Ancillary Task - The Return Film Poster

We have chosen to use a black background as it has connotations of death and evil as well as creating the effect of the images being in the shadows. This creates an enigmatic feel about who each character is and what has happened to them. The images we have chosen do not give any major information away but create the idea that the characters are scared and are targets Eg. The picture of Rizwana gagged hints at violence. The centre picture is the main picture and it establishes Tovia as a main character as the image is larger and more central than the other two.

The main title is white on the black background which matches the theory of binary oppositions: good/evil and life/death. Both of these are common conventions of horror/thriller themes and are present in our trailer.

We have included our institutional information such as the Miramax logo and our own production logo as well as a website, twitter and Facebook page. This hints that the film may have a more modern audience, who regularly use the internet and have Facebook and twitter accounts- a younger, teenage audience.

Our Production Logo

We wanted to create a subsidiary production logo that represented our thriller/horror film trailer. We came up with 'Blade Productions' as the name of our production logo as we wanted the audience to become aware earlier on in the trailer that our trailer is a thriller/horror genre. We felt that the audience will become aware straightaway after looking at the production logo of what our film is based on. It is violent and contains events in which the characters are killed in disturbing ways.

This is a common convention of horror/thriller films; the knife however connotes more conventions of the horror genre in comparison to thrillers where more guns are used.

The red use of colour for the blood effect connotes danger and violence; this suggests to the audience that the film is based around people being hurt and their life being at risk by a mysterious killer. The image of the knife used in the production logo suggests that the characters/victims in the trailer will be brutally tortured and killed. The use of the drain indicates that the girls have no way of escaping and that their lives are going down the drain. The black colour used in the drain connotes mystery and death, indicating that the trailer brings up questions in the audiences mind of what could happen to the three victims. Also, the black connotes the fact that the audience are unaware of who the killer is, making them want to watch the film at the cinemas for the motives of the killer for hunting down the three victims in particular as well as the killers identity.

The fact that there is a high key low contrast of use of lighting around the plug hole with blood dripping down, indicates the future of the victims in the trailer suggesting that they don’t have anywhere to hide and trapped underneath the plug hole. This indicates that the victims could be confided in small spaces and there is no way that they can get away from this nightmare. As the victims are three girls, the plug hole could represent the vulnerability of the girls as they are seen as easy target from the killers prospective as they won’t be able to fight back and defend for themselves, suggesting that the killer sees they life as being worthless and he is pouring any traces of their memories down the drain.

The colours of red, white and black are conventional for horror/thriller films due to their connotations of danger, death,blood, good and evil.



Rough Cut Edit

Return rough cut from Emily Jesson on Vimeo.

When presenting our rough cut edit to the rest of the class they gave us some positive feedback on our good variety of shots, which helped create interest and representations of character types eg. a high angle shot of the victim, presenting them as vulnerable. However, they also told us that we needed to improve both our sound and our main title. Our sound so far consists of continuous music which seems fine, as well as sound stings which we need more of and to improve the timing of. These are significant as they emphasise the fast sequences of shots; creating a greater impact. Also they told us we may need a voice over or  some more dialogue, to help with narrative exposition and also to create a break in the music. The music at the end of our trailer is too sudden so we need to make it gradually more dramatic and reach a crescendo. The font for our main title needs to be changed as it does not fit with the themes in our trailer or conventions of the horror/thriller genre.

Adding a few more shots to establish the narrative is further needed, for example, close up of newspaper clipping and flashback of us at school laughing. Also an authorative voice to do the voiceover the titles to also establish the narrative further. However feedback was highly positive and many key features of our trailer such as effects, flashes and sound stings were commended.

When putting the filming together on pinnacle, we decided to split the scenes of the three characters and integrate them in editing as we are creating a trailer. This is so it creates a more effective result and indicates to the audience that the film is a trailer as it looked like an opening to a film. We did this by integrating the Killer's actions of holiding the knife and scraping it against the wall and sticking victim's photos in the scrapbook to break up the scenes and to indicate to the audience what is going to happen to each victim. Thich makes it appear more interesting and intriguing without giving too much of the story away and creating enigmas.

We felt that some of the shots were too long, so we decided to cut them down and make the editing fast, we felt this would create more of an impact and grab the audience's attention. Also, we didn't want to give away too much of the plot to the audience as we wanted them to go the cinemas to watch the full film to see what will happen to the 'victims' and whether or not the killer will be caught.

Another improvement, we decided on was that we had far too many fades to blacks/whites, this made the trailer appear inappropriate as there was a fade after each shot which didn't make the trailer appear as effective. So we decided to get rid of some fades to black/white, after doing this we felt that this made the trailer flow better and have more of a purpose eg. a white fade before the flashback.