Final Submission

The only major revision we wanted to make from our 3rd Quarter Submission and our Final Submission was adding a couple of shots at the end that would show Dan walking up to a house and having someone answer the door. This would have established that the chase scene was a flashforward and most of the film would take place before Dan's death. The reason that we wanted to do this is to have the focus of the film be based on finding out who the terrorists are and what they are trying to do.
The reason we could not make this final revision is due to the COVID-19 pandemic because we would have to break quarantine, CDC guidelines, and social distancing. Our scene would have had our actors within a 6-foot distance of each other.

Creative Critical Reflection

Creative Critical Reflection #4 - Technological Incorporation

The main technological aspects of our film making processes were the use of editing software, using a drone, and the use of multiple cameras.

Editing Software

To edit this the project, we used different editing software; ShotCut and Adobe Premier. For our first submission for the midterm, I realized that I did not have Adobe Premier installed on my computer and didn’t have time to install it. shortcut was the only editing software that I had, and I did its job perfectly fine. The only issue that we ran into was that it crashed semi-frequently, but no work was lost because of these crashes. For the third quarter submission, I had installed Premier and was able to recreate the film with the revisions intakes, titling, and audio.

Drones

The use of The drones were really interesting in this film. We initially didn’t know how to add drone shots into the film, until we started flying and saw the entire preserve and decided that it would be great for an opening credits shot. We had about 6 minutes of drone footage but decided to only use the one clip. Another interesting idea we had was to use the drone as a gimble because of the stabilization feature. This was used in our midterm submission for the long take that tracks Dan. We decided that we really like the idea but the drone camera as unable to get audio. We reshot the scene using another camera and a gimble to get the Steadicam effect.

Multiple Cameras

The use of multiple cameras was not a planned idea, but out of necessity. The cameras we used were a Canon EOS Rebel T7I, an iPhone 7+, and a drone camera. The Canon Rebel gave the best quality, but also was a very load camera. What I mean is that the camera lenses were very loud when focusing. This makes sense as the Rebel is meant for picture taking and not videos. We decided to reshoot the shots that needed replacing due to camera sounds with an iPhone 7+. This was due to the easy of recording and the use of a gimble made for phones. The drone camera was the default camera from the DJI Phantom. This camera didn’t record audio, so we used it for aerial shots that we could play sound effects or music over.

Creative Critical Reflection #3 - Production Skills

   Before starting this film project, I had a decent amount of experience with editing. My friend and I have been making videos based around playing videogames. He would record his gameplay and I would do a significant amount of the editing.  This helped designate me as the editor for this project. Besides editing, I didn’t have much experience in the film making process and was relying on my group to work together to form a decent film, which they did.

   During the project, I had learned a lot of new techniques for camera work. I personally don’t like being in front camera, so naturally, I opted into being the cameraman for most of the shots. When starting I didn’t realize that lighting is a pain in the neck! The filming process was weird because there were some shots that we wanted to get, but because we filmed on location, we couldn’t get the proper lighting needed for the shot. Some of these issues were backlighting that caused silhouettes, inconsistency with sunlight between scenes, and timeframe for filming. Because of these lighting issues, we had to work on two important parts of creating a film: Scheduling and positioning. We scheduled our filming times for 12PM-3PM and reshoots were normally from 12PM-2PM. These time frames allowed us to get the footage we needed, while also giving me time to edit that day. Positioning was harder to work on because we were filming in nature. This meant that I would have to be within bushes and be following Dan to get the shots we needed. Altogether, camera work was the skill that I increased the most because I had very little experience when starting and now, I feel comfortable with using a camera and how to create a better shot using these techniques.

   Other skills that I had developed during the project, but I felt like we're more of second hand or learning from my group, were directing actors and production design. For the most part, Gabe was the director in the traditional definition as he would tell us a general idea of what we needed. Of course, Dan, Shea, and I would step in and give advice based on acting, camera work, and human ability, but for the most part, Gabe taught me a lot about how to portray storytelling. Dan helped with the production design of the film. He was the one that found our film location at Redbug Slough Preserve and the trails that we used to film on. We didn’t alter the location much as we wanted to portray an “overgrown” look. Altogether, I didn’t use these skills as much but have developed them as Gabe and Dan took part in building both of these skills.

