In order to make sure our film fit in with some of the iconography usually associated with horror films, we had to find some props to use. One of the props we used was a knife and for this we used a standard kitchen knife that we had at my home where we filmed.
We also had a note in our film that was written using blood. This meant we had to find some way of making some fake blood, so went online and found out how to do it. Below is the video that we used to create our fake blood.
One of the scenes within our film involves the exchange of drugs and money. For the drugs we used a small bag filled with white flour that represented the drugs. For the money we used a few real £20 notes with the rest made from paper that we made to look like money.
The video questionnaire and the online questionnaire both came back with similar results when it came to music. The target audience suggested that we needed to include some non diagetic music that would create tension among the audience. We agreed with this feedback and decided to do some research into the music that is used in horror/thriller films. Below is some examples of what we found.
We really liked some of the music we found and decided that it was definitely important that we included some within our final film. We did so and found that it improved our film dramatically, creating a scary, unnerving tension upon the audience and this is exactly what we wanted.
What is viral advertising?
marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to try to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses.
One of the biggest and most popular examples of viral marketing is through social media websites such as facebook and twitter. Below is a video I have found that examples viral advertising.
Although we are not required to do so for our portfolio, the research I have done into this type of marketing has shown me another technique of attracting an audience to your main product. From statistics, I have also found that viral advertising is one of the most successful ways of marketing a product.
In what ways does the media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The media
product we created was a five minute film. Our film uses many different
techniques and conventions generally used in movies. The genre we chose for our
film was a sort of horror/thriller, this lead us into a whole different choice
of typical media conventions used throughout these films. I believe that our
film follows and also breaks typical conventions. An example of our film
following typical horror movie conventions is the fact that our main character
is a female who gets followed/hurt by a man. I believe following typical
conventions is a good things as it allows the audience to anticipate what will
happen next, which has been proven to give them a sense of thrill and
achievement because they can predict what’s happening. As well as this, it is
also a good thing to totally surprise your audience, especially in a genre such
as horror. By changing typical conventions in horror films, it adds an extra
sense of fear and builds the tension, giving a better overall effect to the
film. In our film, the gender stereotypes are reversed, but this doesn’t happen
until the very end. This is seen when the female character turns, and kills the
male character. However, we don’t actually see the killing, so the audience
only hear noises and are left to imagine what will have happened. The reveal is
done following a point of view shot which keeps the audience thinking for much
longer. I believe this is a good aspect of our film as it shows female strength
and subverts the typical stereotype.
I also
believe that our film follows certain aspects of a theory proposed by Richard
Dyer. The theory has five different sub-genres; energy, abundance, intensity,
transparency and community. The aspects of the theory our film strongly follows
is intensity. This is because the film has extreme highs and lows giving the
audience the chance to feel the emotion with the characters. I believe an
aspect of lows in the film may be the drug scene at the beginning as it symbolises
an extreme low point in the characters life. Another aspect of lows would be
the realisation that someone unknown is inside her house, again building
tension amongst the audience, allowing them to experience it with the
characters too. I think that the highest point in our film was the ending, when
the female character has killed the male one. This is because she managed to
get rid of the person and thing that was causing her the most trouble and
causing all the lows.
Right at the
start of the horror film genre, nobody ever thought that in the future women
would be seen as the main focus of the films and known as the ‘strongest’ characters
on the ones that always survive. Our film plays with the genres history and
codes because of the use of a female as the male character.
Many of our
ideas used throughout our film were taken from real media texts. These allowed
us to develop our film and ideas to produce our final outcome. A film that we
looked into very closely was ‘The Strangers’. Our film has used many similar
aspects from this, mainly the idea that someone managed to enter another’s
household without them knowing. The ending of the film is also similar to ours
in that the female character survives, although it is not exactly the same
because the character in The Strangers is also injured, it has the same idea
behind it.
After looking at other film posters I had a go at creating my own and above is the one I created. I am quite pleased with the outcome as I have never made one before. The final poster for our group will use some of the features from this film poster as well as some as the features from the posters of my other group members.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Before we began filming, we produced a treatment on Blogger to identify our target audience. We researched the BBFC website as well as looking at similar film ratings and came to the conclusion that our film would be a 15 due to the violence and scenes of drugs.
To begin filming our film we came up with a finalised plot idea, created a questionnaire and asked people in our classes around college their opinions on our storyline. We did a video questionnaire, which got us used to using the camera again, then posted the video on our blog.
