Shooting Schedule

Hello!
Recently we have come up as a group, to plan a shooting schedule for when we are going to shoot our scenes for the horror trailer. On the whole this was a tricky thing to do as sometimes our lessons in other subjects would clash with when we wanted to film and sometimes there were just days that one of us was free and the other was not. However, getting this all out of the way, we were able to make a shooting schedule for the times where two or more of us was available to film.

[please click on the picture if the writing or information provided is too small]

I believe that creating a shooting schedule would help us to be more organised as we will know where to film and what props to bring if any are needed. Our locations are quite easy to get to so minimal time would be needed to transport ourselves and the characters to the chosen locations. Most of our scenes need to be filmed at night or when the sky is dark hence why there are late times shown on the shooting schedule.

Theories that relate to our narrative

Hello!
Whilst making our trailers we have to bare in mind what theories our narrative relates to and why we chose these theories in particular. On the whole, I knew from the beginning what kind of theories that I wanted the trailer to consist of.

Final Girl Theory

Within our trailer we used the final girl theory because this theory occurs in most horror films and we still wanted to follow main conventions used within horror films. The final girl theory is evident in slasher film and specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. Like the title suggests, this theory is used near the end of the film when the girl is trying to run away from the villain and usually defeats the villain. The characters involves in this scene is Sammie and Angela in which Sammie is the final girl. In conclusion to this scene within our narrative, Sammie stabs Angela when she is weakened however it is up to the viewers to decided whether this actually kills Angela or not.  

The Monstrous Feminine

When we were constructing our storyboard it became evident to see that our main character (villain) came under the theory of a Monstrous Feminine. The villain in our narrative is Angela and her personality and character within the narrative comes underneath the monstrous feminine theory. She starts out being a nice, innocent religious girl who then becomes possessed by the Devil and turns into an angry, vicious killing-machine who kills people on the basis of how they’ve lived their lives. This narrative reminded us of the film ‘Carrie’ where this transformation from innocent to evil is present too however we were careful to make Angela not too similar to Carrie as we still wanted to be different from typical horror films. Hence, we decided to not give her any magical powers so that she still had elements of being human. Even though Angela is deemed as evil, it is not her fault that she is killing people as we have to remember that she is being possessed into doing those immoral acts.

Storyboard

Hello!
Recently we amalgamated our ideas and constructed a storyboard for the basis of our horror trailer. This was a good experience as we were able to listen to each other's ideas and come up with final pictures and descriptions. We then placed our storyboard in order for our trailer and put on a presentation on easy viewing.

Storyboards

What have I learnt?
I have learnt that constructing a storyboard is hard work because you don't want the trailer to look as if it is a short story rather than it being a horror trailer. Also, colours are important because they help the audience to recognise what kind of genre the trailer will be. Picking out the most important and interesting parts from our narrative was hard too as we had to judge which ones would make the trailer seem more intriguing and would drive the audience into actually watching the film.

New Film: The Woman in Black

Hello!

Overview
Today I've been researching new films that are set to premiere next year and I stumbled across "The Woman In Black" directed by James Watkins and is adaptation of Susan Hill's novel.

A widowed lawyer travels to a secluded village on an important assignment, and encounters a vengeful ghost with mysterious motives. After losing his beloved wife, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) was nearly consumed by grief. When an important client of Arthur's dies, he pulls himself out of mourning to settle the man's affairs. But in this town, everyone has a secret. Something horrible once happened here, and it seems that the locals are determined to ensure Arthur never finds out what it was. Now the more time Arthur spends in his client's crumbling estate, the more aware he becomes of a presence that isn't quite human. In this house dwells a woman's ghost. In life she lost something precious, and now in death she'll do whatever it takes to get it back. Until she does, anyone who dares enter this house is doomed

Based on the classic ghost story, The Woman In Black tells the tale of Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House. Working alone in the old mansion, Kipps begins to uncover the town's tragic and tortured secrets

Here is the trailer for this film and considering that I am "pants" when it comes to horror films, this one intrigued me and I really would like to see it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I think I like this film because the narrative is really interesting and out of the blue. For example, I know it is a ghost story but their interpretation of a ghost story is amazing because it's not the standard haunting but it affects everyone within the village. I would recommend everyone to see this film when it comes out and I would definitely use some conventions within this film such as the extreme close up on the little girl's shoes and the close-ups on the main character's facial expressions.

