In the brief of our coursework we were asked to produce 3 media products: a film magazine, a horror poster and a horror trailer. My research about existing media product’s conventions inspired me to produce my own products and the development and production of my products would be based on my research. The first step I took for the research was to go on youtube and look at the trailers and posters from the horror film I have seen, these were: The uninvited, Disturbia, What lies beneath, On missed call, The blair witch project, Saw, Amitville, My bloody valentine, Paranormal activity, Wolf creek,  The crazies, The strangers and Final destination. This is what they have in common: blood, death, victims, villain, isolated settings, evil, darkness, monsters, haunted houses, killing, weapons, storms, chase sequences, violence and screams. Some of these findings I decided to use them for my own media products.

TRAILER

To produce our trailer, we were mainly inspired by “The uninvited” trailer (Shown above). We wanted to create a similar storyline, but at the same time we wanted to challenge its conventions by creating our own ones. Our aim was to make it realistic so the audience can identify with it and to create suspense as in my questionnaire SUSPENSE was the kind of films the majority of my audience would like to watch.

Firstly, we followed the convention of using text to outline the story. This is why we decided to put little of dialogue so the trailer did not become too narrative. The following trailer if from “Teeth” and it inspired us as well to include narrative text:

As I said above,we wanted to follow some of our findings from our research, therefore, we thought that BLOOD was a very important and one of the main symbol of horror so we include a scene of some hands full of blood as the last scene of the whole trailer so the audience ask themselves “who where these hands of? and why they were full of blood?”. The following video is from “My bloody valentine” trailer and we could see some hands with blood:

We also decided to include a VICTIM throughout our trailer, as in “the uninvited” trailer, we did this with the main character “Lucy” (Me) and we did this by showing her isolated on the first scenes of the trailer, then another scene of her talking to her psychologist,  then she is running alone through a hospital, then she was having trouble sleeping, etc. In addition, we use the convention of DEATH by filming a scene at the graveyard. A VILLAIN was another finding from our research and we tried to show it at the end of the trailer where there is a guy hiding something by throwing it to  the river, this could be an evidence of a murder he did, we also try to include here a WEAPON which the villain used for the murder and he was hiding it. STORMS we tried to show it with filming during cloudy days. HUNTED HOUSES we tried to include it in our trailer through the scene of “Lucy” (Me) when she is tidying her hair up, you can see clearly that she is in her bedroom and suddenly she moves and you can see that someone appears on her back and then disappears again. The following video from “Amitville” trailer is an example of hunted houses:

We decided to add “COLD SPRING PRESENTS” because we found it in “The uninvited” trailer along with “Disturbia”.

However, one of the conventions we challenged was that the name of our trailer UNREALITY which was shown close to the middle, and in “the uninvited” trailer, and several other trailers, there name of the film is shown at the end of the trailer.

We also decided to create a sense of disorientation in the scenes in the cantine when Anna is walking and suddenly the next scene a different girl is walking whereas Anna is just standing.

POSTER

To create my own poster, I was again inspired by “The uninvited” poster. I followed some of its conventions and I also followed some other poster conventions. Firstly, I decided to use a similar picture because I wanted to hide the identity. I did not use a window because I wanted my to be original, so I made mine as the girl is looking at the audience and make the audience question where the girl is and why is she looking at them. The audience could see that she is in a creepy place because of the trees and with some sort of fog. The obscured face is creepy because if the audience stare at the face they could feel that the face will come out and scare them. Another convention I have used was the creepy font and I could find this in most of horror posters. For example:

Furthermore, I also decided to include some font in red colour to represent blood and death. I found that this is a common convention of horror posters. The following poster is an example of this convention:

Most of horror posters have dark edges so the audiences focus on the middle of the poster. I have decided to do this in mine so the audience focus on the girl. I also think that this is a technique to make the poster look dark and also to make it more look black and white. The “Amityville” is one of the horror poster where I found the dark and shaded edges:

In the amytyville poster there is a tag line below the name of the film, and this is a very common conventions of film posters and I decided to use it by putting “what you don’t know may shock you”. My poster also includes the release date of the film which is a common convention of film posters. However, I have included the “names of the characters” and this is not a common convention, but I wanted to challenge it so I included them on the top of my poster with a creepy font and red colour and this connotes that this characters may either died, kill or be evils in the film.

