1. Units 2, 3 , 22 - Lauren Rosenfeld, Millie West, Ben Karrass, Alex Pereira
ANATHEMA
‘Awaken your inner demons‘
The proposed duration of the production is eight
minutes, as it is a short film. eight minutes is enough
time for the storyline to be carried out, and as our
target audience is 16-19 year olds, making the short
film 8 minutes makes sure that their attention does
not go elsewhere. The completion date for the short
film is Friday 13th October 2017, however, it will be
finished by June, with 4 months left for marketing of
the film.
MARKETING
During this time, several marketing techniques will
be used, including creating social media accounts
(twitter @anathemamovie17) for the film, posters and
teaser trailers.
The trailers will be released a few months before the
release of Friday 13th October 2017, possibly in
August/September time, ensuring that it leaves
enough time for it to become well known, but
making sure that there is not too much time so that it
will be forgotten by the time it is released. Therefore,
once the distribution date of Friday 13th October 2017
comes, the film will be successfully marketed, so that
it has the potential for a large audience to view it on
opening night.
During the months of marketing, we can also contact
a production company, in order to get the trailer to
preview before the feature film plays at the cinema.
2. Units 2, 3 , 22 - Lauren Rosenfeld, Millie West, Ben Karrass, Alex Pereira
The trailer for the short film could also feature as an extra on
the DVD of the horror movie. These marketing techniques, will
create a large potential audience. The short film will be released on Friday 13th, as
people connotate Friday 13th with evil and horror. Thus, the audience will be in the
mood to watch a scary short horror film on this date, as October is when eagerly
anticipated horror films are released, to profit on Halloween at the end of the
month.
GENRE
The genre of our short film/trailer is horror because it creates the biggest impact on
our specific audience of 16-19 years olds of both genders, which is our target
audience. Our secondary audience is general horror movie fans in their mid 20s,
therefore, we will add elements that would appeal to these people, such as some
disturbing scenes. We will add elements of both of the sub genres supernatural
and psychological, as these were our audience's favourites in the questionnaire we
carried out.
We have chosen the genre of horror because we can connect to a wider audience of
a mature age, also we feel that horror has a big impact on younger viewers because
people can sometimes relate with what is happening in the film, putting our
audience into the same position of the characters on screen. We also feel that
combining these two subgenres of horror will create a new unique short horror
film, as several horror films these days are cliche and rely solely on jump scares to
create an impact on the audience. As we are aiming out short film at teenagers,
with the use of teenage actors, horror leaves the biggest impact on the audience.
Having a more mature teenage audience, gives us the opportunity to add some
scenes that viewers may find distressing, which can give the audience a lasting
impression.
AUDIENCE
The target audience for the short film is both genders, aged 16 - 19. We have
chosen this target audience because this age group watches the most horror
movies, as shown through our research, and we have chosen both genders, as both
genders consume horror movies. Also, aiming at both genders creates a wider
potential audience to view the short film on Friday 13th October 2017. As our actors
3. Units 2, 3 , 22 - Lauren Rosenfeld, Millie West, Ben Karrass, Alex Pereira
are also around this age range, the audience can relate to the
actors on screen and be put into their position.
We also chose this age range as some scenes that will feature in the short film, for
instance gore and death, may not be suitable for younger audiences and they may
find it disturbing. Our secondary audiences may also be parents of the teenagers
who will watch the short film and their siblings. As our target audience is 16-19 year
olds, we will be releasing our film online so that it is easily accessible for them. As
shown through our market research, our audience's favourite consumption method
is online streaming. Therefore, we will distribute it via an online streaming site such
as YouTube.
BACKGROUND
The reason why we are creating the short film is to target audiences who enjoy
watching horror films, and we have been given a brief by a production company to
create one. The potential audiences favourite sub genre of horror was supernatural
horror, this is why we have decided to choose a supernatural genre and this is
another reason why the audience will want to view the production.We have also
asked people if they thought it be a good idea to make a short horror film and we
received very positive feedback.
