Researching Horror Film Promotion

Research Introduction
 During the course of the next two weeks I will be conducting the various different ways and means in which I can research for my project.
This will start off by researching various existing products ranging from the different ways and means in which I willing got sell my product.
The biggest part of my FMP is promotion in which I show what the different ways are to selling a film. When looking into my product
research I will be looking at trailers, analysing them and seeing what the comparisons are between them. I will also be researching into
existing posters, mood boards, analysing the colours and looking at specific posters to that relate to the ideas that I have already come up
with. I will also be looking towards other subjects that I will be covering DVD covers, magazines and music. As well as looking at all the
details that makes that product a magazine or DVD, through coverlines and age rating. The next topic I will be looking at in my research is
subject research. Where I will be looking at the research behind the genres looking into subgenres and the history behind horror. Seeing
how it’s evolved, what effect this has had on modern horror and the affect it will have on my products. In order to gather up what my
audience want I will be conducting three ways in which I can find out who my target audience are. First one will be a questionnaire which
focuses more upon quantitive than qualitative research. It will be conducted on Microsoft forms unlike SurveyMonkey as it has been a for a
few years now because its a much better way of gathering up results with the layout being easier to follow. This will also be 10 questions
and then I will be asking another quantitive questions through instagram stories on my social media. As I have a big following meaning I can
gather up enough results to see what the overall audience want. I will also be doing one to one interviews. Having two interviews coming
from two very different people. So that I can compare the difference in results and then I will be doing five other interviews that will be
different be different questions. This will be placed here just to get more variety on the in-depth questions. I will also be conducting some
secondary research where I will be looking into statistics and analysing the perception of the audience. Looking at how they reacting and
seeing the more mathematical side by looking at the percentages of people liking horror. I also want to be preparing for any practical
research that will be needed for my production experiments. Designing two posters for just experimenting and going through the process of
them with add4ed screenshots. The final two things I will be covering is my bibliography and my evaluation. The bibliography will include a
list of sources of that will show links to all the subjects that I have covered in my researching and splitting them up by ten in each section.
For my evaluation I will be looking at the strengths and weakness for each subject covered. Seeing what area I covered best. Whether it
was product research, subject research or questionnaires etc.
Overall, I have up to two weeks to conduct a well detailed and informative research that will benefit me when it comes to having a
detailed research. Whilst the majority of this is my own work. I will have to be reliant on the people giving the interviews and doing the
surveys. Hoping that each answer given is reach out to a suitable conclusion which I can then later evaluate with a detailed response.

Product Research
Existing product research

Existing Product
Teaser trailer
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALhy6XTpMlk
Existing Product – Trailer one
The Curse of La Llorona Teaser trailer (2019)
Here is the first trailer that we will be analysing and it starts of with a slight fade in cut of the
women sat down. There are subtle flashbacks as the woman’s voice leaves an echo through
the crime scene of where the flashback takes place. The music presents itself with a lot of
bangs and crashes. For instance when the production companies come up at the very start
it works in synch with it coming just after intense dialogue. The uses of audio are really
interesting this trailer. For instance with each cry that this character gives at the back. It
plays into a door shutting or tap dripping as if it’s trying to mask but not well enough. The
music does a great job at working in synch with what's going in each shot and each title card
that keeps popping up. There's a lot of fade in and out shots. Especially when it comes to
the séance. It’s a good way to transition the prep up of each shot. One particular shot which
is noteworthy was when the shot fades into to someone lighting up a match. Another shot
that I thought worked really well with the trailer was when the camera (posing as the spiritual
entity) was quickly panning to the door in a flowing motion. This looks like it was all done
through the use of Steadicam and then sped up fast to create that floating effect. Like most
horror in terms of cinematography. There's nothing to bright put into a scene and even when
there is. There is a greyish washed out filter applied to the screen. This means when it cuts
to a change of weather it doesn’t take you out the shot/scene or the genre you are meant to
be watching. Whilst this a modern trailer. There is one minor detail to add that the last title
card features the title being read out. This used to be common in old film trailers. It would
also have someone narrating it all the way through the trailer as well. Just in case each shot
doesn’t encapsulate what they are trying to show.
Tags: Teaser, trailer,
Horror, curse of la Llorona,
film

Existing Product
Full trailer
Existing Product – Trailer Two
Get Out Official trailer 1 (2017)
The film start off unexpectedly as it goes for more of a romcom style. The light music
and the dialogue would make you think that this film is a horror. It plays off really light-
hearted and then as soon as the car hits the deer. Then the music pans into something
more deeper and darker. The title cards come up and it shows that the film is a lot
different to how it at the beginning. A different tone has now been set. There are subtle
hints of racism at the end of each shot and faint echoing screech in the background to
transition from scene to scene. Having seen the film before. I looked back at the film and
noticed that the film is edited differently to the trailer. With this trailer there's lot more
snappy shots and zooming’s. With the added effect of the music these are placed in as
jump scares and are also placed in when it deeply wants to show you something.
There's a lot echoing like there is with music in the background of trailers. The teaspoon
on the cup clinking every few seconds is an example of this. The shots are extremely
snappy and works well with the hypnosis theme that its set out to be. As the character
keep fading in and out of reality meaning each shot is played up on different speeds.
Flashes and screeches of music keeps moving the trailer in and out. A lot of action films
do this so that they keep in synch with guns being fired. Especially in the last shot when
the cast names had come up. However in this context its thumping. Overall the trailer is
shot with various different shots taking off at various different speed’s. There could be
five seconds of dialogue with no music and then quick cuts happening straight after. This
does a good job at captivating the dream state reality that he is in whilst he being
hypnotised.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfpyUB60YY
Horror, psychological,
Film, Get out

Existing Product
Sneak peak trailer
Existing Product – Trailer three
Halloween kills teaser trailer 2 (2021)
This trailer is quite simple on the shots if focuses on. It starts off showing
the pumpkin darkly lit outside. With the faint laughter coming from the
background. This is a holiday mostly for children so that’s what it
symbolises. However it makes the scene eerie and suspenseful to where
Michael Myers is. With the added narration. The use of foley is tremendous
for this scene. Michel Myers boots are seen walking towards the screen.
With the added fog with it being during the night and slow motion walking.
It does feel a little out of place for a horror film and fits more into mystery
but it’s a suspenseful build as the character goes over to pick up his mask.
Then that’s when the action starts. Because its only a teaser trailer it only
has three title cards. The whole of the rest of the trailer has many fast jump
cuts. Like it’s trying to shove everything in. In a certain amount of time. The
iconic shine noise which has been know to many Halloween fans. Plays
just on the last few seconds as the title arrives. The music in the
background works with it each fast pace shots that continues to move on.
There a thump that’s been placed in there with each continuous shot, in a
similar fashion to the ‘get out’ trailer. Whether its glass breaking or a gun
being shot it works in synch with the background music.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdaVjr_mq0s
Horror, Halloween,
Michael Myers, Coming
soon, film

Existing Product
Full trailer
Existing Product – Trailer four
Shaun of the dead Trailer one (2004)
In a similar way to how I mentioned about the first trailer having a little narration. This one
starts with it straight away. Because the film is a zombie film. It sets up automatically as if
Shaun is zombie and then panning the camera to show that he’s not. Rather like the film.
The trailer has the set up to show that Shaun lives a normal life just like everyone else.
The music is light-hearted and joyful to contrast the zombie apocalypse yet to come.
Whilst its featured in the movie. There is the camera shots where he's getting ready for
work. A lot of these are the zooming in and out effects with added SFX to put the
emphasise on how quick the camera is moving. Then when the normality of day to day is
over. The outbreak is shown through news reports. Using bad signal transmissions to
transition from report to report of the zombie incidents taking place. There's also a lot of
camera swipe transitions to move you from various different shots. There's three different
emotions that this trailer is trying to convey throughout. It starts of light-hearted, normal
and funny. Then moves onto the dark apocalyptic style. Now knowing that there zombies
in the film. It has more of action theme to it through the use of music and how fast paced
each shot is. It illustrates their plan of survival. When the title comes up. A zombie’s hand
pops up from the logo. Something which was created for the sole purpose of this trailer.
After the title. It cuts to a humorous scene where the two characters sing to a zombie.
Ending the trailer on a more witty tone to display that it is a comedy film you are watching
and shouldn’t be mistaken for anything else. Furthermore the trailer ends with a
orchestral British anthem being played to show further where the film is being set. The
fact it's set in England is one big theme in the film. So this a clever way of displaying it
here at the very end.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIfcaZ4pC-4
Horror, Comedy, zombies,
Simon Pegg, nick frost,
Shaun of the dead, film

Research Analysis - Trailer
What aspects of the research will you include will you include within your work?
The main aspect I would like to include with my trailer is the tonal shift that is set out during the ‘Shaun of
dead’ trailer. Perhaps just at once because that keeps transitioning from horror to comedy. Doing it once would
just be enough. It lets the audience know that this film is set out to be very different in terms of mood and you
almost need to confuse the audience on whether or not they find it funny or creepy. Another aspect from my
research that I would like to include in my trailer is the uses of snappy shots. Now this is going to require a lot
of editing but once done will look really good. I was looking more towards ‘get out’ style of doing it. Through the
fast pacing. It then stops and there’s dialogue. Then resumes back to fast paced shots. You can tell that the
film is a psychological thriller because the speed of some shots in comparison to others is unnatural. Whether
the screeches would be too much for my trailer being horror comedy. I don't know but I would like to include
this small aspect too. I would also if possible like to recreate some shots that are similar to evil dead running
through a forest shot. This was seen in the first trailer that I researched. When the camera ran toward the door
at fast pace. This was done by using a Steadicam and I know they have the equipment at college but because
of covid whether its possibility of me being able to use it. I don’t know. Another aspect that I would like to use in
my trailer that is taken from this research is to film some shots that were similar to the preparation ones in the
first trailer. I feel like this was good build up to each shot. Having an action and then have it fade into darkness.
Then having that shot on the repeat for probably around 15 seconds. So that I builds up the suspense but it
doesn’t drag on for too long.

