Questionnaires on Magazine/Poster drafts

How research into existing horror texts/Media theory and my audience research affected my proposed idea

Cantata Storyboards

Function of a film distribution company

Horror Magazine and Poster photography shoot

Film distribution and marketing

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

When producing and distributing a film, the film distributor which is usually a company that has experience in organising many different elements to the film they’re promoting at a time has a very important role of marketing the film to the general public.  They not only organise all the advertising and make sure it’s sent out to the theatres and companies; they also can set the release date of the film, be responsible for dubbing and subtitling a film if it is being distributing to a non-English speaking country and legal issues such as censorship.

Advertising and promoting a film to its audience can be extremely broad as a number of tools and platforms are used to achieve its target. Although they use traditional formats of television adverts and posters, distributors also utilise public space such as the sides of public transport and bus shelters to reach a mass amount that the distributor wouldn’t be able to reach through normal media. With the evolution of digital media and social networking, web ads have been very popular recently with distributors who are looking to reach a younger audience as well as films that have a very large target audience that can be individually targeted through a number of different websites. Letting the audience become interactive with the media through competitions and rewards before the film is released is also a key tool used by promoters so the films sticks with the audience and they are highly likely to go and see the film when its released in cinemas. 

An example of this is how TheWoman in Black held many competitions for its target audience and also made the actor, Daniel Radcliffe promote directly to its audience through Youtube videos. A more formal way of advertising is interviews on TV shows and the red carpet release that use the actors/actress as a main selling tool.

The marketing of a film is individually based on the audience the film is aimed at through the types of advertisements used and the amount is distributed. Younger audiences are aimed on more digital mediums as this is where they are more likely to spend their time, especially with adverts on social networking sites and Youtube while older audiences are more likely to be aimed on more traditional, paper mediums and television/radio adverts which can also help with the promotion of merchandise later on. Audience research is extremely important to distribution companies as it gives them a key idea to what their audiences feel about the film and how much they are aware of the film while confirming the target audience and the estimate figures that would go and see the film. An example of a horror film which had a broad target audience was The 

Conjuring which had a lot of television adverts and social networking adverts on Facebook and Twitter.

The main elements of the film that need to be clearly portrayed to the audience are important as it creates an identity that the audience can remember and become interested in. This ties in all the different promotional material such as the adverts and marketing in addition to merchandise and competitions as the companies often link all of the material together to create the set identity. Everyone working on the film and all relevant material have to be clearly aware of the main theme and the identity that needs to come across as normally on a big project like a film, many different companies are assigned work to create the best quality and most effective material possible.

Saw is aimed towards a more adult market with the 18 certificate 
and the use of extreme gore and violence. Even through the look of 
the poster, you can instantly recognise it isn't suitable for young teenagers and people who don't watch many horror films.

The Shaun of the Dead has a more open range of audiences due to the film being a comedy horror. The use of actors such as Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Dylan Moran already hint to the audience that the film will have comedy elements to it before they even watch the trailer. The tagline and the image on the poster is quite humorous as well with the use of irony that is very suited to the feel of the film.

Dracula is a more family-friendly film which many horror films don't cater for as it doesn't show much gore or frights. The poster is quite traditional and plays up to the traditional Dracula-look.

The viral campaign for ‘The Last Exorcism’ was extremely successfully and innovative through the use of an online chat room, Chatroulette. Scaring the viewer was done slowly a video of a woman would appear while unbuttoning her shirt before she became possessed and peered at the screen to which the URL of the film’s website popped up.  The film would be advertised further by people filming reaction videos which helped the film reach a wider audience.

Poster/Magazine Plans

Horror Moodboard

By producing a moodboard of similar possession films and characters is inspiration for our own trailer. Deciding on the possession theme was quite easy as a group as it is so broad and can be interrupted in different ways which make it a lot more interesting for the audience. The look of the possessed character is one of the most important areas in this type of film so looking at how other major films have tackled this issue is key for a successful trailer.

