9/09/14 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE 1; Detectives
We accessed ‘art of the title’ website analysed the opening to a French detective series called ‘Détectives’. We went through each shot identifying how this opening identifies its genre. It is easily identified as a TV opening as the opening is going at a fast pace and show the characters in the programme, films on the other hand are a lot more relaxed with the length of the titles as they do not need to rush into the programme they can build tension up for the film.The location is identified immediately as you find yourself on a ride through les rues de Paris via a Google Streetview-style interface. The soundtrack also states; “I made it to the city of lights”- the city of lights is a nickname for Paris.
We accessed ‘art of the title’ website analysed the opening to a French detective series called ‘Détectives’. We went through each shot identifying how this opening identifies its genre. It is easily identified as a TV opening as the opening is going at a fast pace and show the characters in the programme, films on the other hand are a lot more relaxed with the length of the titles as they do not need to rush into the programme they can build tension up for the film.The location is identified immediately as you find yourself on a ride through les rues de Paris via a Google Streetview-style interface. The soundtrack also states; “I made it to the city of lights”- the city of lights is a nickname for Paris.
We can tell that it is a detective genre not only by the name but by all the information and graphics thrown at you in the opening sequence e.g. passport photos and information about (a possible suspect/victims) parents.
9/09/14 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE 2; Sherlock Holmes
We accessed the ‘art of the title’ website and we watched the film opening to Sherlock Holmes which I really enjoyed. We know that this opening is set in Victorian times as the colour palette is very bleak and monochromatic. One main colour/effect is sepia which connotes Victorian photographic methods. The titles are all presented in cursive handwriting using pen and ink wash that gives our eyes to visual noise which is presented by the splatters around the different pages which also gives the photographs a foxed and mildewed look. CGI is used here to make the graphics morph very cleverly into three different styles; still photograph which is clearly taken from the moving image and then it morphs into a pen and ink wash drawing which is re-animated and the process is in reverse, this then cycles throughout the opening sequence. The soundtrack gives the opening a really tense feeling.
9/09/14 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE 2; Mission Impossible
I accessed the art of the title website and found the opening sequence to Mission Impossible. I can tell that this is an action sequence as a fuse is being lit which is trigger for action sequences. Scenes from the film flash on and off of the screen, also being distributed with metal like credits that shine with speed and urgency. The fuse then sparks at the end of the title sequence which causes the title of the film to come onto the screen in big, bold letters.
I accessed the art of the title website and found the opening sequence to Mission Impossible. I can tell that this is an action sequence as a fuse is being lit which is trigger for action sequences. Scenes from the film flash on and off of the screen, also being distributed with metal like credits that shine with speed and urgency. The fuse then sparks at the end of the title sequence which causes the title of the film to come onto the screen in big, bold letters.9/09/14 | RESEARCH | TV FILM OPENING ANALYSIS; Zen
We watched the opening to a BBC Drama called Zen. It was obvious that this was a crime drama because it efficiently establishes its genre, locations, themes and tone right from the start of the program.
The crime genre is established through the iconography including guns, other firearms, and the position of the ‘Questura’, the police headquarters.
Italianicity is conveyed through repeated pictures on the screen with a wash of the colours of the Italian flag: red, white, green.
We watched the opening to a BBC Drama called Zen. It was obvious that this was a crime drama because it efficiently establishes its genre, locations, themes and tone right from the start of the program.
9/10/14 | PLANNING | THE BRIEF
I am working in a group of three pupils with Oliver Davis, Charlie Walker, and Robert Tann. We have chosen Brief 7 (video), the opening sequence of a new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as a comedy or thriller together with a storyboard. Maximum length: three minutes.
The plot of our film opening focuses on a woman who awakes from a blackout at her boyfriends house and hears a news report on the TV about a dealy virus circulating. She then finds her boyfriend dead in his bed and tries to hide the body, and it ends with knocking on the door.
