PLANNING: PARANORMAL CHARACTERS

 As we have decided to use paranormal characters in our trailers, I decided I needed to look at why people believe ghosts exist, and the evidence. 

I went onto YouTube to research the sort of encounters people have had with ghosts. The majority of the channels and their videos are by ghost hunting teams, professional and amateur. Many channels, such as Sam and Colby, AndrewTMI, Hailey Reese, Loey Lane, and other smaller creators, have been around for a while and built up quite a library of ghost hunting videos. In order to get the sense of the dynamics, I looked through the catalogue of videos and found a few common areas of interest.

All these channels started off as amateur detectives, that have honed their videos and become more professional with the equipment they use. Loey Lane and Hailey Reese started off using mobile apps to talk to the ghosts, but have since bought official spirit boxes and evp recorders to communicate properly with ghosts. 

All of the channels feature more than one person if investigations happen. Loey Lane, Hailey Reese and AndrewTMI used to go together in a group called the soul siblings, although it has since been disbanded. Hailey Reese will take her mum and sister often to hunt for ghosts, and many paranormal youtubers collaborate on videos such as the Sam and Colby channel and the TFIL channel.

All of the channels go to spaces that conventionally look scary, such as old churches, creepy old castles, or places such as Griffith Park- where serial killers took many of their victims, or tragedies have happened. Often these buildings will have more than one death in their history, and the channels have always done their research.

I found it significantly easier to watch Loey Lane, Hailey Reese and AndrewTMI's videos, as the mix of gender, as well as mix of attitudes works very well as a dynamic. Therefore, if possible there should either be 1 girl and 2 boys or 2 boys and 1 girl. There should be one confident ghost hunter, the leader of the pack, one hesitant member who will be timid but still go ahead with it, and one totally scared member who in turn will freak out the other members with their antics. They should be almost total amateurs, using rudimentary ghost hunting tools. 

PLANNING: PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE CASE STUDY

 I decided to look at a case study for a promotional package, and I chose Paranormal Activity (2007)

The Synopsis

A couple start having paranormal experiences. They set up a night camera and see that Katie has been sleep walking. They contact experts who claim the poltergeist is gone. However, things get worse, and Katie attacks Micah before leaving the house. 

Characters

Katie- a young woman who unknowingly has been possessed.

Micah- Katie's husband who gets haunted and later attacked, left for dead by Katie who is possessed by a demon.

Techniques

The director wanted to create realism and named the characters after the actors. 

He filmed all of the movie in 4 days, filming in real time.

The actors moved into the house as if they were a real couple, and improvised much of dialogue.

Promotional Package

Posters

The posters are extremely dark with mostly a grey-scale colour palette.

The title is in red, the only colour featured on the poster.

Website

Unlike most websites, Paranormal Activity does not have a website, to keep the illusion that it contains real events.

The Wikipedia page only went up once the news broke it was fake and that the actors were alive.

Trailers

The trailers featured only shaky cam shots and bits of dialogue commonly seen in some documentary trailers.

The Campaign

To keep the realism from the film, neither main actors turned up to the premiere, which helped the audience think it was just a documentary. The actors even took it to the extreme and didn't appear in public anywhere until the film was revealed to be fictitious.

Social Media

Paranormal Activity uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to effectively promote the film including character posts and shots from the movie as seen below. I aim to use a similar style in my own campaign by introducing character shots with backstories and also revealing subtle clues about the plot through mysterious posts like Claremont shrouded in mist and pictures of Princess Charlotte. 

PLANNING: GENRE

 For our promotional pack, Harrison, Jake and I decided to focus on the horror genre, with a deeper focus on the paranormal and found footage sub-genres. I have already watched many horror movies including the insidious series, The Conjuring series and other stand alone movies like the Blair Witch Project.

The horror genre has two common directions, found footage and narrative. Found footage is commonly teamed with action, with a focus on a group of people who have gone through the events of the footage already. The films often take place in woods or old houses. Narrative films show a more structured film, with more emphasis on the tropes as well as well-rounded characters.

