Crash Site promotional magazine cover original photo

Crash Site promotional magazine cover

Crash Site promotional poster

Crash Site trailer

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation question 4, a photo by alext47 on Flickr.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to make more sense of our audience feedback, I sorted each quote we recieved into a general category, then creating a pie chart from these categories. I think this helps discern more easily what parts of our trailer the audience liked and disliked.

Close analysis of responses

• Oddly enough, the category that received the most amount of likes were the effects, most notably the intertitles. At the very least, this shows that we were utilizing this essential convention of documentary horror in a noticeable way. Those who liked the intertitles paid particular attention to the way specific words in the intertitles flickered. This is a good example of how a simple effect can be used to make these shots more interesting. Those who disliked the intertitles said they either "could have been longer" or "were overused, became tedious". It's probably true that we used too many of these shots.
• The category that received the most dislikes was the cinematography. However, the cinematography also received a lot of positive feedback. This was to be expected. Documentary horror is a divisive sub-genre; not everyone finds a shaky camera and suggestion of monsters more threatening than actually showing the monsters and gore. With that said, most of the criticism accused us of abusing the techniques of documentary horror and not bothering to put in any jump scares. But of course, it we showed all the jump scares in the trailer, what reason would there be to see the actual film?
• The music was praised for fitting in well with the rest of the trailer. This shows that our gamble of using royalty-free music instead of composing our own on a program like GarageBand worked well. However, I feel that perhaps we should have edited the track to decrease the length in order to create a trailer that didn't drag on as long as it did. The music was also criticized for being too similar; one of the perils of using music made by someone is is that you are stuck with their work.
• Feedback on the narrative was undecided. Some said the storytelling was good, others said the narrative was lost in the muddle of the "build-up" shots and the villain wasn't shown clearly enough. It's certainly true that the monster is what draws many to watch horror movies. However, Blair Witch Project did well enough and that never showed the monster at all. We tried to emulate this film and create an atmosphere of menace and tension where showing the monster wouldn't be necessary.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?

When creating the main task, I knew that it would be impossible to achieve the production standards of the larger Hollywood films. Instead, what we were aiming for when we made our trailer was to imitate films like The Blair Witch Project; which were made on a low budget but still managed to be successful.  In many ways,the "amateur" qualities of Blair Witch actually elevated the film; by separating it from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, the production was arguably more likely to persuade audiences of it's authenticity. This is the look I was aiming for when I created my poster and magazine cover: things which would identify it as an indie production and sever ties with Hollywood.

Evaluation: In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In the planning stages of our trailer, it was decided that we would aim to imitate the "documentary horror" sub-genre of horror films. The idea was that rather using our limited budget to create cheap special effects, we would use the location, cinematography and the cover of darkness to let our audience's imagination do the work for us. To this end, we utilized conventions from two iconic documentary horror films: The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

These plain-looking inter-titles are easy to make, but serve a useful purpose. While inter-titles in many other horror trailers exist to spout hyperbole about the scariness of the film, these are more subdued, seeking to uphold the theme of creeping dread that pervades the film. They also exist as part of the documentary "shell" that is built around the footage of the film. By listing dates and previous events, they create a sense of authenticity and also explain back story for the trailer that would otherwise have to be filmed in. The plainness of the text also suggests the documentary has not been heavily edited, adding credibility to the idea that the footage is authentic.

In order to further convinve audiences that this film is composed of authentic ameteur footage, both our trailer and the Blair Witch Project's trailer utilise long, handheld shots running through a forest. These shots are easy to film and easy to dub over with dialogue, plus they also generate a sense of fear, as they imply the holders of the camera are running from something. The one thing that separates our version from Blair Witch's is that their camera has a light on the front. In hindsight, this was something we should have utilised because it's sometimes hard to make out what's going on. Also, the light helps accentuate the darkness and just seems a logical thing for the characters to have around; i.e. torches, lanterns.

Another important feature of documentary horror, and horror in general, is that not all the shots need to be scary. Having some scenes of normalcy establishes the characters and setting and often foreshadows the danger to come. This applies to the trailer as well, although the ratio of scary scenes and calm scenes is balanced in favour of scary scenes. This is probably something we should have kept in mind, as our trailer contains perhaps a little too much set up and not enough jump scares. However, our audience feedback also praised our narrative, so maybe having lots of scenes setting up the plot was more interesting than a large montage of jump scares. After all, many trailers are criticised for showing all the good scenes and leaving the audience with no reason to go see the movie; becuasse they've seen everything worth watching already..

Film magazine poster analysis: Total Film

500full, a photo by alext47 on Flickr.

Film magazine cover analysis: Empire

empire_cover, a photo by alext47 on Flickr.

Horror movie poster analysis: The Amityville Horror

the-amityville-horror-movie-poster-1979-1020201178, a photo by alext47 on Flickr.

Horror mivie poster analysis: The Blair Witch Project.