Summary

• Viewing "The Woman In Black" 2012 trailer

Mise en Scene within Horror Films

Hello!

Overview
Recently I have been doing my own research into what makes the setting of a place scary and horror-like. With this research, I aim to apply my findings into my horror trailer to make it as horrific as possible and one that fits the horror genre.

Here is a short clip I found on YouTube consisting of three classic horror locations. I believe this was beneficial for me to see because it made me realise what locations would be the most effective within horror trailers or films in general and what would scare the audience the most.

As a group, we decided on three main horror locations in which this is:

• A church
• A house
• Outside (streets)

Other minor locations will include:

• A subway
• A bathroom

A traditional horror house would look something like this:

However, if we were to ever get a house like this then it would not fit in with our narrative as although it would have some scary aspects for examples trees and bushes it needs to look normal as the main characters has not become possessed yet. A normal house would symbolise that there are normal citizens living inside and would convince the audience that nothing will bad will happen in which we want the audience to feel like this.

Parks are not ususally used within horror trailers, the main location would usually be a forest. Since a forest around the area we live in is unlikely we decided to get a park instead and film the scenes at night.

A park like this would be amazing to film in at night because it would have a "horror feel" to it, as if the person wondering through the park would not be able to escape. The runway would make it as if the character is running to nowhere and would give the illusion that the character is in a forest. Additionally, it would be a great space to film zombie like scenes so it's as if the character has turned away from society and has now had to go into hiding. I believe as a group we would aim in getting a location like this one, hopefully around the surrey borough.

A typical horror bathroom (not including a bath) would look something like this:



However, since the bathroom is within a church we would need the bathroom to look more authentic, old and less scary. Even though this is a brilliant example of what a bathroom should look like I believe it's too over the top as we would not want to connote that deaths have been taken place in the bathroom but only that it is a scary place for someone to be by themselves at night.

Summary

• Horror locations

Clips and our mini trailer

Hello!
Carrying on from the Deep Learning Day, I decided that it would be more beneficial to you to actually see footage from that day and what locations we went too. So for your viewing pleasure, here are some clips from the day and our actual trailer, I hope you enjoy.

Deep Learning Day

Hello!

Overview

Recently, I have had a Deep Learning Day in which the whole day was Media related. The activities that took place within the DLD day was for the benefit of all groups and to see what skills, as as team, that we needed to improve on.

We were given the task to either make a parody of a horror movie or to film clips from our trailers so we decided that we were going to film clips from our trailers because this would give us a better insight in what we would need to do in order to make the trailer successful and additionally heighten our camera skills. Working on clips of our trailer would have also helped us to realise what scenes within the trailer were possible and which scenes would take longer than others.

The first lesson of our DLD, we spent looking over our storyboard, wondering what scenes should go where and if we needed to add any more shots. After we were happy with the order of the trailer we then cut the pictures up and scanned them into the computer. This lesson was helpful because it gave us more time to evaluate our narrative and on the whole our trailer. Additionally it was helpful because we were then able to see what parts of the trailer did not seem to go well and it made us come togethere more as group as we were able to share our opinions whilst respecting the opinions of others.

[Picture of Lewis (one of my team members) sorting out the storyboard. Picture taken by Namibia McLean]

Short Horror Film [The presentation that our teacher showed us whilst talking and giving us tips in using cameras and talked about film itself.] The second lesson we had a master class with one our of teachers, exploring how to use a camera and a tripod properly. He also answered our questions when it came to what shots would be the most effective within horror trailers and he looked over our storyboards to see if we could actually film the scenes. This masterclass was helpful because now I am more familiar with the camera and camera settings and can easily locate if I needed to zoom in or zoom out, colour balance etc. Since I have used a tripod before, it was surprising to find out new information from it as I deemed I knew everything there was to the tripod. It was helpful to find out new ways to elongate the tripod because this would help my team with filming in tricky places.

