Institutional Information

To produce the institutional information and intertitles we used Adobe Photoshop as we already had experience in using this programme so it was quick and easy yet made to a good standard. To create the institutional information we looked at the information from other films to get an idea of what needed to be included. We chose a sans serif font so it is clear to read and added our production company logo.

We used the same font and black-to-white gradient overlay for the text 'Coming Soon' to match the title of the film and establish a recognisable text to use for anything in relation to our film (e.g. posters, adverts and merchandise. It was important to include the website and hashtag as this lets people know where to find more information on the film and by using the film's hashtag it provides below the line advertising through social media to spread the word. For this information we chose a similar font but smaller and thinner as it is less vital, however is still clear. A dim glow around the text also makes it stand out against the black background. Our production company logo is the only colour on the screen making it stand out despite being small in the bottom corner where it might otherwise be missed.

During research we noticed that the age rating of a film was always displayed in this way at the start of every trailer we studied. It was simple to replicate for our own film's rating using Photoshop as it uses a basic and serif font, we found the 15 age certificate stamp online and added shadows to the image and text as well as the bbfc website for realism and accuracy.

Designing the Title

During planning we decided that we wanted 'In the' to be on one line and 'Shadows' to be on the line below as we found through research that it was common for thriller film titles to be on more than one line as it makes it seem staggered. We planned to have 'In the' in a sans serif font and 'shadows' in a serif font or italics as we want the eye to be drawn to this word because it implies the genre of thriller. We began testing different designs on Powerpoint to see what fonts looked best for our title, this is an example of some fonts that we tried.

 We decided on a block, sans serif font for the first line as these words are not as important to draw people's attention, yet is still important that it's noticed. For 'shadows' we chose a sans serif font which is gothic, implying the horror genre, and less bold but the eye is drawn to it since the word is longer and the font is interesting, yet clear.

After choosing the fonts that we wanted, we created the final design on Photoshop as this programme allowed us to use effects that Powerpoint didn't. We wanted to make the title look as though smoke was blowing past it as this typically connotes mystery and eeriness because of the conveys a gust of wind (pathetic fallacy for chaos and panic) or fog that something could hide in. However, we found this difficult to do with only our own images so decided against it as we didn't want it to look badly edited. Instead, we found in 'blending options' that we could alter the colour of the text to a gradient of grey to white. This gave the effect of a faint shadow covering half of the word 'shadow' and therefore fitted well. We also edited the text so that a drop shadow of the word 'shadow' was reflected in the words 'In the' which gives the title more depth.

Mise-en-scene

Costumes:
Every character (other than the antagonist) that features in our trailer we aim to be represented as ordinary and relatable students aged around 17. For this to be realistic we had no specific requirements for the character's (including Holly, Natalie and Amy) costumes other than instructing them to wear what they would normally wear to school such as jeans, a plain top and a coat.

However, for Michael, the antagonist we had a more specific request. Although he is not on screen often, it was important that it was clear he wasn't just another normal student. To portray this he wore black trousers and shoes with a black jumper with the hood up to hide his face. Black typically represents death and evil and therefore often worn by the antagonist, shown in The Last House On The Left.

Props:
We used very few props for the trailer but one of the most important was the candle featured as the end as it blows out. We included a close up of a single candle as this implies that the film is a supernatural thriller since candles are a typical convention in these films.

Another prop we included was Holly's mobile phone. We used 2 close ups of a phone along with other shots of characters holding them and a high angle of one smashing. Teenagers are typically associated with mobile phones and always using them, therefore we felt that it is useful to include as a clear indication to the audience of the character's ages. It also implies that the characters are normal students like many people in our demographic, adding to the realism.

We made sure to include iconography for the school setting such as back packs, work books, pens etc shown in shots of Holly working, portraying that she is a normal student at school. Once again, this makes it relatable to our demographic aged 15-25 as it is a familiar setting and therefore makes it realistic.

Lighting:
Low-key lighting is a typical convention of the thriller genre as it creates suspense and tension because of the feeling of the unknown. Therefore, we wanted our trailer to have low lighting which is done through editing but also filming in the evening, however we had to be careful the image was still clear. The theme of darkness is also particularly suitable for our film, In the Shadows, as it focuses on what is hiding in the shadows, suggesting someone is watching and the unknown.

The intertitles have black backgrounds to continue the dark theme and the title also has a shadow across the word 'shadow' to fit.

Script

We decided that in order to make our trailer seem more mysterious and suspenseful we would include almost no diegetic speech and use non-diegetic sound such as music and sound effects to create the tension. This would make the trailer catch the attention of our demographic by intriguing the audience and connote the feeling of the unknown, and make the visuals the main focus. However, we felt that it was necessary to have some speech because we didn't want it to seem boring, therefore short voiceovers of the characters are included. Before filming, we planned a rough script to work around:

(film production logo fading to black)

(cut to Holly)

Holly: *crying & looking scared*
          "Weird things have been happening to me"

(montage of scenes of Holly looking happy, with friends)

(cut to black screen)

Amy (voiceover): "What do you mean?"

