How does the questionnaire help decide and determine target audience?

By doing two questionnaires - the general one and the specific horror one, this has shown us more about what people like and helped us determine our target audience.
The general one told us what people like, and some detail one what they want to get out of a trailer.
From this we then did one specified to the horror genre, to find out what they want from a horror trailer, what they find scary.
From these we knew what we wanted to do.
We collected our target audience from the first questionnaire (the generally one) however I already had one in mind before we started. The questionnaire confirmed this. The reason why I had one in mind, is because, where our genre is horror, you can't aim it at young children as, the film would scare them. Our target audience has to be mature enough to 'handle' a horror film, and be to know it is just a film and not real life.
Also our target audience is going to be a mass market. By doing this it means, if we did release it as an actual film - it would create the most income and gross profit. At the end of the day that is the reason why films are made.

Progression Plan.

What needs to be done?	By when?	How to achieve, how long will it take?
Research and Planning	16th December	Keep posting and adding too it – research different theorists ect.
All draft images and filming	23rd December	Couple of full on intense days, travelling about, and trying out different things.
Actually images and filming	6th January	Couple of full on intense days, travelling about, and trying out different things – acting upon the drafts and making them better.
Editing finished	13th January	Couple of full on intense days, editing the clips and adding them together – still updating the blog.
Ancillary task magazine	20th January	Do the research and then draft and hopefully create actual one.
Ancillary task Film poster	27th January	Do the research and then draft and hopefully create actual one.
Evaluation	13th February	Write and finish evaluation.
Any improvements	Deadline	Leaving myself time to do improvements to get the best mark possible- use all time possible up until the final deadline.

Results of Questionnaire 2

Which films would you consider scary?

• 100 feet
• The Strangers
• Pulse
• Unborn
• The Orphanage
• Scream
• Dream House
• Insidious
• Triangle
• Red State

What would improve the film, with a bigger budget?

• Better sound effects
• Better effects
• Better quality
• Better camera work
• Better acting
• Better writers

What locations are best for horror films?

• Everyday places
• Public Toilets
• Walking along roads

What Props/ Costumes/ Characters make a horror film?

• Darkness
• Young Children
• Demons
• Aliens
• Masked people
• People in fancy dress - not knowing who they are.
• Knives
• Good make up - effect

Results of Horror Questionaire

Questionnaire relating to horror genre

Horror Film Questionnaire

Do you enjoy watching films of the horror genre? (Please circle)

Yes      No


Roughly how many horror films have you seen?

None      One-Three      Four - Six    More than Six


Please circle which films you would consider 'scary' .

Harry Potter     Saw     Lor of the rings       Paranormal Activity
Sixth Sense      The exorcist     Any others? .......


Do you think the budget of the film, has an effect on the quality and overal effect of the film?

Yes      No

If yes - what would improve with having a bigger budget?


What props/costumes/ characters do you find scary?


What locations are the best for horror films, in you opinion?

Fields       Public Places    Houses     Abandoned Places  
Any others? ......


What things do you find scary? Clowns, spiders ect?

My Trailer - HAS to be low budget

I would love to be able to do a high budget trailer as I feel it would benefit my project. But I am a student and I cannot afford to spend much money on this. So what I plan to do is make my teaser trailer, look high budget and effective, but not spending that much. How I want to be able to create this is by the place in which we film, the costume and the makeup. As well the editing is a big part of it, giving it smooth transactions and having good sound effects and music, in the background.

High Budget Trailers

I wanted to research some high budget films to see what they spent their money on, if it was worth it and mainly to see if it was effective.
I know I will never be able to produce a high budget film, considering I am a student, however I feel it is good to research to see if I can try to produce a teaser trailer which looks high budget but it really low budget.
The trailer which I find effective with a high budget is the Black swan. The ending is the part I like the most because it is what we are trying to do with ours. Although this is different, this doesn't have the black outs in between. This is a new idea which I feel could work, because it has been so effective in this trailer.

