Film company logo

For our company production logos we decided that we should have two different ones. 
We thought we should incorporate one real production company and then create one of our own to have in it.
Production logos are usually shown within the first few seconds of a trailer, this also helps establish genre and potentially act as a means of persuasion depending on what the production company is. For example, a huge company everyone is aware of is more appealing as they would have creating films people would have enjoyed in the past - which therefore means they're trustworthy. 

We did some research and decided we would use Blumhouse Productions as they are usually associated with horror films. Recently producing films like Insidious, Paranormal Activity and Sinister etc. These are all strictly under the horror genre which meant it was appropriate for our film. 

Not only this, but the look of the logo (shown above) has negative connotations as it is in a dark corner of an old house. 

From here we had to then create our own production company. We decided on the name, 'White Productions', which was a collective decision made by the whole group. We thought this appeared to be quite sophisticated and simple. After deciding the name we had to then create a logo. 

We initially decided on a font. Again, we went for a more simplistic approach. We though the serif font looked professional and then we decided to capitalise it completely for more of a visual impact. Not only this but we kept the font colour black, which contrasts nicely with the white background we used.

We also then though we needed an image to go alongside the text, because the text on it's own is quite boring. After much discussion we came to the overall idea of having an 'eye'. We thought this because of the connotations that this holds.

We thought it holds the idea that you are being watched or alternatively watching something. The first idea links nicely to the genre of horror, and the latter sticks to the idea of film and the audience watching the film. 

Our finished logo looked like this...

Overall, we were very happy with the production logo and thought it contrasted nicely against the Blumhouse one during the production as they were screened next to each other.

Character ideas

Below are some ideas of where we got our inspiration for the characters from, and some examples of these characters played in genuine films.

Antagonist: Our antagonist is going to be a timid girl, who’s likely to be quite scared because of what is happening to her. As the film develops, she becomes insane and her mind takes over and she becomes a killer.

A perfect example of this in a genuine film would be Jennifer Lawrence in ‘The House at the end of the Street’. Jennifer Lawrence plays a girl who gets involved with a victim of double murder. Although the genre is different, the structure of her character is quite similar.

Here she is seen in a good light, looking victimised.

Whereas here you can see the threat is turned differently.

Before she turns into this mentally unstable person, we think she would liken to Natalie Portman in ‘The Black Swan’ before she hits her mental struggles.

This is because they both also suffer from the same struggles and also because they’re of the same age, around 22 and lead normal lives. Initially we don’t see any threat from the characters in the films, but this slowly escalates, and this is where we can draw parallels between the two girls.

Protagonist: Our protagonist has to be a scary girl, who doesn’t talk. This heightens the horror aspect and the mystery that comes alongside her character. She needs to look physically drained and scary – scary enough to cause nightmares and frighten an 11 year old girl and still have this effect when she is twice the age.

We have taken our inspiration for her appearance from the film – The Grudge.

Here we see that she has her hair in front of her face and we, as the audience, become unable to see what she actually looks like. This only heightens the scary aspect and the mystery too.

Also, the same idea is apparent where she is always there in real life situations. Below we see a photo of where this is happening and she is omnipresent in situations. This creates a sense of uneasiness, creating the overall genre.

Job Roles within Film

Within the production of a film there are a few main roles that are vital to be involved so the filming and post production creates a solid, final piece.

Firstly, there's the director who directs the overall making of the film. They visualise the script and guide the crew members and the cast in their artistic vision of the script in order to create a final piece that they have envisioned. They need to, however, be mindful of the films budget but they also oversee things like the casting and the production design etc.

Moreover, there's the Producers, these prepare and then supervise the making of a film before presenting the product to a financing entity or a film distributor. However, producers can't always personally supervise all parts of their production, as a consequence of this the main producer will appoint executive producers, line producers or unit production managers who represent the main producer's interests.

After this, post-production is a key element and here we have the Editor. The editor cuts and puts the whole film together after working with the raw footage and choosing the best shots etc to put into the final production.

