Music for my film trailer

Afetr researhing into generic fiml trailer music I wanted to look at music and sound FX from trailers that were the same genre as mine; Psychological thriller. I chose to look at Seven and Shutter Island to analyse the music in deopth however, I looked at  several other trailers for inspiration and noted down a few things.


Looking at Psychologial thriller trailers -

I created a mood board of all the different film posters that fell into the Psychoilogical thriller category, I have watched each of the films trailers I have placed on the mood board. I watched these film trailer and took some notes and inspirtaion of the things I liked and could possibly incorporate into my trailer. I then took two other trailer in the psychological thriller genre; Seven and Shutter island and analysed the music and sound FX in moer depth, to really understand how to create an eerie, enigmatic atmosphere within a psychological thriller trailer.





Analysing music for a Psychological thriller trailer -


Seven -

The music in a typical psychological thriller trailer is broken up into 3 parts, these parts are easily recognised in the trailer SEVEN.



Shutter isalnd -

The music in the SHUTTER ISLAND  trailer follows typical conventions of film trailer music. The 3 sections are clearly emphasised and the tones and instruments used provide the atmosphere and mood that directors wish to create in a psychological thriller trailer, to entice the audience to watch the film.  

When looking for music to accompany my trailer I found various websites that provided free copyright music and sound FX.

I found these sound effects from FREE SOUND

• http://www.freesound.org/people/unfa/sounds/156692/ - sudden shock or change in events 
• http://www.freesound.org/people/ayamahambho/sounds/113595/ -  use for more isolated shots , alone in the woods. 
• http://www.freesound.org/people/Airborne80/sounds/219187/ - whispering hearing voices ect. 
• http://www.freesound.org/people/genelythgow/sounds/203558/ - as a base line undertone through the trailer

After filming some shots for our trailer and then editing team in After effects I decided that we needed other sound effect such as when she is in the hospital suite. As from our audience focus group I found that many people thought she was dead an dot rather confused about what was going on the plot line. Therefore I though fit best to maybe use a heart/vitals monitor sound FX to ensure that people know she is in a coma rather than thinking she is dead and to add a bit more clarity to the plot line of the trailer.

I found these sound FX on FreeSound to use within out trailer for the heart/vitals monitor

A key learning point I took from looking into film music, I learnt about the varying styles of music that need to be in my genre of traile. I aim to find a sisnter music track that has varying tempos, thereofere when it comes to editing my trailer the shots I use I plan to fit them to the music of my trailer. This will help when creating a climatic montage and fitting music to the shots to add a mysterious atmosphere.

Scripting my Trailer

In the lessons we looked at scripting for other film trailers both teaser and thetrical, we also loked a the element of using a Voice over and the conventions and functions.

Voice over –

·         Gives background information

·         Introduces scene setting etc

·         Showcase narrative and stars

·         It gives importance of production makers

·         Sense of anticipation

·         Reinforce the title of the film

·         Voice over scripts tend to summarizes story (5-8 lines)

Voice over commonly replace by inter-titles and character narration/commentary 

Scripting  -Looking at scripting for other trailers 

The Woman in Black  - 

In the lesson we got given a script for both the teaser and thearical trailers for "The Woman in Black". We then watched the trailers and annaylised the scripting of trailer.

Teaser trailer - 

Theatrical trailer - 

After looking at the scripting of the Woman in Black trailer,  I then explored scripting within trailers of my own genre. I looked at Seven, Shutter Island, Memento and Black Swan.
From looking at scripting for these trailers I found that there is little 'lengthy' dialogue and more 'one liners'. Also that there are between 1-3 conversations within the trailers that are commonly broken up by montage shots or the conversation carries however, the image on the screen changes. This is the use of off-screen dialogue.


The scripting for my trailer 

Gaining Permission

With Regards to our filming ideas for locations and setting some of these are areas of the general public, therefore in order to film in these location we had to write to or call to gain permission.

