Online Pre Production Questionnaire

Research into Genre

Research into Genre

Similar films

I decided to do some research into film that are similar to ours as we would use these as a base for our characters and how to portray them, it also gives an idea of the conventions used in these films. Some films similar to ours are 'The Sixth Sense' and 'The Others'

The Sixth Sense

'The Sixth Sense' is a thriller film in which we follow a child psychiatrist who takes on the task to help a terrified boy who seems to be plagued by visions of ghosts. The visions reveal that the boy sees ghosts who don't know that their dead. In our film, our aim is to disorientate the audience and want to shock them with the twist at the end, revealing that our main character is actually dead. 

The Others

'The Others' is a thriller film, the film focalises on a woman named Grace and her two photosensitive children, they live in a manor house with three mysterious servants. Grace is convinced they're being haunted. The truth is revealed at the end, Grace had smothered her children and then shot herself.

Title Sequence Analysis of Orphan

Click here to view the analysis.

Final Production Logo for Group

After everyone in the group made an individual production logo, we decided to use this one for our final group production logo, as it has classic iconography from the horror genre, with the dripping pools of blood. The camera lense is used to show that we are filmmakers.

Mood Board For Our Film, "Haunted"

I decided to make a mood board for our film to represent our story line and genre.

Journey Elliptical

We made an elliptical edit of this to improve and develop on our current skills in preparation for editing our actual film.

Journey Exercise One

We did this to practice our current filming and continuity skills in preparation for producing and editing our actual film.

Production logo (rough)

Logo Idea

Logo Idea

Research into ghosts

What exactly is a ghost?

A ghost is said to be an apparition of a dead person, which is believed to appear or to become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image. When they are said to appear to the living, the discriptions vary widely, some reports claim that these ghosts are simply an invisible presence, wispy shapes, or realistic lifelike versions. Essentially, ghosts are human spirits stuck in purgatory between earth and the great beyond. Some theories suggest that ghosts get stuck as something is holding them to a certain location, such as a house.

When ghosts feature in a media product, they are usually wearing human clothes, despite a ghost simply being the spirit or a soul of a deceased person. A theory suggests that ghosts are usually seen wearing clothes, as they are projecting themselves in the way that they last perceieved themselves. Even if they are burnt in a fire, for example, or died in surgery, they will still appear wearing clothes because that is how they best know themselves.

In order to attempt to communicate with ghosts, humans may conduct a seance. A seance is were a medium, along with other people, will attempt to receieve spiritual messages. The medium will provide a channel in order to communicate with the spirit.

Ghosts in films/television

In The Others, the mother, her two children and their house help are all ghosts living in a house in the aftermath of the War. The mother and her children do not realise they are dead, and actually think there are ghosts living in their house, however, the house help do know they are dead.

In the Sixth Sense, the main character, Dr Malcolm Crowe, doesn't realise that he is dead, when he is shot by a former patient. Throughout the film, there are small hints towards the fact that he is dead, such as all of the clothes Malcolm wears during the film are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, including his overcoat, his blue rowing sweatshirt and the different layers of his suit.

In American Horror Story: Murder House, there are many ghosts that feature within the show, including Tate Langdon and eventually Violet Harmon. The plot of the show involves that people who die in the house stay within the house. When Violet kills herself, and comes back as a ghost (which intially she doesn't realise), she is unable to leave the grounds of the house.

Character profile ideas

Chloe (dead girl)
Occupation - Student or in employment
Age - 18
She is one of the main characters within the storyline, who actively believes that she is being haunted by a dead family member, who is trying to talk to her. However, at the end, there is a twist, and it is revealed she was confused by events that had happened, and she was the one who was murdered, and her family member was attempting to contact her.

Costume ideas (makeup and outfit ect)

Here are some ideas for makeup ideas for one of our main characters, who, throughout the film is deceased and is a spirit in the human world. (However, she does not realise it, and this is revealed at the end) This makeup style of pale skin, hollowed out cheekbones and dark eyes will be able to foreshadow that she is actually deceased, and can be a tiny hint towards it. There is a particular emphasis on the character having dark eyes, as this makes them look withdrawn from the world, and can also symbolise that they are no longer with the living.

An idea for the character's costume is that she wears the same outfit all the time, as this could emphasis that she is no longer alive, and is simply floating around in 'limbo' in the physical world in the outfit that she died in.

