The choice of soundtrack used in our trailer is vital - using the wrong type of music will send out a wrong message about the genre, storyline and overall atmosphere of our trailer. Therefore, we chose to use the following song:
Eat Me, Drink Me - By Marilyn Manson
As well as the distorted instrumental at the start of the song sounding eerie and strange and encompassing the genre of our film completely, the lyrics sang by Marilyn Manson themselves link perfectly to our storlyine. Lines such as "The trees in the courtyard / Are painted in blood" are quite morbid and connected to death, and thus connected to our 'death scenes'. Moreover, the line "This is only a game" which is repeated throughout the song connects to the Hangman book and gives a sinister feel to it being "only a game", and we will use this as our tagline thoughout our marketing process. We intend to have a person whisper "This is only a game" into the microphone on the iMacs and dub it in straight after the ident on our trailer, so then the audience will constantly get the messge throughout the trailer with the eerie whisper and the lyrics themseves. Therefore, this song is perfect as a soundtrack for our trailer.
Wooden Creaking - Sound Effects
Even though the sound effects used in this youtube clip are made from the creaking of wooden flooring, matched with the footage of an unknown character's limp form hanging it sounds like a tree or some other wooden structure that the character could be hanging from is growning under the weight of the dead body. This will be dubbed over this clip of the character hanging towards the end of the trailer, and the loud Marilyn Manson soundtrack will be silenced at this point so all the audience can hear is the creaking and groaning of whatever the character is hanging from. But dubbed over the top of this clip with the creaking wooden sound, we will also be dubbing in a dramatic 'dum' sound commonly used in film trailers for a dramatic effect - this way, the audience will recieve the full dramatic impact of the trailer. This creaking will bring the trailer to a disturbing end, and hopefully frighten the audience and give them goosebumps - thus coinciding with the horror aspect of our trailer. We intend to keep this creaking sound playing throughout the credits after the clip - credits slowly showing the film title, main actors and release date of the film. The silence added to this creaking will be terrifying for our audience. However, this quiet creaking will not be the end of our trailer - when the audience thinks the trailer is finally over as the wooden creaking ceases, there will be a sudden surge in loudness as they hear an earth-shattering scream dubbed over a clip of a character's terrified-looking eyes. This scream will be filmed through a microphone on the iMacs and dubbed over the clip afterwards. Hopefully, this quiet creaking in contrast with the blood-curdling scream will leave an impact on our audience and cause them to remember it afterwards and spread the word about our film.
All film production companies have an 'ident' - it is a short clip showing the company logo and it represents the foundations of the company as a whole. Our group needs to choose the right ident to match our 'Hangman' film, so I have therefore done some research into the various company idents in order to make a decision.
ColumbiaPictures
The Columbia logo has gone through many changes over the past 80 years and this is the most up-to-date ident, which was created in 1992. The model used for the woman carrying the torch was a housewife and mother of two, and the artist made her look like the traditional 'Torch Lady' with the draped dress and torchlight. There is one interesting aspect about the history of Columbia idents - it is not known who the original Torch Lady was! There have been multiple speculations - everyone from Bette Davis to small-town Texan actresses has claimed to be the lady in the famous logo. However, Columbia is not well known for its horror productions - notable films in Columbia's repertoire include 'Charlie's Angels', 'Stuart Little' and 'Spider-Man'. All of these films are either action or family films, and these do not coincide with our horror production. Furthermore, although the history of Columbia Pictures is extremely interesting, the bright golden lights and grand orchestral soundtrack does not convey any sort of horror imagery and thus does not represent our horror trailer successfully.
DreamWorks
Steven Spielberg wanted to reinvent the DreamWorks logo, and intended it to be reminiscent of Hollywood's golden age. The logo was originally intended to be a computer-generated image of a man fishing on the moon, but Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren has other ideas. Muren casted his own son William to model as the boy on the moon, and artist Robert Hunt painted both the real boy and a CGI version - but Spielberg liked the real boy William better. Ever since, William Muren fishing on the moon has been universally recognisable and is well-known for its animation productions, such as 'Shrek', 'Antz' and 'Madagascar'. Unfortunately, since DreamWorks is solely known for its family-friendly animation productions, it would be inappropriate to use it in our horror trailer since it does not coincide with the sinister themes in our production. Moreover, the orchestral music and the positive imagery of the boy fishing on the moon amongst the white clouds does not convey horror themes, and would thus not match our trailer at all.
Paramount
There is a story behind this distinctive Paramount ident - it is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo, and has appeared in almost everything from home videos, cartoons and TV programmes to million-dollar blockbusters. The well-known Paramount mountain is said to be based on a doodle made by W. W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Adolph Zukor, from his own memories of the mountain ranges from his hometown in Utah. The soundtrack played over the top of the ident is a fanfare called 'Paramount on Parade', and was used in the ident after the film of the same name was released in 1930. The ident has gone over minor changes since its 1930 release, and the one shown above is the coloured version used in the 1992 film 'Wayne's World'. However, this ident would not fit in with our horror production since the stars, blue skies and picturesque mountain gives off a positive atmosphere more associated with family films or dramas. The music is also too upbeat and positive, which does not connect with out horror-mystery themes at all. Paramount is not even known for producing horror films - its most notable productions include 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider', 'Zoolander', 'Rugrats in Paris: The Movie' and 'Iron Man' - all films that are either dramas, action, comedies or family films. Therefore, Paramount would be an inappropriate ident to use in our trailer.
