Audience Reseach.

I have given the following Questionnaire's out to family and my own peers within my media lesson.  By giving them out to a variety of ages, I will be able to find out who is going to be my target audience of the genre I am working in.

Please state your gender?

Please circle the age catergory which you fall under.

16-20       21-31      32-50        50+


Do you like thriller movies? what do you like/dislike about them?


What would you like to see in a movie, that has not been shown in this genre before?


Would you prefer a male or female main charachter?


Do you prefer films that are psychological or films that make you jump?



My results where as follows:

Over half of the questionnaires handed out answered that they prefer psychological thrillers to films that make them jump. Many of whom who circled psychological thrillers where women. This may show that men enjoy the thrill from films whereas women enjoy the storylines.
Over 2/3rds of people said that they would prefer to watch a film with a women as the main charchter, I think this may be because it is not as common to have a protaganist that is a women.

Production Schedule.

Monday 7th March - We will start our filming on this day. We will need to be at 50 Fellows Close, which is where we will start our clip. The weather on this day will be cloudy, this gives us an excellant dark lighting to shoot our film. ( found at BBC weather)
- This then changed as we thought that the location that we had chosen was too far away for us to get to and film within our media lessons. The weather also not as planned, it turned out to be really sunny, making it difficult to make the lighting dark. Therefore we had to close more curtains to block out the light. We managed to film a lot of our film sequence.

Tuesday 8th March - We have come to the conclution that we can only film on Monday's due to practicality, so on the other media lessons we are going to edit what we filmed previously and see if anything needs re-shooting. We will however keep ALL footage until we have completed our project.
This also changed, we changed our location making it much easier to access due to it's closeness to college. We where able to film on Thursdays also. However on this day we did review our clips to find that they all needed re-shotting. This was due to incontinuity and the fact we wanted to film the shots in a larger variety of angles.

Monday 14th March - Today we will finish filming the footage that need's to be shot in Emily's house.
This also changed, On this day we re-filmed the whole 2 minutes of footage. Excluding the scence where Emily's character looks in to tthe fridge looking scary.


Tuesday 15th March - On this day we will review our clips, looking for the ones that seem the most interesting. We will then cut them down and start to arrange them in cronological order.


Thursday 17th March - Today we will carry on editing our clips.


Monday 21st March- On this day we went back to our location, filmed the scene where Emily opens the fridge. However, foolishly we forgot to take a camera from college, so we had to resort to using my iphone to film.
This caused problems later on in editing as the clip looked smaller than the rest of the film.

22nd and the 24th - where dedicated to creating the soundtrack for our film.


28th,29th, 31st March - Here we had troubles in making the soundtrack fit into the timing of the film. We also had to find a way of making the clip fro the iphone larger.


Monday 5th April - Today we finished our movie, we used live type to add in our title of the film. Overall we are pleased.

Equiptment,Costumes and Props.

- Camera (Iphone used for one clip)
- Tripod
- Lighting - create the effect of darkness and shadows. We used a torch and dark curtains to block out unwanted natural light.
- Mac - upload the footage to the Mac and to transfer things to the blog.
- Final Cut Pro - edit the footage filmed on camera.
-Live type for the title of the film.
- Dark black glove.
- Phone for an alarm.
- Bed.
- Knives
- Plate
-Bread
-Butter.
-Tomato ketchup.
Costumes: The main Character will need to wear casual clothes, ones that do not show any particual individualality, so that audiences will be able to relate to her and think that she appears to be a normal girl.
- Jeans, pumps, plain jacket and a plain top.

Black Swan Poster Analysis.

This film poster uses dark colors in the background to match with the title "black swan." However, Natalie Portman is shown in light colours indicating that she is the 'Light in the darkness' or the main protaganist in the film. The crack down her face mat represent the downfall/distruction of her 'good' side. Inside that cracks it looks as though black feathers are underneath (black swan). In her hair there is a white feather, this could represent the 'pure' swan as white has connitations to purity. It looks as though the girl in the poster is dancing, as her arm is in the air and she is wearing what looks like the straps of a ballet costume. This could give clues into the relationship between Swan's and Ballet. (Swan Lake) This will indorece audiences interested in Dance and theature.
The use of Natile Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis's name draws attention from audiences (endorsement) who like watching these actor's/actresses in films.

