Film Title Ideas

In today’s lesson we came up with a list of Movie name ideas:

- Downfall
- Manic Water
- Shallow Water
- Red Tide
- Black Tide
- Murky Water

 We then passed this list round the room on a tally chart for people to vote on their favourite, to see which titles would be most popular. This worked well because the people in our class are the same age as our target audience (teenagers and young adults) and therefore we got a clear representative of what our chosen audience like. The title which came up most popular was 'Shallow Water'.
The feedback we received:

"It's simple and intriguing name with a catchy ring to it."


"It tells the audience it's a water related film - something everyone is familiar with and therefore becomes a lot more scary"

"The idea of shallow water is creepy and gives a sense that someone/thing may be lurking in it"

Storyboard Roughs

Storyline Finally

Although taking a while to decide, we have come up with a rough idea on our story line following the theme of number 4 shown on the Facebook note.
- 'Jane' is washed up onto a beach, no idea who she is, and know idea how she got there. deranged and crazy she sets out to find who did this to her, killing whoever gets in her way.' A basic storyline, however we plan to include a twist somewhere to add an exciting and intriguing element to the trailer to tease the audience and leave them wanting more.
Time for storyboards.

Facebook Feedback

This week me and Colleen posted 4 storyline ideas on a Facebook note so that we could get some feedback from our target audience on what storyline they liked.
See Below:

We thought Facebook was a good place to get opinions as the majority of people on their are students around our age range. This is who we want our film to appeal to and thought they would give us an honest opinion. The majority of feedback we got was positive, we found that they mostly liked number 1 & 4.


Comments:
"I like the first one the best :) but you could do it a bit like paranormal activity - ish, like instead of her actually coming back, bad things could happen to the student, or the student could unwillingly do bad things to other people, like her friends. Or number 2, instead of the dead person coming back, someone else who knew the girl could do the killing it'd make the film more realistic."

"I like number four the best, looks intriguing :)"

"I think number four is the best because its an original and unique idea. Im excited to see the story unfold and the synopsis makes me want to see more"


"Number 2"

Hi Youtube

Today we sorted out all our filming which we did a few weeks ago - testing shots and location ideas. We then decided to try some simple editing techniques just to get a feel for imovie. We put a few different clips together, as well as using a sound bridge and cross dissolve. These are all very basic and the outcome isn't brilliant, but it's our first go!

Snap Happy

Despite having little idea on our storyline still, we're set on having it based around water and with living in Portsmouth, the sea is our greatest natural backdrop. With ideas in mind, we set off to Old Portsmouth - a part of the city which seems to have been captured in time where the streets are lit with old fashioned lampposts, cobbled streets and a sense of being in a state of disrepair; ready to be modernized.


View Larger Map

Above shows the stretch of beach we covered with the Round Tower just seen in the north of the map. Photo's and videos to follow soon!

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scène can be described as the 'arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted.'
The mise-en-scène of our trailer is mainly situated upon the beach. However due to it being a public place, we had to ensure that the beach was particularly empty as a person walking in the background of a scene would've have ruined a shot. We were quite lucky as we found a secluded area of the beach in which to film, out of the way and only really popular within the summer - a problem we wouldn't be having within November time. Additionally, due to the majority of our shots being filmed outside, props weren't that essential in building our scene into a realistic representation, as everything was already there

Storyline Ideas

Since we have completed preliminary tasks such as analysis, we plan to move forward into the production process. We have started thinking about story lines (see post below) and plan to narrow them down into three main contenders. We are going to publish theses thoughts on Facebook - a top social networking site and get people to review our ideas. This will be good research as our target audience is young adults, the main users of Facebook. We will then consider people's reviews and votes, helping us decide which idea will become our storyline.

Idea Generation

We have produced this quick brainstorm to get some ideas flowing & help us move further in our project:

Three Become Two

From being a team of three for this project, Tom has been separated and now the trailer shall be produced by myself and Briony.



Maybe it's for the best, not.

