Focus Group Transcript AND Evaluation

This is a very popular scene, as Mitchell uses no loud sounds to go with it, which differs from a typical jump-scare. The darkness in the corridor obscures the audience’s vision too, making it harder for them to see what is coming through. The audience do have a couple of seconds to realise that the antagonist is making an appearance, making the scare very effective, as it leaves them with enough time to ask themselves ‘What is that?’. The gradual realisation that it is a 7ft man with empty, black eyes is enough to scare anybody. We want to include a scene like this, however we haven’t yet decided if it is suitable for a trailer, or whether it should be left out.

Focus Group

Representation Theories

Representation theories from meganwest789

- Megan West

Genre Theory

Audience Theories

Auteur Theory

The Auteur Theory first came to light in the 1940s Andre Bazin (seen on the left) and Roger Leenhardt (seen on the right) were the creators of this theory, and they stated that revolves around the director. They suggests that films are used as a way for directors to express their emotions, thoughts and opinions in any way that they like. Directors typically use lighting, camerawork, editing, and sound effects to emphasise their emotions. The theory has been criticised however, as all films are collaborated on, therefore no work is true to only the director, as other members of the crew would input their own ideas and style.

This theory applies to our production, as we really want to put our own spin on the trailer to make it personal to us. We'll do this by perhaps featuring some events in our trailer that can relate to our real life experiences (this will be discussed further on in the year when we start to plan our production fully). We are going to include what we see as relevant/interesting to us, whilst still trying to appeal to a wider audience. We're also planning and directing the trailer and both ancillaries ourselves, therefore unlike some blockbuster movies, ours completely spirals from our own ideas. Being auteurs means that we don't only write the script, we create emotion, tension and scare through other practices. We will try and do this primarily through sound effects, attempting to use less conventional sounds of the horror genre whilst still coming across as dark and eerie.

Narrative Theories

Topic Research

In order to gain a realistic insight into the motivations behind and effects of bullying, we decided it would be a good idea to research it. We have found some interesting statistics and stories that will help us to really get into the mind of our character and from that, be able to direct the trailer in a way that accurately represents the grittiness of bullying and harassment.

Bullying Statistics

• ·         Over 25,700 counselling sessions with bullied children on Childline in 2015

25,700 counselling sessions may sound like a large amount at first, however when you consider how many young people there are in the UK (Over 2 million) it doesn't even scratch the surface of how many kids are having to face bullying. This suggests that the majority of victims choose not to open up about their experiences, perhaps because they're afraid of the consequences in regards to the bully, or because they're embarrassed about it. Our anti-hero will relate to this, as she too will keep her thoughts to herself, until she has her psychotic breakdown in which she will express her feelings through vicious anger and frustration.Our trailer may show her attempting to open up to one of her few friends/family members, however this will result in her not being taken seriously - another factor of rejection that pushes our main character to breaking point.

• ·         People who have been bullied are more than twice as likely to bully others

This statistic suggests that those that are bullied are permanently psychologically damaged, and they find a way to deal with this, namely by doing the same to others what was done to them. This could be applied to our character too, as she will be shown to eventually flip, and harm those who victimised her. This case is more extreme however, as our anti-hero will commit murder, rather than simply bully her peers. Nevertheless, she is still a victim turned perpetrator.

• ·         66% of boys bully compared to 31% of girls

We have taken this statistic into consideration when coming to the decision of whom we will cast as the 'bullies'. At the moment, we feel that we could tackle the stereotype of the persecutors being male, by instead including female antagonists. We will however make sure we use at least two male characters effectively in the trailer, so that our trailer can appeal to the male audience too, and that it doesn't come across as an exclusively female film. Whilst the statistic is correct in saying bullying is more common amongst boys, the idea of girls acting this way too has become much more prevalent in recent years. This is mainly down to females facing less oppression by society and the law, and therefore the stereotype of them being weak and powerless has now faded. Our anti-hero will prove this point, by having both the physical and psychological strength to fight back.

• ·         57% of female respondents to the survey bullied, 44% of males

This statistic states that it is more common for young females to face bullying than boys. This may be incorrect, as men are typically expected to be masculine and to stand up for themselves, therefore many male victims may refuse to admit they're being bullied, or at least have different definitions of it (being able to tolerate more torment until it breaches the line of 'banter'). Therefore it could be said that we aren't subverting any stereotypes by choosing a female lead to be the victim, however this could help us greatly in portraying a realistic situation in our production that a lot of our target audience will be able to relate to.

• ·         20% of all young people have physically attacked somebody

Our trailer will feature the more violent side of bullying, from both our anti-hero and the original perpetrators. The audience will know from this that the film isn't light-hearted or easygoing, and that it's instead a gritty reality for some innocent young people.