Crew List

Frankie Roncolli: Director, Assistant Editor, Script Writing

Alexia Docker: Assistant Director, Assistant Editor, Sound Production

Gabrielle Royle: Editor, Director of Photography, Storyboard

Rosie Chatterjea: Producer, Assistant Editor, Make-up and Hair

Naming our trailer

When coming up with the name for our production, we initially decided we wanted it to be a single word. We thought that this would have more impact as this is generally the pattern that most horror films take with naming their productions, for example 'Insidious, Sinister, Halloween, Psycho and Scream' etc. 
We thought of a few different ideas, but they didn't seem complex enough and we were aiming for a title that had an underlying meaning or something that the audience wouldn't really get until they've actually watched them film. 

We looked on different websites for ideas, and discovered different demonic names, etc. 

In the end, none of these were really that effective in our eyes. So we moved onto a different way of sourcing a name. 

Here, we had to break it down and came up with the key words that were to do with our film. We wrote a spider diagram with singular key words and then narrowed it down to the word 'Dream' as the most significant and relevant aspect of our story line. 

From here we Google translated the word into different languages, but found that the Latin translations were the ones that sounded most creepy. 

As a result of this, we collectively decided that 'Somnium' would be the name of our production. This translates directly to 'day dream' which we thought was extremely fitting considering the fact the our protagonist can't escape her nightmares, even whilst she's awake. 

Star image and power

If our film trailer was actually gong to be made into a real film, then for the actors I would choose well-known, famous actors with a star quality. This is because of the attraction people have towards a film more if it involves actors that they like.
Richard Dyer's theory can be proved to make sense as people are more attracted to a film if they have an actor they like. He suggests that 'stars act as a profitable product' for the industry. 

Firstly for the characters of Rosie I would have Jennifer Lawrence play her.

This is because firstly she is around the same age of the role she would be playing. At 25 years old she is the perfect age to have just become a teacher. She also has played some vulnerable roles in the past with the same qualities that Rosie as a character has. For example, as she played the role of Elissa in House at the End of the Street, she was a vulnerable character with some strong qualities. These qualities, however, aren't seen in the trailer - but are seen in the actual film. This is the approach that we would make with the character of Rosie. 

Not only this, but she is currently a very highly regarded actress which means the appeal to watch the film could be based massively on having her as the protagonist.

Moreover, for the role of our antagonist - Evylyn Crick, i would have someone like Helena Bonham Carter play this role. 

This is because, as an actress, she is extremely versatile. She has played hundreds of completely different roles which makes her very appealing as an actress.

Not only this, but she frequently appears as the villain in films, which means the appeal for her to perform to role of a scary, old woman would be fitting. Physically, she also fits the criteria as she is quite small with prominent facial features that could be accentuated with the use of make-up. 

Finally, for the role of the young girl - Eleni, it would be hard to actually say who I would cast for her character. This is because, children of this age haven't made their mark in the acting world yet, therefore picking an actress to play this character seems fairly impossible. 

First draft of Script

SOMNIUM - 1st Draft PDF by groyley

New ideas and storyline

Once we had formed a new group, we began discussing our two ideas together. After coming up with lots of different options we could choose, we finally settled on one idea. We decided to keep the two characters that I had planned from my previous idea and put them in this idea, still keeping with the same concept that they are binary oppositions. 

Our idea was that a young woman has had nightmares all her life. As she gradually gets older, the nightmares soon become a reality. But a reality that no-one else can see. This is where the horror element is prominent because of the paranormal events. We found that the hardest part was finding a conclusion for our horror story, but in the end we decided that the victim of the nightmares slowly becomes insane and every person she sees becomes this scary woman from her nightmare. As a result of this, she begins killing people she loves (but sees as the scary woman) in an attempt to get rid of the nightmares.

From this, we decided we needed more to the story, and that the woman from the nightmares had to have a motive, or else the story would have no deep storyline. We once again, came up with different ideas, but eventually came to a conclusion that we thought best fitted the story.

