Target Audience of Horror Films

The target audience for horror films is generally those in the age group of 15-25 years old. It is around this age that a common way to socialise with friends is to watch scary movies together. Young people tend to be thrill-seekers and this is one way to soothe that crave.

Although both genders watch horror films, they tend to be designed to appeal to the male fan base. This is made evident by the content and the typical characters. Stereotypically, males in this age bracket often play violent video games and so are enticed to watch a film with similar content. Film producers do this deliberately as they know that a large proportion of young males are very likely to watch. In my prezi (here) explaining the conventions of the horror genre, I mentioned the different characters that are commonly used. One of these was the 'sex appeal' of the film - a promiscuous young woman. This relates to the "male gaze theory"; it describes the tendency of works to assume a heterosexual man's viewpoint.

The Jelly Baby Challenge

Story One:

The first opening we decided on creating was for a "ghost story film, rated PG". As a group, we chose this one as we believed we had a good understanding of the key conventions used in ghost films. Before we began, we outlined a plot and several filming techniques we intended to include. The techniques we wanted to use was an establishing shot, whip pan shot and close ups.

The plot of our film opening is pretty simple but, I believe, very effective. It is a story of four friends who go camping in a field. When one of the characters (Stephanie) hears noises in the distance she goes off to investigate and is greeted and attacked by a demonic ghost. The next morning, the remaining three friends realise Stephanie isn't in the tent and later discover her lifeless body.

The planning of our Jelly Baby story was successful because all members of our group made a contribution. Before we started planning the plot, we all made suggestions and mutually agreed on the one we found most fitting. From there, we then discussed a range of shots we were interested in using. We printed out various images (the facial expressions, the backgrounds, the tents and the rock) in order to make our storyboard shots look as true to life as they would if we actually filmed them. I believe we stuck to our brief very well and ensured that it stayed within the PG-rating boundaries. 

We could have improved our finished storyboard by using the same surface throughout. As you can see, the surface in the last photo is different to the rest which creates a sense of discontinuity. 

Story Two:

The second brief we decided on was for the "independent movie". We chose this because it allowed a multitude of possible plots for us to decide between. The shots we would use include Long Shot, Tracking Shot and Medium Close Up.

The protagonist of our film is a regular at an indie coffee shop and knows almost all of the customers. One afternoon, somebody completely new and mysterious enters and catches our protagonist's eye. This is only the opening of the film, but the plot would develop further and follow the story of our protagonist and the mysterious male. 

I think this task was planned and carried out well as we put a lot of effort into it. We focussed heavily on the props and set of this opening to make it more apparent to the audience. All members of our group contributed and worked quickly so that we wouldn't run out of time. Because of this, our shots were consistent - unlike our shots for the ghost story opening. I believe our storyboard stands out because of the set. There were different depths, meaning the bar tender could sit behind the bar and our characters could 'sit' on chairs. 

A way of improving the overall look of our storyboard would be to find a way of having the jelly babies stand on their own. Using pencils worked, however it meant that the shots were obstructed and it isn't as clear to the audience as I would have liked. Picking a genre with such versatility in terms of plot meant that we spent quite a lot of time when deciding. 

Preliminary Task: Evaluation

I am very happy with the end result of our preliminary task video. We applied the various filming techniques to the actions we had to include and, I believe, we succeeded in doing so. The video was filmed smoothly and was edited in a way that strengthened the professional approach we sought out to achieve.

For the dialogue, we chose one we had previously looked at in class but altered it slightly to ensure our video was original. If we were to do this task again and had more time, I would suggest we wrote an entirely new and original dialogue. I am extremely happy with who we cast to play the characters in our video. Caoimhe and Rainbow are both A-level Drama students and they definitely exceeded our expectations. They fully immersed themselves in their roles and were very convincing actresses.

The actual filming and editing of this task didn't take very long as everybody in our group were very focused and conscientious. Filming the video was very straight forward as everybody in our group cooperated and had the same vision. The planning process was the most time-consuming part of this project. It took a relatively long time to find an appropriate duologue and casting actors for our characters proved quite difficult.

We did not complete a risk assessment as our video was filmed in a very safe environment and the actions our characters carried out did not pose any immediate risks.

I believe the filming techniques we used were effective and added to the atmosphere of the video. We used the compulsory techniques (180-degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot) as we saw these as most important. Our group agreed that we did not want to add more in unnecessarily as we really wanted to focus on the essentials. I do believe we could have perhaps emphasised the 180-degree rule technique a little more, but other than that I am very happy with the techniques we used and how we applied them.

The target audience for this video is mainly teenagers, so we showed it to a few of our friends. They all really liked it and appreciated the fact that the actresses were also peers. This made it appear more life like and they were able to empathise.


Although I am generally pleased with the outcome, there are a few changes that, when looking back, I would change. At one point, I film through one side of the window and focus on Caoimhe. Here, the light in the room creates a reflection and the camera is then visible for the audience to see. Later in the video, there are a few people in the background of shots where they are not needed, as well as unwanted noises from surrounding classrooms. Unfortunately, we did not notice these errors until after editing so we were not able to go back and re-film due to timing issues. This has encouraged us to always look back over our clips in detail before finishing up so that we can avoid this in the future.

Preliminary Task: The Video

Preliminary Task: Duologue

B1: Caoimhe
B2: Rainbow

B1 passes a room and, in the corner of her eye, sees B2. Camera goes behind B1's head, focussing on her watching B2. B2 walks through the door, yelling.

B1: Oi! [match on action]

B2 is sat at a table. B1 stands above her.

B1: Have you got it? [180 degree rule]

B2: (Nervously) Yeah..

B1: (Aggressively and mockingly) Hand it over then?!

B2 keeps eyes down, avoiding eye contact, and hands over a wad of money. [Match on action]

B1: (looking at the money) Is that all of it?

B2: Yeah [shot/reverse shot]

B1: (Strangely cheerful) "Nice doing business with you.."

B1 exits.

Preliminary Task: Storyboard

Preliminary Task: Planning & Research

Setting Details:

While planning our preliminary task, we thought of several different locations which we believed to be appropriate for the setting of our video. We narrowed it down to either a hallway, a picnic bench or an empty classroom. Out of these we decided on the empty classroom. This setting allowed us to demonstrate all of the actions we were asked to include: opening a door, crossing a room and exchanging a few lines of dialogue. Filming in our own room also meant that we were not disturbed by other people or noises.

Character Details:

There were only two characters in our video: Caoimhe and Rainbow. Caoimhe played the aggressor, who intimidatingly collected money from Rainbow, her victim.

Equipment and Prop List:

The only two pieces of equipment we used was a camcorder and an SD card. Initially, we were going to film using my own camera as it is high quality and it is very easy to change the focal point of the shot. However, it was much more convenient to use the school camcorders. The camcorder filmed in HQ and had a very powerful zoom which meant that the clips all turned out really well. It didn't already have an SD card inserted, so we used one I had brought in from home. 

The money was the only prop we used in our video. We printed off £240 worth of fake notes from Google images so it looked more realistic. This also added to the overall professionalism of our video.

Preliminary Task: Choosing a Logo

Before we started planning our video, we needed to decide on whose production company logo we should use. To achieve a mutual agreement, we all put forward our opinions on each of the logos.

Ellie's Logo

Nicole's Logo

My Logo

  

In the end, we all agreed that Nicole's was most suitable for our preliminary video. As it had a plain black background, it would be much easier to transition into the start of the video. The monochromatic palette used gives the impression of professionalism and is similar to current successful film companies. I also really like the font as it is unusual and portrays the creative process of film making.