Preliminary Task

Visitors film opening

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

Our film opening "visitpors" was inspired from several psychological thriller films, prior to filming our opening we looked at a few examples to gain knowledge as to how suspense can be created.

During our planning myself and James Looked at the opening for seven, we attempted to copy the style of credits create suspense and enigma as to what is going to happen next.

The style of the text from seven was used in our opening 'visitors' to encage the audiunce and to try and create a feeling of mystery.

Our film opening visitors took inspiration from the Donnie Darko bathroom scene- in which donnie is talking to a large rabbit but seems confused at what he see's similarly thus co insides with our end scene of amber using Non verbal communication to convey a look of confusion expressed using facial expression.

 Donnie Darko

The penultimate inspirtation for visitors was taken from the pyscological thriller 'stragers' in which banging noises can be heard from within the house in which the film is set, similarly we used this idea and combined it with non digetic sound to create an enigma.     



The masked Charecter from the stragers was  used to help the audince question the enigma of the film.

Similarly we copied the style of the masked charecter from the 'The strangers' as it helped convey mystery as to why he is following the female charecter in 'visitors' and makes the audiunce question if he is physically real, or if he only can be seen be the female charecter as a dillusion.

 The scene in strangers in which loud non digetic sound can be heard before the appearce of the masked charecter.

The scene in visitors after the loud banging can be heard, the female charecter walks toward the source of the noise, followed by the introduction of the masked charecter.

2-Evaluation questions-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

Our media product represents a number of particular social groups, particularly representing females as our main character for the film. It also represents youth in general, the use of just two characters one male and one female identifies both sides of gender alongside representing general stereotypes. The male character (although has no dialogue) seems strictly dominant in our film and is obviously more in control of the scene (however being a possible hallucination), whereas, the female character is portrayed quite stereotypically vulnerable in our film – this further represents females. The fact that our character is meant to be aged between 15-17, outlines the realism of paranoia/anxiety that is not typically seen in society (especially not for a teenage girl).

3-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the psychological content of our film opening, vertigo would best suit the distributor of our media text.

A similar film distributed by vertigo is Outcast, the film synopsis is similar to our story line in “visited”,  When Mary (Kate Dickie) and her teenage son, Fergal (Niall Bruton), move to yet another new home, it soon becomes clear they are hiding from someone or something, terrified of being found, Our film “visited” has a similar story line in which a young character if suffering from delusions and is confused between thought and reality, although the audience is unaware of this until later on in the film.

 

           

Warp films would be unsuitable for distributing our film as the psychological thriller genre is not a typical genre they would produce, warp films instead produce’s more British style films. We selected vertigo as it has released a greater number of thriller films in comparison to other independent film companies.

4-Evaluation questions-Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

Our target audience for our media product is targeted towards youth in general, but particularly teen females – this is who we’d expect to watch our film as our main character is a female protagonist, and is dominant in screen time. However our film could possibly also appeal to horror/thriller fans as the construction of the film has been represented as a very dark sense for the film constructed by using dark sound, low key lighting and the use of James (male character) – all contribute towards the psychological horror/thriller essence represented in film. We gained this idea from previous films we’ve studied for example the strangers; we got the idea of James and the mask from this movie, as we thought this would fit into our psychological thriller as was certified 15, and was basically designed for a teenage audience, which was our target audience. Our use of a female protagonist was also based on silence of the lambs in which a strong female character was represented, however we thought we’d twist it to have quite a vulnerable character.

5-How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to attract our target audience, which is predominately teenagers, by typically using two teen characters in cast, in the film the main female character is supposed to be the age of a teenager, therefore by using amber as our main character it should help more towards engaging our target audience and helps the audience identify and compare with the character on screen. As our audience is mainly teenagers, the film is more relatable to the viewer. Also with the use of James as a mysterious hooded character represented as a possible hallucinations is further use of addressing our audience;  our film is set to outline characteristics such as hallucination, paranoia and anxiety, quite uncommonly represented in the media. Therefore by including scenes like ambers non- verbal communication in response to the mysterious figure is a technique we tried/ used which we thought was key in helping to attract an audience.

