TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH 2

Our target audience research gave us a greater insight into our audience as a whole. It also proved to us that our narrative would be successful as many of them brought our ideas as their fears, reinforcing just how frightful the unknown is. In addition to this, the research helped us when creating ideas for our narrative, furthermore reassuring us as a group that our narrative is perfect for our target audience. Many of the results that we formed from our questionnaire allowed us to understand the audience from a far better perspective. For example many of them described themselves 'fun, funny and caring', which made us think if our audience were to watch our film would they care about the bullying that's going on. Or would they find the humour too dry and then become worried. The results we gathered were from sixth form students who also thought that an interesting setting for a horror would be at a school, an aspect that is apparent within the trailer therefore fitting their needs as viewers. Our results also suggested that our audience have a busy social life, which implies that they have many friends, so the groups that are portrayed within our trailer could apply to their own social status, which would allow the audience to see the narrative as somewhat truthful and fear for themselves if they have ever been near the situations which occur. Finally, the main influence that appears within our trailer is death, which every member of our target audience feared, by incorporating this aspect as well as the death of a social group in our trailer the audience will feel even more frightful, allowing us to fulfil our overall aim to scare our audience.

TARGET AUDIENCE ANALYSIS RESEARCH

Our target audience allowed us to get a better understanding of our audience, which we then adapted our narrative to.

Our answers from the questionnaire is below:    Key: 'Funny :2' = two people described themselves as funny.

Male:11
Female:13

Describe your personality in 3 words.
Fun: 6
Funny:6
Bubbly:2
Enthusiastic: 2
Caring: 5
Lovable: 2
Charming: 1
Amazing: 2
Sociable: 2 
Fierce: 1
Friendly: 1
Weird: 1
Patient: 1
Sweet: 1
Creative: 1
Hardworking: 1
Wonderful: 1
Nice: 1
Elegant: 1
Respectful: 1
Calm: 1

List three of your favorite hobbies.
Sport: 13
Reading: 2
Going Out: 2
Shopping: 1
Eating: 3
Acting: 1
Raving: 2
Walking: 1
Music: 10
PS3/Gaming: 2
Instruments: 1
Shisha: 2
Watching Films: 4
Drawing: 1
Travelling: 1
Photography: 1
Cars: 1
T.V: 1
Dancing: 3

Do you have a busy social life:
Yes: 18
No: 6

How often do you go to the cinema:
Once a month: 8
Twice a month:3
Three times a month:2
Once a week: 2
Not often: 5
Once in 2-3 months: 2
Once every 5 months: 1
Every 6 months: 1

RECONNAISSANCE

FOCUS GROUPS

 WE USED A FOCUS GROUP IN ORDER TO GAIN INSIGHT INTO OUR TARGET AUDIENCE, AS WELL AS GETTING THEIR VALUABLE OPINIONS ON VARIOUS MOVIE TRAILERS. THE PURPOSE OF THIS IS TO ALLOW US AS A GROUP TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING ON WHAT OUR TARGET AUDIENCE LIKE AND DISLIKE, WHICH WILL HOPEFULLY BE REFLECTED IN OUR WORK IN ADDITION TO THE INTERPRETATION OF OUR FINAL PRODUCT. WE WERE ABLE TO FURTHER DEVELOP OUR NARRATIVE BASED ON THE ANSWERS RECEIVED FROM THE BELOW FOCUS GROUPS. THUS ALLOWING OUR CREATIVITY TO FLOW, AND FORM A REDEVELOPED NARRATIVE THAT APPLIES TO THE NEEDS AND WANTS OF OUR TARGET AUDIENCE.

 

f   Focus Groups:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXRM2R-RFc

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFT8bpGT65w

MAGAZINE NAME IDEAS

As a group we came up with a number of magazine name ideas such as the following:

FLICKS
MOTION
CINEMATIC
TOTAL MOVIE
TOTAL CINEMA
BLOCKBUSTER
MEGAMOVIE
FIRST FILM
FANATIC
FILMFEST
MOVIE MIX

We chose these names for our magazine name as they seem fun, and natural. Our horror front cover will be a one off Halloween edition which is why our names are not as horrific.

