HG/TW/GT-Audience Research

Results

1)   Do you like psychological horror?

1-2/10	3-4/10	5-6/10	7-8/10	9-10/10
0	1	3	4	7

 47% of our target audience thought that the choice of a psychological horror genre was 9 or 10 out of 10.

73% of our target audience thought that the choice of a psychological horror genre was 7/10 or higher.

2)   What do you consider the most effective location for the clip?

Isolated Grounds (e.g caravan)	Playground/Park	Suburban Area	Abandoned House	Forest/Wood
6	0	1	6	2

 40% of our target audience thought that isolated grounds is the most effective location.

 80% thought that either isolated grounds or an abandoned house was the most effective location. These two locations are very similar which is why we opted for the caravan.

3)      What type of character is most effective/conventional of horror?

Young	Old
14	1

Boy	Girl
4	11

Bold	Vulnerable
2	13

 84% of our demographic believe that the most conventional/effective character is a young, vulnerable girl.
93% think that the character should be young.

73% think that the character should be a girl.

87% think that the character should be vulnerable.

4)        Which horror film is your favourite?

The Shining	Insidious	Scream	Saw	Other
2	2	5	3	3

33% of our demographic think that Scream is the best horror film.

5)     How often should the evil entity appear?

Several times	A few times	Once before the end	At the end (unveil)
6	1	2	6

 40% of our demographic thought the evil entity should be shown throughout on several occasions.

 Despite this, another 40% thought that the evil entity should appear once at the end as a big unveil.

6)      What do you think should happen to the victim?

Murdered	Kidnapped	Possessed	Threatened
8	2	5	0

53% believe our victim should be murdered.

33% believe our clip should involve some form of possession.

7)      Which title name do you prefer?

Subconscious	Lured	Hysteria	The Illusion
3	1	9	2

 60% thought that Hysteria is the best name out of the 4 above, followed by Subconscious.

As 47% of our demographic thought that psychological horror was the most effective genre, it made us want to do this genre as it is what our target audience would like to see.

80% of our audience thought that isolated grounds/abandoned house is the most effective location. This made us very happy with our caravan location as it is isolated and abandoned and intrinsically a perfect location for our clip.

93% of our demographic think that the victim should be young, also, 87% of our audience
thought that the character should be vulnerable. Therefore, the character of Darren fits in perfectly with these characteristics. However, 73% of our demographic did think the most effective gender for the victim would be a girl. Yet, as our character is young and vulnerable it is still very much what the audience feel would be a realistic victim for the clip.

As 53% of our target audience thought that the victim should be murdered, we took on board this observation and amended our treatment so that Darren is now brutally murdered by an anonymous antagonist at the end of the clip.

TW/GT/HG- Pitch Presentation and Feedback

Above are screenshots of our PowerPoint Pitch we presented to the class. This lead to a large amount of very helpful and constructive feedback. This included:

Positives

• Generally the audience of our pitch thought our location was very well chosen and effective this is due to the abandonment and therefore creepiness of it.
• The audience liked our chosen film title 'Hysteria' and thought the choice of font was well explained and would fit nicely with our final piece.
• They thought we had conducted research into films that are related to our film opening and that both the quality and quantity of this was above satisfactory.

Negatives

• From the feedback, we established that there may be some issues with the plot, and that it may appear unrealistic for someone to be hiking in the woods when it is dark. Despite this being an insignificant issue, it is an issue nonetheless. 
• We were also confronted with issues with the difficulty of some complex camera shots and possible typography positioning which may prove difficult when filming and editing.
• Finally, issues were raised with the establishment of our main character in the opening sequence 'Darren' and if the sequence may start without obvious establishment of where the character is and what he was doing.

Our decided changes from this feedback

From this feedback we realised the changes we need to make to build our sequence into something more realistic and understandable to a wider audience.
This included:

• Developing our plot to fit specification with typography during the opening sequence and researching ways with storyboards in which we can achieve complex but very effective camera shots throughout our opening.
• We decided to add more establishment scenes in our piece which will lead to a better establishment of our character 'Darren' who will prevail in the opening through our establishing and various other camera shots.

Group 9 Preliminary Group Task

HG/TW/GT Concept Development and Animatic

GT-Synopsis

Darren is walking through the woods searching for shelter, having been hiking for hours on end, lost and alone. Through his travels he stumbles across an old, weed riddled caravan cursed with a violent past, in which he seeks to take refuge. However, Darren soon comes to realise that his presence in this caravan is not the only one, and that caravan's past may be catching up to Darren himself.

