How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research

Youtube- I used this website to find existing trailers to take inspiration from and analyse. Youtube was very useful because of how easy it is to find videos.

Google- This website was very useful for searching information about certain films I wanted to research and Google images made it easy for me to find posters and magazine covers.

Production

Camcorder- We used a few different types of camcorders depending on which were available at the time and they were used to capture footage for the trailer. It was a very vital piece of equipment in this project.

Canon 1000d- This is the camera I used to shoot photos for my posters and magazine. I preferred this over the college cameras because it captured more detail. I took my photographs in light then made them darker also. Because taking them in darkness just made them blurry without a tripod.

Final Cut Pro- This is the program we used to create the groups version of the trailer. I wasn't really a fan of this program because it was a lot different to ones I was used to.

Sony Vegas- I prefer this program to edit with, and it's the program I use on my home laptop. I used this Vegas to edit my version of the trailer.

Abobe Photoshop CS4- This program I used to produce the magazine cover and poster. I find Photoshop very easy to use so this made it very easy creating my ancillary tasks.

Planning, Evaluation and Research

Blogger- This website was very essential when uploading my writing and images from my computer to the Internet. I have uploaded here my research, essays, screenshots, and final products. Using blogger, being online made it very easy for me to do work at home and not have the trouble of keeping my paperwork organised. I have also used this to evaluated my project.

Flickr- This site I used to upload my images to then show on here. I used Flickr because it enabled me to annotated screenshots. It also uploads images to look very sharp as other sites can make images loose quality, so I used it to upload my finished pieces on.

Youtube- I used youtube to upload the trailer to show on here. Youtube is efficient when it comes to uploading as it gives you an embedded code which allows you to show the video in other places such as this blog.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The ORIGINAL first cut trailer for 'Dead End' was screened in front of the class and we got a lot of feedback.

Soundtrack

• They thought the music wasn't powerful enough and didn't seem to grip them.
• The music didn't build up to the end.
• They thought the trailer would work better with dialogue as it lacks it.
• In the chase seen it would be more successful to hear heavy breathing and footsteps to make the audience feel more like they're there.
• On a positive note they liked the heartbeat effect.

Mise En Scene/Filming

• Some people mentioned how they liked the setting of where we filmed the trailer.
• They liked how it starts off in a forest then when the lead girl is captured it cuts to a basement/boiler room/unidentified place.
• Tey liked the idea of isolation.
• They liked the shadow on the wall featuring the villain about to hit the girl.
• They like how a girl was used as a lead as a female victim/final girl is very effective in horrors.

Cinematography/Editing

• They like how the shot distances were very varied showing closeups and long distances.
• They liked the colour editing and how we made it darker.
• There is a glitch where the soundtrack makes a random bang while flashing to white in a shot. I think this was an accident made when moving the tracks around and wasn't noticed before rendering.

Overall the audience thought the original trailer was alright but the soundtrack let it down a lot as there was no climax and they were left not feeling very interested. Yet the version that was screened was only the first cut, not the finished piece so there were bound to not be things finished and finalised. The soundtrack was defiantly not finished at the time which is quite obvious when watching. Click here to go to the first cut group teaser of "Dead End".

Using this feedback I created my own version of the trailer which I personally think is more successful. After showing my friends they also agree with me that it's an improved and more finished than our group version. I found that my group was really hard to work with as when I would edit something, somebody after me wouldn't take notice then just edit over it again and then I would edit it again. Because we aren't the same person we had different ideas and seemed to edit it with our ideas in mind not noticing they all clashed. Click here to see my version of the teaser.

For my final cut, I have used some out-takes that where captured when filming, for actual purpose in my teaser. I found that these parts looked more real because they actually were, so they didn't have a fake acted feel about them. I added a texture throughout the teaser as I thought this added a much darker and distressed feel as the footage we had wasn't strong and dynamic enough.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I think that my main product and ancillary texts work very well together. I based my poster in a forest because in the teaser they actors are walking and running through trees and foliage. I think my poster is successful because it effectively establishes the genre of the move. Mostly because of the girls expression and the colour scheme.

Red, black and white are the colours used mostly in horrors, in the films and in their promotional package. I have added more hints of red instead of bright red because I think it worked better because it's more subtle. Bright red I think seems a bit too over the top horror like and is also used a lot more in older horror posters. I think that my poster works best with the black and white effect because I didn't think that for my poster the colour of the trees really worked effectively and didn't portray what I was imagining in my head when creating it.

