Target Audience 2

Target Audience 1

In our early stages of planning, we briefly discussed which type of target audience we wanted to reach. We researched horror movie goers and ultimately concluded that the best target audience were teenagers and young adults (13-28).
Charles decided that we should conduct a questionnaire amongst our fellow students to gain further information on what elements of a typical horror appealed most to our target audience.

The questionnaire is featured in the next post, along with our feedback.

Research - The "Slasher" Genre

The subgenre first emerged in the 1960's following the release of Hitchcocks "Psycho"which featured all the classics traits that we expect in a slasher; A deranged psychopathic killer, a 'whodunit' plot and a cast of victims. Despite Norman Bate's small bodycount of only two it is know as the first slasher but "Black Christmas", released in 1973, is widely accepted as the first true slasher.

Research - The height of slashers!

The 1980's box office was filled with terrible cliche slashers so much so that 60% of all takings in 1983 were from only slashers! Almost all slashers were released on public holidays such as;

Black Christmas - Christmas

My Bloody Valentine - Valentines Day

Humongous - Labour Day

All obviously to increase sales, two series stood out among the crowd these being "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" as they went on to make many sequels and prequels and have even been remade in the past few years.

Preparation: Friday the 13th

Throughout all the trailers we viewed, it became apparent that music created important dramatic effect to the audience i.e. suspense and fear. Friday the 13th trailer used iconic music for each of the scenes that were shown. The music has a major influence over the effectiveness of the trailer. For example, abrasive synth stabs (used by someone like Dario Argento) or low bassy rumbles on the soundtrack, help create a considerable amount of tension and generally create an atmosphere laden with foreboding.

Research: Halloween (1978)

Erin researched Halloween (1978) and found out that the budget for the successful movie which earnt over $150 million dollars was $32,0000 dollars. It was a independent movie and this showed us that we could make a good trailer with little money also. The trailer was analysed also and music played a major key in the horror elements of the trailer. Since it wsa set in the 1970s, it had the classical horror soundtrack which was sterotypically high piton synth. In most trailers we looked at, the common thing we noticed was that only quick glimpses of action were shown to grab the audiences attention. The trailer also used quick cut shots of the killer's shadow or his hand, but never showed his face completely, creating suspense and dramatic effect.

Preparation - Research trailers

We discussed which genre would be the most easiest and effective one to film with each other and our Media Studies teachers. We ultimately came to the decision of horror genre and started looking at movie trailers on YouTube. Shaquille knew of a few horror movies such as Diary of the Dead, Cloverfield and Dawn of the Dead. Erin suggested the slasher/horror genre and films of this sub genre such as Halloween, Friday the 13th and Black Christmas.

Our A2 Group

Our group consisted of , Charles Moses, Shaquille Mayanja and Erin Whitfield.

Charles can organise the tasks that need to be done such as the the scenes we would film and the sections of the blogs that each of us will be asssigned eventually. He can be very commited when it comes to his studies so that should prove useful in the coming months of production.

Shaquille is very experienced at editing with video and photo editing software so that will definitely prove most useful once we finish filming our raw media text and when we come to editing, we can depend on him primarily to know what to do.

Erin has an amazing amount of knowledge on films and film history, this will benefit the group with research, when we come to decide our final sub genre for our decision and  the plot.