Sunday, 19 December 2010

My Viral Campaign

I decided to go ahead with the idea of CCTV cameras following somebody due to the fact that I felt that this was a great metaphor. I used a student from my school and used the school as the location for the shoot to be taken place. The reason for this was because there were a lot of buildings in which I needed in order to create a high shot resembling a CCTV camera shot. I think that my viral campaign has come out great but the fact that I was limited as to the effects I could use did not help me attain the level I was aiming for. I was not able to create the time and date on the clips when the CCTV footage is playing in my video which was due to the fact that the software I was using was an older version which did not support this. The sound I gathered from iTunes sound bank in which I found three clips, one of a 35mm zoom lens and another one which is just a normal zoom sound effect and I also found male footsteps in which I thought would work well for when a person is following the boy. I paid 99p for each sound clip. Below is the final trailer:

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Viral Campaign

Viral marketing are marketing techniques that use existing social networks to build on their brand awareness or to achieve marketing objectives such as sales of dvds. The way in which viral marketing works is by word of mouth and can take form of video clips, interactive flash games, ebooks, brandable software, images or text messages and consumers simply forward or inform other people of this media and they will inform their friends and family and the cycle goes on. This is where the name comes from as a virus replicates itself rapidly and a viral campaign works in the same way.

One viral campaign which caught my eye was the transport for London campaign called test your awareness.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

The purpose of this campaign is to inform drivers that it is easy to miss something that they are not looking for. This viral campaign is brilliant as they have combined the two main important principles which are surprise and competitiveness. This will hook the audience on to the viral campaign as it puts them to a challenge and makes them realise themselves the purpose of the campaign instead of the facts telling you.

The idea I have for my viral campaign for ‘The Vanishing’ is a clip giving information on the killer. I want to make the film seem realistic and the way to do this is by making a clip where the killer himself is telling everyone his background and why he is so blood thirsty. The clip will be around 0:45-1:00 minute long and will be based on a deep voice talking with a black screen. There will be images appearing every few seconds of the actions in which the killer done, for example, a handless arm or a man lying on the floor with blood on his face. This will gain interest as there will be no images of the killer supporting the voice which will create enigma.

I also had another idea which is a series of clips from CCTV cameras of a man walking around following his daily routine. The point of the clip is to support the idea that you might not be able to see them but they will be able to see you. The idea will support my film as in my film, the boys don’t know that the killer has their eye on them until he starts to kill them one by one. The message at the end will be presented in white text which will turn to red and start to drip down like blood. This will link to the horror genre and may physiologically affect the audience as the fact that you are filmed more then 300 times a day on average (supported by times online) will make people realise that they are always being watched as this viral campaign is based on facts.

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Final Trailer

The final trailer was put together using Final Cut Studio, as mentioned below, and the music was part created by myself and part from itunes sound bank but all put together and equalised by myself.

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Screen Shots

Below are some screen shots from Final Cut Studio:

Monday, 6 December 2010

Draft



The first draft was put together using Magix Movie Edit Pro which we purchased for £59.99. The idea was that we would put together a draft as a group but complete the final trailer individually. I didn't feel comfortable using this new program as I normally use Final Cut Studio Pro 7 on my macbook pro to edit videos. Therefore, I felt as if it would be best if I stuck with the program I am use to in order to allow my full potential to be achieved.

As a group, we came to conclusion that the trailer was too long and decided it should be around the 1-2 minute range. Also, I felt that the trailer also contains too many effects as well as the trailer not making much sense due to some scenes being in the wrong place. Moreover, the pace of the trailer was not that fast consequently causing the feel to be less tensed and scary. I decided to make the trailer shorter, take the effects out, increase the pace of the trailer and rearrange the scenes a bit.

Sunday, 5 December 2010

Sounds

The music was created at my house as I have a music studio in my loft. I used Reason 4.0 and Logic Studio to create the beat and I made the beat to a standard which I was satisfied with. It took around 3 hours 30minutes to create and once created, it took 4 days for the beat to be mastered in order to bring out certain elements of the beat which gave the horror feel and a little bit of presence. A company called Prabus Productions mastered the beat and helped me through out this process as well as give good advice. Some sound effects such as the foot steps and the cracking noise at the end was purchased of iTunes and slipped into the areas matching the video.

About The Software:
Logic Studio - A program which contains effect plug ins, virtual instruments, large range of audio loops and sampler instruments which allows the user to record, edit and mix audio.
Reason 4.0 - A program which is fully virtual hence all equipment online, containing everything needed to construct music. This also contains samples, instrument racks, plug ins and virtual instruments.

Reason 4.0 was used in slave mode hence controlled by Logic Studio.

