Location research

Location research 

For my trailer, me and my group researched various locations in which include the woods, garages, ominous streets, alleys and parks. We felt as a group that the locations we selected will best suit are genre judging by our response to our preliminary video. we chose the woods as it represents isolation and injects fear and anticipation to the viewer as it creates and reinforces vulnerability to the protagonist(s). we also chose the woods as most of our target audience are rugged traditionalists in which they will connect to the trailer even more as they have a love of the outdoors and the audience profile Fun/atics will also connect to the trailer as they enjoy action and survival.

Preliminary video for my zombie horror trailer (teaser trailer)

Preliminary video for my zombie horror trailer (teaser trailer)

Me and my group decided to do a preliminary video based on our zombie horror trailer in which we done the preliminary video in the form of a teaser trailer as we want to learn as a group about trailers and this teaser trailer benefits us in terms of learning editing techniques ,what to include where and knowing how to use iMovie. The name of the trailer may be changed as we are still planning what to name our trailer for our film so it may not represent the full representation of our final trailer as we are still in the development stage. 

Questionnaire results for preliminary video

Questionnaire results for preliminary video

Me and my group designed a questionnaire that directly links with our preliminary video in which we asked our sample of ten people six questions based on or preliminary video. 

One of the questions that we asked was 'Do you like the title font?' in which all respondents said they do as the majority said the title stands out and links to the genre of horror. 

Another one of the questions that we asked was 'Does the character interest you as a viewer?' in which the respondents all answered yes in which they stated that the character looks mysterious and they want to find out more which acts as an intellectual puzzle (Altman) to the viewer, which we as a group wanted to achieve this effect on the audience to engage them into our product and create viral word of mouth as people who saw this trailer will be telling their friends, family and people who they know about the trailer (links with uses and gratifications theory by Katz and Blumler (1974)) which links to the gratifications of building relationships with social interaction enhanced. Viral word of mouth will create excitement and therefore wanting to see the finished product (film) in the future.

Another one of the questions that we asked was 'Does the setting work with the film genre?' which the majority of the respondents replied by saying it does work with the genre as they said it fits with the genre as it looks bleak and apocalyptic and create suspense of what my lurk beyond the woods. But some of the respondents said it does not work with the genre and could not recognise what genre the background/setting belongs to. this may be to do that they might not be rugged traditionalists as they may not like the outdoors and do not have as much as a connection with the film than the rest of the respondents as they may belong to another audience profile.


For the theatrical trailer, we are going to keep the theme and conventions for the title the same as the preliminary video as conforms to the conventions of the zombie apocalyptic horror genre and all the respondents said they liked the title font and fits well within the genre.

We are also going to keep the same conventions used for the character (main protagonist) as it creates more mystery and keeps the audience engaged within the text.

We are also going to keep some of the locations shown within the preliminary video as some of the audience responded to saying that the location used creates isolation and fits in well with the genre but at the same time, some of the audience said it does not, so we are going to implement more locations that has the conventional theme of isolation i.e. urban streets, abandoned buildings as this will interest all of the target audience and also creates more variation within the trailer, also it conforms to the convention of survival as the protagonist is moving to different locations (environments) in order to seek safety.

Synopsis

Synopsis for my zombie horror trailer

Me and my group's film trailer is for a zombie horror apocalyptic film called 'The Hunted'. The narrative is about Dorian (the main protagonist) who is aged 24 in which he finds himself as the last survivor of the apocalyspe (so he thinks he is) as civilisation of the world has depleted by the strange and mysterious plague that destroyed humanity and turn most of them as 'The Infected' as the deceased returned to life as horrifying undead who crave those of the living's blood. The main protagonist Dorian has survived these plague (which has been going on for over a year) as he used all the skills and experience he has obtained from being a soldier in which he is cold hearted, even before the collapse of humanity through the plague, due to the way he was trained as a soldier. Dorian is specially trained as a blade wielder in which he carries his signature martial arts blade and is skilfully trained in combat in which he uses these to his aid to survival. Later within the narrative, Dorian stumbles across a survivor called Che much to his surprise who has survived through scavenging and hiding. They are binary opposites in some way as Che has a lot of morals in which he fights for humanity but at the same time he doesn't kill 'The Infected' as he is a pacifist and in some moments lacks bravery and courage whereas Dorian has survived through being aggressive and violent and not caring about anyone but himself. Though, they work together in order to survive and try to escape the hoards of zombies, but on their adventure they start to bond and know more about each other and surprisingly Dorian starts to open up more and starting to trust more as his character does not trust anyone before. Dorian teaches Che to be more brave and courageous and know how to use a weapon and fight. Che teaches Dorian morals and convinces Dorian to fight for humanity. Towards the end of the film, they fight their way through hoards of zombies and escape and set out to a journey to find more survivors which will lead to an opening of the opportunity for a sequel. 

