Actor Interviews

Character roles within our Trailer

The Clown (Antagonist)- Played by Katy

The clown character within our trailer stands as the sole scare factor within our trailer, so in this case we needed to make sure we used the right actor that would effectively portray the terrifying, psychotic clown that we needed. So due to the fact that Katy was tall and slender, it seemed like visually the right type to play the antagonist as both due to her height she appears very intimidating, but also her frame makes her appear as able to chase and over power three young teenage girls.

The clown as a character we wanted to come across as very mysterious, and leave a lot to the imagination and to the receiving audience's wonder, as we believe that revealing too much about the clowns, reasons and intentions on the three girls wouldn't be how a professional film trailers plot would be structured.

Jennifer (Protagonist)- Played by Myself
As one of the three young teenagers, I felt that both due to our project being different to our as production, we decided we wanted to change the type of roles we were used to, and due to last year, and me playing the antagonist, I wanted to challenge myself into a protagonist role and due to the fact that we are true friends in real life, we believed that i would have good on screen chemistry with the other two protagonists.

The character them self, shows to have  similar interests to her friends, but we also want to draw differences between the group, we believe that their way of thinking when it comes to overcoming the clown, Jennifer will be stronger and have different opinions to her friends, which will possibly cause problems when trying to overcome the psychotic clown.

Mae(Protagonist)-Played by Mae
Our second protagonist, Mae, would be more of a shy character in contrast to Jennifer's character, although will voice her opinion within the group, and often finds herself in the middle of the two other protagonists, Jennifer and Molly.

Mae believed that due to her success as a protagonist last year, she would be more comfortable returning to a protagonist role within our production this year. Our group agreed as we believed that she would be very well suited to the role due to her appearance as innocent and calm looking

Molly(protagonist)- Played by Nadiye
Our final protagonist Molly, is shown as a very domineering character within the friendship group, constantly bickering with the fellow protagonist,Jennifer,  She voices her opinion very often within the group, which we wanted to involve as to have a character that would be frantically panicking within the scary situation of being followed by a malicious clown.

Lat year Nadiye played the main protagonist in our production very successfully, and again our group as a whole felt that Nadiye's skills very much suit the role of a protagonist and therefore we felt she would work best within her role as Molly.

Costume Research 1

For our trailer. We need to think about our muse en scene and what would be the most appropriate clothing and styling for both our protagonists and antagonist.

As the antagonist and also in humane character of our trailer our clown character stands as the most important costume styling we have to consider. Our actress Katy will be playing th role of the clown and in doing so instead of creating a clown makeup look we have decided a more effective and frightening approach would be to use a mask and therefore have purchased the following mask...

The pale white face, in contrast to the bright red hair,nose and lips shows that the character being as important as it is will definitely stand out perfectly whilst wearing this. 

We were considering to use an entire clown outfit even considering to purchase a full checkered black and white bodysuit to give off the impression of a once professional clown. But we believed for an outfit like this it would of had to of been a slightly different story line. But with what was occurring in the media we believed it would be a good idea to work with what was scaring people in everyday life, and with the clown scared happening across America and some areas of England. We though the best idea was to use a psychotic looking individual who wore normal everyday clothes but still fit to the character, so we used plain black jeans, a black hoodie and black trainers. We believe this would be worn as the clown would want to remain as inconspicuous as possible. 

Questionnaire results

        

Questionnaire

1)Who do you prefer seeing as an antagonist ?

A)Male              

B)Female

2)How often do you watch a film weekly ?

A)None at all

B)1-2 films

C)3-4 films

D)5+ films

3)What location do you find the most daunting?

A)House

B)Alleyway

C)Woods

D)Park

4) What was th last horror film you watched ? Did you enjoy it? If not,why?

                                                                                      

                                                                                      

                                                                                      

5) Do you think that it is important to see the antagonist of a film within it's trailer?

A)Yes 

B)No

6)What is your favourite horror film out of the following?..

A)IT

B)Paranormal Activity franchise

C)The exorcist 

D)Drag me to Hell franchise

E) Cabin in the woods

7)What genre do you prefer out of the following ? 

A)Horror

B)Action

C)Thriller

D)Romance

E)Comedy

8)What film title appeals to you the most?

A)"Jokes on you"

B)"Revenge"

C)"Karma"

D)"Joke"

9)What do you find the most scary out of the following ?

A)Ghosts

B) Super natural

C)Clowns

D)Serial killers 

10) Whodo you think will portray a protagonist the most effectively ?

A)Yoing girl

B)Teenage girl

C)Young boy

D)Teenage boy

E)Old lady

F)Old man

Age Certificating Research

With our trailer being of the horror genre, our group wanted the opportunity to have the freedom to use more intense scenes and imagery within our content, for example the use of fake blood and violence and with frightening images, with our leading antagonist being a clown, many younger audiences would find the character alone very disturbing, but to really create a professional horror film image, we want to have the intense and frightening scenes that would make this happen.

