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Location Photos
Equipment I Will Be Using
Teaser Trailer Pre Production and Planning
Teaser Trailer Pre Production and Planning
Teaser Trailer Research
Secondary
Horror Genre
Horror Genre
The trailer shows many typical codes and conventions of the time period when it was released. That helps to bring a feeling of nostalgia when watching the teaser, for example the voice over they have used is very typical of the time period and the way they use the voice over to repeat over and over again the title of the film “the haunting” really helps to make it stick in your head which is a very clever way of marketing it for that time period. Furthermore the way in which certain camera techniques such as extreme close ups and the way the camera seems to zoom in from above may not seem like much now but at the time they would have been very advanced techniques for directors to use in their films and would have made the audience want to see the film more as they will want to find out what else they have done. I feel this trailer would have been very well received by audience’s as it is well ahead of its time in some aspect’s even though it was shot on 35mm black and white film. I found this trailer on YouTube but for obvious reasons when it first came out it would only be found on adverts in cinema’s and tv I suspect. I would have thought it received lots of views when it was released due to it having a decent director (Robert Wise) and a popular cast which all go together to make a popular movie. I think from this trailer I will be able to use a few of the camera shots they used for my own trailer to make it fit the genre well.
The IT teaser trailer is very effective at hyping up the film due to it being in the horror genre. It does a good job of showing enough of the story line to keep it interesting and enjoyable but not too much so when you go to watch it, it spoils it. This means it is very good at enticing an audience into the cinema to watch the film on the release date (shown at the end.) In addition the editing used to pull this trailer together is very good and really makes the watcher enjoy it with the smooth changes to scene and exiting action filled scenes. To add on I feel camera angles and shots that the director and cinematographer have used are subtle but good at keeping you entertained with the different scene and cuts. As the trailer gets closer to the end it gets more and more intense to help build up excitement and adrenaline till the end. By doing this they hype up the film well and excite a viewer ready for the full movie. From this trailer it makes me want to experiment with the way they form this trailer with a slow start and then getting more and more intense as it gets further into it. I found this teaser on YouTube where it amounted over a million views and very few dislikes which shows that the viewers must have liked the trailer and many people have watched it so that is very positive for the production team with very little negative feedback. I have learnt from this a very good way of formatting my trailer to make it interesting throughout the trailer and to get it to start slow and slowly pick up the pace without giving to much away off the end film.
- The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)
Shot with - Alexa 65
Directer - Mike Flanagan
I find this trailer very clever in the way they use the camera and props to make pull it together in a very clean yet subtle way for example the camera pan they use throughout makes it feel as if the wall is moving not that the camera is moving by doing this it gives you the idea that the house is alive to add to the horror of it. In addition in the teaser they don’t shove ghost’s in your face they hide them in each room so you have to look for them like the one in the starting room on the bed or the one in the corner of the room in the second room. Furthermore the one take edit for the trailer makes it extremely smooth and clean. By them using an audio that makes you feel like a jump scare is immanent it keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout so you focus in well and notice everything. I enjoyed this teaser I thought it was very effective and clever and I’m sure over viewers would have felt the same leading them to watch the series on Netflix. It didn’t receive many views on YouTube where I found it but this could be down to it being a fairly new Netflix series that hasn’t had much exposure. The views it did get where positive which is shown through the positive responses through the likes and comments. The trailer made me want to watch the full series and has made me want to try and hide things in my teaser when I make it. I feel this advert was well received and extremely clever meaning I will try and use some of the techniques the director has in my teaser.
