PLANNING: Film Title

I've been thinking of different titles for my film trailer, trying to work out what makes a film title stand out. From my research I have discovered that the short, catchy titles are the highest grossing horror films. As of October 31st 2012, The Business Insider published a list of the top 20 highest-grossing horror films of all time. Here is the list:

20) Saw II (2005)                                         $87 million

19) Scream 3 (2000)                                     $89.1 million

18) The Haunting (1999)                              $91.4 million

17) The Others (2001)                                  $96.5 million

16) Sleepy Hollow (1999)                            $101.1 million

15) Scream 2 (1997)                                     $101.4 million

14) Scream (1996)                                        $103 million

13) Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)                 $104 million

12) Interview With The Vampire (1994)      $105.3 million

11) Paranormal Activity (2007)                    $107.9 million

10) The Grudge (2004)                                 $110.4 million

9) The Village (2004)                                   $114.2 million

8) Van Helsing (2004)                                  $120.2 million

7) Shutter Island (2010)                               $128 million

6) The Ring (2002)                                      $129.1 million

5) The Blair Witch Project (1999)               $140.5 million

4) What Lies Beneath (2000)                       $155.5 million

3) The Exorcist (1973)                                 $232.9 million

2) Jaws (1975)                                              $260 million

1) The Sixth Sense (1999)                            $293.5 million

From this list, I noticed that all of the titles are between 1-4 words long. It isn't a long winded title like "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street", which people even shorten to just "Sweeney Todd" as it is easier to remember. Eight of these film titles begin with the word "The". Considering as the top grossing film title begins with the word "the", it would make sense for me to use a film title beginning with the word "the". If it was a two word film title such as "The Grudge" or "The Ring", it makes it short, snappy, catchy and easy to remember. 

So far, the best idea for a film title I have is The Rapture. However, there are a lot of indie films which have the same name with a very similar idea to mine so this title is VERY subject to change.


http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-highest-grossing-horror-movies-of-all-time-2012-10?op=1
Here is my source for the above information.

PLANNING: Possible Idea For Film Trailer

I have possibly come up with a rough idea of what I want to do for my film trailer. I have decided that I am going to do a horror film with elements of a thriller in it. I haven't exactly planned out the whole storyline but I have devised a possible idea which I am going to continue to develop and expand upon and eventually come up with a full plot which is exiting, dramatic, scary and thrilling.

The idea I have developed is based on the Rapture. Taken from christianity.about.com, the Rapture is described as an "end-times event where all true believers who are still alive before the end of the world will be taken from the earth by God and into heaven". The world 'Rapture' itself isn't mentioned in the Bible at all and only became commonly used in the 19th century. Roman Catholics do not believe in the Rapture theory as they believe it to be confused with the Second Coming of Christ. For the people who are left on earth after the Rapture, it is believed that they will be left in 'disbelief, finding theories to 'explain away' the bizarre event".

 For my film trailer, I'm going to change this and use the idea that after the Rapture has occurred and the christianity believers have gone to Heaven, earth then becomes the new Hell and all of the sinners and non believers are left to die, getting rid of all of the "bad people" on earth.

I've realised how difficult it would be to try and portray people being taken up to Heaven so I have decided not to include the actual transition from earth to Heaven in my trailer, instead, I have this idea that people will wake up one morning to see friends and family missing and not know what's going on. After this, something similar to a emergency news broadcast will appear on everyone's TV, radio, computer, iPad or whatever device they have on or near their person where a person will appear addressing everyone on earth. This person will be "The Devil" and he'll explain how everyone thinks of the Devil as a red monster but really, it's him and he has the power to kill every single person left on earth. His final line of his monologue will be "Kill each other, or i'll kill you".

Throughout this, there will be lots of shots of people running, screaming and dying. I have this image of a shot in my head which I really want to do where it will be a wide angle shot of two people in the sea, making the most of their last days on earth. One of them will then be "dragged" down and then a few seconds later, so will the other with neither of them resurfacing. If possible, I would like to film a few shots of a fake earthquake (by shaking the camera around a lot, depending on how realistic it would look) to show destruction and devastation. It would be impossible to show the aftermath of this as I can't crash cars or split roads in half etc. so this would be something the audience would have to watch the film to find out what happens but this is only a vague idea.