The results were positive therefore we knew our audience found our plot interesting so we got set to film our rough cut. Our audience helped us when choosing our age rating as we were undecided to being with. After research into age ratings along with the help from the video questionnaire, we were confident in what age rating we were going to use. We chose a 15 as after researching the BBFC website, we found that for 15 there can be uses of strong language, portrayals of nudity/sexual activity and drug taking. Although our film doesn't involve all of these, it involves drugs and murder therefore would push it to a 15 rather than a 12.
Rough Cut
We released a rough cut on YouTube for our audience to suggest any last minute alterations such as
preferred camera shots and music. We also published our rough cut to see if our audience could follow the narrative easily and understand the non-linear structure.
Our audience suggested that we needed to add music, in particular 'spooky' and 'eerie' music which we agreed on as it would increase the tension we wanted to create in our film. Answers also included the removing of some shots as they weren't needed and just elongated the scene, slowing down the pace therefore lacking tension. We then knew for our finalised film that we needed to use more jump cuts and shorter length shots in order to appeal and create tension for our audience.
A third and final questionnaire was produced after we published our final film. The results were very positive and we were very pleased with our target audience responses. In our previous rough cut questionnaire, the problem was that we needed to add spooky music which we did and 10/10 responses said it fitted our genre, all answering 'Yes' to the question, 'Does the music create tension?' This is exactly how we wanted our audience to feel therefore proving our film successful.
Various music was used throughout the film to interest and scare the audience. We use intense music at intense moments in the film to fit with the audiences reactions. Without the music, the audience wouldn't have felt as on edge or frightened therefore our film wouldn't have fulfilled the hopes of our target audience. However, the music does have an impact on the audience which intensifies the suspense and builds up the storyline.
In order for the audience to understand what is happening in the film, we used various shots, angles and framing to indicate our message. In the opening, we use a drug deal to show the audience the genre and context of the film and to get them interested in who the people are and why they are buying drugs. We didn't want our audience getting confused due to the non-linear narrative therefore costumes were essential for the audience to identify the characters. Joel (our dominant male killer) wears a hooded dark jumper, hiding his face, showing his mystery from the outset for the audience to understand.
We wanted our audience to be frightened yet still have sympathy for the victim, so we used a shot of Loren using emotion (screaming worriedly) to help the audience sympathise and feel part of the film; a reaction we wanted from our audience. Throughout we used fast paced jump cuts, pans and POV shots to portray what is going to happen. Fast shots and fast paced music adds to the tension, leaving the audience in suspense. We entwine these shots with a longer length shots to keep the audience on edge as they can predict after a long shot, something quick and fast is going to happen.
Overall I think our audience has showed us that our uses of stereotypical codes and conventions of horror films have proven successful. I am happy with the feedback from the final film as everyone asked had something very positive to say about it. I am also very happy with the way the poster and the radio trailer fit with the film and how they appeal to the audience. Various research went into what audiences look for in posters and radio trailers and I believe ours appeals greatly to our audience, and fits with the theme of our film.
In order to gain feedback from our final film we created a questionnaire which we shared on Facebook to reach our target audience. Our questionnaire included questions such as 'How old are you?' to 'What certificate do you think the film is?'. This gave us a range of answers on the design and narrative of our film and showed us if the film was a success for our audience.
To gather our results I created a table of a few questions asked in order to see clear results and links.
From our results we can see that our film was watched by our aimed target audience as all the people who watched and filled the survey was above our certificate age of 15. The results also shows that our film accurately represents and attracts our targeted audience of 15+ year olds. After the research conducted into certificates, we are pleased to see that we got the response and feedback from this audience, making our results significant.
When asked 'What genre do you think the film is?' 8 out of 10 said horror with the rest saying a thriller which is a very similar genre. This showed us that we accurately used mise-en-scene, codes and conventions and iconography in our film to get the genre across. This links with the other question, 'Did the film frighten you?' as it shows they understood they were meant to be scared due to the typical horror stereotypes used such as vulnerable and threatening characters.
For our film to be successful and look professional, I researched some editing techniques which we could use throughout our film. As we were producing a horror film, I looked into how we could get these editing techniques to portray horror.
