First draft of our film trailer plot

A group of four friends decide to go on a camping trip to celebrate the end of summer, before they all go their separate ways to college. This is shown on an over the shoulder shot of a Facebook event giving all the details.
There is cheerful music at the beginning of the trailer showing a tracking shot of Jack driving his car to the campsite unaware that his sister is in the back of his car. Once he arrives at the campsite he gets out of his car and hugs his girlfriend. This annoys Emily and she storms out of the car bringing attention to her.
Jack shouts at Emily for sneaking into the car without permission this upsets Emily and she runs off to hide. Once Jack calms down, after a while he goes to find Emily but realises that she is nowhere in sight.
Back at the campsite Tom takes out his camera to film their final time together before they go to college, when he notices a shadow lurking behind the trees.
The next shot is off the group trying to find Emily, when all of a sudden Lauren notices a figure sat the ground with her back towards them, as they approach the figure they realise its Emily but only now she is wearing a white dress and her hair is pushed over her face whilst making indescribable noises.
Lucy asks “Are you ok, Emily?” she simply responds in a strangled tone “Emily’s not here anymore” before she clambers to her feet and charges towards Tom whose holding the camera, pushing him with an inhumanly force before everything goes black and all you are to hear are the whimpers of the scared girls.
There’s then a group shot of them back at the camp sat around the fire, this is when Tom tells the rest of the group about the curse that a little 8 year old girl with schizophrenia murdered her brother not far from the woods, and she supposedly ran into the woods before getting trapped and drowning in the lake. The stories say that her dark side still haunts the woods looking for new victims. He explains that it was meant to be a joke, but Jack is furious saying that it’s his fault that this is happening!
Lauren has been left alone and begins to hear strange noises, afraid she reaches for a torch but panics when the battery isn’t working, she then questions “Who’s there?” but there’s no reply, she then smacks the torch in hope that it will light up but when it comes on she is not so thankful as she is faced with Emily stood in front of her with an evil grin. The screen turns to complete darkness before you hear the painful screams of Lauren shouting for “Help!” before once again the silence is reinforced, the picture comes back and the camera focuses on the torch on the ground covered in blood. 
The camera is a bit shaky and unsettled and the audience is only able to hear strange chilling sounds before the camera shows Tom being pulled into the dark helplessly screaming and scratching across the ground trying to get away.
The final scene is of Jack and Lucy stood with their back to the lake, the audience is able to see Emily standing behind Lucy before she puts her hand over her mouth and drags Lucy backwards into the water. The screen then cuts to Emily stood at the edge of the water with her head tilted to side with a sinister smile across her face, she’s hunched over looking almost lifeless, before she suddenly sprints towards the camera with a low chilling scream, the screen then turns dark and the title of the film comes onto the screen for the final shot.

Second draft of my individual plot synopsis

GENRE: Thriller/Horror

Research: Silent House, Hide and Seek

Target audience: both male and female, ages 15-35

A fun-loving 8 year old girl named Jane has just recently moved into her grandmothers old home after her death. She has a 17 year old brother named Dan suffers from schizophrenia, he is protective of Jane, however he is perceived to be the key to plot at the start of the story. As Dan suffers from schizophrenia he lashes out on Jane frequently without realising what he is doing. He enjoys playing hide and seek with Jane because it’s a game which likes playing when he is in a playful mood, but she despises playing with him when he has his delusions, he tends to play with Jane whenever her parents are out as they want him to play more productive games with Jane. Jane is scared of Dan because she doesn’t understand that he suffers from schizophrenia, she just sees him acting differently and wonders why he does it.

One night Dan & Jane’s parents are going to their uncles charity function and they leave some money for Jane and Dan to get a takeaway. Jane orders the take-away as Dan comes down the stairs and he demands a game of hide and seek, this instantly frightens her. He begins to count without an answer and Jane hurries off, halfway through the game the door bell rings and the delivery guy (Jerry) is there, Jerry also suffers from schizophrenia but it is undiagnosed at this point. Dan goes to the door and exchanges a strange conversation with the delivery man about what he’s doing (hide & seek).