Textual Analysis of Film Openings.

'The Mothman Prophecies' - Mark Pellington, 2002.
It starts by stating that it was based on true events, which makes the audience believe the following events could happen to them. The first shot we come across is a crane shot of the town. This sets the scence of the movie and could also relate to the 'mothman' flying? in/out of focus, speeded up clock, dark lighting are used to show a passing of time, and also an element of mystery. When text appears it is joined with a noice to make them stand out. The shot used (point of view shot) makes it look like you are looking through the mothman's eyes. Happy music is used in an almost ironic way because we know that something bad is going to happen.Blurred then hospital lights, dark so can't really see what is happening, again adding to the mystery.

'I am Legend' - Fransis Laurence, 2007
Starts with the radio sports channel then it flicks to 20,009 cure for cancer seems amazing, flips to scientific health news. Sets the sence in the future as if everything is going well. The one fast car, one person enteres the clip, everything looks dead and deserted, no people shot, overgrown leaves animals are fine, nature's way of taking revenge. lots of natural sounds - diagetic. The film is also relatable to the audience with a shot of an abandoned 'mcdonalds'.

'Alien' - Ridley Scott, 1979
Set's the scene in space, lines at the top look like a spaceship, then turn into the word 'alien' load eeiry, airy noise, dark lighting, with the occational very brightly lit room. alien sort of noices, lights and sounds working together- robotic? Does not look human, lights come on and reveals the humans, very bright, clean. very impersonal, bland decorations, can not relate to.

Questions.

What is the purpose of the opening of a film?
In the opening few minutes to a film you need to get the audience interested in the film, by following the conventions of the type of genre you are trying to create. In my case I would need to show through the mise-en scene, camera angles, shots and editing that my film was going to be a Thriller. It also needs to introduce the main character and engage the audience.

What techniques can a director use to create suspense in a film?
A director could; Show the film from the characters viewpoint to create a sense of what they see and also suspicion into what they are and what they look like. Use close up shots to show emotion as wide shots create less emotion. Stay away from too much dialogue, find other ways of showing what the characters are seeing and thinking (camera angles, types of shot, voice overs, lighting) Create ironic situations where the main character is being humorous and play with this to suddenly change the mood and confuse the audience. 

How do you think a thriller film is defined?
I think a thriller film is defined by the way it creates suspense, tension and excitement with the plots which are usually based around crime and mystery.
.
What films can you think of that will fit into the thriller genre?
- Shutter Island
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Memento.

The thriller film can be divided into sub-genres - what different types of thriller films do you think exist?
The genre of thriller is split up into many different sub-genre's these are;
Conspiracy thriller, Crime thriller, Disaster thriller, Mystery thriller, Psychological thriller and Supernatural thrillers.

What are the characteristics or conventions of a thriller film?
Dark lighting, suspenseful music, close up shots to show emotion, a plot that builds to a climax and life threatening situations. 

What do you think is the audience pleasure of a thriller film?I think audiences watch thriller movies as they offer them emotion, making them feel something or apart of the film. The mystery also gets the audiences involved as they try to figure out what or who the problem is, much like the protagonist characters ofter do in thriller movies. They also watch films for escapism from their everyday lives, where being scared doesn't happen all the time.


What do you think are the differences between horror and a thriller film?Horror films use gore, violence in their films to create a disgusted response from the audience whereas thriller movies look to create suspense through the twists in their plots and the use of camera work.


