Practical Update...its been a while ;)

We uploaded all of our footage and started looking at the significant parts that we wanted to keep, and the bits that didnt work quite well. We found that as our film is a horror and we filmed some of it in the dark, that some of it vame out quite dark and wont really be useable.
However, we looked at our storyboard and decided that the parts we need for the first section of our trailer (the slow bit), for example,the part where the murderer is sitting at the desk making the death letter, is all okay as it was filmed in the light. We have started editing the beggining part, but all we need to do is add the parts of text. We are still needing to film some footage for the "second" faster part of our trailer

Serial Killer Research

We decided for our coursework to do a teaser trailer for a horror film, our other tasks are to create a magazine cover and a film poster. We then started our research.
This lesson we decied that the main character in our trailer needs a profile so it explains why he has started killing people. We started researching serial killers and found that there are 3 types of serial killers. "organised" "disorganised" and "mixed". They also have sexual desires and some have religious cults. We looked at Myra Hindly And Ian Brady and found they become murders for their own sexual gratification. The motives of serial killers are generally placed into four categories "visionary", "mission-oriented", "hedonistic" and "power/control. We also looked up Ed Gein who was a murderer from america who also was a grave robber. He was the inspiration for many non fictional films characters such as Jame Gumb from silence of the lambs and leather face from texus chainsaw masacre.

Initial research for our film poster :)

The "Saw" collection of films is similar to the one in which we are producing, so we stared looking at film posters from these films and the sort of images they include, and the typography and the different information needed for the poster in order to advertise the film successfully.
These posters all follow a similar style, and all look similar to each other in some way. The posters give a connotation that the film is going to be scary and gory. They effectivly convey this by the colour scheme, and the imagery used. For example, decapitated body parts, "tools" covered in blood, and disturbing faces.
The arrangement of the images is done quite cleverly. The "disturbing" images are put into real life situations. For example the "tools" are displayed on a dinner plate, next to some cutlery, and the tools are also covered in blood. This is horrific to look at as it gives such a sinister effect, as the different things could easily symbolise different objects. The fact that the tools are on a plate could symbolise and give the connotation of canibalism, and the blood on the tools could symbolise some sort of sauce or gravy.

make-up for our trailer :)

On Wednesday we went to our locaation in Leicester which was a cellar in the bottom of the restaurant and filmed our short trailer, it went really well! Everyone turned up on time and so did our actors and we were depending on them heavily! Our make-up artist also showed up on time and she did our actors make up, re creating bruises and cuts and burns to add effect to our trailer. We also did mutiple shots of what we were filming so that we can decide what the lighting is like and how good it looks, we also took some pictures that we can possibly use for our magazine and our poster aswell. Overall we were there for about 6 hours so hopefully we have filmed all that needs filming!


Here our some pictures of the looks the make up artist created.

pitch :)

Today in media we showed our pitch to the class, it was 17 slides long but was very detailed and we covered all aspects about our trailer, film and magazine with posstive feedback from the class amd the teacher saying that out work is promising and we begin filming in out location next wednesday with our make-up artist! :)

trailer research :)

We decided on producing a horror that was going to shock an audience, we chose to do this through mise en scene; the chracrters, the costumes, the lighting and the location etc.
Our starting point was to research trailers from horror films and to see what conventions they have in common with each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyZMrmVECJI&feature=related
This is a teaser trailer from the film 'Saw 4'. This is a very good example of the conventions that horror films use. It is produced by Twisted Pictures which is widely recognised for producing the Saw Series. In this clip we like the idea of the serial killer watching them, like he is an organised killer. We can see this from the mise en scene as there is a clock in the room, counting down to something he obviously has planned for them. We also took some inspiration from this clip, the part where you see a mid shot of the newspaper articles on the walls, like he is revelling in the fact his murders are being talked about, we also liked the way this was flimed, with single mid shots flashed across the screen to demonstrate how much he is being talked about. The next few shots are then establashing shots of the location, showing the audience that there are yet again, people trapped in a room. Then you see Jigsaw, the director is able to do this as the audience already know who the killer is as they have probably watched the first 3, and so have wanted to watch Saw 4 to find out what happens, hence using a shot of Jigsaw, drawing previous audiences in.You then see various shots of what looks like toture, we also like this idea as it doesn't give too much away about whats going to happen and it is a tease, which is exactly what we want to produce, a teaser trailer. The next thing you see is white background with black writing on, introducing the date when the film will be released, and some added location shots at the end, with Jigsaw and also some very gory shots to shock the audience into wanting to go and see the film.

