To attract our audience to watch our film we had to think

of conventions of popular products that already existed.

Horror is one of the most popular genres of film at the

moment, numerous franchises of horror films have been

made recently like Saw 1-6 + Saw 3D and Paranormal

Activity 1-3.

In 2010, around 70 horror films were released worldwide.

In 2011, around 40 horror films were released worldwide.

We also had to pick the right storyline for our horror film.

We had to include characters that would appeal to the

members of our target audience and put them into a plot

that our target audience would be able to relate to.

All the best horror films have the stereotypical horror

characters in them like:

Victim: Usually a young female who has been left alone

of is with one other friend, shown to be weak and

vulnerable.

Antagonist: In the sub-genre of slasher films the

antagonist is a psychopathic male killer who usually

have some traumatic past that has lead them to this

occupation.

Protagonist: This can be one of the victims or a separate

individual who tries to rescue the victim/s and ‘take

down’ the antagonist, usually male.

We addressed the audience in our film opening by

using 4 main things, camera shots/angles, mise en

scene, editing and sound.

We decided to use a lot of close-ups and quick editing

to create suspense and a sense of claustrophobia and

not being able to escape.

We also chose the setting of an ordinary house so that

the target audience could relate to the mise en scene

and the emotions of being trapped in their own home.

The sounds and music were chosen to engage the

audience into the scene and make them feel the same

emotions the characters do.

This over the shoulder shot shows the killer is creeping up

behind the victim and he has a hood up. This makes the

audience scared to know what’s under the hood and

that this killer is silent but dangerous. At this point they

are also in suspense as to what might happen next.

This close up of smashed wine glasses and a candle on

the floor gives the audience an idea of what might

come in the next shot. This shot also shows how ‘normal’

the victim is and that she likes to do what everyone else

would do in their spare time. This means that the

audience can relate to her and feel what she feels.

This shot shows the emotion on the victims face. She is

clearly very scared of this man and she doesn’t know

what to do. The victim is also on the floor, this shows that

she is weak and vulnerable and the killer is towering

over her showing that he is the dominant and strong

one.