The Official trailer : BlackWood Forest

Evaluation Question 4.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To review the effectiveness of the teaser trailer and to evaluate my trailer I went out to gather audiences feed back of the trailer. I started off by uploading the trailer to YouTube and then I posted the link up on Facebook for initial feedback. The reason I did this is because majority of our target audience have a Facebook account.

This was a very effective way in which I received very good comments about the trailer. there were many aspects of the trailer the audience liked and disliked which we can change when finalising the trailer. One common aspect that came up was that the quality of the camera was very low. This may have of been because the quality reduced when converting into YouTube so it will not be a problem when finally released.

There was very positive feedback from the audience about the trailer although there is a lot that can be improved in this trailer. People praised the use of music to create a sense of suspense and worked effectively with trailer.

Many did give us feedback on how we could improve the trailer which we will take on. This person here gives are very good feedback about the trailer, and how we cold improve the titles and so when finalising the trailer we added a voice over to create more impact.

Although this was very effective for audience feedback I wanted to gain a more knowledge and understanding what the general public thought of the trailer and thus interviewed our target audience. This would thus put me in a better position to when finalising the trailer.

From the feedback I received I would say my trailer was successful in engaging the audience and wanting them to go to the cinema to watch it. Many praised the use of sound in creating suspense throughout the trailer. They also liked the choice of location. They praised the quality of the trailer saying it actually looked like it was a professional trailer this means that we successfully followed the convention of trailers. However, there are some points in the trailer which the audience gave us ideas to improve. For example they did say that the title was missing something and needed something to put more emphasis in it. They told us a voice over would be a good idea. The feedback I have received puts me in a good position to edit my trailer and make a very good final product.

From the feedback I received I would say my trailer was successful in engaging the audience and wanting them to go to the cinema to watch it. Many praised the use of sound in creating suspense throughout the trailer. They also liked the choice of location. They praised the quality of the trailer saying it actually looked like it was a professional trailer this means that we successfully followed the convention of trailers. However, there are some points in the trailer which the audience gave us ideas to improve. For example they did say that the title was missing something and needed something to put more emphasis in it. They told us a voice over would be a good idea. The feedback I have received puts me in a good

position to edit my trailer and make a very good final product.

I also created a fan page on facebook for the campaign this would thus give me more feedback about what the audience thought about the trailer. They would be able to comment on status's and on the trailer it self.

Evaluation question 3

How did you use the media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? on Prezi

Technology used on Prezi

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your main

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Evaluation Question 1.

Evaluation question 1

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The Final poster

This is the final changes of the poster, I decided to change the design as I thought the initial poster was missing something. it looked a bit dull and not eye catching enough. when I looked closely into other film poster I realised they all looked scary and eye catching. The main character was at the centre of the poster and so I followed the design.

Voice over

After some feedback from the audience we have decided to add effects on the credits as our audience was saying something was missing from it. we decided to use non-diegetic sound of someone voice to repeat the credit we also then edit the voice by digitally manipulating the voice. we edited the pitch and made the voice sound deeper this creates anticipation to the audience as the voice sounds scary and menacing. Here is where we used the voice overs:

Uploading the first draft trailer for feedback

After I completed the first draft I converted the trailer and uploaded it on to two key website such as Youtube and Facbook. These networking sites will allow me to gain feedback on to how to improve my first draft trailer.

Youtube:

Facebook:

First edit of the trailer

This is the first edit of the trailer Blackwood forest. i will upload this trailer to sites such as Facebook and Youtube so I can gain some feedback from my audience on how to improve this trailer.

Researching into sounds

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/scary_halloween_sounds.shtml

After we organised all the scenes in chronological order we started to add effects and sound into the clips. We had to look into sounds which would be best suitable for the trailer. i started of browsing for sounds on the internet, I had to always check if any of the sounds were copyrighted, if so then we could not use them in our trailer. After browsing many sites I eventually found a a website where they had all the effects that we needed and had no copyright. We then started taking effects from this site and adding it to the trailer.