Our favourites were:
MOTION
FLICKS
MOVIEMAX
FILMFEST

In order to come to a agreed conclusion we decided to take it upon our target audience, so we asked 20 people. 8 out of the 20 chose FLICKS, thus finalising our decision on our magazine name

STORYBOARDS

NARRATIVE (DEVELOPED)

It's a winter day, and some of the sixth form students are free in the common room. A group of 4 girls and 2 boys are sitting in the main seating area. This group are the most popular of the year, and seen as 'elite' from their fellow pupils. One girl, who is of a dark nature and always, sits in the isolated area at the back of the common room, with a clear view of the elite group. With the elite group there is a couple (boy and girl, Jamal and Taylor). The dark natured girl (Genner) is always looking out for J&T, as she has a crush on J. The rest of this elite group mock G, as they know she has a crush on J. A slight hint of bullying will occur, this will not be brutal but real, name calling, pushing in the hallways and hints of teasing will be present. This will take place of a period of time. One day the bullying is taken a step further as the elite group get hold of G’s phone number and tell her that J is actually interested in her, so they arrange a meeting place which is a park/ isolated area with a bridge (connotations of a bridge are present). The elite group minus J&J are at this isolated area but are hidden behind a tree, awaiting G's arrival, they film her using the camera phones to show her reaction so that they use it as a funny pranks when they  let her know that they set her up. However this does not go to plan breaking the equilibrium. When G receives the disturbing text message, she feels distraught. She unexpectedly reveals a photograph of J&T and rips it, setting alight to one half. The elite group are shocked, but are still filming. G then breaks down and commits suicide due to her feeling she cannot bear this humiliation. The elite now have evidence of G taking her life so they burn the phone so that all evidence will be destroyed because they do not want anyone to know they have been involved in a serious crime. Once they at school they let J&T know what had happened, everyone agrees to let it go and move on. Within the next week strange things occur, elements that show that G's spirit is with the group.

Later on in the week the whole group are just walking through the school building and all of a sudden the doors lock, the lights turn off and there is no escape. Each character scared and screaming, they notice a change in J; his eyes have changed colour and his voice completely different. Suddenly he starts announcing 'I know what you did, you killed me ' etc., which eventually lead the terrified group to believe he has been possessed by G. Creating the recognition of disruption. J, being possessed by G tries to scar each member of the group as revenge for her constant bullying and trauma, she wants them to feel the wrath of her, and know how much it hurts whether it be mentally or physically. One by one there are dilemmas where J (possessed by G) is one to one with each member of the group either killing them, or violently hurting them in order for them to always know and remember that they have been hurt by them. After taking on the group, J then finds his way to his girlfriend J, who G wants to kill as she has the one thing that G was never able to have. J does not want this to happen as J is his high school sweetheart, he then has a plan if G is determined to kill J he would rather die than his girlfriend. An attempt to repair the damage will now take place, the characters attempt to get to the school chapel, in order to connect with God and ask for forgiveness but they are trapped and unable to get out. Now there is a visual change from G to J, back and forth continuously as J does not want to kill his girlfriend (T). In the end, he decides to kill himself; there is a visual fight between all three characters. Where the audience are able to see just how hard the fight between J and G's possessive force is. In the end J commits suicide, in able to kill the possession of G as well as himself. This kills the force and J's character leaving the rest of the characters distraught, and the building then becomes unlocked. The last shot for the audience is the left over image, of the half of the picture that G ripped up but did not burn, which will show the face off... Forming the new equilibrium.

IDEAS FOR PROPS

We will use contact lenses for when Jamal is possessed so that it will look more realistic and professional. Also in horror films this used to show that a following character has been possessed or that they are of an evil spirit. A locket chain will also be present, this will be for a character Genner, inside this locket is a picture of Jamal. This exaggerates her obsession with Jamal; she has this prop as a way of comforting herself due to the unrequited love between her and Jamal. Within supernatural/possession films there are always something that triggers a possession for example in ‘The Possession’ the young girls purchases an antic box which beholds and evil spirit which overcomes her. Similarly Genner’s locket will behold a force that is connected to her. This photograph will play a big part in the film and our trailer so that the audience will be clear of what pushes the possession forward. The photo will be ripped into two to symbol the separation of Jamal and his girlfriend Taylor due his possession. Another prop will a mobile phone, which is evidence of Genner’s suicide that the elite group has. 

