feature: The Woman in Black – YouTube Ghost Story competition | average film reviews : Ireland

feature: The Woman in Black – YouTube Ghost Story competition

January 26, 2012 // No Comment

A while ago, I did a clips and trailers post for The Woman in Black. It looks like a good old fashioned ghost story and I’m very much looking forward to it, I honestly thought that teaser trailer was one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a long time. I’m a big horror fan and I watch a lot of “scary” films but the truth is, I’m rarely really creeped out in the cinema any more… so anything that looks like it might be get me? I’m there.

Anyway, you can read more about the film over on that post because what I wanted to highlight here was the YouTube competition that was organised around its release.

The concept was simple but it was pretty cool. They wanted to find the UK’s spookiest ghost story. They invited people from all over the UK to sumbit videos of their original ghost stories to The Woman in Black YouTube channel. Stories had to be under 2 minutes but the videos could be as simple as someone just making a recording from their phone’s camera. It was open to all ages but as far as I can see there was a rather youthful bent to the entrants.

Just before the Christmas the 10 finalists were announced, chosen on the basis of their story’s creativity, originality and writing style. Those 10 went to a public vote… The prize? The winner of the competition would get a trip to the world premiere in London but better yet their story would be read out by Daniel Radcliffe himself for inclusion on the DVD release of the film. Not bad hey?

Well, the competition was quite the success and it was great example of a company doing something a bit more original with social media to promote a film. I don’t know how many entries they got in total but there are 175 on their playlist on the official YouTube channel – youtube.com/thewomaninblackmovie. You can see all the competition entries over there but I’ve got the top 10 here for your viewing pleasure.

The winner in the end was Nicola Torch, a 16 year old from Lancashire, with her story entitled “Fear of Hue”, which you can see below. Congrats Nicola, hope you enjoyed the premiere and looking forward to seeing your ghost story on the DVD!

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 10 Feb 2012
director: James Watkins
writers: Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)
cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer
genre: thriller, ghost story
running time: 113 minutes