Directors' Featurette

Evaluation 1

Evaluation 2

Evaluation 3

Evaluation 4

Evaluation Screening

Question Asked:

What did you like about the final trailer?

Answers Given:

- Good use of diegetic sound

- Pacing (x3)

- Good use of montage

- Knife sound effect

- Clear Narrative (x12)

- Good use of body horror (x11)

- Effective music (x10)

- Clever use of phallic symbol with knife

- Unique concept

- Inter-titles read well (x5)

- Effective jump scare (x6)

- Wheel shots added to narrative (x3)

- Slo-mo knife shot (x2)

- Setting

- Scene when girl wakes up and sees the killer

- Good Ending (x2)

- Edited well (x2)

- Acting was good

- Nice cinematography

- Wide range of shots

Question Asked:

What do you think still needs to be improved?

Answers Given:

- Some shots are too long

- Becomes boring (x2)

- Scream is one shot is cut to suddenly

- Jump scare at the end was too quick (x3)

- Louder sound for jump scare (x3)

- Scream shot used twice (x4)

- Order of scenes is sometimes confusing

- Starting with inter-title isn't the best start

- Unclear why killer left

- Maybe closer up shot when hair is being pulled off

- Killer doesn't look evil enough

- Inter-titles could of tied in with story better with the use of colour

- Unsure if like font on inter-titles

- Music needs some work sounds a bit like dracula

- Levels on audio may need some work in places (x2)

- Could be more dialogue

- Title at the end a little too fast

Here is a bar chart representing the individuals scores given to our trailer out of 10.​

Cut (Final Cut)

Swearing and Violence

I have chosen to include swearing in my horror trailer because I believes that it creates a sense of realism that will help the audience relate to my film and increases the effectiveness. In certain situations, it is standard to swear in order to show anger/frustration/fear which is why I think that it fits in well with my horror trailer. Above are two examples of trailers where swearing/profanity are used.

Focus Group Screening

Question Asked:

What did you like about the trailer?:

Answers Given:

- Intertitles slashed were slashed which matched the theme of the trailer. (x10)

- Knife drop to floor was cut and edited well and had good sound effects. (x8)

- Make-up/ gore effects were good. (x10)

- Good use of close-ups to reflect emotion. (x2)

- Good lighting - Mostly dark.

- Dialogue and acting done well. (x3)

- Location variety.

- Good use of cross-cutting.

- Ending scene of Jordan at the end of the bed. (x2)

- Scenes were broken up into different places.

- Good variety of different shots/ cinematography. (x5)

- Plot is well explained. (x4)

- Equilibrium is broken quickly with a jump scare. 

- Good shots of the car.

Question Asked:

What do you think could be improved in the trailer?

Answers Given:

- Needs Music. (x12)

- Knife across face scene it looks like Maria is laughing.

- Too many intertitles.

- Storyline not very clear. (x2)

- Needs more variety of shots.

- Scream is very random.

- Intertitles go on a long time. (x3)

- Screams are cut short.

- Add blood to knife shot for effect. 

- Could be more serious in some scenes. (x2)

- A greater variety of angles. (x2)

- Didn't understand blonde girl popping up. 

- Wheel shot needs to be re-shot. (x2)

- Wasn't very fast paced. (x3)

- Possibly more dialogue.

- Opening shots are too quick for intro.

- Don't understand the hair.

- Two similar scream shots.

- Why did the man leave then stalk her?

Here is a bar chart representing the individuals scores given to our trailer out of 10.

Cut (Rough Cut)

Side by Side Poster and Magazine

My trailer is aimed at an audience of young people aged 16-25 with the majority of the demographic being female. From my poster with the iconography of the knife, it is clear that there will be some violence in the film involving knives which would allow people who can’t stand body horror to make a conscious decision not to watch the film. We delivered the body horror in the trailer with quick shots which show the victims who are now dead.

There is a lot of red/blood shown throughout my ancillary products and trailer which shows the consistency we have ensured remains to ultimately attract our audience. I wanted my poster to make an initial statement which is then followed through by the content of the trailer.

Whilst the poster and trailer were designed to attract fans of the genre to watch the film, I wanted the magazine cover to attract educated film fans who would be interested to read about a young, new director who wants to promote the overall image of horror films and make horror a more respectable genre in the industry. However, so that it tied in with the trailer and poster I used the same iconic font and blood red so that it was clear what the film would be about. I think that my magazine cover is a mixture of conventions from magazines such as Total Film and Empire because it is down to earth and not condescending, but informative.