From the third lesson till lunch we started filming clips from our horror trailer I found this more difficult than it thought. One of the problems that we had to face is that the locations were very far apart from one another and because we didn't have a lot of time to film and get the scenes back to convert it was very hard trying to fit everything in. Although, it was a great experience as we were able to see what shots we would have to change as they did not work when filmed and that was useful because on the whole I just want our trailer to be successful. We shot in four main locations we shot within the college, outside a church and in a park. Here are some pictures and clips of where we shot:

 

We felt that the park scene was perfect in setting a horror trailer because of the way the sky looked and how abandoned the setting was. For the main trailer, we do plan to film in a house like we orginially planned not within a college as we would have more time to film and a house would be more horror based setting than a college.

From lessons 5-6 we had to edit the footage we had and make it into a trailer. This was the most stressful part for me because I realised that we had many problems. For example, we realised that we did not have enough good footage to have a 30 seconds trailer in which this meant that footage would have to be reused and we also realised that it would have been better to edit on a PC rather than a MAC computer. This is because everytime we were getting somewhere with editing our trailer the MAC would crash resulting in us having to start the whole thing again. This even occured when we saved every four minutes in which we couldn't get the rest of the trailer back. We decided in the end to just go to a PC and this was much less stressful as I could edit the trailer without the risk of the trailer being lost. Here is our finished trailer:

The music we used definitely made our horror trailer scarier and I was very happy with this result. On the whole I wish we had filmed more scenes, especially in places that looked more like a horror setting because I realised some of the locations we used just looked too normal and we needed to have a scare factor. If I was to do the project again then I would definitely make sure I have enough footage to last us for when we edit, to make sure that the props don't show when we are filming and to also film in horror like places.

Summary

• Filmed clips from our horror trailers
• Masterclass in using the camera and tripod
• Sorted out our storyboard

Narrative for our horror film

Hello!

Overview
Recently we were given the task to write out the narrative for our horror trailer. On the whole, the process didn't take long as my group and I had a clear perspective on what we wanted to include within the narrative and what we find was an essential pieces within the narrative. Below is the narrative that we have created (Warning: very detailed description):

Beginning
In South -East London, England, a teenage girl named Angela is mysteriously looking at a church. A flashback of her at a younger age is shown where she is constantly going to church with her mother. Suddenly, her mother disrupts the flashback and we return to the present stage and her mother asks if she is going inside the church. She then states that she will come into the church within a few moments and hence her mum goes in without her. She continues to stare at the church but suddenly sees her friends across the street and a smile is illustrated on her face. They quickly greet and Sammie states that they are going to Freddie’s house to watch a movie; she then states that she is going with them and therefore ditches the idea of going to church. She looks back at the church worryingly but soon forgets about her betrayal to her religion when she converses with her friends. Once inside Freddie’s house they settle down and begin to watch the film. They then begin to watch a horror film and she is reminded of her betrayal to the church in which this makes her feel uneasy. Then, some religious connotations are portrayed within the film and she begins to panic as she thinks about her own deception. Her friends try to snap her out of her madness and once calm, suggest that she should go home and rest and she follows this advice. She arrives home only to find her mother extremely angry with her missing out on church. The two argue until the mother hits her and states that she should repent her sins. She runs to her room, cries and then falls asleep. Once awoken from her slumber, she realises the time, 3am however, decides her mother was right and that she should go and repent. She gets her coat and walks silently out the house, trying not to awake her mother. She walks to the church reciting versus’ from the Bible. Once in the church, she kneels by the alter and starts praying. Suddenly, the door opens but she cannot see anyone there, she then decides to hide away in fear thinking that God has arrived in the room. It turns out to be a thief trying to steal ornaments from the alter including a Bible, a cross and some money from the offering. Angela then beings to become more and more scared and then hear voices within her mind telling her to kill. The voices then begin to get louder and before she can control herself she beats him to death with a candle holder. She then stops and realises what she has done and runs to the bathroom to try and wash away the blood. She then looks in the mirror once, thinking that something is behind her. She then looks again in which her eyes go red and the scene fades to black.A mysterious person who has witnessed the event goes to Angela’s mother and tells her about the event that happened within the church. Thinking that this person is wild, she refuses to believe the story and tells the person to get out of her house. The person tells her to beware of Angela, and then runs out of the house whilst Angela’s mum is left bewildered.Later her mum is sitting in her chair and waiting for Angela to arrive. The doorbell rings and her mum slowly approach the door, baring in mind what the witness has said about Angela. She slowly opens the door to find Angela with her head held down and her clothes ripped. She then goes to touch Angela’s head but Angela then quickly raises her head and her mother realises that she has glowing red eyes. Her mum runs away in fear but Angela catches up with her. She then stabs Angela in the stomach but Angela laughs and then takes the knife out showing that it has had no effect. The scene then ends with Angela going towards the camera but at an audience’s point of view coming towards the camera.

Middle

The next morning, Leyla and Sammie arrive to Angela's house to pick her up for school. After ringing the doorbell and waiting for a couple of minutes they soon find that the door is open and decide to go in. They search around the house and fail to find Angela. As soon as they are about to leave, Angela jumps from nowhere and Leyla and Sammie scream. Angela laughs, greets her friends and they all go off to school.
 After school, Freddie and Angela walk to Freddie's house to do their English project together. Soon after arriving at Freddie's house, Angela gets restless and tries to kiss Freddie. Freddie backs away and states that he does not want to kiss Angela and that she should leave. Angela gets angry and Freddie then states that he'll find another partner for the project. Angela then transforms from normal Angela in to evil Angela and then passes the curse onto Freddie. Angela leaves the house when she hears Freddie's parents arriving back to the house. Freddie's mum asks if he is okay and Freddie does not reply and instead passes the curse onto his parents. The scene ends with the family laughing manically.

Clips of Angela and Freddie killing and cursing people are then shown. Even a clip of Mason is seen with Angela stating that he'll have fun before giving killing him and sending him to hell. The whole of South East London are then told about the violent attacks through different media texts.

Sammie wonders why all of this is happening and decides to do some much needed research. We see clips of her reading books, searching the internet and find out what Angela is and how the curse is spreading. Suddenly, Angela calls Sammie and states that Sammie should stop what she is doing whilst Sammie is confused and then the two argue on the phone. Sammie throws the book and holds her head with her hands.

A couple of weeks later and Leyla and Sammie are sitting in Leyla's front room pondering about all the attacks. There is a new curfew of 5pm for children and 6pm for young adults and 7pm for adults in order to ensure everyone's safety. Sammie then states that no one is safe and the two then share stories about the kind of attacks they've heard. Suddenly they hear glass shattering from the other room and scream only to find out that Leyla's mum had accidentally dropped her glass of water and then begins to cry. The two girls comfort the mother until she is calm again. They smile and then Leyla's mother then goes upstairs to rest. Leyla states that she has become this way because of all the attacks and they return back to the front room.

Ending
Sammie then gets a strange call from someone calling from unknown. She picks up and the person is frantically telling her to stay away from Angela as she is spreading the curse. The mysterious person is then revealed to be connected to Angela’s past. Sammie listens but then demands for evidence and the mysterious person tells her to look outside her window. Leyla hearing the conversation then looks outside the window to find the "evil Angela" grinning. Sammie drops the phone and the two decide to run upstairs into Leyla's room. Angela breaks down the door and stops Leyla from going up the stairs. Leyla is crying and shouts to Sammie to save herself. Sammie then tries to save Leyla but is flung to the dining room door. Leyla is then taken to the front room where Angela blocks the door. Leyla screams in agony whilst Angela laughs. Sammie screams and runs outside.