Cantata Risk Assessment

Pre-Production Paperwork

Pre production paperwork from Alison_Hoar

Final Trailer

Final Film Poster

Final Magazine Cover

Horror Trailer first draft

Film Magazine Cover Drafts

Film Poster Draft

Audience Research: Questionnaires

Most of the people survey in this questionnaire (55%) are single which does suggest they are more likely to go to the cinema with friends or family. The people surveyed are therefore more likely to go with their partner as well as friends and family.

As majority of the people surveyed were young enough to be in the key demographic of teenagers and young adults, almost 80% are in education whereas only a very small percentage are unemployed so they are more likely to be able to afford to go to cinema on a regularly.

When asked if they enjoyed horror films, 55% of those surveyed answered that they did although just under 20% answered that it depends on the film so it is likely that horror films would be successful with younger people.

Those surveyed preferred supernatural horror films with over 60% saying so while the thriller and comedy types of horror where also quite popular. Gore was the least favourite sub genre which works in our advantage as many gore films have an 18 certificate that could mean some of the target audience wouldn't be able to see it if we chose to do a gore type trailer.  

As over 80% of the respondents visit the cinema occasionally, it suggests they would need to be impressed by a films advertising and storyline before they went to see it. 

The people surveyed had a range of favourite elements that were found in a horror film. The two clear favourites at 55% were possession and ghosts/spirits which is good for the group idea of a possession trailer. The least favourite choice is zombies which could suggest they are bored of the genre as many zombie films are very similar.

Many of the people who answered the questionnaire prefer to go to the cinema with their friends however family was also a popular choice. As many young people go to the cinema with friends, this is easy to target a main audience more carefully. 

Out of the people surveyed, an equal amount of under 28% enjoyed both happy and mystery endings with a cliffhanger ending being the least favourite. This gives us an indication of how to end the plot of the story and what to hint at in our trailer.

Research and Planning: Individual Ideas

Synopsis 
A woman is haunted by a younger boy (around 5 - 7) and follows her around every where she goes. Starts when she moves into a house and finds a locked room that the boy grew up in before he died. As the woman starts to notice more unusual occurrences, she tries to find out what is happening to her but the boy who becomes increasingly angry at her starts to become more violent in the hauntings. She finds out that a little boy was killed by his mother there 10 years ago but she mysteriously disappeared along with his body. At the end of the film, the boy kills the woman who believes she is his mother.
Character profiles

The woman - Around 25 and moves into a new house, she starts to see weird things happening around her and people in the area are starting to go missing. She becomes increasingly worried and panicked and tries to investigate.

The boy - A boy who was killed 10 years ago by his mother and his body was never found. Sings nursery rhythms around whenever he walks which the woman hears. Leaves bloody hand prints on the floors of his old room.
Man who warns her - When the woman is trying to find out what is happening to her, an unknown man knocks at her door and warns her to not find out and get too involved as the boy has done it before and is trying to find his mother.Setting details

The main setting is the new house the woman has just moved into which focuses in the main bedroom that used to belong to the child and the living room where she often hears footsteps and singing. Over the progression of the film, the house starts to become more horror themed and scary which the woman can't control.
The film also has some scenes in a church/graveyard where she tries to find out what happened to the boy and his mother.
Proposed audience
The main target audience for this film would be mid to late teens and adults as it would have some very scary scenes with a lot of jumpy shots to scare the audience and would have a classification rating of 15. The use of adults and children in the film would attract an older audience while the themes of ghosts and undead spirits would attract a more teenage audience.

Research and Planning: Initial Group Meeting

Character Profiles

The dumb blonde – The girl who is idolised by her friends and enemies, who is also popular, selfish and attractive. A weak unknowledgeable person who is possessed because of her weakness and later dies from her possession.

The boyfriend – The well-known athlete who is with the dumb blonde. The guy who influences his friendship group, encouraging them to drink and do things they don’t want to. His death is due to trying work out his possessed girlfriend but she overcomes him.

The other friend – The guy who appears to be an all-round happy person, enjoying life and confident. He cares about his appearance and likes the dumb blondes boyfriend.  When trying to escape and find help he is dragged back to the graveyard and into the church, presumed dead.