Side by Side Magazine Cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather than having an image of one of the main characters of the film, I decided to use an image of the director of the film. The reason for this choice was to try and raise the profile of the film as a ‘serious’ film, as horrors are sometimes seen as just being cheap pieces of cinema with no real thought. I wanted to show a respectable “auteur” figure who would be able to share some knowledge about the unseen side of the film, and allow the potential audience to see the work it takes to produce something like this.

The auteur on the front cover has the connotations of a hard worker. This will also amplify the idea that this film is the product of a lot of hard work from respectable looking people and not the creeps that you imagine having the ideas necessary to direct a horror film. By having the director wearing ordinary clothes on the front cover, it shows that horror is not some lower class strange thing that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

I wanted my magazine cover to look classy but still be affordable, which would attract an audience of aspirers, who want to be above who they currently are but also a mainstream audience. Film magazines usually display the newest/most popular films that they are writing about on the front cover because this will attract fans of those films to buy the magazine. I kept this in mind whilst making my magazine cover and made lots of those features on the front page, with a phrase above that sums it up.

The colour scheme of my front cover is grey, black and white tones which makes the red of ‘CUT’ stand out on the page and catch the reader’s attention which means that they will both buy the magazine and go and watch the film in the cinema.

Side by Side Poster

When creating my horror poster, I wanted to make sure that I followed the conventions of a horror poster so that my poster would fit within the genre. One convention I have followed is the use of low key lighting which is a common device used in horror films and therefore their posters because of the dark themes that are usually present. I also used the iconography of a phallic symbol in my poster with the weapon shown. This is similar to the Child’s Play 2 (1990) poster shown above, however this poster shows the villain holding the weapon whereas mine shows what appears to be the victim, as she is tied up. I used this image because I wanted the plot to be a little unclear which would attract my target demographic because I’ve subverted the convention of victims being weak, powerless females. The expressionist angle in the image also ensures that the focus is on the knife and only shows the lower half of the victims body so they don’t get to have a face.

Another convention of film posters that I have used is the layout, with the billing block at the bottom of the poster. I have also included a tagline on my poster, “Love Hurts” which hints at a relationship between the victim and the villain, however due to the image I have used I decided to have this tagline on the right hand side rather than at the top which is where it usually is.

The colour red is a convention of horror posters because it signifies blood and danger. The red is subtle in the poster for Child’s Play 2 with only the ‘2’ and parts of his clothing being the colour, whereas I have used the red as the predominant colour in my poster because I wanted the blood to be a main feature.

 

 

 

 

 

Original Image (Poster)

Magazine Cover

Original Image (Magazine Cover)

"CUT" Poster

Shooting Schedule

The Role of the Distribution Company

The role of the distribution company is to essentially market the film. They have to be able to set a budget and advertise the film effectively in order to attract an audience to the film. They are also the ones who decide when and how a film is released, for example because it is a horror film a distribution company may decide to release it around Halloween because that is the time of year when a wider audience will watch horror films. This became the traditional release date for all the films in the Saw franchise. However, they will be aware that this is a very competitive time of year for the horror film industry and so they will need to explore other options and decide which would be best for this particular film. Some distribution companies may also decide that order to appeal to their target demographic best, they should bypass opening the film at the cinema and just go straight to DVD.

As the film industry is very competitive, distributors need to consider what other films are due to be released at the same time. For example, it could potentially damage box office sales if a film with a similar plot was to be released at the same time because people wouldn’t want to watch both. This is shown with the release of Deep Impact and Armageddon in 1998. Distributors may also decide to market the film by using the star names in the film in order to appeal to their own fans. However they would need to consider whether this would actually benefit them or if it may damage the films credibility. If the film is a sequel or part of a franchise, distributors may also market the film using the success of the previous films in order to create a buzz about the new film. This was particularly important to the continued success of the Paranormal Activity films.

Although they ideally want to appeal to a wide audience, the distributor needs to know the demographic and psycho graphics of the target audience in order to be able to market towards them. For example, their age and their values. This can also determine how they advertise the film, for example they may decide that in order to advertise to their target audience they need to advertise on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Distributors will use many methods over a period of months in order to appeal to their target demographic. The most common methods include posters, teaser trailers, websites, social networking pages and closer to the films release, theatrical trailers. These may start up to a year before the films release in order to create a hype that will cause excitement ahead of the films release. This also gives them longer to advertise the film so that by the time the film is released, many people will have heard about it already. Trailers will be circulated on social networking sites, on YouTube and also in cinemas. The distribution company will duplicate the trailer so that when a film is on in the cinema that may have a similar target audience, they will see the trailer for the new film in order to maximise their own revenue at the box office.