We are creating the short film to make an impact on the audience by making them
feel what the characters are going to experience, things such as fear and being
powerless to the supernatural events that are occurring around them. Our short
film will have several messages embedded into it. The first message it to not get
peer pressured into something you don't want to do, even by a friend. We also want
to portray to our audience to not get involved in ritualistic games involving the devil
for ‘fun’, as this can have some bad side effects.
RESEARCH
We have decided that for our horror film we will be stick to two main locations for
the duration of the filming process. These two locations will be a house and a
forest. We have chosen these 2 locations because as a group, we feel that these
locations work the best, as everyone is familiar with a house, and setting it in a
4. Units 2, 3 , 22 - Lauren Rosenfeld, Millie West, Ben Karrass, Alex Pereira
house puts the audience in the character's
perspective. A forest is also seen as a
scary location, with several people
answering in our questionnaire that they
found forests/wooded areas the scariest.
The laws that we will follow include, the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
(1988) and the BBFC age ratings. The Copyright, Design and Patents Act, will ensure
that us the creators have the right to control the ways in which the material may be
used, make a copy of it, cause the film to be seen and heard in public, communicate
the film to the public, such as on TV or the internet. Copyright is important because
it protects our work against use by others without our permission.The BBFC age
rating makes sure that we only show material suitable for our target audience, as
otherwise they would not be able to view it as it would be inappropriate. As we are
showing sensitive material, such as a suicide, an age rating of 15 is suitable, and
making sure that younger audiences do not view it. Having an age rating of 15, also
ensures that our primary target audience of 16-19 year olds watches it.
For the camerawork that we will use in
the short film, we will take inspiration
from previous horror films that we have
seen, which include The Conjuring 2 and
Ouija: Origin of Evil. We have chosen
these films as inspiration for
camerawork, as they have incorporated
possessions and supernatural activity
well, and we will have these elements in
our film. We will use several props in our
short film. These include fake blood and ritualistic items, such as candles,
pentagrams and a small blade. We are using these props in order to make the plot
as realistic as possible for the audience in order to have the biggest impact on
them, and to portray the message clearly to them.
SYNOPSIS
The plot centres on two teenage boys - Cameron and Ethan. Cameron Haver goes
to hang out with his friend Ethan Crane, at his house. They stumble upon a game
5. Units 2, 3 , 22 - Lauren Rosenfeld, Millie West, Ben Karrass, Alex Pereira
they find in the attic, and decide to play it. Ethan remains
skeptical, but eventually agrees to play, as Cameron continues
to believe that nothing will happen. The game takes them to an abandoned house,
and the two begin to play, oblivious as to the consequences that may await them.
STYLE
Towards the start of our short film, the style and atmosphere that we intend to
create is one of calmness and lightheartedness. We have chosen to create this
type of atmosphere because we want the audience to be unsuspecting of any future
events that are about to happen. In order to do this, we will add some comical
elements to our production. For example, there will be scenes of ‘Cameron and
Ethan’ ‘bantering’ around with each other, in turn, this will give the audience a false
sense of security and keep them in the dark. The mood will then suddenly change,
as the characters arrive at the abandoned house and Ethan goes into a coma like
state from the ritual game. Here, the characters will seem to be in a panicked and
nervous state, surrounded by a dull and dark atmosphere. Towards the end of the
short film, we will continue to create an unsettling atmosphere, and keep the
audience aware of the upcoming twist of the demon arriving in the real world and
possessing Cameron.
BUDGET
We created our Budget, which demonstrated how much our short film would cost
to film, edit and produce. We have created this budget to make sure that we
bought/hired the most cost effective items/people. We researched equipment and
people that were suitable for the job, to make sure that everything we bought/hired
would contribute to us making a professional production. By adding everything
needed for the production into our budget, it makes sure that we are cost effective,
but still productive in planning our short film. The budget came to a grand total of
‘£3,261.60’ Contributors to the grand total included the equipment we would need
to use, the crew and actors that we need to hire and any extras which included,
props, catering, and travel that we would need to buy.