Shooting 'VOID'

We have started shooting our trailer in the school's underground void, the setting for the murders of the teenagers. The footage for the montage will appear at the end of the trailer, building momentum and using suspense to engage the audience.
Below is a still example of how we used a canted angle, minimal lighting and an out of focus shot in our filming to create a dramatic effect in a scene in which the killer approaches the viewer/ the camera. Additionally, the slow pace adds to the sense of unease the viewer feels at this point in the trailer.

Digital Marketing

The 'Tweet Your Scream' Twitter campaign was created to promote the film Paranormal Activity which not only engaged the audience with the film but also built up a fanbase for the movie by encouraging the audience to tell others about their experience watching it. This marketing campaign boosted the popularity of the film -which was a low budget and (initially) limited release feature- enormously.

In my own production my group's digital strategy could consist of integrating blogs, a YouTube account and social networking sites like Facebook of Twitter. Further initiatives could be using instant messaging, e.g. using the BlackBerry Messenger service to connect with audiences who want to know about the film's plot and message fans on the release date. Another idea could be linking Twitter accounts or blogs for the characters in the style of the Skins webpage. The digital campaign could function as a network built around a main website (the address of which would be featured on the poster) which integrates the Twitter feed on the character biography page; features clips from the YouTube account on the main page. The purpose of our digital strategy is to explain aspects of the story and characters in greater detail to the audience, making them want to see the film.

We could further interact with the audience using the everyday aspect of the plot and ask Twitter users to post about their worst detentions on the site.

Makeup and Special Effects

In the Film's Cool session last Thursday, we were given a talk about industry practices by Oscar winning makeup artist Christine Blundell and Cliff Wallace who also gave us advice on how to do special effects and make up for a horror movie on a budget. For example, I found out a low cost method of creating fake blood using food colouring and golden syrup. Cliff also advised that for the scene involving the wounded character, we should also use painted tissue pasted on with Copydex to look like skin/flesh cut with a knife.

An example of Christine's work

Planning for Production: Celtx

In class we have been using the industry standard software Celtx to write up our screenplays. The programme also allows the user to organise the entire production by creating a database of actors, characters, locations, sound effects, text, props and makeup. Finally, it can create a Production Schedule tailored to the times of day specified in the scene headings (e.g. 'EXT. SCHOOL GATE, ACLAND BURGHLEY SCHOOL. DAY').

Poster flat plan and tagline ideas

In my idea I have chosen to follow conventions of horror movie posters by using an image of one of the characters and bold text at the bottom of the page. Immediately as someone looks at it they can tell it is a horror as the text at the top makes reference to Halloween, also hinting about the release date. The colours used would ideally be black, red, some white for contrast. Originally I thought dark blue would give it an eerie look but dark blue and green have connotations of the supernatural which does not relate to our film's plot.

Taglines could possibly be: along the lines of: "Avoid the VOID", "Nothing can save you in the VOID"

Typography

This selection of typefaces shows the type of font we want to use for the title or the tagline displayed on the poster and at the end of the trailer. These all follow horror conventions which I think is important as it immediately signifies the genre to the audience whereas use of variation in the typography could mislead the consumer. Layer styles such as shadows and glows have been used in Photoshop to emphasise the chilling look of the fonts. 

Personally I would like to use the second or fourth as I think the first is quite blocky and reminiscent of monster movies which doesn't represent the threat exposed in our trailer of misuse of power. The kerning of the third is quite close making it a bit hard to read.

Target audience and demographics & psychographics

Who is our primary target market?

How will our trailer satisfy uses and gratifications?