The Poster

The Radio Trailer

Unrest final trailer (1) by Pulse FM

The Script For Our Radio Trailer

[Sound - Right Behind You]
When something troubles you, it doesn't leave you alone
 [Sound - Titus Calen]
 [From film - Protagonist breathing heavily and gasping]

 [Sound - Right Behind You] faintly
 "Are you okay?"
 "Yeah, I'm Just,,, I'm fine!"
[Sound - Poltergeist]

 [Sound - Right Behind You]
The Unrest, coming soon
[Sound - Heart Pumping]
 When a dream, becomes a chilling reality!
 [From Film - Door Slams]

 [Sound - Piano Playing]

The Film

Meeting Schedule

Dates of Meetings	What was discussed	Action/Who	Next…
29/09/11	·         Research on Horror films and industry ·         Conventions of a thriller/horror film	-    Look through film websites and ask people on what they expect in a horror film -    Set up a audience feedback survey on SurveyMonkey	Research on Film Institutions
17/10/11	·         Case study on a Horror film industry	-      Pick a film industry that makes horror films and write up a case study on it.	Further Research
20/10/11	·         Technology in the film industry ·         Research on short films	·    Research on Technology in the Film Industry ·    Textual analysis on short horror films	Starting planning for the film
18/11/11	·         Script for the Film Pitch summary and record it	·    Write up the summary for our film and voice record it and upload onto soundcloud	Storyboard and contracts
10/12/11	·         Storyboard ·         Props and Location ·         Actors ·         Script	·    First draft of storyboard completed ·    Query to Drama department - Salimah Ø  Do you have props to be used as a bed? Ø  Do you have a blonde wig? Ø  Can we use the Drama Studio? ·         Ask Librarian to act in film - Salimah and Farzana ·    Make necessary edition to script - Farzana Ø  Change location of one scene
02/02/12	·         Risk Assessment ·         Location/Actors contracts	·    Fill in risk assessment ·    Draw up Location (Salimah) and Actor contracts (Farzana), and get them signed	Start filming Book a camera
06/02/12	·         Logo	·   Hand draw a Phoenix for the Logo - Farzana ·    Complete logo on Photoshop - Farzana	More Filming
13/02/12	·         Filming	·   Inform Actors of when and where Filming takes place - Salimah ·    Start Filming ·    Agreeing date on when next to film	More filming
01/03/12	·         Filming	·    Making sure locations are available ·    Continue filming ·    Agreeing date on when next to film	More Filming
14/03/12	·         Filming ·         Poster	·    Final sessions of filming ·    Researching on Posters	Planning for Posters and Trailer Editing
22/03/12	·         Editing ·         Poster	·    Sequence Scenes of film on Final Cut ·    Planning for Poster - Salimah ·    Draft Script for Trailer - Farzana	Further Editing
29/03/12	·         Editing	·    Continuing to edit – adding effects	Further Editing
9/04/12	·         Editing	·    Tweaking the effects, and adding sounds	Further editing and starting on our ancillary texts
19/04/12	·         Editing ·         Radio Trailer	·    Final bits of editing ·    Recording our Radio trailer	Tweaking the Radio Trailer and doing our posters
30/04/12	·         Radio Trailer ·         Poster	·   Tweaking the Radio Trailer – re-recording the quotes from film ·    Create our poster

Question 1 - Conventions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Our film had challenged a few conventions and also adhered to some conventions. We had challenged conventions by dressing our main protagonist in black symbolizing darkness and evil. We had chosen our antagonist to wear white clothing to symbolize purity and innocence. This challenges the convention of good and evil as it shows our main character who is the victim as being the darkness and the ghost being the good.

Ghost Wearing White Clothing

Jasmine Wearing Black Clothing

We had also challenged the expectation of a typical horror film's of scenes starting in darkness such as 'Knowing'. We had done this by having our opening scene being in broad daylight with the sun shining bright. However we also adhered to conventions and used them such as having dark room's such as basement's and nightfall with some small climax's. We had also followed our narrative of Enigma Code with the film starting with a mystery and ending in a cliffhanger. Our film is also aimed at usual teenagers and young adults.