In terms of outfit ideas for the main character, I think that she should have a scruffy look, to suggest that she is an outsider and isn't popular at college, which is also the name for our group - Outsider Productions. By the main character having a scruffy look, and not being well liked, this could play into our storyline, as to why no one, except her family member, wonders why she is 'missing'. An example of a character who adopts a scruffy look is Olivia Moore, from The CW's show iZombie. She adopts a depressed look after she is turned into a zombie at a boat party.

Her personality should reflect her general physical appearance, to further suggest why she may have not been liked in college, and therefore, she should have a 'crazy', mentally ill personality, as during the film, she believes that she is going crazy, when she always sees her family member, in random locations, such as in her bedroom and at college. Finally, her function within the narrative is to be the main character, who believes she is being haunted by a dead family member, however, she got the manner of events twisted, and she is actually the one who is dead.

Amy (Alive family member)

Occupation - Unknown, deceased girl's family member
Age - 18/19
She is one of the main characters within the storyline, who, during the beginning of the film, is believed to be dead, and the actual dead character believes they are being haunted by them. In reality, the alive family member is trying to contract the dead girl to see what has happened to her, following her passing.

Costume ideas (makeup, outfit ect)

The alive family member could have a smokey eye makeup look, as for the beginning of the film, this could give the character a haunting, scary look, without actually making her look dead, unlike how the actually deceased girl will look.

In terms of outfit ideas for the character, she could be a stereotypical 'preppy' girl, who is a well liked, popular girl, with many friends, unlike her other family member, who is less liked in her college.

She has a bubbly personality, as she is well liked, however, is deeply affected by her family member's death, and grieves for her, which is why she tries to contact her in order to see how her family member is doing since their passing. Finally, her function within the narrative is, at first, she is believed to be a dead family member, who is haunting the other family member, however, at the end of the time, it is revealed she is trying to contact the actual deceased girl.

Research into Title Sequences

I am researching into title sequences of films that are similar to ours on the basis of genre and story line. This is because our film is going to have a title sequence and so we need some inspiration on how techniques could be used to make a title sequence which suits our film.

One film that I believe is quite similar to ours is The Others. This is because it is a psychological thriller, with horror elements and also has a plot twist at the end, by which it is revealed that "the others" are not who we thought they were, and it is the mother and her young children who are the ghosts. With this film having numerous similarities to ours, I thought it would be a good idea to research into how they have done their title sequence for their film.

I noticed that the title sequences is very slow paced and uses a lot of dark lighting (like there was just one candle lit, the only source of light), this clearly portrays a mystery aspect into the film as if a huge part of the story line is hidden from the audience, much like ours. The candle light also suggests it's set quite a while back, when there was no electricity. There was also orchestral music playing all the way through it, giving quite an old fashioned and haunted feeling which could be to portray the ghostly activity in the film. Overall, I found that this title sequence portrays the film itself, it gives hints of the story line of the film. 

Another film that's quite similar to ours is Orphan. The title sequence in orphan creates quite a creepy, eerie atmosphere which also portrays the film. The dark colours throughout the title sequence portrays the film as being quite dark and mysterious, conveying that there is some evil in it, this could also convey that the girl is quite old fashioned as their are old portraits and black and white photos of her. There is also a lot of blood dripping around pictures of the young girl, suggesting she is quite evil and causes a lot of chaos. The font is also blood red which emphasises their is violence in the film. They also use extreme close ups on some specific details (such as on some forms) which is hinting to the audience what happens in the films. There is tense non diegetic music playing throughout the title sequence which connotes there is a lot of tense moments within the film. This film, just like most thrillers, uses the title sequence to represent the characters and the story line.

Seven is also a film that is quite similar to ours. The title sequence for this also uses a lot of dark lighting and uses extreme close ups of objects and hands which portray the film. Many of the objects are what detectives use, clearly representing that the film is about detectives. The dark lighting and close ups of hands emphasises that they don't know the identity of the killer, creating a mystery aspect of the film. We could also use these techniques in our film as the audience doesn't know who is actually dead. Seven also uses quite slow paced, but tension building, non diegetic music in the title sequence. This also represents the film itself. It being slow paced conveys the characters as being quite calm and strong headed, however with it being quite tension building, it suggests there is a lot of tension and suspenseful moments in the film. The font for the titles also creates quite an eerie atmosphere as it flickers. 

