research

1. Research
Your Name

2. Existing Product
Cam closer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwp4NjBybVc
In this short film, I girl is
trying to take an aesthetic
photo of some tea and
apple when she realizes
that the apple has
disappeared in the shot
eve though its sitting on
the plate. She walks
around to see what else is
new in her new feature
and finds a dead woman
on the floor, the dead
woman gets dragged to
the bedroom in which the
girl follows. She puts the
phone up again to see a
girl climbing from under
her bed. She puts the
phone down to see a
ghost of a woman with
pure white eyes
screaming in her face
adding a horrific jump
scare to the piece
What I like about this film is that the creator
has built up the tension to the final jump
scare at the end of the short film. The way
that the story went from a missing apple to a
girl coming out from under the bed is well
done an makes the final product scarier. This
has given me inspiration to build up tension
in my short film and I think that the product
would look better instead of just doing
constant jump scares throughout.
Even though silence
can be scarier, I felt
like this short film
could have been
better if music was
added. Adding even
a simple tune in the
background of the
short film, the
dramatic tension
would increase
because people
realize something
bad is going to
happen when the
music rises and
makes them more on
edge. This has helped
me in what I'm going
to do for my short
film and how to
execute it to the
fullest potential.

3. Existing product: cam closer
• The room they have used in this short film looks like a
one person apartment like a university apartment
which is a good symbol to show that the girl is by
herself when the events of the short film occur. The
lighting in the room is dim and dark with the light
source coming from lamps and not from the lights in
the ceiling. This is to give a dark vibe to this horror film
and the creator has done well with using this factor.
The main prop is the phone which shows all the creepy
assets in the film that build up the final jump scare. The
use of the apple is effective as It Is the object that
makes the girl realize that her phone shows her what is
like a different dimension.

4. Existing Product
Lights out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQhNGEu2KA
The story of this short
film is that whenever
the girl turns off her
light a mysterious figure
of a woman is at the
end of the corridor
and when she turns it
on the figure is gone.
She gets freaked out
and puts tape on the
switch to keep the light
on but when she goes
to bed she can hear the
tape being taken off and
the light goes out. The
lamp starts to flicker
then all stops. The girl
looks around to see
then light in the
corridor turned back on
but when she looks at
the lamp, a scary
woman appears and
turns the light off.
What I like about this short film is that the
editing for when the light turns on and off and
when the woman appears is clean and gives a
really good effect to the story. this effect also
helps with the scare factor when the girl turns
the light off and the mysterious figure changes
positions and moves closer to the girl. I also like
he jump scare at the end of the film and how
this jump scare was planned out and executed.
What I don’t like about
the short film is that
they don’t use a lot of
build up to the first
and final jump scare. If
they used a build up
like only seeing the
figure in the corner of
her eye at the
beginning the
audience would have a
sense of curiosity of
what the girl is not
seeing and then it
leads to what is in the
short film now. I think
that what I have seen
and not seen in this
short film is really
going to help me with
what I'm going to do
for my short film when
I plan the project in
pre production.

5. Existing product: lights out
• The location in this short film is the same as the
last pre existing product as both films are made
by the same creator. The use of the lighting is the
main assets that brings all the jump scares in this
short film as when the light is on the figure isn't
there but when the light is off a jump scare
happens. The .lighting used is dark due to the
plot being set at night time and the girl is getting
ready for bed. The use of the lamp when it
flickers brings a lot of the scare factor as it gets
the audience tense about if the lamp is going to
turn off and the figure returns.

6. Existing ProductDon’t look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl3VkF84lFo
The story of this
short film is that a
boy is looking in the
mirror and realizes
hat his eyes in his
reflection are pure
white. He closes his
eyes with his hands
and sees in the gaps
of his fingers that his
reflection has
completely vanished.
He covers the mirror
with a shirt but a
hand reaches out of
the mirror. He looks
into another mirror
and sees that his
eyes fade into pure
white and whatever
was in the mirror has
possessed him
What I like about this short film is the types
on camera shots they use in it. The
introducing shot was a moving pan where
the camera comes into the room and
focuses on the main character looking in
the mirror. The shots in this short film has
inspired me and will help me when I do my
shot list and storyboard. I also liked the use
of music to add tension to the film
Although the shot types
are really good, I don’t like
how the creator of the
short film has put loads of
shots into it. Near the end
of the short film the
character puts his hand on
the mirror and looks at
himself. There are 7 shots
of him doing this from
different angles before the
final jump scare. Although
it may build up the
tension, using 7 shots of
the same thing felt
unnecessary. Although this
is a factor that needs to be
improved on, I think the
concept and the assembly
of shots and music worked
and has inspired me in
what I want to put into my
short film