Screen Shot of the Basement Scene

Main features in a Horror film include darkness and a lot of silence an scenes that create suspense. Our film follows these features but had decided to decrease scenes with a lot of darkness in order to challenge audience expectations. Most of the scenes are during daylight hours including our opening scene. This was to divert the audience from expecting a typical horror film set at night such as 'Insidious'. From the characters clothing the audience would be able to make out the characters profile and try to understand the story behind their character. For example the ghost, it is not clarified to why the ghost is haunting Jasmine, which leaves the audience to decide on who the real villain is. Unlike many other horror films where the villain is clearly outlined or unmasked during endings or in the climax of the film, we decided to divert from such an idea to challenge conventions. 


To add, Jasmine's profile also challenges conventions as she is unlike the typical girl who is being haunted. Instead of running away from her problems or acting as if she is in a state of panic, she decides to investigate the root of her problems. For example the scene where she is in the library where she searches for a variety of sources to help her. This clearly shows that she is not like the ordinary frightened being but instead a intelligent girl who is able to work calmly even when she is in a state of fear internally. 


The ending like many horror films had used the convention of ending in a cliffhanger. Most horror films end this way and I had chosen this particular ending as it is effective in leaving the audience wanting to know more and also still keep the suspense intact.

Question 2: Ancillary Texts

How effective is the combination of your Main Product, and your Ancillary Texts?

 We created Ancillary Texts, of a Poster and a Radio Trailer, to help support our Short Film.

 The Poster was based upon a screenshot image, after we spotted a great camera shot from the film, of the ghostly character. We felt this image had a very sinister look of our main antagonist, standing there still, with her shadow on the tree, and believed it would be the perfect visual representation of our film. Before the screenshot of the image, we had added a "compound blur" and and a certain darkening effect, on "Final Cut Pro". This illustrated the image in a dark and mysterious way, to convey that this is a horror Movie. However, due to the bright sunlight that was present on the day of filming, there was a yellow undertone to the image too, further imposing this contrast between dark and light, correlating with colour flow of the film.

 The cropped second image we used (also a screenshot from our film) was of our protagonist with a anxious look on her face, on the bottom left hand side, faded into the background through "Photoshop". We did this, firstly, because we wanted to add our main character on the poster, but also faded her into the background, connoting the idea of the main character struggling with her identity throughout this film, due to the antagonist (who is causing her a lot of distress) being created from a part of her, and a part of her dreams. Originally, the colour of this image had a strong blue undertone (despite the use of opacity), before we changed it to a more grey undertone, fitting in with the Grey/Black and Yellow/White colour scheme of the poster.

 In addition the font of the title on the poster, is the same as what is on the title page of the Film. This font is Trajan Pro. We felt this font is very strong, without being overly plain. The words were in a white colour, with a slightly yellow glow (through blending options), giving it a fairly intriguing, yet a mystical feel, reflecting the poster's mysterious outlook. The slogan, "when dreams become a chilling reality", had the same font, apart from the word "chilling". Having looked through various fonts beforehand, we felt this font (SchoolHouse Print A) had a spooky feel to it, mirroring what the word itself conveyed. This line was similarly given the same "outer glow" as the title. "Coming Soon" was done in a large "PortagolTC TT" font, because we believed it transmitted a powerful sign for an important message. We also gave the words a grey colour, fitting into the colour scheme.

 On the Radio Trailer, all the sounds we used were from the film itself, helping to illustrate the whole atmosphere of the film. This included various musical sounds and speech, I came up with the narration of "When something troubles you, it doesn't leave you alone", as it reflects the emotions experienced by our main character. This notion is symbolised in the poster, with the shadow of our antagonist on the tree. Further more, the latter two lines used, "When dreams become a chilling reality", and "coming soon", were also used on the poster. The reason we used the descriptive term "chilling", is because it illustrates the cold nature of our main chacaracters, which were conveyed through Black and White outfits they were.

Audience feedback

Here, he seemed to like the sense of tension and anxiety that was building throughout the film, and excitement produced by the end of the dream scene. We felt a lot of this was formed through the used of sounds, special effects and the camera shots, giving us the opportunity to produce such drama. However, in terms of improvements, he wanted some more conventional characteristics of a horror movie, such as more darkness and shadows appearng. Here, she seems to have been excited with our representation of the antagonist, and the build of suspense and mystery. As advice for improvement, she wanted to see a bit more action and/or gore.

Question 3 - Analysis of Audience Feedback

What have you learnt from your Audience feedback? 

