Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Business Data for the Horror Genre
Certificates are issued by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). In their opinion the film, video or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old. The 18 certificate was only created in 1982. For a film to be classified as an 18 in will contain some of the following; hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex, sadistic violence and sexual violence.Until recently sexual violence and sadistic violence were not even issued a certificate and were seen as not acceptable. According to the BBFC website no drugs promotion is tolerated, only films showing effects of drug misuse are given a classification. The use of bad language in films depends on the language being used; mild bad language could be given a certificate 15 but frequent bad language will be classified as an 18.Natural nudity is allowed for all classification levels, with sexual content resulting in more restrictive classifications.If the theme to the film is racial, sexual, paedophilia, drugs or violence it may be classified as a 15 but in most cases will be given certificate 18.
Analysis (Questionnaire)
For this part of the research we had done a questionnaire which contained nine questions. In total we asked thirty different people. The reason why we chose to do so many people, was so that we would get a bigger range of answers. So we can see many different peoples opinions.
What questions did the questionnaire contain:
3. What is your favourite genre of film? Romanic Comedy [ ] Horror [ ] Thriller [ ]
4. What do you enjoy about this genre?
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
5. Do you what horror movies? Yes [ ] No [ ] (If yes please continue)
6. What do you enjoy about horror movies?
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
7. Do you go to cinema to watch horror movies or what them at home? Cenima [ ] Home [ ]
8. What is your favourite horror sub genre? Zombie horror [ ] Comedy horror [ ] Cannibal horror [ ] Ghost horror [ ]
9. What type of characters to you expect to see in a horror movie?
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
........................................................
Pridiction:
As a group, we all predicted that the age between 18-21 would prefer the genre horror and the sub genre comedy horror. Where as the age above 21 would prefer Romantic comedy or Thriller. Another pridiction made was that overall, more people would prefer watching movies at the cinemas, rather than at home. Last of all the reason why people would like a horror movie was because of the scary and horrific scenes with all the killings and murders.
Results:

2. What gender are you?
The most common gender we asked to do our questionnaire was female.
3. What is your favourite genre of film?
The genre Horror was most preffered and Thriller was the least popular from the people who filled in out questionnaire. The main factor of people preferring horror rather than the other genres is because there are many horror films out there to watch and the effects of watching a horror film can be very entertaining to the audience out there due to the thrills and 'seat jumping' scenes.
4. What do you enjoy about this genre?
For this questions people replied:
Romantic Comedy - They enjoyed the romance, the funny jokes, nice romantic scenes and jolly music. It also puts them in a happy energietic mood.
Horror - Most mentions that they enjoyed the scary and horrific scence which had proved one of our predictions. They also said it gives them a good scare and especially like it when it makes them jump out of their seats.
Thriller - They enjoyed the storylines, plots and the characters used in the film. But they specially liked the action, weapons and cars in the film.
5. Do you watch horror movies?

6. What do you enjoy about horror movies?
For this question most people answered the same as they said in question 4 for the horror part. But the people who didn't answer 'horror' for question 4 but also watch horror movies was going along the same lines saying they like the horriffic scenes and the fact that some parts makes them jump out their seats and literally gives them butterflies in their belly.
7. Do you go to the cinema to watch horror movies or watch them at home?

