EvaluationPreliminary Task, ‘The Lesson’

‘The Lesson’

• In a group I created a horror trailer. We planned this with the intensions to crate certain moods and emotions and link to theories such as feminist theory and poststructuralist theory. In our plan we structured each shot with a certain purpose, however when we started filming we added a lot more shots and camera angles to enhance different moods and build tension we didn’t consider this when planning our trailer as we focused more on the narrative instead of how to engage moods and emotions with the audience. Overall I think the trailer was effective, even though it didn’t create suspense just left a typical cliff-hanger this is something we need to think about for a final task.

‘The Lesson’

• Our choice of cuts, shots, movement and composition developed most conventions of horror trailers. We used various point of view shots to put the audience in the victim’s position. The killer is shown behind a mask through a medium shot showing it’s a female which links to the idea of the postmodernism theory as most villain are expected to be males. Post structuralism argues that there is no structure and as in most horrors the males are seen as evil and villains we decide to change this and show there is no structure and a female can be a villain. We also link our trailer to Todorovs theory ‘narrative’ where it starts of in equilibrium and then leads into a disequilibrium ending where the audience is left on a cliff-hanger. The final shot is of a girl left alone - this links to carol clovers theory of the final girl.

‘The Lesson’

• We used both diegetic and non-diegetic sound in this trailer when it was appropriate. For example diegetic noise was used when the teacher (Lauren) left the room and the door closed with a bang this was effective as it lead up to the non-diegetic sound of the music which creates tension, the door slamming gives the music and entrance and put the creepy feel on to the student. We tried to used diegetic noise of footsteps of the villain however due to the shoes our actor was wearing we couldn’t hear them so we used the microphone on final cut and I walked on the table and edited it into the trailer. We looked for a soundtrack online luckily the one we found online match out trailer perfectly, So next time we need to take into account the timing and feel we want for the trailer so we can make a soundtrack of our own as it is very unlikely we will be as lucky again and find one that matches are trailer perfectly.

‘The Lesson’

• As we filmed this scene in a school we didn’t need to focus that much on the mise-en-scene. We got a mask for the killer to hide their identity linking to the iconography of structuralism conforming the convention of hidden identity of the villain. We needed a weapon for the killer to kill the teacher with, as it was filmed in a school we had some limitations and couldn’t bring in any dangerous weapons such as knifes etc. so we decided to used scissors which we could find at school, this worked quite well with linking the mise-en-scene to the setting (when doing another horror trailer we need to consider this if we want a weapon we are limited due to our surroundings). A big problem with the mise-en-scene is as we filmed it on two different days so the actors were wearing different clothes and their hair was different which when towards the consistency of the trailer affecting it negatively we need to consider this when we film the final trailer.

‘The Lesson’

• When editing the trailer we used limited shots such as transitions in the beginning which are used to waste time, We used this when the teacher left the room it expressed the time the teacher had been gone, we also used a fade which gradually introduced the next scene, We also used a blackout to introduce the next scene which created more tension as we cut on the action to make it look natural and realistic - using cut always and fades, this made the trailer realistic, dramatic and built up the tension. We cut the shots together in short burst to build paced and tension. I think the editing was effective as it created tension gradually towards the end on the trailer however we could of improved it by having more dramatic and jumpy scenes through out the trailer.

‘The Lesson’

• We used a camera and a tripod to film the trailer we experimented with different angles and positions to see which worked best in creating different moods. For example we used a high angle shot when the teacher (Lauren) screams “help”, as she is the victim and looks vulnerable - to exaggerate her position we used a high angle shot. We then used final cut pro to edit it together this was very helpful in placing all the scenes together and adding sounds and effects. Before the filming took place we looked at various horror trailers and theories to gain knowledge about horror trailers and their conventions this was helpful in giving us ideas on how to base our trailer.

‘The Lesson’

• In this process I learnt that planning is very important and looking at every aspect such as consistency with the actors, music and scenery is vital as it creates a sense of reality and continuity throughout the trailer. Due to my experiences from are practice task is that we need more serious actors and a more dramatic storyline. I also discovered that to make things easer in the sense of continuity we could film all the scenes that contain one actor all at the same time and then move onto the next character this will improve the consistency as we had problems with the actors hair and outfits in a preliminary task. After showing a few people out trailer the most common feedback we got was that we should of added more dramatic, skin crawling, jumpy scenes, But they all liked the narrative within the story and the idea of a masked killer. Although some people said they would prefer more of a ghost story (paranormal based) .Taking this into account next time we should do some market research on our customers and see which horror sub-genres are most popular and what people like to see in horror film which could help us in planning our next trailer.