research and planning- podcast

Research and plannng - teaser trailer

We have the choice of choosing either a teaser trailer or a full trailer, to decide which one were going to do we need to know what makes each one different.

For the teaser trailer the features that it may consist of are:

• name
• titles 
• release date
• voiceover
• production company 
• montage  

The Paranormal activity trailer is quite simple so i think it would be easy to recreate. Most scenes are used with a handheld camera showing people's reactions of them watching the  and the devil is never shown on screen, which makes it a lot easier. The trailer doesn't use CGI so thats another reason i would be able to recreate it.



The saw trailer would be extremely difficult to recreate, as there's one scene where a man cuts his leg off, this would require special effects and that would cost far too much. As i have no CGI or special effects i would not be able to recreate saw.

Research and planning- questionnaire results

Results for my questionnaire

Above is an example of my  questionnaire that has been filled out, my main results i found from the questionnaires are:
1)  The audience think that the best way of showing a character is possessed is for them to show  

• weird behaviour for example twitchy moments, strange body movements
• scary make up and hair for example dark eyes, back combed scary hair 
• weird noises such as screaming, groaning

2) For this question the audience thought a strong female character is better than a weak female character. 
3) The audience are not bothered wherever the trailer starts in the day or night, so as a group we decided we would start our trailer in the day
4)The audience think our trailer should end in the night, because this makes it more scarier and adds to the tension
5) The audience would prefer to not see the character being possessed, but we think having just some flashes of the possessed character would maybe be good
6) In the day the audience think the students would be socialising,watching TV and eating junk food
7) The audience think there should be a party scene in the trailer
8)  The audience think both titles and voice overs should be used

research and planning- questionnaires

I asked both Female and males, and different ages to fill out a questionnaire to help us with our horror trailer. We found out there opinions on what they thought was best for our trailer.

This is my blank copy of my questionnaire.

research and planning- facebook feedback

i posted a status on Facebook asking what a good horror film is, and this is the feedback i got from my family and friends 

research and planning- Meeting 1

Meeting

In our meeting we discussed which job roles we would be doing for our trailer. The job roles are editing, sound and mise en scene.

- Hannah is doing sound

- Sophie is doing Editing

-I am doing Mise en scene

and we are all sharing camera work

research and planning- IMDb's top horror films

Genre horror

i went on IMDb's website to research the most popular horror feature films,I looked at this genre because this is the genre I'm planning on doing. I think my film most relates to" house at the end of the street " because in both films they move into a new house so at least i know it's going to be popular.

Research and planning-target audience

Target audience on Prezi

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Target audience on Prezi

research and planning- Theories of audience

The 'hypodermic model'

The theory is referred to as the Magic bullet, it suggests that media messages have a direct immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.The media (needle) injects the message into the audience mind and it causes changes in the audience behavior and psyche towards the message

Cultivation theory 

 Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television.The theory states that a high frequency viewers of television are more grown to believe that the media messages are real and valid
Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore  they are more affected and the world is a far dangerous place 

Desensitisation theory 

The audience reactions towards violence, death is a lot weaker which can lead less fear and sensitivity to violence and aggressive behaviors.

Modelling or copycat theory

This is when the audience  copy what they have seen on tv, films or video games. Example of stuff the audience have copied is murders,violence.

Uses and gratifications theory 

This theory is how the audience use the media not how the media effects us.It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives

research and planning- regulations and censorship

I'm making my film trailer a 12 so it can be shown on TV so more of an audience can see it. This means it can be advertised more widely.



my film will be rated 15 because of the contents involved in the film.
The film will contain strong language, and horror content which is unsuitable for people under the age of 15  

Research and planing- anaylsis of The ring

The second trailer i am analyising is 'The Ring' it was brought out in 2002 and was rated 15.

Genre
As i talked about in my Amityville horror analysis, Steve Neale's theory there is typical horror elements within the trailer that are repeated, in this trailer there is a repetition of death and the talk of Death. The trailer has a mixture of low and high key lighting but whenever the film gets more scary or somebody watches the video tape the lighting is low key to add to the tension.I also can tell it is a Horror genre because of the music used, when a clip is being shown the music adds to it to make it 10 times scarier.

Representation
As in the last analysis i talked about how the camera was looked through the males eyes, and i think in this trailer its true at the start as its mostly the women  who watch the video tape and the ones who die in seven days, this shows women are the weaker ones because they've been targeted and also women are daft enough to watch the video tape.
Also the main character which is a women is a single parent that is running round after her child, which from the males point of view is normal and women should be a typical house wife. 
It then starts to change around towards the middle and end of the film as a man is killed which shows that men are just as weak then the main character (a woman) works out how to stop the video tape from killing people which shows that this woman is powerful enough to do this.

Narrative
The story behind the trailer is anybody who watches the video tape, gets a phone call straight after saying there going to die in seven days, so then in seven days the male/female dies. Until a women who's niece died from watching the tape, decides to watch the tape herself. But instead of waiting seven days for herself to die she decides to investigate into the tape and find out how she can stop anybody else including herself dying.

