The Modern Monster Filmmaking Course

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Introduction

The Modern Monster is a filmmaking course that is planned to take place in October 2019. The three-day event is designed to enable student to get practically involved with the production of horror films. With the help of celebrity instructors, the students will be involved in the actual acting, shooting and editing of the film as an initial step into becoming experts in filmography. According to Benshoff (2017), it is critical to give learners a real-life experience of acting and shooting of videos to help equip them with skills they need when they get into the film industry. While working in a group of five students, it is also possible to get peer review. Students can health each other to identify strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed to achieve excellence in this field.

The primary audience/client in this event is SFX Design, Inc. The company has a wide variety of products meant for the entertainment industry. The hope of the event planners is to ensure that there will be a lasting relationship between the company and the team to facilitate similar future projects. The Kit Room has offered to sponsor the event. The preferred location for the event is the colleges film studio. This location was chosen because it is convenient for all the stakeholders involved in the project.

The audience will include family members, friends, lecturers in the school of arts and professionals in the film industry. When selecting participants in the project, the team had to eliminate people and entities that failed to meet the set criteria. The team eliminated some of the instructors who either lacked the needed skills for the event or commitment to be part of the process.

Evaluative and Analytical Discussion of the Strategic Significance of the Event

The planned event is meant to enable the students to plunge into the film industry, especially the genre of horror films that is becoming increasingly popular in Europe, the North America and other parts of the world. According to Allen, OToole, Harris and McDonnell (2011), shooting a horror film may not be as easy as shooting a comedy or a documentary. There are specific effects that must be created in horror films that elicit fear among the audience.

It means that more time and resources have to be invested in such a production compared with when one is shooting other forms of films. The event offered students an excellent opportunity to have a firsthand experience of the events that happen in the backstage and what it takes to produce a successful horror film. It is necessary to evaluate and discuss the strategic significance of the event to the client and other strategic stakeholders.

Funding and Sponsorship

One of the first steps that the team must step when planning for this event is to determine the sources of funds for this project. When producing a horror film, the team will need various kits besides the camera and computers to ensure that the right horror effect is created. The team needed to find a sponsor to fund various activities in the project. The Kit Room agreed to be the sponsor of the project. The company will fund most of the activities, especially purchasing of the consumables and hiring of the needed equipment for the project. As such, the following logo of The Kit Room will appear prominently in the film and the entire event as an appreciation for the sponsorship.

Fig. 1. The Kit Room logo (Benshoff 2017, p. 78).

Operational and External Factors Affecting Its Success

When the sponsor and audience of the event are clearly defined, the next step is for the team to ensure that the relevant measures are taken to enhance the success of the project. Different operational and external factors that may have a significant impact on the outcome of the project must be defined in clear terms. The team should then determine how to deal with each of these factors to help achieve goals and objectives of the project.

Design of the event

When it comes to operational factors, the team members (students), working closely with the celebrity instructors, must be committed to producing a masterpiece, a real horror film that will have the right effect on the audience. The students have the right training, and they only need the guidance of these experts to achieve such goals. In this event, everything narrows down to the costumes used, effects created and editing skills to develop the right feeling among the audience (Supovitz 2005).

The Kit Room and SFX Design, Inc. will provide the needed costumes and consumables that will be needed to create the needed effect. The actors will have to appear like monsters or alien creatures capable of eliciting fear among the audience. Figure 2 below shows how pain can be used to transform the face of a beautiful woman into a scary monster.

*Fig. 2. Using face paint to create the desired effect (Hubner 2018, p. 97).*

It is important to note that in figure 2 above, the audience can easily determine that paint has been used. However, Masterman (2007) advises that when creating a specific effect in a horror film, it is important to make it as real as possible. The monster presented to the audience should have horrific features, which are not easily discernable to the audience. Figure 3 below is an advanced panting, with some computer effects added, to make it a more realistic and scary monster than the one in figure 2 below. It is important to note that while the usage of these costumes is critical, the actor must also make a personal effort to create that effect through facial expression, as shown in the figure below.

*Fig. 3. The creation of a horror film (Hubner 2018, p. 98).*

Planning is one of the aspects of operational factors that can define success of the project. The team need to have a careful plan that defines what should be done at specific times, who should be involved, the resources needed and the expected outcome. When there are clearly set milestones, it will be easy to determine whether the crew is progressing towards success or if other measures may be necessary to help improve specific issues within the project.

It is equally important to have a proper coordination between all the stakeholders involved. The sponsor should know what the team needs and when they should be delivered. The celebrity instructors need to work closely with the students to ensure that they are always at the right place when needed to avoid time wastage. The responsibility of every team member should be stated in clear terms. It will be important to ensure that a partnership and an association are created between the event brand and the sponsor (Skinner & Rukavina 2003). The goal is to create a long-term relationship with the sponsor to secure funding for future projects.