7. Existing product: don’t look
The use of the mirror in this short film is one of the elements that will
help me with my short film. The fact that the character realizes that his
reflection looks different than him makes for a creepy plot and the
shot where the hand is reaching out of the mirror makes the product
more scarier. I'm not a fan of the location used in this short film. The
rooms seem small and cramped and I think the short film would of
looked better if they used a room which was bigger and had more
space for the character to move around. I don’t like to use of the
lighting in this short film. The lighting comes from the lights on the
ceiling and the lamps and the curtains closed so there are no outside
light reaching into shot. This does make the scenes darker but the shot
is a orange yellow color so they could of color graded the shot to look
darker by adding blue tones in to add to the atmosphere

8. Existing Product
Closet space:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fje6_ou5RY
The story of this short film is
that a girl is moving into a new
house and puts a coat hanger
in a cupboard. When she
closes the door she hears
rattling coming from the
cupboard. She opens the door
to see that the coat hanger has
duplicated. She opens and
closes the door continually to
see that the coat hangers keep
on multiplying. She tries the
same thing with a creepy doll
and it happens again. She then
gets her partner and asks him
to go in the cupboard but
when she opens the door he is
gone. She goes in herself,
opens the door to be in her
house like she left it. she looks
around to see her partner on
the floor either unconscious or
dead. She looks around to see
a clone of herself hiding in the
kitchen then to be hit by a
clone of her partner, which is
where the short film ends.
I really like the sound effects in this
piece. The way the have used a noise
when the coat hangers are
duplicating adds to the short film
and the noise is what gets the girl
intrigued of what happened in the
cupboard. The sound captivates the
audience because it’s the soul sound
of the piece because they haven't
used any music soundtrack in the
background and doing this really
helped the piece.
What I dislike about this
short film is that they don’t
use a wide range of shots.
Most of these shots are
basic still shots and don’t
explore with different
types of shots. Using shots
such as pan and zoom
shots would of increased
the technical quality of the
short film and would of
made the piece better. This
has taught me to be more
exotic with what I do with
each scene and shot.

9. Existing product: closet space
The use of the closet as the main prop is used well and
effective for this short film. It adds a lot to the plot giving
reason to items duplicating instead of the character walking
into the house and a copy of her is staring back at her. The use
of the location In this short film is also used well. The plot says
that the girl has moved into a new house makes sense for the
girl to be curious about the cupboard because if she stayed in
the same house she would of already new about it and the
events of the short film wouldn't of happened. The lighting in
this short film is bright light coming into the house from the
outside. I would of liked to see some color grading in this
piece to make the atmosphere more dark because in most
horror films, the jump scares and creepy events don’t usually
happen in broad daylight.

10. Techniques: split screen/cloning
• With this technique you take two videos
and merge them together. For example if
you wanted a video to look like you have a
twin you would film yourself on one side
and then do a different shot where your in
a different position and you would blend
them together. You can see this techniques
on you tube. Some youtubers, when they
are doing skits, would clone themselves
and play both of the characters if they
didn’t have anyone else to act out the role.
I have found a video on you tube on how
to do this technique and I will be using that
video and a couple more tutorials to
successfully use this technique. In my short
film I would use it when the girl looks in
the mirror and sees her evil twin standing
next to her.

11. Techniques: directional blur
• Directional blur is a transition where you
blur between shots. For this effect you put
an adjustment layer over the two clips you
want to transition. Then you are going to
put the directional blur onto that layer. You
then apply three key frames of the effect.
The first layer near the end of the first clip,
the middle key frame where the two clips
touch and the last key frame on where the
beginning of the second clip. With the
effect, the first key frame is put to 0, the
middle key frame is put up to whatever
number you want and the last key frame is
back to 0 to create the transition. I think I
would use this near the end of the short
film where the evil twin has taken over the
good twins life. I've looked at many tutorials
on you tube and I've found one which I am
going to use.