serial killer research :)

We reasearched into different serial killers that the serial killer in our film could be based on. We decided that we could use the serial killer Ed Gein, as he fitted the profile, he was known as 'The Butcher of Plainfield'.Our serial killer is going to be based on him, this is so our film can have a more realistic feel to it. We will do this by using makeshift newspaper cuttings and sticking them on a wall, to make it almost look like a shrine. This may be hard for us to recreate though as Ed Gein, was not listed as a serial killer. He was a grave robber, necrophilia, cannabilism, sadism and death fetishism. He used his victims flesh to sew up lamp shades and couches. He inspired films like 'Psycho', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Silence of the Lambs'.

pitch feedback :)

Today we started on our powerpoint to pitch our idea to our class, i also researched some film review magazines. Our powerpoint is designed to give the members of our class a good idea of what our trailer is about and our magazine cover. Over the coming weeks we will adapt our powerpoint and update everyone on our progress.

Twisted Pictures/Institutions

Twisted pictures is a production company, mainly specialising in the horror genre. They are most famous for the "Saw" series.

On the heels of the successful opening of "SAW," and the recent announcement of a planned sequel, Twisted Pictures, the genre production label of Evolution Management, will finance and produce nine more films to be distributed by Lions Gate Films (NYSE and TSX: LGF), it was jointly announced today by Lions Gate Films� President of Acquisitions, Television and Co-Productions, Peter Block and President of Production, Mike Paseornek and Twisted Pictures� Oren Koules, Mark Burg and Gregg Hoffman. All of the films will be in the horror/thriller genres.

"We are thrilled to be able to finance and produce cutting edge, story driven genre films and know we have the proven marketing and distribution expertise of Lions Gate behind us," said Burg, Koules, and Hoffman. "There isn�t another distribution company in the business who better understands how to reach out to the vast audience of genre fans who want to see the uncompromising style of film we are committed to making."

"Twisted Pictures� firm commitment to producing fresh, exciting films in the lucrative horror/thriller genre is as strong as Lions Gate�s is to marketing and distributing them," said Block. "Following the terrific experience we have had on Twisted Pictures� first film �Saw�, we are looking forward to

teaming up with them on their forthcoming projects, which are sure to be equally provocative and innovative."

For the upcoming projects under the agreement, Twisted Pictures is strictly looking for writers, directors or writer/directors with existing scripts, and is also open to working with outside producers with a willingness to work within the existing budget parameters.

The deal was negotiated for Lions Gate by Block, Jason Constantine, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs and by Peter Schlessel and Steve Monas on behalf of Twisted Pictures, who will also serve as executive producer on each of the films.

inspiration - rihanna disturbia

This video is a very good interpretation of the editing we want for our trailer, the effcts are lots of shots cut closley together and this is the effect we are going to try and achieve for our trailer!

Research film posters

I have been looking into different horror posters and i have came across early ones from the 1950'sThis is a film poster for Dr jekyll and Mr. Hyde and from this I can see that the posters do not really have any sort of scary gore but have cartoons to show that its a horror. Where as later on in the 1970's the posters become me graphic and supernatural as seen on this poster.
This poster is from 1998 and has also developed from the comic like theme on the Dr jekyll and Mr hyde to this life like supernatural.
Then in 2004 the saw poster, it shows more disturbing pictures and blood.
Looking at these posters i have found that through the years they have developed into more graphic and gorey images to shock audieneces.
From this research i think we should have one image on the poster showing bloody hands to fit with the more up to date horror film posters.

