Why we chose to release our film on October 31st

WHY DID WE CHOOSE TO RELEASE OUR FILM ON OCTOBER 31st?

You could probably guess why we chose this particular date to release our film 'False Awakening'. We chose to release it on this day as it is the day of Halloween!

WHAT IS HALLOWEEN?

the night of 31 October, the eve of All Saints' Day, often celebrated by children dressing up in frightening masks and costumes. Halloween is thought to be associated with the Celtic festival Samhain, when ghosts and spirits were believed to be abroad.

There have been countless amounts of horror films released around the day of Halloween and this is why our group thought it would be clever to release it on this particular day as it is the day that most people are fascinated by horror. Films such as 'Ouija, Annabelle, ABC's of Death 2 and Dracula Untold' were all released in October 2014 around Halloween. Our target audience would be likely to be looking for a horror film to watch because of the event and this is why we chose to release our film on this day.

Trailer invites

 

These are our invitations for our trailer premiere. We used our final poster as the background and added information as to where and when the trailer would be showing.

Who would distribute our products?

Sound choices

This is a screenshot of all of the sounds we managed to find. The sounds were found after a long period of time. We listened to most of these sounds whilst the trailer was playing in the background to make sure that it suited the trailer. This was very helpful as it helped us to make our final decisions. We were still deciding which sound was the best as we couldn't choose between them. However, after feedback, we were able to choose a final sound for our trailer.

This is the sound we chose as our overall soundtrack for the trailer. The reason we decided to use this one is because it has a crescendo which is extremely conventional in horror trailers. It builds up which creates suspense for the audience and notifies them that it is getting more intense.


We also found this sound which had a variety of different sound effects we could use to make our trailer more exciting. This soundtrack features a number of screams and loud, sudden noises which is common in horror trailers. Although we didn't use all the sounds, we still kept the whole soundtrack incase we wanted to change our mind. When importing the sound into Premiere, we cropped the sounds we needed and placed it in the areas which needed sound to assist the action.

Relation to Flat Plan (Magazine)

We managed to keep many things the same in our magazine. When making the magazine, I put the flat plan into Photoshop to assist me with the overall layout. After receiving feedback from teachers and students, we realised that a few things were missing or needed to be added. However, we were very consistent with our magazine. I looked on dafont.com to see which fonts we were using. This didn't take long as we wanted to make sure we were using the same fonts as the poster and the trailer. I already had these screenshotted and saved so I already knew the names of the fonts which made it easier to locate them on the website. 

Horror Poster Analysis

Poster Photos

Props

 

We bought a number of props for our trailer with the budget that we were given. We had to be very wise as we were only given £30 to buy the things we needed.

 

 

We bought fake blood for our trailer. This is a convention in horror and very iconic. We asked the staff members in the shop for advice on which blood looked more realistic and would work better and they recommended this particular one. This one worked really well as it was very thick and looked realistic.

 

The white contacts were also bought as a representation of the characters possession. White contacts are effective as they look scary and unhuman. The red contacts were also already purchased before hand and belonged to Paula (a member of the group). We kept these just in case we needed her red eyes for any scenes.

 

The cross was used for iconography in our trailer. Many horror trailers have religious aspects, especially with films relating to possessions and paranormal atmospheres. The cross was quite large and was used to show that the character may have been religious. Also, we thought that it could mean that the Grandma may have been a religious fanatic.

 

 

 

This is a magic fake knife that we also purchased from the party store. This knife was really effective as when pushed into an object, the knife would appear as though it were going into the person however, in reality, the knife is being pushed into the black section of the knife.

 

 

Photoshop Manipulation (Ideas)

Originally, I decided to play around in photoshop with our test shots as we hadn't finished taking our final photos for our products. I used the 'Rite' movie poster as an inspiration for the layout. As we have crosses as iconography in our trailer, I thought it would be clever to try and incorporate this into our poster. Although this wasn't going to be our final product, it was useful having an inspiration and working towards it. After receiving feedback on this, I figured out that the layout did not suit our piece. I also played around in photoshop with our test shots by manipulating the images to portray different messages. In the image below, I created lines on my face to make it look blurry and distorted. This could represent the characters two personalities as at one point in the storyline she is innocent and in another part she becomes possessed and is evil. This could show the two sides of her. This was also inspired by 'Psycho' as the main character 'Norman Bates' had two personalities; one evil and one good.

 

Poster Draft Feedback

"I like that it is based on 'a true story'. This makes it feel more realistic."

"I don't get the mini monologue, I feel that it would be more effective without it.

"I don't like the big paragraph near the cross."

"The tagline is good but it is abit long and bright."

"The text is a bit randomly placed here (near the cross). However, I really like the layout and it looks effective."

"I love the font. The 'False Awakening' title is effective and it stands out."

"www.falseawakening,co.uk is too close to the date of the movie. It also isn't clear which year the movie is being/has been released in."