12. Techniques: basic audio effects
• Using audio effects and transitions is key to make a
short film successful. Especially with a horror film,
audio effects adds to the dramatic build and can help
with the scare factor when the creator uses jump
scares. I have learnt, looking at other horror films,
what kinds of sound effects to do throughout the
short film to make it effective. Usually for a horror
film, creators use a deep slow tune created on a piano
or a violin when the film isn't showing anything scary.
When the creator wants to build up a scene to make it
more dramatic, the instrument will play faster and
when there is a jump scare, if the instrument would
be a piano they would play a single chord but would
be a low chord and the volume would increase to help
with the scare factor. They would do the same with
strings but they might use a higher string. I will
definitely take this into consideration when creating
my short film. In my past projects, I feel like the audio
decreased the quality of the short film since there was
no dialogue or use of sound effects because I only
decided to use a track.

13. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
• Looking through my researched products, the majority of the pieces
don’t include a proper soundtrack with sound effects that
dramatizes the short film. They all though include good types of
shots in their short films which lets the audience explore the setting
and characters and what they are doing or saying.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your own
production work?
• I will definitely incorporate different styles of camera shots and use
of sound effects in my short film which I have gathered from the
research. Also, in the lights out short film, I will use similar editing
skills as they did when showing the woman when the light was
getting turned off and on again.

14. Questionnaire Analysis

15. Audience research
I posed this question because my short film will need to appeal to the biggest age
group. The statistics presented on the graph clearly states that the majority of my
target audience is of the ages sixteen to eighteen years. Most teenagers of this age
prefer films to be either of the horror or comedic genres. according to the British
boards of film classification, the film rating of 15 (which would be most suitable for
ages 16 and 17) says that the film can include strong threats and horror which is good
because I would like to include some basic threats towards the main character in my
short film.

16. Audience research
The reason why I asked this question because my short film would not fit to a
specific gender if the short film presented characteristics of the other gender.
looking at the statistics for the gender question from my survey, it is clear to
see that the majority of the answers come from the female gender. To fit the
suitability for this gender, I am going to add female stereotypical assets that
would appeal to them. For example, the main character is going to be a girl
and in the mirror she is going to be putting on makeup and doing her hair.

17. Audience research
I have decided to do a horror for the genre of the short film
but first I need to see if my audience like horror films. If not I
can change my idea to fit to the genre that they like. Looking
at the answers, most of my audience do like horror films, so
luckily I wouldn’t have to change the genre of the short film.

18. Audience research
It is alright knowing that my audience likes the genre of horror but I also need to know what kinds of
horror films people like. Also knowing what types of horror people enjoy the most can help me with
what kind of assets I can put into my short film by researching films that go under that specific kind of
horror film. The majority of the votes go under horror films that are psychological and ones that are
based on a true story or past event. There are tons of films that fall under these categories and will
defiantly create some inspiration for my short film. I also agree with the audience with their preference
of horror genre because I do like psychological horror films so this will help me with my short film
because I'm doing a genre of horror that both me and audience likes.

19. Audience research
The reason why I asked this question because if the audience tells me what
horror films that they have watched and enjoyed, I can look at those films and
see what techniques they used to create a good story and good jump scares.
Looking at the audience, there is a wide range of films. The films that occur
the most are films such as IT(2017), The conjuring, the ring, the woman in
black and poltergeist. All of these films that have been suggested in the
questionnaire are mostly supernatural and psychological films.

20. Audience research
I asked what the best setting is for a horror film because it will give me a
better understanding of what kind of setting I might se for my short film. The
majority of the answers suggest dark places such as a creepy forest or an
abandoned house. Based on the story of my short film, the setting I was going
to choose is a lot different to what my audience has suggested. The setting I
was going to go for was a bedroom in a normal house but with the right
effects I could make that setting darker to fit to the audiences demand.

21. Audience research
Why I have asked the audience what kind of horror films they don’t like is to see why
they didn’t like it. If they give me a good explanation why they didn’t like a specific
horror film, then I can make sure to not use those assets in order to suit the audience
and let them think positively about my short film. The majority of the responses given
said that they didn’t like a film because it was not realistic or that the film was to
graphic and gory. This is made it clear to see what I need to put in to my short film and
what not to do in order for the short film to be successful.