(fast-pace montage of 'bad things' happening to Holly & friends)

(cut to black screen)

(film title)

(institutional information)

Holly: *same footage of Holly as previously*
           *whispering* "Help me"

(cut to black)

Shot List

• Age certificate information
• LEV Productions logo
• Mid shot talking at lunch
• Mid shot of tracking behind friends
• Holly and friends mid shot
• Close up of phone
• Long shot of Holly, Amy and Natalie
• Long shot of Amy and Natalie on swings
• Tracking behind Holly
• Fade to black screen (transition from slow to fast)
• Long shot of power cut on stairs
• Tracking Michael's feet
• Close up of phone call
• Close up of pressing doorbell
• Close up off car window
• Mid shot of Amy's attack
• Long shot of empty swings
• High angle Holly in bed
• Mid shot Holly in bed
• Close up of starting car
• Canted angle of Holly running upstairs
• Low angle of lamppost in the rain
• High angle of dropping phone
• Close up of hands banging on door
• Mid shot of Holly sleeping
• Long shot of Holly walking through trees
• Long shot of Natalie walking down alley
• Close up of Natalie's face
• Candle close up
• 'In the Shadows' intertitle
• 'Coming Soon' intertitle
• Institutional information
• Close up of Holly

Music and Sound Choices

In our trailer we used two music tracks as there is a fast pace part and slower paced part and it was important that the music matched the footage and editing to create the most impact. The beginning of the trailer is slower with longer, calmer shots, therefore we needed a slower piece of music. A member of our group who is friends with Charlotte Campbell, an unsigned artist, suggested we look into using her music as we would most likely be able to get her permission. We found a song of hers called 'If She's An Angel' which we thought fitted well and contacted the artist, asking for permission to use the original version of the song which she gave us. We listened to the lyrics and found that they fitted with the storyline of our film. However we aimed for this part to seem mysterious and ghost-like so we wanted the music to seem haunting. To achieve this we slowed down the pace of the song and extended the last note to make it seem echoey and creepy.

The second track that we used for our trailer was called 'Pretty Party' and is much more fast-pace with low drums. It is effective because it emphasises the quick cuts and editing during the second half of the trailer and the beat matches the visuals from one cut to the next, connoting panic and danger to make the audience feel tense and draw them in. The build up of suspense makes the audience want to see the film and find out what happens.

For the transition between the tracks, we originally cut the first song and had a couple of seconds silence before the second track began, although we felt it sounded choppy and badly edited with the visuals. Instead, we faded the songs into each other so that the second song gets louder as the first song fades as it emphasises the juxtaposition between sound and therefore takes the audience by surprise, creating the intended response of excitement and tension more effectively.

We have almost no diegetic speech in our trailer as it was mostly done with voiceovers. We felt including a voiceover was necessary because although we aim keep the narrative unclear as this is an important element of the film, we didn't want it to be confusing. At the beginning of our trailer the main characters says; "Weird things have been happening to me", during the transition between tracks another character says "What do you mean?" and the trailer ends with the only diegetic speech with the main character whispering "help me" with a close up of her face. This implies that film surrounds supernatural events, which is effective as this is what we want the audience to think until the end of the film when the criminal is revealed. Without this dialogue the trailer would be confusing and nobody would understand what it was about, meaning less people would want to see it.

Production Company & Logo

We decided to create a new production company and logo for our thriller project rather than re-using a logo from last year's AS projects because we wanted to improve from last year and agree on the company as a group since we had worked with different people at AS. We named our production company 'LEV Productions' and produced this logo during planning:

However, we decided that it needed to be changed because there was no significance or reasoning for the design. We kept the sans serif font as this is clear and easy to read quickly and the colours but changed the shape when creating it on Photoshop to circles:

'LEV' stands for Lucy, Eva and Victoria - the initials of each group member's first name. We felt this was an appropriate name as it is unique and personal to us as well as being short and memorable. The 3 circles in our logo represent spotlights, implying that our films belong in the spotlight therefore emphasising their great quality. We chose to use the colours red, green and blue as these 3 colours are often associated with technology such as TV and computer screens. This was done as the films we make will be shown in cinemas and on television screens using modern technology.

Although we were pleased with the logo, we felt that it didn't fit the thriller genre of our film so darkened the colours to give it a more sinister and shadowy effect. We are also planning to animate it in the trailer for the logo to form together on screen and disappear as though it is blown off screen to connote an eerie feeling of the trailer, as it is the first thing to be seen.

Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey created the theory of the 'male gaze', claiming that female characters in films are over-sexualised and portrayed as objects admired for their appearance, for the pleasure of the male heterosexual audience. This is done by focusing on particular body parts such as lips, legs or curves and using slow camera movements, giving the audience a male's perspective.

Although a large part of our demographic is males aged 15-25, Mulvey's theory is not applied in our film because it would limit our audience, cutting out the females we target aged 15-25 as we want the film to appeal to everyone. The protagonist, Holly, is presented as an ordinary 17 year old girl who we want to be relatable for the audience, something that would not be achieved by denying the character human identity. We also felt it was unnecessary as most of the female characters are represented as weak and 'damsels in distress' whilst the main male character maintains the upper-hand throughout the majority of the film until at the end.