The final girl – The well-educated, sensible, plain looking girl who is the quieter one of the group but is liked by her friends. When left as the final girl she battles to save her possessed friend but realises there is nothing she can do as her friend is already gone and is left to defend herself and end the possession but fails to do so.

The dead friend – a teenage girl who was very vulnerable and sensible. The girl who strived to be popular but was very impressionable and high achieving. Her death happened june of 2011 when at a house party. When influenced to drink more than she was willing to she was left dead after drinking too much. NOT SEEN IN TRAILER BUT HINTED AT.

Setting – The first setting is one of the friend’s houses, where the girls are getting ready to go out. The main setting where the rest of the film is set is in a graveyard during the era of 2012 on a cold December evening.

Audience – The primary audience is aimed at teenagers and young adults around 15 – 25. We have chosen this primary audience as it will appeal to teenagers as they are watching actors around the same age and may base their actions by what they do. It also interests this audience as it is a horror and will scare the people watching it so they will get pleasure out of watching it.

The secondary audience is aimed at older adults. This will appeal to parents as they may be interested in what their children are watching and maybe to find out how teenagers their own children’s age are stereotyped in films.

Films similar existing films – The first film that is similar to our horror trailer is ‘Cabin in the Woods’, this is due to the similar character profiles and the concept of a group of teenage friends out together when strange things start to happen. The second film is ‘The Exorcist’, we thought this is similar as possession is used as the main theme. The last film that is similar is ‘Final Destination 3’ as is again about a group of teenagers. 

Synopsis

A group of four friends one of their homes, they are all getting ready to go out for the evening and having pre-drinks. When getting ready two of the girls are chatting in the bathroom when a mobile rings and the dumb blonde answers, when trying to discover who this person is at the end of the line she is confused when she can only hear breathing so hangs up. However freaked out this phone has made her she presumes it was her boyfriend. When ready to leave there guy friends turn up, whom is also the dumb blondes boyfriend. They all head out on their way to the nightclub. When locking the door as they leave the front light switches on and worries all four friends. When walking towards a graveyard they have to walk through to get to their destination one of the girls suggest to go back as they feel ‘weird’. As the group of friends enter the graveyard, the dumb blonde is hit with the possession and one by one begins to kill the others. The final girl is left to try and fight for her life, however the last fight leaves them both dead with the spirit of the dead friend still alive.

Horror Trailer Key Conventions

Final Destination 3 

The non-diegetic sounds which created a tense feeling

Blank black slides with messages to hint what will happen, giving away little clues

Cliff hangers before the deaths

Showing the previous films, encouraging new audiences for people who have not seen the previous  films.

Voice over of female main character

Not a lot of gore, however you could tell it was a horror due to the predicted deaths and also showing the Todorov narrative theory, The equilibrium, the disequilibrium, but leaving the new equilibrium out to persuade people to go and see the film.

The Omen

The evil child

Losts of jump shots and fast pace

No music to begin with then progressively got louder and faster.

The music and screen shots worked together

The typical nuclear family

At the end the main theme of ‘666’ is shown.

Release date and production company

The Orphan

The pace was slow but still creepy and tence

Didn’t give anything away exept from the hint that ‘there’s something wrong with ester’.

Close ups of little features.

Ending of diegratic music of ester singing a typical nursery rhyme

Lots of crying and screaming.

The nuclear family

Release date and production company

Jump scare at the end.

Audiences and Institutions: The Woman in Black

• Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is for The Woman in Black?

The primary target audience of the film is quite clear as it mainly appeals to the under 25 males and females profiles. As the age certificate is only 12 which is very low for a traditional horror film, this was able to attract a very big primary audience of young teenagers, older teenagers and young adults which is later reflected in the box office figures.

The secondary target audience is a much older audience of adults who may have read the book or seen the play. Being set in the Edwardian era, this appeals much more to an older audience as do some of the other, more established actors such as Ciaren Hinds or Roger Allam who have been in other blockbuster movies. Even though the films plays heavily on Daniel Radcliffe being the lead role, majority of the older audience would also know him through Harry Potter or Radcliffe's theatre performances.