Research Analysis - Trailer
What common features do the researched products have?
Whilst many features couldn’t be found initially. It can be seen with how the trailers are structured.
The beat of each shot continuously goes from fast to slow and this often used in horror trailers to
build up the tension. The rapid movements in notes makes the music unnerving. ‘Shaun of the
dead’ and ‘get out’ also have a similar aspects. Despite being in such opposite direction when it
comes to reviewing the films as a whole. There's horror behind both of them but very different
situations. The trailers fall into the false starts at the beginning. Having it set up differently then what
it is expected. ‘Shaun of the dead’ is more excusable. It stay’s in the narrative but it does step out of
the genre a little by making it more serious then expected. ‘Get out’ does something similar but
does it the other way around. It sets it up to be a romcom with the light hearted music in the
background and then as soon as there is conflict. The tone shift to become a lot more darker. There
is also the connection of narration. This is a clear way of the presenting the trailer. It’s old fashioned
and traditional. However trailer two and three don’t have this as they are a lot more serious in tone
when put in comparison to ‘Shaun of the dead’ but with ‘Curse of La Llorona’ it looks odd because it
almost takes you of the tone of the film. The whole trailer draws you in and whilst the narration is
only used to present the trailer. Its oddly presented with it being placed in there. Another common
feature that I had found from researching these trailers is the use of coley. The music isn’t too
dominating when it comes to it but it still there to present the motif it doing for.

Comparing IT chapter two trailer
with Lights Out trailer
IT Chapter two trailer Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUopiAYdRg
Lights Out trailer Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LiKKFZyhRU
Having watched both. The main difference that I was able to come up with straight way was
the difference in pacing. The ‘IT’ trailer because it’s a teaser trailers features a small clip of a
woman meeting an old woman and finding the true evil there. It relies almost on the dialogue
and what's happening in that scenes. As opposed to a montage of clips like most trailers do.
The trailer point out the antagonist and as soon as the horror or conflict is about to begin.
That’s when each shot pops up. Its build up from tension. This is brough on from the music
and the connection you have just build with these two characters in this clip. That you
wouldn’t get from a series of clips. Another element that the ‘IT’ trailer includes is editing
through the production titles. The usual subtle blue ‘warner bros’ tone has been a given a
greenish tone to connotate the main colour scheme of the film and most obviously had a red
balloon flying beside it to represent Pennywise. Because of the short clip that’s its included on
the teaser trailer there isn’t much use of background music. Through almost the entire clip in
the trailer relies on foley sound through the uses of the vinyl player and the light out trailer
does the same at the beginning. Though it sadly ruined with an unnecessary thumping sound
in order to create a jump scare. In the short montage of clips that do play at the end without
building too much of a connection of the film itself. There are many parrels that have been
edited. Such as the gang of kids and then the next shot of them being adults. There's
moments like that placed in here to show the audience that these are still the same people.
Also like a lot of trailers. The beat of the music work in with the beat of the trailer. Tapping or
clapping that’s in the trailer works in synch with music. Its not only what's happening in the
shot that works in sync with the music but its also the audio coming from Pennywise. The
laughter works in synch with music like it’s part of the rhythm and then features the laughter
at the end to close off when there’s no music. One notable similarity between the two trailers
though is the uses of flashes. Though its more apparent and holds more contextual meaning
in the lights out trailer because the enemy is seen in the dark. Both trailers hold the rhythm of
sound and then flashes.
Horror, lights out, it,
pennywise the clown,
Coming soon, film

Statistical analysis into other
filmmaking and analytics
In order to gain a bit more perspective from a statical view, I shall be looking at the
YouTube channel ‘Buzzfeed unsolved’. I have picked this particular choice because
whilst a lot of it is hand held on camera. There is also some detailed analysis into
historical analysis. However these type of videos are almost catered to everyone
even those who don’t like horror because they are presented in a very informal
jokey manner. Meaning that its because aim isn’t to scare the audience but merely
entertain and make sure that the audience become more knowledgeable on
historical events. Now what had to be taken into account is that the show was
successful before it even came out due to being made my BuzzFeed and could be
counted as more of a spin-off. Buzzfeed was founded in 2006 and Buzzfeed
unsolved first video was made ten years later. Meaning that they already were
established well with ana audience. Having a look at social blade we can see the
estimated earning that the channel gets. From it ranging today from being £136-
£2.2K of estimated earnings. As seen from the graphs on the right hand side whilst
the records change drastically within each month. The highest demand dis
between September and November. Possibly due tot the fact that this is around
Halloween time in which there is a higher demand for scary content. So the people
who didn't like horror would come here and that would naturally push the
viewership up. What really brings this type of audience is the believability that it is
all real. Some haunted places they have been to they have left in terror. As
opposed to their usual jokey demeanour and stuff like night vision being used
show how technical they can be with their cameras and equipment but you know
that none of it’s fake because it’s not like there's a haunting every week when they
go to some placed haunted. Their reactions when something scary is happening is
relatable to how a viewer would react. Which is why I think so many people enjoy
their content.
Social Blade: https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/buzzfeedunsolvednetwork
YouTube Channel: Buzzfeed Unsolved
Tags: BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed unsolved, Mysteries,
YouTube statistics, viewing figures, audience.

Movie posters:
Briefly before I move onto looking at other posters. I will be covering a
variety of different posters which I cover to be the best. This will
extended from official to fan art posters. The reason that I have put
these on here is because its showing that I am keeping an open mind
and its not time consuming to be gathering up the designs. This will be
looking at many different poster ranging from minimalistic to complex.
With different colours that are pointed to different genres. This will
show that I am being open to different genres. This will play a perfect
part to researching existing posters. I have tried to keep the posters
that I have looked as different as possible. So that I am covering all
fields that are needed during my research. They can be different from
the colour and layout. Each poster without even having to analyse
them. Shows the connotation and the meaning behind them. For
example the poster shown on the right hand side for the film
‘interlinked’ shows that the film is a psychological and deals with
possessions throughout the film. Possession is a term which often used
in horror for example films like ‘the exoticist’ and ‘the prodigy’ but
because this film isn’t a horror it shows it in a way that doesn’t look like
a horror film and stick with the colour themes of the films. Overall this
will be expanding my mind to most posters and looking at variety of
posters that extend outside that genre.
Tags: posters, film, art,
design, graphic design,
horror

Movie poster mood board
My favourite posters which I consider to be exceeding any of my expectations

Existing Product
Poster one – The Descent (2005)
This is the first poster that I will be looking at which is the film ‘the descent’. The
important word that can be used to describe this poster is symbolism. This looks
like a group of people positioned in awkward places. When really if caught brief
it will look like the outline of a skull’s face. This is done through the clever
positioning of the arms and how the lighting is glowing behind them. They are
gathering around the position of the head then the shoes are meant to look like
the teeth. The pure terror captivated upon the women's face to as she is
screaming in blood curling terror. This makes this character the primary
character of the poster as the rest of the faces are obscured by the position that
they are in. The layout of the poster has been given unique style in a similar
sense that the art is very different. The title card which often positioned at the
bottom or in line to the title. That can be seen going around the poster. The
colour scheme of title card and the production companies matches the main
colour scheme of the poster. The burnt out yellow glow gives the poster a
grunge type look. The white glow that can be seen in the background of the
centre piece image. The title, tagline and review. Illustrate a difference between
the two choice of colours. Another design element which is shown by the orange
glow is the outline of it around the white titles and taglines. This illustrates how
bright it is. I think the main emotion that the audience can gather from this is
feeling claustrophobic to what's happening in the image. It’s clear that the
women doesn’t want to be there. She is getting grabbed either side other and is
being pulled down to the fade away in the light. This poster is a representation
of death and the fear of being pulled towards it in such a painful way.
Official poster