Magazine Draft Feedback

"It is very clear and effective. The eyes stand out which makes it look very scary and menacing."

"Really like the strip which features other horror movies. They're modern and establishes the genre." 

"I love the effect (contacts) on the eyes, it really draws the viewer in and allows me to interpret the film as psychological horror. Her eyes connote possession."

Our teacher said that the original barcode was quite fake as we used one that looked like this. 

The numbers are in chronological order which was quite unrealistic so I decided to look for a better and more believable barcode to use for our magazine. Also, the text on the edge of the banner towards the bottom of the page, looks quite confusing as there are some numbers on the image which clash with the text saying "Paranormal Activity". To improve this I will take out the numbers on the image to make it look effective. The website was also too bold and he decided that the opacity should be decreased to make it less obvious. One last thing he suggested is that we added the date for the magazine. e.g. 'February 2015'. This notifies the readers of what issue they are looking at. 

Photoshop Process (Magazine)

Poster Photoshop Progress

Text Choices

As a group, we had to decide on a font that would be suitable for our products. We used dafont.com to choose all of our fonts. This website is very helpful when it comes to choosing different fonts. We clicked on the 'Distorted' subheading to choose a suitable font for our 'False Awakening' text. Typing in the text allowed us to see what the texts would use like using the different fonts. In the first picture, there are a few options that we saw on the website. We wanted to look for a font that would represent our film title very well.

This font also caught our eyes as it looks very dreamy and unrealistic. This is something we were looking for but it wasn't good enough.

Decisions - Comparing to Real Media Texts (Poster)

 

These two posters for the films 'Spiral' and 'The Box' have inspired our decisions the most. I was attracted by the use of black and white with the red that stands out. I decided to take this idea and create a red cross on Photoshop. However, this looked too sharp and didn't work with the layout. I wanted the cross to have blurred and disfigured edges. I looked for a 'painted line' on google and imported this into Photoshop. I copied and pasted the line and rotated  one to make it into a cross. I then merged the layers together and decreased the opacity of it in order to place it on top of the main image.

 

When a film is based on a true story, it creates moral panic for the audience as the audience are more likely to be scared if the story were based on true events. They feel as though it has happened before and it can happen again. Many successful horror films are based on true stories such as 'The Possession'. Placing it on the trailer attracts the audience more.

Correlation between products

 

This is the blue mist background which I screenshotted from our trailer. Our titles are seen on top of tis background and I thought it would be a great idea to incorporate this into our magazine and poster.

 

It is featured in the banner on our magazine as I cropped this on Photoshop.

 

Initially, our idea was to place the background behind the title of the film. This makes the title look more dream-like. However, we decided to use the background more effectively. I resized the image and decreased the opacity and overlayed it ontop of the image. This made the entire poster look much more dreamy and darker.

Decisions - Comparing to Real Media Texts (Magazine)

The Empire magazine on the left was an edition that featured 'The Hobbit' film. This layout is extremely common within magazines as the mid-shot is used with an angle of gaze which attracts the audience. We included 'The World's biggest movie magazine' at the top of our magazine after seeing this on many different Empire magazines.

Horror Posters we have been inspired by

The colour schemes and layouts of these posters have attracted us and inspired us in the making of our own poster.

Poster Flat Plan

Magazine Flat Plan

Iconography in our trailer

Paranormal Activity

The 'False Awakening' is a film which is inspired by the events that take place in Paranormal Activity. The storyline is very similar and helped us to create our own. I found it quite interesting that there were two different versions of the film. As one ends in another way to the other one. In the beginning of our journey, we decided that our storyline would end with Michael and Casey dying, however, we decided to change this as we wanted to subvert from the convention of characters dying. Our main characters do not die which is not conventional in horror movies.
Paranormal activity

Original

In its, the film featured a different ending. After going downstairs on the final night and waking Micah with a scream, only Katie is shown returning to the bedroom, covered in blood and holding a large bloody kitchen knife. She sits beside the bed, holding the knife and rocking herself for hours. The next day, her friend Amber calls and leaves a message, expressing concern. That night, Katie is still sitting and rocking by the bed, and Amber can be heard entering the house. During this short period, Katie stops rocking, but when Amber screams (evidently after finding Micah's body) and runs out of the house, she resumes her motion.

Half an hour later, police enter the home and discover Micah's body as well. They find Katie and call to her. She wakes from her catatonic state and seems confused. As she approaches them with the knife in hand, they ask her to drop the weapon, but then a nearby door slams shut, startling one of the policemen who shoots and kills Katie. Katie collapses to the floor, and the police discover the camera, still running. The original ending for the film was available for a time for viewing on the Internet before Paramount exerted a claim of copyright on the material.