MAGAZINE

For my film magazine, I was mainly inspired by “Total film” magazine. I have found this front cover which specifically matched what I wanted to produce because it is promoting a horror film. One of the findings from this magazine front cover is that to promote a horror magazine I could include a creepy and scary picture, as Total film magazine does by including an evil model with blood in her hand. So I have chosen the same picture I have used for my poster because it is scary and also because I wanted the promotion of my film to work well and keep consistency. However, I did not want to have exactly the same image of my poster because I thought it would be too simple so I decided to take rid of the black around the girl and the background. I also did this because I did want my magazine to be over charged with too much as a background and it would not work well. One of the conventions I used from Total film was the use of shapes, I decided I wanted to include shapes in my front cover and I also wanted to challenge this convention so instead of using an arrow. I used the symbol of a movie reel to represent more the genre of my magazine. Furthermore, the name of the film that my magazine is promoting (UNREALITY) has a big size of font because normally most of film magazines does this to grab the audience’s attention, an example of this:

What I wanted for my film magazine was to make it creepy with the image but at the same time to keep it professional as a film magazine. I did this through the colours and type of font I have used for EXCLUSIVE and for the other headings, because they suit film magazines. I have only used a creepy font for the name of the film and this matches the image. Another convention of film magazines that I have used was that they all include a small description under the name of the film that it is promoting. This is to persuade the audience to read about the film inside the magazine. For example:

All of these 3 film magazine front covers placed the model in front of the name of the magazine and I did the same. This is to make the film important and significant and also it means that the magazine is popular and even though the audience cannot read the name properly they know which magazine is. A common convention which I used was that magazine front covers normally include bar code, price and date of issue, I did this because I wanted my film magazine to look professional.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product (trailer) and ancillary texts (Film Poster, Film Mag Cover)?

I consider that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts work well because there is a consistency throughout them. There is a link for a number of reasons. First, the text I included on the poster and the magazine with the name of the film, is white and the font type is bold for both, and  the text I have used for the trailer is also white and with bold font. The images I have used for the magazine and the poster are very similar. The tag line is a very  important link of the 3 products because in the poster I put “what you don’t know may shock you”, then in the magazine I put “exclusive interview with the directors” and then “what you don’t know ABOUT THEM may shock you”, and there is clearly a link there. This tag line goes with the trailer and the name UNREALITY because if something is unreal you find it hard to believe. In the text we put that something happened that changed the relationship with this 2 girls, and what happened may shock the audience. Lastly, I think that my 3 media products create a a sense of suspense and fear. They leave questions to the audience and the audience may want to find out more. The hidden identity of the girl in the poster and the magazine, and then in the trailer not knowing what happened between these 2 girls (sisters) and who the killer (if there is) really is, leave intrigue to the audience.

3) What have you learned from audience feedback?

I have learned from the audience’s feedback what should I improve for my next media production in the future. It helped me to understand what is good or whats bad of my trailer, poster and trailer andto identify my weakness and strengths as well. In addition, the audience feedback was so useful not only to understand more the common conventions of these media products, but to understand and gain knowledge about what really makes the audience happy and what they are expecting to see in media products. I have realized how vital this is (what satisfies the audience) for any kind of media text because the audience is the aim of media products and in order for the products to be successful and effective, most of the audience’s needs or wants should be met. Producers need to know this before releasing any kind of media text. We learned that we cannot think or focus only on our ideas and on what we think, but to think about the audience as well. I think that that was one of our mistakes. For instance, we realized that only us could understand the storyline of our trailer very well, because for the audience was difficult and they thought that “the storyline was vague”. The audience thought that some of the scenes did not make sense.

On the other hand, I thought that that the picture I used for the poster and the magazine did not match very well the name of the film unreality. However, I have learned from the audience’s feedback that the picture I used was successful and effective in terms of being scary. In order to be more successful and effective when promoting a film, every media text needs to work well with each other and must have a meaning in relation to the name of film and what the film is about.

