Potential Ideas for Horror Movie

Once we were put into our groups of three, we then had to brainstorm different ideas that could be used for our horror movie, through which we could then base our trailer on. My group and I began to list possible ideas and features that could be included in our movie, so that we could then create our final narrative. It was essential to bare in mind the reasons why individuals decide to watch a horror movie, whether it be at the cinema or even at home, as these reasons will then be adapted in our trailer, conveying the key conventions of a horror movie.

Ideas

• Supernatural - human being possessed 
• A sense of possession - causes paranoia 
• Being possessed by the devil
• Link to Ed Gein 
• Suspense of characters
• Teenager - classic overprotective mother
• Open events - occurring everywhere
• Something happens when gazing upon the killer
• Non conclusive - mysterious ending
• Music - gradually build music whilst narrative continues
• Based on a real life event
• Domestic setting
• Religious connotations
• Psychopath - schizophrenic protagonist 
• Protagonist has powers - passes it onto others

My group and I combined all the results from our horror movie questionnaire's that we created, and took the overall outcome into consideration, which also helped us brainstorm more ideas, as listed above. Also, we compared results and then highlighted the main similarities we all found from our individual questionnaires and decided that these aspects will be our main focus in order to target our audience.

• Targeting at 15 - 25 year olds
• Focus more on storyline - limited use of blood and gore
• Include shocking and jumpy suspense
• Suspense music
• Fast shots and editing
• Flashbacks

We decided to focus on the 'Final Girl Theory,' as this then links to a monstrous feminine. 

Horror Movie Questionnaire - The Results

I kept the survey for my questionnaire open for roughly around two weeks, giving people enough time to fill it out, as I was regularly advertising it as mentioned in my previous post. I then closed the survey in order to analyse the overall results that were collected from those who filled it out. As well as using http://www.surveymonkey.com, I decided to transfer the data into Excel, as I could create pie charts for each question, making it easier for myself to understand the final results.

1) What gender are you? 

I chose to have this as the first question to my survey, as it starts off by giving me some information about the person who is filling it out. Furthermore, its helpful for me as I am able to see which type of gender is more likely to watch horror movies, and looking at the results, it turns out that its actually females. This then automatically links with the other results from all the other questions. 

2) How old are you?

This is also similar to the first question as it gives me an insight to how old the person is, once again linking in with the other results. Also, I thought this would be an appropriate question to include as I will then be able to decide on the age rating for my horror movie. It turns out that its usually 16 - 20 year olds who watch horror movies regularly, so therefore, this will be my target audience. However, I will also take into consideration all the other ages present as well, as I don't want to have some sort of restriction towards the viewers. 

3) How often do you watch a horror movie?

Again, I inserted this question as it allows me to find out more about my target audience. Horror movies are being released frequently nowadays, meaning that theres a variety of different horror movies to watch in the cinema, as well as on DVD. Therefore, the answers to this question allows me to understand if people frequently watch horror movies, or whether they watch one once in a while, and by looking at the results, it appears that its somewhat in between, as majority of the people tend to watch it every two months. 

4) How do horror movies make you feel?

Different horror movies have different aims when it comes to giving the audience a sense of emotion. Some want to terrify the audience, whereas others may have different agendas. However, it is possible that a person encounters numerous feelings when watching a horror movie. With this question, I allowed my target audience to answer more than one emotion, due to the fact that there could simply be more than one, as well as having the chance to write down their own answers, which gives me a larger range of answers, so that I know what I would want my audience to feel when watching my trailer. By looking at the results, it seems to be that people get some sort of excitement while watching a horror movie. Furthermore, 4 people wrote down their own answers, which mainly consisted of 'amused,' meaning that they find a sense of humour within the movie. 

5) Who do you like to watch a horror movie with?

Some people have different preferences when it comes to who to watch a horror film with, which is something that I personally find interesting, as it immediately gives an idea of what the person is like. For example, if they are able to watch an entire horror movie by themselves, then its most likely that they aren't the type to get afraid. Therefore, I simply chose this question to once again, find out more about my target audience. However, a large number of people said they they like to watch a horror movie with their friends, possibly a group of friends, which then makes it more exciting and scary for all of them. Therefore, I will ensure that my trailer appeals to groups of friends, making sure that its something that they would want to watch together.