   Ultimately, I learned a lot about the production processes of a film from this project. My skills continuously increased as we shot and edited new parts or reshoots of the scene. My greatest skill would be editing, but the camera work is my most improved. The skills I learned about, although not doing much of, are production design and directing through my group.

Creative Critical Reflection #2 - Marketing and Distribution

   Our film, “Masks,” is going to be marketed very close to the way that the original Halloween was going to be marketed. The goal is to build intrigue for the film by having our promotional material be based on the gas masks and the word “Masks.” The goal of this style of marketing was to have people ask questions about what the movie is about. Another tactic we looked at for the marketing would be to take inspiration from The Dark Knight and make realistic material that would be seen in the film and use it as the promotion. The Dark Knight used political campaign ads that had graffiti to show the Joker's presence. We planned on having fake graffiti (made in Photoshop) made that said creepy phrases that would allow for the goal of the terrorists to be seen. The phrases would be similar to, “The gas kills all,” or “The masks are here to protect.” As the terrorists are planned to use chemical warfare in the film. Another film that is outside of the psychological drama/horror genre was Kingsman. He looked at that series so that we could understand how to market digitally. What we learned is that constantly posting is not a good idea, but by posting semi-frequently and posts that are interactive help to build hype around a film’s release. Here are some examples of posters we have made for the marketing:

   The distribution plan for our film would follow the traditional style of distribution by meeting with a production house such as Blumhouse or Lionsgate. These production companies are known for their horror films and would help fund the creation and distribution of the film process. We would want a normal theater distribution in October to emphasize the genre as a horror film and have the film be in theaters for four to five weeks. After the film stops playing in theaters then we wait ninety days for a Blu-Ray/DVD release. The final goal for our distribution plan is to get out the movie on a major streaming service like Netflix or to sell the licensing rights to a company like HBO or Showtime. The first option is more likely to pay an upfront check for a multiple movie lease, and Netflix is known to buy films for as little as one hundred thousand dollars. The latter option is where a company buys the right to use your film and then they license it to other streaming services for a price. HBO does this by having a subscription process for their applications and websites, but they also have an add-on for apps like Amazon and Hulu for $10. This route seems more profitable and easier access for fans of the film.

Creative Critical Reflection #1 - Conventions

   Our film used a good mixture of both using and challenging conventions within the film industry. A convention we used for the camera work within our film was the use of mostly wide-shots during the chase scenes. This helps establish both Dan as a character by allowing the audience to see him, his costume, and his range of motions during the chase and the environment he is in. The film that we took inspiration from was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. This is inspiration comes wide-shots within the scene giving more of a description of the location and the characters involved. In Harry Potter that does use a lot of mid-shots within that scene, but that was to create a hectic atmosphere because the characters in that story were already established. We chose to use wide-shots because we understood that the audience would not know where or who Dan was, and by giving them a little more information on the environment and his body movement it would allow for them to understand that he is being chased through a somewhat unknown environment.

   An example of a challenge to conventions is seen in close-up on Dan’s foot as he runs by the camera. This is unconventional as most close-ups are on a person’s face and not their foot unless it was an important part of the plot (which it isn’t). Some would argue that this shot is actually an insert, but the point of the shot is to introduce Dan and not show an object. This scene was included because we wanted an interesting open for Dan and allow it to be somewhat startling as well.

   An example of a convention within editing is the use of the short takes. Most shots within the actual chasing are considered short takes with only two takes being more than five seconds. This was to create a sense of speed. These frequent cuts allowed Dan to travel from one area to the next to establish that Dan is faster than he is really running. Another reason for the short takes to slowly introduce the terrorists in the background. The goal was to have the presence of the masked individuals continue to increase until the end. The examples of short take chase scenes we were inspired by were from Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and 28 Weeks Later.

   An example of the challenging of conventions within our editing is the Steadicam tracking long take. This takes breaks the use of stationary short takes for the following camera shot that lasts nearly twenty seconds. The reason for this shot was to slow the pace of the chase a little bit and show that Dan was getting tired. This change in Dan’s stamina gives a sense of realism as Dan slowly starts to lose. The point of the loss of stamina it to give the audience the impression that Dan is going to lose.

