Ward 13

In this trailer, we had taken into account all the improvements made by our teachers. We had included voice-overs, production details, shorten down the length of the trailer and made it less chronological. 

However, there was still negative points which we could improve. One feedback that we received was that we needed to improve the sound of the trailer, since the quality of the sound had been low and you had to turn up the volume to hear the dialogue. Also, the last thing we needed to improve was the last shot where the certificate had been shown. This was because it hadn't been properly cropped. 

(Eval)How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

If we compare our marketing campaign with existing campaigns, it is clear that we have created an effective set of promotional tools that can be easily accessed by global audiences, drawing in audiences of older people as well as adults.

In our teaser trailer, the limited amount of information given about the movie itself creates a mystery, this means that it would draw the audience in, causing them to try and find out more about the movie through various sources such as the internet (website which is shown on the trailer), which is commonly used. This is an example of synergy (promoting a product through other sources).

The excitement created by this will spread through people and continue to spread creating an established audience when other tools i.e. posters and magazine are released. For example, the Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan 2008), since there was an audience from the beginning (from comics, books, cartoons etc), it had become easy to create a viral marketing campaign through the use of a bat symbols with little information on. The use of the Internet will be effective as it is easily accessible anywhere and as our target audience will have experience with technology this will create an effective national and global distribution.

(Eval)How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation stages?

Media technologies on Prezi

Overall, we had used a variety of media technologies during the production of the film trailer, poster and magazine cover. Without these technologies , it would have been impossible complete this task. We were able to have complete control over the technologies, allowing us to be as creative as we wanted to be. For example, the type of editing software we could use FinalCut Pro or iMovie.

Film Trailer(Original)

When we had first finished editing the trailer on Final Cut Pro, we received some feedback on how to improve our trailer. 

1. The main problem was the length of the trailer. We had to cut down unnecessary shots which had given away the story of the trailer. Having a lengthy trailer also meant that we wouldn't be able to create an anticipating audience for our actual film when it had come out, which is what trailers usually do. 
2. Secondly, it was too chronological. Looking at different trailers, we noticed that the order was not chronological like ours had been. So, we in order to improve this, we took out shots which we felt did not need to be there. 
3. Lastly one of the things that we needed to do was to add the essential details in e.g green screen, credits as this gives the audience some form of information about the trailer. This was the important bit since it would give our audience important information. We also added in voice-overs, to increase anticipation. 

(Eval)What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Trailer

Once we had completed our trailer, it was important that we received audience feedback from as many different people as possible because it allows us to see how effective our marketing campaign is, how successful we are and to get a return in investment. We used popular well-known sites such as youtube and Facebook to get feedback. When we researched into our target audience ( 15+) we noticed that most of them had used social sites such as Youtube and Facebook, therefore made it easier for us to access our target audience.

On the 3rd December, we were fortunate enough to have Charlie Ware, a man who has been in the industry for about 30 years, give us feedback on our trailer. One of the main criticisms that we received was that we needed to improve the quality of our sound. There were times in our trailer where people found it hard to hear the dialogue. Another critic that we received was that we needed to add words.

Magazine

In order to improve the magazine, I had posted it on a popular social site to get feedback. I posted it on Facebook and had received comments fairly quick. From the feedback given, it is clear that most people had liked the way it looked and that it would have made them want to watch the movie. This shows that the main aim for the magazine which was to promote the film and draw people in was successful. One of the main criticisms could be that I needed to get more audience feedback and to try and pick out the negative points about it in order to improve it.

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

Develop or challenge conventions

When we evaluated our trailer, we challenged the stereotypical characters through the use of iconography/mise-en scene. We carefully chose the characters along with the costumes they would wear, make-up and how they would act.

However, what we kept the same was the use of low key lightings and the bloody stuff to it which can be seen in the torture room and when he walks out of the hospital.

Film Editing

Once all our footage had been collected, we started to editing. We imported the footage onto iMovie, which is a video editing software used to edit video and audio clips. Once the footage was transferred we chose which clips we wanted to keep and placed them in order on the timeline.

iMovie was easy to use as we were able to arrange clips easily and deal with organising and editing the clips easily as well as adding sound to it. It was also reliable to use as if you deleted something you would be able to bring back easily by clicking the undo button.

Final Film production logo

We decided to call our production company LIGHT SCREAM because we wanted to give something different. We added the SCREAM in as it relates to the horror genre, this means that the we would be producing mainly horror films. After deciding what to call the production company we went onto photoshop and started to design it making it look better. We also went onto the site www.dafont.com and tried out which font suited the title. Adobe photoshop was the best programme to deal with editing posters.

Filming

From all the plannings we had made in class from the action plan and the shooting schedule we were finally prepared to start shooting our trailer. We organised where we were shooting, when we were going to shoot, what we were shooting and what was included in the shots and who we were shooting.

The first bit of shooting was going to be the torture room. As it was the most accessible we thought it would be best to film it first in order to save time. We took in turns to film and while Hannah I took some photos for evidence.

