Target audience research

In order to recieve feedback from our target audience, we are going to send out a pre production questionaire. In this questionaire we are going to attempt to find out common features of horror that they enjoy, and what they do not enjoy,  in order to gain ideas for and to know what to include in our final production pieces. We will then analyse our questionaire results, and this will allow us to take into consideration what our audience is looking for within our promotional package. As a group, we will then carry out a focus group with two boys and two girls, and show them a trailer, a film magazine and a film poster, and find out what they like about each piece, and how they would improve them. This will be helpful because we can then decide what elements will attract audiences and what will stop them from watching our movie.

The History Of Horror

Since the 1920s, when horror films were first made, the horror genre has gone through many changes and adaptations. This is due to the fact that, throughout history, human fears, strongly influenced by what is happening in our world, have changed as the decades have gone by. It is important that horror films reflect our fears and so the horror genre has had to respond to and adapt to what society finds frightening.

1920's: Key conventions of a film in this era involve dark shadows, male antagonist, female under threat and were Gothic. They reflected the fact that audiences were terrified by mystical monsters found in literature. Nosferatu (1922) was one of the first Gothic horrors to be made. 

1930's: The horrors of the 1930's were Gothic in style and were set in far off lands . They features monsters and were inspired by 19th century novels, and they also had the first use of sound. Dracula (1931) was the first talking horrors and had a gothic theme to it.

1940's: Horror movies were banned in Britain due to the war, so America took over. The Americans kept it safe and recreated the style of horrors from the 30's, which included characters who could turn into animals. Cat People (1942) involved a women being feared, and was the first horror movie to use the trend of the art of suggestion.

1950's: After the war, society feared the effects of radiation from nuclear war and the changes that could occur. Teenagers became the most popular audience for horror. The fly (1958) and The Blob (1958) were two main films that involved changes due to nuclear war. 

1960's: This was a period of massive social change where there were sex, drugs and freedom. Monster's of the 60's were in human form so audience's saw the potential of man, and how twisted the human mind can be. This became a big change within the horror genre because there was a change from mythical creatures being defeated to humans having a twisted mind. Psycho (1960) was one of the first horror films that had a human killer. 

1970's: The introduction to the contraceptive pill and pregnancy defects led to the fear of children. Birth defects became a big fear in this decade because women suffering morning sickness were given a drug called Thalidomide which led to many babies being born with deficits. The idea of the enemy being in your own family came about and the slasher movies were born. The Shining and The Exorcist were two films which involved family members being the enemy. 

1980's: The technological aspects of horror changed and there was an increased use of SFX. Monsters remained human but horrors became more like a show. Nightmare on elm street is a typically 80's horror because it was full of gore and had brightly lit sets. 

1990's: Audiences were becoming sick of guts and gore and wanted more intelligent horror, this was mainly because horror's were coming too predictable. Scream was a horror turn over, where horror conventions became ironic throughout the movie. 

2000's: Audiences are enjoying all types of horror more then ever, and remakes and spoofs are becoming more popular. Horror films involving a game or defeating a force also became well known. Found footage movies rose to the top, and movies became more transportable for example on mobile phones, ipads and on the internet. Paranormal activity, Grave Encounters, Saw and One Missed Call, are examples of typical modern day horror movies. 

Sub Genres

With in horror, there are a selection of sub genres, such as Slasher, Gothic, Supernatural and Psychological. All of these sub genres seek to create a negative and emotional reaction by playing on the audience's primal fears. Sub genres are suitable to directly brush on everyone's different fears. sub genres are essential because there are a range of different horrors therefore categorisation is needed. Having sub genres allows the audience to choose a favourite and watch that one. 

A Psychological horror would involve a normal looking character with a disturbed and twisted mindset, which pushes the character to become a murderer. An example of a psychological horror is 'Orphan'. 

A Slasher horror movie involves weapons, gore, and masks. The traditional plot for a slasher is based around a rebellious group of teenagers who are going against social expectations, which causes a masked, mass murderer to kill them one by one, and there is usually a final girl who battles for her life at the end. Friday 13th is a typical slasher horror movie, where he kills the teenagers in the forest one by one and then a final girl is left to face him. 

A Gothic horror is a very traditional type of horror which is old fashioned, but very original. Gothic horrors usually involve isolated locations, maybe in the forest and Dracula was one of the first Gothic horrors around, where a vampire goes after women. 

Lastly, the sub genre I have decided to to base my horror movie on, is supernatural. We have chosen to do a supernatural horror movie because the fear of the unknown is always going to exist. We also chose supernatural because we wanted to go for a more subtle and chilling scare.The fact that societies do not know whether spirits and demons exist, or where they will be, makes it more frightening for them, especially if the comfort of their own home is not enough anymore. Supernatural horror movies usually involve a normal family who have a spirit living in their house, or one of the family members become possessed. The spirit is usually there for a reason, for example in Paranormal Activity, the sister becomes possessed and the spirit is looking for the first born son in the family. 

Brief

We have been set the task of producing a promotional package to promote a new film within the horror genre. The package will include a film magazine front cover, a film poster and a film trailer. The promotional package should promote a film that will successfully scare and excite the audience and all three pieces should share a symbiotic link and follow codes and conventions. I have chosen to work in a group with Dania Jawzaa and Maddy Scott because i feel that with our skills combined we will produce an excellent portfolio, and we will work well together to finish our project. The challenge is to, of course, achieve originality  and I look forward to beginning the project with my fellow group members.