Fade to Black
Fade transitions are ubiquitous in films and TV, therefore will be used when editing together our film. A fade is when a shot gradually fades into a single colour, usually black or white. In our film, we chose to use black as it fits more with our horror genre. A fade is different however to a crossfade, which is a transition between two shots rather than one shot to a colour. Fades can signify the end or opening to a scene, a passage of time or a change of location. Longer fades = longer/bigger change in the film, shorter fades = time lapse of minutes or hours.
Continuity Editing
Continuity editing consists of match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree line rule. A sense of continuity is shown through match on action as it involves a shot cutting to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This is not graphic match; it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things. Shot reverse shot is used when characters are engaging in conversation/looking at one another or between objects. This shot is shown through a point of view or over the shoulder shot, showing what they're looking at, then a reversed angle shot of the object/character looking back at them, for example. This editing technique is done to not distort the viewers view of the location. The 180 degree rule is a technique that creates a continuous sense of direction. This rule is a filming guideline that characters in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other.
Jump Cuts
A jump cut is an abrupt transition, typically in a sequential clip that makes the subject appear to jump from one spot to another, without continuity. This can happen when two sequential shots of the same subject in the same scene are cut together from camera positions that vary only slightly. Jump cuts also occur when cutting between two sections of footage shot from the same exact camera angle, for example in an interview.
Elliptical Editing
Elliptical editing is a technique used in film editing that allows an events duration on-screen to be shorter than is duration in the story. The simplest type of elliptical edit is a cut between two shots, both of which show part of the same event. The cut between the two shots allows film makers to omit part of that event, thus reducing the time that the event is shown on-screen. A long, tedious event that might take hours in reality, may be elided so that film viewers only sit though a few minutes.
Question 4 – How did
you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
At the start of our project we had to conduct a lot of
research in order to plan our film. I did this research using the internet and
more specifically, sites such as Google, Youtube, Blogger and IMDB. I used
Blogger as a way of storing the information I had gathered from the research.
All of the above has helped me to improve my research skills and also my level
of skill when it comes to blogging. Blogger also enabled me to create and
design my own blog. As I used it more and more, I found out ways in which I
could personalize my own blog and make the design relevant to our film.
Whilst producing posts on our blog, I took various photos on
my I Phone that we could use for our location photos and storyboard. I also
took photos of some of the props that we used within our film, such as the fake
money and the flour we used as a substitute for drugs. This has improved my
photography skills and has also had a positive influence on my planning skills
as we used the photographs to plan out which shots we would take for our film.
After conducting our research and planning, we then had to
film footage that we could use for our film. We did this by using a Sony HDV
camera and a standard tripod. Throughout my time using the camera I feel that
my filming skills have developed significantly and that I now have a better
understanding of what range of shots come together to make an effective scene.
The camera was extremely easy to use and this was a big help in developing my
skills as I was able to get on with the filming without any trouble. Whilst the
camera was easy to use, it still produced excellent and professional results.
The only problem I had when using the camera was due to the outside conditions.
This was mainly down to the lighting of our locations which meant I had to
spend some time in adjusting the camera so that no glare appeared on the
footage.
After filming all of the footage, we then had to edit it all
together and we did this by using the programme ‘Final Cut Express’ on a Mac
computer. This programme was extremely successful in the editing process of our
film and it has certainly improved my creativity. My editing skills as a whole
have improved because of this programme and I am now able to use a wide range
of effects that I wasn’t able to beforehand. Some of these effects are the
‘roll over tool’ that I used to smooth the transition from shot to shot and the
‘cross dissolve’ effect. The tool we used to smooth the transitions was
extremely effective and made our film look far more professional. We did
experience some difficulties in the editing process though as we lost our
initial work because of the Mac we were using. The Mac crashed and in the
processed lost our work. This meant that we had to re edit our footage and made
the whole process take a lot longer than it would have.
Completing the editing process meant that we could then look
at the ways in which we could advertise our film. The two ways we advertised
our film were by creating a film poster and a radio trailer. I created my film
poster by using the programme ‘Photoshop Elements 7.0’. I opened up a captured
image from our film onto the programme and then used the programme to add
effects to the image. The process of creating my film poster, improved my
skills in editing and also helped in improving my creativity.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
PLANNING
After doing some research into genre we decided to go with the horror/thriller genre for our film. We then needed an idea of what would happen within our film. After looking at a number of ideas and researching other existing media products, we came up with our final idea. The final idea for our film was mainly inspired by the existing media product 'Strangers'. Having come up with an idea for the film, we then needed to have some feedback from our target audience and did so through a video questionnaire. The feedback we received was extremely positive which was encouraging. Our target audience particularly liked the idea of the ending in which we subverted the stereotype of girls being the weaker gender. The audience seemed to think that the age certificate of the film should be a 15 and this was helpful as beforehand we were unsure as to what we thought it was. Overall the feedback was positive and we felt that the idea was a good one for our film.
