Here is my Coursework two Final Proposal.
Monthly Archives: January 2015
CW2: Conclusion
Conclusion
In conclusion to the second segment of research and development, I have progressed to a comfortable level in which I believe the project is moving in the correct direction. It might not of addressed all the areas in which the guidelines say to during this project but I feel like there is a fine line between research and development and actually making the final major project.
I’ve sometimes found it hard to decipher the line between the two and this is mainly because of the content of my project, as this is all about research and development of my project , I think the most important thing is to look in to the story and how its going to be made as a Transmedia project in the style of found footage film. The most important thing for this project is the story and how it will progress, what social media I will be using and preparing myself for the next step. This stage I’m more focusing on character development and where my Transmedia story will start and progress to.
My main aim is to make this project feel as real as I can and this module as taken ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ and made it something special, I was looking for a hook that would make this story standout from the other horrors and being able to look into youtube and transmedia has given this project exactly what I have been looking for.
I loved experimenting with filming and taking photos with the characters, In one of the shoots I did with the actors, as the female actor had never used a camera to ‘vlog’ (Video Blog) herself I had to guide the camera to get the angles desired for this type of footage by guiding her hand that the cameras and directing them with my movements where to go with the camera and frame. I believe this helped it to look both professional and real and exactly how I wanted the video diarys, selfies and other photos to look.
Things to improve on.
One thing I have considered that is still a work in process are consent forms, release forms and location forms. Until I have finalised the script for the short film and I know exactly what will be in the film then these forms are still to be developed. Due to the nature and the addition of Transmedia, the story can develop in any direction so I believe its best to see how this goes first.
I also know that when you make youtube videos there is a different set of rules that you need to follow rather than what rules are in a film , and the first part of my project is on Youtube. I’ve notice that Youtube Video filmmakers seem to go anywhere they like and film, so is this level of filming excepted or is this a style of gorilla filmmaking? In which the Youtube user films on the sly with out asking permission, there is a general tourist style to these videos. I will be looking in to these differences in the future to cover the legal side of the project when considering ethics of the project.
I think I can improve on my presentation skills for the next project as I’m still adjusting to University standards. I feel like the professional practice module will help me in this area. One of my images was blurred and I spent a lot of time producing a timeline of Scarlett’s videos on Youtube. The timeline helps with planning for me but wasn’t a good picture to show and I couldn’t work out how to get the image from powerpoint in best quality. That’s something I will look in to improving for next time.
Final Thoughts
My project has taken a lot of steps from coursework one to the end of coursework two and I believe that I’m ready to make a selection of youtube videos to show the story evolve then make the 15 minute film video of Scarlet’ts last days. I’m enjoying the development and look forward to this great challenge. Yes its ambitious but I’m extremely passionate about this project and how successful it could be. The Scarlett Massacre is ready to evolve and I hope that others can see my passion through this work.
CW2:2 Stylistics (Character Bios, Locations and vison)
Scarlett Radcliffe
Sex: Female
Age: 22
Interests: YouTube, Acting, Shopping, Food, Clothes, Site seeing
Personality Trates: Kind , Honest, Passion, Vulnerable. Happy, Bubbly, Fun. Determined
Steve Reid
Sex: Male
Age : 25
Interests: Video making, Site seeing , Computer Games , Food , Gym
Personality Trates : Loyal, Honest , Brave , Strong , Has a Temper, Determined, Defensive, Funny.
Kidnapper/killer
Sex: Male
Age : 27-35
Interests: Watching videos on YouTube religiously, want’s to make a family of his own, has fascination with killing/ kidnapping, enjoys red wine, Obsession with being know and being famous.
Personality Trates: Obsessive, Aggressive, Obtrusive, Lonely , Evil
Location shots
The flat where Scarlett and Steve currently live
The park where Scarlett walks home and feels uneasy in (documented in the short film) This is at Gosford green.
Vision (Making a person on social media)
One of the main things supporting my final major projects is making the characters in my story appear real. So I have created social media accounts for Scarlett to post on to give that impression to the general public. Here is evidence of her Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Gmail accounts.
Gmail
YouTube
By keeping up to date with these four sites should generate an audience for Scarlett. I will dedicate a few hours a day to the sites to maintain the story and interact with the audience by liking, commenting and sharing posts as Scarlett. This will be a feature of my final major project work and I will log each day and show evidence of the channels through out the months.
CW2.2.Stylistics (Cast and Character photos)
Firstly creating a completely new life requires pictures and videos (Cast and character photos).