Paramount alternate ending

Once Paramount acquired the film, the original ending was scrapped, and two new endings were developed for the film, one of them being the one seen in theaters (the scrapped ending was shown at only one public viewing). In this ending, available as alternate ending on the home releases of the film, Katie gets out of bed and stands staring at Micah, as she did in the theatrical ending, except she does not move to Micah's side of the bed. After three hours, she goes downstairs and screams, waking Micah, who runs downstairs. The same screams and heavy footsteps are heard. After a moment of silence, Katie re-enters the room covered in blood with a kitchen knife. She approaches the camera and promptly slits her throat, killing herself. The scene then fades to black.

Garageband

On GarageBand, I decided to try and make a sound for our groups trailer as we were finding it quite difficult to find a suitable sound for the beginning bits. I listened to a few tracks from YouTube and noted down common instruments and patterns that had been used. This inspired me when making this sound and I had to adjust the key of the sound and the tempo to suit our trailer. 

Editing pictures

After editing our first draft for our trailer, we gained some feedback. One thing that was mentioned was that the scenes needed to look more gloomy and darker. So I used an effect on Premiere called 'Luma Key'. This changes the tone of the clip and I think it looked much more effective.

Trailer Analysis (False Awakening)

False Awakening Sound

This is the sound I created using the GarageBand programme. After hearing a few sinister horror sounds, I was inspired to make my own eary music. It is quite simple and short as we were considering using it at the beginning of our 'False Awakening' Horror Trailer. The beginning of the soundtrack starts of simplistic with a piano melody which is then interrupted by another harmonious piano sound making it sound melodic, calm but mysterious at the same time. Although we may not decide to use this in our final trailer, it was still useful to make this as it helped to create a atmosphere that was very uneasy. I could keep this sound and use it for further projects that I may be working on in the future.

Narrative update

NARRATIVE:

- Casey moves into a new house with her boyfriend.

- The spirit of her dead and much hated grandma has been brought with her (through a photo framed picture).

- The entity begins to taunt the Casey in the house.

- Casey is becoming frightened of her own house and is trying to fight the paranormal activity.

- Sooner or later, the paranormal entity gets hold of her and defeats her.

- Casey is captured by the entity and becomes possessed.

- Her boyfriend Michael is now in danger as Casey has turned against him.

Feedback from teacher

Receiving feedback from Miss Segura was very useful as she specialises in film making aswell. Her feedback really helped us to make new decisions for our final trailer. I annotated our original video and included the things she said about the trailer.

[Watch in full screen mode to make text larger]

Audience Feedback on our trailer

Initial 'False Awakening' Trailer.

 

 

 

This is our initial edit for our 'False Awakening' trailer. Overall, I am quite pleased with the result but it is still up to the group to make a few changes according to audience feedback.

Reaction Video

I chose two people from my school to watch our 'False Awakening' trailer. I was quite pleased when I saw that the ending bit scared them the most. However, I do still think that not enough clips made them feel uneasy so this is something that we can consider when doing our final edit.

  These images show me editing the reaction video. I find iMovie quite easier to use than Adobe Premiere when it comes to editing as it is much more clearer. However, Adobe Premiere has much more useful features whereas iMovie is quite basic. This is why we have are using Premiere for our trailer.

And like my teacher said... "Would you rather edit on a £60 programme or a £600 programme. Which basically says that there is a huge difference between the two programmes.

Recording myself

I find it quite helpful that I am one of the characters in the trailer as I am able to be creative by myself. I filmed a clip on my laptop using a special feature which makes it look like I am recording from a video camera. This is just a test shot and we may not use this.

Woman In Black (2014) inspiration.

I recently went to watch the Woman in Black (2014) film. I watched the trailer before watching the film and wanted to see if the trailer was quite effective and if it told the exact story in order of what was happening in the film. I was inspired by the film as it showed quite a lot of paranormal activity. I wanted to note down a few things we could try out for our own trailer.

Test shots

 

 

I really like this shot as it brings out the white contact lenses. The overall picture has a very whitening effect which is a contrast to her character at that particular time. Casey is supposedly meant to be an innocent girl (this is why we had her wearing white clothes to represent the innocence she had). However, as she becomes possessed, we have her wearing white contact lenses to show that she has changed and is no longer the innocent girl we perceive her to be. The white can also represent the paranormal and ghostly atmosphere in the trailer. We may use this shot but crop out the door on the right. As it is on a white background, it would be very easy to add in images of the other character Michael and even some text.

 

 

In this shot, you can see the nearby room door open with everything showing. There is also an unwanted shadow on the left hand side. This shot is good as it is a full length shot and shows the characters full costume. Although we didn't include the feet, this is something we can learn from when taking our final shots.

Filming photos

Heeral is filming the scene where I am waking into the house with boxes. We used a variety of different shots so that we could choose from the selection.

This is where I find the image of the dead grandma from our trailer.

In this picture, I am adjusting the camera for the scene where the door slams shut. We had to keep making sure the camera was in focus in order to get the best quality.

In this picture, I am filming the establishing shot. I filmed this from a number of different places (infront and side-on) to see which one worked best.