Questionnaire results

I wrote a questionnaire and handed it out to ten people. These ten people were all the same age. They were 17-18 year olds. This is important because this age is the centre of my target audience.

The questionnaire really influenced me make my final decision for my film. The question outcomes were, 

What would be the best outcome? Only 3 people answered 'funny' which was my original idea. The other 7 were either 'scary' or 'unknown'. This was one of the reason why i changed the outcome of my film. 

What scares you most when watching scary films? Many of the answers were spiritual and psychological answers. This was exactly what i wanted. Not many people wrote about blood and guts, which surprised me. 

What sex should the main character be? Every single one of the ten people wrote girl. This is what i wanted originally. I think the thought of a girl, as vulnerable and more frightened, would make a much scarier film. 

To build up suspense, do you think heart beating should be played in the background when the girl is searching for the "intruder"? Only 5 people said yes, 3 said no and 2 said maybe. I might use the heart beating, but i think this decision should be made when i have filmed.

I also asked about upbeat songs, scary films they like and what sort of things come to mind when thinking of horror films. I may take advice from these, but i am not sure yet. The last question:

What do you think are essential for a horror movie? the choice of answers were: bad language, blood and guts, sound effects, sense of unknowing, lots of speech, death, making you jump. Most of the answers were either Sense of unknowing or making you jump. This makes me happy :) because that is what i want to achieve. 

 

The final shooting script

Head and Shoulder shot of girl at front door. She shuts the door and as it slams, the title comes up on the screen. 

CUT TO: Kitchen. Close up of knife chopping vegetables. Loud chopping noises. 

CUT TO: Medium shot from the side of girl, putting veg in wok. doing a few other things. 

CUT TO: Medium long shot from behind she walks to the right to put on the music. 

CUT TO: Close up of hand on button. Music heard. 

CUT TO: Medium long shot from behind her dancing over to the left. She dances around, left to right of the kitchen for about 8 seconds.

CUT TO: girl turns back to cooking. Medium shot from the side of girl, stiring the food in the wok. 

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok. 

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok; this time more cooked.

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok; nearly finished cooking.

CUT TO: Medium shot of side of girl, pouring the contents of the wok onto a plate. 

CUT TO: Close up of the wok being put down on the cooker. With a LOUD bang. Waits 3 seconds before cutting. 

CUT TO: Medium shot of the girl sitting on the sofa, eating. 

CUT TO: Close up of hand picking up remote control and pressing 'On'.

CUT TO: Medium shot of TV. About 3 seconds.

CUTS TO: Medium shot again of girl on sofa eating. She laughs at the TV. 

CUTS TO: Medium shot of TV again. 3 seconds. Sound of girl laughing in the background. 

CUTS TO:  Silence. Girl asleep on sofa.  She opens her eyes, and glances at the clock.

CUTS TO: Close up of clock saying 12.00. 

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl get up. She turns out the light. 

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl walking out of living room. She shuts the door and goes upstairs. Camera stays in same shot and still at the bottom of stairs. 

CUTS TO: Medium long shot of girl walking into bedroom. Camera follows girl, she walks into bathroom and shuts the door. Camera stares at door.

CUTS TO: Girl walking out of bathroom in night clothes. Camera follows girl to other side of room, and she gets into bed. She goes to turn off the light.

CUTS TO: Close up of the light turning off. (Wait 1 second) BANG!

CUTS TO: Close up of light turning back on.

CUTS TO: Girl muttering to herself. Looking frightened. Girl walks forward to her door. Camera in front walking backwards filming. Girl walks in front of camera. Camera then follows girl walking around upstairs turning on all of the lights of the 3 bedrooms. 

CUTS TO: Medium long shot of girl walking down the stairs. Slowly. Scary. Silent. She is at the door of the living room. 

CUTS TO: Over the shoulder shot of the girl. Her cat in the middle of the floor in the background.

CUTS TO: Over the shoulder shot from cat, seeing the girls expression. 

CUTS TO: Medium close up of girl with speech. 

CUTS TO: Medium close up of cat. 

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl walking over to cat. picks it up. Camera watches as they leave the room, switch the light off and shut the door. Camera is left in darkness.

CUTS TO: over the shoulder shot of girl getting a drink of water from tap. She exhales, stares at herself in the mirror. She leans down to put the glass in the dishwasher, and when she gets back up again, there is a man at the window. Over the shoulder shot.

CUTS TO: Girl turns around and the camera follows her from the front. She runs into dining room. over the shoulder shot of the man at the window again. Shuts blinds.

CUTS TO: Camera following her from the front again to the living room. Shuts blinds

CUTS TO: Over the shoulder shot of girl seeing the man at the window. Shuts blinds

CUTS TO: Close up of girl falling to the ground and burrying her head in her hands. SCREAMING.

CUTS TO: Head and shoulder shot of girl lying on a bed with speech. 

CUTS TO: head and shoulder shot of psychiatrist with speech.

