Seclusion: February 2012

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Audience Feedback

Final Trailer Audience Feedback

We posted our trailer on numerous social networking sites to gain audience feedback to see if our trailer was successful with our target audience. Here are some of the comments made.

Planning

Final Poster Design

We put all our poster designs on facebook and asked for feedback on each one. We also asked people to vote for their favourite poster and this one came out as the most popular.

Through research we saw that many posters also contained the date and website. The sizes of these poster varied depending on what location they were shown in. The poster below we thought would be shown on a bus stop:

As well as this design for a bus stop we rearranged our poster design shown above, making it horizontal which is ideal for a billboard:

Deconstruction

Website Deconstruction - Megan Is Missing

http://meganismissing.com/

Looking at another influential film website, we looked closely at the layout of the page. The tabs were placed on the edge in a simple white font. The image is the same that is seen on the films poster. To create a similar effect, we used the same background image on our blog and our website. We also placed our tabs on the side to create a similar layout. The films website also has two opening pages. An introduction page is first seen with the image of the young girl sat at the computer desk. However as you enter the website the girl is shown to have disappeared. We used a similar idea creating an introduction page before entering our main homepage,showing a short clip from our trailer.

Research

Poster Research and Deconstruction

One of the posters for "Megan Is Missing" influenced our initial poster design.

The central focus of the poster is the computer and the young girl who is in the centre looking at the image on the screen. The editor of the poster was able to create this effect by darkening the surrounding edges. We created a similar effect by making the central focus of our poster our hanging scene on the computer screen which relates to the genre of a gothic drama.

Research

Mise en Scene and Camera Angle Research

With the majority of our trailer being shot with a webcam we looked at specific shots from the film "Megan is Missing". These shots helped us design the mise en scene of the teenagers bedroom, our 'victim'.

For example the young girl is shown to be putting on make up so we had our character style her hair in front of the webcam, making herself pretty before being seen on webcam.

We also dressed our character in a plain vest top similar to the one shown in the image with natural looking make up.

To show the majority of our typical teenagers bedroom, we placed our tripod so that it was tilted towards our character so that the audience would feel part of the action.

Deconstruction

Megan Is Missing - Trailer Camera Shots Deconstruction

As well as a similar narrative, "Megan is Missing" also acted as an influence in the type of shots we carried out. Due to the significance of the narrative being based on social networking we decided to use a webcam as well as a video camera. The film was influential as it featured an unknown online predator similar to ours. As well as the webcam shots it also contained a montage sequence of news stories towards the end. We wanted to create a similar effect so we used shots of social networking sites instead.

Research

Existing Narratives

Similar to "Trust" being made in 2011, another film was made in the same year called "Megan Is Missing".

Click here to jump to IMDb website

Planning

Youtube Publishing

To gain audience feedback for our trailer we uploaded it onto Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

Research

Final Poster Decision

Due to our creation of multiple poster designs, we decided to allow feedback from our target audience to decide our final choice depending on the number of 'likes'.

Research

Blog Interest

These are the statistics of interest in our film trailers blog.

Research

Social Media Use for Distribution

To gain interest in our film trailer and gain audience feedback we created both a Twitter Account and a Facebook Account to share information with those interested in our film. By using Twitter we followed Twitter pages associated with Independent Horror Films and also the twitter accounts of the films we were most influenced by including "Chatroom" and "Trust". By doing so we also gained interest in our film as other horror film companies began to follow us as well as peers.

Planning

Final Trailer

Planning

Costume and Actor Test shots

We decided to film two possible actors so we had a choice when it came to editing. We chose two contrasting girls, one blonde and one brunette, to see which one would look most effective for our trailer.

Tegan, 18

Zoe, 17

For this first outfit we wanted to show a casual day outfit but also contemporary and suggestive. The length of the skirt and denim shorts suggest their provocative mannerisms but the long sleeve top isn't too revealing.

We chose a red silk dressing gown for the second outfit to suggest more promiscuity and to show the change in relationship.

When deciding what we wanted our actress to wear we looked through the films which influenced our narrative. We found that through research, Chatroom was a film that linked closely to both the narrative and costuming.

Research

Questionnaire Results

From our questionnaire results the majority of responses were from the age range 18 - 21 which is within our target audience of 15 - 40. The most popular films people had recently seen were:

Shutter Island
Inception
The Social Network

This shows that our audience enjoy psychological thrillers and modern style films. We wanted our trailer to be based around modern issues such as social networking and online predators, issues which have only become known in the last 6 years.

We found that our audience mostly use Facebook as their main social networking site and spend over 10 hours a week online. This shows that our audience understand the internet and use it on a daily basis which makes our trailer contemporary and relevant to the target audience.

