AS to A2.

    

    

From AS to now, I feel I have improved immensely on my Photoshop skills. In terms of Premier Pro, I feel like I have gained skills in editing movies. I've worked on my time-management and I've managed to work well under pressure. I've been able to look at different audiences and how they're affected by films (and music, when it comes to my AS task) and hopefully my editing skills will boost my grade.

Evaluation Notes.

Hush Hush Evaluation.

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Hush Hush Evaluation.

Hush Hush Evaluation on Prezi

Audience Feedback.

After our teaser trailer was shown to a number of students and teachers at college, we presented them with a questionnaire that allowed us to produce statistics. 22 members of the college carried out the questionnaire.

Here are the responses:

Analysis of our Film Poster.

Tagline: The tagline is written at the top of the page to arouse the audience’s curiosity and to give them an idea of the story before they actually go to the cinema to see it. The fact that it’s in red and has been given a glow means that this will be the first thing that the audience will see when they look at the poster. The ambiguity of the question leaves them wanting more and leads them into asking themselves that exact question.

Quote: The quote underneath the tagline lets the audience know what critics think of the film. The purpose of a quote on a poster is to get the audience thinking about why it was given 4 stars and what they might like about it. This convention enables the audience to get excited and eager to see it.

Main Image: The image of a mask is shown in front of a black background. The mask in the middle of the poster implies that the killer is unknown – highlighting fear of the unknown which most people are afraid of nowadays. The blood on the mask adds to the element of horror and lets the audience know that the film will be ‘gruesome’. The black shadow in the mask represents the final girl – implying that she has a dark past that overshadows her and ‘kills her’ every day. However, this factor in the mask is open to interpretation. There are many ways of seeing the shadow for example, it could highlight a stereotype of death or a finger being placed on top of the mask to highlight secrecy.

Title: The title is written in a bold red font, from dafont.com. The fact that the title is written in red symbolises blood – reflecting the genre of the film. I tried to find a font that could connote death and blood and with this font, it could be seen as blood dripping from the victim or the mask.

Credits: The benefit of having the date of release at the bottom in bold and in red, enables the audience to find out and remember when the film will be coming out and therefore they won’t miss their chance to watch it. The date 24/07/12 highlights the birth of notorious killer Ed Gein, whose life inspired the horror movie; Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The finer details at the bottom of the page encourages to the audience to watch the film based on the storyline rather than the actors who are in it. Credits are usually seen on conventional movie posters. 

BBFC Guideline Rating: This rating for this movie is highlighted on the bottom left hand corner of the poster. This has been used to show our audience that this movie is suitable for 18+ as it contains content that is unsuitable for younger viewers. 

Production Company: The production company has been uses at the bottom to highlight what company the film belongs to. It also adds hype around the company so more people will see films in relation. 

Analysis of Film Magazine Cover.

Analysis of Film Magazine Cover on Prezi

Film Premiere Invitation.

Below is the film premiere invitation that we'll hand out to sixth formers after the half term. We decided that it was essential that the invitation tied into the poster as we wanted to make sure our audience were familiar and knew what movie they were watching. For this premiere, I'll be inviting my form tutor, the head of year, the teachers who helped sculpt our final products, friends in Year 13 (and who meet our target audience) and of course those in my media class. 

Magazine Front Cover.

We took inspiration from ‘Psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock when the infamous Norman Bates is seen smiling cunningly at the camera at the end of the film. We wanted our audience to be enticed with the magazine and so we made sure that our lead actress’ point of gaze was at the consumer to encourage them to buy the magazine.

After taking many pictures of Kimisha, I favoured this particular image as it was a modern twist on Norman Bates. Our final girl is supposed to be this innocent character however, we learn that she has a ‘dark past’, which is why I decided that the image should be dark and mysterious; to portray this element.

Our banner states that the magazine is a special edition: ‘THE ULTIMATE HORROR SPECIAL!’ I find with horror, images tend to be more captivating and menacing if they’re in greyscale as they take away the complexity of colour and it allows the facial expressions to be appreciated. Actors like Natalie Portman and Chris Pine are both established and well-known actors, whereas the final girl in HUSH HUSH isn’t as popular. Therefore, it was essential that we established who she was on the front cover through plugs, and articles to show the continuity of the trailer, poster and magazine front cover. 

Magazine Front Cover Process.

Below is a powerpoint on the magazine cover process.

