Making sure you are correctly targeting the audience who will want to watch your film the most, is very important in the world of film and film advertising. If you are not catering for the niche horror audience, your film won't do well in cinemas. The target audience for horror films seems to be males (almost 55% of those who see horror films are male, according to audiencetargeting.com), aged between 15 and 25 which could be why many horror movies tend to focus on characters who are around those ages, for example all the teen slasher films such as Nightmare On Elm Street. There are issues regarding those in that age range though because in this day and age, new advances in technology due to the internet and the pirate-movie industry mean many teenagers and young adults would rather pay nothing to illegally download films online than go to the cinema, so film producers have to work extra hard to make seeing the film in Cinema 'unmissable'. This means making sure there is a Unique Selling Point to draw the audience in, and make them believe this isn't just another run-of-the-mill horror film but something that is different, without being completely off the mark.
We conducted research among our peers to find out their opinions on horror films and how to make people want to see our film. 21 people were asked, 12 of whom were female and 9 male, and all were between 14 and 23. When asked which genres of horror they enjoyed, the highest ratings were given to Paranormal/Supernatural, Comedy and Zombie horror, however, the genre we are aiming for Satanic also rated quite highly.
We found that most people do not like continuous voice overs on Horror trailers but some explained that lines of dialogue that explain what's happening partially are useful.
Many of the participants asked said they enjoyed horror films for the suspenseful parts.
We found a pretty even split between those who like gory parts and those who don't.
Overall, I think this individual research has given us a much better idea of what to include in our trailer or not.
Sunday 24 February 2013
Recce Report
In order to make sure we found ideal locations for our horror trailer, we went on Recce's to the places we had in mind. They included a barn, a abandoned caravan and a old windmill.
The Barn:
I think this location would be ideal for the main part of the trailer, because it's large, empty, and has lots of dark corners and buildings where you feel like you're in a horror film anyway. It's also quite a way from the town so that we won't get too much background sound of cars/people etc. There are lots of opportunities for interesting camera angles and unusual shots in keeping with horror film norm.
I think this location is ideal for the exorcism to take place as is has a very eerie film to it and the cobwebs and dust give a very disused look to it. Also, as its surrounded by woodland, we can have shots of Chris running through the trees.
The Barn:
The Caravan:
I think this location is ideal for the exorcism to take place as is has a very eerie film to it and the cobwebs and dust give a very disused look to it. Also, as its surrounded by woodland, we can have shots of Chris running through the trees.
The Windmill:
Although I don't think we'll shoot a lot here because it's so far away and you can't drive to it, it will be useful for a couple of shots because its the perfect location to be removed from people and inside it has lots of atmosphere.
Full Film Idea - DIABOLUS
Our film idea is one that’s based on the idea of possession;
the demon in the case is called DIABOLUS (also the title of the film) which is Latin
for Devil. The protagonist Chris is an stereotypical teenager coming up to his
18th birthday. However, he is contacted by a Psychic who tells him
he is in danger, as he was born to become a human vessel for the DIABOLUS as soon
as he turns 18. Despite this warning, he tells her to leave him alone and that
he doesn’t believe in superstition. The Psychic then takes matters into her own
hands, knocking Chris out with sleeping pills, and setting up an exorcism in an
abandoned caravan in the woods. At the crucial moment of removing the demon,
Chris wakes up confused and hits the Psychic as he runs away into the woods.
What he does not realise is that, the DIABOLUS that was dormant waiting for him
to turn 18 escaped and has instead taken the Psychics body as a vessel with a
plan to possess Chris’s once more and go on a murderous rampage. Chris runs to
a nearby barn, with no idea where he is and takes shelter while the DIABOLUS
uses the Psychic’s skills to locate him. Later, in the evening, Chris is woken
by the Psychic trying to knock him out with a metal pole. He runs deeper into
the barn buildings to hide where he finds phone signal and rings his friend
asking for help who figures out where he is and says he is coming to find him,
despite disbelieving Chris’s story. In a battle against the DIABOLUS, his
friends are killed, and Chris is nearly taken over by the demon several times
but manages to resist it after a few minutes due to anti-possession sigils the
Psychic drew on his skin right until the very end where the audience believe he
has killed the Psychic and the DIABOLUS. However, as he goes to leave, she
grabs his ankle and pulls him out of camera view meaning the audience never
find out what happens to him.
-THIS WILL PROBABLY CHANGE SLIGHTLY WHEN WE'VE FILMED-
-THIS WILL PROBABLY CHANGE SLIGHTLY WHEN WE'VE FILMED-
DIABOLUS perpetuates the work of several key narrative
structural theorists, the first of which being Todorov. It follows the basic
ideas of beginning with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting
off a chain of events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the
denouement and a new equilibrium is settled at the end. However, DIABOLUS does
twist Todorov’s idea a little because when the audience think a new equilibrium
has been reached, it turns out the Psychic isn’t really dead and drags Chris
off screen meaning the audience has one last big scare and they are never sure
what happens to him. Another theorist’s work that can be seen in our film idea
is Propps work on character types. Chris is obviously the typical ‘Hero’
however, you are never sure whether he thinks he can save the Psychic (who
would be the ‘Princess’ character type) or he is just trying to survive himself.
The last theorist whose work fits DIABOLUS is Barthes, who did work on binary opposition
(the juxtaposition of two contrasting themes). Binary oppositions clear in our
film idea are: good/evil, human/inhuman and trapped/free, the last being
because the most terrifying moments of the film would be when Chris is lost
inside the barn buildings.
Original Photos And Poster & Magazine Drafts
We took a selection of pictures that we thought we might include on our individual products.
I drew up rough sketches of how I want my DIABOLUS film poster and magazine cover to look.
I drew up rough sketches of how I want my DIABOLUS film poster and magazine cover to look.
I will be using Adobe Photoshop to create my magazine cover and film poster.
Shot list:
In order to give us a better of what we're looking to shoot, we wrote up a shot list to follow (loosely).
Let The Right One In (2008) Analysis
‘Let The Right One In’ (Låt Den Rätte Komma In), is a 2008
Swedish horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson (director of many Swedish films
and recently the movie adaptation of the book ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’) about
a young boy bullied at school who makes friends with the girl that moves in
next door, who turns out to be a vampire trapped in a 12 year olds body. It is
the screen adaptation of the 2004 Swedish novel of the same name. The film's
screenplay was by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who wrote the novel) and was
distributed and produced by Sandrew Metronome Distribution Sverige AB (among
others). There has been an American re-make of the film.
‘Let The Right One In’ perpetuates the Bulgarian
structuralist linguist Todorov’s work, as it does follow the basic of beginning
with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting off a chain of
events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the denouement and a
new equilibrium is settled at the end. At the start of the film, the audience
are introduced to Oskar who obviously has lots of pent up anger at his bullies
as he practices stabbing a tree. The first few moments before Eli arrives in
his life, although not ‘normal’ seem to be the norm for his life and it allows
time for the movie to explore the current characters personalities and for the
audience to understand the dynamics of Oskar’s life. The event that sets off a
chain of events leading to disequilibrium is when Oskar meets Eli on the play
equipment and she tells him she can’t be his friend. Disequilibrium is
everything from that point e.g. the murders resulting from Hakans failure to
bring Eli blood, Oskar finding out about Eli’s past and the last swimming pool
kill scene. After this a new equilibrium is created as Eli and Oskar decide to
leave together, however the audience feels uncomfortable as they don’t know Eli’s
true intentions or what happens to Oskar.
