Audience Profile

From our research it is clear that this is our main target audience. Below we have made an audience profile of our target audience to help us understand what our target audience's disposable income, age, occupation and lifestyle is like.

Target audience research: Horror

Why is audience so important?

Audience research is important because it allows for distributors to establish when to release and even what to include in a film that would appeal to their target audience; things that would not appeal to the target audience. For example in a children's film there would not be swearing but in a horror there would most likely be, as their target audience are far older, and it's a convention that is expected by the audience.

Most filmmakers have to have more than one target audience as this would allow them guaranteed success, most film companies have a primary target audience and a secondary target audience. The primary target audience is usually identified through demographic variables i.e. age, sex, level of education, social grade and even their country of residence. The secondary target audience come in two categories, the first category of secondary target audience is the secondary audience that is actually larger than the secondary audience.

Fig. 1 Audience matters.

If filmmakers do not have a target audience in mind then it could be hard to get a good response as it would be hard to advertise on media's that the audience uses such as marketing a teen-orientated film in a newspaper when it is known teens prefer to use the internet. As well as this it allows them to get a good income if you market it properly it will draw in a large crowd, with the correct audience attracted to watch the film it allows for the filmmaker to know whether a sequel would be successful.

Fig. 2 Profit

Does age, social class and who they watch it with matter?
With a variety of films appealing to horror in terms of gore, violence and other features managing to make it as a 15 from the BBFC or even a 12a in some cases, the horror genre becomes more easily to introduced to teen culture. Although the typical viewer of horror films are male  within the age range of 15-24, this is because the largest group of cinema goers are people ages 15-24. 

Fig. 3 Ratings for the 1974 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre showing that Males enjoyed the film more than Females 

The audiences for horror movies are often groups of friends however, there are key groups of audiences who often see horror movies. Couple who are either on a first date or have been in love for a long time but not married commonly go and watch horror movies. 

Overall horror films are aimed at working class community. This is due to the level of thrill and excitement which is gained form a horror film with a relatively cheap price. If the upper class watch horror films they are usually watch a sub genre or another genre such as romance or action. This is due to the the upper classes wanting to watch films with larger budgets and more special effects. However, when certain horror films have sequels its clear that they can appeal to a far larger audience such a final destination which has several sequels.

New revised: Plot synopsis

A group of teenagers are looking to throw a party, they decide to add a extra sense of fear by hosting in the woods. They decide to choose the woods that were the scene of brutal murders, after surveying the woods they decide the party shouldn't be hosted there. While they are leaving the killer senses their presence and decides that it would be better for him to kill the group to avoid being found, and for the excitement of killing again. When they return back home the killer tracks them down and tries to kill them one by one. Whether they escape or not is the question...

Credit: Brieani and Del

Plot synopsis

Our film centers around a group of students the look for a location to host their Halloween party. After visiting numerous other places they realise a woodland location would be perfect as it's free and they don't have to worry about noise or mess. They quickly realise that something is wrong with this location after several creepy events happen one after another and a quick google search of the woods leads them to believe that this is where Eric Bulger committed several terrible murders. They all lose interest in the site due to the mysterious events that occur in the whereabouts; however this small intrusion is the lead up to the traumatic happenings to later occur to each individual that was present to the “visiting”. Our film's enigma is neither to complex nor too simple as proposed by Roland Bathes for a successful film, he uses a ball of yarn to explain why if the plot is too complex (the ball of yarn is wound too tight) the audience will lose interest in trying to untangle it. And if the plot is too simple then the audience will become bored (because the ball of yarn is too easy to untangle). 

Credit: Del and Brieani 

Location For Trailer Shoot

Fig. 1 Classroom

Fig. 2 Woodland

Fig. 5

Fig.4 House hallway

These a few pictures of locations we were going to film our project, we are going to film in woodlands and in different indoor locations such as living rooms and bedrooms for each individual character. There will be separate shots of each character being attacked by the unknown presence, this is why it is key we use a variety of locations.