CUTS TO: the same head and shoulder shot of the girl with speech.

CUTS TO: The same head and shoulder shot of the psychiatrist with speech. She picks up phone. 

CUTS TO: medium close up of girl sitting up looking flustered and stressed. 

CUTS TO: Psychiatrist with speech.

CUTS TO: Medium shot of door opening. Man comes in shuts the door, without anyone seeing his face and turns around. Psychiatrist speaks in background but shot remains on scary man. Smiling. 

END

re doing the end of the shooting script

Script for my actors:

There is not a lot of dialogue, but for the bits where there is, i want it to be clear and not just improvised. 

Beginning-  Girl waves goodbye to her parents- "Bye, have a good time! Bye" 

When the girl has got downstairs to see her cat on the floor- "Oh my god, Spooky, I thought there was someone in the house! God." 

Lots of screaming when the girl sees the face.

In the psychiatrist's office- girl: I just keep seeing his face. Its there all the time, every day every night. I can't get rid of it! 

Psychiatrist: Right, and when you see this face does it seem real? 

Girl: Yes, so real. No. Oh i don't know! 

Psychiatrist: Ok. Look. We have had 10 sessions now, i have tried my best to help you. I have told you everything i know. I think it is time for me to hand you on to our senior psychiatrist, who can help you. I will just give him a buzz. (then the guy walks in) "Ah, here he is, this is Dr 

Stare. 

CHANGE OF PLAN.....AGAIN

Right. I have changed the ending to my film. The reason i have changed the ending is because i think my other ending is too boring. One thing i do not want to happen is to leave the audience hanging. I don't want them to be disappointed with the end result.

When you look at the story that is published on a different post, the girl enters the living room and sees her brother. Instead of her seeing her brother, she sees her cat called Spooky,instead. She picks up her cat whilst laughing at the thought of there being someone in the house exclaiming, "God Spooky, i thought there was someone in the house!" and walks into the kitchen. She puts the cat down and goes to the sink to get a glass of water. She looks at her reflection in the window and suddenly a man is there looking at her. She screams and runs into the dining room and goes to the window to shut the blinds, then seeing the man again. She runs back into the living room and sees the man again at the window and shuts the curtains. She is screaming, crying and shouting, completely hysterical. She falls to the floor, and buries her head into the floor. The scene changes to a different room. There is a bed and an armchair. The girl is laying on the bed and there is a hippy looking woman sitting in the armchair. "He is there all the time, staring at me, and however much i run or hide he is always there," the girl says. The lady, who is the girls psychiatrist answers, "Look Lydia, we have now had ten of these sessions, where we have tried to get to the bottom of this. I think we need to hand you over to one of our senior psychiatrists, who will hopefully be able to help you. I will just call him to come in." She calls him. "He should be here in a moment, he is only in the office next door." After a moment a man walks into the room. It is the man who the girl has been seeing. The lady psychiatrist says "Ah here he is, Lydia, this is Dr. Mott. The man smiles, not saying a word.

This ending is a surprise and a twist for the audience. It is eerie. I like the way that it is psycological and linking with mental health. This type of thing happens to people all the time...it's just the face that the person keeps seeing doesn't usually turn out to be a real person!

Target audience and other information...

After researching a variety of horror short films, i found that nearly all of them had an audience above 18. I found this by looking at the certificate. These films were generally scary, ones like Saw, The shining, The exorcist and Psycho. The thing with my film, is that it will not be compared to those sort of films. There is an element of horror in my film, but it won't be blood and guts! 

In many horror movies, there is the crash or bang in the background, which the main character follows to see who is invading their house. This is the sort of idea i am going for, although it will not include a monster or a murderer. There is a funny ending, which is what i may consider when choosing my target audience.

I think my film will have a target audience of 15-25. 

RESEARCH

This film caught my eye, because of the plot. It's the ring of the door bell, the searching round the house and

not knowing what will be around the corner. It is tense and the suspense builds up right to the end. The black

and white colour of the film is quite good, because it adds to the suspense. There are certain noises that sound

slightly scary which is something that i want to add to my short. The ending of the film ends on a high, with the

a teddy bear squeaking. It leaves the audience with mixed emotions, which is something i want to achieve. The ending

of mine will also end on a happy note.

RESEARCH

The thing i like about this film is the heart beating sound as the girl is getting closer and closer to the house. It is slightly 

scary. Just like the film above, it is intense. I do have to say that the actors are not good at all. I think that part of making

film is to get a good actor. It is all part of the effect. It may not be as important as the shooting or the setting, but it adds

to the overall outcome. I would love to use a heart beating sound like this one. Maybe not so loud, but i would use it subtly.

Shot script

Head and Shoulder shot of girl at front door. She shuts the door and as it slams, the title comes up on the screen. "TRICK OR TREAT".

CUT TO: Kitchen. Close up of knife chopping vegetables. Loud chopping noises.

CUT TO: Medium shot from the side of girl, putting veg in wok. doing a few other things.

