Original idea compared to Final idea

Original idea:

An attractive teenage girl as our victim is lying on a bed texting and just like a stereotypical teenager she is too focused on technology that her absence from real world interactions allows for anyone to be able to pass for what they say they are, there are two teenage killers that are supposed to gain entry into the house through normal entry and then grab the girl, duck tape her and kill her, during this time you will see all of the preparations for the kill and then rules will appear in a zombieland style which will add an extra comedic element to the thriller, afterwards the teens clean up and stuff the dismembered body into the boot of the car and just simply drive off after having gotten away with murder, the killers were going to use a dexter style set up for the kill in a secluded empty house that would be able to be used as a kill location

How the idea has developed:

Over time the idea has changed so the victim is now a male teen instead of female as this may attract a larger female audience, the 2 killers are now 1 killer who is not just gaining entry but is instead a hired hitman taking out a target by posing as a cleaner, the location also changed from a secluded empty house to a more lived in classic family home that allows a more believable story line, the teen is still technology obsessed and is unable to focus on the real world, instead of having numerous murder tools we have one knife in order to be as efficient as possible, the murder style is still dexter like as we use the plastic sheeting idea in order to keep it clean

Final idea:

Begins with a wideshot of the classic family house which will set the location of the kill, this will then shift to a shot of the male teen on the bed texting and completely oblivious to the outside world, then shot of the killer walking up to the house and ringing the doorbell to show his intentions as pretending to be a cleaner, the male teen lets him in easily without question and just tells him where he wants cleaned however the killer definitely has a different plan in mind, the killer walks into the kitchen and puts out his cleaning supplies after which the knife and plastic sheeting are pulled out to showcase his true intentions, there is then a time-lapse of the killer preparing the murder area with plastic sheeting in order to keep it clean, the victim is then called downstairs and once the killer is ready to kill he pulls out the knife from behind his back and kills the victim, after this there is a close up on the dead male teen and then the scene will fade out

Coursework ideas

feedback: mostly negative, ideas are impossible to do as they are unrealistic and take too long to plan and put into an opening

Target Audience interviews and questionnaires pre-filming

Research into interviews:

-we interviewed roughly 10 people in order to see what audience best responded to the idea of the film and what their view of the plot was, it was seen in the results that our film would clearly be more focused on a younger audience as they not only found the plot more interesting but enjoy horror movies more than the older people we asked who saw the idea as being more unrealistic and slightly immature as they did not like the idea of teenage victims or teenage killers but otherwise they thought that the idea was fine whereas the younger people we spoke to not only liked the use of teens for the killer and the victim.
-the questions that we used allowed us to see how according to age what people's preferences were in terms of if they like thrillers, what features of thrillers they prefer and finally what sub-genre they like most as well as asking about their favourite thriller in order to see what kind of films are most popular among different age groups and allowed for us to adapt our film and make any changes before filming in order to produce the best film possible.

Thriller films questionnaire to target audience:
-we created a questionnaire on google in order for it to be treated like a real project and for the questionnaires to appear like the ones that would actually be used for surveys on real films
-the questionnaire is what we used to interview the people we questioned in order to gage what there idea of the thriller genre they prefer.

Counter Stereotypes VS Stereotypes

counter stereotypes- the opposite of what you would expect someone to behave like
stereotype-  a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality

Stereotype examples: 

Different types of title sequences used in films

The art of the title sequence: 

- the name of the film

- an understanding of the tone/atmosphere of the film

- narrative information

- introduce some/all characters

- a sense of the films genre

- actors names 

- establish the location

Examples:

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo:

- gives the name

- has an intense tone with serious music and the use of black and white showing that this film is quite dark, could be a thriller as someone is being tied up, mouths also being covered which represents with holding information which is relevant to thrillers, there is technology involved as there is a keyboard as well

- rises from the ashes like a Phoenix, Daniel Craig and main character are shown kissing showing a possible romantic element of the film

- tells you the names of the characters and shows you them in black and white

- shows you the main female character and Daniel Craig kissing

- tells you it is a thriller as there is fire and mouths being covered showing a possible kidnapping

The discrete title sequence:

Like a mini film before the actual film and helps to get the audience into the mood of the film but not tell you what the film is about. It can give you an idea of the tone and the genre of the movie. A discrete opening sequence also is often animated and includes a lot of editing work e.g. Seven or the girl with the dragon tattoo.