Script for my zombie horror trailer

Script

Here is the script for me and my group's zombie horror film trailer in which the script will mostly be the iconic moments of the film and will not contain as much dialogue within the trailer in which it may not go in chronological order. The script of dialogue will mostly consist of the main protagonist (Dorian) which is played by my group member Ben ,who also narrates various parts of the trailer to tell the narrative of the apocalypse of the trailer to the audience.

(Opening voice over) Ben: Humanity .... we always used to wonder how the world would end but nobody ever thought we asked the big question. What happens after the world has ended? 

(Brandon) Che: The difference between us is that I am still fighting for humanity! And I will not stop!

(Ben) Dorian:  We are humanity's silent echo ... not its saviours.

(Brandon) Che: Who are you?

Me and my group have created this script in (which I contributed to some of the lines of dialogue). me and my group are not one hundred percent certain that the script will be accurate to the dialogue said within the trailer as changes may be made.   

Next steps analysis

Next steps analysis

For my Zombie film theatrical trailer, I am going to include vast amount of action scenes within the trailer as our target audience enjoys action scenes which is evident as it suggests this from the questionnaire results in which 50% of the respondents answered that as the most important aspect within a zombie theatrical trailer in which from my initial ideas, I was not going to put as much action scenes within the trailer as I was planning to include more of the narrative within the trailer. The type of narrative i am going to use is advertising and abstract, not linear as i do not want to show the story or give away major details as it may spoil the film too much.

Also I am going to include less sustained fear as the questionnaire results for this response was quite relatively low as 5% answered the question of what aspects within a zombie film that they find most appealing to themselves and only 5% of the respondents said ‘sustained fear’ but instead I am going to include more gore and death as that was a popular response from the respondents as these responses was the highest for the question ‘What aspects within a zombie film you find most appealing to you?’

I am also going to keep my plans for the font style for my title for my zombie horror theatrical trailer as the conventions will be similar to those of the Shaun of the dead’s trailer title in which within the questionnaire, the majority of the respondents said that the title was the most professional title and fit in with the theme/genre of the film in which attracts them to the trailer and film, thus I want my trailer to be as successful as it can possibly be. The reason why I want to include these changes to my planning is that I want my zombie horror film theatrical trailer to be successful as possible in which these changes to my plans and them being implemented within my trailer will be popular to the target audience as that is what they want to see within a zombie horror theatrical trailer as it advertises the product well and entices them to want to watch the film.

My next steps for planning are that I am going to create the storyboard for my zombie horror theatrical trailer, create the synopsis for my theatrical trailer and research some locations for my theatrical trailer as I am also the director as well. 

lifematrix (our audience)

lifematrix

The three lifematrix audience profiles for my genre is Fun/atics, Rugged traditionalists and Tribe wired. 

Fun/atics - fun/atics like watching films that are include action, humour and like watching films that possess aspiration in which the genre of zombie contains some elements of these conventions as zombie films contain action in which the protagonists fight the antagonists whom are zombies and there are the convention of team leadership in which creates aspirational moments within the film, therefore the audience who are fun/atics will receive semantic pleasure as they watch aspirational moments when the group of survivalists work together to achieve their goal of survival.

Rugged traditionalists - rugged traditionalists love the outdoors in which they like a sense of adventure and freedom, which because of this they like the theme of survival in which they will be a fan of zombie films as of which they have the conventions of isolation and survival in which rugged traditionalists love. They will receive semantic meanings of excitement and feel exhilarated when watching these action scenes similar to fun/atics who also feel these semantic feels when watching these particular scenes.

Tribe wired - tribe wired are young free spirited singles in which live in the digital age. tribe wired people will enjoy watching zombie films due to the fact that most zombie films contain the conventions of isolation team leadership, freedom (in which the protagonists can do what they like as the rest of society within the film is almost extinct where rules have no bounds and also the sense that the protagonists within the film can explore and go where they like in an attempt to find peace and safety.