Questionnaire

We asked these questions;

1)     Age?

2)     Male or female?

3)     Do you like horrors?

4)     If yes, please state your favourite and why?
5)     If not, why don’t you like them?

6)     What type of music do you expect in horror movies?

7)     What sort of characters would you expect in a horror?

8)      Which movies do you prefer? Slasher / Psychological / B-Movie / Demons / Vampires / Monsters

We  got a mixed view of results, mainly yes.

The people who filled in the questionnaire were between the age of 16-23 and potentially the same age range of the people I wish to target in my project. There was a majority of girls who filled out the questionaire which was quite surprising seeing as the yes region was extremly high and girls stereotypically do not like horror films.

People's top rated favourrite films were;

The majority of people didn't have a favourite film, this implies that we shouldnt try and follow anyone elses context or ideas from another film. If we did happen to want to get ideas from another film, Orpahn is the most popular film suggested.

We were most intersted in finding out which sub genres of horror films people most enjoyed. This really helped us to decide what sub genre we wanted to base ours around, as there was a significant difference in the differences

We have now decided that we are going to do a Psychological horror as it will amuse and entertian the majority of the people targeted in our research. This is exactly what we aim to do as they fit out target range perfectly. Hopefully we will get a better response if we follow a theme that fits the majority of people.

Conventions of a Horror Film

The Sub-genre's of horror;

Slasher; such as Psycho

Psychological; such as the Sixth Sense

Religious

Monster / Gore

True Story; Such as The Chainsaw Masacre

B-Movie (low budget)

Serial Killers

Demonic Possession

They are designed to;

Frighten and panic the audience viewing it

Captivate and amuse the audience

Many horrors follow the same sort of pattern with a lead character who is usually the survivor at the end. The killer usually has had something that has happened to them in their childhood to turn them evil. They also use the same method of killing throughout the film including the same weapon, for example; Halloween - Knife, Chainsaw Massacre - Chainsaw etc.

Horror films are usually set in;
Abandoned houses
Warehouses
The woods
                                       Rural areas
                                       Neighbourhoods to make it more realistic


I chose to do psychological, this is because I am interested in psychological illness' and I believe I could efficiently get across one without offending the audience. The sixth sense is something I looked closely at, I liked the idea of it and the way it was through the boys point of view.


The conventions I will use are;
The woods, this will increase the vulnerability of the girl, but also the lack of people around increase the fear as no one is able to help. Danger is creeping around every tree and tight corner. Ours has a knife to kill the victim which stays throughout the film for continuity. Hopefully our film will captivate and scare the audience and the twist in characters should confuse the audience but also increase maximum enjoyment throughout viewing.  She chose to do psychological so are using the mental illness schizophrenia, most viewers would be aware of this illness and hopefully see this in the actions of the girl. 

Nightmare On Elm Street

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2914255129/

Nightamre on Elm Street, is about a dead child murderer who gets into childrens dreams and kills them. The scenes are grusome and extremly frightening. The trailer gives away a lot in the film and leaves little to the imagination. The music fits well with what is going on as its tension building and the screams are fierce.

The Shining Opening Title

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/

The shining is quite a boring opening with the first 50 seconds just being the opening titles. After that you watch a room fill up with blood, this makes the audience aware that a horrendous masacre has gone on, therefore encouraging them to watch on. The background music is eery and classical, it creates an old fashioned scare. However the music has a sort of either machinery or bee's in the background.  

Film

I have chosen to do the film project rather than the Print task, this is because I viewed lots of trailers and thought that I would be able to create one appropriately and professionally.

The genres I have thought of using are;

Rom-Com

Comedy

Horror

Crime

Action

Adventure

Science-fiction

Horror was my final choice, as I believe it would be the most professional piece I could do, but also because I would enjoy doing it. The scary titles and music were what interested me the most. I liked the idea that we could scare and amuse the audience in only 2 minutes.

I used the website http://www.watchthetitles.com/ to view many film titles, it allowed me to get an idea of the type of title I aim to produce. They host a wide range of titles from plenty of genres. The genre we focused mainly on was horror, I looked at; The final destination, halloween, The shining and Nightmare on Elm Street

The Final Destination  
http://watchthetitles.com/articles/00187-The_Final_Destination

The opening title consists of a lot of fast cuts, action intensified music and a lot of methods of death. The fact that it is a series of films is shown in the opening as they are lots of little clips of the previous deaths. This something we could consider as we could do a follow on from a film. The shots are all professional and the transitions and cuts are blended perfectly together. It is a really good opening to a film and factors such as fast cuts are something I wish to interpret into my opening piece. 

Halloween
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/

Halloween was the first of many slasher movies, meaning that the villain was another person rather than a zombie etc. The opening of the movie consits of extremly scary music, which potentially helps builds up a lot of tension and suspension. This is something I will definitley include in the title sequence of my movie. The idea it is done through a mask is a brilliant idea, I really like the idea that it also includes a psychological element, which is the route I plan to take. 

Print Pre Lim

                                   

Firstly we started by researching appropriate school magazines to find out who the target audience would be, how they manage to appeal to their audience, what type of stories they cover, typical names, the layout and colour used and whatever areas seem applicable to our glossaries.

This was all to help us begin our task of creating a school magazine and contents page.

Firstly we started by analysing school magazines we found on the Internet;

There audience is a secondary school age 11-16

They appeal to the audience by using bold text that is easy to read and eye catching. There are a lot of bright colours and pictures that make it attractive. They cover stories such as; charity, head boy/girl and exclusive interviews with students and teachers.

Typical names include; school, college. For example the ones I have chosen are; 'which school magazine' 'back to school' and 'the school magazine'

They all follow colours that match reletivly well with the images and have a layout that fit nicely around the image.

Evaluation Of My Video Pre Lim

Here is the video I uploaded for my evaluation of my film. I think I could have improved it a lot if I had edited it and wrote my script clearer. But as it was my first attempt and I managed to upload it to the Internet its not too bad. 

Film Prelim Task

We were given the task of creating a short film which included these 3 things;

1. Match on action
2. Shot reverse shot
3.Keeping to the 180 degree rule.

We had to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposit another character. They have to then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue.

The student is beginning to worry about not being able to find their homework. This is a Long shot

The child is desperatly searching in their bag for their homework. This is a medium close up.

The student gets sent out of the class, another long shot has been used.

The child is sat outside of the class room, this is an extra long shot.