My trailer is a Psychological Thriller. This involves an 'inner' force such as a strange mental illness to affect the protagonist. This film is based on mystery, to question whether the ordeal was real or something the mind has created. The reason why Psychological Thriller appeal to the audience is because it is possible to hallucinate and it's possible to experience the fear and anxiety that comes with it in real life. This type of film could be considered a horror film but it does not involve cheap jump scares throughout the trailer/film, instead it is focused on the protagonist and their way of dealing with this internal force.
I want my audience to feel attached to the character, therefore I will make her as relatable to my target audience as possible at the beginning of the trailer. However, as the trailer progresses, the protagonist will lose her sense and become completely consumed in her illness. The trailer will be shown from point of view of the protagonist with the illness, suggesting that the hallucinations will also be shown in the trailers (such as strange locations and creatures). Unlike a lot of Psychological Thriller the main character has a healthy mind, he or she is trying to rescue or figure out the person that is causing a distress. On the other hand, my trailer will be completely focused from the eyes of a character that suffers. The trailer will be depressingly themed. If this trailer would be a film, the ending would not be satisfactory.
The main character has symptoms of Psychosis and Schizophrenia which I will likely not mention the names of these illnesses in order to avoid controversy and miss representation of the mentally ill. I want to represent the character as a person with pure and innocent thoughts at the beginning of the trailer, this is why I am planning to choose a female as a protagonist because females are stereotyped to be non-violent, happy and friendly, which is a polar opposite of the 'true' nature of the protagonist. In order to make the main character look innocent, she will play the piano, act friendly towards animals (?) and/or walk in the field. Her 'perceived' personality will change mid way throughout the trailer showcasing her psychosis using abstract scenes such as skin peeling, hysteria in scary locations and visions of monsters. The trailer will likely have 2 more supporting characters, a Therapist and a Friend to add context to the story. The protagonist will refuse prescribed medication, making her symptoms worsen to the point of total insanity.
Potential Film Titles:
Not Delirious + 0
The Fatal Fissure +1
The Mortal Harrowing +2
The Faultless Fraud +1
Meaning -
The Faultless Fraud +1
Meaning -
Not Delirious : Delirious means "in an acutely disturbed state of mind characterised by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence; affected by delirium." I've decided to add the word "Not" to create doubt making the audience question is the character disturbed or not.
The Fatal Fissure: Fissure means "a state of incompatibility or disagreement." Fatal means 'deadly'. This suggests that there isn't any chance for the protagonist to change.
The Mortal Harrowing: In other words, this sentence means "The Fatal Distress".
The Faultless Fraud: Faultless can also mean 'guiltless' or innocent, the word 'fraud' means when a person or thing is intending to deceive others, typically by being credited from accomplishments of others. This title seems to be an oxymoron.
The Mortal Harrowing: In other words, this sentence means "The Fatal Distress".
The Faultless Fraud: Faultless can also mean 'guiltless' or innocent, the word 'fraud' means when a person or thing is intending to deceive others, typically by being credited from accomplishments of others. This title seems to be an oxymoron.
Characters:
Ann - Main character (Suffers from hallucinations and abusive voices, dellusional)
Heather - Therapist (Offers help and medicine, Ann refuses)
Caytlin - Friend (this character is making the situation worse by not trying to understand Anne)
Unfortunately, right now I haven't confirmed what actors will be cast in the trailer. Since I want my trailer to look professional, I need good acting skills. Therefore, I will ask people that do drama as an A level to act for my trailer in order to increase the production quality at maximum whist keeping the budget low.
I've decided to add my own music as I create soundtracks as a hobby, I am planning to make a trailer sound track using a PC programme which is completely Royalty Free. Based on my trailer research, I've decided to start the trailer off using calm scenes, therefore a calm music would be appropriate. After some time, the trailer will build up tension and have shorter cut scenes making it pace up. This means that the soundtrack will be calm at first and 'insane' afterwards. Making hand made music gives me more freedom to produce the trailer, making it fit with the soundtrack quite well.
At the start of the trailer I want the protagonist to play the piano, I will record piano notes on a real piano in order to link to the soundtrack and make the viewers feel calm. I will combine it with hand made sound track in order to make it more interesting.
During the fast paces part of the trailer I will avoid using "BRAAAAM" sound effects in order to build up tension because they are overused and do not create the same outcome as it did when it was original. Instead, I am planning to use drum beats to make the trailer thrilling when it needs to be. The start of the trailer will be used for dialogue, whereas the end of the trailer will be used for action, appropriate music needs to fit the two distinct parts.
I will record or obtain minimal sound effects such as rustling or glass breaking to give my trailer more 'depth' and a better quality.
I've already obtained rough 'samples' for my trailer as seen in the example on the left hand side.
