Filming YouTube Hauntings

The next step in creating a background to the hotel to make it seem very real for the audience was to create videos of people on holiday in the room and odd occurrences happening.

The first video we created was of a couple vlogging there time at the hotel on holiday to show their friends and families after. It follows them entering the room where the male is showing the camera around the room while the female goes into the bathroom to get ready for the night. Once inside the bathroom she realises there are no towels so calls in her friend who places the camera down on the desk.

What follows shows the lamp falling from the bedside table seen by the camera even though there isn't anyone present in the room.

See video below:

This video was sent to him using my twitter account and my youtube because it looks like a real person has sent it through to him to show him the weird goings on that happened at the hotel.

The second video is of an amateur ghost hunter who leaves a camera rolling on himself throughout the night to capture any ghostly activity. Things occur throughout the night in the form of lights switching on and off, things being thrown, light anomalies and the duvet being pulled off him.

The video will be available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkP16Xhxb2I from Thursday 30th of April as we're waiting for the correct moment to announce Tyrese's death.

This vlog was given to him after it has been discovered that the man died following spending the night in the hotel. This is already the man who had tweeted him the soundscape earlier on.

We took this idea of handheld video hauntings from the TV series Most Haunted that uses handheld cameras to reportedly show paranormal activity occurring throughout a specific location which usually consists of light anomalies, objects moving where no one can be in reach of them and lights turning on and off.

Most Haunted

The Blair Witch Project also uses handheld cameras in the fictional story of the Blair Witch where investigators making a documentary go out to solve the story. Although no specific phenomena is seen like we are creating it was the first main use of handheld cameras in a film to create suspense and mystery.

The Blair Witch Project

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.