6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

 Constructing our film, much was learnt through the use of technologies in our product. Specifically the main technology’s we had to come to terms with is our digital camera and the use of adobe premiere during the editing of our final piece. The camera was a bit difficult particularly to operate steadily during filming, however this was made easier throughout filming as we were helped by the use of a tripod; our main fault in the product itself I think was our framing in the camera, this was difficult to achieve during handheld shots and we feared that it could affect how professional the scenes seemed; however taking several takes of the scene helped us obtain, in my opinion a fluently filmed final product.

 The use of Adobe premiere was also a technology which I’ve become more accustomed  to during the editing stage of our final product; this was the second time I’ve used this editing programme, however, after my preliminary I still felt a bit hesitant to use it, as I thought It was quite complex and extensive. But during the editing of our final piece, the programme started to ease the more we used it.  Tools like cutting scenes became easier, and our final product became generally quite fluent, especially with the aid of our diegetic sound and use of credit titles.

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

In relation to my preliminary task, i have learnt new skills in editing, such as creating title credits that fade, similar to the opening credits from seven.
The most valuable thing i have learnt looking back at my preliminary task was that when filming it is essential to film as many shots as possible, this is because during the process of editing last minute changes can occur, sometimes for the fact that the shot that was to be used is either bad quality or cannot  be smoothly edited in to fit the existing story board.

Opening credits (Draft)

The video below is a rough draft of our opening credits sequence, The final opening credits will run more smoothly.
I plan to use this basic idea, But change the background colour to black and change the letters to a silver colour in order to contrast against the black background.

Opening title Credits

New line cinema- distributor/production Company 

Arnold Kopelson- producer

David Fincher – director

Main Cast: brad pit, Morgan freeman

Film name: Se7en

Cast: Richard Rowntree, Gwyneth Paltrow, R. Lee Ermey, John C. McGirley, Julie Araskog, Mark Boone Junior, John Cassini, Reginald E Calhey, Peter Crombie, Hawthorne, Michael Massee, Lelond Orser, Richard Partnow, Richard Schiff, Pamela Tyson.

Casting by: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerri  Borden

Music by: Howard shore

Costumes designed by: Michael Kaplan

Edited by: Richard Francis-Bruce

Production designed by: Arthur Max

Director of photography: Darius Khondji

Co- Producers : Stephen Brown, Nana Greenwold, Sanford panitch.

Co- executive producers:  Lynn Harris, Richard saperstain.

Executive producers: Gianna Nunnari, Dan colsrud, Anne Kopelson,

Written by: Andrew Kevin walker

Produced by: Arnold Kopelson, Phyllis Carlyle

Directed by: David Fincher

Film Classification

Due to the genre of our film ‘third eye’ it will be classified under certificate 15. Third eye has been certified as 15 from the BBFC (British board of film classification), as there are mild elements of horror, some use of strong language, and elements of imitable behaviour included in our film.

 

 

 

The 1999 Psycological thriller 'The sixth sense' was similarly certified as a certificate 15, due to the nature of the content of the film, which included a boy suffering from disorted reality, where he can see ghosts. Throughout the film there are elements of psycological thriller, Bad language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting, Although Bad language in our film 'third eye' is kept to a minimal we have decided to certify it as a 15 due to the psycological elements, and the abnormal behaviour portrayed by the main actor throughout.

Film distribution- Visitors

Myself and James have chosen Vertigo films for our distributing company as they are a British independent film company meaning they distribute quite a varied selection of films from psychological thrillers such as shrooms to more child friendly films such as horrid henry.  We believe that Vertigo films are more likely to accept the distribution of our film, as it is a British company and also due to the fact it is an independent film company makes it more likely for them to distribute our film rather than use a major distributor such as working title or warner bros.  We have picked vertigo films specifically over other British independent distributors for example warp films, as Vertigo seems to distribute more varied genres such as thriller/horror genre films similar to our psychological thriller ‘third eye’, we think Vertigo would be more suitable than other Independent distributors.

The Images below are film titles that vertigo have distributed, and shows the contrast in genre of films released.  James and myself want vertigo to distrubute our film as they distribute many different genres of British independant film.

    psychological  thriller 

                                                                      Humerous film distributed by vertigo, aimed at adults.

   A more child friendly film distributed by vertigo based upon the horrid henry books.