LIGHTING IDEAS

There are different types of lighting in horror films, they are important because they emphasize a characters facial expression, costume and mise-en-scene. It also make some things seem more scarier therefore gives a thrill to the audience.

LOW ANGEL LIGHTING

Low Angle is used to create shadowy effects; the fact that you see a humanly figure but cannot fully identify who or what it is, is very terrifying. It emphasizes the horror of villains because it gives the affect of them looking mysterious and dark due to not being able to fully see their figure. As a result of that the audience feel more terrified so it exposes their vulnerability and defenselessness. This is mostly common is Gothic horror films.

UNDER LIGHTING

Under Lighting is used to dramatise the face of a character because it makes them look more fearful and intimidating; a half of their face will be light and the other dark, this therefore sets the idea that the following character has two sides to the, a good and bad. This is would relate to supernatural/possession films when a character has been physically taken over by an evil spirit. This will be used in our trailer for our character Jamal when he is possessed. 

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING

This light is usually used when characters are in a room and there is not enough natural light; it exposes the mise-en-scene and location for the audience. When in jumpy sense this will used to intensify the situation for instant we will use this lighting in our montage when a stab (sound) comes in. 

FILM NAME IDEAS

As a group we came with many different names for our horror film: 
 

The Endurance

Unwanted

The Revenge

Torn

Unrequited

Fixation

The Rejected

Overtaken

The Consumed

Karma

Deserved

Deserted

We came to a final decision of ‘Fixation’ as we felt that it was gripping and also matched well with our narrative. However ‘The Endurance’ was our first choice for the film title but we changed it because we wanted to focus more the photograph element of our narrative rathr than the love

http://prezi.com/spjrpgetjcmm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
http://prezi.com/spjrpgetjcmm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

IDEAS FOR CAMERA

There are many different types of camera shots that are used in horror trailer.

A long shot is popular especially in supernatural/possession film; they are used to expose the location/settings. These settings are usually in isolated locations which makes it more scary because there will be no source of safety for them. For example in the conjuring the family house is surrounded by trees and pushes so there will be way of quick safety is anything happens. This a convention of supernatural/possession films. 

Medium shot are used to show props and costumes. This allows the audience to identity the natural habitat of the characters, along with the era that the film is set in so that it will be relevant. 

Close are also very common because it allows the audience to see the characters facial expressions, giving a more dramatic feeling to the scene. Within trailer they are used often during montages and stabs at the end.

MOCK UPS

POSTER 1

POSTER 2

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

COSTUME HAIR AND MAKE UP

PRACTICE SHOTS

CALL SHEETS

CHOSEN TAGLINE

Our tagline is ‘The obsessive love that never dies’.

This links with the narrative of our film because Genner’s obsession with Jamal and her suicide which leads to her spirit possessing him. For our film poster, it will an image of Jamal with Genner standing behind him staring at his direction.

We had been inspired by a number of supernatural horror films, as their taglines collaborate perfectly with the film narrative keeping the production looking professional.

The devil inside’s tagline is ‘no soul is safe’, links with the main image as it features a nun so it is saying that even the most religious or holy people will not be saved by the evil force that is going around not even the audience.

The insidious tagline is ‘It’s not the house that’s haunted’ linking to the image of the boy with the house in the background. This is stating that the little is the cause of the problem not the house. This is again setting on things that come across to everyone as innocent which is in fact the opposite; this gives awareness to the audience, then making them fear less obvious things. It also gives an insight to the narrative of the film.

The Possession tagline is ‘Darkness lives within’ this once again correlates to the main image of horrific element reaching out the young girl’s mouth. This clearly and strongly shown on the poster.

We discovered that it is very important for the tagline to relate to the poster and the narrative. 

We had a few other ideas, but they all based around our actual tagline. These included : 'the compulsive love that lives forever' and the 'the possessive love that doesn't end'. Both taglines do not feel as sophisticated as our chosen one. The term compulsive does not unite with our narrative as well as 'obsessive' due to it not directly correlating to the narrative. Also living forever seems rather positive compared to 'that never dies' which feels like a disturbance that keeps appearing. Through small yet crucial problems with the tagline is what made us change our minds and create our final tagline: 'The obsessive love that never dies.'

