Ancillary texts ideas and research

From researching posters for horror films we've found there are some main factors involved:

Common codes and conventions:

• Colours-used are usually the main primary colours and black- red connotes blood and death, blue tint is a common convention of horror films so is obviously transferred to poster so to identify further with the film, yellow is used as its a striking juxtapostion to blue and black and creates versimilartude to low lighting such as lampsots which as well as being a common convention of most horror film also helps the audience to relate more as they can moe easily put themselves in those position ie 'closer to home the scaryer'

• Text-usually serif text to connotes sharp and phalic objects such as murder weapons like the most common;knife, even going back to the most basic instinct of a predators sharp teeth.

• Central protagonist-sometimes used as central image but never clear, the image is always covered up in some way. The most common images used are single striking images or a significant scene from the film each of which is used to entise the audience further; to want to find out this significance and the plot of whats going to happen.
  

• Use of phalic objects-common convetion of horror-eg weapon-knife

• Male gaze-is commonly used to help sell horror films by including females in the poster usually wearing little or provocative clothing.

Hardware

Hardware

• 
  
  We used a handheld SONY camcorder and DV tapes. On this we had a testing procedure where we checked; the focus setting as we used the 'zoom' application a number of times throughout filming. On checking the white balance we didn't altar this setting as we felt that the level it was already on reflected our genre well.
  
  
  
• 
  
   I was fairly familiar with these cameras as I have used them previously therefore I felt confident with shooting our footage with them. However more practice in using these cameras meant I was able to further my understanding with them.
  
  
  
• 
  
  We also used a tripod to ensure our shots were steady; this was a simple piece of equipment and was easy to use.
  
  
  

• From pre-productions we learnt how to transfer footage from the camera to the Macs via a lead this ensured no footage was lost during our final production.

• However we didn't altar the white balance setting as we felt that the level it was already on reflected our genre well. From pre-productions we learnt how to transfer footage from the camera to the Macs via a lead this ensured no footage was lost during our final production.

Software

Software

• 
  
  • From the process of constructing an animatic I've learnt how to use the technology; apple Macs and the software Final Cut in which us learn how to cut and edit my animatic whilst incorporating transitions, sound and title sequences, I also learnt how to use filters.
  
  
  

• I also furthered my knowledge in learning how to use a digital camera, all of which are demonstrated in our animatics, and SONY handheld video camera in our film trailer.

• When using Final Cut I found it easy to pick up and develop my skills efficiently so was quite simple to use once shown how and exploration of the software had taken place. I discovered this through watching tutorial videos on the internet for Final Cut and also through trial and error.

• I also learnt how to the useful range of tools which is much wider in variety than 'IMovie' the programme we used in the previous year, such as razor, transitions, opening titles, ending credits, filters, effects, shape, and sound effects, which were suitable for a variety of genres.

• However it was sometimes difficult to navigate, I also found it difficult to incorporate sound to specific clips having imported them from Imovie6 as a Quicktime file to Final Cut into the correct positions after cutting and editing. I also found it fairly time consuming when it came to moving all the cut clips around.

Test Shots

These are just a few still camera shot of the filming we were doing for our test footage. They are mainly of Sarah Jepson, the final girl and also Ben Crossley, her ex-boyfriend. With a few social shots and some shots of Ben Iliff, the killer standing behind the girls before he kills them. We have also got still shots of the killings and the corpse (Hannah Borden and Abbie Mears). We took a variety of shots to see which would work best.

General shots

Killing shots

Couple shots

Shots

Test shots

(shots of corpse's zooming in a little more each time and black screens will be added in and amongst shots)

1. Boy 1 and girl 1 holding hands-long shot, 2 shot,

2. All main characters and extras in social situation boy 1 and girl 1's eyes meet across the room-mid shot, zoom
3. Girl 1 and boy 2 doing homework, boy 1 in distance ie outside window etc-mid shot, possible use of depth of field
4. Girl 3 sat in room watching tv- povs of boy 2 outside window, 
5. Girl 3 sat in room watching tv- mid shot from side of tv can see girl 3 staring at tv and boy 2 in black behind her
6. knife-close-up
7. Black screen
8. Girl 4 running through park /wood-panning shot
9. female corpse of girl 4 laid on floor, slashed throat-mid shot
10. Girl 1 and Girl 2 sat in house-povs of boy 2
11. Girl leaving house-povs from boy 2
12. Boy 2 comes up behind her and kills her-mid-shot looking at girl 2 boy 2 grab her don't see his face
13. Corpse of girl 2- closer up than last corpse shot

14. Girl 1 looking very upset bumps into Boy 1 coming out of co-op, shes scared and jumps-2 two shot
15. Girl 1 sat at home (suspects somthing)- mid shot of girl from Boy 2 pov
16. Girl 1 scared hiding-close-up/extreme close-up see intense emotion
17. Girl 1 backing away from house hears somthing turns round shocked-cose-up
18. Black screen
19. girl 1 looking at post it note in her planner 'im closer than you think'-otss zooms in
    

Target audience and (notional) BBFC classification [DRAFT]

Age

• Our media product is targeting an age group of 15-21 years old. We are targeting our teaser trailer to this age group because the characters in our teaser trailer are all of a similar age (15-21- Youth culture) which will make it easier for an audience of that age to relate to therefore make the audience feel empathy for the characters as well as possibly encouraging the audience to or not to watch the teaser trailer and later the film.

