Wednesday 9 December 2009
Questionnaire to target audience and evaluation of results
Questionnaire Results
Male- 14
Female- 26
1-9 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+
0 28 3 2 6 1
Once a month- 16
Twice a month- 10
Once a week- 2
Other- 12
Horror- 10
Comedy- 12
Romance- 3
Sci-fi- 2
Adventure- 7
Fantasy- 1
Rom-com- 2
Action- 2
War- 1
What is your favourite genre and why?
A lot of people voted for horror films and the reason for this was because they like the thought of being scared. There were also a number of people who voted for comedy because they like being entertained and they like a laugh. Adventure films are popular as they are interesting to watch and grab the audience’s attention. However the majority of the questionnaires were from the females.
Who would you go to the cinema with? Does it change what genre of film you see?
Out of the males, some went with friends, however it was common for them to go with close family members. This reflects their ages because they’re family like wives and children. Where as half of females mostly go with friends. As an overall most questionnaires said that whoever people go with has an effect of what they see.
What is your favourite horror and why?
The results show that most people have stated that they enjoy films that have an interesting solid story line, because they are not just about death or gore yet they keep the audience interested. The majority also like films that give the sense that it could really happen to you.
Describe what you look for in an opening scene of a horror film and why?
There were many different views about what people look for but an idea about what the film is going to be about, but without giving too much away, was the most apparent. There was also popularity in being introduced to charters as well as the actors playing them. Background knowledge also came up a lot. In the editing scene scary music was well-liked as was flashbacks.
Male- 14
Female- 26
1-9 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+
0 28 3 2 6 1
Once a month- 16
Twice a month- 10
Once a week- 2
Other- 12
Horror- 10
Comedy- 12
Romance- 3
Sci-fi- 2
Adventure- 7
Fantasy- 1
Rom-com- 2
Action- 2
War- 1
What is your favourite genre and why?
A lot of people voted for horror films and the reason for this was because they like the thought of being scared. There were also a number of people who voted for comedy because they like being entertained and they like a laugh. Adventure films are popular as they are interesting to watch and grab the audience’s attention. However the majority of the questionnaires were from the females.
Who would you go to the cinema with? Does it change what genre of film you see?
Out of the males, some went with friends, however it was common for them to go with close family members. This reflects their ages because they’re family like wives and children. Where as half of females mostly go with friends. As an overall most questionnaires said that whoever people go with has an effect of what they see.
What is your favourite horror and why?
The results show that most people have stated that they enjoy films that have an interesting solid story line, because they are not just about death or gore yet they keep the audience interested. The majority also like films that give the sense that it could really happen to you.
Describe what you look for in an opening scene of a horror film and why?
There were many different views about what people look for but an idea about what the film is going to be about, but without giving too much away, was the most apparent. There was also popularity in being introduced to charters as well as the actors playing them. Background knowledge also came up a lot. In the editing scene scary music was well-liked as was flashbacks.
These results showed us that the genre of film we chose (horror)
Recent films from the horror genre
Research into our genre
Because our film genre is horror, and we agreed as a group that rather than being a slasher horror with a lot of blood and gore our film will be more physiologically scary. I thought of some other horror films that do this:
The Blair witch project
www.blairwitch.com
This website was released after the film to up the fan base. It’s informal and tells us the history of the Blair witch.
* Produced by Haxan films
* The budget was between $20-$25,000
* The film was shown at the 1999 Sundance festival
* It’s the most successful independent film of its time- It grossed $248,639,099 worldwide!
* After watching the film, I noticed that the film contains no blood and gore but the scariest part of it was that it was filmed on a video camera- These are things we should include in our filming. For example use the fact that we only have a camcorder to our advantage and make it seem like the viewer is watching real life footage, similar to how they make the footage seem like its been found in The Blair witch. I think if we include blood, it will make our film look fake and unrealistic.
Paranormal activity
www.paranormalactivity-movie.com
* The film was written, Directed and edited by Oren Peli
* The film was recorded over seven days in Oren Peli’s home in 2006, with a crew of just three people!
* These people were Peli, his girlfriend and his best friend
* Peli constructed the Ouija board that stars in the film himself
* He said “Similar to films like ‘the Blair witch’ and ‘open water’ I wanted there to be very little blood in the movie; you don’t have to go over the top”
* It was edited on Peli’s home computer
* It was debuted at ‘Screamfest’ Then after this people bombarded the small website asking how they could see the film.
Because our film genre is horror, and we agreed as a group that rather than being a slasher horror with a lot of blood and gore our film will be more physiologically scary. I thought of some other horror films that do this:
The Blair witch project
www.blairwitch.com
This website was released after the film to up the fan base. It’s informal and tells us the history of the Blair witch.
* Produced by Haxan films
* The budget was between $20-$25,000
* The film was shown at the 1999 Sundance festival
* It’s the most successful independent film of its time- It grossed $248,639,099 worldwide!
