Impact of Research

2. D.I.S.T.I.N.C.T
Don’t
Ignore
Setting
Technical
Iconography
Narrative
Characterisation
Themes
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 asThe 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.

3. From researching narrative I have found that there are several different
theories that relate to texts. These include the Classical HollywoodTheory
byTodorov 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 andThompson 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
- Todorov
Character Types
- Vladimir Propp
Binary Opposition
- Claude Levi-Strauss
Time and Space
- Bordwell and
Thompson

4. There are several different theories to representation. Through the research that I conducted I have found
several different theories.These include
- JeremyTunstall
- 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 GirlTheory’.
- 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 filmThe Cabin InThe 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.

5. To get an understanding of how an audience can be attracted to films I looked at the filmTheWoman 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 filmThe Woman In Black, with a huge
variety of platforms covered as well as the marketing lasting
a year.

6. 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.