Audience Research

In a recent survey, 61% of males watched horror films frequently, whilst 39% of females watched horror films frequently. Whether they were fans of this genre of film remains to be unknown. 24% of these were aged 14-17, 48% of those who watched horror films frequently were aged 18-24, 19% of those who watch horror films were aged 25-34, 6% oft those who are a fan of horror films are aged 35-49 and 3% of those who are horror fans are aged 50 and over. Films, which are certified as an 18, may include many scenes of sex scenes and scenes of violence, horror and murder. Films, which are certified as a 15, may contain sexual references and mild scenes of violence. Films, which are certified as a 12A, may contain strong language and mild sexual references.

Initial Idea Mind Map

Initial Synopsis

Below is the early idea in which my group film is based.

When a young women is chased by a mysterious figure

Initial Idea From Group Member Adam Spence

"Scene 1 – Tracking shot of woman. Woman is running down corridors. Some closes up of facial expression of shock and fear. Woman will keep looking back to find nothing (eye line match)

Scene 2 – Woman goes to hide in a doorway. There will be an eye line match of her looking down the corridor were she just came from, this is a dark figure emerges. The man is wearing a long dark coat and a hat (a long shot will be used). He stops for a moment and starts walking towards her, down the corridor. Camera will go back to a close up of the woman sobbing, looking up (as if to say “why me”). She will look again and the man will be gone.

Scene 3 – She will breathe a sign of relief. Then a gloved hand with be put over her mouth, her eyes will widen.

Scene 4 – Another woman will wake up from a dream looking panicked and hot. She will look around her bedroom to find nothing. Then she will lye back on her bed in a daze (a medium shot will be used for this entire scene)."

In the new dawn of 2010, A new horror arises

For the main character both women and mysterious male have there stories clouded in mystery.

Name: Working Title : The Corridor

History Of Horror

With the subject of horror, The concept is such a popular genre that it has spawned many different sub genres. From the slash and gore or Saw to the psychological thriller of The Shinning

In The Beginning

The horror genre is one of the original genres to hit the scream since the 1890s were the first depiction of supernatural beings appeared with the most noticeable being the in 1896 Le Manoir du diable (The House Of The Devil) which in popular circle has been credited with being first horror film.

Horror's first monster appears in the early turn of the 20th century in the full length horror Quasimodo. With the earliest horror film making of german decent, Horror as a genre featured heavily even in the early appearance of the Hollywood films which included the Hunchback Of Notre Dame and even more notably Phantom Of The Opera.

Horror Place As A Genre

Horrors in context to the film world has left with the ever increasing popularity of the genre, meaning horror is now a stand alone genre. This is brought to life by key directors like Steven Spielburg's Jaws, John Carpenters Halloween and Ridely Scotts Alien. All of these film critically acclaimed

However film such as The New York Ripper and Tenebre where faced with heavy controversy in the UK with very hostile content and the easy retail of films at the time the worry of a younger generation forming a copycat approach to the new films so coining the phrase "video nasties".

Audience

With a huge range of sub genres horror has a ever changing and varying target audience to the out and out gore fests in hostile and Scream to the mind tingling adventure of Saw and Final Destination.

However Horror generally has a core audience which overall love a good scare. The horror audience is not always the same group of the people as people may prefer the slasher or the survival sub genres. The general audience for the horror genre is male and average age of 24.

This highlights the reasoning for the popularity and box office success of the slash sub genre.

For example all of the Scream franchise all in the top 5.

1	Scream	Dim.	$103,046,663	1,994	$6,354,586	1,413	12/20/96
2	Scream 2	Dim.	$101,363,301	2,688	$32,926,342	2,663	12/12/97
3	Scream 3	Dim.	$89,143,175	3,467	$34,713,342	3,467	2/4/00
4	Freddy Vs. Jason	NL	$82,622,655	3,014	$36,428,066	3,014	8/15/03
5	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	NL	$80,571,655	3,018	$28,094,014	3,016	10/17/03
6	I Know What You Did Last Summer	Sony	$72,586,134	2,524	$15,818,645	2,524	10/17/97
7	Friday the 13th (2009)	WB (NL)	$65,002,019	3,105	$40,570,365	3,105	2/13/09
8	Halloween (2007)	MGM/W	$58,272,029	3,475	$26,362,367	3,472	8/31/07
9	Halloween: H20	Dim.	$55,041,738	2,669	$16,187,724	2,607	8/7/98
10	My Bloody Valentine 3-D	LGF	$51,545,952	2,534	$21,241,456	2,534	1/16/09

Generally all of the horror films in which we are looking at 15-18 age range and mainly male

audience.

Overall, Horror as a genre is still thriving even from its humble beginnings of just big bad monster and slash and grab movies and moved to more in the mind horrors with the genre challenging blair witch project.

Analyze Psycho Opening Titles

Textual Analyse of the Opening Video Clip (Psycho)

For my analyses I am going to review the opening sequence of the horror genre by using the example of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho from 1960. The opening title where comprised by the Saul Bass.

At the beginning of the opening sequence the rumbling of a String quartet Strikes as the title “Psycho” fills the screen. The title burst on to the screen in the dead centre of the screen, which with the beginning of the music sequence bring a chilling, and surprise early to the film. A few seconds later the title starts to deform by the words splitting in opposite direction give the film a feel of something is not quiet right and the plot of this film is going to be prepared for a fright.

This starts a tirade of sound and transition showing the production team names appear on screen with a series of wipes from vertical and horizontal direction and start connecting the letters. Giving the film a feel of mystery this continues though the sound of ever growing sound of musical instruments in the background which occurs for a long time.

When this end it going in to a establishing shot of a n typical American CIty which is later to be reveled on a centered text as "Phoenix". Then will going through a pan the music start to die and the time of day is revealed in word format to be 2:43 which suggest an important development in the story will occur shortly. The camera then zooms into a apartment and to two characters however we get no conversation or icon provided by the ending of the titles.

Overall, the opening title give little away to the viewer and gives the film of an overall feel of suspense and mystery.

Opening sequence Analyze (Psycho)

Mind Map Analyses

Click The Image to the Left to view the image.

First Post

This is my first post in my blog which lays out the task were I am going to complete, in creating a Opening horror sequence. This will be achieved in a group of four which includes; Adam Spence,Charlotte Wood and Lucy Morgan.