Macc Forest

Dear Sir/Madam

I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film in Macclesfield forest on various trails. The shots will be of an actor walking/running through the forest, the shot will appear for a few seconds in the trailer.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,

Heather Lancashire

Sparrow Park

Dear Sir/Madam

 I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film in and the view from the park. The shot will be most likely of the view from the park rather than of the park itself, however I may also have need to film in the park itself. The shot will appear in the trailer for a couple of seconds.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,

Heather Lancashire

Teggs nose Farm/flats

Dear Sir/Madam 

 I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film in and around Teggs nose Farm. The shots will be of the view but also there will be shots containing actors, this is where I would need to film in the flats and near other buildings. The shots will appear in the trailer for a couple of seconds.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks, 

Heather Lancashire

Town

Dear Sir/Madm

 I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film around the town shopping area, also near the town hall. The shots will be of actors as the areas will be used as the background setting. The shots will appear in the trailer for a couple of seconds.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks, 

Heather Lancashire

Large house

Dear Sir/Madam
I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film in and around your house as I feel with its grand, modern structure will work well when filmimg scenes for my trailer.
I am looking forawd to hearing from you.
Many thanks,
Heather Lancashire

Studio

Dear Sir/Madam
I am an A Level Media Studies student at The Fallibroome Academy, as part of my course work for this year I am making a film trailer. I am requesting permission to film in the studio to shoot various shoots using the lighting rig for my trailer.
I am lookig forawrd to hearing from you.
Many thanks,
Heather Lancashire

After gaining permission for the places where I am filming, I have created a Risk assessment for filming in these places.

Planning

G324 ADVANCED PORTFOLIO Planning

I create an Emaze presentation to present my planning ideas for my film trailer

To help with my planning and plot synopsis I found several trailers in the psychological thriller genre but ensured that they were all very different in the plot line to give me a wide range of trailers to look at and take inspiration form.

Plot synopsis

The film is set in a suburban, quaint  town, a family are brutally murdered, fortunately a young girl survives she is the ‘middle’ child of the family. After being taken to hospital for her wounds she beings to see flash backs of that night. The doctors say her memory is damaged but the unknown face of the murdered haunts her thoughts . To help her remember she finds the help of a ‘viewer’ – someone who can access people’s subconscious memories – She entrust in him her deepest darkest secrets of the past as the viewer begins to unlock the girls troubled mind. AS her memories begin to appear and become more vivid her personality changes and her actions more hostile , she finds herself blacking out and ending up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Becoming increasingly nervous and anxious at what the viewer saw in her memories he sent to have her tested, shortly after this the viewer is found dead at the hospital and the girl released. She decides to hire a P.I. Looking through the case over and over the P.I finds a ‘trail’ and begins to act upon it . Suspiciously after this the P.I is murdered , the girl then takes the case back into her own has picking up from where she left off. Months pass by and continuous deaths of those who try to help the girl occur yet the police have uncovered nothing and her case is getting nowhere. For her own safety she is taken under Witness Protection to prevent her from being the next target, the police suspect the killer is tormenting the girl and making her life a living hell. the girl becomes increasingly more agitated and has personality shifts, after moving to her new location the police provider her with counselling and help for her audial. Through this she unlocks more mysterious memories, even remembering murders she was never there to witness. Years pass by and eventually the girl settles and puts her traumatic past behind her, she starts a family and a completely new life. However the dreams and thoughts haunt her still has she beings to see the victims of her past being murdered as if see was looking down on them. One day her daughter finds a journal with records and a dairy entry of each of the victims in her mother’s past, seeing what her daughter has found she is keen to take a look. However she is horrified at what she reads on the blood stained pages of this little black book, eventually reaching the last pages in the book she finds pages entitled with her husbands and each of her child’s names. The book has one last thing written in the back ‘the ending is always the best’ All of a sudden she has a flash back to the night of her family were murdered and then finds herself standing over her husband’s body with a blooded knife and the little black book. 


