Shot List

Below I have made a list of shots and given examples from various films and television shows of the shot types I intend to use in my trailer.

Audience Profile

Location

Location

For my trailer I will be using two locations, both of which are in and around Cairns, Australia.

The location in which I had done most of my filming is a small creek on the outskirts of Cairns and Redlynch in Australia, this was the perfect place to do my filming because of the surroundings.

The creek is shelter by the outskirts of a rain-forest canopy, this works excellently in terms of lighting when I can capture the dusky sunlight through the leaves as the sun sets, as well as this the background sound will work well in my trailer as the rain-forest setting makes for some great wildlife sound such as lorikeets, crickets and the sound of geckos commonly heard in the evening in the rain-forest  These sound combine this the sound of the running creek will make for some unusual tropical background sounds.

I chose this particular area because just outside is a small tunnel running underneath a main road, as it got dark I thought that this would be a good place to film some creepy and secluded shots of the actors running through the tunnel.

The second location that I sued for my filming was in the Cairns suburbs, I chose to film round the back of a house in a place called Trundle Terrance, it was perfect for my filming as it is right on the edge of the rain-forest canopy so therefore blends the perfect amount of urban and natural setting. I chose to film the back of the house because I wanted to show variety in my trailer and to show a progression in the story line as the actors try to “escape”. I filmed in this location in darkness, there was a single street light next to the house which acted as a spot light for my actors and added an extra eerie element to this section of the trailer.

I am aiming for my creek location to look something like the images below: 

Age Restrictions

Age Restrictions

Films are given age classifications in order to protect children from potentially upsetting and unsuitable material in the film industry. In the UK film classifications are decided by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) according to the BBFC classification guidelines set, based on general context (plot, characters, outlines of individual scenes), timings of key moments (including camera angles, type of shots and on/off screen moments), bad language, sexual references and drug taking. 

Of the films that I have studied the BBFC awarded The Woman in Black a 15 for strong supernatural threat and horror, Shutter a 15 for strong supernatural horror, threat and gore and The Blair Witch Project a 15 for frequent strong language and horror, as the trailer I am planning to put together will contain mostly the same themes as the 3 films I have studied e.g. supernatural horror and strong language.

The BBFC list the guidelines for an age 15 certified film as the appearance of strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'), portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking. Strong threat, horror, supernatural horror (as long as no prolonged focus on sadistic or sexual threat). 

Distribution and Box Office Takings

Distribution

The distribution of the film is very important in terms of how well the film subsequently does in the box office. As for picking a distribution company for my film I have looked at other horror films containing similar themes to mine in order to find the right distributor for my film. The Woman in Black was distributed by Momentum Pictures in the UK, Shutter was distributed by 20^th Century Fox and The Blair Witch Project was distributed by Artisan Entertainment.

Momentum Pictures

Moment Pictures is one of the successful independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland, on average distributing 20 independent films a year. Momentum are a critically acclaimed film distributor with successes in the Oscars and the BAFTAs with films such as The Kings Speech, P.S I Love You and The Young Victoria, making it a leading film company for the distribution of independent films.  

20^th Century Fox

20^th Century Fox are one of the big 6 American film studios, as well as distributing and producing films, 20^th Century Fox also produce and distribute TV programmes such as How I Met Your Mother, New Girl and Modern Family. Some of the most successful films that 20^th Century Fox have been credited for are X-Men, Alien and Predator. The success 20^th Century Fox and other subsidiaries have received mean that they tend to work with films that have large budgets and are able to push the films towards the main cinema companies.

Artisan Entertainment

Artisan Entertainment Inc. is an American independent film company at the time The Blair Witch Project was made, however it was brought by the Canadian film company Lions Gate in 2003. Previously Artisan Entertainment produced films such as Reservoir For Dogs, Suicide Kings and The Blair Witch Project along with many other independent horror/thriller films. Lions Gate produce far more mainstream films for a wider audience, their film portfolio consists of the films produced by their subsidiary companies; Artisan Entertainment, Trimark Pictures and Vestron Pictures such as Dirty Dancing, The Princess Bride and Young Guns.

Box Office Takings

The Woman in Black was made on a $15 million budget, it was a success in the Box Office making $127, 730, 736. During its opening weekend the film made $20 million, making it the biggest American release ever for its production company Hammer Productions and earned significantly more than the $11 million - $16.5 million that it was expected to bring in, also making it the highest grossing British horror in 20 years.