The second part of filming was at Homerton Hospital, as Hannah was needed for this part I took on the role again as the camera person. In this scene, this is where the climax will begin to build up rapidly because of the quick shots used in this scene.

The final part of filming is the office scene. This is where Lemming finds outs that Maya has passed away. In this scene there is a bit of dialogue, however, whatever dialogue we do not need we will cut it during the editing process. Me and Hannah both took it in turns to shoot.

When filming, we decided to get a range of different shots. Some of the shots were also similar to the movie 'The Unborn'. We used the shots from the unborn and tried and made it our own, it was also good for comparison to see if we had created the same atmosphere.

Long shot

Film Poster

We started the fim poster with some idea as to what was going to be on it. We already knew from experience what should be included such as: the title, the production company, tagline, age certificate and any useful information like actors or directors. We experimented with the poster in order to achieve that an image that was very powerful. We looked for inspirations from horror posters such as 'let me in', 'saw' and 'mirrors'.

Magazine cover

Before making our final magazine cover, it was important that I flat planned the magazine cover to give me an idea for what we wanted. I was inspired by Empire and Film magazine.

(Click to enlarge)

When we were deciding on what to call our magazine, we came up with 'terror' as we felt that it suited the horror genre, unfortunately, we didn't like the title in the end because we felt that it would not appeal much to our target audience and would attract audiences younger than 15.

Secondly, we decided to name our magazine 'Cinema'. We felt that it suited the magazine more because as we researched into different magazines, we never found any magazine title that was aimed at one specific genre.

This magazine is purely dedicated to movies and films only and we felt that it was suitable name for a magazine with no specific genre. I used adobe photo shop to edit the magazine.

With the magazine that I researched into, I found that most film magazines usually had 1 character on the front which is why I had chosen to use 1 character on my front page and It also draws the attention to the main character only.

Secondly, I used the lasso tool to cut her out only in order to place her on top of the magazine name. I had chosen to do to this, as I felt that it showed to respect to the character.

From the previous magazine that I created in yr 12, I made sure to include all the necessary elements within a magazine such as price, date, issue, title and other information to lure people in.

This is the final magazine cover: (Click on to enlarge)

Production Company

We came up with the production name 'Light Scream' as our own company name as we were required to come up with our own. It was very enjoyable experience to make a company logo as we were able to play around with what it was going to look like. This will be used in our trailer as production details.

Evaluation of Research and planning

In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of the horror genre?

•For our horror trailer, we decided to use 3 different settings as it would have bored the audience out if we had only used 1 location. The 3 settings used are an office, a hospital and a bedroom.

We chose the main setting to be in a hospital because it would help create an atmosphere to our audience. We were also inspired by films such as the eye, Halloween and the unborn.

Within our trailer we tried to repeat the traditional conventions which would be found in other horror trailers such as low key lighting, gore and quick shots. We definitely used low lighting in the hospital scene and blood and scabs during the torture scene. The mise en scene in our trailer such as the costumes, blood and scabs went well with our main character, the antagonist, Maya.

When we first researched into trailers, our first idea of using a masked villian like films such as the strangers or Friday 13th, however we felt that we wanted to add something different. So, instead we never used a mask, we ended up using no mask and just adding more scabs and gore to it.

In terms of challenging conventions, we noticed the ages in other groups were mostly characters our ages, ours are characters who were older and mature. As we were aiming at people ages 15+ it would definitely attract an older audience.

Shot list

A shot list is a list of the shots that have been taken in a period of filming. While we created our shot list we were very careful not to make it too confusing and to make it easy for my group to follow. It includes the location of the shot, framing, scene number, shot type and the action or dialogue happening.

(Click to enlarge)

Story boarding

Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.

(Click on each picture to enlarge)

In this storyboard, we start off with an establishing shot leading on to an office scene. We decided to start off with an establishing shot to let the audience know the location of the trailer. However, we were careful not to reveal too much in the storyboard to avoid spoilers and to bring people in.

This is the office scene, where the doctor has flash backs of him and Maya. We used flashbacks here because we were inspired to use it from film trailers such as 'Nightmare on Elm Street.' We also felt that it would have a much better flow to it and hopefully create tension.

These two storyboards reveal the killer but does not give too much away. The last few shots will contain of quick paced shots which we felt would be the climax of the trailer. One film trailer that helped us achieve this was 'The hills have eyes'.

Shooting Schedule

A shooting schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production. It is normally created and managed by the assistant director, who reports to the production manager managing the production schedule. Both schedules represent a time line stating where and when production resources are used. Looking at some example shooting schedules, it helped us create our own schedule.

Health and Safety

Those carrying out risk assessments must be competent to do so.

Where there is a health risk associated with the work, Health Surveillance, if beneficial to the individual will be offered.

The risk assessment results in a decision that the controls in place reduce the risk from the work activity to an acceptable level or that action will be taken to reduce the risk to an acceptable level before work starts.

The risk assessment will be kept under review to make sure that it remains valid.

Risk assessment should be held with other programme information relating to the programme or project for at least three years.