I will also have a few people representing a couple of the deadly sins by using flashbacks. For example, to represent lust I will have a girl in a very tiny skirt and crop top crawling towards the camera on a bed and then cutting to a shot of her running in a forest or something similar. For gluttony, I could have a person with a lot of food in front of them and then chucking half of it away as gluttony means the overindulgence and over-consumpution of food and drink, then have them have a gun aimed at their face.

I don't want to have any predominant, main characters in the trailer. It will kind of be like a Final Destination film.



As you can see from this Final Destination trailer, there is no focus on one main character, which is the same in the actual film itself. The story follows a couple of main people who all have their own individual deaths and stories and that is how I want my film to be, except without the ridiculous circumstances that the people in Final Destination die in.

PLANNING: Initial Planning Ideas

https://www.examtime.com/en-GB/p/1335720

These are my initial ideas for my film trailer. In all honesty, right now I have no idea what I want to do so these are very rough. I'm trying to think of an original idea which will include all the components of what I feel to be a good horror film trailer e.g. not giving too much away, no plot spoilers, not including all the jump scares but at the same time, scaring the audience to a point where they want to watch the film because they know it's going to be very scary. I'm swaying towards the idea of doing a religion-based horror film, preferably based around the Rapture or Christian Extremists but this might be quite hard to do. If I manage to pull it off, I feel it would be quite good.

RESEARCH: Actors Famous for Thriller/Horror Films

This post will be focused on iconic thriller actors and horror actors. These people have had famous roles in hit thrillers and horrors and have become known for their roles in these films. 

Mads Mikkelsen is a Danish actor who shot to fame as Tonny, a drug dealer in the crime thriller film Pusher. Since his rise to fame, he has stared in many Danish thrillers as Lucas in The Hunt, Le Chiffre in Casino Royale and Thomas Skepphult in Exit. He has been called "the synonym to the great success the Danish film industry has had since the mid 1990's" by IMDB. He is currently playing Hannibal Lecter in the TV series Hannibal. He is now widely associated with more serious dramas and thrillers and is an outstanding Danish actor. With over 25 awards and 22 other nominations, he is a widely sought over actor who can pull off many acting styles, from a nasty, evil character supporting terrorists bank funds to a kind, friendly and misunderstood teacher who doesn't mean harm to anybody to a low life drug pusher. 

Christopher Lee, born in 1922 has become one of the most iconic horror actors of his time! His first successful films include The Curse Of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, The Mummy and The Hound of the Baskervilles. At the time, these films were considered very scary horror films, however if we were to watch them today they wouldn't be considered as horrific as some of the films we are desensitising ourselves to. He appeared in the James Bond film, The Man With The Golden Gun as the lead villain Francisco Scaramanga, Count Dooku in Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones and he also voiced the Jabberwocky in the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland which was the main evil monster in the film. He has gained a reputation of being the villain in films or being the bad guy. However, I feel this has made him one of the most iconic horror film actors as he has been in the business for so long. He was watched our media change and grow into what it has become and has followed along with it, adapting to change and the ever more violent film culture we are living in. Definitely a recognised horror actor which I admire. 

Robert Englund may be one of the most recognised faces of horror in history. His most successful role to date was the role of Freddy Krueger, a serial killer with very dramatic burns across his face who kills teenagers in their dreams using a glove covered in razors. Killing them in their dreams would cause their deaths in real life. This film earned its $1.8million budget back in a week of the film's release and went on to make eight more of the 'slasher' films, a television series, novels and comic books. Robert has almost become the face of horror films as The Nightmare On Elm Street 1 was considered to be one of the most terrifying horror films at the time it was released. After asking many of my teachers and friend's parents what the scariest film they'd seen was, A Nightmare On Elm Street was consistently bought up. Robert's character even met up with Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist in the popular Friday the 13th franchise for a film where they both terrorised the teenage community as well as going after each other. This film wasn't greatly accepted by the horror community but it was a good idea. Robert Englund has definitely made a name for himself as a horror actor. 

RESEARCH: Codes and Conventions of a Horror Trailer

Horror Trailers


This is the trailer for the 2014 horror film called Deliver Us From Evil. This trailer is made obvious to the audience that it is for a horror film through many ways. First of all, the soundtrack consists of a lot of string instruments playing very high pitched notes. High pitched strings are associated with fear and tension because they sound very eery and creepy. It is also a very quiet trailer. There aren't a lot of loud noises unless it is a part which is intended to make you jump or scared. This is a tell-tale sign that this is a horror film because thrillers are normally very loud and action packed. The use of children's laughter is again another thing associated with horror films as it can come across very sinister. They have constantly used a dark, dingy lighting and a very slow paced trailer.. this helps show that this is a horror film because there are rarely fast paced scenes in horror films unless its towards the end. They're normally quite slow as the person is trying to hide or stay safe or figure out 'what's under the bed'.

