Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Planning our movie wasnt that hard and didnt take us long to do. Each memeber of our group put different ideas in and we all pretty much came up with the same idea, the monster had to be a little girl. So we then thought of films that included children as the monster and came up with, Inception, The Ring and The Grudge. All of these movies feature a young boy or girl as the monster. We then went on to watch these three films and takes notes on the different techniques that were used to signify horror. After watching each of the films we went back to planning our storyboards which told us each shot, angle, speech duration etc.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When we had finally finished our horror teaser trailer, we had to show it to a group of people to get feedback on the good and the bad parts. Some of the positive feedback we got was things such as; camera angles, soundtrack, filters and editing. There were certain editing points that were highlighted, for example the close up of "the monster" at the end of the trailer, and also when the group have a picture and on the flash (of the camera) "the monster" appears. On the otherhand we did have a few negative points about the trailer. One of them points was the fact that we saw "the monster" numerous times throught the trailer and the audience did not like this, they said that it should have a build up to the monster climax. Another negative point was on the dramatic parts of the trailer there should have been more dramatic music to fit the mood. And the final negative point we received was the pace and speed of the trailer, it needed to be more of a smooth paced. To respond to the feedback we went back to edit our trailer to tweek the bits that needed doing. In response to seeing the monster too many times throughout the trailer, we deleted some of the scenes that featured it and fitted that place with an alternative sequence. We also added dramatic music to the dramatic parts of the trailer to give it a more jumpy feel.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
This is my movie poster that I designed on Photoshop. The picture is of the 'monster' in our horror trailer Asylum. Most horror films do not reveal the monster of the film on the poster to make it more of a surprise or shock when watching it. When making the trailer and the poster for advertising we had to identify our target audience. There are loads of things to think about when distributing a film like the release date, advertising, target audience etc. We did some research and found out our target audience were men and women aged between 18 - 40. There was also a mix between male and female but males seemed to like the horror genre a bit more. To make our film known advertising is one of the most important parts of the development. Billboards, buses, TV adverts, posters, radio, internet are just some ways to advertise your film. But the most powerful way to advertise is word of mouth.
People see adds everyday of their lives but don't really pay attention to them all. Whereas word of mouth is a more direct way of advertising and you trust people that you speak to rather then checking out some reviews or rating online. The magazine cover is another way of advertising a film. Having your film in a magazine like Empire is a great thing for a film company, but on the other hand if your film is a flop then the magazine will exploit this. Promotions are another great thing to do when releasing a film. Tie ins, games, soundtracks and other merchandise are brilliant ways to promote a film. Film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue early on in the release. Studios also do promotional tours which consist of the film actors, directors and producers appear for TV, radio and print media interviews, sometimes they show a clip from the film or an outtake. During filming interviews can take place on set conducted in person or remotely. After the release of the film the actors, directors and producers make appearances in major cities and major events to promote the movie even more.
Both the magazine cover and the film poster feature the same image on the front. This reinforces the movie and lets the audience know what the monster is. Some may say that this ruins the suprise and suspence of the monster but I think it works well in this case. The tagline, "The End Begins" only features on the magazine cover and not the poster or trailer. This is because i didnt want to put too much text onto the poster so it wouldnt be too cluttered. The font on both is also different. I wanted the magazine to look more formal because it was for the front cover of a magazine, on the otherhand I wanted to edit the title on the poster becasue it was an offical poster for the film. Black, grey and red seem to be the dominant colour in each product. I chose these colours due to the film being a horror. These are typical colours for the kind of horror that we wanted to produce. To get the film noticed, the publicity team will arrange media interviews with available cast of the film. There will also be screenings for the critics before the film is realeased to the general public. In addition we will try get the trailer to be advertised on digital channels and outlets that our interested.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Film Distribution Company
Considering thw scale, the film distrubution company is small. Very little people work in the UK theatrical distribution, judt 500 people, 1 % of the total film/cinema workforce. The role of the distributor's managing director is to supervise a small number of staff with specialist roles, such as:- Marketing & Promotions
- Publicity & Media Relations
- Sales
- Technical
- Acquisitions
- Legal & Business Affairs
- Finance & Accounting
- Administration
It is believed that these departments function similarly to their demand-side counterparts in any industry, looking to work as sustainably and effeciently as possible. But handling products that are among the most thrillingly creative, emotionally charged and technologically advanced is what film distributors go through all the time. Good marketing experience for a film industry marketing position may be gained at an advertising or media planning agency, especially by working with a film or entertainment client. Being a market team member, you would habe to be bold, a creative thinker and a fast carful worker. Experience as a journalist or press officer is useful for publicity. You should be able to write succinctly and imaginatively, and remain level headed under pressure. It is also good to know knowledge of todays media, as are good professional relationships with journalists and TV producers. External agencies may be assigned to a particular project if the distributor needs specialist public relations or event management help.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions governting the organisation of a story into a text. We have always been surrounded by stories such as fairy tales and myths, religious storys like the Bible, scientific storys about the unknown universe, cultural plays, tv dramas and even paintings. Every day newspapers tell new stories where they are true or not, and dreams in a way are little stories. These days the media we consume is in the form of narratives, text that tells a stroy. Even when the media deals with real life it always recreates is as a narrative. Because we are into the narrative tradition these days we approach most texts with certain expectations whether we know the story or not, for example;
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
- the opening to give us information about who, what and when.
