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.
