Millie Southall is creating a paranormal horror film trailer and promotional posters for her final major project. She has taken inspiration from films like Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring series. The idea for her film came from paranormal experiences that occurred in her childhood home. She plans to incorporate elements of found footage, possession, and home invasion into her project. Millie has strengths in filming, editing, and learning new software but struggles with meeting deadlines and using a camera. She has extensively researched directors James Wan and Oren Peli as well as horror genres and subgenres to inform her work.

1. CONTEXT
Millie Southall

2. FMP Idea
• For my FMP I am going to create a trailer for a
paranormal horror film. I am taking inspiration from
films like paranormal activity and films in the
conjuring universe. I like the idea of found footage
but I understand it is difficult to achieve without
looking cheap. In my opinion, found footage films are
becoming overdone. Maybe it is not overdone, but
poorly done. Especially because they don’t have as
high as a budget of full production films.This has
slightly damaged the reputation of what could be a
really good movie category.
• I am also going to create some sort of advertisement
material for these films. I am going to create a couple
of posters using the photoshop skills I have gained
over the duration of the course. I think I will enjoy
making the posters because it is advertisement for
something purely made by me and I have free reign
of the design.

3. Where the idea came from
• The idea for the film came from some things that actually have happened to me. Recently I have moved back into my
childhood home and there have been a lot of suspicious things happen there. Each person who has lived there have
experienced something different but linked to each other.Years ago, when my grandma used to own the house (she was
the first occupant of my family) there was 2 exorcisms conducted there by a priest to get out the spirit my grandma
thought possessed the house. She claimed that lots of things happened such as plates flying and the stereotypical
haunted house type of stuff.When my aunt was born she experienced some more dark things in the house. My aunt told
me that when she was little she walked into the bathroom and saw a person in the bath. She also claimed in a specific
room that she had an out of body experience and then had to get the house to be blessed with holy water. She also said
she felt like she was being watched. When my mum had me, the lights kept flickering in the rooms I was in and my mum
once just said “stop” and the lights never flickered again.There is a room in our house that we call the “middle room” and
it has always just been in the very middle of the house.Years ago, people would always see shadows from that specific
room.When I was little I remember one time specifically when I saw something go into the middle room and I said to my
mum “mum whos that man in the middle room?” and because of previous things happening in that room, my mum was
too terrified to look alone. Since then it has always had an evil eye on the window to protect us from evil.
• Recently I have also had a paranormal experience in my house. From everything my family have described whatever it
was seemed to be harmless and maybe even friendly. However the experience I have scared me because it did not seem
harmless.

4. • This here is what I posted online to get other peoples opinions on what happened. In the following weeks my dog
started acting funny and barking at open fields in the dark and staring out the window at empty streets at 1am and
nothing being abler to break his staring.
• I got some feedback from people online telling me what they believed it was and from there I conducted my own
research on things like mimics and Skinwalkers to see if I can solve whatever happened that night.
My post

5. Initial ideas

6. JamesWan
• James Wan is the producer/director of the majority of the films in the conjuring universe. He directedThe Conjuring and
was the producer for films likeThe Nun, Annabelle andThe curse of Llorona.
• The conjuring universe is a film franchise I have taken a lot of inspiration from. For a lot of the films a lot of the time you
cannot see the entity that is haunting but you can see its effects. I have taken inspiration from the trailers aswell.The
trailer for the film the nun was very good. It created suspense and had jump scares in it.What I liked about this trailer
specifically was that the entity that was doing the haunting was in plain sight most of the time.This made you on the
edge of your seat for the majority of the trailer and will make you want to watch the film.The fact that you could be
jump scared at any moment made this trailer really good.
• About him - JamesWan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of
Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet.
• James Wan said “For me, the sound design and the musical score is a big part of what makes scary
movies work”.

7. Oren Peli
• Oren Peli is a producer and writer, known for Paranormal Activity (2007),The River (2012) and Chernobyl Diaries (2012).
• Oren Peli said “Gory stuff can be shocking but it doesn’t really scare me. I’d say the kind of stuff that gets under my skin
is the unknown.You hear a knock behind a wall and you don’t know what it is. Is there something there or not?” This
quote has inspired me because I want to make my film more about the unknown rather than explicitly showing gory
stuff.
• In the first paranormal activity film I like the use of found footage. I think it is one of the only films of its kind to
successfully pull off the found footage genre.
• The paranormal activity films create suspense until the very end of the movie.You are really unsure about if they are
being haunted or not until you see the actual demon itself in the last parts of the film.This makes the film itself a lot
scarier as you never really know what is going on.

8. Ghost Stories Posters
• The posters for ghost stories have been a big inspiration for my posters ideas.The Ghost stories
posters are colourful and very different to the conventional horror film posters. I really like the use
of opposite colours and two very bright colours next to each other. I think it is something not used
enough in horror, the posters are still generating fear in the audience but in the non conventional
way.
• By using colours, you can send across subliminal messages and by combining different colours it
can create lots of different meaning and make the audience feel confused. For example the
colours red and blue have completely different meanings but putting them together could mean a
number of different things.

10. Horror Subgenres
• There are lots of horror
subgenres that I have taken
inspiration from.The section I
have most taken notice of is
the “Paranormal” Section.The
genre of my film is going to be
Paranormal but the sub-genres
linked to it will be a couple of
different ones such as “Ghosts
and Spirits” and “Possession”. I
will also try and incorporate
elements of psychological into
my trailer such as “Home
Invasion and Survival”.The
subgenres helped me realise it
is not just the one genre oh
“Horror” but it goes a lot
further and each has its own
tropes.

11. My strengths My limitations
• I enjoy filming and editing therefore it will be easy for
me to find the motivation to do my work.This is good
for my project because my production work will be
the best it can be.
• I am good at learning new skills on software's such as
photoshop and premiere pro.This can make my
project not just normal images and videos I can have
effects.
• I am good at learning how to use new software's like
illustrator and aero.This will come in useful for my
project because if there is something I cant do in
premiere pro I can research a tutorial and learn how
to use a new software to make my project the best it
can.
• I struggle to meet deadlines. I will do all the work but I
can get distracted and not submit my work on time.
This is especially bad for this project because if I don’t
submit my work on time I will not pass and not get
the grades I need for university.
• I struggle using a camera. I know the basics but
sometimes I can’t get it in focus and then I cant
reshoot my footage.This will limit my work because if
the footage itself isn’t the best it can be then there
isn't much I can do in the preproduction stage.
Especially if I have out of focus footage.

12. Bibliography
• JamesWan. Available: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1490123/. Last accessed 11/02/2022.
• Oren Peli. Available: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2305431/. Last accessed 11/02/2022.
• Top 10 JamesWan Quotes. Available: https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top-10-james-
wan-quotes. Last accessed 11/02/2022.
• Oren Peli Quotes. Available https://www.azquotes.com/author/11479-Oren_Peli
• David Robert Mitchell Quotes. AZ quotes. Available https://www.azquotes.com/author/91198-
David_Robert_Mitchell#:~:text=David%20Robert%20Mitchell%20Quotes&text=When%20people
%20would%20ask%20me,it%20just%20sounding%20really%20ridiculous.
• Reddit I don’t know how to explain this. Available
https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/qw9cz4/i_dont_know_how_to_explain_this/
• Defining the Horror Genre In movies https://nofilmschool.com/the-horror-genre-in-movies-and-tv