Research Film Titles

Due to the high demand of changing the name our trailer, Nicole and I decided that we should start to research and suggest new names that would do our trailer justice. In our Vox Pop, we asked questions such as: Do you think the name “Hostage” for a film is effective or too cliché? And for this, the replies were very similar in the effect that our target audience thought that it was so common for a film and in addition to this, there is another horror-thriller named Hostage as well. Another of our questions were: Out of the following, which is the scariest?

1. The Woman in Black
2. Hostel
3. Fright Night
4. 7500
5. Hostage

The most popular scary film was The Woman in Black and Hostage and therefore seeing as people find them scary, we wanted to also add elements of this to our trailer, but if we kept the name “Hostage” for our trailer than we wouldn’t be unique, because our target audience would have already watched it. They would make assumptions that it would be very similar. Therefore we wanted to differentiate ourselves and make ourselves diverse in a way. As a result of this Nicole researched relevant names for our trailer, and she came up with the following:

• Let the Right One In
• The Collector
• The Tortured
• Eye for an Eye
• Vendetta
• Death Becomes Her
• Slaughter

I then thought that the best and effective name for our trailer would be either Eye for an Eye or Death Becomes Her, because firstly Eye for an Eye basically sums up exactly what our trailer will involve seeing as the killer is out to get the wife. However, I also liked the name Death becomes her, seeing as the whole family were murdered and now the last one standing is the wife in which death in a literal and metaphorical sense becomes her. After having researched the titles, we also thought that a slogan would fit nicely for our poster as well as to capture the essence of the trailer without giving anything away. Nicole then researched diverse slogans that would benefit our trailer. She came up with the following:

• Fear can keep you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
• Trapped in Time. Surrounded by Evil.
• His deadly past becomes her cruel reality.

After deliberation, Nicole and I thought that the best slogans were: “Fear can keep you prisoner. Hope can set you free” and “His deadly past becomes her cruel reality”. However Nicole and I haven’t decided yet but we have to choose very soon seeing as we have to design our title for our poster and trailer.

Filming Part 3

One of the main prospects of symbolism and iconography within our trailer is the passing of time. Therefore, after having finished our main bit of filming, the only thing left to do is film a clock to represent this symbolism and iconography. For this part of filming, Nicole and I borrowed a clock and changed the time to 10:00 as this is the time that the scene would take place in. Nicole was turning the hands of the clock around several times very fast, to emphasise the never-ending feeling the wife seems to endure when she waits what seems like a long time before her husband comes and saves her. The clock was symbolic because one of our questions raised of the events of the trailer, was: Will he get there in time? And therefore to reinforce this question, we thought that the clock symbolised these raised question for our target audience. By this point, we finished filming our trailer and this ensured that we stuck to deadlines in our Project Plan and gave us more than enough time to focus solely on our editing.

Filming Part 2

After having successfully filmed a section of our trailer on the 16th November, we decided to move on and accomplish our main scene, consisting of the killer and the wife together. In the past couple of weeks Nicole and I were speculating a lot about the gender of our killer. This is because men are portrayed as being more physically able and masculine to create a sinister end to the trailer. However, we also took into consideration that our trailer isn’t going to be gory and brutal, because it is a Horror-Thriller and therefore decided that if we were to have a woman killer; it would challenge expectations and intrigue the audience. This aside, Nicole decided to film the killer and the wife on Friday 23rd November according to our Project Plan. The location of this scene was to be in our school’s sixth form library at main site, which is in a basement, creating a cosy, but soon to be sinister atmosphere. We used our shot list to experiment and identify different camera angles that would make the killer more significant than the wife. Therefore at first we emphasised high angle shots for the killer to show that previously she was the insignificant and powerless, but now that she’s got her own back, she has more status and power over the wife, and we portrayed this through our low angle shots towards the end of the scene. We used the tripod and wheels to the best of our ability and even though it took us time to set it up, due to the fact that we had a variety of different locations, we still succeeded in getting it done efficiently. This was our second of three filming slots that was stated in our Project Plan.

Filming Part 1

Nicole and I started to get to terms with the filming equipment so that when the day of the filming comes, then we would get on with without any hassle. Therefore we started to familiarise ourselves with the equipment such as the camera, tripod and wheels and the LED light, seeing as we were planning to film in the afternoon. After having done this, Nicole started to film on Friday 16th November which was an earlier date, but this would benefit Nicole and I in the end as we will have a substantial amount of time to edit and perfect our scenes together. We went to our depicted location which was at the Marriot Hotel with our equipment and the husband. However, this location was not meant to be, due to security reasons. Therefore we had to make a quick decision and start to film on the opposite side of the street where there houses and a long empty street which was good enough for our scene with the husband. We filmed a lot of scenes in order to get the right one, and we also re-took lots of the scenes, with the intention of finding the right scene amongst the many we filmed. Overall we found the day very eventful and extremely useful.

Costume Planning

Before undertaking our filming we decided to plan out what costumes our actors should be wearing to portray their role within the trailer. Therefore Nicole and I started to gather our ideas on our first actor that we were going to film which was the husband. We thought that seeing as he is a wealthy and affluent man, we thought that the best way to portray his character is by having him wear a suit. This is significant as he has just come back from his business trip. The suit is intentionally black to show that even though he is one of the victim’s in the trailer, he also has a dark past that will be discovered within our trailer. This is due to his dreaded and dark past in which the suit could represent him hiding beneath his wealth. The symbolism or iconography of the suit could represent an armour almost to signify that later on in the trailer, the symbolism of the suit will soon act as a defence mechanism to guard and protect his wife from the killer on the loose.

After having deciding on what the husband is going to wear, we started to discuss what costume the killer would wear to enforce her characteristics and the symbolism behind it. A typical killer is stereotyped to be wearing black or red, as these colours signify death, blood and darkness. Even though these stereotypes are true, Nicole and I decided that it was too common and it gives the story away in the sense if the killer was to wear black and red. Therefore we decided for our killer to be wearing white, in which signifies purity and lightness. Hence the lightness will contrast her dark past. Although this is also true, it is too obvious so we wanted to non-conform and switch the looks of the killer and the husband, which would challenge the audience’s expectations. Therefore we wanted our killer to wear everything white, and we also came up with the idea that the killer would wear a doll’s outfit to portray innocence to juxtapose the audience expectations. This was inspired by the Woman in Black trailer, because within the trailer there are dolls and toys that are signified in a subjective manner, also challenging our expectations. The make-up of the killer would also be pure white with a hint of black eye make-up, emphasising the hint of darkness, but not hinting too much away.

We then thought of what the wife would signify by her choice of costume. We initially thought that because she is the victim, she should be wearing white or vibrant colours to underline her shy and timid characteristics. Seeing as she is just married, she is excited to see her husband for the first time since their wedding day, as he had other commitments concerning his work. Therefore the wife is obviously content, but the event of the trailer is to prove that her content nature is to be destroyed in a matter of minutes. As a result of this, Nicole and I thought that it would be effective if the wife was to wear black in addition to her husband, as they are both on the same boat. She is to have no make-up on to show her innocence and purity from her face rather than through her costume.