The Conjuring’s teaser really helps show how scary the film is going to be and how a horror themed teaser should be done, full of jump scares, ghost’s and confusion as the lady tries to get to the bottom of what is happening in her house. When the teaser is that scary it really helps to show how scary the full film will be so for frill seekers who love a horror this is perfect and will leave you frightened for days. The editing used helps to sell the full film very well and leave you wanting more, meaning you will want to watch the full movie when it comes out in cinemas. I find that the trailer is very good at hyping the film up, however I worry that they may have given to much of the film away and shown to many of the jump scare parts as when you watch the film you will already know and be prepared for most the scares and what is to come. I found this teaser on YouTube where it got nearly 4 million views which shows you it must be very popular and there is mostly positive feedback with positive comments. From this teaser it makes me want to experiment with jump scares and the way they edited them in so it would show you a lot of the scares but not all the full scare to save some for the film. My findings from this will help me when editing my trailer as I can use this video as a way of referring to what a good scare filled teaser should look like and try and borrow some of the editor’s techniques like how they would cut to black to make a smooth transition.
I have chosen this trailer as I feel it shows a bad example of a teaser trailer. As this was the remake of the classic “The haunting 1963” it held a lot of wait on its shoulder and I feel it failed and made a hash of the remake. They have chosen to use a very odd voice over to try and make it scary however I feel it just made it weird to watch and listen to and was far from creepy like they wanted. Furthermore I think the teaser showed to little of the film so you don’t really have any hints on anything other then the set (the haunted house.) There are a few good parts though I feel the way it sped up at the end to show what over films the director has worked on was very good and effective as if you like any of them films you are likely to like this one as well. Due to the age of the film the teaser trailer was uploaded to YouTube but the views on it won’t be accurate for how many people saw it when it came out on TV’s and cinemas. However from looking at online reviews you can clearly see lots of overs shared my views on them butchering the old classic from 1963. Although I wasn’t a fan of this teaser, I feel from it I can see what not to do and how to make my teaser better from it as this is a good example of how not to do a teaser, I just found it boring. One positive though is I did like the way the made the house into a face that was clever editing but over then that not a fan and I don’t think many overs where either. I will use this trailer to help me learn what a bad teaser looks like so I can do the opposite. When. You compare this to the original there are very few similarities over then them both being shot on 35mm film due to the age but over then that not a lot even the storyline has been changed around.
Mixed Genres
This teaser uses background audio very well it is not to overpowering and it fits in well with the cuts and changes in picture they have implemented, I feel it helps the audience understand what the narrator is saying as the non-diegetic sounds keeps you interested and watching overwise it would just be a man speaking. Furthermore with the slow-paced editing of the teaser it helps you understand parts of the storyline more and what it could involve as it gives you longer to take in the information being given to you, this makes the teaser very effective at doing what it’s supposed to do without giving away too much that it would spoil it. The cinematography is also very good with some smooth steady pans and some close ups to help evoke the emotions involved and also some footage that has been filmed and edited to make it look old which I thought was very clever as it set a good setting for the movie and you can see what it is based around. However I do find the trailer could have done with picking up the pace a bit more as I found after a while it became slightly boring to watch as nothing was really happening but I guess they did this so they don’t give anything away about the end film. The trailer was well received by over 6 and a half million people it got many likes and positive comments as well which shows an audience must have liked the trailer and would go see it when it is out in the cinema. This teaser has inspired me to experiment with steady pans to show filming skills as I find these are very effective and enhance the way a trailer looks. From this teaser it has helped me understand in more depth about pacing and the effects it can have and from this I think in my teaser I will try and start slower paced and end faster paced as I like the way that looks in a teaser trailer.
