Q3 evaluation (Draft)

 Question 3

Our film has been certified a 12 considering our target audience, who are between the ages of 12 and 25, who are demographically placed in the category D (semi-skilled workers) and category E (unemployed full time students). In the table of psychographics, our target audience fit in the Explorers category, as our target audience value difference, which is a theme that is present both in the mystery and horror genre, as in horror mystery films there is common use of binary oppositions, where the difference is based on the fight between the alive and the dead, thus good Vs Evil, such as The Grudge Franchise, whereby humans fight against the revengeful ghost. The definition of our target audience, means that our audience are not a “passive audience” but an “active audience”, as David Gauntlet argues, because our target audience are likely to produce varied meanings from decoding the messages we encoded in our film, thus they are likely to have negotiated readings. Therefore, this meant that we could produce a film that does not follow a linear narrative or does not contain a cast full of the dominant ethnicity.

For the narrative of our film, we decided to get written feedback on the final script for our film. Our target audience, liked the fact that our film was based on two time periods, starting off with the 50s period and flash forwarding to the modern period. Moreover, they complimented on the format of our script, as they argued that it was very “professional” and acknowledged that our script was written to an “industry standard”. However, our target audience, did argue that stage directions were lacking, we did not provide contact details on the title page and that the use of a cliff hanger at the end (enigma) is too cliché, they pointed out instead that we end our film on a happy note, thus end on an equilibrium. We responded to this feedback, by first adding more director’s notes to our film script and adding the contact details. However, we decided not to follow our audiences feedback on ending on a positive note, because we believed that we could overcome the cliché of ending with an enigma, by emphasising unconventional horror narrative elements in our film, such as the use of a time skip. We believe the use of time skip that links both the 50’s and modern section of our film, increases the mystery value of our film, as our audience are left to figure, how and why are the two periods linked. Therefore, connoting to the idea of an unsolved mystery, that can only be solved using imagination. Overall, the audience feedback on our film script, helped us to tweak the format of our script and helped us to get a better understanding of how our audience would feel with our production decisions.

For our poster, we drew up two possible poster ideas that we thought could be used as an official poster for our horror film. But since me and my partner were undecided on what we should choose, we decided to get audience feedback on the two posters and based on the level of criticism to positives, we decided to go for the poster design that had the least criticism. However, from our audience, they criticised our posters equally arguing that the use of characters in the poster were very vague, for example in the first poster, our audience said that the female arm looked like the arm of an “ordinary woman” instead of a female ghost’s arm. Secondly, in the second poster, our target audience, question whether the character drawn was a “man or a woman”, was it their “back or front”. Due to these criticism, we decided to redraw another poster idea, and received audience feedback on the new poster drawing, we received more positive feedback, such as our target audience thought “the use of a filter to suggest the past is interesting”. On the other hand, our audience argued certain tweaks needed to be made with the format, for example, to increase the size of the logo. From the audience feedback on our poster ideas, we could make improvements over time on our poster ideas, so that it represents both the horror and mystery genre.

For our radio trailer, we decided to create a radio script and obtain feedback on this script by a sound technician and industry practitioner Nirag Chag, who has worked on many BBC productions. We asked him to analyse our script and suggest improvements. Some of the improvements he suggested was first, that instead of starting the radio trailer with a brass crescendo of a French horn, we start off with a clock ticking. Secondly, he argued that we should make the dialogue “There were no traces of the couple found” more dramatic, by using a breathy voice, as it connotes to tension and anxiety. We followed these two improvement points and found that our radio trailer script sounded a lot more eerie and dramatic when read. In addition, after creating a draft of our radio trailer, we decided to obtain audience feedback on our draft radio trailer. Our audience commented on our draft, by arguing that the use of sound and music was effective, as it helped them understand that the narrative was about something “dark” and they argued the use “echo” explained something about being “trapped” in our narrative, which is a correct element in our narrative. However, they did argue that they could not hear what the narrator was saying in the beginning of the radio, because the music was too “loud “and “overwhelming”. They also criticised our radio trailer, saying that the narrative was slightly unclear. Therefore, considering our audience feedback, we made changes to our draft radio trailer, by first lowering the sound of the string music when the narrator says, “If you see yourself run” also we realised that our radio trailer was fit to be the score, sounds and dialogue for a normal trailer. Thus, we decided to increase the use of the narrator, by using phrases such as “they share the same face, but will they share the same fate”, which will inform our audience more about our film. Overall, audience feedback on our radio trailer was very effective, as it helped us realise a huge mistake, that our radio trailer does not do much to give details about the narrative of our film. Therefore, using our audience feedback we could fix the mistake before it was too late.

Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as “chain of events in a cause-effect relationship”. Considering this definition, we used conventional narrative theories of our horror film, so that we could create a chain of events, with cause and effect relationships, so that it makes sense to our audience, as for example, the use of enigma codes. Barthes introduced the idea that enigma codes presents a mystery that the audience are drawn in by, because it is something the audience do not know and must work out. For example, when the female protagonist Sophia does not return from her errand assigned to her by her husband male protagonist Richard Williams. This leaves an enigma code, because our audience may begin to wonder why is it taking so long for Sofia Williams to complete simple errand and whether something has happened. This enigma code is also stimulated using a sting sound effect. For example, a close shot of a clock was used and when the time showed 4:30, a sting sound effect was used, then a cross fade was used to show the passing of time to 6:30, whereby to emphasise the change in time another sting sound effect was used along with non-diegetic sinister incidental music, that connotes to danger. (Insert clip from actual film). This, narrated to the audience that a long time has passed and still Sofia Williams is nowhere to be seen. As a result, we are using conventional narrative theories in our film to create tension and anxiety within our audience. The use of enigma codes is seen across all horror mystery film, such as The Woman in Black, whereby at the end of the film, the character that helps the main protagonist sees “The woman in black” despite the character if she is a resting soul, which helped to dramatize the ending of the film.

However, we have also attempted to develop current narrative theories specific to the horror genre using mis en scene and editing. For example, Noel Caroll argues that every horror film stereotypically uses the typical 3 act horror structure, whereby there is an onset phase (which a disorder is created), discovery phase (whereby the source of disorder is discovered) and destruction phase (whereby the source of disorder is destroyed). In our horror film, we decided to use and develop this narrative theory, through editing by repeating phases and missing out phases. For instance, we create an onset phase using the mis en scene of a haunted 1950s office and makeup, such as the use dripping blood. We created a time skip, by merging an establishing shot of the old office building with the modern office building, and the difference in period was further emphasised in editing by putting a sepia filter on the 50s section of the film and leaving the modern section as it is, as the colour tone of the sepia filter is stereotypical to the 50s period, which our audience will be aware of. We create a discovery phrase, where the protagonist of the modern section of the film Alan Smith discovers the disruption and this was represented using mis en scene, as Alan Smith comes across an article regarding the haunted 50s office on his computer in his office. However, instead of creating a destruction phase, whereby the character(s), destroy the source of the disorder, instead we create another onset phase, by editing the green screen of the possessed spirits of Richard and Sophia Williams, who possess Alan Smith and ending the film on an enigma. As a result, through the development of this typical 3 act horror structure, we can provide our audience with something fresh and unique to experience, as we are breaking the conventional order of events in our horror narrative.


In our audience survey, we asked our audience what the disliked about horror films and many answered the idea that often horror films are predictable and end in a similar way. This means that, we can apply Stuart Halls; theory of audience positioning, as our target audience are aware of certain conventions in the horror genre from previous viewings of horror films, to which they have an oppositional reading to, because it is something they are perhaps bored of seeing, such as the use of a cliff hanger. However, despite this we decided to continue to use a cliff hanger, because we believe throughout the film, we have attempted to eliminate predictability through the narrative by developing both Todorovs typical linear narrative and Noel Carolls typical horror act structure narrative. Specifically, instead of using a linear narrative, with an equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium, we used a non-linear narrative, due to the use of a time skip, from the 50’s to modern times. As a result, the although the use of a cliff hanger is a conventional ending of a horror film, I think it was important to stick to this convention, because we are already swaying away from the typical narrative structure, so by providing a stereotypical ending we are remining our audience that they are watching a horror film. We cannot apply the hypodermic needle theory our film, because our audience are not passive and since the horror genre contains elements that disagree with the scientific values of society, such as the idea of possession and spirits, our audience, are unlikely to believe and accept the mis en scene of a haunted office as real, therefore our audience are likely to enjoy the fantasy conventions of the horror genre, such as the fact that it creates jump scare, which individuals in or audience enjoy the thrill of being scared.