6) What kinds of settings frighten you the most in a horror movie?

This question was included to help me with ideas of locations to use in my actual trailer. I listed down the settings which you will usually find in a horror movie, such as a domestic setting, to see whether this appeals to my target audience, and if they get frightened by it. By looking at the results, it seems as if they do get scared when a domestic setting is included in a horror movie; therefore I will take this into account by showing this location within my trailer.

7) Does a horror movie appeal to you more when it's based on a real life event?

There are some horror movies that are based on a real life event, which frightens individuals more, as it personally does for me. This is why I decided to include this question to see whether this type of movie would appeal to my target audience more, or whether it doesn't really have an overall affect on them, which was the case for majority of the people who took part in the survey. When it comes to creating my trailer, I will discuss this aspect with the rest of my group and see whether we should base our trailer on a real life event or not. 

8) Do gruesome aspects within a horror movie frighten you? (E.g. blood, gore, weapons etc)

Not everyone gets frightened by blood and gore etc within horror movies, which is what this question proves. Therefore, I will keep these aspects limited in my trailer, due to the fact that it doesn't appeal to everyone. 

9) What do you expect to see in a horror movie trailer?

When it comes to watching a horror movie trailer, people have various ideas on what they want to see in the trailer, which is why I thought it was necessary to have this question on the survey. With this question, I didn't write down any specific options for the audience to choose fro, but instead, I allowed them to write down any feedback they wanted to give in relation to this specific question. I narrowed down the most common answers and included this in the pie chart above. All of the answers that were given are typical features which are present in a horror movie, which is something I will take into account when it comes to creating my trailer.

10) When watching a horror movie trailer, do you prefer to discover the whole storyline?

People do not always want to find out the whole storyline when watching a trailer, which is why I thought it would be important to ask this question, as I wouldn't want to give away too much information, as it then wouldn't exactly appeal to my target audience. Consequently, it turns out that most people do not like to know the complete storyline; therefore, I will make sure not to reveal too much within the trailer, but instead, have a sufficient amount which will make them want to watch it.

I will take all the answers that I received very seriously when it comes to the final creation of my horror movie trailer, as the feedback given is vital for me to follow in order for the trailer to be successful, and for it to have the conventions of a horror movie. 

Horror Movie Questionnaire - The Process

I decided to use www.surveymonkey.com to create my survey, which meant that people could directly go onto the link and fill out the questionnaire there themselves. It was a very simple and easy process, as the survey was created within a few minutes, which meant that I could then get people to fill it out as soon as possible. The link for the questionnaire is www.surveymonkey.com/s/RXZ567T. As it was an online survey, I used social networking to advertise the link, via Blackberry Messenger, as well as my Twitter account.

In total, 31 people filled out the survey, which is a good amount, as it gave me various results from a wide range of people, making the questionnaire more valid and reliable. 

Market Research - Horror Movie Questionnaire

Over the half term, I conducted a survey which consisted of questions which would then be beneficial to me when it comes to making my final trailer, as I would then be able to take the results from this survey into account.
The purpose of creating this questionnaire was so that I could find out more about which age range I will be targeting my trailer at, and how they feel whilst watching a horror movie, as well as what frightens them the most. Paul Well's theory illustrated that the younger generation are more harder to shock, as they are aware of artificiality.
I chose 10 questions which I believe are all necessary for my research, and these questions are presented below.

1) What gender are you?

• Male 
• Female

2) How old are you?

• 10 - 15 years old
• 16 - 20 years old
• 21 - 25 years old
• 26 - 30 years old
• 30 +

3) How often do you watch a horror movie?

• Every week
• Every month
• Every two months
• Other (please specify)

4) How do horror movies make you feel?

• Scared
• Excited
• Nervous
• Anxious
• Disgusted
• Confused
• Other (please specify)

5) Who do you like to watch a horror movie with?

• Alone
• Parents
• Siblings
• Friends
• Partner

6) What kinds of settings frighten you the most in a horror movie?

• A domestic setting
• A haunted house
• Forests
• Isolated outdoor locations
• Other (please specify)

7) Does a horror movie appeal more to you when its based on a real life event?

• Yes
• No
• To an extent

8) Do gruesome aspects within a horror movie frighten you? (E.g. blood, gore, weapons etc)

• Yes
• No
• To an extent 

9) What do you expect to see in a horror movie trailer?

