Poster finished

Demographic Research (posters)

These pie charts accurately show the out come of a serious of questions asked to a focus group about the posters. The focus group had seen the magazine and the trailer prior to the questioning. These questions help us better understand what our audience wants and what is the most affective method of advertising our film.

This pie chart maps out the answers the focus group gave to the question: In a horror film what do you most like to see? Jumps, Zombies, Gore, Violence, Ghost sighting or high tension this question is desinged so we can find out excatly what our audience is expecting in the film and what they most enjoy. Clearly the high tension option was most popular so we know to focus on building tension as well as jumps and ghost sighting.  

This question gives us a good understanding of the gender of our target audience and it helps us better understand what that group of people want. From this we know to take extra care when dealing with female characters to make sure they do not come across as stereotypical or offsensive to women.

By determening the age of our target audience we know that we can mak references that younger people would understand where older veiwers may not, we also now how to market our film to the appropriate age range.

This question asks what about the posters do you like and what stands out the most. The layout and the images were clearly very striking for the audience so we decided to stick with the poster because it is bold and stands out. The focus group seemed to to lke most of the key aspects of the poster so only slight adjustments to the poster should be made.

This question was, do you think the poster relates to the trailer and magazine cover. This question is vital in making sure that our brand is recognisable and that we are succses full in making the poster as it relates well to the trailer and the magazine cover and we got good feedback from the focus group.

Poster Servay

We decided to conduct a servay to decide which poster to use, colour, or black and white. We used facebook to conduct this servay so we could reach as many people of the chosen demographic of young adults as possible. We asked people to cmment which option they preffered, colour got only 3 comments and black and white got a huge amount of comments almost 30. This way of conducting a servay may have been unconventional but we needed to get quick results from our chosen demographic so we thought that using facebook would reach a wide range of teenagers and we put it on a site that we knew would get alot of attention.

Poster creation

These are the final photos that we will be using. We plan to use them in a poster for the film. the exteme fear shown in the faces of each character shows well the style and genre of the film and will atract the eye of horror and fans of the franchise. the photos work best black and white to balance out the the skin tones that were quite varied and look a bit strange together. so making a black and white version seemed a good idea and it is a good effect considering the genre and emotion we want to convey in the poster. The way the pictures are put together emphisises the fear as all the people in the piture are showing exterem distress and fear. We are going to add the name of the film into the picture as well as a tag line. We shot these photos in a low light black room with the flash. This creates a high energy shot that captures the emotion and facial expression well.

Magazine, final draft

This describes why we chose to use certain specific conventions for attracting customers to both the film and the magazine.

Cover number 1

Cover number 3: This cover illustrated the death of one of the four characters. The bright red lighting on the face shows fear danger and pain and those things may draw someone in if theyt are a fan of horror films. The ghostly hand is featured in a few of these covers giving a sneek peak into the film and its story line. The Project bold and clearly visible to make sure the name of the film sticks in the readers or even the passer bys mind.



Cover number 4: This shows the female lead almost poping out of the page reacing for help which may cause the reader to feel empthaty and cause them to want to go and see the film to see the out come of the girl.

Cover number 2

Each magazine cover is designed to hook and draw In the audience. With small sneak peek releases in each magazine we will make the audience feel curious. By having several editions for each magazine and each character it make the public more aware of the film than they. Would be from just one magazine. By seeing four magazine covers from the same film it tells the audience that the story of each person is equally important as the other characters and the way it is presented in this fragmented way may cause the film to stick in the mind of the passer by.

Editing plan

Types of editing that will be used:

• Quick cutting
• Match on acition
• Transitions
• Effects
• Cutting
• Voice overs
• Back ground muisc
• Diagectic sound
• Non-Diagetic sound

The editing process that we will start will envolve all of these conventions we plan to have a jumpy trailer that uses quick cutting to create and unnerving atmosphere for the viewer. However we would like to start the trailer with slow highly lite scenes and shots of the characters to lul the audience into a fails sense of security. This will evolve happy music that keeps the audiences spirits high, then we will have a sudden change of style. The cutting will become quick and the transitions will be fast as well. We plan to cut moments of the death scenes with one of the blogs talking about the ghost hunt and other moments in the film like when strange things start to happen. Diagectic sound will be used for things like voices and non diagectic to create the atmosphere, the idea is that if the audience is made to feel u easy just from the trailer then they will be impressed and want to go see the film, much like what the paranormal activity 2 trailer does.the 180 degree rule will always be applied as well as shot reverse shot where it is needed. We plan to use shot reverse shot in one part of the trailer when John talks with James this is the only face to face convocation in the entire film so it is important to pay attention to the 180 degree rules so we do not confuse the audience. Match on action will be used carefully throughout the editing process especially in the scene that involve going through doors much like in the beginning of the science room scene when the ghost is first sighted. These rules such as match on action and shot reverse shot are vital for the trailer not just because they keep a film looking professional but because with out them it could annoy and confuse the audience and put them off coming to see the film so it is vital we get it write, the editing process is often the most important part of the production of the trailer.

The softwear we will be using to edit this film is i movie, an apple made peice of softwear it is capable of performing many tasks as once, such as processing a video while a sound track is being searched for. We are fermilliar with Imovie which is one of the main reasons we are using it. It constantly backs its self up, so no need to worry about loosing files. The layout is simple and easy to follow as are the controls and technique which makes it perfect for editing out short trailer.

Filming plan

Point of veiw Shot

This is a series of shorts that will be used throughout the filming process:


The point of veiw shot will be used mostly as the cameras are hand held and the story calls for all the characters to be holding a camera filming the action at all times. By using the one hundred and eighty degree rule we can ensure that no audience member will be confused by the shots that we take so we will have to be extremely careful as very few of the scenes that we shoot will have fixed cameras.

