Our Product

Evaluation

Evaluation 

I feel that our opening sequence is a way of developing the thriller genre and it's conventions by merging conventions seen in films in the crime genre and those form thrillers to help expand the audience by trying to take what makes films similar to this - like Se7en - and implementing those ideas into our product. To make this relevant to our target audience we took the results from our questionnaire and used them to influence our ideas when coming up with the plot for our film. An example of this is how we adopted the idea of a crime-thriller instead of an action-thriller or slasher type movie as it not only appealed to our target audience much more, but was easier for us to execute with the tools we had to use. Our opening sequence in some senses conforms to the conventions of thrillers as it helps build up suspense in order to keep viewers interested whilst also giving them a glimpse of what our antagonist is capable of, whilst including basic things such as opening credits for important roles in production and the distribution company as well as the title of the film itself.

Our media product doesn't really focus on any particular social groups, but the demographic we targeted it at was teenagers to middle aged working class people, as they're the most likely to be able to relate to films set in urban areas, and our cast is made up of teens. Our film doesn't feature any disabled people, elderly or young, so it can't portray them in a positive or negative light.

For distribution, we chose to use Miramax as they've had previous successes in the thriller genre. They're also known to release a lot of independent films in comparison to other studios who may see them as a high risk and low guarantee of making profit. Our film would be released in cinemas first and then on dvd as this would help it get more exposure and notoriety if it did well at the box offices, as well as help it produce revenue long after it's release in cinemas.

From constructing this product I leaned a lot about how to use more expensive film cameras as opposed to smaller, lower quality camcorders which we had to use for our preliminary task. This gave me an insight into how films with biger budgets managed to be created at such a high quality and really made me appreciate how long a feature film can really take to plan, and then actually create - We spent weeks planning, filming and editing for a 3 minute clip. I also learned a lot about how to use Adobe Premiere Pro to the best of my ability whilst finding out about new features. In the past i had only used Sony Vegas Pro, which is functionally similar, but operates in a different way, so creating this product has given me  a broader understanding of editing software and the tools needed to create high quality media.

In

Development of Ideas

Development of Ideas

My groups's initial idea was to make a psychological thriller which incorporated elements of crim thrillers into it, such as car chases and murders. We were inspired by the film 'No Country for Old Men' and the way that the main character is cunning and has no remorse when it comes to killing people. For our opening sequence, we had planned to adapt a scene for No Country for Old Men, in which our main character would be pulled over by a police officer, he would cooperate with them, but kill him before being arrested. Following this, he would go into a nearby shop, pay for some items, but then kill the cashier. We believe that this scene would help introduce our character as a psychopath, but also as somebody who's intelligent (he would be using a home-made weapon to kill these people) - an idea we got from the film 'Se7en'.

The film would be set in the present and so it wouldn't be hard for  us to find an area to shoot our opening sequence in  - as there is no shortage of shops in London. Also, as it wouldn't be set in a different world or time, there would be no specific type of setting that we would be restricted to, so as long as we could find a quiet road with a shop on it, we'd have no trouble finding a location to film. On the other hand, guaranteeing that the road would be quiet would be a problem as most places in London are very busy. From the data we got back from our questionnaire, we gathered that people would most likely enjoy it, this is because the favorite thriller sub-genre was 'Psychological' and the characteristics of a good villain we got from people were 'cunning', 'decency' and 'dark' which we felt worked perfectly with our character.

Another idea that i thought of was an action - thriller. The idea for my narrative was that a city in a 1st world country was taken over by a private military company and that and is being held under occupation - and idea which i got from Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises' - which isn't a thriller, but has a gritty, dark atmosphere to it which i felt was a good foundation for to create a story on. A group of 7 ex-army soldiers take it upon themselves to try and take down the organisation and liberate the city, the number of them taken from 'The Magnificent Seven'.

To produce and opening sequence for this film, I feel would be difficult, this is due to having to begin developing my characters in the same way as trying to portray a city as under control and needing liberation. One way I found to do this that could work was to have my opening sequence a montage of establishing shots of city, panoramas of event leading to the city's takeover; this could be people being killed or captured, firing squads moving in, or a clip of a breach being conducted.

when filming for this idea, we'd use a mixture of high-key and low-key lighting, but mostly low key for high contrast and to connote a gritty atmosphere and high tension in the film's plot. For effect, some of the shot we'll use in our opening sequence will consist of high-angle panoramas to establish the setting of a city, slow motion shots of people (a firing squad aiming rifles and moving through a dark hallway, which has only a red flare in it to connote danger; and build tension to keep people watching and keep them interested in the story.

Although, I feel that this idea has much more depth to it, I feel it'll be much harder for us to execute, this is due to props (guns, grenades, military / SWAT gear) needing to be provided and also a lack of people - our protagonists alone require 7 people - we have 4. In comparison to our other idea, data has less relevance when looking at it in relation to other thrillers, however this may be seen as pushing the boundaries of the genre. That being said, from the results of our questionnaire, we saw that action was the most popular genre, with thriller at a close second, I feel that this means that it'll be accepted well be our audience of ages 12 and up.