My project, as its based around Transmedia storytelling, will take a different approach with in my stylistics than a regular movie as I want it to appear like a YouTube channel and for Scarlett to actually exists in the real world.
Here are some pictures of Scarlett and Steve on a day trip to Coventry landmarks, including the Cathedral, Transport Museum and Herbert Art Gallery. By using every day pictures of their daily lives will give the illusion that they are real people, I can then post the pictures on Instagram and include them in videos for YouTube. The Actors that I will be using in My final Major Project are for Scarlett :Jodie Antonia and for Steve Reid: Richard Williamson, which are both great actors and are natural on screen. My casting choice was based around actors that I have worked with in the past that I believe had good chemistry and are the most reliable to turn up to shoots.
Photos from dress up time at the Herbert Art Gallery.
I took theses photos to make it look like it was either Steve or Scarlett taking photos of each other.
The surroundings of places and the type of things the couple gets up to will make great photos.
These photos can be used for Profile Pictures on Social media sites.
I’ve took Photos from an angle that appears to be taken by the couple in a ‘selfie’ like fashion and also photos that the couple have asked other people to take a photo for them. This shows them off as a couple and makes the story more believable. I will be traveling with the couple to different places and documenting the day. On a recent shoot we made a video to support these character pictures which will be uploaded on the YouTube channel. The video is all in character as the couple visit some of the places highlighted in these pictures. We plan to make a few trips to different exciting places, these are some of the places we discussed : Thorpe Park, Restaurants, Ice Skating and the Coventry Toy Museum and we will be filming and taking photos of all of them. The videos will not only consist of visiting exciting places and day trips but will also included hand held film footage of them relaxing at home and doing daily activity’s.
CW2. 4.Logistics
Film Budget.
One of the most important things for me is for my film project to take on a professional budget. I find that having money can really influence the moral of the project , being able to offer your actors a payment, food and drink, petrol money can really make a difference. Your actors will take more of a professional approach to your work and will be more available.
Production Cost
Two Actor costs: £ 25 per day x 4 Days of shooting : £200
Food and Drink Costs £5 per person : 2 actors : £10x 4 days of shooting : £40
Director/Camera man food and drink : £5 x 4 days of shooting : £20
Props/Costumes: Maximum £50
Petrol maximum 30 per day x 2 cars :60 x 4 days of shooting :£240
Equipment
Canon 600d x stock lens : £425.00
Canon 50ml lens: £74.99
Zoom sound recorder: £179.00
Toshiba computer for editing. £499
Rode Microphone. £64.00
Batterys for Zoom and Rode Microphone
AA: 4.90
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aa-batteries/7692811/
Duracel 9v: £3.00
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/9-volt-batteries/3869997/
Batterys for Canon 600d x 3 .
3.99 x3
SD cards : 16.99 x 2
Over all Budget
1295.85 (for the equipment I own)
general costs £530
overall budget :£1825.85(approx.)
I believe that my extensive research in to YouTube/ found footage films and Transmedia makes me the perfect candidate to making the film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’. My knowledge of youtube Channels is wide and I understand how to produce videos of the same quality. I have done produced essays at college on the Found Footage Genre of film and believe that the idea requires someone with knowledge of how a found footage film is produced to understand what is required. I feel that I am really specific when it comes to this story and what I want from it and at this stage believe i can produce good quality of my work and what it requires to make the film.
Lastly Transmedia is a new process to me but it excites me and has pushed me in numerous different directions which is what my film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ needs. I’m Passionate about the idea of‘The Scarlett Massacre’ as a film and believe that my project will be most beneficial with me as a director due to the experience and research I have gained. In past experience at college and university, I’ve found when working with other students they can sometimes push you to do what they want and not what you intend which sometimes can change the direction of a film. I understand that this is a lot of work, however as a mature student I think that this is a great opportunity to showcase to the university with my standards, so I will be giving this project my complete attention.
Ethics
I have been considering the ethics of my project ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ and thought about how my audience can view this project. My content maybe considered offensive and I plan to put a warning on any videos that show any graphic material. I have looked at YouTube guidelines and have agreed with their terms and conditions. With my final film and trailer I will put a warning on to warn any audience that watch the film of its content. I think that the main concerns will be with the fifteen minute film as this will include themes that some themes might find offensive. My film and trailer will have an age limit of fifteen plus which will then address the type of content that may be displayed. I will be also very aware to keep true to the genre of the film and not to mislead the audience in anyway.
