Billy: mock-up magazine cover

This is another mock up of what the magazine cover could look like I thought it would be cool if the entire publication looked like an unholy book of spells.

I think this is potentially eye caching as people are used to seeing sleek cover designs on shop shelves so when they see a worn looking book they will be compelled to investigate.

I created worn leather by overlying a worn leather image set to a low opacity over leather that I thought was the right colour and texture I then used basic textures and low opacity to create the look of branded leather the only thing I think may not work is putting cover lines in my interfere with the overall look I could try and work around this by using a font that fits in with the old worn look.

Beatrice: Audience Research Preparation

When starting my Audience Research I was faced with the challenge of coming up with 20 questions which had to be answered by 40 people and all the data collected. The questions that I was asking had to in the long term help me to create my film trailer which would entice viewers to see our film trailer which would then hopefully influence them to be interested in watching the film.

When brainstorming I had to take into consideration questions which would give us brief background information to the people which were answering our survey. For this I asked for their Sex and Age as we would be able to tell whether their personal features would have an effect on the final outcome. I then wanted to know their personal preferences on movies in general and so Questions 3, 4, 5 and 6 all give me this information and also the effect on the final outcome.

I asked Question 7, 8, 9, 11 and 14 so that I would have a Point of View on their knowledge about teaser trailers. This would show us the general importance of teaser trailers to a segment of our target area (16-19) and would contribute in the outcome of our trailer. Question 11 would help us in deciding how long our trailer would be, this is necessary to know as we want to know how long they would spend actually watching a teaser trailer before getting bored. Question 14 will help us as well because it will show what we would definitely need to put into the trailer and the importance of it

To help with the making of our magazine cover I asked Question 10 to show the importance of a magazine in general. I asked Question 13 to also highlight what makes a film poster stand out and so the outcome will determine what we focus on the most.

The rest of the questions are based on the trailer directly and will contribute to the outcome of it.

1. Are you Male or Female?

2. How old are you?

3. Do you enjoy watching Films?

4. How often do you watch films?

5. What's your favourite Movie Genre?

6. Do you prefer British/American horror Movies?

7. Do you take notice of Film Teaser Trailers?

8. Do you think trailers are essential in advertising a Film?

9. Would you consider going to watch a Film based on a Film Trailer?

10. Do you read Film Magazines?

11. How long would you expect a Teaser Trailer to be?

12. What attracts you to a Film?

13. What makes a film poster stand out to you?

14. What makes a good trailer?

15. Do you prefer actual Horror Film or Spoof Films (i.e. Scary Movie)?

16. Which do you find scarier?

17. Which age group do you feel horror films are primarily aimed at?

18. Out of the following upcoming films for the rest of 2009 and in 2010, which would you most likely go and see, based on their trailers?

19. What builds suspense in a thriller?

20. What is it that you like about Horror films?

Beatrice: Audience Research Questions 11-20

We also gathered that our teaser trailer should be under one minute long, however it should be more that 30 seconds. This tells us that this length is long enough to keep a viewer entertained, but not too short as to leave viewers in suspense. What attracts over than 50% of viewers to a film is the teaser trailer and so we have to make sure that our teaser trailer does exactly that and for the poster we have to make sure that the main image also stands out as this is what stands out to 75% of people. When making the trailer, we should include suspense but also include originality and make sure it is an actual horror and not a spoof which includes 'evil humans' and not the paranormal. When filming we are going to take into consideration twisted plots and the music whether it is diegetic or non-diegetic. When we asked about previous horror films, the most popular was 'The Last Exorcism' which we have incorporated into our teaser trailer as we too are going to have a possessed child in our trailer. Before research had started, we decided to have a target audience of males and females aged 16-25 and in our survey everyone voted for the 2 categories-aged 16-18 and 18-25 which is within our age range and so we don't have to change any requirements to our trailer.

Beatrice: Audience Research Results Questions 1-10

From this Audience Research the information we gathered was that we interviewed more females than males and they they were mainly aged 17 years old. With 38 people who enjoyed films we found out that only just over 50% of these people watch films every so often. The genre of our film is horror and only under 25% of people choose it as their favourite genre. Not to our surprise over 75% of people choose American films to British films however just under 75% of people take notice of teaser trailer which is a benefit to us. The fact that 37 out of 40 people find it essential in having a trailer to advertise a film, this shows the importance of our trailer if we want our film to be successful. Also 35 out of 40 people would consider going to watch a film based on a trailer and this highlights that this trailer should attract potential viewers. Not to our surprise however, only 10% of people actually read music magazine.

