Research: Film Titles

The title above is from the 2011 supernatural horror film, Insidious. The title is on a dark brown/black background which is conventional as dark colours connote eeriness and scariness, both constant themes throughout the genre. It also appeals to an audience of both males and females as from my research, both genders generally watch horror films and so it doesn't single out a certain demographic. The font is in a dark red which stands out against the dark background. Red has connotations of danger, and also resembles blood, an icon of supernatural horrors. It is also in a serif font, with parts of each letter sharply jutting out at the ends, slightly resembling daggers and blades - both of which are icons of the genre. As the typography is 3D, shadows are being cast over some of the letters, giving it a dark and mysterious look. Shadows are an icon of the supernatural horror genre as they have connotations of mystery and the nighttime, a typical setting for horror films. Insidious is set around a family who are moving into a their new home which unbeknownst to them, is haunted by a ghost after their child. This means that this film title style would be very appropriate for our film as they both follow similar narratives, although in Insidious, a devil demon is a main antagonist and this could be why the title is in bright red with sharp horns coming from the letters, meaning we may need to think of a slightly different style to fit our film's narrative perfectly.

The second title is from the 2013 supernatural horror film, The Conjuring. This a slightly unconventional film title style than most supernatural horror films as it doesn't use the typical styles and colours that other films use. Firstly, the background of the title is a dull, moody colour which almost looks like an overcast sky. Dull colours are often used within the genre as they represent the dark narrative that is to follow in the film. Also, the use of a background which resembles an overcast sky is also conventional as bad weather is often seen within the genre as a way to foreshadow the bad things that are going to happen in the film's narrative. The font is in a serif style, which has connotations of an old fashioned time and setting, both of which are common narratives within the genre, and also hints to the audience the film's narrative. It is also conventional for supernatural horrors to use serif font for their titles as they create a more ominous, serious look and tone that reflects the happenings in the film. The title has an overall ambiguous look to it as from first glance, you wouldn't immediately think that it is for a supernatural horror film which may not immediately attract fans of the genre, but cause intrigue and interest into what the film's really about and make them want to go and see it. We may consider using a font and style like this title as we think it is effective at setting a dark and ominous tone, however, we may include some more striking colours to make it stand out to our target audience more, and to make it more identifiable as a supernatural horror film for fans. We may include a sentence underneath the title like the one above, stating that it is based on true events as this is very conventional of the genre as it intrigues the audience as it makes the narrative seem more believable and thus making them think it could happen to them.

The third title is from the 2014 supernatural horror film, Annabelle. The typography used for this title is similar to the ones I have previously looked at, the conventional serif font which has connotations of an old fashioned setting, a typical setting for the genre, and it also sets a serious and ominous tone. It immediately attracts fans of the genre as many supernatural horrors use the same style of font, and so it is identifiable for them and is something that they expect and want to see. Also, the background is what looks like a wall with old fashioned wallpaper on, hinting to the audience the setting and narrative of the film, and also linking to the old fashioned style of font used. The 3D effect on the title casts long shadows of each letter across what looks like a wall as the background. These long shadows creates an ominous and dark effect, and plus shadows are an icon of the supernatural horror genre. The use of various shades of dark blue as the titles main colour palette creates a cold and dull look and atmosphere, which hints to the audience the film's narrative. We think this style for our title would be effective, although we think we may use a red colour instead as this is overall more striking and conventional of the genre. Although, we may still use a dark and old fashioned background as this creates the ominous atmosphere that we also want to create in our teaser trailer.

Planning/Editing: Film Title

After coming to the point in our editing process where we need to finalise our titles and to do this, we need to confirm the title of our film. Although we have already given our film a working title of 'Occupied', we want to make sure that this is an effective title for our target audience and identifiable for fans of the supernatural horror genre. When choosing title choices, we thought about our narrative and what titles would make sense for our film, but also looked at other supernatural horror films and the different titles they have.

Tab and I decided to conduct a target audience survey to find out directly which title was most effective for our film.

