Cast and Dress Code Changes

n gfmiyfyi by Audience research evaluation

Audience Research Results

 

We created a questionnaire that we sent out to our target audience to gain research into what they like in a horror film and we will take this information and apply it to our original idea’s to make the best film we can.

Male	Female
32	8

This shows that a majority of the people I have asked have been male. This is good because I believe that a majority of people who would like our film would be male; this is also bad as this limits our audience which could watch our movie and we could miss out on business.

Age	16	17	18
	26	4	10

All of the people I have asked are within the age range I want to do our film for (16-18) this makes their opinions more required as we can change our movie top their opinions.

How many horror films do you watch in a month?
1-3	4-6	7+			0
12	18	10			0

A lot of people who we sent the questionnaire to watch a lot of horror movies so this then makes the survey helpful as they have experience with movies before, and watch at least one every month.

What genre of horror movies do you watch/ enjoy?
Zombie	Supernatural	Comedy	Apocalyptic	Vampire	Slasher	Teen	Sci-Fi	Other
6	0	20	0	0	9	4	1	0

This shows that a lot of people like comedy horror movies; we have used this and given our movie a slight comedy sense to it. Also, we’ve taken into interest that a good chunk of our audience likes slasher films so well be using this within our films.

Favourite Horror film

Shaun of the Dead (Repeated)

We have taken into consideration about how a lot of people like Shaun of the Dead so we are considering using a costume reference to the film (red tie, white shirt, ink splodge)

Why do you enjoy horror films

A twist of a reality which creates fear (Repeated)

We are using this within our movie by using the use of school (a safe and educational environment) and twisting it into a desolate zone for our killer to hunt.

Lead role?
Male	Female	Either
7	9	24

This shows that our audience is really too sexist and doesn’t mind who plays the lead role, leaving it to us to make the decision on who should lead the film.

What do you expect to see in a horror film?

Thrills & Blood

We will use these as the main conventions which we will use within our horror film so that our audience is happy with our production.

What puts you off a horror?

Cheap production

This is a slight problem as due to the fact that we don’t have Hollywood budgets here we have to work around what we can get, so hopefully this won’t be too much of a problem if we try hard enough.

Facebook	TV	Radio	Twitter	Youtube	Public Adverts	Cinema	IMDB	Other
18	20	12	6	18	14	12	16	2

This is helpful as we can tell about how we can further our advertising for our film, we’ll most likely use a combination of Facebook and Youtube to get people interested in our film.

Casting, dress codes and characters attitude

Cast:

Killer – Connor: Played by Jordan Booker

(Doesn’t Die) Final Girl – Sarah: 

(3^rd)Drama Guy – Taylor: Played by Taylor Wooltorton

(2^nd)Jock – Danny:

(1^st)Promiscuous Girl – Jennifer:

(4^th) Nerd – Howard: Played by Tyler Poyle

Dress Code:

Connor: shorts, bandage over the head.

Sarah: Full uniform, buttoned up and smart shoes.

Taylor: Drama hoody, uniform trousers and converse.

Danny: Sports jumper, trainers and school trousers.

Jennifer: Uniform, high skirt and flat shoes.

Howard: Full buttoned, glasses, laptop bag and block shoes.

Character Attitudes:

Connor: Dark, alone, mysterious and quiet.

Sarah: Shy, calm, go along with others and kind.

Taylor: Camp, confident, over the top and thoughtful.

Danny: Confident, boisterous, sport loving and strong minded.

Jennifer: Flirtatious, bitchy, self-centred and vein.

Howard: Quiet, work motivated, hardworking and lonely.    

Questionnaire

Horror Conventions and Review Comments

The Ring

“The support cast were all good, with Brian Cox thrown into the mix. My only cause for concern was Dorfman – why was he allowed to change the character of the boy? In Ringu he was a normal kid, here he comes across like a poor man's Haley Joel Osmond in 6th Sense? His routine took away from the emotional involvement that should have come with the danger he was in – instead he just comes across as difficult. The performance is OK but 1, the change to the character is strange and unnecessary and 2, it just felt a little too like the 6th Sense.” – IMDb User Review.