Once we had the basis of the story, we needed to come up with more of the details surrounding it. We discussed different locations we could us that’d really enhance the horror element.

From the location, we then decided to develop some ideas of scenes that would be included in our film (if it was to be fully developed). We thought that lots of different scenes would make a good trailer, rather than shooting the different images in one location.

All the images are pictures of our planning as we tried to use Simon Pegg's and Edgar Wright's technique of using flip-chart paper to help map out our ideas. 

Research into representation

Throughout our trailer there were different ideas of representation that were addressed. 

Firstly its the idea of having a female protagonist and antagonist.
The Protagonist is a female. This links to gender stereotypes because the victim is a girl and this represents the weakness that is generally linked to females. However, it is a frequent aspect of horror films to have the character of the 'final girl', which could suggest a subversion of this stereotype that labels girls. For example Sally in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

Moreover, another aspect that subverts the stereotype is also having the antagonist as a girl. This means that the illusion that males are the more dominant, threatening sex don't apply here. This is a frequent aspect of lots of horror films in present day of having the antagonist as a female, for example The Woman in Black.

Finally, the idea of key male roles in the trailer are prominent although there is only one scene involving a male. This is when our victim runs to her boyfriend and hugs him whilst crying and asking 'What's wrong with me?!'. 

Here it shows that Rosie needs the comfort of George to help her escape from what is haunting her. This could show gender stereotypes, however it could also just show she needs comforting from someone she trusts - and that someone just happened to be male.

Change of Plan

Unfortunately, due to my work partner leaving the media class, it meant that I now didn't have a group to work in. I didn't think I could manage doing the whole task myself, which meant I had to join another group. This was disappointing because it meant that the work I had previously done didn't really count for anything. However, the new group I joined agreed that we could merge our ideas together, therefore meaning it wasn't a total loss. 

Research into different aspects of our trailer

Mise-en-scene

Here, I’ve looked at the trailer for Shutter Island. This was relevant I thought because it focuses on a psychological aspect rather than a gory-horror like feel. This is where we can draw parallels between the film and our trailer.

Initially we wanted it to be in an isolated area, where it’s vast, yet the protagonist feels alone. This is what we aspire to achieve with our main character, Rosie.

This picture shows the idea of no escape, which is what can be reflected in our film because she sees the scary lady in her nightmares and in reality, which means it’s a constant attack on her. The water surrounding it reinforces this idea that there’s no escape. This idea is mirrored in the picture below of the barbed wire, which could show protection, but initially in this way, shows no way of escaping.

The general setting needs to be quite cold and harsh, which is why we want to film at night, and in the winter, because this can add to the general setting of the film. We also want to film some of our shots during the day, on a bleak, cold morning. This can represent mundane activities, and the lack of brightness foreshadows something bad is going to happen.

Finally, when we are in the interior of our shots, we aim to achieve once again a cold, dull feel. This represents a life-less approach which we imagine is what our protagonist is feeling.

This picture shows colour-less walls, with one dim light hanging from the ceiling. This represents again the fact there’s a lack of items and things that the protagonist possesses and make the viewer almost feel uncomfortable at the fact the room is so bare. Not only this, but there's shaddows as well on the picture which once again can foreshaddow something negative is going to occur soon. 

Shooting

To investigate into the different shots of a trailer, I looked into the Woman in Black. This film is a horror; therefore the same genre is shared. Here we see lots of different types of shots. Most prominently are close-up shots of the antagonist.

These types of shots allow us to see the emotion of the main character; this is because their emotion to the audience is significant and allows more of a connection with the actor-audience relationship to be set.

Not only this, but it’s quite an invasion of privacy having such close-up shots, therefore going alongside our story-line of no-escape. The actor could feel uncomfortable in a situation, that’s why such a close-up shot is needed, and this is then bounced back on to the audience so they feel the same way.

There’s also fast paced shots, this creates tension for the scenes and shows the intense activity that’s taking place, which also reinforces the genre of horror.