Enlarge to clearly see the text. 

Magazine Front Cover Process

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Final Poster.

Above are some examples of horror film posters and the conventions we used in the final poster.

- The titles of each film are in white and stand out against the black background. Although our title on our poster is red, it also stands out against the black background. The font is in a graphic style. Scream uses a knife like font that symbolises the weapon in the film as does ours; the font represents the blood of the victims.

- A maximum of three colours are used on the posters so there is continuity, this also captures the audience’s attention. The use of three colours doesn’t over complicate the concept of the movie and poster. 

- The layout of the poster ensures that all of the important information needed is presented to the audience and shows everything you need to know about the film before you see it.

-  Like both of these posters, a mask is used as the central image to put across the idea that we have no idea who the killer is. It leaves the audience wanting more. 

- The star(s) are highlighted on the poster and in almost every other film poster.

- The credits are at the bottom of the poster showing that although it's not as important, it still needs to be shown. 

- The tagline is above the film title to engage the audience. 

Here's our Film Poster for our teaser trailer for Hush Hush!

As you can see, we've conformed to the above conventions of usual horror movie posters :

- The production company, director, editor and producer at the bottom of the poster.

- The 2 main stars of the film and central are above the credits highlighting their importance.

- The use for graphic blood stained/smeared font.

- A capturing tagline at the top of the poster.

- A menacing image, for example, we have used the image of a mask without an identity, this puts the audience on edge as they don't know who the killer is or what could be behind the mask.

- The BBFC film rating: 18.

Poster Process.

Below is a powerpoint of the poster process.

Enlarge to clearly see the text. 

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OFFICIAL TEASER TRAILER.

IT'S FINALLY HERE! After weeks of editing on Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, we’re finally presenting the final trailer to you. We've posted the trailer on YouTube and social networking sites such as Twitter which we hope will enable us to reach a wider audience.

Screen Capture:

Official Teaser Trailer:

A young woman moves to a small town university where she encounters a night of terror. As she attempts to escape the killer, the masked figure reveals her deadliest secret? Will she make it out alive?

Film Marketing.

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” - Mark Twain.

One of the most influential horror movie directors of all time; Alfred Hitchcock changed the way people went to the cinema. During the 1960’s, marketing was new and pioneering. Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ was highly anticipated and it sent the world on a cinema frenzy.  

Here are the different types of marketing techniques and how it’s evolved through time:

- Traditional Marketing:

Word-of-Mouth: This is the most inexpensive techinque to advertise and market a film. Modern publicising and advertising is constantly changing because our attitudes to media are changing and the way we consume media is changing.

- Contemporary Marketing:

Internet Usage: Using the internet to advertise films is probably the easiest way to gain popularity before the release date. It's becoming a popular way to engage target audiences, especially teenagers who spend the majority of their time on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and on video-sharing sites like YouTube. An example of this would be ‘Paranormal Activity’. The entire marketing campaign was created online. This strategy worked so well that cinemas were desperate to release it worldwide.

- Past Advertising:

Time Restrictions: Hitchcock developed a ‘time restriction’ at theatres that stopped the box office from selling tickets for ‘Psycho’ after the film had started. People were turned away if they were late.

Trailers: In the trailer for ‘Psycho’, Hitchcock went through the movie rather than showed his audiences what would happen. The mystery and secrecy created excitement, thus convincing you that you needed to see this film. This is why the film had such phenomenal box office success. The jump at the end leaves the audience wanting more. Trailers have been developed to create more suspense through music and quick cuts. 

Finding The Right Sound.

During the editing process, my group have been looking at the music and sound effects we could use to  enhance the 'scary' element of our horror trailer. We had been researching on YouTube; searching 'Royalty Free Horror Music' and sound effects that could help us to build our trailer however, we had noticed that all of the music and sound effects had either been used before or didn't sound menacing enough to scare our target audience. However, we found one sound effect that will be faintly heard under the featured sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHs07xUSNc 

We decided to research into previous A2 horror trailers that had been put onto YouTube by other students across the UK. We had noticed that all/most of them contained:

- a chase scene

- a dragging scene

- darkness

- almost no dialogue at all

- fast cuts

All of the above, we have tried to encorporate into our trailer. 

