Friday, 22 April 2016
Thursday, 14 April 2016
Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?
The distribution of a media product in very important when it comes to the progress of the product. The people who are responsible for the marketing are the film distributors, looking at identifying with the audience as well as intriguing them in addition coming up with a release date and within that period of time promoting the film using different marketing and advertising. The film distributors also decide how much the film is going to be advertised, when and where. This stage is very important because it needs to be advertised enough to gain interest from people to create an audience for the film, more importantly they need to create the correct audience. For example if you are going to release a children's film it would be a sensible decision for the release date to her in half term so they are more likely to have time to watch it.
There are several platforms that can be used when advertising, these include: posters, TV adverts, radio adverts, billboards, social media advertising, trailers and many more. Without advertising the film, the audience will know what about it, which means there will be no talk about it. By using a wider range of platforms for advertising it opens the film up to a larger audience. This is because someone who listens to radio might not use social media, so by advertising it on a range draws in a larger audience. The audience research is also crucial for the film distributors, this is because they need to know and understand their audience as the marketing will have an impact and will be different depending on the demographics and the size of the audience. For my trailer, it would be inappropriate for it to be advertised within daytime TV, as it wouldn't be to correct audience we were aiming for as children would be watching; it would be more appropriate to be advertised at night so our target audience see it. When you know your target audience they are choose suitable attractions for the audience. Examples of this are:
When comparing children's film posters with horror film posters you can clearly see there is a difference. The children's films use bright and daring colours as well as showing the faces clearly of the characters with their facial expressions being cheery and over exaggerated. By having the characters on the posters means that the children recognise them. Woody and Buzz and the Inside characters are incredible recognisable. Comparing these posters with horror posters you can see that the horror posters use duller colours and not too much is given away, there is no images of any characters.
Film distributors work with a marketing plan which can take up to a year before the official release date of the film. This is so they are able to build an audience by posters, trailers etc. A recent ad campaign which has been effective is the recent film release of Deadpool. The film is directed by Tim Miller and is also based in the Marvel Comics character of the same name, so it already has an audience, this is an advantage as it is easy to find out even more about the audience. In addition by having Ryan Reynolds as Wade/Deadpool also brings in his fan base. The film had a budget $58,000,000, the opening weekend made $134,050,000 (USA) and overall the film made $358,410,029 (USA) (8th April 2016). This is due to how much talk about the film was made. Advertising for the film started early with the release of the cast, soundtracks and small teaser trailer.
The narrative and theme is very important to keep the same throughout the advertising and when merging with the products. This is important because it links them all together, creating a recognisable identity. When looking back at my trailer and promotional products the only thing I changed was the title, this could create more recognisable when linkning it with two different fonts. I should have kept them the same, however I wanted to experiment with my own. However I have kept the gloomy and dark colour scheme through out.
There are several platforms that can be used when advertising, these include: posters, TV adverts, radio adverts, billboards, social media advertising, trailers and many more. Without advertising the film, the audience will know what about it, which means there will be no talk about it. By using a wider range of platforms for advertising it opens the film up to a larger audience. This is because someone who listens to radio might not use social media, so by advertising it on a range draws in a larger audience. The audience research is also crucial for the film distributors, this is because they need to know and understand their audience as the marketing will have an impact and will be different depending on the demographics and the size of the audience. For my trailer, it would be inappropriate for it to be advertised within daytime TV, as it wouldn't be to correct audience we were aiming for as children would be watching; it would be more appropriate to be advertised at night so our target audience see it. When you know your target audience they are choose suitable attractions for the audience. Examples of this are:
When comparing children's film posters with horror film posters you can clearly see there is a difference. The children's films use bright and daring colours as well as showing the faces clearly of the characters with their facial expressions being cheery and over exaggerated. By having the characters on the posters means that the children recognise them. Woody and Buzz and the Inside characters are incredible recognisable. Comparing these posters with horror posters you can see that the horror posters use duller colours and not too much is given away, there is no images of any characters.
Film distributors work with a marketing plan which can take up to a year before the official release date of the film. This is so they are able to build an audience by posters, trailers etc. A recent ad campaign which has been effective is the recent film release of Deadpool. The film is directed by Tim Miller and is also based in the Marvel Comics character of the same name, so it already has an audience, this is an advantage as it is easy to find out even more about the audience. In addition by having Ryan Reynolds as Wade/Deadpool also brings in his fan base. The film had a budget $58,000,000, the opening weekend made $134,050,000 (USA) and overall the film made $358,410,029 (USA) (8th April 2016). This is due to how much talk about the film was made. Advertising for the film started early with the release of the cast, soundtracks and small teaser trailer.