CHOSEN ACTORS

JAMAL- GEORGE FOSTER
GENNER- MILEN GHEBREMICHAEL
TAYLOR- BETSI MEGAN BURCH
KIM- CHERISSE ILAG
CANDICE- KARISMA KHUTTAN
BRANDY- GEORGIA HARDING
CHANEL- PRISCILLA DUAH

FILM SCHEDULE

FILM DIRECTOR CASE STUDY

Film director case study (1) from Priscilla Duah

FILM MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

MOVIE from Priscilladuah

NARRATIVE

Our film is set in school. It is about a group of 6 friends along with an outsider. This outsider (G) falls in love with a boy within the group of friends who is utterly obsessed with; however this boy is already in a relationship with a girl in the group.  G decides to set-up a date with her crush and the other girls in the group encourage her to do so knowing very well that the boy will not turn up. The date is by bridge, G waits but her crush does not come; so with her broken she rips a photo that she has of her crush and she commits suicide due to her sorrow. Her spirit the possesses the boy that she was in love, making him behaviour strangely the girls in the group notice that his behaviour has changed. His possession then makes him stalk the girls; he figure out that he has in fact been possessed by the spirit of G. The boy then leads to trapping them in the school and he tortures them which lead to their death.  It comes to the final girl to kill who so happens to be his girlfriend; he has to fight with the spirit within him in order to save his girlfriend and he eventually kills himself leaving the final girl alive but distraught with the following events. 

CASE STUDY (INSPIRED TRUE EVENT)

A 12 year old girl named Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide after over year of online and school bullying by 12 and 14 year old girls. This torment had started due to her relationship with her 13 year old boyfriend John Borgen who in past and Rebecca’s bully. Rebecca jumped off a tower at and abandoned cement plant near her home town in Florida; after posting the following message ‘I’m jumping I can’t take it anymore’ was sent to her friend.

Borgen was reportedly terrorized by 15 girls online in whom she received such messages as “you should die” and “why don’t you kill yourself”.  A numerous amount of girl from her school cooperated with the intimidation and the constant name calling along with threats to beat her up. Rebecca’s parents have said to early report to the principle of the school of the the bullying however nothing was done to solve the issue. Due to this, Rebecca then changed schools but the torment still followed her online.  12 year old Katelyn Roman and 14 year old Guadalupe Shaw were charged with a felony for cyber bullying as well as physical. The mother of the charged claims that her daughter is "a good girl and I'm 100% sure that whatever they're saying about my daughter is not true." After more investigation, it has been found that even after Rebecca’s death there was still extremely offensive comment posted online saying 'Yeah I bullied Rebecca, and yeah she's dead, but I don't give a blank,'

POSTER ANALYSIS

The Devil Inside poster immediately catches the attention of the audience with the main image looking directly into the camera because they will be drawn by the image which will compel them to find out more about the film. The colours that are used in the background allow the image to stand out more because they are dark. The conventions of the horror are being followed in this poster; red and black which are colours that symbolize evil and immortality so it shows that this is a poster of horror film. The colours distinguish with the main image which is of a nun, this gives the idea that the nun came from evil and darkness which completely contrast with what she is suppose to represent. This gives a convention of the sub-genre because supernatural/possession films are frequently linked with religion; this allows the audience to be familiar with the genre of the film, so if they have seen other film of this genre they may feel that they will in addition that they will enjoy this film in comparison to the others. Within the poster, there are scratches all over; this is signifies that ‘The Devil Inside’ the nun is scratches his way through to get to his next victim which is the audience in addition it may have another message; that the nun is not everything that she seems, beyond all the good and pure imagery if you scratch the surface she is in fact an evil spirit.

A medium close up is used for main image to create a dramatic effect with the position of the character’s body it makes it seem as if the camera was pulled into this specific position like it was controlled by the force in the her eyes. This will also have the effect on the audience, allowing the film poster to gain more attention.