Student Action Plan

We began to work on a Student Action Plan, it is important. We decided to organise who and what we were going to do. Firstly, I will be working on the shooting schedule whereas Hannah will be working on the storyboarding. We plan to finish by 7th November and to begin filming by then.

Our main aim is to have finished all filming. Hannah will be preparing the costumes, props and equipment on set, and I will be filming as well as taking pictures with Hannah for evidence.

Magazine research

(Click)
My analysis from Empire Magazine has helped me take into account what makes magazines stand out and look interesting. When creating my magazine research I will take into account all the points mentioned above.

Scripting

In most of the trailers that I have seen, the most common convention throughout all of them would be the amount of dialogue that is said. It is important that only one line is said throughout the trailer as this helps to create anticipation to the audience. Therefore in our trailer, we will make sure we try and use one line with each character.

Characters/Target Audience

In our trailer, there are 3 characters that will be shown:

• Doctor Lemmings - David Ajala

• Maya - Hannah Ajala

• Donna - Emily

Our main reason for choosing these characters is that our USP(Unique Selling Point) within our trailer is that the main victim isn't a traditional white lead character which is shown through most films such as the orphan,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywOPNNii9w

the orphanage or,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6pPzh6Bd4

the strangers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE

Target Audience

The target audience for our new film is 15+, potentially for a national/global audience. In order for us to acheive this we managed to take the time out to do a questionnaire for 10 people aged 15+ both male and female. From this questionnaire, I hope to understand what people from my target audience expect, so that I am able to meet the requirements that they have.

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Hannah researched into our target audience who would preferably be aged 15-28. We obviously noticed that the characters in our trailer were older and more mature but yet, it wouldn't really be aimed at a lot of adults as it is rated certificate 15.

Themes

The main themes to our film trailer are torture and ghostly. Films that had helped us choose this kind of themes are Saw(torture) and the unborn(ghostly). We firstly chose Saw as it is a popular film which is aimed at people aged 18+, and the thing that had stuck out to us the most is how realistic they had managed to show torture and gore.

Saw

The unborn

Secondly, The Unborn is also another film that had inspired us to choose the ghostly film because we liked the way the film had managed to create tension and fear through the different ways e.g sound, dialogue, shots and mise en scene.

From our inspirations by the Unborn and Saw, we would firstly try and make it realistic as we can and secondly, we would try to use sound, shots and mise en scene to heighten our audiences anticipation and to create a tense atmosphere in our trailer.

Film Title

The title 'Friday the 13th' is shown boldly with a sharp font, this is makes it easier to catch peoples attention. The font also suggests the time period, in this case, an old 20th Century feel. It is also written in red, so the title connotes danger and blood, so this gives the audience a little hint that there will be gore on 'Friday the 13th'.

This helped us decide our film title 'WARD 13' as we wanted to relate to something specific. The number 13 also seems to also be unlucky when relating it to the horror genre, so this would tell the audience the type of film being shown.

For the font of our title, we tried out different types of font to see which would look more suitable for our trailer. The important things that we tried to do was to make sure that it looked modern and kind of scientific but at the same time try and give off a horror feel to it.

Our research had a great influence on us, from Friday the 13th we had taken the idea of relating to a specific event but chose to do something based on a place.

Synopsis

Ward 13

Tagline: Promise is most given when the least is said

Based in Homerton Hospital, the story focuses on an enstranged relationship between a Doctor and a terminally ill patient. The trailer begins with
Doctor Lemmings, 27 in the office going through work as his colleague, Donna approaches him with bad news; his favourite patient Maya,, aged 13 has just died from a terminal illness. Doctor Lemmings always visited Maya and they shared a good friendship. Maya didn’t have family and saw Doctor Lemmings as a father figure. Donna dumps Maya’s file in front of him giving him a dirty look and also tells him that he is working in Ward 13 tonight. Doctor Lemmings looks at the file then throws it to the side. He takes his job really seriously and is working all night. He wants a promotion to make his wife proud. He is the last to leave the hospital and as he walks outside of the dark, isolated hospital, he puts his briefcase on the floor in order to put on his jacket and sees the file he thought he threw away sticking out. On the file written in blood it says ‘You promised’. He smirks thinking it’s Donna. He scrunches up the file and throws it away. Footsteps follow him but as he looks back he sees no-one and nothing. Someone taps on his shoulder. As he turns back he has a mortifying experience. Doctor Lemmings is now lying on a hospital bed with Maya resting her head on his chest and singing. Someone else places a cloth over Doctor Lemmings head then blackout.

Setting

For the main setting of our trailer, we felt that the best place that our film would be set in would be a hospital. Films such as 'The Eye' and 'Halloween 2' had inspired us to choose this type of location. The use of low key lightings and long shots of the area to create a tense atmosphere had attracted us to make out trailer similar to them.

The Eye

Halloween 2

The second setting in our trailer would have to take plac

e in a room, this is where Doctor Lemmings gets tied up in a dark and mysterious room/basement. So for this we would have to make sure that we would use a low key lighting and an abandoned room which creates an isolated feel to it.