The document provides details about editing a trailer using iMovie software. The author discusses their initial difficulties with iMovie but finding it became easier to use over time. Issues that came up during the editing process included unhelpful footage, difficulties syncing scenes and music, and trimming clips and songs to the desired length. Shots were chosen based on quality and how well they portrayed the intended storyline. Techniques like changing text colors and adding suspenseful scenes were used to engage the audience. Fear was created through darkening scenes, ominous music, and a creepy reflection in a mirror. Feedback on a horror poster is also provided.

1. Editing trailer
May 4, 2010
IMOVIE
My first impression with imovie was that it was complicated to use. There were too many
ways to edit and I did not have experience on how to use them. But as we got along in
using this software, we started learning how to use it and I ended up finding easy and
simple to use. It has several ways to edit clips in terms of colours of the image and
transitions effects. We could also add text into our trailer easily; we could even change
the colour and the type of the font, and the movement of the text. I believe that imovie is
easy to split/ clips or the music, and we could just drag each piece of clip or music into
wherever we want them to be. However, it thought that to edit the music was a little
difficult and it took me time to learn how to do it properly. Here we were editing the
music:
ISSUES DURING THE EDITING PROCESS
The first issues we had during the editing process were that all of our first filming was
not useful. We realized that just after we uploaded our filming in imovie and started
looking at them in big screen. When we started deciding which clips we wanted to have
and then editing them, they did not make sense. Some of them were useful, but we
decided that we needed more scenes and shots. We also thought that we needed to be
more specific with our storyline and make sure we follow it and also we had to make sure
that we meet our shot list. Another problem we faced was that we wanted to use the
“slow motion” feature for some of our scenes but it did not work so we just decided to
leave that until the end and see if our teacher could help us in how to do it or if there were
other ways to do it through different softwares. We also found it difficult to put the
scenes in the right place, so we kept on changing them until we followed the storyline we
wanted to show through our trailer. Furthermore, we realized that our trailer was too long
so we had to cut down few seconds from most of every scene and this took us long.
Lastly, we had issues when editing the music because the music that we imported was 5
minutes long and we only needed 1 minute and few seconds, so it took us long to get the
parts that we wanted from the song, then to put them into the right scenes and at the same
time they have to sound right all together. The trailer ended up being 1 minute with 44
seconds.
SHOTS TO INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE
We decided to choose the shots that had the best acting, the best shot and camera angle.
These shots also had to have the right idea that we wanted to portray to the audience. The
shots that we excluded were poor quality in terms of lighting, camera shot and angle,
acting and also some of them had shaky movements.
GETTING THE AUDIENCE INTERESTED

2. We did not want to show who the killer was. Instead, we show the killer as “innocent”
and least suspicious so the audience can see the twist at the end of the film. We also gave
away information through the text between scenes such as “she meant every for her, but
then everything changed and it would never be the same again”, this gives a sense of
suspense and the audience would want to know what happened. We also created this
suspense through filming a scene at the graveyard and also a scene of a fire, but we don’t
show what exactly happened and who died. We also showed and include the girl who
died on the film in our trailer, so the audience doesn’t know that she died until they watch
the whole film and see the twist at the end.
We wanted to create a scene of a fire somehow in out trailer, but because this was a little
hard for us to do, we decided to search for horror trailers in youtube to find a scene of a
fire so then we could extract it and put it into our trailer.We found one in the trailer of
“The Crazies”. It was short and quick because we did not want to show much to the
audience so we don’t make it very obvious. You could find it in the following video in
the minute 1:08.
CREATING A SENSE OF FEAR
To create fear, we filmed a scary shot of hands full of “blood” and we edited the colour
of this scene by changing the colour of the image by making darker. We also found a
song that created suspense and fear throughout the scenes. The text we included between
some scenes had colour red which connotes horror and death. A scene on the grave yard
we thought that was creepy and also most of the scenes were filmed during cloudy days.
Another scene that we used to create fear on the trailer was when the main character was
on the mirror and when she moved a bit to a side, we could see someone behind her on
the reflection of the mirror. The transitions we used the most was “shade in” and “shade
out” between each scene. We also used a transition effect called “dessintegrate” which
looks like scene is burning and this represents the fire.
Here we decided to change the text from red to white because we realized that in existing
horror trailers, in general, there is no use of red text. White is more legible and clear to
read.
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Sound/audio manipulation/addition
April 28, 2010
CHOOSING THE MUSIC

