Creating, carrying out and analysing my questionnaire

Before creating our trailer for our film, myself and Ferne decided to carry out some initial market research to ensure that our trailer contains all of the aspects we need use in order to appeal to our target audience.



We have decided to use a questionnaire to find out information that will be helpful to our overall project. This will influence our overall decisions, as we want to include our target audiences interest. We designed our questionnaire together to make sure we pulled together all of the information we both wanted to find out to help our project. This research is crucial as we are still in the early stages of planning and can easily make any alterations or changes that we may need to.



After asking 100 participants we analysed our results by creating clear graphs for each question. We both had 50 questionnaires to hand out each and in doing so we tried to target our audience in order to gain the responses of our target market, which is relevant to our project. After collecting the information we then put them into graphs and analysed each graph to show what importance it has to our overall project. In comparison to our plot and storyboard myself and Ferne have made an accurate representation of our target audiences needs. However we will evaluate our plot and storyboard to ensure we include certain aspects that our target audience want to see and that will appeal to them.


Creating and analysing our questionnaire results have helped me to gain an understanding of market research and have an insight to our target audiences interests and ideals that a film should have. This will ultimately help me in creating a target that will appeal to my audience and to include customer needs.

Creation of Storyboard for my Trailer

I have decided to work along side Amy in my project as I feel that by us sharing ideas and knowledge we will be able to create the best possible trailer.

After both of us creating our film pitch we decided to pull our ideas together and come up with a solution. We decided to use Amy’s pitch idea as we felt that it was the most practical for us to create and we instantly had a vision for what we wanted the trailer to look like.

Working together we created our storyboard, we had a vague plan wrote down that we based our storyboard upon, but we then expanded our ideas and added more detail. Our annotations gave detailed descriptions of what the shot would look like including; what characters would be in the shot, what mood we wanted to portray from the shot, the timings for each shot, the transition and diegetic and non diegetic sounds.

I feel that Amy and myself have worked really well together and where instantly inspired once we had decided on our storyline and therefore our ideas came easily. We have only included 6 boxes, which I feel, aren’t enough as this isn’t enough of a variation of shots to keep the audience interested. I feel we need to add more detail to our storyboard and include images and actual breakdowns of the series of shots that we have bulked together in areas. I feel although more detail is going to be eventually needed for our storyboard; I feel that this storyboard has been a complete success considering it’s our first one that we have created.

Understanding Storyboarding

Storyboards are a graphic organiser such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in an order in which they are intended to be seen in. The final outcome of a storyboard could be for the purpose of an animation, motion picture, motion graphic, or interactive media. Walt Disney Studios designed storyboarding in the 1930's. Essentially a storyboard is a large comic of the film, it is used to help film directors, camera operators, and the advertising clients to help them gain an understanding of the film and for them to visualise the final outcome and to prepare for it. It includes panels with arrows reflecting movement, and also text boxes underneath stating camera angles, editing techniques, sound influences, shot types, timing, lighting, and camera movement (e.g. pan). For film storyboards portray the film, as it would be seen through the camera lens. It’s essentially the script for the camera. Not all of the film is a storyboarded, key scene or scenes that require a lot of equipment or require the camera to do something complicated are often storyboarded before hand. Usually the script is written 1st and the afterwards somebody creates the storyboard, some people often like to take a storyboard with them to pitch their film so that it provides a visual aid to the ambition of the project.

I attempted to create a storyboard for the trailer of 'Saw 5'. I found it very difficult to include all the detail needed from the trailer and often found it hard to keep up. I had to watch it several times and go through and comment on each thing individually for example go through and cover all the lighting techniques and then go through and comment on all the camera angles. From my experience of storyboarding I can see the usefulness of storyboarding, you can include a lot of detail and make the technical side of what you want doing clear to staff, the more detail included the higher the quality of the trailer and the more smoothly it would run. I also feel that there obviously would need to be communication between the director and producer and camera operators to ensure that it all runs smoothly and that everyone understands.