After giving Leyla the curse, Angela then tracks down Sammie and finds her at an abandoned house. Sammie screams and short dialogue is spoken between the two. There is then a final standoff between Angela and Sammie. Sammie then tries to run away but Angela drags her by feet to her previous position. Sammie frantically looks around to find something to kill Angela and comes across a knife. As soon as Angela tries to possess her, Sammie stabs Angela in the heart and Angela screams in agony. She says her last words then drops to the floor and returns back to the "normal" Angela. Sammie remembers that Angela had been possessed; this drives her to call an ambulance. Sammie then runs back to Leyla's house to find a "normal" Leyla. The scene is left with the two of them hugging.The narrative ends with Angela missing and Sammie, Leyla and Freddie laying flowers for Mason.

Summary

Beginning - Carrie is a normal girl but is drowned in religion forced upon her by her mother. She skips out on church one day to go see a film with her friends. Whilst watching the film, she is reminded that she has skipped out on church as the film displays religious connotations. She panics and then her friends tell her to go home. Her mother is angry with her and tells her to repent. Later on, she leaves home to go and repent at the church but is disrupted by a thief. She hears voices to kill the thief and then she listens to the voices and kills the thief and then goes to the bathroom to wash her hands where she then becomes possessed by the devil. She returns home still possessed and then kills her mother.

Middle - The next day her friends come to collect her to go to college. Thinking that Angela has left without them they leave but then "normal" Angela appears from the blue and they all walk to college together. After college, Angela and Freddie go to Freddie;s house to do their english coursework. Angela tries to kiss Freddie but Freddie states that it would be best for Angela to leave. Angela then becomes angry and spreads the curse onto Freddie and leaves. Freddie's parents return and Freddie passes on the curse to his parents. Media texts are reporting about the strange incidents and we see Mason (one of the friends die). Sammie (one of the friends) does research about why this is happening and finds out the reasons why. She then receives a call from Angela stating that she should stop what she is doing. The two argue and the scene ends. Sammie and Leyla (another friend) are sharing stories about the murders when they are disturbed by glass shattering. Worried, they run into the kitchen to find Leyla's mother loosing the will to live and they order her to sleep and she does so. They then return to the living room.

Ending - Sammie recieves a strange call from a mysterious person stating that Angela is the one performing all the murders and spreading the curse. The mysterious person orders Sammie to look outside her window and they find "evil" Angela. The two friends try to escape but the curse is then spread onto Leyla. Sammie runs away but Angela catches up. They fight and Sammie kills Angela or so she thinks. She returns home to find a normal "Leyla" and that peace has been restored in society. The film ends with the three friends Sammie, Leyla and Freddie, laying flowers on Mason's grave.

What I have learnt?
Throughout the process, I realised that it would take a lot of filming to get the particular shots we want (obviously not of the whole film but the parts we need for the horror trailer). Planning is they key into getting perfect shots so our storyboard would have to do our narrative justice in order for it to be a successful trailer.

Questionnaire Results

Hello!

Overview
Today we gathered and calcualted the results from our questionnaire. Many thanks to everyone who participated as over 35 people took part in the mini questionnaire. Having a great amount of people from different age ranges will help us to determine what title to use for our horror film trailer and on the whole which title would be more effective. From all the results, the conlcusion is that we have a possible top 4 names to use for our trailer in which my group and I will decide on. The top 4 names were Damnation, Perdition, Condemnation and Domination so thank you to all the people who submitted the questionnaire.

We asked one simple question which stated:
Which titles do you think would best suit a horror movie based on possession and religion?

Since there was no space to add in a little narrative from the film we decided it would be best to inform anyone who wanted to know about it directly. For example when I was going around asking people which title would be the best, I gave them a little description about what the film would include and what the other themese were. This gave the audience a better understanding of which title to then choose. We also stated that they can choose up to three options for the titles, this is because we did not want them to feel constrained and therefore in the end we could get an honest opinion of what names they would prefer.

We set up a survey that looked like this:

[ print screen taken from survey monkey.]

On the whole from survey monkey we got a range of responses from more than 15 people which was an outstanding result considering that we didn't think that we would get so many. I believe that the survey monkey questionnaire was advertised well on places such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in which the enhanced the amount of people who took part.

