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.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Monday, 8 February 2010
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 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: 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.
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.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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