Feedback on Animated Storyboard

After presenting our animated storyboard to our Media class we received positive comments and constructive criticism which we will use in order to improve it.

Outline of Feedback:

Good Points:
-Great sound effects
-The editing of the the audible aspects in relation to our visual element. (The sound related to the image well).

Constructive Criticism
-The storyline seemed a bit unclear to some. For example "Why did she go into the woods?"
-Need to introduce the characters
-We need to build in more titles
-The pace of our animated storyboard needs to reach atleast 45 minutes.

Invictus Animated Storyboard 1

Hi guys, this is our first storyboard. We have used our original sketches and have transformed them into an animated version, using a few sound effects that we may choose to include in our final trailer. We hope you enjoy our little teaser trailer to our trailer.




Invictus animated storyboard 1 from Media @ St. Bons on Vimeo.

Storyboard Frame Sheet

Timings	Sketch Frames	Visual	Audio
Shot No: 1		Wide shot of main female character but is shot in an unprofessional style in order to show that characters are using a 'handheld camera' First shot mainly used to introduce characters.	Diegetic sound of talking within the library. And dialogue from 3 main characters.
Shot No: 2		Continues with the 'handheld'.	Dialogue from 3 main characters.
Shot No: 3		Close up shot of the main character hands looking for 'the book'. Introduces the book into the trailer.	Diegetic sound of talking in the library and shuffling of books
Shot No: 4		Fades into text	Eerie music slowly begins to play
Shot No: 5		Wide shot of classroom to introduce the whole meaning to the storyline. Will cut into the faces of the main characters, to capture certain dialogue	Dialogue between teacher and students talking. Quiet music still continues
Shot No: 6		Mid-shot of character looking into the mirror. Then will zoom into the mirror to reveal a change and scariness to the character.	Eerie music stops, to here the diegetic sound of character humming a creepy nursery rhyme.
Shot No: 7		Jump cuts into the close up shot of the book.	The humming of the character continues into the trailer.
Shot No: 8		Fade in of text.
Shot No: 9		Wide shot of characters entering a forest, introduces next location. This reveals full change in main protagonist.	Diegetic sound of music will be added in here.
Shot No: 10		Goes back to heldhand style recording, to show the fear in other characters. Jump cuts to a page in the book.	Diegetic sound of fast paced music will be added in here. And sound of other character heavy breathing and running away
Shot No: 11		The screen will be blank here for two-three seconds. This would anchor in with the genre very well as horror  trailers tend to have blank screens for some time to build tension. Would then jump cut to a wide shot of main protagonist walking through the forest.	It will be silent in order to build the tension.
Shot No: 12		Jump cuts to a close up protagonist in full possession effect.	There will be slow diegetic sound of the character humming.

Invictus Pitch

Trailer Influences

We decided to make a horror teaser trailer and so we looked at a number of film trailers that we thought would help us with our approach to creating our trailer.

SINISTER

Some of our influences is from the trailer for the film 'Sinister'. They have a main prop that triggers the narrative of the story (the old projector). They continuously use shadows and dark lighting to present a frightening atmosphere.They also use the dark scenes to accent and hide the source of fear, which in this case is the character 'Bughuul'.

Towards the end of the trailer there is a series of flash cuts which increase the pace and in turn raise the level of tension and fear among the audience. The use of children as part of the concept is also an influence. They present an element of vulnerability which will make audiences want to sympathize with the characters.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

The trailer for Paranormal Activity is one of our main influences. There is a great use of handheld camera work which we will also use in our trailer. This presents the story as a documented event and gives it a sense of realism which makes it scarier for audiences. This trailer has limited footage from the film and relies more on audience reaction. There are audible aspects from this which are also used when the titles are presented.
The use of a handheld camera allows the audience to empathise with the characters and feel as though they are actually experiencing what is happening in the film.

THE LAST EXORCISM

The Last Exorcism was an influence to our theme of "posession". This is a key element in this film as the main character becomes so. From this trailer we can see how the possessed character acts, focusing on body language and speech so that we may be able to direct our own actor on how to present a character in a possessed state.

The feedback from our class on our first animated storyboard comments on the need for a greater use of titles in our trailer. The Last Exorcism trailer uses titles that tell audiences the location and key information about the first character introduced in the film.

Costumes

Since the characters for our teaser trailer are teenagers who attend sixthform/college we had them dress in suits to create a sense of realism. This also makes it easier for our target audience to relate or sympathise with the characters.

The male characters will be wearing black blazers, black trousers and a shirt which would be their school uniform.

Our female protagonist will be wearing a black blazer, a black skirt and tights, and a shirt as her uniform.

Tagline Ideas

Here is a brainstorm of ideas for the tagline of our trailer. We tried to come up with ones that closely relate to connotations of possession -which, in our trailer will be the humming and singing of a specific song the group had come across in the dangerous looking book they found in the library.

After a group discussion, we decided that our favourites were 'Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil', 'Death Comes to Those who Sing to It' and 'The Living might not hear you, but The Dead certainly will....No matter how quiet you try to be'.

We were very close to choosing the third one I previously mentioned, however, for a tagline we deemed it to be too long. As it was becoming troublesome for our group to decide on a tagline, we constructed a survey for our media class to answer, asking them which tagline they preferred.

Sketch: Film Magazine - Initial Idea #2

Sketch: Film Magazine - Initial Idea

Before the construction of our film magazine we decided to start out by sketching our ideas. This provided us with a visual starting point before moving on to use Photoshop.

