Diabolous - Finished Trailer

Horror Film Analysis

1408 (2007)

1408 is an American psychological horror film directed by 'Mikael Håfström' based on the short story written by 'Stephen King'. The cast includes 'John Cusack', 'Samuel L. Jackson' and 'Mary McCormack'. It received mostly positive critique and reception being awarded 3 out of four stars from 'John Berardinelli', praising it as 'the best horror film of the year' The storyline follows a man named Mike Enslin who is an author that specialises in the horror genre. His career involved him investigating already haunted locations, although his repeatedly unfruitful studies have left him disillusioned and pessimistic. He receives an anonymous post card telling him not to enter 'room 1408' in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. Interested yet sceptical he decides to spend a night in this room despite being warned by the the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson). From there onwards he experiences strange and bizarre events where he confronts genuine terror. This film was produced by 'Dimension Films' and distributed by many different companies all over the world such as 'Odeon', 'Paramount Pictures', 'Golden Village Entertainment' and 'Future Film'.

Firstly, Tzvetan Todorov’s (a Bulgarian linguist) narrative structure theory explained that stories begin with equilibrium where opposing forces are in balance. An event or signifier then disrupts this balance via an event. This then sets off a chain of events resulting in disequilibrium which has to then be solved before a new equilibrium can be restored. '1408' follows this structure/theory throughout most of the storyline within the film. Equilibrium is found at the beginning of the film where Mike is doing what he always does, staying in supposedly haunted buildings, staying the night and then writing a review on it. Nothing happens to him while there, and everything appears in balance. He then attends his own book signing that hardly anyone shows up to, and most people seem disinterested and oblivious. The disequilibrium doesn't occur until a bit later when he goes to collect his mail and discovers a post card from the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, reading 'Don't enter 1408!'. This is also known as a signifier as this is the point where a change of events occur and you start to see weird and unusual things happening. A new equilibrium doesn't return until Mike manages to escape from room 1408 towards the end of the film. Despite a balance being restored, it isn't the same balance that was seen at the beginning of the film. This structure follows exactly what Todorov proposed in his theory, however the balance is thrown slightly off at the end of the film. You hear him listen back to the voice recordings he made when in the hotel room to discover he can hear his dead daughters voice on the clip. This leaves the viewer wondering whether he could perhaps still be in the room and have not escaped at all, or something else could have happened. (This applies to the ending that I saw as the film has 3 different endings)

When watching a horror film, the audience have a particular set of expectations. They expect there to be a balance at the beginning of the film where they can relax because they know that nothing bad is going to happen. Within 1408, this can be seen when he's visiting the house and nothing paranormal is found, and at his own book signing. Everything appears normal with nothing unusual happening at this point in time. The audience will then expect there to be an event to follow that causes a change within the film. From this point onwards they will expect unusual and weird things to begin to occur. They will expect some form of paranormal/unusual activity based on the segment of horror this film comes under (psychological). From the information given throughout the film they would probably expect the main character to die in the room just like everyone else has. This would be the most obvious ending to the film, which 1408 challenges. The ending that I saw goes against the expectations here, as he survives by setting the room on fire, ending the curse of the room and escaping. This is then further challenged with the cliff hanger at the end that again leaves us questioning whether he actually did manage to escape from the room. There isn't a clear answer to what happened, the audience is left to question and wonder what actually happened to him. This would be unexpected for the audience.

The genre of horror has specific elements such as sound, lighting, location, props and iconography that are reoccurring in most films due to the effect they have on the viewers. The characters within a horror film are generically determined, with these key elements recognisable to the audience, leaving them to respond in a particular way. Two types can be identified; Iconography (signs and symbols) and Structural (how structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender). Through these reoccurring features, we can see these appearing within the film 1408. You get the bad force, which in this case is from a paranormal force and the person experiencing the horror (Mike). A single room is often used in horror films, such as rooms in a house, or in this case a hotel room, as they seem familiar and safe, yet these events still occur within them. Typical props are also used such as fake blood, special effects, fire, ghosts/hallucinations and knives. The point at which the events begin to change is always during night time as it just adds to the overall mood of the horror film. The disequilibrium is also genre specific along with creepy noises and many other things. 1408 holds all of these features which is what helps to make it seen by the public as a horror film and nothing else.