Although, when I did use the traiditional method of pen and paper I realised that people were more willing to take part since it was a short questionnaire and that they had a general interest in horror films. I print screened the questionnaire from SurveyMonkey and pasted it to a word document so that I could easily print out and give around the family members, members of the public and students. From doing this I got over 20 responses but unfortunately could not take any more as I had run out of resources such as paper however I am still glad that as a team we were able to get so many responses. Here below are some of the responses from the pen and paper questionnaire:

I told people to sign the papers to show that the questionnaire is valid and authentic. From this and  online survey, we were able to conclude what names to pick out of a possible top four and whcih were the most favoured. We found out the top answer was Damnation, second Perdition and joint third was Condemnation and Domination. I found this interesting and I was greatly flattered that two of my original answers were voted first and second. From this research, we now have a clear idea on what to potentially call our film (in which it looks like we are going for Damnation) and we understand the views of our audience.

Summary

• Questionnaire results from SurveyMonkey and Pen and Paper
• Different types of social networking used
• Different techniques of getting the survey across
• Final top 4 names

Potential titles for our film

Hello!
Sorry for the late post, I've been having a lot of trouble with Blogger lately. However, the bonus for all of you is that you get to see the results from the questionnaire on the same day!

Recently we were told within our groups to come up with 10 names for our horror films each. The task on the whole was quite daunting but when I started to come up with a few names I realised that it wasn't as hard as I had deemed the task to be. The names I thought of were mainly based around the continuous themes portrayed throughout the horror trailer and within the film (if it were to be made). Here are the 10 names I thought of for the horror trailer:

• Perdition
• Damnation
• Blasphemy
• Destruction
• Malediction
• Hell On Earth
• Isolation
• Possession
• Explosive
• Unorderly

I realised after I had come up with the words that apart from one title, most of them were only one-worded titles. I assumed that one-worded titles would have a bigger impact on the audience and if they were to see the horror trailer, that it would make them remember the title more rather than having a long-worded title. On the whole I was quite happy with the words that I have come up with but I do favour more words than other. For example, I like the words 'Damnation' and 'Perdition' because it goes along with the themes rather than the others and it sums up the film within one word.

We dicussed the words we had come up with and then decided on a final 10. This was an important process because the fate our horror trailer does rely heavily on the name of the film and it has to be words that the audience can understand and know what the horror trailer is about. These were our final 10 words:

• Domination
• Repression
• Condemnation
• Abomination
• Perdition
• Damnation
• Destruction
• Absolution
• Profanity
• Malediction

We felt that these words were the most powerful out of the bunch and related to the narrative and the film more. With these 10 words we then planned to do a survey on a range of people to find out which film title they would favour more. Additionally, we decided that we were going to use the SurveyMonkey and the traiditional pen and paper to carry out the research and to get the biggest amount of responses.

Our ideas for our horror film

Hello!

Recently we have been put into our groups for our horror film project! I have been put in a group with two other people in which we will be working together in order to create a successful horror film trailer.

We have also been discussing ideas for our horror film and these are the ideas that we came up with:

• Supernatural however human being possessed
• Research Ed Gein
• Suspense of characters
• Teenager – classic overprotective mum
• Open events – occurring everywhere
• Something happens when you gaze upon the killer
• Non-conclusive – mysterious ending
• A sense of possession (causes insane paranoia)
• Gradually build music whilst the narrative continues
• Based on a real life event
• Domestic setting
• Religious connotations
• Domestic setting – gets up and starts to cause manic
• Psychopath – Schizophrenic teenage girl
• Being possessed by the Devil
• She has powers, spreads the curse to innocent people and kills the sinful

I believe making a plan for our ideas was very useful as now we have a clear idea of what our horror film in general will consist of. I have taken into consideration that this may be hard to film for example getting a church that will allow us to film the content that we have in mind for the trailer.