Existing Product
Poster two – Scream 4 (2011)
The next movie poster we will be taking a look at is a poster for the scream film’s.
now in a similar sense to the previous one. This poster focuses of minimalism and
image trickery. There not a lot that’s going on in the poster with it looking like a teaser
poster but what is there when deeply analysed hides many different connotations and
elements that aim towards the character of what Ghostface is really like. The main
image is the face of Ghostface and through use if photoshop they have stretched his
face longer and made it in a similar shape to a knife. This can be notified that it is
trying to be a blade of a knife on the poster through the glare of how shiny it is on the
bottom of the knife. This also links and connotes the sharp kitchen knife which
Ghostface uses. Its his signature weapon. So if a fan of a the movies you’ll be able to
see this connection. The background has been kept black ideally so that it can
contrast the white of Ghostface. Plus not mention the colour of the dress robe that he
wears is black. So it makes the most sense. The font face has been kept simple as
simple and original fonts work the best. Making them really the most iconic. This can
been seen the Halloween’s films where the font is very basic but effective. However
there have been a few design elements added. With the four placed in the title of the
film to show what number the film is. The ‘m’ has also been given a sharp edge at the
bottom which makes it look similar to the main image of the poster. The three primary
colours that this poster has to offer is white, black and most importantly red. With red
being a symbolised colour for blood. It connotes to the knife. Giving a even more
sinister meaning once the poster has been analysed. One element that makes this
poster different to a lot poster and quite possibly because it is a teaser poster. Its not
loaded with a load of production companies/title card. This makes you focus on
nothing more than the main centre piece of the image.
Official poster

Existing Product
Poster three – The Shining (1980)
I’m not just looking official posters. I shall also be looking at the art posters
that fans made because there is a level of detail put into all of the and
they are very admirable. Here we shall be taking look at Stanley Kubrick’s
the shining. No date is present here because the film is way past its
release and is purely meant for entertainment purpose. Not promotional
purpose. Unlike the other posters. This one has been illustrated by
someone and isn’t a just collection of images. Red, black and white like
the previous poster are the three primary colours that can be seen on this
poster. The carpet originally in the film was orange but has been altered in
order for it to have a connection to the jacket. Red outline can also be
seen going around the character. There is a black and white spiral pattern
behind it. Added with the sinister smile that he is giving. This shows that
the character is unbalanced and is in a world of his own. The main title of
the film secretly connotes to the 1930’s which is a big plot point in the film
through the way that the title is designed. There is a also a typewriter
present that adds to the unhinged character that Jack Nicholson is
because the words that are presented on the sheets are same word
repeated over and over. The poster itself is trying to replicate something
which can be seen in the 1930’s. The simplicity of the black border edge
going around the poster. The shadowing is another important feature that
has to be added when analysing this poster. The boy on his bike is going
across the corridor but because the room is dimly lit. The place of very
he's going looks every sinister and ominous.
Fan-art poster

Existing Product
Poster four - The Evil dead (1981)
For this poster I have chosen another poster that is a fan one. This I saw briefly so
over social media and thought that I really wanted to analyse it. The detail for this
is brilliant. The most notable feature is the trees and the ominous tone that the
trees send as they are getting further away from the poster. The trees are there to
symbolise the veins of the hand that is popping out of the ground. They are
throbbing and look unnatural rather like a zombies. There is a level of detail put to
the pieces of ground that are flying around the poster as the pops out of it. Orange
is also placed among one of its primary colours because the sunset and the times
of the day being the parts of the film when the zombies start attacking. When
taking a closer inspection what can be seen is a house sat within the woods. This
is in fact the cabin where most of the terror is happening and is the only location
that is seen in the film. Apart from the interior of the house. When in even close
inspection a person can be seen from the distance in front of the house with cross
dug into the ground. This is the scene in the film where buries his wife after she
has turned into a zombie. Whilst menace is a big emotion that can be taken from
inspecting this poster. The most important one is loneliness. The character is
singular and by himself apart from the undead hand. This is at close look is a
representation of how the main character ‘Ash’ is the last survivor in the film. The
poster has been given a slightly scuffed look to it to symbolise that this is meant to
be a vintage poster. Whilst there is no creases or paper wrinkles. The hand has
been scuffed slightly with the top and side section of the fingers. This shows the
ageing and could also show how hand been damaged from coming underground.
The black and the white colours like the other posters I have looked compliment
each other nicely.
Fan-art poster

Research Analysis - Poster
The most common feature I had found when researching into my poster was it’s use of colours. Having black and
white sets the poster for a more formal and minimal approach. Less means more and the more space that is
featured on the poster. The most eye catching it can be to certain extent. The way the posters has been
photoshopped so that it gives the image more than one meaning is another creative technique that I found in
these posters. With the scream poster it has the face of the mask but has been created to look like the end of a
sharp knife. For the descent poster it’s a group of women laid out in various awkward positions to make the
outline of a skull. This can make the audience do a double take or leave the poster with their own interpretation.
Another common feature that I had picked up on whilst looking a these posters and a lot of horror posters do it.
With the exception of the scream 4 poster. Which is not have the main antagonist on the poster or at least not
have them for malicious intent. They aren’t in the descent poster. Jack’s character in ‘the shining’ one however
doesn’t look to be as sinister of a character then he does in the film and then in the evil dead poster. We only see
the zombie’s hand which if you’ve not seen the film could be the hand of anyone. This is an important detail to
add because horror film posters do have the main antagonist there killing someone. That lessens the fear factor
unlike these other posters because there's no wonder or imagination put into the thought of what's going to
happen next or who is that character. The poster is almost revealing it there and then. Overall whilst I couldn’t find
a lot of common features that these posters share. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It shows how unique each
style of poster is and shows the range each different film sets out to have.

Research Analysis - Poster
What aspects of the research will you include within your work?
The main aspect I will take from these posters is the use of photo trickery that was seen in all of them apart from
the shinning one. I am going to use this method for my teaser poster for it will be hinting something that will be
giving off more meaning later. The preferable image of what I’m going to use is Clifford's tower because that’s
where the main key conflict occurs. As for what I’m going do with it yet I’m not quite sure. I would also like to the
keep the primary colour to a simple black and white. Having these colours makes the images and anything that is
placed onto the poster stand out well. I don’t want my posters to be very clean either. Whilst they have to be
ordered well by design. I want them to have a grunge look to them that is similar to poster one and poster four
that I had researched. Another aspect that I would like to take from my research is it’s uses of red. Whether it’s the
carpet in the shining or its in the text of the ‘Scream 4’ poster. It has been placed for a reason. The colour holds
meaning to the subject that it is latched onto. I also want to design my billing block and production companies in
a similar way that ‘the descent’ film posters has. To have it going around the poster as opposed to it being pilled
up at the bottom. The image tends to be only thing an artist's mind concentrates on when creating a poster and
whilst I consider it to be a an important aspect. You do need to be as creative as possible with every little detail
that is placed onto the poster. The main image of the poster is the most important part to focus on as that’s the
main selling point however fans or people with the causal eye always notice small minor details. It’s almost like a
border going across the poster. So if I could give context for what it is whether it’s through symbolism that’s
featured in the film or something else. Then that’s great creative push for my poster.

Skull Trickery
As you can see from these posters up above. They use the
form of hiding a skeleton subject by using the
objects/people that are in the poster. This shows true
menace and shows that it is subjective to just a few people
because only a few people can see it rather like evil itself
because not everyone is evil. The skull isn’t fully pushed into
the posters So that you can recognise it straight away. You
notice at second glance. With the poster art being rather
clever because its fooled the audience into something that’s
not even there.
Whilst the one on my looks very good. When it will
come to making mine. I want it to be less obvious
and a bit mor incognito. Like the Django and the
descent one towards the top. It shows of the
characters making the pattern but its not all to clear.
Whilst I haven’t got a fully fleshed out idea as what I
am going to do with it. I will be using Clifford's tower
as that’s where the main conflict happens and it’s the
subject of the story.

Christopher Shy style
Christopher Shy is a freelance fantasy and
science fiction digital artist. Starting off as a
making the artwork for the dungeons and
dragons board games. He transfer these art
skills and placed them into other movies
which varied on different genres. His posters
aren’t necessarily clean and that good
because everything has been placed in
order. Which is good because it makes
everything in the poster fit. He works on
disorientate images. They aren’t always fully
clear and cover the main subject to be a
silhouette of some sort. This is often has a
very small image and then a bunch of
different things happening around the
centre. The colours aren’t very bold to. They
are kept in a dull and minimalistic tone
which is good because this also darkens the
images too. The colours are almost splatter
giving off this uneasy vision effect. The main
two words that can describe his art is dark
fantasy. Something that’s there but it is
slightly fades. They are almost like mud
splatters the way that they are thrown
around the poster.

Existing Product
Magazine One -
Front page
In terms of primary colours, this magazine has an interesting set because isn’t any
really. Whilst you can argue that read and white are. They don’t match the main
cover image. However it does have a lot of magazine details. There’s the bar code
of course that is seen on every product. Then on the right hand side of the
magazine. You have the cover line where it explores the rest of the articles that
will be in the magazine. The mast head (title) is seen on the back of the image.
Behind the main image like a lot of magazine do. This is done because they don’t
want him getting in the way of image and the focus is completely on the selling the
film not the magazine company. The selling line is also featured just underneath
the mast head. The strap line is covered on the bottom that has more cover lines
to it. The plug is the free poster at the top of magazine. This is placed here to
convince the reader to buy the magazine because of additional stuff.
Double age spread
The double page spread has more control when it comes to the colours that it is
trying to show. Bronze being a colour that connotes to the weaponry that is shown
in the film. This is highlighted through the headline and the drop capitals of each
article. The subheading is provided just above the headline and is made to stand
out with all the empty white space that is provided just behind it. Whilst no
professional photography has been took in relation to the magazine. They have
kept to the minimalistic standard. They haven’t filled the article with images. They
have kept to a primary image that goes across the whole page and then a
secondary image. Just to tease the reader further.