• While deciding which BBFC rating we should give our teaser trailer we compared it to 'Prom Night'( Rated a 15 )which is very similar to ours in the sense that moderate language, moderate sex references, issues relating to drugs and alcohol and sustained threat were all included. We also looked at was 'Find her keep her' (coming soon and Rated a 15) which contains, strong language and frequent moderate sex references, which again is the same as our teaser trailer. Another film we looked at was 'The Stepfather' (Rated 15 and Directed by Nelson McCormick) which contains strong psychological threat, menace and violence, again the same characteristics of which are in our teaser trailer.

• After these comparisons on the BBFC website we felt very confident in labelling our teaser trailer as a 15 as it contains all of the characteristics a typical 15 rated film would contain.

Ethnicity

• Our teaser trailer only includes a Caucasian cast however I feel it will appeal to a wide range of ethnic groups as many mainstream productions continue to sideline mainstream talent but don’t seem to suffer commercially for this. Our teaser trailer has therefore gained a hegemonic status.

• Our teaser trailer would also only be released primarily in the UK and also English speaking countries therefore we feel this would work well. Also in the UK now, there is more of a multicultural society therefore lots of different races will be used to seeing a predominantly Caucasian cast.

Gender

• 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1998, 208). We took the male gaze into account in having 2 different representations of women.

• Sarah is the final girl so her characteristics are; Brunette, sensible, not very sexually active, dignified, covers herself up (for example she doesn’t wear sexually provocative cloths) juxtaposed to Hannah who is our typical blonde scream queen, her characteristics are slightly different; she is more confident, blonde, wears low cut, short, sexually provocative clothing.

Socio-Economic Groupings
• The class profile of our characters is generally C2DE. This means that our teaser trailer can appeal to those classes (C2DE) as they are more likely to be able to relate to the characters better whereas the more sophisticated ABC1 audience may find it harder to relate to due to the genre being 'horror' as alot of people classed as ABC1 may not like the genre or may not be raised in households where such films are/were allowed due to the content of them. (violence, moderate sex references, strong language)

Nationality/Region

• Nationality/ Region: Our cast are from Yorkshire and so they have Northern accents which may make it difficult in the box office rating as there is not much cross-over appeal. So we would at least aim for the UK-wide audience as we don't maintain a hegemonic status.

Distribution

• • Lionsgate-are famous for horror films such as 'Saw', 'Amityville' and 'Cabin Fever'.
  • Working title- 'Shaun of the Dead' (15)
  
  • Verve pictures- possibly as it’s a film distributor particularly of British and independent films.
  
  • WarpX- due to the fact that WarpX deal with low budget production methods to make high value movies that can reach cinema audiences across the world, as our teaser trailer would be a low budget production warpx would be a good distributor as this is what WarpX specialises in. Also WarpX has released films such as 'Donkey Punch' which was an inspiration for us when it came to writing a narrative.
  
  • They also specialise in regional films with a lower socio-economic grouping, especially up north where Yorkshire is, this would be brilliant as our film holds these factors.
  
  
  
  
  

Fans Of...
• Some films that target the same audience that we are going to and to help communicate the ideas and inspirations behind our narrative idea are films such as 'Prom Night', this links in with our ideas because they are both classed as a 15, both have similar content (language, sexual references, violence and threat) It also links in with our idea because the characters/cast are all of similar ages (17/18) and they are both aiming at the same ages and culture.

• Another film that is similar to our idea and gave us great inspiration is John Carpenters 'Halloween' even though this is an old film; it has been a huge inspiration for many horror films. We can link our ideas into this film because the cast/characters are all of similar ages, there are numerous killings throughout the film of which are the main characters friends which is the same in our narrative as Sarah’s (main character/final girl) friends all get killed at some point. 'Halloween' can also be linked in with our ideas due to the simple facts that they both have a final girl, a killer and a authorative figure and are located/set in an urban area , which are in most if not all horror/slasher films.
• We used features from these films to help us identify our main target audience and to develop our ideas and understanding of horror/slasher films.

Sexuality

• Pink pound-Ben-a rugby player and Ben Iliff a geek shows a spectrum of looks to the homosexual audience.

• Male gaze-Hannah (the girls friend) - has a large chest of which is regularly shown off in the teaser trailer whilst wearing sexually provocative clothing, especially when compared to the Brunette female (Sarah) as it further anchors her sexual activity.

• female gaze- eye-candy Ben-rugby player so he has a stereotypical jock figure, enticing girls to watch (this has been shown in the past by Zac Efron 'High School Musical')

Psychographic Profile:

• Our typical would-be-punter is likely to be a...................(teen youth (Primary audience)

• 'Maslow’s hierarchy of needs' as it’s basically a pyramid system hierarchy for motivation, it has many levels and all levels must be completed before a state of self-motivations reached.

• This links to my target audience as psychologically my consumers are likely to be in the 'safety/love and belonging levels of the pyramid, as they may not be in a loving satisfying relationship or be in steady employment. My film relates to people in this level as the characters in the film are also in this level and deal with similar issues relating to 'Maslows hierarchy of needs', so the audience are more likely to feel empathy with and understand the characters and their story.

• The characters in our film and a lot of our target audience therefore lack self motivation so are unable to move on emotionally grow or mature they're in a mental state of paralysis.