I also browsed on the internet for a soundtrack to the trailer. I looked for a soundtrack that would create some kind of suspense in the beginning of the trailer, so this would draw our audience into getting them ready for something but not giving anything away. After looking at various websites, I found a soundtrack from this website:

http://www.freesoundtrackmusic.com/

First draft of poster

I showed some pf my target audience this poster and they gave some tips on how to improve it. they told me that the poster was eye catching like very dark and needed something to stand out more and thus i have decided to create a final poster for my campaign.

Planing the poster

I was in charge of planning and creating the poster. In my initial research into poster, I adopted a similar style poster to the poster of The Last Exorcism.
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/64282/The_Last_Exorcism_6.jpg

I decided to use this as a basis because this film was a successful horror film when released. I thought that if I followed a similar style to the poster we might have similar type of response as the 'The Last Exorcism" poster creates a sense of mystery. I placed the antagonist in the middle of the poster, the reason for this is because, it would draw people into wondering why a young girl is the main character or the main attraction, it will then gain interest and sense of enigma. People would want to come and see the film into because there is no way in which the poster gives out any information about what the film is about

Analysing front cover magazine

Final Magazine Cover

After evaluating the second draft of the magazine cover I felt that there was something missing from the cover. I realised that the magazine cover wasn't eye- catching enough and thus i thought I'd do another cover which i would then brighten the main image and darken the background so it looked like the main image was standing out from the magazine. Here is the final magazine cover

evaluation of second draft magazine cover

The magazine followed many of the key convention, such as putting the main character in the middle of the magazine cover. The purpose of this is to grab the reader attention and get the reader interested in the film and thus the primary reason to buy the magazine. Other key conventions have been followed, for example the character covers the title of the magazine which shows significance and the importance. Also the writing on the sides is there to persuade the reader to buy the magazine and to tell them other stories which are featured in the magazine.Furthermore, there is a website on the magazine, which interested reader can browse if they are interested in the film and want to go watch it. the common convention such as date, price and bar code are placed very clearly as this is what consumer look for when buying a magazine.

Analysing second draft magazine cover

Second draft magazine cover

I then looked at the first draft of the magazine, there was many faults which needed to be addressed due to my peer not following the actual plan of the magazine cover and thus I chose the decision to create the final draft of the magazine cover. I used the software Adobe Photoshop to create this:

First draft Magazine cover

This is the first draft of the magazine cover. This was designed by my fellow team member Alex. First impression of this magazine cover is that, it seems that the magazine looks plain the black and white is effective in emphaising the genre, however, this in then takes any impact of colours to attract the consumer to buy the magazine. the magazine does follow common convention such as having the barcode, price. this is what the consumer looks at when buying magazine. Overall i would say this is not a very effective magazine cover to attract the audience and the reason for this is because he did not follow the plan.

Planing the magazine cover

Here is a plan of the film magazine cover. At the stage I had plan out the magazine cover. This stage wasn't as much difficult due to the research I did on existing film magazine covers. I tried to use all the convention of magazine cover to make my magazine look realist as possible.

Creating production details

For my first production company logo I decided to keep it simple so it looked professional, my design was influenced by the twisted picture production company logo. This company does not have a specific genre it concentrates on. I wanted to use this production company to let my audience know this a quality first rated production company.

The Crazy picture logo on the other hand helps with the audience expectation. When they see this logo they will automatically know this based on a horror genre. I used red as it is a common colour convention in horror. The colour suggests fear, blood, etc.

Production detail research

One of the recognisable convention of a trailer is the production details. the production details appear at the beginning of the trailer, they are the most important feature of the trailer as they tell the audience what type of genre the trailer will be. Here are some production details which will influence my ideas and I will be using Photoshop to create the production details.

Editing the footage

After we completed our shooting we uploaded all the footage on to a computer and we then started ordering them into chronological order using the software imoive. We then started cutting out any bits which was not needed in the trailer and removing unwanted footage. Our target was to make a trailer for about 90 seconds long and so we had to remove some scenes which we felt was no needed. We started adding effects to some scenes, for example, we had to make part of the trailer representing the past so we added a black and white effect on it etc. Some scenes were very slow and we wanted to create a sense of pace in the trailer, we did this by cutting shots and showing the action from different positions.