There are four main sub-genres that I looked at within my research. 

Paranormal:

Often has a ghost as the antagonist which is defeated by a group of teens.

Case studies include The Paranormal Activity series (2007-2022), The Conjuring Universe (2013-2021), the Blair Witch Project (1999), the Insidious series (2010-2018), the Grave Encounters series (2011-2012) and the Quiet Ones (2014).

Slasher:

Often the goriest of the horror genre, slasher often has a group that turns on each other or a murderer as the villain.

Case studies include The Cabin in the Woods (2011), Happy Death Day 2 U (2019), The Babysitter (2017), Halloween (2018), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), the Saw franchise (2004-2021) and The Human Centipede (2009).

Psychological:

Often has the danger as an urban legend or the uncanny which plays with the audiences' minds.

Case studies include A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), The Purge Franchise (2013-2021), Psycho (1960), Frozen (2010), The Ward (2010), 347 F (2011), The Descent (2008), Inside (2007), The Strangers (2008) and Buried (2008).

Zombie/Virus:

Like the title says, the main threat in this category is either a zombie or a virus outbreak.

Case studies include Night of the Living Dead (1968), Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), Dawn of the Dead (1978), 28 Weeks Later (2007), Resident Evil (2002), Pontypool (2008), Rammbook (2018), White Zombie (1932) and Zombie (1979).

I also looked at relevant horror tropes that I knew we could use in our own work. The most important one is the Final Girl trope. Often the sole survivor of the group is the girl that often has abstained from drinking or sleeping around. She will often be the one to defeat the antagonist. Others include the Mirror trope (often the protagonists will look into a mirror and see a glimpse of the antagonist, but not a major look so the mystery remains), the no signal trope (where characters don't have signal, so can't contact for help- entities drain batteries to try and manifest from the stolen entity), the Basement trope (where the basement is the single most haunted place- no characters want to go down there but they do anyway), the Shaggy Search Technique (instead of showing characters actively search for clues, they stumble across them like Shaggy from Scooby Doo), Credibility trope (where often for audiences, a sign that says based on true events will make a story scarier- especially for stories with a paranormal plot device) and the Constant, Lurking Evil (by showing brief glimpses of the antagonist, the audience keeps the mystery but are satisfied with speculating about the antagonist).

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

 Ahead of creating our a2 work, Harrison, Jake and I decided to create a questionnaire to send out to identify our target audience more closely. We all undertook this task separately to ensure that we reached as many people as possible. I decided to use Google Forms as the platform to host my questionnaire as I used it in my AS work, and found that it was easy to format both for me as a creator and the people who answered it.

As our group has decided on doing a found footage, paranormal, horror film, we decided to show some trailers and posters specific to the genre of our ideas. This meant that I needed to be aware of who I could send the questionnaire to. As some of the trailers use flashing scenes, jump-scares and gore, I decided to preface the trailer section with a trigger warning as well as an email describing the warning, and a reminder that if the respondent knew they did not like horror, they did not have to fill in the questionnaire.

I decided to format my questionnaire in three sections and a thank you page. The first section looks at the respondent's category (female, 15-35) and an intro to the genre of horror as a whole. The second section looks at three trailers: The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and The Amityville Horror and asks about the effectiveness of certain aspects of the trailers including sound and pace. The third section also focuses on the three films above, however, it looks at the film posters and how effective aspects such as institutional information and colour are used.

 

Upon creating the first question, I realised in my as questionnaire, I did not cater to non-binary identifying audience members and so I reached out to a potential audience member and asked how to phrase it.

I checked previous horror film demographics and the categories were 15-35 and 35 up, so I decided to utilise the same. The other factor to consider was that an audience member may not want their age within it and so I factored in a prefer not to say option too.

This category was extremely important as we needed to know what sub genres for horror were the most popular. We have already decided on our sub genre but felt we needed to see an overview of the genre as a whole to find our target audience.