3. First, we went on www.youtube.com, typed “horror music” and “creepy music” and then
we started going through a number of videos in order to get ideas of what we wanted for
our trailer.We thought that we could use some bits of these horror sounds/music for
certain scenes on our trailer.
Then, we decided to find an instrumental song from a well-known rock band which was
“Linkin Park”. The song was called “What I’ve done” and it had a good entrance with a
piano, we thought it worked very well for the beginning of the trailer. We thought that if
trailers have well known songs it may attract more audience. However, the rest of the
song did not work very well because it was too strong, it repeated the same throughout
the whole trailer which made it boring and it did not sound scary.
Lastly, we decided to search for classic music. We found a song called Eros by Ludovico
Einaudi and it had lots of different phases with piano and violin, strong and slow phases
that we could pick for the different scenes of our trailer. We thought that this song was
the best as it had a lot to choose from.
ISSUES WHEN CHOOSING THE MUSIC
The issues we had when choosing our music was that we could not make the music to
work well with each scene. This means that if a scene was supposed to be strong and
scare the audience, we wanted the music at that precise moment to be strong as well.
Also, we wanted the music to go with the movement and rhythm of the actors. It was
difficult to find this in one song. Therefore, we decided to pick different bits of the
“Ludovico Einaudi – Eros” song. We had to select each bit we wanted from the song for
each scene.
OUR INSPIRATION
Our inspiration was that we wanted slow and fast part of a song in our trailer. We also
wanted to start slow and then as the trailer goes, the music would become faster. We
wanted the characters to move with the rhythm of the music.
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Horror poster
April 19, 2010
IMAGE
For my horror poster I have chosen the same image I have used for my horror magazine
front cover because I wanted it to work well with my poster and my trailer to produce an
effective marketing campaign.

4. RESEARCH
I have researched through looking at other posters. Particularly, I have looked at “The
uninvited” film poster because our trailer was inspired by this movie, so I wanted to
transmit a similar message to the audience. I thought it was great to hide the identity of
the model and to create a sense of mystery to the audience, because they do not know
who the killer is. However, I was inspired by other These are the posters I have looked at
that inspired me to create my own poster:
The uninvited poster:
*Looks creepy with the face obscured
*Shows a dark secret
*It seems like the girl is looking in the house trying to figure out “why she was not
invited”
*The poster is scary because if the audience stare at the face for a long time they may feel
that the face is going to come out
*The text in front of her face may be a little distracting
*The font is associated with horror as it is distorted
*This poster involves the audience because it feels as if the girls is looking at them
The ring poster:
*The picture clearly shows “The ring” connoting what the film is about
*Again the face of the little girl is obscured which makes the poster creepy
*The image looks as if part of a video
*It looks like the girls is sitting in an empty and dark room with only one light above her,
connoting that shes a suspect and she has done something bad
One missed call poster:
*This poster is very creepy because from far away it looks like a skeleton, but if you look
twice you can see that it is very ugly face. The eyes two screaming mouths. Then the
mouth of the face has got big lips like a clown.
*The image is very dark. You can only see the front of the face. You can also see the
hand holding a phone which represents the name the film.

5. *Again most of the text is white over the black which make it stand out and it also avoids
the audience getting distracted, so they only focus on the image. There is also a little of
red text and I found out that in most of the posters, the red is only used for a few of the
text.
POSTER CONVENTIONS
Text and name of the film is normally at the bottom of the poster
The majority of horror film posters have black shaded edges and this is for the audience
focus on the centre of the poster and also to create a scary
The colour red is used often for the fonts because it connotes blood
The colour white for the text is used when the background is black, to makes it really
stand out
I have used some of this research in order to meet some of the horror conventions through
my poster. I have decided to make my poster dark by making the face of the girl
obscured. I have also researched for creepy fonts and made some of the text red to
represent blood and death. I thought to make the edges of my poster black and shading to
make it darker.
To create the right horror mood for my poster, I have used a number of techniques and
tools in photoshop. You can see this in the PROGRESSION section below.
PROGRESSION
This is the original picture which I have used for my poster; the model is me.
I have edited this image by changing its exposure, contrast, temperature and saturation
because I wanted to make my face dark so the audience cannot see it or identify who she
is, this connotates suspense and makes the picture mysterious. I was inspired by the
poster from “The uninvited”
Then I deleted the background because I just wanted the audience to focus on the girl.
Then I added a plain black background.
I have added some text: “in theaters in may” and I got the font which I thought it looked
creepy from http://www.fontspace.com/the-fontry/droeming. I thought that the picture
looked too simple on its own so I added a picture of Anna who is the second main
character of the film.
I did not like how the 2 pictures worked together so I deleted mine one. I have found
another font from http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=3134 which I
have used it for “unreality”, I thought it was creepy too. I added a background of a creepy

