Research into the sound used in horror teaser trailer

                                                          Research On Sound


Sound is one of the most important things that can determine whether a teaser trailer is good or not. This could be in terms of many ways, for instance whether it will help make the teaser trailer much more effective in terms of how scary it appears or whether it may help contribute to the trailer making the film seem good when in fact it is not.

There are many different types of sounds in which editors use in teaser trailers in order to make them convince the viewers to want to go and watch the film.


These are some of the different types of sounds:

Diegetic Sound: Sound heard by the characters in the text as well as the audience.
Non-Diegetic: Sound: Type of sound added to the text for the audience only.
Synchronous Sound: Type of sound that is times to match the movements occurring in the text.
Sound Effects: Artificially created or enhanced sound, used to emphasise content.
Dialogue: This is any speech made in the content.

The above sound is usually mixed and balanced in order to create the necessary emphases which in turn help to create the desired effects.

Below are some horror teaser trailers i took a look at and in particular paying attention to the sound in which they used.

Saw 3D Teaser Trailer

The production company logo appears along with a short and snappy sound effect to go with it. Unlike most of the teaser trailers we looked at, this one has a voiceover throughout the trailer. There is also some non diegetic sound to help maintain the effectiveness of the sound overall. Like many other teaser trailers, it does however have some sound effects to accompany the captions. Other sound effects that are used include a scream and machines being used. In this trailer, the music starts to build up and get faster at around 33 seconds. Compared to all these other teaser trailer, this one also ends with its non diegetic sound fading out. 

Insidious Teaser Trailer

Just like the other three teaser trailers we notice that this teaser also has some non diegetic sound effect that starts to play when the production company logo appears on screen. Synchronizing sound is also used when the captions appear on screen. This teaser trailer also uses incidental music that builds tensions, especially when they are quick cuts playing. Diegetic sound is also used within the teaser and there are parts in which we  notice the sound gets louder and softer in order to keep the viewers alert and anxious.

The Crazies Teaser trailer

In this teaser trailer we notice that there is no sound for the first 8 seconds of it.
When the production company logo appears, it is accompanied by some non-diegetic sound and a sound effect of what sounds like a soft drum/heart beat.

The next shots of the girl strapped on a bed uses some diegetic sound with non diegetic sound that is also in the background. This is a good effect as if does not make the teaser trailer sound dry at this point. It helps to maintain the flow of the sequence along with its music. This teaser trailer then also goes on to use more foley sound effects that synchronize the action on screen, for example the unlocking door sound, the spreading of fire sound and the scream of a girl. When captions come up we notice that there is a specific sound in which accompany them. This is good as it keeps the continuity going in the teaser trailer. Other hard sound effects we hear at the end include an explosion sound. Incidental music to build up the tension is used from about 26 seconds for some few seconds. We also notice that when there is a blanc screen for more than a second, the sound stops and then starts again.

In comparison we notice that all these teaser trailers use sound and music that anchors the footage. We also realise that every sound effect that each uses either goes with what is happening on screen or flows with the captions.

Comparing these three teaser trailers makes us realise that teaser trailers use sound in a very effective way as it helps to create tension. For instance when all the quick shots are playing the sound gets louder, more distinctive and fast paced in order to create that frightening feeling that makes you anxious to want to know more.

By looking at these teaser trailers as well as others. we have noted the sound in which we use in our teaser trailer is very important as it could make a big difference to how the audience like or see the trailer. It has also helped us realise that in order to make our teaser trailer flow we need to mix and balance out different sounds not just use one sound. These also helped us gather ideas of the sort of music and sound we should be looking at including in our teaser trailer.

Reasearch on Editing techniques

In order to prepare ourselves for the editing process we have decided to each do some independent reasearch on how to edit using Final Cut Pro X as we do not really have that much experience using it to proffesionally edit footage. 

This is the logo of the main website i used to get hold of video tutorials of how to use some of Final Cut Pro X features to edit.