Overall, I have used audience feedback to measure the success of my objectives. They said that there is a suspense in my trailer, that it was interesting because there is a variety of scenes and locations and that the text helps the audience to understand he story, this tells me that my objectives were successfully met. However, I was disappointed as one of my most important objectives which was to create fear (to meet an important horror trailer convention) was not as successful because the audience thought that it was not scary and they did not feel fear about it.

4) How did you use technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

For the construction, research planning and evaluation I have used a number of technologies. These were: blog (wordpress), the internet (google), youtube, filming equipment, imovie and photoshop.

Research

For my research, the main technology I have used was google and youtube. I mainly researched about existing media products. I used youtube several times to look at other horror trailers and to find horror music/sounds. I researched on google to find more information about horror and common conventions. 

Construction

This is the stage where I used technology the most. Photoshop was extremely useful when designing and producing my horror poster and film magazine; I used several of its features that I needed to make my products to look how I wanted them to look.

Imovie was another software that we used for the editing of our trailer; it helped us to add special effects and music that contribute in meeting horror conventions.

To film and produce all the scenes that we wanted to include in our trailer we used 3 equipments; a filming camera, a tripod and a microphone. However the microphone was not always available for us to use therefore we struggle to hear the voices/dialogue in some of the scenes. The tripod made our shots to look more professional. In addition, we used digital camers in order to take pictures during the filming of our scenes.

Evaluation

For this stage, I mainly used the blogs technology. It was easy to use and to understand. I also had the opportunity to make screen shots of my work and show this as an evidence in my blogs. The blogs were so useful in terms of writing every detail about every stage of the production of my media products. In my blogs I not only included screenshots, but also videos, images from internet and a graph from my questionnaire. I used youtube to upload my trailer so I could show it on my blogs as well.

After we finished our trailer, we showed it to our class and this was the feedback we got:

Positive

“The music creates suspense”

“The hands with blood represents horror”

“There is a variety of shots and places, which makes the trailer interesting”

” The text outlines the story”

Negative

“The storyline of the whole trailer is vague”

“The trailer doesn’t create much fear”

“Lack of dialogue”

“Some of the scenes were too long”

My first impression with imovie was that it was complicated to use. There were too many ways to edit and I did not have experience on how to use them. But as we got along in using this software, we started learning how to use it and I ended up finding easy and simple to use. It has several ways to edit clips in terms of colours of the image and transitions effects. We could also add text into our trailer easily; we could even change the colour and the type of the font, and the movement of the text. I believe that imovie is easy to split/ clips or the music, and we could just drag each piece of clip or music into wherever we want them to be. However, it thought that to edit the music was a little difficult and it took me time to learn how to do it properly. Here we were editing the music:

ISSUES DURING THE EDITING PROCESS

The first issues we had during the editing process were that all of our first filming was not useful. We realized that just after we uploaded our filming in imovie and started looking at them in big screen. When we started deciding which clips we wanted to have and then editing them, they did not make sense. Some of them were useful, but we decided that we needed more scenes and shots. We also thought that we needed to be more specific with our storyline and make sure we follow it and also we had to make sure that we meet our shot list. Another problem we faced was that we wanted to use the “slow motion” feature for some of our scenes but it did not work so we just decided to leave that until the end and see if our teacher could help us in how to do it or if there were other ways to do it through different softwares. We also found it difficult to put the scenes in the right place, so we kept on changing them until we followed the storyline we wanted to show through our trailer. Furthermore, we realized that our trailer was too long so we had to cut down few seconds from most of every scene and this took us long. Lastly, we had issues when editing the music because the music that we imported was 5 minutes long and we only needed 1 minute and few seconds, so it took us long to get the parts that we wanted from the song, then to put them into the right scenes and at the same time they have to sound right all together. The trailer ended up being  1 minute with 44 seconds.

SHOTS TO INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE

We decided to choose the shots that had the best acting, the best shot and camera angle. These shots also had to have the right idea that we wanted to portray to the audience. The shots that we excluded were poor quality in terms of lighting, camera shot and angle, acting and also some of them had shaky movements.