ROUGH CUT
From the feedback we had enough knowledge and opinions to film our first rough cut of our film.
Uploading the rough cut of our film was incredibly helpful as it enabled us to get some more feedback from our target audience. We uploaded it to YouTube and then created an online questionnaire in which the audience could fill out and send to us. The feedback was again rather positive and at the same time it was extremely helpful as we were able to take on board some of the suggestions. One of the suggestions we got from the audience was to add some background music. The audience was specific, saying that they though we needed something spooky, mysterious and the word 'eerie' was used. We definitely agreed with this and we felt that it would be a good way of building up tension within the film. There were also certain shots in which the audience thought we could remove and add to our film in which we agreed. The online questionnaire for our rough cut was a big factor in helping our final film to be successful and we as a group were very happy that we decided to do it.
FINAL FILM
Taking the feedback into account we were then able to start filming again. Unfortunately, the actor we used within our roughcut wasn't able to continue to act so we had to find somebody else. This was extremely unhelpful but we managed to catch up on the deadline after lots of hard work from ourselves and the new actress. We uploaded our final film and again made an online questionnaire for our target audience to fill out.
The questionnaire results came back and we couldnt have been more pleased with them. 9/10 people said that they understood the storyline and that they loved the concept of it. They also said that they really liked the background music that we added and said that it added a feeling of tension to it. Overall I am very happy with how our film was reviewed by our target audience and feel that it was a success. I also feel that the film goes well with the poster and the radio trailer, as they all have a feeling of consistency and professionalism about them.
This is a viral advertising campaign that was created in order to promote 'The Dark Knight'. This took a different approach to many viral advertising campaigns as this allowed the audience to physically get involved as a new game was created simulating that normal towns and cities were Gotham city. It allowed people to try and make themselves worthy of being part of the jokers team. Fans of the franchise found this an amazing way to advertise as they were encouraged to get involved.
This is one of my personal favourite viral ads as it allows people to get involved and experience the role of a character within the film. I like how tense it is and how the people really wanted to get involved to try and win the tickets.
This is the study of signs or how certain things may signify something. This may include;
body language
gestures
words
letters
visual illustrations
pictures
Semiotics is a useful analytical tool in film as it allows for an explanation to be produced as to how visual images form a communication of meanings. A sign could be anything seen within the shot that may stand for something else. There are three main components;
the sign
the signifier
the signified
For example;
The sign- a STOP sign
The signifier- the letters within (S-T-O-P)
The signified- the motion category STOP
In semiotics there are different levels of meaning, they are distinguished between denotation and connotation.
Denotation- what it actually stands for
Connotation- its associations
Signs are categorised into different codes.
Male gaze refers to the idea that we are put into the perspective of a heterosexual man, focusing on the curves of a woman for example, and giving you the view from their eyes. It is known that the curves etc are highlighted by specific conventions such as slow motion, specific camera angles and the way it is edited together. The theory suggests that the male gaze denies women their identities, and making them objects rather than a person, used for their own entertainment. The theory suggests that women cannot watch a film from a secondary perspective but rather from a males perspective of themselves. It is known that the women in films only exist in relation to the male, and has no real importance themselves.
Mulvey states that there are two main functions of women in films.
As an erotic image for other characters to view
As an erotic image for the audience viewing to see
The characters that tend to look and objectify the women are known as the 'active' roles, which is typically a male. The characters that are looked at, the women are known as 'passive' as they are under control from the males view and only exist for visual pleasure. Women are used to slow the narrative down and give the audience someone to look at. Whereas the males push the narrative forward to make things happen which makes them the active characters.
Laura Mulvey discussed the term 'socophillia'. Which refers to 'the love of watching'.
Movie making and movie watching have been analysed as socophillia practices. She also argued that we live in patriarchal societies. Meaning that men dictate and set the majority rules and construct ideal roles and dominance over women. People worry that a passive audience may be influenced by this representation of society and copy it, so that it would eventually become reality.
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer argues that one of the functions of entertainment is utopianism.
