Secondary research into audience

Target Audience for Horror Films

The majority of horror films made nowadays are often aimed at a young adult audience, usually 16-25 year old, this is due to film companies research showing that this is the most popular age group for watching horror films. Film makers feel that their target audience should be around 16-25 as it means that their film has a very wide target audience and the target audience is often above 15 as many film makers use the classification rating of 15. The higher end of the target audience being 25 is set because research has shown that the many people over the age of 25 can be turned off by the sight of blood and gore whereas a younger audience are thrill seekers. The horror genre stimulates the audience to make them feel uncomfortable in a controlled environment and therefore it makes sense for the target audience to be of a maturing age. 

We often expect to see people watching horror films in large groups rather than in smaller groups. This is often good for film makers as it means that they make more money as it is often common for the cinema to become sold out as groups of teenagers often go together. Couples are also very common to go and watch horror films together for a date, people do this because they feel that it can be romantic to comfort each other. 

Stereo-typically, the gender target audience for horror are males as the appeal to action and gore more than females however this is not always the case. Females also watch horror films however, similarly to the older age group, women may feel uncomfortable watching gore. 

Horror film conventions

Timeline of horror films

19th Century

This film at the time was not called a horror but instead they were called 'spook tales':

Auguste & Louis Lumiere La Squelette joyeux (1895)

 The first recorded silent 'horror' films are:

La Manoir du Diable (1896)

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1919)

The Golem (1915/1920)

Nosferatu (1922)

Horror begins to talk and scream:

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Mummy (1932)

Freaks (1932)

King Kong (1933)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Werewolf of London (1935)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Cat People (1942)

Horror began to feature creatures: 

The Beast From 20.000 Fathoms (1953)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The Tingler (1959)

Horror began to feature bad girls and blood freaks:

Psycho (1960)

Carnival of souls (1962)

The Birds (1963)

 Blood Feast (1963)

 'The Nightmare Decade':

The exorcist (1973)

 The Stepford Wives (1975)

 Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Carrie (1976)

 The Omen (1976)

 Gore;

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Jaws (1975)

Halloween (1978)

Body horror:

The Shining (1980)

The Thing (1982)

Childs Play (1988)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Scream (1996)

28 Days Later (2002)

Planning Genres

Sci-fi

The maze runner and hunger games are sci-fi films, I think sci-fis are good examples of films that create tension, they also give the film some mystery because something unusual is going to happen. I would like to study sic-fis however I think it would be difficult to create a sci-fi film opening as they are often set in very extreme environments.

Horror

This is an example of a horror film, I like horror films because they draw the viewer in and make them want to watch for longer. Personally I feel that once I have started watching a horror film, I can’t stop watching until the end to find out the twist. Horrors are also well put together, for example, the producers will have made it so you don’t find out the big secret until towards the end or something dramatic towards the end, I think this is done to intrigued the viewer. This can sometimes be very difficult to do as if nothing happens through the film, people may become bored so the producers need to make sure the viewer will stay interested by keeping the balance of action throughout the film and the big twist/action towards the end. I think a film opening on horror would be very easy because you can include lots of interesting short clips, you can also make the titles very interesting and the music can be a variety of styles, you could go for typical horror music, something more upbeat which would make the film slightly cynical or something beginning off calm which would build tension.

Romance 

This is a romance film opening, in a romance film opening you need something very sweet and cute to happen, it needs to be a big event and in a few examples I have watched, someone proposes or they meet the ‘love of their life’. This makes the viewer want to watch more because they want to know the outcome of what’s happening. This type of film is often aimed at teenage girls because they will want to watch and hope these things happen to them. I think making a romance film opening would be very difficult as you would have to think of a very cute idea, find people to play the roles in the film, and find music that would fit in well with the story.

In conclusion I would like to make a film opening for a horror. I think this will be the most interesting and accomplishing task to do. I have already began to think of ideas for a horror and think these will be very well put into the film opening.

