Evaluation: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Above, you can see the film my group produced for the preliminary task.
As a result of progressing to filming our more in-depth main task, i have found that research and planning is very important before trying to just jump into any of the filming for instance and then ending up with unorganised filming.
After looking back at our preliminary task I also think that we were able to establish more flowing and consistent shots in our main task without any jumpy edits.
I also think we were successful in establishing a genre to our film more effectively in the main task by including a lot of devices which would attract our target audience.
Therefore, i think the research carried out beforehand on the type of film we were planning on constructing, the actual filming skills; the different angles used for different effects and using a dolly for instance, also the editing in particular has improved and the sound track choices; used throughout the film to gain larger effects in our main task film. We also learnt to take particular care in location choices as they can influence the film and what impression it gives to the audience, as well as having obstacles to look out for such as reflective door panels or windows; which we took into great consideration this time.
Our team work for the main task was very effective too, for instance we all out ideas in for the film plot itself and used some of every body's ideas in order to make the best film possible, we helped with who brought different props in to use and ensured we had everything we wanted and how we wanted it before filming. My main idea for the film was having the opening scene of newspapers and a serial killer focus and for the props; i made the book of the dead girls; with help of creating the oozing blood effect on the girls before taking the girls photos. Our roles developed from the preliminary task in the filming process as we all shared more of the filming and each did scenes where we took it in turn to direct or film etc. I felt this worked really well within our group. We also made editing decisions, including the soundtracks, together.

Evaluation: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the construction of our film I feel there is a lot I have learnt about technologies which can be of great help in this area of media.
For instance, being able to use digital storyboarding instead of drawing it all out proves a lot quicker and is also far easier to change anything afterwards if needed.
Using the storyboarding software helped us in the way that we went and took pictures of what each shot would look like in our film instead of using the locations included on the software already for instance.

I now know that having access to the right types of software is essential in order to make a successful product. For example the DV cameras we used and the apple macs were very important in ways such as being able to see what footage we were actually filming at the time and then being able to put it onto the macs and use the various software applications in order to improve our film, by editing for instance. As i had never used a mac previously, i learnt a lot about what they were capable of doing to improve the film quality and how to use them in general.
By using soundtrack pro and being able to have the film next to the sound tracks we chose was extremely useful in being able to match up the sound to the desired points in the film, creating the successful effects and a flowing film sequence; otherwise the film would seem unprofessional. This also meant that we were able to experiment with different sounds and see which one we felt best fit with the happenings in our film. We were also able to make use of the editing software in final cut by using different aspects such as freeze frames and transitions to name but a few. Whilst doing editing in final cut I learnt how to create a freeze frame from our film footage and so not only were we able to create the effective opening scene of the newspaper articles, but this enabled us to create the shot to make it look as if a picture had been taken by a camera and so we made it so that it just came up as a flash and then we faded it back into the film footage.
Throughout this process I also learnt that you must ensure you keep the pace of the dolly steady whilst filming otherwise you will get a jumpy film.

Another very useful aspect before producing our film was being able to use the scripting software to create the script and then give this to the actors beforehand so that they felt prepared and knew what to expect before they filmed as well. Using this script software also meant that we were able to match up shots with actors and scenes; making it more organised and changeable if needed. This is the example of our script:

Alongside the script, i felt that the animatic was very helpful in the way that we had an idea of camera angles and shots to film beforehand. After creating our animatic, we were able to see a visual, rough outline of what our film would look like, how it would all fit together and how we would fit the sound in with the action as well. This also gave us an approximate running time for our film.



Using blogger we found was very helpful in the way that we could keep a chronolgical track record of exactly what we did as we went along. It also enabled us to upload videos for the examples of conventions used in our film and real films for instance. I have also been able to include images from points in our film and other films to support our ideas; such as including pictures of costume examples.

YouTube was also of high importance throughout the whole process of creating our film. This is as it enabled us to find inspirations from different films for the opening scenes, titles, soundtracks, effects used, and examples of these conventions used in other films.

Evaluation: How did you attract/address your audience?

