Final Film Opening

Sounds To Use

After further researching into legal free sounds, I found a website appropriate for what my group and I needed. The website I found is known as 'Incompetech', below is a step by step process of what I did in order to receive the ideal sound for my groups' opening.

I selected "Royalty-Free Music".

The website then gave me an option box which allowed me to select a genre - horror. The options also offered me certain "feel(s)" for my sound. I selected "dark, eerie, intense (and) suspenseful".

Here are the names of the sounds I received. "The House of Leaves " is the one I chose.

 

At 1.10s, the non-diegetic sound begins.

Evaluation:

• The sounds I found are more suitable with our opening. The sound my group and I used is effective in creating the suspenseful atmosphere we needed.

Target Audience + Genre Conventions research

Before we even started to plan our film opening in any detail, we had to decide on a target audience. As we decided to make a horror film, it was almost impossible to have the age rating as under 15 because horror films are almost always scarier and more intense than any other genre. As well as this, we looked at our sub-genre, supernatural horror and took inspiration from their age rating certificates.

Some of the big supernatural horrors at the moment and their minimum age ratings are:

• The Possession - 15
• The Conjuring - 15
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose - 15
• Paranormal Activity - 15

Clearly, a common age minimum is set at 15. This means our target audience ranges from 15-25, teenagers to young adults as this would seem most appropriate for our film genre. 

So what kind of content can we show and what can we do to attract the target audience? 

• As we have quite a young age group (15) it would be more appropriate for there not to be as much gore as a slasher film and also this would not be conventional for our genre
• We also have no swearing or foul language as this would make it age appropriate and allow the 15 rating.
• We also decided to use a little girl as the main character as this is conventional and would attract the intended audience. Another convention we stuck to is the use of a 'jump' at the end of a long sequence, to thrill and shock the audience, which is something the audience expects.
• We also decided to name our piece 'The Possessed' as this is clear and conventional, the article 'the' is a conventional word to use in the title for a supernatural horror and so it is clear to the audience the genre of the film.

How can we represent the social group (age)?

• We are using a young girl in our piece and so we wanted to think of ways to represent her. One commonly accepted view of little girls is that they are vulnerable and so need protection. 
• Clearly, a possessed girl shows huge signs of vulnerability and perhaps the audience will feel sympathy at first.
• But during our sequence we wanted to make it seem like she was no longer a little girl on the inside, so we used non-diegetic growling noises, non-diegetic bone clicking noises. This all helps the audience see the little girl as a threat and as dangerous instead