9/09/14 | RESEARCH | SCOOP IT; Horror film codes & conventions
1/10/14 | PLANNING | TREATMENT
The film sequence opens with CHARLIE's dead hand, this will indicate that our opening is a horror sequence. It then shows LJILJANA waking up in a stranger’s house and seeing him dead on the floor. This then leads to Ljiljana panicking, and with OLIVER DAVIS’ skills with editing, we will create flashbacks for Ljiljana and what happened the night before, this is also about possible hints that Charlie showed that could indicate infection. There are news reels and voiceovers in the background as about how all infected must be quarantined.
This then cross cuts to Ljiljana trying to hide Charlie's body in the closet when there is a knocking on the door. She is then rushing to hide the body but when she opens the door there are already multiple bodies in there and one seems to still be alive as they ask for her help. The sequence will then finish there as it will leave it on a cliff-hanger.
This then cross cuts to Ljiljana trying to hide Charlie's body in the closet when there is a knocking on the door. She is then rushing to hide the body but when she opens the door there are already multiple bodies in there and one seems to still be alive as they ask for her help. The sequence will then finish there as it will leave it on a cliff-hanger.
CALL SHEET
Shoot Date: 18/10/14
Crew: Oliver Davis: 07********* - olliedavis***@gmail.com
Camera Equipment:
-Tripod
Sound Equipment:
Lighting Equipment:
Props:
Wardrobe:
-Tripod
9/10/14 | RESEARCH | GENRE; Thriller
Our group have decided to go with a horror or thriller film. Therefore I shall research both of these two genres.
Firstly I have decided to research the thriller genre. A thriller film is known to promote intense excitement, suspense and a high level of anticipation. The target audience of a thriller film is a person who enjoys a lot of mystery and thinking, the person watching would be one to like to work things out for themselves. They would also love surprises and red herrings in a film. Thrillers are mainly popular to those who are under the age of around 25, but there are also people who enjoy watching thrillers who are above that age. It is known that thrillers are more popular to women than men.
Thriller films are a difficult genre to pin down as they can cover a wide range of types of films:
- Film noir, psychological
- Detective, gangster
- Horror, sci-fi
The tension of the plot usually arises when the main character(s) is place in a tough situation or an escape or dangerous mission from which it seems impossible. The goal of a thriller film is to keep the audience ‘at the edge of their seats’ as the plot builds up. Thrillers also like to play out our repressed fears.
The characters involved in these films usually come into conflict with each other or with people from the outside. This can include;
- Convicts/ criminals/ prison inmates
- Stalkers, assassins, terrorists
- Down-on-their-luck losers
- Innocent victims
- Characters with dark pasts
- Etc.
The main themes often included in thrillers are terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic troubles often leading to a murder.
The master of the thriller genre is Alfred Hitchcock, with films like:
- Psycho
- Rear Window
- Vertigo
9/10/14 | RESEARCH | GENRE; Horror
A horror film is a film that depicts the views emotions, worst fears, terror of the unknown, disgust and nightmares. This genre is a genre that often features scenes throughout the films that scares the viewer with the use of death and also supernatural forces. This genre overlaps quite often with the thriller genre.
Most plots in a horror film involve evil forces, events or supernatural personage. Elements that often feature in horror films are;
- Torture
- Gore
- Ghosts
- Demonic forces
- Supernatural forces/organisms
- Serial killers
- Etc.
Horror sub genres:
- Gothic
- Psychological
- Supernatural
- Suspense
- Thriller
- Teen terror
- Satanic
- Demonic
Horrors target audience often seems to be teenagers and people in their twenties, but some critics are against teenagers watching horror movies as they think that teenagers are “unaware of the far superior films that are being regurgitated”. However, some horror movies do target the unknowing teenage audience. Again, women seem to be devoted fans of the horror genre, possible because of the many heroines but also because horror movies cross gender boundaries as they deal with the primal emotion- fear. Horror films tap into locked fears, ideas and imagery that most humans tend to want to avoid.
