Example of horror movie magazine cover

Monsters magazine is very well known for classical horror movies such as Dracula, showing gruesome, spooky images which I hope will be in my horror magazine so we definitely took into account the most important things that are on ANY magazine covers;

-A good magazine publication name e.g. gore,spook
-An eye-catching picture
-Good use of blurbs and straplines to lure the audience into reading

We made sure that these targets were met in the production of our horror movie magazine cover.

Shooting schedule

We were given the shooting schedule which was very helpful in organising how we would construct the filming of our trailer.
It was columned in the types of shots we would use, the location of the shot, the props required, time of day and the personal involved. By organising it this way we had a clear view of what actors would be needed and etc.
We started on our shooting schedule after looking at the storyboard because after having the visual of the trailer drawn down in steps, it would be easier to know what would be needed e.g. props.

Storyboard

A storyboard serves the same function in film making as an outline does in written projects. It enables the film director to visualise the flow of camera shots and sets that they eventually want to appear on the cinema screen. In our case, we want there to be a clear, drawn picture suggesting the events that will take place in our trailer and tell the story in still image.

We didn't draw on the entire storyboard consisting of 3 pages as our trailer wasn't too long, as well as everyone else's. The story drawn out seemed good enough as we payed attention to shot types and also the storyline that we initially wrote.

There might have been a chance that the storyline might change so we had a feeling that the storyboard may need to be altered later on.

Scripting

The way trailers are now, not a lot contain a lot of dialogue. The visual is more important to the audience, as I found out through my questionnaire. I tried to make the most important lines to give away a bit of the storyline more to tell the audience.

Every use of dialogue used in a trailer is very crucial as it portrays the content, theme and genre of the film

[To see clearer click on photos]

Health and Safety

Most groups in my class were filming in a lot of open spaces such as cemetries, abandoned buildings and even used builidings. Health and safety is a very important part of this project as the surroundings should be safe especially with the fact that a lot of groups, even mine would be filming at night.

The only part of the trailer being filmed in an open space would be outside of the hospital. Whilst doing this it is very important to be aware of surroundings and passers by as this was an open space. Before filming, I took out time to go to Homerton Hospital and take pictures of the most likeliest places where filming would take place, they were quite abandoned at night and not a lot of people passed by which was good.

Film title

We agreed on calling the film 'Ward 13' as the 'Ward' is an obvious word that it will take place in hospital grounds.13 is the number of the ward in the hospital that hardly anyone goes to and also, 13 is an unlucky number. Hearing the title alone sounds quite mysterious and daunting making the audience wonder.



'Friday the 13th' also uses s number which relates back to the film title 'Ward 13', what is so different and scary about the number 13? Do bad things happen on Friday the 13th? What happens in Ward 13 at night?

Synopsis

Ward 13,
Tagline: Promise is most given when the least is said


Based in Homerton Hospital, the story focuses on an enstranged relationship between a Doctor and a terminally ill patient. The trailer begins with
Doctor Lemmings, 27 in the office going through work as his colleague, Donna approaches him with bad news; his favourite patient Maya,, aged 13 has just from a terminal illness. Doctor Lemmings always visited Maya and they shared a good friendship. Maya didn’t have family and saw Doctor Lemmings as a father figure.Donna dumps Maya’s file in front of him giving him a rude look and leaves. Doctor Lemmings looks at the file then throws it to the side.
He takes his job really seriously and is working all night. He wants a promotion to make his wife proud. Later on, as usual, he is the last to leave Ward 13. As he walks outside of the dark, isolated hospital, he puts his briefcase on the floor in order to put on his jacket and sees the file he thought he threw away sticking out. On the file written in blood it says ‘You promised’. He looks at it in confusion, shrugs his shoulders then scrunches up the file and throws it away. Footsteps follow him but as he looks back he sees no-one and nothing. Someone taps on his shoulder. As he turns back he has a mortifying experience.Doctor Lemmings is now lying on a hospital bed with Maya resting her head on his chest and singing. Someone else places a cloth over Doctor Lemmings head then blackout.


‘Ward 13’
‘COMING SOON..’

Target audience

The age suitability for the many horror movies15+ who are most probably in college or university at this time. We were going to make it an 18+ as we noticed that since the film was set in a sophisticated place like a hospital with many adults then maybe it should appeal to an older audience which doesn't necessarily need to happen unless there were really ghorry images such as in Saw, all Saw movies appeal to an 18+ audience

The image above is of teenagers aged 17/18 who all enjoy the thrill of horror movies especially in a movie theatre to have the full experience. I took out research and interviewed the TARGET audience and focused around the key question;

WHAT MAKES A SUCCCESSFUL HORROR MOVIE TRAILER?

I also asked 4 girls and 4 boys (target audience) in the form of a questionnaire about horror movies..

(TO SEE QUESTIONNAIRE CLEARER CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK); http://i51.tinypic.com/b8jx1f.jpg )

RESEARCH & PLANNING...

This post and many of the above shows the research and planning that Me and Eleona took out..