Production Logo

A production logo is used in order to give film companies a way in which to brand the media they produce. It can take form of a still image, motion or synchronised sound. For smaller companies, the production logos are normally referred to as vanity cards informally. Below are some examples of well known production logos:

Warner Brothers:


20th Century Fox:


Below is our production logo. I was allocated this task by my collegues and thought deep about what I wanted to show. Firstly, the name arose from the first letter of our names, O from Omrick, A for Anil and Ashwin and lastly R for Rishi which spelt AROA. The point which others missed was that this is a production logo not for this one film but for all the films we will produce. We are determined not to produce just in the horror genre and plan to expand our films into the comedy and romance sectors as well as the rest. We had to keep our production logo open and simple so our audience would remeber us. Our logo doesnt suggest what genres we produce as we want our audience to understand we produce all genres and the video camera on a tripod clearly gives the message across we are a filming production company.

The way I produced this was on photoshop and the image of the video camera was extracted from google images. The font is standard Arial and was placed in such a way that it looks like the name is coming out of the camera lens. Below is the finished product:

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Intertitles

An intertitle is a printed piece of text which appears in certain places during a motion image normally to convey information. Below are examples of intertitles from various trailers.

The Strangers:

The above intertitles expresses the fact that the film is inspired by true events. It fades in and fades out and there is a high contrast between the white writing on a black background.

Friday The 13th:

The Friday The 13th intertitle above has another film name which they produced which is a good idea as people who are a fan of the texas chainsaw massacre will want to watch their new film.

A common convention used in intertitles are the white writing on a black background as well as the names of other films they produced. Other common intertitles are coming soon, inspired by true events or the date.

The intertitles which we will include in our trailer, considering the common intertitles used, will follow the narrative structure of our film. The intertitles which we will include in our trailer are below in the order they will appear:

1. ‘From the makers of THE KLEAR WITCH PROJECT’
2. ‘An AROA production’
3. ‘Four friends go out’
4. ‘A normal night..’
5. ‘turns into’
6. ‘A NIGHTMARE’
7. ‘The Vanishing’
8. ‘Coming soon’

Film Names

We had a meeting in order to come up with some film names and we asked our friends and family what they thought of the names for the film and gave them a brief of what the film is about. We got the results back in and the name and number of likes are listed below:

The Stalker ( 4 )
The Vanishing ( 7 )
Bat Killer ( 1 )
Forest Hunter ( 6 )
Cloak Man ( 0 )
Disguise ( 0 )
No Help ( 0 )
Travel of Hell ( 5 )
Forest Breh ( 2 )
Unstoppable ( 6 )
Psycho ( 2 )

The chosen name was The Vanishing as it gained the highest number of votes.

The possible fonts we can use are below:

Terror Production:



Shock Therapy:



Straight To Hell:



We chose the Straight To Hell font as we felt it looked more suitable and adequate for the genre of the film. This will be used for the intertitles too.

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Props

The props we will need for the trailer across the days of filming are listed below:

Heston Park Requirements:
Fire
Logs
Tents x3
A Sports Bag
Torch

Osterley Lane Requirements:
A Volkswagen Polo 9n3 (Preferably anthracite grey)

Heston Graveyard Requirements:
Black Cloak
Black Rubber Gloves

Cranford Park Requirements:
Baseball Bat (Knife was tested at time of filming however did not show in the camera)
Red Ink x2
Torch

Osterley Park Requirements:
None

Friday, 19 November 2010

Staff List

Below is the staff/crew list which contains all the members contact details. This is a very important document due to the fact if we need to contact a member of our crew, we have their details to do so.

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Filming Schedule

We completed a filming schedule in order to break down our filming and make it easier. We mentioned the shot number and the location along with the props needed and crew. This helped us majorly when we were filming as we identified the location and looked at the shot number and filmed that shot. This ensured we didn't forget to film a shot in a location and saved us going back to film that shot again. Below are the 7 documents containing the filming schedules:







Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Treatment

The treatment is more of an information document which contains information on what our task was, what our trailer is about, types of shot we would use and why, schedule as to when we will do what, our budget for our film, contingency planning, a bit about the actors, our crew and last but not least some about our research.

Mood Board

I created a mood board in order to represent what image we are trying to represent in the different locations. In total, throughout our trailer we have 4 locations, which are a graveyard scene, a forest scene, the arrival and lastly the alleyway. We went to the locations to take pictures ourselves and below is the final mood board:

Monday, 15 November 2010

Risk Assessment

We have filled in a risk assessment which simply highlights the possible risks involved in the locations we will be using. There is one for each location:



Sunday, 14 November 2010

Saturday, 13 November 2010

Location Visit Sheets

The purpose of a location visit sheet is for the production crew to visually see the location, state how equipment and people will commute, the risks involved with that particular location as well as highlighting the address and telephone number of that particular location. This will help us when we come to filming our trailer, as we will hand everyone a copy so they know the easiest way of getting to that location as well as the address and risks involved.


