Influential AS trailers

The main reason why this trailer has had such an influence on us and how we have learnt from it to help sculpt our own filming is the professionalism of every aspect. From the steady shots and variety of shots used and how each shot is lit is perfect for a horror themed trailer. The titles are very advanced and we didn't believe it was possible to create titles like this until now. We would like to look more into how they created such titles and what software they used and most of all if us as a great will be able to use it and create a similar effect. 

Something we are defiantly going to make sure we included inspired by this trailer is the use of insert cuts. We previously looked at the trailer for "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" which was upbeat and fast moving, jumpy and this trailer has a very similar pace. The use of insert shots are what creates this. Although it may take a little more time, these insert shots will make our trailer more interesting and experimental, less amiture which is what we are aiming for.  A step up and progression from our AS outcome.

Casting Our Main Characters

To play the part of Amy, the disturbed child. We decided to hold auditions, because we believe that in order for our trailer to be effective, it needs good acting. Here are pictures of the people who auditioned. After several discussions in our group we decided that the best 2 audition's out of the 5 auditioned below were Katie Beaumont and Leanne Shillingford, their two auditions shown in the video below. In the end we decided that Katie was bested suited for the part, as she fitted the needed criteria, being original, able to contribute ideas to make our production the best it can be. She is also willing to take part in any hours she will be needed for filming and pre-filming preparations. Her overall look is what we envisaged for our character. Although she is not as young as we would have liked we believe having a more mature actor will in able us to get the shots and the effects desired. A maturity is need while acting horror, and a younger, less experienced actor would not be suitable.

Filming Sqeduling

Above shows our schedule of filming. This is to help us get an idea of time management and to help us prepare. It helps show us what shots to shoot when, how many set ups we need, who is needed on set and what props or costumes are needed. We can use this to allocate group members with roles and responsibilities for example who brings what equipment such as the camera or costumes and finally who is needed at which time for each of the shooting sessions. 

Initial production company ideas (sketches)

Animation ideas:

Twisted pictures - the barbed wire shall curl and twist around the letting/title

Time Warp - the man walks foward with the wind blowing his long jacket and leaves brushed along the floor

Moonlight Productions- (bottom image idea) Water glistens (moves in other words) slowly 

(top image idea) The font text shall move in time with the ocean wave, just slowly but effectively

Gores truly - pages shall flickers quickly

New Visions - a magnifying glass will hover over a book and focus pull in to the text to highlight the production title

Production company name ideas

We decided after that we were going to brain storm a few names that have been influenced by the production companies found and studied during our research. Below is a spider diagram of a few names we are interested in using for our company. We wanted a name which stands out but at the same time is original and one that hadn't been used before. We also wanted to make sure that we came up with a name that can related to the imagery we want to use as well for example the 'moonlight productions' name can easily spark up various ideas to link the name to imagery the obvious example of a moon.

Production company research

(Unfinished post)

Animated Storyboard

This animated story board is a step up from our one we created last year. This one now is cut to the speed we want all the shots to appear in, and also have Incorporated sound.

Initial Sound Ideas

The main reason as to why I admire this well put together sound track is because it is extremely striking and haunting.

I have researched and found a brilliant, most helpful channel on YouTube called 'SFXSources Channel' that could be to our advantage and put to great use. There are many intriguing sound effects on this channel that we can use for our film as a best fit. I have found specific sound effects that most stood out to me and would be well-suited for our teaser trailer, i.e. Conveyor belt for filming in the underground and Turn Off Camera Effect for when we film the girl on surveillance perhaps.

We also found a great website where albums of different genre music sound tracks are available for downloading. We downloaded a horror themed album with a track called 'The Outsider' from the album titled The Dunwich Horror: H.P. Lovecraft. This we particularly found fitting and used in our animated storyboard..Below is the website used. http://www.jamendo.com/en/search/all/horror

Production Logo Design

For our teaser trailer we must create our individual, unique production logo design. Without a production logo our teaser, nor any film, is not complete. Preferably we wish for the logo to be very attractive and attention grabbing to make our own mark! So we shall instead of rushing and not thinking, take enough time that is needed to collaborate and create an individual logo that suits us best. To help gather ideas and inspiration I have researched a few existing famous production logo designs, these a presented below.


Presented below is Paramounts extremely well-known production logo. I have used Paramounts production logo design as an example as I believe it is a fantastic logo to help collect and adjust ideas for our own.

Again, another example to help with inspiration for our own production logo design

Universals' production logo:

Most production logo designs are in fact simple.

Warner Bros. production logo:

Dreamworks' Production Logo:

Overall, having looked at a few good examples, you notice that all differentiate in one way or another -in colour, images, proportion, sizing etc, but again, are quite brief - simple in other terms. However one thing you could say all do have in common is that they are almost global i.e. Universals design is simply an image of the globe; Paramounts design is high up in the mountains among the stars; Warner Bros.' design is striking yet again high above in the clouds/sky and DreamWorks' design is most similar and situated high among the clouds including an image of a little boy sitting on the moon. I now know to make our groups production logo bold, clear and concise.

Filming Practice

During our lesson last week, we went out with the new cameras to practice various shots we hope to use. We also had a look around for different locations to see if we could find a plain white room where we could shoot the little girl going crazy. Here is some of the footage that we took.

The shot below is of a fade of the same person, in the same position, but just located some where different, this is something we are interested in using in our teaser trailer to link the main character of the teaser trailer to different aspects of their life. This effect would also make our trailer look more creative instead of a plain cut back and forth better clips. The camera we were using to film this has a option where you can get the screen to split into a grid. This was helpful as we used this to position Taylor, shown in the video, in the correct place to get a smooth cut. As this was only a practice it isn't as accurate as we may have liked, but after a few more we will have this effect down to a tee.

This second video above is a time lapse. We wanted to practice this was an idea we liked from the start of the project no matter what the genre we wanted to incorporated this into our piece. Above we waiting  for the busiest time a school to film which was after the bell. This then gave us lots of filming time to the have enough footage to speed up in editing and also have enough movement of people to create a flow to create a good practice time lapse.