The trailer for The Damned is another horror trailer. The reason you can tell this is a horror trailer is through what the characters are saying and doing. They are clearly possessed by some kind of evil and we know through the titles that appear that the little girl "they thought they were saving" isn't actually a good person. The italian man also says how they will all die. Thriller films are rarely based on the Devil and are more based on events that are very likely to happen e.g serial killers or kidnappings. Again the lighting is dark and dingy and the weather isn't good at all during the film which is another thing horror films are associated with. Having foggy, rainy or dull weather is typical of horror films because bright sunlight is associated with happiness.

The Pyramid is the final horror trailer I have looked at. This film trailer is very interesting because as most people know, traditionally horror films have been set in old houses or forests. This one is interesting because it is set in Egypt in a pyramid which most people have no familiarity with. The use of titles which state that the director of this film directed The Hills Have Eyes is a good indicator that this film is a horror film because The Hills Have Eyes is a very popular film in the horror community so people will have heard of it, know that its a horror film and guess that this film is a horror film too. The fact that we see a lot of blood, violence and creepy monsters helps us realise this is a horror as well because monsters are associated with scariness and death. It's a very darkly lit film once they're in the Pyramid and thats when they realise that they are in trouble. The soundtrack is dramatic and has a lot of emphasis musically on the dramatic parts of the film

RESEARCH: Codes and Conventions of a Thriller Trailer

To help me figure out what genre of trailer I am going to film, in the next two posts I will be looking at the codes and conventions of horror film trailers and thriller film trailers, figuring out which genre will be the most effective for me to create.

Thriller Trailers

This is the trailer to a film called The Final Girl. I haven't seen this movie myself but I can tell that this movie is a thriller and not a horror film in many ways, however it could be mistaken as a horror film as well. The soundtrack to this trailer plays a key role in determining whether this is a thriller or a horror trailer. It's very fast paced, loud and features a lot of drums which are typical of films with a lot of action and drama. There is a lot of violence, murder and very low key lighting as the main setting seems to be in a forrest of some sort. There are a lot of fast paced cuts in the editing which makes the film itself seem fast paced and tense. However, you can work out a lot about the film by watching this trailer, I could already guess what happens at the end and after looking up the synopsis of the film, turns out I, and many others, guessed it right too. This shouldn't happen when watching a thriller trailer as part of the excitement of watching a thriller film is that you don't know what is going to happen at the end. This film trailer may give a lot away about the plot of the film but in terms of the codes and conventions of thriller trailers, this has got most of it spot on. 

This trailer is for the thriller film Non-Stop. Again, I haven't seen this movie but I can tell that this is a thriller film rather than a horror. First of all, Liam Neeson is known for doing thriller films with his biggest success being Taken. By using a traditional thriller actor, it gives the audience an idea that the film will be a thriller and probably quite good. The soundtrack is very tense and loud again and the use of the call bell to create tension has been done very effectively. Another thing I noticed is that the main setting of the film appears to be on a plane. A plane is a very tense place for some people in our current day and age as planes have been going missing or being taken hostage so a lot of people are nervous to board planes and don't feel safe until they're on the ground again. By using the plane as the basis of the plot and setting, it automatically makes the audience feel tense. There is a constant dull lighting but unlike a horror, there are no "jump scares" which is where I usually find the difference between horrors and thrillers. 

The final trailer I'm looking at the codes and conventions of is The Riot Club. This trailer starts off quite positively, with a positive soundtrack, we're learning that all of these boys are very wealthy, clever and important and it looks to just be a film about the boy's club that they have. But around half way through the trailer, we start to realise there's something more sinister about the film. The music changes to become more dramatic and it changes key. There are scenes of violence, what appears to be a girl because sexually assaulted and it is implied that someone has been murdered. This all implies that this film is a thriller because it becomes very tense, the shots get darker and quicker and the plot itself isn't a positive one. 