I attempted to create a story board for the trailer of 'Saw 5'. I found it very difficult to include all the detail needed from the trailer and often found it hard to keep up. I had to watch it several times and go through and comment on each thing individully for example go through and cover all the ligjhting techniques and then go through and comment on all the camera angles. From my experience of storyboarding I can see the usefullness of storyboarding, you can include alot of detail and make the technical side of what you want doing clear to staff, the more detail included the higher the quality of the trailer and the more smoothly it would run. I also feel that their obviously would need to be communication between the director and producer and camera operators to ensure that it all runs smoothly and that everyone understands.

Creating my initial pitch

Sophie Green is a sweet seventeen year old girl who lives in Ohio.

She just happened to fall in love with the wrong guy.

Blinded by love, she lies as she tell her family she is going on a girly holiday to get over him.

As Sophie seeks secret refugee at Kai’s house, all is not as it seems.

Clue by clue, her boyfriends dark secrets start to unwravel and her refugee suddenly becomes her prison.

This once innocent lie fabricated by love and desire, now holds more than one life in danger.

genre of horror aims to evoke emotions of fear and terror within the audience and hopes to visually show our worst fears which may achieve a cathartic response. It usually involves common themes of death, mental illness and the supernatural. The characters within this film genre usually have central villain to which the plot revolves around and a character that the audience are compassionate towards and therefore feel terror for their safety. Horror films traditionally combine with science fiction, such as films like Frankenstein, however a modern approach to the genre has seen a sense of realism, which in turn makes the audience fear for their own safety. This approach helps to engage the audience and stimulate more emotions that before.

The plot of my film is about a young teenage girl called Sophie who’s boyfriend, Kai, becomes isolated and out casted from her family, as they believe he will only cause drama in her life. With Sophie’s anger raging from being forbidden to see her boyfriend, she arranges a girly holiday in the UK, or so her family thinks. Really Sophie plans to spend the week with her boyfriend and couldn’t feel further from ultimate bliss. Although as time goes on Sophie grows suspicious of her boyfriends late nights and the blood stains she finds on his clothes. One day when Sophie is looking for a film to watch she discovers the horrific truth. As she plays the film her world crumbles and she knows that she is in danger as she watches her boyfriend: a rapist and a murderer. Bounding through the doors she tries to escape but Kai suddenly appears and drags her down to the cellar, where she sees the first evidence of his sickening secret. A bed with handcuffs attached to every corner of the bed for each foot and hand. As Sophie lays trapped Kai vindictively calls her sister in front of her helpless and ‘begs her to see him as he is so worried because Sophie has run away’. As Kai licks his lips he goes to hunt down his next victim. She knows her sisters fate, she's lying in the evidence, and yet will give anything to stop this, even her own life. A tragic story of sisterly love and sinister lies, but does good always prevail?

Sophie is the protagonist in the film and is portrayed as a sweet girl, who is stereotypical of an American sweetheart. She works hard at school, loves her family and cares for her friends greatly. However, love is a vision that is so dear to Sophie and when Kai takes interest in her, she falls head over heels for him and isolates herself from everything she found important. This makes her greatly dependent on Kai and very vulnerable to him.

Kai is a deceitful character with an evil hidden agenda. He takes great interest in Sophie’s innocence and beauty, and takes pleasure in corrupting her and having her as a trophy. The conflict with her family only encourages Kai as he thrives off other people’s pain. His crimes of rape and murder make him feel invincible and his control over Sophie arouses him, which makes him lead this double life of secrets.

We would like to use certain actresses and actors within my film, although it may not always be possible 1 will still like to share my vision.

We believe Rachel Mc Adams would play the part of Sophie beautifully as she has previously acted in the role of a sweetheart in the film ‘The Notebook’, in which she also has conflict with her family due to her choice of partner. She has also acted in thrillers such as ‘Redeye’ and has an endearing appearance, which may help the audience feel compassionate towards.