GT-Potential Sound Effects

Drone I- https://www.freesound.org/people/JarredGibb/sounds/219056
Drone II- https://www.freesound.org/people/thatjeffcarter/sounds/104555/
Drone III- https://www.freesound.org/people/decembered/sounds/42761/
Glass Smashing- https://www.freesound.org/people/chewiesmissus/sounds/244238/
Crow Noise- https://www.freesound.org/people/SFXsource.com/sounds/110337/
Crescendo- https://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/76327/
Deep Banging- https://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/116749/
Twig Snap- https://www.freesound.org/people/mrjingles/sounds/17184/

Many of these chosen sounds are existent in most horror films. The concept of layered drones that we hope to include in our film sequence was inspired by the opening sequence of The Woman In Black. What was achieved through this sequence using this sound technique was the effect of enigma and tension, aspects we want to achieve using sound in a similar fashion. Furthermore, the use of crescendos will personify this effect, providing an effective end to the build up of tension created by the layered drone sounds.
The other various sound effects we have chosen, such as the glass smashing, crow noises and twig snaps provide an atmosphere for the location, as well as creating a sense of presence.

HG-Typography

The first font is called 'Cold Night For Alligators'. I chose this font because the font looks as though blood is dripping from the text, this is effective as it has connotations of gore and creates a sense of uneasiness for the audience. Additionally, the fact that the text looks as if it has blood dripping from it, it therefore has connotations of death and violence.

The second font is named 'VTKS Scream'. I decided to pick this font as it looks rather worn away and eroded, this is rather iconic of horror.

The third font is 'Flesh Digster'. I chose this font as it has sharp edges and points and reminds me of a knife. It therefore has connotations of murder and violence.

The fourth font has a less practical/technical reasoning for its selection, yet it has connotations of enclosure and trapping.

The fifth font has a bit of a "barbed-wire" look, and has very sharp points similar to the third font with connotations of violence.

The sixth font has a "chainsaw" sort of look, it is also very bold and unique.

The seventh font is rather bland and plain, yet, it is rather different and the plainness of it makes it look quite eerie and paranormal.

GT-Characters, Costumes

Characters

• We have decided upon a main character being male, and around 17 years old named Darren. Darren is an avid hiker. He will be played by either, Harry, Tom or George. Darren is the protagonist
• We will also most likely have an antagonist, which is where the psychological aspect of the film sequence will be shown. 

Costumes

• Darren will be dressed in normal, fairly worn clothing, similar to that of what we wear contemporarily. This may include: jeans, gloves, hoody, a coat and shoes. This will be specified further when this clothing is collected up. 

• The antagonist will probably wear dark clothing. However he will not have on screen prevalence so much of his clothing will go unseen. This may include: worn, black tracksuits and black or brown shoes.
• Costumes will be basic for the protagonist, Darren, because we are aiming to represent him as the innocent, by creating a sense of familiarity in terms of appearance that the audience can relate to.

Unlike Darren's costume, the unnamed antagonist will wear dark clothing associated with evil and anonymity. Audiences will view him as inhuman like, and therefore lack feelings of affection or attraction to him. We were inspired by this through psychological horrors such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1977) and Friday The 13TH (2006), where the main antagonists had completely concealed humanly features.

TW- Props and Visual Effects

• A mask for the antagonist
• A weapon for the antagonist (axe, knife or chainsaw)
• Backpack for Darren
• A few domestic items for the caravan
• White sheet covered in blood

Above and below are the props we have decided to use in our opening sequence, these props are simple to obtain and are owned by the members of our group. These props will help us to create a final piece that will be genuinely realistic.

I have also added some possible visual effects we can add in post-production using programmes such as Photoshop, we can add effects to text to well define our horror genre and make our piece more effective. We have decided to stay clear of effects such as prosthetics as they are very difficult to produce, they may also make our piece look amateur if they are not done well enough.


TW-Location Recce

Our group has decided that our opening sequence will be set in an isolated area, but with most shots in internal locations. As a group we decided to shoot in my house grounds, there is an old, abandoned caravan in a field which is conveniently isolated from the house and any other urban areas. We decided this was the best location as it fits in with conventional horror stock locations, this can be an area where the antagonist does his 'work'.

As you can see the caravan is clearly very old and ruined, we believe this adds to the effect we are trying to achieve with our opening sequence. We wanted a location that will put people on edge simply by just showing photos of it and we think it is achieved with this location.

There are some trees and long, overgrown grass surrounding the caravan which provides us with the ideal 'den' for our antagonist, is it relatively hidden and lighting through/on the caravan gives it a spooky, mysterious look which will really help our group when producing the opening sequence.

The photos show that although the caravan is quite large, there is limited space for movement and diverse camera shots, this is why we will have to use our extensive research such as our storyboards to put together a selection of relatively simple but very effective shots, angles and movements.

We think that the messiness and overall filth of this caravan will fit in very well with how our psychological antagonist is portrayed- with characteristics including being messy and chaotic which can further connote gore and uncomforting shots.

We further thought this location is ideal as the land it is based on is owned by me, therefore there is no restrictions or limitations on where we can shoot and no specified time period, meaning if any mistakes are made we can return and shoot again fairly simply.

Below are some picture ideas of where we could base characters and plan our effective camera shots in order to achieve a high quality piece of work:

 

 

Our Hysteria Animatic