Research: Targeting an audience

         A target audience is who the makers of the film directs the film too. I.e. High School musical is aimed at a tween audience, which is from 10-13 year olds. They aimed this film at girls also because it is a musical and also they used actors such as Zac Efron who is cute and good looking and would make young girls and maybe even older girls want to watch this film. Most horror films are aimed at older people compared to High School Musical. They are most likely aimed at males as the films are usually scary and the director may think that females aren't ‘brave’ enough to watch the films.

We have aimed our film at people between the age of 15 - 30. However any horror moive fans may like to watch this film as well.

Research: Case Study 2: Saw II

When we first see the opening to saw II it is very dark and lighting is to a minimal.

The shot moves on to use seeing a the protagonist in a point of view shot.

In the opening to this scene we also see the shot as if it is being filmed using a hand held camera.

The shot is also a green colour which shows it is eerie.

We then see a TV and a doll appears. The doll begins to speak and tells the

protagonist that his time is nearly up. As his time decreases we see a montage of images which come on the screen at a high speed. 

 The scene is set in a run down basement which is dark and creepy.

 We are introduced to one character, the protagonist that is later killed and also the ‘doll’ who is evil and soon kills the protagonist.

Iconography is used in this shot in the form of blood on the victim and a mask with nails going through it which the protagonist is wearing.

Research: Case Study 1: 28 Days Later

In the opening scene of this film, the first shot we see is of a mans eye as he awakes from a coma in a hospital.

The man then walks through the hospital to find it deserted.

We then hear a non digetic sound in the form of music. The music creates more tension as we get into the film.

The protagonist seems to be confused a lot and we see these through close up shots.

As the audience we then see an establishing shot of London so we can see how deserted it is. We can see the city is deserted because there are phones hanging off, London souvenirs all over the floor and also over turned chairs.

The scene then goes quiet but is interrupted when an on screen digetic sound is used when a car alarm goes off.

High angle shots are also used and this shows us how isolated the protagonist is, in a deserted London.

The scene then moves on to us seeing the man entering a church, We hear a digetic sound, the man talking and also the echo of his voice, which shows how empty the church is.

A long shot is then used when we see the zombies rising and when they chase the protagonist out of the church.

 Throughout this scene we only see one male character until the scene where he enters the church, where we are then shown a number of Zombies.

There are many clues in this scene which shows us that this film belongs to the horror scene, we see zombies, and deserted places. However the iconography in this scene is also horrific. We see blood shot eyes and also red eyes of the zombies

The setting of this scene starts off in a hospital but then moves onto the centre of London but not London as we usually see it. We then go on to see the scene move to inside of a church where the horror really begins for the protagonist.

The themes of this film are Good vs. Evil and Normal vs. Abnormal

Research: Sub genres

Usually, a horror film will also have a sub genre to it. E.g. a teen horror slasher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_film. This type of film may appeal to teenagers more than older people as they may be able to relate to the characters.
We have chosen pyschological horror as our sub genre. I feel that this will make an effective opening as it will contain a hook and keep the viewers wanting to know more.

 

Research: Characteristics of the Horror genre

Characters within this genre can usually be identified very easily. A stereotypical horror character will have blood stained clothes, creepy voice etc...

The audience will also expect to see an antagonist and a protagonist. The protagonist being the hero/victim/heroine. In some cases there is also a 'final girl', just like in Halloween 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHslouUNi00. This is the trailer for Halloween 2.

In this trailer you can see a PROtagonist and also an ANtagonist. They are both easily identifiable.

The setting of the film can sometimes be contrapuntal to the actual film. E.g. in '28 days later' the film starts in a hospital. Little do we know that the hospital is desolate. I feel that this is contrapuntal to the film as usually a hospital is a 'good' place but in this case it shows horror and scary aspects.

Research: My chosen genre

We have chosen to do a horror film. Within this it will contain the sub genre of psychological film because it will contain a human killer. We chose to do a horror film because we can use effective iconography and also the horror genre is very easy to identify and can easily keep an audience hooked after the first couple of minutes. Doing a horror film will also allow us to experiment with different aspects of the horror genre. E.g. we can use contrapuntal sounds and high and low key lighting. As you can see in the image below, the characters in our film will feel as though someone is 'messing with their head'. I feel that myself and my partner for this task will have accomplished our 'mission' if we can get the character to be portrayed as this

Research: Effective Opening: Borat: Macro Features

The genre of this film is  comedy. We seem to find it funny that we see Borat in a very run down area where he lives. We also hear him speak with a very unusual accent. As British, we find the unfamiliar funny.

The main character Borat is a very to the point person which makes him even funnier. He has very familiar sayings which seem to stick in your mind. Such as 'Very Nice'. We also see him perform a sexual act with his sister, again a very funny thing to watch.

The narrative is told by the main character Borat throughout the film. We find his accent very funny and this keeps us amused throughout the film.

I believe this to be a very effective opening as we are aware of the genre of the film, immediately from the beginning. This keeps us watching as the audience want to find out what other funny acts that Borat will perform. We are also told at the start that he wants to take a trip to the 'U S of A'. So as the audience we want to see how such an unfamiliar character will get on in such a country.