We also thought about what we definitelty should include within the horror trailer. We had to also consider if there was a film for the trailer; what the film would include? This is what we came up with:

• Targeting 15-25 year olds 
• Focus more on storyline – limited blood and gore
• Shocking and jumpy suspense
• Suspense music
• Fast shots
• Someone coming out the blue
• Flashbacks

 We find these points important because it can set the atmosphere and the mood for our horror film.

Additionally, our inspiration for the film was Carrie hence why there is much religious connotations and the main character being a female.

Results - Interview

Hi!
I conducted my interview on three people, ranging from the ages of 20, 41 and 56 in which was a great achievement for me as I had many complications and difficult tasks to overcome during the process. I will show you one interview that took part in my interview which lasted for about 5-10 minutes like I orginally hoped for. This interview was perfomed on the 20 year old, furthermore, here is how the interview went:

Hello! Thank you for taking part within my short interview. The first questions is how many horror films have you watched within the past three months?
Well, in the past three months I have probably watched about three horror films. This is down to the fact that horror isn’t my favourite genre however it can be entertaining to watch when the story is informative.


In your opinion, what should a horror film include?
A horror film should include scary music and a good storyline.


Are these the most important factors to you in a horror film?
Very, I can become extremely bored when the storyline is one that I’ve seen within a previous film and if the music isn’t frightening. Getting the music right is key as it can either create tension or cut the tension from a scene.


So, you would prefer to see something that has never been seen before?
Indeed, although there are some classic stories that I wouldn’t mind being an influence to another horror film in future. However, if I saw something new then it’d make me become more engrossed within the film as I wouldn’t or couldn’t tell what could happen next and that thought entices me.


What scares you most within horror films?
Oh definitely a fear of the unknown as again I could not foretell what would happen next. Additionally the villains within the story, their appearance frightens me to an extent where I’m screaming with fear.


What couldn’t you watch within a horror film?
I don’t like it when there is too much gory stuff within horror films as they make me feel terribly sick. If I did my research and found out that a horror film had a lot of blood and guts within it then I would definitely not watch it at all.


What is your favourite horror film and why?
My favourite horror film at the moment would have to be Sean of the Dead as it’s not just horror; the film has comedic elements within it too making it enjoyable.


So, you would like a hybrid horror film rather than a full on horror?
It depends on the storyline, whether the film would suit being a hybrid or not however, I see nothing wrong with hybrids, in fact I’d probably like them more as this means that the film would not be all about deaths etc.


What is the most dated horror film you have seen?
The most dated horror film I have seen is probably The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it frightened me! Especially the fact that the story is based on true events that have happened in the past.


Hence the factor of a horror film being based on a true event scares you more?
Definitely, if the event can happen before then it can happen again.


What is the newest horror film you have seen?
Insidious, that wasn’t scary at all and the make-up on the characters just looked really fake. Although the storyline was good, it could have come across better through the characters.


Lastly, do you prefer human killers or monsters as antagonists?
I prefer human killers, they just make the story seem realer then if monsters were involved.

What have I learnt?
I learnt that I may need to take into consideration of making a hyrbid as apparently it is more entertaining then just having pure horror. Additionally, the film being based on a true event can scare my audience more as they can be programmed into thinking that the event could happen in future and thus making them more scared. To do this though I would need to do further research on tragic or scary events that have happened in the past and perhaps intertwine this event into my horror trailer.

Results from Questionnaire

Hello!
So I reached my target of having thirty people take part within my questionnaire, ranging from a variety of ages. Althought I did plan of having the ages equal, I realised that this would be difficult to pursue due to certain circumstances. I used appropriate information from the survey to come to a conclusion about what I should put within my horror trailer. The writing highlighted in red are the most popular answers from the questionnaire. Here are the results:

1.       How old are you?

The results from this show that mostly 15-25 year olds took part within my survey. This is a great amount of because I am thinking about aiming my horror trailer to this particular age group so to have that amount of people take part is fascinating. Although I still will appreciate information from other age-groups as the information that they provided is still valid to what I need to put into my horror trailer in order to make it successful.