22. Audience research
My short film is about a supernatural twin that uses mirrors to scare and take
over the protagonist. I wanted to make sure that the audience would like that
concept or if they would of liked to see something different. Looking at the
statistics, it is clear to see that the majority do like the concept of using an
evil supernatural twin so luckily I can give the audience what they want whilst
doing what I want to do.

23. Audience research
One of the key aspects of my short film is that the protagonist only gets to the see the
evil twin through cameras and mirrors only until the very end of the short film where
the evil twin has come out of the mirror and is seen sitting on the bed when the
protagonist walks into the bedroom. I wanted to ask the audience what they think of
the use of mirrors in a horror film to see if they thought it was a good aspect to use in
a horror film. The responses said that the use of mirrors can give a really cool effect
and can build tension up in a horror film. I feel like if done correctly, I can create good
tension and general spookiness when I come to use mirrors in my short film

24. Audience research
If I were to create a horror film about an evil twin, I would want to know what kind of
age rating it would have so I would know what I can put in the short film and what I
cant. The audience say that they would give the short film an age rating of 15. I agree
with what the majority of the audience has said and it has given me a clear
understanding of what I can include in my short film and what I cant. This age rating
would also fit with my audience because the majority of the audience are at the age of
16-18 years old.

25. Interviews

26. Interview 1
• What kind of characters would you like to see in a horror film and why?
• I would like to see a female lead who is not in distress or needing saving.
• What basic horror plot scares you the most?
• The use of demonic spirts as I can imagine this happening in my day to day
life, and it scares me.
• Do you like a lot of jump scares or very little number of jump scares but
are built up?
• I like a lot of jump scares as its classic to the horror genre.
• Are you more into ghost horror such as paranormal activity or crime
horror such as the purge?
• Paranormal activity because I feel they are more scary and I enjoy
watching them.
• What kind of setting in a horror film interreges you into the story?
• I personally like horror houses because you can relate to a normal
household and imagine it happening to yourself.

27. Interview 1
• Observation: for this person, they prefer classic
supernatural horror films with lots of jump scares. They
prefer to have an independent woman as the protagonist
and a scary house for the main setting
• What this says about my audience: what this says about the
audience is that they prefer the supernatural kind to a
horror that is gory and bloody and would much rather see a
classic haunted house than a murder house or crime scene.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: my product
will appeal to this audience because my short film is going
to have supernatural qualities and will not have any kind of
violent or gory assets.

28. Interview 2
• What kind of characters would you like to see in a horror film and
why?
• Characters who are scared as this makes the threat seem real
• What basic horror plot scares you the most?
• Pyschological/Murderers
• Do you like a lot of jump scares or very little number of jump scares
but are built up?
• Very little
• Are you more into ghost horror such as paranormal activity or crime
horror such as the purge?
• Crime Horror as it is more relatable
• What kind of setting in a horror film interreges you into the story?
• A familiar setting that I could see myself in

29. Interview 2
• Observation: for person they prefer supernatural
horror films with realistic settings and reactions from
the characters and little jump scares
• What this says about my audience: this says that
although the audience do like big jump scares, they
also like the vibe to be realistic so the they can relate
with the characters
• How will your product appeal to this audience: my
product will appeal to these aspects because the
settings and characters im going to use are pretty
realsitic so the audience can see that this may happen
in real life and be more scared with the product.

30. Bibliography

31. Bibliography
1. Your, Name. (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on DATE)
2. Interviewees, Name. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on DATE)
• solasfilms. (2016). DONT LOOK - (short horror film). Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl3VkF84lFo. Last accessed 13/04/2018.
• Ponyshamer. (2013). Lights Out - Who's There Film Challenge
(2013).Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQhNGEu2KA. Last
accessed 13/04/2018.
• Ponyshamer. (2013). cam closer. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwp4NjBybVc. Last accessed
13/04/2018.
• JBHmedia. (2016). Cinematic Dystopian Color Grading: Adobe Premiere
Tutorial Film Look. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diKnt6WbEyQ. Last accessed 24/04/2018.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diKnt6WbEyQ