Film Logo

We decided to name our film 'Silent Night' because it goes well with the Christmas carol 'Silent Night'. It also works well with the horror aspect of the film, as it's quite creepy; the weird 'silence' is something that is quite often associated with horror movies. The word 'silence' also makes you think of mystery, of not knowing what is going to happen next. The word 'night' reminds you of darkness and is something alot of people are scared of. Putting the two words together gives you the feel of being alone in the dark, there is no sound anywhere, you can't see anything, and your just thinking of what could suddenly appear. This goes against the festive feel of Christmas and rather than feel warm and cosy, you actually feel scared an lonely.

Here is the first draft for the logo done by Tom on Photoshop.

The colours on the logo are quite dull, which is something that is not usually linked with Christmas. The Christmas tree shows you the Christmas aspect of the film, whereas the gothic writing, with the dripping blood shows you the horror side of it. Both of these put together create an interesting juxtaposition, because Christmas and Horror are two very opposite things and are not usually linked together.

Silent Night Animatic

Weekly Update

Seeing as we had Media on Monday for flexible learning we decided to complete as much work as we can before the Christmas holidays so we can start filming after the holidays.

Me and Levinia worked on the storyboard, and after we finished with that we decided to start on the animatic which we done on Final Cut Express.

Tom and Dean edited the video footage for the interview that we recorded and Tom put all the information gathered from the questionnaires onto graphs.
Things to do...
We still need to complete the production plan and do some work on the production name and logo for our film.
We also need to do some location scouting and sort out the props were going to need and then, there should be a few more things left to do before we can start filming :)

Interview Response

Here is the video for the interviews that we carried out. To gather the people that we were going to interview, we used random sampling, and then we asked then a set of questions related to the trailer we are making. The results will help us as, we got more detailed opinions from our target audience.

Questionnaire Results

So as you can see from the video above, in which Levinia spoke about the results of the questionnaires that we carried out and the analysis, they are going to help us with what we are to include in our production, so that it is something that our target audience will want to see.
From analysing the results we know that we need to:

• we also found that having the film set mainly in the forest is something that nearly 75% of our target audience would rather have compared to a house/neighbourhood or in a derelict building. 
• more than half of the target audience said that they would prefer a female role to a male, and also by looking at examples of other films from the same genre, we discovered that the lead role is predominantly played by a female. But as there was only a slight difference between whether the target audience preferred a male or female role, we have decided to go for a male lead, as it's something different.
• although special effects, suspense and mystery, were said to be some of the most important elements of a horror film, we found that music was a bit more important to the majority of the target audience, as it helps create suspense and mystery and also helps set the mood of the entire film.
• including violence/gore is something most of the target audience wanted to see, but it has to be used in a way that prevents the film from looking over the top and tacky.
• from the results we found that the most important element of a Christmas movie is Santa, which fits in very well with our idea, as it is focused on a twisted version of the story of 'Saint Nicholas'.
• when asked about the preferrd horror sub-genre, there wasn't really one that stood out the most, as the video above shows that the target audience liked a mixture of different sub-genres. But if we did have to focus on one, it would have to be thriller, as it had a few more votes than the others, so including some elements of thriller may be something we have to think about.
• as seen from the results in the video above, most people had seen and enjoyed all of the Christmas and horror films, so to be successful with our production, it would be a good idea to use some of those films listed above as inspiration for ours.
• although we have decided on having a male playing a lead role, we may need to think about whether we should have to develop our female characters so they play a more important role.

Weekly Update

Within the next week we plan to have the interviews and the questionnaires done.
We also hope to have the storyboard completed by the end of next week, including the images and shots of what we hope to be filming.

Interview Questions

1. Describe what you would say is a typical Christmas day...

2. What's your favourite horror film and why...?

3. What's your favourite Christmas film and why...?

4. What do you expect to see in a horror film and why...?

5. What do you expect to see in a Christmas film and why...?

6. Do you think music plays an important role in a horror film and why...?

7. Do you think music plays an important role in a Christmas film and why...?

Audience Research Questionnaire

(please circle the appropriate answer)
1. Your Gender...