Twisted Pictures
Twisted Pictures is actually owned by Lionsgate, and it sprung into fame after producing the first ever 'Saw' movie and has gone on to produce all of the following sequels. These films are the most notable in Twisted Pictures' repertoire, but they have had other horror-mystery projects such as 'Dead Silence' and 'Mother's Day'. The ident starts out with the seemingly-innocent 'Twisted Pictures' text, but suddenly barbed wire appears out of nowhere and coils around the text. A metal steak is then planted in between the two words, with the barbed wire wrapping around it and the steak turning to pull it tighter around the text. The wire twisting around the text and the steak turning to twist it tighter coincides with the company name, 'Twisted Pictures', and gives a disturbing and unsettling image mostly connected with horror films. After that, there is a sudden and unexpected flash of lightning and the barbed wire uncoils itself to leave lines on the text where the spiky wire cut in. This again relates to the 'twisted' imagery and conveys that the production company is obviously based around the horror genre. This would be a good ident to use for our film since it represents all of our ideals and principles for the film, but its only downfall is that this ident is not instantly recognisable - it is not as well known as other production companies, and would only be successful in attracting an audience if people knew that Twisted Pictures produced the infamous Saw films.
Lionsgate - Our Chosen Ident
'Saw' was the biggest money-making horror movie in history for Lionsgate generating $103 million at the global box office, and has since become renowned for its other horror projects. After the Saw films, Twisted Pictures (a spin off company owned by Lionsgate) was created and it has gone on to lead production in all of the following sequels. Horror films such as 'Hostel', 'The Descent' and 'My Bloody Valentine 3D' have come from Lionsgate's various film franchises. Since it has had so many horror films, Lionsgate has produced its own spooky ident to relate to the genre. The ident starts out with a faint thumping sound, and then a strange sound is suddenly amplified and we see (and hear) a load of cogs turning. The shot then zooms out to show all of the cogs working together, and then zooms out through a key hole to reveal a set of large doors. The doors then open to reveal the 'LIONSGATE' logo surrounded by a cluster of dark, red and black clouds. The imagery in this ident connects to the horror theme - all of the cogs are brown, red, black and golden colours that convey an ominous heated setting, and the cogs appear to be rusting and creaking giving off a sinister impression. This links to the dark, rusty golden doors that spring open to reveal the Lionsgate logo - this added with the sinister music is quite frightening since we do not know what is behind those doors, there could be something terrifying there! The Lionsgate logo surrounded by dark, red stormy clouds conveys horror, anger and heat and thus has connotations linking to hell - this of course adds to the overall horror feel, and would connect perfectly to our film. Moreover, the sinister background music and the sound of the clicking cogs gives off an eerie atmosphere and links to the scary imagery - the sound and imagery combined gives a horror atmosphere, and since it has produced well-known horror films it will fit perfectly in our trailer. Therefore, this is our chosen ident for our movie, Hangman.
When filming, we had many takes that went wrong. Here are some of the takes (shown on clapperboards) which we had to re-film several times before getting them right for our final product: (Please Note: The scene numbers and descriptions are in conjunction with those of the Shot List blog post-editing - they are not the scene numbers shown in the Running Order pre-filming or the storyboard)
This is a mock up of the poster of our horror-mystery film, Hangman. It is just a rough representation of what the layout would be:
I believe that the tagline would be most effective when placed at the top of the poster, in possibly a blood red colour to convey the horror genre of Hangman and to symbolise it's death theme. The picture of a hangman's noose will be placed in the centre and will dominate the enitre poster, relating to the "HANGMAN" title. The title would most likely be placed directly under the noose, and we are currently experimenting with title forms such as "H_NGMAN", to add to the hangman-game themes by missing out letters - but not so many letters that it would be unobvious as to what the film title was. This is all neccessary in creating a synergy that runs throughout the poster. Furthermore, the cast and production billing block would be in a dark colour that doesn't stand out too much and blends into the background, since it is insignificant to the audience. The cinema release date might then be in a red colour to match the tagline and film title, since it needs to stand as it is vital in informing the audience when the film will be in cinema. This along with the film website address may also be in red, as it is another essential part of advertising that will reach the widest audience possible. Lastly, the production logos will be small and in a dark colour that blends into the background, since it is again unimportant to the audience and just there to complete the overall professionalism of the poster.
The masthead (including the magazine name) will go across the top of the cover, in a bright colour that will define the house style of the particular magazine (be it Total Film, Empire or a magazine of my own creation). There will then be a banner above this masthead with buzz words like 'exclusive' or 'special edition' to make the audience want to by the magazine due to its exclusivity - this, along with all other text on the page, may be in colours that match the colours used in the image to create a synergy throughout the cover. The typical magazine features will obviously be included on this cover for professionalism - the dateline and price will be placed in small, discreet writing just under the masthead, and the barcode will go in the bottom right-hand corner. Next, there will be a long pug-column on the left-hand side giving readers an insight into other main articles discussed in the magazine - another device used to attract readers into opening the magazine to find out more about these exciting features. Then there will be space at the bottom of the cover to include a 'PLUS!' space, giving the names of other movies discussed in the magazine to attract the widest audience possible. For further enticement, I will include a puff on the right-hand side of the page advertising an exlusive feature or competition that can only be found in this magazine, in order to attract potential buyers. Lastly yet most importantly, the image showing the feature story (Hangman) will be the background of the whole cover, with all text and the large bright title of this feature overlapping it. I feel that all of these components will make my cover the most effective it could possibly be.