The locations we have decided to use range from woodlands to different indoor locations such as living rooms and bedrooms for each individual characters. We have decided to use locations like this due to tour film being quite realistic these are everyday places that people our age would hang out this allows it to be relatable for our target audience. Our locations have quite a diverse range because we noticed in horror films there are either several locations or a few locations and one key location in which most of the film takes place, for us it is the woodland.

Both of us have visited these locations and judged whether they would be appropriate for our film we both agreed they would. We do not need permission to use these locations as these are either our own homes (living room or bedroom) or public property (woodland) which means we wouldn’t need permission from the council or owners of the house.


 Potential issues that may arise from these locations are few and far between. As we only have one outside location this means that seasonal/ weather changes do not affect us as much as it would if our whole film was outside. The only problem that could arise with using the woodland is when it rains it becomes very hard to walk and can get very messy at times actors may fall our slip because of this we will need to do a risk assessment of the area because of this. As well as film on days it is particularly dry. 

Credit: Brieani & Del

Target Audience Research

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is 16-25 year olds, they would mainly be males. According to my research, the majority of films are either equally weighted with the gender types but most of the films have a male target audience. They're also aged around 18 years old or older on average due to the different levels of horror the producers intent on including.

This is the user's report from IMDB reviews of the film 'The conjuring'. The predominant gender in this review is just slightly males, that are aged 18 and few are aged above 18. making this film's possible target audience 18 year old males and females. 

This is an IMDB user report for the film, 'The Cabin in the Woods'. From this report it's clear that the majority are males, mainly aged around 18-29 years old, thus making the target audience for this film 18-30 year old males. 

Overall, the main gender used to target with films are males. especially for films that may be gory or uncomfortable for audiences. Young adults and teenagers are also main targets as they tend to be in education or just started work, still making them understand being young and also making it easy to relate to the characters featured in our trailer. 

Credit: Del

Conjuring Trailer analysis

Conjuring trailer analysis from delbrownd12

BBFC Age Rating

U suggests Universal. This means that anyone of any age can watch the film however the BBFC can't confirm whether the picture they are watching can upset a child.

PG means parental guidance. this means that the film requires adult supervision if a child was to watch the film as there could be something inappropriate features within the film or there may be a misunderstanding about certain things with a child.

12A means someone at the age of 12 needs someone at the age of 18 present to watch the film. 

12 means that the viewer has to be a minimum of 12 years old to watch the film. 

Children below the age of 15 arent allowed to watch or buy a rated 15 film as it contains scenes that aren't suitable for younger years.

18 implies that is the strict minimum age for viewer or purchasing a film of this age rating, because it would contain scenes of a sexual or violent nature.  

BBFC Chosen Age Classification

According to my Survey analysis, the majority of people who took part in the survey were aged 16-20 years old. I intend on having a age restriction of the film being a 15 to benefit these ages in the sense that younger people are able to watch the film. I also do not have any intentions on having any kinds of nudity or much use of strong language within my film, its purely a troubled girl that goes through a series of unfortunate events to the point where she is needed to be exorcised. Therefore i will be able to cater for the younger adult/elder teenagers, as well as general adults, in the sense that i would be able to reach a wider audience. 

                                            

Credit: Del



Skyfall Trailer Analysis

Skyfall trailer analysis from briewe25

A2 Group planning

Who will I be working with?

I will be working with Del I did not work with him last year but I decided to work in a pair this year, as I feel with the workload required in this coursework it would be easier to split it.

Who will be responsible for what and why?

Del will be working on the trailer as he prefers editing . I will be doing the poster as I have Photoshop on my laptop and have good knowledge of what a film poster should look like. And we will both be working on the magazine cover as Del is good at Art and I'm good organizing and using different sources to make our magazine appeal to a certain target audience.

Film title Ideas

These were potential titles that we had come up with, we chose to conduct a survey to see which was the most popular choice.This was convenient as there was a direct choice made by our target audience. We will conduct further research into the title before we make this our final choice. 