Audience 
The film is aimed at 15 and above because there is clips that are
- gory
- frightening
- involve death
The target audience of the film is aimed at both men and women, but more for a younger audience because it has characters such as teenagers so that will make them more interested.

Media Language
Cinematography
- The trailer starts with a close up showing the audience the video tape, which is the main point to the film, it then moves onto a close up of the girl explaining what happens when you watch the video tape, the close up shows the facial expressions of the girls and how scared they are because they have just watched the video tape.
-There is a conversation between the mum and son about the girl telling her son she knew she was going to die, again it is close up shots to show the facial expressions, and to show the worry and confusion as to how the girl knew she was going to die. 
-There is a long shot of a stand that's full of videos but then the camera zooms into the video tape that is the one that is known to kill the person who watched it.
- There is a slow motion close up of the women putting the video tape into her bag.
- There's then a over the shoulder shot to show the women watching the video tape this is then followed by the camera zooming in on a close up of the phone ringing.
- A mid shot then shows the women answering the phone, the mid shot allows you to see the worry on the woman's face when she hears she only has seven days to live.
- The same process of the close up of the phone and the over the shoulder shots whilst the man watches the video.
- There's then close a close up of the son drawing pictures and then close up of pictures the son has drawn before, from the images this tells the audience the son knows something about the video.
- The camera flicks through different clips that have different shot types to show what is happening throughout the film but not giving too much away, just enough to make the audience want to watch the film.

Sound
- It starts with a voice over whilst the video is being shown, and its a girl explaining what happens if you watch the video, it then moves onto dialogue continuing to explain to her friend what is going to happen now she has watched the video tape
- Voice overs are used throughout the trailer to keep the audience informed what is happening and going on in the trailer.
-There is sound effects used such as the phone ringing
- There is off screen dialogue when the person on the phone tells the person who watched the tape they are going to die in seven days. Because the audience can't see the person on the other side of the phone it gets there imagination going, and they start wondering what that person looks like.
- The music used adds to whats happening on screen and makes its seem a lot more scary 

Editing
- The clip of the video being shown fades to the girl talking about the tape and the camera does shot reverse shots to show the conversation between the two friends.
-There's then a series of jump cuts where the son and mum are talking about Katie who died from watching the tape to the night where Katie watched the tape and the seven days after it, it keeps flicking back and fourth to it each of the scenes.
-There's then a jump cut to the clip of  the video stand and then another one straight after to show the woman putting it in her bag then another folowing it showing her watching the tape then the final jump cut showing the phone ringing , these jump cuts are very simple to follow and explain whats happening in a simple way .
- the trailer then uses many more jump cuts to show whats happening over a period of time, it flicks through very quickly.

Mise en scene 
- The facial expressions from the characters are always shown as quite worried or scared and if the characters show the fear then the audience will feel it for them and be more involved what is going on in the film.
-The locations used seem just day to day places at the start of the film , for example a school. Then as the film continues the locations become unusual like a mental hospital and a lighthouse, these sort of locations are a lot more interesting so keep the audience on edge as to why the characters are in that certain location  

Research and planning- anaylsis of amityville horror

The first trailer I'm going to analysis is ' The Amity ville Horror ' it was brought out in 2005 and was rated a 15. The film was based on true story and the real-life paranormal experiences of the Lutz family. I chose this trailer because it had a similar based story to my idea for my trailer.

Genre
Steve Neale's theory was "Genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations" this means what typical horror elements are in the trailer, that make the viewer know what the genre is.In this trailer the lighting starts of high key lighting all nice and bright but throughout the film the lighting turns to low key lighting, it gets darker to show how the mood of the house is changing. This music in the background also shows a change, at first it starts all soothing and calm then as soon as the lighting changes the music becomes very dark and builds up the tension of the trailer.

Representation 
There is a theory said by Laura Mulvey that the camera is shown through the males eyes, the trailer shows this in someway but not in others. The way it doesnt't show it is the husband of the family is the one who becomes possesed, and normally we would expect it to be the wife because women are the more weak and vulderable ones as apposed to the man  . The way the camera does show the male gaze is when the wife is scared and frightened of whats going on in the house, but because the husband  is sterotyped as a powerful male he decides the family aren't leaving the house and the wife has no choice, another way in which the camera is shown through the male gaze is the wife is sterotyped as a typical house wife who cleans, looks after the children and looks after her husband.

Narrative
The story behind the trailer is a normal family move into a massive gorgeous house for very cheap price, the reason the house was so cheap was because there was a murder within the house but the fmaily continued to go along with buying the property. Over the next 28 days of the family living in the house, they hear strange noises, the little girl starts to see dead people and finally the husband turns possesed. The story links up very much to the genre as the story line throughout is quite jumpy and keeps the

Audience
This film is aimed at ages 15 and older because there is scenes that are
-frightening 
-full of gore
-jumpy
The target audience of the film is aimed at both men and women, as there's nothing in the trailer that appeals to a gender more than the other,the person watching the film would have to be interested in watching scary gory films to enjoy it.