Using the internet research the 'top 50 thriller films'. Look at the top twenty - which ones have you watched? If it's not many, why do you think this is the case?I have watched;
1. Pulp fiction. 2. Inception. 3. The Dark knight. 9. The silence of the Lambs. 11. Memento. 17. Vertigo.
I think that I have not seen many of the top 50 thriller films as I am either too young to watch the films in the cinema, or have not heard of many of the top films as they tend to be older.


Using the internet, find three posters for thriller films. Complete a brief semiotic analysis of the posters. What colours are used, what kind of imagery, taglines, certificate , narrative?
Pulp fiction poster - Uses red, orange , yellow and black. Cigarettes, gun, women dressing in black and with heels. No tagline although they do use the names of the actors and Quintin Tarentino as the director. Certificate is not mentioned.

Inception - Uses traditional black, white and red. Shows a man holding a gun , water and the city. 'Your mind is the scene of the crime' Certificate is not mentioned.

Black Swan - Uses again red,black and white. Shows a very white women with swan-like makeup and red eyes and lips. No tag-line or certificate.

Target Audience and Certificate for Our Film.

All thriller movies are rated either a 15 or an 18+ depending on how explicit the material is. Therefore intended audiences will be rather different due to the rating.
I have looked on the website http://www.imdb.com/ at the user ratings on thriller films, this should give me an idea into who watches Psychological Thrillers and who to aim my own film at when I produce it.
Silence of the Lambs (1991) by Johnathan Demme, shows that a staggering 181,465 males rated this film an 8.7 compared to 33,117 females which gave it the same rating. This could mean that more males enjoy and watch thriller movies. It also shows that under 18's rated this film the highest out of all of the age categories even though this film has a certificate of 18. (2,083 males under 18 and 502 females under 18) The age group that voted the most amount of times for this film were the 18-29 year olds. (males 99,650 and 18,265 females) Overall I would say that the main target audience for this Psychological thriller where in the age group of 18-29 years old (students and young adults) and it seems to be the case that it appealed to a larger male viewing audience than it did female.
I did the same analysis with the film Shutter Island and the same results where found even though this film is rated a 15.
Therefore I think the target audience of a thriller movie is at the age range of 18-29 year old males, so I will provide the same conventions of a psychological thriller to aim this film at the said age range. I will however make the film a rating of 15 instead of an 18, and may even try to get females more intrested in the thriller genre by introducing a female character which they can relate too.

Conventions of a Psychological Thriller.

- Mind games

- Stalking

- Confinement

- Horror of personality

- Obsession

- Mental problems such as Skitsofrenia

- Plot builds towards a climax

- Often films lead towards one possible ending and then surprise the audience by creating an unexpected twist to the narrative. eg. Shutter Island.

- Create suspense

- Cliff hangers

- Life is threatened in a potential fatal situation.

- Mental stability is usually at risk of being destroyed.

- Often use camera angles that hide the potential enemy.

- Close up shots of the face to show emotion.

- Can usually hear the protagonists voice, looking from her/his point of view.

- Mostly take place in ordinary settings - cities, towns or the sea's.

History of the Thriller Genre.