BBFC Rating

BBFC Rating

To be able to give our film a rating we had to assess it's content on these factors: 

Discrimination

Drugs

Horror

Imitable behaviour

Language

Nudity 

Sex

Theme 

Violence

We decided to rate our film as 15. This is due to the type of content we display in the film - as we think that it's unsuitable for a 12 or 12A since it could cause worry in parents that their children might imitate the behaviour. We chose not to rate it as an 18 as this would narrow our target audience and cause us to lose out on a large part of the demographic who would be interested in this type of film.

most of the violence in the film is implied, so the audience won't see exactly what happens, but the events leading up to it and those after it, but it still shows a lot of the blood and gore of a horror film and there isn't very much swearing, sex or nudity in the film, so it, we feel that the best idea is to aim the film at a slightly younger audience, but not too young so that we can maintain the tone of the film and keep it as planned.

Risk Assessment

Storyboard

Location Scouting

Focus Group Interview

1. Do you enjoy thriller films? Explain why.

We asked our focus group this question to gain a specific understanding of why our target audience enjoys this genre. This will help our generalised understanding of what makes a good thriller film, and so we would implement these qualities into our own film to make it more entertaining and appealing to our audience.

2. What do you think makes a good villain?

We asked our focus group this question to understand what makes a good villain for a film, more specifically a thriller film. The answers received will hopefully give us as an idea of traits and qualities of good villains and implement them into making our villain just as effective as the ones that our focus group preferred. Some of the answers we received involve the backstory and how the character develops as the film goes on.

3. If you had to choose your favourite movie, that revolves around a thriller, what would it be?

We chose to ask this question to our focus group as we thought that the answers given by them would help us understand what people like to see in thriller films. Using that knowledge, we could take what ever aspects of those films made those films so enjoyable for our target audience and try to implement those things into our own films in a way that would make them enjoy our film too.

Shot List

Scene	Shot	Type	Description	Done?
1	1.1	ES	Shot of the setting from the outside, with antagonist standing by the opening before walking in.	o
2	2.1	TS	The antagonist walks into the shop and goes over to a section with back facing the shopkeeper	o
2	2.2	MCU	Shot of the shopkeeper going about his business	o
2	2.3	OSS	Shot of the antagonist  with shopkeeper over the shoulder as they converse	o
3	3.1	MCU	Shot of shopkeeper’s reply	o
3	3.2	CU	Shot of antagonist as he takes off his baseball cap, revealing himself more to camera.	o
3	3.3	MS	Shopkeeper turns around and continued with his work, finally noticing the wanted poster within the background	o
3	3.4	ECU	Shopkeepers reaction towards noticing the poster	o
3	3.5	POV	Shows the wanted poster that the shopkeeper sees from his point of view	o
4	4.1	MS	Shows the shopkeeper slowly reach for the phone on the counter	o
4	4.2	OSS	Shows the antagonist as well as the shopkeeper.	o
4	4.3	TS	Shows both the characters in one shot, nearly as opposing figures perhaps.	o
4	4.4	POV	Shopkeepers hand slowly moves away from the phone	o
5	5.1	MS	Shows the antagonist walk towards the counter	o
5	5.2	RS	Shopkeepers reply	o
5	5.3	TS	The antagonist and the shopkeeper are face to face as he reaches the counter	o
6	6.1	CI	Shows the coin being flipped in the air	o
6	6.2	MCU	Shows the antagonist as he continues his dialogue	o
6	6.3	RS	Shows the shopkeepers reaction and reply	o
6	6.4	RS	Shows the antagonist once again with his reply	o
6	6.5	ECU	Shopkeepers reaction as he replies slowly	o
6	6.6	CI	Antagonist moves his hand away from the coin
7	7.1	MS	The antagonist puts away his coin as he walks out the shop
7	7.2	ES	Shows the shop as antagonist walks away

Screenplay

Screenplay

FADE IN:

1.       EXT. NEWSAGENTS – DAY

In the busy streets of London, a man wears casual clothing as well as a baseball cap that conceals his face. He stands outside the shop as he cautiously looks around before entering the newsagents.

                                                                  CUT TO:

2.       INT. NEWSAGENTS – DAY

The man browses through the shop and stays in one place with his back towards the shopkeeper.

The Butcher

How’s business?

An Asian man, aged 20 looks towards The Butcher and has a smile on his face as he shuts his newspaper and places it to the side.

SHOPKEEPER

A bit empty today but business will pick up

The Butcher simply just smiles as he takes off his baseball cap, revealing his face. He is a young oriental man that usually looks calm. The shopkeeper looks up at the mirror and sees K’s face. The shopkeeper narrows his eyes as he slowly recognises him. The shopkeeper turns back and sees the wanted poster with a description of The Butcher. The shopkeeper reaches for the phone as he notices this from the mirror.

The Butcher

Who are you calling?

