Shot list

Credit: Del

Potential Hazards

Credit: Del

Costume research

Research into female protagonists

Villains:

The Loved Ones – Lola Stone

Lola Stone is a completely insane, a character who appears to be innocent. When the guy she has crush on turns her down for the prom and embarrasses her, she decides to take her revenge by kidnapping and torturing him. Her torture of him greatly contrasts her bright pink dress she wears throughout the film proving that she didn’t have to abandon her femininity to be scary.

Sleepaway Camp - Angela Baker

She is one of the only transgender horror characters to ever be put to screen. A sympathetic villain it's clear she doesn't kill because she wants to but because of her psychological breakdown. A lot of her “kills” are not actually shown onscreen so it’s left up to the imagination. We saw her as an effective character to look at as we didn’t want to show too many kills on screen either to create suspense. And it’s only a trailer, showing the kills would give away too much.

Heroes:

Sarah Carter – The Descent

Her husband and daughter die in a car crash so her friends suggest she travels an unexplored cave system.  They become trapped. Sarah goes through a lot in the last act of the movie, being captured by the creatures, watching many of her friends die, killing one of her friends to put her out of her misery, and defending herself against dozens of crawlers without any help. She is a very strong female protagonist and fits the hero archetype.

Nancy Thompson – A Nightmare On Elm Street

Nancy discovers the rules of the dream world specifically that you can bring things back to reality. She devises a solid plan, setting up a bunch of booby traps and planning to bring Freddy into the real world to kill. Her character is the most similar to our female protagonist their both young women and are quite strong characters too. 

Looking at all theses characters in depth Del and I realised that in order for the protagonist to appear likable yet relatable our protagonist actress Sam needs to go through changes throughout the film. Much like Sarah Carter in The Descent her character is very strong something that Sam needs to be but she also needs to show her emotional side too, making the film almost appear climatic as it matches her mood. 

Costume research

Costume is crucial in film; it allows the audience to form opinions on characters before they start talking. We have decided to put detail into how to characters are dressed because our media text is so short, as it’s a trailer. Our acting team is made up of mostly girls and extra that are of mixed genders this means that the male outfits are important as there are only a few.

In most horror films characters are dressed in everyday wear and the main character seems to wear something that makes them stand out to the others characters. This can range from them having a certain look to their backstory.

Underworld Revolution (2006). Main character Selene's stand out feature: eyes. 

You're Next (2013) female protagonist

Our main character Samantha already has a standout feature her hair color a bright auburn and her height (the shortest in the whole cast). Sticking with the idea that horror films usually have characters in everyday wear rather than fantastical clothes Del and I, have decided to dress the characters this way. The main reasons horror movies tend to do this is it makes the film appear to be more realistic thus scaring the audience more. 

Cabin in the Woods (2012) female protagonist

Looking at films we found that female protagonists tend to not be dressed sexually. 

The female character usually wears clothes that do not put emphasis on their physic. While other less important female characters do tend to show more this supports the theory of "The male gaze" by Laura Mulvey the female character as. As an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view. As an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view. Our media text does not support Laura Mulvey's theory but understanding it; spotting when the male gaze is being used in trailers is important so we can avoid it in our own as it objectifies women. 

A female actresses costume, contrasts the female protagonists.

We've decided to keep characters dressed in everyday as it makes it appear more realistic. But the villain/antagonist face will be obscured,for binary opposition and to dehumanise the villain as we cannot see their face.

Script

Hannah is walking away from the camera then turns and faces the camera and shouts

Hannah: RUN!!!

Marlo heavy breathing

Hannah heavy breathing

Dialogue begins again with Marlo frantically calling to Hannah

Marlo: HANNAH!! HANNAH!!

Hannah: He’s COMING-

Marlo: HANNAH WHO-

Hannah: HE’S COMING!! HE’S COMING!!

Marlo: HANNAH! Look at me. LOOK at me.

Hannah: HE’S COMING!!

Marlo: No, no ,no. Hannah it’s just me…look at me…

Hannah doesn’t respond looks past the camera into the distance

Hannah: …

Marlo: What is it?-

Scene remains quiet for a few seconds, camera turns around quickly to see the killer standing behind them.

Marlo does a sharp inhale as he faces killer.

Screen cuts to black

Audience film title research

In this video we spoke to a small part of our target audience we had a lot of film titles to choose from so we wanted to speak to a small part of our target audience to see what they thought.