I like how my poster shows a lot of dark tones which are made up by the shadows of the trees and I have created more darkness using a black wet media brush in Photoshop. I also just didn't want to use bright colours and I made sure my highlighted tones weren't totally white because it adds more to the dark feel. I like the texture I have created in my poster, the patterns of the leaves on the trees and the interesting shadows they create.

The girl's expression looks scared and all the trees seem to over loom her which belittles her and makes her look vulnerable. She also has an objective gaze which shows she has something on her mind. I have used a female subject because it relates to the final girl idea, plus because the trailer is focused on her the entire time (plus shots of the other guys and killer), it indicates to people that she is the one to watch. You tend to find females a lot more in horrors than males, especially as the victim because they are more vulnerable and hardly able to defend themselves. And because from research males watch horrors more than females, younger women are used a lot because of their attractive looks and ditsy behavior that would typically appeal to the male audience.

I have used a bold capital letter title for the poster as it stands out to the audience. I was inspired for this approach by Eden Lake and Martyrs posters. I would have used a more delicate font if this was a more spooky and paranormal trailer, but in this case it wasn't, so it needed a more textured and brutal looking font. I have then used a smaller and horror-looking font for the tag line 'the day she'll never forget' which is also featured in the trailer so it links in very well. I have also used the standard film looking font for the credits, which I think makes it look rather professional. I have also added a website to make it seem more like a real poster.

I have also added in the mask which I took from a screenshot of the trailer, and it sits subtly just behind her head which as first doesn't stand out, but once you've noticed it, it feels as though it's watching you, which enables you to be able to relate to the final girl. Overall I am really impressed with the outcome of my poster because I feel it gives the right message across, letting the audience know it's a horror and letting the audience know where it's set and allowing them to identify the main character. I have asked my audience if they think my poster works well, most of the people said it was good and worked well and I only had one person who described it as 'iffy' but since then I retouched certain parts to improve it.

For my magazine cover design I have used a photograph of myself (as I was the lead girl) and have edited the image to make it look as if I have blood on me and use a fearfilled expression to signify that it's a horror. I have used big bold writing for the name of the movie that's similir to the poster font. Thinking back at it now I wish I had used the same poster (preferably the one I used for my poster) in all my products to make sure they all linked so the font would be recognised by people after as well and connected to Dead End. I used a rough looking texture for my mag to give it that more distressed and interesting feel.

For my actual teaser trailer (I'm going to write about my version because I find that it's a lot stronger than the groups version) I have gone for a very mysterious feel. I have edited so that you don't see the 'bad guy' until closer to the end of the trailer, and so that the villains real identity is never revealed which would make the audience want to know who he or she is and want to watch it.

For the soundtrack I have used a lot of non-diegetic whining music that somewhat builds up to the end. I have also used some diegetic sounds such as the voice of one of the characters and the footsteps when running. The sound which seems to be of a girl crying is actually me saying something when it was being film played backwards to give that eerie effect. This actually made me jump the first time I watched it back.

The trailer doesn't really show much gore because I feel it really wasn't necessarily needed for a teaser, but it does indicate that there is violence involved such as the blood on the mask and the bad guy about to hit the victim. I obviously didn't want to give the whole story away and let the audience see all the gory parts before they payed to watch the movie because this is where quite a few movies go wrong. Especially in comedy movies where they show all the jokes in the trailer and the audience pay to see the movie and feel like they haven't seen anything new and this could destroy a movies reputation through word of mouth. So I think mystery for a movie trailer is rather effective. And it's also important to let the audience know how the story line goes so this makes them want to watch it.

I have edited the colours in the trailer so that at the start they seem serene and attractive looking, then throughout the movie the colours and tones get darker as the storyline does. This is an effective way of manipulating the audiences mood to how you want.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Above are four screenshots from Friday the 13th and then underneath them are screenshots from our trailer. I have chosen to use my version because I think that it's stronger than the one edited as a group. Because I worked on editing it myself I feel I have been able to stick to one idea without other people coming along and changing it again. A problem that occurred regularly when editing the original trailer.

1. Friday the 13th shows an establishing shot at the start to let the audience know where the film is taking place. It is also shown as a pan. The Dead End trailer also has a shot like this. I think this kind of shot works really well at the start as it sets the scenes

2. Both these shots show a people that are happy and enjoying themselves at the start. This gives the audience a false feeling that the people are safe. But in the background you can hear eerie whining sounds which then make you doubt this feeling.

