01 Group Work

For this task I worked with:

Max Osborne: http://osbornemasportfolio8084.blogspot.co.uk/
Claudia Terrana: http://terranacasportfolio9259.blogspot.co.uk/
Jess Neill: http://neilljasportfolio9239.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 collaberated 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 questionaire we constrcuted.

In the planning stage we contrusted 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

Some of the main codes and conventions that you will see in any horror films that lean more towards supernatural/psychological ideas are as follows:

Weapons: These types of horror films do not usually use a physical weapon, but tend to use the mind of a killer instead. In this way the killer uses fear to impact the victims mind instead of having to use a physical weapon.

Settings: Usually the main types of settings seen in these horrors are ones in which the audience can relate to (e.g. houses, schools and hospitals) or ones that are totally isolated in the middle of nowhere (forests and abandoned ware houses). This means it can create a sense of realism for the audience and allow them to relate themselves to these sorts of environments.

Sights: Very often in this horror genre, flashbacks are used to show the audience about the killer's past, and what has made them become what they are now.

Sounds: A very typical type of sound used is contrapuntal Sound; this is sound that doesn’t match the action that is on screen. Horror films use eerie music, like other sub genres to build up tension and to create suspense.

Characters: The main antagonist in these films are normally either disturbed and/or tormented. The victims can be different in the films, however the majority of the time they tend to be more female than male. Even when the film uses children to be the killers or tormented ones, females are still the victims. This could have something to do with the fact that mothers are maternal and the female audiences watching will be able to relate to the character in some way.

Lighting: The types of lighting used in these horrors are: Low key lighting, back lighting, under lighting and shadowing. These types of lighting are all able to frighten the audience as it gives off a sense of the unknown and only lights up part of the scene (e.g. the killers face) this means all attention will drawn upon the killer making it easier to make the audience feel discomforted.

So overall, these codes and conventions used make it fairly clear that horror films (which are either psychological and supernatual) are more subtle and less blood and gore will be shown/used compared to a slasher film, this is due to the use of the mind acting as a weapon.


The films that we felt suited the codes and conventions best were The shining, Case 39, Insidious and se7en.

The shining:

Case 39:
                                   Case 39 codes and conventions video

nsidious:
                                Insidious codes and conventions video

03. Research - Target Audience

Having researched about the horror genre I have been able to conclude that our target audience is going to be males in the range of 15-30 years of age. This is for a few reasons, the first being that my group and I are not yet 18 years old therefore would not able to make a film which is rated 18. Also this allows us to cover a wider range of audience as it includes teenage years (15 to roughly 17/18) in which as a group we can allow this specific audience to relate more to what our film is going to be based on due to us being teenagers ourselves.

 

 

 

This chart shows that the most popular age group for horrors is 19-24 years, this again suggests that our target audience should be based around this age group. This chart also shows that the most unpopular age group is 50+ years followed by 35-49 years. With this in mind, we decided to make our age group no higher than 30 years of age as it seems to become more unpopular from this age.

 

 

With further research I found that it became apparent that more males tended to watch horror movies compared to females. This showed us that we should lean our film more towards the needs of a male audience rather than a female. However, males were only over females by 10% so we will not neglect a female audience entirely because they are still very popular in watching horror films.

04. Research - Focus Group

We set up our focus by using Facebook and we made it a private group. We invited roughly 40 friends and family from a vareity of ages ranging from 15 to 30. Once in the group the participants were asked to answer a questionnaire we had come up with.
In the questionnnaire we covered the main points in a typical questionnaire as well as points wich covered the idea of what people want to see in horrors and why they enjoy the horror movie genre (if they like horrors that is).

 

This is the questionnaire we designed:
 

 

 

Out of the 40 participants we got 19 replies. These are some of them:

 

 

 

 

 

Focus group response to our 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:

• ''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.''

 

These are a few of the negative responses:

• ''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.

 

 



05. Planning - Stroy board 1st draft

06. Planning - Story borad 2nd draft