Audience profile

              

Audience survey analysis Part 2

I wanted to get an idea of what my audience thought about posters and radio trailers.

73% of my audience selected ‘not really’ when asked ‘does a poster affect the choices of watching a film’ whereas, 21% selected ‘a lot’. I am hoping to change the views of the majority whereby the poster will intrigue the audience and make them question the storyline behind the image I will do this by using special effects and using a range of technology.

Some of the things my audience expect to see on a poster are: the setting, name and information of film, villain, scary doll, blood, innocent vs evil. These all tell me that in order to really entice my audience I will need to make sure that the poster is a true representation of the film. 

It is clear that my audience want to see colours which are ‘dark’, the colours conventionally associated with horror films- red (a representation of danger/blood) black, grey, brown to represent a negative mood. Therefore I will avoid using colours which are bright and are typically accociated with a good mood/happiness.

From question 4 I have gathered that my audience want to see a poster that is easy to interpret and has less writing. My audience do not want a busy poster that has ‘a lot going on’ as it will take away the value of what is being presented. Therefore I will ensure my poster is simple and is iconic of my film, giving as less as possible because one audience said ‘giving too much information’.

When producing my radio trailer I will make sure that I have included the plot of the film however ensure that there is not too much information as when I asked my audience ‘does a radio trailer need to include the plot of the film’ there were varied responses ranging from ‘yes’ to ‘no’ to ‘just a little’.

I asked my audience if a voice over affects the overall radio trailer, 95% said yes, therefore I will need to ensure that my narrator’s pitch and tone of voice is reoccurring and in a correlation to the theme of my film.

When asked about the types of sounds- the 4 sound codes majority of my audience said that they expect to hear sound effects the most. Perhaps the sound effects are what will add to the element of horror. 21% said speech and 8% said they expect to hear music therefore when producing my radio trailer I will ensure that I have included a range of sound codes however bearing I mind that my audience are expecting to hear sound effects the most. 

Audience survey analysis Part 1

Majority of my audience fall in the 16-18 gap, who are young teenagers, this suggests that the content would need to be under the 15+ classification in the BBFC.

Some of the most common horror films that my audiences have watched are psychological films such as ‘Insidious/paranormal activity/the purge/ The Walking Dead’. From my own perspective of watching these movies/films I believe that the common ground in all these films is the fact that they play with real emotions and stimulate sensations where the pressure of fear and thinking about what’s next intensifies the horror element by controlling the fear of the unknown. This suggests that my audience enjoy watching films that give them a thrill due to the lack of knowledge as to what’s coming next.

When asked my audience what makes a bad horror film, some replied with ‘cliché/bad story line/typical storyline with cliffhanger’. I now understand that my audiences want something new and not the typical of ‘teenagers in the woods’. Also, my audience do not want ‘a cliché storyline’ therefore in order to add a twist to my short film I will give create active audiences where they are made to interpret scenes that are opened to their own judgment of what it means. I know that in order to appeal to my audience will need to challenge conventions of horror. For example one of the key conventions of zombie is that they are bloodthirsty and have rigid, slow movements. In order to appeal to my audience I will challenge this convection by ensuring that I bring something different to the zombie element. 

64% of the respondents replied with ‘surprise sound’ when asked what kind of sounds scare them, and 28% said that silent sounds scare them and 36% believe loud and eerie sounds scare them. I will need to ensure that depending on the context of the scene that I incorporate sounds which are ‘surprise sounds’, I could manipulate time, space and sound through editing in order to ensure that the sound is surprise sound and at the same time loud/eerie and silent.

Some of the key conventions of horror films my audience expect to see in a horror film are: ghosts/jumpy/big twist/dark colours/villainous characters/death/scary music and setting/locations.

One respondent said, “when there is obviously some kind of danger but the protagonist STILL proceeds to investigate said danger”

 From this I have gathered that my audience want something that is dangerous for the protagonist as well themselves, this will help me develop the zombie element of my film because the very nature of zombies (inhumane creatures) are interesting as they bring many questions to existence therefore the ‘danger’ that my audience desire will derive from ‘investigating’ the zombies and their physical being.

Many of my audience would challenge is the violence and gore in horror films, perhaps the conventional use of violence and gore is not as exciting as it used to be. Therefore I will use violence and gore in a sophisticated way to entice my audience. Moreover, the other things my audience would challenge is the setting, the background in which the horror film is being shot.