We also believe that the role of Kai would be most suitable for Cillian Murphy. Cillian Murphy has a charming appearance but however can have the look of no emotion and no remorse. Previously Murphy also acted in the movie ‘Red eye’ and played the role of the villian extremely well, sowing a callous side to him, which Kai must have. The main character would have therefore also worked together and avoided any demands or conflict that might have occurred between two professionals.

The target audience for most horror movies are people aged between 15 – 45. This is because between these ages people are less shocked then others and can appreciate the films artwork without finding it too offensive to watch. The certification of 15 is what we are aiming for, otherwise we will lose a huge percentage of my target audience and will ultimately lose money due to the restrictions. They will most likely be a group of people who watch the film, in order to comfort each other and to experience the emotions together. This would not be suitable for a family as this will not provide the parents with nothing but distress.

Many films within the same genre can be seen to have many similar aspects within other films as well, this is because the genre has many conventions and in following them your story will have similar ideas. Our film grabs the best elements of horror of dark secrets, violence, isolation, helplessness and revenge. The concept of the film is the fear of the unknown and the loss of control we have over it, this concept is shown in the title of the film, ‘Secrets’. It creates an emotional and fearful experience that will terrify and keep the audience thoroughly entertained.

Our task was to create a pitch for an original film that we had created. We found this very challenging to think of the plot for the film, as it had to be appealing to my target audience and it couldn't already exist. It also had to be something that we could realistically use to film a trailer, if we choose to use that plot.

We wanted to do a film under the genre of horror, as we researched it and presented a presentation on two trailers and the conventions of horror. We found this genre the most interesting compared to comedy, which we also investigated. We wanted to do a genre that we had researched as we have gained knowledge from this and will be more confident in creating a trailer from it.

In our film pitch we included lots of details about the film, such as the plot, possible casting, the genre of horror and its conventions, our target audience, an introduction to the film, character analysis and similar films.

After creating a plot we found it easier to think of the other details, as our film came together it seemed like it fitted into the horror genre well. Our presentation contained slides that didn't use much writing in order to make the audience think, whilst we gave them more detail from our script.

Researching a genre

After researching in to the genre of horror I have decided to research into another genre to widen my understanding of how film companies portray their genre of film through their campaign. I have decided to look at a different genre from horror; I have therefore decided to look at the genre of action. Although both genres rely on keeping the audience’s heart racing they use different techniques to do so. I decided that action film trailers should include:
-A heroine, male or female, they would appear superior and powerful, possible using low angled shots. Sometimes this character begins weak and then progresses.
-A 'bady' that either begins as close friends with the enemy or is weaker than the enemy, and eventually deceives and manipulates the heroine. Or this enemy has been a constant enemy who has proved a difficulty to the heroine through out.
-There are generally lots of whip pans used for the transitions of shots (where the camera pans from one shot to another, blurring the image in-between) this emphasises the speed of the film and reflects the action.
-All action films include a sense of jeopardy - there is risk, drama danger and threats through out this film.
-We would also expect to have music that gradually speeds up through out the trailer, with a heavy beat continuously going through out the trailer, this again generally speeds up and is often similar to a heart beat.
- We also expect random quotations from film characters or quotes that are of importance. Generally action film trailers use jump cuts constantly with short clips rapidly speeding up in cuts as the trailer progresses.
-Action film trailers are appealing to people who thrive of similar aspects to horror, for example gore or fighting scenes. They have come to watch an intense storyline with twists and an exciting nature to it, therefore in the trailer they should include shots of these main scenes and events that will occur in the film.

I began looking at 'Apocalypto', a famous action film directed by Mel Gibson, set in central America (trailer for 'Apocalypto') The film is the story of a tribal man set on survival and saving his family after his village has been destructed. The film trailer starts of with the key images of the film and the key scenes. To an audience who has never seen the film these images aren’t significant and therefore create confusion and don’t ruin the story line. The first image is of the girl who tells of a prophecy of an eclipse, and a black jaguar. The images that follow her are of the eclipse and a black jaguar, and a tribal painting of a decapitation. This shows instantly to the audience that it is a period drama and what period it is set in and also gives us a brief understanding of the audience. The beginning of the trailer is very slow again conforming to the conventions of an action trailer.