The typography that is used for The Devil Inside poster is Serif, which gives more of a mature appeal. This will be more appealing to the older audience. It is bold and the colour allows it to stand out from the main image. The title ‘The Devil Inside’ matches the main image because if looked at carefully it looks like her eyes are blurred out as she is hiding something and because it is believed that nuns are the holy people and it seems that she is possessed by an evil spirit inside her, corresponding to the title. The tagline reads ‘No soul is safe’ there is in fact a direct address to the audience without using the word ‘you’ for the reason with stating that ‘no soul’ this is saying that there is no one in particular but there could anyone that will be effected by the devil within the film. The strap line is placed in the upper centre of the poster which will catch the attention of the audience because that is where their eyes will be intent because the fact that it’s based on a true story will make the film more terrifying since it could happen to anyone

The Insidious 2 film poster has clear iconography of its genre. With the use of dark colours, it gives the idea that it is a horror film because it is a convention for specific colours like red, black and grey; since those colours are associated with death and anything that is negative. The image on the Insidious 2 poster is a baby in a baby walker moving towards dark lighting, this could be foreshadowing the evil that will come off the baby; perhaps he will get possessed by the evil spirit in the dark. This image is very effective because babies are viewed as the most innocent people and the perception that the main image gives makes it very terrifying as the natural instinct is to protect a young child and you cannot save this baby who is attracted by the darkness. Also the colours give more of an impression to the main image because black and grey are the colours that represent the past when you see in films when a characters is remising; so for the reason of this is that the baby can no longer be saved as whatever it is that is in the dark has manipulated their target already and you cannot go back in the past, furthermore the main image is a long shot which exposes the darkness that surrounds it. The long shot represents the distance between the good and evil, the baby is a far away distance that is closer to the evil than the light that is coming from the other side which has a brighter lighting and so once again he can no longer be saved.

Insidious 2 uses Sans Serif typography, which gives more of modern look and easy to read. It does not distract you from the title of the film which should be the main focus, also why they used uppercase font whereas if the font was too bold it would sidetrack the audience. There are two colours used for the title, red and white. This reflects the deaths that will come off the characters in the film; the colour red represents blood and evil whereas white represents innocence, who are the family and the baby. Also the title is placed in the middle bottom below the main image, allowing the audience o scan the poster from top to bottom. So when they start at the top looking at the main image, it will intrigue them which will then follow on to looking at the title leaving them more curious about the film and therefore inducing them to watch the film.

The tagline reads ‘It will take what you love most’. The direct address makes the audience feel a connection which leaves fear in them however it also bizarrely catches their attention even more because they sense that the film will be terrifying. It also gives the impression that when the watch Insidious they will be affected by the evil spirit that haunts the family in the film will follow them into reality placing the fear factor onto them


THE CONJURING 

The conjuring poster is very distressful. There is a long shot of the main image, allowing the audience to process what type of film this will be and also it allows the audience to get closer to the poster in order to fully see the image, which then catches their attention in addition the main image is of a young woman sitting on a rocking chair with a doll placed on her lap, which is facing the camera with the woman facing the opposite direction. This puts the audience an uncomfortable position because it is almost as if the doll is looking straight at its next victim which is the viewer who is looking at the poster. This gives the impression that the woman is being controlled by a possessive force in the doll. Having said that, the audience will be able to recognise that this is a supernatural/possession horror film. The costume of the character is of a ragged white cloth like dress; this is an old fashioned piece of clothing so there could possible theme of the film being set in the past. But it also looks like the clothing of a hospital patient, giving the connotation she could be a mental health patient. Also her hair is in a disordered state so she has already been consumed by the doll. There are dark stains soaking down the walls, but also coming from the ground meanwhile the middle frame is of a lighter colour, its almost like the darkness is a creeping up on the girl this, the evil knows its next victim and this symbolizes that the evil that will possess the woman.  

The typography used on the poster is Serif with bold white. this allows the title to stand out and attract the audience. The title 'The Conjuring' which means performing a trick using hands therefore linking in with the main image of the doll that it is being controlled by an unknown force. This will put fear into the audience because they are unaware of what is happening, though  it may persuaded them to watch the film so they will discover evil takes over the woman and the force. 

The tagline reads 'Based on the true case files of the Warrens' this gives the audience an insight into the narrative of the film. The fact it says 'true case files' suggest that this is actually based a true story so it is not completely fiction. This is a convention of many supernatural/possession films to tell their audience that their narrative is based on a real story. In addition the fear in the audience will be heightened because they know that the evil force is not just in the fiction world of the film but in fact in reality.