Our horror trailer ‘The Plague’ is about a
disease that has caused the death of many innocents in the past, which returns
to a local school infecting few schoolgirls, along with the ghost of a
schoolgirl seeking revenge for the death she didn’t deserve.
In the creating of the production I
played several roles, some including camera work in scenes one being the
birds eye view of one character dead on the floor, this shot helped create a
dramatic and scary effect. I had to ensure that my group was always on task
and fully equipped. When I wasn’t in the scene acting, I was directing and
filming. I used a wide of camera angles this was supported by a checklist of
camera angles that my group came up with. Using different angles gave each
scene its own twist; it conveyed different emotions and status. The camera
angles we used were included; Extreme long shot, long shot, mid shot, close up,
extreme close up, birds eye angle, high angle, eye-level angle, low angle,
dutch angle, tracking shot, panning and a evangelion shot. The high angle shot
can make the subject look small or weak or vulnerable while a low-angle
shot is taken from below the subject and has the power to make the subject look
powerful or threatening. The extreme close up shot, which has one body part
usually, was my eyes in our trailer. While directing I took on aboard
everyone’s views and put the surroundings into prospective and thought about
what may make the horror trailer more effective. I positioned the actors in a
manner that would make the trailer a success and help the actor express their
character better. As an actor I had the role of a schoolgirl who saw the ghost
of Lisa whom died of the ‘The plaque’ and is back to seek revenge for her death
by giving the symptoms of the plague to those who set eyes on her. Being an
actor I had to convey a lot of emotion and help make the act believable. Lastly
I contributed in the editing of the trailer and help finding, picking and
putting in the sound effects. All the roles I played in this production were
important and crucial to it becoming a success.
The lessons at school were used for the planning, research
and filming of the scenes for our trailer.
Horror films often deal with the
viewer's nightmares, hidden fears and terror of the unknown.
Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and
dread for the audience. Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil
force, person, or event. Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as
ghosts, vampires, and zombies. The horror genre includes a wide variety of
sub-genres within it such as, Monster-Horror; a Monster film is sub-genre of
Horror that centers on a struggle between human beings and a monsters. Often,
the monster in the film has been created in an ‘experiment gone wrong.’ The
monster usually serves as a villain, and the film portrays a hero or heroine
that ultimately saves the world from the monster. Slasher; slasher is a Horror
film that revolves around a psychopathic killer. This killer stalks and murders
his victims in extremely violent and memorable ways.
Zombie-Horror; Zombie film is a sub-genre
of Horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raised from the
dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion, and center around Zombies
feasting on human flesh. Psychological,
(surreal) this subgenre is usually written from a tight viewpoint. Is the
protagonist really seeing terrible things, perhaps battling against demonic
possession. The subgenre that we choose was supernatural. These stories focus
on various types of monster from the ‘beyond’ and are back to ruin the lives of
a suffering humanity. Ending up in some characters going mad and most dying.
Conventions we used in our horror trailers were: blood, isolated settings,
evil, screams, darkness, ghost, deaths, and disease. The movie ‘Woman in black’
inspired us because it uses a supernatural killer. Also it explores the
theme of revenge, which is relevant to our trailer as the killer ‘Lisa’ seeks
revenge for having her life taken away at such a young age, whereas teenagers
today carry on living with their lives. Another similar aspect is that the
woman in black only takes lives when she is seen which is how the deaths of our
characters occur when they see ‘Lisa.’ Before we started filming as a group we
decided to make a blog in which we all could take turns and contribute ideas to
about the production. We believed getting our ideas done before we film would
help us get a good idea about what we had to do and what our plot and
everything was about. We decided on costume, camera angles, plot and location
before we started any filming. I believe my group overcame any problems and
difficulties by discussing it and agreeing on a solution that was fine with
everyone. During editing we learnt really quickly about the effects and what
would go well to make it scary. The only problems were the fact we had to share
the laptop with another group and their work went on to save during our lesson
times making us lose some editing time but we overcame this by coming after
school. Time was a big problem. With music, my whole group took turns in
listening to the music that each of us found as we thought it was suitable and
decided on the ones that were appropriate. We picked out the times and scenes
that they should be put on, same with the sound effects.
Overall, I believe my group worked really
well together, we overcame any problems by discussing it and wasn’t afraid to
speak out if we wasn’t happy with the decisions that were made. We solved them
by discussing it and finding new solutions that everyone was on board with. My
favourite scene in this trailer is the quick cut shots of Halana standing in
the dark theatre facing away from the ghost figure of Vesa (Lisa) whom is
behind her but every scene where it is cut she comes closer to Halana and on
the 3rd scene she is right behind Halana. This scene makes the viewer jumpy and
gives it the horror atmosphere to the trailer. Also Vesa’s make up makes it
scarier and suits the situation. We showed the 3 victims as friends and typical
teenagers, also we showed other students walking around to a show typical
school in our trailer and we showed the killer to be alone and emotionless in
every scene.