2.       How many horror films have you watched within the past three months?

To be honest I didn't expect a great amount of people to watch horror films within the three months as there haven't been many to watch within the cinemas. However it was suprising to find that some people have watched 7-9 horror films in which these answers were mainly from the 15-25 year olds. This would give me hope for my horror trailer if I was aiming my horror trailer towards that age group because it is good to know that they watch a great amount of horror films. It was intriguing to find out that 55+ and the 46-54 year olds did not watch horror films within the past three months due to the fact that they do not really like modern horror.

3.       What should a horror film include?

v  Shocking or Jumpy moments

v  Scary  music

v  Scary horror or blood scenes

v  Special effects

v  Scary Plotline

v  Death   

v  Suspense

v  Blood

I believe shocking or jumpy moments was the most favoured because everyone likes to be scared one way or another so I wasn't surprised that this answer as most popular. Additionally, the other answers I expected too as a teenager myself, I would expect to see these convetions within horror films otherwise I believe it would be hard to define the film as a horror.

4.       What scares you the most in horror films?

v  When someone comes out of the blue

v  The unknown

v  Zombies

v  The suspense and anticipation

v  Music

v  The Supernatural; The Devil

Again the element of surprise was the most favoured and I believe that it was the most favoured because when you do not expect something it creates more tension and therefore it makes the audience more scared of what will happen next. When a scene is predictable then it's scale of 'scare' goes down as the audiece knows what will happen next. There was other interesting answers too such as the unknown which I believe this answer will definitely influence me in what I will put in my horror trailer. In the end the audience want to be scared so I want to combine scary elements such as when someone comes out of the blue and the unknown to the extent where the audience are ultimately scared.

5.       What is your favourite horror film and why?

v  The Exorcist – It’s religious and it has scary scenes; looked real

v  1408 – good plotline

v  Drag me to hell – really scary but I love it!

v  Saw – his face mask is bloody creepy

v  Interview with the vampire – good narrative

v  Nightmare on Elm Street – first ever horror film and it scared me

I was surprised about how many people loved the exorcist as personally it scares me too much but maybe that's why people like it, to be scared. Additionally, The Exorcist has religious connotations so maybe this is a good idea to bring into my own horror trailer. The other answers I was surprised as too, some I have not even heard before such as 1408 but quite a few people wrote this answer down. I will be doing further research on these two films to find out what audiences like within the film and why they like the film in general.

6.       What is the most dated horror film you have seen?

v  Nosferatu

v  Paranormal activity

v  The Birds

v  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

v  The Poltergeist

v  Halloween

v  Saw

I was extremely surprised by the answer, especially the fact 16-25 year olds knew some history about the film and watched it. This answer was mainly provided by 56+ and 46-54 year olds in which was fascinating because they even stated that they really like the film and even now they are still slightly scared by it. The other answers that were submitted are just as valid such as The Poltergeist; this film was cleverly carried out and was able to reach a mass audience due to it's funding and how interesting the narrative was.

7.       What is the newest horror film you have seen?

v  Paranormal Activity 3

v  Piranha 3D

v  Paranormal Activity 2

v  Scream 5

v  Cloverfield

v  Insidious

This answer was mainly submitted by 26-35 year olds and I was slightly stunned by this as I would have thought that 16-25 year olds would have mentioned this answer however I was mistaken. The older age groups mainly submitted Cloverfield in which this film is not that old but then again it was made a couple of years ago so I was suprised that they didn't submit something newer.

8.       Do you prefer monsters or human killers as antagonists?

I'm not surprised by the answer and if I was a part of the questionnaire then I would have submitted human killers. This is because human killers are more real than humans and therefore the chances of the event happening within the films (with human killers) have a higher percentage of coming true than monsters as monsters do not exist.

What have I learnt?
I have learnt what my audience would want to see within horror films and what the find most frightening. I need to do further research about some films that had been submitted within the survey to find out more abou the conventions within them and why they are so successful. I know that within my horror trailer, I would need to include jumpy moments and scary music, the fear of the unknown, moments where people or things come of of the blue, conventions from favoured movies and possibly a human killer.