Storyboard 1st Rough Draft

The Treatment

The Working Title: Karma

Production Team Name: Clear View Productions

The Format: video, teaser trailer

Genre or Subgenre:  Slasher

Length: A Minute to Two Minutes of Filming

Synopsis: The protagonist (charley) is the it girl, the girl that everyone wants to be friends with, her personality very shallow, she’s vain she popular etc.  Someone out to kill this could be someone she bullied in her past. The trailer starts off with a blank dark screen, phone dial tone is been played, charley answer the phone and screams “what do you want from me” killer reply is you dead” then quick cuts are shown of the running away from him, then another quick cut of the killer studio, ( dt department) then a quick cut of running into the cupboard to hide lights her lighter and surrounded by dead bodies hanging all around her, then fades quickly.

Intended Audience: the age certificate that we would rate our trailer/ film would be from the age of 18+

Three Drafts Ideas For Trailer

Idea 1:The protagonist (charley) is the it girl, the girl that everyone wants to be friends with, her personality very shallow, she’s vain she popular etc.  Someone out to kill this could be someone she bullied in her past. The trailer starts off with a blank dark screen, phone dial tone is been played, charley answer the phone and screams “what do you want from me” killer reply is you dead” then quick cuts are shown of the running away from him, then another quick cut of the killer studio, ( dt department) then a quick cut of running into the cupboard to hide lights her lighter and surrounded by dead bodies hanging all around her, then fades quickly. 




Idea 2: An infectious disease spread out through town. One woman wakes up to find shes the only one who is immune to it, and she sees Zombies everywhere she goes. There is only one way to survive and that is to find the antidote, in which the zombies prevent her from finding it. The protagonist is out to get her and she needs to find a way to save the population. 





Idea 3: There is a college student. He is very lazy yet very playful. He stays up late on school nights playing video games and surfing the web. In college he is constantly being shouted at for falling asleep in lessons and failing to do work. It has got to a point where his mother has been called up and informed for his slack. One day he falls asleep in lesson and when the lesson is over he is not woken up. He wakes up late at night to find he is still in college from the time he fell asleep in lesson. The college is locked so there is no way out. As he explores the rest of the college he is terrified when he comes to find he is not alone. It turns out that after dark the teachers turn into flesh eating zombies and he has to survive the night alone against the zombie college staff.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Film Poster

The Final Destination is the fourth and so far final instalment of the Final Destination series.

The poster is of a close up a white female. There is low key lighting. The low key lighting gives us a sense of mystery and creates an eerie effect to the poster. The low key lighting makes her eyes blacked out. The black background connotes death and an evil presence.

Her mouth area has a super imposed image of a skull instead of a normal mouth. This combined with the black out of her eyes makes her face appear to be like a skull. This image denotes a skull. The connotation of the image is death.

Her Non-verbal communication shows us that she is screaming. The screaming connotes that she is in agony or is in fear over something. Her raised eye brows also supports this idea.

Her setting is not clear but around her face appears to be broken glass. The broken glass could connote that it may be an accessory to her death. The broken glass, in an extreme case, could be the result of her high frequency scream which is expressed in her Non-verbal communication.

The text which says 'Rest In Pieces' supports the broken glass as it is broken in pieces. It is a play on the common phrase 'Rest In Peace' which is a word used to pay respect to the deceased. It may also imply that characters in the film may suffer a brutal death where the victims body is mutilated.

The white colour of the title, which reads 'The Final Destination in 3-D', may have been used to contrast the dark background. It may also connote zero visibility which may represent the presence of an unseen super natural force which is often the reason of the deaths in the Final Destination series.

At the very bottom of the poster is a text which reads the month 'August' which is the month of release. The text is in red which may be to stand out on the poster to catch the viewers attention. It may also connote danger or warning. It may also connote an impending battle with premature death which is a theme of the movie.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Film Teaser Trailer

A teaser trailer is a short trailer that advertises a film due for release without giving away too much of the story.  Teaser trailers consist of a series of shots from the film being advertised.


The Saw series consists of seven films distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment and produced by Twisted Pictures. The film is based on fiction charcter John Krameralso known as Jigsaw. He traps his victims in situations which he refers to as 'tests' or 'games'.


Saw 3D is the seventh and final installment of the Saw series. It focusses on a man who falsely claims to be Jigsaw despite his death in the third installment.

Like most trailers the teaser begins with the logos of the production companies. The opening scene begins with a voiceover saying, “you can’t hide”. The dialogue incites fear in the audience, as they will think anywhere they go is not safe and the voice is deep and eerie.

There is superimposed text that says “every master craftsman”. A voice over in the trailer then says "This game has a new design". It then leads to a mid shot, of a man trapped in a broken down car, that quickly zooms out into a wide angle shot which shows the warehouse like surrounding and shows another character who appears to be locked in another trap in a standing position. An image below shows this.

This lets the audience know that there are new traps, a new concept and possibly new motives for Jigsaws games without giving away the storyline at all.




 It then shows more superimposed text which says, “and all true geniuses”. It then cuts to two different close ups of a woman then a man then another two people who are hanging loosely above fan like blades which are spinning at a very high speed. All four of their non-verbal communication shows that their emotion and situations match that of the voiceover which says “fear, suffering, death”. This shows that fear, suffering and death plays a big part of the forthcoming movie.



It then cuts to another superimposed text that says "always save their best". Which is again shown in the image below.