The pie chart shows us that the majority of people watch their movies at a cinema. Even though the results for cinema and home were very close, it still proves another of our predictions which was most people prefer to watch their movies at the cinemas. The reason why they would proberly prefer the cinema would be because the screen is much bigger and the speakers are much louder. Therefore this would make the film more effective and enjoyable.
8. What is your favourite horror sub genre?
Most people prefer Zombie Horror than any other, the reason for this could be because a of the fact that zoombies could look most scary and evil towards the audience. The way a zombie looks like is a dead like human but with skin and flesh missing. These effects and features could be useful to us when making our character for the movie.
9. What type of characters to you expect to see in a horror movie?
For this question people replied in many different answers such as zombies, ghost, scary deformed killers, psychos, ugly alien like creatures and so on. But they all do have a thing in common. This is that they all have a great impact on the audience to give them a good scare which would also then make them enjoy the film more.
Conclusion:
From the results I have obtained from my research, it strongly shows that most of the audience would prefer to watch a horror movie than any other genre. It also shows me what they like about horror movies such as the gruesome scenes, horrific killers and so on. This is the reason why I carried out this research which was to see what sort of movie genres people liked and what they like about it.
Evaluation:
The research I carried out which was primary research and no data was taken of any sort of secondary data went well, but I believe it could have been done much better by many ways. The parts were it went well was that we were able to get 30 people to answer our questionnaire which would give us a wide range of answers and views. Also all of them answered all the questions and we didn't come across any time wasters which would have spoilt our research.
But the stuff that didn't go too well was that we had give the questionnaire to people who were aged 18 and above because this age is the target for our movie. But since we were asking people in college, this was very difficult to achieve therefore it took us very long to accomplish which resulted to time wasting and unable to get on with other research. Another problem was that although everyone had filled in all the questions they didn't write in much detail and only write one worded answers. This would not give us much information and help us out when it comes to making the movie. But this can not be controlled because this factor is one of the main disadvantages of using a questionnaire. Last of all the other problem we faced was that when we asked people to fill in the questionnaire, most of them was ages 18-21 but then there was only a couple for the other ages. This then would make the results more biased towards the 18-21 rather than the other people aged 22+, therefore the results can not be reliable if we were going to aim the movie at the age of someone who is ages above 22. This could have been controlled if we asked a certain amount of people from each age range to fill in the questionnaire. Then we would get a better and reliable research.
Overall we were still able to get some valid points and was able to see what could help us in our film and what the audience would be expecting and why they would expect this from a horror movie.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Understanding Basic Rules (Short Opening Sequence - 16 Novermber)
Introduction:
In my group there are three members including me. The other two members were Tom and Jake. She reason why I had chose this group was because the other members in the group lived local and we knew that there would be a point where we would have to do work outside college, therefore it would be easy to meet up.
Match on action - Is where a action is taking place, but except for taking the one camera shot. Two or more can take place for the one action. For example the first shot would be a character lighting up a match, then the second shot would be the character putting the match towards his cigarette. This gives is a better and continuous effect.
180° - Could occur when there are two characters having a conversation. The way this works is preety simple. If you were to image a line going through the characters. This helps as a guidline to avoid breaking this rule. Then when recording the characters, you can only stay on one side of the line throughout the whole scene. If you were to break this rule, it would seem if the character was jumping in different places which would result so confusing the audience.
What Went Well in Our Task:
There were many things that went wrong in our task. The main reasons for this is because of our group getting the tapes to record on late. This was my mistake and hopefully this won't happen again. The other problems we came across was that we had done some practice shots and recorded them so we knew how it would come out like. But when we play it back on the camera, it messes up the shots which had old bits coming onto the final piece. Therefore we had to erase the whole thing and start from the beggining. We could not edit this because there was no time to take it to the editting rooms and also the quality of the camera the college had given us were not the best around and the editing facility on it was preety poor.
If I was to do this task again, I would make the group more organised therefore no time would be wasted. We could also use my own camera which would have better quality and easier edditing facility. And next time we would need to rehearse more to get it spot on. But overall the main bits that went down was the software and facilities, but as a group we fully understood the basic rules and had demonstrated it well in our filming. And as they say, you can only learn from your mistakes to get better at anything.
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Infected (Analysis 3 Thriller)
The film cover for this film creates a good impression towars the audience. And is gives good detail of what the film would be about by only usings one main image and a sentence below the tittle. The image is a person who looks deformed like and dead like. The title of the film is also deformed and not bold. This goes along with the theme of the cover. Below the sentence it says, How can you kill what is part of you. This sentence is short but has a strong effect towards the audience. It makes them curious and begin to question what the film would be about which then results to them wanting to watch the film.


