Photos from Filming

Photos Taken During Filming

 

 

Having make-up done - we had to be careful to keep topping this up for continuity through the day.

 

The police station scene - we tried to create shadows using the lamp but the office we used as an interrogation room was small and we were limited in the camera  angles we could use. We cleared out all the office equipment and left it bare to create the right feel, and the small space felt quite claustrophobic which is the right atmosphere.

 



Filming the running scenes from different angles.

My thoughts before filming

My thoughts before our group films our movie:

There are quite a few things I am particularly worried about before we film. One is that I am very worried about the weather. As we are filming a lot of are sequences outside mainly in a forest if it were to rain for a few weeks as forecast, this would make it extremely difficult for our group to film.
 

Also I am quite worried about the location of the forest we are going to be filming in as I myself have not been there so I’m not sure if it will be a great location to film but also because it is very close to a main road. This means that when we are filming we will pick up unwanted sounds/wild sounds of traffic and cars. We are intending to use a soundscape instead of ambient sound anyway, but it would be nice to have the option of ambient sound as well in case we change our minds.
 

We cannot control any of these factors so therefore we just have to hope that on the day it will be somewhat quiet. I am also worried about one of the shots we have to film which is a high angle shot which will rely on one of our group being able to climb a tree, which might be more difficult in wet weather. We do not have any back up options if the weather remains bad for a long period of time so I suppose we will just have to wait for appropriate weather.
 

 

Research Into Target Audience

Thrillers

 

Thriller  is a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats at all time. The protagonist in these films mainly played by a woman is set a problem - an escape, a mission, or a mystery. No matter what sub-genre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax.

-          thrillers also have element of action and horror, which possibly widen the target audience to people who enjoy action and suspense.

-          The target audience for many psychological and crime thrillers are 18+. To be more accurate 18 to 34 years old.

-          The main reason for this is because they nearly always contain a lot of violence and show issues that can be considered very disturbing for many younger viewers.

-          Many thrillers have a certification of 18+ this is because typically the scenes that would be included in a thriller movie would be quite upsetting and disturbing. This lowers the target, as the movie is therefore not suitable for younger viewing and not family friendly and non-violent. However, there is a tendency now for lower age ratings and a lot of films in our genre are given a 15 or even 12 if there is no explixit violence.

-          However we think 15+ would be the most appropriate age group as every film contains aspects of violence, death and other issues. Also because the content that we will show will not be over explicit. Making our target audience 15 to 34.

While researching what age group tends to watch thrillers. I found this survey that was conducted to see what age group was more likely to watch a thriller. As you can see from the chart the outcome shows that it was people between 15 and 25.

I completely agree with this graph. As from personal experience I know that I am more likely to enjoy watching a horror or crime thriller then my parents are. As I like watching films that cause suspense and as I am 17 I know that I will fall into the bracket of the age group of 15 to 25.

Looking at the research the not many people over the age of 35 are interested in thrillers therefore we would no class them as being are target audience.

Types of thrillers and target audiences:

Mystery Thrillers: Mystery thrillers create a target audience, which would probably be more sophisticated and mature. As the theme of a thriller is mainly to challenge a person mind. As throughout a typical thriller film the audience is made to try and work out the mystery or the problem before the character. Therefore the genre of a mystery thriller particularly aims at an audience who want to be psychologically and mentally challenged while at the same time being entertained. Example of a mystery thriller: ‘Phone Booth’.

-          Psychological and mystery thrillers require a person to concentrate so that they can understand but also so they can enjoy the film to a much better standard, as they have to concentrate to be able to follow the story line as most thriller movie consist of making the audience confused. Therefore the target audience would aim to be people who were very intellectual. Example of a psychological thriller: “The Butterfly Effect’.

-          Crime thrillers: Crime thrillers mainly consist of a combination of both crime films and thrillers, which explore successful or failed crimes. They usually focus more on action over psychological aspects. Themes are mainly robberies, heists, and murders. Because crime thrillers tend to be similar to action thrillers they attract a similar audience - more of a younger male audience. Examples of crime thrillers include Se7en. Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, after a serial killer using the seven deadly sins.

-          One film that fits particularly well with our groups is ‘The Last

House on the Left’. This is a film about two teenage girls who are abducted raped and abused but also killed. This is aimed at audiences who want to feel scared and shocked.

Researching target audience

 

 

Here is the mindmap I produced analysing the target audience for my genre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

I have also found an article on Wikipedia about the thriller genre , which I agree with. This is because all the elements of thriller that the writer has discussed my group and I have already accounted for. It talks about that fact that thrillers should give the impression of excitement and suspense which I agree is a key part of a successful thriller and which I think we will achieve in our trailer through the tense opening and the mystery of what has happened to the girl. It also talks about examples of different thriiler types set in different times and places for example westerns. This article shows that thrillers are being created in different ways and situations and can still be successful. ‘Plot twists and cliff-hangers are used extensively’, I really agree with this as I think that thrillers are all about the mystery and not knowing what is going to happen next. You want to leave the audience shocked at the end due to them not expecting that ending event to happen. You want it to build up to that point and for them to stunned about it. 

I have found a slideshow which have given us more detail and information for what our target wants to get out of watching this genre. This has taught us that we need to address our audience more with abnormal events that do happen every day. The common elements our audience would expect to see in our film are a sense of alarm which leaves them on the edge of their seat. They are also looking for excitement, they want confusion and to be shocked about what is going on. They want dark, terrifying music so that it leaves them with a sense of terror. This is because these elements are common in the thriller genre. 