The trailer -

Another high budget film trailer for the horror genre is Sorority row. However I feel this trailer doesn't show the best part of the film. Also it doesn't show the money which went into it.

Personally I feel this doesn't draw the audience into the film and make them want to watch it.

An inspiring Trailer

As Shannon and I were researching different trailer, when we came across one in which we found perfect for the idea we want to carry out and create. This idea being different snippets of the film with very quick transactions and black-outs. The film trailer which we found was for Insidious.  We both said we have never seen such a good horror trailer before. It is a teaser trailer, which is even better as this is what we are having to create for our coursework.

The trailer -

This trailer is only 31 seconds, it is a very short but effective trailer. This proves that the length of the trailer doesn't matter. I also like how there is no narrative voice over, or music in the background it is only the sound effects, which adds to the tension of the film. They use a range of camera shots which moves on the story. This film however had a very high budget - $1,500,000 (estimated).

Low Budget Trailers

There are many low budget trailers out there, which prove that trailers don't always have to consist of money to be spent on them.
When it comes to looking at trailers Shannon and I are trying to keep them to the horror genre as that is the specific genre we are aiming to create for our own project.
An example of a low budget horror trailer is paranormal activity.
They have done the whole sequence on a low budget and these are the trailers from 1, 2 and 3. The paranormal activity trailer, I personally feel work really well and don't make them look as if they are low budget. This is what I hope to achieve with my trailer - I do not want it to look cheap!

Paranormal activity 1.

Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 3





Media Conference in London

On Nov the 4th, my A level media class, a one person from the As class, went up to London to Pete Fraser's, Media Conference. It was an excellent day and I learnt a lot, which I know will help me with the coursework I have to do this year, the exam which I have coming up at the end of the year and also it was amazing for just general knowledge and the riots which were going on.  These were a big topic for the day - of how young people were represented in the media, by different media texts. We can also apply these facts to our exam in the summer.

It was a good day where you could have your say, on what you feel about the media. We had really inspiring people giving the lectures. They made it fun so it didn't just seem like you were sat in a lecture theatre getting bored. They involved the audience and made it fun. Just being around people of my own age and who are also interested in the media, and to hear there views, gave me a boost and made me more enthusiastic to make my coursework. It really inspired me and gave me brand new ideas of what Shannon and I could do for our coursework.

In the morning were had presentations from, Christine Bell, Steph Hendry and Julian McDougall from the three exam boards. This is the presentation that Julian McDougall talked about. We also had keynote on Media Studies and the riots from David Buckingham.

During lunch we stayed to listen to some students who are currently studying media at different universities. It was good to hear the positives and negatives about studying media at universitites and how they are feeling about leaving (how they plan to get into a job in the media, as that will be the hardest part). All 3 of them did different courses, and they all had different things to say. It opened my eyes to studying media at uni because they all had such great opportunities with it and are confident about getting a job after. They all had a great time and the projects they described sounded something which would interest me. Hearing about university life really gave me a boost to achieve my grades and make such I get into uni (which is what I needed!)

At the beginning of the afternoon we had a presentation from Pete Fraser. This was all about coursework. It gave me new ideas of what I could produce and how to produce. The part about improvisation really helped and made me think for when I go out filming.

In the afternoon, we had Garth Jennings who gave us an entertaining and inspiring presentation all about his work, how he comes up with the ideas, when he started, how much fun he had in his job, but also the tough times which he goes through. This included some footage he shot when he was11. He was a good laugh and it was good to see some behind the scenes action.


 The final session was with Paul Lewis and Babita Sharma, who spoke to us about their jobs, what they do, how everything is run and how they got into the media. They gave us a question and answer time where, we could talk to them and ask them questions.

Theories and theorists

William Friedkin (the director of The Exorcist) once said that, "there are really only three reasons for making movies: to scare people; to make them laugh; or to turn them on. And that means there are only three genres of movie. I actually think that as far as horror movies are concerned, they are the sump from which all great cinemas come."