This picture is a screen –shot of one of the scenes, and we see that he is moving quickly because it’s from behind and the actor, Daniel Radcliffe, is running away and scared. Not only this, but the figure is quite blurry, only reinforcing the scary effect that he is running away from something. We can use this in our trailer because it is a really good clip to represent a quick paced scene that is likely to reflect and scare the audience.

Another effective way of shooting is changing the angle at which each shot is taken. For example, low angle shots are really effective.

These pictures actually represent intimidation and could show a feeling of entrapment. This is vital for a thriller as it allows the genre to be recognised and reinforced simply buy the angle of a shot. Therefore meaning it’s very effective.

Research: A Nightmare on Elm Street

A trailer that is like ours is 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. We thought this was similar due to the content of the film being based around nightmares, and the fact they're similar in genres.
Within this trailer there are aspects which we can apply to our trailer, for example:

• frequent fades to black for dramatic effect
• dark, chiaroscuro lighting

• short clips to allow not too much to be given away
• really intense, graphic scenes

• an extended opening to allow the initial story to be set (also adds to the drama)
• shadows - this links well to the genre

• scary music which is intense and fast paced (links to the clips being shown)
• text has to link to genre, so in this trailer it's red (designed to look like blood) on a black background - to create a contrast

• voice-overs, in this trailer the antagonist says 'you have nothing to worry about' while the screen is black for a scary feel 
• young children being shown on screen and singing = very scary

All these aspects link closely to the horror genre, and can easily be applied to our trailer because they're versatile aspects. Not only this, but they enhance the whole trailer and the primary purpose of a trailer is to advertise and draw people into watching the actual film. Therefore, its vital that this method of advertisement is well thought out to bring in viewers to watch the film at the cinema. 

ADVERT - POSTER

This is the advertising poster of the film, that would have appeared on bus stops, buses, billboards and many other public places.

The image is actually quite simple with it solely having an image of the antagonist, however, this image is quite haunting as we cant really see his face but we see he is scarred and is smiling. This makes us feel like he is plotting something, alongside the fact he has his hands crossed over, with one of his fingers being a blade.

The colours are all dark, with a hint of red throughout suggesting negative connotations of blood, danger and fire - which is a key element of the actual film. 

The writing is placed at the bottom of the poster, which means it doesn't take away from the powerful image that takes up the vast majority of the poster.

Moreover, the writing is in red and white. The red links to the blood red text that occurs in the trailer, therefore creating a link between that and it's other mode of advertising.This colour, once again reinforces the negative elements of danger and fire etc.

The white, on the other hand, would usually suggest purity and safety. However, here i think it could represent the danger of the victims, because the white writing is small and infrequent, and is completely surrounded by black and red, which could suggest and mirror the story-line in the film that they have no escape. 

The text 'welcome to your new nightmare' links well with the content of the film, but this isn't a definite feature that the audience will recognise. 

The final thing on the poster is the date of release, this is in red again and stands out. This enables the audience to see when they will be able to watch this film if they're actually interested enough. 

Overall, i think this is a really powerful poster due to it's simplicity. It's clear what the genre is - a horror and therefore it will be able to attract the correct target audience. 

Contemporary Media Landscape and Exhibition

If this was going to be a trailer for a real film, i would like it to be viewed most frequently in cinema on the trailer reel for a horror film. This is due to the fact that it allows the specific audience to be targeted directly. This is because if a group of people are sat at the cinema watching a horror already, and a trailer comes on before the film for another horror, they’re likely to be interested and have their attention drawn to it. This is an easy way to attract the desired audience. 

Not only this, but another way of spreading the word for the film and its trailer is to create a website, i would choose to have the URL on the posters (another form of advertising), and have the trailer up on the website for people to see. However, the internet would potentially be the best way to attract an audience, because my target audience is of teenage males, they are likely to be using the internet. Here i would target mainly social networking sites, for example Facebook, where the advert for my film and possibly a link to a trailer, could appear at the side of their timelines, based on peoples' previous 'likes' of different films. Not only could it possibly be the most efficient, but it could also be the most cost effective way of marketing the film.