After this initial section we are presented with images of a peaceful rainforest and a joyous tribe, this confuses the audience as they are expecting fast pace trailers, but they are trying to set the scene. Between each shot they fade to white, this reflects the light nature of the beginning of the film and these elements of the film. The fades for transitions also indicating time change from the beginning of the trailer to the middle of it and also to reflect the peacefulness of the beginning of the trailer and therefore the beginning of the story. There is then a series of intimidating short shots separated with fades to black in between each shot. At the beginning of the trailer the shots fade to white, as they now fade to black the audience now realise that it has become sinister. The fades relates all the images together and makes them seem important, it also makes the distance between them seem really long and adds anticipation and suspension to the mood.

There is then a series of shot of generally scenery from Central America and the important names relating to production. We as an audience are then presented with a series of clips from the film in chronological order to when they happen in the film showing us a brief storyline. We see the tribal life that the characters live in, we can instantly see it is based in the rainforest due to their surroundings and their costume. We are presented with the statement 'comes a journey into a lost world, like nothing you’ve experienced' this adds challenge to the audience making them more inclined to watch the film, it also adds a sense of jeopardy. It also excites the audience and leaves them sitting on the edge of their seat as they want to see what happens next after been shown a possibly dangerous and exciting set of scenes which has been broken up by these titles and captions. A series of striking shots are then layered on top of each other and are very quickly shown to us, speeding up as we move through. It then slows all the way down and shows images of a peaceful nature. It then speeds up again once more showing fast pace movement and fighting, these images move so fast that the audience has little chance to make sense of the shots they have seen, this confuses the audience but also transfixes them as they are trying to work it out. By separating the two action elements of the trailers with a slow down love situation in the middle they are appealing directly to their audience. Action viewers don’t just want gore, fast pace films otherwise they would watch horror films, and they want something similar but less horrific with a softer nature to it as well

The music initially starts off eerie at the beginning of the trailer with loud symbol strikes as the images change to enhance their importance. The music then changes to tribal peaceful music as the audience is introduced to the tribe, whilst everything is peaceful. There is the introduction for the audience and therefore allows them to gain an understanding, the music emphasises the relaxed peaceful nature. The music then takes a sinister tone as we are shown the 'badies'. It slows right down and works in time with the images shown, this excites the audience and leaves the anticipating the next thing. After this the music progresses and drum beats begin, the drum strikes on the important images adding emphasis to them. The drum role reinforces the tribal and gradually speeds up through the trailer as the storyline begins to unfold. This therefore speeds up the audience’s heartbeat as it matches in time. It builds up and increases in volume until it finally stops and we are presented with the statement 'as a civilisation comes to an end'- this makes the audience question what happens and as it is the ending of the music it reinforces the statement as it all suddenly goes silent.

This trailer fulfils most of the conventions of action trailers as it includes:
Jeopardy
Jump cuts
A heroine
Sped up through out the trailer
Shot clips put together
A group of 'badys'
Fast pace, gripping music.

The next action trailer I decided to look at was Transporter 3 (Transporter 3 Trailer), I will now compare and contrast between Transporter 3 and Apocalypto trailers. Transporter, like Apocalypto begins with a series of key images that fade to black. These provide the audience with a setting and key scenes of importance. There is a constant dialogue throughout this section, which has been taken from the film. It is two men talking; this implies the significance of this dialogue. As these short shots finish we are shown the scene in which the dialogue is coming from. Up until this point the music has been quiet with a fast pace drumbeat. As we reach this scene the music stops. The music then comes back full volume and very heavy to the next scene which depicts a man fighting off various men. We assume the central man is the main character of the film as they are all against him. We therefore again have one heroine with a series of enemies. There is a series of jump cuts used to add speed and too excite the audience, and also to not give away too much of the scene or show too much violence.