Shutter

Shutter was made on an $8 million budget, after receiving mainly poor reviews from critics it made a surprising $47,879, 410. Making only $10,447, 559 on its opening weekend in March in cinemas, reached 3^rd in the box office.

The Blair Witch Project

After being shown at Sundance Film Festival in 1998, Artisan release The Blair Witch Project in July 1999 after months of publicity leading audiences to believe that the film was a recording of real events. The films budget finally finished at between 500, 000 and 75, 000 after reshoots and an increase in sound editing. It, however grossed 248, 639, 099 worldwide, making it a milestone in modern cinema due to its box office success.

Character Profiles

Oscar- a 12 year old boy. He goes down to the river to skim stones with his older sister Martha. He lives in the area surrounding the rain forest the group are in. He loves exploring the local wildlife which is the only reason they go down to the creek in the first place. For this reason he is dressed in casual summer clothing, shorts, a t-shirt and trainers due to the terrain and climate.

Martha- a 15 year old girl. Follows Oscar down to the creek to skim stones with him. She lives in the local area around the rainforest. She believes the stories about the Japanese ghosts haunting the rainforest and is superstitious about the whole thing. She is also dressed in casual summer clothing. She is the member of the group to go missing as she, makes a run away from the rainforest after she gets scared. 

Rebecca- a 13 year old girl. A close friend of Martha visiting from England, she is called down to the creek by Martha when Oscar finds the first sign on a log by the creek. The first one to notice Martha's disappearance and is easily scared. Again dressed in casual summer clothing.



Hector- a 17 year old boy. The eldest sibling to Martha and Oscar, so also lives in the near by area. He is called down by Martha and arrives at the creek with Rebecca.  As the eldest he holds authority over the group and therefore takes charge in trying to keep Rebecca and Oscar calm after Martha goes missing, although this ultimately leads to his downfall.

My Idea and Synopsis

The symbol I am using in my film is Japanese. 死 or Shi was it is written using the English alphabet means death in Japanese. I chose to make the story line revolve around this symbol because of the area I chose to film my trailer in. I filmed in Northern Queensland, Australia, this area of Australia has a rich Japanese history after a huge amount of Japanese troops were placed in far north Queensland around the deep rain forests that surround the area. However there are several legends that surround the Japanese history in this area, stories say that because of the remoteness of the Queensland rain forest that the troops never got word of the end of the war and continued to kill people who wandered into the rain forest and into their camps. Even long after, and to the present day many of the inhabitants of Queensland believe that the spirits of the Japanese troops haunt the rain forest and haunt and kill the people how walk through the old camp sites. Therefore I decided to base my trailer idea around these legends and stories of Queensland.

Synopsis:

The story begins in World War 2. Many Japanese troops were stationed in the tropical north Queensland in Australia. During the war the Japanese troops fought through the difficult terrain of northern Australia with little success, when the war finished the Japanese troops never got told and very little effort was made to remove them from Australia due to the remote stationing of the troops.

Legend has it that after the war Japanese troops continued fighting in the rain forest and to this day gun fire can still be heard in the depths of the forestation from the souls of the troops that died there.

In 2014 there are many, many houses built in and the rain forest, a brother and sister, Oscar and Martha, venture into the forest as they have many times before. The two of them discover a strange red marking “死” and call their friends, Hector and Becca, to come and see what they have uncovered. Their friends tease them for calling them down, Hector tries his best to scare the others whereas Becca believes that the others are playing a trick on her because they know how easily scared she is. All of the group begin to get scared as the ordinary sounds of the rain forest begin to sound more and more horrific.

As the group are walking home they spot the sign again on the side of a walk way, after teasing Becca for panicking they soon realize Martha is missing, everyone’s phone signal is down and no one can make contact with her. As they are calling for her, the group hear a scream and run home without their sister.

Everywhere the group go they are haunted by the signs. Hector, as the eldest takes control and looks up what the sign means, they find that it is the Japanese symbol for death, Shi. Hector is convinced that this is an elaborate prank set up by Martha and leads the group home, however when they return there is no one in and the front door is locked. Hector advises Oscar and Becca to wait while he tries to get in through the back. He is gone for a long time, the outside lights are flickering. Suddenly they hear Hector scream. The lights go on in the house. They hear him calling them into the house telling them it is safe. He talks to them as they make their way round to the back of the house, however when they get there they find him out cold with 死 cut into his chest, however he is still “talking” to them. All of the lights go out in the house.