Existing Product
Magazine Two -
Front page
This magazine focuses a lot on the modelling that is need for the photography.
Instead of using images from the film. The actors/actress have modelled for this
film because they are classified as good looking by a large selection of people.
They are posing very seriously and this alone tells you that the film isn’t a light-
hearted one. The main primary colours that are being used are red and white.
The red connotates to the titles. With the words ‘Twilight’ and ‘Entertainment’
being highlighted. In terms of Magazine details there isn’t a lot to pickup here.
You have your headline and your subheading just underneath it. Along with
quotes either side of the actor in different colours of black and white possibly
connotating to the fact that they are on different sides. The coverlines are hidden
on the top left corner covering an over section of the title of the magazine. Yellow
is also a colour that is used to highlight the words that the magazine want to
stand out. For instance the title of the movie ‘new moon’ is highlighted there
because it’s what's promoting the main article.
Double age spread
This photography is black and white illustrating the serious dark tone that the film
is willing to take. There isn’t any flashy colours. They have tried to keep the
whole page as minimal as possible. The article font is stylised to give it this old
fashioned look. The image caption can be seen placed above the stand-first. The
first section has the font in blue to highlight that it’s a small opening just before
the article. This separates itself from the rest of the article without any spacing.

Existing Product
Magazine Three -
Front page
This front cover works as a poster with the way that the colours of text are lit up. Whilst
the image in black and white. The blood dripping behind the character and on the side
of the magazine nicely contrast the darkness of the image. There are subtle shades of
orange, yellow and purple. You can tell this is a old magazine and is directly positioned
at a film that is from the hammer house series. Whilst it has a horror film as it’s cover
image. It get away with not sticking to one or two primary colours. Having said that the
magazine does look outdated in this style format and would bot be seen today.
Magazines today focus on mostly three colours. Black, white and red. Though of course
it depends on the image that’s on the cover. One way they have tried to sell each
coverline that’s featured on the front is by including the exclamation marks to add
empathise to the importance of the magazine. The font for the coverline that is featured
at the top is what caught my attention immediately because it has a comic book like
font. As if its looking back at these classic hammer house horror films as if they aren’t
as scary as the horror we have today. If it was a modern day film that was being
promoted. There would be no uses of yellow, purple and orange. This is far from a bad
magazine design. It’s just outdated.
Double age spread
This double page spread has been kept to a very basic design. There isn’t a lot that
stands out apart from how noticeably the image is in contrast to the text. With it almost
taking up the two pages and then having the article indented up towards the left hand
side. The font has also been kept to a minimal design which is what is needed in order
to not take your attention away from the main image. It keeps to a simple black and
white format for its two primary colours which contrasts to the front cover.

Research analysis - Magazine
In a similar sense to the trailers. There isn’t many common features. The three of them are unique and
show differences between them. However there are little differences that can be pointed out. For example
the uses of covering up the title of the magazine for the two covers. This is because people will know what
this magazine is called. The main thing about the magazine is not promoting the magazine itself but
promoting the films or features that will appear in there them. For the empire example the image is
covering the title. Illustrating that the photography is key here and they are trying to that the
character/object is the most important part because it’s the main article. The first two magazines are a like
because of how different they are to the third. This is from the time periods and how the old thr third one.
For the ‘Videoscope’ magazine the colours stand out more and they are very bold but with the modern
one they focus more on minimalistic photography that looks cool. The modern ones are minimal in the
colour of the text but the third magazine almost looks like it as actually relying on the colours. So that it
matches the design of the magazine. Overall these magazines don't have many common features. They
include all the basic connotations that add up making it look like a magazine but I wanted to look at
magazines that explored films in different genres. This shows a whole different range. Seeing the patterns
that are kept in horror magazines is useful but its also dependent on the film not the genre. If ‘videoscope’
was to promote more gory films such as ‘hostel’ and ‘saw’. It would be showing off a darker minimal
approach like the first two by showing off the colours.

Research Analysis - Magazine
What aspects of the research will you include within your work?
The main aspect that I will include in my magazine after researching these existing ones is the professional
photography that was taken for magazine two. I feel like this is definitely a requirement as the imagery is a lot
better than it is on the first product. The models have dressed so that they fit well into the font style and it’s what
should be worn. Filters have also been applied. So that text overlays or anything else can go over it. It makes
sense for the colours to match. With the empire magazine there was splashes of red, green, black, bronze and
white. Its just not what I’m particularly looking for. Another aspect that I would like to include from my research is
to have a similar title design to the magazine from the third magazine. I didn't want it to look flat I want it to be
stretched out upon the top section of the page. I thought this was a nice design element when I look at it and will
work well with the background image being over it. The biggest and only aspect I could see left that I want to do
something similar with is colour connotations. Whilst this should be expected anyway. I don’t want to do it just for
the design. Like the front cover of the first magazine I looked at for example. Certain sections were highlighted in
bronze to represent the banners that they were on the front page of the magazine but the reason they were
specifically bronze is because that’s the primary colour of the film. With bronze often being associated and
connotating to weapons. Like swords. The one he is holding on the front cover. Other than that there isn't many
other aspects that I would take away from this research because of these magazines are different in their on way
and they work well for the film they are promoting but it wouldn’t work with mine.

DVD Analysis meanings
t
Image and title can be
seen on the spine of the
DVD to draw people in
Bonus
features
Review quote
Review quote: often
comes from
newspapers. Makes
the reader think
they are missing out
Teaser images
Billing block and credits
Barcode: Every selling product
has one
Title: simple and
minimal yet
affective. Yet
effective on
delivering
message
Review
DVD company
Synopsis: informs
the viewers what
the product is about
Highlighting the
importance of the
producer with
other films that he
has done.
Important selling
point.
Contrast
between
feeling happy
and feeling
scared.
Though they
are actually
sinister too
Age rating
Production
companies
DVD aspect ratio
Shows what format the film has
to be in

Social classes in the 80’s
 The 1980’s entered the strain of the deep recession for all working class individuals.
Manuel jobs were hitting an all time low and unemployment rising due to factories
being shut down. This was caused by the introduction of Margret thatcher's first
conservative party. The labour party had moved dramatically towards the left. Trade
unions were seeking to resist this government this government's policy which had
been amplified with miners strikes that happened in 1984 and 1985. This lead to a
higher rise of unemployment. This was often named as being ‘on the dole’ with a lot
citizens from the UK living on benefits and no other work experience. This made the
term ‘baby boomers’ more apparent in the late 1980’s. Due to the rise of
unemployment in the earlier 80’s in comparison to the rise of factories and
employment needed in the late 80’s. This put in a more severe and noticeable
difference between the social classes that was not placed there before.

Things to Look at:
Genre:
I shall be releasing the promotional material for an excerpt of a book that I am making. The
genre of this book is a comedic horror detective series. It juggles the three genres in which
it does not look too much like spoof and takes itself seriously. I was inspired by the works
of the Kingsman series. Set to look like a spy series but it is taking itself seriously with the
comedy thrown in and does not hold to much correlation to the James Bond stereotypes
that a thrown in which look rather cheap. So, in short. It’s a detective comedic horror series
which has been translated from a book I’m making to screen.
Product’s Purpose:
My product’s sole purpose is to simply entertain the audience. Whilst the promotional stuff
is the more technical aspects in why I want to apply to my FMP. Showing my audience all
the different various ways and means you can sell your product. I want them to appreciate
all the different ways and means that goes into selling a film. In terms of entertainment. I
want the audience to feel invested in the characters, but they won’t be seeing much of this
because I’m only releasing a small montage.

Origins of Horror
George Melies was a French filmmaker was the first pioneer into creating short horror films in the late in
1890’s. He was compared to as a magician because of the many practical tricks that he had pulled for the
film. These films were around two - three minutes. Comedic horror started off pretty early by this
filmmaker because horror was a new concept and had be transitioned in from the other light-hearted
films’ starting of in 1896’s French film ‘Une Nuit terrible.’ The alien supernatural side came about in 1897’s
‘the x ray fiend’ when the photographer George Albert smith created a video of moving Skelton. Two
years after the x-ray invented. Janise and Spanish cultures also experimented with this genre. Using their
own backgrounds and beliefs in a historical sense and finding the supernatural beliefs that are beyond
that. It can also be briefly noted that the uses of optical illusions and practical effects were more
prominent during this time because they didn’t have the technology of CGI. It was until 1912’s ‘Le
Chevalier Des Neigh’ in which the special effect became lot more advanced. Using special effects which
included Stage machinery, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, superimpositions and dissolves. In the 1913
short film ‘der student von prag’ introduces the uses of a Doppelganger. And idea that had carried off and
expanded into different genres. This was created through using a mirror double. However a lot of these
films have been lost due to storage and lack of care. Due to these films being silent they had use their
intuitive when it came to using special effects. Turning characters into skeletons, levitating heads and
making people disappear were just some examples. Ghostly images and fading in/out shots were often
used through double exposure. The trick of illusions that can be captured on camera and not on stage
where captured by accident when some film that Melies took came out looking. Taking a video where the
men turned into women, children turned into a horses and an omnibus full of workers that changed into a
hearse. The footage was ruined but was what gave him the idea of how powerful editing can be. This was
what created the start of trick films .