3. These two shots are focused on a girls face looking shocked in a direction, maybe because they have seen the killer. The Friday the 13th trailer shows the 'bad guy' along side of the shots of the girl. Whereas the Dead End trailer doesn't show the bad guy until the girl has been captured, and it also shows a glimpse of the mask as the word 'forgotten' shows up.

4. I chose to compare these two shots because of their colour schemes. They both feature a dark blue colour. The bright sky of the Friday the 13th shot is similir to the bright like that is shown in the Dead End trailer.

The conventions of a teaser trailer are usually about 1 minute to 1 minute 30, my trailer is 1 minute 13 which I think seems to be a perfect length for a teaser.

Poster and Magazine

My Poster and Magazine Designs

My try at creating promotional material. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

Here on the left is my poster to go with our teaser trailer 'Dead End'. I have tried to go for a concept art feel by editing the photograph with different textured brushes to make it seem as half of it is painted. I like this effect and have seen it on many posters before and horror video games.

I have added the picture of the mask used in the film, and it sits subtly behind the girls head giving an eerie feel. It may not be obvious at first, but after you've notice it, it feels as though you're being watched.

I have gone for a black and white colour scheme, overlaying a hint of red on top. The black symbolises darkness and fear, while red connotes blood, anger but also passion. I also think that the white in this image represents hope, hope that the final girl will make it.

On the right is the magazine cover I have created that could also be used to advertise our groups film. I have used the very convention colour scheme, red black and white. I think that this magazine works really well. I have created a fictional magazine called Film Today because I prefered this over using a magazine that already existed. Plus I wanted the challenge of creating a name and finding a suitable font for it. By creating my own fictional magazine it has allowed me to create my own style of how it's layed out.

Here are my images that I used to create my promotional material.

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1. The is the original photograph that I took for my magazine. I captured the image with my Canon 1000D and stood by a window to get good lighting. I made my hair damp and smudged my make up to give off that distressed look like I'm running away from something.
2. The second image is basically a photograph of the floor outside of college that I captured again with my Canon SLR. I didn't just take a photo of the floor for any random reason. I thought that it would create a nice texture to overlay onto my images subtly.
3. This is the final edited photograph that I used for my magazine cover. I made the colours warmer because I found that the original image looked too pale and didn't want to give the slightest impression that the final girl is nearly dead or zombie like as this is giving the wrong idea to the audience. I overlayed the texture of the floor to create a distressed look. I also added blood royalty free stock images as I didn't own any fake blood when I took the photographs.
4. This photograph I took outside in my garden last minute when making my poster. I decided that the background in this image was weak so I replaced it with another image.
5. Here is a photograph of Fritton Woods that I took also with my Canon and I used this image for the background of my poster.

Here are some posters that I have researched. If you click on them you will see the bigger version and can read my analysis of them. I have also put my poster (the last one) with the existing ones to show you how it fits in well and has all the conventions of a horror poster.

You can see from these that depending on the film or company, they choose to put different things on the posters. For example some show the well known actors names, but it others if the actors aren't well known enough, their names won't appear on advertising. The Eden lake poster has a quote from Empire magazine with four stars on, but if the other films here haven't got a good enough quote to put on they won't have shown it. For my poster I haven't shown the actors name because I decided that I didn't want to use a well known actor (as they are very very expensive!).

Magazine Research

Teaser Final Cut

Here is my version of the trailer. I created my own version because I wasn't happy enough with our groups version using shared effort. We all had a turn at editing and acting, and got on well, but I think the others got on too well and didn't properly focus on what needed to be achieved. So I took all the footage files home with me on my memory stick and created this version using Sony Vegas Pro 8. I prefer my version because I have added text, re-edited the footage and used and put together music I think a lot more successfully.

Here is the groups version. Which unfortunately appears to not be finished.

Mood Board

This is my mood board which expresses the type of things I like to see in horror movies. As you can tell from this I really like the paranormal side like ghosts and eerie looking buildings like haunted houses. I think that forests work really well as settings for horrors as they are dark and dingy. But also because it allows the protagonist to keep on running but not knowing which direction they are going because all they can see are trees which I think works really well. You can also tell from my mood board that I prefer the main protagonist (the victim) to be female because they are portrayed as being really weak and vulnerable. I think though on the other hand it's interesting to see a female villain as it challenges the stereotype. Ghosts also work better as being female because they can be wearing dated flowing white dresses which I find very spooky.

