Trailer Planning - Ouija Boards

A Ouija board also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with any spirits. It uses a movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the indicator, which then moves about the board to spell out words or become physically manifest.



As a group we are going to make our Ouija Board as we dont want it to be a real one for personal preferences.

Trailer Planning - Props

Our trailer requires three main props which are the phone, the knife and the car. As a group we have looked at options for all of these props.

First we looked at the phone:

Phone 1

Phone 1 is a very old style phone. This old style would add to the effect of isolation as it represents that the house is away from modern technology. This phone would also be good becasue it would create a good sound and asthetic when the girl slams it down.

Phone 2

Phone 2 is a mobile phone, although it is modern and all the girls would have one it takes away the sense of isolation becasue for it to ring it would have to have signal which would suggest you were in range of a telephone mast. It would also be hard to film as mobiles are so small.

Phone 3

Phone 3 is another landline phone but is very modern, this does't fit in with the victorian style of the house and adds too much of a technological feature to the atmosphere. Although unlike phone 2 it is bigg and bold so would be easily seen in the shot.

Phone 4

Phone 4 again is a mobile phone presenting the same issues as the other mobile. Using a moblie would also present issues when shooting the scene when the girl slams down the phone as on a mobile all you do is press a button, however on a mobile you would be able to do a shot where we filmed the phone screen to show an unknown number addig partly to the atmosphere.

We have decided as a group that phone 1 is most suited to our situation. This is becasue we need it to be effective when the girl slams down the phone and we want the phone to relate to the style of the house, as it is set in a holiday home it would not be the most modern phone.

Next we looked at choices of knives:

From left to right:

Knife 1

Knife one is qute thin making it realistic to set in a kitchen and the wooden handle fits in with the old styling of the house.

Knife 2

Knife two is a bread knife with a serated edge not he typical style of a knife chosen in a film. this knife is bigger than knife one making it easier to be seen in the shot, however it doesn't come to a point like normal knives and so probably wouldnt be picked as a waepon.

Knife 3

Knife three is the most classic of the four knives having the biggest blabe and coming to a neat point. This knife looks most weaponly of the four and would be easiest to use when shooting as it is the most visable.

Knife 4

Knife four is the smallest of the knives and in my opinion looks more like a knife that would be used in a street crime movie.

We chose knife 3 becasue of its classic film knife appearence and becasue it will be most visable in the shot.

Finally we looked at the cars:

Car 1

Car one is a black Fiat Punto, this is a typical student car so would be a good choice for our trailer, however this car belongs to Beth Kavanagh one of the group members and becasue of us having a shot within the car someone else would have to be driving it, this would present insurance issues. This car is also black so would be difficult to see in the night.

Car 2

Car two is a silver Ford Fiesta, again a typical student car however more modern than car one. This car belongs to Annabel Roberts of one our possible cast members, if we choose this car we will have to have Annabel in the trailer as we would need her to drive it avoiding insurance problems. This car is silver so would be more visable in the night that car one.

Car 3

Car three is a white Fiat 500. This is the most modern and expensive of the three cars and would not tupically be a students car becasue of how new and expensive it is. This car belongs to Samantha Caunt another of our possible cast member and like Annabel if we choose this car we will need to cast Samantha to avoid insurance issues. Becasue this car is white it will be easily visable in the driving scenes.

As a group we decided on car 3. This is becasue of how modern the car is, in teenage films they don't usually have a typical student car but it is more likely that they will be driving a BMW or Mercedes, as no one we knew had either of these we went for the best and most modern of the three cars we looked at.

Trailer Planning - Shot List Choice

As a group we decided to go with shot list 1, this is because we thought that the final out come will look more professional, this shot list will also be easier to film.

Trailer Planning - Shot list 2

1) Producer label flashes up
2) Shot of car coming up the road
3) Text -"Starring Eleanor Failes"
4) In car - in the style of found footage, Dialogue between the girls about the holiday as they pull into the driveway
5) Establishing shot of house
6) Girls walking into house dialogue between two girls about the house
7) Text "Lets play a game
8) Shot of girls pouring drinks(Ouija board visible next to the glasses)
9) Start Ouija board - one girl pretends to see something out the window
10) Girl shows she joking - other girls gets angry and throws board on floor - dialogue
11) Door slams- girls look shocked
12) Text- "if your brave enough"
13) Girl go to investigate
14) Door slams again
15) Girls all look at each other
16) Lights flicker of girls scream - 2 second silence
17) Flashing shot of girl running down stairs looking frightened
18) Girl grabbing knife (flustered)
19) Girl being pulled from under bed
20) Girl running through woods away from us
21) In the style of point of view- girl running through woods
22) Girls enclosed into a corner by the 'spirit'
23) In the style of point of view- close up of her face as she screams "what are you?"
24) Text- Title appears
25) Text- "do you wanna play" - tag line appears
26) Text -Date release

Trailer Planning - Shot list 1

1. Production label flashes up
2. Pan of car driving past
3. Text - Starring Eleanor Failes
4. In the car found footage girls excited about weekend away
5. Establishing shot of house with car pulling into the drive
6. Girls walking into the house two remain by the car and there is dialouge 'i have heard stories about this place' second girl 'oh don't worry it will be fun'
7. Text - lets play a game . . .
8. Shot glasses birds eye view shot with ouija board visable when they bring down the glasses
9. Girls doing the ouija board and one acts possesed everyone panics
10. Girl possesed laughs because she was joking, another gets angry and throws board on the floor and says 'this isn't even working, lets just stop'
11. Phone rings and girls all look
12. Text - If your brave enough . . .
13. Close up of girl picking up phone hears white noise
14. Girl slams down phone
15. Girls all look at each other scared
16. Lights turn off and all the girls scream
17. Flashing up images ... girl running up the stairs looking behind screaming
18. Girl runs in to kitchen and frantically grabs a knife
19. Door slams and girl runs up to it to try and open it screaming 'What are you'
20. girl running through the woods looking behind her
21. Point of view shot chasing the girl through the woods
22. girl trips
23. Point of view shot getting closer to the girl zooms into her face as she screams 'Somebody help me'
24. Title 'Darkness Awakens' fades in
25. Tagline 'Do You Wanna Play' fades in
26. Release date '20th July 2011' fades in

Trailer Planning - Name Choice

When choosing the name as a group we went through alot of choices:

1. 68


2. Ouija


3. Norwood Lodge


4. Tupwood Lane


5. Tupwood Gate


6. Paranormal Forces

And we finally decided on Darkness Awakens'. We choose this name becasue it refers to the eveil spirits as the darkness and they are awakened by the ouija board, this we thought didnt give to much of the film away in the title, but it still had enough relevance to give an idea of what the film may be about.

Trailer Planning - Synopsis

We have now started planning our trailer as a group, looking at all our research and pulling together all our ideas we have come up with a synopsis for a film on which our trailer will be for.

This synopsis consists of:

1. Introduction - Group of girls are going on a holiday to a remote holiday home.


2. Development - Girls start drinking and do a Ouija board.


3. Complication - Girls think Ouija board doesn't work but in fact it has.


4. Climax - Things start to happen, like doors slamming, girls going missing and other supernatural events happen to the girls in and around the house.


5. Resolution - The main character manages to escape.

To write our basic synopsis we used Todorovs narrative theory. The theory is simply this: There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium

In these stages, narrative is not seen as a linear structure but a circular one. The narrative is driven by attempts to restore the equilibrium. However, the equilibrium attained at the end of the story is not identical to the initial equilibrium.