   An example of conventional sound usage is the sound effects at the end of the scene. At the end of the scene, we see the terrorists shoot Dan with a cut to black and birds screeching. The point of this was to establish a sense of realism as nature would be disturbed by the loud noise. When finding a sound effect for the gun we wanted to use one that had a lot of echoing. We felt like it allowed for the gun shoot to set in for the audience and when pair with birds to help give a sense that Dan was dead. An example of this can be seen in Breaking Bad when Hank is shot in the desert the noise from the gun echoes to establish his death.

   An example of challenging the conventional use of sound is that there is no incidental music during the chase. Most chase scenes, on-foot or in a car, have incidental music playing to help increase the intensity of the chase. We decided to leave the music out of the scene to help give a sense of what Dan was going through in the scene. The sounds of nature and Dan running are what we tried using to build tension for the audience.

   An example of the conventional use of mise-en-scene is seen in the costuming for the terrorist. Our goal was to make the terrorist stand out from Dan, even though he is wearing the same outfit. The masks are supposed to intrigue the audience and differentiate the terrorist from Dan. This is seen in most films to help the audience understand a fight. In Harry Potter, the Snatchers are wearing torn clothes and in Breaking Bad the White Supremacists are wearing leather and slicked-back hair. These are to help determine Harry and his friends and Hank and his partner from the rest of the characters.

   An example of challenging the conventions of mise-en-scene was by not controlling the lighting. In different scenes, there are different amounts of light and this was done to show a passage of time. This shows that Dan had been running for a while as the Sun went from the bright dawn to the morning light, to the sun being perfect at noon. This was done mistakenly, but we realized how it worked perfectly for us. Normally, when filming this would be done on purpose or would be controlled to have the chase be all at the same time, but we decided that it was possible for us to control it and it ended up being a really detail part of our film.
   Our film represents two social groups; people and terrorists. In our film, we wanted to make a clear divide between the people as represented by Dan and the terrorists who are the actors wearing gas masks. Within the scene the only actor that the demographics can be taken from is Dan. Dan is supposed to play the early twenties, white, male, investigative report that had joined the cult-like terrorist organization to uncover the truth behind their masks.

Third Quarter Submission

Masks is a psychological thriller that takes place in an unknown wooded area. Our protagonist played by Daniel McCarthy is running from a group of masked figures. This scene is chronologically the last of the film as the film is about Dan investigating the cult that is chasing him. In our original post for the midterm, we mentioned that we had issues with the audio, cutting, and camera quality. We were able to fix the issues with audio and the cutting. The audio issue came from the camera that we were using that had a broken microphone. The cutting issue can from the original editing software that we were using, ShotCut. We were able to fix the software for this submission and my group and I are trying to get a better editing software. The camera quality issue is still present as we don't have reliable access to a camcorder with consistent quality. We used an iPhone 7+ for the reshooting. Besides the issue of camera quality, the only other issue we faced was the use of audio. For this submission, we used a royalty-free song during the beginning, but we are working on creating incidental music for the scene.

Revision 3 - Other Changes

Between the midterm and third quarter submissions, there were a lot of small changes that fit under different categories.

Audio:

We changed the music from a song named "Mysterious Psychological Horror Music" by Dukkha to a song named "Run and Hide" by Jens Kilstofete. The main reason for the change was that the original choice felt like it was to slow, whereas the latter choice gives a sense of speed and intensity that we were looking for.

Editing:

We changed the sequence of shots that we used. In the original, we excluded the shot of Dan running past the camera with both terrorists in the background due to time restraint, but after editing some shots out we decided to reinclude the shot. This caused us to move the reshoot of the shot after later in the video for a connecting shot between two events.

Camera Angle:

In the gimble shot of Dan running, we made the terrorist a little harder to see but still visible. This is to add a sense of confusion as the audience should be able to see him and question why he was there before the realize that Dan is running from them.

Distribution Plan

Masks would follow a traditional distribution within theaters. Masks would aim for an October release to emphasize the horror elements of the film. The film would stay within the theaters for four weeks. This would allow the audience a month to see the film during a time with a high appeal towards horror films and movies due to the Halloween spirit.

