First film idea

After gathering my results from my questionnaire, listening back to my focus group and take all the research and analysis I have done so far, I have finally came up with an idea for my horror trailer. However, I know I will need to accommodate and change any of my ideas if they do not work or I come up with anything thing better so the storyline may change slightly but my whole idea will stay the same as I feel what I am going to tell you is a good idea and is intriguing for the viewers.

The trailers’ setting is in a nice local village where nothing bad happens to any of the residents. However, a family with a 16 year old boy keeps on having a nightmare on a regular basis but the same nightmare every time. Ross keeps this from his family as he feels that they would not believe that it is actually happening. Every day or every evening he dreams of himself trapped in a very small space. He cannot move nor do anything, all he can hear is whispers. 

His Mum start to notice that there is something wrong with him and see’s the word “Death” on the back of his neck. From then on it gets worse and Ross’s behaviour gets more severe. The pace of the movie increases every time he is in the nightmare with tense music playing to build tension for the viewer. After the final title giving the name of the film, i will show a clip of the man that has been haunting Ross in his dreams but no one knows exactly who this man actually is…

As this is my first idea of my trailer it is more than likely to change to make in an improved trailer. However, this is my idea for now but hopefully I am able to think of better ideas. Also I am still yet decided on what to call my film but hopefully I will come up with an exciting name soon!

Focus Group

I carried out a focus group to help me make my final decision and asked 5 broad question to my potential target audience. This has helped decide on my final idea on what I will be doing for my movie trailer. My 5 questions were all about psychological films as I had already decided to do a psychological film. The four participants in the video are all aged between 16-18 and as my film is a 15, this was the right age to ask questions about. From doing this it gave me an understanding on what you should have in a horror movie trailer for it to be a successful trailer. 

Overall, the feedback I received has shown me that from existing movie trailers, I should not show too much of the movie footage because this will give away too much of the plot. The fact that some trailers say that it was based on a true story allowed the movie to seem more realistic, which is something that I are considering adding into out trailer for effectiveness. 
Furthermore, I gathered that three out of the four said they much preferred a twist. You’re trying to create an ending that’s so unforeseen that if a million people watch your trailer, not one of them would guess how it ends. The more impossible the climax is for your protagonist to overcome, the more believable and inevitable the escape or solution needs to be.

Analysing my Horror Questionnaire

A few weeks ago I created an online survey to find out what viewers of my target audience liked to see in a horror trailer. I received many people's results and I then analysed the results to give me extra information on what to include to make my horror trailer exciting and appealing. Below is a link of my analysis which I completed on slideshare.

Analysing my Horror Questionnaire 

Horror Movie Questionnaire

To find out on what people like to see in a horror trailer, i decided to make a questionnaire using the website www.surveymonkey.com. From doing this, It will allow me to determine the right target audience and this will help me to figure out what is best to use in my trailer. The reason why I used the survey to put together my questionnaire is because the website is so much easier than if I was to do it by hand or email. All you need to do is click on the link below and this will allow you to complete my questionnaire. 

Horror trailer questionnaire

Mood-board

This is my moodboard of front covers of horror movies. My theme of the moodboard are all black. This is because I see black as spooky and scary as seen in all the front covers. I have created my moodboard on http://www.gomoodboard.com/ which gave me an easy template to complete my moodboard. 

In the mood board that I have chosen, I have noticed that the covers are very dark and very menacing. Some of the front covers have focused on one character mainly children which make the front cover scarier as it is played on the conventions of the children being vulnerable and scared. The colour schemes of each front cover are all very similar consisting of red, white and black. They have empathised the villain on each front cover to make it more gory and appealing for the viewer. 

Initial ideas + Research into the horror genre

Horror genre research- Key Sub-genres:

 Comedy-Horror

Comedy-Horror combines comedy with traditional horror movie themes and characters. Because of the subject matter, Comedy-Horror films can cross over into the Black Comedy sub-genre. Comedy-Horror films aim to scare the audience, but also provide comical outlets that let the audience laugh at their fear.

Supernatural-Horror

Supernatural-Horror film is a sub-genre that includes ghosts, demons, or other depictions of supernatural occurrences. Often, Supernatural-Horror films combine elements of religion into the plot. Common themes in Supernatural-Horror films include the afterlife, the devil, and demonic possession. Unlike Religious Thrillers, Supernatural-Horror films are not limited to specific religious elements and can contain more vivid and gruesome violence.

Psychological Horror

Relies on characters fears, guilt and belief, emotional instability and at times the supernatural to build the tension and further the plot. The horror comes from the reality of this particular sub-genre.

Slasher horror

This subgenre deals with a lot of violence which usually revolves around a psychopathic serial killer stalking and killing a numerous amount of victims. The killer usually uses a specific weapon of choice to kill his victim. Slasher films are also built up on a lot of mystery and suspense and may sometimes overlap with crime.