which had squared paper (to help to keep the titles the same size) and a flexible cover so that it could bend appropriately. As with the Napoleon Dynamite title sequence, we wanted the ident to have a handmade element to it, but for it not to look as cheerful as that did, so we made the font look handwritten, but not in the pretty looking curly fonts that Napoleon Dynamite uses. Also, we considered the colours of the ident - we didn't want there to be a lot of bright primary or pastel colours as we felt that it would look too much like the ident of a comedy, romance or teen movie, so considering that the flip book was orange, we placed it on a black background (orange and black are colours that, when combined, are often associated with halloween, which is linked to the horror genre). Below is the original out take of our ident (the clip looks best played in 1080pHD).

Clearly, the length of our ident is far too long, so we had a go of editing it to see what it would look like sped up. Below is the first clip that we had a go of speeding up, which was edited in Windows Live Movie Maker.

As you can see, the clip looks slightly disjointed. We later had a go of editing it in iMovie, which produced a much more fluid flow, so we will be using this for our ident. Also, when we edited the clip in iMovie, the sound sped up too (which was originally just the ambient noise of the television in the background). This created quite a creepy, squeaky/ scratchy effect which seemed to fit into the horror genre quite well. We kept this noise in the background.

Second Day of Filming

Today we managed to film the shots which we were unable to get yesterday - today they were much more successful due to the lighting. We also filmed several planes taking off from the runway of John Lennon Airport. The only problem that we encountered with this, was that the aeroplanes seemed to bank round to the right after taking off, so we could not get a shot of a plane flying directly overhead, which is what we originally planned. We did get some shots though which we will use, and which will hopefully (after being edited) fit well with the rest of the film. Here are a few of the shots that we took here;

Clearly, the first shot was unsuitable for our trailer as it was a private plane, however, the second shot is much more suited to the storyline. We will be using this clip within our trailer to show the journey of the character from Britain to Paris. 

Beginning of the filming process

Today was our first day of filming, which we completed in the location in Crosby. We got through the shots that we planned to today, however, we came across a set back - due to the fact that we filmed in the house after school, the lighting was severely restricted, especially in the shots in the loft area. Even though we are quite happy with the shots that we managed to get, we will need to return to film some more. We hope to go back tomorrow on Saturday, so we can go earlier when the light is much brighter, and we also hope to travel to Speke Hall (which is situated right next to John Lennon Airport). There is a path that runs around the end of the runway, so we will hopefully be able to capture an aeroplane in flight, which is one of the necessary shots that we need. 

Cinematography shot practice

Before we went out to shoot our main footage, we decided to have a go at some initial shots of film, to practice the shot types that we'd like to use. To shoot our trailer, me and Ashleigh are using our DSLR cameras (Nikon D3100). Due to the fact that they are DSLRs, it means that we can get cinematography effects that we wouldn't be able to achieve on a normal digital recorder, such as a pulled focus. For these few shots we used my Nikorr f/1.8 50mm lens - the high aperture meant that we could capture a very shallow focus. 

One of the main shots that we'd like to use is that of a record playing. Here are a few shots that we got;

This shot was taken of the record of the 'Blade Runner' film soundtrack, produced by Vangelis. This is just atmospheric music, and the fact that it is on vinyl gives it a crackled effect (best viewed in 720p HD). I took this video handheld, which is clear as the video is slightly shaky.The next few videos are shots of the record 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield. This song is from one of the most famous horror films of all time 'The Exorcist'. Clearly, this record, being associated with such a well known horror film gives off an eerie feel to it. I took these videos with the camera on a tripod, and they are visibly smoother.

These clips were just experimental, however, I like the effect this produces - after looking at the results of our questionnaire, cinematography was an important component in making a successful and interesting trailer, so we will consider other interesting cinematography features to include.