Samuel Schoettner plans to create a trailer for a horror film about a plague doctor who tortures people for revenge. He wants the trailer to sync graphic violence with upbeat music to create an intense and psychotic tone. Samuel will make a costume and polished silver axe prop and film at appropriate locations using fake blood. He aims to achieve realism and authenticity through costume, makeup, and attention to detail. Posters will feature the protagonist or victims and be appropriately graphic for public spaces. Samuel is excited for creative freedom on this project.

1. Initial Plans
Samuel Schoettner

2. Initial Reaction
I would like to create a film trailer for a comedy/action/horror film. The film idea I have at the moment is a very
bloody and gory type of horror film. I want the trailer to be in synch with the music used, so that blood splatters,
punches, axe sweeps etc. Happen in synch with the beat of the music. Ideally I would like use contrapuntal upbeat
music as it would intensify the psychotic nature that I would hope the achieve. I would like to use lots of props and
costume, fake blood and good locations to make the trailer as authentic as possible, the costume needs to be well
made and look the part, I want the protagonist to be dressed as a plague doctor, this is purely because plague
doctors looked extremely mysterious and creepy though they were doing good. Much like the protagonist who is
torturing people but in a twisted way it is for revenge so you could argue he is trying to do good. His main prop is
going to be a well polished silver axe, as again, it is psychotic, an axe is scary but if you take care and pride in
primitive weapon that will be used purely to torture and murder people by polishing it, that’s the point where it
becomes psychotic, I think little details such as this will give the movie a realism and authenticity that will give it the
ability to achieve a much more convincing story. I’m not yet 100% sure as too how large the cast will be though I
know I will need at minimum 5 actors. Considering the nature of film trailer I would like to create a 18+ cinema
trailer, this trailer would only be screened at 18+ movies in the theatre and on web-pages such as Imdb or Youtube.
Within my product I would also like to create some movie posters. I would like these to be minimalistic and only of
the protagonist or the ’torture victims’ however if they were of the torture victims they would have to be
appropriate enough to be placed around a city/on public transport. For the posters I know that I would like the
images to be visually interesting, the first idea I had is the reflection of the protagonist in the plague doctor costume
in the well polished axe. This would show off two large aspects of the film within one poster while showing they are
both significant and the axe is more than just a weapon the the protagonist is holding. Overall I am very excited for
this project and the freedom to create something completely original with almost full creative freedom.

3. Mind Map

4. Mind Map

5. Mind Map

6. Mind Map

7. Mood Board
This is the general idea of what Id like to achieve costume wise I am going
to make the mask out of metal instead as I think it will make the
protagonist more creepy. The costume will consist of said mask, a long
black coat, black trousers, boots and leather gloves. The axe again should
be shiny and polished so that it has a hypnotizing and psychotic nature to it.
This will work well as the costume will be all black so the only noticeable
parts will be the mask and the axe. Overall the creepier the better. The
mask I would like to weld myself as I am not by any means a professional
welder, therefore it will look amateur which will again add authenticity.

8. I very much like this colour palette the colours look cold but not unrealistic, since the film
is supposed to be set in reality it is important that the colours lighting and any other
aspects reflect this, the image just feels ‘eerie’ though there are warm tones coming from
the door you don’t feel comfortable it feels more like a way to escape, this is because the
rest of the image is quite dark and cold. I will probably use a colour palette similar to this
for my production. Perhaps a little cooler but retaining warm highlights/mid tones where
applicable.
(Cold but unrealistically blue)
Mood Board

10. Mood Board Analysis
Is there any repetition in the images you have collected? Repeated colours/images
styles/fonts/tone/mood
• The images I have chosen all have a similar dark tone and mood with lots of blue colours and light
warm yellow/orange highlights. This gives the images a certain softness while retaining the core
coldness. Furthermore it give the image colour contrast which creates a more interesting image.
Lots of the images are also close up/ medium shots of the subject.
• As mentioned all the images have a similar dark tone and mood, due to the fact that to find these
images I looked for horror films, these are likely to be conventions of horror films. Some of the
images are perhaps to cold (colour wise) I would like the films colours to look real though maybe a
hint exaggerated. This is because the film needs to look real as mention previously. Though you
obviously cannot tell from a still image how the camera was moving in the shot I think in most of
the images you could easily see a slow/fast dolly push in on the subject (not all of them but a
majority) This is a strange thing to bring up while analysing tone and mood however I think camera
movement and colour or tone and mood go hand in hand these dark shots would be very difficult to
understand if the camera was shaking or moving quickly as our eyes would already have trouble
with the darkness but if the camera was very unstable it would make ‘reading the images’ near
impossible’ therefore I think I will have to use a lot of stabilized and slow camera movement or if
the movement does need to be fast I have the frame the subject in a way it is abundantly easy to
identify the subject and enjoy the shot without confusion as to what it is.
(some of the images where a dolly push in seems appropriate)

11. Mood Board Analysis
How will your mood board influence your final product?
• The idea for my project is to create a visually creepy film that is not necessarily scary in its contents
but mostly in the way it looks. I will attempt to imitate the colour tones and schemes to create a film
trailer that not only feels authentic and professional but also looks authentic and professional. I will
also use the mood boards to work on the way I light the set in hopes to create a more eerie looking
product. I think I will also take inspiration for the costumes and props, if you look at most of the
images the subject almost blends into the background for example the lady in the hospital gown or
the teenager in the yellow coat. The directors used costume lighting the set and colour grading to
make the characters perfectly fit into the environment. I had not before thought about how
important colour is in terms of costumes but they can make the character blend or stand out, you
can make a character look boring happy unhappy excited etc. Whatever you want them to do it is
easily achieved through costume. These aspect will come in very handy in order to create a better
product one that works better to achieve its purpose and one that is easier to understand as a
viewer.