After establishing who we wanted our target audience to be, we could ensure we incorporated several ways in order to attract our target audience, for instance;
- The titles written in a 'bloody' font would immediately attract people interested in thriller films in general.
- Having the opening shot of the newspapers with articles of the killings may also attract people who have an interest in keeping up to date with news and who want to learn more about the situations which occur in our world today.
- During the editing stages we also ensured the sound track choices were appropriate to our film; therefore suspenseful and also that they fit in time with the happenings in our film. For example, we ensured there was an intense build up in the music up to the knife and then seeing the picture being put into the book; which gives the audience the tense feeling as if they were witnessing the situation for real and so builds it all up inside for them by hearing the beat of the music and pace quicken.
- The lighting used in our film; dark and mysterious, adds to the effect the audience gains from watching our film because it makes it seem more exciting of the unknown and so engages the audience to continue watching our film. Everything in real life always appears more frightening too and so the audience can relate to this feeling by watching our film and will therefore have a more dramatic effect on them.
- The actors and how they appear to the audience are also effective in communicating the differences and relating to the audience because they look like two everyday females who you could easily pass in the street and so has a larger effect that the young girl is just an innocent victim; enhanced by white clothing, for example.
- I also think the mise-en-scene used would attract our desired audience as they would be intrigued by the mysteriousness and by the helplessness of the tied up victim. The mise-en-scene such as the candles also has a dramatic effect as it provides the dark lighting however they can also be used as in a positive way and so leaves the audience in suspense again as to what the happenings to come might be. Use of the knife is very important in attracting our audience too because it is highly appropriate for our film and its genre; which is what our audience are interested in and so would immediately gain there attention.

Evaluation: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The typical audience for our media product 'The Bloody Copycat' would be teenagers-late 40 year olds interested in crime, thrillers and drama. I think it would be a predominantly male audience as i have looked at a few crime thriller films on the Internet and the comments have been largely from males enjoying the clips. However, our film may also attract a female audience as well due to the fact that it is based around female characters. I can also gather that our audience would mainly be males by the fact that i carried out a survey on some friends and family and from the fifteen females i asked only two of them said that they might choose a crime thriller to go and watch at the cinema, whereas the other females informed me they would prefer to pay to watch a comedy/ rom-com or chick-flick. The fifteen males who i asked all agreed that they would pay to go to the cinema to see a crime thriller quite willingly and so this shows the majority target audience for our film would be males. Out of the fifteen females and fifteen males of whom i asked whether they would choose to go and pay to see a crime thriller at the cinema, the age ranged from 10 - 48; supporting the target age range we have chosen for our film which we have decided upon a 15 age certificate.

Evaluation: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution which comes to mind when thinking about who might be able to distribute our film effectively is Working Title Films; as you can see from the logo i have included above. I personally think this seems to be a good choice of distributor because Working Title Films is a highly British company who are becoming more and more well known as they continue to add countless names of films of which they have helped in the distribution process. The fact that Working Title Films is a highly British company also suits our film because we have set it in Britain and have used British actors within it. Alongside this, we know that Working Title Films have previously distributed crime thrillers like our film 'The Bloody Copycat' and so they would be familiar and confident with how to successfully distribute a film like ours. A few of the crime thrillers i have found Working Title Films have previously distributed are; Thirteen, Gone, Elizabeth, Chicago Joe and the Showgirl and Middle of Nowhere Wraps. Possible ways for this distribution may be to have trailers of our film on their website, include photos from within the film, and advertise it through adverts on different sites which can link back to the original site with a lot more information about our film on. Spreading it over the Internet is a highly effective way to communicate to your audience as it is so widely used all over the world and then people talk and it becomes word of mouth which can influence a lot of people's decisions about a film. Working Title Films also includes competitions for different films to attract a larger audience. They include and give details of films which are currently being produced as well and so they can interest the audience before the film is even released. There are also different features available for download on their website such as screen savers, wallpapers, comics and games to entice the audience into the film; which will then be spoken about to friends no doubt and they will want to go and see the film if they have already had different teasers before the actual film.

