Paranormal Activity- The Marked Ones

here is another similar trailer to the type of genre we want to do.
Paranormal Activity have previously done 4 other films similar and all link in together. they follow in a sequence but don't follow each other.

This film is based on a documentary because it is filmed by the people who are included in the film. the camera skills are quite basic because it is the effect of the single hand camera. but however it looks quite effective.

The idea of the characters in the film filming the events makes it seem more realistic which makes the audience uneasy.


The shots are quite long but however it switches from professional to documentary this evens itself out so it doesn't look as basic.

This trailer has given us inspiration and will be thinking about using some of the techniques for our trailer.

Similar trailers.

when researching different genres we came across 2 trailers that my group and I liked the look of.





Catfish: this is a documentary about Nev who meets a girl online. his friend films the whole thing on his hand camera. they finally meet and something isn't quite right.

I liked the look of this trailer because it was different to the rest of the trailers that I saw. however I felt that the trailer was a bit too long and showed  most of the film.

During the course of the trailer the cuts go in time to the music. at the beginning the music is upbeat and happy, this because 2 people that like each other are talking to one and another. this gives a happy feeling. towards the end of the trailer the music becomes slower and much darker. this is when he goes to the woman's house.

During the trailer they have reviews of what people and companies thought of the film. I think this is a good idea because it then intrigues the audience. us as a group thought it would be good to do this for our trailer.

 At the end of the trailer the camera goes blurry so you can just see the outline of him walking. even though this is quite a long shot it is effective.

Target Audience

When researching and narrowing down our genre options our target audience started to change. when as a group we decided to choose a documentary thriller we were unsure on what target audience would be suitable for this genre.


After looking at different trailers for documentaries and thrillers we saw that they aimed the ages 15-25, both male and female. this was by having younger characters appearing as main characters

15-25 target audience can be tough for filming a thriller as there is a major age gap between 15-25 this then limits us on what we could add in when doing our trailer. if we were to aim our film to the audience of the age 15 then we would have to be careful on what we are adding e.g. limited violence, strong language, sexual scenes and less horror and blood. but if we were to aim our trailer to 18-25 then we could add more of it. however 18-25 is too small of a target audience so the movie will not do as well


target audiences for documentaries can vary as they are open to anyone, 16-25 may be more interested in watching documentaries. and are aimed at both male and female audiences. I myself watch the program Catfish that is also a film. but when watching it seems to be more people that age between 18-30 that appear and want help from him but younger people like to watch it to.

A2 media research.

As media research

Us as a group have chosen to do a documentary thriller for our trailer. we came up with the idea because we thought it would be a different approach.

looking at the different trailers for our chosen genre we come up with some research on what types of things we should include:

Titles: 

the title of the movie usually comes at the end of the trailer once the intense music has finished e.g. 

Blair Witch Project. Thrillers tend to use different music for the title this then makes you feel uneasy. 

Length: when researching the length of the trailers for our chosen genre we found out that they tend to last between 1:51 minutes all together. the trailer usually lasts for 40-50 seconds. the institution usually lasts for 50 seconds and the billing block at the end lasts for 30-40 seconds.

billing block:

the billing block is one of the most important part of a trailer. it usually includes

institutions ( warner bros)

presents ( title of movie) 

names of actors and actresses ( bigger font) 

editor (name)

production designer (name)

director of photography ( name)

executive producer ( names)

produced by ( name) 

screenplay ( name)

directed by ( name) 

coming soon/ out now 

voice overs:

example trailer- not many voiceovers 

dialogue of main character or other characters during trailers 

writing of reviews or information 

settings: for our chosen genre the settings for this will need to be every day life to make it believable 

we will also need to make it look like it has been filmed on a second hand camera as well as a high quality camera 

institutions:

Lionsgate 

paramount pictures 

similar films

• Catfish 
• The Blair Witch Project 
• Paranormal Activity 1,2,3,4
• Bully 
• Project x
• Clover field.