Primary Research

To gather some primary research I created an online survey to find out what people aged 15 and old think of the horror genre and what is included. These are my results:

As well as the online survey, I decided to conduct video interviews on the walking dead and how it is promoted to give my some ideas of how to promote my film.
During the interview I asked 5 questions to the audience;

1) Do you think the magazine front cover, the movie poster and the trailer all complement each other? Why?

2) Do you think the trailer is a stereotypical horror trailer? Why?

3) Do you think the movie poster is a stereotypical horror movie poster? Why?

4) Do you think the magazine front cover is a stereotypical horror magazine front cover? Why?

5) Do the trailer, magazine front cover and the movie poster make you want to watch the film? Why?

And these were my results

Secondary Audience Research

For the secondary audience research, I have decided to research Paranormal Activity because this is a horror genre movie and this is what genre film I would like to recreate.

The comparable profile for Paranormal Activity says that both male and females watch paranormal activity, however 1% more males watch it than females, this may be because they stereotypical males like the horror genre more than films as they like more paranormal than the typical female. The age range of the audience shows that 69% of the audience watch the film who are 15-24 years of age, this may be because they are either in education or starting off in their career therefore this may allow them to have a lot more time to watch films. Only 2% of the audience is 45+ years old, this may be because they are well into living their lives therefore they may want to watch more non-fiction films rather than fictional films like the horror genre. Only 15% of the audience are in the upper class band, this is very low compared to the other classes, this could be because they are usually well educated therefore they may want to watch more non-fictional films that include a lot of facts rather than fiction. This is because they are too well educated to believe in all the paranormal. The most common class to watch this film is the middle class, this is because they have a job but they still may have free time to watch films therefore they may decide to watch fictional horror films to escape from the busy working life they have.

Any of the horror genre films have 15 age rating, this is where no-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated DVD.
A 15 rating movie may contain:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

I created a BBFC certificate to help me with my final BBFC certificate for my film.

Representation

In all movies with different genres, there are many different representations that need to be portrayed within the movie. 

In all genres of films there are many different values included within the genre.

• Western Genre - the values include; conflict between good and evil character, territory, pioneer, justice and revenge
• Gangster Genre - the values include; looking after their family, status, competition for status and criminal activity
• Action Genre - standing up for something they think is right, bravery, courage, stamina and resourceful
• Fantasy Action Genre - romantic interest but held back because of superpowers, alter ego, heroism
• Horror Genre - fear, victory for paranormal, paranormal always comes back for more, character types, usually part of a sequence

Ideology is the collection of ideas and values. Also there is dominant ideology which is when they have dominate beliefs (such as in society the dominant ideology includes believing in freedom, respect and fairness).

Hegemony is the controlling of peoples thoughts. This is where someone will use what people believe is important to control what they think and do.

Femininity is where all the other characters die off (in the horror genre) and there is one girl left. The final girl is left to fight off the paranormal. The final girl is portrayed as masculine (they may have a manly name e.g. Jordan or Jamie), they also use a weapon (e.g. an axe) to help them however they have to have also be feminine as they are expected to show fear to create the plot realistic.

The post femininity is the more of a 'modern women role' in society. This is where the women work in the society and earn their own money, as well as looking after the children and being a stay at home parent.

Hyper masculinity is the males are stereotypical male, they are usually masculine, muscly, typical male behaviour and virility (physical).

Masculinity is when the man takes the stereotypical role of a traditional male. They are the dominate character, they are muscly, they are the 'bread winner' where they earn the money.

Youth culture is when they children are looking for their identify within the society they live in.

my own sound mix

I decided to try out garageband by inserting the evil dead trailer into garageband and add sounds over the top to create my own soundmix. I don't think I did a bad job because it does sound like an horror sound mix, however I do need to work on my skills in garageband by watching more youtube tutorials on how to use garageband, for my final trailer.

Making my sound mix on garage band screen shots

I created my sound mix in garage band. I started off with a blank mp3 so I could start from scratch. I then took the evil dead trailer sounds and put them into garage band.

I then started to play around with the sounds down the side and choosing with ones I thought suited the horror genre.

I then dragged the sounds I chose onto the timeline and started to overlap then and put them in positions I thought suited and sounded professional. I then saved it as an mp3 and posted it onto Youtube.

Reflection

I thought I didn't do a bad job on creating my sound mix as I had never used garage band before. Therefore I watched a few youtube trailers to see how to use it. Then I played around and ended up making a reasonably good sound mix. 

I feel like I can do better because I haven't used it before and now I know how to use it, I can make a much better sound mix for my actual film and make it a lot more professional. I like using garage band because you can make any sounds you want and mix them all together to create something you have never heard before. I feel like using garage band in my final trailer would make my trailer look and sound much more professional and persuade more people to watch it because of the sounds you can create.

Sound Mix Research

When researching sound mixes in movie trailers, I found out that there are many different sounds included in the trailer, such as non-diegetic sounds (sound effects and asynchronous sounds), diegetic sounds (dialogue and synchronous sound). I then decided to look at some trailers from the horror genre and see what sounds are included in the trailer by creating a storyboard of sounds.

Promotional Package - Paranormal Activity 4

Choice of Genre