I will be aware of not including any personal information such as real names of people I know, real streets that I know of and involving real peoples details with in the videos. I know that I would need consent forms for anyone that appears in my films and I’m looking in to this further for both my actors and anyone else that appears in the film.
I understand that with posting content on other social media sites such as twitter and Instagram that I will abide to their terms and conditions in regards to rules and regulations and will be aware of the thing that I post on these social media sites. .
CW2: 1.Content/Context
Found Footage Genre Films
The genre of found footage based films give the impression and illusion to the audience that the film is made up of video clips that a filmmaker has made around a subject, then for what ever reason the tapes fall in to someone else’s hands (usually the police or someone else compiling an investigation in to the subject). These are then edit together for a short or feature film and gives it an authentic edge and feel to the film. Found Footage films are usually made on a hand held camera and the footage is mainly used in a horror style. Heller-Nicholas (2014) goes on to explain “The specific brand of Amateur aesthetics in found footage horror is crucial to its construction of verisimilitude”. Furthermore he states “These Aesthetics are most immediately identified Via it’s signature rawness, either in the form of diegetically produced shaky hand held camera footage of surveillance feed” (Heller-Nicholas,2014). This shows that the style of found footage films are made to look like the production isn’t to a professional standard and is far away from a Hollywood budgeted film.
I plan to make this project using various filming techniques that are seen in such films as Paranormal Activity (2007), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and YouTube style video diary’s to tell my story. My project as well as being a ‘Found footage Film’ is also a ‘Transmedia’ and Viral marketing project. Firstly here are some methods in to how to make a Found footage film. Amy Suto (2013) posted a page about how to make a found footage film here are the four steps. Firstly Amy talks about concepts of different found footage films.
“ 1. Concept is Everything. What sets Glimmer apart from the found footage crowd is its clever use of time travel. Sure, any time travel script has some logical flaws, but I found Glimmer to be entertaining and a great new entry to the genre. Remember that found footage films in particular require simple concepts. Glimmer is ‘found footage time travel.’ The Dyatlov Pass Incident is ‘filmmakers investigating an unsolvable mystery.’ Paranormal Activity is ‘a demon that feeds off negative energy haunts a household.” (Suto, 2013)
With this being said, my project of the concept of the found footage film is quite simple ‘a young YouTube user goes missing, which is the beginning of a serial killing massacre’ I believe that this is an interesting twist to the genre as the found footage will be accounts from Scarlett’s youtube channel and then the missing last few days that were not uploaded. The film will be looking through the eyes of the police that are looking at the last few days of the disappearance and footage that they have come across while searching the killers house or that the killer has posted online. I will have to create fake YouTube accounts for each character involved in posting or commenting online .
“2.Play with Camera Placement. In found footage films, the camera is like a character in itself. In Paranormal Activity 3, the camera is mounted on an oscillating fan, which allows for maximum creepiness as it slowly moves back in forth and things occur both in and out of the frame.” (Suto, 2013)
Camera placement and movement is going to be a big part of my videos and final film. Due to the final submission FMP being through the eyes of the police they will have acquired various different angles and incidents involving the kidnapper/killer. Mainly through the camera of Scarlett but also other cameras that have accidently caught something important. Also the killer owns his own camera which comes in to play in the story as well. In Scarlett’s video posts I will use different camera techniques to show parts of her life and moments that she has recorded capturing a story that she is unaware of as well.
“3.Keep it Real. Because found footage films often center around implausible (and often paranormal) events, this leaves little to no room for more implausibilities and coincidences when it comes to “oh we just happened to have a camera at this particular point in time.” It gives the characters real motivation for keeping a camera out all the time. In both The Dyatlov Pass Incident and Paranormal Activity 3, one or more of the characters are filmmakers, which explains their penchant for recording everything. (Suto, 2013)
The realism of my whole project is in fact the most important theme that I need to stick to. The natural posturing and characteristics of my characters needs to feel real for the audience to become submerged in the story. I want my audience to feel for the characters involved and believe that this story is realistic.
“4, Jeopardize the Camera. In nearly every Paranormal Activity, there is at least one character who is trying to get the other character to shut the camera off. This creates several layers of conflict. First, there is the conflict between the two characters themselves, and then there’s the conflict between the audience and the character who is jeopardizing our entry into the story. Putting the camera right in the midst of the action also helps immerse the audience into what’s going on.” (Suto, 2013)
In my film project, at first this will be the boyfriend Steve Reid, which also allows this character to be suspicious in some of the videos. Steve has a temper and looks like he can lose it in some videos with Scarlett. Ultimately Steve Reid is a nice guy and wouldn’t ever do anything to harm is girlfriend Scarlett, he just gets frustrated with her filming daily life sometimes.
