How Research Has Impacted Our Ideas

Evaluation Question 4

How each of the technologies were used

Throughout A2 I was able to plan, produce, finalise and then analyse three professional-looking media products. These products included; a horror film trailer which was put together using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6; a coordinating horror film poster and a coordinating film magazine cover put together using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Although Adobe was the core software I used over A2, I have developed an ability to use many other media technologies in the process, all which have contributed to my finished products.

I used Blogger – a popular and free blog publishing site by Google. Here I posted all my finished work; including my finalised media products, my analysis and all of my pre/planning work. Prior to adding my finished horror trailer to my blog I posted it to YouTube. YouTube allows internet users to upload, share and stream videos.

In creation of my horror trailer we started with three main components: a video camera, a camera tripod and an Apple Mac. Following recording footage for our trailer through the use of the video camera and in turn the camera tripod; we then uploaded our footage to the Apple Mac where we used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to turn core footage into a horror trailer.

We did not only use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 however. Adobe After Effects CS6 was used in order to create special effects for our trailer such as title screens and on-screen dialogue. We also used GarageBand which allowed us to add music and sound effects to our trailer.

As already mentioned, we used Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create a horror poster and film magazine cover. In addition, dafont.com is a free online font portfolio. I used this to select fonts to use for both my horror poster and film magazine cover.

In order to make my work on Blogger more presentable there are five different online publishing components I used. Prezi allows me to present my work in an interactive way and I used it frequently in planning and research tasks. Flickr, slideshare, Issuu and Flipsnack were also used frequently in planning and research tasks. These allowed me to present my work in a less interactive way than Prezi, however in a more presentable way than the text boxes and presentation components available on Blogger.

How the technologies have developed my creative skills and knowledge

The technologies I have used have allowed me to produce some high quality work; evidence that with a low budget good quality media products can still be produced. I have developed my creative skills throughout the course, as well as my knowledge and understanding of Web 2.0 software.

Throughout AS I used Adobe Photoshop as the key component for the majority of my course. This gave me a head start this year, in that I knew the Adobe interface very well and found it easy to use Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects also.

I have learnt new and inventive ways of presenting my work on the internet through the use of sites such as Prezi, Flipsnack and Issuu. Blogger has allowed me to bring it all together - something that I was unaware I was able to achieve to such high standard before.

I now feel that I am comfortable, and aware of how to use a great range of software and tools available to me thanks to the introduction of Web 2.0.

Film Distribution And Marketing

The makers of the film 'The Woman In Black' produced an outstanding, large reach marketing campaign which included a teaser poster and trailer, a main poster and trailer. The distributors for the film were:

• Alliance Films (2012) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Ascot Elite Entertainment Group (2012) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Audio Visual Enterprises (2012) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Aurum Producciones (2012) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Broadmedia Studios (2012) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Budapest Film (2012) (Hungary) (theatrical)
• CBS Films (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
• Concorde Filmverleih (2012) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Diamond Films (2012) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2012) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Empire (2012) (Lebanon) (theatrical)
• KT&G Sangsangmandang (2012) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD) (2012) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Metropolitan Filmexport (2012) (France) (theatrical)
• Momentum Pictures (2012) (UK) (theatrical)
• Nu Metro Cinemas (2012) (South Africa) (theatrical)
• Paris Filmes (2012) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Roadshow Film Distributors (2012) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Sam Film (2012) (Iceland) (theatrical)
• Shaw Organisation (2012) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (2012) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Svensk Filmindustri (2012) (Denmark) (theatrical)
• Videa (2012) (Italy) (theatrical) (as Videa-CDE S.p.A.)
• Videocine S.A. de C.V. (2012) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Audio Visual Entertainment (2012) (Greece) (DVD) (blu-ray)
• Concorde Home Entertainment (2012) (Germany) (DVD)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2012) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2012) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• EuroVideo (2012) (Germany) (DVD) (Rental)
• Film1 (2014) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)
• Front Row Filmed Entertainment (2012) (United Arab Emirates) (all media) (Middle East)
• Home Box Office (HBO) (2013) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)
• Long Shong Entertainment Multimedia Company (2012) (Taiwan) (all media)
• Mongkol Major (2012) (Thailand) (all media)
• Prorom Media-Trade (2012) (Romania) (all media)
• RTL Entertainment (2014) (Netherlands) (TV) (RTL5)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2012) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2012) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Sun Distribution (2012) (Non-USA) (all media) (Latin America)
• Walking Dead Films (2012) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Zon Lusomundo Audiovisuais (2012) (Portugal) (all media)

 (source: www.imbd.com)

The film was released the film in 37 different countries. The film was shown on 412 UK screens in the opening release weekend, this is a staggering figure in Hollywood terms. In the US the film was screened 2900 times on the opening weekend; an equally impressive figure. These figures emphasize the importance the distribution of this film had on its overall success.