Film titles chosen by small target audience

At the end of the video it is clear there is no winner however the ones that were picked were surprising, as these were the titles we expected to have the least amount of likability. We came to this conclusion because 1a and 3c both are quite stereotypical of the horror genre, we thought it lacked originality that the others had. The other fonts 1i and 4l are more original due to the lettering being different, blinds in lettering are usually more common in thrillers like Psycho.

Psycho (1960)

Film Title change/re-evalution

In a previous post we decided to call our film October 31st, due to the survey we conducted with our audience. It was a clear winner but due to much discussion and research we have realised that the name 'October 31st' is probably already been used as it can easily be tied to horror and Halloween. Also the fact a quick Google search promoted this and this.

This is a common problem that most filmmakers face so we will have to start over with our title, but we have decided to find a creative way to still include the Halloween name in the title.

Here are some title ideas that we have come with:

Font 1 with different effects. Maximus BT

We experimented with several different fonts and effects.

Font 2 with different effects. Youngseek BTN

Red was the common theme that ran throughout as blood is a common colour used in horror.

Font 3 with different effects we used a mix of texts Casablanca SF and Dark Half BTN.

Towards the end of our experimenting with the title we decided to start to mix texts together as we found it highlighted the '3' and the '1' more.

We will be talking to a small sample of our target audience and peers before we had out the questionnaires to find out what text they like best. By talking to them we hope to narrow down at least one title in each category, for our questionnaire.

Actors/Actress Issues etc.

Fig. 1 An larger version of our written consent form that all actors have signed.

Evaluation of the logo

Fig 1 Logo

This is our final logo we chose to use very dark colours as it represented our genre of horror. With the black taking up the majority of the background it allows the audience to believe that our film is quite dark, the black has connotations of fear and the unknown which are all associated with horror. The writing being in white and a shadow effect applied to it makes the text appear almost ghost like, this creates eeriness. We used several different shapes to create a lowercase 'e' inside the other shape as we thought this would come across as looking like a maze. 

Fig. 2 Maze

Mazes are very symbolic in the horror genre because it could also be linked to the characters trying to find a way out or the protagonist trying to fight the antagonist. This could also represent the plot with the character trying to solve the dilemma they are faced with this is why we chose this particular shape. The TV static noise pattern that is often shown on old TV's are used on the shapes because this represent the past and history and with the shape the pattern is applied against looking very modern it shows that the past is converging with the present. This also represents that something from the past is colliding with the future, this is the plot our film is based around. 

To conclude, our logo looks old much like a 90's logo this is because our film is based on the past affecting the present. Our characters have to fight the antagonist to bring everything back to normal this very much supports Tzvetan Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory: the theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.

Company Logo: Making of & Final Clip

I chose to create a moving image so the logo physically shifts, the logo was generated in Microsoft PowerPoint. Each piece was make using the Microsoft shape tools, I added a textured background to each shape to create more of a 3 dimensional effect at first glance.

I made the text 'Elite Enterprise Films' using serif draw Plus. I added a gradient and a soft white blur to the edge of the text to make the text less flat.
This is what the original logo looks like once I applied the pieces together, the shape is supposed to create the effect of two E's in one shape:
I then added a black background to make the logo more bold and visually appealing. there was also a order of animations and transitions I had applied to the logo to make the pieces I had create separately move. the part I found challenging was timing each piece of the logo move simultaneously, I found it had to be adjusted to move on with the previous animation. I then saved and exported the clip as a MP4 video.
I once again imported it into Serif Movieplus. Then I added an old film effect on the whole clip along with the vault door shutting sound effect. I also added a fade onto the whole clip, all these features were done to link it back to the genre of horror. These small details are used to keep the audience on edge especially when they view the trailer and this logo animation appears, it keeps them intrigued.


Here is what the final clip looks like after the final export:

The programs I used to generate the whole clip included, Serif Drawplus, Serif Movieplus and Windows Powerpoint. all programs were generally straight forward to use, small settings were tricky to use such as the timing setting on the animations on PowerPoint or the syncing of sound along with movement on Serif Movieplus. Overall, I found it quite simple to edit using these programs and intend on using them for my final trailer. 

Credit: Del

Audience Profile

From our research it is clear that this is our main target audience. Below we have made an audience profile of our target audience to help us understand what our target audience's disposable income, age, occupation and lifestyle is like.

Target audience research: Horror

Why is audience so important?

Audience research is important because it allows for distributors to establish when to release and even what to include in a film that would appeal to their target audience; things that would not appeal to the target audience. For example in a children's film there would not be swearing but in a horror there would most likely be, as their target audience are far older, and it's a convention that is expected by the audience.