Credit: Del

Survey Question of Film Company title

This is a survey Del had recently taken, we created several names for our company title. Before we could make a logo or even a slogan we had to choose the name of the company first, the most common choice was 'Elite Enterprise Films'. This had been proven to be efficient and worked in our benefit as we had asked our target audience; we had a direct response from them so this meant we wouldn't be in too much doubt about whether the content were creating appeals to our TA.

Credit: Del

Character profiles

Establishing a character profile is essential for giving the audience a believable character and how much character development each character should have. Typically underdeveloped or poorly developed characters come from stereotypes, if all characters were extremely deeply developed then it would be hard for the audience to form attachments to characters. 

Typically in horror films have 4 characters that are extremely underdeveloped and are purely there to be killed or to help move the plot along. The other 2 are usually more developed to help the audience sympathise with them when they are killed or get away.

Samantha: (The Last Girl/Virgin) she will be playing Hannah she fits the archetype of the last girl as she looks quite young and innocent. She is the protagonist of our film her character is highly developed. 

Her mind is not clouded by lust or drugs, so she is able to make it to the end and defeat the villain. She is often a very quiet and laid back girl who finds strength she didn’t knew she had. She becomes a killer herself.

Stereotype: Virgin, innocent.

Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Samantha because she has quite a young baby face. She wears hardly any make up which makes her look even more young and inexperienced at life as well as her being quite skinny and petite which has connotations of youth. Beside her overall appearance Sam also is a A level drama actress who very much enjoys acting and has acting experience, this will make her character more believable. She also goes to the same school as us which makes her eaily accessible.

Rasharn: (Non-beliver) he will be playing Marlo he fits the archetype for ethnic minority. I found that in horror films where the cast is mainly Caucasian they include another character to provide "diversity".  

His character is not nearly as developed as fully as the others. His character is always likable but the audience bother trying to care about them, because they know they will probably die first anyway.

Stereotype: Token Ethnic minority.


Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Rasharn not only because of his race but because of his features and build it is typical that the ethnic minority is attractive in films and we decided on him because of his build because he has quite a muscular frame this is the frame we intended for the killer to be, which is why he was perfect. Just like Sam he is too and an A level drama student which makes his character even more believable. He also goes to the same school as us which makes her easily accessible.

Mia: (Cheerleader) she will be playing Jody she fits the archetype of Cheerleader as she is blonde and pretty. She is not necessarily a cheerleader; she is a pretty girl who is not very bright and not very nice. 

The others seem to tolerate her and she is somehow friends or enemies with the other girl in film. She will act hysterically to little things which makes the viewer dislike her and want her to get killed first. Her main purpose in the film is to either attract male viewers by being pretty and attractive as well as making scenes more dramatic. 

Stereotype: Flirty, popular cheerleader.

Why we chose this actor/actress: We chose Mia because of her appearance and acting ability. She quite small which makes her appear even more feminine on screen compared to the male actors. As well as being pretty she knows how to do her makeup very well this gives the audience the idea that she older when she is in fact the same age as the others. Mia juxtaposes Sam's character with her popularity, flirtatiousness and make up. As well as her being a A level Drama student. She also goes to the same school as us which make her easily accessible.

Codes and Conventions of Trailers

Credit: Del

Things to consider before starting to plan the trailer etc.

Things to consider before starting to plan the trailer etc. from briewe25

Trailer analysis: Final Destination 5

 We start the trailer with a Point of View shot (POV) shot, of a person looking up to a light this would make the audience think of a dentist chair or somewhere quite clinical, this type of setting is already not a very welcoming setting as often people do not enjoy trips to the dentist.  

Fig. 1 POV shot surgical light.

 This is matched with the voiceover of it seems that it’s been quite a while since your first consultation, this is easily relatable to the audience as the dentist is not a place people go regularly. This allows for the scene to appear far more believable and real, this makes it more frightening to the audience as they are left guessing what happens next, how will this character be killed? Due to the nature of this particular film franchise, it’s clear to the audience what will happen next.

Fig 2.  Overexposed camera shot.