- there to be characters who interact with each other.
- to see a series of incidents, which are connected with each other.
- problems and/or conflict.
- the ending to reolve the action or cast new light on what has happened.
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
- a state of equilibrium at the outset.
- a disruption of the equilibrium by some action.
- a recognition that there has been a disruption.
- an attempt to repair the didruption.
- a reinstatement of the equilibrium.
Return of the Repressed
Freud’s repression is a normal part of human development; the analysis of dreams, literature, jokes, illustrates the ways that our secret desires continue to find outlet in perfectly well-adjusted individuals. However, when we are faced with obstacles to satisfaction of our libido's (sex drive) cathexis (change of energy in the sex drive), when we experience traumatic events, or when we remain fixated on earlier phases of our development, the conflict between the libido and the ego can lead to alternative sexual discharges. Freud always emphasised the "indestructible" nature of unconscious material, as the irreducible character of memory traces. If we have no memories of events during the first years of life, this is because of the repression that affects them. In a sense, all memories may be said to be retained, their recollection depending solely on the way in which they are cathected, decathected, or anticathected.
“Every family has secrets. And what we are witnessing in the ‘family’ of psychoanalysis is nothing less than the return of the repressed.”
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Mood Board
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
The Saw series is one of my favourite horror franchises. Some people may call it torture porn but yes it is very gory and sick but it has such an amazing story line which connects all the films and continues to suprise. The Saw films are also the most frightening horror movies I have seen because its the fact that its not a monster but just an every day man setting up games of death.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic horror movie that has been remade several times over the last couple of decades. One of the things that make it so popular and scary is the fact that it is inspired by true events involving a man called Ed Gein. In this trailer I like how we dont see the 'monster' til the end but events are happening to build up the horror. It also gives a lot of suspense, showing frightening scenes and clips to the climax of seeing the Texas Cahinsaw Massacre.
We applied theories and ideas of four narrative theorists to 'The Shining'. Propp was a Russian critic who explored the underlying structures of folk tales and he came up with a set of universal charcaters and narrative functions which he thought were the basic for all stories. His ideas fit with 'The Shining' through his 8 character roles being; The Villain, The Hero, The Donor, The Helper, The Princess, Her Father, The Dispatcher and The False Hero. These 8 charcters are what Propp believed were in all kinds of narratives. Heros and Villains are in any type of story or drama, wheather it is from a book, film or TV programme.The other 6 character types are not always featured in a story, but can relate to those in the film, book or programme. Most of the time characters such as a Helper, Donor and Her Father can be small part character that only feature in the story for a couple to minutes but on the other hand be in the entire story. Propp also had the idea of there being 31 narrative sturctures in every story. The first being 'A memeber of the family leaves home' and the last, 'The hero is married and crowned'. Although all 31 structures may not apply to every single story every written, but elements of Propps narrative structure will be in most stories and tales. 
The second theorist Tzventan Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. It is a normal story structure with chains of events which things occur throughout and Todorov believed that the whole story is trying to get back to its original state. This diagram shows Todorov's Theory, how it starts with the equilbrium, then it builds up to the main event with the climax. The main event then happens and past that point, things are trying to get back to the way they were. The classic Hollywood or classic realist narrative structure is based on Todorov's ideas. His theory is shown in 'The Shining' because it all starts out normal. 'Jack' has just received a new job with his family. Then things start to go wrong, 'Jack' starts seeing things and becomes a bit insane. The main event being 'Jack' chasing after his family with an intent to kill them. The problem gets solved when Halloron returns with a snowplow which is the only escape for 'Wendy' and 'Danny'. It also could be solved because 'Jack' freezes to death so there is no longer any evil lerking, or is there?
Thirdly Claude Levi-Strauss looked at structure in terms of opposites such as; Earth/Space, Good/Evil, Humans/Aliens, Past/ Present, Normal/Strange and Known/Unknown. With Good and Evil we understand that they both are opposite to eachother but Strauss wasn't interested in the order of the events and the plot. He looked deeper into the arrangements of themes.
The fourth and final theorist is/are Bordwell and Thompson. They believed that "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". They did not create a full narrative theory but did come together with some interesting ideas. They believed that a narrative begins with a situation, followed by a series of changes which causes a cause and effect. It then ends the narrative with the arise of a new situation. It defines where things take place, when they take place and how quickly they take place. For 'The Shining' the screen duration is 115mins, plot duration being 6 months and the story duartion is 60 years. The screen duration is the length of the movie, the plot is how long they were at the hotel for, and the stor duration is how long the whole story lasts, throughout past and present.
A trailer I find interesting
This trailer is the horror thriller movie The Strangers from Rogue Pictures and Intrepid Pictures. It was released realeased 29th Augest 2008 and stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. This Trailer has lots of different aspects of the horror genre. Starting with the location of the movie being in a romote and isolated venue almost hidden away in the trees. The house that most of the trailer is filmed in is an old farm house with barns and mills surrounding it. Most of the clips that we see of the film in the trailer are all night scenes, which obviously is typical of the horror genre.
It is seen in this trailer who the 'monsters' or people are, but they have hidden their faces with masks. The designated weapon for these three people are knives which is a much more personal way to kill someone then just using a gun.
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