Later on, the game is still carrying on and Jane hears the front door slam and an unfamiliar voice shout ‘Come out, Come out wherever you are’. She stays put hiding from her brother a few minutes later Dan stumbles into Jane’s room telling her to keep still and not to move, Jane doesn’t trust him as she thinks he is deluded, so frightened Jane goes running down the stairs and comes face-to-face with the delivery man, he is armed with a 8 inch butchers knife covered in her brothers blood. He doesn’t say a word but has the wildest look in his eyes which he covers with the butchers knife and starts to count to ten, taking one step towards Jane with every number he counts. Jane realises this is no ordinary game of hide and seek and freezes not knowing what to do. She turns around yards away from the delivery man and sprints back up to her room to hear a now familiar voice shout ‘Ready or not here I come’.

A chase occurs around the house involving Jane, Dan and the Delivery man. She bumps into her brother along the way, he feeds her advice on what to do, she ignores him again and runs out. Jane feels stranded not being able to trust the delivery man or her brother. Jane comes across an idea and creeps her way downstairs to find Dan heaped under the stairs dead where she had been hiding earlier in the day. The now familiar voice echo’s from upstairs ‘come out, come out wherever you are’. Jane panics and grabs the phonebook looking for her fathers number whilst she can hear cupboards being rattled upstairs. She dials the number, sobbing down the phone, listening to each footstep on the staircase. She explains to her dad that Dan is dead and there’s a killer in the house, her dad asks her to stay on the phone, at this point he emerges from the doorway to stand in front of Jane, the lights of her parents car are evident through the window. Jane drops the phone in fright as he stares into her eyes and says ’Game Over’ as he lunges at her with the knife as she can still hear her fathers voice screaming down the receiver. Jerry then realises what he has done, in a fright he drops the knife by her feet and swiftly leaves the house to be met by the dad, Jerry doesn’t realise what he has just done, gets arrested and prescribed to a mental health institution.

First draft of my individual film synopsis

GENRE: Thriller/Horror

Research: Silent House, Hide and Seek

Target audience: both male and female, ages 15-35

“Ready or not, here I come!” I shout, sprinting down the staircase of our new house,  I duck under the stairs to find my older brother Dan hiding behind a box of ornaments “Found you!” I giggle, as he jumps up. “Round two?” he asks, just as mum and dad come through the door. “what you doing kids?” Dad questions,

“ hide and seek,” I grin, “ Its Dan’s turn on!”

Mum sighs, “Dan, come into the kitchen a second, help me unpack the shopping?”

“Sure” Dan says unwillingly.

“ Dan, cant you do something that’s a little more for your age? You’re 17 now, why don’t you take her to the park?” dad pleads, unpacking the last bag from the counter.

“But Jane likes hide and seek..”

“ She may do Dan, but you need to grow up,  Jane will in a few years too, just try cut down the amount of times you play, yeah kiddo?”

“ Sure dad” Dan mumbles.

I sprint upstairs from behind the kitchen door, so Dan doesn’t see I’ve been listening, its too late,  Dan’s chasing me into my bedroom, slamming the door with anger. “I’ve told you to many times now Jane, this will be one time too much!” He growls, lying with his back against the door.

“ I’m sorry, you know I don’t like playing hide and seek with you!”

“ Why not?” a grin spreading across his face, “fancy going down the park to play?”

“No don’t take me to the park, I’ll play!”

“Good” Dan murmurs “my turn. One, two..” I jump off the bed and run along the landing, and find myself  in Dan’s cupboard. Seconds later, the doors are flung open,  I find Dan yanking me from the cupboard, “ You could of found a better place than that!” he snarls.

“Okay.. I’m sorry Dan” I stutter, and hurry downstairs into my parents view. Its 7 o’ clock on the clock in the kitchen, and I feel my belly rumble and forget that I haven‘t had tea. “ Mum?” I call, and she emerges from the living room wearing a red dress, my dad follows in a suit. “ Are we going out?” I say excitedly.

