Audience research.

When creating a film we felt it was important to know whether what you are creating is appopriate and to the audiences satisfaction. Following this me and my partner created a short questionnaire asking 10 people to answer. The questionnaire links to our genre chosen and helped us to decide on what would be appropriate in our horror film to please the audience and keep them engaged. Here is a graph on some of the questions outcomes.

conclusion.
The results of our graph were very succesful. We were able to apply this to our film. We added music to our film which we thoguht build up more suspense. Not using speech worked well, in keeping the film quite creepy and mysterious. We think we made the narrative as clear as possible to help the audience know what is going on, although we wanted our film to be a mystery this worked well because you could still understand what was going on just not why it was going on, causing it to be a mystery linking to our title mysteria. We always thought darkness worked well in horror films and were pleased when the outcome on this question was the same. Darkness built up the suspense and gave it a real frieght factor. Being able to represent our characters clearly was challenging but made easier by linking and realating this to the gender theory which was also wanted from our questionnaire. We were able to represent our characters as the theory, the woman being soft, loving and mother figure. The man being strong, powerful and confident. We didnt want to add violence into our film as we thought it would not send off the right genre message of horror, we wanted our film to be scary and jumpy not gory. Whilst editing we added the dark creepy noises which were wanted these worked well in also building up suspense and fear. We first planned on using a group of friends in our horror film, but after asking our audience our outcome was not to use this. We then came up with using a man and woman in our film as the main part to link their relationship into the film.

Organisation skills

The planning and organisation of my film was mainly created through production discussion. me and my partner planned out many tasks together and split other tasks equally.
We firstly discussed what we needed to do for our planning, we came up with a list of important tasks:

- character/actor interviews

- location

- title

- props

- costume

- shooting schedule

- release forms

- shots planning

- storyboards

- overview.

we then equally, and fairly split these tasks to the appropriate person.

I carried out the character/actor interviews asking numerous questions. The characters in my film are all adults so i had to do my best in representing them as this. I chose the larger stronger looking boys to play the main character men roles and the slighter smaller as the smaller roles. The main girl role had to be a traditional wife figure also looking older. This was very useful in best suiting the actors to the roles in the movie. This was a success to our planing and i feel i really suited the correct characters to the correct roles.

The location was decided by my partner. She took location photos of my house and hers and we had a discussion on the best suited. We chose to use her house as our location due to many different useful parts which her house would connect with, i.e her front door leads on to a hallway which we will be able to build up suspense using numerous shots of a character walking down to engage the audience to who this character is.

The Title will be part of our production discussion in both creating ideas and suiting the best to our movie. We came up with a list of ideas such as:

- Taken

- 3.33

- The minds of others

- Took

- Captured

- Unexplained

- Mysteria.

All the titles relate to the film in different ways. we finally came to the decision of 'Mysteria'. we thoguht this would be a excellent title for our film connecting and linking to mystery. Mysteries are hooking and engaging and this is how we want our film to be represented. it also releases a uncomfortable feeling using 'Mysteria' instead of 'Mystery' it gives it more of a deep meaning.

There were many props needed in our film and we both created a list. My partner then collected the props, and the best suited props. We used a posh, wealthy theme in our film so our props had to be at this standard. We used more expensive utilities and ornaments, such as china plates, posh wine glasses, expensive wine etc.

The costume for our characters/actors was planned by me. I wrote the list of characters and then wrote the kind of personalities i wanted to represent them as. I then was able to link this to the kind of clothes that personality would best suit. The main girl role i wanted to represent as a wife figure linking to theorys such as Laura Mulvey, saying woman were either represented as innocent and nieve or flirtacious and dangerous. i followed the innocent and nieve side and then was able to link this to the gender theory of woman being represented again as gentle, loving, caring, linking to innocent and nieve, this is how i really wanted to represent my character so her costume was created in soft, girly colours such as pink and white, i also used costume like fluffy slippers to really link this to peacfulness and softness. The main man role i also wanted to link with his personality, i once again linked this to theory such as gender theory representing the man as strong, powerful, confident etc. i then was able to decide on costume such as a suit to show wealth and power. The costume of the dead people was quite easy as they would be only quick flashes. i tried to represent them as normal as possible, so that when they were killed it did'nt look fake and obvious. I was able to use things for their face costume such as white, pale foundation to represent death, lip liner to represent the cuts and blood etc. i think all the costume was appropriate and worked well with the character, linking to their personality how i wanted.