The traditional:

An example of this is Alfred Hitchcock's Physco. Although there is a slightly stylised element in form of the grey lines moving through the screen, we have black back ground with white titles in front. Another example of this is The Sixth Sense. In this type of film sequence, films use sound and don't to create the mood of the film.

Straight into the film:

A film that goes straight into the story and doesn't have an extra title sequence.

An example of this is Scream. There are no titles at all and the film starts directly with the action of the opening scene. This type of title sequence is far less commonplace and is more likely to be seen in action or horror.

The stylised opening sequence:

A stylised title sequence is a combination of straight into it and discrete. The opening of the film starts straight into the action and then followed by a 'discrete' title sequence. The best and most famous example for that are the James Bond openings. This type of opening is often used in stylish action films such as Casino Royal or Mesrine.

Questions: Daredevil

1) How can we tell the genre of the to show?

- by the serious music and images shown that represent both religion, respect and the law, you can tell that this is clearly a thriller

2) How do sound and images create meaning?

- the sound is serious and gets more upbeat as it progresses and the images are of the layout of a city assumably giving you the location and then the religious buildings with statues covering their eyes possibly showing that religion is blind aswell as a statue holding the scales of justice with a blindfold over her eyes showing that justice is blind

3) What do we learn about the characters?

- you only see the image of he devil at the end showing you what to expect from the series as well as the red paint supposedly symbolising blood which tells you that there really will be justice

4) what type of title sequence is it?

- it is a discrete title sequence

Fargo opening:

The Football Factory opening:

Comparison:

- Hollywood film has 3 companies producing the film whereas the low budget British film has 7 producers showing that there was a much smaller contribution due to the film having a low budget

- The British film has a priority of listing all of the off set inputs whereas Fargo lists the actors in the film and who they will be portraying

- The opening to Fargo lasts nearly 3 minutes but has less text and more images as it sets up the start of the film whereas the Football Factory has mostly text and pictures

What I have learned from this:
- The budget for the film is low so there will be many producers as well as my company name
- The priority is not to list actors but anyone that helped with the making of the film
- From this I understand that in my own film I will need to have more credits listing the distributors and the production companies as we will need lots of funding for the film and also list everyone involved 

What is a thriller?

A thriller is an exciting, suspenseful film especially a mystery story that has intrigue, there is always an enigma to be resolved that will change the equilibrium. A common feature of a thriller film will be a death, kidnapping or assault that will lead to a chase involving a hero and a villain. Binary opposition is essential in this process as it enables the audience to determine whose side they should be on. Another common convention (expectation) used in the thriller is the anti-hero a character that is flawed and put in a position that they don't necessarily want to be in, but ultimately they save the day. Watching a thriller generally involves willing suspension of disbelief (this means we know the idea is ridiculous but we buy into it for the duration of the film.

Types of thrillers:

Psychological- e.g. seven and inception

Sci-fi- e.g. alien, terminator and 2001

Action- james bond, jason bourne and die hard

Crime- Sherlock Holmes and the usual suspects

Police- fast and furious 6

Conspiracy/political- Captain America, mission impossible and White House down 

Horror- alien, the shining and devil

Supernatural- paranormal activity and the sixth sense

Definitions:

Psychological thriller- is a thriller story which emphasizes the psycology of its characters and their unstable emotional states

Action thriller- Featuring guns, cool explosions, and amazing set pieces

Conspiracy thriller- In which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only s/he recognizes. 

Political thriller- In which the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him.

Examples:

Inception- this is a psychological thriller as it is all about the mind

Alien- this is a sci-fi thriller as it is set in space 

Sherlock Holmes- this is a crime thriller as it involves mystery and trying to solve a crime and find a criminal

My Sweded film

-we chose these particular scenes as we all agreed that this film was an interesting example of the thriller genre
-from doing this we learned that film making is a long and tiring process where every detail must be exact
-it is very difficult to summarise a film in just 3 scenes as it only shows a snapshot of what is yet to come but it does make you want to see the rest
-if I could do it again I would have done the film 21 Jump Street as it has an element of humour in it which I really enjoy