Due to the franchise being so huge now and with such an interactive die-hard audience this teaser trailer was long awaited and had a lot riding on it, I think that it did a very good job as well. As always, the cinematography was amazing and very realistic from the drone shots to the long shots, they were all executed fabulously which made it seem as if you were there it came across like it was in first person in a Way. I also find the way they make the camera shake as Kyio Rens fighter fly’s past is very realistic and gives a kind and adds to the first person feel the teaser is using. In addition I find the editing very good with the slow paced start and the fast paced ending I like this and find it a very good way of making a teaser with a longer start scene to engage the audience but then quick cuts to different scenes to show more of the film in a quick time period and not bore an audience or spoil the film. The audio helps to build up tension and obviously bring back the nostalgia of the original films with the soundtrack but they also very cleverly add in Palpatines laugh at the end which was very clever as it added a lot of mystery to it and really hyped the film up and added a very big talking point amongst fans. I personally liked this trailer so can’t find any negatives and from the 33 million views it got on YouTube most liked it to however it did get 81 thousand dislikes but that with people hating on Disney and the way they are killing characters off. I will be sure to watch the film as soon as it comes out after watching the teaser. From this teaser I have learnt how to use music in a very subtle way to add a lot to the interest of a trailer and how it comes across on screen so I will be sure to experiment with this in my teaser. Lastly It also makes me want to experiment with some drone shots as I really did like the way it made the viewer feel you were going alongside the fighter jet in the teaser with the speed of the camera moving forward.
- Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
Shot with - Red Epic Dragon
Directer - David Kerr
Comedy/Action
This teaser is very simple and you can tell when it was created they didn’t have a lot of footage shot ready for it from them using lots of footage from the past films they have already made. I think this is an okay way of filling space to be able to push out a teaser trailer but I do find that it is quite pointless as they are not really teasing the new film, they are just showing parts of the old films. The cinematography in the teaser is okay nothing special but that’s not what the focus of the film is it’s on the comedy of it not on the filming of it so you can look past this. They use a wide span of different shots all for different affects but mostly long shots of the characters as they interact. To add on the editing of the trailer is mid paced as it isn’t slow but it isn’t particularly fast either I think they do this as they don’t have much footage to show. I do not like the way they have edited previous films footage into the teaser as this should be a teaser about the new film not about previous ones. Furthermore the audio of the film is decent with both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds with the typical James Bond type music in the background but also noises of explosions and cars typical of the action genre, I also find that the way the characters speech is used in an effective way to show comedy parts of the film. Overall, I find that the way they use everything is very typical of the action/comedy genre so you know what you are going to get with this film. I personally do not like this teaser and it wouldn’t lead me to watch the full film and overall, I found that a lot of people shared the same opinion and the people who did like it only liked it due to it having Rowin Atkinson in it. From this teaser I have learnt how to use diegetic and non-diegetic sound together well and effectively without either of them overpowering one another and I will try and implement this into my teaser when I make it. I found this trailer on YouTube where It only had half a million views which isn’t a lot nowadays.
I find in this trailer the use of cinematography is very clean even though it isn’t the focus of the film, they still manage to implement smooth pans across the subject and lots of different long and mid shots which help to add to the production values of the film with lots of different looks they are showing off. Furthermore the use of the mid paced editing is effective at showing a decent amount of the film, but not giving it all away and the way they edit the over film titles the director has done is a very good way of hyping this film due to it having no big stars in it so I find this very clever. In addition the sound used is okay a very stereotypical upbeat soundtrack with the narration of the character over the top to give you some basic plot this I find effective but nothing special. However I do find at points the trailer could be seen as a bit boring as not a lot really happens. I personally liked it and with over 7 million views on YouTube with 121 thousand likes many other people liked it as well which shows it must have been very well received and enjoyed and I was sure to check the film out as soon as I saw the trailer. From this trailer I will try and use the steady pans like the ones they used on here and the mid paced editing which I liked a lot and found it really made the trailer come across as a well put together piece. My findings will help me with the editing and cinematography of the teaser as the way they did it on this trailer was very smooth and I like the smooth clean look.
Video Production putting theory into practise (Book)
I thought the best thing to start looking at for this project would be lighting as I'm setting up lots of different scenes with dark and scary themes, so I need to get the hang of lighting and how to make it look professional. I looked at the book "video production putting theory into practice" to help me with lighting and how it works. From looking into lighting I found that there are some of three key ways of setting a lighting rig up, single point lighting, two point lighting and three-point lighting all these different ways of setting up lighting would give the video a different look to it so I think from looking into this I'm going to try and set up a three-point lighting rig (as shown above) because this will give the whole shot a complete fill of soft light to eliminate any shadows or dark spots which single point lighting really doesn't do very well, as it only focuses on one area off the shot, and although two point lighting is quite good filling all the shot with lights it mainly only gets the front of the subject and would miss out areas in the background of the shot. So I feel three-point lighting would be the best way to go for most off my scenes from what I've seen from this book as it will fill the shot with light and look nice, clean and professional which is what I want. The book also showed me the difference between hard and soft lighting, as you can see above I've got a small screenshot I took of the book to show you and I think for an interview basis hard lighting would give of the best look for my trailer just because it really helps give detail and depth to what will be a static shot and this should help keep the visualises nice and interesting with a crisp clear shot to watch. Although soft lighting may also be useful as it helps to smooth out any blemishes and imperfections, I will not be using it as I feel it doesn't give the detail and depth I want in a shot. Furthermore, I found out lighting can be used in many different ways to evoke different emotions and feelings, it can be used to set the mood of the scene as well as a way of directing audience’s attention to different things in a shot, it can bring out the colours and contrast of a shot and make a scene look better and more professional and also it also gives depth to the shot and a sense of dimension which is which is really what I am looking for as I feel it may run the risk of being boring if the lighting and camera is all set up a bit naff so I’m going to try my best to achieve this hard, three point lighting to get the most out of my shot and the most detail and depth to it.
A Comprehensive Guide to Making Effective Teasers and Trailers
(Website)
Next I wanted to look at the basics of making a teaser trailer and how it should be structured to help me ensure mine fits with most teaser trailers and has everything it needs to include in it so it looks as professional as I can make it. They said the most important part when making a teaser is that you need to use your visuals to curate a mood for your audience so for my teaser I would like to aim to create a more dark mysterious mood and I will do this with more dark dull lighting and weird visuals. Next they talked about the structure you should follow beginning with a scene to hook your audience and get them engaged I plan to do this with a scene that makes you confused and wondering what is happening so you watch on. Next there should be explanation for the hook which I also plan on doing with some story building so the audience can understand some of the story and what is going on in the video. To add on there should then be a peak in the visuals where it is at its most intense which I will also try and do to keep my video engaging throughout. Lastly, after the peak your teaser should start to slow down abit to help it come to an end smoothly while leaving you wanting more. Which again I plan on doing with the use of the end scene linking to the beginning scene to wrap the whole thing up and slow the pace down while still leaving the audience wondering, which is my aim. I found looking at this website very useful and it gave me a good insight into how to structure my teaser and has helped me decide a few shots and where to put them in my video to ensure I stay with the generic mould and keep my audience engaged and wondering what will happen next throughout the teaser.
How to Make a Movie Trailer (Blog)
Lastly, I wanted to look deeper into how to structure a teaser trailer and what it needs in it to keep it engaging and structed correctly. This blog said that you should always start with the production company logo but obviously I won’t be doing this as it is just a student film. They then went onto say how important it is to establish your mood very quickly in the trailer which I will try my best to do so my audience know what they are watching, they then said to clearly show what genre your trailer is for next which could be linked in with the mood but again I will be doing this with my opening shot I have in my head. Then they said after mood and genre is established introduce your characters so the audience can begin to build a relationship with them which again is my aim to do for this project. Once that is all done you should then introduce your conflict if you have one which I will have so I will do this next to help follow my planned-out structure I am building to ensure my audience stay engaged throughout and find it interesting and professional to watch. A good tip they said in the blog is also to have lots of different action shots but not to many so it spoils your end plot obviously this isn’t as important for me as I won’t be making the end project just a teaser but it is still good to keep in mind if I want mine to look like the processionals. To conclude he said to end on something memorable so your audience is left shocked or wanting more which is the aim of a teaser, to hype up your audience ready for the full film. I plan to do this by linking my ending shot to the beginning leaving the audience shocked and confused so they want more. I felt by looking at this website it has been very useful in helping me really understand how important the way you structure a teaser trailer is and the order in which things are introduced I feel this will really help me when planning my teaser as I can story board along with the structuring that I have learnt on this blog.
Codes and Conventions
Horror Genre
Narratives - Signal is lost on phone, secluded location, car wont start, investigating noise, subject falls over so whatever is following can get closer, trying to find help but cant, haunted house and person alone finds themselves in trouble and cant find help. Themes - Death, murder, darkness, revenge, possession, religious beliefs, supernatural, vulnerability, nightmares and demons. Characters - Lady left alone, male ghost, damsel in distress, witch, demon, supernatural, Gothic figure, clowns and figure in white dress. Setting - Secluded location, church, grave yard, old house, forest, old area and religious places. Cinematography - Slow pans, close ups, extreme close ups, focus in on subjects and different point of views. Editing - Faster pasted as action begins, slow to begin with, quick cuts between subject and villain and jump scares made through cutting between different scenes. Lighting - Dark and dull, low key lighting, creates an eerie atmosphere. Audio - Silent before action then as action commences audio builds up to create tension and suspense, diegetic sounds like footsteps and floorboards, non diegetic sounds like creepy music to scare an audience.
Action Genre
Narratives - Saving the world, war, saving a group of people, world ending, virus gets leaked, secret service mission and retrieving something lost. Themes - War, killing, superheros, powers, secret service, agents, police, guns, good vs evil, taking over the world and lots of action and commotion. Characters - Villain, Hero, agents, superheros and police. Setting - Big well known city, war zone, secret location and high tech headquarters. Cinematography - Extreme close ups to gets characters fear across, close ups, far shots to show a lot of a scene for example when something bad is happening and quick pans to show a destructive scene. Editing - Very fast as action increases, quick cuts to increase tension and smooth scene changes to help keep you emerse you into the action. Lighting - Bright, flashing, intense, fast, dasling, fire and ambient for buring. Audio - Violent, loud, intense music to enhance action, both Diegetic for example gun shots, bangs and crashes and non Diegetic action music and current popular music.
Sci-Fi Genre
Narratives - Alien invasion, saving the world from aliens, planet ending, planets other than earth found and end of the world. Themes - Time travel, saving world, interstellar travel, alien invasions, and artificial intelligence. Characters - Aliens, other life over then mankind, a hero trying to fix the problem, villain making the problem and sometimes a sidekick as well to help the hero or villain. Setting - Over planets, new planets, remote desserts, on a spaceship, alternative timeline, and a futuristic universe. Cinematography - Close-ups, extreme close-ups to show fear, steady pans, long and mid shots help to evoke a directers idea and clean cuts to keep you involved. Editing - Lots of CGI to make these unworldly scenes, quick fast-paced cuts when action, long uncut footage while slower scenes are taking place Lighting - High key lighting, brighter lights when the action happens and lower-key lighting used now and again to help build up tension. Audio - Diegetic soung used to evoke the alien/overworldy type goings-on, for example, laser gun noises, space ship noises etc and finally non-diegetic sound used with music to help build up tension or evoke emotions.
Comedy Genre
Narratives - People meeting for the very first time, a lost item needs to be retrieved, running away from someone or something, trying to find love, moving to a new area and a key life event for someone like a wedding. Themes - Eccentric Characters, love Interests, revealing outfits, colourful outfits, crazy outfits, meeting somebody new and undertaking some kind of mission. Characters - Attractive females, unattractive females, attractive Males, unattractive males, hero, villain and sidekick. Setting - Colourful house, parks, big well-known cities, areas with lots of peoples, theatres and well-known monuments. Cinematography - All kinds of shots are used but a lot of close-ups help to evoke the comedy of the film through the subject's reaction, with also a lot of mid shots when showing a group of people ion one scene. Editing - Slow-paced with few cuts help to draw out scenes so the comedy being used builds up more and more, some faster paced editing helps for the quicker jokers to be implemented in a better way. Lighting - High key lighting is used to make scenes more happy and bright to help evoke happy mindsets to the audience which will intern help with the comedic value of the film. Audio - Non-diegetic sound such as music is used to add comedic value by using more funny soundtracks. In addition, diegetic sound is used as well to to make a scene more funny.