Audience Theory -

Many theorists say, due to its psychological nature, the repetition of watching horror can have a critical and important impact on the person and the way in which they react to it. The reason why the horror genre, generally have higher age classifications as they believe the, older the audience the more mature the audience would be. So when it comes to horror, the film industry want a more mature audience, so that when they watch the film they will know it is just a film and not try to replicate it. Whereas if a young child watches it, they may get too scared by it or even believe it's true and try to replicate it. This is the same with any media text of the horror genre. This happened with the Jamie Bulger story in 1993, where two 10 year old boys killed a toddler, after watching a horror film.

Michel Serres’ theory of the parasite, which looks at social relations as well as communications. He looked at how supernatural forces in J- horror films often uses a medium (e.g. water, television static) to invade the human world.

The different ways to classify people.

British social grading scale -
This is done through class and income of a person. There is A,B,C1,C2,D,E. A is the top of the 'table' and means you are earning the most - so football players, singers, celebrates, and then it goes down.

Lifestyle -
The way people live their lives - the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, the people they hang around with and the things that influence them. The things that people do and the way they act will all relate back to what you are trying to create - so for instance I am trying to create a trailer, so the things that people enjoy will have to be incorporated and also I will have to target my film at the correct type of people, with enough free time in their lifestyle and enough money to go to the cinema or buy the DVD.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC.) -
This is the classification a media text is given. Whether it is U,PG,12a, 15, 18.
The main products which include this are; films and games.
The media effects debate -
The impact on the audience.

The sub categories -

The hypodermic syringe model -
This is when the media 'inject' you with their product whether it be news or magazines, so consequently you react and behave in  a certain way. The effect on the population will be poor. This will eventually lead to moral panic.


Cultivation model -
Repeated exposure leads to desensitisation. This then leads to the Two Step Flow Theory.

Two Step Flow Theory-
When the audience are much more than being engaged.

Genre Theory-

Genre theorists ask the fundamental question: are genres “out there” in the world, or are they artificially constructed after the fact?  Genres can be identified by their themes, the way the film is put together; the narrative; the actors and the mise en scene. The narrative is the one in which makes it easier to tell what genre it is, as it explains everything about the film. In the case of horror,  however, psychological fears are often more important.

Horror through the decades

Horror has changed and developed over the years. The term "horror movie" was first shown in the film industry at the release of Universals Dracula in 1931 and Frankenstein 1931, but has progressed ever since. Horror films deal with the viewer's nightmares and worst fears.It generally contains supernatural, morbidity, serial killers, and things of the unknown, that may be termed "horror". Plots written within the horror genre often include evil force or event. Themes which often occurs during "horror films" include ghosts, werewolf's, demons, vampires, and zombies.

The film which I am going to follow through the decade in this post is Dracula. The reason why I have chosen this one is because it has change and developed over the years. Universal studios have created many different versions of this film, however I am going to focus on just 3. The ones in which I am going to focus on are the, 1931 version, 1972 version and finally the 2000 version. I have chosen these 3 as there is a big time gap between then, where the equipment and the conventions would have changed, leading to a better film throughout the years.  

The first film of Dracula, came out in 1931. It was in black and white and was one of the first films to be classified as 'horror'. It was very technical for its time. The institution which created it was, Universal (shows how long they have been around.) To a reviewer today, this film would seem awfully put together, back camera skills and effect. One reviewer said, "Universals 1931 production of Dracula is a lot of things. It's badly paced, riddled with continuity errors, and ridiculously stage bound a good portion of the time."  However back in its day, this film was one of the best made.

 The second Dracula film came out in 1972. This was a lot more up to date, with the equipment used and the way they presented it. The biggest improvement was that it came out in colour, instead of the black and white version, this gave Dracula a whole new dimension, by creating it more visual for the audience. Also as the film industries were always changing their rules and conventions, to improve it for the audience, this meant they could add a lot more into the film itself, by making it more scarier, and making it more graphic. This engaged the audience more and made them want to continue watching the film.