1408 does not fit in with the films that were being produced within this particular era of the horror genre. Horror films had taken a new turn, and had moved into the 'torture porn' with films like 'Saw' and 'Hostal'. 1408 is nothing like this films, just worked on the supernatural and frightening people with a force that could not be seen and just uses the editing to help make the audience jump rather than showing very graphic things on screen.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who examined folk tales to see if they showed any particular structure. From doing this he identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 roles were; the villain, the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper who aids the hero, the princess (the sought for person), her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher who sends the hero on his way and the false hero. These character roles that he identified can be applied to all sorts of narratives such as TV news programmes. However, we can see some of these characters that Propp identified within 1408. The villain in this film isn't really an actual person, it is the room itself, and the paranormal activity that it produces for the person to experience that psychologically plays with their minds, making them see things that aren't real. 1408 is quite hard to establish with some of the other characters as there is only one main character which is Mike himself. He is probably seen as the hero for supposedly ending the curse of the room. Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) could probably be viewed as the helper who aids the hero as he tries to stop Mike from going into the room to start with, and the dispatcher as he lets him into the room and allows him to walk into the series of weird events. There aren't really a lot of other characters in the film, just extras that play small insignificant roles within the movie. That characters that Propp do appear, just not entirely as he suggested.

Binary Opposition was something looked at my French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. He examined how narratives unconsciously reflect the dominant ideologies of a society through oppositions in the text. E.g. in 'The Matrix' you see opposition between virtual/real, machine/human, logic/belief and dark/light etc. These oppositions highlight how our society is being affected by technology, and whether teachers could be taken over by technology for example. In 1408 we see oppositions in good/evil from a supernatural prospective as no physical form such as aliens and murderers etc is seen.

To conclude, 1408 sticks to a lot of genre rules and follows the expectations of the audience through pretty much all of the film. The mise-en-scene and iconography are also what is expected to be found within horror films and the genre. What the audience expects they get most of the time, other than a few character roles, and the twist at the end.

Horror Film Analysis

House of Wax (2005) - Remake

House of Wax (2005), also titled Wax House Baby, is an American horror film remake of the original film of the same name released in 1953. This in turn was a remake of the 1933 film, Mystery of the Wax Museum. Despite most movie reviewers giving the film a negative critical review it was a financial success. It is a horror/thriller about a group of teenagers that are stranded near a strange wax museum and have to fight for their survival from becoming the new exhibit. The film was directed by 'Jaume Collet-Serra' and written by 'Charles Belden (story)' and 'Chad Hayes (screenplay)' starring 'Chad Michael Murray’, ‘Paris Hilton' and 'Elisha Cuthbert'. The film is distributed and promoted by Warner Brothers Entertainment.

Firstly, Tzvetan Todorov’s (a Bulgarian linguist) narrative structure theory explained that stories begin with equilibrium where opposing forces are in balance. An event or signifier then disrupts this balance via an event. This then sets off a chain of events resulting in disequilibrium which have to then be solved before a new equilibrium can be restored. 'House of Wax' definitely follows this theory throughout the film. The film begins with a group of six teenage friends who are on their way to watch a football game (the equilibrium). They then decide to camp out for the night in a field, having car troubles the following morning. Two friends then accept a stranger’s lift into the nearest town named Ambrose. From this point onwards the characters discover weird things about the town and that it’s weirdly quiet. The main attraction of the village is the House of Wax which the two friends enter, except something isn’t quite right. This is the signifier where events begin to change. The two friends get captured, and then two of the others come to try and find them after getting a weird voice mail from them. The two friends that decide to wait for the others back where they previously camped also end up a victim of the two brothers that live in the strange town. All of these events are the disequilibrium that was caused by a signifier setting of a chain of events. A new equilibrium doesn’t return until the two surviving characters have killed the two brothers and escaped from the town solving their previous problems. Despite that balance that has been restored, it is a different balance from that at the start of the film. This structure follows exactly what Todorov describes in his theory. However this balance is thrown slightly off at the very end of the film when you discover that there was a third brother, and that he is still alive.