• Male
• Female

2. Ideal Setting...

• Woods/Forest
• Family Home/Neighbourhood
• Derelict Building
• Public Places

3. Preferred Lead Role...

• Male
• Female
• Not Important

4. Most Important Element of A Horror Trailer...

• Music
• Editing
• Location
• Special effects
• Suspense
• Mystery

5. What Sub-genre Would You Prefer...?

• Psychological
• Thriller
• Comedy
• Paranormal
• Sci-Fi

6. How Much Gore/Violence Do You Expect In A Horror...?

• Lots
• Quite A Bit
• Not Important

7. Which Of These Well Known Horror Movies Have You Watched...?

• The Chainsaw Massacre
• Scream
• Grudge
• SAW
• Halloween
• Nightmare On Elm Street
• Silence Of The Lambs

8. Most Important Element Of A Christmas Movie...

• Snow
• Christmas Tree & Decorations
• Santa Clause
• Presents
• Religion
• Carol Singers
• Family

9. Which Of The Following Christmas Films Have You Watched...?

• Home Alone
• Santa Clause 1,2 & 3
• The Grinch
• ELF
• A Christmas Carol
• Jack Frost
• The Polar Express

3 Act Trailer Treatment

Act 1
A shot of a Christmas tree, the shot of the tree is the blurred. Screen turns to black and the film title 'Silent Night' come up. Shot then skips to Ethan getting ready to sleep, and a shot of his mother, Julie, walking in. Ethan asks his mum for a bedtime story.

Act 2
Ethan's brother, Sebastian walks into the room, and tells him a similar story but a scary version of it. Both stories will be blended together, to become one story. This will be a narrative. Whilst the story is being told the music in the background will be 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' which works well with the scene because the music is the opposite to the story.

Act 3
The story ends, and both Julie and Sebastian leave the room. Ethan looks outside his window to see someone dressed in a Santa suit, dragging a sack which leaves a trail of blood behind him. The figure sees Ethan at the window, watching him, he stares at him and then turns back and carries on walking, whilst whistling slow Christmas songs. The door handle turns, and Ethan gets frightened and runs into bed. We then see the word 'Santa' turn into 'Satan' and the scene then flashes to his brother opening the door, with frightened Ethan in his bed, and he tells Ethan to sleep otherwise Santa will come for you.

Audience Research Task

The difference between the objective of Quantitative and Qualitative research is:
Quantitative research attempts to quantify date and generalise results from a sample to the population of interest. Whereas...
Qualitative research attempts to gain an understanding of underlying reasons and motivations.


Quantitative research usually samples is a large number of cases representing the population of interest, and the respondents are randomly selected.
Qualitative research sample is usually a small number of non-representative cases.


The collection of Quantitative research is usually structured techniques such as questionnaires, and the analysis is statistical graphs and charts.
The collection of Qualitative research is individual in depth interviews or group interviews, and the analysis is the key themes that are identified in the interviews.


The outcome of the results for quantitative data is usually considered conclusive because the information can be generalised easily to a population.
Qualitative data however, can be open for debate because it is based on the opinions and views of people and goes into much more detail.

There are three different sampling methods:
Systematic Random Sampling: numbers are generated and one person per random number is selected.
Simple Random Sampling: everyone is assigned a different number, for example ranging from 1 to 100 and every Nth number is selected.
Stratified Random Sampling: a certain group of people are selected to question, based on the actual demographic you are aiming for.

To collect data for our audience research we will use Simple Random Sampling, because it's the simplest and seeing as we have a list of all the possible respondents, it's the easiest to select them in this way.  

Audience Theory (Homework)

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE EFFECT

The Hypodermic Needle Effect, which is also known as the Hypodermic-Syringe Model, Transmission Belt Model or Magic Bullet Theory, is model of communications which suggests that, a intended messages directly received and accepted by a person. It is says that media is capable of 'Mass Manipulation'. Therefore, the effect suggests that the audience is PASSIVE.