Masks would follow a lot of the traditions of a horror film's distribution plan. The film's home release on DVD/Blu-Ray would be 90 days after the theatrical release. The film would release on streaming services around the same time. One action we would take it to advertise the film during the Halloween season on streaming platforms. Streaming platforms normally pay upfront for films. Netflix's budget for buying movie licenses is expected to increase to about $17 billion, and each film they pay for in recent history has been bought for no less than $100,000. Another idea that would help the film produce profits would be to sell the licensing rights to a company such as Showtime or HBO. These companies would handle the distribution of the film by letting the audience subscribe to their service through other applications. These companies pay a lease upfront for the rights, but the prices are varied based on the title. These add-ons are normally for sale for $10-$15 a month.

Distribution Research - Halloween (2018)

The 2018 version of Halloween is a sequel/reboot of 1978's Halloween. The 2018 addition to Michael Myers lore is a direct sequel to iconic original Halloween released in 1978, and skips over the other entries in the series. This installment is not seen as an undisputed classic like the original, but it was successful at the box offices with 76.2 million in the first weekend. This marks the second most successful opening in October and in the Halloween franchise. The film ultimately grossed $255.5 million overall, with $128.5 million in profits.
Halloween (2018) was released on October 19th and followed the traditional 90 day schedule for its digital release. The film was released digitally through Cinemax. Cinemax is an add-on service for streaming websites and TV. Cinemax can be purchased on traditional TV services such as; Directv, Dish Network, Comcast's Xfinity, etc.. Cinemax can also be purchased as an add-on on streaming services such as; Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Sling Tv. Halloween is available to buy on YouTube, Google Play Music, and Vudu for $15.

Revision 2 - Titling and Text on Screen

In the midterm submission, we had our credits in the same spots every time they were on screen. How we revised this is by putting them in different places and changing the sequencing of names. This makes the scene's opening seem a little more natural. We also changed the titling of the film. In the midterm submission, we had the film play after the gunshot and the music would return. This made our film seem more like a trailer to the film, so we moved the title to the beginning credits as the scene's ending is now a cut to black after the gunshot and started bird noises were added. The ending now looks more like a movie as it would continue to the next scene. Another small revision we made was with the font. We notice that the first and last letters were being cut off, so we added spaces to the beginning and end of each name and the issue was fixed.

The videos below are the revision made:

Distribution Research - Get Out

Get Out is a psychological horror that plays on the idea of racism in society and has similar ideas of how we intend to scare the audience. Get Out is a Blumhouse Productions horror film released to theaters on February 24, 2017 to critical acclaim. Get Out grossed $255.5 million worldwide, with profits of $124.8 million. The film was released to 2,781 theaters and grossed 30.5 million in its opening weekend. Get Out was in theater for the traditional 90 days, but saw more time in theaters after it was nominated for an Oscar.
Get Out is currently available for digital download and streaming on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies, and Vudu for $4 and ITunes for $15. Get Out was created under Fox Entertainment Group before the Disney Merger. FXM owns the rights to play the on TV. After the

Disney-Fox merger, Get Out is now available on Hulu with a subscription.

Distribution Research - Avenger's End Game

Avenger's End Game has a surprisingly similar target audience as our films are geared towards 15-30 year old men. The distribution methods followed a very orthodox path that involved the films theater life to be extended to continue sales. This was down to beat Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time. The original theatrical release was April 26th and followed the world premiere at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The film grossed $1.2 billion worldwide opening weekend. The film was ultimately short of the record. The original release of the film made roughly $2.76 billion in the global box office and was short $27 million from Avatar's record. Disney then rereleased the film with a deleted scene, a tribute to Stan Lee, and an additional trailer for Spiderman: Far From Home on June 28th. This edition of the film allowed for the film to surpass Avatar by about $20 million.
The digital distribution of End Game started on July 30th as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment sold the rights to buy and download the film from services like Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Vudu for $2.99. The film had a late introduction to the streaming services as Disney was waiting to release it on Disney+ on November 12th. Disney+ also boasts all of the exclusive featurettes, director/actor commentaries, deleted scenes, and blooper reels.

