MAKING THE TRAILEREmma Collins. COWA

What I will be doing…13/02/15 - Now I have finished planning and filming for my horror trailer, I will continue to create the Theatrical trailer through editing. I had two choices to chose from when editing, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, or Apple’s final cut pro. I decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro CC as I have used Adobe software such a Photoshop and Lightroom for this project, and I think it allows me to be creative and gives me many options when it comes to editing. • I will ensure I stick to the codes and conventions of a horror trailer, referring back to the research

and planning on my blog. • I will show my progress and decisions on this PowerPoint, explaining how I made my trailer, and

the reasons for changing any of my original plans or why I have chosen to add something new.

This PowerPoint serves as my production diary, and I will be updating it as I work on my trailer to then finally upload onto my blog.

Opening of the trailer:

Firstly I want to make my horror trailer look authentic. As I am not creating a teaser trailer I want to create a full theatrical trailer fit for TV spots (After 9pm in the UK ) and suitable for online viewing. I have decided to include the MPAA’s green band, at the beginning of the trailer as I would hope the film would target audiences not only in the UK but also abroad. I ensured I used a High-resolution image so it doesn’t distort or blur when imported into Premiere Pro.

As my two distributing/Producing companies are Warner Bros. and Hammer Studios I need to include their logos in my trailer to keep it authentic and conventional. I took two HD versions of the animated logos and through Premier pro I changed the brightness and contrast through effects > colour correction > Brightness and Contrast. I darkened both of the animated logos to fit into the theme I will have running across the trailer.

I have used the Video transition ‘Dip to black’ to link the three. Fade/dip to black is a convention in horror as black is a connotation of death, darkness and evil.

The intro is kept short at 00.06.10 s long.

13/02/15- Editing begins

13/02/15 : 14/02/15 - Editing the footage

As my trailer is filmed in the dark to keep to the authentic feel of a horror, and stick to the conventions. I had a few scenes which came out very dark, however I knew I could use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the video without having to go and re-shoot the footage. I used the video effects option > Brightness and contrast. I used this simple effect to brighten the image, and change the contrast accordingly to make sure the footage is not too over exposed, or strongly shadowed. The image to the right is a still of my establishing shot, the first still closest to the left shows the footage before editing, the mise en scene is barely visible, the furthest image is the same still after I edited the brightness and contrast. The image

is still dark however you can clearly see what is in the frame. I have kept the image darkened as I want to create the sense of darkness and mystery from the offset in my trailer, It will also conventionally fit into the horror genre. The image of the effect panel shows the change in contrast and brightness I made to the footage.

The image from Premiere Pro cc below demonstrates the same technique, but instead it demonstrates how I do not want my footage to look. The image on the left is the original footage, and on the right is an example of the brightness being just slightly too bright, compared to the contrast in the image. To correct this I will change the brightness to balance with the contrast. Even though the footage is from inside of the house my plan was to make the scenes as dark as possible to create an eerie feeling. Conventional to the horror genre.

13/02/15 -14/02/15: Editing footage

14/02/15: To edit the footage further, especially the scenes with high-key lighting simply changing the brightness and contrast is not enough as it could easily darken or wash out the scene. The three-way-colour corrector helps to change the shadows, mid tones and highlights of the footage. The original footage was too dark and I wanted to brighten the scene to create a false sense of security for the audience. For this I changed the input and output levels, the input brightened the scene adding brightness to the lighter colour’s and the output added to this. Like all of my footage I had to change the scale of the footage to fit to frame size. The image on the right shows the final edited scene.

13/02/15 : I wanted to make my transitions from scene-to-scene professional and use the conventional fade to black. I have added this between most my scenes in the trailer, some are transitional between scenes so they easily fade into one-another (shown in the screen shot). I have used this to put scenes together which follow one another. Alternatively I can put the fade in or out at the beginning or end of the scene to provide a conventional cut from one scene to a new scene.