 Through the use of filters it makes the light and overall frame appear to extremely over exposed making the frame go white this then transitions into the character Olivia lying on her back in the chair appearing afraid and shaking, creating tension and the camera shot is extremely close-up.

At the start of the trailer we are introduced to the idea of death and uncertainty. The monologue at the start is in a very monotonous, humourless tone in some ways what the woman says at the start is slightly predictable as to what would happen in the film. With the words ‘I don’t want to miss anything…’ is what the whole film is based around missing things avoiding death in any type of way, which sets the tone for a sense of irony over the whole film. The use of the non-diegetic sound here allows for the audience to try and guess what the film may be about it also creates an uneasy tone to the entire film as her voice could be seen as quite unnerving.   With this being the fifth instalment of the final destination series it is clear its Unique Selling Point is the ways in which people die, as the from the trailer is easy to predict how the film will end.

Fig 3. Olivia close up shot.

After this short clip of Olivia becoming visibly upset, are the words ‘We all share…a common…destination’ this words all flash up in between the clip of Olivia trying to reach for the Emergency stop button and her later screaming. Through the use of the constant beeping of the laser eye machine seeming to increase intensity and speed; Olivia beginning to panic then later her screams it turns into a sound mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds of the uneasy music. Through the use of sound it allows the audience to get a sense of what genre this is and what will happen in this film, as well as making the overall trailer quite frightening and tense. The words that pop up on the screen (‘we all share…a common…destination’) written in capital letters in a Times New Roman font which already has quite gothic connotations, this gives the trailer quite an uneasy and ominous feel, especially with the text being white and the background being a very dark black all navy with smoking coming off the letters it in some way symbolises graveyard and death themes. 

Fig 4. Text

Through camera angles it is clear of the nature of the film through the use of POV angles it’s clear that it is horror/thriller as this is a common camera angle in this type of genre. The film creates tension for a period of medium length cut scenes as it makes it hard for the audience to anticipate what’s next. Olivia at the start is seen clutching a teddy bear this symbolises her innocence and youth later on in the trailer we see the teddy bear falling to the floor this symbolises her being no longer protected by her innocence the laser starts to come on. This trailer portrays all the conventions within the horror genre which makes it effective and appealing to the desired audience.

Codes/Convention of a drama genre

What are drama films?

Drama films often include dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, and corruption put characters in conflict with themselves, others, or even society and how it is flawed. The drama genre is one of the largest movie genres and contains sub-genres such as romantic drama, war films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.

Narrative

At the centre of a drama is usually a character or characters that are in conflict at a crucial moment in their lives. They often revolve around families. Dramas often, but not always, have tragic or at least painful resolutions and concern the survival of some tragic crisis, like the death of a family member (Lion King (1994)), or a divorce (Her (2014)). Endings are usually happy and resolved if they are not then this is because there will most likely be sequel. 

Titanic (1997)

Mis-en- scene

Mise-en-scene is used to reinforce the realistic nature of the narrative. For drama to have the correct effect on the audience it has to be realistic. So this means the mis-en-scene should be at realistic locations such as suburban neighbourhoods, average neighbourhoods, workplaces or in teen drama’s council estates etc (see fig. 1). Thus meaning that the costume will support this idea there will be no fantastical costumes, but regular clothing that matches the personality of the character.

The lighting and colour of film with be very similar to natural everyday lighting. It will hold authenticity rather than being extremely harsh and garish. Furthermore, this makes the film look as true to life as possible.

Kidulthood (2006) teen drama

Editing

For drama, it depends on the mood of the particular piece, but it's typically naturalistic. Drama uses lots of cuts; rather than having lots in the frame to show everything important, filmmakers just cut to whatever is needed. Drama uses camera movements typically in three ways: horizontally, vertically or in combination. For suspense, much of the time the camera will have a soft focus; dramas often use zoom-ins and zoom-outs to focus on particular parts of the shot such as emotions.