Friday, 12 November 2010

Daily Filming Sheet

The daily filming sheet will help us on the day of filming as this document highlights the location and the shot numbers which take place there. As well as highlighting the shot numbers and location, it also mentions the cast and the props needed for that location which is useful as this would ensure we will not forget everything or forget to film a shot at that location. We have filled in 1 for each location:





Shooting Script

The shooting script is a list of all the shots we will have in our trailer and the type of shot it is. An example is a shot of the vehicle pulling on the near side curb which is a establishing shot. This will help us as when we are filming as we can refer back to what shot type it should be and conduct it.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Animatics

Below is our animatics video which we created in order to visually show us what our trailer should look like. We made a few changes when we put the animatics together as we felt the trailer was not as good as it could be. We made some shots shorter and added and took out a few shots in order for the animatics to meet our standards.

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Storyboard's

Below are the storyboards we completed by hand which simply shows the shot number, a rough sketch of the shot, type of shot, the time of the shot and lastly any sounds or dialogue. The reason for this is that we are able to see roughly what our trailer will look like and what order it will follow. It made it much easier for us to add shots in before hand on the storyboard then after when we are in the middle of filming. Please note, the below storyboards are not in order:

















Monday, 8 November 2010

Production Schedule

The production schedule is a document which contains the task and when we will complete it. This is a useful document to ensure that we are working on time as well as us being aware of the location we need to be in and the equipment and crew needed for that task.

Sunday, 7 November 2010

Character Analysis

The narrative structure was complete and we decided to go into more detail and start to write up on what we want the characters to be. This included their personality and their appearance within the film. In our trailer, there are five characters which are four 18 year old boys and a killer. I have presented this in a prezi below:

Film Proposal & Narrative Structure

Once we analysed some trailers, the next step was to decide upon a storyline which our trailer will follow. This required group input and a lot of thought as we needed to be different from the rest which was our unique selling point. We all created our own narratives structures following different storylines and decided on the best one and improved it. The chosen narrative structure was mine which we all improved and is located below alongside the film proposal:



Narrative Structure:

Four 18 year old male students are on a road trip having just passed their exams. They were on their way to Bournemouth excited about their trip, some characters are drinking, and the music is loud. Suddenly the car is out of control and crashes. The students find that they are in the middle of a country road with no houses, or people in sight. It’s getting dark and they have no reception on their phones.

They notice a forest area in the distance and decide to camp for the night seeing as it is getting dark. As they approach the forest they see signs saying no entry, they ignore these and trespass in as they set out their camp.

As they begin to set out the tent, Josh who is holding the camera films the area, he walks around thinking he is making a documentary, as he zooms the camera out he catches sight of a strange man who seems to be wearing a mask, the camera is out of focus so this cant be seen very clearly. As the camera‘s autofocus kicks in, the masked figure seems to have vanished. Josh rushes back to the group to inform them of what he saw. They all appear to be frightened, but decide to carry on setting up the camp.

The spot is enclosed by many bushes and trees which restrict the sight of them, they gather firewood into their campsite to start a fire and they start to construct their tent. As night falls all the students sit around the fire, sharing stories discussing the masked figure, one of the characters starts to get really scared. Saif left the group to go to the toilet and strolls deep into the forest. After a few minutes, the group hears a loud scream and somebody choking and believes that it’s Saif trying to scare them and it’s all a big joke. The group slowly approach the bushes calling out “Saif.. Stop playing around.. jokes over..”. Josh was scared so was walking behind the other members when suddenly he trips over something on the floor. He turns around whilst on the floor and sees Saif dead next to him with blood on his face and his eyes open. The group began to stress and ran back to the campsite to find their tents and belongings demolished. The boys are all speechless and don’t know what to do.

The decision was to leave the area as soon as possible but they could hear a creeping sound coming from the bushes. They all slowly approach the sound trying to find out what the sound is but suddenly an axe comes flying through the bush. Josh gets scared and falls on the floor. The two other boys leave Josh and run for their lives and make it over the fence into a neighboring graveyard. Josh gets up quickly and starts to run after his friends whilst getting chased by the killer. He manages to get half way over the fence and just as he is about to get over but the killer grabs his leg and pulls him back in the forest. We, as an audience, only see Josh’s head over the fence then him getting pulled in suddenly. We hear him scream and shout for help which suddenly comes to a stop when he dies. The boys start running through the graveyard looking for a place to escape. They are lost and have no idea as to where they are.