Thes video clips look at the basic editing techniques in Final Cut pro X. This includes how to edit a clip to produce match on action.

These are some of the Youtube clips i looked at that had information on how to use some of Final Cut Pro Features. The following mainly take a look at how to add effects and transitions because when we last has our group meeting we felt as if our weakness when editing will be adding transitions to our teaser trailer.

I also took a look at a tutorial video on how to add text to footage on Final Cut Cut Pro X. This is because we want to have some captions into our teaser trailer.

While doing this research i also came across a website (http://www.finalcutking.com/tutorials/motion.html) that we can use to help us with our editing skills. This seems like a good website to use in order to get guidance from as it only looks at tutorial videos of how to edit using Final Cut Pro.

Marketing the film

The way this film would be marketed would be on many platforms such as networking sites, such as facebook mainly because of the type of information we can put on there, it’s very clear to see pictures and writing. So people can understand a bit about the film. But as well as that news travels very quickly on Social net working sites so it’s seen as a very compensating option. It’s free as well so there’s no loss in setting up a facebook as well as a twitter page to promote the film. Twitter is seen as a newer way of networking and we would take full advantage as the amount of people who could follow us are enormous compared to facebook where there’s a limit on adds.

 

This type of promotion can easily be spread with clicks and once people start catching on there will be a buzz that can easily be spread. The power of WEB 2.0 is very powerful in these circulates interest quickly because so many people can be looking at one thing at once. This type of advertising will create word of mouth which is what we would be looking to get because this means there’s a genuine excitement about the film and saves a lot of money. A website would be made as well to help promote the film by giving out information about actors, how commercial the films going to be what type of cinemas to be expecting to see it at, when it’s coming out and other information that will interest fans and capture the imagination of people such as interactive activities and games.

This film will be looking to be released in the Uk so the budget wont be too high meaning advertising will be very modest. There would be some expensive places we would advertise the film only because the publicity would be worth it such as on large billboards outside certain shopping centres trying to catch the public’s eye especially with posters being released. We would be looking to put our posters on Buses and at bus stops where people would be able to have a quick look.

Logo Research & Progress

Production logo's are very important to film companies. It is a special type of logo used in production to establish the company as a brand by brading what they produce. This is usually done at the beginning of a theatrical movie or the end of a TV programme so that the TV audience can associate the company with the produc they are abut to watch. Production logo's are unlike others and have the ability to move and be associated with a particular piece of music such as 20th Centuary Fox.

Some of the biggest production companies are known worldwide and iconic such as :





Looking at many production logo's helped show that the design of logo's doesnt have to be complex at all, and many are easy simple designs yet are very effective as they seem to stand out more.


I began the creation of our groups logo on Photoshop, and found I really liked the cloud effect filter on photoshop. By pressing this filter I realised that in fact there were various other filters under "Render" and instead decided to go with the fibre filter along with the cloud filter. This gave a gothic horror look and vibe which is what our company is going for.

I then decided to ad the intials of production company to be incorporated within the logo. I selected a worn horroe text which looks like it has been scratched and scraped from dafont.com. The chosen text worked well against the background espcially when i enhanced the lettering adding effects such as drop shadow and outer glow.

Most logos consist of an image or additional shape it is rare for a comapany to just include include text. As this is a covention of production logo;s an image was icorporated into the logo. As a group we felt a mask was the perfect image as it linked well with our production name and establishes us well as a brand. The horror type mask also shows what type of films our production team makes.

Final Outcome

Software

Blogger

This is the website we are using, it is a blogging publisher site which enables us to post our research and planning work for our teachers and external examiners to view. The website is also used for us to update our progress on the project so far so we as a team can keep track on work which is posted. Blogger is fairly easy software to use and allows us to upload pictures and videos so that our blog has a variety of media displayed.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Photoshop is another piece of software we are using through the duration of the project. It will be particularly used for the creation of our logo, poster and magazine cover. This software allows us to create detailed pieces through a variety of effects and photo manipulation e.g colour, size. This is a fairly straight forward system and with its vast popular use many tutorials can be found to create anything.

Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro X is what is to be used for our teaser trailer. It will allow us to edit our footage effectively and add a variety of effects. This is a new software that has been introduced to the group so we are still trying to master the use of the software.

Soundtrack Pro

Sound Track PRO will allow us to create our own soundtrack to accompany our teaser trailer. It has the ability to play realistic sampled instruments used for creating songs and music. Music,  non-diegectic and diegectic sound are vital in horror as it ultimately sets the scene. The software enables us to be able to view our trailer whilst creating the soundtrack to ensure the right pieces of music are accompanying the right shots.

Filming Locations

As our horror trailer is about a man with a pyschological obession with hair one of our shots was a close up of the victim (female) waking up from her dream with scars and blood on her face. For this shot as group we decided the best location for this will not be going all the way to the studio and doing it but a bedroom consiting of one single bed.

As you can see below this is where we filmed this shot:

We managed to get this location by using one of our group memebers bedroom Nadine Phillips with the permission of her parents. This location was the obvious solution for this type of shot as we all know people sleep and wake up in beds. Also this location was ideal because the fact that her bedroom was not all that big and it was compacted and not a lot of space between the walls of the bedroom.

The main location of where most of our horror teaser trailer was filmed was in Christ The King Sixth Form. The most important bit of our trailer which should capture the audience was our improvised torture chamber this bit of our trailer was where the obessed man keeps hold of its victim. For this we needed a location which was kind of rusty and looked old and unused for many years, what me and my group found was a cupboard right next to the media department which we transformed into a scary looking place by adding bits of hair and blood onto the wall saying "HELP ME".

Update - 8/12/2012

Masked Productions have succesfully filmed the shots needed for our teaser trailer. It was long but worthwhile process. In the end we decided to use my (Nadine) house as a location for the bedroom scenes and used various locations within college that suited our torture chamber very well. We are now at the process of looking through all our footage thoroughly in case anything needs to be re-shot, which will be done in the half term.

Filming Update

                                                         Third Filming Process - 08/01/2012

Today Masked productions got togther to film  the rest of the shots that are needed  for our teaser trailer. These are mainly the shots that our antagonist will be featured in. These scenes were shot in different locations around college.

Like all the other times when we got together to film we got together all the equiptment that we needed to use to film. We also had with us a list of the shots that we needed to film as to make our filming process fast and smooth. We made sure Nadine did the victim and antagonists' makeup and they were ready to start filming

We filmed our shots and it took us about 2-3 hours to finish filming.

Update 06/02/2012

Masked productions met up today to discuss the shots that we filmed during our second filming process.
After carefully going through the footage we filmed, we decided that we had finished filming all the bedroom scenes that we needed to film for our horror teaser trailer. We managed to get the right shots as well as produce shots that had good use of lighting.

We then agreed on another date as well as a location to film the rest of the shots that we need for our teaser trailer.

Filming Update

                                  Second Filming Process - 01/01/2012
On our second attempt of filming the bedroom scenes we had planned to film, the group got together and setup all things that were needed in order to start filming. This time we however decided to change the location these shots were going to be filmed to Nadine's house.

Like before we arranged the room in a way that we needed it to look like so we could start filming. Nadine who is our makeup artist did the makeup on our actor.

We found the filming process so much easier compared to the first time we filmed because we had already kind of gone through it the first time we filmed the shots. This was good because we spent less time filming (about 3 hours) and we knew what we had to do this time around to improve our shots as well as make the filming process run smoothly.

These are some pictures of us during the filming process:

These are some of the shots we filmed on the day:

Some of the difficulties we faced during the day included:

• Positioning the lighting in order to be able to get good quality shots.