The narrative and theme is very important to keep the same throughout the advertising and when merging with the products. This is important because it links them all together, creating a recognisable identity. When looking back at my trailer and promotional products the only thing I changed was the title, this could create more recognisable when linkning it with two different fonts. I should have kept them the same, however I wanted to experiment with my own. However I have kept the gloomy and dark colour scheme through out.
Monday, 4 April 2016
How My Research Has Impacted My Proposed Idea
By doing research into existing media products had a impact on my idea for our horror trailer. We were able to apply conventional ideas which helped the trailer to look more professional and also help enhance the story for the audience and make it easy to understand.
The idea of the main protagonist being a female came from the Final Girl theory by Carol Clover, where one girl who carried traits of both female and male is left to defeat the villain on her own. Having a haunted house is quite conventional for many horror films and we thought it would be interesting for the protagonist to be left in an isolated, empty and confined space which appears to have a spooky history full of secrets, which throughout the story is told. The haunted house created a basic story for us to then adapt and add more onto to create an interesting story line. By having the protagonist being trapped in the house creates more panic and it then leads to her torments and paranoia that she will go through. By also doing research we fit our story into the supernatural sub-genre, this is because you never see the villain that torments her and it creates an interesting mystery for the audience which will keep them intrigued as they will want to know what is tormenting her. We took this inspiration from Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009), The Possession (Ole Bornedal, 2012) and Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982). The found footage aspect was inspired by The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999) and Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009). We decided to put these two together because we thought it would be interesting to see things from her point of view within the house and it builds more of a personal level with the protagonist. We were so inspired by the use of teen girl groups from the slasher genre, such as Scream (Wes Craven, 1996) and Sorority Row (Stewart Hendler, 2009).
The idea of the main protagonist being a female came from the Final Girl theory by Carol Clover, where one girl who carried traits of both female and male is left to defeat the villain on her own. Having a haunted house is quite conventional for many horror films and we thought it would be interesting for the protagonist to be left in an isolated, empty and confined space which appears to have a spooky history full of secrets, which throughout the story is told. The haunted house created a basic story for us to then adapt and add more onto to create an interesting story line. By having the protagonist being trapped in the house creates more panic and it then leads to her torments and paranoia that she will go through. By also doing research we fit our story into the supernatural sub-genre, this is because you never see the villain that torments her and it creates an interesting mystery for the audience which will keep them intrigued as they will want to know what is tormenting her. We took this inspiration from Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009), The Possession (Ole Bornedal, 2012) and Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982). The found footage aspect was inspired by The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999) and Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009). We decided to put these two together because we thought it would be interesting to see things from her point of view within the house and it builds more of a personal level with the protagonist. We were so inspired by the use of teen girl groups from the slasher genre, such as Scream (Wes Craven, 1996) and Sorority Row (Stewart Hendler, 2009).
Monday, 14 March 2016
Horror Poster Font Moodboard
I decided to create this mood board to help me choose my font for my horror poster. I think font 4 and 7 are hard to read which could make the audience less interested. Meanwhile font 3 and 6 doesn't fit the horror genre and I don't think fits the trailer either. The rest fits in with the horror genre and they are what I want. I do think however 8 is too graphic and childish in my opinion, meanwhile font 1 and 9 isn't bold enough and will not stand out.
My chosen font is number 5. This is because it fits in with the horror genre, it is bold and I think the mixture of caps and lower case make it fit in with the trailer and when testing it on the poster it fit well and was eye catching.
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Let Me In Analysis
'Let Me In' is a romantic supernatural horror, which means it a hybrid genre. It was released in 2010 and written and directed by Matt Reeves. It is set in Los Alamos, New Mexico in the early 1980s. As it is a hybrid genre being romance and supernatural the audience expects the main characters to be female and male and also include ghosts/vampires etc; this film does live up to these expectations. The female main character, Abby is played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Moretz stars in a few horror film which include: Carrie, Dark Shadows, and Wicked Little Things.