Horror story idea

This story is about a couple who are expecting a baby girl visiting and old antique shop where they are convinced to buy an antique jewellery box for their unborn baby by a very old suspicious man. They buy the box and put it on top of the fireplace as a present for when their baby is born. Whilst they are in the hospital having the baby the husband receives a phone call minutes after his wife has given birth to tell him their house caught on fire. They come home to find their house and all their possessions burnt except for the new jewellery box which is untouched by the fire. They take the box back to the antique store and ask the man why this happened, the man becomes very defensive and refuses to answer their questions and when they keep asking him, he lashes out and kills them. The man then persuades another family to buy the box. The film ends on the house burning however the jewellery box is playing a tune which gets gradually slower and the ballerina figure is spinning, it begins to spin slower then the screen fades to black.

The main characters are the couple who originally buy the jewellery box.

My leads story goal is to find out why their house burnt down and the only thing to survive was the jewellery box which seems to be untouched by the fire.

The majority of the story is set in the antique store where the old man convinces the two families into buying the jewellery box for their babies. A small part of the film is set within a hospital where the woman is having her baby and the husband receives a phone call to say their house has caught fire. The film is based around a family who are expecting a baby buy a jewellery box and this effectively causes their house to burn down so they try to find out why this happened and they end up being killed. The beginning of the film starts with the young couple out shopping and walking into the antique store. The beginning is very sweet and the couple seem happy.

Existing titles and title ideas

Existing film titles

Annabelle

Dracula Untold

Tusk

Horns

Saw

The conjuring

Extraterrestrial

The purge - anarchy

7500

Ouija

Oculus

Under the skin

As above, so below

Deliver us from evil

Alien

Carrie

Honeymoon

The shining

Sinister

Insidious

Willow creek

Dont blink

The exorcist

Mama

Prom night

The ring

Scream

A nightmare on elm street

Friday the 13th

Constantine

The women in black

Silent hill

The crazies

The thing

Dead silence

Ideas

The end

Butcher street

Bones

Blood

Mary

The execution

Red light

The tower

1. Crisis

My film is about a baby that dies and is then resuscitated, throughout her childhood it appears that the house is haunted so family move and eventually they family figure out she is possessed.

My lead's story goal is to perform the exorcism on her baby and free her from the demon which is possessing her.

Story Goal

The family know she is possessed and try to perform exorcism

2. Crisis

This film is about a man who has been put in a mental hospital, he escapes on halloween, he hides out in a house and when kids 'trick or treat' he lets them in,  tortures them then kills them.

My leads story goal is to catch the man from the mental hospital and prevent him from killing more children.

Story goal

police officer who originally arrested the man who escaped tries to catch the killer again and save more children from being killed.

3. Crisis

This story is about a family who visit and old antique shop where they are convinced to buy an antique jewellery box for their unborn baby. They buy the box and put it on top of the fireplace until the baby is born. whilst they are in the hospital having the baby their house burns down. they come home to find their house all burnt except for the new jewellery box. They take the box to the antique store and ask the man why this happened and he kills them. the man then persuades another family to buy the box and this film ends on the house burning however the jewellery box is playing a tune which gets gradually slower and the ballerina figure is spinning.

My leads story goal is to find out why their house burnt down and the only thing to survive was the jewellery box however they get killed.

Practice titles

Production Schedule (completed with George Ring 9658)

3/10/14 - Creating our opening titles

8/10/14 - Choosing a genre for our film and looking at other titles

10/10/14 - Developing our story and looking at a range of film credits

16/10/14 - Secondary research into our target audience

21/10/14 - Conventions of film openings to relate them to our film opening

7/11/14 - Practice shot types and see what to include for our opening

12/11/14 - To create our own talent release form and location release forms

                  Primary research into our story ideas.

19/11/14 - We will look at classifying our film now we have our story idea

                  Title idea survey to find a title for our film.

3/12/14 - We will look at a range of different audio for our opening.

5/12/14 - We will look at completing our Plans for Shooting and come up with a classification screen for our film now we have our title.

10/12/14 - We will expand our production section and look at conducting filming.

12/12/14 - Creating a storyboard, allowing us to have a plan to follow during the shoot. We will finalise different plans for shooting, eg, what props, who is conducting the makeup and costumes.

19/12/14 - We will begin filming over the Christmas period and after when we are finished..

5/01/15 - We will start editing and completing the filming process of our film.