Horror Research - Promotion

I have researched advertising campaigns that horror films have used. I found newer films used much more, due to the increased use of social networking, and that The Blair Witch Project was a turning point for the way horror films were advertised. It was difficult to find much information on films made before this.


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
-Advertised as a ‘true story’ to boost sales although link to the serial killer it is said to be based on is weak

-Full sized bill board ads are used to advertise

-A promotional trailer was created and shown at the cinema for other films

-When recreated in 2013 there was more advertising with magazine adverts/trailers/poster and billboard ads 

The Blair Witch Project 1999

Budget - $60,000

Opening Weekend - $1,512,054 (USA)

Gross - $14,901,157 (USA)

Target Audience - Mainly appealing to tech savvy people through the use on online advertising however the film has since reached cult status and by its ten year anniversary the advertising was aimed at a wide target audience with no real age or gender limits

-Small budget but known as ‘best viral advertising campaign’ - revolutionised viral advertising

-Haxan films create a website for the film which outlines the story behind the legend the film is based around - home footage appears and the website is scary in itself - creates a second world and makes the film seem like real life

-Released at Sundance and the rights were brought by Artisan = more budget ($1 million on promotion before official release)

-Website updated to celebrate the ten year anniversary

-Posted on blogs and forums with little bits of information about the legend building excitement and creating a sense of realism

-Low budget trailers are produced - shown on college campuses and the sci-fi channel = this creates a feeling that this film is not mainstream and that the audience have stumbled upon something secret and special

-Before film release IMDb had the actors listed as ‘missing, presumed dead’ and missing person leaflets were handed out creating a sense of realism around the film

The Woman in Black 2012
Budget - $17,000,000
Opening Weekend - $20,874,072 (USA)
Gross - $54,322,273 (USA)
Target Audience - different ages and genders were targeted throughout this whole campaign as they mainly used the interest in Daniel Radcliffe and his first role outside of Harry Potter as a selling point, as well as the already famous storyline from the book by Susan Hill

-Changed the film for UK release in order to qualify for 12A rating (6 seconds cut and scenes blackened/sound level reduced) = wider target audience/also trying to appeal to children

-Book and play fan following = automatic target audience

-Daniel Radcliffe fans (posters featuring him not the woman in black) - Harry Potter fans want to see 'Harry Potter' in a new and different role

-Social media - facebook and twitter set up and website created - this would appeal to the younger generations (website had different trailers on it with more about the plot)

-Phase one teaser trailer - The King’s Speech DVD

-Phase two teaser trailer - Harry Potter (fans of all ages - most popular film franchise of all time = huge market)

-Halloween competition on Youtube - win Harry Potter merch and tickets to Premiere - again cashing in on the celebrity status and huge amount of fans the lead actor has

-New poster released in January - month before premiere

-NME/Hollyoaks/FHM/4od/MTV/E4 - target young people

-Twitter/IMDb/film four/ITV1 and 2/Comedy Central - Broader audience

-Advertising on channels with programmes such as Gossip Girl/Big Brother/National TV Awards/The Only Way is Essex to gain popularity - young people mainly targeted but also adults with The Jonathan Ross Show and the National TV Awards

-Bus stops which young and old people see as they use them most frequently

-Posters on buildings which people pass everyday

-Newspapers ads which target a more educated demographic

Propp Character Theory

My Product - Plot Summary

I have decided to work in a pair to create my product as it will give me access to a wider skill set and also will be very helpful during the brainstorming stage, and together we have come up with the storyline the whole film will follow. From this we will decide what parts should feature in our trailer and how to get a sense of the plot into the trailer.

Our film is going to be focused around a murder which happened approximately one year before the film is taking place. The murderer will be one of the dead girls best friends, however they have never been caught and no one knows that it was her, not even the other friends. One year later the five girls are getting on with their lives, until one day a boy who was infatuated with the girl before she died holds them hostage and tortures them until they admit who killed her. 

The film will start in school, with the five girls going about their normal day-to-day lives. During the day at school, someone is watching them however they do not notice and the audience do not see their face, leading them to believe this is the antagonist of the film and the person to fear. In this characters locker is a shrine to the dead girl, making it clear from the start he was obsessed and making him appear sinister and stalker like. This is a twist on the false hero theory as this appears to be the antagonist however by the end we know he is trying to get a twisted form of justice and the murderer is in fact the villain.

The girls are then kidnapped by the stalker, who takes one and then texts the rest to meet her and holds them all hostage in an abandoned house just outside the town they live in. He ties the five girls to chairs and begins to tell them about his love for their friend. At this point in the film he will appear utterly deranged and there will be no doubt he had something to do with the murder. He is wearing a bracelet, which belonged to the girl who died and as the film progresses it becomes clear she wore it the night she died.

Throughout the film he forces them to hurt each other and hurts them himself. To begin with they are defiant and fight back but as he starts forcing them to tell the truth about the night their friend died they become more and more willing to play the game as they want to uncover the truth themselves. It will appear that they are all guilty at different points, as none of them have been fully honest about that night and the whole film will feature flashbacks of that night and of them all having fun together when they were friends, which contrast hugely and make the murder appear even worse. During the flashbacks of the night the girl was killed, items will be seen and things will be said which make each character seem guilty and the truth of all of their whereabouts that night become clear. It will almost become a 'truth or dare' style game as he tries to find out who killed the girl, forcing the girls to tell him what happened for face being tortured.