Shooting day.

Photo From our shooting day on Prezi

We started filming on the 10^th of November at the first location which was the house. We waited till the day got dark so when recording it would create a atmosphere. For example because it is dark it will put a mood of evilness in the audience and a sense of mystery. For the house location we used one of our team member house (Micheal). This was a perfect location as it matched with our synopsis, and the mise en scene went with our trailer. We also had to make sure the recording was not delayed due to the cold weather. On the 12^th November we filmed are second section of the trailer, this was at the second location in the forest. All our actor met up at a time we set and made our way to the location. We had some problems in getting our props and thus tried to adjust to the props we had.

reschudule/ change of location

We had decided a day and time for shooting our trailer but we came across a big problem. The location we initially wanted to shoot was occupied and we weren’t granted access to us. We had to be calm and organized, after lengthy discussion with each other; we tried to find a location which was the most similar to the initial location. After visiting the forest in Woodford we decided that our new location to shoot will be Woodford. The reason for this is it met the same requirement to our first location. We have now created a new shooting schedule for this day.

Final design title

we decided as a group that we would change the colour of the title from grey to green the reason for this is because all though the grey did represent to us the genre of the film, however, we thought that it would catch people attention because it was bit dull on the eye and so we added the green and also it goes with the film forest.

considering titles

we went for a design that we felt would generate a sense of mystery when the audience looked at it. we chose a dark grey colour as the title with black drop adds, this would thus create a sense enigma. the grey colour could represent dullness, plain etc. we wanted to challenge the convention and not just put red to highlight it is a horror genre. I think we have successfully created a title which by looking at it can give u a sense of what type of genre the film will be.

producing the title

We decided to call our teaser trailer blackwood forest. we then used the software to design our title. we wanted to make the title represent the genre and thus went to this website http://www.dafont.com/ for fonts. The software photoshop was easy to use as ive had enough experience using it from last year and so didnt have much difficulties with it.

Here are some designs which we created together:

Organising props and costumes

When decided that our killer would wear a white dress when shooting. This reason for this is to emphasis that she is just an innocent young girl. We had many option in which ways we could get ourselves with a little dress. Buy a new one from the shops, she could use her own dress or borrow a dress from a costume shop. We decided that there was no point in buying a new dress for one day of shooting as this would be very expensive. We didn’t want her to use her own dress as it might get stains which may not be able to wash out and thus we went for the most cheapest option is borrowing the costume. I called up the drama department in regards of borrowing the costumes for are actors and also visited them in to allowing us to borrow the costumes. After discussing with them my intention they said yes they would allow me to borrow the costumes. I also spoke to them about the props we could borrow for the trailer, they were very helpful and allowed us to use any of the props and costume that was available.

Deciding the title

After my initial research on film titles http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/deconstructing-film-titles.html I realised that all the title of horror films did not give anything away about the film itself, however give a little information of where it may be located. as a group we first came out with a title called Blackstone manor but then change our mind as the building we would use was with red bricks and thus we change the name to Redstone manor. After deciding the title we looked into more details of the location and thought it would be difficult for us to record at the site and so we changed our location to a forest and came up with the title Blackwood Forest. This title doesn't really tell the audience about what the film is about but just the location of the film and so this our suitable title for our horror Film.

Completed script

After completing the synopsis and the storyboard me and my team members started creating a script for the actors. we would give the script our actors a week and half before the shoot this is because the script is quite short and it wont be difficult to memorise it.

Here is the link to the script:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55771114@N07/5166044849/

Shot list

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55771114@N07/5166078463/

while we was creating the storyboard, we started to create a shot list of every shot in the trailer. This would then help us to have an idea of how the shot may look like before we start shooting. In each scene we describe what was going to happen ansd what type of shot we would use.