Early Horror films
One major trend that was found in the 1920’s with early horror films are the uses of German
expressionism. This was shown through Robert Wiene’s ‘cabinet of dr. Caligari.’ The setting of the
film is canvas backdrops that have been weirdly disoriented. The walls have been cut out and the
streets are made narrow. Each scenes setting looks like an optical illusion making the film the first
psychological horror which was unintentional. Many people have stated it to be ‘the first true horror
film’ and is often regarded as a pre-cursor to arthouse films (artistic films that have been taken
seriously). Through its introduction to twist endings and unreliable narrator to the language of
narrative film. This film caused a massive influence on American cinema and many different other
horror to come. Paul Leni trying to captivate the same style through showing this in his 1924’s
psyche film ‘Waxworks’ He said “I have tried to create sets so stylized that they evidence no idea of
reality." Another film that has been a massive impact on cinematic horror history is the ’Nosferatu’
(the first vampire themed film). It’s well remembered for it’s haunting imagery and expressive uses
of shadows. Any of the main themes that German expressionism covers is madness and insanity.
This appears when delving into the natural human psyche. Deconstructing it bit by bit. This leaves a
lot of room for character development. Making the character relatively the same in a large portion
of the film or have this character go through so much that he/she features begin to change.
‘waxworks was an anthology films that were ahead of it’s time. The film goes through a variety of
different genres including fantasy, adventure and historical elements too. Being the perfect mixture
of different genres. This was the last serious expressionist film before the director moved onto the
late silent era.

How Horror has evolved
During this period of time before the 1930’s. Horror was not seen as a horror but a
melodrama through it’s heavy use of tense plots. Then in 1923 universal pictures started
releasing a string of many different monster movies that gave the main antagonist more
depth. These stories would often be adapted from the books and would bring in the more
emotive antagonists. Evil characters that have recognisable flaws and can almost relate to the
audience. Appearing very human they are singled out by society through deformity. These
characters included Gwynplaine, Quasimodo, and The Phantom. The first piece of evidence
that can be found that links into comedy being placed into horror is Paul Leni’s ‘the cat and
the canary’, which was inspired by Broadway plays in the 1920’s. the blend of expressionism
with humour made this Hitchcock's inspiration when growing up. 1926’s ‘the magician’
brough in the element of the crazy doctor and 1928 was the first all-talking film in horror
history. So the development of horror films was excelling fast. Because this was the first
horror film with sound it was more of an experiment. Using the howling of the wind, creepy
organ music and creaky doors. However it had received many negative film with the New
York times reporting that it was so bad that it was ‘almost suicidal’. This period of history in
the 1920’s also brought in the subject of not only fiction but fact. The Witches or Witchcraft
Through the Ages is a documentary styled short film. Looking at historical records but
blending in the fact and fantasy elements. Making the documentary educational but
magnifying the horror elements so that it was still enjoyable and presented in a way that the
film was still enjoyable.

Horror films in the 19- 30’s, 40’s
The empathise of gothic horror had exceled by the 1930’s period, becoming the golden age of classical monsters.
Bringing in many different characters including Dracula, Frankenstein, the invisible man and the mummy. These
characters crossed over in films being in the same cinematic universe. Being classified as the ‘Universal classical
monsters’ series. Creating many different sequels and bringing the antagonists to go against each other to see
who's more powerful in order to satisfy the fan's who compare them in real life debates. Something that wouldn’t
be done until the 1990’s with ‘Freddie vs Jason’ the films were often referred to as ‘the monster golden era’ with
the films being produced by Universal Pictures. It was in 1931 when the film ‘Dracula’ was released and was
adapted from the novel. It was marked “the true beginning of the horror film as a distinct genre and the Vampire
movie as its most popular subgenre.“ with it being well received from many critics through its popular casting
choices. Due to a Spanish version that was using the same sets and being filmed at the same time. Thy though
practically about having that project filmed at night and their project filmed during the day. The national film
registry quoted in 2015 that the film was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant“. Through cinema
showings. Another way that films were viewed were through double features. Showing more than one screening
in one setting. In terms of visual effects a noteworthy film that deserves a mention is the invisible man (1993). In
order to again the look that was so iconic it was done though wires when he had no clothes on but when he had
his iconic suit on the effect they looked at was shooting him with his black suit and a black background. Then
combing the shot with a location shot that took place using a matte process. Following this was another
noteworthy year in 1935 due to the release of ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and the first werewolf movie that was
followed a few months after. ‘Werewolf of London’. Due to horror slowly dying out because of the gruesome
horror film ‘the raven’. The 1940’s experimented a lot ore with comedic horror films. Examples of such were ‘the
invisible woman’ and ‘Abbot and Costello meets Frankenstein’ and saw an early introduction to B-movies that
were produced by Val Lewton

Horror films in the 19- 50’s, 60’s
The tone of the films holding gothic horror had now evolved and developed into what would be the customs in
the future. Dealing with alien invasions and deadly mutation to people, plant’s etc. horror films were starting to
look more like a prediction of what people in this time period. Thought the future would look like. Science fiction
became huge element of horror in the 1950’s . Looking at films like ‘the blob’ and Invasion of the body snatchers
(1956). It dealt with the issues of humanity vs a higher life form. Along with this came the introduction to 3-D
effects in cinema and the start of Vincent Price’s career where he would be labelled ‘king of 3-D’. Uses of
cinematic gimmicks were introduced as well. William Castle, being considered the king of gimmicks. Had fake
nurses outside the theatre in case of medical support and certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy to each
member of the audience in case anyone would happen to die of fright from watching his film ‘Macabre’ (1959).
1950’s also itself kickstart the giant creature trend which features a group of people struggling to attack one giant
one. This can be seen through examples such as ‘Godzilla’ (1955) and ‘Tarantula’ (1955). The hammer house horror
film was introduced a swell which was the first series of horror films set in colour. Many of theses were remakes
but the introduction of colour now meant that the gore was more noticeable. Horror had also reached a level of
popularity where it was now being featured on the TV through programmes such as ‘The twilight zone’ (1959-
1964) and ‘Alfred Hitchcock presents’ (1955-1965)
The introduction of the 1960’s ‘Psycho’ also shows the advanced sub genre of slasher films
coming into the era. Many of the other concepted evolved around in the 1960’s. George
Romero’s ‘Night of the living dead’ (1968). So the introduction of zombies and Jack Clayton the
innocent (1961) introduced the world to the paranormal.

Trends
 80’s creature films
Through out the majority of the 80’s there was a huge rise in creature films. This was a trend that proved to
be successful with films such as ‘gremlins’ and ‘an American werewolf in London’.
 90’s slasher’s films
In the 90’s there was a high success rate in slasher films. For example scream and final destination. The
problem with these ones is they started to get stale towards the end of making them. This is when acting for
the films got a lot worse and stereotypes were starting to be placed on horror because of how comedic it was
 10’s paranormal films
Another successful series of films was the paranormal. The films held a high regard for franchise and seen as a
majority of them were based off true stories. This made them even more frightening. The actor/actresses that
were getting picked for the roles weren’t regarded as bad. The effect were more up date despite some films
not doing so great.
- These are a few trends that I had picked up over the years of horror films. I feel like that through the circle.
Horror has developed. Through the 90’s period even though there was still great films being released it had
dipped. But in recent years horror has got a lot more recognition than what it used to. The bad image will
always be there for the films that weren’t as successful but the films like ‘the conjuring’ or ‘insidious’ series
that have great acting and great effect make people proud to watch horror films and are glad that the
franchise is still going today.

Skills Audit
I have gained a variety of different skills over the course of my project since the start of September. Ranging
from many different softwares including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Garage band and Adobe after effects. Team
work is one attribute that I consider myself to be highly good at but throughout the most of it I’m better at
directing and giving out various tips on how I want this shot. This being my own project. That’s a good skill to
have. Most of my skills however lie with Photoshop and considering that it was software I had never used
before until I came to college. I think my skills have exceeded and my passion for it has definitely uplifted my
motivation to try to fix any problem that might occur along the way. Video editing is another skill which I have
gained a lot of knowledge over. Especially this year. Feeling a lot more independent and left on my own when
trying to edit a video. Though Photoshop is still more my area. I think I have exceeded in both areas. I don’t do
a lot of film work but from what I have done I have picked up a few things over the years. I think in the same
way that you can create anything with photoshop. You can create anything with a camera and that’s always
been something that I have had a keen focus on. Time management is a big focus that I need to work on. Last
year was ok but this year has been a bit dodgy with everything that has been going on and with that I haven’t
had a proper schedule that I could focus on. I think one element that does need improving is my need to
better. I’ll accept feedback and critical comments that are aimed towards my work because that’s the best
thing for it to look better as a final product. However it’s the motivation to do that after because there's
certain thing’s I have done in a way that I wanted it. Something that links into that, that I am good at is
communication. Through the thoughts of other people are the tips they are willing to give along the way. I feel
like that is hugely beneficial and talking through it with other people is something I enjoy very much.