• How was The Woman in Black marketed?

The Woman in Black had several marketing campaigns throughout the preview and release of the film to capture the attention of as many people as possible to increase the audience which would result in an increase the amount of money made at the box office. The teaser campaign was shown far in advance of the film’s release and including a poster, trailer, many Youtube videos and a competition to make the public aware of the future release and make them interested so they would be more likely to find out more about the film and see it when it was released. The teaser didn’t give away the story but still made the audience aware that it was a supernatural horror film with Daniel Radcliffe. Later on closer to the release date was when the main film campaign was unveiled which again featured posters  and trailers as well as press releases in newspapers and social media pages to attract a larger audience and to increase the potential box office revenue. The poster gives a more clear indication on what the film is about and some of the characters and locations in the film in addition to some of the people who worked on the film.

The Woman in Black main poster

By targeting different ages of their target audience differently, this enabled the film to reach as many people as possible through the media products and services they use. The younger demographic was advertised through TV channels such as E4 and magazines such as NME while the older audience was targeted through different types such as ITV, Heart radio and Dread Central. They also appealed to a very different audience that would normally be inclined to see a horror film - the mature middle classes. As the film is originally an adaptation from a book, the company was able to market the film and book together along with joining with the theatre production to market them together through competitions.

6 sheet advert on bus stop

By generating publicity outside the home, the film was able to reach an even bigger audience that may not have seen the adverts or the press releases through out of home advertising such as billboards. The 6 sheets advertisements used on bus shelters and other similar size surfaces were very popular, as were the bigger large format adverts on the sides of buildings and highway billboards. Using Daniel Radcliffe as a marketing tool for the film was well received by the public as he was able to explain the film and what it was like to work on. He participated in a number of publicity campaigns through interviews in magazines and on TV shows as well as online reviews and the world premier that generating a lot of media buzz and many journalists and reporters to get interviews with the actors.

The Woman in Black merchandise

After the film’s release, many related products and merchandise was released to maximise the films profits. By giving away the book in middle class papers such as The Daily Telegraph, they was again able to market to the more mature, middle class audience through more serious types of media like novels, which the cover was redesigned to fit with the film and competitions for theatre tickets. They also managed to appeal to a much young audience through school activities that would be suitable through the low age rating compared to many other horror films that are normally a 15 or 18. Other merchandise products were available to buy after the film was released such as t-shirts, cups and the soundtrack for the film to boost the overall profits of the title from the fans of the film. With the film being available for teenagers and young adults to watch, they are more likely to have extra money to spend on fan merch and more media-based items than an older audience.

• Do you think the marketing materials for the film were appropriate? Why?

Some of the many online articles and reviews of the film

As the film had so much marketing in different formats to reach all of the potential audience groups, it already gives the impression that the film is worth seeing as the company as spent so much money on it. The film had marketing on digital, print and video formats which are appropriate for both the younger and older target audiences as it could reach so many people at the same time ahead of the release to create the 'hype' for the film.

By using Daniel Radcliffe to heavily promote the film was a clear strategy from the distributors as he is such a famous actor due to his iconic role in the Harry Potter franchise. As well as interviews on television and in magazines, he also helped promote competitions through Youtube videos and did an interview on Twitter that was published in 'Cosmopolitan' magazine which has become increasingly popular as the popularity of the site increases. During the premiere, it became very apparent that not only did people attend to see the film, many Harry Potter fans came to see the actor which expanded to audience range for the film as many fans are now teenagers and young adults after growing up watching the Harry Potter films.

An article from The Guardian on the films success

• What kind of release did the film have?

The film had a very good release with both positive reviews and a high audience turn out at the box office. In the opening weekend, it made $20 million and was only behind the Chronicle that earned a million dollars more which is quite small in box office terms and was over the $11 to $16.5 million earnings that the film analysts predicted. Being the biggest grossing film British horror in 20 years, by June 2012 the title had made $127,730,736 worldwide.