Mid Shot or Medium Shot

The first scene that we are going to shoot is the scene where Dani and John are it he science room about to be attacked by the ghost. We will have an establishing shot of them entering the class room, from there it will mostly point of view where the audience will see through the cameras of Dani and John. We want the lighting to be bright and calming but for half way through the scene the lights to blacken and the set to be bathed in darkness only being able to se outlines of people or the ghost.

Another scene we will shoot is of the entire cast first entering the empty school. We are going to use point of veiw shot for this scene being careful to abided by the ruls of continuity and the 180 degree rule.

Long Shot

The next scene to shoot is the scene in the drama room with Bret when he is attacked by the ghost. This scene will have a fixed camera and using a two shot we will get me and Bret performing the scene with some point of view shots edited in to add a sense of unpredictablitly and to see the scene through our eyes. We will have the cameras in our hands for the audience too see as we are filimng a documentry much like in The Blair Witch Project.

Two Shot

The art room is the next scene we will need to film in this place we are filimg a few scenes. The scene where me and Fay find the blood in the sink we are going to use a raised camera using a tripod that pans round to follow us moving and the shot that it will shoot will be a mid-shot. we will also shoot point of veiw shots that will show the veiw of the charcter and make the audience feel like they are apart of the action and unlitmately make them feel more scared.

Close Up

We plan to walk round the school fo rour opening shots as we want it to start fun and clam and then turn into a horror, this affect is usually used to create a fauls sense of security for the audience and then scare them suddenly, it is used mostly in paranomal acivity. We will use mainly point of veiw shots with hand held cameras and then switch back and forth to make the audience feel uneasy and scared.

Planned locations for filming

 

 

 

The Art Room

The art room is one of are places that we have chosen to film in, it has the ability to get dark very quickly which is something we will require for our mise-en-scene. It is an open space and will be relatively empty when we begin filming. It has alot of unfinished peices of art in it so it looks well used and in the dark even looks like its just been abandonded which fits in well with the style of horror film we want to make. It is also in the old part of the building and is therefore more liable to be haunted. The room has several doors that exit the room so it will work well when we are creating affects as some one can create an affect and quickly escape before the camera sees them.

 The Food Technology Room

The food technology room is one of the newer rooms so it stands to reason that it would be a safe place to come to escape the ghost. When this room is used in the point in the story the characters dont yet know that the ghost they are running from is the ghost of someone who worked on the site before the work house was knocked down and the school was built, so when they discover this they realise that there is nowhere to hide. The room can also become very dark and being a kitchen can be quite a dangerouse place at times. The room fits the mise en scene well being that it has the capability to get dark with out being toatlly pitch black and is a classroom which is important for a school.

 The entrance!

The entrance looks very safe and school like which is what we want. Most horror films lull their audience into a false sense of security before scaring them. This creates a contrast where by you rapidly change the atmosphere the audience are experiencing and the mood they are feeling making them feel very un easy. Unlike women in black the building is not very imposing at all but thats not what we want we want it to look inviting and safe.

 The Art Corridor

The art corridor is one of the oldest parts of the original school building and this is reflected in its architecture. In the dark this is amplified by any light wheter it be moon or ambient light shining through the windows creating shadows and beams of light in the corridor. The long corridor mixed with shadows could create a creepy atmosphere.

The science corridor

This is quite an important set as it is where the ghost is sighted and peters character is killed. The lighting during the night is almost pitch black so we plan to have the lighting dark but just light enough to see, this will make for a scary atmosphere much like the set in the film grave encounters. This is also on the site where the work house originally was. The science block has no windows so it adds to the sense of being trapped.






The Stage

This is where the final character dies so it is a very important set. The Stage has no windows or exit doors other than one so it will make the audience feel trapped. The lighting is dark and back stage all that can be seen is a silhouettes. This adds to the high tension and suspense and so it can make the audience feel very uncomfortable and tense.

Camera

This is the camera we are using in the filming process. It is HD and handheld it is a Xacti. We are using this as it is light weight and perfect for our use which is hand held, quick movements and easy to use so for a documentary point of veiw shot type its perfect.

Audiences and chosen demographic

Target Audience

Being a student film we we're keen to make sure that we could reach as many young people as possible, from the age of 15 to around the age of 21. I wanted to make sure that anything in the film was suitible for a target audience of people as young as 15. Before we thought about scripting i made sure of what was deemed appropriate to be veiwed by a 15 year old audience by checking the BBFC website and they defined a 15 as the following:

strong violence

strong language (eg 'f***').

portrayals of sexual activity

strong verbal references to sex

sexual nudity

brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

discriminatory language or behaviour

drug taking

To make sure that none of these lines where crossed i also checked how they defined an 18 and this is what they said:

very strong violence

frequent strong language (eg 'f***') and/or very strong language (eg ‘c***’)

strong portrayals of sexual activity

scenes of sexual violence

strong horror

strong blood and gore

real sex (in some circumstances)

discriminatory language and behaviour

Baring this information in mind we have decided to drop most frequent strong language. The
majority of the film is jumpy rather than gory or violent and it leans more towards a psycological thriller rather than a horror since the violence is minimul.


In order to reach our demographic and sevay our target audience we decided to set up a facebook page from which we could get feed back from our followers and post updates about the film and gage the audiences reaction based on likes and comments. We decided that our film needed to be backed by a film company in order to reach more people and gain some valuable credibility, so we founded Pfab our film company, the logo of which can be seen in the banner photo of the facebook page.