Today we have developed our main film task further comparing different scripts and analysing relevant film openings such as Blair Witch Project. We found even though the film was shot on a low budget (as ours would have to be) it was able to reach a very wide main-stream audience, using amateur/shaking camera work created a real sense of realism allowing the viewer to become engrossed. As this film was such a success we have decided to create a low budget horror film opening. We decided to create a questionnaire to enable us to determine who our target audience would be and what different conventions they would prefer in a horror film.
"Media Studies Questionnaire
1. What is your D.O.B? ……………………………………………………………………………………
2. What is your gender (please circle)? Female Male
3. Do you attend formal education? ……………………………………………………………
4. Do you have a full time job? ……………………………………………………………………..
5. How often do you view films (please circle)? Everyday or more At least once a week, At least twice a month, Monthly, Less than once a month
6. How do you view films (please circle)? D.V.D Download Video Cinema T.V
7. What is your preferred genre of film (please circle)? Action Adventure Comedy Crime&Gangster Drama Epic/Historical Horror Musicals
ScienceFiction War Western
7. What sounds do you associate with horror films? ………………………………...
8. What props do you associate with horror films? ……………………………………
9. Do you prefer a horror film to have a realistic story line or a serial story line? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
10. What is your all time favourite horror film at the moment? ……………….."
(our questionnaire)
The results showed that on average:
14-25 year old females and males in either full time education or full time employment were most likely to choose to see our horror film thus being our target audience. However, many other respondents that were not in full time education or employment would also consider viewing a horror film suggesting class will not effect our target audience. We found that the majority of our respondents viewed films through d.v.d's this indicates that if our film was released it would probably make more after box office through d.v.d sales. The most common sounds and props associated with horror films we found were, low foreboding tones as well as high pitched sudden squeals (most probably from 'psycho') screaming was also a common answer. Props such as knifes were the most common answers. The all time favourite horror film from our research was the 'exorcist', 'saw' also was rated highly. Although the evidence from our research suggests our target audience and their expectations, it is important to acknowledge that we only asked around 50 random people most of whom were under the age of 20 thus our research may not be as representative as we thought so we are unable to draw valid generalisations from it.
Today we completed our story board, shot list, sound script and script. We went into the attic (location) and ensured all our desired shots were achievable however, due to space and clutter some angles and shots had to be changed in order to achieve a steady shot. We then went about organising our playground location, we decided on a local primary school, ' The Duke of Norfolk' (on church street) http://www.dukenor
folk.derbyshire.sch.uk/ as it is located next to a church and graveyard which we thought would really contribute to the eary atmosphere we wanted to create. We rang the school and the headteacher allowed us to use the playground on Sunday 28th Feburary. We then discussed the issue of casting children that would be allowed to appear in our extract and decided the simplist solution was to use friends and relatives, we were able to cast five children and one main young girl (Emma Lilly) who would play a main role as the spirit. 