This is similar to the Apocalypto trailer as all elements of violence where shown briefly, this may be due to the fact that the directors and editors had to make the trailer suitable to all ages, and therefore they could not focus on violence. 24 seconds into the trailer we are presented with the production companies logo, this again is the same as Apocalypto, this breaks up the trailer, and as you are already paying attention as the trailer has drawn you in, you are more likely to remember the production company. We are then presented with a series of close ups and extreme close ups mixed with long shots of a character, this shows the importance of this character. This is different to Apocalypto as in Apocalypto shot types mainly consisted of long shots, close ups or mid shots. The dialogue again continues showing various shots of key scenes and flicking between the scenes that the dialogue originates from. This shows the connection between the shots been shown. Again the music stops and the main character say 'on one condition, I drive my own car'- this is a typical aspect of an action film and therefore is included in the trailer. We are presented with a fast car, guns, weapons, technology and a female. These again are common aspects of an action film and therefore have appeared in the trailer so that the audience can categorise this film into the action genre.

This is very different to Apocalypto. Although a female is present, she has been presented in a different way, the female in Transporter 3 has been presented in a sexual manner, and where as the female in Apocalypto is presented as a loving character. Although we are presented with weapons in the trailer for Apocalypto they are very different. The reason why these two films share differences is due to the fact they are set in different time eras and there is a difference in culture and society between the two films, therefore resulting in differences in mise en scene. The next few shot are shot with a fast pan showing the speed of the film and exciting the audience. This is similar to the shot Mel Gibson has used in Apocalypto where we see the main character being chased through the jungle by his enemies; although the context is different the effect is still the same- excitement and anticipation.

For the rest of the trailer we are presented with a series of action shots taken from scenes of the film, they jump cut at a fast pace therefore again exciting the audience, this is the same as Apocalypto's editing techniques. There is also a voice over stating the realise date and captions of key information such as the release date and actors. The actor is the unique selling point of the film and is therefore emphasised by putting it into a caption, this is the same as Apocalypto as Mel Gibson is the unique selling point and his name has also been put into a caption. Transporter 3 fulfils the genre of an action film trailer as it includes:
Fast pace music
Jump cuts
A sense of jeopardy
A heroine
A series or 'bady's'
High-speed footage

The main differences between Apocalypto and Transporter 3 are the result of differences in setting and eras, this therefore influences the technology used, although both have used similar editing techniques and sound techniques to produce a gripping, fast pace, action filled trailer.

I have discovered that the difference between horror and action films is that action films contain another gripping storyline; they aren’t as scary but are faster pace.

I then began to look at the campaign for Apocalypto. I decided to look at the film poster. (Shown to the left) As you can see the image shows silhouette of one of the characters, but it isn’t the main character, this is unusual as normally the main character features on the front cover, but instead the lead nemesis of the heroine does. Instantly from the image the audience can see that the film is set In Aztec times due to the pyramid in the background. The washed out colours makes the image appear sinister and interesting. This is unusual for an action film as usually the poster reflects the fast pace action of the film, where as the character walking towards the camera appears to be stumbling rather than running with his head slumped. The 1st title of the poster is 'Mel Gibson'- a famous actor and director, this is the unique selling point of the film, something that this film has that no other film has.

The fact there is no major colours present in the poster makes it appear eerie, serious and sinister reflecting the style of film that it is. The caption 'no one can outrun their destiny' creates anticipation and a sense of jeopardy to the film; this reflects the genre of action. This poster is unusual for an action film as normally they include a scene of violence or something that will portray an action film. For example the poster to the left for Transporter 3 shows a man mid action shot with a gun, instantly showing the audience that the film is and action film. Both posters have used minimal colours and have focused more on form by sing a black and white image rather than colour. Both feature main characters to the film but the Transporter 3's image of the actor is a lot more clear than the Apocalypto image, this may because the actor of Transporter 3 is the unique selling point for the film, where as Apocalypto's unique selling point is Mel Gibson as the director.