The next shot is some different forms of water which is in a glass, water being sprayed on the fields, poured onto fruits, little girls drinking from the fountain and so on. This also is telling the audience what the film is about. And as you can see it is about the water getting infected causing diseases for people.
After this the next scene contains a long shot of a organic farm industry. This has been done in a long shot with text on the bottom left to establish the scene and were it would be taking place. Following on from this is a close-up on a person looking through a telescope into this place. This is showing the audience that there is something odd happening at this place and the character is curious in this place.
They then begin to show a part where there is a guard walking around the building. And with this is a voice describing the plan to get into this place. When the guard is being recorded, the camera shot chosen is a mid close-up with a low angle to display his high authority.
After there is a bit where a small remote control truck goes towards a open unit. For this scene there is a tracking shot taken to show the trucks view and where it is going. The truck heads into the unit and a explosion takes place within one and a half minutes into the film. These sort of gadgets and explosions is what you would expect from a thriler film.
When the explosion goes off, the camera then shows people running away. The camera shot chosen for this part is panning with which shakes to the left and right to show the emotion of the characters in the film which is shock and terrified. It then goes back to the woman with the telescope. This shows the audience that the explosion has something to do with her. The camera shot used on the women was a close up on her face. This has been done to show her emotions and how she had reacted to the explosions. But she looks calm as if she was expecting the bomb to go off.
All this has happened in the first couple minutes of the film and it has clearly defined what type of film and genre is by using very good techniques. These main techniques was to show a clip while the credits were going. So it gives a small introduction on what the film is about right at the start. This is similar to the first horror analysis i did. The other techniques was using sound and camera shots to show the audience what will happen and also using the camera shots to show who the people are. This would be very effective if i was to use it in a film with any genre. Because the techniques used could have a little twist in them so that the other genres could fit into it.
B.T.K (Analysis 2 Horror)

The first scene in the film, there is a building shown which has been recorded at a low camera angle which makes the building look taller and a bit creepy. Then a corridor is shown but in a unbalanced angle were the camera is tilted anti-clockwise. Along with this is a man standing in the middle on his own. This has been done to the give the scene a bit weird and scary effect.



After this the man walks towards the camera and enters the door to the left. The camera shot took when showing him is constantly at a low angle. This has been done to represent his high authority and you can also see this by the shirt and security badge he is wearing. But he is also carrying a big black bad which gets the audience curious to why he is carrying this black bag and what is in it. Along this the music is playing as well but has gone much louder and faster now. This is building up suspense and also shows the audience that the character is tensed at the time. In the film this person then walks into the room and lies down on his bed. He then gets undress and calls a prostitute to come to his apartment or hotel room.

He then goes to sleep on the bed as he waits. But then a sharp noise comes up along with a extreme close-up on his eye. He then looks around the room to see if anything there. But then the music gets even louder which makes this moment even more tense. He then gets up and looks out the window. This scene is really bright because of the sun establish what time of day it is, but then the room is really dark which makes it look a bit odd.


The start of the film does not contain many rules and conventions a horror film would have at the start. But it does sort of have a creepy and depressing effect towards the audience which would make them anxious and curious. But it won't work well in showing the audience that it is a horror film and not a thriller, therefore i would not be using many of these technique in my film.
Return To House On Haunted Hill (Analysis 1 Horror)




When the first scene of the films comes up, there is a shot where a empty bedroom is shown but has been edited as in a black and white theme to add the creepy effect. Then the colour goes back to normal and a alarm is displayed to show what time it is. It says five which must be in the morning because the woman walks in after having her shower and dresses up.



Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Task 2: Research into Existing Products (Romantic Comedies)
Romantic Comedies
The basic conventions in a Romantic Comedy:
The main conventions would be things such as cheerful music with beautiful relaxing settings such as the countryside, beach, holidays, churches and so on. This helps set the audience in a happy calm mood and makes them want to watch on.
When looking at the characters, they would also be happy all the time. But the man who is the main character could be a bit odd out from the rest which sort of puts him out the group. So when he tries to win the girls love, he has to battle his way through the other people.
This main character would also face many other obstacles such as the girls parents, class difference such as the girl could be a lower class than him or the girl could already be with someone else. But in some films there would be a woman playing this roles but its most common a man playing this role.
The main attraction towards romantic comedy films is that how the man is going to win his love with the girl. This is the main reason why the audience would prefer to watch this film and in some cases they might even want to picture their life like this.

These women would try a find their love of there life but they would always get a problem which they try to avoid. For example the women below loves this man, but she has a major obstacle were this man already has someone else. And she is worried she might get caught. There would also be some scence which is very upsetting and sad.