Make-up Carnage

Here are some of the make-up shots we got while on the filming day. We wanted the actresses to look like they have been tortured and look distresssed for the filming, we also wanted the make-up to match the mise en scene and the setting to fit with the generic conventions of a horror.

TEAM! :)

editing our film :)

Today we uploaded our film onto the Mac but some of the footage came out too dark so now we are having to refilm anything that's too dark. We are faced with a slight problem though as a member of our team have left so we are now a group of 3 and we cannot use the same location as we did before, so we are improvising instead and thinking about using someone's garage.

SAW 6!!

This morning at the bus stop,I noticed that the film "Saw 6" is soon to be released. I decided to do some research in the new film,its trailer and its new website,to see if we could get any new ideas from this.


I went on the Saw VI website as, as technology improves, more people use the internet as a main source to find out about film releases. So the websites have to be of a very high quality, and sell the film to its full potential. When I went on the website there where lots of references to "free" things. Such as free widgets, and free applications for Iphone. This would be an example of synergy marketing, as Iphone and Warner Bros would have worked together to promote both of their items.
There is also references to social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and the less popular myspace. This would also indicate the target audience age. For example 15-23 year olds are more likley to use social networking sites as they communicate with friends whilst at college/university. This shows that films such as "Saw" would appeal to this range of people

marketing our project :)

First off, starting with our film trailer we have thought about places where our film trailer would be advertised, we thought about the television, cinema and the internet and for our poster and magazine we thought about bus stops, side of buses, magazines, billboards, websites and radio. We have also hugely considered viral marketing as this is how most film institutions make there money now so we have thought about psoting a trailer on the website YouTube and also having adverts and sneak preview trailers on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
We discussed the certificate for our film and initially we all agreed on 18 but we know that the gore may appeal to younger viewers and they may try and download the film illegally so we decided on a certifcate of 15 so that we would not be breaking any marketing laws.
Our target audience for our film are both male and female, but mostly male as the gore may not appeal to women as much as men, age wise youngest being 15 and oldest being about 25 as a more mature audience may not be drawn in by the gore, also our audience will not be upper class as they are a more sophisticated audicence but it may appeal to middle and lower class audiences and particulary lower class audiences as they may have experienced some sort of violence in there lives and so can relate to the storyline in the film. Also, our audience will be the lowest of socio-economic status such as students and the underclass.
The signifiers in our film are the characters as they relate to the audience as they are the same age and the fact that anyone is suseptible to vulnerability and for people who are adrenalin junkies and enjoy adrenalin rushes and this is shown through our mise en scene with the flashing images in our trailer.
Young and Rubicam talked about the label marketing theory where specific types of people watched different films, the target audiences they described did not fit into our film trailer as we have a very specific audience of young people who are possibly working but are probably students.

MARKETING OUR PROJECT. CARNAGE.

How are we going to market our project?

impact of japanese horror :)

Japanese horror is also known as 'J-Horror', it tends to focus on pyschological horror and tension building., very much involving ghosts and poltergeists. The stories are often based on folk stories and worked into modern day films.
The first succesful Japanese horror film was 'The Ring', although this story has exsisted in Japan for a very long time. The film is about portraying the image of yurei, which are Japanese ghosts who are bound to the physical world through strong emotions which do not allow them to pass on, depending on the emotion, they are bound to a particular ghost. They are all very traditional and follow a particular set of rules. Thye are generall female, although some are male, they wear traditional white robes and long, unkempt black hair just like Samara from 'The Ring'.
Influence from J-Horror has been very apparent in some recent American films such as 'The Ring, The Grudge, Grudge 2, Ring 2, Pulse, One Missed Call, and coming up The Grudge 3 and The Ring 3'.
Many of the Japenese directors have gone on to make the remakes and recently, South Korea produced a remake of 'The Ring' film called 'The Ring Virus'.