Editing Plans

Before editing, we planned a rough outline of what we wanted the overall trailer to look like. The first half of the trailer we planned to be slow and haunting. To achieve this, we will use slow shots and camera movements with slow-paced music to create an eerie feeling and scared response. We may also experiment with effects such as slow motion and different transitions to see if this makes it more effective and intriguing to the audience.

Approximately half way through the trailer, we want the pace to pick up. To do this the slow shots will become quick cuts and fast pace editing will emphasise the chaos and panic shown on screen taking the audience by surprise and drawing them in. During research we found that trailers for thrillers, horrors, action films etc include many more shots than trailers that advertise rom-coms, dramas or comedies. For example, overall the trailer for Carrie (thriller) includes 134 shots whereas the trailer for Clueless (chick-flick) includes only 68 shots altogether because Carrie aims to create suspense with the quick shots but Clueless doesn't.

When we begin the editing process the first step will be to cut out any unnecessary footage and order the clips we have. We intend to use normal cuts between shots, however we think fade transitions may be effective where suitable to emphasise the slow, eerie atmosphere, particularly for the transition from slow to fast pace in the middle.

During filming we were wary of the lighting as we wanted most shots to have low-key or external lighting since this is a typical convention for thriller genre to create tension. Despite this, we are worried that some outdoors shots seemed brighter on camera so it looked like daytime although it was actually evening. To fix this we hope to either lower the brightness of the footage using the editing programme or put a dark filter over it.

We have already got an idea of the non-diegetic background music we want for the trailer and we plan to cut the shots to match the beat of the track. I have done this before for previous projects so am certain this will be simple enough to do and make the trailer look professional and well put together.

Production Schedule

We decided to make a production schedule to keep track of when each member of our group and actors were available to film. This made it easier for us to organise when to film each shot depending on the characters we needed.


Friday 11th Dec (first day of filming) - film during lesson time as no other students will be around. Get shots of Holly at school, including in lunch area and corridors for extra footage.

Monday 14th Dec - Me and Viki take photos of settings during media lesson and found more potential settings that could be effective for our trailer.

Thursday 17th Dec- Filming on the backfield with whole group and actress Shauna for shots of Holly walking through the trees. Filming was cut short as Shauna had to leave for a lesson, with the remaining time we found music tracks for our trailer and looked at fonts for our intertitles.
After school we all met up again to film the night time scenes of Shauna walking home and across the field.

Monday 21st Dec - Met up outside of school to film shots of Natalie walking through an alleyway, close ups of Natalie and Amy etc and exterior shots at Lucy's house such as the doorbell and tracking down her street. It was raining so gave us the opportunity to get shots of the rain for pathetic fallacy.

We found it difficult to film during the Christmas holidays because we all had other commitments which meant there was no time when we were all available on the same day to film. We instead used this time to do further research and planning before we gave back the camera and began the editing process.

Monday 4th Jan - Me and Lucy met up outside of school to film shots of Michael as our change in actor meant we had limited time left to get shots we needed of him. We also got shots of Holly in bed and at home, using Lucy's house as the setting.

Wednesday 6th Jan - The whole group, along with all of our actors, went to the park to get shots on the swings and footage of Amy being attacked on the back field. We filmed until approximately 5pm as this allowed us to get footage when the sun was out but also after it got dark.

Thursday 7th Jan - This was our last day with the equipment so we met up after school to get any final shots that we thought might we useful, such as extra exterior shots and Holly at school.

Strauss' Theory

Claude Levi-Strauss created the theory of binary oppositions as he believed all film narratives surround certain binary oppositions, for example; good vs evil, rich vs poor, civilisation vs wilderness etc.

We applied this theory to our film narrative through the characters of Holly and Michael, two friends who are binary opposites. Holly, the protagonist, is out-going, social and upbeat which makes the audience like her and be on her side. Michael, the antagonist, on the other hand is quiet, dull and for much of the first half likely to be ignored by the audience as his role is not portrayed as important until later on. These oppositions make it clear to the audience who to support as they get to know Holly throughout the film, unlike Michael.

Choosing the Title

We found it difficult to decide on a title suitable for our film as we aim to make it seem as though it is a supernatural thriller until around 3/4 of the way through when it is revealed to the audience that it is actually one of the characters who is responsible for the continuous crimes. A few ideas we had were 'Isolation', 'All Eyes On You' and 'Secrets' but all these we decided against as we felt they were either unsuitable or not gripping enough to attract an audience. Some of our suggestions were also unavailable because there were already films made with the title, for example 'Secrets' which is already a TV movie released in 1992.



We finally decided on the title of 'In The Shadows' as it implied neither supernatural thriller or horror but does suggest the feeling of something watching you, therefore tying in with the plot of the film. It has not been made into a film, however there is a film that has been made called 'What We Do In The Shadows'.  Despite this, we feel that they are different enough to avoid confusion between the two film as What We Do In The Shadows is a comedy film based on vampires, whereas our film is supernatural/horror therefore meaning they are quite easily differentiated.