Codes and conventions of a horror film:
· Blood
· DeathKilling
· Villains
· Victims
· Haunted houses and isolated settings
· Monsters
· Supernatural
9/09/14 | RESEARCH | SCOOP IT; Thriller Film Codes & Conventions
15/10/14 | PLANNING | OUR FILM TITLE CREDITS
I went back to look at the ART OF THE TITLE website in order to study how professionals use title credits in their film opening. I plan to use the following title credits:
- Robert Tann
07/11/14| CONSTRUCTION | MAKE UP
I tried to create a representation of a man infected by a disease. The disease consisted of bruising around the body and the eyes becoming red and puffy.
I used the 2010 limited edition No7 Autumn Eye palette which contains 4 gorgeous bold shades. The 4 vibrant shades included in the palette are Purple Haze, Red Lead, Chrome Green and Indigo Blue. The colours in this palette are very pigmented and are of a high quality. They glide on easily and smoothly and are easy to blend.
I created bruising by blending the 4 colours together, see below for an example.
ADD PHOTO
By making the eyes look red and puffy I created a light, thin rim of eye shadow around the eye using the Red Lead colour, see below for an example.
ADD PHOTO
I tried to create a representation of a man infected by a disease. The disease consisted of bruising around the body and the eyes becoming red and puffy.
I used the 2010 limited edition No7 Autumn Eye palette which contains 4 gorgeous bold shades. The 4 vibrant shades included in the palette are Purple Haze, Red Lead, Chrome Green and Indigo Blue. The colours in this palette are very pigmented and are of a high quality. They glide on easily and smoothly and are easy to blend.
I created bruising by blending the 4 colours together, see below for an example.
ADD PHOTO
By making the eyes look red and puffy I created a light, thin rim of eye shadow around the eye using the Red Lead colour, see below for an example.
ADD PHOTO
9/10/14 | PLANNING | Audience Research
I started by investigating how brands target audiences in preparation for creating my own audience profile for my GCSE Production. I need to plan to reach my target audience. As part of distributing any film, distributors prepare marketing stratergies such as reaching out to their target audiences through film websites and social media sites.
Whilst profiling my audience, I will also work out why they enjoy the genre. Why would they want to watch my film? What makes my film different from competing films ? How will my film appeal to viewing needs of my target audience?
Who Is My Target Audience: Action Steps
1. Who is my primary target audience?
In my film opening my primary target audience is: British/ American, male and female 15-40+, who love thriller films, TV crime drama and psychological thrillers.
2. What makes my film stand out from the competition?
Our film is about a man trying to infect a female companion/girlfriend with a disease but then actually infects himself. The girl in the film then finds out he has infected others as she finds another person in a cupboard.
3. Why should my audience watch my film?
Empire says: A seeringly scary look into an infected mind!
I found that my research has helped me create a profile of my ideal audience member.
This information will then help me create my marketing research.
Audiences can be segmented and defined by their GEARS
Gender
Ethnicity
Age
Region / nationality
Socio-economic group
Gender
Ethnicity
Age
Region / nationality
Socio-economic group
My researched showed that all of the products (including mass media products such as magazines) have clearly divided and distinct audiences based on the GEARS. These examples illustrate these (source Bauer Media Advertising):
My target audience uses mass media platforms such as radio, so I looked into the target audience for Kiss, which is an example of a large niche audience (young, London, pop music). To use radio, I could create a trailer that could be featured on the radio to promote my film:
My target audience goes to the internet to learn about film releases. for example, my ffriends and I, who form the target audience of my film, find out about new films on: Facebook, IMDB, Twitter, Tumblr, iTunes and through mailing lists.
For example: I looked at iTunes Movie Trailers to find out what audiences were currently offered and how audiences access new films:
There are several models of audience behaviour, two of which construct audiences in contrasting ways (passive or active):
The Media Effects model, or 'hypodermic syringe' model, is how media can affect society and how society affects media. Some negative indications of this theory are when people do "copycat murders". An udience that tends to see the audience as passive and sees how exposure to particular aspects of media content can influence the behanviour of the reader or viewer.