We also found that all of our audience had used a webcam to communicate with someone but 60% did not always know who they were on webcam to. This highlights our issue of online predators and the dangers of social networking.

When asked if our audience would prefer a blonde or brunette there was a unanimous vote for Blonde. This may be due to the stereotypical view that Blonde's are prettier, more vulnerable and are often the victims in films. We decided to use the shots of our blonde actress as we thought she fit the specification.

Deconstruction

When deconstructing the "Disturbia" website we came across an interactive area called videos. This allowed us to preview many different versions of their trailer. We deconstructed three contrasting trailers to see what makes them different and which one is more effective.

Disturbia Trailer 1)

Music builds towards the end
Editing gets faster
Scenes get shorter
Equilibrium at the start followed by the disequilibrium

Disturbia trailer 2)

Voice over
Makes it more action than horror thriller
Distracts from the scene and the action

Disturbia trailer 3)

Pop song
Modernises it
Makes it romantic
More of a love story with a twist

The official trailer is effective because it builds the tension and shows the audience the genre of the film and the main characters all within the first sequence. By having alternative trailers on their website it shows how different music can portray the same events from a different light. For example each trailer contains the same images but in different orders but the one with a voice over appears like an action movie whereas the pop song sounds more like a romantic horror. This shows the importance of music and how it affects an audience’s view on the film

Research

Lighting Research

As our location for our trailer is mainly set in a bedroom we wanted the lighting to look natural and have a warm and comforting atmosphere to convey saftey and comfort.

This would then create tension and a sense of uneasyness when the safety of the bedroom is broken later in the trailer.

We also wanted the bedroom to be bright to contrast the running scenes and the eye shot which used minimal lighting to create a darker atmosphere.

For the bedroom we used a large LED light and lamps around the room to light the whole room evenly. This can be seen in 'Prom Night' where the house is lit by lamps placed around the room.

Monday, 20 February 2012

Planning

Final Storyboard Design

Friday, 10 February 2012

Research

Film Classification

For our film we are giving the classification of a 15 therefore it is still suitable for our target audience. Our target audience will be from 15 years - 40 years(parents) due to the relevance of themes for both teenagers and parents.

For certification we research the BBFC to see the guidelines of classification for a film given the certificate of "15"

’15′

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language . The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

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.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Planning

Website Homepage Construction

We are currently in the process of creating our film trailer an official homepage. Before entering the homepage you are shown a short extract of footage from our film. Audiences are given the option to skip this and go straight to the homepage which at current looks like this.

Once complete, we are planning to add our film trailer in the centre of the screen below the paragraph of text.

Planning

First Draft of Trailer

This is a rough draft of our trailer from the beginning of our coursework. We have since developed a few main areas. These were;

The sound of the keyboard is too harsh and doesn't sound like a traditional keyboard
The display picture is too vague for the girl so we wanted to change the profile to a picture of her to show that she's open online and isn't hiding her identity
We flipped the P.O.V shots of our actress from the webcam so that we could do a match on action shot with the high angle shots

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Deconstruction

Disturbia website deconstruction

When clicking onto the disturbia website you are initially led to a page where you can either ‘enter the site’, watch the trailer, buy the DVD, ‘scare your friends with disturbia’ or scroll down to see the synopsis and other bits of information.

Disturbia Webpage

The image on the first page of the website shows the main character looking over the top of a pair of binoculars, where in both lenses an image of a woman and a males silhouette is shown against an orange background, which contrasts against the black and white photo. Above the image is the title of the film ‘disturbia’ and the films tag line ‘Every killer lives next door to someone. When clicking on ‘enter the site’ you are taken to the characters room where the male is sitting on a chair in the centre screen. When scrolling your mouse across the screen the editors have added a setting where you are able to look 180 degrees around the room, with some of the items being hyperlinked to another page within the site.

The hyperlinks include photo gallery, about the dvd, disturbia suburbia, about the film, videos, downloads, registration and dark secrets. Each of these hyperlinks leads you to another page which all have different images as their background, giving the audiences the knowledge of all the major playing characters. When opening ‘dark secret’ the website opens another window where the makers of the film have allowed space for people to tell their own scary stories which happen in their neighbourhood. On these comments you can rate them out of five and also send their story on to a friend.

In the photo gallery are a range of screenshots from the film which are shown again through the lenses of the binoculars, which continues the theme of the first webpage. The audience can also see how important the binoculars are in this particular film as it is a pivotal part of the design of the website and can be seen in both major photos, on the first webpage and the 190 degree photograph.