From researching into title sequences, I found that they all portray the film in some way or another. Therefore for our title sequence, everything we do in it will represent our characters, story line and genre. Most thriller films use dark colours in their title sequences and therefore we will too, we will also incorporate other techniques that a lot of thrillers use in their title sequences as this will portray our film as being thrilling and suspenseful.

Research into similar films

I decided to research into similar films to ours so I can get an idea of how we would possibly portray our characters, story line and genre. Some similar films to ours are The Others, The Orphanage, Orphan, Seven, Paranormal Activity and Shutter Island.

The others is also a thriller film which is about ghosts who still think they're living, which is similar to the story line in our film. It is revealed to the family at the end that they are actually the ones who are dead, but believed they were the ones alive all along. In our film, we are looking to reveal the twist in the end so it is essential that we research this to see how we can keep the twist obvious throughout the entire film but not too obvious so the audience know it from the start. Our aim is to encourage the audience to wrongly infer what is actually happening in the film. In The Others, the family don't know that their the ones dead and mainly because they're never spoke about as being dead by other characters in the film. For example, the maid knows they are dead, however she does not tell the new family (the others) that the people who used to live there are dead. Our film will also be like this, where we keep details subtly in the film so the audience can re-watch the film and see that the truth is portrayed throughout the entire film. The Others has a lot of dark lighting all the way through which creates quite a thrilling atmosphere, maintained throughout the film. This is definitely the affect we want to create in our film, therefore we will most likely use a significant amount of dark lighting.

I decided to look at reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to see what other people thought of the film. Many reviews say that they were successful in creating quite a creepy and eerie atmosphere, and creating a lot of tension and suspense throughout the film. However, there are quite a few people who thought the film moved quite slowly to the point where some people got a little board. For us, we will incorporate some of the ideas used in this film to create tension, suspense and an eerie atmosphere as this was a successful aspect of the film, however we don't want our audience to get bored during our film, so we will try to keep it as interesting and thrilling throughout.

Orphan is also a similar film to ours. This too has a twist in it at the end which is kept quiet all throughout the film, all that is known about the character is that she is quite odd but she is mostly portrayed as being quite innocent throughout the start of the film. However, as the film continues, her devious ways are shown and the big twist at the end is revealed. Orphan uses a lot of dull colour within most scenes with the girl in it. The most common colours used around her are black and blue, this clearly portrays her as being quite an emotionless character with a lack of empathy. Since our film isn't going to have a specific evil character, we will most likely use the colours in our scene to represent isolation and loneliness within our main character, this will be juxtaposed with warm colours around the family members grieving the loss of our main character to illustrate that they have one another.

Reviews for Orphan say that the film is unusually entertaining and manages to keep the audience engaged, however it was too predictable although there was a twist at the end. Since our film also has a big twist at the end, we don't want to make the same mistake of making the build up to the end too predictable.

Another similar film to ours is Seven, this is a film about detectives trying to hunt a serial killer and their motives. Since our film has the main character murdered (with the audience not knowing until the end), it's important for us to research into what motives our killer could have to murder our main character, in order to develop our story line more. In seven, this serial killer kills 7 people based on a specific characteristic and is portrayed quite sociopath. Our film isn't going to involve a serial killer so the motive of our killer won't be anything like a serial killers, however I decided it would be good to research into this film to see how a kill can be portrayed. In Seven the serial killer kills his victims quite brutally but not really with much motive, in our film we want the killer to kill on emotion (such as anger or panic) and it be more of an unintentional kill (such as a burglary gone wrong).

I also looked at reviews of Seven. A lot of the reviews say it was extremely good for creating thrilling moments and keep the audience engaged in the film which is what we aim to do for our film. However there were some comments that said it was too unrealistic. For our film, we want to make it realistic but in quite a thrilling way and so incorporating ideas and techniques from Seven wouldn't be a bad thing, as long as we don't take it to extremes. For example, when one of the characters is killed, it will be a murder that can easily happen, thus keeping a realistic element in our film.

The Orphanage is also a similar film to ours as in involves ghosts and is a thriller. This film is about seeing a young ghost boy and uses a lot of dark lighting to create fear. There is also a lot of suspenseful non diegetic music which helps create tension in the film. Although this film is filmed through the point of view of the living, ours will be shot through the point of view of the dead (our main character) and so we aren't aiming to create fear around the ghost. Instead we are wanting to create confusion for the ghost and fear around the living (when the ghost sees someone who she thinks is dead).