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

One typical social group represented in our film is;
- the young, innocent, naive school girls who are so easily caught in traps by strangers and possibly murderers, every year. They are represented in our film through the use of white clothing to create an even purer, innocent victim appearance. It also shows how easily they can be controlled and find themselves in those sorts of situations and then find themselves completely helpless even though they each think it will never happen to them.
- The other social group represented in our film is the stranger; female murderer, which shows that it can be anyone unexpected; not only males. I think it puts a message across that there are people in the world who you have to be careful about and cannot always predict who they may be and so you need to protect yourself as much as possible from those situations. It shows that there is unfortunately a group of people who are female murderers and we have tried to portray this powerful, murderous and dangerous side by having the female murderer wearing a red jacket which carries those associations with the colour. We have also got the opening scene to introduce our crime thriller as a selection of newspaper cuttings which our female murderer admires and aspires to; showing how murderers minds can work and how they have dramatic influences.

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As you can see from the above comparison grids, our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products in the way that;
- Our film uses red titles in order to introduce our 'bloody' theme for the plot and so gives an insight that the audience is about to see a thriller film, instead of a frilly, girly chick flick for instance. It is also a very dramatic introduction and so will grab the audience's attention. I think the title is intriguing in itself because it leaves the reader in suspense as to what the 'copy cat' is and why it has been given the name; 'the bloody copy cat.' The font in which our title is done in goes along with our theme very effectively as they are in red and also look very blood like; as if they have got blood dripping off them, which is highly appropriate for the happenings in our film. Examples to support our use of titles for a thriller film can be found in Sorority Row and Drag me to Hell. This is as in Sorority Row; red is used to underline the titles and in Drag me to Hell the titles have got an effect on them which give the effect of blood being almost 'dragged' out of the letters. Both of these are incorporated into our film titles in slightly different ways, ensuring our titles are highly appropriate for a thriller film and that they give the desired suspenseful introduction. A very close example of the titles to our film are from 'Blood Simple,' which are in bold red and look as if some of the corners of the letters have blood dripping off them.

- A further convention we have incorporated is the claustrophobic setting, which was one of the ideas suggested to us through our evaluation. Our peers suggested we could use close-up shots to intensify the claustrophobic setting in our film.
Enhancing the feeling of a claustrophobic setting means that it highlights the fact that it is a likely to be a highly dangerous situation to be in.The extreme close up shot of the young hostage girl in our film also emphasises that she is distressed and unknowing; supported by the fact that she is tied up and blindfolded. There is an example of a claustrophobic setting in the film 'Curiosity.' This example shows a man walking through a tight, narrow, corridor, enclosed by a door at the end; this enhances the feeling of no escaping whatever happenings are to come; likewise with our film as the young girl is completely helpless.

- Another convention which follows on from our setting is the location; being a dark room and there is also an example of this in the film 'Curiosity.' Having a purposeful lack of light ensures the feeling of dark, gloominess associated with something bad to come; very gothically. Darkness also represents the unknown as you cannot see everything in the dark and so it relates to the saying 'being kept in the dark;' meaning you do not know everything and this is true for our film too, because the young girl is completely innocent to the upcoming events in our film.

- Usually, you would expect to find the murderer as a male character, dominantly, however, in our film we have challenged this typical convention by using a female actress to play the part of a murderer. An example from a film which supports that the murderer is often a male in thrillers is in 'Blood Simple.' In Blood Simple, a rich but jealous man hires a private investigator to kill his cheating wife and her new man; it is always the man shown digging the grave and holding the gun for instance. However, for our film we wanted to challenge this to put a twist on the plot; making it more interesting; like in the film 'Monster' (2003) where a female character turned out to be a serial killer.

- The significance of the red and white clothing we chose, being; red for the murderer and white for the victim is that white is essentially associated with being pure and innocent, very much like a victim. On the other hand, red symbolises blood, murderous and danger etc. There is an example of a victim in white in the film 'Se7en' where a female is lay on a white bed in white clothing; as innocent as you will find.

- Similarly, the film Curiosity also uses a knife as part of its plot, as like our film. I think a knife is a good choice for a thriller film because it could just very well be an ordinary kitchen knife which would be harmlessly used for food, however, can also come in very useful for use as a murderous weapon. We have also used a 'scrap book' of dead bodies in our film and so to emphasise this, i splattered red paint all over the white pages as if to show the blood from the bodies after being murdered with the knife. This has similarities to 'Curiosity' where a man in a white top is carrying an axe and the top is splattered with red 'blood.' Having the blood splattered on top of white shows that it was once pure but is now associated with danger, solely due to having the blood on it.

