The journey of ‘Akumu
San’
By: Naomi, Holly and Shivani
(Nocturnal Productions)
Narrative
o We came up with the Narrative based on a
game we discovered on the deep web, or more
commonly known as Twitter.
o This game was called Daruma San, but we
decided to change the name as we did not want
to risk summoning an actual demon.
o Our narrative was basically that a group of
friends summon the demon, and they are
unable to get rid of her, thus ensuing death and
destruction.
Decisions for narrative
o We decided to link our narrative to a moral panic of technology,
as a lot of films use it to add to the horror effect, such as
‘Unfriended’(2016) and ‘Friend Request’(2016). We also
incorporated this moral panic because we found the game on
Twitter and so we used this in our production work where the
group of friends also find the game online.
o We decided to also follow the idea of the villain being female,
and went with Barbara Creed’s Monstrous Feminine theory.
This is seen in a lot of films recently, so we decided to follow
that convention. On top of this, we followed Carol Clover’s
Final Girl theory with having our protagonist be a female.
Justifying our problematic casting
o Originally, we were going to have a long wig for
our villain in order to disguise the fact that she is
clearly not actually Japanese. However, we were
unable to obtain one on time, and had no other
actress options, so we decided that the reason for
our lack of representation is because we were
following Hollywood’s obsession with miscasting
actors and actresses. Most recently, this happened
in ‘Ghost in the Shell’, where they casted Scarlett
Johansson to play a Japanese character.
Magazine front cover
o We tried to link our front cover and
film poster together as much as we
could, and we found that the colour
scheme and smoke effects on the
background was the best and easiest
way to do this.
o We used a red gel to create a red tint on
our model’s face, to indicate danger
and to connote the common horror
convention of blood. This also relates
to the use of blood and gore on our
villain, who is missing an eye.
o We wanted to keep the front cover
simple, as we wanted to follow more
recent covers of the Empire magazine,
and we felt too much would distract
from the image itself and the effects we
put on it, such as the blur.
Film Poster
o To link our poster in with our trailer,
we incorporated the smoke that appears
in our trailer titles and gave it a blue
tint to link in with our underlying
theme of water.
o We manipulated the original image of
our model to make her appear deader
and scarier. We applied a shadow tool
to make under the eye darker as well as
a red colour overlay to make the
gouged eye gorier.
o Our tag line is relative to our
production as it relates to the ritual of
summoning the daemon but it also
sounds sinister because we changed the
colour of ‘RUN’ to white, making it
stand out more and hinting danger.
Trailer
o Our trailer, our magazine cover and poster link together with our
colour schemes which is a repetitive use of white, grey, and blues,
which we decided to use as these are colours generally associated
with bathrooms and water, which is a running theme in our trailer.
o Our trailer challenges traditional conventions with the use of two
female protagonists.
o However, we developed the convention and idea of the ‘Final Girl’
trope, by having three female characters, and only one male, so there
were multiple options for who the final girl might be.
o We looked at a number of different successful horror films, both old
and contemporary, and got inspiration for our trailer from those. One
of them was ‘Psycho’ (1966), which you can see the inspiration in
our bathroom scenes, as well as from ‘The Ring’ (1998), which is
evident in the clothes of our protagonist, and we had the original
idea to have a long tangled black wig, but had to improvise when we
could not get one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GOAkA7gt
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The journey of ‘akumu san’

  • 1.
    The journey of‘Akumu San’ By: Naomi, Holly and Shivani (Nocturnal Productions)
  • 2.
    Narrative o We cameup with the Narrative based on a game we discovered on the deep web, or more commonly known as Twitter. o This game was called Daruma San, but we decided to change the name as we did not want to risk summoning an actual demon. o Our narrative was basically that a group of friends summon the demon, and they are unable to get rid of her, thus ensuing death and destruction.
  • 3.
    Decisions for narrative oWe decided to link our narrative to a moral panic of technology, as a lot of films use it to add to the horror effect, such as ‘Unfriended’(2016) and ‘Friend Request’(2016). We also incorporated this moral panic because we found the game on Twitter and so we used this in our production work where the group of friends also find the game online. o We decided to also follow the idea of the villain being female, and went with Barbara Creed’s Monstrous Feminine theory. This is seen in a lot of films recently, so we decided to follow that convention. On top of this, we followed Carol Clover’s Final Girl theory with having our protagonist be a female.
  • 4.
    Justifying our problematiccasting o Originally, we were going to have a long wig for our villain in order to disguise the fact that she is clearly not actually Japanese. However, we were unable to obtain one on time, and had no other actress options, so we decided that the reason for our lack of representation is because we were following Hollywood’s obsession with miscasting actors and actresses. Most recently, this happened in ‘Ghost in the Shell’, where they casted Scarlett Johansson to play a Japanese character.
  • 5.
    Magazine front cover oWe tried to link our front cover and film poster together as much as we could, and we found that the colour scheme and smoke effects on the background was the best and easiest way to do this. o We used a red gel to create a red tint on our model’s face, to indicate danger and to connote the common horror convention of blood. This also relates to the use of blood and gore on our villain, who is missing an eye. o We wanted to keep the front cover simple, as we wanted to follow more recent covers of the Empire magazine, and we felt too much would distract from the image itself and the effects we put on it, such as the blur.
  • 6.
    Film Poster o Tolink our poster in with our trailer, we incorporated the smoke that appears in our trailer titles and gave it a blue tint to link in with our underlying theme of water. o We manipulated the original image of our model to make her appear deader and scarier. We applied a shadow tool to make under the eye darker as well as a red colour overlay to make the gouged eye gorier. o Our tag line is relative to our production as it relates to the ritual of summoning the daemon but it also sounds sinister because we changed the colour of ‘RUN’ to white, making it stand out more and hinting danger.
  • 7.
    Trailer o Our trailer,our magazine cover and poster link together with our colour schemes which is a repetitive use of white, grey, and blues, which we decided to use as these are colours generally associated with bathrooms and water, which is a running theme in our trailer. o Our trailer challenges traditional conventions with the use of two female protagonists. o However, we developed the convention and idea of the ‘Final Girl’ trope, by having three female characters, and only one male, so there were multiple options for who the final girl might be. o We looked at a number of different successful horror films, both old and contemporary, and got inspiration for our trailer from those. One of them was ‘Psycho’ (1966), which you can see the inspiration in our bathroom scenes, as well as from ‘The Ring’ (1998), which is evident in the clothes of our protagonist, and we had the original idea to have a long tangled black wig, but had to improvise when we could not get one.
  • 8.