When an audience goes to watch a horror film, there are
certain elements they expect to see in order for them to properly identify with
it being a horror film. Much of horror films is actually suspense and in order
to create this, the film has to create the right atmosphere. The elements of Let
The Right One In that perpetuate the genre include setting, camera work,
lighting and iconography. The film is set in a snow-covered community on the
outskirts of Stockholm which promotes a clinic and isolated feeling. Because of
the snow and the grey buildings, there is a general lack of bright colours,
which combined with many of the shots which occur at night, create an eerie
atmosphere that the audience will find believable for murders and monsters to
occur in. Technical code such as lighting from unexpected angles, unsettling
jumps in editing, the use of ambient sounds such as footsteps and unusual,
expressive shots are also made use of in this film and the genre in general to
create suspense and shock for the audience. Iconography in the film was the use
of children on the brink of being teenagers, for both the unsettling juxtaposition
of children and evil and this also means the audience feel repulsed and
conflicted by the paedophilic themes in the film, whilst also wanting Eli to
survive.
As Horror dates back to the very early 20th century, there
has been plenty of time to create the genre expectations as mentioned before,
however these can be very useful for film directors to oppose as well, shocking
the audience into a false sense of security, then frightening them suddenly. This
can also be used in the narrative structure of films and by contrasting to the
usual expectations that the viewers have, such as the monster being a love
interest and surviving, you can confuse them which creates more disconcertment.
The ambiguous ending of the film where you discover Oskar leaves with Eli, both
makes the audience think and want to discuss the film, and also leaves it open
for a prequel.
In terms of Let The Right One In’s place in the history of
horror, gore returned with a vengeance in the 2000’s and the terms
'gore-nography' and other similar terms came into existence to describe the new
breed of movies that try to titillate the audience with excessive amounts of
gore. However, Let The Right One In is much more subtle than this and uses
taboo topics such paedophilia, transgender people, and subverting the idea of
childhood innocence to create unease in the audience, as well as bloody moments
too. An example of this is Hakan, who had poured acid all over his face to
avoid being identified, letting Eli drink from him and then end his life by
pulling him out of the hospital window. Also, Let The Right One In was released
just before vampire, and specifically Twilight mania took over the globe, which
has meant vampire-genre films have returned on an big scale.
A Russian theorist named Propp examined hundreds of examples
of folk tales to see if they shared any structures and identified 8 characters
that were mostly present. They were: the villain(s), the hero, the donor (who
provides an object with some magic property), the helper that aids the hero,
the princess (the sought after person) who is the reward for the hero and
object of the villain’s schemes, her father who rewards the hero, the
dispatcher and the false hero. Although horror films obviously differ from folk
tales analysed a century ago, many of these character types are still visible
in the horror genre, often tweaked such as the idea of the hero. The hero in
horror films now tends to be a ‘final girl’ who is often in need of rescuing
(the princess) but ultimately defeats the villain. These character types
however are subverted in Let The Right One In as instead of the female being
the one in need of rescuing, it is Eli that rescues Oskar and protects him. Another
theorist who is important when looking at horror film analysis is Levi-Strauss
who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. These are
sets of contrasting values which show the structure of media texts such as
films. The binary oppositions set up in Let The Right One In included
male/female, young/old, life/death and morality/immorality.
In conclusion, although Let The Right One In adheres to many
of the main conventions traditionally found in the genre, the characters are
much more complex and multi-faceted than many typical horror films. It does
perpetuate the genre however, as it shares many of the common settings,
technical codes, narrative structure and character types found commonly in
horror.
Thursday 21 February 2013
Props, Costume & Final Locations List
Props & Costumes:
- Kilt, Boots, Black top and Hoody for Becca
- Jeans, Trainers, Blue Checked Shirt and Black Jacket for Chris
- Candles
- Ingredients for fake blood (Maple syrup, Red + Blue Food Colouring, Cocoa Powder and Water)
- Wax for wounds
- Face paint for wounds + bruises
- Pendulum
- Map
- Dagger shaped plastic shard
Final Locations:
- Barn (Martham)
- Church (Caister)
- Caravan (Ingham)
- Windmill (Limpenhoe)
- College Photography Studio + Grounds
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