- Many films incorporate an ident at the start of their film and so we decided to take this typical convention and put one into our film to make it seem more professional. One of countless examples of where this is used is in 'Drag Me To Hell.'

- What makes films different to each other, except from the plot for instance, is what effects they use. For example, a chick flick wouldn't be likely to use a flash of colour and then fade back into the picture so that they don't have to show a brutal murder. Whereas in our thriller film and in Blood Simple, we have both used a build up to a flash of colour over the whole screen and then faded back to the happenings in the film. In our film, we used a white flash because we wanted a camera flash effect for the picture she continues to stick into the book of the dead body and in Blood Simple they use a red flash after holding a gun up, indicating a death.

- The introduction of our film, i personally think introduces it fairly well; as the audience is able to read some main headlines about the plot, giving them a very slight insight, and also the fact that we use a soundtrack at the same time, which puts a constant 'creepy feeling' thought at the back of the audiences mind throughout the piece. I also feel it builds up anxiety as to who the paper cuttings are about and where it is located because it doesn't immediately give anything away. Many films use great sound editing and one example of this where i found a very dramatic effect was in Sleepy Hollow, which is similar to what our film uses towards the end when the murderer sticks the picture in the book; a build up of tension into a sudden loud noise, causing the audience to jump a little.

In this clip of Sleepy Hollow one can hear the use of soundtracks in order to build up suspense in the film for example. It also incorporates the many other devices such as; idents at the beginning of the film, effective transitions between shots, purposeful lighting, white, innocent clothing on the female; and these are all aspects we have used within our film in order to enhance the thriller effect.

Construction.

This is the final construction of our film after re-editing and trying to incorporate the suggestions from our audience feedback of which we received.

rough cut of our film

Once we were happy with our film we showed the rough cut to our media class to receive audience feedback and the following are the ideas they suggested to us;
- Make use of close-up shots; in order to highly establish the claustrophobic feeling.
- Leave the audience curious of who the other person in the room is, however, drop a hint that it is a female character, unexpectedly, by her wearing high heels and then later on she is also seen wearing rings before we see her face and so it adds to the mysteriousness of the thriller.
- A suggestion was made for the font of the titles to be more in line with our theme by not only being red in colour but being in a 'bloody' font as well, which portrays the story better.
- Ensure the atmosphere sound could not be heard coming in and out.
- Try to make the fade of the first soundtrack in and out softer, as it was a little loud, however; they informed us that they thought it was a good choice of soundtrack to use for our film.
- Try to get rid of the part where the female murderer looks away on our film to make it more flowing, believable and professional.
- Have an instant flash of colour covering the whole screen, possibly accompanied by a stabbing sound, and then fade back into the film where she puts the photo in the book.

Research and planning: Finished Animatic

Our animatic was made so that we could see how our film would look when it was put together roughly and also so that we had an idea of the length of time it would take up.We also plan to include the suspenseful soundtrack on our real film to enhance the thriller genre.

Research and planning: storyboard

This is the first part of the establishing tracking shot that we will use to introduce the setting and atmosphere of the film. It will 'scan' across the wall slowly showing the different newspaper cuttings with the 'The Bloody Copy Cat' headlines. This shot is showing the second part of the tracking shot needed to establish the context of the murders that have been going on and so the newspaper cuttings shown will portray this message to the audience.

Below is the close-up shot we want to take of the innocent, young, female victim with her hands tied up to provoke the audience as to who is tied up, why they are tied up, where they are and what they are there for. This shot introduces the characters and the situation.

This will be a fairly close-up shot focusing on the woman's feet to introduce the murderer into the scene so that the audience now knows there is someone else with the girl and so this will cause them to build the suspense up as to what is happening and what is going to happen to them.

Showing this long shot of the unknown person walking around the table will keep the audience in suspense also as to the purpose of walking around the table and they will be linking the ideas from the newspapers to the situation hopefully too.

This will be a long shot of the unknown murderer standing behind the table with the chair just in shot to remind the audience of the innocent young female victim who is still waiting and the unknown aspects of this adds to the mysteries of crime-thriller conventions.

A close-up shot of the unknown; female murderers' hand on this mysterious looking book will further provoke the audience as to what could be in the book and so what will happen next and who is actually there.