My pitch for horror movie

I haven't really been able to come up with a good idea for a horror movie yet. I don't think my mind is evil enough. But I've thought of a few things that would be good in a horror.

• I like the way the main protagonist will make friends with someone but then find out later that this person has never existed or have in fact been dead for a longtime as I feel it really shocks the audience and makes them feel unsettled.
• I like movies with zombies in that literally chase the victims down and don't stop attacking until they are completely unable to attack as I think this is really scary.
• I think that forests and abandoned places are good for the setting, and running scenes with flashlights I think are very effective.

Results of target audience research

I would have target audience research here. But I was away when it happened and my group haven't given me the results ... and don't even think they did iiit ):

Conventions of Horror Movies

Horror uses many main conventions which all play a big part in making it a successful genre this includes setting, technical code, iconography, narrative structure, character types and themes.

It is well known for Horror movies to use small isolated places for good settings because it limits the victims and adds more tension and a feeling of desperation. Using small communities could make it more unnerving because of how they could be keeping a big secret about the area that the victims don’t know until something goes wrong and they are left in very scary situations.
Places with a weird ‘past’ are very good settings because this can be mentioned at the start of the film which makes the audience feel uneasy and know something bad is going to happen. It can also make the victim more paranoid as if they know the past then they expect something is going to happen. In ‘The Shining’ you are told about the terrible things that have happened there in the past, the characters are warned but they still stay there and you know right from the start that there is something weird about the place.

Abandoned places like old barns, circuses and 'haunted' houses can be very good for settings for a horror as they make you wonder why they were deserted in the first place, and could the same thing happen again to the current characters.
Homes are usually a good place for a setting for a horror movie as the ‘monster’ can be more shocking as a house is meant to be a comforting place where you feel safe, so when an intruder comes along it can terrify the victim. Scream was based in the victim's home, and had the tagline; Don't Answer The Phone. Don't Open The Door. Don't Try To Escape. Also in the same sort of style settings like innocent places like nurseries can be very unnerving because it’s becoming the opposite of what it’s seen in everyday life.

Camera work is a lot more expressive than naturalistic as it enables the audiences view to be quite distorted. High and low and cantered angles are used to confuse the viewers.
Extreme close ups are used to focus on the victims expression which enables the audience to identify with the characters terror and it also excludes threat from the frame because you don’t know where it is at the time. Sudden extreme close ups onto the ‘monster’ work very well to makes the victims’ and audiences’ personal space feel invaded.
Point of view shots (subjective, Steadicam and hand-held) are very important in a horror as they can show the audience what’s going on in the monsters eyes. For example in ‘Eden Lake’ there are parts where it’s being shot behind some foliage looking on to the couple by their tent in a very eerie way to show the audience that the victims are being watched and creates a feeling of paranoia.

Depth of field is also used to show the victim in the foreground unaware of the monster creeping up behind, and it can be either focused on the victim to show their expression while the monster is blurry to make it harder to work out, or the other way around which I feel isn’t so successful.
Editing pace can be changed to create a different atmosphere. It can be edited to be really slow which would add suspense, and also can be edited to have a fast pace which would be used for like a chase where the victim is running away trying to stay alive.
The colours black and red are the most obvious visual signifiers of the Horror genre, as black connotes darkness and death and red connotes blood and danger. Red can also connote passion and love which seems to be used a lot in horrors.
Lighting like camera work is also expressive to distort the audiences view. Horrors are well known for using low key lighting to emphasise shadows. Light shone from below can create unfamiliar shadows adding to the effect.
There is various mise-en-scene which would be included like sharp weapons preferably bladed as weapons such as guns don’t have as much of a gore factor and are over-used a lot in action movies. Masks are also good because they add mystery to who the monster is which I think personally is scarier than being about to see its face.
Innocence is played with a lot in horror making beautiful children seem very disturbing and evil. Because they are so opposite it works very well. To the left are two examples of when innocent looking children prove to be not what they seemed at the time, 'The Omen' and 'Orphan'.

[Narrative Structure]


In most movies like action and sci-fi the woman is there to emphasise the strength of a male character. For example in James Bond where he saves the girl, her weakness and vulnerability brings out his strength. But in horror movies the female role is normally the one being reckoned with and having to survive the terror herself.
Police in horrors are normally there to make the victim feel as if they are crazy because they police never believe them or just think they are joking.