TWO STEP FLOW

The two step flow, which is also known as the MULTISTEP FLOW MODEL, is a theory based on the 1940's study of social influence, which states that media effects are indirectly established through the personal influence of opinion leaders. Because the opinion leaders pass on what they see and believe to others, it continues to pass on as others start to believe it too, which suggests that the audience are PASSIVE.

USES & GRATIFICATIONS

This theory is an approach to understanding mass media and mass communication. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion. It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives.

RECEPTION THEORY

Reception theory emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text or media. This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for negotiation and opposition on the part of the audience. This means that a media text is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences.


References
http://www.mediaknowall.com/ - accessed 13/11/11
http://www.wikipedia.com/ - accessed 13/11/11

Target Audience

The Age range of our production will be between the ages of 15 and 25. We have decided on this, because we have looked at films in the same category and we found that to be the typical age group. We first thought that it would be and 18 and above, but we later decided that because we didn't want to include a lot of gore or violence, the best age range would be 15 - 25.


The Ethnicity of our production will be predominantly Caucasian, but we believe that it will still appeal to those of different ethnicity as the film will be mainstream.


Socio-Economic Grouping
The class profile of our characters is generally C-E, and the audience class profile is C2-E. When we are filming, the location will be set in and around Sheldon/Yardley, which would be classed as a working class area and somewhere most of the target audience can relate to.

Everyone involved in our production is from Birmingham and the production will be shot in Birmingham so therefore the Nationality of our production is Birmingham, but even though the cast are purely Brummie, because the film will be mainstream, it means it will appeal to people from all Regions.

To Do List:

Sort out cast

Think about possible shots and angles we want to use

Discuss costume choices

Think about lighting

Complete storyboard

Think about location

Decorations and props

Weekly Update :D

This week we have focused on the codes and conventions on film trailers. We worked with Mrs Collister and analysed the trailer of the British film 'Control'. The task was helpful as we studied the different aspects of a trailer and what makes them effective for the audience.
We also looked at the trailer for 'Cemetery Junction' and this showed us how a trailer can be subverted so that it is different to the usual trailer but still has the same effects as all the others.


We also continued to work on our treatments with Mr Morris, which we completed as a group, and also answered questions about the treatment, to make sure that we have included all the important parts of a treatment. We are now ready to start storyboarding our trailer, and once we have done that we will be ready to start filming our production.

Treatment Questions

          1.What is the main theme or idea?

The main story is based around the traditional Christmas story and is twisted in our film. It is going to be based around a well known character, Santa Claus and he will be subverted into and evil, sadistic killer.

2.Have you created a distinctive main character who is a rounded, believable character?

We have decided that the main character is going to a little boy. The boys name will be Ethan. In the trailer he will be the subject of the killers attention, and he has to try and get away from him. 

3.What is his or her goal?

His goal is to survive and escape the sadistic killers path.

4.Who is stopping him or her achieving this goal (the adversary or villain)?

The murderer who will be dressed up as and will be representing Santa.

5.What is at stake and why?

The lives of the people in the neighbourhood and the boy. This is because the killer used to live in the same neighbourhood and returns to get revenge for what happened to him in previous years.

6.Where does the film take place?

The film will take place mainly in the boys house and around the neighbourhood of the main protagonist.

7.Have you created other interesting characters?

The other characters that we have created are the family members of the boy, who are his older brother, Sebastian and mother, Julie.

'Silent Night' Treatment

Act 1

On Christmas Eve a mother is telling her young son the Christmas story after tucking him up in bed. After she's finished telling him the story she says 'goodnight' and leaves the boy to sleep. After she leaves the room the older brother sneaks into the room and tells his brother the 'real' Christmas story that happened years back; which is about a young boy who had mental illnesses and was taken away from his family around Christmas time and was sent to a mental care home. He began to lose his mind even more and one day escaped and killed those who got in his way. He came back one Christmas and killed his entire family in the house the little boy lives in.