A close-up shot of the woman flicking through the pages which will have pictures of young, dead, innocent female victims which have been previously murdered will help to suggest what the forth-coming events may be to the audience. By relating the book and tied up girl to the newspaper cuttings this will imply that the girl may be in serious danger of being murdered and so this is building up tension.

This close-up shot of the woman with her hands on the edges of the book is showing she is stood looking over the book, which is on the table behind the tied up girl, and will have the name of the girl who is tied up 'Imogene.' This will further imply that there is a page waiting to have a picture of a murdered girl on and with the girl tied up in the same room, it is suggesting she is the next victim of this unknown murderer.

This long shot will be building up suspense by the audience not knowing what is going to happen when the unknown murderer gets to the other side by the innocent victim.

Again the unknown murderer is getting closer to the victim, in this mid-shot, building suspense.

This close-up shot is bringing the unknown murderer and innocent victim together building tension, suspense and apprehension in the readers mind as to what is about to happen.

In this close-up shot we see the unknown murderer removing the blindfold from the victim.

We then see the murderer revealed from the victim's perspective; a point of view shot. There will then be a dramatic flash between the next shot; implying the use of a camera to take a photograph of the victim.

This last close-up shot will show a blood stained knife being put down onto the table next to the book and the murderer will be shown to be putting the picture of the innocent victim who has just been murdered into her book. The page will then be turned over to show another name of the next unfortunate victim.

This is the storyboard we put together after taking pictures of each shot we would need to film.

Research and planning: Script

This will be given to the actors before filming so that they do not need to read off a script on the day as they will already know what they need to do.

Research and planning: shooting schedule

This has been created so that we we are organised and know what we are doing on each day and at which time.

Research and planning: set design

This will be the set required for shooting our film;

Research and planning: prop list

Here you can see the props we have decided on using in our film.

Research and planning: film location.

Here you can see the final location we chose to use; set up to how we want to film. We have moved the table horizontally so that it is now beneath a single strip light; giving the mysterious effect and we are able to take the pictures off the back wall to use for our opening, tracking shot of the plain wall covered with newspaper cuttings. We have then just kept a single chair for the victim; making it look more realistic that it is intended for that purpose only.

Below, you will see an image of what our chosen location for our film looked like before we changed the room around to suit our own desired location. We wanted to move the table horizontal so that it was underneath a strip light in order to be able to gain the mysterious lighting required. We have also made the decision to shut the blinds you can see behind the table, to help create this effect.

Below is a picture of one of the locations we considered for our film. We chose not to use this location in the end because it did not seem suitable with the large, bright picture in the background. We originally thought of this location because we thought we would be able to get the correct lighting and it has fairly large tables to use, however we soon found that we wanted chairs that we would be able to have facing away from the table and so this location was immediately eliminated.

This, below, is another picture of one of the locations we originally looked at, however, we found that the room was not suited because it had quite a few things which were permanently on the walls and so would not have fit the setting of our film. We were also looking for a larger table with better lighting in the room; preferably a single light over the table to get the desired mysterious thriller effect.

Research and planning: casting actors and costume design.

Due to the fact that we were challenging the typical male murderer convention in crime-thrillers, we had to find two suitable female actors to be in our film.
In order to gain our actors, we have decided on using the opportunity technique for our innocent, young, female victim. This means asking our drama teacher if they would like to give one of their young, female students a chance to act in our film. We discussed with the drama teacher the fact that she would need to actually look young and fairly innocent as well; so that we could choose the student in order to make the part more realistic to our film. Fortunately, our drama teacher is very willing to give the students these opportunities, and so they have no problem with allowing one of their young, female students to do this; as it will provide the student with a new and beneficial acting experience. Our second actor needed is an older female to play the part of the murderer. We decided to ask one of the members of Sixth form from our media class; Sarah Wadsworth, if she would play this role for us and thankfully she agreed to do so.

Costume research:
We then had to decide on suitable costumes for our actors:
- through research we found that typically, the costume worn reveals a lot about the character's personality. Dominantly, the colour of the costume worn by the actor is highly significant; drawing parallels with their personality.Villains will usually appear in dark clothing, with young and innocent children often being dressed in white or pastel colours to represent their purity and innocence. Bold colours can also be used effectively to draw the audience's attention to a particular character; such as in our film, the red clothing worn by the female murderer; representing her power and dominance.
- we chose a red jacket for the murderer to wear in order to portray the dangerous, lethal, side of her which is also a colour associated immediately with blood.
- to make the contrast at its greatest we decided that the victim would wear a white shirt so that she was a young, innocent school girl; with the connotation of white displaying this purity.
- Similarly to our film, a well-known film which includes this convention is Saw; where Amanda in this film is seen to be wearing red.