The proliferation of events as a marketing tool

The success of the project does not only depend on the production of a wonderful piece of horror film but also a proper promotion. The proliferation of the event will be important in increasing the number of those who will watch the film. Other than the friends, family members and industry experts who will be invited when launching the film, it will be equally important to ensure that the film reaches a wider audience in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world.

Immersion and real-time promotion are some of the strategies that the team can embrace. At this initial stage of the production, and with the approval of the sponsor and other authorities in this project, it will be necessary to upload the film on YouTube. This platform will help in increasing the geographic coverage of the audience. It may also help in identifying other partners who may want to work with our team to produce new films.

The development of events

During the development of the events in this project, the team may need to embrace various ways growing popularity of the film within the University and the immediate community. During the period of planning and undertaking various activities in the project, time and resources should be set aside for promotion of the event. Posters and flyers can be used to inform the community about the upcoming event and the need for them to support it (Benshoff 2017).

In the poster, the date of the film production should be stated, its genre defined, and how those who cannot attend the show on the day of production can find the film on YouTube. The local community can help in ensuring that the film goes viral within and outside the United Kingdom.

Evaluation Against Stipulated Outcomes

When undertaking any project, it is always important to ensure that the outcome is in line with the stipulated objectives. Hutchings (2013) explains that any project that involves spending time and money must have clear objectives that should be realised within a given period. The project will only make sense if the team succeeds in achieving specific goals. As such, the project team members had to come up with SMART objectives that would be measured against the outcomes of the project. It will be in the interest of the students, sponsor, client, the college and other stakeholders to ensure that the set goals are achieved. The following objectives will help to determine the success of the project:

To develop a successful horror film that captures the attention of the audience;
To create a lasting business relationship with the current and other possible sponsors to secure funds for similar future projects;
To equip the students with skills needed in the production of horror films and other related genres;
To enable students to interact with industry experts as a way of developing their career in this industry.

Key Themes and Theories to Support the Decisions in the Report

The film will have to capture specific themes, supported with various theories, to come out as a true horror film. According to Hutchings (2013), one of the key themes in a horror film is the fear of death. People fear death, and this should be expressed both psychologically and existentially. When attacked by the monsters, the actor should express the horror that will be translated to the mind of the audience.

Darkness is another theme that should be used to create fear among the audience. The fear is in what the darkness hides other than the darkness itself (Hubner 2018). Disfigurement and dismemberment are ultimate themes of horror films. They help in ensuring that the worst fears of the victims and the audience become true. Suspense is another common and important theme not only in horror films but also in any other film (Benshoff 2017). The anticipation and expectation of what is going to happen next is needed to ensure that there is interest among the audience to follow the flow of the film.

It is equally important to look at theories that can help support themes presented in this film. One of the concepts relevant in this project is Noel Carrolls the Philosophy of Horror (Hutchings 2013). The theory explains how the art of horror is used by characters in define the fear of the monster. It involves creating a threat to normalcy and a breach of peace. Sigmund Freuds The Uncanny is another relevant theory that will help in this project (Hubner 2018). It is used in reference to something that is disturbingly strange. The concepts are often used to emphasise the horror in a given film by creating a form of disturbance in the mind of the audience. The theories and key themes will help achieve enhance success of the project.

Conclusion

Modern monster is a horror film that is planned to be produced in October 2019. It will bring together students, industry experts and sponsors in an effort to produce a successful film that meets all the criteria of a horror film. The team has succeeded in finding a sponsor who will provide the financial resources needed in the project. The team will need to find celebrity instructors who will guide the production process. The goal of the team is to ensure that learners are equipped with skills that needed in the film industry. The event will create a platform where these learners will interact with top players in the film industry as they plan to pursue a career in this field. The team expects that the short horror film will be successful not only within the college community but also at national and international levels.

Reference List

Allen, J, OToole, W, Harris, R & McDonnell, I 2011, Festival and special event management, Wiley, Sydney.

Benshoff, M, Ed., 2017, A Companion to the horror film, Wiley Blackwell, New York, NY.

Hubner, L 2018, Fairytale and gothic horror: uncanny transformations in film, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Hutchings, P 2013, The horror film, Pearson Education Limited, New York, NY.

Masterman, G 2007, Sponsorship for a return on investment, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Skinner, B & Rukavina, V 2003, Event sponsorship, Wiley, New Jersey.

Supovitz, F 2005, Sports event management and marketing playbook, Wiley, Hoboken.

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