As you can see the film covers are colourful and eye catching. There title and captions are big and bold. They all also give a little intro of the film such in, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, you can already see who the main character is who is trying to win someone love which it the person on the right. And the person who he loves is the girl in the red clothes which follows on as his first obstacle which is to get rid of the man on the left. Also the text is in two different colours which is blue and pink. These colours repersent the male and female gender because these colours are most prefered by that gender and would suit them. This would make both genders comfortable in watching this film. It is important on how you locate the images and text to get the right message across. The other thing is that the bankground in all of them is white. This makes the film look plain, simple and wouldn't counfuse the viwers in thinking that it is a horror or thriller film. It also it makes the pictures and text stand out.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Task 2: Research into Existing Products (Horror)
Introduction:
The history of the film genre 'horror' has been spread out for over a century. it had first started in the late 1890s where the film industry had literally just began. As you know the technology in those days were really low, therefore there wasn't as much special effects or fancy editing that we have in our days. But even then, the films still gave the audience a thrill due to the fact that no one had seen this sort of film before and was totally new to them.
But when the horror film really got effective was during the 1950s and onwards where there was a big advance in technology. The films started to move away from Gothic and started with a new style which was three different sort. This was horror-of-personality, horror-of-armageddon and the horror-of-the-demonic films. During this time there was also many low budget films made which included aliens invading earth. These sort of films were very 'cheesy' but still was being enjoyed by the audience.
Later on from this, there has been many films made and have been extremely successful for example the 'Omen' which has been watched by millions over the world therefore there they had made in total 5 films which had followed each other in the story line and the exact same thing for many films such as Scream, Chucky, Halloween and so on. But there was one film made which took horror to the next level. This film is called The Exorcist. this film included the demonic nature and had some special effects which gave a audience a shocking fear. The director had made this film extremely carefully with all the conventions and rules of a horror film.



The characters you would find in a horror film would most likely be very simular to other films. These charectors you would always find would be:
The big bully: this character is very big and strong. He is agressive towards the other people. But when it comes down to it, the killer would bruitually kill him which shows the audience that the killer in the film is stronger than anyone out there.





Friday, 23 October 2009
Task 2: Research into Excisting Products (Thriller)
Introduction:
The film genre, thriller has been around for many years and is the most common genre in our days. The main reason for why the audience may prefer thriller is because some may fantasise about being the hero or could just enjoy the action in the film. There has even been many documentaries made about the genre thriller and even some of the best thriller movies made.
Typical Conventions Found in Thriller:
A thriller genre is extremely easy to pick out is most films. This is because at the first three minutes of the film you would be able to pick out were there might be some suspense being built up or even something mysterious happening such has there has been a murder or someone may be looking a bit tense and anxious.
A typical thriller film may contain an exotic setting such as foreign cities, polar regions, high seas and deserts. This would help build up the story and atmosphere towards what the audience is imaging that what the films about. This would then make them enjoying the film much more. But the way these places are introduced would be a long shot but in some films it might have some text at the bottom which would say what the place is. You would most likely expect this in a film where there are spies in it.
There is mostly a role where there is a a typical hard man who tries to avoid danger and save everyone at the end. This is the main stereotype you would see in the film. He would have big muscles and would come across as tensed and angry. This man might play the following roles such as officers, spies, soldiers, seamen, or aviators. There could also be a women who he loves and in trying to save or may even be helping him. She would then be the other stereotype who would be beautiful and attractive, but then she would also be a strong dominant women. But over the time women have also been introduced into these roles which is pretty common these days.
In the film you would find many non-diegetic sounds which could be helicopter, sirens, explosions and so on. This helps introduce the scene for example if there was an action scene then you would hear many non-diegetic sounds to help build up the tension and atmosphere.
Another thing you would notice in an action scene is that the way the editing is done is peculiar to another sort of genre. Such as in the opening of the scene the shot change could be very calm and slow but then later in the film it would speed up. In an action scene there would be many different shots would could last up to two seconds long which helps the audience see that it is a tense moment. And at the end of the film it would then being to slow down again and be more calm.
The camera shots chosen in thriller have been done for a purpose to either get the message across to the audience of establish emotions, atmosphere and settings. For example, throughout the film you would see many sorts of camera shots but the main one to establish atmosphere and setting would be the long wide shot. This would cover vast amount of area which would let you know if there in a jungle or desert. So even from this you can tell what sort of genre it is. Another camera shot would be the close-up which helps show the audience how the characters are feeling. And in a thriller film they are most likely going to be angry, upset and tense.
Examples of Thriller Movies:
As you can see, all the movie posters have the same thing in common. This is that they all have a dark theme and they have people in it who look ruff, scared or angry. Straight away just by looking at the poster you can tell that it is a thriller film because of the dark theme, emotions and style used. This plays an important role because the poster / cover is the first thing the viewer would look at therefore is sets the mood of the film and they have a slight description of what the films about. Also below is some of the typical scenes of a thriller movie. They also look similar to the expressions given off from the movie posters. They have been placed in exotic places, and they all seem to look anger and frustrated.