Questionnaire For Horror Teaser

To create a survey in which we could target and collect data from people in order to meet the audience's demands, we used a website known as www.stellasurveys.com.

We asked various questions on horror interests to help us identify what will make a successful product. We sent the link to 10 people, 5 of which are girls and 5 boys, to receive a fair and representative data collection based on genders needs.

Trailer Analysis - Drag Me To Hell

The link for the trailer is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X68gYEQZiI&feature=related

The audience are told the title of the film right at the end because the trailer consists of clips that all contribute to the narrative and in order for the title to be memorable and effective it is placed last.

The audience are not told who is starring in the film, as they are not well known actors/actresses in the film industry, however instead Lions Gate and Ghost House Productions have used the directors name to market and promote the film as he is reputable and successful. Viewers are presented with titles of previous successes such as 'Spider Man' to persuade and encourage people to watch the film. Reviews are also shown with positive reinforcement from newspapers, further promoting the film. Further information we are presented with is equilibrium, which is at the beginning point of the trailer, establishing that she has a good job but wants to become manager therefore, tries to make a good decision declining a customer's third grant, subsequently, introducing the disequilibrium of her being cursed which continues to develop from one minute into the trailer. Dialogue says a lot about the film too as the significance of the lady warning the woman that "Soon she will come begging to [her]" connotes a sense of danger, threat and horror.

The mise en scene of the main antagonist conforms to the conventions of a horror as she has a glass eye which indicates possession, evil and terror. The use of iconography also conforms to the horror genre as there is a knife used as a weapon, suggesting violence, intrusion, pain and aggression.

The speed of the trailer is steady paced at the beginning as the narrative is only just introduced however, it builds up and as soon as the disequilibrium is recognised, the speed becomes erratic, snappy and faster. This creates an impact on the audience's nerves and makes them feel panick, suspense and tension which is initially what a horror film is set out to do.

The target audience of the film is for over 15's as it contains sequences of horror, violence, terror, disturbing images and language.

Trailer Analysis - Sorority Row

The audience are told the title of the film right at the end because the trailer consists of clips that all contribute to the narrative and in order for the title to be memorable and effective it is placed last.

The audience are not told who is starring in the film as they are not well known actors/actresses in the film industry yet and appear to be an ensemble cast, however some of the actresses are well known with teenage audiences such as Leah Pipe who starred in 'Drake & Josh', 'Malcolm in the middle' and 'Ghost Whisperer'. Briana Evigan is most well known for the hit film 'Step Up 2' whilst Audrina Patridge is recognisable for starring in 'The Hills'. These actresses will draw in female teens. It is rated 15, therefore its target audience will be for teens aged 15 and over.

The establishing shot of the trailer is the high school building which is then followed by the shots of the pool party, which establishes their age group and the target audience. They're having fun at the beginning which is the equilibrium. Thirty six seconds into the trailer, we are introduced to the disequilibrium which is that five sorority girls inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong. The resolution is introduced at one minute sixteen seconds as they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives, only they don't realise the disequilibrium will haunt them as at one minute fifty seconds, their dead sister appears to have come back from the dead to kill them.

More action in the trailer contains religious connotations, as a male uses a cross as a weapon to kill the sister. The mise en scene of the ensemble cast conforms to the conventions of a horror as guns are used and the cast dragged a body into a well or ditch which is a sinister act, which indicates possession, evil and terror. The use of iconography conforms to the horror genre as blood signifies danger, alert, anger, devil, violence and warfare. The fire is symbolic of love being spoken as an internal flame; it can be used for strong emotional feelings such as love, hate, desire and determination. Also, it has chaotic and war related connotations.

The speed of the editing throughout the trailer isn't consistent. It is steady paced at the beginning and has quite lengthy shots until the disequilibrium sinks in and the shots become quicker and shorter. It then goes back to being steady paced as a potential resolution is present, however, the disequilibrium continues and the speed of the shots get faster and shorter again. As the trailer comes to an end the speed of the shots is viscious, showing a gun, spinning weapons, an actress trying to escape, fire, screams and shocked facial expressions, blood and the cross weapon near the females neck pointing towards it. The last shot is of an anonymous antagonist in a black cape. This signifies a devious feel, mystery and terror.

How To Make Fake Blood

We searched youtube for videos to find out what ingredients people use and the cheapest, most practical and easy way to make fake blood. After researching thoroughly, the most common ingredient in nearly every video we viewed was corn syrup however, as the videos were recorded in America, we had to search the equivalent to corn syrup which is sold in England. We found that this was Golden Syrup so we bought this from our local supermarket. Similar, we substituted the corn starch with flour.

The following shows our steps of making fake blood:

Step 1: We poured Golden Syrup into a jug.

Step 2: We then measured out the correct amount of flour to add to the jug of golden syrup.

Step 3: We then added water to the mixture.
Step 4: Once we mixed the ingredients together, we added a few drops of Red food colouring.
Step 5: Once we mixed the red food colouring into the mixture, we added Green food colouring as directed by the video to darken the mixture.

This created a more realistic looking colour blood.

Questionnaire Results

We presented our data in a number of ways to view, compare and analyse it clearly and effectively.
- Tables




- Pie Charts

Websites Used

We used www.youtube.com to research popular horrors get clips to get inspiration for our horror and so we could see the conventions that other horrors had used in the teaser trailers.

We used www.pearlanddean.com to research popular horrors to establish our target audience. Eg. age, gender, population, social class. This helped us decide what type of horror we are producing, who will be interested in watching it depending on mainly age and gender.

We used www.google.com as a search engine whilst researching inspirations for our horror teaser trailer. For eg. Matthew Hopkin's Witchcraft history plot.
We used www.blogger.com to showcase and organise all our research, planning and evaluation of our horror teaser. For example, research of teaser trailers, planning of film budget, information from Pearl & Dean, analysis of teasers , screenshots of our production progress, and evaluation of whole product.

We used www.stellasurveys.com to target and collect data from people in order to meet the audience's demands in terms of their interest of horror films. This was to ensure we met the criteria and produced a successful teaser trailer.

Shopping List For Filming

Item	Cost	Use	Location
Eye contacts (Red)	£20	Possessed Character	Argos
Red & Green Food Dye	-	Fake Blood	Home Supply
Paper Plate	-	For mixing paint	Home Supply
Golden Syrup	86p	Fake Blood	Somerfield
Plain Flour	-	Fake Blood	Home Supply
Vaseline	£1.20	Burnt Character	Somerfield
Brown, Burgandy & Green Paint	-	Burnt Character	Home Supply
Black Eye Shadow	-	Burnt Character	Home Supply
PVA Glue	£2	Burnt Character	Early Learning Centre
Paintbrushes	-	Burnt Character	Home Supply
Tissues	-	Burnt Character	Home Supply
Handheld Torch	-	Character Prop	Home Supply
Total			£24.06

When preparing to film, we wrote a shopping list of all the items we need. We made a budget of spending £25 in total but we split this cost into two and each spend £12.50.

As shown in the table above, the total cost of all the props was £24.06. This shows that we didn’t overspend our budget and it was 94p cheaper than expected.

There isn’t a price for: handheld torch, tissues, paintbrushes, black eye shadow, paints, paper plates, plain flour and red & green food dye. This is because we retrieved this from our home supplies, saving us money on our budget.