The third Dracula film came out in 2000. Personally I feel this was the better of the 3 films, and I know many people who would agree with that opinion. The reason why this would be, is because the equipment has improved so much more. In 2000, there would have been better cameras and the equipment which comes with the cameras, such as the staff would be better trained, they would have cranes to get better shots and different shots, however still having a steady camera and boom poles, to get better quality sound for the film. They would have had more staff (people such a runners) for this version and a bigger budget to spend on the film. The thing which I feel made the film better than the other two, was the editing which they could now do. This gave it a whole new element and made the film more edging for the audience.  

My inital Idea

My initial idea, in which Shannon and I were planning on doing to begin with was a comedy horror, however after watching a few it wasn't what we wanted to do. The reason for this being because we wanted to mainly focus on the idea of horror and when the directors  added in the comedy value it didn't become this scary film anymore it was more funny. An example of a comedy horror is Shaun of the dead - if you watch it the film its self isn't very scary.

So now Shannon and I are hoping to create a teaser trailer in the genre of horror. Our target audience would be people around the ages of 16 -25 (young adults.) We have decided to do this because of the results from the questionnaire. The most popular genre was comedy however we feel that would be a difficult one to do as people's perception on what is funny and what isn't is different. The second most favourite genre was horror. One of our thoughts was to combine the two ideas and do a horror comedy, however there are only a few out there and the ones which are on the market today, mainly focus on the comedy side of things and aren't very scary at all, so we decided to stick to the one genre and that being horror. The age range, came from, where we handed out questionnaires out to students we thought that would be an appropriate age range, however they have to be old enough and mature enough to be able to watch a horror and not get too scared from it. We are hoping to target our film to the male gender predominantly, however have aspects in which females would like so that both genders can watch it. At this initial time we feel our trailer should be able 1 min 30 seconds, as this is what other products on the market at the moment have and had positive feedback from the questionnaire.

Results of Questionnaire

Here are some more of the information which we gathered from, by doing the questionnaire.

What elements draw you into a trailer?

• Strong story
• Known actors
• Violence (specific to genre)
• Celebs
• Action (specific to genre)
• Music
• Funny
• Easy to follow
• Wanting to know more

How do you find out about new films?

• TV
• Friends
• People
• DVD'S
• Websites
• Magazines
• Internet
• Reviews
• Posters
• Facebook
• Youtube
• Cinema Adverts / Trailers

How often do you go to the cinema?

Answer                           

More than once a week - 1
Once a week - 5
Every Fortnight - 3
Once a month - 3
Once every two months - 6
Once ever six months - 1
Once a year  - 1
Never - 0

What do you think the best form of advertisement is?

• People
• TV
• Internet
• Posters

Charts Of Results

Age portions

Favourite Genres.

Is a voice over needed in a film trailer?

Is music needed in a film trailer?

Do you think a budget to a film trailer matters?

How long do you think a trailer should be?

My Final Film Questionnaire

1)    Are you…

Male       Female

2)    How old are you?
(Please Circle one)

0-5  6-10    11-15    16-20    21-25     26-30    31+ 

3)    What is your favourite film genre?

4)    What elements draw you into a film trailer?

5)    How do you find out about new films?

6)    How often do you go to the cinema, if you go?

          More than once a week   Once a week     Every Fortnight     Once a month      Once every two month    Once every six months   Once a year   Never

Other ....................................................

7)    How long do you think trailers should be?

8)    What do you think is the best form of advertisement for films is?

9)    Do you think the budget of a film matters?

10) Do you think music or a voice over matters in a film? If yes why?

Music 
 Voice over

I am going to hand this out to 10 girls and 10 boys, all students from our school. I am doing this because I want to see the results I get back from them. Like I said before, I am not wanting to hand these out to media students. 

Film Trailer Questionaire

1)    Are you…

Male       Female

2)    How old are you?

3)    What is your favourite film genre?

4)    How often do you watch films?

5)    How do you find out about new films?

6)    How often do you go to the cinema, if you go?

