Text Step by Step

TEXT FOR TEASER TRAILER

Voiceovers are a common part of trailer’s which we wanted to subvert to by using text instead. We wanted to show a broken up sentence throughout the teaser trailer and came up with this:
- She brings with her... a chain of predicaments... murder... death... darkness
The word “predicament” was too long so we replaced it with “events” instead. I decided to think of a better way to interpret this sentence and finally came up with this
When evil takes over... death... destruction...and Darkness follow
I wanted to use alliteration to emphasise the words being very negative and frequent parallel to the storyline.

MOVIE TITLE

As our storyline is based on a mother who had been murdered and is back for revenge though her daughter’s body, we wanted to come up with a title which highlights the main concern in the teaser trailer which is exorcism and corruption. We didn’t want to over complicate the title as this would not look professional and may confuse the audience as to what the film may be about. The title “Unhinged” was one which we thought of but then realised had already existed in a 1960s movie. Another name title we liked was “summoning”. The term summon is to be called upon or to call into action. The character Elizabeth is being called upon by her mother in order to take revenge for her mother’s death. The word also has a religious tone as it is used in the bible, being another subject common in our film as Elizabeth who is Christian prays to her mother.
We began to work with this word and came up with a number of possible titles:
-Summoned
-She has been Summoned
-Being Summoned
-Summoning
-The Summoning

From this list we decided to go with “The Summoning” as it has an abrupt tone and is edgy.

THE EDITING PROCESS

Adobe premiere is video editing software which I was not familiar or confident with using as I’ve only ever edited still images on adobe Photoshop cs3. I spent a fair amount of time playing around with the new software, from using the TV channel effect to speeding up specific shots. Having a first glimpse at adobe premiere was terrifying and made me feel as though I’ll never get the hang of it. But once I familiarised myself with what certain tools and functions did, I actually enjoyed using it as I discovered some amazing ways to create more of an edge too our filming such as the ghost effect used when Elizabeth is screaming.
Our storyboard helped us to sort out all the footage taken as we had recorded depending on the location. We wanted our opening scene to show the antagonist Elizabeth open her eyes. Eyes are an important part of our teaser trailer as they reveal how she is possessed by something which is in fact quite evil. Eyes opening also symbolises the opening of the film showing how evil takes over a young women. The first scene was edited to go faster and then slow down as Elizabeth opens her eyes, highlighting the evil inside. This was done to grab the audience’s attention and make them wonder what has happened to her for her eyes to b so dehumanised. Straight after this scene there are birds flying into the bright sky which is a huge contrast to the corrupted eyes. Elizabeth is trapped and the birds are free and natural. However they look as though they are flying away from something, making the audience wonder what or who they are escaping from. The bird scene was something we shot by chance during the rains scene as we were curious to see if we could incorporate it into out trailer.
One scene which we took a risk on was of Elizabeth walking stiffly in the forest as we depended on the editing part to add more of a dramatic effect on it. This shot once speeded up looked very frightening as Elizabeth is walking very corrupted and zombie like which reinforces the idea of her body being controlled by something dark and dangerous. We also added cross cutting through each part of her walking closer n closer to the camera by adding a hand held shot of someone running rapidly though the forest creating more suspense and curiosity to the audience.
We decided to use a “dip to black” video transformation tool and fade tool in in-between each scene to give as we noticed that many film trailers used this style of editing to make them look professional and articulate.
We aimed for our last scene to make the audience jump so we added it at the very end of the title of the teaser trailer to make the scene more unexpected in order to scare the audience. We did minimum editing on this scene as possible as it was already scary enough and keeping things simple sometimes makes them look better. After the scene Elizabeth’s heavy breathing is still heard on the blank black screen. This is to symbolise that the end is not yet over and also that strange things happen when the lights go out. Darkness one of the main icons in all horror movies as they represent vulnerability to characters as they are unable to see in the dark and therefore may be in danger.