Thursday, 13 October 2016
My Market
The market is competitive and expensive so in order to gain an advantage over my competitors I will be distributing my film on YouTube. The reason that I decided to do this is because it is free and easy to access. This is effective because I am on a very low budget so I will need to save money where I can, and with me putting it on YouTube it will cost no money so I will be saving money.
Thursday, 6 October 2016
Competitors For My Film
Since the film I am making is on a extremely low budget, my main competitors will be be other low budget films. These films include:
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- Paranormal Activity (2007)
- Halloween (1980)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- Open Water (2003)
However, If I am being realistic then I will not rival classics like Halloween or The Blair Witch Project but, I can capture their image by making a budget horror film look like a multi-million pound production. This is effective because then I will be boosting the reputation of low budget horror films. The only problem that I have is that my competitors are all full feature films and have a bigger budget than me, therefore my main short horror film competitor will be Lights Out which was made in 2013. According to the internet Lights Out is a Swedish short supernatural horror film directed and written by David F. Sandberg, and produced by Lotta Losten. The film was released online on 30 December 2013 on both Vimeo and YouTube. The film is only three minutes long this means I have an edge because mine longer. They also received an 8 out of 10 from IMBD, this is high for a short horror film so I have to make sure mine is up to scratch.
Bibliography:
Lights out (2013 film) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_Out_(2013_film) (Accessed: 6 October 2016).
In-line Citation:
(Lights out (2013 film), 2016)
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- Paranormal Activity (2007)
- Halloween (1980)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- Open Water (2003)
However, If I am being realistic then I will not rival classics like Halloween or The Blair Witch Project but, I can capture their image by making a budget horror film look like a multi-million pound production. This is effective because then I will be boosting the reputation of low budget horror films. The only problem that I have is that my competitors are all full feature films and have a bigger budget than me, therefore my main short horror film competitor will be Lights Out which was made in 2013. According to the internet Lights Out is a Swedish short supernatural horror film directed and written by David F. Sandberg, and produced by Lotta Losten. The film was released online on 30 December 2013 on both Vimeo and YouTube. The film is only three minutes long this means I have an edge because mine longer. They also received an 8 out of 10 from IMBD, this is high for a short horror film so I have to make sure mine is up to scratch.
Bibliography:
Lights out (2013 film) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_Out_(2013_film) (Accessed: 6 October 2016).
In-line Citation:
(Lights out (2013 film), 2016)
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Horror Articles
The horror article I decided to look at was an article about The Winchester House located in Santa Monica, California. This house is particularly interesting as it holds the reputation as the most haunted house in the United States. This applies to me because my film is about a haunted house, my haunted house also shares the same house design as it is Victorian. The article itself looks in depth at a night time tour that is being offered during the Halloween season, this is the first time that night time tours will be available to the public.
The house was owned by Sarah Winchester, she is the retaliative of Oliver Winchester (The inventor of the Model 1866 Winchester Rifle). Sarah moved to the house after her husband and child died, this is when she started to notice the haunting. She then made a visit to a medium, who told her that the spirits that haunt her are the souls of all that died to her family's rifle. she was also told that to please the spirits that haunt her family she must never stop building as it will offer a place for the spirits to live. Sarah kept her word, and never stop building till when she died in 1922.
The house is now a tourist attraction that offers tours during the day. The reporter of this article descried how the tour had an eerie presence and creepy attractions such as the staircase to no where or the infamous seance room with a door on the floor to the kitchen below. The drawback that the reporter described that the company who runs the tour included characters that dressed up as ghosts and a soundtrack played throughout the tour. The reporter said that this ruined the fear factor as it was cheesy and stupid.
In conclusion If I want my film to be scary then I might have to include the fear of the unknown as they do not know what is happening.
Audience Figures
"The statistics here show that 36% of males who answered the survey enjoy watching horror films compared to 44% females"
This statistic is taken from a blog and in this she is analyzing why people watch horror films and deeper into the blog she looks at a survey and this is a statistic directly taken from said survey. This is a great bit of audience figures as it looks in depth to which gender prefers horror films. As shown from this statistic I can evidence that males are more likely to go out of their way to watch a horror film. This applies to me because as I am creating a horror film aimed at males. This is effective because according to this statistic I am targeting the right gender as male are more likely to watch it.
This is an example of secondary research as the person took this statistic from a website.
Bibliography:
saraevening (2012) Horror audience research. Available at: https://saraeveninga2media.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/audience-research/ (Accessed: 5 October 2016).
