CONSTRUCTION: SCRIPT

 Our group decided to write our ideas into a script on Celtx.

PLANNING: INSPIRATIONAL FILMS / GENRES

 For my planning, I decided I should make a list of all the horror movies I have watched, and mark the useful ones with comments explaining why they are effective. I also included films that I haven't watched, but will during the planning process.

FILMS I HAVE WATCHED:

The Paranormal Activity series- this is a found footage film series exploring the possession of lead character Katie. This film is extremely useful as it utilises most paranormal horror tropes. It also looks at the dynamic of using a possessed character, as it shows Katie and Micah's relationship, and Demon Katie and Micah's relationship.

 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.

The Insidious series- This will not be useful in creating my piece, as it heavily uses CGI, and is not in the general found footage style.

The Conjuring Series- The characters within my film slightly mimic those within the Annabelle series but overall there is not much correlation.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

 I have planned what my target audience is likely to be:

Having found several surveys from a widespread audience, I found a general idea for my audience. A total of 32% of respondents watched horror films. Of that 32%, 36% are males under 35. 33% are males over 35, 44% are females under 35, and 22% are females over 35. The majority of watchers were parents and fit the social class C2. 

My target audience is likely to use social media to find films that they are interested in, in particular the visual platform Instagram. They are risk takers, as evident by the amusement when watching jumpscares, and they often watch these films in order to get a thrill. Similar films they have watched include The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. They often watch films on streaming platforms, rather than in cinemas and live on a lower wage. They can have any career but are likely to hang out with a tight knit group of friends.

(ADD RESULTS OF AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE)

CONSTRUCTION: SMASH CUT

 (As GIBBY finishes his tirade, the camera focuses on the spill of coffee on the table, and it fades to an identical stain of blood in the grass in front of the Belvedere. Suddenly, the music swells as the audience get flashes of scenes, of EMILY possessed in front of the Belvedere, a pin of an article about Claremont being haunted, EMILY leaving the boys to use the bathroom, EMILY possessed again, a pin of a ghost, EMILY staring in the mirror, a pin of the interior of Claremont, EMILY's reflection shifting and distorting, EMILY possessed again, a pin of ghost hunting equipment, EMILY touching the violin player on the shoulder, a pin of their plan, the boys running out of the mansion, EMILY presenting a book to the boys, EMILY's torch laying on the ground up to the Belvedere, the passage about demons within the book, the boys running up to the Belvedere, the book being closed with a slam, revealing the title (Daemonology), a black screen. Suddenly the audience see EMILY at the top of the back balcony, about to enter Claremont, looking back at the boys, as she says the words:)

This passage in our script utilises smash cuts, as shown in Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll. We aim to increase the pitch and volume of our soundtrack, potentially with a violin, to create an impact and create the tension of the scenes while the scenes smash cut.

This technique was modelled in films such as American Beauty, within the alarm clock sequence, and Psycho, where the mother kills. We looked at these scenes for inspiration in forming our own sequences.

CONSTRUCTION: WEBSITE

 (Fill this out later!)

https://cbtaylor1238.wixsite.com/charlotte

PLANNING: LOCATION RECCE

 

As we are using Princess Charlotte as an established historical figure, and we currently attend the school in which she lived and died, we felt it would be accurate for our filming location. We were met with the challenge of having school supplies, and the layout of a school rather than an abandoned set. Therefore, we decided to still use our own school to film, but to make it canonically a school which is abandoned due to the 2020 pandemic.

PLANNING: PROPS

 For our props, I found 6 key ideas. I put some images into a collage to show the rest of my production team. 

We decided to use a pin board to mimic the crime investigation plots as this is what Emily wants to do. We will need electronic devices, of which, the camera is obtainable. We may need to use a similar looking prop to mimic the EVP recorder. We will need a baby's christening gown, and  a georgian style night gown for the ghost plot line as we need to establish the characters of Princess Charlotte and the baby who died in the horrific incident, which left them both dead. Lastly, we will need torches, to set the scene, and a fake daemonology book for the same purposes.