 After creating my plot synopsis i converted my ideas into shots and created a storyboard templete to present them on. I then colour coded each of the individual shots to which setting they are being flimed in. 

After planning out my shots in my story board we decided to make an animatic from the image I drew out on my paper copy of my story board. We used premier pro to insert the imags and create our animatic. 

After planning my plot synopsis and creating my story board I decied to work in a pair on my trailer, this helped me with the filming schedual and timing for getting all the filming done and able to edit.

Audience Profile

After research into audience profiles I created my own audience profile.

Audience Profile for a Psychological thriller

Sex:  Male      Female

Age:

Status:  Married    Single    Divorced    Partner

Education:  High School   College  University/Graduate 

Income(per year): Less than £10,000   £10,000-£30,000     £31,000-£50,000      More than £50,000                                                                                                              

 Here are two other trailers from the psychological genre :

Seven  & TheSecret Window

·         What do you like about the trailers

·         Is there ‘Star appeal’ that makes you want to watch the film

·         Do you feel it fits the genre

·         Which trailer did you prefer

What plot ideas can you think of the relate to the psychological thriller genre ?

Potential names for a psychological thriller film

·         Ghost of future past

·         Animus

·         Demons

·         Never not be afraid

·         Remember

·         Expenditure

Which of the names do you prefer? 

Which one would you say links most the psychological genre?

Who are your favourite film stars/celebrities ?

Can you think of any ‘stars’ that are commonly in Psychological thriller films?

For Psychological thrillers, can you think of any typical/common endings for a film?

Here is our film trailers plot synopsis and a few questions to answer after you have read it.


The film is set in a suburban, quaint  town, a family are brutally murdered, fortunately a young girl survives she is the ‘middle’ child of the family. After being taken to hospital for her wounds she beings to see flash backs of that night. The doctors say her memory is damaged but the unknown face of the murdered haunts her thoughts . To help her remember she finds the help of a ‘viewer’ – someone who can access people’s subconscious memories – She entrust in him her deepest darkest secrets of the past as the viewer begins to unlock the girls troubled mind. AS her memories begin to appear and become more vivid her personality changes and her actions more hostile , she finds herself blacking out and ending up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Becoming increasingly nervous and anxious at what the viewer saw in her memories he sent to have her tested, shortly after this the viewer is found dead at the hospital and the girl released. She decides to hire a P.I. Looking through the case over and over the P.I finds a ‘trail’ and begins to act upon it . Suspiciously after this the P.I is murdered , the girl then takes the case back into her own has picking up from where she left off. Months pass by and continuous deaths of those who try to help the girl occur yet the police have uncovered nothing and her case is getting nowhere. For her own safety she is taken under Witness Protection to prevent her from being the next target, the police suspect the killer is tormenting the girl and making her life a living hell. the girl becomes increasingly more agitated and has personality shifts, after moving to her new location the police provider her with counselling and help for her audial. Through this she unlocks more mysterious memories, even remembering murders she was never there to witness. Years pass by and eventually the girl settles and puts her traumatic past behind her, she starts a family and a completely new life. However the dreams and thoughts haunt her still has she beings to see the victims of her past being murdered as if see was looking down on them. One day her daughter finds a journal with records and a dairy entry of each of the victims in her mother’s past, seeing what her daughter has found she is keen to take a look. However she is horrified at what she reads on the blood stained pages of this little black book, eventually reaching the last pages in the book she finds pages entitled with her husbands and each of her child’s names. The book has one last thing written in the back ‘the ending is always the best’ All of a sudden she has a flash back to the night of her family were murdered and then finds herself standing over her husband’s body with a blooded knife and the little black book.

Questions

• What do you like about the story
• What do you think could be improved
• Do you think it fits with the psychological thriller genre
• Would you go to watch this film

From my audience profile I combined the answers and data I found to help influence my ideas for my film trailer.