After another long discussion and some research on more films we decided to change our idea again. This time we wanted to create a thriller style film that would hinge on the decisions the character makes and how these decisions would create separate paths in the characters life.
These two examples represent the type of film we would like to create. Heavy Rain is a console game that takes different paths depending on the decisions that the player makes throughout the game. This means that there are multiple different endings that are possible within the game.
Sliding doors is another example that we could take inspiration from. Although this film is a romantic comedy/drama the story line is what we were inspired by. The film all hinges on whether the characters in the film either catches a train or doesn't and how that one decision changes the future.
After a long discussion about what type of horror trailer we wanted to try and produce we decided upon setting the film trailer in a post-apocalyptic time. This was after going through options such as a paranormal thriller, such as 'Paranormal Activity', however we thought that it would be hard to come up with a storyline that is actually original and not copying what has already been covered by the film.
We then decided to research films and programmes or series that are set in a post-apocalyptic setting:
28 Days Later
This teaser trailer for the film 28 Days Later manages to create a lot of tension within it. The way that the tension in this teaser trailer is created is through using many different techniques. These tension building techniques include; using dark images and quick flashes; using sound effects to add to the flashing images and fades to black to create an eerie atmosphere. This teaser goes against many of the conventional techniques used within teaser trailers. Conventional technique include using a lot of dialogue from the film almost explaining what is going on, instead of this 28 days later uses fades to black and text explaining what the images are representing. Also the music used in the trailer is very minimal, using small instrumental bursts and subtle music to go with the sound effects to create even more tension, challenging the conventional use of dynamic music that gets louder and quieter in certain parts of the trailer to add to the images being shown.
Survivors (BBC Series)
This is not a teaser trailer, however, it uses similar techniques to the conventional horror/thriller trailer, using quick cuts, music, varying speed and fades to black to create tension and keep the audience on the edge.
It also shows the kind of film we would like to replicate in our own way. Survivors is a post-apocalyptic drama that is produced by the BBC. The story line consists of a virus that wipes out 90% the population leaving only 10% of the population to fend for themselves in an eerie, empty world. This drama seems to represent the strength of people to recover from such a devastating situation and gather together to help eachother, but it also shows the other end of the spectrum, with greed, people taking over warehouses of food and supermarket store rooms and keeping people away from the food with force, using guns and weapons to defend the food. Initially the show bought in a huge audience throughout the UK as they watched the series beggining on BBC 1.Narrative
All of these action/thriller trailers follow a similar function. They all vary in pace, there are slow parts which build the tension within the audience and then there is a burst of quickfire action scenes, usually filled with the most action packed parts of the film. The trailers then usually slow down before the end to let the quick burst of action settle in the audiences mind.
These action trailers also usually fade to black inbetween the different shots in the trailer. This is becuase black is portrayed as a dark and mysterious colour and creates tension, where as white is used in lighter films, such as Romantic Comedies.
We have decided that to create an action film trailer on such a low budget would not really work, as the action in the trailer would not live up to any of the other trailers above as we do not have the funds to make sets and we do not have any special effects to work with. We have decided to focus more on a thriller or horror genre trailer, this is becuase we have found a lot of horror films that have been filmed on a budget and feel that we could create a good trailer for the genre.