7)    How long do you think trailers should be?

8)    What do you think is the best form of advertisement for films is?

9)    Do you think the budget of a film matters?

10) Do you think music or a voice over matters in a film? If yes why?

Music

            Voice over

Different Genre films.

Horror -
Scream 4
Release Date: 15th April 2011
Duration: 111 minuets
Target audience: Age of 16 +, Young Adults, Boys and Girls, BSG - C2, D's and E's.

• Starts off slow
• Music builds the tension
• Quick camera changes
• Fast pace
• Mainly uses black and dark colours - represent the emotion of the film.

 

Action / Adventure -
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Release Date: 22nd May 2008

Duration: 122 minuets
Target audience: Age of 10 +, Young Children both boys and girls (mainly specified for boys),

• Gradual narrative build up
• Music help builds tension
• Quick editing
• Lots of sound effects
• Fast transactions

Comedy -
The Hangover 2

Release Date: 26th May 2011

Duration: 102 minuets
Target audience: Age of 16 +, Young Adults both male and female

• Narrative through main characters
• Medium pace
• Clear story line
• Simple to follow
• Clear transactions

Children -
Toy Story 3

Release Date: 19th July 2010

Duration: 103 minuets
Target audience: Any Age mainly Young Children both boys and girls,

• Narrative is shown through the characters
• Slow pace
• Slow transactions
• Slow storyline
• Simple

Chick Flick -
Mean Girls

Release Date:18th June 2004

Duration: 97 minuets
Target audience: Age of 10 +, , Only for girls,

• Clear narrative through one character
• Opening sequence shows comedy but starts the film off with the background information
• Slow pace
• Easy to follow narrative
• Slow transactions

Rom - Com -
Easy A

Release Date: 22nd October 2010

Duration: 92 minuets
Target audience: Age of 16 +, Young Adults both boys and girls (mainly specified for girls),

• Narrative mainly through one character
• Medium paced film
• Easy to follow narrative
• Slow transactions
• Happy Ending

Fantasy -

The twilight saga - Eclipse

Release Date: 9th July 2010

Duration: 124 minuets
Target audience: Age of 13 +, Young Children and Adults both boys and girls

• Quick transactions
• Easy to follow narrative- done through characters
• Fast Pace
• Complicated narrative - made easy to follow through moving image
• Music builds tension.

Genre Trailers - Similarities and differences.

Does a film trailer change through different genres?

Through my research, I have watched many different teaser trailers, of different  genres. There are many similarities and differences. As i mentioned before, the similarities are the things in which make up a teaser trailer. They are conventions such as having a fast pace and music with  beat to keep the pace up. The music normally starts of the trailer, and then the moving image starts. In the genre action and horror the narrative is being shown through the moving image and the dialogue which the main actors speak. Whereas comedy and Fantasy, are done via a voice over and a narrator. Even through the trailer you can see a clear difference in the trailers.

Within the teaser trailers for the comedy genre, you can see the story line is quite simplistic and easy to follow. This allows the target audience to be greater range, as it's not that complicated. As well it gives away a lot of the story line, just not the ending. This is different from a horror trailer, which doesn't give away much of the narrative and as well doesn't have much speech it during it. It is mainly shown through the moving image and the music throughout.

What is a teaser trailer?

A teaser trailer is something which gives little snippets of a film, without giving away the main narrative. As the name says, it "teases" the audience into wanting to watch the film. It generally includes some of the key moments from a film, however never of the ending. I have watched a number of  different trailers, and these are the key things which are included in most of them.

Key points in a teaser trailer.

• Fast pace
• Quick editing
• Key music, with a strong beat
• Small amount of dialogue
• Builds up the narrative
• Abrupt ending
• Bold titles
• Small amount of texts (differs with different ones)
• The key actors - no minors

These conventions are the same for whoever the audience is or what genre it is. These are the main conventions in which ALL teaser trailers include. This has given me the knowledge to know what to put in my teaser trailer, even though I am still not sure of whom my target audience is.