My trailer production diary

1. MAKING THE TRAILER
Emma Collins. COWA

2. What I will be doing…
13/02/15 - Now I have finished planning and filming for my horror trailer, I will continue to create the
Theatrical trailer through editing. I had two choices to chose from when editing, Adobe Premier Pro
CC, or Apple’s final cut pro. I decided to use Adobe Premier Pro CC as I have used Adobe software
such a Photoshop and Lightroom for this project, and I think it allows me to be creative and gives me
many options when it comes to editing.
• I will ensure I stick to the codes and conventions of a horror trailer, referring back to the research
and planning on my blog.
• I will show my progress and decisions on this PowerPoint, explaining how I made my trailer, and the
reasons for changing any of my original plans or why I have chosen to add something new.
This PowerPoint serves as my production diary, and I will be updating it as I work on my trailer to then
finally upload onto my blog.

3. Opening of the trailer:
Firstly I want to make my horror trailer look authentic. As I am not
creating a teaser trailer I want to create a full theatrical trailer fit for TV
spots (After 9pm in the UK ) and suitable for online viewing. I have
decided to include the MPAA’s green band, at the beginning of the
trailer as I would hope the film would target audiences not only in the
UK but also abroad. I ensured I used a High-resolution image so it
doesn’t distort or blur when imported into Premier Pro.
As my two distributing/Producing companies are Warner Bros. and
Hammer Studios I need to include their logos in my trailer to keep it
authentic and conventional. I took two HD versions of the animated
logos and through Premier pro I changed the brightness and contrast
through effects > colour correction > Brightness and Contrast. I
darkened both of the animated logos to fit into the theme I will have
running across the trailer.
I have used the Video transition ‘Dip to black’ to link the three.
Fade/dip to black is a convention in horror as black is a connotation of
death, darkness and evil.
The intro is kept
short at 00.06.10 s
long.
13/02/15- Editing begins

4. 13/02/15 : 14/02/15 - Editing the footage
As my trailer is filmed in the dark to keep to the authentic
feel of a horror, and stick to the conventions. I had a few
scenes which came out very dark, however I knew I
could use Adobe Premier Pro to edit the video without
having to go and re-shoot the footage. I used the video
effects option > Brightness and contrast. I used this
simple effect to brighten the image, and change the
contrast accordingly to make sure the footage is not too
over exposed, or strongly shadowed. The image to the
right is a still of my establishing shot, the first still closest
to the left shows the footage before editing, the mise en
scene is barely visible, the furthest image is the same
still after I edited the brightness and contrast. The image
is still dark however you can clearly see what is in the frame. I have kept the image darkened as I want to create the
sense of darkness and mystery from the offset in my trailer, It will also conventionally fit into the horror genre. The
image of the effect panel shows the change in contrast and brightness I made to the footage.
The image from Premier Pro cc below demonstrates the same technique, but instead it demonstrates how I do not
want my footage to look. The image on the left is the original footage, and on the right is an example of the
brightness being just slightly too bright, compared to the contrast in the image. To correct this I will change the
brightness to balance with the contrast. Even though the footage is from inside of the house my plan was to make the
scenes as dark as possible to create an eerie feeling. Conventional to the horror genre.

5. 13/02/15 -14/02/15: Editing footage
14/02/15: To edit the footage further, especially the scenes with high-key lighting simply changing
the brightness and contrast is not enough as it could easily darken or wash out the scene. The
three-way-colour corrector helps to change the shadows, mid tones and highlights of the footage.
The original footage was too dark and I wanted to brighten the scene to create a false sense of
security for the audience. For this I changed the input and output levels, the input brightened the
scene adding brightness to the lighter colour’s and the output added to this. Like all of my footage
I had to change the scale of the footage to fit to frame size. The image on the right shows the final
edited scene.
13/02/15 : I wanted to make my transitions from scene-to-scene
professional and use the conventional fade to black. I have added
this between most my scenes in the trailer, some are transitional
between scenes so they easily fade into one-another (shown in
the screen shot). I have used this to put scenes together which
follow one another. Alternatively I can put the fade in or out at the
beginning or end of the scene to provide a conventional cut from
one scene to a new scene.