17/02/15: Editing footage

From the beginning of planning for my horror trailer I knew I wanted to film in the dark, and most of my footage is filmed in almost complete darkness, to make my characters look isolated. The single spotlight from a torch is shined on the characters, to make the whole thing seem as if it is filmed in a documentary/ found footage style. Creating the feeling that the viewer IS the fourth character.

I wanted to include fast paced cuts in my theatrical trailer as this is conventional for my genre, and in my research I found that fast paced cuts appeared in every single one of the horror trailers I analysed. The fast paced cuts usually appear in the middle of the trailer to help build up to a scene which includes a jump scare.

This image shows the timeline of the footage in my trailer, the arrow shows where the beginning of my fast paced cuts begin. There are about four different scenes which they quickly cut between. I have used the fade to black however kept the duration down under a second, this helps to make the cuts look smooth and not unprofessional.

This piece of footage is placed above an existing piece of footage, I have done this to create a sound bridge, from one fast cut of a scene to the next. Helping to create a smooth, but fast paced section of the trailer.

Today I edited together the first 1 minute and 15 seconds of my footage, This is almost the entire trailer, I aim to make it under 2 minutes, as my trailer is a theatrical trailer it is conventional for them to run to about 2 minutes. On top of the footage I have also included titles in my trailer, and have incorporated the image of smoke across the screen. Once I have finished editing all the footage of the trailer I will add sound.

17/02/15: Editing footage

< These are two of the title’s from my trailer. The background is a clip I found on YouTube, it is smoke on a black backdrop. I have used this to associate with the use of candles.

I have managed to piece together all of my footage, I still need to add two more title’s for the ‘coming soon’ and ‘blockingbill’ which appears at the end of theatrical trailers. However these will not take me too long as I already have this from my poster. You can see that I have continued to use the fade to black transition between scenes, however I have left some as simple rough cuts, this works well to create fast paced cuts within my trailer, a convention of horror.

17/02/15: Editing footage

After editing all of the footage and sequencing it together I needed to add in my title. ‘MIDNIGHT’ is the name of my film and I have conventionally placed it at the ending of my main sequences of the trailer. I have used the effect ‘Cross Fade’ for the title using the same font used on my Ancillary products ‘Rainy Day Vandal’. The cross fade effect makes the title ‘Zoom out’ I have slowed down the transition so it doesn’t just ‘pop’ on to the screen, I have used this technique from my inspiration from theatrical trailers such as ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Insidious’.

The cross fade transition from zoomed in to zoomed out. The typography links to ancillary products.

18/02/15: Editing sound

Now I have finished editing my footage, I need to edit the sound to complete my trailer. I have used various different royalty free soundtracks within my trailer. I didn’t use all of the tracks I gathered on my sound cloud playlist (see on blog) as not all fit into the sequence.

As well as adding in sound, I have had to edit the sound that isOriginally in the sequence,as it is from filming some of the sound I don’t need, so I have simply lowered the volume of the scene, and applied a soundtrack on top of it .I can lower the volume by simply adjusting the line that appears in the centre of the audio file. You can move it up to be louder and lower for quieter.

18/02/15: Editing sound

One of the main issues with sound was trying to ensure that my sound worked well with the footage. This is especially important with horror, and creating tension and jump scares. Today I was linking my sound with the footage. You can see where the peaks in the sound are, these are judged by the bass and loudness of the sound, the high peaks are where there is a ‘stab’ or ‘sting’ in the soundtrack. I have three layers of audio files, the stab and stings are on the third as they overlap the two main audio files.

The two main jump scares in my trailer. They line up perfectly with my footage, and are effective for my horror trailer.

Creepy Piano improv-Opens up the trailer, creates an unnerving feeling.

Knocking on door sound effect-Helps create a realistic atmosphere

Horror ambience-An unnerving soundtrack, creating an ominous atmosphere.

Jump scare, soundtrack- Small rise in pitch, to create tension.

Jump scare-Longer jump scare, small peaks in the sound. Creating a thudding sound. To build up tension.

Horror ambience 2-Louder ambience sound. Creating atmosphere.

Jump scare- this jump scare is used, mid-scene. To catch out the audience.

Ending jump scare- To finish of the trailer loud and shocking.