The audience have a particular set of expectations when watching a horror film. They expect there to be some sort of balance at the beginning of the film which there is within the film, House of Wax. This is shown when the group of teenagers are on their way to the football game. Expected to follow is an event that causes a change within the film. This is the signifier and from this point onwards the audience know to expect more dramatic events to occur. The audience will also expect to see a lot of deaths on screen as specific characters within the movie begin to die or be captured by the person/thing that is causing the horror to occur. Similarly the audience know there will be some form of killer/murderer/psycho/alien/paranormal activity etc. within the film. Both of these features are in House of Wax, seen through the two murderous brothers from the strange town. Alongside all of these things, a survivor is expected to make it the end of the film, usually of a certain type. This is one of the only points where the House of Wax could surprise the audience. This is because there wasn't just one survivor, both the brother and the sister made it to the end of the film. A slight twist was placed on the end of the movie as well, as you discover there was in fact a third brother, and he is still alive. This leaves the film on a slight cliff hanger open to a sequel. There are still possibilities that the horrors of the wax museum could continue on into a second film.

Under the genre of horror, there are specific elements such as sound, lighting, location props and iconography that are typical to make it fit under this category. The characters within a horror film are generically determined, with these key elements recognisable to the audience leaving them to respond in a particular way. Two types can be identified; Iconography (signs and symbols) and Structural (how structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender). Through these reoccurring features, we can see these appearing within the film House of Wax. You get a bad guy (the two brothers), a group of victims (the teenagers) and lots of gruesome scenes in which slowly most of the victims are killed off. There also lots of other typical elements of the film that can be seen in a lot of other horror films. Examples of these would be the creepy location (abandoned village), typical props (knives, blood, weapons etc.), ambient light before the chain reaction of events kicks in, set at night time during the disequilibrium, creepy noises and many others. The House of Wax uses all of these features which is what makes it seen as a horror film and nothing else.

House of Wax fits in with the teenage slasher movies of the 2000's. It is a perfect example of how horror had changed once again, using more special effects to allow the audience to see real, and close up gore and blood from victims deaths. It is a perfect example of how a group of teenagers go out on a normal night, with it ending in completely the opposite way to what they had expected.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who examined folk tales to see if they showed any particular structure. From doing this he identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 roles were; the villain, the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper who aids the hero, the princess (the sought for person), her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher who sends the hero on his way and the false hero. These character roles that he identified can be applied to all sorts of narratives such as TV news programmes. However, we can see some of these characters that Propp identified within the House of Wax. The villain is seen in the two brothers, which is a character that will occur in all horror films as it's what's needed to create the tension. The hero is the brother within the House of Wax as he comes to rescue his sister (the princess) who has been captured by the villain. He manages to rescue her and helps them both to survive to the end of the film etc. As you can see, most of his highlighted characters appear in films today and other areas.

Binary Opposition was something looked at my French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. He examined how narratives unconsciously reflect the dominant ideologies of a society through oppositions in the text. E.g. in 'The Matrix' you see opposition between virtual/real, machine/human, logic/belief and dark/light etc. These oppositions highlight how our society is being affected by technology, and whether teachers could be taken over by technology for example. In the House of Wax we see oppositions in good/evil and normal/deformity which is seen in the prospective of other people. There are no supernatural/alien features within this film, it all comes from people which makes it a lot scarier for the audience.

In conclusion the House of Wax sticks to most of the genre rules and follows audience expectations almost all of the time. The mise-en-scene, lighting, props and costume etc are all what are expected to be found within horror films and the genre. What the audience expects the audience gets, other than when both the brother and sister survive and the cliff hanger ending to the film. It also proves a lot of the theories correct showing areas of their examples within as well. 

Horror Film Analysis

Let The Right One In (2008)

Let the Right One in is a Swedish romantic horror film directed by 'Tomas Alfredson'. It is based on the novel of the same title written by 'John Ajvide Lindqvist' who also wrote the screenplay for the film. It is a story based on a 12 year old boy who is bullied and later develops a friendship with a vampire child in Blackeberg, a suburb in Stockholm. The film focused a lot on the relationship between the two main characters, which meant a long selection process of open castings held all over Sweden to find lead actors. In the end 11 year old 'Kare Hedebrant' and 'Lina Leandersson' were chosen. The film received widespread international acclaim and won numerous awards. This film is produced and distributed by 'Magnet' and '6-Shooter Film Series'.

