Questionnaires

For my opening sequence, I have many ideas on how I could create the most effective piece, however these ideas are only from my perspective. I want to collect a census of what my target audience (females aged 16-24 years) would want out of a horror film, this will help me to create an opening sequence that has desired techniques and effects.
I want to find out the following things from my questionnaire:
+ What the audiences’ thoughts are on titles
+ How they prefer characters to be established
+ What makes a horror film scarier
+ How vital are locations

Below is the questionnaire I’m going to distribute today at a local jumble sale. I decided to do this at a jumble sale so I could collect a census from a varied amount of people. I will ask the participants if I can take a photo of them completing the questionnaire to show that I did do a random sample.

1. Are you male or female?
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2. How old are you?
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3. In which way do you think the titles in an opening sequence are presented in most effective way? And why?
+ before the footage starts
+ at the same time as the footage (so you can see the titles and the film)
+ after the footage

+ please write your answers in the spaces provided.
_____________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

4. Do you prefer to discover a lot about the characters in the opening sequence or a little, why?

_____________________________________________________________________
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5. Do you prefer horror films to being with an element of suspense and slowly ease into the rest of the plot, or to jump straight into the action, and why?
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

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6. Do you think that sound makes a film more scary? And why?
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

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7. How important do you think lighting is to make a horror film scary?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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8. How vital is location in creating a horror film? Can any location be used?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 



Characters: who will play the male and why?

The actor to play Becky’s boyfriend is yet to be decided on. At this moment, I have no idea who I am going to use. I have contemplated using a friend of mine who I was in a music video with a few weeks ago. His looks are perfect for the part; quite tall, strong build, dark hair and eyes and subtle facial hair. However his acting skills weren’t too professional or convincing. But the lead male in this will not have to do much acting that needs to be convincing, it’s all quite casual. So, he is a strong possibility.
The character of the male is being based around my perception of a male who is caring yet also a bit of a joker. He is less focused on compared to the female character. Whoever plays the part of the male will wear jeans and a t-shirt -I decided that a polo top would look too smart for this character- with possibly a jumper over the top. His shoes will be smart casual. I want the male to look quite strong and manly, to almost pretend he’s the protagonist.
For the moment, there isn’t much I can say about the male character as I haven’t decided who I want to use and why.

Characters: who will play the female and why?

The characters for my opening sequence are going to be a boy and a girl, who are a couple. They would both be classed as being “normal”. I would define the term “normal” through their middle class background, general lack of deviance but strong realisation for respect and obeying the law, also through their aspirations of achieving well in their life through working hard and having well respected jobs.
The female is a white, 16 year old girl from a middle class background, her name is Darcy. However we do not discover her name in the opening sequence.  Darcy is on a picnic at a haunted battlefield on with her boyfriend Freddie. Freddie is a white 18 year old, also from a middle class background. The narrative context of the opening sequence will involve Becky acting really sweet, then being scared, whilst Freddie is quite boisterous and a bit of a joker.
I’m basing one of the characters around a friend of mine called Becky, who -after deliberation- I have actually decided to use in my opening sequence. The leading female character role was between two friends of mine, Maddy Davies and Becky Evans, both chosen for similar reasons.
Maddy is a white, tall, slim girl with brown curly hair.

Becky is an average height, slim, white girl with long brown hair and a fringe.