In our horror film, we have attempted to adhere and create countertypes to stereotypical representations of social groups within each period. For example, in the 1950’s period, men are stereotypically represented as being the professional breadwinner and the educated individual compared to women, for example, using mis en scene, we introduce Richard Williams in the 1950’s wearing a work suit and entering what seems to be his new office. The use mis ens scene, the settings and costumes indicates that Richard Williams, is a typical Middle class White man, who through his good educational background and skills has been able to earn money through a white-collar job. This is because, the use of a work suit connotes to professionalism and status, which are ideas linked to masculinity. Moreover, the fact that the audience are introduced to his wife visiting him in his new office, connotes that he is the main wage earner within the couple and thus is represent women as being economically inferior to men in the 1950s, which represents the patriarchal society of the 50’s period and represents the socially accepted division of labour of the time. However, the fact that Sofia Williams is of a different race to Richard Williams who is white and is of ethnic minority, being black, means that the characters in our film do not adhere to the stereotypical discriminative society of the 50’s. This is because, the use of silk and a silver necklace on Sofia Williams, connotes that she is of similar status to Richard Williams, as silk and silver connotes to luxury that only the middle class rich individuals of society could wear in the 1950’s. On the other hand, it could perhaps be inferred, that Sofia Williams could only wear such items, because she is married and thus she is dependent on her white husband. Therefore, representing women as being economically dependent on men, which happened to be stereotypical to the 50’s.

However, the wife of Richard Williams, Sophia Williams is an example of a countertype in 1950’s society, this is because she is represented as being an ethnic minority with a middle-class status, using camera angles. For example, when Jane Angelo (the female assistant) and Sophia Williams meet for the first time, a low angle is used to show Sophia Williams, while a high angle is used to show Jane Angelo. This represents, the power struggle between the ethnicities and represents the black ethnic minority as holding more power than the white majority, which connotes that there has been a swap of power and status than the conventional status quo between Sophia Williams who is black and Jane Angelo who is white. As a result, we are not adhering to the stereotypical status quo of 1950s, instead we are presenting our audience with something that may make them wonder and view 1950s society in a different light, perhaps as more equal than they think. In contrast, using an arc, our audience see Sofia Williams walk up the stairs and this camera movement happens to catch the outline of Sofia Williams body as she walks up the stairs. This applies Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, as the arc emphasises the movement of Sofia Williams butt and her bodyline, which connotes to the idea that she is just there for the pleasure of men. In addition, this also connotes to the idea that women are sexual objects of voyeurism.

In the modern section of the film, we represent men as being disorganised and professionally weak. For example, through dialogue, the audience hear that Alan Smith, speaking to his boss and how he is late in handing is work in. This representation is essentially stereotypical, in the sense that masculinity also connotes to laziness and unorganised. Therefore, in the modern period men are also represented as being stereotypically masculine, but it is not stereotypical that men are lazy when it comes to work and earning money. Therefore, Alan Smith represents men as being weak in maintaining professionality, due to poor deadline meeting skills. Therefore, the audience may view, Alan Smith to be a symbol of postmodernity, as some may argue, it is no longer expected of men to play a breadwinner role, so being proficient in work does not correlate to the need of earning money, because now both men and women play the breadwinner role.

Our film is within the horror genre and falls within the mystery sub-genre and thus joining these genres Forms a hybrid genre, the horror mystery genre. This reflects the theoretical dispute in defining genre, because there is no name for this hybrid genre. There is also the difficulty in categorising hybrid genres, to which Andrew Tudor argues, this is an "empiricist dilemma".