We will most likely incorporate ideas from all these films to produce our film, for example we will use dark lighting and suspenseful non diegetic music when the ghost girl sees the person she believes is dead, create fear and suggesting to the audience that she is not dead. We will use costume and make up in a similar why to Orphan, to portray the character. For example, in our film our main character (the ghost girl) is going to have make up on to give her pale skin, however it won't be so white that the audience will easily figure out she's the ghost but it will portray her as a ghost, although the audience most likely won't know it until the end of the film.

A lot of the reviews for this film were really positive. They say it was very good at creating tension and keeping the audience. They also describe the film as being quite simple but also very effective at portraying a horror concept into the film. Thus from the success of this film I think it would be good to keep our film simple but effectively create tension and suspense in it at the same time.

Production Logo Idea

Analysis of Questionnaire Results

As well as filming a video questionnaire, going up to people and asking them about our film, we also handed out a written questionnaire. This was because many people we asked were unwilling to take part in the video questionnaire and so to get more feedback from our target audience, we decided that it would be a good idea to also hand out a written questionnaire. Here we are analysing our results from both our video and written questionnaires.

 We asked a total of 17 people within our target audience. This is the age the ages and genders of them. It was important we asked the different genders and ages within our target audience as if we just asked a small minority, we would get feedback that lacked validity. The numbers of people we asked decreased as the age of them increased, this was because we believe our film will be more appealing to teens, however young adults would most likely have an interest in it, but maybe not as much as teens, thus the reason we aimed our questionnaires mainly at teens. With this said, we still thought it was vital to include opinions of the older audience within our target audience.

We also asked the occupation(s) of our target audience. This was because we believe we should have a wide range of different people with different interests and intellectual levels to feedback on our film. We also asked them to feedback on what we could do to improve our film. We got comments such has "develop the characters more" and to make it more "thrilling" and have "create more suspense". We are going to take these comments into account and try to integrate them into our film.

We also asked our target audience what films they typically watch (they could choose more than one genre). This was because it gives us a general idea of what types of films our target audience enjoys so we can portray our film in a way that would be appealing to them. We found that horrors, sci-fi, thrillers and actions were the most popular which can all be incorporated into our film in some way. Thrillers are very similar to horrors however they also have an action concept in them too, so our film sounds like it would be appealing to our target audience.

We also asked our audience how often they watch films. We thought this was important because people who rarely watch films wouldn't have much of an opinion on them. This also gave us an idea of the average amount our target audience watches films so we could know how likely they would be to watch our film.

We then gave a description of our film to the people who answered our questioned and asked them a series of questions about our story line. The first question we asked them was if our story line was easy to understand, we thought this was an important question to ask as we didn't want our storyline to be too complicated that our audience doesn't understand it. There was only 2 people who said they didn't understand our story line and they said it was because they didn't "understand the concept of how our main character could actually be dead when she isn't" and because "the twist confuses them". Due to this being a small minority, we are not going to take it into account too much however we have decided that it would be best to make the twist more obvious and clear to the audience so they understand what's going on.

We also asked them what age group they think our film is aimed at. Most said it was aimed at teens (15+) and young adults which is who we are planning on targeting our film at. However one person said they believe it could possibly be for 12 year olds depending on how the film is actually portrayed.

We then asked them what genre they think our film is. This is because we wanted to see if our storyline is actually portraying the thriller genre. Majority said thriller or horror which is what we expected since thrillers and horrors can sometimes be hard to distinguish. We gave people the option to choose more than one genre as some films can be hybrid genres, a lot thought it was a hybrid genre with drama. This is understandable as our story line also portrays a drama concept.

Another question we asked is what age certificate they would give our film. We thought this was an important question to ask as age certificate is specifically for the audience and what they want to see. Most thought it would be a 15 because there is going to be scenes in it which may be unsettling for anyone younger. One person also believed it could be a 12 "depending on how it's portrayed" and another thought it could be an 18 "depending on how scary it is".

The last question we asked was if they would watch the film. We thought this was an important question to ask as we wanted to know how many people found the film appealing and interesting because that is our intention. Most said "yes" because they thought it was a really interesting idea, however one person said no because they "don't really like horror films" which is understandable as not everyone in our target age range is going to like thriller films.



