On this page we brought our initial ideas together a formed a mood-board based on our horror topic.
Produced by Javan Blake.
Produced by Javan Blake.
We gathered a range of horror film titles which are under the slasher sub-genre. These films are hugely influential in our project as they all demonstrate the idea of gore and visually painful scenes. Bringing together these film titles enables us to think deeper into our film trailer and how we would communicate the same conventions as these successful blockbusters into our own project. Texas Chainsaw is a perfect example of what we want to achieve in our debut trailer since director John Luessenhop kept the classic fear and unease rolling through the audience.
Characters are always crucial in a horror trailer as we a grant access to which character is which. This mood-board sets a visual for potential protagonist or antagonist within our trailer. We also included some examples of the main characters, a daring female, and a revengeful cousin. To help deliver our ideas, we used famous people to show a range of characters with different facial expressions to show emotion state which could lead to a possible false hero. To include are dark horror theme, I used Photoshop and various tools to darken the setting of the mood-board.
Slasher Horror films are iconic for various weaponry and props which normally goes hand in hand with the antagonist. A classic example of this is the knife that clings to Ghostface from scream. To make a great slasher, there has to be scenes that make the audience cringe due to the weapons that the villain wields. The reason why the props is important in a trailer is because their one of the most aspects which energises the audience. Using Photoshop, we included a range of iconic weaponry used in slashers such as a knifes, chainsaws, ropes, hammers, bats and guns. although guns are used more in the zombie sub-genre. We used the selection tool and the rubber to have the weapons shown without their original background.
Location is a very important aspect in a horror film because it's the environment which creates the atmosphere of the trailer. We searched for various locations which would be appropriate for our upcoming project. Using a college corridor could be ideal if we have a chase where the antagonist is chasing down his victims as the corridor is a straight narrow path leading only in one direction. We used Photoshop to place the images onto this mood-board and also used a soft rubber tool to fade the edges of each location to communicate a sense of connection of each environment throughout.
The Antagonist is one of the main character in horror slashers, we also decided to use him as the most recognised character in our trailer. Some villains have a story behind them, like Freddy Krueger. He was burnt alive and planned on getting revenge. They are portrayed as monsters instead of a masked man. Another point about the famous slasher villains is that they all have hidden identities due to being masked or distraught. We downloaded a font for the title 'Villains' and we also placed a forest as a background before layering the images of villains we recognised in previous successful films.
Slasher horror films is all about a dramatic situations where there is normally an antagonist and a victim(s). An example of an antagonist is leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We normally see graphic scenes where people are heavily terrorised by weapons and great violence. Including a lot of gore and dramatic scenes within our trailer wouldn't go amiss in our film trailer. We often see Todorov's Theory in slasher films which builds up the story line of the project. We intend to use Todorov's Theory throughout our project to help structure our film trailer. We looked at trailers such Evil Dead, My Bloody Valentine and Texas Chainsaw Massacre to get ideas and gather information for our own project.
The gore in horror films is highly important especially in slasher because injury and gore plays one the main points of a slasher film. Costume is one of the main aspects that changes the mood of the audience especially if its disturbing. Make-up achieves fake gore and injuries such as fake blood. We intend to use some of this in our film trailer. Each character has there own characteristics and with characteristics come costume. Costume can be things from what a person wears to what props are used. An example of good usage of costume in a slasher horror film is Scream's iconic Ghostface. Ghostface wears a long black gown with a mask. A man with a mask and perhaps a certain attire is what we want to include in our production.
We believe that all horrors have a special font used which makes the film recognisable. They use typography with sharp and jagged edges which blatantly shows that the film isn't meant for children. Another thing we gathered from the font used is that a lot of the film titles are not used in bright colours. They only colours such as red which promotes a subliminal meaning of blood and danger. These titles gives us a clear idea of what our project font should consist of. Another aspect of these film titles are the names themselves. The titles make the audience ask questions about what type of film is it and what sub-genre of horror it falls under.
This is a overall moodboard taking into account aspects of the previous ones we also produced. In the overall, we added things that communicate potential locations, antagonists, props, make-up etc. Having all these images on one page finalises our ideas for our upcoming trailers. We used Photoshop to pull all these ideas together onto one page. To blend each photo into each other to give a more dynamic feel to the moodboard, we used a soft rubber to to soften down the edges. All the things within the moodboard are going to be considered in our production of our début film trailer.
looking BACK AT THESE MOOD BOARDs I GET A CONFIDENT SENSE OF THEME FOR OUR UPCOMING SLASHER FILM TRAILER. I BELIEVE THAT THE VISUAL ELEMENT OF THESE MOODBOARDS REALLY GIVE YOU THE ELEMENT OF GRIM HORROR. THEY ALSO GIVE OUR AUDIENCE AN INSIGHT TO HOW WE THINK ABOUT OUR PROJECT SUCH AS THE LOCATIONS, CHARACTERS AND POSSIBLE PROPS THAT COULD BE USED IN OUR FINAL TRAILER. What could've went better was enabling myself to vary the topics in the mood boards instead of referring back the same thing such as using friday the 13th in one moodboard as using in again in another.