Audience research

What types of thriller films interest you the most?

·        Murderous passions

·        Political thriller

·        Change of identity thriller

·        Psycho-traumatic thriller

·        Moral confrontation

·        Innocent on the run

What things do you not like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you dislike the film.

 

What things do you like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you like the film.

Do you prefer to be able to see the monster, or for it's appearance to remain a mystery?

Do you prefer thrillers which are based on real events?

How often do you watch thriller films?

• 1-3 times a month
• 4-6 times a month
• 7+ times a month
• never

Synopsis and summary of ideas

Our film is going to be about a girl who stalks a group of 3 girls (but one in particular) using mainly the internet. In the opening we will show shots of someone flicking through Facebook and typing their name into Google, then her starting to follow them on days out. The theme is of teenage jealousy, and the stalker who is a girl in the same year at college and becomes obsessed in becoming her victim. Green is the colour of jealousy, so might put in some flashes of green light, or a green wash on a scene. Blackouts to a flash up of photos and rapid cuts for editing; and use a camera to take the photos and emphasising the sound of the shutter release, and shooting the flash into the camera making the screen go white. Starts with an aerial shot of someone’s feet, and camera slowly rises to show she’s chasing someone, so you just see the back of the victim until she starts to turn around but only until the audience can see the side of her face. Then flashback to how the stalking began on Facebook. We might use a prologue. We’ll use a cut from a picture or a video of one of the girls to the stalker wearing the same outfit. Also one of the girls loses her bracelet, the cut to the stalker wearing it. An outside park scene will be used at sunset in the town park possibly at the bandstand because most thrillers are mainly filmed at night, but well still need some daylight to be able to film without lighting and need it to look like a casual scene but have a suspenseful element to it; all filmed from the stalker’s point of view. Slow quiet music so it blends into the background and isn’t too obvious, but also builds tension. It should also come across quite innocent and dainty, as the stalking started off harmless until she started to follow the girls on days out and then follows the main girl. Slight sound of footsteps in the background could be faded in and out throughout, to show that it is still in a flashback. The last scene is a rapid cut of the stalker quickly opening her eyes as the stalker catches up with her victim, leaves it on a cliffhanger to make the audience wonder what she is opening her eyes to.

Answering questions on handout

1) What is the purpose of the opening to a film?

Draws the attention of the audience and introducing the plot to make interested in finding out how it is resolved. It sets the scene and often includes the opening credits, theme music, and introduction to the main characters.

2) What techniques can a director use to create suspense in a film?

Eerie music or sharp sound effects which make the audience expect the unexpected and extreme close up shots which only give a small insight to what the characters are doing implies secrecy and makes the audience intrigued to know what’s going to happen. Cliff-hangers and complex plots

3) How do you think a thriller film is defined?

Main elements are tension, suspense and excitement; and events in the film build up to a climax where the plot which has been building up throughout is revealed.

4) What films can you think of that would fit into the thriller genre?

Seven (David Fincher, 1995); Salt (Phillip Noyce, 2010); The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002); The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980); Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991); The Hills has Eyes (Alexandre Aja, 2006); Saw (James Wan, 2004); Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010); Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010); One hour Photo (Mark Romanek, 2002); The Mothman Prophecies (Mark Pellington, 2002); Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979); I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)

5) The thriller film can be divided into sub-genres – what different types of thriller films do you think exist?

Murderous passions, political thrillers, change of identity thriller, psycho-traumatic thriller, moral confrontation, and innocent on the run.

6) What are the characteristics or conventions of a thriller film? (Consider narrative, characters, mise-en-scene, and stars)

Impacts the audience to feel suspense, tension and excitement; and intrigue the audience to wonder what will happen next and draw them into the action. The audience usually feel sympathy for the victims, and include famous and familiar landmarks or use every day objects or activities to make the audience relate to the story. Also often include law enforcement officers, spies, superheroes/supervillians or pilots; and then generally ordinary citizens drawn into the situation by accident.

7) What do you think is the audience pleasure of a thriller film?

to be entertained and to spend the film trying to figure out the plot, usually who commited the crime if its a detective thriller. To be able to relate to the characters personalities, but be intrigued by the fantasy world.

8) What do you think are the differences between a horror and a thriller film?

A horror film is created to unsettle viewers to install disgust, horror and fear; whereas a thriller installs suspense, tension and excitement. These genres can overlap and based on good vs. evil, but thrillers often have a plot which is resolved in the end whereas a horror usually ends with the characters dying.

9) Using the internet research the ‘top 50 thriller films’. Look at the top 20 – which ones have you watched? If it’s not that many, why do you think this is the case?

I have only seen one film out of the top 20 which is Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) , and this is probably because I don’t go to the cinema or watch films very often, but I have heard of most of them and even already know the plot of some.

Conventions of the thriller genre

Age and gender which the films aimed at

Our film will be aimed at girls between the ages of 15-25 because it is to do with jealousy which appeals more to females than males. Also the link to Facebook will attract this age group because the majority of this age group use Facebook or other social networking sites, so is likely to give the audience something to relate to. This film is likely to appeal to the same audience as that of Catfish (Henry Joost, 2010) because they are both about Facebook stalking, and also that of Meangirls (Mark Waters, 2004) because of the link to jealousy of teenage girls.

