Official Film Poster

Official Radio Trailer

Official Film Product

Q1 Evaluation

Q2 Evaluation

Q3 Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We first interviewed two individuals to find out about the general view, likes and dislikes of horror films. The two individuals we interviewed was asked specific questions that helped us tailor and generalize what kind of horror our audience would likely to be attracted to. One of the individuals did not like horror however; this still was an advantage to us as they still have an expectation of horror films and how they think what is a good horror.  This method was effective as we got qualitative data giving us depth detailed information.

Questions:

§  Do you horror films?

§  What horror genre do you prefer?

§  Where would you prefer a horror film to be located? Options given

§  Do you prefer Horror films set a night-time or day time?

§  Do you prefer a female or male lead role?

§  Likes and dislikes of horror films?

§  Horror based on a true story?

The two individuals came from an E-D demographic background as they still are studying and not working yet. They are both 17 years old. We found from the interview that the 1^st individuals (a) who doesn’t like horror prefers horror that’s is NOT based on a true story but the second individual (b) who does like it as it gives life to the horror film knowing its true and can happen again.  A did not like a older lead role as she tends to find it scarier however B thinks it is better as it gives the film more seriousness. Both again, had oppositional answers to who they prefer in a lead role, male or female, preferred time of day etc. through this we found that though they are from the same age group, class and ethnicity they both have oppositional views of Horror, so this makes us realize that many would also have factors they dislike and like, so we need to be able to counter these and balance it. So we filmed during daytime going into dark giving both audiences their preference. The lead role is female, as we want to go against the conventions and have a young adult actress.

Steve Neale’s argues that ‘genres are instances of repetition and differences ‘ which I agree with the way we identify a genre is the repetitions of conventions constantly coming up in films. Repetition allows the audience to identify the conventions and stop and think, this is an ‘x genre’. This is seen in Sakkaku, with the mad doctor, as the disturbed insane people always tend to have calm outside appearance but its what’s in their head that makes them disturbed and pyscho highlighting the psychological genre. Also the use of mise –en-scene, with the costumes, the doctor is wearing a white long jacket, which the audience can straight away identify, that the character is the doctor. You could also repeat genres but use them in a different way however, he also states ‘difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre’. Having the same old story line or convention can bore the audience as they will feel they have seen this type of film before, or the ending is so predictable why to bother watching. The audience in the beginning of the film may have thought that the girl was running away from the doctor as the flashback gives hints to what she has been through and may have escaped however, to twist the narrative it was then revealed that she was actually running away from a person who looks exactly like her, her illusion. Which is unexpected for the audience-creating enigma. But without having this repetition or similarities it would not meet the audience expectations of a horror film as seeing the key conventions come up in the horror genre may classify to the audience that this is what a horror film should be like at this is what makes a good horror film.

To finish this we again asked the same questions using Twitter. Twitter has a new update where you can now use voting polls so we took this to our advantage. We found that the audience on Twitter is more open to whether they want a female or male lead role, as they voted they preferred any and it did not matter. The most popular genre was psychological and the majority liked horror and voted horror based on a true story. I chose to use this method as web.20 and internet is widely used by everyone and a lot of my target audience aged 15-21+ uses social media sites such as Twitter, thus we have more successful on finding out what kind of horror they prefer and what they think so we could take this information in and use it to our advantage. Furthermore, we are able to reach a larger audience from different demographics as twitter isn’t limited to one region and we collect quantitative data from the polls giving us numerical data which is much more easy and less time consuming to generalize.

I also used Twitter for other purposes such as Audience feedback from Poster, and discussed with one member of my audience on marketing strategies and campaigns. Giving me an insight of what they think is a good way to approach them. From this I found that radio wasn’t popular among my target audience however, the audience still had through ways to audio ads through the use of Sportify and Soundcloud ad breaks, which allow brands to promote and send messages to the audience. This feedback was effective as it gave me an alternative way to distribute my radio instead of AM/FM.