StoryBoard

http://year13ascoursework1.blogspot.com/2010/11/storyboard.html

After we created our synopsis we then decided to create an anamatic which would help us plan our trailer. This would give us an idea about how the trailer would look like. After each scene my group member decribed how the shot would be taken

Evaluation of research

Evaluation

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Looking into other genres

In this lesson our class look into different films of different genres. I found that it easy to recognize what type of genre a film is by analyzing the mise en scene or the setting. This is because us as audience have realized that each of the genre have recognizable conventions which have been repeated for a long time to make them establish themselves as that type of a genre.

Recognising genres on Prezi

Example of musical genre:

• High School Musical
• Oliver Twist
• Grease

Example of science Fiction :

• Battlestar Gilactica
• Star Trek

Example of Teen movies:

• Mean girls
• bring it on

Example of western films:

• Wild Wild west
• the good the bad the ugly

Example of action/adventure films:

• indiana jones

• 
  

Our synopsis

After our initial research, we then started to create our synopsis. 'The synopsis gives the audience quick summary about the film but doesn't reveal or give away anything.

Lucy Bower is a young innocent girl on her autumn holiday from school and is enjoying herself however every evening when the sun sets her body is taken over by an evil spirit; no one understood what it was. Her father has had enough of people talking behind his back about his daughters. One night her Father comes home from work drunk, he beings to torment her and accusing her of being evil and ends up killing her. After realising what he has done he drags the body of his daughter in to Blackwood Forest and she is never seen again. She was once an innocent little girl who was murder by her father. Her life turned upside down with abuse and pain and eventually death. However this is not the end of Lucy Bower.
Year’s later locals began to hear child-like laughter coming from the forest. People where being drawn in to the forest by the sweet childish laughter thinking a child is lost and needs help. Little did they know that the spirit of Lucy dwelt in Blackwood and swore revenge on anyone who entered Blackwood Forest where she lays? Resident’s notices that many people from the community have gone missing, locals state they last saw them last entering Blackwood Forest. Search parties where sent out to find them.


Tally marks made out from blood marks where the only thing that’s left on the tree to give the people any clues to what is happening. Blackwood Forest was abandoned by the local government and no one entered it again.
This is a story of how a little girl gets her revenge and takes out her anger on her community. You might have thought Lucy Bower was a goner, well you better think again.

Research into synopsis

A synopsis is basically a summary of what happens in the film. In today’s lesson I researched into variety of synopsis from different horror film. During this research I looked closely in what was required in a synopsis. This would then help me when creating my own synopsis for my film. Looking into all these synopsis I started to realise a similarity in all of them. All followed a similar convention of having a protagonist and an antagonist and playing with the audience expectations. Its as if the synopsis gives a glimpse of what will happen in the film without revealing too much a ruining the film for the audience. I also reliased that all the horror genre have sub genres attached to them such as supernatural, thriller etc. this task helped a lot into understand what a synopsis is designed for. It has made it easier for me to create a synopsis when its time to make one for my film. Furthermore, I realised that synopsis all contain the protagonist, antagonist stock characters and i have highlighted them in one of the synopsis I analysed.

Shooting schedule

Monday 25th October 2010 -

we plan to organise all the actors and set a date where we will all meet up at the location we set to record.

Tuesday 26th October 2010-

we arrange all the props and costumes to be used.

Wednesday 27th October 2010-

we plan to record on this day. we will meet at the location at 12:45 and we will start shooting from then.

Risk assesment

we had to come up with a risk assessment of the area we was going to shoot. so it was my duty to ensure everything was assessed and safe for the public and our crew. I did this by visting the location several times and analyzing what dangers the shooting staff and the actors could face. I also used this website for researching into what was safe when recording and what wasnt : http://www.filmoffice.co.uk/filming.php?pag=hazards

Here is a summary of the risk assessment:

Questionnaires results

Quetionaire results on Prezi

Most of the people who answered these questionnaires where our target audience. This gave us boost in what was required in are horror trailer to make it successful. We took into consideration, the likes and the dislikes were in current horror films from our target audience and we will try to implement them in our trailer.