• ·         44% of bullied people face depression

This statistic could be smaller than it suggests, a lot of people wouldn't admit to suffering from depression and some won't even be aware. It will certainly be strongly suggested that our main character has been suffering from depression in our trailer. Depression is becoming more and more common, not because more people suffer from it, but because more are talking about it. Our character won't choose to talk about it however, which may be a factor of her downfall later on, as bottling it up is never a good thing to do. We want to send a message to a portion of our audience that opening up to someone about their issues is the way forward, and we will show evidence of this in the trailer itself. We have to be careful how we portray it however, and will therefore look further into this sub-topic.We also have to make sure we stick to the horror side of things, rather than sway too far from it and focus too heavily on the psychological aspects of the trailer.

• ·         33% of those bullied have suicidal thoughts

Similarly to the last point, this statistic may not be totally accurate, however this topic will be expressed in our trailer. We want it to appear that our character chooses to attack those who victimised her because she doesn't care about the consequences. This can be done by emphasising a lack of remorse on her part, and by making her seem unfazed whilst committing the criminal acts.

Noel Estevez

In June 2014, Noel Estevez (an American teen) was found to have stabbed one of his classmates to death, following the torment he received from him. Estevez once borrowed a phone from his former friend, and after his mother threw it out, his friend turned on him, and started to victimise him. He would regularly be seen running from attackers, and was on the receiving end of several death threats, gang attacks, property damage, and constant verbal abuse. Noel unsuccessfully attempted suicide the month before he killed his tormentor. Even then the abuse didn't stop, and in June, he was jumped by his former friend's gang, and in defence he pulled out a 6 inch knife and fatally wounded one of the gang members. Estevez was charged with murder soon after, One of his family friends stated that he 'wasn't the sort of person to have killed somebody'. This goes to show that anybody can be either a victim or perpetrator, which is the sort of message we want to get across in our trailer. 

Progress Report 13/10/16

Our research into a number of areas of media has given us lots of ideas to think about for our production. This has blended in with the planning stage, so the two sides are not completely separate, making the whole process much easier for us.

Our production will focus around a female anti-hero who is regularly tormented by her peers, and is eventually pushed to breaking point. She then plans to kill those who bullied her, and the audience would follow her during this time, possibly in a state of self-confliction, as they try to sympathise with her, whilst also feeling that what she's doing is wrong. We have chosen one of our friends (Lucy) to portray our main character, due to her passion for acting. She starred in our introduction last year, and was very convincing. 

Because of the focus on bullying and the effects it can have on people, we will have to analyse it whilst completing our topic research in order to gain a full understanding of the subject. a particular focus will be toward our character's mindset and how her tormentors have affected her over time.We want our trailer to come across as realistic, therefore the research we conduct into this is essential to producing a convincing and gripping trailer. It could be seen as traditional to have a female character as the lead in a horror film, as they are typically seen as weaker and more vulnerable than men. Whereas the villain in horrors tend to be male, as they are seen to be stronger and have less morals than women. As Lucy will be playing both roles at some point in the trailer, it subverts both of these statements, therefore our production will hopefully provide some surprises.

Looking into cohesive marketing campaigns has taught us how to add continuity to our production and two ancillary pieces. We've decided to use the colours white, black and red for our film poster and magazine, as well as in some of the cuts between scenes in the production. Our poster will feature our anti-hero's head and shoulders on one side, with the title and other relevant text to the opposite. Lucy will wear white clothing for this, as it connotes innocence and purity, which can be contrasted with the blacks and red used for the text, which often represent death, blood and so on. The magazine and poster will most likely feature a similar colour scheme, however we have to consider the fact that magazines must have an especially eye-catching masthead in order to attract attention. Therefore further down the line we will have to find a bright colour that mixes well with red, white and black. We will also be choosing the font that will be used continuously throughout our main production and both ancillaries. The font will be re-used for the sake of recognisability, so that people can identify our product.

To conclude, the research we have conducted so far has provided a wide insight of all of the different paths we could take with our production. We've learnt a lot about film trailers and the conventions within them, as well as how to structure a trailer and just how much to reveal within it. Researching into film posters/magazines and taking into account which features are most important has been interesting, and we are really looking forward to expressing our artistic creativity when producing them both.

Emailing a Professional

We chose to email Supernova Films (an independent film production company) in order to see if they'd answer some questions we had that revolved around the horror genre. This particular company have produced horror pieces in the past, and therefore may be able to offer some invaluable advice.














Below is the trailer for their most recent film 'The Before Time'.

Technical Research

Horror Genre - Mood Board

Target Audience Profile