Planning: Setting & Props

The setting and props in a film work together to create the overall effect and impact of the film. They will establish the genre, plot, how the characters will act and create the building blocks for the entire film. In horror films setting and props can vary greatly. With more gory films often we often see weapons, blood, dead bodies, torture instruments and they can often be set in a remote location. But in paranormal films it is often set in a 'normal' house with a 'normal' family, a sinister twist is often added to this with older props that have a greater meaning in the plot.

My film involves a normal young girl being stalked so I feel that a 'normal' setting and props would be more appropriate. The setting of the film is a house and different scenes are filmed in different rooms of the house. The office room has props that would be typically seen in an office and the main character is completing homework giving an idea of her age and making younger audiences relatable. The kitchen is shown to have normal props e.g. kettle, mugs, sink and cook. Everything appears completely normal building the suspense of the film. The lounge shows a tidy room with sofas and a TV giving the effect of a normal home. Then the girl makes her way to her room which gives a further idea of her age. The room has all of the normal props that would be seen in a teenage girls room. After the climax of the films plot every room is shown with the props in the same places. This shows the quick transition back to normal after the man has entered the house and left.

Examples of the setting and props:

Planning: Narrative & Plot

Narrative:
For the narrative and plot of my short film I decided to explore the idea of a stalker following someone. This is quite a classic feature of horror films and can be seen a lot, often girls are followed home when it's dark and no one else is around. I first began to think about someone being followed outside as they are walking somewhere but I think this is quite an obvious route. So it is instead set at a young girls home where the stalker appears. I think this idea will have a greater effect on audiences as it becomes more intrusive and relatable. I think audiences will feel more intimidated by the plot because it unfolds in a normal house.
The plot of my film involves a lot of mystery and gaps that need to be filled by the audience by them interpreting it in their own way. At the beginning the stalker is shown to be at the window of every room the girl is in. This then jumps to him being in the house and in her room. Then he leaves and an empty house is seen. I think the mystery created by this narrative structure for the audiences is a good thing as they will come up with their own ideas. No one knows why he is there, how he gets in or what happens to the girl, this is completely left for the audience to individually interpret. The absence of any dialogue also contributes to the mystery created.
I think the narrative i have created is quite simple but I feel this is an important element when creating a short film. As you only have a short amount of time to showcase a full plot to the audience I think keeping the narrative simple is key. So in doing so I think my short film will be easier for the audience to follow and keep up with, whilst the mysterious elements of plot will keep them engaged.

Todorov's Theory:
The narrative of my short film fits in well with Todorov's narrative theory that a film contains an equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. I wanted to ensure this structure was present in my film to make it easier for audiences to follow. The equilibrium is the young girl being stalked, then the disequilibrium comes through when the stalker comes into the house and her bedroom, this develops into a new equilibrium as he leaves and the girl is missing.

Audience Profiling: Analysing Results

How will audience profiling help me in planning my short film?

The results form my audience profiling questionnaires are useful in helping me to plan for the creation of my own short film. Majority of my questionnaires were filled out by people of age 17 and 18. These ages are part of the age group I am going to target my film at so the results will be very useful.
The choice that I made selecting the genre of horror for my film was reinforced by the feedback as horror seemed to be a fairly popular genre. Although there were a few responses from people who didn't like horror but I was expecting this result as I gave my questionnaires to a variety of people. So I know that a lot of this age group enjoy watching horror films.
I saw a surprising mix of people who watched short films and people who didn't. For the age group that my responses came from a lot more people actually watch short films which is good because I now know there is an audience in the younger generation for short films.
Most people said they heard about films being advertised via trailers, TV ads and on line and less people heard about them via print and radio. So this suggests how I would need to advertise my short film on more popular media outlets, and if I decide to use the less popular media outlets then the techniques I use would need to be very effective.
I also asked why people like watching horror films and what they expect to see in them. People really enjoyed the suspense and atmosphere created by horror films, being scared provides an adrenaline rush which a lot of people said they liked. Suspense was a big element that people expected to see in horror films and a lot of people said the stereotypical elements of blood, ghosts darkness. I have used this response as I know suspense is a key thing that should be in a horror film, there are also elements that I am not going to include form this response such as blood because I want to create something that doesn't fit to all stereotypical views of horror films