Research Blair witch project

Blair witch project is about an american horror film. The narrative is presented as a documentary filmed by three young student film makers. They hike into the Black Hills of Burkittsville to film about a local legend known as the blair witch and go missing. The audience is told that the three were never found but their video and sound equipment was discovered a year later. The recoverd footage is shown as the film the the viewer is watching it.


They started filming on october 1997 and lasted for 8 days. The directors rationed food for the cast causing one of the actors to suffer from eczema outbreaks as the filming was being done. Many of the people who live in Burkittsville were intereviewed and have claimed that the blair witch is real although the story is fictitious.


The film was released 1999 at sundance film festival. The Artisan studio did months of campaigning for the film to be released on the internet to make it seem like it was a real event. due to this way of distributing the footage was positivly recieved by critics and went on to $248 million world wide. The film is one of the first films to be marketed on the interent.

Why do film trailers exist?

Film trailers are advertisements for films that are soon to be exhibited at the cinema. The term of "trailer" came from the fact that the trailer used to be played at the end of a film, however they found that people didnt stick around to watch them. So they where moved to before the film started, but kept the name of a "trailer".
More recently trailers have grown online, and 10 billion videos are being watched annually.
The purpose of a trailer is to attract an audience to a film, and parts are pulled from the film that appear to be the "best parts" of the film, but are chosen carefully enough not to spoil the film. Trailers have to acheieve this in less than two and a half minutes.

What is viral marketing?

"Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence"

A marketing technique that is used to increase brand awareness, to acheive mainly product sales.
It can be done in the forms of;
video clips, interactive online gaming,ebooks, brandable software,images and even text massages.

Viral Marketing must have these 6 elements to be powerful and effective;

1.Gives away products or services
2.Provides for effortless transfer to others
3.Scales easily from small to very large
4.Exploits common motivations and behaviors
5.Utilizes existing communication networks
6.Takes advantage of others' resources

A good example of early viral marketing is the hotmail email messaging service. That cleverly used the word "Free"

"As Hotmail was a free email service provider it could control, to a certain extent, the format of all outbound messages that each Hotmail account holder sent. It was this fact that led them to come up with a viral marketing campaign that has yet to beaten and saw their traffic skyrocket and eventually lead to Microsoft buying the company as a result of their exponential growth.

So what did they do? Simple. To the footer of each outgoing email they attached a signature file that read:

"To get your FREE email account goto www.hotmail.com".

As more and more people received emails from existing Hotmail account holders so the word spread about their free email service and the rest, as they say, is history."

"FREE" is the most powerful word in a marketers vocab. They "give away" valuble products or services to attract attention to their product.
It practises "delayed gratification" which basically means they do not profit immidiatley but they generate "free" interest because they know the profit will soon profit.
It is called "viral marketing" because like a virus, it is designed to develop and spread very quickly, and cause big impact.
It works well on the internet because internet is instant communication and is so easy an inexpensive. Digital format also makes copying so simple.

Horror Target Audience

I found these graphs and statistics on a Film Networking site. The source was by someone called Roy Morgan at National Metro, and was published in 2008.
The First one outlines the different sexes and the amount of each that are more likely to watch a horror film, and the second outlines the age ranges that are most likley to watch a horror film.

The top graph shows the male and female amount of people on average that watch horror films. The blue area indicates the male amount, and pink, female. The larger amount is males, this could be that men like to watch films that pump adrenaline to make them feel masculine.

The other graph shows the age ranges. It shows that the largest amount is of the "teenage" catorgary. This could be due to the adrenaline rush that youngsters want to feel. Such as going on a big ride at a theme park.