Planning and Pre-Production Reflection

Reflection of planning and pre-production work in relation to the coursework Brief. I have recently been planning and putting together pre-production work which will help me when I create my trailer, film poster and magazine cover. The target audience for my film is 16-24, predominantly female and it is therefore important that I consider this when I am planning. I have planned the mise-en-scene for my film trailer and used digital technology to help me present this and examples through videos. It was important that I planned this because it was one of the most important aspects of the trailer. In addition to this, the props, costume and make up are what make the trailer and any film effective which is why every film maker uses them in a film. Without these, nobody would want to see the film.  After I planned my mise-en-scene for the film, I planned the sound that will be used throughout my trailer. This sound consists of a heart beat that will get louder and faster throughout the trailer and a voice over with the lyrics from the nursery rhyme ‘a teddy bears picnic’. I presented this research on my blog in a variety of ways; videos, images, text and slideshares. Overall I believe that this research has helped me to further  develop my knowledge on the codes and conventions of psychological horror and will help me when I come to create my own trailer because I now know what I need to do to ensure that I meet the needs of my target audience. It has also helped me to plan what I need to include in my promotional campaign to meet the needs of my target audience.

Plan of Sound

There will be two pieces of sound used throughout our trailer. One sound will be a heart beat that will progressively get faster and louder throughout our trailer to build up tension. In addition to this, when Melinda is seen in the woods, a soundtrack that we will record as a voice over will play. We will record a voice over of the song "if you go down to the woods" from a teddy bear's picnic. We decided to record this ourselves because we want to add a scary effect to the song and put it at the speed that we want to meet the needs of our target audience. Examples of our sound can be seen below:

Heart beat:

Teddy bear picnic-If you go down to the woods:

Other sounds that will feature in our film trailer include; bangs and Lucy screaming. We will also have voice over of words. For example, when Lucy starts her new school “Well, this is your new school have a new day”. All these voice over’s can be seen in my final storyboard under the title ‘Dialogue’. 

Plan of Mise-En-Scene

Plan of all costumes, props, locations, actors and models that I will use throughout the construction of my coursework. The planning of the mise-en-scene is one of the most important aspects of my coursework because I need all of these to make my trailer effective. I decided to do some research on other psychological horror films and look at their costume and props before deciding what we will use in our film. This is important because I need to ensure that I stick to the typical codes and conventions of psychological horror films to ensure that I attract the audience to my film. I looked at psychological horror films. Some of the films that I looked at are:

• Orphan
• Silent Hill
• A Tale Of Two Sisters
• Insidious
• The Forgotten
• Black Swan
• Devoured
• The other
• Devils Due

Research-COSTUMES

Orphan

Antagonist: Esther is the ‘antagonist’ within the film orphan. Esther is wearing old-fashioned clothing which would differentiate her from the other characters within the film as the rest of the family don't dress like this, which represents her as being isolated and different. However, the school uniform like costume and pig tails represent how young she is as she still goes to school, which gives away more information about the film as she could go to school, where other incidents happen within the film. However, Esther's costume in this image is juxtaposed because her pale face makes her come across as innocent but in contrast her dark hair makes her seem dangerous and evil. Esther’s her pale skin could make her come across as innocent but as an audience, we know that her dark hair has a massive impact on this as it can make her seem dangerous and evil. In addition to this, her dark eye make-up, gives her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is. Esther wears ribbon in her hair and a band around her neck and wrists which suggests that she is trying to hide something and most of her outfits are not in colour, which adds to the old fashion clothing theme and gives the horror film a scarier effect. These bands are burgundy, again having connotations of blood and evil.

Protagonist: The above picture denotes the parents, John and Kate who are the parents in the film Orphan. Kate is the protagonist within the film. From looking at the protagonist in psychological horror films, it is important that I stick to the codes and conventions as there is a very specific costume that everyone wears. The protagonist tends to wear ordinary clothes in a psychological horror film for example, jeans and a top. This gives the film a sense of realism and to show that they’re an ordinary person. Furthermore, this allows the audience to put themselves in the characters situation and give the film a sense of realism.