Genre cycle
 Horror has gone through many different genre cycle in history. The most common modern day
one is zombie films. Zombies work in horror because it’s about spreading dieses and is
something that could actually happen. Perhaps not in a cannibal sense but is still something
that bring fear into other peoples minds.
 Another cycle of horror which is the one that is used perhaps the most is the paranormal. When
looking at films such as the paranormal activity or insidious. They have clever ways for making
the films scary because of how real they feel. With the ‘paranormal activity’ films it’s the camera
being placed in the movie. With insidious it’s the ear screening violin music that feel unnatural
to the scene and feel like it shouldn’t be there.
 Sci-fi plays a part into horror’s history too. Looking at films such as ‘alien’, ‘the thing’ or
‘Frankenstein’. All three of these link to science whether is concentrating on the practical work if
its actually going up to space. This creates the effect that a lot can be done with science making
people scared of that. Fear can be put into a lot of things. It can also if it’s willing to go a step
further make irrational fears become rational through creative thinking. For example the fear of
shadows.
 Another type of horror which is classified in the genre is spoof films. Whilst they are also in the
comedy genre too they are shared in both genres. This genre links in with all the others because
it can be taken anywhere. Whether it’s a zombie film or hammer horror one. It has to sell of
course but it can get away with looking too campy and comedic.

Primary audience Research
Audience Interviews
6Th February 2021 -
Wolverhampton
Alex Bleach –
Older Adult
Does Watch
10Th February 2021 – Leeds
Crevan Gonzales –
Old teen
Does watch
4th – York
Ethan Pratt –
Old teen
Doesn’t watch
What are your favourite things
about horror films?
My favourite thing about horror
is the characters they can be
interesting when played right.
My favourite thing about horror is the twists
that are pulled in every section and the
many different plot element leading up to
it.
I’m not a big fan of horror but
I’d have to say character
development. I feel like a lot of
the horror films I watch miss
that.
What are your worst things
about horror films?
The one thing I cant stand about
some horror films is the campy
acting and how characters can
overreact in certain situations
I don’t like it when horror films are too gory.
I feel like it doesn’t add much to the plot
and the only thing it does is make you turn
away so your missing the film.
I don’t like it when horror films
have boring 2D characters. The
plot fails when the characters
aren’t good.
What is your favourite horror
films and why?
My favourite film is the grudge
because the stunt preforming
and the whole design of the
antagonist freaks me out every
time.
My favourite horror film would have to be
the saw films. Whilst I cant even think of
which one is my favourite. I really admire
the colour schemes and the characters that
add to it.
My favourite horror film is the
insidious films. The music and
the effects that are created are
genuinely so scary.
What three primary colours
would you pick for a horror
film?
It would have to focus on dark
colours if a horror film. Perhaps
blue, black and red.
If I was to pick colours for the film then I
would focus on dark shades such as green,
blue and grey.
For the colours I would suggest
picking colours that would with
the selected item. If you were to
do one with a bathroom. Have a
grungy white colours

Selective colour (Editing)
Selective colour is when specific bold colour has been partially selected in a
black and white image. This often done through using photoshop but I shall
be using premiere pro for mine instead because it will be appearing in my
trailer. This shall appearing in the beginning of it and will be introduced in a
suspenseful dramatic way. In a similar sense to ‘Casino Royale’. I want this
character to look dangerous and to have many different jump cuts fitted in
between the shots. I want this character to look like he's capable. As opposed
to usual horror trailers where it illustrates that it is a normal person who has
nothing too special about them and then they get gets haunted later on. In
terms of a narrative structure this happens much later on unlike the ‘Casino
royale’ where it happens right at the beginning. I also want this trailer to
illustrate the dark side of this character to show that when the threat is
shown later in the trailer it doesn’t only offer the challenging sides to both
goods evil but because this is a trailer we don’t see the full extent of the
antagonists actions which promotes the film in itself. Th biggest worry is the
budget when it comes to this and the equipment that I will be using because
it’s a student film. I it need to look as professional as possible. If not it can
look very cheap and cheesy. Whilst it is a comedy too I don't want it look too
much like a parody and keep in the realms of seriousness. I want to
experiment as much as possible. The ‘casino royale‘ black and white
beginning to look classy and minimalistic but I also want the colours to pop.
By making these colours stand out this will illustrate certain parts that the
audience should be looking out for. This is mostly done through bright hues.
My initial thought of what colour I will be using a lot is red. Because this is
horror this will make the film look a lot more gruesome and gory. Thought I
want to rely more on the suspense to scare the audience. This will be one
factor that will be introduced.
Casino Royale Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36mnx8dBbGE (00:00-00:24)

Selective colour tutorials
 YouTube
1. Brooker films (August 16th 2019) Add Colour to Your Night Footage with Premiere Pro 2019 – Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KIwUPUkHJY
2. Cinecom. (June 29th 2016) Color Selection (Secondary) in Premiere Pro – Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK3iUt4ZTRg
3. Chadwin Smith. (November 27th 2018) Sin City Effect in Final Cut Pro X | Selective Colour Tutorial –
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuYDX6Ea99M
4. DA Graphics. (August 7th 2018) Selective Colour / Colour Splash Effect In Photoshop - Make
Background to Black & White – Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUzFLJpGwq0
5. Gentle PSD. (January 25th 2020) Cinematic! Colour Isolation Effect in Premiere Pro | Tutorial – Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp05QZY0yhM
6. Justin Odisho. (August 13th 2019) Adobe Lightroom Tutorial: How to Isolate Colour with HSL (Black
White Pop) – Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTQ4ICUNXo
7. PSDDESIRE. (March 18th 2017) Selective Area Colour Splash Effect - Photoshop Tutorial - Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ey-2JOID_Q
8. Video editing in a minute. (February 6th 2019) Davinci Resolve 15 - How to do Black and White
Selective Colour Effect (Isolate One Colour) – Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AutiZcCPqfI
 Websites
1. Anna Gay. (September 3rd 2019) How to use selective colour in Photoshop - Link:
https://www.lightroompresets.com/blogs/pretty-presets-blog/using-the-selective-color-panel-photoshop
2. Julian. (November 25th 2015) Use slecetiv3e colours in Lightroom – Link: https://sleeklens.com/using-
selective-color-in-lightroom/
3. Zach Sutton. (March 18th 2014) Selective Colour - Possibly The Best Tool For Photographers – Link:
https://fstoppers.com/post-production/selective-color-possibly-best-tool-photographers-7954

Questionnaire
Analysis/Online Survey
(Primary research)
Part one
(Microsoft forms)

Survey Outline
For my Primary Research I constructed a survey for people to fill out. This has helped give out more insight as to who my target audience are.
I will also conduct one to one interviews with specific people so it can gather more qualitive research of extracting more information in
contrast to a quantitative research where I'm asking load’s of people.
My main aim is to gather as much information from different people as possible. I did this by planning my questions ahead of time. I have
used Microsoft forms before. So I already had a general idea of what I could do. Microsoft forms is an online website where once you are
logged into your office account. You can conduct your own questions to ask people to get general idea of what your target audience is.
There are many ways you can conduct these questions from multiple choice, ticking boxes, yes or no and have people type in their own
answers. Through this I will have to compare each bit of research that I am constructing. From my primary to secondary or my interviews
research. By the end I will have gathered what the most successful way is to gather what my target audience what.
In order of this survey being a total success. I will need to go through a few questions to get the basic knowledge of what I should ask them
and also get the idea of who it is I'm asking.
1.) Personal information - So I could understand what my demographic is. I will have to ask questions not too personal but have enough
information to give myself a good enough idea of who I am aiming this questions to. So just age and gender. I will be able to know what
audience I aiming these questions too.
2.) Mainly closed/less in-depth questions – This means that I should be asking questions that don’t acquire a lot of detail. Mostly yes or no
questions would be preferable. Not having so many questions that require a lot detail. As this will be saved for the one to one interviews. This
survey is just about collecting an overall data figure through a wide amount of my audience.
03.) Out of range – Don’t go out of the range with the questions I am asking. Make sure that they are relevant to the project I am doing. Do
questions that just don’t talk about horror but specifically about the comedic horror film I am making. Aim at things that will help and that I
am unsure about. Such as location or elements that I will include.
04.) Questions that end with false leads – I can’t do questions that will lead with answers that could change a big concept of my project.
This could be questions such as what do you think of horror films as a whole. If a lot of answers give out no to liking horror. Then that could
mean that I aren’t listening to my audience or I do listen to them and I would have to scrap everything in my project.