Teaser Poster



Main Poster




Teaser Trailer




Main Trailer

Evaluation Question 2

Character Analysis: Dracula

Character Analysis: Dracula

Magazine Cover - Final



Horror Film Poster - Final

'Join Us' Storyboards

'Join Us' Mood Board

Our horror trailer for the film 'Join us' has a sub-genre of supernatural horror. The Victorian style house represents the main setting throughout the film; whilst the gravestone represents 'the undead'. There is elements of supernatural spirits in our trailer - hense the image of a ghost. The Ouija board is the most important prop in our film and is therefore also represented on this mood board. Another ghostly outline of a figure is shown in the bottom right to represent the supernatural and the image of the mass grave is to represent the idea of murder throughout the film. The colours are very dark on this mood board, they include black, white, dark browns and blues. The black and whites represent darkness and horror whilst the green-blue colour can be denoted as being supernatural. The browns represent an 'old' setting and show that the film is based around past events.

Pre Production Planning

Our Chosen Idea For A Horror Trailer

SYNOPSIS
Uncle Derek was a secretive man, keeping himself to himself with his friends and family knowing very little about his life; with the exception of him mysteriously disappearing for a few years. When Derek was discovered dead in his house, there was no known cause of his death which concerned family members. At the low profile funeral, only a handful of family members and friends attended to pay respect to him. After the funeral, a wake was held at Derek’s house to celebrate his life. The family discovered an Ouija board hidden in a box in the living room prompting them to try and contact Derek to discover the cause of his death. They manage to contact Derek for a brief moment who tells them to stop using the Ouija board before he is cut off. After trying to contact him again they hear a scream and unexplainable events start to occur. One by one they are tortured by the spirits. The first to fall victim was Derek’s nephew Kurt (the Jock) closely followed by Kurt’s sister, Ella (the dumb blonde). The third person to die was Stephen (the geek), the neighbour of Derek. Lewis (the idiot) and Jordyn (the virgin) try to escape but only Jordyn manages to get out alive as Lewis gets pulled back into the house, before being murdered also.

CHARACTERS

Derek (The Villain/Victim) – Cause of death unknown. He was a lonely, secretive man, keeping himself to himself. He lived alone in a big house and rarely left.

Kurt (The Jock) – A 20 year old sportsman who plays football. He is the nephew of Derek and helped organise the funeral and wake which is at Derek’s house.

Steven (The Geek) – A 19 year old computer analyst who is Derek’s neighbour. Steven attends the wake looking for information to try figure out how Derek died as he believes the detectives are useless.

Ella (The Blonde) - Sister of Kurt and niece of Derek is a 'dumb blonde' who is hoping to receive some money out of Derek’s will.

Lewis (The Idiot) – Lewis is the adopted brother of Steven who is the complete opposite of him. He does drugs and is unemployed.

Jordyn (The Final Girl) – The niece of Derek, cousin of Ella and Kurt is a sweet, virginal, innocent girl who is smart and aware of her surroundings. She is the only survivor as Lewis is pulled back into the house as when they attempt escaping together.

The Spirits (The Villain/s) – The spirits are all of the people that have previously lived in the house who have been called through the use of the Ouija board. Their aim is to make anyone living in the house join them 'in death'.

SETTINGS

The Church – Catholic church

Derek’s house – Victorian house/quiet street

Film Distributing and Marketing

The responses to these questions/tasks on film distribution must be Blogged. Do not write the questions on the Blog, instead you should produce the responses in the form of a report, complete with images and video clips where necessary. Use reputable sources, particularly the above guide, in order to respond appropriately. The title of the Blog post should be ‘Film distribution and marketing’.

1. What is meant by the term film distribution?

The distribution of a film (or movie) is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor. This task may be accomplished in a variety of ways; for example, with a theatrical release, a home entertainment release (in which the movie is made available on DVD-Video or Blu-ray Disc) or a television programme.

1. What does a film distributor do?
2. How does reach relate to film distribution?
3. What is meant by the marketing plan?
4. What is meant by the distribution plan?
5. What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?
6. Find a teaser poster, teaser trailer, main poster and main trailer for a horror film and put them on your Blog – who was the distributor and in how many countries was it released? Can you find how many screens it was shown in on the opening weekend?