In-line Citation:
(saraevening, 2012)
This statistic is taken from a blog and in this she is analyzing why people watch horror films and deeper into the blog she looks at a survey and this is a statistic directly taken from said survey. This is a great bit of audience figures as it looks in depth to which gender prefers horror films. As shown from this statistic I can evidence that males are more likely to go out of their way to watch a horror film. This applies to me because as I am creating a horror film aimed at males. This is effective because according to this statistic I am targeting the right gender as male are more likely to watch it.
This is an example of secondary research as the person took this statistic from a website.
Bibliography:
saraevening (2012) Horror audience research. Available at: https://saraeveninga2media.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/audience-research/ (Accessed: 5 October 2016).
In-line Citation:
(saraevening, 2012)
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Focus Group and Questionnaires analysed
Questionnaire
In question 1 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people if they have heard of a selection of horror films. They were asked to tick the box if they have heard of it. The Horror movies were The Conjuring, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Psycho. 80% of the people I asked tick all of them while the other 20% tick all but one. This is significant because these two people both ticked that they have not heard of Psycho. This is effective because this film was made in the year 1960 and the people I asked were 17.
In question 2 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "How much time do you spend watching Horror Films weekly?" 60% of the people that I asked said that they watch 1-2 hours of Horror films weekly. This is effective because this averagely sums up to 1 Horror films a week, this is quite high and I feel that my film could be watched a lot. Meanwhile, 30% of the people I questioned said they watch 3-4 hours of Horror films weekly. This is effective because this is amount to 2 Horror films a week this is is higher than I expected and it makes me more confident that people will watch my film. On the other hand, the remaining 10% of people I asked said that they spend no time at all watching horror films weekly. This is a disappointing result as he doesn't watch any Horror films but this is only one person out of the 10 I questioned.
In question 3 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "Which type of Sub-genre Horror movie are you most likely to go and see?" The genres to chose from were Supernatural, Psychological, Slasher Films, Sci-fi Horror, Gothic Horror and Action Horror. An amazing 90% of the people I asked said they would most likely see a Supernatural Horror movie. This is effective because the Movie I am thinking of making would be a supernatural horror, this makes me more confident when thinking oof this film idea. The other 10% said that they prefer Action Horror films, I understood this however as this was the same person who said they spend no time watching Horror films. On the other hand the one that surprised me was that no one selected slasher films. From this conclusion I can back up the fact that slasher films are outdated and that the current generation do not find them scary.
In question 4 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "Name a stereotype that you expect to see in horror films?" This was a open question so they could answer what they thought however, the most common answer was suspense building. This is effective as it is a common factor of horror films.
In conclusion these were the four most interesting responses to my questionnaire and overall I feel that my film will be successful as I aim to achieve what my audiences want.
In question 1 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people if they have heard of a selection of horror films. They were asked to tick the box if they have heard of it. The Horror movies were The Conjuring, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Psycho. 80% of the people I asked tick all of them while the other 20% tick all but one. This is significant because these two people both ticked that they have not heard of Psycho. This is effective because this film was made in the year 1960 and the people I asked were 17.
In question 2 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "How much time do you spend watching Horror Films weekly?" 60% of the people that I asked said that they watch 1-2 hours of Horror films weekly. This is effective because this averagely sums up to 1 Horror films a week, this is quite high and I feel that my film could be watched a lot. Meanwhile, 30% of the people I questioned said they watch 3-4 hours of Horror films weekly. This is effective because this is amount to 2 Horror films a week this is is higher than I expected and it makes me more confident that people will watch my film. On the other hand, the remaining 10% of people I asked said that they spend no time at all watching horror films weekly. This is a disappointing result as he doesn't watch any Horror films but this is only one person out of the 10 I questioned.
In question 3 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "Which type of Sub-genre Horror movie are you most likely to go and see?" The genres to chose from were Supernatural, Psychological, Slasher Films, Sci-fi Horror, Gothic Horror and Action Horror. An amazing 90% of the people I asked said they would most likely see a Supernatural Horror movie. This is effective because the Movie I am thinking of making would be a supernatural horror, this makes me more confident when thinking oof this film idea. The other 10% said that they prefer Action Horror films, I understood this however as this was the same person who said they spend no time watching Horror films. On the other hand the one that surprised me was that no one selected slasher films. From this conclusion I can back up the fact that slasher films are outdated and that the current generation do not find them scary.
In question 4 of my questionnaire I asked 10 people "Name a stereotype that you expect to see in horror films?" This was a open question so they could answer what they thought however, the most common answer was suspense building. This is effective as it is a common factor of horror films.
