November 2016

The Top Ten Horror Shots

In order to extend our knowledge around the conventions of horror we were given a task to use the top ten horror shots that are conventionally used in the horror genre. By doing this task we were effectively able to understand the most effective shots that should be used in our own horror trailer.

The Top Ten Horror Shots we used were:

Off Kilter
Over the shoulder shot of the killer.
Close up on weapon
Close up/ Extreme Close up of fear
360 degree shot to show isolation/ fear
High angle shot to victim’s vulnerability.
Low angle shot to show the power of the killer.
How to stab some one without hurting them.
Point of view of victim and killer as victim crawls away on her back and killer approaches
Use the power of suggestion.

I decided to edit my video individually in a dramatic cinematic way and this was my outcome:

November 23, 2016 0

Blood Workshop

Blood Workshop Aims

For our Blood Workshop our aim was to create and discover the most effective and realistic blood to be a possibility for our own Horror Trailer. By doing this we could experiment and decide what sort of tone we wanted for our film trailer and whether or not the blood and the gory genre could actually work.

Making Artificial Blood

We used a variety of possible ingredients to create our fake blood and chose from one edible recipe and one un-editable recipe.

The first recipe was an edible one where we used honey, Red Food Dye and also Blue Food Dye to create a darker and more realistic blood like look. Furthermore, for our second recipe we made use of a wider variety of ingredients consisting of; Washing up liquid, Red Food Dye, Blue Food Dye, Ketchup and Honey. We used both of these recipes to test out which one would be the best possible choice to use if we did end up using blood for our Opening.

During the workshop we took videos and pictures of the Blood making and we then decided to individually create videos to show what we had done for our Research.

This was my final video edit for the Blood Workshop:

Conclusions

The workshop concluded with us discovering that although the washing up liquid with also added flour for a clotted affect created a perfect consistency it became very runny and unrealistically colored when applied to clothing. This was not the case for the honey blood recipe and it stayed thick and realistic when applied as when see when the blood is applied from out of the cup in the last few scenes.

Overall we concluded that if we were to use blood for our trailers we would use the honey recipe to ensure the most effective and realistic look is created.

November 23, 2016 0

Pitching our Ideas!

After discussing and thought showering our ideas together using data from our questionnaires and our own horror knowledge, my collegue and I put together a pitch to display our ideas for our horror trailer in a more organised fashion.

Within our pitch we included the inspirations behind our ideas, typical horror genre conventions that we have used, the horror theories that are involved within our trailer and why we will use them and how our research has impacted on our final decisions for our horror trailer ideas.

Here is Melissa and I showcasing our ideas for our horror trailer:

Due to technical difficulties the end of the clip cuts off however the main information for our pitch has been recorded.

A copy of our presentaion is below:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

November 23, 2016 0

Working Together! Snapchat Vlog

I have made a decision to work collaboratively with another individual in my A Level Media class to create my horror trailer.

My collegue and I have made this decision due to our previous work together at AS level. From the success of our pair work in media, we knew it would be best to continue the collabortive process that we had achieved and perfected last year to create another successful horror product. To ensure this, we will share and balance both camera and editing work and with our creative ideas we will create a high standard product that features typical horror conventions and themes that will appeal to our desired target audience.

Below is a vlog of my collegue and I talking in more detail about our collaboration in a snapchat story:

November 15, 2016 0

After collecting the results from my questionnaire, I am going to use the data to put into graphs that I can analyse. The graphs will give me an insight into what elements of other horror trailers I should use in my horror trailer for a successful approach.

Question 1 What is your gender?

For this task, I ensured that I had the same amount of male and female participants to balance my results out. Males and females may have very contrasting views therefore to avoid bias I had 50% male contribution and 50% female contribution.

This question will allow me to see what will attract both a male and a female audience with my horror trailer which is important in order to attract a mass target audience.

Question 2 What age group do you fit into?

A large proportion of the people I asked were aged 16 -21. I did this because this is the target audience that my horror trailer will be mostly aimed at. By aiming a survey at them, I will have a better insight into what will be most effective for them to watch.

Question 3 What is your favourite Horror Film Trailer?

The results above show that there is a signicant popularity for both The Conjuring(2016) and Scream() between our participants. Whereas Scream falls into the sub-genre of teen-slasher, The Conjuring is a psycological/ paranormal horror which are both quite contrasting. Despite this, this could suggest that our audience like both paranormal themes and blood and gore that are caused by spirits. This could be a possible idea for our own trailer by using these sub-genres.

