How the aims of the production have been met
The aim of our project was to
create a film trailer for a feature film aimed at a specific audience. We chose
to make the genre of our film Horror, with aspects of the sub-genre
Supernatural. Our target demographic is a 15-16 year old teenage boy interested
in ghosts, horror elements etc. and most likely be of middle to upper class.
In order to reach this aim
during our production stage, we, first of all, briefly studied our research and
planning data and then created a document to allocate suitable filming dates.
We did this so we could assign priorities to the props and costumes we needed
first, as well as planning our choice of actors and letting them know in
sufficient advance which dates they should keep free. This helped us
efficiently manage our time and made sure that the material we needed arrived
on time and our actors were sure to be present.
The props we used were
conventional horror movie objects such as knives, battered soft toys, fake
blood and rubble (old, broken wood/metal). This conformed to our target
demographic and made our horror movie more recognizable and appealing to the
mentioned audience. We ordered a dress which was worn by the ghost and a
professional lighting set to create the perfect gloomy horror atmosphere while
maintaining good quality footage of the characters. Excluding only certain
occurrences, we continuously used a tripod to make sure our filming was stable
and aligned correctly. The camera used was a Nikon D5100, usually with settings
on AUTO, as well as a GoPro for underwater shots. Regarding editing, the
software used was FinalCutPro, as this had the best array of transitions to use
and allowed us to colour grade our shots, making them all one colour scheme and
tone (which was needed to balance the bright green-toned underwater shots with
the dark inside shots). It also included a wide array of transitions - which
were very effective for our horror trailer - and many editing tools such as
"blade" and "colour mask" (which allowed us to change the colour
of eyes for effect to appeal more to our audience). We used all of the
mentioned to make our film look more professional and impressive and i believe
we succeeded in doing that.
How the product applies
appropriate codes and conventions and uses appropriate media language
Our project followed many
conventions of horror movie trailers, such as that we included thrilling music,
pop-up scenes, rapid shots, sudden signs of ghosts/spirits, high pitched
screaming, captions every few seconds, dark scary atmosphere (pathetic fallacy) and music that indicated
frightful moments. We used these because, especially with the horror genre, we
believed it was important to make it recognizable in order to appeal to our
target audience, as teenagers are quite mainstream and all like the same
popular things. This is also proven by our questionnaire results, where the
most popular answers often reflected typical conventions. For example, The
setting of an abandoned house beat that of a desert location, which we took
this into account and that improved our trailer a lot. Furthermore, audience
research proved that captions would be most effective, which is also a
convention. However, we didn't follow some conventions e.g. having all dark
shots, as it would have made the trailer bad quality and diminish the
sophisticated aspect of it. When we asked for feedback, it was suggested that
we should have challenged some more conventions in order to make it stand out a
bit more from other trailers, which i completely agree with.
How the product represents people, places or events
Concerning representations and
horror genres, the typical idea is that the "evil" ghost looks a
certain way - white dress, pale skin, usually light hair/ eyes. The makeup look
we planned was a dark eye and white lips. We got inspiration off Pinterest in
order to create the perfect haunting ghost character and I believe we
succeeded. Our feedback stated that the ghost was very effective and would be a
good striking character to use to make the movie recognizable and create
synergy. Another representation is that of the victims - they were dressed in
everyday clothing, which was very easy to organize, and because there was one
female character and two males, the representation we used of the girl that fit
with the genre was that she was weak and protected by the males. We used this
representation to, again, make it more conventional and appealing to the
mainstream teenage audience. In addition, the fact that our location, an
abandoned old house, was being haunted by a ghost also fit the common
representation of the horror genre. The event of drowning at the beginning or
the movie which represented a murder was a powerful scene as there was a lot of
action so this also attracted our target demographic.
Where and when the product would be exhibited/distributed
Due to the fact that our target
audience is teenage, we would most likely heavily focus the distribution of our
trailer on social media platforms (such as Instagram and Snapchat) as these can
reach a large number of 15-16 year olds. We could create an Instagram page for
the movie and help it gain popularity through the use of sponsorships,
celebrity endorsements and giveaways. I believe that during summer would be the
best time to promote it as teenagers are on holiday. It would also be helpful
to distribute it in Cinemas, during latest films of the same genre, such as
"It".
What regulations and controls might be applied to the product and
how these have been taken into consideration
Because it is a horror trailer, and there are many aspects which
would disturb a young child, the BBFC would most likely rate our trailer
at a high category. Utilizing the guidelines, we estimate that our Film trailer
may pass a PG12. In order to meet the regulations of this rating, we have
avoided all aspects of discrimination, drugs,
language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence during the
production of our movie. With respect to the horror theme, we have kept the
amount of fake blood to a minimum and actively tried to make the supernatural
characters not too disturbing. Nonetheless, we did make it fairly haunting as
we are trying to reach a teenage audience.
The strengths and weaknesses of the product in terms of meeting
the needs of its audience
All in all, I believe
we have reached our aim successfully and created a fairly professional horror
trailer. In my opinion, time could have been managed more efficiently and better planning was necessary, as we had to re-film our movie
three times. I think there should have been better teamwork as well.
Furthermore, the acting could have been improved and i
envisioned the trailer to be more engaging and daunting. Nonetheless, we received much good feedback, especially about our location and style of
filming/editing , and I am very pleased with the end
result.