“No, me and your dad are going for a meal. We’ve left some money on the side for you and Dan to have a takeaway, we’d best be off. Have fun!” She hurries out of the door, dragging dad with her. As the door slams, it dawns on me that I’m alone with Dan

“Dan?” I call shakily. He comes down the stairs, acting as if nothing had just happened.

“Money on the side for a Take-away?”

“Yes.. Mum left it for us..” I reply shakily. He picks up the house phone and calls the take-away and orders our pizza’s. “The pizza will be here in 10 minutes Jane, that leaves us enough time for one more game of hide and seek, want a game?”

“Okay, I’ll be on this time, One, two..” “Come out, come out, wherever you are” I slowly walk up the stairs, praying Dan won‘t hear me. I’ve reached the top, outside my brothers room, fingertips away from the handle.. DING DONG! Dan shouts “Pizza’s here!”. I slowly stroll down the stairs.. Dan is talking to the pizza boy, so I stood next to him. I’m gazing at his nametag and say “Hey Jerry.”

“What you guys been doing?” replied Jerry. I look up at Dan, he slowly smirks, I reply “playing hide and seek”, a bright smile came to Jerry’s face,

“I used to love that game, enjoy your pizza.” and he swiftly left.

Dan is quiet, he seems to have changed, I have no clue why. I didn’t ask as I’m too hungry to delay eating this pizza! Just finished the pizza and Dan has asked me to finish off our game of hide and seek, he’s on this time. Dan’s counting so I scurried off hiding behind his blinds, I see him, he cant see me.. “Come out, come out wherever you are!” This doesn’t sound like a familiar voice.. I recognise it from somewhere but I can’t think where. I hear footsteps downstairs and upstairs, something isn’t right, I hear a sudden drop, like somebody had fallen over. I scurried to find my brother on the landing, covered in blood. So many things are in my head.. HOW. WHY. WHEN. I glance, a couple of yards away, there’s  Jerry’s name tag covered in blood. I ran into my room where Dan was counting before. There was a figure, exactly where Dan was, he turns around, it’s Jerry, he has the wildest look , he covers his bloody hands over his eyes, started counting to 10 silently. I’m scurrying down the stairs, the door’s locked, there’s no way out. Each number Jerry is counting up is echoing in my head. I’ve just dived under my table surrounded in cloth and I hear the dreading number “TEN! Come out, come out wherever you are!” He’s found me breathing heavily already! Chasing me around the house, he has me cornered, I scream “What do you want?!”

“I just want to play.. I just want to play” Jerry replies and breaks down in front of me. I am shaking with fear, the knife is still in his hand, he lifts his head up swiftly and I stare in his unforgiving eyes as he puts the knife straight through me saying “Game Over.”

Analysis of the trailer "Silent House"

Generic conventions of a psychological thriller

Mise en scene
psychological thrillers are normally set in an isolated area, this is done as there is no communication for people to help the characters so they feel stranded and have to face everything by themselves. Most things tend to be a dark and gloomy setting so we as an audience are unable to identify who or where the characters are this creates a code of enigma.

Characters
Normally teenagers aged 18-25 years old. Stereotypically, there are two main characters in a thriller, usually mixed genders. The male characters tend to stand up to any danger to protect the female character. The villains are usually male which tend to be intelligent as they can read what the victims are going to do and kill the other characters off in disturbing ways.

Music
In scenes many music effects are used, once main scenes reach climax in a psychological thriller there is a low toned dramatic beat, it is meant to represent the audiences heart beat which is racing as they don't know what is about to happen. Instruments which are used most frequently are string instruments such as the piano and violins which tend to create a cold effect on the film.

Themes of a psychological thriller
The themes which are used in a psychological thriller are designed to make the audience feel uncomfortable, scared and disturbed. They do this by basing the story on what societies common fears to make the film seem more realistic e.g. kidnapping stalking. In most psychologcial theillers we get to see the victims point of view so we feel how they feel and we go through the story with them.