Audience Profiling: Questionnaire Responses

Questionnaire Responses from lstafford97

Audience Profiling: Short Film Questionnaire

To help with my own audience profiling for the creation of my film I have devised my own short film questionnaire. This contains questions that will influence not only my filming but also the other tasks I need to complete regarding the promotion of the film. I gave the questionnaire to a variety of people so the responses will be varied giving me a good idea of what to include in my short film.
This is my questionnaire:

Uses and Gratification Theory: Blumler & Katz

Uses and gratification theory explains how we understand mass communication. This theory focuses more on the audience and how they consume it rather than the message supplied by what they are viewing. It asks "what do people do with the media?" rather than "what does the media do to you?". It rejects the idea that audiences are passive to what they consume in the media (as stated in Hypodermic Needle Theory) but instead they actively interpret and integrate media into their own lives. It also states that audience members choose to consume media to meet their own needs and suggests that the media is used to fulfil specific gratifications. The theory implies that the media competes against other information sources for viewer's gratification.

The theory states that user's have four basic needs when consuming films:

• Identify- being able to recognise the product or person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours, aspiration to be someone else
• Educate - being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding
• Entertain – What you are consuming should give you enjoyment and also some form of ‘escapism’ enabling us to forget our worries temporarily
• Social Interaction – the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people, sparks debates (etc who is left on the x-factor)

Short Film Practice

To begin thinking about the short film or trailer that we are going to make for our final project we were given the task to work in groups to create a mini short film as a practice to get used to using all of the equipment. We were set a narrative to use as the plot and also added some of our own ideas onto the end.

The Narrative
The main narrative was already given to us. It was of a girl in a room who goes into a day dream about walking down a corridor and entering a room, She then meets someone in the room. After this she comes out of the day dream. This was the narrative we were given and then as a group we decided to add an extra bit. When the girl comes out of the day dream she goes back to work and then sees the person she saw in the day dream standing at the door. This is how it ends.


Camera
We needed to include a variety of camera shots to practice for our final project. Also we had to use appropriate shots to compliment the narrative which made us choose our camera shots more carefully.

This is an example of a medium shot from our short film. We used this at different points in the short film as it a good shot size to get enough in the shot without it being too zoomed in. In this frame we can see what is happening clearly and the unnecessary parts of the shot aren't included.

Here we have used a long shot to get the full effect on the corridor. This allows us to see the person walking down the corridor. As the camera was static at this point in the film the character gets closer to the camera as she walks around the corner which adds a good effect.

Here we have used a medium close up in the conversation that was had in the room. This enables us to focus on the character who is speaking. We also used reverse shots when the conversation was happening so we can see the character who is talking.

This is an example of an extreme close up in our film. This is of the main character's eyes as they look to the door and see the other person there. This shot adds a lot of emphasis to what she is looking at as we can only see her eyes change direction and look to the door in the shot. I think the use of this shot separates the use of medium and medium close up shots.

Here the other character is seen at the door and is shown with a low angle. This gives the character power showing their importance in the narrative. The camera pans up to this shot from the floor which adds more suspense as to who will be at the door and makes the end shot when we see the character have even more impact.

Our final shot was a high angle shot of this character again. This contrasts to the previous low angle shot and shows less power. The idea of this character having less power is emphasised by her turning away at the end and not wanting to see the other character.

Editing
Using Adobe Elements I worked on editing the clips filmed for this short film. The software wasn't the best in what it provided editing wise so I didn't change that much. I cut some of the clips down to make them flow better and to cut out any unwanted footage that wasn't needed in the film. As well as this I edited the final clip to fade to black at the end of the film signifying a complete end to the narrative. Then I put in the rolling credits with all of our names at the end. However I didn't like the theme provided by the software so I don't think it is best to use to provide a professional finish.

How will this help me...
Doing this practice short film in preparation has been very helpful to ensure that I have enough knowledge for when I film the final project. It was my first time using any editing software for a film so I think it was a necessary task and it allowed me to explore the different options provided by the software. I now know how to cut footage down and use different edits for clips and transitions. This will come in very useful when I have filmed my final project and come to edit my footage.