Ideal Audience Member Profile

During a discussion, within our Media group ‘Slasher Inc’, we all came up with an idea on what our ideal audience member profile would be. A audience member profile is the type of person that would be likely to view our film, e.g. a stereotype of the sort of person that’d go out of the way to watch our movie.

Now we all had our own rough ideas, on the person that would likely see our film. But once we’d sat down, rallied together we soon form idea’s on what this person would be like, how old they’d be, what social groups they would be part of. So from this we put the right words and phrases together to give ourselves a clear outline on this ideal audience member. This is the idea, in which we came up with;

• Be called Dave
• Be 18
• Studying in College, at the moment, but will go on and further his education in University
• Studies technological subjects, such as ICT, Media
• In his spare time ‘Dave’ loves playing video games on the ‘PlayStation 3’, with his favorite games being violent games such as ‘Manhunt’ and/or ‘Call of Duty’
• Aside from playing videos, in his spare time, he also likes to listen to music of the genre ‘Heavy Metal’ and attend music gigs, to do with that genre
• He is also apart of many groups such as ‘The Cannabis Club’, where he likes to bond and make new friends

To go along with our written down views on what ‘Dave’ would be like, act like we also had a fair idea on what he’d look like as a person. To help illustrate our ideas/views, we scowled the internet in hope of finding images that would fit our idea of ‘Dave’. These are a few images, which show the picture we have in our head of ‘Dave.

 Notice how, the person pictured, is young-looking, wears converse, rock t-shirts and is smoking to show an almost rebel-side to him. This image shows the look of the person, in which we imagine 'Dave' to look like.

Video

October Minutes

Setting up a tripod

 

This video shows our team member Jouvan setting up a tripod step by step.  A tripod is an important tool when using a camera as it is adjustable and it helps you support the camera.

Examples of horror films

Psycho

Psycho is a horror film made in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho is a highly respected horror film which made $32 million from a $806 thousand budget.Psycho is about a women called Marion who steals a certain amount of money from her office and escapes to a motel after being followed by a police man. Marion is later killed by Norman who is the owner of the motel. Later on in the film the audience find out that Norman isn't  psychological stable as he dresses up as his dead mother as a way of keeping her alive and as a way of guidance for him. Norman was later caught in the film by Marions sister who found Normans dead mums corpse in the basement, and he went to jail.

Insidious

Insidious was made in 2010 and had a budget of just over $1 million and made $91 million. Insidious was written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan who produced Saw.

Insidious is about a family who are in a haunted house and their son gets possessed by the demons and goes into a coma. Later on in the film the parents find out that the house is possessed and that there are demons there after they asked for spiritual help form a lady. The spiritual stated that their son is out of his physical and his dad would be able to bring him back which he does however at the end of the movie the audience find out that he has been possessed too.

Halloween

Halloween is a 1978 movie directed by John Carpenter and produced by Debra Hill, Halloween had a $325 thousand budget and made $47 million.Halloween is a film about a character called Michael who escapes from a mental institution to go back to Haddonfield to find his younger sister and kills anybody in his way. Michael was institutionalised at a young age after killing his older sister and main goal is to kill.

Horror film director

James Wan is a 34 year old horror film director who was born in Malaysia. James Wan has graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and has won many awards such as the Pegasus Audience Award, Special Jury prize, Youth Jury Grand Prize and the Audience Award.

James Wan is mostly known for directing the famous horror films Saw 1, Dead Silence and Insidious. James Wan’s directed films are recognised globally and have generated large amounts of gross at the box office with Saw 1 grossing $103 million, Dead silence grossing $22 million and Insidious grossing $91 million. James Wan is also known for creating the iconic and famous villain characters Billy the puppet and Jigsaw from Saw 1. The characters James Wan created were liked so much by the audience that character bags, toys, pencil cases etc were made which raised more money and awareness for the film. James Wan is also known for producing and being a screenwriter for horror films for example he produced Saw 3 and was the screenwriter for Dead silence.

Elizabeth's textual analysis of a horror film poster

Scream 4 (stylized as SCRE4M)

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Kevin Williamson

The ‘Scream 4’ horror film poster is one that is very plain and simple. Recognizably, the (only) main image that is in the centre of the poster is the infamous villain.

Even if you are not familiar with the Scream franchise from this poster you can immediately tell that it’s a horror movie. There are a number of horror related conventions this poster follows, i.e. the colour scheme. Red, white and black are all colours that are commonly used in horror movie related media. Secondly, the simplicity and use of just one main image on the poster is frequently used on horror movie posters, for instance the ‘Insidious’ and ‘One Missed Call’ posters.