Audience research – Genre
 Observation: Taking a look at my first set of results. The highest scoring point was comedy leading that to be the
most popular genre that the majority of my audience thought. This got voted by six people. The detective subgenre
got five people voting. Horror and romance only got a total of four people voting.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience’s keen focus is on humour. I think this is in essence
theory to the character. You can relate more to characters who are funny because they normalise what's going on.
Whether horror and mystery can often be either too dark, miserable and far too intellectual to understand. Romance
does well in a similar way that comedy does. Where character can relate to the audience for having the need of human
emotions but comedy is a lot more entertaining. It’s escapism in the right way that horror/mystery isn’t.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience because of the tweaks that
will be made to the script during my planning. The most important idea is to present a pitch and then find out what
your audience want from that alone. This shows that you are already giving something out to your target audience
before the product is released. Whether it’s a line to make the scene more comedic or a specific action. However this
of course depends on the scene and has got to fit in place with everything else that is taking place. Whilst my product
balances to the genres up above. It also has many elements of comedy. This genre however is the one that needs the
most care because if it looks too silly. It will look like a parody and if its not funny enough. Then it will fall out of being
classified as a comedy.

Audience research –
hybrid genres
 Observation: Looking at the what these results say. My audience consider horror and comedy to be a good mix when
together. With nine people saying yes but six people saying no which only leads to 30% being more confident in the
hybrid of the two genres.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience all formulate their own difference of opinions. The
percentage that have said no will be as open minded as the people who said yes but there is a long history of b-
movies being ruined because of them falling into the parody section and not having the perfect balance between the
two. That makes the comedy more childish and that’s what puts people of the film. Overall my audience think that it
works well.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will be able to appeal to my target audience because it
is a mix of the two genres. When mixing between the two you find that there is a lot of dark humour that actually
comes through. This quality is something which I think the audience will relate to and find funny. However the film also
tackles the seriousness of people getting judged and other issues. So the most difficult part is to let the audience know
when they should find humour in something and when they should not. This will certainly be a difficult thing to do but
can be done through the acting of the characters and knowing when to take the scene seriously.

Audience research – Least
favourite thing about horror
 Observation: From what I can see from my results a lot of the answers are fairly common. False jump scares, gore and
cliches. However there is one on here that I didn’t think about until I saw it and it’s a fairly self explanatory one of
having a poor ending. The film needs a good pay of or else it could damage the whole product of the film. This rule
applies to a films that been placed in any genre.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience know horror well. Horror is more than gore and jump
scares but that’s not to say that they aren’t the elements that pops up a lot. My audience have acknowledged this and
consider that it will need toning down. They are also able to spot clichés/stereotypes and knows when horror is
making a parody of itself.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: This product will appeal to my audience because the gore will be
kept to a minimum. Despite my film being a mix between horror and comedy. Meaning it has more chance to get
away with it. However I still want it to be taken seriously as well.

Audience research - promotional
 Observation: From the looks of my results the product that got the most votes is the trailers. Poster only got one
which I considered to be rather surprising and 5 people considered all above. Nobody else voted for other which I
added to see if anyone else could come up with different way to promote your film.
 What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience are big screen watchers. They'll watch a trailer of
something that’s up to around one-three minutes to get a glimpse of the film. The poster of the film is almost the
teaser trailer to the film. It has to be kept to minimalism standard and so my audience want to see more than just
image. A trailer does a better job of telling the story and essentially is the main selling product because it’s the
promotional type that tell the product the best
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my target audience because I have out
laid three types of trailers for the film. Plus one small excerpt clip which adds onto the video production too. There
shall be a sneak peak of the teaser trailer, the teaser trailer and then a full trailer that will be released. I have decided
that I am going to make all three to experiment on the duration of how each one should be and what's should be kept
in/taken out.

Audience research – importance
of horror films
 Observation: From looking at these observations the most common one to pop up is how horror creates it’s suspense in the story and
doesn’t rely on cheap scares. These shows as one comment expressed it ‘originality’. Strong characters which you can relate to was another
answer which kept coming up. This can boast the fear factor up because its makes the situations even more real.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience know all the built elements that are put into making a good horror film.
They are good critics when it comes to pointing out the stereotypes of the things that are most commonly seen in horror film and would
rather have them out. You want to make the film as real as possible whilst still retaining those fantasy elements. This means that you have
to make the audience feel like they have entered another world and aren’t just watching another horror film.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience because the characters are the main focus of my
story and then its about building the plot around that. Of course I don’t want to make the plot secondary but there's many themes that I
want to explore and share with the audience. However this will be seen mostly through the trailer. In the clip that will be released it is
mostly about plot but there is still a theme supporting it. This theme will be trust as they looking around at casual bystanders and seeing
who are the likely suspects. This will be provide the built up tension of the ending that is yet to come.

Audience research – Character
analysis
 Observation: A lot of responses focus on the good nature of the characters. Showing that they have to have a humour and creativity. The response that
popped up the most was relatability and having the connection with the audience. Intelligence was another answer that kept coming up.
 What this says about my audience: In terms of relatability. I want to focus on how flawed and different these characters are to society. For example
Steve has dyspraxia. It’s through important issues like these where the audience don’t feel as insecure about themselves because the character goes
through the same issues as they do and that’s the relatability part. My audience also like intelligent people. However I don’t think this should be taken
too far and pushed to the point where its not believable for a group of teen.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: This question was asked because it links within my character behaviours. Despite iust only seeing them
for a certain amount time in the clip though they are present in the whole of it. I wanted to look at what my target audience look up to. What character
trait makes them stand out the most? Which is relatability. The way I’m looking at telling the story is it’s heading down a Tim Burton-esque style. I want
the cinematography to stand out as very dark and gothic. One way you can support this is through the characters. Whilst each character in my story is
unique. Anyone who does watch will find a small section of relatability within that character. There strange but in a relatable way that makes the audience
think yeah I’ve thought about that one or twice. My characters are most certainly intellectuals. This is where a section of the relatability comes in because
they use that intelligence to be cocky and humour is also shined in through that. I wanted to make each character clever in different ways unlike the
Harry potter franchise where they just relied on the female protagonist Hermione Granger.

Audience research –
Detective media
 Observation: This is a good observation showing that eight people from my audience don’t consider
detective films to be dying out. One person doesn’t watch them and five other people consider the fact that
they are being made less.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience are very observant to the films that are
being released now. I propped this questions because in my opinion there feels a lot less but really there isn’t
when it’s been researched into. Films like ‘knives out’, ‘Gone girl’ and ‘Murder Mystery’ really show that
modern films do a good job at capturing the intrigue that was becoming trend of the 1950’s detective films
when they were at there most popular.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this audience because it does
have detective/mystery elements to it. The three main character could possibly be classified as detectives
that are uncovering the case of multiple killings that have happened around the areas. It has its intuitive and
intellectual plot details added to it. Making the plot and the characters relatable with that aspect.

Audience research – B- movie
budget
 Observation: The amount that my audience would consider to be the best on being spent is the price range between
£1000-1500. Only one person considered that it should be any less than that. Three people went for higher and then
three other people went for none of the above. This is possibly due to it depending on what the films are and what's
going to be needed for it. There perhaps should have been an example to elaborate further on what the price could
be.
 What this says about my audience: Initially when looking at these results I was shocked to see what my audience
said as I thought that they would go at most for the £500-£100 price range. However I have to agree that this is an
acceptable budget. I should have perhaps elaborated on the ambition of the project.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: When going over my finances for this project. I knew that I wasn’t
even going to be spending the amount that was being shown for any of this. The excerpt of the clip and the trailers are
more set to be an insurance if any investors were looking at the projects. Whilst that steps out of the FMP. In terms of
budget for the FMP. It’s not going to be very high because it will only be spent on a short amount of footage. Finances
will be covered later on but for what I’m filming I will make sure that the budget is as acceptable as possible for an
investment video which I hope to take further down the line.

Audience research – Locational
setting
 Observation: Overall my audience consider it to be totally depending on where it’s at and not the name of the
location or the area. York when it hasn’t got it’s popular landmarks at the back of the scene could be anywhere.
However overall my audience didn’t think that York was a bad setting and seven people out of the fifthteen considered
York to be a beautiful place for a film. It also has to be taken into account that most of the people from this audience
live in York. Meaning that they know the sights and the potential it has for filming.
 What this says about my audience: My audience are being open minded but they are also affording to look at the
big picture. The location is a part of the setting the scene and it could be anywhere but it has to make sense to the
story. The reason this question was put out was to see how the audience would react to unpopular areas. Its not a
location that’s often placed into films like London or Scotland. These are popular locations that can be most notable in
the media. So doing my FMP where I live and having the setting being that for the film was a decision that I was
initially unsure about because of its unpopularity.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: If you want your audience to know that it’s in York. Then you have
got to show it though its uses of famous landmarks. Like Clifford's tower and the Minister. This is often showed in the
cut-scenes and the transitions. Illustrating that the next scene will be set in a different location.

Audience research – 1980’s
 Observation: From the look of my results a lot common answers kept popping up when they were listing. Whilst I should have been
specific that my audience should go into specifics as clothes and music is there for any era. However, I did get some intuitive answers.
Learning the term yuppies (a fashionable young middle class worker). Beverley hills cop, star wars, Michael Jackson and rollerblading. These
are the subtle things that I need to have included in the background of a lot of the shots.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience are very informative to what was happening during that period of history.
This why I asked them because some of them lived through this period of history. My audience don’t just pick out the things that were
relevant at the time but most importantly what was effective. Margret Thatcher had a massive impact on the world and was a leading
women that inspired many others. This sort of knowledge I can use within the plot of prejudice values and might change people’s negative
opinion on her. Through the actions of everything going on with the world at that time.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: I asked this question to see what influences I could take from the 80’s period. This I had
researched before but I thought as it interested me so much that I would ask people that were around during that period of time. My
product will appeal to this audience because there are many hints and references that call-back to this time. This will be most prominent in
the trailer as it sets up the film better. The clip will include references from music, fashion and just little things in the background.