Pages 11, 15-19 and 21-26 will provide you with most of the information required for this task.

Remember this is a Blog post so utilise technology and add as many images and video clips etc., as possible.

Horror Film Poster - First Draft

Magazine Cover - First Draft

Horror Trailer - Final

Evaluation Question 3

The video features the audience feedback we received from a class screening after watching the first draft of our horror trailer 'Join Us'.

Evaluation Question 1

Initial Original Ideas

Idea A - A young boy's Mother and Father die in a car accident when he was only five years old. The boy grows up to become one of the most successful stock brokers the U.S has ever seen by the age of 25. Things take a turn for the worse however when he soon discovers that something is haunting him in his N.Y penthouse every night. A strange series on events unfold which sees him grow supernatural powers and commit obscene murders throughout the city. He continues to not be caught by authorities, the boy soon discovers who his parents truly are (the most wanted mass homicide killer's of the 80's). The only thing he can do to stop himself from committing more murders is to find the source of the evil spirit and hold it captive.

Idea B - An old man, with very little family, passes away with no known cause of death. Few attend his funeral but those who do discover a Ouija board at his home which they decide to use. To their shock things in the house start coming to life, with screams, unusual cries and figures appearing everywhere. The man who passed away is haunting them; wanting them to 'join him in hell'. The group go on to discover that underneath his garden are the bodies of hundreds of dead citizens who were never discovered again after their death. One by one the group are murdered and also find themselves buried in the garden.

Idea C - A couple go on a luxury cruise in the Mediterranean for their honeymoon. Everything seems normal when actually everyone working on the boat captures all of their guests every year and locks them away in the depths of the cruise-liner until they die of starvation. The healthy, new 'inmates' are dumped into large, steel cages with the dead from previous year's. The honeymoon couple attempt to escape the boat alive.

Horror Poster Paper Draft

Prior to producing a horror poster relevant to my main product I first planned what it would look like. Shown here is the paper draft of my horror poster.

Magazine Cover Paper Draft

Before I went about using Adobe Photoshop to produce a magazine cover I first planned what I would include on it - presented here is the paper draft.

Audience Research: Results of Questionnaires

In order to gather information about my target audience as part of the research for my horror trailer; I asked an audience of 20 students which I believed were a likely target audience for my proposed film some demographic profile questions. On top of this, I asked them questions about their interest in films, such as 'who do you go to the cinema with?' The results of our questionnaire show a survey of 20 people all answering 7 questions. We can conclude that there are lots of similarities and differences within these results.

The first question asked my audience who they enjoyed going to the cinema with. There were mixed responses - the most popular ones being 'friends' and 'partner'. I can connote from this that people who go to the cinema as couples or with their friends are often young; therefore they may be a more suitable target audience for a horror film. Only 5% of people go to the cinema alone, it is very unlikely for people to go and see horror films alone. 20% of people go with their children, however the majority of horror films are rated either (15) or (18) which eliminates this group of people. My target audience for my horror trailer should therefore be aimed at both friends and couples.



The aim of this question was to find out some demographic profile information about the audience for my questionnaire. I targeted my questionnaire at an audience which I believed was fit to be the target audience for my film prior to my research. This included students. Results show that 60% of the people I surveyed are aged between 12 and 18, 20% are 19-25 and the other 20% are 26-30. These results reinforce the fact that my audience is going to be young.

It is important to know what percentage of my survey audience go to the cinema to watch horrors. Some horror films will be aired in cinemas, others will come straight out onto DVD or Blu-Ray. Only 20% of my audience do not watch horrors at the cinema at least once a month. 50% do so once a month whilst others watch them 2, 3, 4 and 5+ times a month at the cinema. These results tell me that my audience has a general interest in horror films - making them the right group of people to aim my horror trailer at.

Gender is important when defining sub-groups within horror. The trailer I plan to make will be a supernatural horror. This genre of film stereotypically gains an interest from a female audience. On the other hand, slasher movies are more likely to gain an interest from a male audience due to the way in which females in these films are, to some extent, seen as sexual objects. 60% of my audience are female, although I believe that males will also watch supernatural horrors. The link between females and supernatural horrors should be looked at vaguely.



Nowadays people are much more able to watch films at home. This leaves me asking the question 'how often do you watch horrors at home'. Results revealed that all of my audience watch horror films at home at least once a month. A staggering 10% of people watch horror films at home at least 6 times a month. This reinforces the fact that my audience are very much into horrors - a good statement to be heard when considering the target audience for my horror trailer.

