Mise En Scene

BBFC

British board of film classification from Sam Benzie

INSIGHT Shotlist

INSIGHT Shooting schedule

Target Audience Research

'Insight' Storyboards

BBFC Classification

BBFC Classificaton from Sam Benzie

Script

Our Target Audience Pitch

In our pitch we discussed ideas for our Thriller/Suspense opening scene with our group. (See below post for ideas.)

The target audience for our film is males and females over 35, yet we have decided that for our unique selling point of the film we will decrease the amount of graphic violence which is typical of the thriller genre, and opt for a more teenager friendly film. Our film is going to be set in one of the actors houses', as her house has a low lighted cellar in which we can film the death of the girl.

The main question we were asked was on a camera angle, the one specified was a 360 degree spin when the scene goes to the girls bedroom. We were asked whether or not it would be better to use a series of close up shots to show the girls getting ready instead of the camera spinning around, as a group we still chose to do a 360 spin so the scene is more clear. (As explained by Jordan.)

The overall feedback was that Idea 2 would be the best to carry out, one of the reasons for this is that the first one was to similar to the film Seven, whereas Idea 2 was more original.

The changes we will make due to the feedback of the viewers will be to use a Dolly for the camera when doing the 360 degree turn in the girls room, this will make sure we achieve a steady shot.

TA Member profile

For our target demographic member, we have chosen a teacher which goes to our school Mr Simon Porter. He was brought up in working class family and he's very proud of that, but in the present would be considered of the professional class now because of his education (Degrees in English, Philosophy and also Business Management) and his job as an English teacher and deputy head. He is passionate about social justice, education, freedom , equality, the environment and is also obsessed with music and loves film.

He is also appropriate for our demographic because he is an over 35 male. I had to basically interview him over email because he's a busy man and wasn't always available when I was, so I asked him about the film genres he like, specific films, what music he likes, brands and what he does in his spare time. I'm using this profile to find the perfect demographic person likes and wants.

Music: Mr Porter has said that music is a category which has too many too name, but if push came to shove he would cut it down to Radiohead, RZA, Tricky, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, The XX, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Joni Mitchell, The Specials, The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers, Sly and The Family Stone, Prince (80-86) Curtis Mayfield, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones (60s 70s), Hendrix and Miles Davies.
This is a mixture of American and British bands/singers and they seem to be all associated with alternative rock and indie genre of music, and sometimes this type of music sets the mood for thrillers even though its not very upbeat music it can still be a convention associated with the thriller/suspense genre.

Films: Once again when it came to listing movies he found a bit difficult only mentioning a few and he came up with the following Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Michael Clayton, Aliens, Before Sunrise (and sequels), Collateral, Heat, Ronin, North by North West, The Birds, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Untouchables, Raging Bull, The Insider, Annie Hall and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
This is a mixture of movies from drama and suspense genre which means that Mr Porter helps people to understand our demographic and when asked why he prefers these genres he said it was because it keeps him on the edge of his seat and guessing what happens next.

Brands: He is against the whole notion of branding but mostly prefer Naomi Klein when it comes to brands, he also detests logos. However, he is a Coca Cola addict which can also classify as a brand because brands don't necessarily have to be clothing.

As we continued the interview we discovered that in his spare time he enjoys watching TV shows such as Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc.; he's not really into magazines. but in his spare time he enjoys being a dad, going to the cinema and going to gigs. When asked about his view on any cultural issues that may overlap with themes in a movie he said that he's really into films which deal with social/historical issues, and he liked films based on that for example JFK, The killing fields, The insider, Michael Clayton and Django unchained and due to this, we decided that the best place for the opening scene to be advertised will be on adverts after kids programs because he spends a lot of time watching them with his daughter and the worst place of use to advertise it will be in a magazine because he said he isn't really into magazines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Target Audience Interviews

Firstly we spoke Miss Greenwood as she is in our primary target audience of females over 35. She said she likes Thrillers such as Captain Phillips, which is coincidently her favourite film. She enjoys watching Thrillers because they're exciting, full of action and that they sometimes have twists in their storylines. After interviewing Miss Greenwood we have decided that our film must be full of suspense to keep the viewer interested.

 

Secondly we spoke to Mr Porter who is in our secondary target audience demographic of males over 35. He expressed how much he loves to watch Thrillers because of the suspense involved and how it's a form of escapism for a couple of hours. His favourite director is Alfred Hitchcock, who's films are known to be dramatic and thrilling. He tells us how much he likes North By Northwest and Michael Clayton which is a film that stars George Clooney. He describes how powerful the film is.

 

Lastly we spoke to Mr Johnson who was also in our secondary audience, he said how much he enjoys to watch James Bond, because of how the plot always varies and how you never know what the ending is going to be. He said that he likes Thrillers because they include a range of characters. We have learnt from this interview that if we did a full length film the ending should be a surprise and shock to the audience.

 

We think that Captain Phillips may have been so popular with the Miss Greenwood( over 35 female demographic) because it's an action thriller which most of the times ends up having a good ending which what she may have enjoyed about the movie so much; it also seems to be very exciting and full of action which is exactly what people should look forward to when watching a thriller.

 

Mr Porter also mentioned how Alfred Hitchcock is favourite director which isn't surprising because Hitchcock is one of the most iconic directors of all time and has also been part of some the biggest thrillers of all time i.e.  Vertigo(1958), Psycho(1960), North by Northwest(1959), etc. We also watched the opening of Vertigo which was filled with enigma and we pick some elements out of Hitchcock's films for our film opening.

Box Office

Student analysis- Inner Evil

Thriller/Suspense Generic Conventions

Film Opening Ideas

1^st film opening idea

A flash-forward of a death of a girl, who will be isolated and in a very dark room, covered in blood from a wound in the neck. The close up shot will zoom out from the room and the building the party is in really quickly (gives the impression someone is backtracking out the house) then fade out and fade back in to a girls bedroom.

The camera will do a 360 degree spin around the room to establish where the girls are, the shot will show four girls getting ready to go to a party one of them will be the girl that is shown to be dead in the flash-forward. The camera will then focus on Emily who looks anxious and upset by something (wide eyed).  There will then be a short bit of dialogue asking Emily what is wrong and that there’s no need to worry because the night is going to be one to remember. This is forbidding of what could go wrong.  The scene then blacks out as they are walking out the house.

2^nd film opening idea

2 detectives one is a rookie(less-experienced) the second one is about to retire and is solving his last mystery with the rookie. For the opening it opens up into a police station and both detectives are at their desks waiting for a specific call which leaves an element of enigma as to why the detectives are waiting for a call, then the scene switches and there’s a banner talking about deaths. 3 girl’s dead so far, all killed and a spiral with their blood left next to them, then the bodies are shown which gives an element of ellipsis then the scene cuts off there.

But we didn’t choose to do this opening because we have neither the resources, time nor money to carry this idea out.

Our Genre

In my Media Studies group I will be working with Oluwasekemi Olunloyo, Gabriella Whybrow and Ogungbo Tosin to create a two minute film opening. After discussing all our ideas we decided to choose thriller as our genre. We also watched series of AS media film openings and noticed that they did either horror or romantic comedies and decided to stay away from those genres.