Saturday 24 September 9707
01. GROUP WORK
For this task I worked with the following students:
Jess Neill - http://neilljasportfolio9239.blogspot.co.uk/
Max Osborne - http://osbornemasportfolio8084.blogspot.co.uk/
Toby Longley - http://longleytasportfolio8064.blogspot.co.uk/
Our official roles were:
Director: Jess.
Co-director: Max
Editor: Claudia.
Co-editor: Jess
Sound design: Max
Cinematographer: Toby.
Co-cinematographer: Claudia.
Our other roles were:
Make up artist: Jess.
Actors: Max and Toby.
Who did what:
In the research stage, all four of us did our own research into the codes and conventions of horror films as well as the target audience. Once we had done this we collaborated in order to share what we had found. This meant that we all contributed to find a variety of information. After this we worked together to set up a focus group via Facebook which we all invited people to in order to complete the questionnaire we constructed.
In the planning stage we constructed a story board as well a shot list and as a group decided what we wanted to happen and which shots would be appropriate. We also individually looked for a makeup tutorial on YouTube and then came together as a group to decide on a final one.
As I have mentioned above we all had our main roles for the production and post-production stages but we still equally contributed to all areas.
02. RESEARCH - CODES AND CONVENTIONS
As a group we decided to research horror films.
The main codes and conventions that you will see in this genre of film are as
follows...
FEATURES: elements
such as death, murder, the unknown and unnatural experiences.
THEMES: Revenge,
childhood issues, good vs evil and nightmares.
CHARACTERS:
The killer/psychopath, the non-believer, the hero, the last
victim standing. Victims are shown as innocent so that the audience feel scared
and sorry for them whereas the killer is shown as evil so that the audience
feel hatred towards them.
SETTING: secluded/deserted
areas, large and old houses, forests/woodland areas, warehouses, hospitals and
so on. All settings usually have a hidden past. These types of settings create
realism as the target audience have all been to a place like this so they are
able to relate to the film, therefore increasing the fear for the audience as
they begin to picture themselves in these situations.
SOUNDS: non-diegetic
(i.e. eerie music), diegetic (i.e. screams), unexpected loud noises, the sound
of rain. This all builds tension and makes the audience jump.
PROPS: weapons such as knifes, axes, chainsaws, ropes and (sometimes but not as often) guns. Weapons
used are usually ones that would inflict a slow and painful death to make the
audience feel even more uncomfortable. The killer’s twisted mind is also used
as a weapon.
SIGHTS: the
killer is never normally revealed until nearer the end, he/she is just shown as
a shadow or silhouette until the story progresses. The victims are shown
scared and running around trying to figure out what’s going on. As the film
progresses the lighting gets darker and the climax of the film is usually
always at night in the pitch black.
The film I researched was ''The Shining'' as I think
it fits with most of the codes and conventions of horror films...
Clicking on each title will take you to the analysis of some more horror films...
03. RESEARCH - TARGET AUDIENCE
Horror films address our archetypal fears and give viewers a psychological
ride. Their principal audience appeal is therefore to do with a hightened emotional response. Even before our research we can guess that this probably has an equal appeal to both men and women of various social classes and ethnicities. Essentially fear is universal.
I began my
target audience research by using statistics from The British Film Institute.
Firstly I looked at how people watch films and what age they are, the
screenshot below shows this. 
From these statistics we can see that the most common ways of
watching films are on the television, on DVD and at the cinema at least
monthly. We can also see that the most common age groups who watch films regularly
are 15-24 and 25-34, making the overall age group 15-34.
I then looked at the statistics for what type of people watch horror films.
The statistics show that 33% of males who answered this survey enjoy watching horror films compared to 22% of women.
04. RESEARCH - FOCUS GROUP
To get further target audience research we set up a
focus group by creating a group page on Facebook. We invited many people between
the ages of 15 – 30 to comment their answers to a questionnaire we constructed
which highlighted the main points we are interested in finding out in order to
help us with our target audience. The people we invited to our Facebook group included
friends of ours, people who have wrote constructive comments on Horror Movie
Trailers on YouTube and also people who have come out the cinema after watching
a horror film who didn’t mind helping us with our research. We felt that by including
these different types of people it would give us a wider range of views and
opinions on what qualities a horror film should have. Also, these people are
genuinely interested in horror films so they can give us a good insight into
what our target audience want.
We asked these questions as we felt they would give us the main information that we need in order to make our horror film as appealing as possible.
05. RESEARCH - FOCUS GROUP RESPONSE TO OUR FIRST DRAFT
FIRST DRAFT:
We posted our first attempt onto our Facebook page with the caption ''please watch our video and give both negative and positive feedback '' in order to see the strengths and weaknesses of our video in terms of conforming to our target audience. Using this information, my group and I made some projected changes that we will make in order for our final piece to be the best it can be.
There were a few main improvements that a number of people from our focus group mentioned.
1. Sound. Several comments were made on the music we used for this piece.
These are a few of the positive responses:
These are a few of the negative responses:
We posted our first attempt onto our Facebook page with the caption ''please watch our video and give both negative and positive feedback '' in order to see the strengths and weaknesses of our video in terms of conforming to our target audience. Using this information, my group and I made some projected changes that we will make in order for our final piece to be the best it can be.
There were a few main improvements that a number of people from our focus group mentioned.
1. Sound. Several comments were made on the music we used for this piece.
These are a few of the positive responses:
- ''The ending is good because the music builds up towards the end so is more powerful when the main bit happens''
- ''I like the choice of music because it goes with the religious theme of the whole piece.''
- ''I like the music but I think it would be better if there was more to it because at the moment its quite simple and flat.''
- ''I think you should make the shots more in time with the music so that it all fits together.''
- ''I don't like the noise every time the shot crackles.''
PROJECTED CHANGES FOR SOUND:
- We will add whispers ontop of the music in order to give it more depth and excitement.
- We will edit on the beat in order to make the editing and music work together.
- We will remove the sound that occurs with the effects.
2. Shots and Editing. Several comments were made on the choice and order of the shots we used.
These are a few of the positive responses:
- ''I really like the beginning because the random shots of the crucifix and the barbie doll etc build up tension and, in a way, confuse the audience because we don't know what the things are or why they're there.''
- ''The last minute of it is really good because all the shots flow together properly so we see the whole journey of what is happening.''
These are a few of the negative responses:
- ''I think it would be a lot better if the shots come and go quicker because its a bit boring like this.''
- ''I really dont like the two shots that zoom into the tarrot cards because it looks too neat and does not go with the rest of the video.''
- ''In order to look like a proper film it needs credits.''
PROJECTED CHANGES FOR SHOTS AND EDITING:
- We will put more jump cuts into our video in order to create shorter and quicker shots.
- We will remove the two still shots of the tarrot cards and replace them with video shots.
- We will include the editing technique ''match on action'' in order to make it more dynamic.
- We will add relevant credits.
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