Trailer Progress - March 2010

Today we started to complete the editing for our trailer by trimming clips and filling gaps with various clips and captions in order to make the plot make sense and to make sure the audience understand clearly what is going on. We decided it was appropriate to delete the existing captions because they didn't fit in with the clips and didn't make sense. We then decided that we need to add some sort of a caption to the beginning of the clip because it didn't really have an opening and sent mixed messages to the audience because it didn't really give anything away which we thought would confuse the audience. We decided to open the trailer with a clip of two hands together to symbolize the love theme of the trailer as well as to introduce the audience to the plot. We then decided to add the tagline 'they thought nothing - would tear them apart' so that the audience could see that the trailer is about love and a relationship. We want the audience to sympathize with the characters, especially our main character 'Isa' played by Georgia White. By showing a "normal" clip of the characters it allows the audience to identify with the characters straight away. However the initial clip of the hands was too dark so the lighting and contrast had to be adjusted in order for it to be clear. Consequently the clip is now a little pixelated however this works in the favor of the trailer because it adds an 'eery' effect to the clip. We also decided to add the two captions in two separate screens because it symbolises the splitting apart of the two characters.

We then added a clip of 'Isa' dancing which allows the audience to see what she looks like rather than just her face which allows them to see that she is just a normal girl and identifiable. It also shows her being "normal". This clip was too long and we decided to trim the clip in order to keep the audiences focus. This scene is quite dark due to the lighting however we decided to keep this aspect to convey a real and believable party scene.

After this we decided to delete the scene of getting to the car and kept the crash and the driving of the car before this because we just wanted to show audience the key parts of the scene. The crash is a key part of the trailer because it explains how 'Isa' dies and the impact it has on the plot. A cross dissolve effect was used to move from the party scene to the crash crash in order to have a smooth transition and not to make it confusing.

Linzi then added in the captions 'love lasts forever - Nothing lasts forever' to add a twist to the film showing that it is not a "happy" film and has a dark side towards it. It also makes the audience question what is happening which is what we want because we want to add mystery to the trailer and do not want to give too much away otherwise there would not be any point in watching the film.

A grave scene is then included so the audience know that a death has occured. The clip following this is a clip of 'Isa' saying 'I thought you said you loved me'. We included this clip to show the juxtoposition between the love Isa had with her boyfriend at the beginning of the trailer to this particular point. Thiw will also make the reader question what is going on and why Isa contemplating whether her boyfriend loves her or not. In this clip, the character is looking directly at the camera at the beginning. We cut the beginning part out so that the rest of the clip shows her not staring at the camera.

The next section is the valentines card clip. We included this clip because it relates to the love theme as well as the release date which is valentines day - February 14th. We wanted the audience to clearly be able to see the words as they are sinister and shows the change from the love at the beginning to the more twisted situations. This clip was too quick so we made it longer in order for the audience to be able to read it in enough time.

We then added clips of a forest area and the main characters hand 'creeping'. We did this to keep to conventions of existing horror films and also conveying to the audience that someone not quite right has occured. We made the clips extremley short in order to have a 'quick' and 'flashy' effect. These types of effects are often used in horror films in order to keep the audience in suspense. This is key because the aim is to make the audience scared and this effect does that. We also added these clips to make the trailer longer because we felt it was too short and didn't explore the plot well enough as well as making the storyline clear to the audience.

Then, a clip of Isa running was added to show a sense of mystery as well as getting the readers wondering who she is running away room or what she is running away from. This is followed by clips we have already used in the trailer but rewinded them and used the captain 'What would you change if you could reverse time?'. The point of adding these clips was to make the audience question why the characters would want to reverse time.

We added credits in order to keep to the conventions of existing trailers. The caption 'Love just got scary' followed and was added to the end of the trailer because it is the tagline for our film. We decided to have the text on a red background because it is bright and eye catching and will instantly catch the audiences attention. The significance of using the colour red is not only to attract the audience but to symbolize the love and danger that is featured in the film.

The last part of the trailer so far is of Isa with her face right up to the camera. This has been added in order to scare the audience after the initial trailer has been displayed. At the moment this clip is in silence. Originally it had music but we felt as group this didn't work and didn't make the clip shock the audience which is the aim. We discussed what we thought the clip should sound like and didn't think silence would be appropriate because it didn't have the 'shock factor' we want. We decided on a 'growl' noise although this has not been added to the trailer yet. This will be further development as this will be added.

We are happy with the current sound effects in the trailer because the music is quite tense which is the type of music a horror film usually has. We are keeping to the conventions of existing horror films in this respect as well as using this type of music to worry the audience. We also used a car crash sound which I think is really effective because it has an impact on the trailer and changes the mood dramatically. Further developments to the trailer will to be to add the 'growl' sound as well as adding in any additional clips and captions to make the trailer run as smoothly as possible whilst conveying the message and plot of the film without spoiling anything.