The thriller genre dates back to the Ancient epic poems such as the Epic of Gilamesh and Homer’s Odyssy. These poems contain similar narrative techniques as modern day thrillers. "Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller." Novels such as Bram Stocker’s ‘Dracular’ (1897) and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1818) include mythical creatures like those shown in modern thriller films, like: vampires, monsters, bats and wolves. 
One of the earliest known thriller films was the german film ‘M’ directed by Fritz Lang in 1931; where Peter Lorre played a child killer which was based on real serial killer known as the ‘Vampire of dusseldorf’. However the auteur Alfred Hickcock is consided to be the ‘master of the thriller genre’ by the way he creates films which represent reality, making the audience relate to the film and therefore become more terrified. His first film was The Lodger (1926) which was a silent Jack-the-ripper story, this was followed by ‘Blackmail’ (1929) which was produced in both sound and silence.
Since then the thriller genre has expanded and split off into many sub-genres, some where influenced by current affairs like the assassination of President Kennedy which brought a sudden popularity to political and paranoid thrillers.
In recent years, thrillers have been slightly influenced by the horror genre; they have more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror, and body counts.[7] Recent thrillers which took this route include films like Eden Lake. 
Social norms have also changed the way in which some thrillers are produced, traditionally strong men have been the hero’s and the women being portrayed as the damsel in distress but since political movements have been made such as ‘feminism’ and equal rights between genders this has started to chance and you tend to see women as the heroine more frequently.
Today Thriller films have one main sub-genre known as ‘Psychological thrillers‘ characters no longer rely on physical strength to overcome their enemies but with mental resources. This includes things like mind games and the disruption of ones mental state.
The thriller genre also includes the following sub-genres ; Conspiracy thriller (Awake), Crime thriller (Silence of the Lambs), Disaster thriller (Twister), Erotic thriller (Dressed to kill), Legal thriller (Presumed innocent), Medial thriller (Memento), Political thriller (Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel in1962), Religious thriller (The Da Vinci Code), Supernatural thriller (Jacob’s Ladder) and lastly Techno thrillers such as ‘Eagle Eye’.



Cast List and Roles Within Production.

Emily playing;
Jessica Smith a young woman who lives in a town in the Midlands.
She works as a cook in a local cafe during the day and lives on her own in a large house.
Jessica is the main character in our Thriller film, and the story line is based on her struggle proving her sanity to both friends and family who believe she is mentally ill.
This particular character will have to be able show both fear and confusion to allow the audience to see things from her point of view clearly.
Within our production of the first three minutes of our thriller film Emily was our chosen actress as she fitted the criteria that we where looking for. (brown hair, innocent looking) She also played a large part in editing the extract, creating and fitting in the music.


Lauren playing;
This character has no particular identity, the audience is unaware of who it is and why they are there.
This mysterious character plays a role in which she/he follows and torments Jessica, watching her every move and scaring her when most unexpected.
We do not plan on showing the face of this character in the opening of our thriller to create a feel of fear and suspense. Although this charachter is not shown or mentioned in our clip, we decided to invent her into our full film story line.
Within our extract Lauren contributed to cutting and creating some parts of the music for our film. She also did the first takes of our film shotting, although in the end we eventually re-filmed these scences to add a larger variety of camera angles.


Tasha playing (Myself);
extras that may be needed to help build up the story line.
People such as concerned members of the family and close friends, this helps explain the story line and even help build up a twist in the plot of Jessica's mental state.
It also allows us to be able to film Jessica's day to day life as well as her struggle when alone at home, creating a great contrast and helping us build on that.
These characters where also not used in the production of our film, My role was to film the clip from as many angles that I could come up with, I also arranged filming times as it was filmed at my Dad's house. I also had a role in editing the clips, but I mainly created the music on garage band.

Synopsis of our Films.

As a group we particularly liked the idea of a character being in a "mentally ill state", looking at films like Shutter Island and One Hour Photo.

We would begin our film by introducing the character Jessica, a character that can easily be related to and both liked by the audience, we would show her everyday working life so you become both aware of the setting and other characters in the film. However, Jessica is being tormented and somewhat stalked by a character, the audience does not know who they are, or what they are doing. They also do not see who this figure is, just suggestions that they are there in a typical "thriller" fashion,.

for example we plan on filming a scene where Jessica is walking down her stairs and the shadow of his figure is following her.

The story line then continues with Jessica's struggle to prove to friends and family that she is being stalked, who do not believe her and think she is unwell and needs to seek professional help. Jessica's character soon begins to give up the fight proving her sanity and fighting against this mysterious character, and at this point we hope the audience are also questioning whether she is seeing him or if it is actually in her imagination.

The very last scene in our film, would be the one to both twist the story line and give one final shock. When being driven to a mental institution after being proven medically ill, Jessica turns to talk to her driver. By using dramatic music and a selection of camera shots it will be revealed that her driver is in fact the person that has been making her life hell.

Certificate For Our Thriller Film.

