In terms of planning for our teaser trailer, we have already decided on various scenes which we can include in a set of storyboards, howwever we know that the teaser trailer can only be a certain amount of time - we are aiming for around a minute - so the scenes which we film but do not use we can still put them onto our blog as part of an extended trailer. We will draw the scenes out on our storyboards and then take pictures of the shots we have created to make the trailer more understandable in terms of how it unfolds.
These are the questions that me and Jack came up with to ask a number of people in order to gain feedback on ideas for our teaser trailer. We are planning to get people to fill in a questionnaire with these questions aswell as create a video which we can then post onto our blog as visual research.
For our teaser trailer, we are creating a parody of horror films as we feel we can emulate effective conventions that are usually contained in the spoof of such genre films. However a parody itself is work (in this case a teaser trailer, poster and magazine cover) created to mock, comment on or make fun the original work, subject (films/characters) and authors etc. The point of a parody is that it is meant to be humorous, and ironic of the original work, almost an imitation, but with our own twist on it. The Scary Movie films are the perfect example of the type of parody we are going to try and create, however we are planning on making the ideas unique and different with British humour, in a way mocking the media saturated American movies that are all so popular with cinema goers. As a group, we want to make the point of the joke easy to understand and be able to connect with our target audience , although it is not particularly necessary they have seen the films we are spoofing as due to wide distribution and advertisement of such films, the audience may already have knowledge of them from television adverts and also, teaser trailers.
More recent parodies of various other genres from the past decade include that of :
Epic Movie ( Spoofed Pirates of the Caribbean, Borat and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Meet the Spartans (Mocked the film 300)
Date movie (A parody film of many romantic comedy movies)
Hot Fuzz (Parodied 'Lethal Weapon' and Bad Boys)
Vampires Suck (2010 - parody of popular teen vampire culture - mocks the Twilight series)
Although this isnt a teaser trailer due to it being more than 2 minutes in length and telling alot of the plot, the Scary Movie films are the modern American dark comdey which parodies the horror, slasher and mystery genres. The tagline is "No mercy. No shame. No sequel.", with the last reference being to the tendency of popular horror movies to become long-running franchises. In 2001 a sequel Scary Movie 2 was released with the tagline "We lied". Later video covers for the first film have the "No" of the "No Sequel" part tagline crossed out. The film was followed by a series of sequels Scary Movie 3 (2003), and Scary Movie 4 (2006). The title comes from the original title of the film Scream.
The films are spoofing popular and current horror/thriller genres of the late 20th and early 21st century,which presumes they are aimed at a younger audience ( who ultimately they are the main cinema goers) and they are relying on this type of audience to understand the jokes and what films they are specifically spoofing. The Scary Movie films are American big budget parodies of various other films that are generally produced on a low budget such as Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. Throughout the sequals of the movies, some of the same actors appear in disguise as victims of other characters such as the killers or tormentors. <>
This is the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity 2, a follow on from the 2009 movie of the same name. As a follow on film, the trailer is much shorter than other teaser trailers, as it is only 65 seconds long, perhaps this is because it was such a widely viewed and talked about film that there isnt much need for alot of information or footage in Paranormal Activity 2 as the audience will presumably know what type/ genre of film it is. In terms of horror teaser trailers, this is particularly unique and original in its kind as it is almost a documentory of the events of such characters however it contrasts to the likes of Blair Witch Project as the audience is placed almost as the 'camera's' in which they have a first hand view and potentially know more of what is going on than the characters within the film. As with conventions of other horror teaser trailers, most of the shots are at night using a nightvision camera, which preys on the vulnerability of the audience as darkness creates the illusion of no safety. Although the perpatrators cannot be seen due to them being 'paranormal' i think this produces more fear from the audience as they cannot see the tormentors therefore feel unprotected, something which is useful when trying to gain an audiences attention. As with the previous movie trailer, a woman is shown suggesting she is the typical conventional 'final girl' who survives horrific events within such movies, this also relates to The Strangers, where Liv Tyler is prodominatley shown throughout the trailer, connoting she may be the one who lives to the end, and in The Ring where the blonde Naomi Watts survives the tragic events and murders of those around her, eventually being the final woman alive.
As a parody of Paranormal Activitiy, we would have to think about how we could create the same nightvision shots from a camera, and we would have to consider the mise-en-scene as to create a setting in which the audience can automatically link with the film. In terms of the 'paranormal' aspect, we have thought of mocking such events as the shaking of the camera, the killing of a male character and the use of obvious string to move objects which the audience will be able to see- something which is masked in order to create the enigma within the films.
After deciding to do a paradoy of horror films in our teaser trailer, a film which we would think of spoofing would be the 2008 American Psychological horror and thriller, The Strangers. The film revolves around a young couple who is terrorized by three masked assailants, who break into the remote summer home in which they are staying and damage all means of escape. This teaser trailer is 1 minute and 15 seconds long which could be said to be quite lengthy for a trailer of this kind. However its contents make the plot knowable yet hold back on who the perpatrators of hassling the two main characters. As an american horror film the trailer seems predictable with the conventional use of black and quick jump shots in which many of the events seem blurred and incomprehensible. The teaser trailer begins with an old fashioned style music with what appears to be old slides of photos with conventional American houses - connoting an almost triviality to the beginning of the trailer, which could initially misguide the audience as to what genre the film is. The music then changes and becomes more sinister with the slide show of photos fading to a completely black screen. Various point of view shots automatically suggest someone or something is watching the main characters, which sets up a dramatic function to the teaser trailer. The main convention that The Strangers is memorable for is the masked terrorizers, who wear white/brown sacks over their heads in order to create an enigma and psychological mystery as to who these people are. As the trailer progresses, a continous scream can be heard as the jump shots conflict one another as if the film has been screened as a slide show of pictures, continuing the nostalgic older era from the start. The rise and fall convention is apparent here as various events in the plot lead to a black screen, and then the main female character trying to escape.
In our group, we have thought about including a parody of The Strangers where we would mock the sacks that the people wear over their heads, perhaps putting funny faces on them in order to create a less psychological thriller type of trailer. We obviously will develope our ideas later in order to create a teaser trailer paraody of horror films.
After changing groups i am now working with someone else, however we are still planning on producing a horror teaser trailer although it will be a paradoy of horror films. We have brainstormed ideas and have thought about which films we would like to spoof, although at the minute the problems we face are weather the audience would understand what we are mocking within the teaser trailer. Old and modern horror films we think we will include due to the mixture of conventions used, such as Psycho's notorious music and The Blair Witch Projects unique documentory style.
Instead of just simply copying and pasting work onto my blog we have found a way that is more interactive and interesting to use in the form of the Prezi website. It enables me to post work onto it in a way that isn't boring for the person reading it. The use of the 'paths' shows what order i want my work to be presented in so there is no confusion when i've posted it.