Cast

Amie = Stalker
Tara = Main girl to be stalked
Steph & Jess = Tara's friends
Steph = voiceover
All = music & camerawork

Equipment

The equipment i will need to produce my film:

• camcorder
• tripod
• Mac
• finalcut

Textual Analysis

The Mothman Prophecies (Mark Pellington, 2002) directed by Mark Pellington in 2002 is based on true events which automatically installs tension into the audience as they think it could possibly happen to them, although usually only small details of reality are taken, and then exaggerated and a story is made from it. The music was very echoic but interrupted by sharp sounds to imply to the audience that they should expect the unexpected. Exaggerating a characters breath is used in this clip which implies the character is panicking as you often breathe louder when you panic, even though breathing is very rhythmic and should sound calming, it tends to put you on edge. Cuts from blurry to in focus shots imply a confusing storyline, and draws our attention to specific details to help the audience follow what’s going on. The close up on the moth is quite unnerving for the audience because it is something which we would often see on a day to day basis, but still something which as humans we like. But it reflects that in the title, ‘mothman’ is used which we imagine in our heads to be a cross between a man and a moth, and the fact that the whole creature is never fully seen throughout the film installs tension as an image which can be seen on a screen is never as details or frightening to the audience as the image which they build in their head, and therefore builds tension. The fast cuts when the car crashes adds variety to the pace of the film, and gives the audience the feeling that they are actually there watching the car spinning. The establishing/aerial shot is also a Point of View shot of the Mothman which allows the audience to see the situation from the Mothman’s prospective, and is a way of showing his presence even though we never see him fully. The lighting is very dark throughout as the opening is set at night, and darkness instantly installs suspense as it’s harder to see what’s about to happen.

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)  which was directed by Ridley Scott in 1979 used very eerie sounds combined with squeaky noises which sound quite a strange mix which implies it would be a very fictional film. There is no sign of life until the end of the opening sequence, and even then we don’t know who these people are and don’t hear them speak, so it’s completely non-diagetic sounds. There was no establishing shot at the beginning and goes straight into a close-up of the spaceship travelling through space (which could be anywhere in the universe and full ship is never shown); and then a close up of all the equipment, and everything is very plain and metal with nothing personalised which creates an unease for the audience as everything seems very secretive, and as though whoever or whatever is on the spaceship doesn’t want anyone to know anything about them.

In 2007, Francis Laurence directed I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007) which starts with a news read. This is of a woman who claims to have found the cure for cancer, then cuts to a heading saying ‘3 years later’; and an establishing shot of an empty New York. This shocks the audience as if someone in real life did find the cure to cancer then it would be seen as a miracle, but this obviously has actually had an extremely negative impact and has resulting in New York being completely abandoned which has been done by closing down sections of road whilst filming, and image editing. This makes the audience think about a lot of things about today’s society and the impact in which science has. The familiar setting of New York which we see so much of in films as being ‘the city which never sleeps’ is suddenly contradicted as it appears to be dead. The very famous aerial shot in this film is to show only one car travelling through the streets. An over the shoulder shot is also a Point of View shot of the driver who we see as the only person left in New York. This tells the audience that the story will be told by this character.

Poster Analysis

 Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

Seven (David Fincher, 1995)

The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)

Target Audience

Thriller films are generally watched by students between the age of 16 and 25 as they tend to be classified as a ‘15’ or ‘18’ as they generally include violence so people under the age of 15 are not recommended to watch them anyway. The subgenre would have an effect, and it also depends on the individuals taste, but the twisty plots and suspense would probably appeal to a younger audience instead of a more laid back film.

Males generally tend to be more interested in thriller films than women, although a lot of the time there is no difference. This could be due to the characters in thrillers where the main characters tend to be males such as in Shutter Island where the only women in it were some of the patients, his wife and some nurses. All of the main characters and people in charge of the institution were male which could influence the men to want to have power and attract them towards watching the film. One exception is Salt which has the main character as a woman, although this role was originally written to be played by a man, it was swapped to a woman’s role when Angelina Jolie decided she wanted to play the role.

Film Classification

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) was established in 1912, and is a non-government organisation funded by the film industry which is responsible for the classification of films in the UK. They put age restrictions on films, DVD and video games so that children are not exposed to anything which could upset, disturb or have any negative impact on them.

A film which is classified a ‘15’ is not seen to be suitable for people under the age of 15 and therefore cannot buy or rent it. I can include drugs, but not to promote or encourage disuse. Life threatening behaviour such as suicide or self harm can be included but not in detail. Frequent strong language can be included, but stronger terms should relate to the context. Strong threat is acceptable in horrors as long as it isn’t sadistic or sexual. Nudity and sexual scenes are acceptable as long as they’re not shown in too much detail. They should not encourage discriminatory behaviour; and gore, strong violence and verbal abuse can be included as long as long as they are contextual.

An ‘18’ film cannot be brought or rented by anyone under the age of 18. The Human Rights Act 1998 means that as an adult you have the right to choose what you watch, although there are a few restrictions including the production of the film cannot have included any criminal acts or gone against any laws, or caused unnecessary harm to anyone. It cannot encourage audience to take part in criminal or immoral acts which would negatively impact or harm individuals or the society. Explicit sexual activity should relate to the context of the film.