The Last Move - |||||

The Uninvited - |

The Visitors -

Occupied - ||||| ||||| |

Dead End - |||||

Nocturnal - |||

After surveying 25 members of our target audience, it is clear that our working title is the most popular and is the title that we are going to use in our final teaser trailer. Tab and I are pleased with this choice as we believe it subtly reflects the narrative within our film and intrigues our target audience, instead of some obvious titles that are quite cliché and common. Although we do believe 'Nocturnal' and 'Dead End' are effective choices also, as we are wanting to attract the audience we surveyed, the title of our film is going to be Occupied.

Production/Editing: Rough Cut 2

Production/Editing: Audience Feedback on Trailer (Draft 1)

Tab and I conducted a focus group in order to gain some feedback on our first draft of our teaser trailer. We decided to do a focus group as it allows us to identify the changes needed in order to improve our trailer. The group was made up of A2 media students raging between the ages of 17-18. This applies to the target audience of our film as we are targeting young adults, as they are the demographic more likely to watch supernatural horror films. Also, as the focus group is made up of media students, they know that they can be as critical as they have to be and won't hold back like some friends maybe would. Media students also know how to improve in terms of fitting in with the conventions of other teaser trailer and the supernatural horror genre. I took some notes on the feedback that we received. They are featured below:

Narrative structure:
Many members of our focus group felt that the teaser trailer didn't really give a huge insight into the film's narrative, which although this is what teaser trailers intend to do, ours was too unclear for our focus group that they felt they didn't really get what happened by the end of the trailer and why. One member of the group stated that the lack of dialogue between the characters could be the reason for this. Another piece of feedback that we received was that they didn't feel scared enough during what was supposed to be the main climatic moment of the trailer as there was a lack of a dramatic build up to lead up to it. They suggested that the lack of a scary enough soundtrack and sound effects could be the reason for this and that if these were added with some extra fast montage editing, added tension and drama could be achieved.

Soundtrack/score:
One member of the focus group didn't like the use of the happy soundtrack at the beginning because they felt that it wasn't happy enough for it to contrast effectively with the scary soundtrack that begins later on in the teaser trailer. Some people felt that the transitions between the different sound effects and music were a bit messy and didn't run smoothly, thus making the trailer seem amateurish and unprofessional. However they did feel that the score was very conventional of a horror film. Like previously said in the last section, one person said that if some extra dramatic sound effects were added into the trailer, then it will make the trailer seem more scary for the audience and more conventional of a supernatural horror teaser trailer.

To improve:
One aspect that people commented on was the dramatic change in happy and ominous, as they felt it happened to quickly without any indication of why and how any of these things are happening, also not making it clear that is specifically a supernatural horror film. Many people commented on the sound levels on one of the shots where the two protagonists are reassuring each other on the sofa, as it is much louder than the soundtrack and there is a faint buzzing sound in the background of the shot, making it quite clear to the audience and making it sound amateurish. Some also felt that the trailer was slightly short and didn't appetise their interests in the film enough in that short amount of time.

Things they liked:
All of the audience members felt that the title and inter-titles were effective at grabbing and intriguing the audience, as well as they liked the way they were designed and how they appeared. They liked the beginning of the trailer as it is very conventional for most supernatural horror films to begin with everybody happy and prosperous to then contrast to the unfortunate events to come. They could easily recognise that it was a couple who were moving into their new home. The audience felt that they were engaged throughout the whole trailer thanks to the interesting shots within the montage editing.

Production/Editing: Rough Cut 1

Production/Editing: Crash Edit

Filming: Update

Today we were thankfully able to finish the filming of all of our interior and exterior shots. We have finished slightly behind schedule and we have less time to edit our rushes and crash and draft edits. We are having some troubles getting the footage off of our camera as the camera we used uses tapes, thus making it harder to transfer the shots on to the computer. This has made it hard to continue to finish our rough cuts and rushes, and in addition to this, having it on tapes mean that we are going to have to look through it all and create a timetable of different time spans on bits of the footage we want to use in our final piece, which is going to quite time consuming.