- This final picture above taken from the film Saw III also supports how they have used this convention very similarly to our film as you can see; with the murderer in red clothing, stood over the victim who is dressed in white. Therefore, also showing the power of red associated with murderers and white for the innocence of victims.

Research and planning: Our treatment.

Within our group, we all put our ideas together and came up with our opening scene; which is shown above. We then pitched our idea to the class so that we were able to gain feedback before making the final decision to use that opening sequence. What we gained from doing this pitch was suggestions of using a lot of close-ups to enhance the claustrophobic effect that we wanted to aim to get across to the audience. They also liked our idea of challenging the convention by using the female for the murderer, and so our feedback was on the whole, all positive and it seemed to be clear to the class as to what our film was about and they understood our plot.

Research and planning: potential target audience.

Due to our film having a female as the murderer, challenging typical crime thriller conventions, our film would appeal to both the predominantly male audience and a female audience. I think our film would be aimed more towards the younger generation of ages 15-25. I think our film would attract an audience of people who enjoy watching films that keep you in suspense and have a lot of mysteries to solve; as it is a crime-thriller. After doing some research on crime-thrillers, I found that the main target audiences were young males, due to all of the violence and action within this type of film and they are the ones from which I found comments on the reviews of crime thriller films.
I do not think our film would suit an audience of;
- people who do not like the idea of any violence.
- elderly people
- younger children; below 15years of age.
- people who have had any personal experiences with this sort of incident/behaviour before.
- people who have claustrophobia; as our film shows someone tied up.
- people who have epilepsy; as we include flashes for the implication of a camera.

Film certifications:

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rates motion pictures, videos and more and more video games. It is the County authorities who are overall responsible for film ratings for cinema showings in their area however, most of the time the BBFC rating is accepted. Although, films can technically bypass the BBFC rating as they actually have no official legal power. Films do not even have to be submitted for classification. Rating certificates from the BBFC are not legally binding whereas those for videos are.
The BBFC system at present is:
Uc (Universal Children): Suitable for all age ranges, but especially suitable for very young children to watch on their own. This is applicable to video and DVD only.
U (Universal): Suitable for all. The board states that even though they are unable to predict individual differences on what can upset people, it should be suited for all audiences aged 4 and older.They should also be set within a positive moral framework.
PG (Parental Guidance): This is considered for general viewing although some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. It is the board's policy that films rated 'PG' should not be disturbing to a child of approximately 8 years of age or older; however, parents are advised to consider individual differences of their child and so whether content may be upsetting to young or more sensitive children.
12A (12 Accompanied/Advisory): Suitable for 12 years and older. If you are younger than 12 you are unable to see a '12A' film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult.
Rated 12: These are classed as suitable for people 12 years and older. No one younger than 12 is able to rent or buy a '12' rated video.
Rated 15: only suitable for 15 years old or older. You cannot see a '15' film in a cinema if you are not 15years old. Neither can you rent or buy a '15' rated video.

A film rated 18 is only suited for adults. Anyone younger than 18 cannot see an '18' film in a cinema, nor can they rent or buy an '18' rated video.

An R18 film (Restricted 18): These films are to be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or provided only in licensed sex shops, and to adults over 18 years of age. This is due to these films containing sexually explicit, pornographic content.

It is possible for films to receive a different rating when released on DVD/video to that at the cinema.

It is also fairly common for certain films to be refused classification, resulting in banning them from sale or exhibition in the UK. Media which becomes banned receives an 'R' certificate (Rejected).

Research and planning: Directors of thriller films

One of the top ranked crime thriller directors of all time is Martin Scorsese; who has had many highly successful crime thrillers; the statistics of merely his crime thrillers are:

in 1950s he had - 1
1960s - 1
1970s - 8
1980s - 5
1990s - 8
2000s - 8.