10) When watching a horror movie trailer, do you prefer to discover the whole storyline? 

• Yes
• No 
• To an extent 

Research Methods

Different research methods
There are different ways of doing research, the main ones being a questionnaire, interviewing someone, and experimenting with various ideas.

We were asked to research the best possible way to approach our target audience, in relation to our horror movie trailer, with the help of http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/psychology/learn_train/research_methods/, which was a very helpful website as it gave advantages and disadvantages for each research method.

After visiting the website, I decided that the best method would be to conduct a questionnaire.

Advantages:

- Produce large amounts of standardised data

- Data can be collected quickly and conveniently 

- Replicable and usually easy to analyse

- Wide-ranging sample possible

- New ideas for research can be suggested

- Good for research on socially sensitive matters as people tend to disclose more

I decided to use http://www.surveymonkey.com to create this survey.

The 'Final Girl Theory

The 'Final Girl' is a horror and thriller movie, which specifically refers to the last girl or woman alive, to confront the killer, and to present the rest of the story to the audience. The 'Final Girl' has been observed in several films, including 'Halloween,' 'Friday the 13th,' 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' 'Scream,' 'Final Destination,' 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' alongside many more. The term was created by Carol J Clover, in her book 'Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.' In this, Clover implies that in these films, the audience begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the 'Final Girl' partway through the film. According to Clover, the girl is usually a virgin, therefore, making her unavailable sexually, which then leads her to avoid the vices of the victims, for example, sex. Furthermore, she can also have a unisex name, such as Teddy, Billie, Georgie or Sidney. Sometimes, she will have a shared history with the killer, which then makes the killer inclined towards her in particular. An example of this can be found in 'Halloween II,' as Michael Myers is found to be Laurie Strode's brother. The 'Final Girl' is the 'investigating consciousness' of the film, making the narrative move forward. 

 

Information taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl 

The Copycat Theory

In relation to my previous post, my media class had to pair up and focus on one theory in particular, and create a presentation which we could then feedback to the rest of the class. My partner and I were given 'The Copycat Theory,' which I was excited about, as the name itself sounds interesting. The presentation we created is shown below.

The copycat Theory

View more presentations from Rosheen-29

My peers had to research on different theories, so that we could all have an insight and understanding to other theories, as well as our own. Whilst watching their presentations, I did learn more about the variety of audience theories, which made me realise more how the audience are affected in relation to the media.

- Cultivation Theory - Concerned with the effects of television programming on the attitudes and behaviour of American public - findings suggest that those that watch more television (heavy viewers), perceive the real world as it is portrayed on the television. (The mean world syndrome)



- The Copycat Theory - (E.g. Simon says) It relates to how something is publicised in the media, and findings suggest that the public naturally copy what they see, to gain the qualities etc, of those that appear on screen, such as copycat murders etc.

- The Hypodermic Syringe Model - The audience passively receive information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge data etc.



- Desensitisation Theory - The overexpose to violent behaviour on screen makes the audience immune to this, and thus, harder to shock. As a result, the effects are generally more widely spread. 

Audience Theory

'The media are responsible for a range of social problems'

The quote above is rather effective, as it reveals a lot about what is being said about the media in todays society. There are different methods in which the media affects audience subconsciously; therefore, it is agreeable to say that individuals have been affected by what they see via media texts, such as movies, TV programmes etc.
We researched the different effects models in relation to media audience theory. The methods we came across are listed below:

- Hypodermic Syringe Theory
- Desensitisation
- Cultivation Theory
- Copycat Theory
- Uses and Gratifications
- Reception Theory.

One of the most popular theories is the 'Hypodermic Syringe Theory.' When researching this theory, I came across many facts which made my understanding of this specific theory, clearer. This is what I found out:

- The 'Hypodermic Syringe Theory' is a model of communication, making sure that a message is received.
- It wasn't based on experimental results derived from research. It was a response to the German fascists, and then it later applied to the American society.
- The concept of the theory is that the media were injected into the thoughts of the audience, who accepted the attitudes, opinions and beliefs expressed by others, without questioning them.
- This theory can work; however, it may not be as effective as the media would like it to be, as people can be affected in different ways by the media, such as films, advertising, newspapers, television etc. Therefore, this can have a negative effect on the audience.