Act 2

After hearing the story the little boy becomes very frightened and starts to hear and see strange things. Although he hasn't seen the killer he feels that he is watching him. Strange things start to happen and eventually someone is killed and the little boy and his older brother both realise that the story is actually real and the killer is coming for them. People in the neighbourhood start to disappear and whilst the boys older brother is out with friends, they hear a scream and decide to check out what's going on. He splits up from his friends while they all go to investigate what they heard, during this time his two friends get killed. He gets attacked too, and as the killer is about to make the final blow, a passer buy sees what's going on and goes to hunt them.

Act 3

Suddenly more and more people are being murdered in the neighbourhood by a murderer dressed in a Santa outfit. To build up tension in the trailer flash transitions are used to show time passing, making it look like a montage. The final act will show several people being killed and the boy realising that the murderer is getting closer and closer to him. The music in the trailer will be Christmassy but will have a horror feel to it and be fast pace to build up the suspense and horror feel of the trailer. The boy ends up trapped in his house and ends up face to face with the killer, after trying to get away and hide, the killer eventually corners the boy, when he is suddenly stabbed, with a kitchen knife, seemingly killing him. The brothers walk out the house whilst the police arrived outside. The film ends with a shot of the killer's body and zooms onto his bloody hand twitching.

Our Moodboard

The moodboard focuses the key concepts of our trailer, as well as the different elements we want to include in it.

The main concepts of our trailer as you can see from our moodbard are Christmas, horror, fantasy and twisted genre.

Fantasy

We used images from films such as 'Pans Labyrinth' and 'Donnie Darko' to show the fantasy element of our trailer as there are a lot of 'weird' creatures in the film and we decided to have a fantasy feel in our trailer, the fantasy element of our trailer is the story of Santa Clause.

Fear

We also used images to show the element of fear in our trailer such as the picture of the child who might either be scared and hiding from something or might be the actual fear element of the moodboard. We also used images of well known horror movie characters, because the audience associate them with fear.

Twisted Genre

We used pictures like the image of the evil Santa which show the twisted element that we want to potray in our trailer. This is twisting the genre because you usually associate Santa with good rather than evil.

Christmas

We've also shown the Christmas element of our trailer in our moodboard because we've used a lot of christmas related images and colours for example, we've decorated the title of our film in Christmas lights and all over the moodboard there are drawn on images of baubles, presents and candy canes.

I think that our moodboard overall is effective and portrays all the elements that we want in our trailer and is also interesting as well as eye catching too. 

Genre Presentation

Video link for slide 4: 

Fright Night

• The lighting for the trailer is dark, which is a convention of a horror movie because it creates mystery and suspense. Most of the clips in the trailer are in the night which goes with the genre because vampires can only come out at night.
• In vampire films there is usually a lot of sexual content, like in this one, the vampire kidnaps girls from the main characters classes and sexually attacks them, as well as girls there are guys going missing from his class too.
• In a lot of vampire horrors, the 'new neighbours' turn out to be strange and later on the main character finds out that it's because they are vampires, so I'd say Fright Night follows the conventions of a vampire horror in this way.

References

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438176/ - accessed 28/09/11

The Grudge (2004)

• 
  • The trailer starts off with the name of the production company, in what looks like water and hair, which shows to the audience that the film has something to do with murder maybe?
  • The background sound would be non-diegetic because it doesn’t have a source to where it’s from. It’s just the sound of wind, whereas the scene is of water. It continues to have the sound of wind whilst showing the busy streets of Tokyo and also whilst it shows the lonely house.
  • The text is ‘washed in’ with the hair and ‘washed out’ again, but the font of the text is in plain black text, but it’s the way it comes in that creates the suspense and makes you as the audience wonder what the film is about.
  • The fast pace of the quick shots you the basics of what the back-story of the film is, for example the water sounds, show that someone was drowned and then it shows dark smoke floating around, which is the evil spirit or ‘The Grudge’ left behind.
  • Then there’s the voice of the main character telling you about her experience in the house, telling you about what she felt, something bad happened here? It also shows you what she saw; the house was telling her about what happened there?

