25 Word Film Brief

A girl receives a text.  There's a man who has a book about the girl as seen as the stalker. She then leaves the house and does not return.
-Jenna

Attracting the Audience

When considering how we would attract an audience to watch our film, looking at other film openings helped. By looking at other film openings we could see what generic conventions were included to encode the genre for the audience.

Another helpful aspect of watching other film openings of a similar genre meant we could determine what sort of content should be included in the opening two minutes as we don't want to give away the entire narrative however we want there to be enough in the opening for the audience to want to see the rest of the film.

Using non-diegetic music in the opening also highlights to the audience the genre of the film which will attract the audience and make them want to continue watching because if the genre of the film opening is too ambiguous then the audience may not be able to follow what's happening and they may not want to sit through the rest of the film.

Using the uses and gratifications theory attracts an audience that will enjoy a thriller film, this means that they will be active in watching the film and want to predict the storyline however in order to do this we would need to include generic conventions that could be linked and encoded into signs for the audience to decode. This is used i lots of thriller film openings.


-Makenzie

Certification of Our Film

We rate our film a 15. We rate this as there could be some rick of potential harm to impressionable teens if they try stuff at some that may be included in the film. There is a possibility of strong  violence in our film. We will not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury however.

The following may be included in our film and therefore we feel it is suitable to make our film a 15 certification to ensure that the audience viewing out film is suitable: 

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

-Jenna

Title Timelines

From researching titles in the opening of films we have found some similarities.
All of the films start with an institutional logo and then go into the films. They tend to have an introduction for example 'DreamWorks pictures presents...' and then the main leading actors that star in the film. We then get the title of the film in a bold font so it stands out, after the title there are other actors that star in the film but that have more minor roles.
Typically the following titles go in this order:

• Visual Effects and Supervisor
• Associate Producer
• Unit Production Manager
• Casting
• Main Titles designed by
• Special Effects
• Stunt Coordinator(if needed)
• Second Unit Director
• Costume Designer
• Editors
• Director of Photography
• Production Designer
• Music By
• Executive Producer
• Written by
• Produced by
• Directed by

The Producer and Director always come at the end of the opening titles in any film opening if it is done in the typical way. Thrillers are the same as most film openings they will tend to have similar titles from the way they run. Despite this they may have different fonts that represent the genre more and the colour of the font may be different to represent the genre.
-Jenna

Research into audience figures of similar genres

This is what I found when researching films of a similar genre. I used two websites to look at six films to see how successful they were at the US Box Office and their budgets etc.

This will help us when creating our film as we can see what types of thrillers are popular and take aspects of this and use them in our film as these films are obviously of high quality.
-Makenzie

Target Audience

-Jenna

Mind Map/Mood Board of Romantic Genre

This Mind Map/ Mood Board helps us to recognise generic of conventions in Romance Film. When considering the genre of our Film Opening, we will need to know what generic conventions to include. 

-Makenzie

Audience Mood Board

This is a mood board of what we think our target audience would look like and what age/gender etc. they will be. By making this, it allows us to visualise who we are making this film for and help us to consider what content to include in the narrative, age of actors, appearance of actors etc.

-Makenzie

Mood Board of Romance / Drama Films

- Sophie 

Mood Board - Romance

We made a mood board of photos that will link in with the genre of our film. This is to give us some ideas we could use in film opening and different shots that work with certain scenes.

-jenna

Thriller Mood Board

This is a mood board on an alternative genre, thriller/drama, that we will consider when making our film

-Makenzie

Audience Questionnaire

This is our questionnaire, we are going to ask 10 people aged 15-25 both male and female as this is our target audience. The aim of this questionnaire is to get our audiences opinions on different issues that we need to think about when making a psychological thriller. The answers that we get from this questionnaire will also allow us to make an opening that attracts our target audience as we will have the information we need.


Age:  

Gender:

Name 3 cities you would want to watch a psychological thriller filmed in, (e.g. New York):

• 1: 
• 2:
• 3:

Name 3 locations you would want a psychological thriller to be set in an opening scene, (e.g.bedroom):

• 1:
• 2:
• 3:

What psychological thriller do you enjoy the most?

·         The Roommate

·         Se7en

·         The Shining

·         Black Swan

·         Paranormal Activity

·         The Purge

What certification rating would you give a psychological thriller? 

• 12
• 12a
• 15
• 18

Would you be interested in a film where a tragic accident occurs?

• yes
• no

Do you want the opening scene to be happy but you know something is going to go wrong?

• yes
• no

if yes; explain:




- sophie

Audience Answers

Female(Aged 17)

Name 3 cities you would want to watch a psychological thriller filmed in, (e.g. New York):

• London
• New York
• Paris

Name 3 locations you would want a psychological thriller to be set in an opening scene, (e.g.bedroom):

• An Office Block
• An Ordinary House
• A Shop

What psychological thriller do you enjoy the most?

• "I enjoy the black swan the most out of all them movies"

What certification rating would you give a psychological thriller? 

• "I would rate  a Physiological Thriller a 15 as I feel younger years may be more affected by this"

Would you be interested in a film where a tragic accident occurs?

• "I would be but only if it didn't effect the main characters as that would ruin the film for me"

Do you want the opening scene to be happy but you know something is going to go wrong?

• "Yes, to me I would like hints to be dropped about the film but for no major incidents to happen at the start"

Male(Aged 17)

Name 3 cities you would want to watch a psychological thriller filmed in, (e.g. New York):

• Dubai
• London
• New York

Name 3 locations you would want a psychological thriller to be set in an opening scene, (e.g.bedroom):

• Car Park
• Woods
• Office Building

What psychological thriller do you enjoy the most?

•  "I enjoy Paranormal Activity the most"

What certification rating would you give a psychological thriller? 

• "It depends on the content but I think overall a 15 is suitable"

Would you be interested in a film where a tragic accident occurs?

• "Yes, as long as it ends ok."

Do you want the opening scene to be happy but you know something is going to go wrong?

• "I don't really mind as long as it is good"

I asked the age range that I feel would enjoy Thrillers the most from my research. Overall the research I have gained from the questionnaire shows that the age range we are aiming our film enjoy thrillers that are set in different locations but mainly day to day locations people endure. Also it shows that certifying the film a 15 would be suitable. We do not have the ability to film our film in locations like New York but it gives us an idea as to what out audience are looking for in Physcological Thrillers.

Generic Conventions of Thriller

This helps us the understand the generic convention of Thriller. I have chosen to add images of Thriller films and TV programmes. I have also found out different generic conventions and expectations of Thriller in order to help us when we come to make our film opening.
- Jenna

Genre

We considered a few different genres when coming up with our film opening idea. We thought that we would be able to create an effective Romantic/Drama film opening because we enjoy watching these genres of films and we know that it would appeal to an audience but possibly not a mass audience. Although this type of film might appeal to teen girls or women, it may not appeal to men/boys as well so we decided to look into another Genre.

We have decided to create our film opening in the genre of a psychological thriller because we feel this would appeal to a wider audience. We also enjoy these types of films and feel that we could create a professional looking and effective opening for a psychological thriller film.

-Makenzie