The categories of utopian entertainment include;
exhaustion
scarcity
dreariness
manipulation
isolation/fragmentation
However, there are utopian solutions to this. They include;
energy
abundance
intensity
transparency
community
Dyer suggests that these are temporary solutions to the inequities of society. This basically suggests that watching films is a way of escaping reality for the audience.
Herbert Blumer
He suggests that there are ways to describe and categorise an audience;
gender
age
culture
education
class
region
In 1950, Blumer described mass audience. The mass is very loosely organised and is not able to act with the unity of the crowd. Throughout the second world war, many leaders attempted to use media as propaganda as a way to try persuade a mass audience. However, in our society, this may not be as effective due to the way people now access media. For example, a lower class audience may not be able to afford computers/television and therefore may not experience media used to persuade a mass audience. The same thing applies linked with age, as a younger generation may not want to do things such as read a newspaper, meaning that they also wont experience the media suggested.
Laura Mulvey was a feminist film scholar who analysed Hollywood cinema and argued female characters were represented as passive objects of male desires. She believed there were 2 roles of a female character:
Erotic object for characters
Erotic object for the spectators
Richard Dyer draws on Mulveys work to argue that ways of looking reasurts male dominance.
Dyers Typography - 4 questions to ask of a representation:
What is represented?
How is this representitive of social groups?
Who is responsible for the representation?
What does the audience make of it? Responses not always the same
Utopian Sensibilities
Utopian categories of entertainment >>>>>
Energy - action scenes/dance sequences/quick editing/fast paced music = gives energy to viewer Intensisty - mellodrama lives - experiences of extreme highs and extreme lows. We dont get much in everyday lives. Transparency - tell how characters feel to show you whats happening in the film = clear and open Abundance - Entertaining to viewer as film shows someone starting off with nothing then ending up with an abundance of everything = nice to see/experience is themselves Community - being with other people - If you are a lonely person and a film shows people being together, you are entertained and feel less alone.
If you lack something and a film gives you it = entertained
Richard Dyer, lecturer in film for the Universities of Keele and Birmingham in Britain, makes a case for entertainment as a utopian sensibility. He says:
“The notion of entertainment as in some sense utopian — expressing ideals about how human life could be organized and lived –is implicit in what the most widespread assumption about entertainment, namely, that it provides ‘escape.’ Entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities of day-to-day existence.”
Dyers Utopia theory is also linked with the Uses and Gratification Theory as audience consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw from that experience. The Utopian theory includes gratification that allows people to escape from their real lives as their reality is full of negativity and unfullfilment, therefore the 'mediated' world represnts an escape.
I have already conducted research into production logos and created a blog post. The post I did includes the common themes of logos and the names of the productions from both Independent and Mainstream companies.
Some companies like to use images or the name of the production. For example Hammer uses block red capitals which stands out and instantly connotes the film to be about horror/danger. Other companies like to use words or phrases to hint at their genre which is shown in 'Horror Films'.
For our logo we wanted a logo which instantly connoted horror as well as name which did the same. We decided on using both an image and text, combined with colour. A member of our group, Abbie is studying Graphics therefore came in helpful when wanting to gain a professional looking production logo. Our genre is horror and the usual horror productions logos are screaming mouths, feel reels etc. Abbie used photoshop to create our group logo which included a open mouth and a film reel. We used these obvious connotations here as we wanted the audience to know from the outset what the genre was.
After research into horror posters, I decided to take the usual connotation and embed into my own poster. I decided the colour scheme would stick to the usual black and red to connote the unknown and danger. I put our original image of Joel in a black and white effect to show that he is the mystery and the text in bold red to stand out to the audience and fit with the genre.
The text font we used OCR A Std which looks like text on a old computer/laptop which links with the beginning of the the film when Loren is see on the computer. It links with how this all started and how the intruder found where the girl lived.
Our production logo was made by Abbie as she is a graphics student. I decided to photoshop out the black background and use the 'Scream Productions' through the middle of the film reel to make the whole logo look more professional.
Various issues have effected our filming including problems with the computer and acting issues. The computer we edited our film on had suddenly crashed and shut down, leaving us with little footage left. This limited our time when meeting filming deadlines and set us back quite a bit.