Firstly, Tzvetan Todorov’s (a Bulgarian linguist) narrative structure theory explained that stories begin with equilibrium where opposing forces are in balance. An event or signifier then disrupts this balance via an event. This then sets off a chain of events resulting in disequilibrium which have to then be solved before a new equilibrium can be restored. 'Let the Right One In' does follow this theory during the film. It begins with Oskar, and seeing how he's bullied at school, and that he is too afraid to fight back. This is the equilibrium that Todorov speaks of, as this is a normal setting that opens the film. A new girl and her farther then move into the same place that he lives, but board up all the windows of their apartment. He is down in the courtyard one evening when he discovers Eli watching him, where she straight off tells him that they cannot be friends. A disequilibrium then occurs as dead bodies are being found, as Eli's father is taking their blood to feed his vampire daughter. This signifier (the girl moving in) causes a chain reaction of events, as bad things begin to happen. A new equilibrium doesn't return until the very end if the film. This is when Eli saves Oskar in the swimming pool scene at the end, killing all of the people that bullied him at school. The very last scene we see is Oskar on a train, with Eli hiding inside a basket. He is running away with her to protect and be her helper somewhere else. Despite the fact that a balance has been restored, it isn't the same balance that can be seen at the beginning of the film. This structure fits exactly with what Todorov describes. The only slight difference is that the new equilibrium doesn't involve the evil being killed. She has survived, and with a slight twist, is being cared for by the other main character. This is the one of the only surprises related to this theory.

The audience have a particular set of expectations when watching a horror film. They expect there to be some sort of balance at the beginning of the film, which can be seen in Let the Right One In. This is seen when you see into Oskars life at school and how he gets bullied by a group of boys. Then expected to follow would be some sort of a signifier that causes a change within the film. From this point onwards the audience expect a turn in events, and that more dramatic scenes shall unveil. Deaths are expectant in horror films, so the audience will be prepared for the onscreen death of characters within the movie. This is seen when Eli is killing humans for their blood to survive. Similarly the audience expect there to be some form of killer/murderer/psycho/alien/paranormal activity with the film. Alongside all of these features the audience usually expect there to be a survivor in the film which is seen in Oskars character in 'Let the Right One In'. There is a slight twist at the end of the film as the audience wouldn't be expecting Oskar (one of the main characters) runs away with Eli (the vampire/evil character) at the end of the film. This leaves the film on a cliff hanger, and could possibly results in a sequel at the killer is still alive, and could go onto a second film in which Oskar helps Eli.

Under the genre of horror, there are specific elements such as sound, lighting, location props and iconography that are typical to make it fit under this category. The characters within a horror film are generically determined, with these key elements recognisable to the audience leaving them to respond in a particular way. Two types can be identified; Iconography (signs and symbols) and Structural (how structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender). We can see these features appearing within the film 'Let the Right One In'. You get the bad person (Eli), a group of victims (all the people that die from having their blood taken) and scenes were you see some of these deaths happening. There are also lots of other typical elements of the film that can be seen in a lot of other horror films. Examples of this are; creepy locations (dark tunnels, weird rooms), props (fake blood), the use of lighting (ambient light for the more normalised scenes, and darkness during the more action packed films), creepy noises and lots of other things. 'Let the Right One In' uses a lot of these features which is why it is seen as a horror film.

'Let the Right One' kind of fits in with the teenage slasher movies of the 2000's. It is a perfect example of how horror had changed once again, using more special effects to allow the audience to see real, and close up gore and blood from victims deaths. However, it also goes back to the vampires which was something that came about in 1960's & 1970's. So it fits in partly with the time, yet with other aspects goes back to some of the horror features from previous decades.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who examined folk tales to see if they showed any particular structure. From doing this he identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 roles were; the villain, the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper who aids the hero, the princess (the sought for person), her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher who sends the hero on his way and the false hero. These character roles that he identified can be applied to all sorts of narratives such as TV news programmes. Some of these characters can be seen within Let the Right Ones In, such as the villain (Eli), which is a character found in all horror films as it's needed to create the horror. The hero can be seen in Oskar and Eli, which is very different from a lot of films. Despite being the villain, Eli saves Oskers life at the end of the film by killing his bullies. However, Oskar can also be seen as a hero, as he runs away with Eli to look after her. As you can see, Propp's character roles crop up in horror films as well.