If our film was to be shown in the cinema or on DVD we would give this movie a rating of '15'.

Our film shows a person struggling with her life and the ways that she deals with it may cause offense or harm to some people in the audience, The context of the film may not be fully understood by anybody younger, and the idea of a "stalker" could scare persons under the age of 15

According to the BBFC website any film that contains the following should be a '15' ;"Imitable behavior, Dangerous behavior (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised."  - www.bbfc.co.uk

Shutter Island Poster Anaysis.

This film poster uses dark colors which creates a sense of mystery and confusion.  Leonardo DiCaprio is shown holding a match, this could indicate that he is the ‘light in the darkness’ or the hero in this film.
The image of the island is made up of what looks like snap shot photographs, this could relate to the investigative nature in the film. It could also symbolise the piecing together the protagonist and the audience go through to understand 'Shutter Island'.
The sky in the background looks as if a storm is coming, this could be a reflection of the mood of the film (pathetic fallacy) or perhaps to add tensions and destruction.

The light coming off of the lighthouse and the lit match join together with the words 'somebodies missing' as the lights would help find the person. As Leonardo DiCaprio's character is the only face on the page, and is lit up by the match this may indicate that he is the person that is missing.

The use of Leonardo DiCaprio's name draws attention from audiences (endorsement) as he is a well known actor, casting in such films as Titanic, Romeo and Juliet and low budget horror movies such as Critters 3.

Silence of the Lambs Poster Analysis.

The title of this film, the women’s eyes and parts of the butterfly are shown in red. The colour red has connotations to death, evil, blood and violence. By using these colour’s on the film poster they have gave the audience an insight into what type of film it is going to be.

The look on the girls face appears innocent and relates to the word ‘lamb’ in the title. Lambs have connotations with God and purity. The butterfly over the girl’s mouth also refers to the title ‘the silence of the lambs’ as it is preventing the women from speaking. 
The butterfly however is not an ordinary butterfly it has a skull on the back of its head. Skulls have connotations to death. Meaning that whatever is ‘silencing the lambs’ is going to be violent.

The poster uses black and white to show Good vs. Evil. The women are shown in white meaning that she is possibly the hero/victim in the film. The black background seems mysterious as it appears to engulf part of the women’s face. This could refer to the women being ‘brought to the dark side’ or the darkness coming to get her.

Overall I think this film poster does a good job of showing the typical conventions of a thriller film.

Film Classification

What makes a film a 15?
When a film is rated a certificate of 15, it means that nobody under the age of 15 may watch the film in the cinema or buy the film from a store as it is not appropriate.

- Strong threats and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
- Dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self harming should not be shown in such detail which could possibly be copied.
- Easy accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
- Must not endorce discriminatory language or behaviour.
- Drugs may be shown in the film as long as it does not encourage misuse of drugs.
- Easily accessible substances such as areosols and solvents are very unlikely to be accepted.
- The use of strong language may be used frequently as long as they are justified by the context.
- Nudity may be shown if not in detail.
- Violence may be strong but you should not dwell on the infliction of pain.

What makes a film an 18?
When a film is rated a certificate of 18, it means that nobody under the age of 18 may watch this film in the cinema (or buy the film) as it is not appropriate.

The BBFC's guidelines state that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment except in the following instances.
- Where the material is in breach of the criminal law.
- Where material and treatment appears to risk harm to individuals or their behaviour towards society.
- Where there are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by the content.

Preliminary Task

When filming the preliminary task I made sure that I appplied: 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on match action.
I used the 180 degree rule when the conversation was taking place, I thought it would be most appropriate here as the characters need to be on the same side of the clip. By doing this I avoided confusing the audience.
The shot reverse shot was also used in the conversation, to show the character when they where speaking. (over the shoulder shot)
I used match on match action at the begining of my clip, when walking through the door. This made the shot's less boring and gave a larger variety of angles.
When making and editing this clip I understood the importance of the 180 degree rule and also how to film match on match action to shorten and liven up the footage.