R17 - Conversation of audience analysis (AUDIO)

From conversing with my partner we've been able to share each other's thoughts and ideas, especially about our audience and answer each other's questions. We've discussed the points risen such as how our audience liked to be scared when watching a gothic horror film, so we've talked about how our trailer should be more scary than intriguing.

This has helped me think about my film. As well as having a storyline which should make sense to my audience I also need to make sure that it does impact them in a way which makes them think the film was well executed in various aspects, such as the use of camera, sounds and mise-en-scene.

R16 - Overview of gothic horror films

               

By doing my own research on gothic horror I've found out the influences and further conventions which would differ from other sub-genres of horror. For example, the most common setting for gothic horror films includes graveyards, as the paranormal and supernatural are used to portray evil and be the reason behind why everything goes wrong.

R15 - FIlm concepts

 

Me and my partner have up with all the things we wanted to include in our horror film. For example, the types of sounds we are going to use like someone screaming, leaves rustling etc. Also we have drafted up the characters  we're going use. This so far includes a teenage girl, a parent (preferably mother) and the villain which is going to be the vampire. The sub-genre we've chosen is gothic horror so we've made sure the themes, camera work/shots, editing and mise-en-scene empathises that, however with all in that in mind we are also making sure at the same time it will appeal to our audience that are both male and female aged 12+. By researching into other gothic horror films this has helped us get an idea of what our film should consist of and also consider whether we should conform to the usual conventions of gothic horror films.

R14 - Research of a controversial film: Freaks by Tod Browning

'Freaks' is the 1932 controversial Pre-code horror film directed and produced by Tod Browning, who successfully directed 'Dracula'. 

"A circus trapeze artist, Cleopatra, takes an interest in Hans, a midget who works in the circus sideshow. Her interest however is in the money Hans will be inheriting and she is actually carrying on an affair with another circus performer, Hercules. Hans's fiancée does her best to convince him that he is being used but to no avail. At their wedding party, a drunken Cleopatra tells the sideshow freaks just what she thinks of them. Together, the freaks decide to make her one of their own."

- Written by garykmcd,IMDb

Upon research it has been said that the original version of this film was too shocking and controversial to be released. Some parts of the film are thought apparently 'lost', though it hasn't been definitively proven. Even so, the film was still negatively reviewed and made a loss of $164,000 (approxiamately £106,168.33). As the film was thought to be overly exploitative it had been banned in the UK for 30 years. 

The film found its controversy not only to the topic this looks upon but to certain scenes. For example, the character 'Hercules' was shown in the original ending to be castrated. The other character 'Cleopatra' "becomes a grotesque, squawking "human duck". The flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet, her legs have been cut off and what is left of her torso has been permanently tarred and feathers."
 - (description from wikipedia)

At the time the film was released many reviews stated that the film did not appeal to anyone, ergo its failure as a movie. This being said, a person has to consider whether if the film would've had more success if it were a modern film. The topics in this film would have more of an impact to the asynchronous viewers than to the contemporary viewers as people with disabilities was not something of the norm in the era this film was made in. 

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Audience survey - Black Mist Productions: Horror films

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P2 - First group meeting

In the first group meeting me and my group have decided the genre of our film will be "gothic" and came up with a rough storyline of our film which includes teenage school kids and the issue of bullying. 

We've came up with the story of a young teenage girl aged 15-17 witnessing a particular student being bullied. During the course of witnessing bullying in and out of her school she becomes interested in black magic. One day the bullies pushes the limit and the girl (lead character) decides to try black magic to inflict pain on the bullies. It works but the actions she makes reverts back to her. 

In order to keep the storyline within the genre we have researched the mise-en-scene to keep the gothic element. For this we looked at costumes and makeup to which we have decided to look for a prosthetic makeup artist to help with the look of certain characters.