Eventually the girl who killed the other admits it when he nearly kills her with the promise he will release them and let them get medical help for the wounds inflicted. He does not keep this promise however and kill that girl and then himself. The other girls are then left there, tied up at the end of the film.

Horror Research - People Involved in Horror

Directors

James Wan - created Saw, The Conjuring and Insidous

Tobe Hooper - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Roman Polanski - Knife in Water, Macbeth, Cul-de-Sac and Rosemary’s Baby

Tod Browning - The Unholy Three, London After Midnight and Dracula

James Whale - The Bride of Frankenstein

Wes Craven - The Last House of the Left, Nightmare on Elm Street (best selling horror of all time) and then made the Scream franchise which parodies horror films

Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho, The Birds, Frenzy, Strangers on a Train and Shadow of a Doubt

Producers

James Wan - Executive producer for Saw 2-7, Annabelle, Insidious 3 and The Conjuring 2

Joseph Wolf - Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween

Michael Bay - Ouija 1 and 2, The Purge Anarchy and 3, Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre  

Actors/Actresses

Boris Karloff - Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein and The Mummy

Gunnar Hanson - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Linda Blair - The Exorcist, Supernatural, Scream, Stranger in Our House and Repossessed

Jack Nicholson - The Shining, The Witches of Eastwick, The Little Shop of Horrors

Zelda Rubinstein - Poltergeist 1 and 2 and Tales from the Crypt

Betsy Palmer - Friday the 13th

Robert Englund - A Nightmare on Elms Street, Strangeland and Hatchet

Ken Foree - Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, The Devils Rejects and Halloween remake

Lon Chaney Jr - The Wolf Man, The Mummys Tomb, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula

Tobin Bell - Saw franchise, Boogeyman 2 and 3, Buried Alive and Black Mask 2

Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Magic and Red Dragon

Richard Brooker - His Name was Jason, Friday the 13th franchise and Deathstalker

Doug Bradley - Hellraiser franchise, Nightbreed and Wrong Turn 5

Cinematographers and Composers

John Alcott - The Shining, No Way Out and Terror Train

Peter Deming - Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, Drag me to Hell and Scarecrows

John R Leonetti - The Conjuring, Insidious, Annabelle, Poltergeist, Piranha, Dead Silence and Childs Play

Derek Vanlint - Alien

William A Fraker - Rosemary’s Baby, The Island of Dr Moreau and Exorcist 2

Daniel Pearl - Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and remake, Alien vs Predator, The Funhouse, Frankenstein and A Return to Salems Lot

Basic Storyline

I have looked at Todorov's theory and began working out a plot around this. This has helped me come up with a whole storyline which will improve the quality of my trailer, rather than simply planning a trailer. It will mean there will be a stronger sense of story in my trailer and also that I can plan more thoroughly.

Stage One - Equilibrium 

The main five girls are seen in school going about their ordinary lives, and then meet up after at one of their houses one the one year anniversary of their friend death

Stage Two - Disruption

The apparent antagonist comes into their home and takes the girls hostage

Stage Three - Problem Acknowledged

The girls vow to not hurt each other and to escape at the first opportunity

Stage Four - Obstacles

It becomes clear the girls all lied to each other about the night their friend died and they become desperate to know the truth    

Stage Five - Conclusion

Murderer is revealed and killed, and the man who took the girls hostage kills himself

My Product - First Thoughts

After looking at existing trailers and films from a variety of genres, I have began thinking about what genre I would like my trailer to belong to, and which would be realistically possible. I still believe a horror film would be the most effective type of film when created on a budget of zero as a lot of the scary things can be edited on the computer, such as the dark colouring to the footage and the eery music, and this therefore doesn't require a high budget. There are also a lot of conventional horror film shots and iconography that will not require a hollywood style budget, such as the frequent use of 'creepy' children, loud noises that come from no where and gory shots. This genre is also going to be the best when overcoming another issue - not having access to professional actors. This therefore makes a lot of dialogue inconvenient and likely to lower the quality of the overall trailer. Horror film trailers do not focus heavily on text and instead use writing to create a vague sense of story, and this would be ideal for amateur film making.

I have considered my ideas from my brainstorming and decided a ghost story would be too difficult with no budget as a lot of the things expected from a film in this style require stunts or advanced equipment which can hide elements on the screen. An example would be the iconic moment in Paranormal Activity where the lead female is dragged out of bed by nothing. I have also ruled out a possession style film as again this requires advanced skills and equipment I do not have access too. It is also likely to require a lot of speech and I want to avoid this in my trailer as it will look amateur as I do not have access to professional actors. 

This leaves me with the stalker idea or a teen horror. I can easily combine these two, however I want to focus less on the stalker element as this is not a very realistic film idea. There are very few films which feature a storyline only about someone being stalked and this is due to the lack of interest from the audience.

Brainstorming

We have began brainstorming our ideas and combining different ideas in order to decide which route we would like to go down for our trailer. We definitely want to do horror as it will be the easiest to produce with a low budget but within the horror genre we are not sure yet.