Within this header I included a warning and a way for the respondent to avoid answering questions pertaining to the trailers to ensure the comfortable experience of answering the questionnaire was maintained.

RESEARCH: CIE TRAILER ANALYSIS

 TRAILER ONE: GRAVITY

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

Gravity is a sci-fi thriller with elements of horror. Some signals include the typical white astronaut suit as well as scenes set in space as often sci-fi films like ET are set partially or fully in space. Therefore by setting the costumes to reflect the setting within the trailer shows that Gravity is at least partly sci-fi. 

The thriller genre is often characterised by showing fear on characters faces, using sounds to create an atmosphere of tension and apprehension. Gravity shows Sandra Bullock's emotions as uncertain and fearful, as well as using erratic, loud and tense music to build up the direness of the situation, supported by the quick breathing, usually meaning a character is scared or tense.

As well as this, a thriller trailer should introduce the central conflict. Gravity does this by setting out the danger within the world, as well as showing the tense environment through meticulous closeups of Bullock's facial expressions that range from stressed to worried. Sound can also be used to highlight conflict. Often film trailers don't contain silence as they will be made to highlight action and tense moments in the film. However Gravity uses silence in the first inter-title to make the audience feel uncomfortable, as well as immersing viewers into the silence of space, where the main characters are located.

How does the trailer draw attention to the roles taken, particularly star talent?

There are many ways a trailer can show off the star talent, including title cards, references to other works they've been in, or, like Gravity does, show close-ups of their face.

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are two extremely well known actors that are utilised as unique selling points for the movie. This means fan of the actors themselves will want to see Gravity when they know the actors starring in the movie.

As this movie is a thriller, the intertitles have to be carefully picked. While there were not individual intertitle cards for the actors themselves, a shared card placates the audience as many fans can feel annoyed if big names like Clooney are not credited properly. 

What essential narrative elements are explained in the inter-titles?

As the Thriller genre relies on tension, Gravity's inter-titles are usually there to provide some context but not much. The facts presented are straight to the point. An example reads "At 372 miles above the earth there is nothing to carry sound. No air pressure. No oxygen. Life in space is impossible." By setting up the rules of the universe Gravity is set in, the viewer automatically knows that this will be important for the plot and shows it is a survival story, which immediately makes the story more tense.

How does the trailer use dialogue?

What little dialogue is used in the trailer is very important and establishes the character relationships. Clooney's character addresses Bullock's as Dr Stone, showing she is a high status, smart character, and Clooney respects that status. Clooney also mentions people down on earth "Do you think that there's someone down there looking up?" which suggests Clooney has motivation to go back home and there must be some form of a plot point around people back on Earth.

What institutional information does the trailer contain, such as names, production companies, talent, directors and release date?

The ident for Warner Brothers shows clearly the production company, as well as a card showing the director, Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron has a very large fan following, and his films have been critically acclaimed (like Roma, located on Netflix), which is guaranteed to bring in a large audience. It reassures the audience that this film will be of high quality. Like said earlier, Bullock and Clooney are credited as well to bring in more viewers. The film trailer finally shows the release date (10.4.13) which helps allow the viewers to keep an eye out and book tickets for the film. However, Gravity's trailer does not include any critic reviews, perhaps as to not disrupt the tense atmosphere of the trailer. Gravity does not need to rely on reviews as most viewers will recognise Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Alfonso Cuaron.

How does it inspire me?

I like that the trailer is very straight forward with setting the film's rules and uses inter title cards to relay this information. I want to be able to create quite a simplistic trailer that doesn't overwhelm the audience but still shows viewers the basic plot and important information in a fun way.

TRAILER TWO: CLOVERFIELD

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

As a dystopian horror film, an audience may expect dark music and monotones. Cloverfield does indeed follow the conventional horror sound codes. The use of static sounds, explosions and screams also reinforce the horror genre as well as creating the sense of a post apocalyptic society. Shots show Robert Hawkins with a dirty marked face, intercut with many scenes of chaos, which show visual codes for dystopian films.