Researching target audience

Researching the target audience

Psychological thrillers are a sub-genre of thrillers and normally involve story lines based on unstable emotional states of characters. They normally contain traits of mystery drama and sometimes horror, they normally contain mature themes and the target audience for these types of films is generally 18-34. Psychological thrillers are targeted at both sexes however is generally watched more by women because of films where women are the protagonist and the villain is a man would would usually abuse the women this scares the viewers but compels them to watch more because there is an element of proejction and identification.


http://www.slideshare.net/guest9e0839/who-would-be-the-target-audience-for-youre-media-product#btnNext



Target Audience of Psychological Thrillers
"Usually the target audience of most psychological thrillers is 18+, this is because they contain many disturbing characters with psychological illnesses. However a majority of psychological thrillers attract primarily females, aged 18-35. Research shows that women are more attracted to psychological thrillers,  because they enjoy the mystery and story behind events that take place in thriller films. It has been shown that females prefer the intellectual side of the mental illnesses and strange psychologically challenging behaviour that features in psychological thrillers." (http://nfgssupernova.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/target-audience-of-psychological.html)
I would agree and disagree with this because as my research has shown women clearly do watch more of this genre but by a very small margin, the difference between male and female viewers is very slim compared to romantic comedies or action films, I myself am very fond of psychological thrillers and wouldn’t say the films are obviously to see geared towards women.


 Because of themes based on the emotional state of the characters' minds it may be quite complicated and also may contain mature themes meaning that it would be watched by older viewers. Rarely would a psychological thriller have a rating of 12 or lower because of the themes involved. Because of the psychological themes the films are more often watched by18-24 age group and more likely to be intelligent people who like to watch complex films with complex films and psychological thrillers try and give the audience what they want by creating complicated films. For example:



"Black Swan" is a psychological thriller that can be interpreted many ways because of its complex story arc and requires the viewer to concentrate to get the full experience out of the film. This is why they are aimed at more intelligent people to get the best out of the film.


When making the story line for our film we decided to use a main girl character and explore her mental stability after being abused and raped for several years by her captor. We thought this would fit in the genre quite well because psychological thrillers quite often begin with a tragedy to show how the character became how they are. This is similar to memento: his wife gets brutally murdered and he goes insane trying to find the murdered. We figured this would make a hardcore psychological thriller enthusiast happy because we have incorporated mature themes and spend the rest of the film delving into her mind to see if she is insane or sane.

Example of Shot List

Organising shots by location, actors, props, availability of equipment etc rather than narrative order:

The Film Industry

Film industry- Production

 

Production companies are in charge of a lot of tasks. These include:

 

-creating the plot of the film

-hiring the casting of the crew

-making the film

-finding sponsors

 

To do these things they require, large amounts of money. This money will come from sponsors, production partners and private companies who will invest in the film.

There are many production companies universes, however the majority are American. Examples of these are Summit Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Fox Search Light and Paramount Pictures.
 

Production companies are usually in a contract with a corporate entity. This provides a production company with a director, assistant director, location manager, production manager, casting director, director of photography, costume designer, make-up and hair designer, story board artist, choreographer, director of autography. All these are vitally important for the making for a film.

 

5 main stages of production

 

     Development – the writing of the script. This is done with the director; this is to make sure this is commercially viable.

      Pre-production- the production company hire the casting crew. The crew is hired first; this is to make sure they have everything needed. This is so they are able to negotiate prices of actors.

      Production- The film is made.

      Post-Production- after the film has been made editing is done to add sound and visual effects. This is tracks and dialogue.

      Sales and distribution – the film is shown to potential buyers. It then gets shown in cinemas and released on DVD. However not all production companies do the sales and distributions and this is done by another private company hired specifically for this.  

 

Distribution

There are many film distribution companies including:

-Touchstone Pictures

-Warner Bros

-20^th Century Fox

The jobs of these companies are to release the film to the public and to bring an audience for the film. There are many different ways in which the distribution company can distribute the film. These include:

DVD (Box sets)

Cinema

Internet (YouTube)

Film Sites (Netflix, Love film)

 Distribution companies are closely linked to production companies. This is vitally important as the production companies need to keep on their good side. This is done because the distribution companies decide how the film is shown to the public so by keeping on their good side, they can make your film look a lot more attractive and draw in a bigger audience.

Example of films and their distribution company

Paranormal ActivityProduced by: Oren Peli
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Box Office: $194 Million (Worldwide)

Marketing
 

Trailers Trailers are the main type of marketing for an up and coming film. Trailers are made to draw in an audience by revealing a little amount of information about the plot. Trailers are a prime key to making a film well known and to be noticed by the public. This will make the public want to go see it.

Official Paranormal Activity Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

Magazine Cover

Magazine covers are used heavily in film production. This is because they are wide spread and seen by a large percentage of the public. They use magazine covers as they can have a wide variety of images and text all in one place. This means they can advertise the actors as well as scenes at the same time. This draws masses of attention towards the film creating a bigger fan base and getting more people to go watch the film.

 

ExampleMagazine: Entertainment Weekly
Cover:

The Film Industry

I have created a research presentation which I have uploaded to slideshare:

<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15454153" width="476" height="400" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Animatic

My initial story board ideas