Film Trailer Development

Beth and I created many different drafts of our film trailer. Everytime we created a new draft, we would get feedback and then go back and make these changes to ensure that we did everything we could to meet the needs of our target audience. Our main issue at first was allowing the audience to understand the narrative of our trailer. At first, the narrative of the trailer wasn't clear and this didn't allow the audience to understand the content within the film. This meant that Beth and I had to create a new shot list and change around the audience of the film. However, this did mean that we were adding in shots that we hadn't originally planned within our shot list. This also raised an issue with time as we had to film some new shots that would allow us to get our storyline across a little bit better.  In the end, we came up with a few shots that we could add into the beginning of the trailer. As a group, we decided that we were going to add in a diary entry at the beginning of our trailer. This diary entry would consist of Lucy writing in a diary and explaining that she has just moved to a new town and it is her first day at school. This ensured that the audience had a better understanding of Lucy as the new girl within the film.

In addition to this, we had also originally planned to have a news scene at the end of the trailer. This scene would have consisted of Melinda’s body being found as she has been missing for so long. However, we decided not to do this as it gave too much of the storyline away and the whole point of the trailer is to make the audience want to see the film. If the audience already see what happens to Melinda within the trailer, they would not need to see the full movie. We also had to design a title and release date for the end of the trailer, which we did using photoshop. At first, timing within our trailer became a big issue as the trailer was 45 seconds too long. However, this soon became beneficial for us as after target audience feedback, it allowed us to remove any shots that were no longer necessary within the trailer. Finally, we also had to re-think a few of our intertitles throughout the development, which is evident in the different drafts of the trailers. The development and drafts of our trailers can be seen below. 

Trailer-1st Draft

Trailer-2nd Draft

Trailer-3rd Draft

Final Melinda Trailer (To Date)

Sound

Throughout the development of our trailer, we found it extremely challenging to find conventional sound to fit in with the shots within the trailer.  As previously mentioned throughout my research, sound is one of the most important aspects throughout the development and Beth and I found this to be a very time consuming and challenging task. This is one of the most important aspects of a horror film as it is helping the film try to create a specific mood to the scene. We recorded many different sounds; a piano, a door slamming and footsteps however, none of them seemed to work as well as we wanted them to. For example, the piano was just one pace and didn’t have different tones throughout. This meant that where we wanted it to be scary and tense at the end of the trailer, it was exactly the same as what it sounded like at the beginning of the trailer. In the end, we finally recorded something that fitted well with the shots within our trailer. Alix Long played a piece of music on the piano, which we recorded. This piano is played throughout the whole of the trailer and gradually gets faster and louder as the trailer goes on to build up tension for the audience.

In addition to this, we also recorded a voiceover on iMovie and added different audio effects to this. For example, when Lucy says “I’ve got to find out what’s going on” we edited this to make it echo. In addition to this, diagetic sound is used within the trailer when Melinda (Beth Hayes) is in the woods and is saying the teddy bear picnic rhyme. We didn’t decide to record this as a voiceover because it would have been hard to get the sound in sync with the movement of Melinda’s lips speaking. We therefore edited the audio to make the diagetic sound louder. 

This piano fades in within the second half of the Melinda trailer when Lucy walks into the woods. This is because at this point within the trailer, the narrative should be clear the audience and they are always waiting to see what is going to happen next. This music was the best sound for building up tension within the trailer. 

This is the first piano within the trailer. This sound appear at the beginning of the trailer when Lucy starts her new school and fades out when Lucy is about to walk into the woods and the scary, loud music begins o fade in. 

Piano played by Alix Long. 

Feedback throughout the development

We received a lot of helpful feedback when developing the film trailer. This helped us to go back and make changed to trailer.