Media Language 
Cinematography
-The trailer starts with a bird eye view following the car with the wife and husband in, it shows them driving to the house there going to buy. There's then a birds eye view over the house to show how big it is.
- There's then a low angle shot of inside the house to show how much of a grand house it really is,
- There's then loads of jump cuts showing different rooms in the house, in every room there's either a long shot to show of the room or a close up of there faces to show how happy they are.
-There's then flashbacks of the murder that happened in the house, close ups are used to show story's inside the newspaper and to show the gun trigger being pulled this is when the film begins to become scary.
- The house is then shown at night from a low angle, the low key lighting gives of the effect that its a horror genre and makes the film more intense.
- A wide shot then shows the family all happy inside the house.
-The camera then pan's following the mum and she walks into her daughters room, as the mum carries on walking the camera stops on a dead little girl sat on the chair.
-There's then an over the shoulder shot when the mum is talking to the girl about the dead girl sitting on the chair, the camera is slightly tilted down to the girl which indicates the mum is looking down on her daughter on what she is saying.
-There's a close up of a mirror with low key lighting showing a girl running past fast.
- There's loads of different close ups, mid shots, long shots that flick through quickly and show whats happening in the house over a period of time.

Sound 
- The trailer starts with a voice over this is non diagetic sound, it explains to the audience what is happening, there is many voice overs throughout the clip to keep the audience informed what is going on in the trailer and help them understand what the film is about.
-Behind the voice over there is soothing calm music which tells the audience everything is good and happy.
-The music then changes from soothing music to more intense music when there finding about the murder in the house, this informs the audience that the mood has changed and is no longer a calm happy mood.
-There is sound effects such as gun shots and children laughing, this adds to the tension of the film and makes the audience keep watching.
- Throughout the trailer there is dialogue to just keep the audience informed in everything the trailer is showing.

Editing
- First there's a fade from the birds eye view of the car to inside the car, to show what the birds eye view was showing.
- There's then a jump cut to show the house to show what they were talking about in the car.
- There's then several jump cuts that flick through very quickly to show the murder that happened before the family moved in, in between each shot a black screen is shown.
- Writing appears on the screen with a black background at 0.17, 0.46 and 0.55 to tell the audience important information, for example its based on a true story.
-  There's about 30 seconds of shots fading into other shots , firstly there's a shot from outside the house fading to inside the house then fading to inside the daughters bedroom where the mum and daughter are talking, there's shot reverse shots to show the conversation between them both.
 - There's also shot reverse shots when the wife is talking to the vicar about the house which is then followed by loads of jump cuts that show things happening in the house over a period of time 

Mise-en-scene
-The clothes the characters wear are quite bright and modern but when the characters want to be shown as dead towards the audience,(like the little girl) they wear quite dark old fashioned clothes.When the flashbacks are shown the costumes used are all very old fashioned,this is to make sure the audience understand that the clips shown are from back in the day.
- The lighting used starts of as high key lighting to show that the family are happy but it soon turns to low key lighting which adds to the tension of the film and makes it more scary to the audience.
-The location used is a house that's very isolated, the location makes the audience feel more on the edge of there seat because they know in an isolated house something scary is going to happen.

Research and planning- audience research poll

research and planning - interviews

We interviewed a few people , asking questions about our pitch and to help us decide what would be best for our trailer.

From the interviews I found out
- Films that have a scary setting and jumpy are the more scary films
- Films that are based on a true story are more scarier than a fiction film
- They would find an open dark field a lot scarier than a haunted house
- The target audience would prefer teenage characters
- The target audience said different choices for the film ratings, so i would go for a 15 so its not as scary as an 18 but not scary at all as a 12.
- Films that have intense music adds to the scare factor 

resarch and planning- interview questions

1. What makes a horror film scary to you?
2. Do you find films based on a true story scarier than fiction?
3.What would you find scarier - a haunted house or an open field?
4.Do you find it more interesting if the film had younger teenage characters or older characters?
5.Have you seen the blair witch project, if so do you find it scary?
6. Have you seen Amity ville Horror, if so do you find it scary?
7.Would you rather watch a horror film that's rated 12,15,18 ?
8.Do you think intense music adds to the scariness?  

resaerch and planning- photoshop challenge

For my Photoshop challenge i had to create a movie poster, to create this poster i had to
- add text
- cut out the film rating number with the magnetic tool
- edit text to make it look more effective
- use a website to do the font for my text about directors and who presented the film
- cut out a scary girl with the magnetic tool and fade it into the background with the opacity tool

Research and planning-pitch

This is my pitch it has two ideas for my trailer, for each idea I've wrote about the plot, the locations, the sound effects, cinematography and what i need to learn to achieve the effect i want in these trailers. i've also wrote which is going to be a full trailer and which is going to be a teaser trailer.

Research and planning - the chase

We created a small clip to show a chase, when i watched it back there was a few bad points about my video were

- The camera was very wobbly throughout the clip so next time I would use a tripod
- There was a lot of jump cuts used throughout so next time I would use different editing
- As the camera walks up to the door, due to the sun you can see the reflection
- The sound in the background doesn't match up with the conventions of the chase