Audience Research-Horror Film Preferences

When thinking about why someone likes horror films, I wanted to take into account everything in detail. So for this question, I was thinking about the trailer; was there a particular length that people preferred? In this case, 30-40 seconds was more preferable. This is conventionally known to be the typical length of a teaser trailer anyway, the people making the trailer don't want to give away too much about the film, yet they can't make it too short. This gives us a good insight into how long the trailer should be, and why people more likely to watch it.

After taking a look at horror films and looking at typical colours used. I thought about what the audience prefer. Was there a certain colour that grabbed the eye? Was it contrasting colours? Was colour important to the genre of the film? So after having a look at some horror films, I used colours I'd seen to come up with this question and find out when was preferred. It turned out to be the black and or red answer. This was my prediction as this is what I had seen the most. The black representing the darkness of a horror film, and the red connoting blood.

I then thought about generalisation, was there a certain factor that made a film interesting? I looked at the differences between horror films. Some have more blood than others (such as The Descent, which has a lot of blood), some have adventure (also like The Descent), a lot are spooky, with a supernatural theme (such as, The Fourth Kind, Paranormal Activity, and The Exorcist). Many can be jumpy too. They aren't 'in your face' scary, but there are parts that make you jump out of your seat (Prom Night, Amityville Horror). I looked into what people preferred, which was their films to be more jumpy. This gave me something else to take into account when making the trailer.

There have been hundreds of horror films made. Obviously some better than others. I investigated the ones that were favourites though. After some research on the internet, trying to found out some of the better ones. I took the names and put them into this question, clearly 'Halloween' was the winner, but why? Was it the props? The storyline? The suspense? There are many factors to take into account when looking into these things. It is the fourt biggest horror franchise in America, so what ever the film maker did (John Carpenter, Director), they did it really well.

It was time to take an overall look at films. What did people enjoy watching the most? I thought about the biggest genres there were, just to get a general look on things. Action appeared to just top it. It's interesting looking at these results. Thriller, Action and Adventure, got the best responses. All of which can be used in horror films. This is probably the reason why there are a variety of horro films that can get a huge following.

I thought about the trailer we were going to be making, and if there would be loads of people rusing to see it, or was there a certain amount of time that people went to the cinema. I looked back on how many times I go to the cinema, and my answer was that, it depends on what looks good at the cinema. So it could range from once a month, to four times a month. I decided to look at other peoples cinema patterns. Once a month seemed to be the most popular answer. I thought about factors why people don't go more, and came up with these conclusions; One, the film world seems to have phases, there can be a phases where there are a good four or five films out at the cinema; or there can be a phase where there aren't so many good films on and people are less likely to go to the cinema. Two, money. The cinema is getting more and more expensive, and some people just can't afford to go that often, even with the discounts students can get, and the clubcards, it can still be an expensive trip out; which is why it's one of the causes of pirate DVD's being sold.

All films have a storyline. There aren't a huge amount of storylines. Many films use the same one. But it was interesting to find out what people preferred. In this case it was Ghost storylines. A part of me wondered why people thought this, and it occurred to me that this was around the time of 'Paranormal Activity 2' being released. Was this subconsiously on thier minds? At the same time though, Vampire and Warewolf films weren't as popular, but a Twilight film was also big talk around that time, so maybe it wasn't the influence of what was being released around the time of this questionnaire.

A simple question I thought would be sensible to ask people was, do they like creatures in their films. The definitive answer was 'No'. I asked this question bearing in mind what could be used in our teaser trailer. Would using a creater be more influential in getting a better response. Or would it be a total waste of time, time of which could be spent on something else that people may enjoy.

Finally in this section, I asked about the horror sub genres. I took the main ones to find out what was most popular. It turned out to be thriller horror. So this was something to take into account when working on ideas for the trailer. Thriller horrors don't always consist of blood and gore, so my group would have to think of something subtle, to give the trailer the overall horror feeling.