All these areas that Suto (2013) refers to will be helpful in how I tell the story of ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ inside the frame that I’m capturing. The techniques will allow me to hook the audience in to the story and surprise them as the story unfolds.
Transmedia
Transmedia is a huge part of my project as my idea has lots of depth and room to grow over different platforms. The Scarlett Massacre is a story that has a realistic approach and Transmedia will help expose the story in front of different audiences on different media channels.
Kaufman’s article (2013) states that Transmedia is the use of different platforms of media, link together to tell the narrative of a story. Its use of multiplatform media can develop multiple perspectives within the narrative that is being created. By using this idea I can develop the story of ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ that’s spread over different forms of media. Kaufman elaborates on the fabrics of how Transmedia can develop further, making the story into a franchise. He states as follows:
“As an industrial practice, transmedia is an evolution of traditional media production and synergistic business models of commercial intertextuality involving allied products such as spin-offs, promos, web-based material, print, games and merchandise. The distinction between earlier franchise development and the transmedia model is the high degree of continuity and coherence that contemporary entertainment experiences are folding across different platforms. TV shows like Lost or Heroes, for example, extend their story through official websites, comics, videogames, toys, ARGs and other commodities, offering multiple touch-points and cross-modal experiences that foster extensive fan involvement.”(Kaufman, 2013)
This allows me to take the story in any direction that I want to, it also allows for further development from other people, creating even more depth to the story. Any idea that is created has so many different directions it can travel in, I would like ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ to be a product that can continuously grow. An online article by Transmedia Resources (2009) show another definition of Transmedia production:
“This type of content delivery and story telling has been around for centuries in one form or another. Transmedia delivery is used in fictional media, nonfiction and academia as well as for marketing/advertising, and professional business/industry related projects.”(Transmedia, 2009)
This definition again highlights story telling as a big part of transmedia. Without a developing story, Transmedia is unable to do the job its intending to, Transmedia needs a narrative to grow into other areas of media, the better the story the more directions and platforms it can travel in. Phillips (2012) states that “Transmedia is more than mere marketing or franchise entertainment and that It’s the realm of where reality ends and fiction begins”.
This suggests that there is a line between real life and fiction, a line that is used to create believable stories over a platform of media. These stories can grab at our emotions as they are so close to the truth, the closer it is to the truth the more we as an audience believe it. This all goes back to how the story is told and how the narrative evolves over time. Furthermore as an audience we allow transmedia to evolve and with different forms of social media we have different ways of viewing and becoming a part of the story, we comment on and share videos, we can follow projects and celebrities on twitter and can write our own reviews about a subject including posting pictures and making our own videos. The possibilities of adding to the evidence of a story is endless from a filmmakers perspective and the general public. Phillips (2012) states that “Fans who love your creation are going to want to see more of it. Transmedia-telling a story through multiple communication channels at once, particularly channels such as web and social media- is the way to give them what they want.”(Phillips, 2012)
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is a process that can be linked with the process of Transmedia storytelling. When an idea goes Viral its spread around different channels much like Transmedia, to create a mass audience to look at the product. As explained here “Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.”(Wison, 2012). By using this Viral Strategy I want to start to spread the transmedia story and try to multiply the audience, hopefully making ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ go viral.
These days a movement can go viral as simple as using a hastag on Instagram/twitter or facebook. Crimmons’s (2014) Blog shows the best Viral Marketing Campaigns which includes the recent campaigns of #nomakeupselfie #ALSicebucketchallenge #likeagirl all of which had great response from the public, but that didn’t happen out of nowhere each of these movements had reasons for doing it such as a story or motivation behind the hashtag which is what is most important. This could be because no one will respond without a reason, with the #nomakeupselfie girls would post pictures of themselves without make up and donate money to help the course of cancer research which raised a lot of awareness and these girls may be less likely to post such photos and be involved with a movement like this if it had no meaning behind it. With that in mind if I applied these ideas to ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ the more than likely place to start would be with a missing person campaign such as ‘Search for Scarlett’ and this might be a likely hashtag use.
References
Crimmons, L. (2014). The top viral marketing campaigns of all time. [Blog] Available at: http://www.branded3.com/blogs/the-top-10-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-all-time/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
Heller-Nicholas,A.(2014). Found footage horror films. Jefferson:McFarland.