* After watching the film, I noticed that the film contains no blood and gore but the scariest part of it was that it was filmed on a video camera- These are things we should include in our filming. For example use the fact that we only have a camcorder to our advantage and make it seem like the viewer is watching real life footage, similar to how they make the footage seem like its been found in The Blair witch. I think if we include blood, it will make our film look fake and unrealistic.
Paranormal activity
www.paranormalactivity-movie.com
* The film was written, Directed and edited by Oren Peli
* The film was recorded over seven days in Oren Peli’s home in 2006, with a crew of just three people!
* These people were Peli, his girlfriend and his best friend
* Peli constructed the Ouija board that stars in the film himself
* He said “Similar to films like ‘the Blair witch’ and ‘open water’ I wanted there to be very little blood in the movie; you don’t have to go over the top”
* It was edited on Peli’s home computer
* It was debuted at ‘Screamfest’ Then after this people bombarded the small website asking how they could see the film.
History of the horror genre
History of Horror genre
Horror is an ancient art form. We have tried to terrify each other for as long as we've told stories. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege. The aim of a horror film is to strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Many horror movies also include a central villain.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
More recent horror films, in contrast, often draw inspiration from the insecurities of life after World War II, giving rise to the three distinct, but related, sub-genres: the horror-of-personality Psycho film, the horror-of-armageddon Invasion of the Body Snatchers film, and the horror-of-the-demonic The Exorcist film.
Group meeting 1
`1`Decisions made about genre and why
Firstly we made a spider diagram on the different genres we could choose from, and narrowed our choices to either a comedy or a horror. After deciding that a comedy would be alot more difficult to have good productoion value, a horror was the genre we chose because we all enjoy watching them and have seen alot so know what makes a scary film and what doesn't. After seeing films like Paranormal activity and Blair witch project that are know for using little or no blood and gore we thought using none in ours would also make the film of a better quality. Another film that we used for inspiration for our ideas is 2008 film 'the strangers' with the idea of a group of people at home and them being terrorised, strange events in the opening such as a phonecall and the sound of the ringing match similar events in the strangers.
Plot for opening sequence
Three girls are moving into a new flat, whilst they are walking in with all the boxes, a strange man is watching them- they don’t realise. When they get inside, they celebrate the move and listen to music. (Superimposed images) One of the girls walks back down the stairs to collect another box, she sees an old lady and she stops and talks to her about the flat that the girls are moving in to. The lady seems worried and makes a quick exit. The girl is left wondering. (at this point we will see superimposed image of the man standing over a girl at the bottom of the stairs) Back in the flat, the other two girls are still celebrating, one looks outside to see a man looking up at her, she alarms the other girl and they ignore him. The one who was by herself walks back into the flat to find the door left ajar, and the other two girls not there. She starts to worry and rings the two girls to find that they are not answering, it goes to answer machine. She hears the doorbell go and is reluctant to open it. When she does, it is the other two girls at the door then the door closes and the titles come up on a black screen.
Conventions of an opening sequence
Conventions of an opening sequence
Wrong turn- Horror
Camera
-First shot- est. shot of area, sets the scene of the whole film. At this point we see some titles of studios etc.
- Rock climbers, close up on foot, hand, then shots from all around, side, long shot, close up
- MCU of dead mans face- Blood
- When the girl runs, the camera is free hand so it appears we are running with her
Sound
- Non-diegetic music- spooky
- When we see rock climbers, deeper sound
- Hyperbolic scream
- Hyperbolic laugh
- Noise of a sword it heard when we are shown the spiky rope she falls over, exaggerated.
Mise-en-scene
- Rock climbers; he disappears then falls off the rock over her. She cuts her rope and we see his face- Lots of blood
- we don’t see the person that has killed the man, but we see the trees move and an evil laugh
Editing
- When the girl is dragged backwards, it goes onto black and white photos and newspaper cuttings about missing people and what we assume is the forest where the two people have just died
Wrong turn- Horror
Camera
-First shot- est. shot of area, sets the scene of the whole film. At this point we see some titles of studios etc.
- Rock climbers, close up on foot, hand, then shots from all around, side, long shot, close up
- MCU of dead mans face- Blood
- When the girl runs, the camera is free hand so it appears we are running with her
Sound
- Non-diegetic music- spooky
- When we see rock climbers, deeper sound
- Hyperbolic scream
- Hyperbolic laugh
- Noise of a sword it heard when we are shown the spiky rope she falls over, exaggerated.
Mise-en-scene
- Rock climbers; he disappears then falls off the rock over her. She cuts her rope and we see his face- Lots of blood
- we don’t see the person that has killed the man, but we see the trees move and an evil laugh
Editing
- When the girl is dragged backwards, it goes onto black and white photos and newspaper cuttings about missing people and what we assume is the forest where the two people have just died
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)