Legal responsibilities, censorship, copyright and regulation

Filming of people:
The human rights act of 1998 expresses that people cannot be filmed without clear consent, both written and verbal, and if they are this constitutes an invasion of privacy which is a clear breach of this act. However, it is often easy for people to accidentally be caught when filming on a busy street or other locations. This means that often film makers have to be very clear in stating that filming is taking place at the location.

Media Insurance:
To film in a public place then public liability insurance is needed. This is so that if any damage or injury takes place the insurance has it covered. The insurance, as a base, usually starts at £2 million, but can go up to £5 million as a starting price, depending on the area. This insurance is covered for students by the institution in which they are studying, but this must be discussed before hand.

Actors and Actresses:
All actors and actresses staring in a film will be required to sign a contract stating their pay, the hours they must work each day, and any other relevant conditions that need to be signed off. When it comes to a student then the chances are high that an actual law abiding contract will not be necessary, but a form can be completed and signed by each actor/actress.

Legal responsibilities:
My film trailer is part of an educational course, which means that most of the insurance is covered by my school, provided that the school are made aware that this filming is taking place.

Film name, fonts and connotations

I have decided to call my film 'Slaughter House'. I decided on this name because 'Slaughter' can quite often be connoted with murder, blood, rage, anger, all common aspects of the horror genre. The word 'House' in this sense relates more to family, friends and the protective feeling that a house normally has but in this case it differs quite greatly as it shows an intrusion on these feelings.

Action Plan

Risk Assessment

Initial shots

I decided, in order to get a feel for how I would potentially like my film to look. I took some photos of a subject that was hooded standing with their back to the camera. This mimics the main antagonist of the film called 'the hooded figure'. I also played around with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom in order to play with lighting settings and add different moods to the photos.

Questionnaire

Storyboards

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Blumler and Katz believed that consumers use media in order to gratify their needs, but it also has some unintended consequences. 

According to some research their are five different uses that can be defined as someones goals for media use:

• Information and education - Users often use media for the purpose of finding something out, and storing this info. 
• Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment - This is like people becoming emotionally connected to characters that have been created in the media.
• Simple entertainment - Some people use the internet and modern media, simply to be entertained. Be this through watching a film or browsing social media. 
• Enhance social interaction - Through the use of social media, and apps like Skype in which people can conduct video phone calls. 
• Escapism — Many people use forms of media simply to escape the woes of every day life, things like playing a video game or watching a fantasy film help people distance themselves from reality.

When would your film be exhibited in cinemas and why?

My film would be exhibited in cinema’s in late October. This would be the ideal time to see my film, as it’s out around halloween. Halloween is the ideal time to show horror films in cinemas as it means many people will go and see it to coincide with the celebration, this is good from a revenue standpoint as my film will get many more views. 

Audience Profile

Methods of Distribution

Dyer's Star Theory

BBFC Ratings

BBFC Research

Evaluation of Creativity

Last year, when starting media studies I found that I quickly had to find ways to do things, and I needed to learn to use a lot of programmes quite quickly, such as photoshop and as it was one of my first times using a mac I found I had to find ways to quickly adapt to using these products as well.

This hindered the full potential I had for being creative at this point, and as I learn to use new software again this year I may be faced with the same problems again. I now know, however, to be ready for this and in order to maximise my creativity to it's full potential I recognise that I may need to plan even more carefully this year, before I can even use the video editing software. Careful planning and paying particular attention to the shots and lighting I want and organising this will mean I can use a lot of my creativity when filming and using the editing software hopefully will not hinder this very much.

Programmes like photoshop which I will have to use again, I am now already familiar enough with to be able to create even more advanced and interesting pieces. This will help ensure that my creativity can increase and I can do more creative and interesting things with my work.

Therefore, this year I believe I will be able to expand my creativity and hopefully come up with some better and more visually appealing pieces. This is due to previous experience and being better prepared for it this time as well.

Film proposal

The History of Horror - A Timeline

Narrative Theories applied to 'The Witch' Trailer

When viewing the trailer for the recent film 'The Witch' I have identified different parts of the different narrative theories.

The first of these theories I managed to identify elements of was Binary Opposition by Levi Strauss. I managed to identify families taking care of each other and playing together, this is contrasted by the curse that plagues the village later on in the trailer making this a big battle between innocence and evil. I also identified religion vs satanic elements making this quite a religious battle as well. We see the contrast between outside and inside, with the majority taking place outside in the unknown which adds to the horror feeling. Other common opposites we see love vs hate, human vs nature, children vs adults and light and dark.

Another theory I explored was Todorov's theory, in this trailer we established an equilibrium, although it wasn't very settled and didn't give us the feeling that everything was particularly great. When the child goes missing we establish that things have been thrown off balance and the curse begins to plague the locals. Towards the end of the trailer we do begin to realise the characters have recognised that something is wrong and have began to try to remove the curse, but because this is just a trailer we don't see the outcome and how the equilibrium is resolved.

The final theory we looked at was Propp. I established that the man at the start of the trailer would fill the roll of 'the helper'. The woman who the film is about would be either the 'false hero' or the real 'hero' but this is not established as this is just a trailer and not the entire film. The villain I though within this film was the curse itself, although others may argue that the girl is actually the villain as she is the witch, but we don't see her acting villainous and we see her more as a victim of the curse than anything. I identified the mother as the princess character, and finally the dispatcher being woman who says ''You have cursed this family'' as evidenced, not all of the archetypal characters are present within the trailer and the same can be said for many films, but the main ones have been identified.

Trailer Analysis - Don't Breathe (2016)

From this research I learned that including information on the director/producer/creators work works well in helping draw people in, because I as a consumer found great interest in knowing the producers and directors other works. I also learned the importance of including a date at the end of the trailer as it helps generate excitement when the viewers have the date of your film. Finally, I learned that the establishing shot right at the beginning of the trailer works extremely well in helping immerse the reader in the setting quickly without taking too much time out of the trailer and this is an element I would like to include in my trailer.

Initial Thoughts

Media StudiesFilm trailer ideas:

Filming locations:

Barbers Shop, school drama studio, home. 

Ideas:

Female apprentice working in a barber shop, she watches a web series on youtube and something in the series deeply disturbs her. She becomes fascinated by all the tools used to cut hair in the barber shop. She begins to go on a killing spree…..

Music ideas:

Rock music [the rolling stones] intercutting with classical beethoven. This contrast works well for me as it helps build up suspense within my trailer, but it also can be used to portray more calming situations with the classical beethoven as well as the more intense situations with The Rolling Stones track. 

Setting ideas:

I know I would like a big bulk of my trailer to be set within the barbers shop, as well as some of it within the school setting. Darker scenes with entirely black backgrounds will most definitely need to be shot within school as this can be achieved easily and effectively within the drama studio. 

Mood Board

Magazine and Movie Posters - Side by side analysis