6. tree with a dark red colour; I thought it worked well with the the picture of Anna but not
with my image.
I decided to keep my picture as I am the main character in the film. I thought the plain
white background worked well with the picture because it makes it stand out. I changed
the colour of some of the text to red to represent blood and death. I added a black shadow
around the poster because through my research I found out that most of horror posters
have them. this effect makes the audience to focus on the middle of the poster.
I thought that the white background although it made the girl stand out, it was a bit
simple and boring. Also it made the poster to look too bright and I wanted it dark. So I
made it grey to see how it looks and I liked it, I thought that the girl still stands out.
THE FINAL ONE. To create mise on scene I decided to add something on the
background and because I was inspired from “The uninvited” poster, which has some
trees as the background, I decided to search for “trees photoshop brushes” on the internet
and I found some on http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/1312-Complete-Tree-Brush-
Pack. I decreased the opacity of the brushes so the girl still stands out.
FEEDBACK
Positive
“Is very dark, I would definitely think that it is a horror poster”
“The background is creepy and it makes the girl stand out”
“It feels like the girl is looking at viewer and that is what makes it creepy”
Negative
“The red is too bright, I could have been darker so it looks like blood more”
“The size of the text is too big and it takes the attention away from the reader”
“The name of the film doesn’t match the poster”
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Film Magazine
April 12, 2010
RESEARCH

7. Before creating and producing my film magazine I have researched through looking at
other film magazines such as Total Film, Empire and Gorezone. I went through their
front covers and content, in order to find out how film magazines conventions and how
they attract the audience.
FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER CONVENTIONS:
The title is clearly displayed, with large and bold font
Famous actors/images used to focus the audience
Phrases like “Worlds biggest movie magazine” from Empire magazine or “The ultimate
movie magazine” from Total Film magazine or “Worldwide No. 1 horror entertainment
mag” from Gorezone magazine. These phrases are used to attract audience and different
form other film magazines.
The actor/image represents the film that is being advertised. The name of the film or the
name of the actor would be shown as the main issue, with large and bold font and with a
noticeable colour.
USING THE FINDINGS
I have used these finding to produce my own magazine. I did this by following common
conventions and at the same time I have attempted to make my magazine different from
existing magazines. An example of this is that I have included shapes of movie symbols.
Gorezone was the most specific magazine in relation to my trailer as it is a horror film
magazine. It helped me in terms of image/picture, colours and fonts used, and how these
together represent horror and attract the audience. However, I have decided that my
magazine was not only going to be aimed at horror films as the audience would be too
limited. Therefore, I have produced my film magazine mainly inspired by Total Film, but
it would also include conventions from each of these other film magazines.
My film magazine would advertise my horror movie by using horror font style which its
a common convention of Gorezone, using horror font style through out its front covers.
I have chosen a mysterious picture as the background image because I was inspired by
one of the Total Film magazine front cover.
In addition, I would attempt to create a professional look the rest of the headings and sub-
headings, and will not only use colours like “red” as it connotates horror, and my
magazine is not only for horror movies. The master head of my magazine would be big as
well. I have decided that my magazine would be called “Exclusive” as it has special film