Traditional Distribution Research

The traditional distribution process for a film follow these steps; obtaining production funds, licensing agreement, negotiating with a film brooker, and ancillary revenues. These steps hold very important step for the legal ownership of the film and establishing the flow of money for a film. The first step of the filmmaking process is making sure that your film has an established producer. This producer would finance the films production costs for a return in profits generated. The five major production companies are Warner Brothers, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, and Walt Disney Studios. These production studios are owned by conglomerates that are able to produce the films. Most films have a secondary production company that is credited, which is the filmmakers production house. An example of this can be seen with the Star Wars Franchise as Disney has purchased Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm is still the production company of the film, but the film is produced by Disney. The distinguishing factor between the two companies are, who is making the film and who is paying for the film. The film distribution starts with two groups; production representatives and film sales agents. The production representative is responsible for distributing your film to within the United States to movie theaters and other venues. The film sales agent is responsible for the international distribution of your film. An example of the importance of this step is the film Bridge of Spies, where Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributed the film nationally but 20th Century Fox distributed the film internationally. Film brookers work for companies like Regal Entertainments that show the film. These brokers negotiate the revenue split between the theaters and studios. The average Hollywood release sees a split of 90/10 in favor of the studios. After a film's theater run, the licensing rights for the film are sold to companies that will sell physical and digital copies such as Blu-Ray or Google Play Movies. The other alternative would be to lease the film to a streaming company such as Netflix so that your film is exclusively on a streaming platform. Media companies has started to form their own streaming platforms to create a new stream revenue such as Disney+ did.
The way that out film could benefit from this process is that I would be seen by the mass media. This is the traditional path for a Hollywood film, which is what Masks is intended to be. This format would allow for my group and a production company to create a great profit, as we do not own a production company.

Revision 1 - Audio

The midterm submission had issues with audio. The issue came from the camera focusing noises and our other camera having issues with recording audio. Our Canon EOS Rebel T7I had audio issues as the camera is mainly used for picture taking. meaning the focusing sounds were heard within the shot. What we did to solve this issue was reshooting the scenes that had these noises with an iPhone 7+. We traded video quality for audio quality, but we decided the video quality with the iPhone was better than having the unnecessary sounds. The other issue was the sound was the use of the DJI Phantom's camera because it didn't have a working microphone. How we solved the issue was using the iPhone 7+ and a gimble to rerecord the shot. The new shot has better quality and sound.

The videos below are the revision made:

Marketing Plan

We plan on focusing on two aspects of our film for the marketing campaign, mystery and gas masks. By focusing on these elements it allows for the plot of the film and the twists it contains to remain hidden, while also introducing the antagonists (the terrorists). We have created a rough draft of one of the posters that we would like to use.

The simplistic element would add to the mystery that is being presented to the audience. The goal is to get them asking questions about the masks like, "why are they wearing gas masks?", "What is their goal?", etc. By creating those questions in the audience's head, it would draw them to see the film when released.
The other major form of marketing that our team would be able to utilize would be creating an ad campaign on Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram has a range for the cent per click (CPC) ranging from 20 cents to $2, which means that every time someone clicks on the ad on the platform we would be charged. For Instagram our ad would be based around the idea the terrorists slowly appearing out of a smokey and black background. Snapchat has a more straight forward cost as its starting costs are $3000/month and about $450,000/day (Sunday-Thursday) for their signature Snapchat Sponsored Lenses. My idea for the Snapchat marketing would be a 5-second ad that plays during and in between stories and to buy a Snapchat Lens that would let the user wear a gas mask.
The final form of marketing that we would utilize would be TV. We would obtain a commercial slot on a network. This would be similar to a trailer released for the film that would fit within a 15-30 slot.

Audience Engagement Research - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight and Masks are both action films are targeting a male audience. The Dark Knight is a sequel to Batman Begins created by Christopher Nolan. Masks are focusing on a more specific target age at 15-25, whereas The Dark Knight is aiming for 12-35-year-olds. The reason that I researched this film's target audience is the marketing strategies of the film. During the movie's post-production, Heath Ledger had sadly post away from an overdose of legally prescribed drugs. The film than switched their marketing campaign to his role as the Joker as they posted memorials of the late actor. Some conspiracies link the method actors' role as the Joker to his mental issues that caused him to take the drugs that he overdosed on.

