prelim vs opening

codes, conventions and representations

Technologies

*My blog got restored eventually*

institutions

target audience

Audience 

Our target audience is teenager/young adults as via research we found that this age group are the people who mainly are attracted to watch possessive horrors. 

As being teenagers ourselves we can relate to what we are trying to achieve/relate to our audience, we have an understanding of what is expected from possessive horrors and the gratifications that we get from watching them,which encourages people of our age group to watch more possessive horrors. 

We used a website called monkey survey, which we used to create a survey, which we sent to a variety of people to gain feedback of:

What is expected from possessive horrors

Who watches possessive horrors

The conventions of possessive horrors which helped us to come up with a story line. 

Why people watch possessive horrors. 

Overall the information we collected helped us to define our audience. 

We have appealed to our target audience by including conventional elements from possessive horrors this would capture our target audiences' attention, such as the use of a clown which came up as one of the top elements that are in possessive horrors. We also watched several possessive horror openings reinforcing the clowns dominance in possessive horrors. We used teenage girls as the characters in our possessive horror opening meaning that our target audience can have more of a connection to them.

Target audience evaluation from brooooke

wrecked (our possessive horror opening)

Final product. This is our possessive horror opening, we had slightly change parts of our opening due to problems that occurred, our story line stayed the same, however we had one less character as we need a member of our group to film. We also had to film three times because each time we realised that we hadn't used enough camera shots, each time we filmed we got fee back from our teacher which we took on board therefore we improved each time we filmed. we are slightly disappointed with our opening as its not what we expected and we know that it isn't the best it could of been. However we feel that are skills with editing and working the camera have improved massively and we know how to improve next time.We used credits the make the opening run smother and to add tension which we didn't plan on doing but work out as being effective. We filmed during the day so that the visual would be of a better quality and edited a day-to-night lighting over the top, this slightly made the background darker. We decided to film in a park, as a park was one of the top conventional locations of a possessive horror, furthermore it fitted in well with the story line. Overall we have put a lot of work into are opening and feel that we have incorporated codes and conventions into our opening to make sure that we have fulfilled the genre.

Film4 logo

We have chosen to use film 4 as our institution for our possessive horror opening, we did some research and decided that it would appropriate.

Storyboard Pt 2

Storyboard 1

This is our storyboard, showing the different stages of our possessive horror opening and the camera shots we will use. This has helped us keep on track on what we are incorporating in our opening and in what order the narrative is in. I used deodorant bottles to signify the characters as we wasn't able to take photos of ourselves, however this means that it was easier for me to capture all of the different shots that we wanted to use in our possessive horror opening. 

Planning

 

We were asked to fill in a sheet about the codes and conventions of our opening possessive horror, this helped us because we were able to plan out our opening better, to make sure that are possessive horror opening is successful. 

 

We reviewed several different possessive horror openings/trailers so we could get an idea of what the codes and conventions are of possessive horrors. 

I researched the background information of possessive horrors and this is what i found. This will help us as we are able to learn more about possessive horrors and it will help us when we work further into the topic.

Shooting schedule

Camera movement and shots:

-          Close ups

-          Zoom in

-          Long shot

-          Extreme long shot

-          Medium long shot

-          Low angle

-          Pan

-          Over the shoulder

-          Reverse shot

Date of filming: 28.02.14

Filming time: 11:00-1:40

Location: Rowheath Park 

Characters: Lucy played by Brooke

                     Sophie played by Georgina

                     Beth played by Ella

Equipment:

    -   China clown

    -   String

    -   Camera

    -   Tripod

    -   Camera phone

    -   Ipod

    -   Script

Scenes: All

Clothing:

Lucy: jeans, going out top, heels, make-up, black jacket

Sophie: *                                                                                  *

Beth:*                                                                                       *

Filming: Main filmier-Poppy

Brooke and Ella will film parts.

This is our shooting schedule showing what we will be doing/need when we film our possessive horror opening.

