FInal Teaser Trailer: A Valediction

Group O Evaluation

Evaluation on Prezi

Film Poster

The main difference between the draft and our final poster is the inclusion of an especially designed title. The concept behind this reflects the theme of sanity that is prevalent in the film. It starts out straight and uniform, but slowly changes and turns into something more sinister and deranged. This also fits with the concept of a teaser trailer, as it gives the audience a taste of what is to come without actually telling them anything specific.

Magazine Cover

This is our magazine cover, created in Adobe Photoshop. We took inspiration from 'Empire' magazine as this is a universally acclaimed and renowned publication. We have continued using the contrasting colours of green and black in order to maintain synergy with both our other ancillary tasks and our main project.

EDIT: The poster was changed to avoid copyright infringement issues - the title is now an original design rather than using the Empire typeface.

New Poster - Draft

This is the first draft of our film poster afterour second photo shoot. We tried to match the tone of the main piece of our film by using green, grey and black colours. The font for the title is only temporary, as we will use a custom font in the final piece.

We have followed several conventions of film posters, including using the 'Steel Tongs' font that is universally used on film posters and is instantly recognizable.

Teaser Take 2 - A Valediction

For our second take on our teaser, we have added a scene to try and connect the character shown in the mirror to the the forest. We have also changed the title screen, although the font we have used IS subject to change very soon. This alludes to the 'Wilderness vs Civilisation' idea that we had when we were first brainstorming for film ideas.

Film Title: A Valediction

After several brainstorming sessions we have decided on a title for our film, 'A Valediction', meaning 'A Farewell Speech'. We feel that this title represents the relationship between the two characters shown in the teaser as well as giving the audience scope to form their own ideas, as it is slightly ambiguous.

The title was inspired by the poem 'A Valediction Forbidding Mourning' by John Donne. This poem was written to his wife before he went to travel around Europe. The first stansa for this poem is:

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

This stansa plays on the aspects of death that are uncertain, or unexplained. This is, in essence, the basis for our film. Because of these two meanings we felt that this title was the right one for or film.

Teaser Trailer (WIP)

Hammer Horror

Hammer Horror studios was very prominent in the 1950s through to the 60s and early 70s. During this time they produced dozens of films that redefined the genre. One of the most famous stars of this era was Christopher Lee who took up the mantle of Bela Lugosi in playing Dracula. The studio bridged the gap between black and white films and technicolour. The films were groundbreaking and controversial in the amount of blood and gore that was shown on screen resulting in many of the films being heavily censored, or even banned.

In modern horror films the influences of Hammer are clear to see, from the camera shots to the music to the now classic clichés that have been used over the years. The studio recently released its first horror film for over 30 years after going bust in the 1980s.

In terms of Hammer's influence on our film and how it could be similair or different, Hammer films are generally overtly melodramatic. This aspect of style would be out of place in our teaser because we want to create a serious and genuinely frightening atmosphere, but the bold visual style of Hammer films could work for us because it would be ideal for us to show some blood and gore as they are so famous for doing so that the film can easily be identified as a conventional horror in that respect.

Film Monster Concepts

During a media lesson we brainstormed various ideas of what the monster in our film could be. We wanted to produce a high concept film, so we ruled out any kind of traditional monster, i.e. Godzilla, King Kong etc. and instead decided to feature a monster that takes the form of the victims subconscious thoughts. This is similar to the Mexican myth of Chupacabra, which Finlay has described in a blog posting below.

Creativity theories

Creativity can come from a very basic idea and then branch out into different areas. This comes about by Beachcombing, as explained in Pete Fraser's blog, a technique in which aspects are taken from other texts and the collective influences form a detailed idea for the person doing the beachcombing.



A similair tactic is the story dust method, which is mainly an analogy in the form of a star growing. Matter gathers gradually over time, and the larger the mass gets, the more is drawn towards it. The metaphor applies to creativity by the space dust representing small ideas which can be written down on cards or paper, which then results in an overall idea when all the "cards" are composed in a good order. The method is explained in Tim Clague's blog.

(Whole group post)

Possible Narratives/Plots

Our film will be probably be a crossover of the thriller and horror genres. To achieve this on a low budget we must create a 'Blair Witch Project' type film that focuses more on atmosphere and characters than on expensive special effects. Our group has also been thinking about myths and legends that could be adapted to a modern environment To this end, I have been thinking about some potential plots that could be realistically achieved on a very low budget.

Plot 1

A man, recently divorced for unknown reasons, is being admitted out of an institution that reminds us of a hospital; but something doesn't seem right. After he returns home, he starts to hear a soft singing coming form his garden. He investigates, but finds nothing.

Several weeks later, he again hears this singing, but this time it is accompanied by a silhouetted figure. We follow the character as he explores this unnatural phenomena and along the way, explores his own mind.

Plot 2

A body is lying, motionless on a field. We then see someone running from this field, back towards civilization. This is left ambiguous for now, although we return to the scene at the end of the film.

The person running has been living alone for several years, only maintaining contact with a few good friends.

As the film develops we discover more about this persons past and the demons that haunt it. These demons reemerge following a strange encounter and events eventually escalate up to a murder of a trusted friend. The repercussions take a huge psychological toll and the main character and they deteriorate into a nervous wreck.

Although these plots are extremely ambiguous and need significant development, they are achievable on a low budget and could be adapted to encompass many different theories and myths.

Sam Halsey-Jones