Survey Summery
To summarise I have sent this survey across as many different platforms. I started by emailing it to
specific people that were among my target audience and that I was friends with. Then I shared the
survey through Facebook to generate some answers through people I didn’t know all too well. I
even posted this survey on Twitter. Trying to gather enough people as possible. I posted this survey
link onto a subreddit on Reddit under the name of R/horror. There are many polls and many
opinionated questions being asked on Reddit. It’s this social media platform that has the best
chance of getting my questions asked so I knew it was right to ask here.
To create a short summary of the type of answers that my surveys got. I have bullet pointed them:
1.) When splitting what part it was that my audience wanted to see the most of. They voted mostly on the comedy.
They voted mystery next and then romance and horror got the same.
2.) 9 out of the 15 people considered that horror could mix well with comedy.
3.) Repetitive jump scares, gore and cliches like people splitting up was what people dislike the most about horror.
4.) Trailers and poster were considered to be just as important as the other.
5.) Suspense and strong character were the most important things to horror films thought by the audience.
6.) Humour, creativity and relatability were the strongest traits for my characters.
7.) 8 people thought that detective films/tv shows were doing well.
8.) £1000-1500 was the appropriate budget price for a B movie
9.) York was considered to be a lovely place for filming but it was also depended on where the filming was happening.
10.) Yuppies, rollerblades, Michael Jackson and Beverley hills scop were just a few thing that came up when considering
what was most popular in the 1980’s

Questionnaire
Analysis/Online Survey
(Primary research)
Part Two
(Social Media:
Instagram)

Survey Outline
Another way in which I wish to conduct my survey is through the use of social
media. Now I have spread that original survey online everywhere meaning a lot of
people that do follow my business account have already done it. Meaning I had to
come up with different questions. I created this through my instagram stories and
asked multiple questions through there. Like Microsoft forms they have a wide
selection of different ways to ask question. You can type them, multiple choice or
yes and no questions. I have good following of almost 2000 followers meaning that I
was hoping to get a load of results. The reason that I have done another survey was
because I wanted to ask more questions. I wanted to make sure that I have a full
grasp on what it is exactly that my audience want. To make sure that they did it. I
only put up seven questions as that isn’t as many as my previous survey and it was
as many as I could come up with. The box presented on the right is the introduction
slide where I asked them if they could please fill it out. I have also put a thank you
slide to anyone who has done it. At the end. I got quite a few responses. A lot of
them were just yes and no. A lot of them were rather in-depth answers showing that
my audience enjoyed what it was I was talking about. Some people couldn’t be
bothered to type and just did the multiple choice questions instead. So really I have
a lot of mixed results here from different people.

Audience research – Overused
techniques
 Observation: The most overused stereotype to come up judging by results is the uses of jump scares. This stereotype could be considered good or bad
depending on how you take. For some people its annoying. For others its built up adrenaline and its exciting. Another stereotype that comes up a lot is
having the main characters split up. Though I think this could be applied to pretty much any genre.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience know how to spot films that are throwing the stereotypes in horror films. The stereotype
of this character dying first or this character fall over. This is often seen in spoof films. Spoof comedies deserve a lot of credit because whilst they aren’t
very good. They are just mocking the films that keep themselves serious. They are poking something and laughing at it. This warns the audience that this
isn’t what you should do when making a film.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this audience because having studied into and watched a lot of horror films. I
knew a lot of this before the survey anyway. I felt like it was just an interesting question to get from the perspective of my audiences angle. Whilst every
horror film has jump scares there will be a lack of them and like thriller films it will concentrate more on suspense.

Audience research -
Spoofs
 Observation: When observing the results that I got. We can see that 60% of the audience considered it to be yes and 40%
thought no. This was lot more then I initially expected and it means that my audience feel like this film shouldn’t be a spoof.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience are able to spot when films have their flaws and knows the
ones that are doing bad in the box office. The majority of spoof films aren’t very highly rated. Even the popular ones like the
‘scary movie’ franchise have become worse as each film has come out and whilst it was bad back then. It most certainly isn’t up
to anybody's taste now because the films are often aimed at adults but the humour is too childish. One underrated tv show that
inspired me with my project is the ‘Psychoville’ tv show. It’s adult and the humour has been thought out very carefully. It doesn’t
just look like some has thrown in a cheap gag every few seconds. Its dark humour and it retains that balance all the way.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this audience because it won’t be shown too much
as a joke when presenting the humour that’s on screen, it will have a certain level of comedy. So that it stands out to be part of
the genre but I won’t let it be a parody to the horror films. Like previous comedy films have been. This will be done through dark
humour which the audience will fund relatable and realistic.

Audience research -
Breaking the fourth wall
 Observation: This question got a mixed bag. Mostly my audience telling me to be cautious with it because it might not work as expected. A lot of the observations were
that it would work well with the comedy aspect but with horror I would be walking on a rather thin line. Just so long as it fits with what's happening in the film. Then it
should look good.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience are open to the idea of breaking the fourth wall but it depends on the product and the context behind
that scenes. My audience have seen that it works well with other movies but they know that it’s a risky gamble to take.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: This product will appeal to my audience because it is something that I am willing to test out but if it fails then it will be
kept as a deleted scene. A lot what my audience have said is right. It all depends on the context of the scene and what being put in front of that character to spiral out of
the scene and deliver this soliloquy. The way I'm looking at is through the detective eye. Delivering maybe a funny one liner or quip but there will be no horror in the scene
when he’s presenting the speech. Steve's trying to uncover who is doing these murders and when the next killing will happen. Whilst he mostly he talks to his friends
about this. There might have been a scene where he splits up with his friends and it happens whilst he is just walking back. He talks to the camera in intrigue. This can’t be
taken too seriously however. Not being dramatic or anything and still retaining some comedy in line delivery. Not to mention this is an interesting play on with the scene
because the book is told from the perspective of Steve. So really it’s just his inner thoughts.

Audience research – Product
of it’s time
 Observation: This question surprisingly got many mixed responses. I got a lot people saying yes, no,
sometimes and not always. Someone gave an excellent response of people should knowing what's right and
what's wrong. As well as the importance of highlighting these issues through example.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience know the importance of these. Everyone will
has mixed feelings depending on their history. Some people will be cautious about it from seeing their
favourite media products get a load of backlash from similar issues. However some will consider serious issues
such as homophobia and racial issues to be important highlights that don’t get enough media coverage in
fictional shows or movies. Fiction is better than real life because you can make the audience hate these fictional
character that are offensive but they are just fictional at the end of day and it’s a matter of highlighting how
there could be like some people you haven’t met yet.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this audience because the
majority of them talked about the importance of talking about these issues. Which is something which I have to
agree with. So I won’t hold back. Like I’ve said the most important thing is the pay off and not letting the
person get way with these nasty things. Whilst there will also be characters in there that are protagonists and
are good natured but don’t know the difference between right and wrong. Its about knowing what punishment
which character should get.

Audience research – Characters or
plot
 Observation: From these results this tells me that my audience look more at the importance of the characters and not
the story. With character getting a quarter more up in the score. Characters got nine votes and plot got six.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience prefer the characters more. In essence they are
correct. It’s not really on a subjective basis because the characters are make the plot. You could have a good plot and
weak characters then it would more noticeable for bad acting and low maintence work to the script.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience because I’m making the
characters my first priority. As seen from the survey that I did before. I have listed the many character traits that I want
for these characters and I want there to be clear development for each one of them. I want them to be unique and yet
relate to the story. Also when seeking out for a particular theme/style for the film you have to think about the
characters. You have to ask yourself whether they fit into the story or not.

Audience research – 80’s
antagonists
 Observation: As shown by the results Freddie Krueger and Michael Myers both have matching results which makes them two of the most
popular 80’s slasher. Getting five each side. Jason Voorhees and Chucky are also getting two each side. So Freddie and Myers can be
categorised as the greats. Then Jason and Chucky could be in the okay section of horror film antagonists.
 What this says about my audience: This says that my audience are highly intellectual to go through a period of history that they weren’t
in and pick out who or what was most popular then. They did it subjectively based and picked who their favourite character was. Either way
my audience are capable of recognising these characters and the impact that they have had behind them.
 How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience because there will be subtle hints and nods to
these characters. I wanted to see collectively which character was the most popular during that time and what impact it had to the 80’s.
Now because this is set in the early eighties. The character I would have to pick would be Michael Myers because Freddie Kruger wasn’t
around during this time. However Jason Voorhees was so maybe its worth having a references to him and trying to add some comedic
relief into that. So there will be a few references and nods to him in the clip.

Researching Horror Film Promotion

Researching Horror Film Promotion

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Researching Horror Film Promotion

Similar to Researching Horror Film Promotion (20)

More from georgewetton1

More from georgewetton1 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Researching Horror Film Promotion

Editor's Notes