Piano Melody for Trailer (Click the link to hear the melody)
This is a composed idea for the piano part. I thought that the melody should be simple yet emotional and creepy, something that my cast member could learn and play easily. My planning works quite well considering the outcome of this sample. We agree that we like this type of melody.
The chords of the piano melody:
Visual Effects
I will attempt to plan each scene artistically using some compositional rules I've learned in A level Photography, since the cinematography will increase the quality of the film/trailer. Additionally, I will use different filters to set a particular mood. For example, yellow vibrant filter to make the mood happy, desaturated dark filter to make the mood scary/depressing.
I might use special effects to create particular scenes (such as a closed scene) using layer masking.
I've created a Pinterest account to get inspired and obtain more ideas for the trailer ( https://uk.pinterest.com/10dmalina/-/). The keywords were: Skitzophrenia, Psychosis, Psychology, Thriller, Monster. This is a moodborad.
The moodpboard helped me understand the theme I am going for and gave me some inspirations for the film poster. These images show horror and mental illness visually using various techniques such as long exposure and abstract ideas.
Magazine Plan
Inspirational magazine covers from DomMalina
Based on these magazine covers that inspire me, I am planning to do either a headshot or a half body shot. I will use complimenting colours in order to make the magazine cover visually appealing. Additionally, I will place the image above the Masthead and place more important cover line stories on the right hand side because that is the side people usually start reading from. Moreover, I want my character to have a similar expression to "Harry Potter" (from the magazine I find inspiring) because it would match with her personality and make her appear more mysterious. I will base the colour palette of the magazine by emphasising it around the character's eye colour, in order to make her 'pop out' (similarly to the Harry Potter front cover). For the film cover, I will not make it look as 'depressing' as the film poster because I want to use vibrant colours for the font in order to gain as much attention and not give away too much of the story line. Featuring my main character on the cover will likely help build a fan base based on the actress which will transfer to the trailer. Additionally, I will try to get as many customers by featuring an 'advertisement' on the magazine cover such as: free CD cover or win free tickets to cinema. This will bring me more audience because rewarding customers for buying a magazine will increase the sales.
Based on these magazine covers that inspire me, I am planning to do either a headshot or a half body shot. I will use complimenting colours in order to make the magazine cover visually appealing. Additionally, I will place the image above the Masthead and place more important cover line stories on the right hand side because that is the side people usually start reading from. Moreover, I want my character to have a similar expression to "Harry Potter" (from the magazine I find inspiring) because it would match with her personality and make her appear more mysterious. I will base the colour palette of the magazine by emphasising it around the character's eye colour, in order to make her 'pop out' (similarly to the Harry Potter front cover). For the film cover, I will not make it look as 'depressing' as the film poster because I want to use vibrant colours for the font in order to gain as much attention and not give away too much of the story line. Featuring my main character on the cover will likely help build a fan base based on the actress which will transfer to the trailer. Additionally, I will try to get as many customers by featuring an 'advertisement' on the magazine cover such as: free CD cover or win free tickets to cinema. This will bring me more audience because rewarding customers for buying a magazine will increase the sales.
Poster Plan
Based on this research, I am certain that I will do a portrait poster because most Psychological Thrillers use portrait shots, it is also one of the most common used types. However, I do want to make it original yet abstract. My idea is to do a long exposure photograph using flash, this means that I can capture movement and overlapping at the same time. Long exposure fits well with psychological genre based on my research on Pinterest as it can show confusement and emotion. I will either use depressing colours such as a blue or angry colours such as red, I could also make the image black and white to show 'lack of emotions'. My title will be placed at the bottom of the poster and I will most likely write a tag line that will be aiming towards the audience. I want to make sure my poster matches with the genre and gives a clear idea of the plot to the target audience. Not to mention, I will feature cast names and producor names.
Trailer Inspirations
I have chosen 4 trailers as my main inspirations for producing my own film trailer. Overall, there are elements I'd like to take from each trailer I am interested in. For example, I will attepmt to replicate the style of cinematography in "Anticrist" trailer and possibly add sime visual cues to develop a story without giving it away in order to make it successful like the "Black Swan" trailer. I want to make my trailer as thrilling as "Jacob's Ladder", for this trailer I found that his hallucinations were an interesting way to show his mental illness making the audience question what parts of the film trailer were real and what parts were not. Additionally, none of these trailers used jump-scares to release some tension which I believe is a cheap tactic to scare the viewers, I think that films can be scary without 'scare jumps' depending on the plot. Therefore, I am not planning to use any sudden scenes where the monster pops up and scares the audience. For the monster, I am planning to show him by making him appear gradually from the dark giving a visual cue to the audience. Additionally, I like the costume of the protagonist from "Antichrist". It is a simple dress with a pattern which stereotypes with an innocent girl but the protagonist is a complete opposite, I am planning to use a dress as an outfit for my protagonist.
Other inspiration
Mr.Robot (TV Series)
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