Male Audience for Horror

Males are more likely to be fans of horror films than girls, and this is the stereotypical thrill seek and enjoyment of seeing gore and violent acts towards other humans. 
The disturbing scenes that they watch frighten them, but the fact that it is fictional changes them from being real, as we have a sense of control over what is real and what is not from true acts of violence, and ones in films. Zillman and his colleagues exposed 36 male and 36 female students to a horror movie in the presence of someone of the opposite sex. Men enjoyed the film more when they were with a distressed woman, and women enjoyed in more when with a mastering man. 
It also links to gender socialization from a quote from Sparks; “Men often like [scary films] as date movies because women are more likely to seek physical closeness when they’re scared, and men can show off their strength and bravery,” Cantor said. (This is aptly called “the cuddle effect.”)

Males tend to like this genre more because it makes them seem brave if they show no fear and simply laugh at the gore and scary themes, because they do not want to be seen as a coward, and more dominant. 

Seeing someone get possessed, or getting cut in half is more enjoyable to watch when you have no fear of it happening to you, but some people can be paranoid that they are afraid of what they are watching in case it could happen to them. 
In a study, more women chose scares over mindless violence, this is proof that men like to prove to people that nothing scares them or grosses them out, and they are fearless. 

Master Post: Evaluation Question Blogs

1) In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

K:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/deconstruction-for-film-opening-in.html

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/practical-task-mise-en-scene.html

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/practical-killers-mask.html

L:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/actors-in-our-opening-scene.html

J:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/conventions-of-mystery-in-horror.html

 

2) How does your media product represent a particular social group?

K:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/gone-2012-deconstruction-gone-is.html

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/gender-as-target-audience.html

J:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/conform-of-female-victims.html

 

3) What kind of media institution might distribution your media product and why?

L:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/universal-pictures-deconstruction.html

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/production-company-deconstruction.html

K:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/my-production-company-sequence_2.html

 

5) How did you attract / address your audience?

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/gender-as-target-audience.html

L:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/age-of-target-audience-for-our-opening.html
J: http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/male-audience-for-horror.html

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

K:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/film-titles-typography.html

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/practical-typography.html

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/practical-sound-effects.html

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/sound-evaluation.html

L:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/editing-match-on-action.html

J:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/jakes-filming-evaluation.html

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

K:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/evaluation-of-editing-in-our.html

O:

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/planning-our-preliminary.html

http://olivialucykelsey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/storyboard-1st-draft.html

Gender as a target audience

Who we're aiming our opening scene at

 

We've decided that the gender of our target audience is to be mostly female. Our killer is female, so we think there would be a mainly female audience.

As seen before in previous horror films, the killer is male and there is a large male audience (more than female). The killers being male makes the role seem more violent and intimidating to the audience so we want to see if a female killer can do the same, therefore changing the target audience.

 

 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Halloween (1978)

 

 Friday the 13th (1980)

 

 Scream (1996)

Age of Target Audience for our Opening Scene

Target Audience: Age

 

The target audience we choose for our film opening is important because if we try to specifically aim it at a range of people then they are more likely to watch it.

 

The age restrictions available are:

U (Universal) - A U-rated film is suitable for audiences aged four years and over.

PG (Parental Guidance) - Some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG-rated film should not scare a child aged eight or older.

12A - Suitable for 12 years and over. No one younger than 12 can see the film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult.

12 – Suitable for aged 12 years and over.

15 - Suitable for aged 15 years and older. No-one under 15 is allowed to see a film with this rating.

18 - Suitable only for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18-rated film at the cinema or buy the DVD.

 

Horror films with an age restriction of 18:

 

-  All of the Saw films

- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

- The Hills Have Eyes

- Wrong Turn

- Scream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horror films with an age restriction of 15:

- Jeepers Creepers

- Final Destination

- Silent Hill

 

 

 

After doing this research, I have decided that the age rating for our film opening will be 15 because there is violence and gore that people under 15 may be affected by. I realised that most of the slasher films are 18 because they contain such disturbing scenes and ideas, but because our opening scene is quite low-key I don't think it would need such a high rating. If our film was real, we definitely could have made it a lot more violent and more like a hard core slasher like Saw, however if it was rated 18 it would mean that a large amount of younger viewers would be unable to see it and the income would be decreased.

 

Conventions of Female Victims

Women are not always victims, and they are often empowered. In films like Alien, it is the woman who survives and kills the alien threat, were her crew both male and female, die.

Directors such as Dario Argento ("If they have a good face or figure I would much prefer to watch them being murdered than an ugly girl or man) and Brian De Palma have expressed a preference for menacing or killing beautiful women in their films.

Tim O’Sullivan and co say that “the dumb blonde stereotype might include: blondness, seductive body language, strong makeup” This is supported in “Scream” by the character tatum Riley who gets killed in the most sterotypical way.

The book “Men, Women and Chainsaws” by Carol J Clover “A phychokiller who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until they are subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived.”

Results show that of the males asked, there was an equal split between favouring attractive model-like lead characters and preferring more believably everyday characters, however there is an uneven split for the females that were asked, the majority favouring attractive leads.


Wendy in The Shining was not attractive compared to the characters in the teen movie horrors, showing a clear difference between psychological and slashers, where slasher victims have pretty female victims, and psychological focuses more on the acting ability. 

Conventions of Mystery in Horror

Horror films are well known for their mystery and suspense that they create in their scenes, this usually begins in the opening credits, as the audience is left with a cliff hanger that they only have the answers to near the end of the climax of the film.







The way in which conventions are commonly placed in horror is done with the lighting, and how it is dark, and behind the character to show them, and show their fear, and with this position of lighting you cannot see the killer who is behind them, ready for a jump scare, but before this happens there is a lot of suspense to get you drawn into the scene.



setting usually consists of some place that the killer is attracted to due to past reasons, and the mystery behind this is why they like the place they stay in, whether it be a woods, or a basement in which they commit their acts of murder on. The answers to why they are drawn to this place add to the mystery, and are only answered as the film progresses, leaving you to wonder from the opening scene in which most mysteries come from to keep your attention.

The third conventions is the camera angles, which are simple, and stick to overhead shots to show if something is behind them. Depth of field is also used to show if there is a monster behind them, and blur the scene to just show a shadow.

Sound evaluation

The same day that we filmed in the field for the second time (21st January), we went back to my house and recorded some sounds on my piano, where there is a voice setting of 'strings'. We thought this would be ideal to make our music on because it is the usual sound made in horror films and would conform to the genre.
 

The first sound that we recorded was a general backing track that lasted for two minutes. At the same time as recording, we had our film opening playing on another phone so that we could see when to build up the noise to add more suspense and make it more like a horror sound track - hence why 'faceless1' is two minutes long. The second sound recorded was a short burst of one of the higher keys, still set on 'strings', so at any point where it became suspenseful or at the pivotal point in the scene we could add it.
 

If we were to improve next time, we would discuss exactly the sound we needed instead of playing as we went along because since recording it, we added in extra shots that don't go with the soundtrack we made. We could have also made more that were different which would then allow us to have a choice and see which were better for the scene.
 

Overall we worked well together and got it done quickly so we were able to add in sound the next day of editing.