Jonathan Russell's films

I decided to edit together this trailer for people to see on youtube. I was first inspired to make this the day we finished filming 'The Unburied'. I uploaded the footage we had shot and began to pick out some of the more successful shots which stood out in my mind as being visually pleasing to the eye. With all the really good shots I then began to visualise it as a trailer and analysed a few different trailers on the television and the internet. I understood that the trailer has to intrigue people and grab their interest, to do this I would have to establish a basic storyline of the film however at the same time try not to give much away. I decided to establish the basic storyline through the simple means of large white text and short phrases on a black background.

The trailer begins with an establishing shot of the big dark house to try and communicate with horror fans who would find interest and ask what events have taken place there or what secrets lie within its walls. I had also added a video effect called 'day to night', as we intended for this shot to take place in the early hours of the morning. As the piano in the song 'Hurricane' (by '30 Seconds To Mars') kicks in the scene cuts to a black screen and the text reads 'An amazing party'. The text fades in and out from left to right of the frame creating an effect which looks like the circular light of a torch, this acts as a motif in the film as the main hooded character later appears, searching with a torch. I chose this particular music as the rhythm fitted very well with the cuts and made it quite easy to watch. Next I used many different transitions such as ripples, cross fades and cross blurs to portray the confusion and chaos to the party. The drunken nature of the characters we see can also be understood through the transitions. I also added a video effect on this section of scene called 'sci-fi' to emphasise that this was a flashback or at another time to the previous shot. We see close ups in the party scene to link back to the text. The mise en scene in these shots consist of bottles to establish the party scene. Cuts to close up of Adam on the floor drunk showing stupidity of young people and portraying a negative attitude to try and communicate to the audience what a mistake this party was. The text then reads 'A terrible crime' and then cuts to a close up two shot of a couple, as the girl pushes the forceful male away. In this section of the sequence I lowered the colour levels to pick out the more importance focuses of colour (the eyes, the girl's hair). Next cutting to close ups of the male characters angry eyes and then to a medium shot of the male moving slowly but threateningly toward the girl at the back of the frame, as another male character steps in to the left side of the frame creating an over the shoulder shot. As the music picks up more of a technological pace we cut to a close up two shot of the male characters fighting and then to a tracking shot of the girl running down the corridor, as she runs past a doorway we see a silluetted figure with dark and sadistic eyes looming in the dark room, suddenly the shot glitches to the text reading 'A murder'. I created this effect by creating a minute cut between the end of the shot and successfully creates tension and horror. Up until now I had used thunder and lightning sound effects however on the glitch all sound switches off to suggest the horrific event has taken place to shock the audience. The text fades and I decided to leave a brief second of silence to build tension, suddenly my second song 'My Body Is A Cage' (by Peter Gabriel) almost illuminates out of the darkness symbolising the hooded hero, the last glimmer of hope, rising up, facing evil. With this we begin a series of quick shots quickening the pace of the trailer. I added a quick fade to black after each shot as they changes with the orchestral rhythm of the song. A medium, two shot of the hooded character punching the aggressive male character and fading to black. Next to the medium shots of the hooded character with his torch searching the dark house. Next to a low angled medium shot as he turns and creates a very effective lens flare off the torch. We then cut to a reverse angle, close up, point of view shot, of the three drops of blood on the wooden floor illuminated by the torch light. Next it cuts to a medium full shot of the character walking up the stairs towards the camera creating a mental flashback of the previous events and then tilting down to a close up of the blood on the tarpaulin leading down the corridor. Finally we cut to our final phrase which I believed has become the slogan for the film, 'He Will Find Her'. This also fits with the music at this point, being very inspiring and heroic. After the text we cut to our sort of poster image to our thriller of the hooded character silhouetted in the landing slowly raising his torch to create a final camera flare and then fading to black and our final title enters from both sides with one work red and one white saying, The Unburied. The music fades out and as the ambient music fades we hear a faint hum which creates suspense for the last two shots of the trailer. Fading from black, a low angled, long shot of the hooded character illuminated and silhouetted by the light round the corner which cannot be seen emphasises again the light in the darkness, creating the contrast of good and evil. His face cannot be seen deliberately to conceal his identity keeps the audience interested, asking questions and wanting to know more. On the floor we can just about make out the shape of something, a body? Again aiming to capture the audiences attention. As he steps into the room all we can hear are his actual footsteps and then to shock the audience and scare them we quickly cut to a medium full shot of the murderer standing in the room, centred in the frame staring at the camera. I used this shot to engage the audience and make them believe they were in danger. The door slams shut with a sound effect of the creaking door ending the trailer with a shock.

In this opening sequence to the comedy Zombieland, we can see how effective the opening credits are framed within these shots. In each of the graphic and horrifying slow motioned images, we see a title appear on the screen. It is very interesting and extremely effective how the characters within the shots interact with the titles by knocking the letters out of the way and smashing through them giving them a 3D effect to almost place these giant titles in the actual shot. The image I believe stands out the most is when we see a medium shot of a man with a crow bar facing the front of the frame smashing through a window shattering the glass and simultaneously through our main title of the movie 'Zombieland' in large bold letters with a red, metallic tint. In the background we see two out of focus zombies chasing him, which in a way in a preview of the movie to come and telling you to fasten your seat belts for the ride ahead.