With this in mind the thought of having the age rating of a 12/12a seems like a less likely option due to the bbfc stating on their website that "No promotion of potentially dangerous behaviour which children are likely to copy. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons such as knives. No endorsement of anti-social behaviour." which would make our horror an incredibly difficult task to fit into, as our horror being of slasher style and gorish instead of paranormal. The BBFC also state specifically that gore, violence and blood shouldn't be emphasised, and with our overall aim to emphasise and scare our audience make it extremely difficult to fit into this category.

Therefore our group are feeling extremely compelled to opt into having an age 15 certificate of our film's trailer, this is due to the BBFC stating under the threat section of the 15 certificate rating that "There may be strong threat and horror", which would make the scenes that our group want to film a lot easier to access and film without worry of being to much with gore under a 12 or 12a rating. Although it is specified that "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable", which our group may or may not decide to follow in theme, as we want to have the opportunity to use both paranormal and slasher style if we choose to,depending on the footage we get.

An age 18 certificate rating, This rating gives our group a a large amount of freedom to involve a lot of our footage that may not be acceptable for an age 15 or 12 rating, although we are given a lot of freedom to include almost anything, whether it be frightening or gory, Although we would have a major limit on who our viewing audience would be, as the major target audience for is young working class teens and adults, seeking thrilling fun, whereas older adults aren't as interested in being frightened.

In conclusion, our group is going to go for a an age 15 certificate rating in order to achieve a more realistic and professional looking horror trailer.

Inspiration for our Trailer

Our film trailer is very much focused on a slasher type of horror film, with our main antagonist being a psychotic killer clown, who follows three teenaged girls with cruel intentions. We took inspiration from certain style movies that really helped with the imagery and sense of plot.

Ouija: Origin of evil

The paranormal horror, Ouija the origin of evil, tells the story of a mother and her two daughters in 1965, who host faked séances as there main source of income, and in doing so allow genuine evil spirits into their home and into one of the children's souls.



The trailer for this film, effectively built tension and gradually became scarier, for certain scenes we would jump to a record player that we felt would fit 8nto our film's trailer, so therefore we also involved multiple shots of a record player in order to establish tension in our trailer. We believed that having this type of horror influence would bring a larger sense of paranormal to our trailer as we wanted to portray our antagonist clown as not in humane and put him at a higher capability of strength and power than our protagonists.

IT

The paranormal/slasher horror film, focuses on a group of adults who reminisce on the past, where they were tortured by a shapeshift6ing clown called pennywise.


We took inspiration from the clowns appearance with a white face and bright red afro like hair, which effectively stands off of the screen, we found that the clowns muse en scene through makeup was something our group definitely wanted to use similarity to as we believe it was a truly bold and frightening image that would effectively scare our audience. We also believed that through the fear of clowns being a largely popular phobia globally this type of fear factor would appeal to all ages.

Brainstorm for our Trailer

Our group thought that following our as thriller film, we wanted to change genres to put ourselves at a bit more of a challenge. With this in mind we believed that a horror film would be challenging in trying to find what scares the majority of the receiving audience. Again we tried to think of contemporary Day and what was relevant at the time, and we came to the conclusion of clowns. With there being a big media frenzy across America and some areas of Britain, we believed this would be an effective and frightening subject to cover.

We then had to think about how we were going to involve a clown into a horror plot, which is where we came to a conclusion of having 4 protagonists against one clever, manipulative and powerful antagonist, possibly paranormal ? With this in mind a possible title we liked was "Jokes on you" linking back to our antagonist. 

 

We thought that due to the fact that we were having a large clichè such as a clown involved. We decided we would like to subvert by having an all female protagonist cast, as usually in horror films there is a dominant male protagonist. 

 

Location also was proving to be a hard decision. But ultimately we thought do to our production being a trailer there should be multiple locations. Therefore we chose to film across roads, parks and homes. To show a variety of shots of both our protagonists and antagonist, to show an accurate summary of the film without revealing too much of a plot, like a professional trailer would do. 

Costuming and mise en scene is very important when it comes to our clown antagonist. We considered using making to create a scary and more realistic look. But ultimately decided a frightening demonic clown mask would be a better choice, paired with black clothing to fit to the tones of evil and darkness. 

For our protagonists we decided that although we want to portray innocence within their characters we still want to show some dark colours within their clothing in order to portray the correct tones for the genre, also sticking to casual clothing to fit in with what the average contemporary teenager would wear. 

Institution Research

The following film institution are of which that I find inspiration from and from which we will use to make our own logo for the film trailer, These are the ones that i find the most successful, well know and well designed.

