audience research

I asked ten class mates to fill in a questionnaire to find out what different aspects people like and look for in different types of  genre films, the results are found below:

1.What is your favourite genre?
a) Thriller
b)Horror
c)Rom-Com

After asking ten people; it was found that Thriller was the most favoured genre with Horror and Rom-Com followed up joint second.

2.What is your favourite thriller?

Seven out of ten people said that Se7en was their favourite thriller followed up by shutter island and scream.

3.What kind of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds do you think a Rom-Com should have?

The majority of the participants said that happy, sweet incidental music is suitable for a Rom-Com.

4.What kind of antagonist do you prefer?
a)Psycho
b)General Serial-Killer
c)Monster
d)Normal Person
e)Terrorist

Half of the participants said that they preferred a Psycho, followed second by a General Serial Killer, followed by a Terrorist.

5.Do you prefer predictable films or a film with a twist?

All ten volunteers said they preferred films with a twist.

6.What do you think the best ending to a horror is?

The best ending that was stated many times is an unexpected one.

7.What type of non-diegetic sound do you think is suitable for a thriller opening?

All ten people decided creepy, edgy music is suitable for a thriller.

8.Do you prefer a live action opening or an image based opening?

Most people prefer a live action opening, only three chose a image based opening.

9.What colour titles should there be in the following genres?
a)Rom-Com
b)Thriller
c)Horror

The most common colours for each of these were:
a) White/Pink
b)Black/Purple/Blue/Red
c)Red

10.What type of editing do you prefer?
a)Choppy
b)Fade
c)Dissolve

Only two people liked choppy editing, the other eight equally liked fade and dissolve editing best.

After this research and other Internet research i have decided to chose horror as my genre choice.

The table below taken off the UK film council site shows how popular each genre is. I decided to choose horror as my genre because it's the seventh most popular genre out of them all and more popular than thriller and romance films. This table not only shows all the films but it also shows how many films of each genre were released.

After doing extra research; i found an outline of each film genre.
Horror:
These films are designed to frighten and get the viewers to invoke there hidden worst fears, this is normally done by shocking and terrifying them whilst captivating and entertaining them at the same time. Horror films have a wide range of styles. The earliest silent Nosferatu Classics to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans. There are many sub-genres of horror, this includes slasher, teen terror, serial killers, Dracula and Frankenstein, etc.
The latest top ten Horrors are:

1. Apollo 18 (2011)
2. The Rite (2011)
3. Let Me In (2010)
4. Zombieland (2009)
5. The Resident (2011)
6. Red Riding Hood (2011)
7. I Spit On Your Grave (2010)
8. Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
9. Scream 4 (2011)
10. Piranha (2010)

Thriller:
These are normally hybrids with other films such as action-thrillers. It can even be mixed into a Rom-com, this genre is closely related to horror. The films are designed to thrill and leave the views in suspense. They are types of films known to promote intense excitement and a high level of anticipation and tension.
The top ten thrillers are:

1. I am number four (2011)
2. Unknown (2011)
3. The Next Three Days (2010)
4. Black Swan (2010)
5. 127 Hours (2010)
6. Drive Angry 3D (2011)
7. The Mechanic (2011)
8. Sanctum (2011)
9. Inception (2010)
10. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Romance/Comedy:
A romance is mainly a sub-genre. These are love stories or affairs to the heart that centre on passion, emotion and the affectionate involvement of the main characters that are usually the man and lady and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. These make the love story the main plot focus.
A Comedy however are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the situations.
The top ten Romances are:

1. The Next Three Days (2010)
2. Just Go With It (2011)
3. Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)
4. No Strings Attached (2011)
5. The Tourist (2010)
6. Beastly (2011)
7. Love and Other Drugs (2010)
8. Morning Glory (2010)
9. The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
10. Tangled (2010)

Christian Metz

In Metz's book; Language and Cinema 1974, Christian Metz explored the development of genre film and suggested that genres pass through four phases of existence.

The first phase is:

The Experimental; this is the phase of early films which explored and experimented with horror themes in it's narratives because they helped formalize the narrative conventions of the horror in it's earliest phase as in The Cabinet of Dr Claigari (1919) and Nosferatu (1922)

The next phase is:

The Classic; this is the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in it's most successful and defining period as in Hollywood films such as Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) made by Universal.

The next phase is:

The Parody; this is the phase of films that have mimicked the horror genre in some comical way as in Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948) Carry on Screaming (1968) and Scary Movie (1998)

The final phase is:

Deconstruction; this is the phase of films which have taken the generic elements of the horror genre and amalgamated them into varying sub genres. For example:

Se7en (1995) would be combined with Psychological Thriller/ Horror

The Sixth Sense (1999); with Supernatural Thriller/ Horror

The Blair Witch Project (1998); with Documentary Film/ Horror

Scream (1996); with Teen Movie/ Horror

Here i sampled and identified horror genre films and used Metz's model of genre development in order to cement my understanding of the relevance of the horror genre in terms of it's experimental, classic origins and subsequent parody and deconstructive phases of development.