Final Submission

3rd Quarter Submission

Revision #3

When I was given feedback on my midterm submission, my teacher commented on the title of my film. He showed me that by placing the my title at the end of the clip, it made my film seem as tho it were a short film as opposed to the beginning of an actual movie. While editing together all of my new clips, I relocated the title to the very beginning of the scene.

I was also informed that when actor Danny Brown was introduced as the killer, it gave away the main plot of the scene before it even happened. I decided to alleviate this problem by removing the titles of the roles from the opening credits all together. The characters would simple be addressed to give credit to the actor who played them, and their roles would be given names later on in the film.

Revision #2

When showing my midterm submission to the class, it was pointed out to me that the original conversation between the two actors, Lucie and Avery, was somewhat hard to hear. When working on trying to raise the audio levels, I realized the conversation between the two was awkward and a little bit forced, and it did not quite fit the theme of the film. I rewrote the dialogue for this section of the film in order to convey Avery as very loving towards her girlfriend while Lucie is somewhat disinterested and even a little distracted. I then had the actors come back to the scene of the original shoot and recording the newly scripted scene, making sure to have them project so that it would be easier to hear in the final cut.

Revision #1

After our class watched my midterm submission, a fellow student pointed out to me that the kidnapper appears out of nowhere. There was no explanation in the film as to how he happened to be there. I decided that as one of my revisions, I should devote some scree time to explain this part of the scene. I had my actor, Danny Brown, come back to the original film location. I collected various shots of Danny sneaking around the location, approaching the place where he would commit his crime.

The classmate also pointed out that Danny had a getaway car that was not previously seen. I decided to ad some background to this as well by collecting a shot of him arriving at the scene.

Distribution Plan

After extensive research, I have developed a plan for the distribution of my movie. I would release the movie to theaters first and allow it to play there for a while. However, since the movie has no big name relations to it, it probably would not last as long making profit in theaters. Due to this, I would release the DVD of my film for sale about a month after the original theatrical release. I would also contract my film out to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. That way I can spread awareness for the film and help it reach a wider audience that may not have taken the time to come see my film in theaters.

Distribution Research - Searching

Searching is a suspense film by director Aneesh Chaganty. This film is about a man who becomes frantic as his daughter goes missing. He discovers many unexpected things when looking through her laptop, and just when he thinks he has it figured out, a new clue points in the opposite direction. This film was released to theater on August 31st, 2018. It remained in theaters for about 5 weeks. It was then released on DVD and to digital streaming services, such as Netflix, on November 13th, 2018.

Distribution Research - Bird Box

Bird Box is a suspense film by director Susanne Bier. The film is about a family trying to survive in a society where most people are driven to suicide by an unseen force. This film was never released to theaters. It was only released on the streaming service Netflix, and it was released on December 21st, 2018. While not making big money in theaters, being released on Netflix allowed the movie to gain exposure, as the service is used by nearly 200 million people.

Distribution Research - A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place is a suspense film by John Krasinski. This film is about a family who must live in silence to avoid monster that hunt by sound. The film was released in theaters on April 5th, 2018. The film was only able to be seen in theaters for 8 weeks. Then on July 10th, 2018, the film was released physically on dvd and digitally to streaming services such as Netflix.

Marketing Plan

After conducting research of the marketing of films similar to mine, there were some choices that seemed more common than others. The most common marketing practices of other suspense films were billboard rentals, YouTube ads, and posts on social media. For the marketing of my film, I created an account on the social media platform called instagram in order to spread awareness about my movie.

I would also pay to have trailers of my movie shown as ads on YouTube. These two options can only go so far as there are many people that do not watch YouTube or go on social media. To counteract this problem, I would purchase space on billboards so that the everyday driver would be able to learn about my movie.

Midterm Feedback

After presenting my midterm submission, I saw that my movie was off to a good start. The speaking portion of the film is somewhat awkward and quiet. I plan to re-shoot this. It is also kind of weird that the killer just appears out of nowhere. I plan to add more time of him sneaking up on the girls. Finally when I re-edit the new parts into the film, I plan to move my title from the end to the beginning.

Conventions and Social Groups

In my film I used the conventions of suspense films. I used sudden twists to build suspense and keep the audience guessing. I took a big influence from the movie "The Sixth Sense". In the beginning of that film, the character Dr. Malcolm Crowe is brutally attacked and killed, but then is revealed to be seemingly alive. I liked the way this was done, and I took inspiration from it. I had the kidnapper "kill" Lucie, and then later on I revealed that not only was she not dead, she was in on the plan. My film represents gay people, as the lead characters are gay.