As for Poster feedback, I again used the poll and twitter quotes to get both qualitative and quantitative data. From this the feedback I have got was that the layering of the image o

f the tree branches on the face was something unique and appealing to the eye, which stood out the most, however, the institutional information front was too slanted and small that it was not readable at all. I was than able to make effective improvements to my poster.

Survey Monkey was a great way of getting feedback and information from our audience as it allowed us to create questionnaires surveys and simply email the link. It also was less time consuming as after analyzing the results it automatically puts in colourful neat graphs. We found that 57% of our audience again preferred psychological horror, however no one voted for scientific horror. Although when researching genre, I found that John Hartley notes that ‘the same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times’. Connoting that text often exhibits the conventions of more than one genre and genre is not fixated. This is supported in my film; my film is a hybrid genre involving of psychological and scientific horror. As Hartley noted that the same text can belong in different genres, I started my film off as a psychological horror as it was the most popular choice among my target audience, the narrative is about a foreign student running away from someone, and the after effects of the experiment is play tricks on him so he is having illusions but found in my narrative elements of scientific horror genre which had the same conventions from psychological horror genre. For example, there is a flashback of the protagonist under hostage by an unqualified ‘doctor’ who is experimenting with illegal unknown drugs on the protagonist. It highlights the scientific horror as it is in a patient room and the doctor conducting an experiment highlights the scientific horror genre. Furthermore, elements of the psychological horror genre may be seen differently and status as a scientific horror in other countries, for example, in a lot of psychological and scientific genres, often the focus is on the character's inner struggle dealing with technological forces, health etc. but in another country, it may be only seen to fit the scientific genre as there is a lot of elements of ‘technological forces’, or alien invasion, experiments etc. ignoring the ‘character’s inner struggle’ or ‘health’ which supports the psychological genre key focus is the abnormal psychological states of its characters. It may fit the psychological genre in our society but may not universally.  So even though scientific horror was not a popular choice it still already had elements of it in psychological genre. So my audience have their preferred genre but also one that wasn’t voted for.

100% of our audience preferred a female lead, challenging the convention of horror. Majority did not want the villain to be revealed which was a technique that created enigma for the audience, however, instead of not revealing the villain at all we decided to reveal the villain half way to arrest the enigma till end, so the audience preferred option was still kept in mind. More than half preferred silence than any ambient sound. This preference was quite risky considering we don’t have any dialogue but we still managed to have a eerie quiet soundtrack; We also asked if they preferred flashbacks or flash-forwards, a few said no and the rest preferred flashbacks only. Having flashbacks in our film gave us a strong narrative as the audience can pick up more background information. This feedback helped us construct our narrative to the best ability of our ideas and the audience preferences.

At the editing stage it was crucial to get feedback, as we wanted to get the best outcome as possible. We had two individuals who watch our raw footage of our film Sakkaku. The feedback given was really helpful and was needed as we found that some aspects of our narrative was unclear e.g. the flashback of doctor injecting the protagonist and the stabbing scene, due to this vital information it led us to again film those scenes making sure that the audience understand the narrative. So it gave us a chance to go back and redo some scene that we thought needed improving or need more action.

We had 3 posters which was annotated and analysed by the audience which pushed us to construct our final as we found that many identified the conventional horror posters which they prefer and also the close up of the eye was the most popular as it was not only conventional but it related to our narrative which is based on illusion. Our poster is open to interpretations as many of our audience expressed different things about the image. One of the individuals said that it reveals some aspects of our narrative as the image displayed of the overlapped tree branches and face reveals the different routes and connotes veins, they eye give the connotation of an illusion and linked to mind, the way the mind is linked through the eye. The colours although was said to be more lighter on the branches and skin. The Japanese characters was said to be favourable however, the institutional information was not readable due to the front ‘universal’ however, we wanted to use this front as it is conventional. This feedback helped us improve our poster to a better quality and construct more ideas where we can really bring out our editing skills and make it unique.

