Original Horror Film

Chad isn’t your every day guy; he rules the school, with every girl throwing themselves at him, every girl wants him and every guy wants to be him, and for Chad life was good! The only problem being, all the girls that Chad dates, seem to go mysteriously missing?! Chad simply states that these girls have left town or moved schools, and, being Chad, nobody dares to question him, even the teacher’s fall for his lies. Chad, being the player that he is, has worked his way through most of the popular girls at his high school and now, he is on the prowl for something new, he decides to go to library, to find a new girl, here he bumps into Kate, the classic smart nerdy girl, that has some attrictiveness to her. 

Chad does what he does best and eventually persuades her to go on a date with him that evening! He picks her up in his car, and they head off to Chad’s place. Chad lives in the middle of nowhere, miles outside of town, he claims that the house has been in his family for generations, which is why it looks run down and old, although convinced, Kate still questions the place, seeing no real evidence off anyone living there.Chad continues to use his flirtatious nature to lure in Kate, part way through their date, Kate asks to use the toilet in which Chad agrees, he points he up stairs not giving her any real direction. 

She is now alone, walking down dark mysterious corridors, she happens to notice a door with some dark stairs leading down to, what she assumes to be a basement, she continues on down the corridor, and on the way to the toilet she hears strange noises, sounds like people yelling for help, creaking noises, and whispering, she is scared but she gets to the toilet! When she comes downstairs Chad is nowhere to be seen... suddenly the lights begin to flicker and go out one at a time, as each light goes out there are flashes past the window, it seems to be a masked man heading towards the door, Kate runs not knowing what is truely going on, but can she escape in time?

Original Questionaire

1. Are you male or female?
2. What us your age?
3. Are you a fan of horror films?
4. How often do you watch horror films?
5. Where are you most likely to watch a horror film?
6. What do you enjoy most about horror films?
7. What entices you to go to the Cinema to see a film, instead of waiting for the DVD to come out or getting an illegal copy of the film?
8. What is your favourite sub-genre of horror?
9. Does having a star in the film make you want to see it more?
10. Do trailers and posters convince you to go and see a film?

Through the use of survey Monkey, I put together a list of 10 questions to put to my audience, this was done to be able to gather a sense of what people look for in a Horror film. I managed to get people of all ages to participate in my questionnaire, this giving me a good overall age range who have taken the questionnaire which helps me to design a product which would appeal to my target audience but one in which could also bring in a wider audience. From gathering feedback i will be able to create a product in which will satisfy a variety of age groups. Also finding out what peoples favourtie genre is will help me to decide which one I shall pursue.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C5Z35Z6
  

Film Distribution and marketing

The term ‘Film Distribution’ is the process in which a film is made available to the public for viewing. A film distributor is a company or an individual who is responsible for the marketing of a film; this is large process which involves the company or individual having to create ways to attract the audience to their product, vitally without an audience the film cannot generate any money, which is its sole purpose. The distributor can set the release date for the film and the method in which the film is going to be available for viewing, whether it is via Home viewing (DVD, Video on demand, Download, Television Programmes through Broadcast Syndication etc.) or Theatrically. They are also responsible for the distribution of the film on a global scale; they achieve this through the use of Trailers, Teaser Trailers, Posters, and Billboards and then also by producing merchandise of the movie. A distributor may be able to do this directly, if the film distributor owns the theatres or film distribution networks, or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors.  A distributor who is limited may only be able to deal with particular pordocuts, for example DVD’S or Blu-ray, or they may work in a particular country or market. In order to gain a successful return on the Film a Marketing plan is put together, this is how they want to attract their audience to their film; they need to come up with a unique marketing plan for their Film in order for it to do well. They have to consider, what would be appropriate for the genre of the Film, and most importantly who their intended target audience is and what would be the best way to draw them in. 
An early connection with your audience is very important, Distribution and marketing of your film should start as early as possible, this can be done via a ‘Teaser Trailer’ being realised up to a year before the film is even finished! This ultimately gives their audience a sneak peek into the film and leaves them wanting more. This will add publicity to your film, via promotion you are trying to persuade the public to take an interest in your product, via event sponsorship and organise a tour of the product in order to show what it is all about, in all the main point of promotion is to influence your customers enough, that when the product is realised they will go and pay to see it, and then purchase products such as DVD’s, Blu-ray and generate more money for the film. Some of the best ways of successfully promoting your product are social media (Facebook Fan pages, groups and Twitter), Advertisement, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. A contrast in the available ‘reach’ in marketing can be seen in the British film ‘Colin’ this film had a very low reach only being released in one cinema in the UK and having an estimated budget of just $70! Due to its incredibly small budget ‘Colin’ had very small reach, this shown in contrast to a film such as the 2010 film ‘A nightmare on Elm street’ the film had a budget of $35,000,000 and on its opening weekend was shown in 3,332 cinemas, the film gained a massive $32,902,299 on its opening weekend smashing and breaking box office records at the time, seeing a big contrast  to ‘Colin’ showing how budget is extremely important, in the Distribution and marketing of a film, and the overall success of it.

Teaser/ Main posters

A teaser poster will be made available to the public for viewing months before the film is ready for release, or even complete. The idea and motive of realising a Teaser poster is too get the attention of the public, they want to make sure that they can plant the film into the public’s mind and word will spread, generating publicity for the film. This is done in order to boost the reach of the film this will inevitably result in more viewings when the film is actually realised which will generate more money and a high return rate. A teaser poster may have a slogan which is associated with that particular film or maybe a sign or certain image which represents the film which is seen in certain film franchises, or may come up with a new generic one in order to get people talking about it and instead of having definite information it may say ‘2010’ so it doesn’t specially give out dates for release but shows the audience its coming soon. In contrast the main poster will give the audience specific information, such as release dates, actors and other finer details. They may also include slogans as shown on the Nightmare on Elm street poster ‘He knows where you sleep’ also showing a detailed image to draw in the audience. This is exactly the same process used when it comes to Teaser and Main trailers. The teaser trailer will be a lot shorter than the full length trailer, it will give away more information than the teaser poster and will help the public get interested and draw them in to go and see it. The main trailer will be longer and will show more detail, this is done to leave the audience wanting to see more, it will also include a definite release date, also it will define the main characters giving some element of the plot, also will contain scary and jumpy moments to give the viewer an adrenaline rush and also shock them, leaving them wanting to see much more. Ultimately if the Posters and trailers have done their job you will see a good return rate on your film, and will be a 'Box Office' success.

‘A nightmare on Elm Street’ was distributed by New line cinema and was distributed worldwide by Warner Brothers Pictures. 

The film had an estimated budget of $35,000,000; the film gained $32,902,299 in sales on its opening weekend and eventually made $115,664,037 in total at Box office.

Teaser Trailer and Teaser Poster

Main Trailer and Main Poster

Finished Poster

Magazine Cover