How does the trailer draw attention to the roles taken, particularly star talent?

The trailer does not focus much on the roles taken but the audience get to meet the main character through some shots and a monologue, which gets the audience invested in the story revealed within the monologue. Robert Dawkins is clearly the character who will take the viewers through the adventure of this bleak society.

What institutional information does the trailer contain, such as names, production companies, talent, directors and release date?

This trailer has very few inter-titles, but there is one for the producer, J.J Abrams. Many Abrams films are followed by many fans and this is a clever technique on the marketing teams side. At the end of the trailer the title and logo are showed in keeping with the promotion package and at the start the production company's ident is also shown.

How does it inspire me?

I felt very inspired by this trailer as I am very interested in the genre. I read a lot of books similar to the plot of Cloverfield, and with the resources we have for our trailer, it could be achieved. I also thought the use of sound was excellent and I hope to be able to use sound more effectively within my work in order to immerse the audience within the story. Cloverfield also mimics cinema-verite.  "The trailer is unique in its style, as it is shot entirely handheld from what seems to be a video recorder or mobile phone." Cinema verite is a style of documentary filmmaking which combines improvisation with the use of the camera 'to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality'. Cloverfield uses shaky camera work, casual zoom work as well as flitting between subjects to present a 'mockumentary'. This lends a historical feel of authenticity to the events shown as if they are being recorded. This is reinforced by the testimonials apparently recorded on the camcorder. This is something I would like to attempt as an amateur film maker, as I love documentary style dramas.

TRAILER THREE: THE BIRTH OF A NATION

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

The Birth of a Nation is a biopic, drama and also historical film. Inter-titles reveal it is based on a true story and this immediately lets the audience know. Sound bridges with particularly powerful emotional music helps present the main character, Nat Turner, as an inspiration as well as the constant referring back to Nat.

The chains show that whilst the film will be empowering, there will be a serious undertone to the movie.

How does the trailer use dialogue?

The dialogue is extremely helpful in showing the storyline of the film. When Nat Turner talks to his fellow slaves and says something controversial, the viewers are shown the consequences of his words which represents what views many characters in the film hold.This is also shown through the derogatory remarks made towards Nat Turner by his captors.

What many different elements make a good trailer?

I believe that a good trailer should perfectly balance important information like star talent, directors, release date and crediting the production company. It should leave you questioning but not as much as before seeing the trailer. It should make you feel excited for the film and concerned for the characters. A good turning point is also helpful in capturing the viewers' attention. In The Birth of a Nation, a series of slow shots of the oppression Turner faces allows a slow pace to the trailer until Turner stands up to the oppressors, with each major shot being separated by a black screen. This also shows the turning point in the movie will be that Turner stands up to the oppressors.

How does it inspire me?

This trailer inspired me because it took a real story and made it interesting to viewers by showcasing one character. It also used music to heighten the story rather than be the main event which is something I want to look at in my own trailers.

RESEARCH: TRAILER ANALYSIS

Upon researching what genre my film could be, we learned that trailers are a genre of themselves. I decided to choose trailers from three different genres: 'Annabelle'- horror, 'Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2'- superhero/action, and 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before'- Rom-com.

When analysing these trailers, I looked at the questions below:

• how does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes? 
• how does the trailer draw attention to the roles taken, particularly star talent? 
• what essential narrative elements are explained in the inter-titles? 
• how does the trailer use dialogue? 
• what institutional information does the trailer contain, such as names of production company, talent, director, release date? 
• how does the trailer utilise accolades ("five BAFTA nominations") or other key hooks ("from the director of Gravity") 
•  what many different elements make it a good trailer?
• why does it inspire you?