We had already decided that our concept would be called 'Ward 13' and would take place in a hospital. There were also a few movies to choose from that had taken place in a hospital; 'Horror Hospital' and 'The Eye'.. The film 'The unborn' also ties in with our concept as the story focuses on a twisted child torturing an adult for revenge

Whilst focusing on this that links to Mine and Eleona's chosen concept, we had to pay particular attention to;

-PROPS

(^^^OUR OWN PROP^^^)

LOCATIONS/SETTING

There will be three different settings during the trailer; the hospital where Maya haunts Doctor Lemmings, the office where the conversation between Donna and Doctor Lemmings takes place, and an isolated room where Doctor Lemmings is being tortured.

-MISE EN SCENE

When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scene refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement - composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. We made sure that for the indoor scenes that the lighting would be quite mellow, showing a formal atmosphere and the dullness of Ward 13. A lot of the mise-en-scene was covered but did play a crucial part of this trailer as it reflects the theme of the film. A very familiar part of mise-en-scene would be costume/ make up as it shows the abnormality of the creature or even some cuts and bruises to make it look realistic.

-CHARACTERS/COSTUMES

will be wearing this patient suit throughout portraying a lot about her character, this part of mise-en-scene alone shows that she is obviously ill and in need of care.

[To see all costume photos of characters, click on following link]

Doctor Lemmings will be in the doctor suit showing a huge part of his character as well; professional, hardworking and neat. We took other pictures to see what costume he would be suited in best.

-THEMES/MOTIFS/IDEOLOGY

The main theme and idea of 'Ward 13' focuses on REVENGE, torture and the break of promises which results in payback. Maya chooses to take vengeance on Doctor Lemmings due to his lack of commitment to his 'favourite' patient. He eventually forgot about her and his attitude when he finds out doesn't help out either. He soon realises that he is taking a turn for the worst

-STARS

There are three main actors in this movie;

The main character is Doctor Lemmings, played by David Ajala. David Ajala has also had experience in the Television industry as he is an actor who has been in films such as The Dark Knight, Adulthood and an episode of Doctor Who. It was very fortunate to have him to be the main character as he is a fantastic actor and is very well experienced. Doctor Lemmings is a very hardworking and devoted Doctor reaching to the top. On his journey to hopefully receive a promotion, he forgets about his favourite patient Maya, then eventually regrets it.

Maya will be played by Hannah Ajala (myself) as I am very confident and strong with my acting skills and Mr Mazzocchi/Mr Rosen said if I wanted to act this character I could. Maya is a very lost character and isn't known well in the trailer; we only see the bad side of her as she tortures Doctor Lemmings.

Donna will be played by Emily who also has acting experience from studying Performing arts. Donna is also a mysterious character that works along side Doctor Lemmings but seems quite stern and assertive.

Horror iconography and ideology

The visual and written codes that are being used are all strange, scary and usual images luring the viewer into watching the film.

Information provided about the films is a tag line which is most of the time resembles the image on the poster e.g. Saw; "Opening wide this summer" which could represent the loss of teeth

Other information I'd expect to see is if there is a well-known actor/actress in the film which is sometimes common.

The film producers are trying to create a sense of danger and equilibrium (a state or feeling of mental balance) by containing a good use of graphics and special effects to make the audience wonder the question; 'How did they do that?' and by using catchy tag lines which creates a sense of enigma . The posters don't show the full face of the character on the person leading us to wonder who the person is. The dracula poster isn't what Dracula looks like at all which would make us wonder about the actual appearance of Dracula.

These films belong to a HORROR movie genre - it is very obvious just by looking at the images. The colours are quite dark and the movie names are very well known for horrors as there are different versions for 'Dracula', and different parts of 'Saw'.

Within films there are subgenres. In Saw there is crime and thriller and in Dracula there is thriller and romance.

They portray 'the other' or 'the monster' as a very fearful creature and something to be very frightful of. The image is the main focus and also can be seen as a kind of 'warning' sign.

I would expect for both Dracula posters to contain the age certificate but these are more modern movies that didn't really publicise age certificates

To understand the function of genre in film and how this concept is defined

This film poster portrays an easy way of identifying the film as a horror such as the title ‘DEVIL’ who lives in hell and feared by a lot of people. The film poster also contains many of the elements to make up the formula. For example, the icon on this film poster is very symbolic for worshippers of the devil that don’t believe in Christ by having this cross upside-down facing the direction of hell, leading into the title of ‘DEVIL’. · This symbol stands for the main ideas and themes of the genre as the bleeming red light is going down, like the victims in the lift, and also in the direction of hell.

·

The audience can easily identify this film poster as horror as a lot of horror movie posters contain images of torture, pain and discomfort. This also contains elements of the formula such as the victim in the image. In every horror movie there is always a victim that is being tortured, chased after or trying to escape. The look of this poster is important as it is showing the audience directly the kind of gruesome images that are going to be in the film, which can create a kind of thrill.

I also looked onto the itunes movie trailer website which contained all genres of movie trailers, including horror where there were hundreds to look at.