Audience Analysis

What age bracket do you fit into?

90% of the people I questioned were in the age bracket of 11 to 20. I did this intentionally because this age group is the target audience for my film. I surveyed the other 10% for a difference in opinion and results.

What gender are you?

The gender of the person may be slightly irrelevant to the overall decision making on my film. However, I tried to survey both males and females to compare whether gender affected the type of films they enjoyed best. 70% were female and 30% were male.

What genre of movie is your favourite?

30% of the people questioned liked Rom-Com’s best out of many different genres of movie. All the people who answered Rom-Com in the questionnaire were females, this is no surprise. Next in line were Fantasy and War with 20% each. However, Horror, the genre of my movie got only 5% of the total number. This is disappointing, but I will consider adding some traits of other genres to make it more appealing to the mass.

What elements do you think makes a good movie?
There were many answers to this question, some were interesting. However, the answers that kept popping up were an unpredictable plot, suspense and a good cast. In my movie I will build suspense with music. Also, I will provide the best cast I can because I will choose people who are as enthusiastic as I am. Hopefully, this will achieve the results required.

Where do you prefer to watch movies?

After conducting my survey, the answer that was most popular was the cinema, with a massive 55% of the overall answer tally. It is interesting because that people like to see movies as quickly as possible and enjoy it as a group. Hopefully my movie will be shown in a similar way to a group of people. Just not on a scale of the same size.

For a horror movie what would be your preferred setting?

Both a ‘hospital’ and ‘in the forest/woods’ are the highest preferred locations for a horror movie with 30% each. This is good for me because my movie will be set in a woodland area. Hopefully, along with the content, this will attract viewers.

Do you mind subtitles?

The reason I asked this question this was because I am hoping to use subtitles in my film. I was curious to see people’s reaction to subtitles. 80% of the people questioned answered that they didn’t mind subtitles. This has encouraged me to use subtitles in my film.

Do you think that a good cast makes a good film?

My results showed that every person questioned as part of my survey believed that a good cast makes a good film. I will go out of my way to try and cast people in my film who create the correct mood and are as enthusiastic as I am about making the film. Hopefully, this will come across on the screen.

Music Research

Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
(Don’t Fear) the Reaper was written was released in 1979 by rock band Blue Oyster Cult as part of their 4th album, ‘Agents of Fortune’. The song was written and composed by, lead guitarist, Donald Roeser. The song is built up around a simple guitar riff that use minor chord shapes to build tension and create a spooky sound that is recognisable to this day.

The songs sound mirrors the lyrics. “The reaper” is a reference to the grim reaper, a traditional symbol to death in European folklore. Also, lyrics such as "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity" have led many listeners to interpret the song to be about a murder-suicide pact. However, the composer denies these claims. This symbol of death mirrors one of the characters in my movie who is a similar character to the grim reaper.
Since the release in 1979, the song has been used in numerous horror movies, such as. Halloween, Halloween 2, Zombieland, Scream and The Stand. This has prompted me to believe that it is a suitable song to use in the opening of a horror movie. Also, the song actually is very catchy, gets the audience attention and makes them remember the picture.


Metallica – Enter Sandman
‘Enter Sandman’ featured as the opening track on Metallica’s famous album ‘The Black Album’. Metallica are known worldwide for their grunge sounding, heavy guitar licks and hard rock attitude and style. The song was produced by Bob Rock, and the music was written by Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, and James Hetfield. Vocalist and guitarist Hetfield wrote the lyrics, which deal with the simplest concept of a child's nightmares.


The song is supposed to tell a story of a child’s nightmare with the stereotypical Sandman. During the music video a child is seen reciting a prayer whilst being overlooked by ‘The Sandman’. The music video as a whole conjoins with the lyrics perfectly and really paints an image of the story.
The music itself also contribute to the feeling of suspense with a repeating riff throughout which gradually grows in texture up to the height of the song; the chorus. This is just the type of music that could be used in my film to create suspense and tension.

Movie Research

The Shining
The movie is about a novelist known as Jack Torrance. He applies for a job interview as a winter caretaker at an old but beautiful hotel called Overlook Hotel. During his interview Jack is told by the Manager that the previous caretaker was driven insane and killed all of his family. Despite this warning, Jack brings his wife (Wendy) and son (Danny) along to stay over winter. As the movie goes on, it becomes apparent that Danny has a mysterious power described as “the Shining”. The power gives him visions about the past and future. The hotel cook warns him about room 237 supposedly being extremely sinister and scary. The visions Danny gets gradually get more and more strange and eventually sinister. In his visions he views deaths of past employees of the hotel dying. Meanwhile, Jack is being driven to insanity just like the previous caretaker. Wendy realises that Jack might try and kill them, similarly to the story of the previous caretaker. The only thing that can save Danny and Wendy from their deranged sibling is “the Shining”.



Dawn of the Dead
The sequel to “Night of the Living Dead”, the film is set a few weeks after the prequel, it is a zombie epic. In the city of Philadelphia, USA, two TV station workers (Steven and Francine) make the decision to run because of the worsening situation with the zombie attacks. They meet with two policemen (Roger and Peter). Then the four steal the TV stations helicopter and fly west. After a while they decide to take vacancy in a mega-mall in Monroeville. On arrival they clear the undead and board up all the windows and doors. Soon afterward, they have even heavier problems to worry about, as a large gang of bikers discovers the mall and invades it, ruining the survivors' best-laid plans and forcing them to fight off both lethal bandits and flesh-eating zombies.



Joshua
In Manhattan, the successful stockbroker Brad Cairn and his beautiful wife Abby are celebrating their newborn daughter Lily in their new fancy apartment with Brad's mother Hazel and Abby's brother, the artist Ned Davidoff. Their extremely intelligent and talented nine year-old son Joshua is feeling neglected and jealous of Lily, trying to attract more attention from his parents and relatives. Joshua becomes gradual jealously, that his parents give the baby more attention than him. Therefore he begins to terrorize his family. In the end he drives his father insane and at the end of the movie Brad loses it and beats his child senseless in front of everyone at a local park.