TRAILER ONE:

ANNABELLE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCxm7cTpBAs

Annabelle clearly belongs to the horror genre as it shows all the common tropes- an empty rocking chair, a creepy doll that goes missing, and even a haunted music box. The music it uses is also indicative of the horror genre, using quiet pauses and sharp violin notes out of the blue, accompanying the jump scares within the trailer. The trailer does not announce who is in the film as it is part of an existing universe, that of 'The Conjuring', but uses a lot more shots of the characters Ed and Lorraine Warren, as the audience will immediately want to watch the next story from the Warrens, especially as the Warrens were actually real people, who collected haunted objects, including the real Annabelle doll. 

Annabelle's trailer shows that the plot starts with her being released from her cabinet, and that the characters will have to find her and put her back before too much damage is done. The trailer also shows that there are certain characters in the story who don't know who she is and that this will be part of the downfall of the characters in Annabelle.

There is not much dialogue within this trailer, as a lot of the suspense in horror comes in the form of the absence of dialogue. What little dialogue there is, is essential to the story line, like the creepy "Can Annabelle come out to play?" or the line that sends the characters into doom, "I touched everything." In trailer, dialogue must be used to move the plot along, but in a dramatic way, which gives another plot point away as a tease.

What information that is given, is given very rarely, in very quick bursts. These are presented as a black screen with white lettering, only giving out essential facts like Release Date 28th June, or the Warner Bros. logo which only flashes up for about 1 second. The only hook used in this trailer is the information that it belongs to 'The Conjuring' universe, as it already has a target audience, and to fully understand the Annabelle film, you have to have watched the other Conjuring films, as they give away bits of information leading up to the Annabelle film.

Annabelle is a good trailer as it doesn't focus on accolades to create a target audience. It shows off some of the scary sequences used in the films but doesn't give away all the key scenes. The score is used in a brilliant way, using the Annabelle's Music Box theme throughout to ensure the audience is constantly on the edge of their seats. This is partly why this trailer inspires me but there are also many other reasons. There are so many horror films in the industry and its hard to make them unique, using the tropes but not becoming predictable. Annabelle has the unique perspective of being based on real life events whilst still being a work of fiction, as there were liberties taken with the type of doll Annabelle is, but still making the material true to the majority of its source material.

TRAILER TWO:

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cv2ueYnKjg

GOTG is a sequel and the visual and sound codes are used to link it to the first film. Similar songs from the 80s are used in reference to the soundtrack from the first film as a key plot point of the first and second film is that of protagonist Quill's parentage. The colour palette is full of oranges and blues, mimicking the space ship within the story. Peppered throughout the trailer, there are title cards which alert the audience to the talent within the film, such as Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementiff and Zoe Saldana, but referring to their character names as they have already been introduced in the first film. As this film belongs to the MCU, many of the actors are A-listers and will have a following for the talent itself.

GOTG's trailer shows that the plot will contain a big battle, as is common with films in the MCU, but hint that Baby Groot will have a vital role. The trailer mainly shows off the VFX used within the film as this will encourage an audience to see it in the cinema as opposed to staying at home to watch it. It also shows off Baby Groot for the majority of the trailer as the audience will have been given a hint that Baby Groot exists from the last film, and provides light comedic relief from the arrogant and rude Quill.

The trailer uses lines such as "I wanna put some tape over the death button." and "Show time, A-holes", to give the audience a taste of the characters from the first film, without giving away the majority of the plot lines. It also shows the characters still have the same personality, with the exception of Baby Groot, as it was confirmed that Baby Groot, while being related to the original Groot, does not contain the same personality or memories from the first film.

This trailer contains the ident for Marvel Studios and the release date, however, this is it for institutional information and accolades. As it is part of an established universe, the trailer doesn't need to boast about who is in it or who it is made by as the audience trusts that it will be a top quality film, based on the previous GOTG film and other MCU films as well. 

This trailer is one of the best I've seen, mainly as it acknowledges the best parts of the previous film that the audience picked up on, and improved on those, and showed the audience the new plot lines. It gives enough away to the audience, without leaving the audience annoyed that they knew too much about the film or that they knew not enough to be convinced to watch GOTG in the cinema. I personally love the balance between switching from Baby Groot's comic relief, and Quill's struggles, especially concerning his parentage. I also loved the brightness of the colour palette and the soundtrack as the Guardians of the Galaxy films are almost the comic relief of the MCU, which works so well within the universe, in my opinion.