Our documentary

We were asked in our groups to create a documentary showing our understanding on our chosen genre and audience research, each of us took it in turns to edit the documentary and had input in what we included in the documentary. We chose 4 different possessive horror openings which we analysed showing are understanding on the codes and conventions of possessive horrors. we included:
A definition of possessive horror - This tells us what a possessive horror actually is so we know how to differentiate a possessive horror from other horror genres.
A montage of images - we created a montage of images to show the elements of possessive horror, this gave us ideas of what we needed to incorporate into our possessive horror opening.
The codes and conventions that create a possessive horror- using research we found out what elements made a possessive horror so we could get an idea of what we needed to include in ours.
4 different possessive horror opening with analysis - we looked at and analysed several possessive horror openings so we can get an understanding of what conventionally happens in possessive horror openings, so we could get inspiration for our own possessive horror opening.
An interview- we asked a friend some questions for our audience research in order for us to know what people expect from a possessive horror, so we can make ours meet the needs of our target audience.
What we found from our audience research- we came up with a conclusion of what we found from our audience research to show that we have taken on the board responses that were given.
making this documentary was useful for us as we now have knowledge on how to edit our actual opening to the best of our abilities, during creating this documentary we used several types of editing to show off our editing skills and to practice.
I do think that our documentary does have some flaws that we could improve upon, but this was our first time creating a documentary making sure we edited the documentary so that it flowed.  we also realised that we needed to work better as a group and make sure that we use are time wisely in order to come up with a decent piece of work.
I think that overall our documentary came out ok and we now have learnt how to improve upon in the future.

Our idea:

Our possessive horror opening idea starts off with 3 teenage girls on their way to a party (one of the girls, (Sophie) is filming, so that they will remember that evening events, Sophie and Lucy are playing music out loud) Beth starts to become distance from Sophie and Lucy falling behind. The two girls start to notice a difference in Beth's behavior and question her Beth gets defensive looks to her left and walks off, the two girls carry on walking without Beth. Beth walks towards a clown hanging down from a tree, she looks at it recognizing it she runs back to the two girls shouting at them to off their music, the girls question why she's acting strangely ignoring that Beth has asked them to turn off the music. Beth threatens that something bad will happen to them if they don't turn off the music, they still ignore her Beth strangles Lucy leaving her lying dead on the floor, she then pushes Sophie over dropping her camera on the ground. Through Sophie camera we can see Beth run off. This end with a two weeks earlier message.
We had to slightly change our idea due to problems that occurred, we had two girls, not three. The story line is still the same.

Target audience:

We have decided to rate our opening a 15, due to death being part of the narrative, we thought that it wouldn't be appropriate for younger aged viewers - as a group and individually have watched/reviewed several possessive horror openings/trailers and from this we have found that the majority of the films are rated a 15+, furthermore from our research we found that generally teenagers/young adult are the groups who take the most interest in watching horror films. 

Why possessive horror?

We decided to choose possessive horror for our chosen genre due to them not being a popular film opening choice, furthermore we felt like we had some knowledge on possessive horrors as a group, so we knew what the elements of possessive horrors are, we feel comfortable knowing what conventionally happens within possessive horrors and therefore have an idea of what makes a good possessive horror and the codes and conventions that are encoded in possessive horrors which we could depict and come up with a story line/starting point. 

Following the results from our servery monkey, we found that possessive horrors are not hugely popular throughout the sample we asked. However we did gather information about the expectations that people had within possessive horrors which all mostly were similar expectations, we can work from in order to create an opening that will match there expectations, there expectations were to feel scared/jumpy and to be on edge. We had feedback from another group on our narrative, which was positive in result we feel that our possessive horror opening will work.  

For our prelim task we had to film some one walking through a door and having a simple conversation with another person, with this we had to use certain camera shots/movement.
We used a variety of shots such as long shot, close up, over the shoulder and pan, we were instructed to use the 180 degree rule so that our shots didn't appear backwards, we watched a YouTube clip as a class which showed us the effect of using the 180 degree rule, how to use it and what happens if we don't follow the rule. We made sure that we didn't break the rule when filming our prelim.

Definition of a possessive horror

Having or manifesting a desire to control or dominate another, especially in order to limit that person's relationships with others. This is usually done by harming the people that one wants power over. 

Enigmas are used in possessive horrors to capture the audiences attention, this is used as a scaring mechanism as the audience are least expecting.