6. 17/02/15: Editing footage
From the beginning of planning for my horror trailer I knew I wanted to film in the dark, and most of my footage is filmed in
almost complete darkness, to make my characters look isolated. The single spotlight from a torch is shined on the characters,
to make the whole thing seem as if it is filmed in a documentary/ found footage style. Creating the feeling that the viewer IS
the fourth character.
I wanted to include fast paced cuts in my theatrical trailer as this is conventional for my genre, and in my research I found
that fast paced cuts appeared in every single one of the horror trailers I analysed. The fast paced cuts usually appear in the
middle of the trailer to help build up to a scene which includes a jump scare.
This image shows the timeline of the footage in my trailer, the
arrow shows where the beginning of my fast paced cuts
begin. There are about four different scenes which they
quickly cut between. I have used the fade to black however
kept the duration down under a second, this helps to make
the cuts look smooth and not unprofessional.
This piece of footage is placed above an existing
piece of footage, I have done this to create a
sound bridge, from one fast cut of a scene to the
next. Helping to create a smooth, but fast paced
section of the trailer.
Today I edited together the first 1 minute and 15 seconds of my footage, This is almost the entire trailer, I
aim to make it under 2 minutes, as my trailer is a theatrical trailer it is conventional for them to run to about
2 minutes. On top of the footage I have also included titles in my trailer, and have incorporated the image of
smoke across the screen. Once I have finished editing all the footage of the trailer I will add sound.

7. 17/02/15: Editing footage
< These are two of the
title’s from my trailer. The
background is a clip I
found on YouTube, it is
smoke on a black
backdrop. I have used this
to associate with the use
of candles.
I have managed to piece together all of my footage, I still need to add two more title’s for the ‘coming soon’
and ‘blockingbill’ which appears at the end of theatrical trailers. However these will not take me too long as
I already have this from my poster. You can see that I have continued to use the fade to black transition
between scenes, however I have left some as simple rough cuts, this works well to create fast paced cuts
within my trailer, a convention of horror.

8. 17/02/15: Editing footage
After editing all of the footage and sequencing it together I needed to add in my title. ‘MIDNIGHT’ is the name
of my film and I have conventionally placed it at the ending of my main sequences of the trailer. I have used
the effect ‘Cross Fade’ for the title using the same font used on my Ancillary products ‘Rainy Day Vandal’. The
cross fade effect makes the title ‘Zoom out’ I have slowed down the transition so it doesn’t just ‘pop’ on to the
screen, I have used this technique from my inspiration from theatrical trailers such as ‘The Conjuring’ and
‘Insidious’.
The cross fade
transition from
zoomed in to
zoomed out. The
typography links
to ancillary
products.

9. 18/02/15: Editing sound
Now I have finished editing my
footage, I need to edit the sound to
complete my trailer.
I have used various different royalty
free soundtracks within my trailer. I
didn’t use all of the tracks I gathered
on my sound cloud playlist (see on
blog) as not all fit into the sequence.
As well as adding in sound, I
have had to edit the sound
that is
Originally in the sequence,
as it is from filming some of
the sound I don’t need, so I
have simply lowered the
volume of the scene, and
applied a soundtrack on top of
it .
I can lower the volume by
simply adjusting the line that
appears in the centre of the
audio file. You can move it up
to be louder and lower for
quieter.

10. 18/02/15: Editing sound
One of the main issues with sound was trying to ensure that my sound worked well with the
footage. This is especially important with horror, and creating tension and jump scares. Today I
was linking my sound with the footage. You can see where the peaks in the sound are, these are
judged by the bass and loudness of the sound, the high peaks are where there is a ‘stab’ or
‘sting’ in the soundtrack. I have three layers of audio files, the stab and stings are on the third as
they overlap the two main audio files.
The two main jump scares in my trailer. They line up perfectly
with my footage, and are effective for my horror trailer.

11. Creepy Piano
improv-
Opens up the
trailer, creates
an unnerving
feeling.
Knocking on
door sound
effect-
Helps create
a realistic
atmosphere
Horror
ambience-
An unnerving
soundtrack,
creating an
ominous
atmosphere.
Jump scare,
soundtrack-
Small rise in
pitch, to
create
tension.
Jump scare-
Longer jump scare,
small peaks in the
sound. Creating a
thudding sound. To
build up tension.
Horror ambience
2-
Louder
ambience sound.
Creating
atmosphere.
Jump scare-
this jump
scare is used,
mid-scene. To
catch out the
audience.
Ending jump
scare- To finish of
the trailer loud
and shocking.