Research in target audience similar to mine

More research into real-life incidents similar to mine

On 3rd November 2014, an article was posted about a woman, whose father had been a serial killer and was now in prison. It spoke about how Keith Jesperson, a serial killer who had been dubbed the "Happy Face Killer", had affected and interacted with his family which he never abused or sexually harassed. The article explains that Jesperson was a long-distance truck driver who murdered his victims while on his long journeys. His victims were typically women.

Our idea for a thriller is very similar to this. Our story will follow a man who obviously murders women for pleasure. We plan on revealing the audience to the calm and caring nature that he possessed towards his daughter. This massive contrast in personality inspired us the most. It means that the creation of a horror/thriller film was possible and likely to be a realistic and interesting story as it was based on reality.

These real -life instances of crimes and how they represent age and gender are very similar to mine. There is a clear binary opposition demonstrating stronger manipulative males and weaker subservient females. We demonstrated a similar narrative strand in our film and our research into crime and how gender impacts upon this was fundamental to our understanding of this.

Research into characters similar to mine

Practice Camera and Lighting set up in my chosen movie setting

Weeks before our filming; a practice set up of both camera and lighting was essential. So that when filming the real thing, adjustments can occur as well as the procedure would be less time-consuming with less potential editing. Despite previous camera set up experience, it has been months since so the preliminary task therefore it would be significant to refresh our memories in order to gain more comfort and control when using the camera. However, the lighting prop I've never used before; but it became self explanatory. 

Although this won't be the actual character in the opening sequence, at this stage this was irrelevant as this was not recorded. This was a beneficial task to test the contrasted lighting and the wide shot of the opening scene.

What have I learnt from my storyboard?

Storyboard

Storyboard pg 1

Storyboard pg 2

Very soon after coming up with the idea for 'The Last Priority' my group and I came together and wrote the storyboard. 

We attempted to make the storyboard as accurate and in-depth as possible. We wrote about the lighting, camera angle, frame size, duration and shot position. All of this pre-shoot planning assisted us greatly when it came to filming. 

By the time that we begun shooting 'The Last Priority', we could very easily follow the storyboard and shoot the exact shots that we need without any tiresomely pointless shots being taken, hours wasted and video camera battery life becoming depleted.

The use of a storyboard also meant that we were able to think about our editing while we were filming. We would decide what transition to use when switching from one scene or shot to the next.

This was a very effective tool which greatly assisted us in receiving the final filmed clips that we wanted and avoided wading through the unnecessary ones.

When it came to editing, assembling the film was very easy. This was due to the guideline and strict set order that we had set out.

I believe that we would not have been as successful in filming and editing the film had we not written such a thoroughly detailed storyboard.

Timing/Run through preperation

Here a run through of the created storyboard was performed. This task was most useful in terms of gaining a practical insight as a rough idea of the footage length. This enabled strategic planning to occur and additional ideas such as chosen props and location. Despite the video consisting of irrelevant props, acting and a 'random' location this all became irrelevant as our clear objective is based solely upon time. This gave us a clear idea of how we needed to add a few extras shots to make the narrative make sense. Our next target is to develop our narrative further to help explain how he is a father and not just a criminal

Research into costumes

Whilst the costume and make-up choices for our thriller opening sequence may seem relatively simple, a lot of thought has gone into them to ensure that the characters look right and fit their character descriptions. We want to present our male protagonist as a smart, intelligent and responsible man who just so happens to have this evil side to him. So, we want to show his good education and upper class status through expensive clothes which also look smart.

Our biggest inspiration in terms of costume for our male protagonist is Hannibal Lecter, an upper-class and very intelligent psychiatrist, who is also a sadistic serial-killer and cannibal - although his occupation is not the same as that of our main character, his personality traits are very similar. He's wearing expensive suits, which present him as an upper-class, well educated person with an high status. We want to present our killer not in exactly the same, but in a similar way.

For our main character, there are a few specific costume choices:
1. Watch - Very briefly, our main character can be seen wearing a smart watch. This shows him off as being smart and contentious.
2. Shirt - One thing you can't be annoyed with our main character about is his clothing choices. To show him off as being smart and professional we ensured that he was wearing an ironed shirt, tucked into his jeans. This gives off that upper-class persona we were trying to present him as whilst also being clean, showing that he is taking care of everything around him (even his scrapbook!)
3. Jeans - It was important for us to ensure that viewers instantly recogised that our main character was at home, not at work. Therefore, we dressed him in jeans rather than smart trousers to give a more smart-casual look.
4. Socks - The fact that the man is wearing socks in his own home again reinstates that slightly upper class side to him and the fact that he is taking care of everything around him. It would seem like he cares more about making sure his carpet is not dirty than the lives of innocent women!
For the young girl, our main inspiration were the young girls visible on TV channels such as Disney Channel. They're always casual, wearing their pyjamas and are usually make-up less. This gives off an innocent look, which was the aim with the young girl.

