Character Interviews:

 

Before starting filming, we decided to have some pre recordings of our idea's and interests towards our trailer. By doing this we are able to cooperate with each other and listen to everyone's different concepts.

The first video is of our antagonist Katy, she explains who her character is and what its purposes are. She states "With the intention to hurt them" which demonstrates the horror genre and how the character uses violence and aggression. Her costume will be dark and eerie colours which helps with the mysterious effect. Lastly, she explains that the target audience is appropriate, around our age group as it attracts our types of personalities and interests.  

Myself, the second video also answers the same type of questions. She explains how her character is about to get her "comeuppance" which suggests the antagonist is out to get her and that she becomes the vulnerable frightened character. I tell the audience that I am going to wear "simplistic clothing" to help me look like a normal stereotypical teenager. I state that I like our film genre as horror's are one of my favourite films and i'm looking forward to re creating something with a tense and suspicious atmosphere. 

Nadiye, a protagonist like myself describes herself as a "quiet and shy"character who appears vulnerable and a perfect attraction to a killer clown. She also demonstrates what she will be wearing including "Jeans and a top" as she wants to appear normal and not a threat. Lastly Nadiye tells the audience that she likes how the film relates to our age group and we are able to connect with the ideas thoroughly. 

Planning Targets

For you to achieve your target grade or higher for your research and planning you need to evidence much more in detail planning. You are showcasing your journey towards production and every stage of the journey should be documented.

Trailers which inspired us-

Here are some of the trailers in which inspired us to create a trailer using a clown like figure. The main film which related to our idea is 'IT', we feel it has the most effective scenes and use of MES appropriately.
However, we decided to change many ideas as we didn't want to look as if we were copying Tommy Wallace's film completely. This includes a different use of colour in the outfit, different colour wig and more realistic locations. We got a lot of inspiration from IT requiring the different scenes and story lines. We feel a horror film would work best using a clown when luring in children and demonstrating gore and fright. We really like the idea of using a balloon as the only prop to help show the characteristics but also look appealing to children. Young children would be attracted to the ballon and lean towards it, however, they would be in for a shock when seeing what was holding it. As 'IT' is so popular and well known we thought it would have many different ideas for inspiration enabling us to create a successful product.

The film 'Hello Bingo' was found online. They also use a clown to create the horror film. We got inspiration from the film by using original colours and props. In the film he uses a baseball bat to attack people, however, we would rather use props to lure in characters not scare them immediately. 'Hello Bingo' shows aggressive and violent scenes of attack, however in our trailer we want to make our clown look suspicious, eerie and extremely frightening due to the mise en scene, camera shots, sounds and editing. We feel our product will be most successful by doing this.

The trailer for stitches came across as too amateur and comedic for our ideas and what we want to achieve. However we got different ideas of how we can target children as they are the vulnerable and innocent age group in which we want to portray in our trailer. They also film a lot in at night which helps create a tense atmosphere. We will try and film at night as it conform to the horror genre and will look very appropriate when introducing the clowns presence.

We got a variety of different ideas and inspiration from these trailers as they all have a similar connection to what our trailer intends to be. The use of a clown can appear extremely frightening and mysterious which is why we feel it would be successful for our horror trailer. After researching these trailers our costume, sound, location, lighting etc ideas have become much stronger developed.

Green Screen...Yes? Or No?

For our trailer, we had the idea of creating a news report scene whereby,  one of our actors would inform the audience of the storyline (Clown). Since Last year we have become much more comfortable when using Adobe Premiere which entitles us to edit our trailer successfully and hopefully produce the best outcome. The green screen would be useful when creating the news report as it would allow us to place different imagery in the background and storylines running along the bottom of the screen. This would make our trailer come across as much more reliable, interesting and tense. 

If we use the green screen, we want to make it look like a news room studio. This will make the audience feel much more on edge as well as looking real and engaging. We will use Adobe Premiere elements as it allows us to play around with different types of backgrounds and get the perfect result. Myself, and others have already had a trial at this editing technique requiring us to use the crop tool, rotate tool, decrease and enlarger tool to get the ideal fit. 

For Mise en scene, the location for a news report is in a studio which is why we edit the background. The dress code is particularly formal which includes suits, ties, dresses and blazers. We thought using our teacher would be effective as he is older, more serious and dressed appropriately. The news is very important as it informs viewers of the events occurring all around the world, this implies it's a very serious subject whereby the presenter must appear authoritative and formal.The correct lighting is also inevitable when editing the background and making the report look real and significant. 

We used a fairly close up shot as we want the actor to stand out among the edited background we place over the green screen. It also appears more serious when its close up as audiences connect with the character more than if he was far away (long shot). 

We planned a script for our actor as we wanted it to be quite 'short and snappy' to emphasise the storyline as well as grab the audience attention.  We wanted to include where the source was from (MET Police), location and the main character in which our trailer is based upon. When recording our actor changed the lines slightly to make it shorter and more sufficient. However, I feel it is successful when drawing in the viewers and explaining the events which occur in our trailer. 

Costume Research-

For costumes, we have mildly decided what we will all wear to make the trailer appear as realistic and representative of the horror genre as possible.