One Missed Call official movie poster

Insidious official movie poster

                                                  

As the entire Scream movies are all slasher horror films, it is clever how the poster has only a bit of red on it as slashers are full of bloody scenes. This was probably done so too much was not given away. It is also really good the way that the ghost face is shown from the side and the chin is made to look like a blade/knife. As this horror film is of the slasher genre, this is a smart strategy as various sharp, dangerous objects are used as weapons in this genre.

The cover line ‘New Decade. New Rules’ is in red and so is the part of the film coming out (part 4) and the films release date. The red stands out and it draws attention to those specific important details. Even though the title of the film is called ‘SCREAM’ it is stylized and therefore written as ‘SCRE4M’ which is appropriate as the target audience of the Scream franchise are mainly teenagers and young adults who would be familiar with this code-like/texting way of writing.

Last but not the least, there is a correlation between the name of the film and the ghost face as the ghost face looks like it is actually screaming. The pitch black background behind the ghost like face makes the poster look very menacing and we are left in suspense as nothing is really given away through this poster.

Elizabeth's textual analysis of a horror film trailer

‘Insidious’ is a supernatural horror film that was released in the UK earlier this year. It was written by Leigh Whannell the mastermind behind the Saw franchise and it was directed by James Wan, the director of Saw. The main plot of the movie is the possession of a young child which causes evil, disturbing events in the house.

The trailer starts with the title of the film in a science digital looking font, ‘INSIDIOUS’ then ‘IS’ ‘INSIDIOUS’ this is a clever strategy as it gets the audience thinking. There is a cut to a man sitting in a chair looking very scared and uncomfortable. To add to his discomfort, an unseen voice asks ‘Are you ready?’ of which he answers a feeble ‘yeah’. The inquisitive voice almost sounded like it was talking to the audience as well, preparing us for what is to come.

As the audience, we are aware that something must be wrong as the man’s chest heaves as he breathes heavily. We see a hand start a timer and the way it ticks mirrors the heartbeat of the unidentified man in the chair. Informative text comes up on screen that informs us that the film was made by the makers of ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Saw’ thus telling us that this is going to be a similar type of film if not better. When there is a cut back to the film scene, we see that the man has his eyes closed and as the camera zooms into his face the audience prepares for the worse. As the man closes his eyes we wait for an insight into previous or possibly future events. There is a sharp cut to an establishing shot of a house that looks grey and glum thus affirming our prediction of bad things to come. We then get into smooth cuts of the man, a woman (who’s his partner) and two children who seem like a happy enough family but we know that this is not the case for long.

Treatment

Production team name: ‘Slasher Inc’

Production team contacts:

·      http://www.facebook.com/SlasherInc

·      https://twitter.com/SlasherIncCTK

Movie title:  ‘A beautiful nightmare’

Tagline: ‘dreams can come true’

Format: Video, Teaser Trailer

Genre: Horror – with it being the sub-genre of horror, which is ‘Slasher’

Synopis: Isabel is a tired, single woman trying to catch up on her sleep. Work has been giving her overtime at the local club and lack of sleep has taken its toll on her. One night, she has off, is spent trying to get some rest but thing’s take a turn for the worst as she begins to have a nightmare. Tossing and turning in bed her dream of a man walking up her stairs seems so vivid, almost real.  She proceeds to have a nightmare with a mysterious figure tormenting her and has her fearing for her life. Just as she feels that ‘this is the end’ she wakes up in shock, glad her nightmare is over. But someone has obviously forgotten to tell Isabel that ‘dreams can come true’.

Characters: 2 characters in whole sequence

·      Isabel: She is a young black female struggling to make an adequate amount of money to survive in the world. Living on a rough council estate and working overtime, she has had to make do with working long hours, day and night, just to bring bread to her table. Isabel keeps having sweet dreams about a mysterious figure, but good things don’t last forever, as this mysterious male figure soon turns violent in her dreams leaving the question of ‘who is this’ figure?

Dialog: No dialog to take place apart from the ‘mysterious figure’ saying Isabel’s name, in a creepy tone, and for Isabel to actually be screaming.

Length: 45-60 seconds long

Locations: Filming at one of our group members house, bedroom specifically, and the rest of the filming to be done in our college.

Jouvan's horror movie review

I reviewed the horror film Paranormal Activity 3.The film was very interesting as it used a lot of suspense and tension. The film did so by using fast paced background music and quick cuts which i found very effective in keeping me interested in the film plot. Paranormal Activity is a psychological horror movie about a house which is haunted and has an unwanted ghost inside. I would reward the movie a 4 out of 5 because i feel that it achieved its purpose for a horror movie by frightening the audience and keeping us in suspense.