Kaufman, J. (2013). Transmedia 101 | The Transmedia Network. [online] Thetransmedianetwork.com. Available at: http://thetransmedianetwork.com/transmedia-101/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015].
Phillips, A. (2012). A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Suto, A. (2013). Genre Studies: 4 Tips for Writing a Found Footage Film. [online] Page85.com. Available at: http://www.page85.com/2013/04/02/genre-studies-4-tips-for-writing-a-found-footage-film/ [Accessed 12 Jan. 2015].
Transmedia resources.(2009). Transmedia Storytelling and Uses in Entertainment – Transmedia Resources. [online] Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/transmediaresources/transmedia-storytelling [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015].
Wilson, D. (2012). The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing. [online] Web Marketing Today: Strategies of for Main Street. Available at: http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
CW2:3.Impact
Impact
Scarlett’s YouTube channel will be aimed at the age range of 15-30 as the content of the channel would most interest a younger audience,. In a way, before she gets kidnapped, it’s a coming of age story and it we will be following her dreams of becoming famous on YouTube for doing something she loves. I’ve planned out a timeline that will best demonstrate the amount of video clips to be placed on to this channel from now until the supposed disappearance.
I apologise for the blurry images, I made the timeline on powerpoint and couldn’t convert it correctly on to here. The colour red shows videos in which Scarlett is in, the colour pink shows when family or friends are included, grey is videos which involve the killer and light brown is Scarlett appearing in a professional capacity on someone elses videos or podcasts. The timeline shows what is needed for my story to work over the YouTube channel. This is one of the most important parts of my project, this will set the scene for the whole story. I realise this is ambitious but I have complete faith that I am able to be successful in telling this story.
The film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ will be produced as a 15 -20 minute film, showing the last few days before Scarlett is kidnapped. These moments will not have been viewed by any one on YouTube, the film will be specifically for distribution on other channels such as cinema showings, festivals and downloadable/ DVD copies.
I have looked in to Film festivals and one of the main ones I would like to enter ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ into would be FrightFest (Frightfest.co.uk, 2015) which runs from August 27th to August 31st 2015 with entry’s closing on 1st of July 2015. The limit for short films is fifteen minutes and features must be over sixty minutes including a ten pound charge to enter.
Another interesting film festivals would be the UK Film Festival (2014) which runs in November and takes short film under thirty minutes long. The cost for early bird fees are thirty pound to enter and twenty five for students. There has yet to be a process for 2015 candidates. It would certainly be an option if they run the festival again this year.
The BFL Film Festival (2014) is another option similar to The UK Film Festival and it has yet to place a submissions page for this year, I will look further in to both these festivals once more information is available.
I have researched around cinemas that would show the film and a likely place to start would be the square one student cinema at Coventry University. I have been in contact with the managers about running a fund raising event and it seems like a good place to start. Just need to sort the specifics out with management but both a fundraising and viewing of the film seem possible.
References
British Film Institute, (2014). BFI London Film Festival. [online] Available at: http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
Conversationsabouther(2014). [image] Available at: http://conversationsabouther.net/frightfest-moves-to-vue-cinema-west-end-for-15th-anniversary-film-news/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
Coventry.ac.uk, (n.d.). [online] Available at: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/life-on-campus/the-university/social-and-learning-spaces/square-one/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
Frightfest.co.uk, (2015). Film4 FrightFest Home Page. [online] Available at: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/index.html [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
Get your popcorn for the BFI London Film Festival 2014 – Guoman Hotels London. (2014).[image] [online] Available at: http://blogs.guoman.com/2014/10/06/popcorn-bfi-london-film-festival-2014/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
square one coventry. (2015). [image] Available at: http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/about/clients/squareonevenue [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
Uk film festival. (2015). [image] Available at: http://ukfilmfestival.com/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
Ukfilmfestival.com, (2014). UK Film Festival | British film festival London UK. [online] Available at: http://ukfilmfestival.com/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2015].
CW2 : Content
Content
In my research and development for my project called ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ I researched into multiple layers surrounding my idea. I looked into the social media platform of YouTube and the different types of videos that are available on YouTube, further looking in to ‘Daily Vlogging’ which is used regular to document the daily lives of a YouTuber. Research and development aided me by experimenting with different forms of media allowing me to define my Final Major Project. Specifically with in my artefacts I put together three different styles of video and audio, all of which related to the story of ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ in some way. My first artefact was looking into the world of youtube from ‘The viewers’ perspective which allowed me to shape the identity of the killer of my film. The killer in my film is an obsessed fan of Scarlett Radcliffe the main character in my film, the style of the film is as though looking in to the video was as if it was looking through his eyes.