In considering the location of the film we asked what our target audience what location appealed to them when watching a horror film. We considered five location haunted house, mansion, school, forest, a house. From our results the most popular location was the forest, and when asking the audience what appealed the most in the horror film they said the location. So we took this very seriously in planning our trailer. We decided that one of the locations must be the forest. Also, many complained that horror films are just not real enough these days and so we have tried to keep the trailer as real as possible by using minimum effects. In addition, we decided to use a mixture of fast and slow pace shots in the trailer as this was what our audience suggested makes trailers more effective than others. Reflecting on the results from the questionnaires we will closely follow what the opinions of our target audience is because they have said that what attracts them to go and watch a film is mainly the trailer and so we must make them trailer as effective as possible in attracting out audience.

Target audience

• · 15+
• · Male and female
• · Interested in horror genre
• · Interested in technology , social networks
• · Allowance of more than £10 + a week
• · May have a part – time job or volunteer

Charlie is 16; he lives in the city with his mum and dad in a two bedroom house. His mum doesn’t work, while his dad is a cab driver. In his free time, Charlie likes going out with his friends to the cinema on a weekly basis and spends around £5.60. He has his own laptop at home which he uses to keep up to date with his social life and what’s happening around him.

Element of horror genre

I also did further information into the horror genre and found out some key elements which is necessary and should consider when I start planning and creating my very own horror genre trailer.

Elements of horror genre

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Questionnaires

I wanted to find out more about my target audince and their understanding about horror genre. I wanted to know the opinion my target audience and what they felt was good about the horror genre and the bad points. I wanted to use this information to aid me when planning my own trailer. I would take into account carefully what my target audience felt as they are the ones who would be viewing my trailer.

Here is the copy of the question my group came up with. we will be giving the to our target audence to fill in :

Research into certification

As my film is going to be certified as a 15 + I have to do some research into what isn’t allowed to be shown in the trailer. To do this I visited the website www.bbfc.co.uk and gain my information from here.

In my trailer I’m allowed:

“Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.”

“Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.”

“Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.”

“Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.”

These are some example which is permitted for a 15+ trailer which I will have to follow when creating storyboard.

Music / sound

Without music and sound effect horror films would lose its power to create any suspense or tension. The most effective tool used to frighten the audience is the use of music. Just imagine any horror film, where this a dramatic part if you mute the sound you would realize that the scene isn’t scary at all. Music plays a very important role in creating a successful horror film.

The most common type of music used in horror is orchestral music. This type of music has been used since the genre was made. The reason for the use of orchestral music is that it allows us to or send out emotions in a better or effective way. You are able to use variety type of instruments to create your very own mood which is suited to the film. However, the use of an orchestral has fell due to new technologies. For example people are able to create music on a pc with software such as fruity loops etc. due to technology people are able to use virtual instruments to create their very own music.

We have decided to use a child as our antagonist and thus I will go through horror trailer which also use little children and see what the similarities are and the difference which will then help me when making my horror trailer.

Characters

In our concept we have decided to go for a girl to be the antagonist. This is because we want to go against tradition convention of having a big bulk scary man as a killer going around killing/scaring people.

Here is the antagonist from the film ‘The Ring’. The use of a child here creates confusion because a little child is deemed to be innocent and peaceful however in this film we see the complete opposite. She is a ruthless and a very dangerous girl. Furthermore, her face is always hidden which makes the a

udience feel cautious about her, it’s as if she uses her hair is there to cover her face like a mask would.

In this film ‘Orphan’ they have also decided to go with the main antagonist as a little child. The reason why children are used is because a stereotypical view of a little girl is harmless. However, they like to play with audience expectations. They want to believe you to believe she is innocent but we find out that she also a very dangerous girl. The difference between this film and The Ring is that throughout the film she is conveyed as an innocent individual but she is not. Audience find it hard to know what’s happening and thus makes them more interested into the film. There is a sense of mystery throughout the film about the girl.

Using a young female child has become common recently in horror films, this is because they are mysterious. the audience don't know what to expect from a little child. they believe she is innocent and when the audience finds out she is evil they become more interested as to why she has become like that.

we have chosen to use a young female child similar to the films above because we think it will create the most interest from the audience. This research has made me realise that using a child has more greater effect than using a traditional big bulky man.