My group and I pitched our ideas to individuals that work in the industry in order to gain critical feedback. Film score composer, Callum Macintosh and documentary cinematographer and editor at the BBC, Niraj Chag  gave us feedback such as that our storyline is too complicated as our storyline is a student being randomly picked to be kidnapped as one of mad doctors experiments which took place in japan, however this is not shown but the kidnapping is suggestive as the protagonist shows signs of struggle when waking up in a lab room through the shots of the flashback. The present narrative then takes place in the UK, where the protagonist is free from the chaos but the time and day from the escape is not revealed, as we want our film open to interpretation, having an active audience think out our film. What Callum and Niraj did not understand was how the film background is based in japan but the present in the UK, as it is like the narrative has something to do with teleportation.

Another point that was mentioned was that the narrative has no climax or build up, which we also agree with. We took these feedback into account and then as a group had another meeting. As a group we decided to clear up the narrative, we went through multiples of stages of changing our story completely until coming back to the original, and have only one female actor. The story line is based on illusions so to create a build up we decided to have the actor play both protagonist and antagonist, only to reveal the antagonists face at the very end, arresting enigma. We also decided to not include any Japanese background to it, as it was too ambitious giving the fact we had no Japanese actors but we still continued to use Japanese horror conventions as part of our research as we wanted to challenge conventions. 

As a group we discussed what kind of title opening we want for our film Sakkaku and we came up with two ideas. One idea we have is a shot similar to our ending of the tree swaying capturing the sky and the detailed branches; we could pan the camera for a swaying effect. We decided to have intercuts of the title interrupting the scene until a voice appears whispering "Sakkaku" which is very conventional in Japanese horror. This is also like a loop of the beginning to end. Another idea we have is having our character running through Epping Forest and capture shots of her behind trees, running. And then edit it creating jump cuts to make it look one moment she's behind the tree, the next she is gone, then she running and then she's suddenly in front of the camera, this will build up a lot of tension as the camera work and editing will include a lot of fast pace, slow pace, long and short cuts. More enigma is built as through these scene we will have intercuts of the title scenes e.g. first clip of the protagonist running and then interrupts the title "A VUmagine Productions presents...” As we the title interrupts, the audience will be eager to see what happens, as they would want to know what happens next. We will then end in the character close up on camera whispering "Sakkaku".

We explained the two ideas for our title to a individual and asked for their feedback, and what they think is a better option...

The first idea of having the camera whip pan the trees, worms eye view was favored the most, the individual said that it seemed like a loop of the ending scene which connotes the action happening like a cycle. And that of we had an heavy breathing of the protagonist as she is dying it will make it more tense however, contrast with the soothing ambient sound of the outside. Also, we got an idea of how we can introduce the title by having the title in sync with breathing as if the words appear and float away with the breathing pace. The second idea, we was told that there is a possibility of having too much going on at the beginning as the opening scene also uses the same editing technique and it may all look too much for the audience to wrap their heads around, However, the whisper of "Sakkaku" was praised as it is a j-horror convention. However, due to short of time, we couldn’t do any of the followings, but we had a black screen with the titles springing off one by one.

Q4 Evaluation

Mind Map created by Husna Badsha with GoConqr

Updated Logo

P: Draft Radio Trailer

P: Audience Feedback 2 for Radio Trailer

P: Hanna

I researched about the film Hanna, a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the skills of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

 I solely looked at sound. which consisted of an innocent dream-pop genre of music, oriental and a heavy, thumping electronic style of music. This mix creates the effect of a fairy tale with a darker side. Additionally the music is applied only at particular scenes and for the most part is used sparingly throughout with character themed tracks. The mix of such a hard electronic soundtrack with a visually pleasing film creates a film that is universally enjoyable to experience.

 

Hanna Soundtrack by Chemical Brothers was highly influential to our soundtrack for our film Sakkaku. At first we had sounds such as darker synthesisers which set the atmosphere. The layered beats and ominous sounds created a haunting feeling although it was simple and mostly electronica but the sound kept going down making the audience think silence is coming but then is interrupted by an eerie electronic beat. There is also an involvement of whispers that wavers into the sound, connoting the mind games played out in our film. 