Question 4 What is your favourite horror sub-genre to watch?

The results from this question have shown that Paranormal and Psychological Thrillers are the most popular sub-genres between the audience that answered my questionnaire. This supports the previous question and tells me that paranormal and psychological themes would be best to use in my own trailer to attract the young audience that I want to successfully.

Question 5 What do you feel is the most important convention to have in a horror trailer?

The results of question 5 show that my audience felt that Jump Scares, Creepy Music and Isolated settings are the most important conventions of horror trailers. I will incorporate these ideas into my horror trailer to have the most effect on my audience. Continually, due to Jump Scares having the highest score of 6, I will ensure that my jump scare is very clear at the end of my trailer and small build up of small jump scares builds up to it for the scariest effect.

Question 6 What sort of pace/speed do you think a horror trailer should move at?

The results above show that my audience find a medium paced horror trailer most suitable. The fast paced horror trailer option was also quite popular, therefore I am going to use a mixture of all three to show contrast throughout the trailer and make the fast paced sections more shocking.

Question 7 What types of sounds do you find most creepy or effective in a horror trailer?

It is very clear that my audience found that eerie background music was most ‘creepy’ for horror trailers. Due to the popularity of this option, I will use eerie music successfully in my own horror trailer. I feel that this was the most popular option because it sets the atmosphere for the entire horror trailer.

Question 8 What particular lighting would you expect to see in a horror trailer?

My audience has shown that they usually expect to see a mixture of low-lighting, high-lighting and no lighting in horror trailers. Due to their keen intrest into a mixture of both no-lighting and low-lighting, I will use both to set the atmosphere of the trailer throughout. These results could suggest that by having a sense of fear all the way through the trailer due to darkness, the scariest parts are even scarier than they would have been in high lighting.

Question 9 Where do you feel is the most typical and effective setting for a horror trailer to be set?

My audience have shown a clear interest in abandoned house and building settings. Depending on what facilities are available to me, I will definitely consider using an abandoned area for my horror trailer.

Question 10 Where would you usually expect the title of the film to appear in a horror trailer?

e10

g10

There was quite an even perspective on where the title of the horror film should go on the trailer. The most popular place that my audience thought would be best for the title was the end of the trailer. I will use this data to put my horror title at the end of the trailer.

I feel that this shows that putting my title at the end will help the audience to remember the film even more because it will be the last thing they see.

Question 11 What sort of narratives pull you in when watching horror trailers?

e11

g11

These results show that the most popular horror narratives for my audince are murderers and diseases. I believe that my audience very much fear the idea of isolation with something tring to catch them that they must get away from. I will use this idea in my own horror trailer to draw my auidence in.

Primary Research: Questionnaire

It is important that I have a clear insight into my audiences likes and dislikes in order to make the most effective horror trailer for my target audience. Therefore, I have created a questionnaire that will allow me to understand what my audience find most appealing about trailers within the horror genre and what draws them in most.

I will be aiming my questionnaire to a wider demographic (from 16-60+), other than just teenagers in order to enhance my knowledge of what a wider audience would like. This would mean that my horror trailer would be more likely to be successful overall because a wider audience would want to see it. With this in mind, I had to ensure that the questions I asked were relevent to the horror genre and all of the audiences that I asked in order for the results to be relevent and reliable.

The questionnaire I created was distributed to 12 participants, in which 6 were male and 6 were female. I decided to do this to make the comparison of the results easier and more balanced to prevent the results being biased.

Here is my questionnaire:

primary-research-questionnaire

Click to enlarge

All of the questions I have used are closed questions which will produce quantitative data. This data is numerically counted and is easier to collect and interperet to come to conclusions, therefore, with this in mind I felt that this method would be most suitable for me. With this data I will collate the results into graphs that will show me the most popular answers and from this I will analyse the results to come to a conclusion about what strategies would meet my target audiences wants for my own horror trailer.

November 7, 2016 0

Horror Do’s and Dont’s

After exploring how popular horror trailers have used certain techniques to make their film succesful and how non-popular trailers have not, I have gained an insight into how I should create my own trailer successfully too. With this in mind, I decided to create a presentation to demonstrate my knowledge of what to do and what to not do if you want a successful horror trailer.

This task has really helped me to develop my knowledge for the creation of the main task as I now have a a clear focus on what specific stragies I will need to use in my own trailer.

Here is my presentation:

http://prezi.com/iy9afq5n-him/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

If the link above does not work, here are the screenshots for my Presentation: