Finalising The Font For Trailer Titles

  

 When the editing process had first begun, I decided to use the font shown in the third picture as I felt that it was very simple, clear and easy to read. I did not want to use any fancy fonts as I though that this may prove difficult for the audience to read seeing as these titles only last roughly between 4-5 seconds. I had also seen a similar font used in 2009 slasher film Sorority Row as shown below:

After a while of using this font, I felt that it was too simple which in turn made the entire trailer seem very unprofessional. Because of this, I decided to experiment with different texts further and came across the font in picture number one. I really enjoyed this text as it transitioned beautifully giving the product a more professional look however once I watched it through, I felt like the blue and tiny sparkles did not go well with our footage or even the horror genre itself.

Finally, myself and my group came to the conclusion that using the same font that we had chosen for our magazine and poster would be most appropriate for the titles in our teaser trailer (after obtaining feedback) as doing so would ensure that there is a direct link between each of our three productions making them look more like a package and fit together better. 

The font used for the title of our teaser trailer on our poster

Finalised Font

Squirting Blood Effect

   

             

       

                         

Different Sound Effects Used In Twisted

When researching the importance of music and sound effects in horror films, I came across a quote from the famous Simon Boswell - a classic horror music composer who stated that "Music in horror films is probably more powerful than in any other genre."

I completely agree with Simon's statement as the visuals, props and mis-en-scene alone in horror films are not enough to build the tension and suspense required to captivate an audience whilst experiencing a movie of this particular genre as the different sound effects and music helps set the pace and convey different emotions that the actors actresses are feeling through out.

Different genres of music can be heard in horror films however orchestral music is the type that is widely used and can be found in classic iconic horror's such as Psycho and Jaws as it is great at building the pace and tension through classical instruments such as the violin.     

  

Through research, I also found that many horror's seem to use upbeat Pop/R&B music to highlight the equilibrium at the start of the film and then later on progress to the more dramatic heart clenching music and sound effects. A great example of this is in the 2009 slasher Sorority Row film. 

Ambient sounds (the background noise present in a scene) are also sound effects that are commonly used in horror films as it usually helps to portray the iconic isolated setting. The most typical type of ambient sounds are crickets, strong winds and owls which are also often used to represent night time.

Below are some of the sound effects I used in my horror trailer in order to build tension and suspense as music and sound effects in horror films play an extremely crucial role as explained above.

IMovie Vs Adobe Premiere Pro

Below is a short presentation highlighting the key factors that influenced my decision to edit my teaser trailer in Adobe Premiere Pro.

IMovie Vs Adobe Premiere Pro from Precious King

Landscape Poster Examples

Although the majority of horror film posters are portrait, myself and my group decided to challenge the conventions of a typical film poster and make ours landscape. This is because we felt our chosen image very powerful and once changed to portrait, it seemed to have lost its effectiveness as the picture appeared very squashed and cramped together whereas the landscape version (above) was very spacious and allowed room to add text without drawing the attention away from the powerful image.

Although this style of poster is not very conventional, I was still able to find examples of both horror and non horror film posters that have also been created in landscape format.

Let me in is a 2010 British-American romantic horror film written and directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-Mcphee and Chloe Grace Moretz

Grave Encounters 2 is a 2012 Canadian-American horror film, directed by John Poliquin written by the Vicious Brothers and the sequel to the 2011 Grave Encounters

Below are some location shots of where the majority of our footage has been filmed. It was important to take these shots in order to identify and chose which areas would be best for certain scenes. Also, preparing the locations in advance made the shooting process very time efficient as  no time was wasted wondering around as we all knew exactly where to go and could get started straight away.

(please click to enlarge)

Finding the correct locations and settings in film are crucial as it is an important visual enhancement for the audience and helps to set the scene, adding to the atmosphere and illusion that it is of the horror genre. The dark moody lighting makes the locations appear more dramatic and mysterious. 

The Making Of Our Film Poster

When deciding on what to do for my trailer poster, I thought it would be a useful challenge to try and attempt a photo shoot that I had never seen carried out in an amateur environment as I had no professional equipment to conduct such an activity which in this case, was an 'inside-grave-point-of-view-shot'. 

When looking at different professional pictures of this style, It was clear to see that an actual grave had been dug and the photographer had placed themselves in it in order to get the shot (as demonstrated above). However due to lack of resources I was unable to dig a hole deep and large enough to fit my whole body inside or even find a location that would allow such dangerous activity to take place so instead, I had to improvise and decided to cut through an old card board box to give the grave/deep hole illusion. Below is the box that I used in order to create the affect that the finished product had.

Below are some pictures of me taking test shot with two of the characters in my horror trailer using my DIY card board box method that I created.