GETTING THE AUDIENCE INTERESTED

We did not want to show who the killer was. Instead, we show the killer as “innocent” and least suspicious so the audience can see the twist at the end of the film. We also gave away information through the text between scenes such as “she meant every for her, but then everything changed and it would never be the same again”, this gives a sense of suspense and the audience would want to know what happened. We also created this suspense through filming a scene at the graveyard and also a scene of a fire, but we don’t show what exactly happened and who died. We also showed and include the girl who died on the film in our trailer, so the audience doesn’t know that she died until they watch the whole film and see the twist at the end.

We wanted to create a scene of a fire somehow in out trailer, but because this was a little hard for us to do, we decided to search for horror trailers in youtube to find a scene of a fire so then we could extract it and put it into our trailer.We found one in the trailer of “The Crazies”. It was short and quick because we did not want to show much to the audience so we don’t make it very obvious. You could find it in the following video in the minute 1:08.

CREATING A SENSE OF FEAR

To create fear, we filmed a scary shot of hands full of “blood” and we edited the colour of this scene by changing the colour of the image by making darker. We also found a song that created suspense and fear throughout the scenes. The text we included between some scenes had colour red which connotes horror and death. A scene on the grave yard we thought that was creepy and also most of the scenes were filmed during cloudy days. Another scene that we used to create fear on the trailer was when the main character was on the mirror and when she moved a bit to a side, we could see someone behind her on the reflection of the mirror. The transitions we used the most was “shade in” and “shade out” between each scene. We also used a transition effect called “dessintegrate” which looks like scene is burning and this represents the fire.

Here we decided to change the text from red to white because we realized that in existing horror trailers, in general, there is no use of red text. White is more legible and clear to read.

For my horror poster I have chosen the same image I have used for my horror magazine front cover because I wanted it to work well with my poster and my trailer to produce an effective marketing campaign.

RESEARCH

I have researched through looking at other posters. Particularly, I have looked at “The uninvited” film poster because our trailer was inspired by this movie, so I wanted to transmit a similar message to the audience. I thought it was great to hide the identity of the model and to create a sense of mystery to the audience, because they do not know who the killer is. However, I was inspired by other These are the posters I have looked at that inspired me to create my own poster:

The uninvited poster:

*Looks creepy with the face obscured

*Shows a dark secret

*It seems like the girl is looking in the house trying to figure out “why she was not invited”

*The poster is scary because if the audience stare at the face for a long time they may feel that the face is going to come out

*The text in front of her face may be a little distracting

*The font is associated with horror as it is distorted

*This poster involves the audience because it feels as if the girls is looking at them

The ring poster:

*The picture clearly shows “The ring” connoting what the film is about

*Again the face of the little girl is obscured which makes the poster creepy

*The image looks as if part of a video

*It looks like the girls is sitting in an empty and dark room with only one light above her, connoting that shes a suspect and she has done something bad

One missed call poster:

*This poster is very creepy because from far away it looks like a skeleton, but if you look twice you can see that it is very ugly face. The eyes two screaming mouths. Then the mouth of the face has got big lips like a clown.

*The image is very dark. You can only see the front of the face. You can also see the hand holding a phone which represents the name the film.

*Again most of the text is white over the black which make it stand out and it also avoids the audience getting distracted, so they only focus on the image. There is also a little of red text and I found out that in most of the posters, the red is only used for a few of the text.

POSTER CONVENTIONS

• Text and name of the film is normally at the bottom of the poster
• The majority of horror film posters have black shaded edges and this is for the audience focus on the centre of the poster and also to create a scary
• The colour red is used often for the fonts because it connotes blood
• The colour white for the text is used when the background is black, to makes it really stand out

I have used some of this research in order to meet some of the horror conventions through my poster. I have decided to make my poster dark by making the face of the girl obscured. I have also researched for creepy fonts and made some of the text red to represent blood and death. I thought to make the edges of my poster black and shading to make it darker.

To create the right horror mood for my poster, I have used a number of techniques and tools in photoshop. You can see this in the PROGRESSION section below.

PROGRESSION

This is the original picture which I have used for my poster; the model is me.

I have edited this image by changing its exposure, contrast, temperature and saturation because I wanted to make my face dark so the audience cannot see it or identify who she is, this connotates suspense and makes the picture mysterious. I was inspired by the poster from “The uninvited”

Then I deleted the background because I just wanted the audience to focus on the girl. Then I  added a plain black background.