The narrative structure of the film doesn’t follow the tradition Todorov’s narrative structure. The film starts off with the disruption, a man who is disfigured being taken into hospital. We then see a disfigured man jumps out of the window and left a note saying “I’m sorry Abby”. This is used as a hook for the film to make the audience wonder what happened to the man and who is Abby. Then it skips back to two week earlier. This is the equilibrium. We meet Owen, who is unhappy and a loner. He meets Abby who moves next door to him with her dad, Thomas. Close up camera shots are used in this film to show the expression of the characters faces and to show detail of things. The disruption builds up when Thomas murders a man and collects the blood however then spills it. Abby is angry with him, which helps the audience feel bad for Thomas. Abby is then revealed as a vampire when she attacks one of her neighbours. Later on another night her dad hides in a teenagers car, murders the passenger and tries to run away then crashes the car and then is tried inside. The use of over the shoulder camera shots here helps the audience see what Thomas is seeing. He then pours sulphuric acid on his face and becomes disfigured. He is taken to hospital, it then tells the story which we saw at the start and takes the story back to 1983 and shows the present day. Abby reveals that she is a vampire when Owen tries to make a blood pact with her, cuts his finger and Abby drinks the blood, she then runs away from him as she doesn’t want to hurt him. This makes the audience like her more and feel sympathetic as it implies she doesn’t just want to hurt people. The use of low key lighting helps to build up tension and creates a mysterious mood; it is a convention of the horror genre. The resolution is when we see Owen decide to leave town with a large trunk. A Morse code is tapped out from the trunk.
Another narrative theory is binary opposites which was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. The theory is a set of opposites which reveal the structure of media texts. In ‘Let Me In’ there is a binary opposite of good vs evil, this is Owen and Abby; however, I think there is a twist. Even though she is evil for killing all those innocent people, the audience sympathise with Abby because she is a child and doesn’t have a choice. Another binary opposite is human vs supernatural; this also is Owen and Abby, as Abby is a vampire and Owen is human. By having this binary opposite creates a horror link between the two. There is also a binary opposite of love vs hate, this is because Owen and Abby start to fall for eachother, however Owen is put off at first when he hides out she is a vampire. By this there is the binary opposite created and Owen has to decided which one to follow.
Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles which include:
Hero – our main protagonist and victor.
Villain – the bad character.
Donor – who provides an object or powers to the hero.
Helper – who aids the hero.
Princess – the hero’s ‘reward’ and object of the villain’s scheme.
Princess’s Father – who rewards the hero.
Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way.
False Hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.
In Let Me In, the hero is Owen because firstly he is the main protagonist and also he saves Abby from herself as he tries to stop her from killing. This is conventional having the main protagonist being a male. The villain is Abby; this is because she is the killer, however the audience sympathises with her and she only kills people because she has to. There is a lot of character who double up as different roles. The helper is Thomas; however instead a helper for the hero, he is a helper for Abby. This is because he helps Abby get the blood she needs; he also lets her take his life by drinking his blood. Abby is also the princess because she is Owens rewards as they leave town together; that makes Thomas also the princess’s father; however, he is her fake father.
This film challenges most of the theories; this is because it does not follow Todorov’s narrative structure. I think this makes it intriguing as is it not what audiences are used to. It also makes the audience pay attention as they want to know what has happened. It also challenges Propp’s character functions, this is because even though Abby is the villain, the audience doesn’t see her as a villain and they feel sorry for her. In addition, Abby is also the princess because she is the ‘reward’ for Owen. By having overlaps with different character could make it confusing however I think that the audience is sympathise because Owen and Abby are both young. There is no use of ‘Male Gaze’ or ‘Final Girl’ theory, this is because firstly the only female we see is Abby and she cannot be the final girl when she is the villain and there is no male gaze because Abby is young. I think by challenging all the theories, it creates an interesting film.
The narrative structure of the film doesn’t follow the tradition Todorov’s narrative structure. The film starts off with the disruption, a man who is disfigured being taken into hospital. We then see a disfigured man jumps out of the window and left a note saying “I’m sorry Abby”. This is used as a hook for the film to make the audience wonder what happened to the man and who is Abby. Then it skips back to two week earlier. This is the equilibrium. We meet Owen, who is unhappy and a loner. He meets Abby who moves next door to him with her dad, Thomas. Close up camera shots are used in this film to show the expression of the characters faces and to show detail of things. The disruption builds up when Thomas murders a man and collects the blood however then spills it. Abby is angry with him, which helps the audience feel bad for Thomas. Abby is then revealed as a vampire when she attacks one of her neighbours. Later on another night her dad hides in a teenagers car, murders the passenger and tries to run away then crashes the car and then is tried inside. The use of over the shoulder camera shots here helps the audience see what Thomas is seeing. He then pours sulphuric acid on his face and becomes disfigured. He is taken to hospital, it then tells the story which we saw at the start and takes the story back to 1983 and shows the present day. Abby reveals that she is a vampire when Owen tries to make a blood pact with her, cuts his finger and Abby drinks the blood, she then runs away from him as she doesn’t want to hurt him. This makes the audience like her more and feel sympathetic as it implies she doesn’t just want to hurt people. The use of low key lighting helps to build up tension and creates a mysterious mood; it is a convention of the horror genre. The resolution is when we see Owen decide to leave town with a large trunk. A Morse code is tapped out from the trunk.
