The student created a horror movie trailer for a class assignment. They chose to film the trailer in the style of "faux found footage" to make it seem more realistic and capture audience attention. Key elements included using a demon/ghost as the antagonist and paying attention to narrative structure, locations, sound effects, and editing techniques like night vision effects. Feedback indicated the scary scenes made the viewer jump, showing the trailer was effective at being frightening. While the student learned a lot, they would pay more attention to narrative structure in the future for this type of "found footage" trailer.

1. Evaluation
For this assignment I had to film and edit a movie trailer. In my group we decided to
create a horror trailer, my job in the group was director. Our target audience was
horror fans with an age of 15 and over. Throughout the trailer I tried to replicate
some horror genre signifiers; one of them was the concept of filming the trailer in
the style of faux found footage (the protagonist filming the occurrences), I wanted to
film it this way because I believe it captures the audience’s attention a lot more
because they believe they’re watching footage of paranormal events, this would be
different if we filmed it like a conventional movie where the audience will be more
aware they are watching a trailer. The other convention I wanted to implement was
using a demon/ghost as the antagonist. I have decided to do this because I feel
people are more scared of the unknown and it gives my trailer a more creepy effect.
During my pre-production work I watched a lot of horror trailers, even some that
weren’t in the style of my own to get an idea of how they function, this gave me
ideas that helped me create my trailer. Whilst watching trailers I looked at how the
narrative was structured, I found that in horror trailers, the equilibrium is
established first, and then there is a disturbance which leads to a bunch of horror
scenes. I also had a look at locations because I wanted the mood of my trailer to shift
throughout the trailer so I decided to film in a few locations. I didn’t go into much
detail with the costumes because I wanted my actors to be dressed casual to make
the trailer more relatable to the target audience. Music and sound are a crucial part
of horror trailers; however the type of trailer I went for made it harder to
incorporate ‘scary music’ into it. Instead I just looked at sound effects. The pre-
production work was helpful in further understanding horror trailers and gave me a
more in depth knowledge of them. After choosing the type of film trailer I wanted to
make, I made a film proposal, which outlined the story, and other ideas I had for the
trailer. Before shooting I made a filming schedule which my group and I would have
to abide by. Finally I made a risk assessment. Upon reflection I should have paid
more attention to how the narrative is structured throughout the trailers of faux
found footage. This sub genre can be explored and edited in very effective ways
however if the video clips are not edited well it can completely ruin your trailer.
Whilst filming we decided to film the shots in chronological order so it would be
easier to manage time. We paid a lot of attention to props and minor details. All
together we worked well as a team. Because our trailer was faux found footage the
lighting and shot types needed to be quite natural however for some scenes we did
need to add artificial lighting of special effects whilst editing because the lighting
didn’t appear the same on final cut pro as it did on the camera. The narrative of the
trailer is the only thing I would pay more detail to if I were to re-make the trailer.
My production logs outlined my roles in making the trailer, this is important to
document because it shows how influential you were in the production of your film
trailer.

2. The editing section of making my film trailer was very successful, in a horror trailers
is crucial because it’s the effects and sound that makes a trailer exciting and scary. I
decided to use the night vision effect on a number of scenes because it gives a
creepy vibe to the trailer. The editing log outlined some of the key features I used, it
is important to outline the crucial effects I used because it shows that I didn’t just
film a bunch of clips and pt them together. Throughout my trailer I used a lot of
sound effects to make my trailer scary, for example a rumbling sound. The inter-
titles I used help break up the scenes and give information like the release date or
catch phrases.
My original idea did not include a narrative what so ever, however my final trailer
does. I felt this was a better route to take if I wanted my trailer to be scary. I feel my
trailer would appeal to my target audience because it’s got relatable characters and
a story line, which people are frightened by. I also included a hash tag in at the end
of my trailer; this is a crucial institutional aspect of horror trailers because it’s a
quick way to spread the word around social media. After having a student watch my
trailer he jumped at some of the scenes intended to scare the audience, which is
positive feedback, it shows my trailer is jumpy/scary and keeps the viewer on edge.
To conclude I feel my trailer was successful, and there are only a few things I would
change. All those changes would require a lot more time then I was dedicated.