Research- PROPS
Orphan

Props are an important aspect of any horror film and any film uses them. All great horror films have their memorable moments and their respective props as they help to add value to the killer. Every great horror killer has an equally great prop with them. Even movies without a killer, e.g a ghost movie or vampire movie have props. An actor can only do so much to make the film scary. Give an actor a scary prop and it immediately adds a massive effect to the film. Props tell a story without words and express the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Props make it easier to replicate realistic situations without having to implicate the actors’ physical well-being. Without the use of props, creating realistic killings, stabbings, fatal injuries etc would be made very difficult. Orphan, uses many props related to horror to add a scarier effect to the movie. Props that feature within the movie, include; knives, guns and phones (which also feature in films such as Silent Hill!) which are normally used as a means of communication between different people in the film. Knives are more effective in films because it’s that sound of metal scraping slicing and the fighting in close quarters. Mainly because you can actually see the knife approaching and about to go into them. A knife, you know exactly when it is about to happen. Whereas, guns are so powerful and efficient from even a distance that it removes any suspense and therefore you expect it to happen and knives you are always 'on edge' waiting to see what will happen. Other props that feature within horror films are knives, guns, axes, hammers and swords, ropes and chains are also very popular.

Research- LOCATIONS:

Orphan

Often, places with a 'dark' history are generally used in horror films. In addition to this, the location is often isolated because it wouldn't make sense to set a horror film in a busy area where somebody can come along and save the person being killed. There would be no point in doing this because it would take away the scary effect of the film. Most horror films are set in the following locations; woods, quiet village, haunted house, river/lake, school. Orphan has locations in the woods, the house and Esther's school. 

Research- ACTORS/MODELS:
Orphan

The protagonists in horror movies are predominantly females as the audience are more likely to understand this. This is important because women are seen as more innocent and would therefore be more scared of the antagonist whereas the man would have to act more manly.  The protagonist wears normal clothing and minimal make-up to give it a sense of realism and the audience can therefore picture themselves in the characters situation. Many horror films are normally focused around a family and the antagonist is a child. The antagonist will also be a member of this family. It is easy to distinguish the difference between the antagonist and the protagonist due to costume and props. The antagonist normally has dark make up and ‘old-fashioned’ clothing with minimal colour. In orphan, Kate the mother within the family is the protagonist and Esther, the child that the family adopt is the antagonist. 

After I had done some research, I could now decide what to use in my 'Melinda' horror trailer.

My 'Melinda' Trailer Mise-En-Scene planning

Costumes

Our movie is a psychological horror based on a possessed missing child. Our costume ideas are similar to 'Orphan' as we feel that they created a frightening antagonist Esther. This is why our antagonist, Melinda, will be wearing a white dress portraying innocence. However, this white dress will be juxtaposed by ‘Melinda’s’ dark hair and make-up. The other characters within the trailer will be wearing normal clothes to give the trailer a sense of realism and allow the audience to image themselves in that situation.

Props

As a pair, we mutually agreed that the props we are going to use are a ‘teddy bear’ and a ‘knife’. Melinda will be holding this teddy bear in the woods. From my research I can see that props are a necessary part of any film and add a big effect and I knife is one of the main props used as the audience are always left wondering what is going to happen. The knife will have blood on is and the teddy bear will also look dirty. This teddy will give Melinda a child-like effect and portray her innocence. 

Locations

The main locations within our film are our school and Ruislip woods. We decided that these would be the most effective ways because it helps the audience to further understand the story line. The woods is an isolated area adding a scarier effect to the film. Furthermore, a woods means that we are following the codes and conventions of a horror film, further attracts the target audience to the film. 

Actors/Models
Protagonist (Lucy)- The protagonist will be played by Lucy Morrissey

Antagonist (Melinda)- The antagonist will be played by Shannon Morrissey

Lucy's Friend- The friend will be played by Beth Hayes

Make-Up/ Hair
Melinda (played by Shannon) is the antagonist within the film and therefore needs to look the scariest. Melinda’s hair will be curly to give her a child-like effect and she will have ribbons in her hair to give her a scary personality. However, we are going to make this hair messy and untidy to show that she has been missing for a long time and to make her look scarier. Lucy’s hair will be kept straight and neat to create a contrast between the two characters. We thought that it was important to show that Melinda was an outcast by having the rest of the characters look neat compared to her. 