• How much did The Woman in Black cost to make? AND what was the industry impact of The Woman in Black?

The Woman in Black had an estimated budget of $17 million

• Why do you think the film was so successful?

As the film had such a wide target audience compared to many films, especially films of the horror genre it was able to attract a large amount of people to see it, which was represented in the amount of advertising and marketing the film had on many different platforms of media. By using Daniel Radcliffe as the main advertising tool was another attribute that expanded the market for the film and attracted people who wouldn't normal watch horrors to the cinema. All of these tools attracted a large amount of people to see the film at the cinema which resulted in big profits which is the main agenda for the movie industry.

The Conjuring Horror Project

The Conjuring

The Conjuring is a 2013 US horror/supernatural film directed by James Wan, who directed the first Saw film, written/produced the 6 Saw sequels and has also, directed both Insidious film which both Insidious and The Conjuring star Patrick Wilson. This film is based on one of the cases dealt with by the real Ed and Lorraine Warren who also went on to investigate the Amityville Horror case in Long Island in 1977.

Synopsis

Set in 1971, the Perron family move into an old farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. After the 5 daughters start playing a game called ‘Hide and Clap’ which leads to one of the girls find the entrance to the cellar that has been boarded up to which the father, Roger investigates and finds it is perfectly safe. Up until this point, the family seem to be settling well although strange occurrences have started to happen such as one of the younger daughters feeling a pulling sensation at her feet and the dog continuously barking outside. After several days of paranormal experiences, the family start to feel nervous about the house after the mother, Carolyn finding bruises, the dog dying, the clocks stopping at 3.07am and various noises from around the house. An attack on Andrea by a spirit on top of a wardrobe results in Carolyn seeking help from paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren who need more proof to perform an exorcism. When the investigators research the property, they come across that a witch, Barsheba sacrificed her children to devil and cursed the land in 1863 to which many murders have been committed on the land. The daughters are attacked later on that night by the spirit of the witch and the Perron family decide to move to a hotel while the house is exorcized. While the Warren’s are at the house, their own daughter is attacked by the same spirit although is saved in time by Ed. Carolyn who takes 2 of the daughters back to the house becomes possessed and tries to kill her children but Lorraine manages to distract her while Ed performs the exorcism to save Carolyn and the children.

Character profiles

Lorraine Warren

Lorraine Warren, portrayed by Vera Famiga was a clairvoyant and light trance medium who worked with her husband to hunt the supernatural. She dealt with many cases like this and in the film had a connection with Carolyn as they both were mothers and listened to Carolyn recite her happiest memory of her family. She is the mother Judy and was often worried about her when the couple wasn't at home. In the lake seen, she sees her daughter in the lakes reflection and sees it as a bad omen.

Ed Warren

Ed Warren, portrayed by Patrick Wilson was a demonologist, lecturer and author who worked with his wife, Lorraine. When he is about to perform the exorcism, he says how he has never done it before as it usually is performed by a Priest and is approved by the Catholic Church. He was also the father to Judy and often instructs her not to go into the sealed of backroom that contains all the possessed objects that they have dealt with.

Carolyn Perron

Carolyn Perron was the wife of Roger Perron and mother to 5 daughters; Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy and April. She starts to see strange occurrences when the clocks stop and the photo frames on the stairs fall as well as finding bruises over her body to which she believes is iron deficiency. She continues to hear banging and clapping throughout the house even when her children are asleep. As the Warrens are performing the exorcism, Carolyn becomes possessed by Barsheba and tries to kill 2 of her daughters but along with her husband, the Warrens manage to strap her to chair with a sheet over her head. As Ed starts the exorcism, Carolyn’s face begins to disfigure and she vomits blood until he condemns the spirit back to hell and Carolyn starts to recover.

Setting

The film is set in 1971 in Harrisville, Rhode Island in the US.

Locations

For the film, most of the shots were taken in and around Wilmington, North Carolina and the EUE/Screen Gems Studios. Some of the campus shots in the Warren’s lecture scenes are took from the University of North Carolina Wilmington during spring break.