1. Research
This clip is the opening sequence to one of the main inpirations of my media project 'The Ring'. The opening sequence shows 2 victims, however these aren't the victims that play in the whole film, just the opening. However this clip is a good example of how age, gender and race are used to attract a target audience aswell as following/challenging stereotypes. The 2 girls shown in the clip are shown as the victims, even though the audience do not see the threat directly or see another character directly hurt one of the girls; the audience know that they are the victims because of the atmosphere that is built around them. The girls are shown as teenagers, the audience know this because of the school uniform. They are still quite young and will seem vulnerable, the audience will ralate to them. They also have a conversation which has a reference to sex, this is typical of this age group so this follows the sterotypes of this age group. Also, the fact that the characters are girls also follows a huge convention and stereotype used in most horror films; girls are usually the victims or 'damsel in distress' in horror films as they are seen as weak and vulnerable. For class, these girls obviously still live at home, and are still in school. However with the shot at the beginning the audience can see that the house is big and looks old, this suggests that the girls are of a higher class due to their parents.
This is another film from our sub genre ghost/demand, 'The Exorcist'. This scene is short, but includes a number of stereotypes. Firstly, you see our victim. The main stereotype here is that the victim is a middle ages female, even though she isnt a young female; the audience will still see her as vulnerable and will be able to relate and feel like they need to protect her. She is also dressed very 'girly', she has a peach scarf on and has a nice hair cut with light ginger hair, this all contributes to her seeming vulnerable. On the other hand, the threat in 'Th Exorcist' challenges a stereotype. Usually in horror films, the threat is a man, they are seen as more aggressive, stronger and dominant than women. The threat here is a women, about the same age as the victim, if not a little younger. She is dressed as an innocent young women, she has a floral night gown on and long hair. The audience would usually see her as more of a victim than a threat. This puts a nice twist on the film.
This is the test shot and the final shot of our character who was playing the threat. After research on our sub genre, we decided to challenge the stereotype of having a male threat and opted with a female. We made our actor pale and in the final shot we had a wig that looked greecy. In the final shot the actor also had her costume on. We used a white night gown for the costume, this was to make the threat look innocent and pure when she's the opposite. The actor is also young, which makes the audience want to relate to her but since she's the threat it builds on atmosphere.
This is the script to our stroy. Our story line relates to the sub genre of 'ghost/demand' well. In this type of genre, there is no real kno threat, in a slasher sub genre for example, the audience understand that there is a threat killing people. However in my films sub genre the threat is often unknown and isnt shown as often. This adds atmosphere and increases the 'scare' factor. The storyline always gives the audience some idea of 'what? why? how?' however its either only a small amount or a whole back stroy. My story line doesnt give much information on this, the audience are quite in the dark with everything. However this would probably become clearer later in the film. The audience do however understand clearly that a young female character is being haunted by a female deamand threat. The threat is almost stalking the victim in a way, which is one of the main conventions of a ghost/deamnd horror
film. The victim neve really sees the threat, however the audience see everything and want to almost shout out to the victim whats actually happening. The victim in my film is left alone too, which is also a convention in this sub genre. Often the victim is alone when the threat makes an appearance.
Before deciding my Target audience, i researched the target audiences' of existing films from my sub genre. i fount that for age, the film mainly concentrated on under 18's. They used characters of around the ages of 11-18. An audience of this age will be able to ralete to the characters in the film, this makes it more realistic to the audience. The films i researched had moderate foul language and psychological horror which wiuold scare younger audience but would probably be less realistic for an older audience. For gender i feel that the target audiences were both female and male, the films used both male and female characters. The threat in some of the films were female and other were male and vice versa for the victim. Both genders will be able to relate to the films and would probably enjoy them. For each of the films i researched, the characters were of all races; none of the films had just a particular race in. I feel that the films would atttracted all races.
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