Horror-movie-poster-horror-movies-7108354-534-755, a photo by alext47 on Flickr.

Freud: The return of the repressed

One of the key themes of John Carpenter's Halloween is the return of psychotic serial killer Michael Myers to the town where he was born. More unthinking monster than man, Myers is driven entirely by instinct, and this instinctual behavior forms a key part of Sigmund Freud's theory of the return of the repressed.

Freud posits that this behavior is made up of three significant events. First, a behavior emerges in an individual , usually a negative one. Second, the behavior is frowned upon by the individual's peers, who attempt to stop, or "repress" it. Third, despite it apparently disappearing, the behavior remains in the individual's subconscious, eventually re-emerging partially. This is the "return", and if left unchecked can result in a total relapse.

To use Halloween and Michael Myers as an example, the emergence is his murder of his sister, Judith, the repression is his imprisonment in the lunatic asylum, and the return is his escape and subsequent murderous rampage. However, the theory can be applied to many horror films where something old and forgotten returns to wreak havoc on the new generation.

Freud's theories can also be used to help us understand why people enjoy horror films in the first place. From an early age, we are taught to overcome our fear of the irrational and supernatural, repressing it so we can function in society. However, fear causes a rush of adrenalin, which stimulates and excites us. This is what encourages us to seek thrills and take risks, because it makes us feel "alive". Horror films encourage us to return to a time when we jumped at shadows and sudden noises, to experience what fear feels like without being in real danger.

The role of the Distributor

What does a distributor do?

Distributors fulfill a easily over-looked yet crucial role in the film industry. Films form a massive part of our culture, influencing games, fashion and music. But in order to have such an impact, films need to connect with their audience. The distribution industry is responsible for forging this link. According to Lord Puttnam, head of the FDA (Film Distributors' Association), distributors "identify and deliver the largest possible audience for every film". Distribution is a highly lucrative and competitive business. After all, no matter how good a film may be, it cannot sell by itself.

There are several steps in the distribution process, which usually begins after the movie has been filmed.
1) A release strategy for the film is developed. This includes the release date, which is particularly important due to factors like national holidays and potential "rival" films being released at the same time.
2) The distributors meet with exhibiting companies and negotiate for them to show it in their cinemas.
3) A copy of the film arrives at cinemas a few days before screening, along with the BBFC certificate.
4) The film runs in cinemas for a number of weeks as agreed by distributors and exhibitors. If the marketing department has created a big enough "buzz" for the film and it does particularly well, the number of weeks it runs for may be augmented.
5) After completing its run in cinemas, the film is released in other windows (first as a DVD release, and then on television channels), becoming a "catalogue" title.

Working parallel to the distribution plan is the marketing plan. While distribution is mostly concerned with finance and logistics, marketing is more creative. They need to pinpoint their target audience and create a marketing campaign tailored to them. They need to get inside their heads and make them exited about the film. This is done via trailers, posters, advertisements, and tie-ins with other products the target audience consumes. Social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) are also good for marketing because they allow word of mouth to be spread about the film quickly. More dubiously, marketing has been known to bribe film critics in order to give a good review of a film. Also, marketing also considers licensed merchandise such as clothing, stationary, books, games and official soundtracks. Anything that can make an extra bit of money is always useful. Below is an sample of the licensed merchandise made for The Adventures Of Tintin.

Audience research

To gather information on our target audience, our group decided to create a survey on surveymonkey.com, the link to which can be found below. In order to get people to complete the survey, members of our group posted links to it on their Facebook pages. Because Facebook is mostly used by young adults, we reasoned this was a good way to make sure the survey was only filled in by our target audience.

Here is the survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WZVRKR9

The findings from our audience research are as follows:

• 60% of people completing the survey were male, 40% were female. This confirms that although, predominantly male-oriented, horror is watched by both genders.
• Almost everyone completing the survey was aged 15-24. This confirmed that our plan to use Facebook to find the correct age of audience worked.
• When asked on a scale of 1 to 5 how much they liked horror, most answered either 3 or 4. This confirmed that our audience enjoyed the genre, which meant that they would engage more when answering the questions.
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• We offered a list of horror sub-genres and asked our audience to choose their favorite. Paranormal horror scored the highest (probably influenced by Paranormal Activity), with Psychological horror a close second.
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• When asked whether directors, actors, franchise or companies would affect their decision to see a horror film, 62% said yes. This shows how much of an influence big name studios have in the film industry, and conversely how hard it is for a low-budget indie horror film to make an impact and gain an influence.
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• Given a list of what precise factors would persuade our audience to see a horror film, the majority answered "scariness", which was fairly obvious. However, the two second-highest choices were "actors", and "previous films". Again, this shows how much influence a well-known name has in the film industry, and how lucrative a franchise can be.
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• When asked what sort of location they would prefer a horror film to be set, the highest-scorer was "haunted buildings" with "urban" a close second. This seems to indicate that our audience believes enclosed environments are better for horror than open spaces.
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