I have added some text: “in theaters in may” and I got the font which I thought it looked creepy from http://www.fontspace.com/the-fontry/droeming. I thought that the picture looked too simple on its own so I added a picture of Anna who is the second main character of the film.

I did not like how the 2 pictures worked together so I deleted mine one. I have found another font from http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=3134 which I have used it for “unreality”, I thought it was creepy too. I added a background of a creepy tree with a dark red colour; I thought it worked well with the the picture of Anna but not with my image.

I decided to keep my picture as I am the main character in the film. I thought the plain white background worked well with the picture because it makes it stand out. I changed the colour of some of the text to red to represent blood and death. I added a black shadow around the poster because through my research I found out that most of horror posters have them. this effect makes the audience to focus on the middle of the poster.

I thought that the white background although it made the girl stand out, it was a bit simple and boring. Also it made the poster to look too bright and I wanted it dark. So I made it grey to see how it looks and I liked it, I thought that the girl still stands out.

THE FINAL ONE. To create mise on scene I decided to add something on the background and because I was inspired from “The uninvited” poster, which has some trees as the background, I decided to search for “trees photoshop brushes” on the internet and I found some on http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/1312-Complete-Tree-Brush-Pack. I decreased the opacity of the brushes so the girl still stands out.

FEEDBACK

Positive

“Is very dark, I would definitely think that it is a horror poster”

“The background is creepy and it makes the girl stand out”

“It feels like the girl is looking at viewer and that is what makes it creepy”

Negative

“The red is too bright, I could have been darker so it looks like blood more”

“The size of the text is too big and it takes the attention away from the reader”

“The name of the film doesn’t match the poster”

Before creating and producing my film magazine I have researched through looking at other film magazines such as Total Film, Empire and Gorezone. I went through their front covers and content, in order to find out how film magazines conventions and how they attract the audience.

FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER CONVENTIONS:

• The title is clearly displayed, with large and bold font
• Famous actors/images used to focus the audience
• Phrases like “Worlds biggest movie magazine” from Empire magazine or “The ultimate movie magazine” from Total Film magazine or “Worldwide No. 1 horror entertainment mag” from Gorezone magazine. These phrases are used to attract audience and different form other film magazines.
• The actor/image represents the film that is being advertised. The name of the film or the name of the actor would be shown as the main issue, with large and bold font and with a noticeable colour.

USING THE FINDINGS

I have used these finding to produce my own magazine. I did this by following common conventions and at the same time I have attempted to make my magazine different from existing magazines. An example of this is that I have included shapes of movie symbols.

Gorezone was the most specific magazine in relation to my trailer as it is a horror film magazine. It helped me in terms of image/picture, colours and fonts used, and how these together represent horror and attract the audience. However, I have decided that my magazine was not only going to be aimed at horror films as the audience would be too limited. Therefore, I have produced my film magazine mainly inspired by Total Film, but it would also include conventions from each of these other film magazines.

My film magazine would advertise my horror movie by using horror font style which its a common convention of Gorezone, using horror font style through out its front covers.

I have chosen a mysterious picture as the background image because I was inspired by one of the Total Film magazine front cover.

In addition, I would attempt to create a professional look the rest of the headings and sub-headings, and will not only use colours like “red” as it connotates horror, and my magazine is not only for horror movies. The master head of my magazine would be big as well. I have decided that my magazine would be called “Exclusive” as it has special film publications that do not appear in any other film magazine. The gold colour of the master head represts the best and quality.

MISE EN SCENE

Lighting: I did not use any kind of lighting because I was standing outdoor during day time. The day was cloudy. I was behind a window door and the photographer was inside. I told the photographer to turn the flash off so there was not any reflect in the window.

Position of the camera: middle camera angle and at my eye level. It creates the impression that the viewer is on the same level. It is usually seen as ‘normal’ but can also be used to bring the viewer closer to the action.

Character figure and performance: my position is to be standing as if I am looking inside the door. I have my hands in my face as if I am trying to get away from the light. This gives the sense of me looking at the audience. Also, this position is to represent the name of the film, and it does this because it looks like the girl is getting away from the reality and she cannot believe that things are happening to her.