Costumes

Costumes are a big part of the film and can make or break a character. Some films take different approaches to their costumes depending on the storyline and can have their killer/victims dressed in ripped, bloody clothing to portray a sense of chaos. This can be seen within the film,The Strangers when the victims are killed, however the killers themselves are dressed in everyday outfits, suggesting that they are normal people too, with the difference of a mask covering their face, dehumanising them from their seemingly normal clothes and taking away and emotion that would be seen upon their faces.

For the victims of our killer the costumes aren't as key as they are portrayed as just normal everyday people, so jeans, jumpers, leggings are easily appropriate. However the clothing for the 'washed-up' killer need to be thought out more carefully to portray the idea of her being a bit darker. 

For our killer we have chosen the clothing to consist of black leggings, a ripped up grey t-shirt and no shoes. This suggests the worn down, scruffy look of the killer and as if she herself has been attacked before by somebody else.

Magazine Cover

One of our tasks was to find and analyze a scary movie magazine cover, but we found it difficult to find one. We think this is because scary movies is a specific genre with a select audience, which doesn't appeal to everyone. Editors will have this is mind therefore choosing bigger, blockbuster movies to put on the cover which appeal to a broader audience in order to get best profit.
When we come to make our magazine cover we will take this into consideration, choosing our images, tag lines, layout etc carefully. We want our cover to appeal to a wide variety of people in order to promote our film.

Trailer Analysis

COLLEEN TO DO
The Grudge:


The Ring:


The Strangers:

Film Posters

As part of the tasks we were set to do before film making, we had to analyse three film posters. I had to do this in terms of their style, colour, imagery, text, layout etc. I chose three quite similar films which all had different styles of poster in which we could compare. I have uploaded them to Scribd in order for you to view the full documents:













Briony

Trailer Research

There are two types of trailer - A teaser trailer is a short taster of the film whereas a full length trailer is more of a longer preview, revealing more ideas and insight into the film. Teaser trailers usually contain very little footage and are often created before main filming begins, their job is to let viewers know that the film is around and in production; coming soon. Full trailers are shown nearer the movie release date and on a much wider scale.

Teaser Trailer:                     

Full Trailer:
   

Day One - Pre Production

TRAILERS

In order to create our teaser trailer production piece, background research is a must. This includes looking at other trailers and media products within our genre: Horror/Thriller

A trailer is a preview of an upcoming feature film which will be shown in the cinema in the near future. Trailers can be seen in a multiplicity of formats.

- Cinema: This is where most people would view film trailers, especially older viewers as they aren't as tech savvy as the youthful 'youtube' generation. When viewing films you are shown trailers of a similar genre, therefore targeting the right target audience, creating more hype and awareness. Also many films are viewed as better on the 'big' screen, giving it a bigger more exciting preview than just watching it at home.

- Youtube: Ideally aimed at the younger audience, Youtube and other websites are easily accessible to young people as well as being free. This therefore potentially enlarges the target audience and is easy to be done by the film companies, quickly and cheaply.

- DVD: This is a less mainstream way of viewing trailers, but similar to the cinema in the way that when watching a DVD you will see trailers within the same genre of your chosen film. The producers know that the viewer is more likely to be interested in the new film, if they have enjoyed a similar one.

- TV Adverts: Most people watch TV therefore trailers shown during adverts are broadly viewed. Different trailers are shown at different times, to target a specific audience e.g cartoons and films for kids are shown during childrens programs and throughout the day whereas scarier, more adult films are shown after the watershed.

- Social Networking: Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc are great places to view trailers, especially the younger audience where 93% of teenagers use online social sites. A trailer can be watched online and then sent out to all the viewers friends giving it huge popularity and lots of hits.

Genre Conventions: ""specific settings, roles, events, and values that define individual genres and their subgenres." These conventions, always fluid, are usually implicit, but sometimes are made into explicit requirements by publishers of fiction as a guide to authors seeking publication." - Sourced from Wikipedia