Melinda will be wearing dark make-up, giving her a 'witch-like' effect to portray the fact that she is the antagonist within the trailer. Test shots that we tried out on 'Melinda' (Shannon) can be seen below. From doing this, we have recognised that she needs to look like she has been missing for a lot longer and therefore needs more wounds and 'dirt' on her face. The images from the test shot:

Ideas for make-up came from research and looking at YouTube videos. Some of the videos that I looked at include: 

Readership Profile

I decided to create a readership profile to distinguish the target audience for 'Melinda'. This will give me a better understanding on everything I need to do to meet the needs of my target audience. Audience profiling is a task all media institutions need to perform when creating a new product to launch onto the market be it a magazine, film, website, they all have to do this. When defining an audience, factors that must be considered include:

• Age, Gender and race
• Education
• Occupation
• Annual Income
• Habits and hobbies
• Socioeconomic Groups

Age of my target audience: 17

Gender: Males are more like to be a fan of horror movies than girls; this is due to the stereotypical thrill seeker which is portrayed with a boy. Although, you can’t leave out females because over recent years, females are becoming more interested in horror movies. Gender can be either make or female. 

Education: Secondary school (in order to understand the storyline within a horror film and to be old enough.) No qualifications are necessarily needed in order to watch the film though. However, as one of the main settings within my trailer is a school, the audience may have a better understanding of they have had some experience in this environment. 

Occupation: There is no specific occupation of anybody going to see a horror film. Although, the film would mainly be aimed at students as they would go and see the horror film with a group of friends.


Annual Income: Overall, horror films are aimed at a working class community. This is due to the level of thrill and excitement which is gained from a horror film with a relatively cheap price. If the higher class watch horror films, they are usually a sub-genre on another genre such as romance or action. This is due to the higher level of satisfaction middle class individuals seek when watching a film.  

Hobbies/Interests:

• Interested in horror films e.g. orphan
• Aren’t scared of the dark
• Are in year 11/ sixth form and above in school
• Enjoy going to the cinema
• Don’t mind looking at blood
• They use social networking websites such as twitter
• Read magazines (e.g. total film and empire) to keep up to date with the latest films. This also allows them to look at film reviews, behind the scenes and read interviews with the actors and actresses of a particular film. 
• Listens to radio 1 and Capital FM
• Shops in Topshop, New Look, H&M and River Island
• Like to eat at Nandos
  Socioeconomic groups: In terms of demographics, my target audience will have to have some source of money in order to see any film, whether that be pocket money, a part time or full time job, they are still going to need money to see the film. The film would be open to anyone as is any horror film (depending on the classification of the film!) The demographics for my audience could range from B-E because although unemployed people come under E as do students. The majority of my target audience would be students (age 16-24) and therefore if they had some source of income they wouldn’t be restricted from seeing the film. As the target audience for my film is 16-24 year olds, they are likely to have a part time job or receive money from other sources of income, such as a student loan if they attend university. Psychographics: The target audience for my film ‘Melinda’ would have to be confident in order to cope with watching a horror film, therefore making them a succeeder (seek control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation). In addition to this, they could be explorers as they might want to see what happens in a horror movie (seeks discovery. Energy, individualism and experience. Value difference and adventure. Typically a younger demographic e.g. a student.) Finally, they could be a ‘Struggler’ who seeks escape.

Results Analysis

Target Audience Survey

Part 1-General target audience questions

Target Audience Survey

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Part 2- Trailer Questions



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Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

First Photoshoot Evaluation

Some of the pictures that I preferred, can be seen below:

Plan of photoshoot!

Did you achieve/ create what you set out to? Why? Why not?

Yes, I did achieve what I set out to, although there were aspects of the photoshoot that I believe I could improve on. I took all of the shots that I planned to take. For example, shots of the missing poster on the tree and in the grass. However, some shots turned out better than others. I also took more shots than I originally planned to, which was of an advantage to me because it means that I now have a wider variety of potential images that I can use on my film poster.

What could you have done better/ differently?

There are some aspects of the photoshoot that I could improve on. I think that I could have planned the lighting better. When I planned my photoshoot, I didn't take into account that I was going to be taking the images during the day and therefore there wasn't low key lighting around the poster. In addition to this, some of the images were focused on the background rather than the main focus of the image, which essentially was the missing poster.

What is your next task?

I am going to retake some of the images due to the lighting. I also want to retake the image where the girl is looking down on the poster because it is focused on the girl rather than the missing poster. This image can be seen below: