Focus group questionnaire

1. Do you like horror films?

2. What do you like to see in a horror film?

3.What is your opinion of witch horror films?

4. Can you give us feedback on our plot?

5. Do you think it is suitable for the age rating of 15?

6. Name a particular horror film you like and what your favourite part of it is?

7. Do you like dialogue within a film opening or just background music?

8. Have you seen American Horror Story: Coven, The Blaire Witch Project or The Craft before? If you have, what is your opinion of any of them?

9.Would this film opening make you want to carry on watching?

10. Any additional comments?

Questionnaire feedback from mary lawson

Main Influences

The main influence for our film opening was American Horror Story: Coven. We liked the idea of the characters being dressed head to toe in black, it took a twist on the stereotypical idea of a witch with ragged hair and warts, and took a modern take on it. We hoped by making it modern that audiences would be able to relate to it and connect to the media product.

Our opening will be filmed in a forest, much like some of the clips in the opening of AHS. We felt that the forest portrayed loneliness and also fear of the unknown. The editing of this particular clip shown below includes darkening the shot to make it black and white.

One particular scene from the American Horror Story opening that we really thought would fit with our media product was the part where the three hooded black creatures walked through the forest slowly. We felt it added a lot of mystery while being easy to symbolise what is being shown. It signals a cult type group of people working together, in our case, witches.

Secondary Research into audience

http://www.bbfc.co.uk 

The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range. Violence will generally be very mild. A U film may include brief fight scenes or moments where characters are placed in danger. However, moments of emotional stress or threat will be quickly resolved and the outcome will be reassuring.

There may be brief scary scenes and moments where the characters are placed in danger. As with violence, however, these scenes will be balanced by reassuring elements, such as comic interludes or music. ‘Baddie’ characters may carry or use weapons, but there will be no emphasis on these. 

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children. 

Accompanied viewing cannot be enforced in the home, so the 12 certificate remains for DVD/Blu-ray, rather than the 12A. The 12 is also a simpler system for retailers. It means they cannot sell or rent the item unless the customer is over the age of 12. Some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing.

Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child.

Any of the following can be shown in a film classified 15: Strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'), portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour, drug taking.  At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.

18 works are for adults and can contain strong issues such as; very strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’), strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence,strong horror,strong blood and gore,real sex (in some circumstances), discriminatory language and behaviour.

The R18 category is a special and legally-restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. R18 videos may not be supplied by mail order.

Evaluation of 3 possible film openings

My opening:

No sound, just a forest, girls appear in  the shot. Opens on a wide shot of 4 girls standing in a woods (staggered) heads towards the floor. All of them are dressed in black, no expression on their faces. A flash appears and a jump shot change occurs; to a close up of all the girls faces, focusing on different parts of their face (eyes or lips) Jump shot again; the girls are ripping a doll apart, running through the woods. The girls move

in sync with each other, in time with the eerie music which plays in the background throughout the duration of the opening titles. 

In the next shot the girls can be seen silently screaming and chanting, the next jump shot is of a match being striked and thrown to the ground. Whilst the action is going on jump shots will be used to show close ups of the girls faces and then will return back to the action.

The opening credits will be written across the trees and outfits of the girls. They will fly across the screen appear for a second and then disappear.

Zoes opening:

Camera pans around a empty forest. All is quiet, peaceful and eerie.

Then the sound of crunching leaves can be heard, and they get louder and louder, Camera pans to a extreme close up of  feet walking one behind the other slowly.

The camera then does an over the shoulder shot of one of the girls, in the background there are stickmen hanging from different trees, the camera then does a close up of one of the stickmen before flashing away to the four girls walking one behind the other still.

The girls are all dressed in Black and show no emotion on their faces, the camera does a close up on a few of the girls faces, it's almost as if they are shadows within the forest. They continue to walk until they reach a clearing in the woods, during this the camera uses shot cuts of the girls faces, feet, hands as they walk. The leading girl stops and the others follow. The camera does a mid shot.

In the middle of a clearing stands a lone cauldron, the camera primarily focuses on the cauldron for a few seconds before panning as the four girls surround the cauldron and each slowly reaches for each others hands. The camera zooms into a 180 degree shot, showing each girl from behind as they hold hands, the camera then shoots to the front of the girls, showing no emotion on their faces again. They each have their heads bowed and looking at the floor. 

The camera the goes to a longshot and in the distance there is the chiming of a church bell.

The Camera then pans to a extreme close up of one of the girls who reaches into her pocket and produces a rag doll covered in needles and with a small lock of real hair tied to the top of the doll. Another girl produces a knife, the camera does a mid shot to show the full extent of the girls body holding the knife. The third girl withdraws a box of matches and the final girl, the one who was leading produces nothing. The camera pans away slowly as the four girls drop hands and line up in front of the cauldron.

The girl holding the matches steps forward and slowly pushes the match box open. The camera slowly pans into an extreme close up of the girls hand and the match box. In the match box is a single black match. The girl then reaches into the box and plucks out the match and drops it into the cauldron unlit and steps back into line. The camera then pans onto the next girl with the knife, who slowly steps forward. The camera goes to mid shot as the girl holds her left hand over the cauldron and places the knife over the top, quickly the girl makes a fist around the knife before using her right hand to move the knife shown the skin of her hand. The camera captures blood dripping of the girls hand into the cauldron. She then moves back and the third girl with the rag doll steps forward. She smirks and quickly rips the head of the doll off and chucks then into the cauldron .The camera pans to a longshot during this to show capture of the girls during this part. The girls then create a circle again and the fourth girl steps forward towards the cauldron. She looks at the other three girls and laughs. It's a dark laugh. The camera then speeds up and creates a mid shot of the girl as she starts talking.

Girl four:  Are you ready?

The other girls all start laughing and the camera then goes Black and the titles start.

Sineads Opening:

Scene opens by panning around a field at a long shot, showing the forest in the distance. A person can be seen stood in the middle, staring at the forest. Jump shot to a close up of the person with a confused expression, looking around frantically. They are dressed entirely in black, and look down at their clothes. The shot changes to an extreme close up of the person's hand picking at their clothes, as if they are confused as to why they are dressed like that. The shot then changes to a mid-shot from behind the girl as she starts to walk towards the forest. 

Once in the forest, the pace of the cuts between clips begins to speed up. We also hear the heavy panting of the girl over the top of the clip to add dramatic effect. At first, it starts at a steady pace. It begins with showing  the girl looking around the forest, then switching to a shot of three figures dressed in black walking through the forest - their hair is covering their faces. As it switches back to the girl, it is a close up of her feet as she walks, snapping twigs along the way. It again quickly cuts away to a clip  of the three figures, who quickly stop in their tracks and look sharply to their left, before turning that way and continuing to walk.

This is when the shot cuts begin to speed up. The shots include different angles of the characters walking and clips such as burning matches, china dolls and water dripping from a leaf on a tree (this will connote sadness and danger). These shots will also include the names of the actors and crew involved carved into the trees or written on burnt paper on the floor. When the jump shots finish, it will cut to a close up of the first girl as her expression turns from confusion to fear and she starts to scream. The sound of the heartbeat stops and the screen cuts to black. There will then be a static sound over the black screen. The title of the movie will then fade into the black screen.

Feedback from class:  

• Sineads use of sound was really effective and added to the eery feel that we are trying to portray in our opening. 
• The setting of the field was very popular in the feedback, people thought it would connote loneliness and vulnerability. 
• The idea of the cauldron was liked but could be seen as too 'obvious' and bring down the horror feel. 
• Ripping up of rags and dolls was said to be symbolic, perhaps because this is what will happen to the main character further in the film. 

After the feedback we received we deemed it a good idea that we take all of the best parts from each of our ideas and put them together for our final piece. There were parts of all of the possible openings that we agreed did not give the effect we wanted and so we decided to cut these parts out. We would use non-diegetic sound, the setting of the field, my idea of the close ups and the symbolic ripping up of dolls/rags.

Initial ideas

As a group we decided that we wanted to do a film opening based on the horror genre. We felt that we could use editing effectively to create an eerie film that would want to be watched by people our age. We came up with possible ideas that all seemed to be linked to the supernatural or witches. We all had previously watched films or Tv programmes about witches and decided this would be best for us to do as we were quite familiar with the type of things that we would want to be in the film opening. A forest seemed to fit our genre the best as we wanted it to feel as unnerving as possible. The costumes were one of the first things we thought of, dressed all in black, this idea came from American Horror Story: coven, in which all of the characters walked along dressed in black. Even though they all looked completely normal, the black connoted that they were unusual in someway and that danger was soon to follow.




The brief for the primary task is to create the titles and opening of a new fictional film, to last a maximum of two minutes and include a range of camera shot types and angles.

Roles

Crew - 

Director/Editor - Sinead Grace

Camera-woman/Story-boarding - Zoe Brant

Actress/Editor - Mary Lawson

Cast -

Actress - Aimee Tyrrell

Actress - Ece Celik
Actress - Sinead Grace
Actress - Mary Lawson

Ideas

1. Salem - the premise of the film is about a witch coven, who perform rituals in order to recruit new witches. The opening to this film would show a snapshot of how their rituals act out. It will include the three leaders of the coven carrying out the ritual and the new witch they are recruiting. It will be named Salem as that is an iconic location for witchcraft.

2. The Trees - this film would be of the horror genre and would be set in a forest where, recently, people had started going missing. It would start with a young girl walking around in the forest, dressing in  'going out' clothing and seemingly lost. She is on the phone to her friend but suddenly loses signal. After different shots of her walking around, it zooms into her shocked face as she screams and it is then cut off.

Final Decision

As the crew, we only came up with two ideas as they needed to be quite in depth and so we did not want to spend to much time on coming up with our ideas and instead get straight into planning and making the video. We decided to go with the idea of Salem as we felt that, as an opening, we would be able to make it more interesting and intriguing. Also, there have been many films and television shows based on witches recently and so the group felt this would be a more popular option. Now that we have decided on this being our film premise, we have decided to each write our own scripts and combine them in order to come up with more ideas and create the best content we can.

Timed analysis of three trailers in our genre

Blair Witch Project analysis (Mary Lawson)

0.0-0.2: Production Company name (Artisan Entertainment)

0.2-0.19: A blank screen with just non-diegetic sound over the top, assumed to be one of the characters of the film. The use of just sound makes audiences stop and listen to what is being said and will make them want to carry on watching. It also builds suspense as we are unaware of what will come next.

0.19-0.26: White text on a back background explaining the foundations of the storyline, in this case making audiences aware that this is a real story, adding to the horror aspect as audiences are aware that this isn't made up and could happen to them.

0.26-0.36: Wide angle shots of forests, made to look as though it is real life footage and so is slightly shaky and blurry. This again adds to the suspense of the trailer as audiences are left wondering what is going to happen. Non-diegetic sound of a narrator can be heard, it seems to tell of three students who have gone missing, this leaves the viewers questioning what happened.

0.36-0.45: Footage of the real life evidence is seen, embedding the idea that this is a real life story that is being told.

0.48-0.49: A close up of a man who seems to be in distress can be seen, he is being asked about his missing son, the audience can begin to contextualise what is going on.

0.49-0.50: A jump shot of the words 'This Summer' appears on the screen alerting audiences of when they can see the film. The use of jump cuts add to the suspense.

0.50-0.52: Non-diegetic sound of panting can be heard over a blank screen. We then see an extreme close up of one of the characters which makes the audio diegetic as we can see where it is coming from.

0.54-0.56: The Blair Witch Project title is shown as the non-diegetic background music builds to a crescendo, this makes the audience jump and adds to the psychological horror aspect in which audiences are made to jump even though there is nothing scary on screen at that time.

0.56-0.59: Screaming can be heard as characters move through the forest, the camera is unstable making audiences feel as though they are in the film.

0.59-1.02: The trailer ends on a website that explains more about the story of the Blair Witch Project. The trailer as a whole aims to not give much of the storyline away whilst still scaring audiences and making them want to watch on.

The Woods analysis (sinead Grace)

0:00 - 0:04 - Age classification.

0:04 - 0:09 - United Artists company title.

0:09 - 0:18 - low angle, moving shot of a woods followed by the words "deep in the woods". This is followed by a moving birds eye view of the woods and afterwards the words "in the heart of New England". This sets the scene of the movie and builds tensions with the continuously changing shots. The music playing over the top is a slow piano tune, which builds suspense.
0:18 - 0:20 - a close up of a girl riding in a car. We can assume that this is the main character as she is the first person we see in the trailer.
0:33 - 0:39 - the girl - Heather - is at a table with two other girls. A group of girls introduce themselves, but knock over Heather's drink on purpose. This lets us know that Heather is troubled as she is bullied by these girls.

0:45 - 0:50 - slightly low angle mid shot of the girl sitting at a desk. She balanced a pencil on its tip on the desktop. This shows us that she has powers and so we start to learn more about the character.

0:53 - 0:58 - a birds eye view of the girl in bed, who jumps up from her sleep after witnessing herself hitting something/someone with an axe. This is followed by lots of flashing jump cuts of different scenes (doors shutting, girls fighting, the students in her school, etc). In this time slot, we hear Heather on the phone to her mother. Her mum tells her to "stop being such a weakling", showing us that she possibly has a bad home life.
0:58 - 0:17 - whilst the fast cuts continue, we hear the headmistress telling the students that a student has gone missing. This is followed by someone talking about 'the woods', saying that you should not got in there because it is dangerous. As this follows the statement about a missing girl, we can assume that the girl went into the woods. 

1:18 -1:20 - the text "a door has been opened" flashes onto the screen. This implies that something has been let loose and is going to interrupt the peace.

1:26 - 1:28 - after more jump cuts, another phrase flashes onto the screen. This says "and fear has been unleashed". This confirms suspicions that the open door will release something evil and this lets us know that this film is a horror.
1:28 - 1:35 - the headmistress tells Heather to "put her gifts to use". We then see heather break something by throwing it down. When the camera shows the headmistress, she looks worried and scared of what Heather did.

1:28 - 1:56 - again, we see more fast paced jump cuts. These, however, show more violent scenes. This is because these clips follow the phrase about fear and so it shows us how fear is being inflicted upon the characters. The music playing over it is a fast beating sound, which speeds up with the speeding up of the clips to create more tension.
1:56 - 2:02 - the title of 'The Woods' flashes onto the screen with a voice over reading it out

The Witch analysis (Zoe Brant)

(0.00-0.05) Age classification 
(0.7-0.10) Eerie music plays as the camera pans to a shot of an empty woodland.
(0.13) Jump shot to a  over the shoulder shot of a village. The camera is set in the back of a wagon as it leaves the small village. People are staring at the people on board the wagon.
(0.17) A long shot of a women and two girls riding on the back of the wagon with a lot of furniture.
(0.18-0.20) One of the characters talking over the top of scene of the gates closing on the little family.
(0.20-0.43) The farmer (Ralph Ineson) carries on speaking over the top of the trailer. His saying some sort of prayer. The clip shows him and his family in a long shot,keeling in front of the woods. The camera then slowly pans towards the woods.
(0.45) Shows a long shot of the home the family have built in front of the woods.
(0.46-0.50) Non dietetic sound of tapping and chopping over the eerie music.
(0.51-0.52) The sound of rain joins the other sound of tapping.
(0.55) Close up of the baby, who's crying. His sister laughter can be heard in the background. Jump shot to his sister in a close up of her saying 'Peak a….Boo' to him. The baby starts giggling along with his sister.
(1.00-1.02) Close shot again of Thomasin covering her face with her hands to play peak a boo. As she removes her hands her face drops into a look of horror.
(1.03-1.09) Theres a close shot of the empty blanket that Samuel as dispersed from. The camera then pans up to look at the entrance of the woods. Over the top we hear Thomasin scream her brothers name.
(1.11-1.17) Shows Thomasim running thought the forest with the camera following her at a long shot. Very quietly the non dietetic sound of a baby wailing is heard.
(1.20) A high angle shot shows the father looking down.father was looking down at his wife in a  hole.
(1.22) A extreme close up of a goats nose and a little girls nose that appers saying 'Bah bah bah'
(1.25-1.29) Shows reviews about the film, whilst the little girl repats the 'Bah, bah, bah"
(1.29- 1.31) Thomasim is attempting to Milk the goat. The first shot is a mid shot of her, it then jumps to a close up o the contents of the bucket and the blood that has come out of the goats tit. I then jumps back to the mid shot as Thomaism stands up quickly and kicks the bucket over in shock and fear. In then jumps to a close up of the fear and confusion on her face.
(1.32) Is a quick mid shot that shows the twins and the black goat in the picture, all starting at Thomasim. It then jumps to the mother looking on saying over the top of the music. 'You've cursed this family'
(1.33-1.37)  Another review of the film.
(1.38- 1.43) Shows a vary of different jump shots and cuts within the film. It ends with the eldest boy standing alone in the woods,a armed with a rifle, looking around frantically as he asks. 'Who's there?'
(1.43-1.48) Is another review and very quietly over the top is the non dietetic spun of feet walking along.
(1.49- 1.55) Is a close up of the boy, Caleb, walking very slowly. His facial exressions shooing him being scared. The camera then jumps shots,and slowly pans towards a cave, a sound of a women can be heard and gets louder as the camera edges nearer. It ends when a foot appears out the cave.
(1.56-2.00) Shows more jumps shots of the clips within the film and the voice of caleb talking over,saying a frantic prayer.
(2.00-2.02) Shows another review with Caleb voice still prayer is played over the top.
(2.02-20.4) shows a shot of a silhouette of a boy,tied up on a fence and then to a close up of the father as he attempts to shot something. 
(2.04-2.05) Shows another review.
(2.05- 2.07) A extreme close up of straw with blood slowly flowing out. Jump cuts to a high angle, close up of caleb,with blood dripping down his face and him screaming in pain. again his voice is still over the top of the clip saying the prayer. The camera then cuts to a mid shot of Caleb body and his mother trying to calm him down.
(2.07-2.08) Another review.
(2.08-2.10) Shows a quick moving shot of the twins skipping onwards the camera, the camera then using the 180 degree rule shows what hey a re skipping to. The Black goat rears up and Calebs prayer continues to play.
(2.10-2.11) Another review
(2.11-2.15) Shows shots of The father and mother trying to help Caleb, to the father then pulling Thomasim along the grass as she screams, and then to a close up of his face as he does so. Another clip shows a close up of the other covering her ears and to another shot to Thomasim sitting down screaming, then to the long shot of the father cutting wood,with the house and wood directly behind him. Suddenly Caleb's prayer suddenly stops when the last shot shows him sitting up.
(2.15-2.20) The screen goes black and the music dies out and a voice over says 'There is evils within the wood.'
(2.22-2.25) The title of the film slowly appears flicking slightly like a fire.. The non dietetic sound of the background noise is the sound of a fire crackling.
(2.25-2.26)  After the title it jumps to a clip of a naked person, covered in blood. It is believed to be Thomasism.
(2.26-2.30) The screen goes Black and the date 'Coming 2016' flicks on the screen before the screen goes black.