Beatrice: Audience Research Questions

1. Are you Male or Female?
2. How old are you?
3. Do you enjoy watching Films?
4. How often do you watch films?
5. What's your favourite Movie Genre?
6. Do you prefer British/American horror Movies?
7. Do you take notice of Film Teaser Trailers?
8. Do you think trailers are essential in advertising a Film?
9. Would you consider going to watch a Film based on a Film Trailer?
10. Do you read Film Magazines?
11. How long would you expect a Teaser Trailer to be?
12. What attracts you to a Film?
13. What makes a film poster stand out to you?
14. What makes a good trailer?
15. Do you prefer actual Horror Film or Spoof Films (i.e. Scary Movie)?
16. Which do you find scarier?
17. Which age group do you feel horror films are primarily aimed at?
18. Out of the following upcoming films for the rest of 2009 and in 2010, which would you most likely go and see, based on their trailers?
19. What builds suspense in a thriller?
20. What is it that you like about Horror films?

Daniela: Diary Entry Of The Progress of 'Devil's Orphan'

9th November 2010

So far a lot has changed since the pre-production of 'The Possessed' till now. We started filming the sequences of 'The Possessed' like three - four weeks ago in one of the performance studies rehearsal rooms. We used a range of equipment to film such as a Canon EOS 7D, lights and a tripod. We used students from our class to act as some of the characters in our teaser trailer for example Lauren is the possessed child; Fenetta and Jide are the un-biological parents and Bobby is the priest who is carrying out the exorcism.

To be honest three - four weeks of filming a 30-50 second teaser trailer is a very long time, but considering the fact that we had relatively major set backs and only two days in a week to film, I think we done alright for our first attempt at filming. Some of the set backs that prolonged our filming time was getting the heavy equipment and props from the media department (north building) all the way to the performance department (south building) which was not easy. Another set back was the fact that on some days some of the actors could not film with us because they had to do their own work; if they did film with us then it was done in a rush. Setting up the room was a slow process as we had to place the props in a certain way for example sticking up all the drawings on the wall and making sure that it looked right. The room that we filmed in consisted of three walls, one wall at the front and another wall on the left and right. To begin with we stuck all the drawings on the front wall and when we set up the filming equipment we realised that the lights wouldn't move very far because of the positioning of the sockets to plug the lights. Because of this reason we had to stick the drawings on the right wall which gave us more space to film and for the lights to move further. 

Throughout the past couple of days, its come to our knowledge that calling the film 'The Possessed' is very cliche and that it gives away what the film is about. We came to a group decision, after trying to figure out new film titles, that the film will be called 'Devil's Orphan' which is more catchy and original. When we went to the editing room to see how the film for the teaser trailer was looking, we were not happy at all as most of the shots were underexposed. We also realised that some of the filming equipment such as the light stand, was visible in the shots. All of these problems and others issues, made us come to a decision that we would film the teaser trailer over again. We comprehend that  the teaser trailer due date is fast approaching; but now that we know where we went wrong and what exactly we have to do, we have told ourselves that we are going to work extra harder and be a lot more organised.

What went wrong last time that will not happen this time, was the lack of organisation and communication within the group and the actors that we needed. Before, we told all our actors on the day that they were needed and  made them get into their costumes and make up (it wasn't guaranteed that there would be enough time to film using all the actors). This time there will definitely be more communication and instead of telling the actors that we need them on the day, we will give them prior notice. We have come up with what we believe is the best method of filming the teaser trailer faster, which is by filming the scenes where the most actors are needed  so that we can get it out of the way and not occupy their time as well. We know that we have a lot of work to do but I believe and know that we will get it done and produce an excellent teaser trailer. 

Daniela Tome'              

Billy: mock-up poster

This is a simple mock-up using photoshop of what the poster may look like in the end its also a way for me to visualise the layout and practice creating effects on photoshop.

I came up with the idea for using a shadow because it can be used as a powerful tool for instance; it can be distorted to create an imposing effect much like I did in the draft, it also can describe someone or something with ought actually showing it keeping it a mystery. This idea has been used a lot throughout the horror genre a classic example is in 1922 film Nosferatu and its famous shadow sequence seen below.

I also experimented with creating the dark, hemmed-in effect that is fast becoming a tradition in modern horror posters like the ones seen below.

I have also noticed that there is a trend of using textures on horror posters to give a decayed, worn and scratched feel to both the images and text the poster for 'Survival of the dead' seen above is a very good example of this we definitely want to incorporate these details in or final product I think it will add depth substance to our work and will hopefully result in a very atmospheric poster.

I came up with the idea to put devil horns on in the girls shadow at the last minute and I think it gives the poster another dimension I definitely want to include this in the final work in a slightly more subtle way so that when people look at it for a second time they notice it and will point it out to a friend, its things like this that generate a small amount of interest about a film.

Billy Waterworth