When asked ‘does violence intensifies horror’ 76% of my audience replied with ‘yes’. This means that I will try and in cooperate a substantial amount of violence in my short film in order to sustain the horror atmosphere.

Almost all of my audience (95.83%) think that shooting a horror film in the dark/night time is far more scary than shooting a film during the day. Although my audiences think that the dark/night scares them the most I will challenge this by shooting it a sunset at the peak of the skies turning black.

Lastly, I asked my audience does the beginning of a horror film need to be gripping in order for them to enjoy a horror film. 80% said yes, therefore I know that from the very beginning I need to grip my audiences, perhaps using an enigma. 

Audience survey Part 2

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Audiene survey Part 1

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Final film ideas

Poster analysis- Uninvited

The first thing I notice in this poster is the blacked out, faded part of which should be the individuals face, the image offers a graphic insight as to what the film may be about as there is cross reference in the title and the image. The title ‘uninvited’ links to how the protagonist is lurking in to the window as though she is staring at something which she shouldn’t.  

In the forefront of the image, the female is placed in the centre of the poster using the rule of thirds the main focus automatically is the female looking into the window. Her hands pressed against the window denote her curiousness into what’s happening on the inside. The very fact that the dress code of the female directly opposes the season and background of image incites an element of unease. The t-shirt which is a clothing for the summer but is worn by the female in the cold, the frost and naked trees denote the season and the level of coldness.

The poster is created in a clever way whereby the audience are on the inside and the protagonist is looking into us, the windows act as a barrier safeguarding the audience from the protagonist who’s portrayed to be ghostly despite the lack of facial features. This is a key convention of horror posters as again, they play with the dear of the unknown, although the audience have only certain information, the poster does not reveal a complete image which in turn entices the audience to watch the film to find out the (un)importance of the face.

Moreover, the font of the title looks misty as though it has been drawn in, the fact that there are no capital letters suggest the informal nature of the film. The poster consists of colours ranging from black, grey and white. The lack of colours may be used to represent the horror genre reinforcing to the audience that this is a horror film. In addition, like most posters the extra information is at the bottom of the poster, however in larger font ‘January’ is written perhaps to indicate the importance of the month as it’s the month of release. By including “from the producers of…” will remind the audience of the block buster films and immediately they would associate the pleasure/amusement they felt from that film and would give them a positive response where they would be happy to explore this film as the audience will think ‘it’ll be just as good’.

Overall, this poster is very enigmatic and makes the audiences question ‘I wonder what it’s about’ and ‘what could she be uninvited to’ immediately amercing the passive audiences to watch the film.

Poster analysis- Infected

When browsing for posters this poster for a horror film called Infected (2013) appealed to me. It has a consistent house style in which, it takes a sophisticated approach where the title ‘INFECTED’ is at the bottom along with the slogan/logo of the film, the rhetorical question ‘how can you kill what is a part of you’ has a mysterious element to it, where the full face is not shown. Grabbing audience’s attention from the beginning.

Immediately, the first thing I notice on the poster is the hard, metallic colours. These colours are correlated with the horror genre as they offer an edgy and harsh tone to the poster. The poster is a simple yet refined theme which is followed throughout. The key information is at the bottom of the poster such as production companies, this is a key convention of a horror poster as most posters have the extra information at the bottom or at the back giving importance and significance to the top half (title and image).

The main image which is ¼ of a face gives a disorientated appearance; it acts as a symbol of identity as the face of an individual is what is used to identify a person. Therefore, only showing only ¼ of a face tells the audience that the film will be about identity and perhaps the loss of identity. The scars on the face which look deeply embedded into the face are a connotation of how the identity is ruined/torn apart. Moreover, the human features of the eye lashes and eye brow create verisimilitude as the image offers a graphic and unrealistic image but with the human features the structure of the face is brought back to it’s original form- a human face.  

The layout of this poster is unconventional as it has the name of the film along with the tagline and credits all together, perhaps this is to give more area percentage to the main image. The image of the face which is in the foreground takes up almost all the space on the page signifying it's importance to the narrative of the film. The little icon in the eye in the background carries an enegmatic feel to it which directly links to the horror genre. 

In addition, the fact that there is a symbol in the eye could be interpreted as that the only thing the individual (most likely the main protagonist) knows is whatever the symbol represents. Or that the icon is what shapes that individual. From the very beginning as an audience member myself I am amerced into the film and question myself further as to what the film will be about.