Custom: ordinary clothe

Props: I needed a camera and a tripod. I asked my friend to be standing behind the door from far away so you can’t see her reflection on the window. I had to be standing outside.

ENSURING THAT THE MAGAZINE AND THE POSTER WORK WELL

To ensure that this magazine cover works well with my poster and my trailer to produce an effective part of a marketing campaign for the release of the original film, I have used the same font style for the name of the film “The uninvited” and with a large size. I have also edited the image similarly; I have made the face of the actress dark so the audience cannot identify clearly who she is and to create a “mysterious identity”.

PROGRESSION OF MY FILM MAGAZINE

I started with “cinema” as the name of my magazine but I thought it was too simple and obvious. I put a yellow banner because  I wanted to see how a movie reel behind the headline looks like. The second thing I added was the name of the my horror film with the same type of font from the poster. I knew roughly where I wanted to place it.

I researched on the internet for movie reels and this is the one I found. I decided to reduce its opacity so the audience does not get distracted with it.

I researched on the internet for “theater fonts” and I found one in http://www.fontspace.com/category/theater. I decided to name my magazine EXCLUSIVE and I put a gold colour because I thought I would stand out and match the picutre. I added text above the name of the magazine to follow common conventions of existing film magazines. Them I added a picture of me, but then I thought that it didn’t work well with my poster as with this picture the audience could identify who the girl is, but with the picture from the poster they can’t, and that was my aim to hide the identity to make it creepy. Afterwards, I edited the name of the film by making it bigger and with shadow so it stands out, without the shadow you are not able to read it properly. I have decided to include another movie symbol so I researched on the internet and i found this. I though that it would represent “review of the year” films and I changed its opacity so the audience did not get too distracted with it. I decided to make all of the headings gold to match the title, but I made the “iron man” heading red to represent the film.

I put the image from the poster and I wanted it to cover most of the magazine front cover to make it creepy and to grab audience’s attention. I added more text on the bottom right of the magazine to follow a convention of films magazines and by also adding a plus symbol “+” instead of writing it. I made the text red to match it with the iron man heading and to make it stand out as well.

This is the final one. I added more text bellow the name of my horror film because I wanted to add more description about the film to attract more the audience to watch the film and get them more interested to read about it inside the magazine. I made the “Jonny Depp” heading green because I thought the colours in general where boring and too simple, so I wanted to have a variety of colours to keep the readers entertained.

MAGAZINE FEEDBACK

Positive

“Is very good, I like the picture because it is scary, the unreality font promotes the film because it is a horror type of font”

“I could see straight away that it is a film magazine”

“The name and the picture match because they are both creepy”

“There is a lot to see and keeps the reader busy”

“Well structured and organized layout”

Negative

“Font type and colour of EXCLUSIVE is not suitable for a film magazine, a different type of font should haven been used”

“The colour green is out of place”

“There should have been a colour because white is too simple and plain”

“The REVIEW OF THE YEAR should have been smaller because it takes away the attention from the reader too much as it has nearly the same size of UNREALITY”

1. Age?

16-20 5

21-25 3

26-30 3

2. Gender?

Female 6

Male 5

3. Do you like horror films?

Yes 8

No 3

4. If you don’t like horror films then what is it that you don’t like about them?

Most of them are well not scary at all, stupid plotted, acting is horrible, and they seem to have no point.

I hate slasher films that just depend on gore to deliver the scares. Thats not scary to me.

I don’t like getting scared. Horror films can affect me because I can get scared when I’m on my own.