8. publications that do not appear in any other film magazine. The gold colour of the master
head represts the best and quality.
MISE EN SCENE
Lighting: I did not use any kind of lighting because I was standing outdoor during day
time. The day was cloudy. I was behind a window door and the photographer was inside.
I told the photographer to turn the flash off so there was not any reflect in the window.
Position of the camera: middle camera angle and at my eye level. It creates the
impression that the viewer is on the same level. It is usually seen as ‘normal’ but can also
be used to bring the viewer closer to the action.
Character figure and performance: my position is to be standing as if I am looking inside
the door. I have my hands in my face as if I am trying to get away from the light. This
gives the sense of me looking at the audience. Also, this position is to represent the name
of the film, and it does this because it looks like the girl is getting away from the reality
and she cannot believe that things are happening to her.
Custom: ordinary clothe
Props: I needed a camera and a tripod. I asked my friend to be standing behind the door
from far away so you can’t see her reflection on the window. I had to be standing outside.
ENSURING THAT THE MAGAZINE AND THE POSTER WORK WELL
To ensure that this magazine cover works well with my poster and my trailer to produce
an effective part of a marketing campaign for the release of the original film, I have used
the same font style for the name of the film “The uninvited” and with a large size. I have
also edited the image similarly; I have made the face of the actress dark so the audience
cannot identify clearly who she is and to create a “mysterious identity”.
PROGRESSION OF MY FILM MAGAZINE
I started with “cinema” as the name of my magazine but I thought it was too simple and
obvious. I put a yellow banner because I wanted to see how a movie reel behind the
headline looks like. The second thing I added was the name of the my horror film with
the same type of font from the poster. I knew roughly where I wanted to place it.
I researched on the internet for movie reels and this is the one I found. I decided to reduce
its opacity so the audience does not get distracted with it.
I researched on the internet for “theater fonts” and I found one in
http://www.fontspace.com/category/theater. I decided to name my magazine

9. EXCLUSIVE and I put a gold colour because I thought I would stand out and match the
picutre. I added text above the name of the magazine to follow common conventions of
existing film magazines. Them I added a picture of me, but then I thought that it didn’t
work well with my poster as with this picture the audience could identify who the girl is,
but with the picture from the poster they can’t, and that was my aim to hide the identity to
make it creepy. Afterwards, I edited the name of the film by making it bigger and with
shadow so it stands out, without the shadow you are not able to read it properly. I have
decided to include another movie symbol so I researched on the internet and i found this.
I though that it would represent “review of the year” films and I changed its opacity so
the audience did not get too distracted with it. I decided to make all of the headings gold
to match the title, but I made the “iron man” heading red to represent the film.
I put the image from the poster and I wanted it to cover most of the magazine front cover
to make it creepy and to grab audience’s attention. I added more text on the bottom right
of the magazine to follow a convention of films magazines and by also adding a plus
symbol “+” instead of writing it. I made the text red to match it with the iron man
heading and to make it stand out as well.
This is the final one. I added more text bellow the name of my horror film because I
wanted to add more description about the film to attract more the audience to watch the
film and get them more interested to read about it inside the magazine. I made the “Jonny
Depp” heading green because I thought the colours in general where boring and too
simple, so I wanted to have a variety of colours to keep the readers entertained.
MAGAZINE FEEDBACK
Positive
“Is very good, I like the picture because it is scary, the unreality font promotes the film
because it is a horror type of font”
“I could see straight away that it is a film magazine”
“The name and the picture match because they are both creepy”
“There is a lot to see and keeps the reader busy”
“Well structured and organized layout”
Negative
“Font type and colour of EXCLUSIVE is not suitable for a film magazine, a different
type of font should haven been used”

10. “The colour green is out of place”
“There should have been a colour because white is too simple and plain”
“The REVIEW OF THE YEAR should have been smaller because it takes away the
attention from the reader too much as it has nearly the same size of UNREALITY”
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Filming our trailer
April 8, 2010
PROBLEMS WE ENCOUNTERED
The main problems we encountered were related to the acting, sometimes we could not
get the expression we wanted to get or the dialogue, so we had to repeat the scene a
number of times. Also, we had to film a scene with different camera shots and angle until
they look right. Sometimes by mistake we did not frame a shot correctly, for example we
cut the head of the actor, so we had to repeat the scene again. We had to do more filming
a number of times because we needed to cover all of our shotlist. It was also hard to agree
with what we wanted to film because we were 4 in our group and we all had different
ideas, so we decided to discuss them and choose the best idea. For some of the scenes,
such as the one at the graveyard, the first time we wanted to do it it started to rain so we
had to postpone it. In addition, for some of the scenes we were not complete as a group
meaning that one or two of the group were missing so it was difficult to film and to
discuss the scenes.
WHAT WORKED WELL AND BAD
What always worked well was that we always had the tripod available for us and we
knew how to use it very well, so our scenes could look more professional as they were
not shaky. We also decided to carry out our shotlist so we knew exactly what to do
without wasting any time.
What did not work well was that for the dialogue, we did not have a microphone so when
it came to edit the trailer, we could not hear the voices properly. Furthermore, even if we
had our shotlist, well planed, when it came to filming them sometimes we did not like
them so we had change the shotlist in terms of camera shot, camera angle or dialogue.