Some of these films are;

1970s
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
New York, New York and The Last Waltz
1980s
Raging Bull
The King of Comedy
After Hours
The Color of Money
The Last Temptation of Christ
1990s
Goodfellas
Cape Fear
The Age of Innocence
Casino
Kundun
Bringing Out the Dead
2000s
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
No Direction Home
The Departed
Shine a Light
2010s
Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese;
Date of birth: November 17, 1942.
He is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Martin Scorsese is also president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the decaying of motion picture film stock.

Research and planning; into crime thrillers

After deciding within our group that we would create a crime thriller, I decided to do some extra research specific to this genre of film.
To further my knowledge on this film genre, I chose to watch a few more films, for example; Final Destination, Sweeney Todd, The Fast and the Furious, Miami Vice and Seven because these are crime thrillers and so would help me to pick out some of the conventions commonly used.
I was able to notice that all of the crime thriller films I had watched all followed similar conventions in the opening scenes;
Dull, gloomy, often rainy settings.
Rebelling gangs; with guns and drugs for instance.
Good guys Vs Bad guys.
Few or no women present in the first opening minutes.
Twists in the story lines.
Spooky music to being with the titles commonly on a black background; non-diagetic music.
A character of importance, in authoritative clothing. Close ups are used of their hand, or an object of importance for the storyline as well.

This convention of having an object of importance inspired our idea to have a focus point in our film too.
This was later decided to be a book; containing previously murdered, innocent girls. Also, having a figure of authority appealed to us as a convention; however we chose this as our convention that we wished to challenge. Instead of having a male figure of authority, we decided that we would include a female for our film.


This clip of final destination shows some of these conventions used, such as; red titles, dark, gloomy lighting and the main focus in the opening was also males.


This trailer from Sweeney Todd shows the typical innocent, female victims in white in a dark, mysterious setting as well as repeatedly showing an object of importance in a close-up shot; the barber razor blade of which he uses to commit the murders.
A few statistics from Sweeney Todd are;
- Domestic Total Gross: $52,898,073
- Distributor: Paramount (DreamWorks)
- Genre: Musical
- MPAA Rating: R
- Release Date: December 21, 2007
- Runtime: 1 hrs. 56 min.
- Production Budget: $50 million
- Opening Weekend: $9,300,805
(#5 rank, 1,249 theaters, $7,446 average)
% of Total Gross: 17.6%
- Widest Release: 1,507 theaters
- Close Date: March 20, 2008
- In Release: 91 days / 13 weeks

Research and planning: Our chosen genre

Our group have chosen to do a thriller for our chosen film genre. We decided upon thrillers because we established that we had all had experience of watching thriller films and so we already had an idea of what they involved. Examples of thrillers that i have watched are; Snakes on a plane which is a crime/psychological thriller, Casino Royale; an action thriller, Hotel Rwanda and Jaws; to name but a few. I have done some extra research however, to find out exactly what is meant by the term thriller. I have found out that the term thriller means a general genre of literature, film and television that consists of several, often over-lapping sub-genres. These sub-genres are;

• action thriller



• conspiracy thriller



• crime thriller



• disaster thriller



• drama thriller



• erotic thriller



• legal thriller



• medical thriller



• political thriller



• psychological thriller



• spy thriller



• techno-thriller



• religious thriller

These can also overlap into other genres and are mainly used in combinations of the above, using horror, conspiracy and psychological tricks to further the immense tension required. Tension and suspense is also enhanced by the use of red-herrings and cliff-hangers. A successful thriller must incorporate significant mysteries to build the suspense, making it highly compelling for the viewer and to get them thinking from the actions seen to possible resolutions.

Common characteristics associated with thrillers are; fast pace, frequent action, and inventive heroes who must stop the plans of the more powerful, better-equipped villains. These are typically associated with crime thrillers which our group is leaning towards choosing for our specific film genre. Within a thriller, there is also commonly a romantic storyline within it where the heroine ends up with the good-guy hero who gets away without a scratch. I noticed these typical thriller conventions were apparent in the above thrillers i mentioned.

After researching these different types of thrillers, myself, Lucy Cluley and Saskia halford, who i am in a group with have made the decision to create a crime thriller. We chose our group by the people we felt we could work best with.

Welcome

Throughout this blog you will find evidence from the journey throughout the creation of our film from beginning to end and all of the research needed along the way.