Audience Research

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RKNFS72

We used the website survey monkey to create a questionnaire which we sent to a variety of people to answer our questions. The questions we asked helped us understand what people expected from a possessive horror, also who is are target audience, this enabled us to evaluate what we should incorporate into our possessive horror opening. We took on board the answers people gave to make sure that our opening meets expectations and is successful.

Q1

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What is your age?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

15 to 1718 to 2425 to 3435 to 4445 to 5455 to 6465 to 7475 or older

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
15 to 17	63.64% 7
18 to 24	0% 0
25 to 34	18.18% 2
35 to 44	9.09% 1
45 to 54	9.09% 1
55 to 64	0% 0
65 to 74	0% 0
75 or older	0% 0
Total	11

Q2

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What is your gender?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

FemaleMaleOther

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
Female	72.73% 8
Male	27.27% 3
Other	0% 0
Total	11

Q3

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what are your expectations of horror films?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

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Showing 11 responses

to be scary

1/21/2014 6:03 PM View respondent's answers

They're scary and exciting. Alwatys a twist and an evil villain.

1/21/2014 9:40 AM View respondent's answers

For people to die and then for the evil character to lose

1/20/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers

I like horror films with suspense and a good plot.

1/20/2014 7:34 PM View respondent's answers

scary young child

1/20/2014 5:48 PM View respondent's answers

to be frightening but a little unrealistic, creepy, young children, old people, contrast between possessed and normality

1/20/2014 5:36 PM View respondent's answers

To have an impact on its audience, being scared

1/20/2014 4:53 PM View respondent's answers

Should be frightening, unexpected shocks and plot twists

1/20/2014 2:09 PM View respondent's answers

Suspence, to feel unsettled, frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to play on our worst fears

1/20/2014 10:02 AM View respondent's answers

to scare you

1/20/2014 9:54 AM View respondent's answers

To be extremelly scared

1/20/2014 9:35 AM View respondent's answers

Q4

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how do you feel about possessive horror films?

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i don't like horror films

1/21/2014 6:03 PM View respondent's answers

Quite scary aand jumpy, some aren't as excting. E.g. Paranormal Activity.

1/21/2014 9:40 AM View respondent's answers

Hate them

1/20/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers

They portray mental health issues in a negative way.

1/20/2014 7:34 PM View respondent's answers

the best type of horror

1/20/2014 5:48 PM View respondent's answers

they are good if they are produced well, some can be disappointing if not done well

1/20/2014 5:36 PM View respondent's answers

Not my cup of tea

1/20/2014 4:53 PM View respondent's answers

They gain a lot of media hype - normally critically acclaimed

1/20/2014 2:09 PM View respondent's answers

uneasy and scared

1/20/2014 10:02 AM View respondent's answers

don't like them

1/20/2014 9:54 AM View respondent's answers

I enjoy them

1/20/2014 9:35 AM View respondent's answers

Q5

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do you think possessive horrors are affective?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

yesno

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
yes	72.73% 8
no	27.27% 3
Total	11

Q6

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how often do you watch possessive horrors?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

DailyWeeklyMonthlyNot often

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
Daily	0% 0
Weekly	9.09% 1
Monthly	9.09% 1
Not often	81.82% 9
Total Respondents: 11

Q7

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do possesive horrors have an after effect on you?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

YesNoSometimes

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
Yes	36.36% 4
No	45.45% 5
Sometimes	18.18% 2
Total Respondents: 11
Comments(6)

Q8

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what possessive horror setting do you find most effective?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

WoodsAbandoned AreasNormal SettingsDark Setting

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
Woods	63.64% 7
Abandoned Areas	36.36% 4
Normal Settings	18.18% 2
Dark Setting	36.36% 4
Total Respondents: 11
Comments(1)

Q9

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What do you think is an appropriate age to watch a possessive horror?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

UPG12A121518

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
U	0% 0
PG	0% 0
12A	9.09% 1
12	9.09% 1
15	45.45% 5
18	54.55% 6
Total Respondents: 11

Q10

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Would you go to the cinema to watch a possessive horror?

• Answered: 11 
• Skipped: 0

YesNo

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Answer Choices–	Responses–
Yes	45.45% 5
No	54.55% 6
Total Respondents: 11
Comments(6)