I believe the way in which the character of the boy is portrayed is done to fulfil the conventions of horror as the film has a lot of twists and is a post-modern film. The ‘boy’ character played by David Dorfman was a ‘creepy’ sort of child who you feel has had childhood issues, which are a conventional theme. This film doesn’t have the conventional characters of a horror film, some it goes with the conventional theme to keep the horror stereotypes alive.

Scream

The scream film is referred to as a postmodern film as it understands the conventions on horror and uses them, but in a way in which it turns the outcome on its head and makes you not know what is going to happen. The area in which the victims are killed, they always are secluded, isolated areas out of the way of other people. Also there is always a girl, on her own, in a house which is conventional and it’s what you expect from a horror. The main characters are the usual characters, which is 2 girls, what promiscuous and one quite innocent and three males, two jocks and a guy that is a bit of a nerd. But the way in which the film is postmodern is that the main characters, within the 5 characters, the two jocks are the killers, you expect them to die first and the order of who dies changes from the conventional order and this makes the film different and gives the audience a false idea of how the film is going to play out, making it more interesting.

The Final Destination

The final destination film was clever with the conventions they used and the conventions they avoided and turned around on the audience. They had the stereotypical teenagers involved within the horror, but they added to this and made it different and a slight turn on what they norm is. The convention is usually 5 characters, 2 females and 3 males; one of the girls is usually promiscuous and provocative, whilst the other girl is quiet, innocent and usually dies last. The men, there is usually a jock, a nice guy, who is usually a jock as well and a weird male, who is different to the normal teenage boy, could be someone who is a ‘geek’ or a ‘druggy’ or someone who is a bit ‘crazy’.  But within the final destination film they have 7 characters, 4 males and 3 females. Within these people, they have the two jocks, which are expected, but they then have two more males and usually there is only one more. Also there are 3 females, instead of the usual 2, which is different to the horror conventions; there are 2 ‘final girl’ candidates and 1 promiscuous girl.

These conventions have been used and adapted for more than one possible reason, which can be done to make the film more individual, actually make a film or just show a new perspective on conventions. The film may have the seven characters because they need that amount of people to kill off through the film to make it long enough to make the film. But they may also use this amount of characters because they want to be different and postmodern on the way they look at the conventions, by adding the extra characters, they are not conforming to the usual amount, but still including the vital characters making it conventional, but still different. With the film they could be trying to show a new perspective on horror conventions including the extra characters to show what the director thinks future films should base their character round.

Also they play on the conventions by the settings and the way the characters die and how they escape a death which could happen in real life. This plays on the fears of the audience in a different way, usual horror films scare you with some sort of killer and the setting. The settings with a horror film are conventionally in small, secluded area with minimal people around. But within the final destination film the characters are all saved from a possible real life situation through someone having a vision. Then when they are killed off, they die in possible real life situations that could happen to anyone. This plays on the fears off people as they get scared of it happening to them in real life, which is why they change the conventions.

The Initial Ideas for our film:

I, Taylor, Jordan, Tyler and Stuart decided that we want to go with a different approach with the film and have a ‘slasher’ where a killer is in a wheelchair. We decided that we want him to be in school and do the killings within the school, woods or empty isolated house.

The way in which he is put into a wheelchair is he used to be a popular kid, who got knocked down by a car when he was showing off in front of them.  So the reason for him killing is he is getting revenge on other peers at the school who have mocked him for his disability, or have stopped being his friend and kicked him out of their groups because he has broken his legs.

He kills when the main school has left and kills them when they are alone because they’ve had to stay after school for extra work or detentions. He kills them with a blunt object, like a baseball bat or a crowbar. He follows them then when they turn around and look back he is in front of them, then he attacks.

Idea’s for the two minute clip

Within the two minute film we want the 5 main characters to be in detention or doing extra work, all in one class room. We want them to be talking about what happened to the killer. Then for the Promiscuous girl to leave the detention because she’s had enough and walk round the corner and the killer is there, then as she’s walking away he strikes her in the leg, so she tries running away with a limp then gets around a corner and then he is just there and he kills her.