Research into BBFC certificate

The British Board of Film Classifcation (BBFC) gives films age ratings before the media product is released on the cinema, DVD, Blu Ray or video. The company was founded in 1912, however, its policies have changed over time. They are also independent from the government, however local councils do have some authority to override decisions on age ratings made by the BBFC. Media products are usually viewed from start to finish by two examiners, who will look for issues featured within the clip, such as discrimination, drugs, horror content, language, sex references, and violence. They will also consider the context, tone and the impact of the work on the potentional audience. Sometimes examiners will also work with specialists to consider the possible harm on audience of the media product. The BBFC tend to check and review their guidelines every 4 to 5 years to make any changes to age ratings if necessary. The BBFC currently rates films as follows:

Universal (U) ratings means that the media product is suitable for all audiences and is unlikely to have any discriminatory language, little reference to drug use, no imitable behaviour, mild language, nudity with no sexual content, only very mild sexual behaviour, very mild violence, and little threatening behaviour.

Parental Guidance (PG) rating means that the media product is suitable for general viewing, however guidance should be considered for younger viewers, as children may be more likely to get upset at some of the content featured. PG rated films are unlikely to have discriminatory language, no drug use, unless for a suitable anti drug message, no imitable behaviour, only mild bad language, nudity with no sexual content, any scenes of threat must not be prolonged, and violence will be mild.

12 and 12A rating means that the media product is not generally suitable for persons under the age of 12, and no one under the age of 12 must see a 12A film in the cinema, unless they are accompained by an adult, in which it is up to the adult to decide whether or not the film is suitable for the child. 12A films are unlikely to have discriminatory language, drug use must be infrequent, and imitable behaviour must not be glamorized. Some moderate language may be acceptable, while there may be nudity with mild sexual references, and moderate threat and violence may feature.

15 rating means that the media product is only suitable for persons over the age of 15. While there can be discriminatory language, use of such language should not be portrayed in a positive way. Some dangerous behaviour can be shown, however there may still be regulations in terms of how the behaviour is portrayed, as dangerous behaviour may lead to copy-cat violence. Drug use may be shown, and there may be strong language at this rating depending on the context to which it is used and how frequently it is used. Nudity with sexual context is allowed, however it cannot be very strong, as this would move the film up to an 18. There may be strong violence, however it must not dwell on the pain or injury,     and sexual violence is not acceptable for a 15 rating.




18 rating means that the media product is only suitable for adults, and no one under the age of 18 is allowed to view or buy media products with this rating. Films with this age rating are likely to feature strong drug use, strong language, nudity with sexual context, and strong violence.

R18 rating is a special rating that is given to films that are only allowed to be shown in specially licensed cinemas or shops. This rating is different from the general 18 rating, as films given this rating are able to show more explicit sex scenes than what would be featured in an 18 rated film. There are less restrictions in terms of censorship for films that are given an R18 rating.




Our storyline and possible age rating


The genre of our film is a supernatural thriller, as it follows the story of a woman, who, when going about her day to day life, believes she keeps seeing the figure of a deceased family member popping up at random moments. She believes she is going crazy, and the audience are shown through flashbacks that the family member was murdered and she witnessed it. The murder was possibly through a fatal stabbing. During the film, it is shown that the family member is attempting to talk to them, which makes her seem like she is going crazy. However, at the end, there is a shocking twist and it is revealed that she is actually the one who was murdered. By looking at the BBFC guidelines for film ratings, our film is most likely to either be rated 12 or 15. This is because there will likely be moderate threat throughout the film, as it provides a psychological thriller-esque storyline, and there will be mild violence, as one of the main characters is stabbed to death, which is going to be shown in a flashback to inform the audience of what happened.Two similar films that we have looked at, as they provide a similar storyline to ours, is The Others and The Orphanage. The Others has a 12 rating, as it contains moderate horror, while The Orphanage has a 15 rating,as it contains strong psychological horror and injury detail.

 Screenshots from The Others. The old lady, is one of the Others, who tries to contact the spirits.

Themes of psychological thriller

Screenshots from The Orphanage that highlight psychological thriller. Here Laura is playing a game of hide and seek in order to try contact the spirits of the deceased orphan children.

Tomas, the disabled child, who died when the other orphans took his mask to hide deformities.