Looper Trailer Analysis

 The genre of this film is an action sci-fi film, the audience is able to identify this around 30 seconds in, where there is an establishing shot of a city, this city appears to be more developed and advanced compared to a modern city. The main factor which establishes this as a sci-fi film is the quote ‘I don’t want to talk about time travel’. This suggests that the film is going to involve time travel; therefore we can predict that this is going to be a sci-fi film.
This trailer suggests that the target audience could vary from 15 years old to possibly 30 years old and predominantly male. The main reason for this is due to the genre, sci-fi generally attract a male audience, this target audience of this film I believe is 30, even though Bruce Willis being the main actor is a USP, he is older than 30, he has been an iconic figure in action films which target a young audience, therefore the audience will be able to relate to the character. The main characters age in this film seems to be around the age of 30 as well. I believe that the target audience could go down to 15 is because the film certificate for this film is 15, and as I am aged 17, I would be interested in going to watch this film.
This film trailer lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds and a montage of around 86 camera shots all edited together. Fast-paced editing is used throughout the trailer by the use of quick cuts, as well as fade to white and fade to black for numerous shots. An example of where this occurred in the trailer was during the conversation whilst the 2 characters were sat at the table.
There is use of diegetic sound in the trailer by the use of dialogue of voiceovers and conversations, these two types of dialogue are used to explain the narrative to the audience. I believe the most important piece of dialogue in this trailer are the words “In the future time travel is outlawed, used only in secret and by the largest criminal organisations. When they need someone gone, and want to erase any trace of the target ever existing, they use specialised assassins like me, called loopers.” This quote gives us as an audience information about the plot and informs us what the main character will be focusing on, this voiceover is spoken as a point of view.
There was non-diegetic sound uses in this trailer through the use of music and sound effects. The non-diegetic sound helped set the mood of this trailer. There are mysterious sounds throughout this trailer. These sounds help identify the genre as a sci-fi and also help present the intensity of the trailer, the high paced editing looks more effective because the sounds get louder and more consistent as the speed picks up. There is a ticking sound effect which is being used throughout the trailer, this brings the idea that there is a race against time.
The trailer represents characters effectively as the two main characters are the same person from 2 different time periods. On character is quite young and one is old. Even though they are the same person, the older man is presented as smart, experienced and wise as for the young man is seen as energetic. Stereotypically the older character will be more experienced and wise. There is an evident relationship between these two characters due to the older character knowing everything about the younger.
There is a use of titles in this trailer and are shown is “The only thing to fear, is yourself”. This is a way of communicating with the audience and they are telling the audience that they should be wary and fear the older man. This creates a code of enigma.
The mise-en-scene is constructed by a variety of establishing shots which give a sense of location, for example; the establishing shot of the developed city, gives us an idea of the time period of the ‘future’.
There are many codes and conventions which emphasise that this film is a sci-fi. The trailer stereotypically includes a fight scene, includes weapons to emphasise that there is action to interest more males, an establishing shot of the futuristic environment. There is a code of enigma created by one of the characters acting mysterious, voice-overs to explain the films narrative, slow motion in action scenes to add intensity to the shots.

What is a film trailer and what is its function?

What is a film trailer?
A film trailer is an advertisement for an upcoming film which is about to be released in cinemas. It's used as a promotional device which only gives viewers a short taste of what the film will be like, this is why film producers pick the most interesting scenes to put into the film trailer so the target audience feel encouraged to watch the film. It is an effective promotional device as film trailers are easily accessible on the internet e.g. Youtube, they are also screened on televisions during commercial breaks between shows.

What is a film trailers function?
The function of a film trailer is to reveal the unique selling points to the target audience, this means showing the audience the cast and directors which feature in a film. These unique selling points will encourage the audience to watch the film in the cinemas or to buy it on dvd/ blu-ray

Hide and Seek

I have chosen to watch this trailer as it is a psychological thriller and that is what I want the genre of my film trailer to be. I am going to be further analyzing this trailer in a later post.

SILENT HOUSE

I have chosen to watch this trailer as it is a psychological thriller and that is what I want the genre of my film trailer to be. I am going to be further analyzing this trailer in a later post.