The Uses and Gratifications model presents audience behaviour as active choices (uses) that are pursued to meet (gratify) a range of needs. For Blumler and Katz, these four needs are for:
The Media Effects model, or 'hypodermic syringe' model, is how media can affect society and how society affects media. Some negative indications of this theory are when people do "copycat murders". An udience that tends to see the audience as passive and sees how exposure to particular aspects of media content can influence the behanviour of the reader or viewer.
The Uses and Gratifications model presents audience behaviour as active choices (uses) that are pursued to meet (gratify) a range of needs. For Blumler and Katz, these four needs are for:
- entertainment/ escapism/ distraction,
- seeking information (sometimes called surveillance),
- personal identity (to support our world view) and
- social relationships (bonding 'water cooler' moments with friends or family as well as on-screen relationships with favourite performers).
The two-step flow model of audience behaviour.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm. (Source: Mediaknowall.com)
Socio-economic bands:
I learned how brands segment audiences.
9/10/14 | PLANNING | BRAINSTORMING
In today's lesson time, we discussed what genre we will do as part of our opening sequence. We have chosen to do a thriller film opening. However we are still unsure. We brainstormed for most of the lesson and assigned different roles, and also came up with a few ideas for different scenes. We discussed how we will use/make blood (if we choose to use it) and what props we would potentially need.
In this lesson we discussed when and where we will meet and designed and created a call sheet to remind us.
07/11/14| PLANNING | OUR FILM TITLE
Our film is about a deadly infection going around in the area. This is made clear by a public service announcement that is aired during the film. The voice that is saying the public service announcement is cold, robotic and neutral- it is also the central voice of the film opening. Because our film opening is based around this announcement we decided to call it 'Public Service Announcement' as it is mysterious, ambiguous and worry enducing. We did however, consider calling it 'Contagion' but we worried that it would have been to obvious and not give the viewer a sense of mystery.
Research | BFI EXIT POLLS/ ROTTEN TOMATOES
I went to the BFI site to find out about how exit polls yield information about gender and age. The BFI says: “We carry out exit poll surveys for all the films we support through our distribution fund. Exit polls are standard practice for major releases, but much less so for smaller or independent films.” The BFI ask cinemagoers about themselves and what motivated them to see a film.
I wanted to find out about the kinds of audiences who are likely to watch a film like mine. So I investigated some of the BFI case studies which I present in chart form (quantitative research). I also used the Rotten Tomatoes website to gather some qualitative data.
I also did some qualitative research, using IMDb and Rotten tomatoes. The Rotten Tomatoes website says: “Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (40 for movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.”
- I decided to research Locke (dir. Steven Knight, 2013).
Qualitative Data
This is an audience response from IMDb; “What makes Locke different is that the pressure of life and death is not there. In those movies the leading (and only) men were threaten with the proposal of death, While in this movie, Ivan Locke's way of Life is threaten with change, and it's this change in the concept that made the movie Quiet and low key, but the filmmakers were still able to make if fast pasted and kinetic (having it take place in a Car going down the highway helps).”
This is an audience response from IMDb; “What makes Locke different is that the pressure of life and death is not there. In those movies the leading (and only) men were threaten with the proposal of death, While in this movie, Ivan Locke's way of Life is threaten with change, and it's this change in the concept that made the movie Quiet and low key, but the filmmakers were still able to make if fast pasted and kinetic (having it take place in a Car going down the highway helps).”
Quantitative Data
- I decided to research Ill Manors (dir. Ben Drew, 2012).