The shooting schedule was created by my partner. she created a table of dates and times and what we were planing on shooting then. this worked very well and we were able to stick with the table and have everything done on time. A shooting schedule was very important so that we would not fall behind and we could keep on track feeling confident.

I was in charge of getting all the release forms completed by our characters/actors. I printed of the correct number of forms and asigned a day to go around complete them. This was succesful and each actor managed to sign their forms.

There are a numerous amount of shots used in our film, and it was both of our decisions on what shot to use where. We used shots such as close ups, long shots, over the shoulder shots etc. We tried each shot in many different angles and movements to see which was best suited for the action that was happening. We both agreed and compramised well in this and found it a easy task to complete together. It was very useful trying out different shots and then being able to choose.

Our storyboards were 12 pages long with 47 different shots. Creating the storyboards was very useful in the making of our film and they really made it alot easier to film. In our storyboards we had to decide on many things such as, sound, shots, props, costumer, setting, shot size etc. We both worked on this together agreeing on the best suited. It was quite a hard task to complete being so many things to complete and so many things to choose from. Overall it was very succesful and our stoyboards were very detailed and apporpriate to our film.

We both then were able to write a overview of our film following all of our planing. This was a a easy task and very useful to the explanation for our film. We then went on to create 12 pages of storyboards with 48 shots. These were very useful in helping us to film, we had a clear knowledge of what to shoot, wat angle, postiton etc, what sound, dialogue etc. Here are some examples.

Textual Analysis

To learn techniques and gain ideas for my film, I watched and analysed a number of openings to related horror movies. This helped in ways of learning how to really emphasise the horror genre and how the opening engages the audience.


Texas chainsaw masacre
The establishing shot of Texas chainsaw massacre really gave us great ideas for my own horror film. We learnt many techniques of the camera in shots and movements. It starts off with old movie blurred lines and flashes of police. This is shown in black and white to represent it is older than the present. The flashing lights and flashing shots of bones, police tape, and blood really emphasise and create the suspense for the start of the movie. These are all very useful signifiers, signifying danger. The social contract is a ongoing change, playing with the language to use signs of codes and patterns in the images. A dark deep voiceover of a policeman talks over the images, they use the technique of not showing the speaker to emphasise the images behind. The narrative is clear this is the past by then shooting to a shot in colour of modern people. The codes and conventions are clear associating the first shots to the genre and showing this is going to relate and be likely to happen for the conventions.


White noise
The establishing shot of this film is created through writing speech. In pure silence the audience is attached by gaining an interest to what is being written. The suspense and fright of the genre is then immediately represented through quick jump cuts of video blur and the loud noise. The title then suddenly jumps into the video blurs creating a freight and fear to the horror film. This then represents the genre. The video cuts then carry on introducing character names through writing. Then with the video blurs still jump cutting a very long panning close up shot of a cd player is introduced this is a real stereotype to give you a strange assumption of what this linked to. The codes and conventions are very clear, the codes clearly associating with the genre. The video blurs are a clear signifier, signifying danger, suspense, freight, confusion etc. the movie represents its horror in a different way to the other two films, using writing speech to engage the audience and build up the suspense and interest.


The omen
The establishing of the omen, really attached you by the use of sound. Starting off with high, piano notes played to create a creepy and weird atmosphere. It automatically attaches the audience by then using a panning shot across the room, it keeps you engaged to find what ever this is at the end of the shot. The pace then gains and quicker shots are added using flickers and jump cuts. Many close ups are used to make you feel more in the scene and keeping your mind interested in whatever is happening. Once again the social contract plays through signs and codes, using words, letters etc. many signifiers are created through use of mis-en-scene, signifying that it is leading you to answers and creating suspense through the fast paced music. The setting is represented in many panning shots of the room and the character is represented in mainly close ups. The narrative is not clear to the opening of this horror movie which then I feel keeps you interested to keep watching to find out. The film also like the ‘Texas chainsaw massacre’ builds up its tension through sound which engages the audience to keep watching.


Watching the 3 openings really taught me how to create the suspense to a horror film, emphasise the narrative and genre, and engage the audience. Most techniques relate to the sound being used really building up the tension and creating suspense at time necessary. The shots of the camera and the camera movements keep the film moving and exciting, using things like jump cuts and panning movements really gets your mind involved and you become engaged and excited. It has been useful to learn these techniques and it will be very helpful in creating our own horror movie.