The second issue came down to our main actor being unreliable. The actor we chose to film decided to back out when we asked to film a couple of last shots to complete the film. This meant we couldn't fill in blank spaces in the film or use the actors house as a location. our group had to find another actor and another location to shoot in which set us back a lot and we became slightly stressed as we had to meet deadlines. We eventually found an actor who was willing to be reliable and we shot the whole film again. Even though this put us back and meant we had less time for editing, it gave us tips on how to improve our new film and ensured we didn't make the same shooting mistakes as before. The original film cut was used as our rough cut which we posted online to get audience feedback. We asked for opinions on what could be done to improve and we took these on board and applied it to out new film.
Editing the new film is now complete and i believe our group have successfully worked well together to overcome there issues and problems.
Our film opens with a drug deal that takes place in a local park. The first shot is a long shot of the dealer stood on the path in the park. Parks are a usual location for drug deals to happen therefore we used the park to open the scene as the audience will relate quickly to the situation. The long shot shows how big and lonely the area is, and the picture here is taken in the daylight to show the details however the film is shot in the dark to create the sense of our horror genre.
The second scene cuts to the drug dealer and the buyer meeting in the middle of the path. An over the shoulder shot is used to show the exchange of conversation and to show whats happening.
We chose to use a dark hoodie for Joel's character as it connotes a typical drug dealer outfit. It also adds mystery to the character as his face isn't shown, fitting with our horror genre.
Because of the genre of our film, we needed to find something that would accompany our film in a way to further build suspense and the overall feeling we wish to get for our film.
There are many sites online where you can find free music which is un copyrighted and able to be used for your own use.
The site that we have been using to look at sounds is freesound.org which has a large variety of sounds which seem suitable for the genre of our film.
When editing our film we had to use certain techniques in order to symbolise or suggest certain things. For example, a change in time or scene.
A technique that we used quite often throughout was a fade to black, this was used in many instances when we had no footage that would correctly follow on to give the same effect or when this sort of footage is not needed in that certain space of time. This is a technique which has worked really well within aspects of the film to build up a sense of tension and suspense. Here i found a very basic example of a fade through black transition clip to illustrate the effect that we have used.
The other main type of editing we did was jump cut. We used this mainly for the speed, as theres is a lot of tension/ scary moments in our film that needed to be further exaggerated. Jump cuts allowed us to do this. It is also a really simple, effective technique to be carried out. Here is a simple and effective example of a jump cut.
Viral Adverts are methods of advertising videos or messages to a large audience. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive games, images, text messages, emails or web pages. The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programmes is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time.
After viewing several viral ads on YouTube, I chose the viral ads shown above. These two ads for the films 'Carrie' and 'Devils Due' share the same horror genre of our film therefore i chose to look at them in more detail.Getting the public to take part can help create a viral effect, shown in the above ads and other examples such as T-Mobiles Dance Video. This was filmed in Liverpool Street Station where a flash mob technique got passers-by to join in a dance. This received 30m hits on YouTube and showed that getting public involved was successful.
I know the effect that film posters and TV advertisements have in terms of publicising films to the world and so i wanted to see whether radio trailers are just as successful. In order to do this, I conducted research to see how many listeners tune in and hear each film radio trailer. The results were staggering and I was shocked to see that BBC radio 2 had around 15.5 million listeners per week. Radio 1 and 2 also have an incredible amount of listeners with around 10 million each per week. These statistics show just how effective radio trailers are and will be for our film in terms of advertising.
There were several problems that occurred when we were filming the footage for our film. One of the main problems was due to our actor not being able to film on the days that we needed to. This meant that the footage that we had already filmed had to be discarded and we had to find another actor. This took a lengthy period of time and meant that we had to film all of our footage at the last minute. This caused us a small amount of stress and didn't make things easy as a whole. If we were to do the filming again we would definitely consult the actor first and make sure that they are both reliable and free on the occasions we needed them to film.
In the past week, we found that there were a few issues with completing our original film. because of issues with our actor not wanting to complete the filming with us, it meant we had to re-film the entire film again, giving us much more work to do and setting us back quite a bit. However, this has helped us in a way as we have treated the original as a sort of 'trial run' meaning that because we had already filmed the whole thing once, we knew exactly what we had to do this time round making the overall process much quicker.
We were extremely disappointed that the original actor would not complete the film as we had already had issues which meant we weren't as far on with things as we would have liked. This included the computer we had originally started editing on breaking, and loosing our footage. We feel much more confident about the process this time round because we have reliable actors and understand the shots that were missing/need replacing.
Hopefully, we will have completed our rough edit this week, meaning that if there ends up being anything we have forgot to include, we can get on with it straight away with no problems.
