The document discusses planning for a horror film trailer, including choosing actors and actresses to portray main characters and extras, selecting appropriate props, costumes, makeup, and test shots. Darren Winter and Hannah Morris were chosen as the main characters Sam and Imogen based on their suitable ages, appearances, and abilities to portray the roles as intended. Megan Morris, a friend in their group, was also selected to portray another victim. Props like fake blood and a kitchen knife were used to depict violence. Costumes featured dark clothes for the killer and light clothes for vulnerable victims. Minimal makeup was applied to victims to portray natural, everyday characters. Test shots helped improve camera angles and character movements.

1. Planning-Actors & Actresses, Props, Costume, Make-up and Test shots

2. Why we chose our Actors and Actresses Once we had decided on our storyline, we needed two main characters and a one or two other extras to play the parts of people screaming or lying on the floor dead. The main character Sam is played by Darren Winter. He fitted very well with what we had in mind the character had to be like. He was of the right age that Sam would be, making him the right age to look as if he would play video games constantly. His build also fitted the part; we needed someone fairly big and strong looking to intimidate other characters. We felt he carried this out very well.

3. Our second main character is Imogen. She was played by Hannah Morris. We felt this was a suitable match as she was of the right age and the right appearance. As she has light coloured hair, this makes her look slightly more vulnerable than someone with brown hair due to the stereotypical ditsy blonde shown in films. Also featured in the trailer is Megan Morris, another victim of Sam’s. Megan is in our group so she knows the kind of impact we want to create. She is also, again, of the right age and appearance needed for the character. Being blonde makes her slightly more vulnerable to the audience.

4. Props We used various props including fake blood, a sharp kitchen knife and a mask. The fake blood was used to obviously show the use of violence in the film, we researched a recipe and made it ourselves. Being a horror film, it is also necessary to include the use of blood and violence. We tried to use this in as many different ways as possible. As we were filming in Vikki’s kitchen, we used her knife. We stabbed the knife into the chopping board (that was covered in cling film) and dripped blood down it. This was to show how many times and different ways the killer is prepared to use in order to kill. The use of the mask took some consideration. We felt we wanted a mask to cover the whole face to completely cover the face of the killer, this would create maximum effect. We ordered the mask off the internet.

5. Costume We wanted the main character, Sam, to be dressed in dark casual clothing. This would give the effect that he is a character who leads an everyday life, so when he finally turns into a killer, it gives more of an impact to the audience. The dark clothing is to give a gothic edge to it. For the victims, we felt by them wearing light coloured clothing then this could represent innocence and vulnerability. Also when covered in blood, it would make the blood appear more apparent.

6. Make-up Not much make up was used apart from the victims to have a very natural looking face with minimal make up. This is to show the effect that these characters are everyday characters, making the audience connect with them slightly more; then when they get abused, it creates slightly more impact. The other use of make up was fake blood. We needed to use this on various actresses, props and locations. By seeing blood, it signifies hurt and violence, making it clearly a horror film which can thrill the audience.

7. Music We collected a piece of royalty free music from the internet on a website called incompetech.com. It has a vast collection of free music for all genres.

8. Test Shots We filmed some test shots of the most essential and what we thought was the most challenging shots. This ranged from a high angle shot with a victim sitting in the corner to a low angle shot with a victim running up the stairs. By doing this, it gave us a feel for what the shot looked like and how we could improve on the real thing. For example, with the high angle shot, we originally shot it much too high making it more of a birds eye view shot rather than just a high angle shot. We experimented with various heights of shot and found one that worked well enough to pan round and see the killer in a doorway. We filmed the victim running up and down the stairs as a test shot and found what kind of speed the victim should run and whether they should be crawling or running. We finally decided that a mixture of the both worked the best, giving the best impact.