The marketing for this campaign focused on the Joker and Harvey Dent because Nolan's Batman had already been established as a realistic reincarnation of DC's greatest detective. The first form of marketing they established was a website under the domain WhySoSerious.com that was a fictional political campaign for the newest character. The next form was a corrupted version of the website that would show emails in support of Harvey that would end up pixelation into the first depiction of Heath Ledger's Joker. Next, the marketing team for The Dark Knight sent their fans on a scavenger hunt to unlock a new photo of the Joker and a new website that was a mimic of a newspaper, The Gotham Times, that gave some information of the events of Gotham over the time between the films. Other noticeable marketing events are showing the bank robbery scene in the opening of the film, releasing animated tie-ins to connect Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Batman insignias on race cars, a rollercoaster at Six Flags theme parks, and toys produced by Mattel.

The persuasive techniques taken to help sell movie tickets were a mix of Batman's notoriety and the new depiction of the Joker. The Joker was an iconic character that had been portrayed by legendary actors like Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Hamill (voice acting). The marketing team for the film had decided to let the hype around the Joker and the ability to interact at events like Comic-Con. The film used print, TV, billboards, and heavily relied on digital platforms. If I could use one marketing tactic for my group's film, I would use their interactional marketing with websites and scavenger hunts because it could easily allow for a fan base to get involved and excited for the film.

In-Class Activity - Art of the Title

After looking at Art of the Title, the website has allowed for some insight into how to creatively portray the title sequence. The one aspect that I noticed from the openings was that the information on screen does not have to be organized as much as I previously thought. When editing the film I added the text within the frame in the same spot every time. With films like "Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes," which uses different text styles, size, and color but have the same font. The title scene that I watched that was done really well was Se7en. The text fonts that were sporadic and animated gave the film a new level of creepiness, which very quickly gave the film a bleak and morbid mood. The website gives an interesting commentary about Se7en as they say it's stuck between a cult film and a classic. The reason for this confusion is due to the minute details that are seen even within the detail that a big study wouldn't pay attention to, but it is still stacked with A-list stars. According to the Art of the Title, "...it is stocked with A-list talent and propped up by a smart script, a memorable score, and rich cinematography, and a production value in lockstep with Fincher’s vision for the film." This quote just further explains that the critics of the film though that the film had the big production company style of talent with a feel of an indie film because of the ability to portray a smart story that isn't seen in the blockbuster films of Hollywood. The opening of Se7en makes me want to invest the time to animate the titles to add some personality to the nature shots and establish the horror conventions.

Audience Engagement Research - Kingsman

Kingsman and Masks share a similar target audience in the categories of age, gender, and personal interests. Both films are about terrorism and focus on a man in his late teen's early twenties trying to stop it, but the difference is that Kingsman is a parody of a spy movie whereas Masks is a real psychological thriller. The target age is 15-25. The target gender is male. The target personal interests are based around stopping terrorist plots. The main difference between in target audience would be education level as Masks focuses on trying to crack the terrorist plans before they happen, whereas the Kingsman is a rip on the classic spy movie. Our film is supposed to be smarter than Kingsman, but still focus on similar themes.
Kingsman focuses its advertising on the main character of Eggsy more than its plot. This is something that our group wants to focus on as other films that spoil the plot within its advertising is normally ridiculed especially if there is a plot twist. The trailer does set up Valentine as the antagonist, but it doesn't explain his plan or motive. All the audience knows about Valentine's plans is that he intends to kill a bunch of people. A decent amount of the advertising shows off the start-studded cast of Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Firth, and Mark Strong plus a newer actor in Taron Egerton as the lead role. Another marketing tactic was to advertise the clothing used in the movie as the Kingsman is supposed to be in suits (example below). The Kingsman uses print, TV, billboards, and a heavy amount of digital advertising. The Kingsman had its own website that would promote their social media, trailers and inside information about the movie and subsequent series.
The main idea that I would use from the research I have done on Kingsman would create a very heavy digital marketing campaign. Social media is a huge platform that my target audience uses daily so by focusing on advertising on apps like Instagram and Twitter I would be able to reach my target audience very easily.