Most filmmakers have to have more than one target audience as this would allow them guaranteed success, most film companies have a primary target audience and a secondary target audience. The primary target audience is usually identified through demographic variables i.e. age, sex, level of education, social grade and even their country of residence. The secondary target audience come in two categories, the first category of secondary target audience is the secondary audience that is actually larger than the secondary audience.

Fig. 1 Audience matters.

If filmmakers do not have a target audience in mind then it could be hard to get a good response as it would be hard to advertise on media's that the audience uses such as marketing a teen-orientated film in a newspaper when it is known teens prefer to use the internet. As well as this it allows them to get a good income if you market it properly it will draw in a large crowd, with the correct audience attracted to watch the film it allows for the filmmaker to know whether a sequel would be successful.

Fig. 2 Profit

Does age, social class and who they watch it with matter?
With a variety of films appealing to horror in terms of gore, violence and other features managing to make it as a 15 from the BBFC or even a 12a in some cases, the horror genre becomes more easily to introduced to teen culture. Although the typical viewer of horror films are male  within the age range of 15-24, this is because the largest group of cinema goers are people ages 15-24. 

Fig. 3 Ratings for the 1974 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre showing that Males enjoyed the film more than Females 

The audiences for horror movies are often groups of friends however, there are key groups of audiences who often see horror movies. Couple who are either on a first date or have been in love for a long time but not married commonly go and watch horror movies. 

Overall horror films are aimed at working class community. This is due to the level of thrill and excitement which is gained form a horror film with a relatively cheap price. If the upper class watch horror films they are usually watch a sub genre or another genre such as romance or action. This is due to the the upper classes wanting to watch films with larger budgets and more special effects. However, when certain horror films have sequels its clear that they can appeal to a far larger audience such a final destination which has several sequels.

New revised: Plot synopsis

A group of teenagers are looking to throw a party, they decide to add a extra sense of fear by hosting in the woods. They decide to choose the woods that were the scene of brutal murders, after surveying the woods they decide the party shouldn't be hosted there. While they are leaving the killer senses their presence and decides that it would be better for him to kill the group to avoid being found, and for the excitement of killing again. When they return back home the killer tracks them down and tries to kill them one by one. Whether they escape or not is the question...

Credit: Brieani and Del

Plot synopsis

Our film centers around a group of students the look for a location to host their Halloween party. After visiting numerous other places they realise a woodland location would be perfect as it's free and they don't have to worry about noise or mess. They quickly realise that something is wrong with this location after several creepy events happen one after another and a quick google search of the woods leads them to believe that this is where Eric Bulger committed several terrible murders. They all lose interest in the site due to the mysterious events that occur in the whereabouts; however this small intrusion is the lead up to the traumatic happenings to later occur to each individual that was present to the “visiting”. Our film's enigma is neither to complex nor too simple as proposed by Roland Bathes for a successful film, he uses a ball of yarn to explain why if the plot is too complex (the ball of yarn is wound too tight) the audience will lose interest in trying to untangle it. And if the plot is too simple then the audience will become bored (because the ball of yarn is too easy to untangle). 

Credit: Del and Brieani 

Location For Trailer Shoot

Fig. 1 Classroom

Fig. 2 Woodland

Fig. 5

Fig.4 House hallway

These a few pictures of locations we were going to film our project, we are going to film in woodlands and in different indoor locations such as living rooms and bedrooms for each individual character. There will be separate shots of each character being attacked by the unknown presence, this is why it is key we use a variety of locations.

The locations we have decided to use range from woodlands to different indoor locations such as living rooms and bedrooms for each individual characters. We have decided to use locations like this due to tour film being quite realistic these are everyday places that people our age would hang out this allows it to be relatable for our target audience. Our locations have quite a diverse range because we noticed in horror films there are either several locations or a few locations and one key location in which most of the film takes place, for us it is the woodland.

Both of us have visited these locations and judged whether they would be appropriate for our film we both agreed they would. We do not need permission to use these locations as these are either our own homes (living room or bedroom) or public property (woodland) which means we wouldn’t need permission from the council or owners of the house.


 Potential issues that may arise from these locations are few and far between. As we only have one outside location this means that seasonal/ weather changes do not affect us as much as it would if our whole film was outside. The only problem that could arise with using the woodland is when it rains it becomes very hard to walk and can get very messy at times actors may fall our slip because of this we will need to do a risk assessment of the area because of this. As well as film on days it is particularly dry. 

Credit: Brieani & Del

Target Audience Research

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is 16-25 year olds, they would mainly be males. According to my research, the majority of films are either equally weighted with the gender types but most of the films have a male target audience. They're also aged around 18 years old or older on average due to the different levels of horror the producers intent on including.