The shopkeeper freezes as he hesitates, hand hovering over the phone. The Butcher lifts his head up, showing grimace, which turns into a smile

SHOPKEEPER

F-family

The Butcher

Calling family while on the job? A bit disrespectful don’t you think?

SHOPKEEPER

What’s it to you?

The Butcher

What’s it to me?

The Butcher laughs a bit as he turns around to face the Shopkeeper, with a little smile on his face that the Shopkeeper finds a bit unnerving.

The Butcher

It’s my business because you’re trying to contact the local authorities aren’t you?

The Shopkeeper trembles a bit as he moves his hand away from his phone. The shopkeeper starts to sweat from nervousness as he starts to stutter when speaking.

SHOPKEEPER

N-No I’m not. I swear.

The Butcher

You’re trembling. You’re perspiring at an uncontrollable rate. My assumption is that your heart rate is going faster and faster at this very moment.

The Butcher ominously walks towards the Shopkeeper

K

Oh imagine how much faster your heart beats when I cut it out of your chest.

THE COUNTER

The Butcher now reaches the counter where he takes out a coin and flips it. The Butcher does not show the result of the coin yet.

The Butcher
Call it

The Shopkeeper
I don’t know what I’m calling for.

The Butcher
Don’t play dumb with me, you know full well who I am and what I’m capable of. Everything you’ve done in your life has been leading you up to this moment. The biggest gamble of your life. Everything to gain and everything to lose now call it.

The Shopkeeper
Tails

The Butcher moves his hands, showing the coin. The coin shows tails as The Butcher smirks and the Shopkeeper breaths out a sigh of relief.

The Butcher
You win

The Butcher then leaves the shop. As the door closes the screen goes black as the TITLES appear on the screen.

Survey Analysis

Why we Asked these Questions

What is your Gender?

- This was asked in order to for us to be able to get an idea of whether more males or females were giving us the answers to our other questions. We could then use this knowledge to find trends or patterns in our results, for example, if there could be more males saying they liked action  or spy films and more females saying that they liked romance and comedy films, conforming to each of their gender stereotypes.

What age group are you in?

- We asked this in order to get an understanding of what ages were giving us our answers,this allowed us to see if our intended key demographic was actually answering our questions, if not, then we knew we'd be able to expand it and perhaps attract a wider audience than we had planned.

What is your favourite thriller film?

- In order to analyse other relevant opening sequences we needed to find out which thrillers our key demographic thought were best, then we would be able to take key elements from those opening sequences, then alter or develop our original ideas to conform to some conventions and break others - so that our thriller wasn't the same as any other generic thriller movie.

What is your favourite film genre?

- To get an idea of the genres our demographic thought were best, we would be able to make a decision as to whether we would create our opening sequence by conforming to the conventions of the thriller genre or if we would push the boundaries of the genre.

What do you think makes a good thriller film?

- By asking an open question, we allowed people to expand on their answers, if thrillers were their favourite films, then they could elaborate as to why they were, if not then they were able to talk about a different genre than the one they picked in the previous question.

What is your favourite Thriller sub-genre?

- We asked this question to separate our initial ideas and choose one that would best suit our target audience. We were then able to narrow down our options to a psychological thriller or crime thriller ; we then decided to collaborate both of them to create our final idea for our film, mixing conventions of both the crime and psychological thriller sub-genres.

What weapons do you expect to see in thriller movies?
- To get an inclination of how brutal of an antagonist to portray in our narrative, we asked this question to see what kinds of weapons people prefer to see. Usually guns end things too quickly and it's difficult to build up tension and suspense in a scene without using a lot of filler dialogue - which can bore viewers - so we added a rope and other manual weapons such as knives, axes and also a crowbar for our serial killer to use - but we also kept the option of a gun for people to choose as it provided them with a bit more variety. 

What do you think makes a good Villain?
- We asked this question to get an idea of what factors people liked to see in our villains, as this question could bring a wide range of answers, we left people with a blank text box to be as vague or as specific as they liked. Also, people's knowledge of films varies from person to person, so people will probably have different opinions about how to create a good villain - whether it be the actor portraying them (i.e Heath Ledger's performance as the joker in The Dark Knight) or the actual qualities of the character, like how cunning and ruthless the antagonist is in the movie 'Phone Booth'.

What kind of music do you think builds suspense in a thriller?
- For the non-diegetic sound in our film, we wanted to use it only to create suspense and intrigue our audience, so we gave conventional ideas for our audience to choose from, such as violin music and a music box - which is very common in psychological thrillers, but we also left and 'Other' option because we thought other people may have good ideas which we didn't think of.

"Movies are scarier during the day than the night" - Agree or Disagree
- This question refers to the setting of the film and how people perceive the events of the film. We believed that films in the thriller genre were scarier when set at night and in the dark, and that it can be used to create suspense and an eerie effect. For this question we expected to see most people disagree rather than agree, however some films such as Se7en manage to create tension and suspense without the help of the environment and only due to the narrative.