Inspirational Practitioners & Possible Sounds Tracks
Some inspirational directors that I have looked at include Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), David Fincher (Seven) and Stanley Kubrick (The Shining). I looked to these directors as they have all produced films, that I have seen, of a similar genre to the one I intend to make. I believe that they have also produced some of the most well made films that I find inspiring and interesting. Looking at these directors and films will help me when creating my film trailer as I can try to incorporate the elements that most effective. In terms of locations I first considered what type of horror I want to create. The way the Overlook Hotel is used in 'The Shining' is similar to how other films use the woods to create fear. It makes the character isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, including the police. This is very effective as it removes all sense and opportunity of safety. I found this very interesting and useful as I can apply this to my own trailer. In terms of appearance and atmosphere I found Donnie Darko particularly inspiring as the whole film manages to set a dull and slightly eerie feel to the world, even during the day time. This is something I can use and apply to my own trailer as I plan to produce a similar type of horror with a similar target audience.
To do further research into my target audience I first created a questionnaire, made up of 10 horror-oriented questions, which focused around the good and bad elements of horror films. By asking 10 people, I feel that this is a large enough sample to be able to form a group opinion which I can then use to evaluate what they are and aren't interested in and take note for common interests. This allows me to have a better understanding of what makes a horror film successful and unsuccessful according to the audience itself. Furthermore, I made sure to ask what specific key elements my target audience find particularly scary so that I can try to implement these into my own trailer. This gives me an advantage as rather than creating something from scratch that I might find scary, I am able to gather multiple influences that have been decided by a majority as the most effective features which I can focus on. Similarly, I then held an interview with 5 of the 10 people I gave my questionnaire to. During this section of research I was able to go into much more detail by actually talking face to face with people and being able to ask more specific questions. I was also able to discuss more first hand about their opinions and to get a better understanding of how people really feel, rather than just using written answers on paper.
Institutional Context
These are the three best production companies that I would consider. Each have their own strengths and recognisable qualities. Blumhouse, for isntance, is very well known for producing high grossing films on low budgets. Whereas, Platinum Dunes is clearly shown to generate the largest profit as it has a lot of high profile connections like Michael Bay and Paramount Pictures. Ghost House Pictures, however, have had enormous success with each of their films which are a range of different types of horror. For my film I feel that Blumhouse Productions would be of best interest they have produced similar types of films to the genre I intend to make my trailer. I also believe that being able to make an incredibly popular and good quality film on such a low budget is a very good skill to have.
These three distributing companies have all had connections to extremely successful horror films and some of the highest grossing films of all time. In terms of the type of distributor I might be interested in, I believe that Lionsgate would be the most beneficial as they focus on independent films and have distributed with a vast amount of companies and countries and would most likely be helpful for the type of film trailer I would produce.