 In research, we created an online survey to gain audience feedback on what they would like to see in a Short Horror Film. The results helped influence some of our decisions

2. What do you think are the best characteristics of a great Horror movie?
	answered question	8
	skipped question	0
		Response Count
Hide Responses		8
Responses (8) Text Analysis My Categories (0) Upgrade »Learn More GOLD FEATURE: Text Analysis allows you to view frequently used words and phrases, categorize responses and turn open-ended text into data you can really use. To use Text Analysis, upgrade to a GOLD or PLATINUM plan. Showing 8 text responses No responses selected I think horror movies need to build up fear for it to be good. Mysteries within the film would also make it more interesting. 7/12/2011 19:45View Responses Silence, Tension, Suspense 2/11/2011 10:59View Responses The Suspense 1/11/2011 9:28View Responses Blood and gore 1/11/2011 9:14View Responses It leaves you with a feeling after then film, it shows how good the film was. 31/10/2011 11:42View Responses Suspense 31/10/2011 11:20View Responses

Here, you can see repetitive replies suggesting that they prefer to see a sense of tension and suspense in horror movies. We tried to implement this through the choice of sounds and special effects.

3. What do you think is the best way to begin a short Horror movie?
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Positive Beginning		0.0%	0
Begins with a Mystery		87.5%	7
Begins with a Sense of Tension		0.0%	0
Begins in Chaos		12.5%	1

4. How would you want a short Horror movie to end?
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
The main character wins		0.0%	0
Ends in Cliffhanger		75.0%	6
Villain dies		12.5%	1
The main character dies		12.5%	1

We wanted the narrative structure to fit into the Enigma Code theory, and therefore the results from question 3, confirm to us that this is what we should stick with. We wanted to begin the film, with the main character in the middle of a dream suiting the idea of the film beginning with a mystery, in an attempt to grip the audience. Question 4 also fitted in with our original rough idea of finishing the film on a cliffhanger, and this is what we went with.

5. Would you want Music in the background?
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
YES		87.5%	7
NO		12.5%	1

DownloadCreate Chart6. Would you want special effects to be used in a horror movie
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
YES		100.0%	8
NO		0.0%	0

A huge part of our portrayal of the events in this film, was done through background music and special effects, which were used to emphasise suspense and tension.

8. What locations would you like to be included in a horror movie
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Bedroom		75.0%	6
Attic		75.0%	6
Basement		100.0%	8
Living room		25.0%	2
Park		75.0%	6
Public transport stations		0.0%	0
Beach/Seaside		25.0%	2
Graveyard		75.0%	6

100% of our participants wanted us to have a scene located in a basement. Therefore, we decided to change the location of the last scene from a bedroom, into a basement.

10. What narrative structure would you want a horror film to take place in? The options are based around narrative theories
	answered question		8
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Todorov theory - Happy beginning, Conflict, Heppy ending		0.0%	0
Enigma Code - The film starting with a mystery		87.5%	7
Binary opposition - Where there are two groups, opposing each other ( EG: Good VS Evil, Black VS white)		12.5%	1

The results from this question correlates with the answers given in question question 3, and confirmed to us, that sticking with the Enigma code narrative structure was the best thing to do.


After finishing producing our film, we got further feedback on how to improve it. The main need for improvement, was for us to maintain more consistant blurring effect throughout the early dream scenes, to illustrate that this whole sequence of events are part of the dreams our main character is having.


After making the final improvements, we got further audience feedback on what they thought of our overall film. The main consensus was that they liked the sounds and visual effects, which helped rise tension and anxiety which is a convention of a horror film. They also enjoyed the colour flow of the film, which was appealing to eye. They noticed was a juxtaposition of black and white which conveyed the confusion of identity the character was experiencing.

However, in terms of how they felt we could improve it, was being able to show the various sequences of event more clearly. For example, making the the location (basement) of the last scene more clearly. We felt this too. Originally, we wanted to add a clip (in between running out of the library and the last scene) where the protagonist ran home, slammed the door closed, and leant on the door frightened. However, due to time constraints, we had to rush the filming for the last few scenes, leading to the fact that we failed to add such scenes. Furthermore, we would've liked to have added a clip where the protagonist is entering the library, and an establishing shot of the library, again, just to clarify the location of the middle scene.