After discovering that finding royalty free music was too difficult, we came across one trailer however that has influenced us greatly when it comes to our editing process. The trailer for 'I See You': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMWxhksKoxQ had encorporated the sound effects used in Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is what we had intended on using beforehand. The way they had used this sound effect/music enhanced the 'scary' moments in their trailer which is what we're hoping to do. We decided to export their music by using the site http://www.youtube-mp3.org and had put it onto Adobe Premiere Pro to start the editing process. 

Film Poster and Magazine Analysis.

Below is a PowerPoint presentation for the research I carried out over the Christmas break for the ancillary task we’re preparing to undertake.

Film Posters and Magazine Analysis

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First Day of Filming.

On Friday, my group went to our first location; Leanne’s house to film the chase scene and any additional shots we needed. Due to our final girl being injured over the weekend, she was unable to make the filming date so, I stepped in and asked my friend Naomi who did GCSE Drama to become our final girl. This replacement worked to our advantage.

Here are some photos from the first day: 

With this location, at first, we felt quite restricted however, as we carried on filming, we realised that the restricted space could work to our advantage. We felt like we were in a horror movie. 

However, as time went on, we learned that one of the rooms we were planning on filming in is currently out of use so we have to find a substitute. I was thinking of using a wardrobe; reflecting the Michael Myers closet scene in Halloween. 

Mise-en-Scene.

Settings & Locations:
Settings and locations play an important part in film-making.
Sets are either built from scratch or a great deal of time is spent to find a setting which already exists that relates to the film.
Settings can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then taking a different turn.

Costume, Hair & Make Up
Tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present and what society/or culture it's centres around.
Act as an instant indicator to the audience of a character’s personality, status & job.
Certain costumes can signify certain individuals (e.g. black cloak of a vampire) or groups (e.g. policemen).

Facial Expressions & Body Language
Facial Expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling.
If someone is smiling broadly, we assume they are happy but we may get a different feeling if this is accompanied by dramatic/scary music.
Body Language may also indicate how a character feels towards another character or may reflect the state of their relationship.

Positioning of Characters & Objects within a Frame
Positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character/object.
A film-maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people.

Colour
Colour carries certain connotations which may add meaning to a scene.
It can give a scene a particular look, feel or mood.
It may also be used for dramatic effect.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mediamonkeyslides/mise-en-scene-5427491

In relation to Horror - Props we'll be using:
- Chef's Knife
- Clown doll
- Box of matches
- Backpack
- Evidence bags
- Cocktail and shot glasses
- Flashlight
- Photos
- Sheets
- Sack
- Rope
- Broken cables

Costume:
Chris (final girl): Skinny jeans, converse, band t-shirt, headphones + backpack.
Charlie (villain 1): Sack, rope, white t-shirt (with blood), jeans, boots.
Fred (villain 2): Sack, rope, shirt, suspenders, jeans, converse.
Janet (victim 1): body-con skirt, green jumper, black vest, burgundy vans.
Marilyn (victim 2): body-con skirt, neutral vest top.
News reporter: black blazer, black skirt, white shirt, black shoes, tights.
Extras: smart/casual.

The Use of Silence.

Silence is the relative or total lack of audible sound. By analogy, the word silence may also refer to any absence of communication, even in media other than speech. Silence is also used as total communication, in reference to non verbal communication and spiritual connection. Silence is also referred to no sounds uttered by anybody in a room and or area. Silence is a very important factor in many cultural spectacles, as in rituals.

Gestures:

Placing the index finger in front of closed lips is the most widely recognized gesture of silence. The gesture can be used to demand silence without raising one's own voice. The rose, sometimes depicted clasped by or on top of closed lips, is another well-recognized symbol of silence stemming from various mythologies. – This gesture is a possibility to use on the movie poster as it comes across as quite innocent as well as secretive.

Music inherently depends on silence in some form or another to distinguish other periods of sound and allow dynamics, melodies and rhythms to have greater impact. For example, most music scores feature rests denoting periods of silence.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence

Silence in movies creates a lot of suspense and puts the audience on edge. It contributes to the effect of having no idea where you are and who you are with. The use of silence also ties into the theme of secrecy as you’re not engaging with others.

Shooting Schedule.

Possible Locations.

We’re thinking about using the block of flats near our college in Norbury Park to film our news report scenes as the audience are able to establish where the murders were carried out. It’s also a location that is obviously close to home for most of our audience. 


We've also decided to use Leanne's house as the pre-dominant location as we wanted a location that is supposed to keep you safe and make you feel safe. This will clearly put the audience on edge.