Brief

For my A2 Media Studies course I have the task of creating a blog which shows the steps it takes to market a low budget slasher film and also how to produce it. I will be making a trailer, a movie poster and a magazine front cover. The trailer will be made in a group but everything else for example the movie poster, blog work and magazine cover will be made individually. To be able to make the slasher film we had to do a lot of research and planning. The first thing that we did was collect research; both qualitative and quantitative from our target audience. This is male and females from the ages 15-21 years old. We collected this data so that we would be able to have a better understanding of what our target audience like and dislike in the horror genre. We collected the research using the website www.surveymonkey.co.uk and posted the link to different means of social media such as Facebook, Whatsapp and the teen chat room Zobe. We used these so we were able to have a good amount of people respond to the questionnaire and it gave us differentiated results. 

We also researched by analysing existing posters, trailers and magazine covers which can be seen on the 'Research' page. I did this as it helped me to be able to see the codes and conventions of the slasher movie style and how to incorporate that into my own work. I analysed three of each as it helped me be able to see the different styles that can be used and gave me an idea of what I could do. 

In order to come up with an idea for what the trailer would include I first had to write a synopsis of what the actual movie if we were to be making one would be about. By writing a synopsis after seeing the research it helped me to see what people would like to see in a horror trailer. When I wrote the synopsis it gave me a rough idea of what we would need and what the trailer would look like. In addition to this, I researched into the genre and the influences throughout the history of cinema in contemporary horror. I did a lot of research on German Expressionism and Film Noir and also Modern Slasher movies. 

After doing my research, I had to find actors, locations and props so that we would be able to start filming for the trailer. I also had to make sure I had a set ready to shoot for the magazine cover and film poster. When it came to group work I had to work with my group to produce storyboards for the trailer to understand what and when we would have to film for the trailer. We also wrote scripts for the trailer and a timetable and call sheet to make sure that everything would be completed on time and to a high standard.

 Finally we made sure to have a focus on risk assessments to make sure everyone would be safe and that their would not be  accidents on set. To complete the project I had to answer four evaluation questions that would be about the different stages of the entirety of the project. I was able to answer all of these questions successfully after completing all of my tasks and making sure my research was done at the start of the project.