These nine frames outline differing elements of our final teaser trailer which use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
1 [Top Left]: The title of our film. We have chosen 'Hangman' as our film title. By having a one word film title it vaguely gives an idea of what the film could include, but it does not give too much away still giving a feeling of mystery in our teaser. This can be compared to a vague title of a real production such as Below (2002), instead of something like The Haunting In Connecticut which gives away the exact happenings of the film.
2: Setting/ Location. This screen shot of the house clearly sets up our location for our film. By having our film set in a house/ a rural area, it will give a feeling of unease for the audience. By having a horror film inside a house, it will show to the audience characters are not safe where ever they are and because the home is something associated with safety, it will give more of a feeling of fear. By also having this house in a clearly rural area (shown by all of the trees and lack of other people and cars) this shows to the audience if there are any horror film troubles, the characters will not be heard or saved. The idea of having our film set in a rural area can be compared to the film The Cottage (2008) which although it is a comic horror film, it displays how by setting a horror film in a rural area, there is nobody around to help the victimised characters survive. By having a horror film set inside the house this can be compared to many horror films such as The Grudge (2004) and Insidious (2011) in which the setting is inside a house, again showing that the feeling of safety inside a house can be eliminated in horror films.
3: Costumes & Props. For the costume of our victim characters, we decided to dress them in very plain and casual clothing, casual to give the idea they are just at home as normal and plain because we didn't want anything too bold distracting away from the action happening in the film. For our horror character we wanted something casual also to show that this is a real person, but who has come back as a ghost. The use of a dark jacket with a hood conceals the identity of the character, not giving away their gender or age. The use of the hood also shows to the audience that in some point of the film, the hood could be removed and therefore the identity of the character revealed, but obviously this is not revealed in the teaser trailer. This can be compared to the costume in The Haunting In Connecticut where the victim characters wear casual clothing, but also in the trailer for this film a visible ghost is seen very quickly and then dissapears, but they are also in average and casual clothing.
For the props we do not have a main one (e.g. our main horror character does not use a particular weapon), but instead there are random props included in our teaser trailer to increase the fear. For example, in the screen shot we have included here an axe is used outdoors, but also in another shot a knife is included indoors. This will display to the audience that where ever the victims are in the film, they cannot be safe. This can be compared to slasher and gore films such as Friday The 13th, but there are not any supernatural films we could compare our use of props used by ghosts to, as most supernatural beings in films use their supernatural powers on victims rather than house hold props.
4: Camera work & Editing. Throughout our we used different camera angles to try and capture our scenes in creative and interesting ways. We have shown this in this print screen in which we captured a scene reflected in a car wing mirror to display nobody there, then when the victim character closes the door of the car the horror character can be seen in the wing mirror. This adds an element of fear just outside the home, as it shows the horror character can turn up quickly and at any time. This can be compared to the various shot types used in the trailer for Below. Some examples of shot types are close ups of eyes are used to show fear which is something we have used in our teaser and establishing shots of the sea are used to clearly show to the audience where the location of the film is which is also something we have used.
5: Title font & style. We carefully chose our font to suit our genre of film, as we wanted to reflect this through the titles. From looking at other film trailers' titles such as Paranormal Activity and The Haunting In Connecticut we saw how the font type used is always sharp and harsh reflecting the horror genre of our film, as if it was a circular font it would look more friendly and less scary therefore not reflecting our films genre. We also used a white colouring to reflect the supernatural genre of our film, rather than having a red colouring which would reflect of a more gory, slasher horror genre. The colouring of the font we have used can be compared to the colour of The Haunting In Connecticut trailer in which they use a light/ pale blue coloured font to display the supernatural happenings as the colour white and pale blue are typically associated with ghosts and the supernatural.
6: Story & How our teaser sets it up. For this we have chosen a screen shot of the ouija board which clearly displays how our story begins - characters watching a television programme and then creating their own ouija board which creates havoc in the house with supernatural beings. The havoc is shown through many shots showing this e.g. the violent props and the characters always being watched, but this is also affectively shown through our use of editing them together quickly which gives the fast paced and exiteable feeling to it, showing the film will be full of action and create a lot of fear. This can be compared to the trailer for The Devil Inside where the storyline is set up through footage of police tapes and also the fact that the main woman is going looking for her mother, shown through the dialogue which sets up the storyline straight away.
7 [Bottom left]: Genre & How our teaser suggests this. For the screen shot to show genre we chose the still of the supernatural beings face. This still photograph is used very quickly in between shots of the ouija board. The photograph is used so quickly that it isn't exactly clear as to what it is, but it can be seen that it is a person. This shot clearly displays the genre of supernatural horror, as the person is seen with pale skin and blacked out eyes, something which is not natural. This can be compared to the look of The Grudge's main characters, in which they have pale skin and the little boy character has blacked out eyes, showing something to be feared of and which isn't natural.
8: How characters are introduced. Our characters are not properly introduced as our final product is a teaser trailer, meaning we will focus on the action. The victim characters are breifly introduced watching television, showing their interest at first in the supernatural. They are again all shown attempting to escape from the supernatural being inside the house. The screen shot we have included is a close up of one of the victims eyes, displaying their fear of the supernatural being. Our horror charater is introduced firstly through the fast cut still photographs of the supernatural being, but then in the film footage they are included frequently with different props and in different places following the victims. This can be compared to the Paranormal Activity 2 where there is a shot of the door with nothing there for a very long time which builds the tension, and then the horror character is there suddenly. This goes along with the idea that we have used in which the horror character can be in the house at any time. Also in this teaser trailer the victim characters are not introduced, but in the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 the characters are introduced, this shows the difference between the need for introduction of characters in a teaser and trailer.
9: Special effects. One special effect used is a dip to white editing transistion which fades scenes together. By having a dip to white instead of dip to black, it shows a change in the angle or timing of one scene, instead of a complete change of scene. For example in this print screen using a fade to white between shots of a victim character in the car then uses this transistion to go to a shot showing the wing mirror of the car with the supernatural being in it. If using dip to black instead this would give a feeling to the audience this is the end of the scene, dip to white does not.This can be compared to the dip to white transistion used in the trailer of Below in which this is used at the beginning to made the boat flash. In this trailer it is meant to represent lightening in the film, but our purpose differs from that.
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