References

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391198/ - accessed 26/09/11

Dracula (1992)

• ·         The codes and conventions of a Vampire Horror are very dark lighting, which creates mystery and fear as well because a majority of audiences are afraid of the dark so this will make it scarier for them.  
• ·         The music in this type of horror is high violin music playing in the background. In Dracula the sound of lighting is used a lot as well which creates suspense and tension.
• ·         The use of blood is also very apparent too in this genre, which is a huge aspect because Dracula’s known as a blood sucking monster.
• ·         The colour red is also used a lot in this film as it is the colour of love as well as blood, which is a main part of this film seeing as it’s about the vampire coming to England to seduce a visitors’ fiancée and cause havoc in the foreign land.
• ·         There are scenes based around sexual content which is kind of a focus of the film because Dracula's here to seduce someone’s fiancée. There is a lot of use of the colour red as it is the colour of love and romance.
• ·         The title of the film is in red and looks like blood dripping on a black background, with the director's name in white and normal text font.
• ·         I think Dracula is a good example of the sub-genre because it has the main elements of what is expected in a Vampire Horror and I think it's a good example of horror movies in general because it has the elements that most horror films have such as dark lighting and music that creates suspense and tension.

Genre Codes and Conventions Research

The Genre of our production is . . . Horror . . .

Horror films are designed to cause:

• Fright and panic
• Cause dread and make the audience feel alarmed
• Invoke the audiences hidden worst fears
• And often conclude in a terrifying end.

Pre-production

As part of our pre production planning we had to make presentations on a media concept and teach it to the rest of our class.
My presentation was on Genre.

More Ideas!!!

We had a group discussion in lesson today along with the teacher and decided to change the plot of our trailer. Our production is still going to be a Xmas horror, and there's going to be narrative on the trailer which is going to be told in a fairytale fashion, which is exactly what the film is not about but it leaves the audience guessing and thinking more about it. In the trailer there's also going to be children singing carols in the background.

We decided to call it 'Silent Night' because it doesn't make it too obvious about what the film is going to be about, it creates some mystery and leaves the audience trying to guess what it could be about, whether it might be a family Xmas movie or something else. We decided that the film is going to be quiet dark and decided to take inspiration from the director of 'Pan's Labyrinth' Guillermo del Toro.

It's based around a story going round about a murderer in the neighbourhood, who dresses up as Santa and kills children.

While he wonders around he hums along to 'Santa Clause is coming to town'.

It's going to be set on Xmas eve and based around a boy and his older brother. We wanted the Santa story to be scary, because the older sibling would tell it to the younger to scare them, but what they don't realise is that it's actually a true story. This is the back story for the killer, and tells you what happened and why.

The younger brother starts to get freaked out and keeps hearing and seeing things after he's told the story. On Xmas eve the boys get a phone call from their parents telling them that they are stuck at the airport due to the weather.

Later on the older brother gets murdered by Santa and realises that the story is true, but it's too late.

Ideas???

After deciding on our group we spoke about what we were going to do for our production.
Before the summer holidays me & Levinia spoke about what we wanted to do.
Our production is going to be based around the horror genre. We decided this because the codes & conventions are easy to recognise.
Also because we have to have our production finished around Christmas time, we decided to use that as a basis for our plot.
Although we have taken inspiration from the film 'Black Christmas' we believe that our trailer will be quiet original. We can also use the film later on in the research and planning process.


Here are 2 slightly different trailers for the film:

Groups Update!!! ;D

We've decided on our group now!
After a long discussion we finally decided on who will be in our group based on who best suits each role.
Our group consists of...
Dean - directing
Tom - filming
Levinia - ideas & directing
&
Me - editing

Groups :O

At the moment we're all thinking about what the groups should be...
Deciding who works well with who...