Tuesday, 13 December 2011

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.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

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

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 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 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.