Audience Research Analysis

When creating the audience research I had to think about the three different elements to the coursework. The first was the horror trailer itself, what would be peoples preferences on that? The second was the magazine front cover. Is there a particular style/colour scheme/layout that people prefer? Thirdly I had to consider the poster to the trailer. What would attract people to it? I needed to consider this when writing my questions.

The questions were aimed at any age group. Not only did I send it off to people I know that are my age, it was also send to mums, dads, aunts and uncles. The variation in age I felt would give a better outlook on what people prefer, for example, the older people that took this questionnaire would be able to think back to what films used to be like in contrast to how they are today, and the younger generation completing the survey would most likely be thinking only about modern films.

By creating this survey it gave us more of a chance to use a different variety of things during the project, for example, we could take certain elements that the audience preferred in to the actual trailer, other elements such as colour schemes, into the poster, and things such as fonts in the magazine front cover.

Problems during filming.

There was a huge problem while first filming our teaser trailer. As we are a small budget company we did not have the right apparatus to make a dull college look like something out of Hollywood, or to make the college look like a conventional high school in an American production. Looking at most British horror films there are not many which are situated in a school or college, and many of them are parodies and spooks of American movies out of Hollywood.

When researching into the British horror movies the best movies which came out of this genre were ‘Sweeny Todd’, ‘Eden Lake’ and ’28 Days later’, these films did not fall into the genre in which we wanted to be part of.

The following films all have big budgets and as they were filmed in Britain, we didn’t want to take away the old and drearily London which British horror films portray London to be. This is why we didn’t want to use the class rooms, which we initially wanted to use as a location, but instead have opted to use a studio and one classroom but we are going to transform it, to make it not look like one.

Sweeny Todd – the way London is conveyed here, makes it look like it is very dull and a scary place to live in. before the era of Sweeny Todd, stories such as Jack the Ripper have kept London alive with a murderess temperament, which is why the British college didn’t work, as it didn’t have the same dull presence, unlike the set of Sweeny Todd.

We also had many problems with making the college look like it was part of a horror film, we could have played on this as we could have made it seem scarier and more thrilling for the audience, as they think that it such a normal situation that they would be more frightened. However this was not the case, as it looked like we were making a spoof film or a comedy film.

Other problems that arose were the noise level in the college while trying to film. We tried our best to use the college atmosphere and incorporate it into our teaser trailer but it just wasn’t working. We tried to increase tension by using hand held shots and steadi cam, but we kept on losing focus. The lights we were using kept on reflecting off the walls and on the windows, which gave it an unprofessional look.

The image to the right shows how modern the setting was, and this wouldn’t of worked as a good trailer, as most modern films people expect a lot of excitement from them and we don’t have the budget for a huge horror film.

We have decided to keep the name of the teaser trailer ‘Satan’s Mistress’, and just shoot something which is quick and effective. We looked at possible ideas, and we came up with the idea of using witch craft and hoo-doo. We thought this could work better, as some people are very superstitious and this could have a good affect on them.

While watching certain witch craft films, your mind over runs you, although you know there is a high chance that it isn’t real, you always have the doubt and the conscious that it could be true.  

Back Stage

Here is Dark Room Productions backstage.

The imagine on the right demonstrates some of the obstacles we had to overcome in terms of the lighting as some of the crew had to go into smaller spaces, in order for the lighting to be effective.

More images coming soon.

Treatment

Satan’s Mistress

The genre we will be part of once the final production is made is Horror; the sub-genre that our teaser trailer will conform to is supernatural. The supernatural genre has an opening slot, with films such as: Final destination, The Omen, The Haunting in Connecticut. The format of the teaser trailer will be a short film which will be 30-59 seconds long, for added impact we will have a range of different shots, which will be quick and short, to dramatise the horror of the trailer.