CUT TO: Medium long shot from behind she walks to the right to put on the music.

CUT TO: Close up of hand on button. Music heard.

CUT TO: Medium long shot from behind her dancing over to the left. She dances around, left to right of the kitchen for about 8 seconds.

CUT TO: A point of view shot from outside, looking through the window at the girl dancing. Shaking slightly, then hiding when she dances his way.

CUT TO: The same as before, she is still dancing for 8 seconds more.

CUT TO: girl turns back to cooking. Medium shot from the side of girl, stiring the food in the wok.

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok.

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok; this time more cooked.

CUT TO: Close up of the contents of the wok; nearly finished cooking.

CUT TO: Medium shot of side of girl, pouring the contents of the wok onto a plate.

CUT TO: Close up of the wok being put down on the cooker. With a LOUD bang. Waits 3 seconds before cutting.

CUT TO: Medium shot of the girl sitting on the sofa, eating.

CUT TO: Close up of hand picking up remote control and pressing 'On'.

CUT TO: Medium shot of TV. About 3 seconds.

CUTS TO: Medium shot again of girl on sofa eating. She laughs at the TV.

CUTS TO: Medium shot of TV again. 3 seconds. Sound of girl laughing in the background.

CUT TO: Point of view shot again from outside, a different window. It hides as the girl stands up and walks over to the window. Her face is looking out of the window.

CUT TO: Medium shot behind of girl as she turns around from looking out of the window. The girl follows the camera back to the sofa. She lays down, a bit worried.

CUTS TO: The same shot, but eyes closed. She opens them, and glances at the clock.

CUTS TO: Close up of clock saying 12.00.

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl get up. She turns out the light.

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl walking out of living room. She shuts the door and goes upstairs. Camera stays in same shot and still at the bottom of stairs.

CUTS TO: Medium long shot of girl walking into bedroom. Camera follows girl, she walks into bathroom and shuts the door. Camera stares at door.

CUTS TO: Girl walking out of bathroom in night clothes. Camera follows girl to other side of room, and she gets into bed. She goes to turn off the light.

CUTS TO: Close up of the light turning off. (Wait 1 second) BANG!

CUTS TO: Close up of light turning back on.

CUTS TO: Girl muttering to herself. Looking frightened. Girl walks forward to her door. Camera in front walking backwards filming. Girl walks in front of camera. Camera then follows girl walking around upstairs turning on all of the lights of the 3 bedrooms.

CUTS TO: Medium long shot of girl walking down the stairs. Slowly. Scary. Silent. She is at the door of the living room.

CUTS TO: Over the shoulder shot from girl with brother in mask in the background. Screams, and shouting.

CUTS TO: Over the shoulder shot from brother, seeing the girls expression. speech from him.

CUTS TO: Medium close up of girl with speech.

CUTS TO: Medium close up of brother with speech.

CUTS TO: Medium shot of girl walking over to brother with speech. Camera watches as they leave the room, witch the light off and shut the door. Camera is left in darkness...

New Plot

The short begins with a girl at her front door waving goodbye to her parents, as they go out for the night. She shuts the door, and walks into her kitchen. She puts on a really loud and upbeat song on and begins preparing food for herself. She is in a good mood, and sings along to the song. She dances around the kitchen to the music and is clearly having a good time without her parents being around. Freedom. While she cuts up vegetables..etc. every sound is very loud and daunting. There is a point of view shot from outside, looking in at her. Someone is watching her. Shes sees something, but doesnt really think about it. She then turns the music off once she has made the food and goes into the living room and watches TV as she eats. She laughs at the TV and is responding to what is happening on the TV. There is another point of view shot from the front of the house looking into the window. Its shakey. When the girl looks out of the window, the point of view shot moves out of sight. She decides to go to bed, locks one door, but there is a shot to show that one door is left unlocked. She goes upstairs, gets into bed and turns out the light. 1 second after the light has gone off, there is a crash sound heard from outside her room. Downstairs? Upstairs? Who knows...

She turns on the light. Looking scared she creeps out of her room. She scans around her, looks in all the rooms upstairs. She turns on every light in each room. She quietly makes her way downstairs, pitch black. She opens the living room door, switches the light on and finds a person in a mask. They scare her, and then they say,

"TRICK OR TREAT!"

It is her little brother. She replies,

"What the hell!You scared me so much! It's not even halloween yet you idiot!"
"Well i was practicing for tomorrow! Do you like the mask?"

The girl lets out a massive sigh of relief puts her arm around her brothers shoulder, and pushes him from behind in a playful brotherly sisterly way. They walk back upstairs together, leavign the audience with mixed emotions. Scared and laughing at the same time.

Change of plan

After having planned my short film, i found that there were a large range of problems that would occur. I could not find the relevant actors, there were too many locations and could be too complicated and lose it's shine. I had a long think about what i would do, and have decided to change my plot. The location would be in one place, i have found my actor and its simple. It will be much more sharp and efficient now that i have changed it.