Advertising a film through radio is a good way to hit a mass audience due to its accessibility. A successful radio trailer should engage listeners without visual effects, therefore should include voice overs, sound effects, an interesting slogan and information such as cinema release date, certificate and reviews.
For our own radio trailer, we will incorporate dialogue from our film as well as a voice over. The dialogue will interest the audience as it will be of our actor screaming and yelling 'who is it' 'what do you want' to indicate the genre of a horror/thriller. The voice over will include the distributor, the name of the film, starring actors, dates, genre, certificate, reviews and where the targeted audience will be able to access the film. Non-diagetic sound will also be added from the film to the radio trailer to get the audience familiar with the genre and type of film. Diagetic sounds also include the squeaking of doors and stairs, slamming of doors and footsteps which will also be cut from our film and put into the trailer to create a suspense and tension, building up to the last part of the trailer.
I will be researching horror trailers specifically to find the conventions of radio trailers and to find how they market and interest listeners. Here is an example:
This radio trailer entwines voice overs, dialogue and intense music which builds up creating suspense for the audience. The turn-taking of the voice over and dialogue gives out vital information about the film and the incorporation of varying voices makes it more interesting for the audience to listen to. The sound effects of guns firing can also be heard throughout to show listeners the genre of the film, being an action thriller as stated by the voice over. Here, the voice over has included:
The background of the storyline
Main actors
Genre
Name of the film
Cinema release date
Certificate
In just 20 seconds the radio trailer have included everything the audience has to know to decide whether they would watch the film. The fast pace of the trailer represents the action genre of the film which is very attractive to listeners therefore helping the film to sell. Fast pace music will be used in our trailer when the intruder is seen, however slow paced music will be played for the first part of the trailer, which will gradually build up. We will then end our film with the name of the film to emphasise the title making it more familiar and eye catching to the audience, resulting in them more likely to tell friends about it and more likely to go see it.
After researching film posters I have seen that dark colours and figures are ubiquitous in horror. Usually, the dark figure is a male with only part of their face showing which adds mystery and tension while intriguing the audience as they want to know more about the person. This is shown on 'Friday The 13th' and highlights the weapon shown in the males hands to tell the audience that it plays a main part in the film. Having not seen the film myself, the imagery of the forest in the background gives a setting to the film, suggesting that this is where the action takes place. I additionally think this is done is order to scare the audience as forests are usually dark lonely and scary places to be.
The contrasting black and red colours connote danger and fear which make the poster stand out and look more visually appealing to the audience. The red shows that violence and blood may be involved and the black is seen as the unknown therefore injects fear into the audience. This is shown in various horror films such as 'Halloween' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'.
'A Nightmare On Elm Street' shows a male stood behind a female, both in the darkness to show the mystery of the characters. The stereotype of males being the stronger sex is shown in this poster as the male is stood behind the woman making her look more vulnerable and unsafe, creating sympathy for this character. This is shown in 'The Tall Man' as the feared character is stood closely behind the female who has a worried and distressed look on her face.
We will use the ideas of a darks figures in our film as the man who is in the woman's house is seen throughout the film in dark lighting to show his mystery. The use of the girl on the poster will also be good to use on our poster, as the girl in our film is seen as vulnerable and innocent.
Slogans are shown on every example here such as 'he knows where you sleep' 'welcome to crystal lake'. These two slogans have reference to to the film which makes audiences want to watch it to then know its references. The release dates are also very clear, A Nightmare On Elm Street has the simple '04.30.10' which will stick in the audiences mind due to its simplicity.
From my research into the typical horror film poster, I have gathered information which our group will incorporate into our final group poster which are:
When looking into radio trailers i then decided it would be a good idea to actually look into how many people actually tune into radio to see how effective a radio trailer would be in advertising a film. I, myself listen to radio on a daily basis and have heard many film trailers over the time i have listened to radio. As i live in the UK i looked into the top ten radio stations in the UK and found out how many people tuned into which ones each week.
It is shown that BBC Radio two is the most popular with 15.5 million listeners each week. This is closely followed by Radio One (10.8m) and Radio Three (10.5m) From looking into these statistics we can tell that radio is something in which many people listen to which i believe makes it a very simple yet effective way of advertising for films.
Radio is another way of advertising a film. The trailers themselves should include things such as music from the film, sounds/ talking from the film, voiceovers exaggerating aspects of the film and giving statistics given by newspapers etc.