We got a group of people that sat down and watched our film and asked us to give us feedback on what they think about the sound. The first set was that one of our audience actually said themselves that after watching our film they thought of the Hanna OST by Chemical Brothers which also had influence by Japanese Music. In our radio trailer there is like a small second of a oriental bell sounds which was similar to the soundtrack Hanna's theme song. which is an calm yet oriental sound giving off a strong Japanese vibe. It includes many overlapped chimes, humming, bells, synthesisers which is similar to our film soundtrack also. The music overall is gentle.

Another sound that influenced our soundtrack and trailer is Bahnof Rumble, which starts off with a ticking electronica beat that builds up with an eerie sound. The sound mid way paces up this influenced our radio trailer of having a normal pace sound until theres silence and the sound then goes daunting and booming with face pace beats.

Other feedback was that the music complimented the scenes as when we had the running and flashback scenes, the sounds suitably faded in and out in place and the daunting eerie sound gave more of a narration to the development of the film as we have no dialogue

final script

SAKKAKU SCRIPT

Doctor pov:

Doctor humming a tune  

Sound of tap turning, hands washing and drain gurgle

Sound of the victim struggling but is faint and muffled

Footsteps towards the sound of the victim

             “Shhh”

Heart beat sound bridges to the sound of headphones with music playing

Ambient sound of streets night and footsteps

Protagonist pov: headphones in music playing and then it plugged up ambient sound increases

            “Who’s there?”

Headphones back in with music playing interrupted by muffled sounds and screams along with a glitch static effect.

Ambient sound of a police station office

Policeman:

            “There’s a rumor about a woman, a mad scientist that’s been trying to get her drugs tested legally”

Policewoman:

              “What do you mean legally?”

Policeman:

                “She tested her drug on a volunteer but luckily the victim lived to tell the

                 story. Its effect of the drugs that makes it illegal, unknown substances”

Policewoman:

                 “What happened to her?”

Policeman:

                  “She was drugged and when she woke up she said she could see herself.  

                    Weird thing was, when we interviewed her, she kept on saying “there

                    Is no end to an illusion… except you””

Policewoman:

                   “No end to an illusion except you…”

Silence

Overlay of both Policies voices but at the end only the females voice is a whisper.

Footsteps running in the woods and heavy breathing and ambient sound

Faint whispering sound and plug in sound effect

Knife slash heard with a female grunt and unstable breathing

Last breath is drawn out for 3 seconds as a female whispering voice

                   “ Sakkaku”

Plug in glitch effect as the female whispers “Coming Soon’

P: Sound

 As I continued my research on Sound associating with horror i came across an interesting question which i thought was worth sharing.

 The video you can see above... did we implement these instruments in horror/thriller movies because we find the noise unnerving. Or do we find the sounds unnerving because we associate these sounds with the horror genre? 
This made me think as these certain sounds alone would may not have such an scary impact on us if it wasn't for the association with the scary moving image. However, these sounds are strange which really can't be related to anything realistic so It may be the issue that the enigma comes from the unknown of the sounds which highlights the enigma in the scenes.
 Relating to Sakkaku, we have no dialogue and the flashback scenes are silent. So sound has a huge impact on our production as this will allow us to use sound to our fullest ability as the enigma will not only come from the scenes but the sound. Sounds like synthesisers keys and bells may give off an eerie and unsettling feeling as when we hear these sounds it rings our ears which can make use more terrified when seeing a scene build along with the sound. Furthermore, discussing the issue of these sounds being associated with horror, it is very conventional to have these sounds so when the audience hears these certain sounds they would already figured that it is a horror and something in the scene will happen.

R: Alfred Hitchcock Theories of Film Editing

Alfred Hitchcock's 3 theories of film editing shows us the ways in which we can manipulate a simple scene into a completely different interpretation. for example, the cutting or as he says the assembly method taking an image to another scene. This gives me ideas of how I can be creative with my editing as I can manipulate the scenes especially when producing a Psychological Thriller/Horror as I can play around with the characters thoughts and state of reality just by simply cutting scenes and suddenly placing a jump cut to another scene.

P: studio

In the studio working on sound with my group and Niraj