For our clown costume, we have decided to edge away from the stereotypical outfit including the orange, yellow and red tones as we feel it would look too cliche and we don't want to copy our inspirational trailers. We thought the black and white diamond shape costume would work best as the black connotes death, sinister and scare. The red buttons and wig will work well when helping the red balloon stand out. It will also emphasis on the red balloon which we have decided to use in our title. We also want to get a mask, as we feel it will make the appearance look even more scary and hide the identity of our antagonist. I like the black and white costume as it's original and different to the type's of clown films which have come out recently and in the past. For example in 'IT' the clown is wearing a yellow jumpsuit with orange and red frills/buttons. This is too normal and we feel the clown wont appear scary enough in these bright colours. The only prop the clown will have is a balloon to lure in children, we feel a knife or gun would be to cliche and immediately show he wants to kill the victims.

For our protagonist we want her to be dressed in brighter colours ephasising on her innocence and vulnerability. We feel something like the image I have placed on the left would be suitable for her outfit as the lightly coloured jeans and top help subvert from the horror genre and make it overall more exciting. Nadiye is our protagonist, we want her to look unsafe and unprotected enabling the audience to sympathies with her. This will also help as she will be given prevalence, making the audience relate and connect with her the most. Warm bright colours suggest a positive mood and meaning which is effective in a horror film as it questions audiences about the storyline and makes them feel slightly confused. If we were to use cool dull colours the protagonist would look far more negative and scary which is what we want to avoid. Her outfit will immediatly reference her as innocent and the main subject as the other characters are either wearing costumes or dark black colours.

For our two bully characters, we feel a whole black outfit will be the most effective when conforming to the horror genre. The dark colours connote death, murder and misery which is what we want to convey in our trailer. We want the viewers and audience to understand who the bullies are and we feel by using dark colours they will immediately understand. The outfit choice will also look as if they are teaming up with the clown, however, due to the name of the trailer it's not quite what it seems.

Audience And Certificate Research-

Every film, whether it's a child's fairy film or a gory horror has a labelled certificate. These certificates include U, PG, 12, 15 and 18. The certificate is there as some scenes aren't suitable for the younger ages as well as having a target audience.

The target audience for our film is a 15, this is due to the story line, plot and characters. We also feel our film will attract this age group as it's not massively scary, violent and aggressive. 

A 15 certificate is aimed at ages 15+, this is due to the types of conventions, story lines and characters which are presented in the film. We believe a clown film would be rated a 15 as we don't intend to use massive amounts of blood and gore. A 15 must not display discriminatory language, however, there may be racist and homophobic themes used throughout the films. There may be drug use, however the film would not promote drugs or show scenes of highly dangerous drug misuse. Scenes including suicide, self-harming and hanging would not be shown in too much detail or effect the viewers. Strong language is permitted, however, depending on the context and person using it. Nudity, and sexual activity will be shown however in little detail. Strong threat and horror will be demonstrated throughout, although, sadistic and sexual threat will not be displayed. Violence may be strong but should not exaggerate on the pain or injury, the strongest gory images are unacceptable and sadistic violence wont be shown. 

Orphan, The Grudge 2 and Scream 4 are all examples of films certificated 15. All the films include fair amounts of gore as well as unnatural possessions. 

Actors And Props-

For our trailer, we all have an acting role whether it's a main character or someone in the background of scenes.

ACTORS:
Katy- The Clown. We decided that Katy should play The Clown as she was the only one who  volunteered to do so as well as being tall. We want the clown to wear a black and white jumpsuit subverting to the ordinary costume of a clown which includes red, orange and yellow tones. We will also be purchasing a mask to cover Katy's face so it appears far more scary. We chose The Clown idea as we have had many inspirations including the 1990 film 'IT'. We want to put a bit of a spin on it though, this is why we are using different colours for the costume including a mask.
Nadiye- The endangered victim who gets bullied by the two other characters. We chose Nadiye as she is the smallest and most vulnerable. The Clown becomes her friend whereby it gets revenge on the two bullies. We will begin to see Nadiye acting fairly weird and suspicious due to interacting with a 'Psycho' and 'Possessed' character.
Mae(Me)- One of the bullies who targets Nadiye and gets her comeuppance when she comes in contact with The Clown. We chose Mae for the bully as the two main leads had been taken and we needed two characters to portray the bullies. I will be dressed in dark colours to conform to the horror genre.
Chloe- The other bully who targets Nadiye, also getting her comeuppance. We chose Chloe as the two main leads had been taken and we needed two characters to portray the bullies. Chloe will be dressed in dark colours to conform to the horror genre.

PROPS:

The main prop we have for our trailer is the red balloon which is found in the title of our trailer as well as in the clowns hands at all time. We feel this balloon will be successful in positioning the audience to understand the clown is luring in children. It's also something which you see many clowns have and helps make the trailer appear more real. Balloons usually have happy and joyful meanings, however, as its used in our horror trailer it gives a spooky and mysterious effect. I will it will look really successful with the clown as when we are panning the camera and suddenly the clown is there, the balloon will give a much freakier effect.


We may also include a doorbell shot, this will be effective when showing the bullies are home alone and they get a mysterious nock at the door. It will create a tense atmosphere and position the audience to feel slightly uneasy. This isn't completely agreed on yet, although I believe it would be quite successful when portraying the bullies as frightened and overall making the film appear scarier. Many horror films include the unexplainable nock at the door whereby none knows who it is, I feel we could recreate this at our advantage.