I decided to look into different radio trailers and how they're different from each other and to get a better understanding of what is involved in them. However, when i started to do so i found it quite difficult to actually find radio trailers. Eventually i came across a website which had a database full of film radio trailers. http://archive.rab.co.uk/radio-ads-2014/advanced-search?sn=trailers
The first radio trailer i found which had some sort of relevance to our own film was named 'The Cold Light Of Day'. I found that this film takes turns in using voiceover and dialogue from the film to demonstrate aspects of the film that are most exciting to entice the audience. All this is coupled with tense music playing within the background to build suspense throughout the trailer making the audience want to go out and see it. The duration of the trailer is only 20 seconds but packs in all it needs to in order to successfully advertise the film. http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01B1EB512_128.mp3
The second radio trailer i found was for a movie called 'Now You See Me' which again uses the same techniques such as upbeat music for tension. It starts out with dialogue from the film followed by voiceover suggesting what the critics thought of the film. The trailer its self only lasts 20 seconds in order to keep it quite interesting and more intense. However, the 20 seconds allows lots of information to be packed into it. http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01C31A59D_128.mp3
Another great way of advertising films is through radio and more specifically, radio trailers. Many people across the world are constantly listening to the radio whilst commuting from place to place so it is a huge market to aim at. Below is an example of a typical film radio trailer.
http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01D38E512_128.mp3
The above link mainly consists of a voiceover talking about the reviews in which the film has got. The reviews are from major newspapers and other types of media. They include this as a way of trying to make the film sound good to the audience as people listen to major newspapers as they see them as being reliable sources. It also includes reviews from major newspapers that give an indication to the audience of how good the film is. The radio trailer lasted around 20 seconds and after doing further research I found that nearly all of the radio trailers lasted the same duration. The main actors of the film are also mentioned which may attract a specific audience. this will be the case as if the audience like a certain actor then they may be obliged to see the film. Most of the radio trailers finish with the name of the film and this is something that will be ideal for us to include within our own radio trailer. It is done so that it is the last thing the audience hears and this will mean that the name of the film will be implanted into the audiences mind. Radio trailers only engages with the audio senses which mean we have to include a mixture of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds in our own trailer. The genre of our film has a huge effect on this in the sense that we need to use specific sounds that will scare the audience.
The media
product we created was a five minute film. Our film uses many different
techniques and conventions generally used in movies. The genre we chose for our
film was a sort of horror/thriller, this lead us into a whole different choice
of typical media conventions used throughout these films. I believe that our
film follows and also breaks typical conventions. An example of our film
following typical horror movie conventions is the fact that our main character
is a female who gets followed/hurt by a man. I believe following typical
conventions is a good things as it allows the audience to anticipate what will
happen next, which has been proven to give them a sense of thrill and
achievement because they can predict what’s happening. As well as this, it is
also a good thing to totally surprise your audience, especially in a genre such
as horror. By changing typical conventions in horror films, it adds an extra
sense of fear and builds the tension, giving a better overall effect to the
film. In our film, the gender stereotypes are reversed, but this doesn’t happen
until the very end. This is seen when the female character turns, and kills the
male character. However, we don’t actually see the killing, so the audience
only hear noises and are left to imagine what will have happened. The reveal is
done following a point of view shot which keeps the audience thinking for much
longer. I believe this is a good aspect of our film as it shows female strength
and subverts the typical stereotype.
Many of our
ideas used throughout our film were taken from real media texts. These allowed
us to develop our film and ideas to produce our final outcome. A film that we
looked into very closely was ‘The Strangers’. Our film has used many similar
aspects from this, mainly the idea that someone managed to enter another’s
household without them knowing. The ending of the film is also similar to ours
in that the female character survives, although it is not exactly the same
because the character in The Strangers is also injured, it has the same idea
behind it.
Our film opens with a drug deal that takes place in a local park. The first shot is a long shot of the dealer stood on the path in the park. Parks are a usual location for drug deals to happen therefore we used the park to open the scene as the audience will relate quickly to the situation. The long shot shows how big and lonely the area is, and the picture here is taken in the daylight to show the details however the film is shot in the dark to create the sense of our horror genre.
We will use the ideas of a darks figures in our film as the man who is in the woman's house is seen throughout the film in dark lighting to show his mystery. The use of the girl on the poster will also be good to use on our poster, as the girl in our film is seen as vulnerable and innocent.