RESEARCH: Field Research

I decided to conduct a questionnaire on the popular website surveymonkey.com to find out what the general public think of film trailers, what they like or don't like about them and to hopefully get a better idea of what genre to make my film trailer.

Here is a link to the survey itself: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7R9TCCG

To get people to notice and answer my short questionnaire, I posted the link onto my Facebook page and also onto my town's local noticeboard Facebook page so I could get a wide range of answers. I was aiming for around 20 answers but outstandingly ended up with 50 which has given me a lot of information to work with.

Analysis of questionnaire answers 

From my survey, I have learnt that horror films, action films and comedy films are the top 3 most popular genres. This means that I should consider doing a horror trailer or an action trailer. The reason I wouldn't do a comedy trailer is because they are often hard to pull off as you have to get the jokes and the actors perfectly right so it doesn't come across awfully.

The next question was "Do you prefer trailers that give a lot of information away or little information away and why?". Nearly everyone answered with "little information". Some of the reasons why included "Little information as possible. So when you actually watch the film you actually have surprises. Instead of already seeing all the "best bits" in the trailer", "a little, as i often find, when i watch the film, that ive already seen the best parts in the trailer!" and "Little - if it shows a lot then what's the point in going because you already know most of the film". So the overall consensus was that they want little information so that once they got to see the film, they were able to find out what the plot was there, enjoy all of the film without kind of guessing what is going to happen and having not seen the best parts. 

However, some people did say that they liked a lot of information so that they can gage what the film is about, whether it looks enjoyable etc. One person also commented saying they liked to have a lot of information because then they would be able to tell if they were going to like it.. if there was little information he might go see a film he normally would have hated and wasted an extortionate amount on cinema ticket prices. He has a point here as cinema prices have increased dramatically over the years, putting people off of going to the cinema and causing an increase of piracy and illegal downloads. 

For the next question, "What do you look for in a film trailer", there was a variety of answers ranging from good graphics, drama, good soundtrack, good actors, suspense, summary of the plot and a preview into who the lead actors are in the film. I will take into consideration all of these things whilst planning, filming and editing my film trailer to make it as effective as possible.

The next question was "If you watched a film trailer, what would make you want to go see the film". The top two answers were the storyline and seeing an actor that you like. In terms of how I can use this for my film trailer planning, it has made me realise I need to think of a very good storyline which is new and fresh. However, the thing I'll be lacking is actors that people like. But, as long as I can find good actors around my area, I can edit my trailer to make out that they are very famous and everyone knows them, (unless I decide to make an indie film trailer).

For my following question, "What is one of your favourite film trailers you have seen and why?", two trailers stuck out for me. One of them is called "Jagten" which is also known as "The Hunt". Screened in 2012, Jagten is about a teacher, played by Mads Mikkelsen, who's life is shattered into a million pieces after one of his students makes up a very, very bad lie about him. The trailer, found at the bottom of this blog post, is very good because the soundtrack is effective, you can get a good idea of what the plot is about without it giving too much away (I have seen this film and the trailer doesn't give a single spoiler away) and it shows us that Mads Mikkelsen is in it. This film is Danish and Mads Mikkelsen is a very famous Danish actor so anyone who watches the trailer and sees that Mads Mikkelsen is in the film will want to watch it. The other trailer that stuck out for me is the trailer for '71. This film is due for release in October 2014 and the trailer feature Jack O'Connell (Cook from the hit UK series Skins) playing an abandoned British soldier in Belfast 1971. The trailer seems to give absolutely no spoilers away and you have no idea how the film is going to end. The soundtrack makes the trailer gripping and full of suspense and the storyline is VERY original. In fact, I don't think I have seen a film like this ever. Here is the IMDB link for '71: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2614684/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The trailer that stuck out for the most disliked trailer was the trailer for Lucy, a film about a girl who is able to reach a high capacity in her brain. From all of the comments I have read on Youtube and on my survey, the trailer is said to make the film seem a lot better than it really is. Some people have said the trailer is boring and that the cinema released trailer actually gives away the whole storyline. Another comment also said that "the trailer is corny and only shows the action parts of the film" which suggests to me that the film is more than just about the action.


Doing this questionnaire has really helped me get an idea of what audiences like and dislike and it will help me plan my trailer better.

This is the evidence that I posted my survey on my own Facebook page and on The Marlborough Notice Board page. 

The trailer for Mads Mikkelsen's movie, "The Hunt"



The trailer for the film, "Lucy"