Conclusion
In conclusion you can see that they're are lots of typical codes and conventions for my genre and from this it will help me choose my chosen genre (Horror) and look at the general things that a horror includes when making my teaser like the type of location, lighting, editing and audio I will use. I can now just look at these typical conventions I have listed and refer to it when trying to make my trailer look as scary as I can and fitting in the genre correctly. So overall these lists will really help me when putting together the foundations for my trailer and being able to compare these conventions with other teasers as well to make mine the best it can be.
Target Audience Research
Surveys Primary Research
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have found from my questions that most people enjoy horror the most which means I am going to look into the horror genre a lot more and most quite a few people are making a horror so i can compare what im doing with them which will help me. Furthermore, people like forests and secluded buildings in a horror which is good as iplan to sue both of them locations. The class also likes mid to fast-paced trailers which again is good as I had alreday planned to do that. Lastly, people would like it to be an age 18 however i find this to be a bit high for what my teaesr trailer will be so this i may not use. My research has helped me solidify some ideas and plans I already had and now i know alot of people want me to do what I'm doing so I will do it.
Experimental Research
This was the video we edited in adobe prem pro we did this to practice are skills and see what we like ready for the teaser trailer editing. From this I will try to use the editing techniques I used in my trailer as I found it looked decent for a first try.
Here we experimented with the college's video cameras shooting a short scene of we made up on the spot to get some experience with filming and how to do it correctly and if the college's cameras would be good to borrow for my teaser.
Research Summary
Here is the video I made to summarise all my research, what I have learnt from it and what it has done to help me develop my idea further.
References
Aja Frost, 2018 A comprehensive guide to making effective teasers and trailers Aja Frost
https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/a-comprehensive-guide-to-making-effective-teasers-and-trailers/
All Trailers Promos (2018) The haunting of hill house Netflix season 1 Teaser Promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGWXeeO1xug&feature=emb_title
Catherine potter (2014) Bridesmaids food poisoning scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_AdXH59PEE&feature=emb_title
20th Century Studios (2017) Love, Simon | Official trailer [HD] | 20th century fox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykHeGtN4m94&feature=emb_title
Dawkins, S. and Wynd, I., 2009. Video production: putting theory into practice. Macmillan International Higher Education.
hollywoodstreams (2010) Inception trailer 2 HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM&feature=emb_title
Interstellar Movie (2013) Interstellar Movie – official teaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyc6RJEEe0U&feature=emb_title
Movieclips Trailers (2018) Johnny English strikes again teaser trailer #1 (2018) | Movieclips trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJoOuyayMKM&feature=emb_title
Mixed Authors, 2020. How to make a movie trailer
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Movie-Trailer
Movieclips (2017) Scream (1996) – Sidneys Chase Scene [1080p]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbPa3yZlkkI&feature=emb_title
Movieclips Classic Trailers (2013) The Haunting (1999) Official Teaser #1 Lili Taylor horror movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-iZbKuadnk&feature=emb_title
Star Wars (2019) Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker – Teaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=adzYW5DZoWs&feature=emb_title
Viral Screens (2017) Arrival – enter into the alien shell scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_AdXH59PEE&feature=emb_title
Warner Bros (2014) The haunting 1963 trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_hfcXc_l0&feature=emb_title
Warner Bros. Pictures (2017) IT – Official Teaser Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnCdOQsX5kc&feature=emb_title
Warner Bros. Pictures (2013) The Conjuring – Official Teaser Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb-jRz7HWqs&feature=emb_title
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