Editing always has a strong sense of continuity it avoids shots like jump cuts as this doesn’t flow naturally. Cuts like this are never used as it takes away from the reality that the film is meant to portray; this defies the intention of the drama genre.

45 years (2015) 

Cinematography

Cinematography in drama films is dependable on the mood of the sequence before. Slow pans are often to draw out tension, or fast handheld camera movements could suggest shaking out of fear, because of the environment, anxiety or stress.

With drama being so heavily based on realism to maintain a realistic environment more often than not little use of dynamic shots that are too juddering that may take scene have less realism, such as extremely high or low angled shots. To keep both the background and the foreground in focus and still look very realistic; emulate to human eye a deep depth of field is used. 

Deep focus used at the start of Citizen Kane (1941). A example of the use of a deep depth of field which allows the foreground and the background to be in focus at the same time.

Codes/Conventions of Sci-Fi

Science fiction films are often shortened to Sci-Fi is a film genre that uses science fiction: abstract, fictional science-based depictions of occurrences that are not accepted by mainstream science, such as extra-terrestrial life forms, extrasensory perception and time travel or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition sometimes even exploring dystopian themes like the end of the world.

The genre although seeming new, existed in the early 1900s with the first movie titled a Trip to the Moon employed trick photography effects as CGI didn’t exist at the time.

Codes & Conventions:

Occult soocery - Frequently science fiction films contain elements of mysticism, occult, magic, or the supernatural, all holding occult connotations whether it is tied into religion or elements of fantasy.

Realism/ Believability - A theorist called Shoback argued science fiction films differ from fantasy films in that while science fiction film seeks to achieve our belief in the images we are viewing, fantasy film instead attempts to suspend our disbelief.

Scientific elements - The role of the scientist has varied considerably in the science fiction film genre, depending on the public perception of science and advanced technology.[citation needed] Starting with Dr. Frankenstein, the mad scientist became a stock character who posed a dire threat to society and perhaps even civilization.

Alien life forms - The concept of life, particularly intelligent life, having an extra-terrestrial origin is a popular staple of science fiction films. More earlier films portray aliens as being dangerous life forma that are a threat to the human race, while more recent films such as Escape to With Mountain and the Men in Black series portray them to helpful and even comical.

Under the skin (2013)

Robots - Sometimes portrayed as sentient or violent, one popular theme in science fiction film is whether robots will someday replace humans. Or whether intelligent robots could develop a conscience and a motivation to protect, take over, or destroy the human race.

Typical plot for Sci-Fi films:

• A journey or a quest to find someone or something important. 
• Revenge for something that may have happened earlier in the protagonists life. 
• The fight between good (protagonist) and evil (antagonist) with good defeating evil.
• Saving the world from disaster or peace and harmony is somewhat restored.

Example of Sci-fi films:

iRobot (2004)

In 2035, a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.

Back to the Future (1985)

A young man is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, and must make sure his high-school-age parents unite in order to save his own existence.

The Matrix (1999)

A programmer is brought back to reason and reality when learning he was living in a program created by gigantic machines which make human birth artificial. In order to set humanity free, Neo will have to face many enemies by using technologies and self-trust.

Codes/Conventions of Horror genre

What are horror films? 

Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears. 

Horror films go back as far as the onset of films themselves, over a 100 years ago. Watching a horror film gives an opening into that scary world, into an outlet for the essence of fear itself, without actually being in danger. It's very much like playing a video game even though the graphics look real you know it's just a game, so even if you die you don't.

Fig. 1 Isolated town.

Location:

The location of the horror genre is also key with it usually taking place small communities or isolated places. Urban environments, dark streets and narrow alleyways. Large cities or run down ghost towns. Anything that connotes isolation or being alone. More often than not places with “dark” history, like abandoned houses, hotels and insane asylums.

Fig. 2 Insane asylum.

Technical codes:

Fig.3 Screenshot of POV shot from the film Afflicted.