This is an audience response from IMDb; "Whilst it is an ''urban'' drama at the end of the day, the film does what Kidulthood/Adulthood/Shank could not do and has a go at actually trying to explore the reasons behind why people join gangs or decide to riddle their body with heroin. None of the central characters have parents, and the film suggests this lack of love creates the violence, it's essentially a film encouraging us to hug a hoodie. Outstanding performance goes to Riz Ahmed, who plays a gangster with some moral fibre trying to get out the area. The only negative is that the film tries to tell us too much, there's so many characters and stories happening that it's hard to keep track and some character get lost in the shuffle. But overall, recommended."
Quantitative Data
This is an audience response from IMDb; "This movie is extremely engaging, well-acted, detailed, moving, thrilling, exciting and satisfying to watch. The stakes get higher and higher as the plot unfolds. What is so unexpected is the many facets the film has, it's not told on one-level there is a mixture of comedy and tragedy that is totally charming and believable. There is a great sense of involvement that gets the viewer attached to the characters and the unique situation that presents itself. It's a total roller- coaster of a movie that has you on the edge of your seat. An extraordinary story that is interestingly told. I've never felt the desire to write a comment on a movie before so the fact that I've taken the time to do it says a lot about the power of it's content. I really recommend this film, it takes you on a journey that divulges secrets beautifully as the story unravels. I left the film crying with a mixture of joy and sadness."
This is an audience response from IMDb; "It started off slow. It was just quite a lot of things happening, with little sense or links between them, but as the characters divided off into 4, the story really kicked in. It was similar in style to Pulp Fiction in the fact it follows the individual stories of the characters, all of which have links that connect them together throughout. This was very, very well done throughout and included flashbacks between the switching of characters so the audience could remember what had happened. It was very well directed, had a good flow to it, and had lots of comedic parts, all of which were subtlety put in to it so to not make it into a predominately comedic film."
Quantitative Data
This is an audience response from IMDb; "'This is England' is a must see for the type of persons who enjoy a good old 'innocence of youth' narrative (including a very comedic, almost cringe inducing, 'first kiss' scene) layered with powerful retrospective British realism reflecting early 1980's societal issues of the type that you wont see on any saccharin dipped 'i remember 1982' clip show."
Quantitative Data
- I decided to research Tell No One (dir. Guillaume Canet, 2006).
This is an audience response from IMDb; "This movie is extremely engaging, well-acted, detailed, moving, thrilling, exciting and satisfying to watch. The stakes get higher and higher as the plot unfolds. What is so unexpected is the many facets the film has, it's not told on one-level there is a mixture of comedy and tragedy that is totally charming and believable. There is a great sense of involvement that gets the viewer attached to the characters and the unique situation that presents itself. It's a total roller- coaster of a movie that has you on the edge of your seat. An extraordinary story that is interestingly told. I've never felt the desire to write a comment on a movie before so the fact that I've taken the time to do it says a lot about the power of it's content. I really recommend this film, it takes you on a journey that divulges secrets beautifully as the story unravels. I left the film crying with a mixture of joy and sadness."
Quantitative Data
- I decided to research 4.3.2.1 (dir. Noel Clarke, Mark Davis, 2010).
This is an audience response from IMDb; "It started off slow. It was just quite a lot of things happening, with little sense or links between them, but as the characters divided off into 4, the story really kicked in. It was similar in style to Pulp Fiction in the fact it follows the individual stories of the characters, all of which have links that connect them together throughout. This was very, very well done throughout and included flashbacks between the switching of characters so the audience could remember what had happened. It was very well directed, had a good flow to it, and had lots of comedic parts, all of which were subtlety put in to it so to not make it into a predominately comedic film."
- I decided to research This is England (dir. Shane Meadows, 2006).
This is an audience response from IMDb; "'This is England' is a must see for the type of persons who enjoy a good old 'innocence of youth' narrative (including a very comedic, almost cringe inducing, 'first kiss' scene) layered with powerful retrospective British realism reflecting early 1980's societal issues of the type that you wont see on any saccharin dipped 'i remember 1982' clip show."
Quantitative Data
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