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].
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