Binary Opposition was something looked at my French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. He examined how narratives unconsciously reflect the dominant ideologies of a society through oppositions in the text. E.g. in 'The Matrix' you see opposition between virtual/real, machine/human, logic/belief and dark/light etc. These oppositions highlight how our society is being affected by technology, and whether teachers could be taken over by technology for example. In 'Let the Right Ones In' we see oppositions in good/evil, human form/non-human form and friendship/enemies. It uses vampires, so the horror is seen in this form, rather than murderers or the supernatural.

In conclusion the Let the Right Ones in sticks to most of the genre rules and follows audience expectations almost all of the time. The mise-en-scene, lighting, props and costume etc. are all what are expected to be found within horror films and the genre. What the audience expects the audience gets, other than when Oskar runs away with the vampire at the end of the film leaving it on a cliff hanger. It also proves a lot of the theories correct showing areas of their examples within as well.

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technology is a massive part of media production, and with the development of new programmes and websites, being an amateur producer is now more accessible and readily available to the everyday person. It is easier now to create professional and polished pieces of work at a far lower budget. My group and I used a range of different technology to create our final product, Diabolous.

To conclude, without all these technological developments, most of what we did would not have been possible. With these tools so available to everyday people, we were able to create a semi-professional trailer that turned out at a decent quality. These developments have been very vital in allowing anyone to people who previously couldn’t to create products on low budgets independently.

Research:

To start of the process we had to indulge ourselves in a lot of research to come up with our first idea. So the first media technology we used was the Internet which enabled us to get some really helpful information.

 

We watched trailers on YouTube, analysing them to understand fully how trailers worked, and what needed to be included in our own. It gave us shot ideas, camera angles, pace, edits and location ideas. This was a great way of seeing what real products were out there, and the level we needed to produce our own at.

Researching other things like fake blood recipes and how to make wounds was very important. It meant we could produce realistic effects on a very small budget. Without the Internet we may not have known, or been able to generate these ideas for our trailer.

Survey Monkey was another media technology that gave us detailed and accurate research about our film. You create a survey with any questions that you like, and email the link to as many people as you want. They then go onto your questionnaire and answer all of the questions. This gave us very specific answers about conventions in our film, and about what people liked in general. Some of the information gained from this process was extremely vital in some of the decisions we made, and without this process we may have made some choices that wouldn’t have fully suited out target audience.

Watching/analysing horror films and looking at their posters was another way of getting our own product as close as possible to professional media pieces as we could. By understanding how they worked we were able to create ours in similar ways.

Planning:

After researching the horror genre, and codes and conventions of trailers, films, posters and magazines we began to plan our own trailer. We started purely by sitting down and writing down ideas on paper, discussing theme ideas as a group using what we had previously researched. One of our main records for this planning was on our individual Blog’s that we each created (blogger.com). We posted step by step processes of how we went through each process. Right the way from the history of the horror genre and horror characters, up to looking at the role of production companies and analysing existing products.

Blogger is a great way of linking together all our planning as it enables you to upload pictures, include text and embed links to YouTube videos. Collating all of this information into one place allows for information to be collated into one location with hyperlinks allowing more possibilities. It has proven extremely useful and effective.

During the time we spent uploading all of this information to our blogs, we also went out to recce our chosen locations, taking pictures on digital cameras for record, and checking out whether they would be suitable for filming. We could figure out camera angles, lighting and which parts of the location to use before we returned with all the equipment. This would save wasting any time when filming, and making the most of each session that we had. We also completed health and safety reports so that we knew where we needed to be careful and what precautions to take to insure no one was hurt.

Construction:

The construction of our trailer involved two main areas. These were the filming on video cameras and taking pictures on digital cameras as well as the editing on Adobe Premier Pro, After Effects and creating title slides on Photoshop.

 

When filming we used a Panasonic HD camera to gain footage, leaving the settings as they were and later adjusting these in the editing stage. The flip screen was very useful if the actor needed to check their positioning within the frame to make sure each shot was aesthetically pleasing for the viewers. The rule of thirds is something we tried to use when composing each frame.