The content of the film will be about an estranged, divorcee secondary school teacher who has a unity with the devil.  Her dislike for males is evident when scenes of her torturing a young male is predominate throughout the trailer. The constant juxtaposition of good and evil is shown through the use of bibles and symbolic use of Christian elements will be used in the trailer to show her pact with the devil. The contrast of good and evil will also be shown, by using a young boy to connote innocence and the evil of the teacher will be portrayed by her costume and make up, alongside the crucifix’s and the bibles that will be used in a non religious way by the teacher.

We will use a HD camera to film the teaser trailer and also use a Canon E05 450DDigital SLR Camera to take the raw images for our magazine and posters.  We will also use out skills in Photoshop to edit these raw images.

 The intended audience of our teaser trailer will be 16-25 year olds, with the output of horror movies dipping in the 80’s and 90’s the gap for horror movies other that slashers had been left open, which allowed for movies which both sexes will enjoy to be made such as fantasy horrors and supernatural  movies. Therefore the intended audience will be for both male and females.

The idea of making a film which would scare people startled us at the beginning, however the idea of having something which could happen in reality, was the core of our idea. The conclusion we came up with was to have the main set being something which people will feel comfortable in, the idea of the filming being in a school/college was the main focus, as people should feel safe there, and the idea of a demonic teacher in a catholic school was a rationale interpretation.

All of the characters which will be staring in the film will be from our own production team, so there will be no trouble finding actors. The feasibility of the teaser trailer is possible as there are no dramatic stunts which have to be shot and there are no outrageous effects we have to make. The whole teaser trailer should therefore be a success.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Update No. 6

When filming a minor and also because we are using an actor who is under the age of 18 we have to ask for parental consent, so we have sent out a letter to the parents of the actor, to ensure he is able after we have had their agreement.

Satan's Mistress - script

      Although we want to use mainly music to build suspense, we thought that the idea of using a script was a good idea. We used this basic script as a basis for what we want the characters to say; however this script is just a basic outline on what the characters need to do, as there will not be much talking as it is only a teaser trailer. The main point of using a script is so that, the characters as well as the director knows what they are doing

Script for Satan’s Mistress

SCENE 1

                Opening shot is of the young boy being tortured – non-diegetic music and heavily breathing.

 SCENE 2               

                (TEACHER WALKS DOWN THE CORRIDOR-FOLEY SOUNDS OF HER WALKING)

SCENE 3

                Louis: ‘have you seen the new RE teacher yet Soph?’

                Sophie: ‘Nah not yet, why?’

SCENE 4

                Samuel: ‘what do you want from me?’ – followed by him repeatedly screaming for help

SCENE 5

                (THE PUPILS IN THE CLASSROOM ARE TALKING LOUDLY)

                (TEACHER WALKS IN FROM THE CLASSROOM DOOR)

                Ms. Black: ‘sorry I’m late…’ – (AND SLOWLY PULLS BACK THE HOOD OF HER CAPE)

SCENE 6

                BIBLES ARE SLAMED DOWN ON THE TABLE

SCENE 7

                (QUICK CUT TO SAMUEL SCREAMING ON THE CRUCIFIX)

SCENE 8

                (MS.BLACK IS WRITING HER NAME ON THE BOARD AND THERE IS BACKGROUND NOISE OF THE CHILDREN TALKING)

                Ms. Black (screams) ‘SILENCE!!

(Looking at Louis she points at the door)

                Ms. Black: ‘my office NOW’

SCENE 9

                (Louis is walking to Ms Black’s office – Foley sound are being used to create tension)

                Foley sounds

·         chains rattling

·         Screaming ECT…

SCENE 10

                (SAMUEL IS SCREAMING AND THE MS BLACK IS LAUGHING)

SCENE 11

                (LOUIS WALKS INTO HER OFFICE – FOLEY SOUND OF DOOR CREAKING OPEN)

Extreme quick cut to Ms. Black showing her demonic traits.