voiceovers

We wanted to use voiceovers in our trailer as we think they are really beneficial in helping the audience to understand the narrative more. However, we did not want to use too many as we didn't want to break up any tension and suspense we had already managed to build.

We planned all the voiceovers that we intended to use. The first voiceover was a radio news story that explains how a third young girl had been killed and that the killer was on the move once again. I would be the person that says this voiceover, as we all agreed I was the person in the group whos voice is best to use, as Alice's voice is already used in the trailer so that cannot be used. Also I speak in received pronunciation, therefore it works well. We also planned to use a voiceover that our teacher agreed to record for us. This is the voice of the emergency call centre operator who speaks to Katie during a '999' call.

We all felt that using these trailers really helped to bring the narrative together as it works well with the footage we have filmed.

We used a voice recorder to record this which was provided by the school's media department. This was really easy to use and produced a clear sounding piece. It was also so easy to add this into our trailer as all we had to do was to was connect it to a computer and then open up our project and import it.

Sound in trailer

We needed a variety of different sounds in our trailer this would create a sense of realism. This includes music and dialogue.

To find the music we wanted to include in our trailer we used the website www.freeplaymusic.com and searched through various tags such as 'horror', 'thriller' and 'eerie'. This allowed us to listen to a range of songs that are not copyrighted. This is important as due to the copyright laws we are unable to use songs by well known artists or other films, and as we did not really have a budget to make this trailer we could not afford the rights. Also, we ourselves, do not know any aspiring bands who produce music that would fit into our trailer to request permission to use.

It took many hours and was one of the longest tasks in the whole production of our trailer, however, eventually we found a few different tracks that we all liked and agreed fit in with the action on screen in our trailer. The support of the sound, made the trailer. This will help to create the desired reaction from our audience, which in this case is fear and suspense.

The sounds we needed all together were:

• A dark eerie slow music to support slower scenes but start to create a tense atmosphere, this then needed to progressively build and become more powerful for the big up beat scene. If we could not find a track like this we could use two different tracks that mix well together.
• Doorbell
• Phone ringing
• Diegetic sound in scene
• Voiceovers - 3 in total, a police call operator, a phone call to the police, and the news on the radio.

The track we decided to use fit really well with our trailer, one of the things we liked the most about this was that as the antagonist walked up the stairs there was a strong beat with every step which amplified the fear Katie would be feeling. The music was also only around 1 minute 30 seconds which meant that we did not need to cut it down which would ruin the pace we created as it abruptly stops.

Filming and Equipment

We used a range of equipment to shoot our film. Firstly we used a HD digital video recorder to film all scenes and footage. This was easy to transport as it was small and easy to carry. It also connected easily to the computer which allowed us to import it easily into the editing software.  We also used a tripod that this attached to, which allowed us to steady all shots so therefore the camera was not shaky. We also used a voice recorder to record all voiceovers.

Filming was a lot of fun for us all, however we found it a great challenge considering the amount of time we had to do it in. We made this easier for ourselves by creating schedules. However, it we had to constantly remind ourselves that we were filming a whole trailer and therefore needed to include the whole narrative. This meant we had to try to keep continuity throughout the filming which lasted a couple of weeks.

A way we overcame this was by checking our footage at the end of each filming session and re-watching it the next day. This allowed us time to be critical of our work and pick up on any mistakes we felt we needed to re-film.

One of the important lessons we learned during filming was that we needed to remember to charge the camera regularly, as we did not do this at first and it ended up running out of battery halfway through filming which meant we then had to leave it wait until it had charged to then film that scene again.

character changes

Alice is now playing Katie, our main character, in our film. This was an easy change for us to make, as Alice was only filmed in one scene as Katies friend so all we had to do was take a small part of our spare time to refilm this scene with Katie having just one friend, me.

This scene had to be reshot anyway as we had to film it again with Alice instead of Alissa.

Changes to trailer

As we began to film our trailer we came across some issues that we had to find a way around.

The first issue was that Zoe's parents, who were playing Katie's parents in our film, had busy work schedules and we struggled to find a time that they were free to film at the same time as Alissa, who was playing Katie and us, the crew who were needed to film. We had planned the whole film at Zoe's house, which is why we had chosen to use her parents as it made it much easier than trying to get one of our parents to Zoe's house.

Zoe then got considerably ill and was unable to come into school or to have us round to her house to film. We used this opportunity to film anything that could be filmed in any house, as not much background was seen, or shots that were outside and a house was not seen. We filmed these at Alice's house.

Over the Christmas break period we found out that Alissa was going away for nearly two weeks. This made everything very difficult as if we wanted to get our film finished before going back to school then we would have to rush all our filming, which we did not want to do. We also would not have time for re-filiming anything that we found to be wrong when we were editing.

We knew we had some serious decisions to make.

Alice, who was in our group and was meant to be playing one of Katie's friends volunteered to become our main character. This seemed like the best idea to us as we only had to rely on Alice, who was in our group and therefore would be likely to be free when we were. As we had already filmed some footage at Alice's house it seemed ideal to finish filming at her house so that more shots could be filmed in similar places.

We also knew we should try to change the narrative as much as possible to try to remove Zoe's parents from the story. This would mean that we were able to film more of our film as we were now only relying on people that are in our group to be free to film.

We were able to stick to the idea of a girl being held hostage in her own home while her parents were away. However, we were able to really simplify this. The story-line became less original but our ideas continued to flow which allowed us to put our own personal twist on the film to make it more personal.

This is our new narrative:

Katie, who would now definitely be played by Alice, is left home alone as her parents go away for their anniversary. - However, in the trailer the parents would not be shown they would only be waved at in a car as it drove off.
The trailer would open up with a '999' emergency phone call being heard.
This then changes to Katie listening to the radio which explains how another girl had been killed by a killer who had not been found.
Katie is then shown talking to her friend - we cut this down to just one person, me, so that Alice could play Katie - she is telling her friend how she was excited as her parents are going away.
The trailer would then develop and the pace would increase as the killer gets into her house and holds her hostage.


This storyline links back to our research as the 999 call links to the call, and the stranger breaking into her home links to when a stranger calls.

Planning - characters and Actors

This is Alissa, she plays Katie our main character in the film. We choose to use Alissa as she is a young attractive girl with long blonde hair. This fits the stereotype for girls in thriller films, as the long blonde hair connotes femininity and innocence. She also looks like 17 years old, which is the age we wanted our main character to be. She also comes across as a normal British everyday teenager, this is important as the female audience members will be able to relate to this.

Alissa is part of drama groups outside of school, studies A-level drama and is often in theatre shows. This allowed us to be sure that she would be professional and believable when in our production and also would be understanding to how long it may take to film the whole trailer, and do as many retakes as needed.

These are Katies two best friends who are also shown in the trailer. Having these two in the trailer shows that Katie is sociable and popular, this highlights how she has a social life inside and outside of school which helps the audience get to know her more. If the audience feel like they know her well then they are more likely to feel sympathy for her when she is attacker.



The antagonist in our film is not shown, however is played by Peter, who is in our group.  We tried to keep him hidden and completely out of shot as our USP is that  our film comes from the attackers point of view. In the shots that he is shown we tried to keep him hidden in the shadows or in the background so it can not be seen who he is. This creates mystery in our film which will scare the audience more.

Risk assessment