Another narrative theory is binary opposites which was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. The theory is a set of opposites which reveal the structure of media texts. In ‘Let Me In’ there is a binary opposite of good vs evil, this is Owen and Abby; however, I think there is a twist. Even though she is evil for killing all those innocent people, the audience sympathise with Abby because she is a child and doesn’t have a choice. Another binary opposite is human vs supernatural; this also is Owen and Abby, as Abby is a vampire and Owen is human. By having this binary opposite creates a horror link between the two. There is also a binary opposite of love vs hate, this is because Owen and Abby start to fall for eachother, however Owen is put off at first when he hides out she is a vampire. By this there is the binary opposite created and Owen has to decided which one to follow.
Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles which include:
Hero – our main protagonist and victor.
Villain – the bad character.
Donor – who provides an object or powers to the hero.
Helper – who aids the hero.
Princess – the hero’s ‘reward’ and object of the villain’s scheme.
Princess’s Father – who rewards the hero.
Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way.
False Hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.
In Let Me In, the hero is Owen because firstly he is the main protagonist and also he saves Abby from herself as he tries to stop her from killing. This is conventional having the main protagonist being a male. The villain is Abby; this is because she is the killer, however the audience sympathises with her and she only kills people because she has to. There is a lot of character who double up as different roles. The helper is Thomas; however instead a helper for the hero, he is a helper for Abby. This is because he helps Abby get the blood she needs; he also lets her take his life by drinking his blood. Abby is also the princess because she is Owens rewards as they leave town together; that makes Thomas also the princess’s father; however, he is her fake father.
This film challenges most of the theories; this is because it does not follow Todorov’s narrative structure. I think this makes it intriguing as is it not what audiences are used to. It also makes the audience pay attention as they want to know what has happened. It also challenges Propp’s character functions, this is because even though Abby is the villain, the audience doesn’t see her as a villain and they feel sorry for her. In addition, Abby is also the princess because she is the ‘reward’ for Owen. By having overlaps with different character could make it confusing however I think that the audience is sympathise because Owen and Abby are both young. There is no use of ‘Male Gaze’ or ‘Final Girl’ theory, this is because firstly the only female we see is Abby and she cannot be the final girl when she is the villain and there is no male gaze because Abby is young. I think by challenging all the theories, it creates an interesting film.
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Synopsis and Key Characters
Synopsis
A young teenage girl and her friends have what starts out to be a usual day at school/college. Her friend group dynamic is constantly unstable due to the clashing personalities between two of the girls, they constantly argue about who should be in charge of their group. One of them questions the other and thinks that there should be a challenge to sort this out. They decide the best cause of action is a bet, the winner gets to be leader of their friend group. Their bet is can she spend one night in the old abandon house they past every day even though the rumours are it is haunted. She agrees to this bet because she believes it will be easy, she was far from right. The next day she packs a bag and her closest friend tries to convince her not to go. Her friend researches the house and discovers that a teenage girl was found hanging in one of the bedrooms several years ago. The mystery was never solved, no note or murderer was found and rumour has it that her disturbed soul still walks the house. Ignoring what her friend said, she heads to the house. Upon arriving she finds the front door unlocked. She enters and starts looking round. After a couple of hours strange things start happening. First the doors slam shut and lock meaning no escape. Then lights go out, she enters one room and objects are flying at her. She tries to escape but gets dragged back and dragged down a corridor. In the end the paranoia gets to her which causes her to end her life by hanging herself inside the house.