We used a Nikon DLSR camera for taking location pictures for our blogs, as well as using the camera setting on the video camera to capture still frames whilst filming. These could be used to make our film posters and magazine front covers.

When it came down to the editing process we mainly used Adobe Premier Pro. For a few clips we used After Effects which was easier when doing more complicated editing to individual clips such as the shot when it looks like the devil comes out of Chris in the caravan scene.

Premiere Pro was an extremely efficient media technology when it came down to editing our footage. You can chose which clips you load onto your timeline, giving you the flexibility to move around, shorted, lengthen and cut up each scene. It also allows easy access to the next clip giving you great accessibility. The layout of the programme is great as it has multiple viewing screens. You have the screen where you can watch, edit and change the original clip, and the right hand screen that plays your edited version. This creates an ease for the editor making the job far easier to manage and get exactly how they want it.

The tools we used most were the razor tool allowing us to completely cut a clip into sections and the in and out points which would allow us to return to the clip to adjust this later on. That made those particular clips easier to return to and change if later on in the editing process we decided we weren’t happy with anything in particular.

After placing our clips onto the timeline and adjusting the in and out points/lengths of each clip, we went through removing the sound from the clips that we did not want to be heard, and leaving in any specific sounds we wanted to keep, i.e. footsteps and coughing up blood. After removing unnecessary sound we went onto the internet and found copyright free sounds clips and effects and downloaded them onto the mac. We then uploaded the sounds we wanted onto Premier Pro, placing them on the timeline where we wanted them to be. We adjusted the volume of the music, where we wanted it to fade in and out and made sure the sound we left on a few clips could be heard about the soundtrack. Next we inserted sound effects into the jumpy sections of the trailer, and adjusted the speed of particular sections of the music to fit with the pace of our footage. Premier Pro is really good when it comes to audio as it has several tracks allowing you more flexibility with the soundtrack, and more ease when mixing in different audio tracks with each other.

 

Another feature of Premier Pro that we used was the ability to edit individual video clips. This enabled us to darker clips that were quite bright when we filmed them on location. We could remove the colour, and bring out the shadows giving each clip a darker feel which suited the genre far better. After completing all of the above we rendered the entire workspace to make sure that everything played smoothly without any corruptions. This could then be converted to a mp3 file and uploaded onto YouTube for further sharing and viewing possibilities.

Photoshop was an extremely vital media technology when creating my film poster and magazine cover. I uploaded the images we shot on location into the programme so that I could manipulate and create a new product. I was able to use the layer feature in Photoshop to layer text and other images on top of each other. I used things like image adjustments (brightness/contrast/curves/levels) to manipulate the images I had uploaded to make them darker, more vibrant or more sinister. This flexibity allowed me to create the vision that I had in my head. This programme also enabled me to use the paintbrush tool on my film poster to black out the subjects eyes showing an evil/possessed side. I then played around with the opacity and blend options to make it look more natural, rather than very obviously edited on. I used the blur tool to blend in rough edges where I had layered pictures over text, and used effects only on small parts of the image.

Evaluation:

For my evaluation there weren’t really a lot of media technologies that I used. Our trailer was show on a projector to the class, enabling them to give their audience feedback. This was then all written up and put onto my Blog to be kept with everything else that I had done.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Once our horror trailer was completed, it was shown to a group of our classmates (around 25 people) who individually wrote down a few strengths and weaknesses of our work. This enabled us to receive some constructive criticism as well as praise over the parts that really worked for us. This helped us to understand how we could improve our future product if we were to ever do this again.

Strengths of Diabolous:

Example of an establishing shot used in
the trailer.

According to our audience feedback they felt that we had a really wide variety of locations which enabled us to keep the trailer interesting, rather than it all being shot in one location. Many people said that was used a lot of different shot types, shooting from different angles to create a particular mood and atmosphere.

Our establishing shots were said to be ‘very effective’ at the beginning in setting the scene and bringing the audience into the world of the horror film. It gave people an idea of what they were to expect, and the sorts of places we were filming in.