In the horror genre camerawork tends to be extreme and impressive, it pushes the boundaries in camera work to make it seem that much more frightening. Through extreme high and low angles which mimic someone watching this connotes fear; nightmares in the audience. POV shots are important because they allow the audience to see the world from the monster’s eye. This happens roughly at the end or in the middle of typical horror film as the audience is now familiar with the monster or understands why the protagonist has to run as well as building tension in the viewer. Sometimes framework uses the depth of field, makes it harder to see the monster creeping up behind the protagonist.

As well as disturbing sounds which are often followed by dark shots where not much is seen allow for the sounds of the film to take over. Such as ambient digetic sounds like screaming or non-digetic sounds like a heartbeat or a monologue. Editing allows for the filmmaker to add and build tension when he needs to for example using a lot of cutaways followed by a black screen almost hides what goes on next this only makes the viewer want to know what is happening. If  editing hasn’t been paced up in a while then the audience can guess that something very bad is about to jump out; scare them.


Iconography/Mis-en-scene:

Dark colours usually seem to run throughout horror films, symbolising blood, death and gore. As well as extremes of lighting lighting tends to be non-naturalistic. Low key lighting is often used as dark is often associated with fear and unknown. With use of specific props which can easily identify characters and villains such as Chainsaws, Machetes, Knife, Claw Gauntlets, Costumes, Firearms etc. With the weather being reflective of the plot or story-line with rain, storms and lighting normally accompanied with death or something bad happening.

Narrative Structure:

The classic narrative structure largely used in Horror genre is either be the film ends with closure or leaves room for sequel and thus enable a franchise (Like Friday the 13th, Halloween and Final Destination).

Character types:

Fig. 4 Female victim

Female victim: they are portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection. Usually young and attractive, helping to appeal to a wider male audience. She is often portrayed to be stupid and annoying, one of the only characters the audience sometimes will to be killed, although she usually is not the first to die. She usually dies in a very gruesome way. Character is used to build suspense as her reactions to minor things are often very dramatic putting other characters on edge. 

Hero: usually a male he tends to be the brave character that goes after the murderer, often never returning. More often than not these characters tend to show little emotion. 

Fig. 5 The non-believer

Non-believer: usually male too but can be either, usually killed first and this in turn sparks mass killing of the others. This character could be looked at as the voice of reason usually believes there is logic reasoning for things. When the character is killed the audience start to panic. Sense of security gone, no one is safe.

Fig. 6 Evil character (Michael Myers from Halloween)

Evil Character: can take many forms; serial killer, demonic possession, ghost, monster etc. If human they will often wear a mask to disguise their identity this also allows the audience to not become emotionally attached to them. They will never react in a normal way to injuries; if they were to be stabbed, they usually manage to get back up again unharmed, hinting towards the idea of them being inhuman. This character obviously has the biggest impact on the audience and strikes fear into them. They are what the suspension throughout the film and all other codes and conventions have been building up to, in some ways the most important character. 

Conventions of a Romance Film: characters

There are different types of charterers that are featured in a Romantic film that play a all play a part in the way the film will end up. The types of characters include:


The Protagonist - This is can usually be a either male of female playing this part, this character is the one that is typically the one that finds love with the other character in the film. An example of where this occurs is in the movie 'Notebook' where you find the male narrating the story about how he fell in love.



The Hero- Being the one fighting for the love of the couple. whether it will be sacrificing their body getting injured or even their love for the love or happiness of their other. For example, in the 'Titanic' film, Jack gives up the space on the door and freezes to death in the attempt of keeping Rose alive.





The Antagonist- Separation between the couple, this can be an ex boyfriend or girlfriend, or even a illness that is stopping their love from developing. For example, int he film 'Fault in Our Stars' ends with the protagonist losing her loved one due to the development of cancer in his body. This causes him to die and their love to come to an end.




Credit: Del

Conventions of a Romance Film: Themes

There are various themes that can be included into the genre of romance, here are a few examples:

- Love at first Sight
- Young love
- Obsessive love
- Sentimental love
- Spiritual love
- Forbidden love
- Platonic love
- Sexual love
- Destructive love
- Tragic love
- Sacrificial love

Credit: Del