[Themes]
werewolves blahblah

The Function of a Film Distribution Company

A distributor basically markets the film by circulating it around theaters and for home viewing, trying to get the largest possible audience for every new film. Distributing the film is a very important job and highly competitive, and is the most important sector of the process as this is how the film gets recognition as they don't accidentally become popular. For each movie brought out there has been a very thought out process figuring out how to create visibility and promote the film to a particular audience and they need to know a detailed and elaborate understanding of the target audience - age group, gender, lifestyle, social networks, and media consumption pattern.

The distributors also have to take into account when developing their release plans many other important factors. The competition from other films, especially ones targeted to the same audience can be quite threatening to the financial income. So it's important to make sure they set a good date for the film to be released so it doesn't clash with others and gets the full attention it needs to make it's biggest profit. It's also essential to recognise the star quality in the film. Does the leading role have a lot of good reviews from their last couple of films and also is the film made by a well known and successful director or producer, these facts can greatly influence the audience. If there is already a buzz about the movie due to stars, the director or if it's based on a book, this can give an idication to the popularity of the movie quite early on in the development. If the film is a sequel to another movie then the audience is already found making the process very easy for the distributors.
It's nessicary for the distributors to create a budget as early as possible to launch and sustain the films release's costs.

Marketing Plan; Create Visibility >> Raise Awareness >> Engage Interest

Posters have to stand out to the audience and to capture the main essence of the film it's advertising. They have to grab the attention from their targeted audience in competition against all the other posters being displayed. The posters will show stars, theme/genres, credits and often a tag line to tease the audience. If a director is famous and widely appreciated, their name will be bold on the poster, this is the same with cast stars. But if the director isn't very known, but has well known stars in.. the star's name will be shown but the directors won't be as the distributor wants to appeal to the fans.

Trailers are made up of audio and video footage from the film that's being released. There are two types of trailers. There's teasers that are about 30-60 seconds long showing just glimpses of the movie to 'tease' the audience. The full theatrical trailers are released shortly before the actual a film opens. They will show most of the best bits to represent the movie and to gain interest, but they don't want to be using all the good bits or the audience will feel disappointed when they see the film.

Online most films have official websites that offer extra information about the film and possibly bonus trailers, footage and stills.

Propp's Narrative Theories and The Shining

Vladimir Propp analysed many folk tales and found a common underlying narrative structure to them. This involves several character functions and many narrative functions which chart the development and resolution of the story line. We were asked to apply this to the horror film The Shining. We found that if you looked at the characters quite flexibly you could fit them into Propp's scheme. For example Halloran, the chef who can 'shine' can be seen as the doner because it is his attempts to rescue Wendy and Doc which provides them with their get-away vehicle. On the other hand the hero role and the princess role seem to be shared at different times between three characters Wendy, Doc and Halloran. The false hero is more obvious, it is Jack who begins as the main protagonist but becomes the monster.

The narrative functions are harder to pin down and I do not think that they really all apply to this film.

Overall I am not sure if applying Propp to the film tells us much about it although just the act of thinking about characters and story line as a sort of system does encourage us to think about the deeper structures involved in narratives.

Theatrical Trailers

A theatrical trailer, or trailer is a film advertisment for feature films that are due to be shown in the cinema. They were named 'trailers' because they started off being shown at the end of a movie (in the cinema) but this wasn't a successful idea because people would leave before watching them, but the name stuck and they are now shown to the audience before a movie. They work very well in advertising and normally give a general idea of the storyline without giving all the best bits away. They have to be made so they keep the audiences attention and leave them wanting more. They are the third most popular thing to be watched online behind news and user-created videos.

Friday the 13th (2009)

Director:Marcus Nispel
Writers: Damian Shannon &
Mark Swift
Release Date: 13 February 2009 (UK)
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Welcome to Crystal Lake
Budget: $16,000,000 (estimated)

This trailer starts off (and ends) with a voice of a woman asking the audience a rhetorical question about the drowning of her son while showing a clip of a lake underwater. The voice is very unnerving and gives the audience an insight as to what the story is based on as well as giving an insight to what is going to happen.

The music then starts off all light hearted and happy as clips of a group of young friends are having fun. As soon as the girls falls off the wake board the music suddenly fades out as the shot fades to black and then eerie sound effects are used when the girl sees a strange looking figure in the trees. The music creates the sense of fear and tension which is commonly used in trailers to evoke the desired mood. I like this effect of how the strange tension building music can change how you feel about the shot. If the music when the girl falls off the wake board was happy then you might instead laugh at this situation.