As well as the establishing shots we managed to use plenty of close ups as well as long shots. We used them wisely, for particular effect, making sure they added to the clip rather than just being shoved together. For dramatic points within the film, we used close up shots to create a higher impact, whereas when we were trying to help establish a bit of location as well we made sure we were using long shots. Every shot was thought out, and considered how it would best portray the ideas that were had behind the camera.

Handheld shot which the audience
gave positive feedback on as
they felt more involved.

Our handheld shots at various points throughout the film where noticed, as they made the audience feel more like they were experiencing what was going on, and felt more in with the storyline. This was particularly noticed with the shots in the church graveyard with the villain hiding around the corner.

We had thought out our mise-en-scene, using appropriate props, locations, iconography, lighting and costume etc. to fit with the locations and ideas that we were trying to portray. By keeping all of these things in sync with one another, it allowed for us to have quite an effective trailer. Many people picked up on this, and commended our use of mise-en-scene and its roll within the trailer.

The pace of our trailer was picked up on, and how it started off calm, building up as what you saw on screen became more dramatic. The fast paced ending worked well with the shots that were on screen, and inserts were placed in to make it exciting.

Effective killer shot at the end
for a last audience scare.

The music that we chose was commended also for fitting very well with our clips. We spent a lot of time making sure that the edits cut with the music, making the whole production look quite professional. We also increased the cutting speed at the music began to pick up speed which was also something that people noticed when watching our trailer. The sound effects we placed in on the jumpy parts also seemed to work really well with the final product.

The final thing that received positive feedback was our very last shot after the production and distribution slide. We inserted a final shot of the villain screaming at the camera, which people felt worked really well as you were not expecting it to happen. It comes after everything has finished to works well as one final shock for the audience.

Weaknesses of Diabolous:

Some audience members found
they thought there were too many
shots of the killer which made it
less tense.

One of the criticisms we received was that we had too many shots of the killer that made it less mysterious. I think if we had reduced them slightly, then it would have created a larger sense of unknown, playing on the viewer’s mind. It would have allowed for their imagination to add up information, leaving them to draw conclusions about the film. This would have added to the trailer, possibly making them want to see the film more to answer some of the questions that they had. We did possibly give too much away in the trailer about the killer before they had even gone to see the film.

Another shot that was picked up on was the production company logo. It was felt that it went too quickly and didn’t stay on screen for long enough. These logos are highly recognisable, and often if people know they are produced by a well-known company, can expect a great quality film. By leaving this on screen a bit longer people would have noticed it, and perhaps had some of the above thoughts if it was made into a real working trailer.

Some audience members felt that
we should have left the production company
on screen for longer.

Despite some of the handheld shots really working in our favour, it was felt that some of our other shots were too shaky and needed stabilising. When we watched back some of our clips, we felt that they were a bit much as well. In the future we would need to think more about the effect that the handheld camera would have on that particular shot, and whether it was really necessary at that point.

Our storyline was not understood by all of our viewers. A voice over was something we debated over in the production of our trailer. Due to audience research we decided against this as it was quite a hard thing to achieve without it sounding unprofessional. Looking back, we felt we should have included inserts with writing to help explain what was going on. We knew what was happening, so assumed our audience would. Maybe to overcome this, we should have got someone to watch our trailer that knew nothing about it, and tell us whether they could follow the storyline or not without a voice over, or storyline inserts.

This shot of Chris was supposed to
infer that he had been possessed,
however this wasn't understood by
some members of the audience. 

Our music was picked up on not being particularly scary. We also felt the same way about it, and felt with more time we could have spent longer looking, editing and putting together a better soundtrack. That was definitely one feature we felt really let us down, and despite it fitting with our clips, didn’t really build up towards the end in the way we’d have liked it to.

The final point made was that our very last shot of the villain on screen wasn’t quick enough and lasted too long on screen. This took away from the fear it could have created at the viewers had too long to look at it. It needed to be more of a flash, that would make the audience jump and then quickly disappear before they really had time to realise what it was.

Overall, we received a lot of positive feedback about our trailer, and the way we had thought out the locations to fit our storyline. As well as many of these we did receive some constructive criticism which highlighted negatives that we knew, and some that we perhaps hadn’t realised. All of these comments were extremely helpful in evaluation our trailer, and giving us a way forward for improvement.