For the young girl, there are a few specific costume choices:

1. Hair - One casting issue we had was that our 'young girl' is actually played by 20 year old. In order to make her look young, we put her hair in pony-tails as this is a trend most commonly adopted by young children.
2. Pyjamas - As the girl is in bed, we thought it would be most appropriate if she is wearing pyjamas. The viewers never properly see her choice of pyjamas in the opening sequence which made it easier for us to dress her.
3. Make-Up - Our young girl is not wearing any make-up, another approach adopted to make her look younger as many young children also do not wear make-up.

Research into location

Research into Props

Target audience for different types of thrillers

Interviews - Market Research

Online survey- Market Research

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VXFR9BY 

Using 'Survey Monkey', I created a survey in order to gain greater knowledge of the public's anonymous opinions and thoughts. The potential findings may influence characteristics of my movie in order to gain target audience satisfaction.



Overall, from this I learn't the views on what people would want to see in our film and specifically aim to target our niche British audience of horror fans.

Results and Evaluation

What is your gender?

• Answered: 36 
• Skipped: 0

FemaleMale

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The male percentage of response rate was significantly higher which is beneficial as my target audience is males aged 18-29.

Q2

What is your age?

• Answered: 36 
• Skipped: 0

Under 1818 to 2425 to 3435 to 4445 to 5455 to 6465 to 7475 or older

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My target audience is men aged 18-29 so this was my primary focus. Thus it is difficult to use this primary research as a high proportion is Under 18 (U18). However, every opinion is valid and can be assessed as feedback and a potential second niche target audience.

Q3

How often do you watch movies?

• Answered: 36 
• Skipped: 0

Extremely oftenVery often

Moderately

often

Slightly often

Not at all

often

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Frequency in terms of viewing movies is a minor factor of relevance, but it is an extended question in order to give a deeper analysis of the perspective of those who answered this questionnaire. It overall determines if my movie were to be distributed then would it be consistently viewed?

         What is your favourite movie?                  Q5

• Answered: 31 
• Skipped: 5

Interesting films mentioned were Se7en, SAW as they are the closets link in terms of genre and themes to mine. However comedy movies were the largest mode including movies such as The Interview which was suggested by the U18 category. Other movies mentioned were:Transformers, Forest Gump and Shawshank Redemption.

What elements do you look for in a thriller movie? (Select 2 choices only)   Q6 (similar to Q4 there was not included)

• Answered: 36 
• Skipped: 0

ActionConspiracyCrimeDisasterHorrorMysteryPoliticalPsychologicalSci-FiSpy

Other (please

specify)

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Psychological and Horror categories is my specifically chosen genre for my movie. Thus it is pleasing both are reasonably selected by those who completed questionnaire. Not surprisingly, action is the highest percentage due to the large amount of male participants.

Q7

what is the most important factor to you, when viewing a thriller?

• Answered: 35 
• Skipped: 1

CastMusicPlot

Quality of

acting

Special effects

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This question was extremely important as this determines how to engage and audience via deliberate techniques, skill and subtlety. Plot was identified as the largest and most significant component. Arguably due to it being the main 'bulk' of the film and the other factors support it.

Q8

Would the story of a man leading a 'double-life' appeal to you as a psychological/horror thriller movie?

• Answered: 36 
• Skipped: 0

YesNo

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This foremost question, is the conclusion and purpose of this questionnaire as it determines whether or not these participants would actually watch my movie based on their opinions through out. Both genre and basic plot is established in the question, and it puts the responders on the spot allowing them to literally imagine what the 'double-life' entails. 

In conclusion, this primary research was evidently not representative due to it's small sample of 36 participants. Not all questions were answered by these respondents. Furthermore, my target population was a minority amongst those who completed this questionnaire. However, as previous mentioned each opinion is valid which can stimulate other ideas etc. Moreover a second target audience could be a small area of further interest. Additionally, secondary research is more essential such as demographics of other movies.

My latest psychological horror movie

Initial Thriller Idea

Feedback:

The practicality of the setting was questioned. This consists of lack of reasoning for why the 'boys' were located in the woods. This is setting has been consistently used from previous students therefore lacking originality, resulting into reduction of marks. The heavy involvement of the children could affect the audiences serious perceptions, as working with children would cause difficulty in terms of organisation and the acting my lack quality. One of the other main problems of filming in the woods with children in January is also getting permission to use them out in the cold, it was considered a safer bet to look at alternative ideas that didn't involve children in the woods as parental permission may be difficult. Therefore we decided to move on.....

Ordering Movie Titles

Despite the hype surrounding any new movie that claims to be a directors’ ‘greatest work’ or an actors ‘award winning’ performance, the reality is that the audience would much rather watch a movie than read about it’s creators. To this end producing a sequence of titles or credits that remain of a significant interest (to anyone other than to those listed) is still a challenge to any film make.

In fact some of the greatest movies have no opening credits at all for example The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. The film Citizen Kane only has the name of the movie at the beginning, saving all the credits for the end.

‘Contractual issues’ and ‘actor egos’ account for much of the final order in which titles appear but there seems to be a general running order as follows:

I made this title sequence using Windows Movie Maker
There is sound so TURN ON YOUR SPEAKERS