For appearances, the choice between the two was matched; both are attractive girls who look good on camera. To help me make my decision, I decided to film both the girls acting out some of the dialogue I am thinking of using in the opening sequence.
These clips have made it clear to me that Becky is a more talented actress that Maddy. Therefore, I chose Becky to be the female. Additionally, Becky is smaller and has a fringe; I think that both of these attributes assist in creating a more vulnerable character. I think a fringe is usually associated with children, therefore emphasising this vulnerable idea. Similarly, Becky is smaller which means she looks like she’d need to be protected from the protagonist, enhancing the idea that the protagonist is powerful and frightening.
I’ve decided that Becky will wear clothes that will suggest a sense of her having a unique style, but also looking susceptible. She’s going to wear a floral dress, coloured tights and a pair of “dolly” shoes or “pumps”; however the exact clothes are yet to be decided on due to sizes and availability. The associations usually made with that sort of style are usually young girls. This will reinforce the idea that she is weak and vulnerable, making her a more convincing antagonist. Her make-up will be natural, yet still enough to see that she’s a teenager who has taken the decision to wear it.
Her dialogue will be very innocent and good natured to suggest that she doesn’t deserve to feel frightened; we don’t watch to watch her being scared as it makes us feel scared watching. I’m actually basing her facial expressions and body language around the Disney character Bambi. In the film Bambi we see a real contrast between the protagonist and antagonist through their distinct differences in character. The pureness and sweetness of the antagonist will emphasise the danger of the protagonist.
I want to create Becky as looking like a small character in both meaning and body proportions. I will do this through various shot types. I will use medium shots and medium close-ups so that I can clearly show her facial expression, but also I want to show the space around her in a shot so we feel like the space is closing in around her. I will use very long shots to make her look small and almost an easy target.

My decision to make Darcy an innocent character came through conversations with other media students. We all collectively decided that when the protagonist is scared, we as an audience feel more scared. For example, in Action films, teh protagonist is brave and fearless, so we follow their attitude and feel more calm. This makes us a passive audience; letting what we watch decide how we feel.

Audience profile.

General:
Jennie is a 17 year old girl who lives at home with her parents and 6 year old brother. She has a fairly good relationship with her parents, only arguing about the standard issues like staying out late, smoking etc. She has 10 GCSEs and now goes to her 6^th form studying philosophy and ethics, psychology, English literature and media studies. Jennie lives an average teenage lifestyle; her mother is a social worker and her father is a doctor. She actually gets on quite well with her little brother, his innocence and naivety amuses her. She’s quite a confident person, but isn’t overly brash or out-going. Her attitude towards most things would be “i don’t care”; she has a very nonchalant persona. However, her life being a stereotypical lifestyle, Jennie isn’t a stereotypical type of girl; she does things in her own little way. She likes unconventional things, for example she’d enjoy rain and bad weather or wearing something different to what is classed as “fashionable”.

Style:
Her appearance is very much her own style and she doesn’t tend to follow trends. She isn’t extremely self-conscious and is actually. She has a vintage look to her clothes and accessories.

Hobbies and past-times
She spends most of her time doing typical teenage things: doing school work, seeing her friends and boyfriend, going to pubs. Her school work is important to her and she does want to succeed, but she often lacks the determination to do complete her school tasks. She has a small group of friend whom she is very close to. Her boyfriend is the year above her, and they met at the local pub, she spends a lot of time with him, she has quite an intimate and close relationship with him. She would most likely be found down the pub on a Friday or Saturday night, never at a bar or club. Her music taste would be classed as classic/modern rock listening to bands like “Young Guns” “Pink Floyd” and “The Who”. She also enjoys festivals, particularly the Reading/Leeds festival. She is never without her mobile phone or IPod. Her DVD collection consists of classics like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” but also classic and modern horror films, her favourite being “The Ring”. She simply enjoys being scared as she’s a secure enough person to say “it’s not real”.

Lifestyle:
Her lifestyle is quite unhealthy. She’s a smoker, but I would class her as a “fashion smoker”. Although she smokes, she doesn’t do or agree with drugs. She’s also quite a heavy drinker, but only drinking spirits and beer, never “alco-pops”. She eats very little healthy meals, only snacking on sugary and salty foods like crisps and chocolate. She spends a lot of her time up late on the internet, so gets very little sleep.
I think I would class Jenny your regular teenage girl but she knows her own mind. She isn’t afraid to be herself but doesn’t make a big fuss about it. I chose her as my target audience as I want the film to come across as scary, but in almost a subtle sense. For example, nothing like Cradle of Fear, I want the film to see realistic and believable, and people like Jenny would be able to appreciate it for it’s simplicity.