Harry's horror movie review

Saw IV

The horror movie, in which I reviewed, was number 5 in the series of movies that is 'Saw'.
Saw IV is more of a movie based on gore, rather than the traditional 'make you jump out the seat' type of horror. From the first few scenes you quickly gather that this film is of the 'slasher sub-genre' from the use of devices to kill the victims by slicing them up or decapitating them. I throughly enjoyed this film as the twisted aura of it made you think about real life and whether someone would be ultimately twisted/mental enough to do this in real life. I'd score this film a 5 out of 5, because although it doesn't follow the traditional guidelines for a horror, such as not having a surviving female or an antagonist, it works very well and would make you want to watch the movie over and over again.

Elizabeth's horror movie review

Insidious

The film 'Insidious' is a supernatural horror film that I found quite scary as it made me jump quite a few times and you could never tell what would happen next. The use of a young protagonist was very clever as young children in horror movies tends to be quite effective. This is because young children are regarded as the most innocent human beings and therefore a possessed/evil child is not something most people would feel comfortable talking about . I gave this film a 4 out of 5 as it was not as predictable as some other horror movies. However, I wouldn't give it a 5 out of 5 as it could have been much scarier, also the monster face that appeared towards the end looked very amateur.

Adeola's Horror movie review

Nightmare on Elm street

The horror movie in which I reviewed featured 'Freddy Kruiger' who has featured in some of the most successful horror movies such as 'Freddy vs Jason'. Similarly to our horror trailer Nightmare On Elm Street is a slasher horror and is also the inspiration for our trailer. The poster of the movie also helps indicate this as his hand is a blade. One of the key scenes in the movie show a female victim which is common in horror. A sequence of events happen in her life as though it where a dream when really it was a gruesome reality. I enjoyed the film because it made me jump and I believe this characterisitc represents a succesful horror. I would score 'Nightmare On Elm Street' a 4 out of 5 due to the fact that it follows many of the horror conventions such as a female protaganist. I would not score the movie 5 out of 5 on the basis that it was like a typical horror and could have had a slight variation.

Horror movie reviews

Below are the pictures of the horror movies that our group will review.

Harry: is reviewing Saw IV
Jouvan: is reviewing Paranormal Activity 3
Elizabeth: is reviewing Insidious
Adeola: is reviewing Nightmare On Elm St

Horror moodboard 2

Horror theme Moodboard 1

Our storyboard

Equipment we use

In this picture we are showing one of the lights we will use to add high and low key lighting to our teaser trailer. We had to set up the light by positioning it on the stand and setting it to the area you wanted to illuminate. If you position the light away from the subject then you will achieve low key lighting.

In this picture we are showing how we can use the small light and the big light to illuminate the characters face.

In this picture we are showing Elizabeth holding a hand held light to illuminate the lower area of her face. We practiced positioning the hand held light in different areas to show how we would illuminate certain areas of her face.

In this image there is a big light positioned behind Adeola. She is holding a hand held light on the left side of her face and Jouvan, who can not be seen in the image, is holding a hand held light on the right side of her face. Positioning the lights in these places meant that Adeola's face was well illuminated.

In this picture we are demonstrating how the different positions of the light give of different reflections. As shown in the image one light is reflecting on one side Harry whilst another is turned away from him. This creates a shadow on one side of Harry whilst the other is illuminated.

In  this shot we have Jouvan holding a hand held light on the left side of her face. This shows how important light is because the other side of her face is completely dark.

Preliminary filming images

Our group took pictures of a horror film teaser trailer scene in order to prepare us for our actual teaser trailer. By doing so our group gained knowledge on how to operate the camera as well as becoming familiar with practising film scenes. Harry acted as the priest in this particular scene, the scene was about a priest tying to save a mothers possessed daughter. 

Preliminary Shooting Task

In order to prepare for the filming of our horror teaser trailer, I filmed my little sister making tea. I used cuts, different camera angles and worked with lighting. This was just a rough task to give me a rough idea of filming. 

Adeola Audience Research

As part of our audience research, we decided to undertake an informal questionnare with five people in order to gather information on what things they like to see within a horror movie or just basically what they expect. In order to vary the results we all used different methods for the research

We all agreed to use the first 6 questions in all of our research. Those six questions were;

• What is your age
• What is your gender
• What genre of films do you enjoy the most
• How long do you expect a teaser trailer to be
• What colours do you think would be suitable for a horror poster

For the last question within our group we was given the flexibilty to choose the last question to ensure that there was a slight variton in the research.

I done my audience research via the blackberry messenger and I used an application called screen munch to capture the responses.

Questionnaire 1

Questionnaire 2

Questionnaire 3

Questonnaire 4

  

Questionnaire 5