Audience Feedback.

Before creating our storyboards and final narrative, Michelle and I decided to carefully look at the feedback we recieved from our questionnaires. After all, the film is aimed for them, so it only makes sense to build our film around their ideas and what seems to scare them the most. We created some tables showing the results and then made a comment below explaining how we are going to use what our audience has said when creating our film.

1.        Which one of the below are you most scared of?

Options	Responses
The dark	4
The Supernatural	1
Aliens	0
Criminals (Murderer etc.)	5

    

 

Response:

This question showed that the majority of people are most scared of criminals and their reasoning behind it was mainly because it happens in real life and it’s the only thing on the list that could do them any harm. The fear that received the least amount of votes was Aliens and to me this wasn't very surprising. Aliens don’t post a real threat to humans as most people don’t even believe they exist. This question has proven that more realistic things are scarier.

How we will use this feedback in our short film:

Since realistic and true events seem to cause the most fear in people, we will make our short film seem like a real documentary and use real facts relating to the history of the cinema to scare people, as they know that the information they are being told holds truth. Despite the supernatural not receiving many votes, we are still going to incorporate a spooky factor into our short film. Howeve, we will do this in a clever way, we want to just give the audience questions, leaving them unanswered and left for the imagination to decide. Making something seem as real as possible and not giving much away can sometimes be much scarier than an obvious ghost story.

3.        In a dark situation what is the main thing you would be scared of happening?

Response:

We found that most people are scared of the unknown when in a dark situation. The idea of one of your main senses being taken away seems to leave people with the fear of not being able to identify who or what is near them and the threat that this may cause to them. Another aspect that people said would scare them, is the fear of being hurt and something attacking them unexpectedly.
These fears are all very irrational but that is sometimes what drives them, the idea that it is probably never going to happen but there will always be that small doubt.  

How we will use this feedback in our short film:

In our short film we are going to play on the idea of having that small doubt in the back of your mind. The results showed that people do feel fear in the dark for the same reasons and since we are filming in a dark cinema this is great, as we can use their fear to our advantage. We could incorporate unusual noises in a dark scene, perhaps a subtle rustling behind the seats, homing in on that feeling of the unknown and what danger it could bring. We also want to challenge this idea and the stereotype that comes along with horror films being filmed in the dark. We will be filming some of the scenes in the cinema foyer, where there will be natural sunlight. It may not look like a conventional scary scene but we will use this to our advantage and still make it scary. We want to create a new view on thriller films and what makes the build-up scary. The darkness actually plays a small part in that build up and we want to use other aspects to create that scary vibe, such as sound effects, lighting and Mise en Scene.

4.        Are you more likely to watch a horror film that is, (Please write  yes beside your choice)

a)       Based on a real life event

or

b)       A work of fiction

Options	Responses
Based on a real life event	5
A work of Fiction	5

 

How we will use this feedback in our short film:

The results showed that people equally enjoyed horror films based on real life events and works of fiction. Using this result, we have decided that our film will combine the both. Some parts will be made up and use actors to play our characters but our storyline will hold some levels of truth using the history. Hopefully we will be able to include real members of staff from the cinema to play a small part in our film. I think that this feedback has been very helpfull, sometimes when a horror is completely based on fact it can scare people away and turn them off watching it. However with the question of ‘Is this real or not?’ that our film will bring, it will give people that peace of mind to believe what they want. I think that this will draw in a wider audience and not scare people away completely.

5. Do you find yourself more jumpy in?

a)       The day

                  or

b)       The night

Options	Responses
The day	0
The night	10

 

How we will use this feedback in our short film:

This question seems quite obvious and Michelle and I undoubtedly predicted that the night would recieve the most votes but we want to challenge this response. Most of our footage is going to be shot in the day where it will be light out, apart from the specific parts we film in the dark cinema. We want to challenge this stereotypical view of being scared just in the night. We believe that in the day it can also be very scary and sometimes the sunny atmosphere contrasted with an unusual setting, uncomfortable characters and feeling on edge can actually be more frightening. The audience would not be expecting it, giving them the same blind feeling they get in the darkness. To see if our challenging idea works, after filming out short film we will show it to our same questionnaire audience and ask this question again, to see if we get at least one person change their mind.

6.        Before something jumpy happens in a film do you find yourself more scared when there is a soundtrack building the tension or complete silence?

a)       Soundtrack

b)       Silence

Options	Responses
Soundtrack	6
Silence	4

 

How we will use this feedback in our short film:

The results showed that most people find themselves more scared in a film when there is a soundtrack building the tension. We do agree with this as it has worked in many great horror films before, but because we want to make our short film seem very realistic like a documentary, it may not work so well to use a soundtrack this time. I think that sometimes silence can be the scariest thing. We have found that most people don’t like the sensation of being in the dark, so we think that if we take away their hearing too, by including no sound effects or soundtrack for a long pause before something happens, it will make our audience feel extremely on edge. When producing our film, we almost want to adapt our audience’s conventional way of thinking. Hopefully with our challenging ideas we can achieve this.