A young teenage girl and her friends have what starts out to be a usual day at school/college. Her friend group dynamic is constantly unstable due to the clashing personalities between two of the girls, they constantly argue about who should be in charge of their group. One of them questions the other and thinks that there should be a challenge to sort this out. They decide the best cause of action is a bet, the winner gets to be leader of their friend group. Their bet is can she spend one night in the old abandon house they past every day even though the rumours are it is haunted. She agrees to this bet because she believes it will be easy, she was far from right. The next day she packs a bag and her closest friend tries to convince her not to go. Her friend researches the house and discovers that a teenage girl was found hanging in one of the bedrooms several years ago. The mystery was never solved, no note or murderer was found and rumour has it that her disturbed soul still walks the house. Ignoring what her friend said, she heads to the house. Upon arriving she finds the front door unlocked. She enters and starts looking round. After a couple of hours strange things start happening. First the doors slam shut and lock meaning no escape. Then lights go out, she enters one room and objects are flying at her. She tries to escape but gets dragged back and dragged down a corridor. In the end the paranoia gets to her which causes her to end her life by hanging herself inside the house.
Rheanne
Rheanne is arrogant and stuck up, she battles for dominance within her girl group against equally arrogant girl, Emily. She is very girly and teases the boys a lot. Her thinks about herself before others and is extremely self-centered. Her main priority is to be adored by all.
Emily
Emily is also arrogant and bitchy, she fights with Rheanne for dominance within the group. She believes her is better than everyone and deserves to be the 'lead girl', She is also extremely girly and uses her looks to get her own way a lot. She bullies people weaker than her, especially Mia.
Mia
Best friends with Rheanna, she is a timid girl who often follows the crowd and is shy and quiet. She has only gained a position in the group due to a childhood friendship with Rheanne.
Zie
Zie is the best friend of Emily, she is sassy and very bitchy. She doesn't have the confidence however to fight for dominance within the group, so she steps back and is happy to be ordered around. She often hides behind Emily but still backs her up on the bitchiness.
Horror Genre and Shot Types Moodboards
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Monday, 1 February 2016
Individual Ideas and Final Idea
Laura: There is a house, a young girl lives there with her family. She meets a man online, he then starts targeting the girl because he thinks she is his daughter. He sneaks into her house one night and kills her because she doesn't love him and the house becomes haunted with her ghost. Her parents cannot stand to live in the house anymore and the house then becomes abandoned.
Callum: A young film maker is pressured into spending the night in a haunted old house. Sensing the opportunity for a great feature, she takes her camera to document the night. Upon arriving, paranormal instances drive her to insanity. In the morning she has disappeared. Only her footage remains.
Ella: A group of friends go out and something bad happens. Then some of the friends start to die. No one would expect the quite sweet and innocent to be a cold hearted killer.
Zabrina: A group of girls who all want to be the leader and seen as the most popular in the college so they all come up with challenges for each other as a way for them to decide who's the group leader. However when the challenges get out of control bad things start happening to each and everyone one of the girls till there's only one left.
Our Chosen Idea: There is a young girl who is pressured into spending a night by her friends in a battle of dominance within the group in an abandoned house, which is apparently haunted. The house is haunted by a soul of a young girl, killed there years ago.
To create this idea, we took elements from each idea and combined them to create a new idea. From Laura's idea we took the idea of the abandoned house in which the young girl was killed there and the family couldn't bare to go back. From Callum's idea we took the idea of someone spending the night at a haunted house. From Ella's idea we took the idea of a group of friends and finally from Zabrina's idea we took the idea of there being a girl group fighting for dominance.
Callum: A young film maker is pressured into spending the night in a haunted old house. Sensing the opportunity for a great feature, she takes her camera to document the night. Upon arriving, paranormal instances drive her to insanity. In the morning she has disappeared. Only her footage remains.
Ella: A group of friends go out and something bad happens. Then some of the friends start to die. No one would expect the quite sweet and innocent to be a cold hearted killer.
Zabrina: A group of girls who all want to be the leader and seen as the most popular in the college so they all come up with challenges for each other as a way for them to decide who's the group leader. However when the challenges get out of control bad things start happening to each and everyone one of the girls till there's only one left.
Our Chosen Idea: There is a young girl who is pressured into spending a night by her friends in a battle of dominance within the group in an abandoned house, which is apparently haunted. The house is haunted by a soul of a young girl, killed there years ago.
To create this idea, we took elements from each idea and combined them to create a new idea. From Laura's idea we took the idea of the abandoned house in which the young girl was killed there and the family couldn't bare to go back. From Callum's idea we took the idea of someone spending the night at a haunted house. From Ella's idea we took the idea of a group of friends and finally from Zabrina's idea we took the idea of there being a girl group fighting for dominance.
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