Paramount:

Paramount pictures is all of a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributer. Beginning in 1912 Paramount pictures began, paramount pictures is one of the longest surviving film companies in american history.Following with success such as being the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital-form only, which shows a beginning of the future starting with this production company. This particular company is famous for the successful films such as Titanic,Forrest Gump and the Iron Man franchise, which grossed over a billion dollars.

DreamWorks:

DreamWorks studio is an american film production company which produces and develops films, television programming, and video games. Producing or distributing over ten films in the box office grossing over 100 million dollars each. Currently DreamWorks is in business with Walt Disney production. Staring in 1994 DreamWorks was created and continues to work successfully to this day, DreamWorks is well known for endorsing films such as Fright night, The Help and the soon to be hit The BFG.

Columbia :

An American film production and distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, Columbia pictures was created in 1918 founded by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, going public in 1926. Being caught in by Coca Cola in 1982, the company was in a joint business with the new production company Tristar, to which were both then brought by Sony in 1989. The success' of this specific company would come from films such as the James Bond franchise, Spider man franchise and the Men in Black franchise.

Lionsgate:

Is a Canadian- American production company,  It is the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. The company was created in 1997 by Frank Giustra, With the first mega success of the company showing with 2000's American Psycho.The company mainly focuses on foreign and independent films, although has branched out into more popular films that are well liked by the public like, The hunger Games franchise, The Divergent franchise and The Twilight saga.

Magazine Film Cover Analysis: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

This magazine cover shows the superhero/sci-fi film, Scott pilgrim vs. the world, which tells the story of an average boy who has to fight the 7 evil ex's of the mysterious girl that he is dating.


The magazine cover effectively shows the receiving audience the movie's genre through their use of imagery. With the comic strip like effects, with the bold red background, with the films main character" Scott", standing in the centre of the cover holding a flaming sword.


The colours used are eye catching and draw younger audiences in due to this, also with the advertised character appearing young, shows the target audience being of a younger generation. with his mise en scene, showing him to have dark shaggy hair, a loose faded t-shirt and jeans, typically what the average teen wears.


The credits within the cover show the films title displayed dark and diagonally across the cover, with the font in a bold but action themed. And the tag line above it "The force is strong with this one" showing a link to the successful star wars franchise with the use of the term "force", attracting fans that enjoy sci-fi films to attend the showings of this film in cinemas.

Magazine Film Cover Analysis: Spectre

This magazine cover effectively shows an iconic image of the famous character spy, James bond, who's name had built a franchise, bringing in millions from across the world.




The lack of imagery within the cover shows the importance of the film, due to the fact that audience's should recognise the actor, Daniel Craig, for his role within the most recent take on the character, within the years 2006-present with casino royale, quantum of solace,sky fall and spectre. The black and white filter casted over the filter show the timeless effect of the franchise, and therefore becomes attractive to new audiences as a highly acclaimed film.




The gun shown on the cover also shows some premise to the genre of film due to the violent connotations of guns, shows a dangerous and action themed film, which effectively shows the films genre.




The credits on the cover are shown as again very discreet in gold and white , showing the idea of not needing to use bright and eye catching colours to get receiving audience's attention, as there isn't the need to due to the reputation this franchise has achieved over the decades. With only one tag line visible stating "bond is back", showing the receiving audience that are fans to buy the magazine to find out all the important details. This also is a sign that the film is targeted an at older audience due to the fact the colour scheme is very plain and not bright or eye catching at all.

Magazine Film Cover Analysis: Django Unchained

Django unchained stood as one of the major pictures to be released in 2012, directed by one of the most appreciated and respected directors in the filming industry. The film stands as an important representation of what slavery was like in the 1800's, which is where the film is set in, 1858.

This is shown within this magazine cover, as an appreciated film as it stands as the entire cover for the magazines "oscar special", making the receiving audience become interested within the film due to it being critically acclaimed.

The spaghetti western that hit cinemas in 2012, depicted a new type of slavery film, with our hero, Django, who in an effort to try and save his wife from a malicious plantation owner, teams up with a german bounty hunter on a bloody mission. The violent nature of the film is also shown effectively through the cover, with the tag line "the good the bad and the bloody, something Tarantino is famous for is his cartoon like blood effects, and this tag line proves that this film will be of no exception.
Also the bold white film title towards the bottom of the page shows a smeared blood stain across it.

The actual imagery of the cover shows three male characters from the film, whose mise en scene presents the old fashioned western accurately, with a black character holding a large pistol as he holds a strong pose appearing very serious, as well as the other two white males behind him, but due to the black male being front and centre, this shows the audience that this is the main character in the film.

There is also another tag line written below the films title, saying " how Tarantino reinvented the west", again showing the receiving audience that this isn't going to be like every other western film out there, and that Tarantino's oscar nominated efforts into this genre is worth seeing.