The killer will be observing Scarlett’s life on the internet and isn’t just looking for a partner in crime, he’s looking to make history, to become famous in his own sadistic way, picking a young promising ‘YouTuber” who wants to become famous then starting his murder spree on film.
Looking into films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), The Blair Witch Project (1999) I was able to shape my second artefact. The Blair Witch Project specifically holds many elements in production value including it’s viral marketing campaign which fooled the public in believing that the film was the real events of what happened to three filmmakers. The Blair Witch Project used a website to produce the idea of the Blair Witch Project incident. A website that’s still active today: http://www.blairwitch.com
The following article talks about how viral marketing can work and how The Blair Witch Project was so unique with its Campaign.
“In today’s technological world, a message can go viral within minutes thanks to a host of networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Naturally, viral marketing has become a popular business strategy to spread ideas and information between people in much the same way as a virus, creating the potential for exponential growth as the message rapidly multiplies – creating a huge buzz along the way. So perhaps you’d be surprised to learn the most successful viral marketing campaign of all time took place before YouTube, Twitter and Facebook existed. Even before mainstream use of the internet. The most successful viral marketing campaign of all time centred on a small, low-budget indie flick in 1999 called The Blair Witch Project.” (Davidson, 2013)
Much like this viral campaign, I will create a fake YouTube Profile for a woman called Scarlett Radcliffe. She will appear to be living an ordinary life through her videos. Scarlett’s every day videos of her life will turn in to a story in its self, with the final videos of her last few days before her kidnapping turns in to the film The Scarlett Massacre with additional footage from the killers camera. This also led to me looking in to the process of Transmedia which with in this specific story can be beneficial in to spreading the story of the Scarlett Massacre allowing it to become better known with in the eye of the public. I will use Facebook, twitter, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts and online articles to tell the evolving story that I want to tell. The first step is to make simple YouTube videos of Scarlett on her YouTube channel.
Artefact three allowed me to experiment with the podcast genre, something that has interested me but until now I never really took the time to research in to it. My research and development allowed me to look in to these areas and create a podcast that would show elements of the overall story that I’m making. I took a comedy approach to the podcast at first but then after showing an audience it was pointed out that with the subject matter I should approach a serious content allowing for the story to be told in a more realistic way.
The podcast is an element that I will be continuing in my free time but will also use the style of media in the lead up to the release of my film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ and possibly to report on the events as they appear to unfold in the story.
The main focus of my Final Major Project is to Produce the film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ which will be the last few days of Scarlett’s life as a YouTuber, her Kidnapping, the kidnappers house and environment, the event which leads to the deaths of people around the city. I believe that this will raise awareness of internet security and show an audience and other YouTube users that they need to be aware of certain viewers and internet saftey.
Other influences that have helped shape my project.
I have been watching YouTube for about just over a year and as my research has shown in CW1 I have looked in to videos from different YouTube accounts. My original idea of making a horror / thriller was missing something crucial to give it the edge I needed. While watching specific YouTube users talk about the safety of their families from the general public it gave me the idea that this could make a great movie. I thought that the ideas of subscribers on YouTube going too far and trying to force themselves into the lives of YouTubers that are just trying to make a living or doing it for a hobby, a bit disgraceful and scary. This just as an idea can scare someone and the internet has always its safety issues such as cyber bullying, paedophiles, sex offenders and other non-seneschal offensive nature. So the thought that an anonymous stranger is to actually g a step further then just watching videos on the internet and enter someone else’s world, I believe is terrifying and will make a good suspense film while raising awareness about internet safety and obsession.
Reference list
Davidson, N. (2013). The Blair Witch Project: The best viral marketing campaign of all time. [online] MWP – Results Driven Video | Blog. Available at: http://mwpdigitalmedia.com/blog/the-blair-witch-project-the-best-viral-marketing-campaign-of-all-time/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2015].
Karcher, D. (1999). The Blair Witch Project. [online] Blairwitch.com. Available at: http://www.blairwitch.com [Accessed 4 Jan. 2015].
Paranormal Activity. (2007). [film] United States Of America: Oren Peli.
The Blair Witch Project. (1999). [film] United States of America: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez.
markleeyr3 