In conclusion these were the four most interesting responses to my questionnaire and overall I feel that my film will be successful as I aim to achieve what my audiences want.
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
Focus Groups
In this task I was asked to create a focus group to help me benefit on the things I need to improve on and the things that I have done well in this task. A focus group is a group of people that study ideas or offer feedback to you. Focus groups are effective because it allows me to understand where I need to improve.
In my focus group I asked people to look at my movie ideas and see if what they liked and weather or not I could improve on it. The first thing I noticed was that majority of the people in the group said that my idea was to generic and that I needed to mix it up a bit. I then asked them for new ideas for my film and they said the following:
- Try a new location
- Try not to make the main character another generic damsel in distress in the actual movie.
- Make the plot unpredictable to make the film scarier for the audience.
I can conclude from this focus group that in order to stand out in the market I would need to assure that I do not just make another generic movie because judging by the focus group this will just bore them and they probably won't watch it.
In my focus group I asked people to look at my movie ideas and see if what they liked and weather or not I could improve on it. The first thing I noticed was that majority of the people in the group said that my idea was to generic and that I needed to mix it up a bit. I then asked them for new ideas for my film and they said the following:
- Try a new location
- Try not to make the main character another generic damsel in distress in the actual movie.
- Make the plot unpredictable to make the film scarier for the audience.
I can conclude from this focus group that in order to stand out in the market I would need to assure that I do not just make another generic movie because judging by the focus group this will just bore them and they probably won't watch it.
Thursday, 7 July 2016
Film Analysis
The Conjuring 2
The first film I decided to analyse is a Horror movie called The Conjuring 2. This links to my short film idea because it is a Horror as well. This is effective because I can look at the conventions that are usually portrayed in horror films and use them for myself. The first convention that is used in this movie is the fact that whenever something scary is going to happen they then edited in music to raise tension for the audience. For example, in a scene we see one of the children go upstairs where it is dark the editor edited in music to build the tension to the jump scare. This technique is effective because it adds tension to an already tense segment. I can use this in my film by having dramatic music playing before the actual jump scare this will add tension which will make the jump scare even scarier.
The Other Side of The Door
The second film that I looked at was the The Other Side of The Door. This links to my short film because it is a horror movie as well. This is effective because I can look at the conventions usually portrayed in horror films and use the ideas for myself and covert them so I can appease my audience. The first horror convention that I noticed in this film is that there is no noise when a jump scare is about to occur. For example, whenever we had a personal overview (POV) shot of a character the music would stop before there was a jump scare. This is effective because it adds effect as you feel like you are experiencing the horror first hand. I can use this type of horror in my film by showing POV shots of jump scares just before they happen. This is effective because it will feel like the audience is experiencing the horror first hand.
The first film I decided to analyse is a Horror movie called The Conjuring 2. This links to my short film idea because it is a Horror as well. This is effective because I can look at the conventions that are usually portrayed in horror films and use them for myself. The first convention that is used in this movie is the fact that whenever something scary is going to happen they then edited in music to raise tension for the audience. For example, in a scene we see one of the children go upstairs where it is dark the editor edited in music to build the tension to the jump scare. This technique is effective because it adds tension to an already tense segment. I can use this in my film by having dramatic music playing before the actual jump scare this will add tension which will make the jump scare even scarier.
The Other Side of The Door
The second film that I looked at was the The Other Side of The Door. This links to my short film because it is a horror movie as well. This is effective because I can look at the conventions usually portrayed in horror films and use the ideas for myself and covert them so I can appease my audience. The first horror convention that I noticed in this film is that there is no noise when a jump scare is about to occur. For example, whenever we had a personal overview (POV) shot of a character the music would stop before there was a jump scare. This is effective because it adds effect as you feel like you are experiencing the horror first hand. I can use this type of horror in my film by showing POV shots of jump scares just before they happen. This is effective because it will feel like the audience is experiencing the horror first hand.
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
My Pitch and The Constraints of Making The Film
Constraints
My budget is a lot cheaper than other budgets on films because I have not got the source of finance that other films have. For example, I am borrowing a camera where as another film would most likely rent a camera because they have a bigger budget than me. This is effective because they have more money to play around with. There are no real legal and ethical considerations I have to worry about as there is no drinking in my film, this means that I do not have to worry about my characters is over 18. Copyrighting is another factor I do not need to worry about as I will not have any clear viewing of products as it is set in a abandoned location.
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Monday, 25 April 2016
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