5. What kind of horror film do you like to watch?

Slasher

Thriller

Suspense

Psychological horror movies

Supernatural (vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts and zombies)

Modern horror films

6. What is it that you like about horror films?

Being thrilled

I like it when horror films get under your skin and make you think about what is going on

Love being scared because it keeps be entertain

7. Is there anything that you would find inappropriate to watch in a horror film?

Bad acting, horrible story, unnecessary violence (like Saw)

I hate it when there is nudity that is totally irrelevant to the plot

8. What sort of things do you expect to see when you watch a horror film?

Good story and some great scares/twists

To be good, realistic, acted well, executed well

Suspense, good atmosphere, good to great acting

I expect to be scared, shocked, and most of all, entertained

9. Do have a favourite actor/actress that you like to see in horror films

Rachael McAdams : Great actress, and completely genuine

Julianne moore

Naomi watts from The Ring

10. What is your favourite horror film?

Misery, The Descent, The Exorcist, Blair Witch Project, Saw 1

11. What is your least favourite horror film?

Saw, The Boogeyman, Saw IV, Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake

12. How do you like to find out about horror films (please state why)

Previews before movies, and the internet

Through a scary ad campaign

Magazines

13. Where do you like to watch horror films? (please state why)

Movie theaters. Watching scary movies with a huge crowd is always fun.

In the dark because its the best atmosphere. Creates a horror film ‘mood’

The main problems we encountered were related to the acting, sometimes we could not get the expression we wanted to get or the dialogue, so we had to repeat the scene a number of times. Also, we had to film a scene with different camera shots and angle until they look right. Sometimes by mistake we did not frame a shot correctly, for example we cut the head of the actor, so we had to repeat the scene again. We had to do more filming a number of times because we needed to cover all of our shotlist. It was also hard to agree with what we wanted to film because we were 4 in our group and we all had different ideas, so we decided to discuss them and choose the best idea. For some of the scenes, such as the one at the graveyard, the first time we wanted to do it it started to rain so we had to postpone it. In addition, for some of the scenes we were not complete as a group meaning that one or two of the group were missing so it was difficult to film and to discuss the scenes.

WHAT WORKED WELL AND BAD

What always worked well was that we always had the tripod available for us and we knew how to use it very well, so our scenes could look more professional as they were not shaky. We also decided to carry out our shotlist so we knew exactly what to do without wasting any time.

What did not work well was that for the dialogue, we did not have a microphone so when it came to edit the trailer, we could not hear the voices properly. Furthermore, even if we had our shotlist, well planed, when it came to filming them sometimes we did not like them so we had change the shotlist in terms of camera shot, camera angle or dialogue.

PICTURES DURING FILMING

These are pictures of the scene when Lucy (Romina) was feeling ignored and left out by her sister Anna. The scene was filmed in the cantine of our college.

These are pictures of the scene that was taken in the hospital where Lucy (Romina) is running through a corridor.

These pictures are from the scene when Lucy (Romina) is in her bedroom and while shes doing her hair, she suddenly sees Anna reflection in the mirror, as shes standing behind Lucy.

• Camera
• Tripod
• Anna wearing her red bag
• Romina wearing red

SHOTLIST

•    (Location: tvu) A long shot of everyone hugging ana and then a close up of lucy feeling left out.  Anna has to wear the red bag and the pink scarf.
•    Flashback of fire (youtube)
•    (Location: tvu) Medium shot of lucy, walking on her on, isolated
•    (At rominas house) Lucy sitting in the sofa, over the shoulder shot (very close to her so we cant see the dr clearly), the camera is panning slowly, from the dr to her. The dr is wearing a jacket, he is sitting down with a folder on his legs, and his legs are crossed. Here she says “I cant remember what happened”
•    Then an over the shoulder shot to show the dr talking. Here he says: it was a long time ago. You need to get over it. You have to move on’
•    (At rominas house) henna gives lucy some pills. Lucy says “I can’t get to sleep at night” then henna says: “ here are some pills that could help u sleep”. Over the shoulder shot of henna saying this and then a close up of hennas hand giving the pills. Anna is there next to lucy but henna never looks at her
•    (At sonias house) long shot of lucy going in to dans house. She falls asleep, the camera is panning slowly starting from lucys face moving to her feet and then we show dan standing they’re staring at her. In here lucy says some clues: “it wasn’t an accident” “no one knows what really happened” “I wish they knew he truth”
•    (At sonias house) Lucy wakes up all sweaty, zoom in to her face. Then a point of view of her hands full of blood.
•    (At rominas house) Medium shot of lucy going through dans stuff and anna will be there as well (looking at lucy and worried about her). A low camera angle and long shot showing lucy sneaking and investigating into dans house, she is upstairs, when she hears that dan comes in to the house, she stops walking, and when she carries on she makes some noises with the floor. Close up lucys foot and then close up of her face. We show a close up of dans face looking up and suddenly moves. In this scene “the lovely bones trailer” inspired us. Then long shot of lucy upstairs panicking, not knowing what to do and then the camera follows dan running upstairs.
•    (At the river) long shot of dan cleaning his hands with a towel and then he throws it to the river.
•    (At the graveyard) dan hugging lucy and anna would be sitting there looking down and upset. Establishing shot
•    (At the park) an establishing shot shows dan and lucy talking and anna would be swinging looking at them, here lucy asks dan “what if it wasn’t an accident?”. After this, anna and lucy start walking and then we show dan following lucy, close up of dans shoes with he camera moving. Lucy tells anna “don’t look back” “keep on walking”