Occupation is important when looking into how much time somebody has in order to do leisure activities such as going to the cinema. It also looks at disposable income - a student may have money to spend on leisure activities because he/she doesn't have domestic bills to pay. Somebody in a well paid full-time job may also have a reasonable disposable income. My results showed that the majority of my target audience are students - this is a positive for my horror trailer. 9.09% of people who responded are teachers. Teachers have well-paid jobs and can therefore also be considered part of my target audience - with the exception of older teachers.

The last question I asked the survey audience is important when looking at the content of the horror trailer I plan to create. 50% said that they are attracted by the cast when going to see a film at the cinema. From this I can defer that it would be a good idea to have a well recognised actor headlining the marketing campaign. A great example of this was the marketing campaign of 'The Woman in Black', which exercised the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was the lead actor in the film in order to attract a specific type of audience. 25% said that the trailer was an important aspect prior to going to see a film at the cinema. This re-emphasises the importance of the trailer and the fact that it has to give the target audience exactly what they want.

I feel that my survey as a whole helped me gain a much better understanding of who my target audience for my supernatural horror trailer should be. I also believe that it gave me an insight into potential secondary target audiences for my horror trailer. This is important because a film needs to be marketed to as many people as possible in order to enjoy the most success. In order to improve my survey I would ask the audience what horror genre they preferred the most. This question would help me in seeing how much of the audience as a whole were interested in supernatural horror without referring to the stereotypical 'females prefer supernatural horrors and males prefer slasher horrors' statement.

Horror Trailer - First Draft

Magazine Cover Analyses

Horror Poster Analyses

Audiences and Institutions: The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2012)

Trailer Analyses: Key Conventions

There is a range of key horror conventions within this trailer - which is also similar to our trailer idea.

Ideas include:

* Both are supernatural horrors which involve contacting the dead.
* There are many disorientated camera shots which creates a sense of fear and discomfort amongst the audience; which is how we want our audience to feel when watching our trailer.
* At the start when we see the two girls running up the hill an effect is used in order to make it seem like a memory/dream by vibrancy the colour of the shot. This could be used to see part of Derek's life.
* In the trailer they use text in between the scenes to inform the audience that what they are watching is based on actual events. This is a good idea as it makes the audience feel less comfortable watching as they feel it could happen to them.
* The trailer uses a girl as the protagonist which is what we are planning to do as well as it is a common horror convention.
* There are quick changes between shots increasing the pace of the trailer, creating a sense of panic.
* The use of close ups makes the viewer more involved with the shot making everything more dramatic.
 * The use of having the title of the film towards the end helps make it more memorable which is a feature we are likely to use in our trailer.



* This trailer has a lot of crescendo music which builds up to the horror. This is something we will loom to use in our horror trailer.
* The last scene in this trailer tells us the title of the film which will mean the audience are more likely to remember the film. We will apply this element to our trailer as we believe it is very effective way of ending a trailer.
* There are a lot of shots where a disorientation is caused which creates a sense of fear for the audience. Again this is something we will look to do in our own horror trailer.
* There are a lot of quick changes between shots increasing the pace of the trailer, creating a sense of panic.



* In this trailer 'Mama' there is sharp crescendo music in the build up to horror which creates suspense making the audience tense.
* The whisper at the end by the little girl adds a horror effect to the trailer as she says it in a creepy way.
* The use of close ups makes the viewer more involved with the shot making everything more dramatic.
* In the trailer they use text in between the scenes to inform the audience who the production team are so they can predict what the film is going to be like.

Trailer Analysis

Representation of women in relation to Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2012)

The History of Horror

Here is one of the most recognized clips from the 1930's great 'Frankenstein'. During this era Hollywood made new films from old ideas. Frankenstein is in fact also a great in the form of Great British classic literature.




Here is a trailer of a film from the 70's 'The Omen'. This particular era of cinema saw films based on the unearthing concept that children were bad for their family. The horror of the war during this era made these films seem more realistic at the time; therefore more horrific also.




Shown here is the trailer to the 2007 horror film 'Captivity'. This film was seen as going 'too far' after all throughout the 21st century horror film producers have been trying to outdo each other in relation to gore. Captivity was criticized immensely and it has been said that these type of films will soon be no longer available legally.

Narrative Theory in Relation to 'The Crazies' and 'Halloween'

Horror Genre Conventions