1. 5. How did you attract your
audience?
By Louis Piper
2. Preparation
• In preparation for our film, we created a questionnaire asking what
shots/music/editing and settings they'd expect to see in our film. This research
was designed to help us decide on how to make the best possible film for our
sub-genre and to judge whether our ideas matched the questionnaire audience's
response.
• We also analyzed similar films to our film so that we could include similar aspects
of a popular and successful supernatural horror film to allow us to attract our
audience and create a great movie conveying a clear genre and storyline.
3. Reviewing
• After exporting our film onto YouTube we produced a second questionnaire
asking the viewers of our film to review the film and answer questions on the
cinematography used and whether we conveyed a clear genre and plot.
• When we asked the recipients whether the genre matched the genre they first
judged everyone said yes. Moreover every recipient agreed with the assigned
certificate and our use of cinematography was additionally as successful. We did
receive some criticism however we took this as constructive and took as a
reference for our future horror films so that they can be as enticing as possible
for our whole target audience.
• Our results clearly showed that our film included the basics of a classic
supernatural horror film and conveyed a clear plot. Furthermore, 90% of our
survey participants said they would watch the film meaning that we had
produced a successful film that was appealing to our target audience.
4. Cinematography
• To convey the supernatural horror genre, we used music, costumes and shots to
present the ghostly, paranormal style to our film and produce a real creepy
horror film.
• The use of creepy, frightening music was present throughout the film and was
used to emphasize the fright factor of our scary films and to create an
uncomfortable and scary atmosphere throughout the opening sequence. Due to
not all of our shots being intense, frightening and ghostly we included pieces of
music throughout the film to convey the genre of the film and to create a scary
sequence.
5. Cinematography
• As for costume, due to the character Piper's death being an accident (that
could've been avoided) we dressed Kiera, the actress, in white to symbolize her
innocence. In addition to this, due to Piper being the ghost, her white dress
matched her character as the dress blew in the wind and creating the impression
of a ghost or spirit.
• In order to create a supernatural horror film and convey the genre we had to use
paranormal shots, our proudest and most effective ones were the edit where we
made Piper vanish just like a spirit and the shot of the burning pamphlet
suggesting a paranormal event caused by the ghost.
6. Audience Response
• In our questionnaire we asked the recipients to write a review for our sequence,
these reviews also helped evidence the success of our sequence.
- "I specifically enjoyed the flashback...and the special effects"
- "Great camera work and continuity making it engaging"
- "Really good editing and shots used"
- "Great use of music and sound to set the mood”
• The reviews praised our film and evidenced how our cinematography was
effective in creating a supernatural horror film that was gripping and engaging for
our target audience.
7. Constructive Criticism
• In terms of improvements, we received criticism that we took as constructive to
help us develop and even greater and more successful film next time. A reviewer
wrote that the certificate may need raising as someone of the scenes may be too
scary for our already chosen certificate. This at first was a surprise to us as we
believed the certificate was appropriate however they justified it by saying that
later on in the film the scenes may get scarier and therefore a higher certificate
may be required. Another reviewer noted that the scream in the ghost scene was
too loud, this may have been because a scream is a classic element of a horror
film so we must've over-exaggerated it too much and therefore made it too loud,
when reviewing our film after the feedback we agreed that the scream was too
loud and took volume on board as an improvement to be more closely looked at
next time.