This music in this trailer builds-up then suddenly just fades at the end to leave the audience with a sense of wanting to see more.

One of big selling points about this movie is that Micheal Bay produces it as this is clearly stated 54 seconds into the trailer. He is very well known for other movies such as Transformers and The Unborn. The trailer also shows at 1:11 that the director also made 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' but doesn't state the directors name. I assume this is because the movie title is more known than the directors name.

One of the unique things about this trailer is that there are 13 deaths (which is linked to the title) in the movie, and in it we get to see each one about to happen but just as it happens the number of the death flashes up in huge white numbers. And the last numbeer 13 fades into the film logo.

The colours in the trailer are mostly neutral colours like light brown and green to start with giving it a very earthy feel, and then a lot for the rest of the trailer after a minute they are then dark colours such as dark blue with some shots being shown in black and white. I think that when editing our groups trailer it would be a good idea to possibly shoot with low key lighting then add in effects such as extra contrast and a dark blue colour scheme.

Click on the images to see my annotations <<

Teasers

A teaser trailer or teaser is a short trailer which advertises an upcoming movie. These are normally about 30-60 seconds long and contain very little footage from the actual film. They are normally released a long time before the theatrical trailer to make people want more, this is where the name 'teaser' comes from as it teases them by not showing very much.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

Director:Chris Weitz
Writers: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay)
Stephenie Meyer (novel)
Release Date:20 November 2009 (UK)
Genre:Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Thriller

This is the teaser trailer for The Twilight Saga : New Moon.
There isn't one specifc genre for this movie but the main genres for it are Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Romance and Thriller.
This teaser starts of with it being relaxed showing a birds eye view of the sea and cliffs then fades into a shot of the main characters driving up to the house in a van. The tension then builds up when Bella cuts her finger and a vampire lunges for her. This makes you jump as they add a sound effect just as it happens to build tension. You can tell this could be a horror because of when she nearly gets attacked by a vampire, and then when the red eyed vampire threatens her. This teaser shows a lot of special effects in production like blood, stunts and transformations which would make the budget very high.
The movie started off with not well known actors who have because of the first movie in the saga have become world famous.

Below is the teaser trailer for New Moon

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Paranormal Activity (2007)

Director & Author: Oren Peli
Release Date: 25 November 2009 (UK)
Genre: Horror Thriller more
Tagline: What Happens When You Sleep?

This is a teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity which is a horror released in 2007.
The teaser starts off with the couple testing out their new camera to film paranormal activities in their bedroom at night time then shows footage of what was caught.
The girl screaming at the end is a huge sign that this is a horror.

Below is the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity

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The Omen (2006)

Director: John Moore
Writer: David Seltzer
Release Date: 6 June 2006
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Tagline: His Day Will Come

I think this is a really powerful trailer for a horror as it's taken in just one shot and is very drifting towards the main subject (Damien the boy) which creates suspense as it makes you wonder why the camera is leading you that way. The camera work has been used very successfully to focus the viewers eyes on what the directo wants them to see. When I watch it my focus is firsty looking at the dog, then as the frame moves right my view follows it just glancing at the toy pony then back again to the right edge of the frame until the little boy appears, my focus is then held on him for a while then looking around at the scenery, and then when it gets close to him my focus is locked on this face which seems dark and evil.

I like how there is no music added in and all the sounds are ?diegetic?. The natural sounds like the wind blowing add a weird and eerie effect, and I like how the creak of the swing has been emphasised to be louder than the other sounds so the audience knows this is the main focus. I think the simplicity of this teaser works really well so when you first watch it you wonder what it's about as it gives you no clues other than a boy all in red clothes sitting on a swing. The red clothes he's wearing makes me think of blood and gore. You can sense from this teaser that the young boy is the main character, but also that he's the bad guy just by the subjective gaze that he gives you.

Below is the teaser trailer for The Omen

Return of the Repressed

The 'Return of the Repressed' explains the existance neurotic symptoms. It is basically the process where forbidden ideas that have been repressed and reserved into the unconscious mind, tend to reappear in consciousness or in behavior when triggered by something.


Neurosis (from the Greek νεύρωσις) refers to a class of functional mental disorder involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, where behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms.[1] It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic.

1408 Trailer

I chose this film 1480 because I find it rather creepy.

I like how the room the guy is staying in can't actually hurt him, but does all the strange things you expect to see in a horror like ghosts and flashbacks for example, but it's all there to mess with his mind and tries to make him commit suicide.