Planning



To prepare the special effects we would need for our slasher trailer, we were given a lesson on how to create real-like bruises, burns and cuts using professional movie make up. It is really useful that we are taught this because we will need a lot of this for our trailer. One main reason being that our killer has a completely burnt face and we will have to show shots of them in our trailer and it also really represents the genre as a whole. 


            We used a lot of different materials and tools to get the completed look.

1. Apply latex to the necessary area. We applied it to our arm.

2. Wait for the latex to the dry. You can wait or use a hairdryer. In our case we used the hairdryer. 

3. After this apply a second layer of latex. It should dry clear.

4. Begin to poke holes into the latex using your fingers or a pointed object. Make sure they are randomly placed and different sized. 

5. Following this you can use the bruise wheel and start to cover the latex and fill in the holes. 

6. We also applied some fake blood to the arm which made it seem more real and gave depth to the bruise. 

The finished look can be seen below.



One of the tasks that we have been given to complete during the course of our trailer creating is to make a movie poster representing the slasher genre. We also have to make a magazine front cover featuring our movie. To make sure we understood the codes of a slasher movie poster we were given the task to take a children's TV show character and transform it so it looked like  a poster that would belong to the horror genre. 

The character that I chose was Manny from the kids show Handy Manny. I decided that the  background should be a forest as this is a location seen in many horror movies. This also hints what location would be used if this was an actual movie. I followed the convention of having the movie title 'Clone Killer' in dripping bloody font which tells the viewer that there will be bloodshed in the movie and also the red color connotes to danger and blood. I followed the code of a movie poster by having the cast and crew credits at the bottom and this is so it could attract some people to watching it. If the name of a well know actor was there than it could make people want to watch the film.

                

I asked a group of people age 13-18 which  poster they liked best and the majority agreed that poster 1 looked the most aesthically appealing. This information is useful as I will now aspire to make a poster with this similar layout as this will appeal to my target audience the most and therfore will mean it would attract more people into watching it. I also asked which magazine layout they liked best and the majority of people agreed that poster 3 looked the most interesting and enticing. This information is utile as I will now know what to put on my magazine cover and this will attract my target audience the most.

Before we began filming we created a storyboard for the trailer. A storyboard is a sequence of drawings with directions and dialogue representing the shots that are planned for the project you are filming. The storyboard was useful as we knew on the day of filming how the shots were supposed to look like and what people were to say and do. It was also useful as it helped to keep us organized and on track with the days plans.  

To make sure that our trailer was at optimal quality we had to make sure that the people acting in it were right for the roll. We held auditions for the characters of The Final Girl, The Jock, The Fool, The Best Friend and The Promiscuous Girl. Auditions included taking the appearance of the person and making sure they were comfortable on camera. Another factor we considered was their availability as we didn't want to be rushing around last minute. We wanted to make sure we auditioned a variety of people to give us a lot of choice in the end.   

Candidates for The Final Girl

For the role of the Final Girl we whittled the auditionees to three people. The first girl on the top right fit the look of the final girl with her short hair and comfortable clothing however she was not very confident in front of the camera. The girl in the middle fit the look of the final girl with the glasses making her appear intelligent and rather innocent. She was very comfortable in front of the camera and had a high chance of getting the role. The only problem was that our timetables conflicted so it would have been very hard to film with her. The girl at the bottom right was extremely confident in front of the screen. She was dressed in final girl appropriate attire and had braces which is stereotypical for a 'nerd.' She also had the final girl norm of having short brown hair. She was able to film after school and we decided to go with her for these reasons. 

Candidates for The Jock

With the role of the Jock we got down to two people. We decided on the caucasian male as he attends drama club at high school and was very comfortable on screen. We tried to pick the guy that ressembles the boy many high school and teenage girls would be attracted to and who are usually the most popular in their year basing our research on charecters such as Scream's Billy Loomis; Friday The 13th's Jack Burrell and Carrie's Billy Nolan. 

  

Candidates for The Best Friend

There were a lot of people going up for the part of The Best Friend but we reduced it to these three girls. With the girl on the top right we felt she was very good at speaking for the role but we wanted someone with a more 'Girl Next Door Look'. The girl in the middle was good at speaking for the role however she had a very busy schedule and would be unable to film on our free days. With the girl at the bottom right we thought she had a very approachable and friendly look. She was also a member of the drama club and was very comfortable on screen so we thought she would be great for the role.     

Candidates for The Promiscuous Girl

After the auditions for The Promiscuous Girl we rounded the candidates down to two people. The first girl was very confident on screen however her timetable would not allow her to be able to film with us so we had to turn her down. The second girl who is a member of the school's drama club was very confident on screen and was comfortable acting with the Jock who would be her on screen boyfriend. We also felt that she looked unconventional from the promiscuous girls that are usually on screen who are white with blonde hair and blue eyes and we liked this because we felt that this would help advance and encourage different standards of beauty and could attract a wider audience. This was important to us as we not only want to entertain but we would like to teach a lesson to the young viewers that our movie would be for.   

Candidates for The Fool

We rounded the candidates for the Fool down to two people. The first guy was happy to be on camera and his timetable fit but we thought the guy at the bottom right would be best as he was a member of the school drama club. We also wanted someone with a friendly and quite popular boy look so we thought that he would be best suited for the role. The Fool is best friends with The Jock so we needed them to have the chemistry and to be able to work well together which they were.

Candidates for the Killer

 We got the candidates for the killer down to two people. The male was very good at playing the part and also fit the dark and mysterious look we were going for. However we wanted to have a convention of the killer being a women instead of male. The girl is a member of the drama club and also is very comfortable in front of the screen. She also fits the look of what we were going for.                                                                                                                         

After deciding who was going to be playing the characters we needed to figure out where we would be filming so went around to look for some suitable filming locations.