Action Plan

Look for locations for filming
Create script
Shoot for magazine cover
Shoot for film poster
Experiement with creating fake blood
Filming
Upload pictures

What I have done;

Found actors/actresses
Set out a time schedule for filming
Decided on camera and booked it out

Regulation

When creating this promotional package, it is important to consider the impact it could have on society; Regulation needs to be considered. The BBFC is strict on film trailers as well as the films themselves but because the trailer is a marketing technique to advertise the film, I think there must be an agreement between the BBFC and the ASA. Since I have targeted this film at the ages 15-30, I think the audience would respond well because they can sympathize and empathize with the characters which could lead to them then going and watching the film once it has been distributed.

To decide on the 15 rating, I wanted to compare my storyline with similar films such as the Blair witch project and the Stepfather, both of which have a 15 rating. Being a psychological thriller, the Blair witch project is easiest to relate to mine following the BBFC guidelines because it falls in to the similar categories of strong threats and menace as well as the theme of horror which covers the mind playing elements the film portrays. It also contains some strong language which would be too explicit for a 12 but there aren’t quite enough elements to make it an 18 rating.

The Stepfather, on the other hand, is still a 15 rating but contains much more violence and horror than what would be expected. The trailer is a good example for a horror genre film and again shows how the audience relates to the young teenagers who are the main characters in the film.

These comparisons made me feel confident about the rating because the film would contain the elements of horror and imitable behavior which would also make the trailer a 15, meaning that the trailer would have to be shown after the watershed time of 9pm to protect young children.

[Watershed- time period in television schedule where adult content may be shown]

The ethnicity of the cast will be Caucasian, not to be discriminative but because it is based in Norfolk, the countryside of England, mixed ethnicities are rare around this area still. It is also linked to the representation of the characters; two white, heterosexual, teenage girls being stalked by an inferior class member who wears baggy clothing (while the girls wear provocative, attractive clothing) and is very reserved.

 

Start of Storyboard

This is the first draft of my storyboard for the film trailer. I haven't included many of the Mise-en-scene macro elements which will be in the shot but will include it in the second draft before filming.

I have tried to include some semitotics as well which would foreshadow the film and lead the audience to speculate.

I really liked the idea used in the Blair Witch, creating a film within a film. I used this idea as my base and developed the rest of the ideas from there so it starts with the 2 best friends making a film about one of their lives.

The trailer will start with 2 girls giggling around, on filming, one on camera, to introduce their project, "the life of Hayley".-Take one. From there, we get the idea that they are filming a documentary for a project, a close up on the girl shows that she is pretty and popular- a prime target for trouble.

Black screen- Two innocent girls...

There is then a montage of short filming in town, walking home, in her room etc which speeds up in sync with a laugh getting louder in the background before stopping on a silhouette in a dark room in front of a computer screen. The frame tightens as the voice over starts (to be decided and posted at a later date).

Black Screen- That are about to be in big trouble...

Voice over starts while a pan around the room shows pictures of the girls on the wall. The pan ends on the silhouette and zooms over the shoulder on to a Face Book page for Hayley, the main character.

Elliptical cut to restart the scene on the same page but in one of the girls bedroom which focuses on a friend request. "ooh someones popular" says the Filmer friends who then tracks the other with the camera as she walks in to the room. "OH shut up you" (throws pillow). Dialogue between them about filming and crushes. Hayley has enough and turns to the screen.

Black screen- Most gripping film for years (5 stars)

Few days has passed (change of costume) Filmer arrives at Hayley's home, camera rolling while merrily bouncing around saying "its time to film, Hayley? Where are you? We have a dead line you know."Rings phone, hears ringing outside. She walks through the Kitchen to the back door where she sees Hayley on the ground with blood on her hands and face (Screams)

Black Screen- The definition of twisted (4 stars)

Flashes of the silhouette between a steady zoom in on a newspaper bulletin reading "Dead teenager found by friend". (Voice over)

Montage of clips of the body on the ground (still shots?) mixed in with the pin board of photos in the room with the stalker.

Black screen as a doorbell rings. We see that the camera has been but on the side board as the girl (Filmer) gets up to answer the door. (Camera is recording).

We see someone barge through and hit the girl as she falls. Ruffles as the camera is turned off.

Black Screen- From the Academy Award winning director

Trailer recommences with the Filmer tied or huddled in the cornor of the room.

Black Screen- Kill to Be...
Out October 28th

We see a glint which looks like a knife and hear the voice over laughing as the camera approaches the girl and switches off.

Black Screen- roll credits


Subject to have screens added or edited out but this is the draft ill use while filming but worked this out to last around 1 minute twenty seconds- 1 minute thirty seconds.
List of items and clothing will be added

Genre development

Over the past week, I have made some progress, deciding on the genre and what could happen.

I'm going to follow the genre of a thriller, more specifically a pysocoloical thriller about stalkers. After the feedback I got from the target audience at the cinema, I feel that this will be appealing to them and that there is a gap on the market for this type of film.

The top ten stalker films are as follows;
1. Fatal Attraction [1987]
2. Scream [1996]
3. Taxi Driver [1976]
4. Cape Fear [1991]
5. The Fan [1996]
6. Fear [1996]
7. One Hour Photo [2002]
8. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle [1992]
9. Single White Female [1992]
10. Sleeping with the Enemy [1991]

There has been an eight year gap since One Hour Photo made the list, reinforcing the fact that there is a gap on the market for this type of film, usually released around October time to tie in with Halloween- the time for all horrors and thrillers to be released because of the connotations it will portray with the halloween holiday.

After studying the trailers, posters and other marketing techniques of these films, I have come to the following conclusion;

• I will need to use red writing on the poster, and possibly the magazine and film trailer as it signifys danger, blood and death- a typical convention of a horror/thriller
• Use young people (teenagers) as they are the most vulnerable and always the target in a horror film. (Hard Candy is similar in this meaning, a peadophile grooming a young teenage girl)
•  To build up suspense and keep the storyline a mystery, I will need to use a range of shot types such as establishing shot, wide shots,  mainly close ups to show the emotion of the characters. I really likes the trailer for Single White Female- after the credits at the 'end' of the trailer, there is an added shot on the end which makes the audience jump because it is unexpected.
• Faded transitions are very strong in keeping the running of the trailer instead of fast cuts. It builds up suspense for the films, the opposite of what would be expected. For example, Shutter Island trailer uses faded transitions which work extremely well with the close ups of DiCaprio's face.
• Music and pace would change midway through the trailer and become more fast paced which is another convention of the horror/thriller genre
• Music is usually slow paced and quiet, gradually building up, some with voiceovers- an element I would like to incorporate.