Storyline of the film

Twins/sisters (anna and lucy) go to a camping holiday with friends for their 18th birthday. Anna is a bit more popular and is dating dan.

On the camping trip, lucy leaves the gas on while anna is sleeping. Their friends call anna but lucy answers and says anna is asleep and unwell to go out. She does this because she wants to have the attention for once.

She shuts the door and walks away from the cabin leaving lucy asleep. While anna is asleep and lucy and frinedfs are out at the local pub, they return to a burning cabin with anna dead.

Lucy blames herself because she is partly responsible, because she left the gas on and also didn’t wake anna up to go out with them for selfish reasons.

Lucy is plagued by her actions but never has the courage to confess what she had done because a part of her wanted her to be dead or at least not be around so she is scared someone will find out.

She goes to the doctor for help as she can’t sleep. He gives her sleeping pills. The effect of these is bad. It leads lucy to completely forget what she does in her sleep. When she sleeps she becomes anna and does terrible things. Anna is making lucy’s life hell to get revenge.

Dan comforts lucy and she gets close to him. She falls asleep at his house on the night of her 19th birthday and in her sleep gives clues as to what her part was in anna’s death. The audience and dan only hear snippets from her nightmare but it is enough to make dan suspicious. She says ‘I know the truth’ etc etc. the audience are led to believe that dan is the threat because he sneaked into the cabin to leave anna a surprise gift and on his way out, the door locked behind him meaning anna would be trapoped. However, it was lucy who left the gas on.

In the film and trailer we see dan following lucy and we think he is the threat when really, he is following her to get her to confess or to find clues that she killed lucy deliberately. Throughout the film, anna is with or near lucy. Only lucy can see anna but no one else can although this will only be revealed at the end of the film.

As the film continues, lucy becomes anna! And it is anna’s ‘spirit’ in lucy that makes lucy go mad.

The trailer

we know a girl from the group of friends has been killed.
Anna blows out the candle on the 18th birthday even though they are twins, lucy feels left out because everyone is hugging Anna and not her

Flashback of fire.

Lucy is isolated and withdrawn.

Lucy is spaced out at dr’s office as he says ‘it was a long time ago. You need to get over it. You have to move on’.
Henna gives lucy some sleeping pills and says they will help her. We perhaps think that henna is a suspicious character. In the trailer, lucy will always seem like a victim. Anna is in the background so we assume she’s a character but we don’t realise she is dead. (think bruce willis in the sixth sense)

Dan is the prime suspect.

Lucy sleeps at dans house and while shes asleep, she starts saying “clues” like “it wasn’t an accident” and dan is listening to this behind the door.

Lucy wakes up with her hands full of blood (point of view shot)

Dan cleans his hands with a towel and then he throws it in a river. Long shot

Graveyard scene: Dan hugging Lucy and Anna sitting there looking down and upset

Lucy and Anna walking. Dan is following Lucy and Lucy says to Anna “don’t look back keep on walking someone is following us”

Lucy goes to her dr and he says to her “shes dead, its been a year now lucy u need to move on”

Lucy says to dan “what if it wasnt an accident?”

Characters:

• Lucy (Romina)
• Anna (Anna)
• Dr. Silberling (Romina’s dad)
• Steven (Dan)
• Anna’s friends
• Henna (Henna)