The Investigator's Blog

I created a blogger account for the investigator that we will use to elaborate on his findings and research before he goes into the hotel to uncover the mystery surrounding Room 112.

So far on this blog I have added the newspaper clippings that I created in my last post where the investigator explains why he has selected those specific sections and what information he has gathered from them.

The investigator's blog link: http://earnshawhotelinvestigation.blogspot.co.uk

The current look of the investigator's blog

Making the newspapers look old

Once all of the newspapers were created I decided to make them old and worn so that it would seem like Tony Crawley had researched into the background of the Earnshaw hotel and uncovered these articles.

I covered the paper with tea to give them the stereotypical old paper look as if they'd been printed for too long.

I followed up by baking the paper in the oven for 5 minutes to dry up all the tea and make the paper curl over.

After leaving the paper alone to dry up the remaining excess tea I will scan them into the computer and place onto the Investigator's blog so it seems like he had found these articles and is writing about them.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper-Look-Old

Creating newspapers

As we want to create a blog for our investigator where he is researching into deaths and crimes that have taken place so far in the hotel and room 112 we decided to create newspapers and articles from the times that they took place.

The plan for these is that once printed we will age the paper and cut them to make them seem like they have been uncovered by the investigator through research and going to libraries.

The current articles are as followed:

Couple on anniversary holiday found dead in hotel room

Obituary for the original owner of the Earnshaw Hotel

The first death in Room 112 followed by the deaths of the Ouija board group trying to contact him a year later

A gay couple found dead in their hotel room

Prostitute found murdered in Room 112

Website Design

We began working on the design for the hotel website that would be intended for use by guests looking to book a room and find out information about the hotel. This adds to a layer of transmedia as people looking up information on the hotel will begin to think that the place is very real rather than just a story. 

Homepage of the Earnshaw Hotel website 

The About page of the Earnshaw Hotel website- needs to be updated

The contact page of the Earnshaw Hotel website

The booking page of the Earnshaw Hotel website

Newspaper

After we'd discussed what aspects of transmedia we'd like to create I began on the creation of a newspaper.

The aim for the newspaper is to hand it out around Manchester similarly to the Why So Serious? campaign where they handed out The Gotham Times in Chicago. The newspaper will include two stories; the first will be an article on the new manager taking over the hotel with a slight mention to a death and an article about the investigator solving a haunting in a club in Manchester. However to make it seem more realistic I used a club in Manchester that is known to be haunted so the readers will begin to think it is real.

The newspaper will also contain links to the investigator's blog, the team's website etc. All to try and make the newspaper seem real so when people look on the different links they'll think that the website and social media are all real.

I also based the layout of the newspaper on the Manchester Evening News the local newspaper in Manchester. Again this made the whole thing seem more realistic to the people of Manchester as psychologically they would recognise the design.

The Manchester Evening News

The finished fake newspaper to be handed out in Manchester

Characters

We decided the best way to work out characters and deaths throughout the period of the hotel being open was to create a timeline of events.

From here we are able to create exact hauntings relating to each person who died in the room and compare that to dates. For example a couple could enter the hotel room vlogging about their trip away and state "So it's the 12th February and here we are checked in ready for our Valentine's weekend". This would mean the ghosts in this case would be Monica Stanton and her husband who died on that day in 1940.

Checklist for the Portfolio

After a discussion we decided on a list of 15 transmedia aspects that we wanted to create for our project:

• YouTube videos of the hauntings
• Website for the hotel
• Teaser advert of just the number
• Film poster
• Hotel Manager's account
• Newspaper about the new manager and the paranormal investigator solving the hauntings at Brannigans
• Investigator's Twitter account
• Investigator's blog
• Newspaper articles on the deaths
• One TV news report on one of the modern deaths
• BPI website
• BPI Facebook 
• BPI Twitter
• BPI logo
• Wikia