Music Choice and Copyright

For my music choice, I decided to ask one of my friends to compose a piece of music for my trailer. I knew of my friend's experience using GarageBand to produce music beforehand, and decided to see if they would be available to produce a piece of music for my film trailer, more specifically, music intended for the horror genre.

As you can see, they have agreed to provide me with the two musical pieces that I will use within my trailer. Because I am not sourcing the music from a professional musician/record label, I will not require copyright permission, but will still credit the creator in the credits of the trailer.

Filming Considerations - Possible Actors and Locations

For my film trailer, I will consider possible actors and locations that would be suitable to incorporate to include within a horror film and, subsequently, a horror film trailer.

Possible Actors

For my horror trailer, I was considering people in my age range to act as the leading role. I quickly decided against this idea, as the psychological horror theme, in my opinion, would work best using an older subject as the main character. Because of the fact that a younger cast may not be able to carry out the slightly unsettling and 'empty' vibe that I wish to get from the character, I have decided to cast my own father in the trailer.

Possible Locations

Because of the nature of the horror film trailer (i.e. being more of a psychological horror rather than a physical horror that utilises jump scares/physical appearances etc.), I have decided to refrain from conventional locations in 'typical' horror films such as abandoned warehouses, old buildings etc. with the majority of the trailer being set in a dark street and then a dark/empty house, with no visible signs of being 'haunted', with the character developing the sense of fear themselves, thus creating the overall 'horror' aspect of the film. These locations are fairly simplistic, but, as mentioned, I feel these 'normal' locations juxtapose greatly with the 'abnormal' emotions and events within the film.

Half Term Review

Currently, I believe I am making good progress in terms of my research and production of my actual products. I am incorporating features and conventions that I have picked up via my research and incorporating it as best I can into my actual products, as well as continually researching new conventions and concepts to incorporate into both my main task and my ancillary tasks.

Over the half term, I hope to make good progress with all 3 of my tasks, as well as continuing to research more conventions that will assist this and document any progress I have made regarding any aspect of the creation of these three products.

Ideas for Film Production Company Names

For my production company name, I wanted a name that reflected closely on the horror genre. Because of this, I decided to choose a name that resembled the psychological horror theme that I was aiming to replicate with my film/film trailer.

Insanity Productions
This name seems to suit the theme I was aiming for, however appears to be a bit too 'blunt' as a choice for my production company, perhaps emphasising the theme or genre far more than is required. Because of this, I will attempt to soften the emphasis on the genre, but still make it apparently clear that it is a production company that focuses primarily on the horror genre.

Straitjacket Films
This name is a lot more practical, as it implies that the films are primarily horror and/or 'psychologically orientated' however never explicitly states this. It leaves the audience to think of a straitjacket and make the connection themselves. I like this name, but in my opinion, it is still a bit too 'forceful' and emphasises the concept too much.

Night Vision Films
This name is far more reminiscent of the type of name that I would like to name my production company. The 'night vision' concept does not necessarily refer to horror films, but these are most certainly a convention in certain horror films such Paranormal Activity. Despite this, however, I would like a more playful and memorable name, and this name simply does not have that memorable element about it.

Loose Screw Films
The name 'Loose Screw Films' seems to blend this balance of playful, memorable and psychological horror. It is not too serious, but also not too informal, as well as being a name that is reasonably memorable in my opinion. Accompanied with a logo helping to emphasise the name, this could be a possible contender for the name I eventually choose.

Silent House Productions
This name seems to also give that idea of playfulness and memorability; however, much like the first name, is far too blunt and obviously a production company that will specialise in the horror genre, something which I would far rather the audience figure out for themselves instead of being explicitly hinted at by the name of the production company themselves.

Progress Update - 11th February

Currently, I have finished my two print tasks (the film poster and my film magazine front cover). I believe that my final two versions are of a high quality, and suit the brief which I had chosen at the beginning of the task. The poster has a dark, empty and lonely feel, and also matches the style of the movie in regards to the theme put forward and the fonts used. The magazine deliberately does not include these conventions because typical magazines do not tend to follow the conventions of the products, and tend to adopt their own brand.

In my opinion, there may be a few minor improvements I could make to the poster, such as changing the positioning of the text, but this may or may not occur depending on how my thoughts change about it in the next few days.

Red Band Trailer Intro

Traditionally, trailers with intense content which may be suited more to older, mature viewers or audiences would have a 'red band' at the beginning of the trailer, before it is shown. These trailers are known as 'Red Band Trailers'. They differ to the perhaps more well-known 'Green Band Trailers' because of the fact that the content in these trailers are not suited to all audiences, and may contain swearing, violence, horror etc.

Because of the nature of my film trailer, I will add a Red Band to the beginning of the trailer as a precautionary measure regardless, ensuring that audiences are aware of the possibly frightening content within the trailer itself before viewing it.

Time Management Post - 17th December 2013

At the moment, I am happy with the way that my poster has turned out, and do not believe that I need to modify it any further than it is now. I can now focus all of my attention on my magazine cover which I am also working on.

This is the current progress of my magazine front cover. I am becoming happy with the way it is turning out. Today, I hope to fix the layout issues involving the text on the left hand side of the page, as well as the text in the lower half of the image. I believe that the text and colour scheme could be improved slightly, with some of the slanted text being straighter and some reds being substituted for other colours to reduce the heavily-red appearance of the magazine front cover.