Audience Engagement Research - Halloween

Halloween was a psychological horror film based on the murders of fictitious serial killer Michael Myers. Our films have similar moods that the audience should be feeling. The audience should be creeped out about the location of the main antagonist. The target audience of both of these films is 15-25-year-old males. The marketing of the film Halloween had very little to Michael himself but focused on what he was doing with the slogan "The Night He Came Back" on the poster. The trailer only reveals that Michael is a murderer and that his victims in the film are babysitters. This is very similar to the idea that I pitched to the group when talking about the marketing aspects. I wanted to take a picture of the gas-masked used in the film and then have a simple phrase that didn't give away the plot of the movie. This idea of not knowing what the film is about is the persuasive technique. The marketing for Halloween is surrounded by the mystery of who Michael is and why he is trying to murder Jamie Lee Curtis' character. This is similar to the idea of our film as the movie is based on learning the true intent of the terrorists, so marketing would have to stay away from the idea of why the terrorist plans. Halloween was advertised on TV, radio, and print. The didn't use digital and billboard advertising for two different reasons; budget and technology. The internet hadn't been invented until 1983 so the film had nothing digital to use for marketing. Billboards weren't used to market Halloween due to budget restraints as the film only had $1.3 million (inflation rates applied) to create their entire film. Our film would take advantage of the digital marketing scheme as social media is a huge source of our target audience age range. The two platforms we would focus on using the most would be Instagram and Snapchat as it is easy to upload a shortened version of the trailer which would aid the idea of not spoiling the movie. Instagram's maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) is about $3.00 and Snapchat's ad campaigns are monthly charges of $3,000.

My Target Audience

"Masks" is a psychological horror film that plays with scenery to scare the audience. The age of our target audience is roughly 15-30 years old. This age is due to the violent plot as the film uses themes such as terrorism, murder, and kidnapping. The gender of our target audience is mainly male. This is due to the pattern seen in Hollywood with violent/action films being pushed towards men. Our film is targeted mostly toward the American and English audiences as the film's dialogue is in English. The target income for our film is the middle class. The movie is supposed to be thrilling for a cheap cost. The education level for our target audience would be at least at high school level as the film is supposed to reveal the plot subliminally as it furthers only to reveal the plot near the end. The interest of our target audience might be mystery plots, video games, and the idea of creating a terrorism.

Feedback and Revisions

Based on the feedback that I received after presenting, I realized that my groups film was lacking consistency in production value. While filming, our group used multiple different cameras with differing quality. The cameras that we used were a Canon EOS Rebel T7I, an IPhone 7+, and a default camera that came with the DJI Phantom. The quality of each camera vary with the Canon being the best and the drones camera being the worst. This makes each scene look very different from each other. The lighting, resolution, and frame rate are all impacted by the changing of cameras. In re-shoots we are going to re-shoot and only use one camera, a GoPro Hero 8. This is the perfect camera for our movie as we wanted to re-shoot some scenes on a gimbal to eliminate the shakiness of the camera.
 Another issue that we planned on hearing during our feedback was the weird audio during the Steadicam shot of Dan running with the camera right behind him. When editing the film together we realized that all of the drone footage's audio had been corrupted. In post, I put in some running sounds and explained that when using the Hero 8 my audio would not corrupt, and it is something that I will be looking out for when re-shooting. We plan on re-shooting most of the scene. We are using our midterm as a guide for what we want and how to evolve it into the best form we can get.

Use of Conventions

The film Masks challenges the convention of linear editing by having its main protagonist die in the first scene. We intended for the scene after the title screen to take place earlier than the opening. By using nonlinear editing it allowed for use to play with the audience by hiding or giving information that the audience would like to know. Why we decided to have Dan die in the opening scene was to show the tactics and power of the terrorists in a way that the audience couldn't explain.

A convention that we decided to use within our movie was continuity. Because our film plays with time in a nonlinear fashion, we made sure that every shot within the opening had continuity. Originally the terrorists were supposed to have this mystical appeal to them, but after realizing the confusing nature of the opening we made sure that there was only five terrorists throughout the scene and five at the ending. By using this convention it allows for audience members that are paying attention to understand how the story unfolds before Dan's inevitable death.

Masks is really only representing terrorists, not in a good way, but it shows that terror organizations are powerful and able to get what they need. Terrorism is an issue of the modern world and is wide spread after events like 9/11 and Oklahoma City Bombing. Within psychological horror aspect of the film is looking at portraying a figure that could be real while also bridging into the unrealistic nature of action movies.