This is the user's report from IMDB reviews of the film 'The conjuring'. The predominant gender in this review is just slightly males, that are aged 18 and few are aged above 18. making this film's possible target audience 18 year old males and females. 

This is an IMDB user report for the film, 'The Cabin in the Woods'. From this report it's clear that the majority are males, mainly aged around 18-29 years old, thus making the target audience for this film 18-30 year old males. 

Overall, the main gender used to target with films are males. especially for films that may be gory or uncomfortable for audiences. Young adults and teenagers are also main targets as they tend to be in education or just started work, still making them understand being young and also making it easy to relate to the characters featured in our trailer. 

Credit: Del

Conjuring Trailer analysis

Conjuring trailer analysis from delbrownd12

BBFC Age Rating

U suggests Universal. This means that anyone of any age can watch the film however the BBFC can't confirm whether the picture they are watching can upset a child.

PG means parental guidance. this means that the film requires adult supervision if a child was to watch the film as there could be something inappropriate features within the film or there may be a misunderstanding about certain things with a child.

12A means someone at the age of 12 needs someone at the age of 18 present to watch the film. 

12 means that the viewer has to be a minimum of 12 years old to watch the film. 

Children below the age of 15 arent allowed to watch or buy a rated 15 film as it contains scenes that aren't suitable for younger years.

18 implies that is the strict minimum age for viewer or purchasing a film of this age rating, because it would contain scenes of a sexual or violent nature.  

BBFC Chosen Age Classification

According to my Survey analysis, the majority of people who took part in the survey were aged 16-20 years old. I intend on having a age restriction of the film being a 15 to benefit these ages in the sense that younger people are able to watch the film. I also do not have any intentions on having any kinds of nudity or much use of strong language within my film, its purely a troubled girl that goes through a series of unfortunate events to the point where she is needed to be exorcised. Therefore i will be able to cater for the younger adult/elder teenagers, as well as general adults, in the sense that i would be able to reach a wider audience. 

                                            

Credit: Del



Skyfall Trailer Analysis

Skyfall trailer analysis from briewe25

A2 Group planning

Who will I be working with?

I will be working with Del I did not work with him last year but I decided to work in a pair this year, as I feel with the workload required in this coursework it would be easier to split it.

Who will be responsible for what and why?

Del will be working on the trailer as he prefers editing . I will be doing the poster as I have Photoshop on my laptop and have good knowledge of what a film poster should look like. And we will both be working on the magazine cover as Del is good at Art and I'm good organizing and using different sources to make our magazine appeal to a certain target audience.

Film title Ideas

These were potential titles that we had come up with, we chose to conduct a survey to see which was the most popular choice.This was convenient as there was a direct choice made by our target audience. We will conduct further research into the title before we make this our final choice. 

Credit: Del

Survey Question of Film Company title

This is a survey Del had recently taken, we created several names for our company title. Before we could make a logo or even a slogan we had to choose the name of the company first, the most common choice was 'Elite Enterprise Films'. This had been proven to be efficient and worked in our benefit as we had asked our target audience; we had a direct response from them so this meant we wouldn't be in too much doubt about whether the content were creating appeals to our TA.

Credit: Del

Character profiles

Establishing a character profile is essential for giving the audience a believable character and how much character development each character should have. Typically underdeveloped or poorly developed characters come from stereotypes, if all characters were extremely deeply developed then it would be hard for the audience to form attachments to characters. 

Typically in horror films have 4 characters that are extremely underdeveloped and are purely there to be killed or to help move the plot along. The other 2 are usually more developed to help the audience sympathise with them when they are killed or get away.

Samantha: (The Last Girl/Virgin) she will be playing Hannah she fits the archetype of the last girl as she looks quite young and innocent. She is the protagonist of our film her character is highly developed. 

Her mind is not clouded by lust or drugs, so she is able to make it to the end and defeat the villain. She is often a very quiet and laid back girl who finds strength she didn’t knew she had. She becomes a killer herself.

Stereotype: Virgin, innocent.

Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Samantha because she has quite a young baby face. She wears hardly any make up which makes her look even more young and inexperienced at life as well as her being quite skinny and petite which has connotations of youth. Beside her overall appearance Sam also is a A level drama actress who very much enjoys acting and has acting experience, this will make her character more believable. She also goes to the same school as us which makes her eaily accessible.

Rasharn: (Non-beliver) he will be playing Marlo he fits the archetype for ethnic minority. I found that in horror films where the cast is mainly Caucasian they include another character to provide "diversity".  