They sit down behind a tree trunk where they cannot be seen and are stressing as to what to do. They hear a dog barking and leafs rustling fast and they panic. They both jump up and run different ways. One of the boys tries to run away from the dog and find a way out whilst the other sprinted the other direction finding a place to hide. The boy trying to hide keeps glancing back to see if the dog is behind him and suddenly he falls into a dug up hole ready for a burial ceremony. He falls in to the 6-foot deep hole and is lying down as he broke his leg therefore unable to get up. He looks up and sees a dark shadowy figure holding a shovel with a dog beside him. The antagonist begins to fill the grave with dirt and the boy is shouting for help but there is no response to help him.

The other boy stops running and begins to pace walk through the graveyard and can hear a voice. He shouts out “ is anyone there? Help me.. please.. please somebody’s after me!”. He then has visuals on a torch and sprints towards it in hope for help. The member was a police officer on patrol who has come to investigate a reported issue of some abnormal activity in the forest. The last survivor begins to explain what happened and the police officer tries to calm him down and calls for backup. Several police cars and officers with dogs arrive on the area and cordon it off. The dogs are patrolling the area along with armed police officers trying to catch the reported antagonist. Suddenly, there is a scream from one of the officers in the forest and a dog howl. This comes to a stop and all the police officers at the scene sprint towards that area but there is no one to be seen. The boy was sitting down in the police car wrapped in a blanket and is unaware of what is happening outside his secure environment. Suddenly blood splashes on the front windscreen and all the police officers start to emerge from the darkness with red eyes and vampire teeth. The boy doesn’t have a clue what is happening and tries to get out the car and run but was unfortunately unsuccessful. The camera cuts out and the audience is left in a question.

Friday, 5 November 2010

Purpose Of A Trailer

Creating films can be very expensive due to the duration and skills involved in order to bring it together. This concludes that they will operate in a loss for the first couple of years in the making until the launch of the film when they start to get a return on their investment. Many films do not break even due to not selling enough copies to fund the investment they put in to it, therefore, in order to make a return on investment, the film will need to become a ‘box office hit’ where it is the centre of attention. The marketing campaign is therefore very important as this could make or break the success of the film. It needs to be effective to gather a wide audience as well as being short as long types of media can be boring and may deter the consumer. This is one of the reasons why £100,000s are invested into the marketing campaign as a high interest in the film suggests a high return on investment.
New technology has enabled many viral campaigns to become very wide spread in a short amount of time. The new blackberry’s and iphones are equipped with instant messaging software where information can be widespread as many forward things to each other resulting in a huge audience. This means film companies can easily create a website or another source of communication in order to get in touch with the audience.
A trailer is an advertisement of a film that will be released at some point in the near future. It explains the story in the film but in a condensed way in around 1 minute to 1.5 minutes (maximum 2.5 minutes) in order to inform the audience of what the film is about. The creation of the trailer is done in line with the editing of the film

It consists of the best scenes in the film in order to attract a wide audience, however, not too many scenes to create a spoiler. They normally follow a three-act structure where they begin with the first act which sets the scene, then one from the middle where it drives more into the film and has a bit of a climax and lastly the last section of the trailer which makes the audience question what they see and want to know more. In the trailer, information is also presented such as the release date, producer, director, where it will be released and other conventions. Sometimes, the trailer contains scenes which you won’t find in the film which is due to the fact that at the time the trailer is made, the final edited version of the film doesn’t exist and trailer editors work from rushes or dailies.

The most important convention of a trailer is a sound; in particular, voiceover as it is an unseen voice which helps the audience understands what is happening by either setting the scene in the beginning to providing an explanation when necessary. However, in some cases, no dialogue will be more effective in conjunction with sound effects as this will ensure certain feelings which the writer wants to deliver can be achieved. In my case, there is not much dialogue present in horror trailers but sharp, quick and scary sounds in replacement.

Trailer Analysis

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Introduction

The task that we were set was to create a horror movie trailer, a poster and a magazine front cover. We broke down the task into three sectors as we came to conclusion that this would make it easier for us to carry out the work as we would focus on one part at a time rather then everything. We decided to produce the trailer first then the magazine and poster after which was because we would be able to use the material gathered from the trailer to fund the magazine and poster, which would save time and money.

The trailer would need to follow the horror conventions however, we decided that as a group, we would challenge some of the conventions to make our trailer stand out from the rest and gather a wide audience before the movie was released. The same sort of theme would continue in the magazine front cover and poster.

The first step was to decide on a group. The final group consisted of Me, Anil, Rishi and Ashwin and once we decided on our group, the next step was to research on what a trailer is and why is it used as well as some analysis of some trailers in the same genre to get a feel for what we were looking at to produce in the breakdown of the different types of horror such as psychological horror, comedy horror and romance horror, for example. The reason for this is because the different types of horror contain different conventions and it is important to understand and acknowledge them before the production part of the process begins.