This is my sketch for our independent film magazine. I was inspired by the horror films, 'Mama' and 'The Grudge' where the antagonist's hair would stretch out and try to engulf and harm victims with it.

I drew only half a face and chose not to centre the character's face to remain unconventional which match the unusual quirks of independent magazines.

Contrasting this, in my sketch I included typical conventions of a magazine. For example, I drew a barcode and wrote an issue number which I placed in the bottom, left corner. I also gave the magazine a price.

Call Sheet

Title Ideas

Here is a brainstorm of ideas for the title of our trailer. We first centered our ideas around the primary prop in the trailer which would be the "The book". From there, we used Google Translator to find the translation for "book" in Latin which we believed would help to create a more eerie effect.

In the end we decided to choose "Invictus", the Latin word for "invincible, unbeatable, unconquered". We believe that it would relate well to the synopsis of the trailer as it revolves around possession and demonic components. The demon will be unbeatable and so the protagonists in the end, will be condemned to death.

Cloud 9Productions Proposal

Proposal

We, Cloud 9 Productions, are proposing to film a teaser trailer for our upcoming horror project, ‘Invictus’. Our company has produced horror films, such as The Lullaby, Brocken Wards (which won a BAFTA award) and Libellus, advertisements such as Sony, Bose and Monster Drink which have been very successful over the nation. We are proposing a budget of £10,000,000 in order to produce the Invictus trailer.

We have constructed surveys and focus groups over a few months to understand various target audiences which have watched the company’s recent projects. We now believe that we understand our target audience and the appropriate form of approach needed to receive beneficial and positive feedback.

Synopsis of Invictus;

“Jason, Valentino and Gianne, a group of normal teenagers set out to complete their seven week long media project. However, a series of unexpected events begin to unfold as they discover “the book”, which contains demonic songs that start to haunt them psychologically and slowly become embedded in their day to day thoughts. Gianne unfortunately becomes the prime victim of possession and her character gradually shows signs of instability and being controlled by a supernatural force”.

Director: Jennifer Torres, Myah Bellevue

• Degree in cinematography
• BAFTA award for ‘Brocken Wards’ (Best Short 2008)

Camera crew: Myah Bellevue, Jennifer Torres and Valentino Pajarillo

• British broadcasting for 10 years e.g. Doctor Who
• Freelanced for individual film companies
• Filmed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Degree in Media

Editor: Valentino Pajarillo, Myah Bellevue

• Executive Editor for numerous fast paced music videos
• Editing crew for Procter & Gamble Company
• Degree in Art & Graphics

Timescale:

Pre - Production          4 weeks

Production                  2 weeks

Post – Production       3 weeks

In conclusion, with our extensive research and experienced crew members, we are absolutely confident with producing the trailer for Invictus within the proposed time period and within our budget.

Sketch: Film Poster - Initial Idea

This is the initial design of our poster. We wanted to ensure that our audience understood the meaning of 'Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil' in which we decided to actually get our actors to do the action for our poster. We got the inspiration to do this from existing horror film posters such as the Drag me to Hell film poster and the Mirrors film poster. We took specific conventions from each poster to recreate a realistic poster of our own.

Film Poster Analysis: Coach Carter

Film Poster Analysis: The Last House on the Left

Film Poster Analysis: The Devil Inside

Target Audience

Our teaser trailer will be aimed at 15 to 25 year olds of both genders. Horror films tend to be more popular with people in this age category and primarily people that belong to groups C2, D and E of the Socio-economic category. However, it is mainly teenagers that choose to watch horror films as they are more curious and daring.
What excites them is how the films make them feel like the protagonists that are generally targeted by the source of fright. Also teenagers are a primary target audience for many film directors as they tend to make more time for leisure and spend their money on social events such as trips to the cinema with their friends. Additionally, they don't have to pay taxes as some adults would, allowing them to have money at their convenience for the disposal of leisure.

From looking at a few existing horror films and their trailers, we found that most were classified as a 15:

Paranormal Activity

The Devil Inside

The Conjuring

The Last Exorcism

Horrors tend to be rated at a 15 due to the "strong threat or menace" the BBFC says, and the gory images are unsuitable to be classified as a 12A. However, some horror films were able to be successful while classified as a 12. E   dits to certain scenes would be made so it could be classified as a 12. And example of this is The Woman in Black. The Woman in Black was classified as a 15 for the cinema release due to the amount

Some films even create trailers of audience reaction where the film has come out earlier in another country. The creaters of Paranormal Activity have trailers of audience reactions for films 3 and 4.

 

Poster Influences

We particularly like the use of fire in this poster, this represents hell very well as hell is commonly known to be torturing and hot. The back ground being very grey and dark would shows how dark the film will actually be. We also like the use of the hands 

We took most inspiration from this Tamil-Telugu horror movie called 'Shivani'. The use of the mysterious hands covering most of her face adds the effect that something is after her or is 'possessing' her. Using the  colour red connotes to blood and evil which also conforms to the usual conventions of a horror poster. Focusing all the titles in center of poster would also cause the audience to focus on the disturbing image which heavily represents the film. 

Initial Ideas

Deciding that Horror was our main interest for the genre of our teaser trailer, we decided to create a mind-map of our first and initial ideas that revolved around this particular genre and ideas for our trailer. We believed this would benefit us in having a more organised approach to our production and the planning stages.

Here is presentation of the first stage to our initial ideas. It is not considerably detailed as it is only a brief for the beginning of our research.