His character is not nearly as developed as fully as the others. His character is always likable but the audience bother trying to care about them, because they know they will probably die first anyway.

Stereotype: Token Ethnic minority.


Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Rasharn not only because of his race but because of his features and build it is typical that the ethnic minority is attractive in films and we decided on him because of his build because he has quite a muscular frame this is the frame we intended for the killer to be, which is why he was perfect. Just like Sam he is too and an A level drama student which makes his character even more believable. He also goes to the same school as us which makes her easily accessible.

Mia: (Cheerleader) she will be playing Jody she fits the archetype of Cheerleader as she is blonde and pretty. She is not necessarily a cheerleader; she is a pretty girl who is not very bright and not very nice. 

The others seem to tolerate her and she is somehow friends or enemies with the other girl in film. She will act hysterically to little things which makes the viewer dislike her and want her to get killed first. Her main purpose in the film is to either attract male viewers by being pretty and attractive as well as making scenes more dramatic. 

Stereotype: Flirty, popular cheerleader.

Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Mia because of her appearance and acting ability. She quite small which makes her appear even more feminine on screen compared to the male actors. As well as being pretty she knows how to do her makeup very well this gives the audience the idea that she older when she is in fact the same age as the others. Mia juxtaposes Sam's character with her popularity, flirtatiousness and make up. As well as her being a A level Drama student. She also goes to the same school as us which make her easily accessible.

Codes and Conventions of Trailers

Credit: Del

Things to consider before starting to plan the trailer etc.

Things to consider before starting to plan the trailer etc. from briewe25

Trailer analysis: Final Destination 5

 We start the trailer with a Point of View shot (POV) shot, of a person looking up to a light this would make the audience think of a dentist chair or somewhere quite clinical, this type of setting is already not a very welcoming setting as often people do not enjoy trips to the dentist.  

Fig. 1 POV shot surgical light.

 This is matched with the voiceover of it seems that it’s been quite a while since your first consultation, this is easily relatable to the audience as the dentist is not a place people go regularly. This allows for the scene to appear far more believable and real, this makes it more frightening to the audience as they are left guessing what happens next, how will this character be killed? Due to the nature of this particular film franchise, it’s clear to the audience what will happen next.

Fig 2.  Overexposed camera shot.

 Through the use of filters it makes the light and overall frame appear to extremely over exposed making the frame go white this then transitions into the character Olivia lying on her back in the chair appearing afraid and shaking, creating tension and the camera shot is extremely close-up.

At the start of the trailer we are introduced to the idea of death and uncertainty. The monologue at the start is in a very monotonous, humourless tone in some ways what the woman says at the start is slightly predictable as to what would happen in the film. With the words ‘I don’t want to miss anything…’ is what the whole film is based around missing things avoiding death in any type of way, which sets the tone for a sense of irony over the whole film. The use of the non-diegetic sound here allows for the audience to try and guess what the film may be about it also creates an uneasy tone to the entire film as her voice could be seen as quite unnerving.   With this being the fifth instalment of the final destination series it is clear its Unique Selling Point is the ways in which people die, as the from the trailer is easy to predict how the film will end.

Fig 3. Olivia close up shot.

After this short clip of Olivia becoming visibly upset, are the words ‘We all share…a common…destination’ this words all flash up in between the clip of Olivia trying to reach for the Emergency stop button and her later screaming. Through the use of the constant beeping of the laser eye machine seeming to increase intensity and speed; Olivia beginning to panic then later her screams it turns into a sound mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds of the uneasy music. Through the use of sound it allows the audience to get a sense of what genre this is and what will happen in this film, as well as making the overall trailer quite frightening and tense. The words that pop up on the screen (‘we all share…a common…destination’) written in capital letters in a Times New Roman font which already has quite gothic connotations, this gives the trailer quite an uneasy and ominous feel, especially with the text being white and the background being a very dark black all navy with smoking coming off the letters it in some way symbolises graveyard and death themes. 

Fig 4. Text

Through camera angles it is clear of the nature of the film through the use of POV angles it’s clear that it is horror/thriller as this is a common camera angle in this type of genre. The film creates tension for a period of medium length cut scenes as it makes it hard for the audience to anticipate what’s next. Olivia at the start is seen clutching a teddy bear this symbolises her innocence and youth later on in the trailer we see the teddy bear falling to the floor this symbolises her being no longer protected by her innocence the laser starts to come on. This trailer portrays all the conventions within the horror genre which makes it effective and appealing to the desired audience.