How Research has Impacted our Ideas

Key Genre Conventions

D.I.S.T.I.N.C.TDon’tIgnoreSettingTechnicalIconographyNarrativeCharacterisationThemes

Research is an incredibly important aspect when creating products. One of the first pieces of research that we conducted was looking at the key genre conventions of horror. This is incredibly important as we are producing a horror trailer. This means we need to fit the typical conventions of that genre, if not we would not be creating a trailer in the correct genre.

For example we found that setting is often used to create an uneasy feel, often empty places are used to make the audience feel more alone. This later impacted our decisions as we decided that part of our film would talk place in a woods, with examples of films using this setting, such as The Blair Witch Project. We also found through research that both non-diegetic and diegetic sound is very important in horrors as they are used to build suspense and create an eerie atmosphere. Looking iconography we found that lighting also holds an important part, most horror films are filmed with dark lighting, again to create that mysterious element making the audience feel scared. Dark lighting can create shadows, as well as limiting the view, from this we decided we would film in darker lighting. As well as this we found that props are used hugely in horror films, these are usually some form of weapon and so we decided we would incorporate this into our film.

From knowing what the key genre conventions are we are able to make sure that our film is going to fit the genre correctly to then fit an audience.

NarrativeFrom researching narrative I have found that there are several different theories that relate to texts. These include the Classical Hollywood Theory by Todorov which looks at having a timeline of events that must fit into the set blocks, starting with an equilibrium, then there being a disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to fix and then reinstatement of the equilibrium. Vladimir Propp also looked at another part of narrative stating that there are 8 character types, hero, villain, princess, princess’s father, helper, donor, dispatcher and false hero. This theory I feel doesn’t look close enough at narrative theory as we aren't learning about the actual narrative events. There is also a theory looking at Binary Opposition introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss, for example natural/supernatural. And finally I looked at Bordwell and Thompson who said that narrative is defined as “a chain of events in cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”.

By having an understanding of these we could then put the narrative theories into existing horror films allowing us to see what type of narrative theory is used frequently and apply this to our text.

Classical Hollywood Theory - TodorovCharacter Types- Vladimir ProppBinary Opposition - Claude Levi-

StraussTime and Space- Bordwell and

Thompson

RepresentationThere are several different theories to representation. Through the research that I conducted I have found several different theories. These include - Jeremy Tunstall

- He looked into gender representation saying there are four main roles for women, domestic, consumer, marital and sexual. With women often having actions emphasised to represent whether they are housewives, mothers or sexual objects.

- Carol Clover- She also looked into gender representation saying that females aren't always

seen as damsels in distress but can also fight back, creating the ‘Final Girl Theory’.

- Mulvey- His theories is known as ‘The Male Gaze’ looking at how camera angles are used

to objectify women and men are the subjects looking at the women.

I conducted further research into this by looking at the film The Cabin In The Woods. Through research we could see that these theories can be applied to several different horror films and are something to take into consideration while coming up with our film idea.

Audience and Institutions

To get an understanding of how an audience can be attracted to films I looked at the film The Woman In Black and conducted some research. Every film needs an audience, and the company and institutions are the ones that need to reach out, to entice them. From research I found that there is a primary audience as well as a secondary audience. Many elements come into gathering a specific audience, this can include actors, advertising, age rating etc. While a secondary audience is slightly less specific for example it may just be horror film enthusiasts.

Institutions are a huge part of distributing and marketing the film. Different institutions have different budgets for the film therefore effecting how much marketing can be done to advertise the film and reach out to an audience. For example a huge amount of marketing went into the film The Woman In Black, with a huge variety of platforms covered as well as the marketing lasting a year.  

Audience and Institutions

We conducted our own audience research by creating an online questionnaire. This enables us to share the link via social media, getting a young audience to complete it. This enables us to get a better understanding of what they like and think about our idea. This is useful research as we can then aim at the correct audience as we know what they like and want out of a horror film. We found that the audience go the cinema frequently and usually in small groups. As well as this we found that they often go see films as they are interested in the plot. This is important for us as we don’t have famous actors and a marketing budget, so we need to push the plot of the film. Several people also said that they liked the idea of our plot and would go see it, if not wait for DVD release.