It then cuts to a series of three establishing shots which shows the environment outside with the last showing a large crowd gathering around one particular building. This is shown below.

From here it cuts to another superimposed text that says "for last".

A voiceover then says "all of my work has been leading to this" while showing a a man who appears to be trapped in a cage. It then cuts to a high angle shot which shows the man tampering with a chain which the cage is hanging from. On his finger he has a prop which is a wedding ring which may play a part in the reason as to why he has become a part of Jigsaws's games. A mid shot shows that he has managed to release himself from the trap but then a birds eye view shows that below him are long sharp pieces of metal which will kill him if he falls.

This was followed by super imposed text which said 'witness'. It then cut to a mid shot of what appears to be a vehicle moving at a high speed on a track with a large sharp object on the front. A cut to an extreme long shot showed a female with her hands and legs tied screaming as the vehicle with the sharp object was heading towards her.

There was then a cut to super imposed text which read 'the final'. This was followed by a cut which showed a man as he struggled to keep a circular saw from making contact with him.

It then lead to super imposed text which simply read 'saw'. This implies that this installment of Saw would be the final in the series.

It then lead up to more super imposed text which was the title of the film 'Saw 3D'.

A number of sharp objects broke through this title and also appeared to break through glass. This highlighted the fact that the film was going to be released in 3D.

It then cut to the final super imposed text which read 'This October The traps come alive', this again highlights the fact that the film is going to be released in 3D. It also gave details of the film such as the production companies.

This teaser trailer has already informed us that this film will be the last in the Saw series. It also informed us that it will be in 3D. The teaser trailer has showed that the film will have new and exciting traps but without giving away any of the storyline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg0go2b3ekY

Audience Research

My audience research was carried out via blackberry messenger. I asked four individuals a variety of questions. The information I gathered from each individual will be used to construct my horro film teaser trailer.

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My audience research will play a crucial part in the development of my teaser trailer. It will help me to reach my target audience and find out what they like to see in horror movies. I will then incorporate these ideas in my teaser trailer so that I can create one that will be entertaining and enjoyable by the majority of my target audience.

Horror Trailer Analysis

This textual analysis will be focused on the teaser trailer for the film "Mirrors" Released in 2008, directed by Alexandre Aja and the producer was Alexandra Milchan, with actors Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton and Amy Smart. The Duration Of The Trailer is 52 seconds.

The trailer begins with a digetic sound of a young child's voice used to have the audience wonder how the involvement of a child will be used within the movie. Soon after the audience hear the voice we then see an establishing shot of a home in the autumn season, then a quick cut to an over the shoulder of shot of a woman opening the door revealing a child sitting on the floor talking to his reflection making apparent the child is important to the movie building up tension from the beginning of the trailer.

As the last scene ends the non-digetic music begins, which is of a fast tempo, administering a creepy feeling of anticipation to the people watching the trailer. Then follows a short shot of a man seemed to be alarmed by a sound which is made to seem like the scream heard from the previous scene, allowing the audience to come up with the assumption that the actors are all scared of something, obviously to do with the title of the movie Mirrors. The next shot shows us a blank screen with the words "Within These Walls" leaving the audience to but think about the meaning behind those words.

This continues with more short cuts showing a woman (Paula Patton) walking up some stairs looking wet, and her surroundings are dark following the conventions of horror and more blank screens with words saying "Lies An Evil" and "Beyond Our World". These short quotes have the audience constantly looking for what they mean in the duration of the trailer.

The slightly fast pace of the trailer adds to its spine chilling element which is significant in any horror trailer, and has to be developed as the trailer is ongoing. This teaser starts with a calm easy going pace, which goes along with how the trailer starts welcoming the audience with its warm feel, shown by the family house in the first shot. The trailer then builds up in pace for its crucial ending. This is shown by the non digetic sound of what seems to be a heart beat which is in sync with the quick cuts in the trailer which are all under 6 seconds to ensure that not much is revealed to the audience.

Finally the movie title appears at and then one more scene is shown as the mother of the child watches her son get dragged into the water and then a dramatic loud roar is heard as it cuts to the movies release date. This is used to create a  relationship with the audience as they can relate to the fact the woman has lost her child leaving the audinece to wonder what happened to the child.

In conlusion after analysing the many elements of the Mirrors teaser trailer, i have come to realise a number of key elements that are needed for the trailer to have its desired effect of teasing the audience in order to create a buzz about the film itself in order to excite and encourage them to watch the film, at the same time not allowing much to be revealed to have the audience not knowing much about what will happen in the film. This is one of the reasons why editing a teaser trailer is so difficult.

Research On Target Audience

The age certificate which we have placed on our trailer should be a 15. This is mainly because of high level of violence in the film where there is strong brutal images in which we feel that is not suitable for people who are below the age of 15, also because the brutal images are not dwelled on for long period of time and it also features sexual references, the age group which our film trailer is aims at our 15 – 25 this is because the characters and also what takes part in the film trailer, this age range will be more impacted by the film in terms of how good the film will be to them. Some of this targeted audience can maybe relate to it, the main art of getting victimised by that “it girl” in college or school, also this targeted audience involves people either going into or in or just finished college and university, so the impact of this audience is stronger and overall we decided to target our audience at who will the film have the most impact on and what wage range will be most interested to watch the film. As well as this we looked at the criteria of bbfc and how they go about stating a films age of certificate.