TRAILER THREE:

TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=555oiY9RWM4

TATBILB is a Netflix original and belongs to the romance genre although it could also be described as a coming of age film. The music really signals this through an upbeat score while still carrying the story forward. The colour palette consists of mainly pastel and whites to show that this is a film from the perspective of a teenage girl. This film was the first of a line of similar Netflix originals and introduces Noah Centineo and Lara Condor in a series of pink panel slides throughout the trailer, but also introduces the characters in the trailer effectively through the showing of who the letters were written for.

The first parts to the plot have been revealed in the trailer, showing Lara Jean's coping mechanism and security in knowing the letters will never be see by the intended recipients. However, we are shown that the letters did get sent, although we don't know who sent them yet. The trailer shows the start of the deceit from Lara Jean when she gets into a fake relationship with one of the five letter holders. The dialogue shows it as it unfolds, as well as some cheeky comments made by Lara Jean's dad. The dialogue also reveals Lara Jean's mum has died, which doesn't seem significant in the trailer but becomes a bigger plot device in the actual film.

Netflix keeps their logo in the bottom left hand corner instead of putting a single slide in crediting them, so the production company slide is not present. The main actors are not named on a slide but the release date is announced through the signature font upon a shot from the film. As the film was created by Netflix, it is not eligible for any major awards and so cannot boast of any accolades, but hooks the audience in with the unique plot.

I find that the trailer instantly makes Lara Jean relatable by showing her flaws and the impossible situation she is in. Shots such as the last, where Lara Jean rolls out of her window, and off the roof just to avoid a boy she once used to love, allow the audience to feel sorry for her, which also is supported by the romantic but goofy score underneath. This trailer inspires me because when I saw this film, I very much felt the trailer managed to encompass the film in a succinct way without giving away the big plot points, which is what I want to achieve with my trailers.

RESEARCH: WHAT SETS A FILM APART

To learn more about what sets a film apart, I looked at http://thefilmspace.org/fda100/distribution/what , which shows Kezia Williams and Chris Besseling who go into the topic more deeply.

Kezia Williams starts off by highlighting that distributors need to pick out the key themes, and to find what will interest your audience. This will shape the marketing campaign, whether the distributor is there through the scripting of the film, or when the first footage is filmed, or even in the editing room, as the distributor is able to get a sense of what might excite or emotionally captivate an audience.

Chris Besseling then explains the distributor needs to market and find the unique selling point as well as the target audience. Selling points include how the storyline differs from other films, the key elements of the story, the talent, the talent's latest works, the source material, the vfx, key crew and team, and whether it is part of a franchise.

Taking these into considerations, the distributor has to choose what will intrigue an audience on a poster, in trailers and advertisements.

HOOKS:

The hooks of a film will help the audience understand what they should expect when seeing a movie. The visual campaign should emphasise these to give the audience a narrative image.

GENRE:

An understanding of genre is shared by the audience and the film industry, which will mean the audience will expect certain tropes and conventions within the movie. These elements are expected so the creative team with draw on those during the production, writing and casting. However, the promise of a genre film is to provide the familiar whilst still providing something new.

CHARACTERS:

Some genres like romance require an audience to feel an attachment to certain characters and wanting to see them take on new challenges. In franchises especially, it is important to have those sort of characters so that the franchise will remain popular due to the return of certain characters. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Baby Groot, the child of Groot from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, is a fan favourite as he was introduced as a child and many of the audience wants to see Baby Groot grow up throughout his involvement in the franchise. The audience likes to come back to the familiarity of the character, their behaviour and attitudes being revisited as well as offering something new. This can be challenging, however, and costly. The involvement of Baby Groot and his popularity means a heavy amount of CGI, and that is a financial burden. The storylines cannot repeat either, which means constantly bringing in new creative teams.