                            

Psychological thriller - Storyboard

We named our psychological thriller Third Eye 

For our psychological Thriller we've decided to focus on an idea that the main hallucinations will be of a little girl. This could prove to be better than  having hallucinations of a man, as a little girl will appeal more to our targeted female audience, as the female audiunce will be able to relate the little girl, However we do not tell the audiunce why the little girl is present in the hallucinations, we give slight implications to get the audiunce engaged and to make them think about whats actually happening within the film, but we plan to not give much away.

 

First Scene - Firstly we will start off our film with a scene in a cafe between two female characters - the main character explains her worries of her past. She claims to have been seeing random visions; and keeps refering to a specific date ( 'it was three years today.. i cant get over what happened that night') her friend comforts and supports her, they then both leave the cafe and head seperate ways.

Second Scene - Tracking of the main female character walking through the streets to her house , as shes walking through she keeps seeing her little girl and the same mysterious figure wherever she looks

Third scene - Female main character gets back to her house, she begins to panic - keeps seeing the same little girl and occasionly a mysterious hooded man. She then runs up stairs and goes into her room slamming the door as she enters.

Fourth scene - She puts her back to the door and sighs in relief, then she sees a flash vision of the man at the window, she rushes towards the indow and draws the curtains. After she walks to her bed, she sits in bed contemplating, then finally after a while passes out.

Fifth Scene - This will be our last full scene, and will be portrayed as a dream, with quick shots of her previous hallucinations will be used aswell as a couple of new ones. suddenly it will refer back to the main character suddenly awakens.
End Credits

Casting

Main charecter:Kirsty brown

Little girl:TBA

Creepy hallucination:Darius Edwards

Friend from the cafe: potentialy Mel.. TBA

Directors: Harry Gulliver & James Roberts

Camera/shooting: Harry Gulliver & James roberts

Extras: TBA

what inspired our opening scene?

The plot of our film opening took inspiration from a variety of films the first of which was the strangers, as the majority of the film takes place in the house when strange things begin to happen, this relates to our opening as over half will be filmed from within a house.



The female character in our film will experience distorted reality as a result of an on-going mental illness which she is unaware she has, A strong point of our opening is that it is never established that the main actress suffers from mental illnesses leaving the audience asking questions as to what is going on, and why bad things are happening to the character.
Similarly the plot of the sixth sense is a little boy who can see things that no one else can, he can see dead people, and bruce willis attempts to help him with his troubles.


A factor of the sixth sense that inspired both me and james to base our film on a girl suffering from distorted reality, was the little boy in the sixth sense, he cannot deter beyond doubt a real person and an apparent "ghost" or "dead people" throughout the film bruce willis is portrayed to be a real person helping the boy with his troubles by trying to resolve them, however a clever twist at the end of the film is that bruce willis is in fact dead, only the little boy can see him.

silence of the lambs

  The silence of the lambs appealed massivly to female audiunce's alongside a male audiunce.

The basic plot of the film is as follows: A Young female FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer.



The film recieved Good reviews and won five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress (Foster), Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally), making it the third film in history to receive the "Big Five" Academy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, but lost to Terminator 2.

The film recieved a 5* review from many critics and a good reception from the public, one public viewer regarded it as "A Story And A Character That You Can't Forget" and wrote:
I'll never forget my first viewing of this movie at the theater and will always look back fondly on it for one reason: helping me quit smoking cigarettes.
I read the book first, was fascinated by it, and couldn't wait for the film to come out. That was the day I picked to quit smoking and I knew this movie would take my mind off that matter. I was expecting an intense movie and I got it. Little did I realize how well-received this film would be and how it propelled Anthony Hopkins to super-stardom.
Although entertaining, this is not always a fun movie to watch, especially with the scenes with Ted Levine who plays the killer, "Buffalo Bill." "Bill" and his kidnapped young woman are sick and profane people, respectively, and their scenes are very unpleasant. This movie is not for the squeamish with those and other scenes involving the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). There also is some extreme crudeness in the jail/dungeon where Lecter and other inmates are held.
Jodie Foster is excellent as the FBI agent "Clarice Starling" and Scott Glenn is low-key and effective as "Jack Crawford." A major part of the film is psychological more than violent as Lecter constantly taunts "Clarice," while she tries her best to manipulate him to help with a case. The by-play between the two is a game in itself.
Hopkins, however, is the actor people remember best from this movie. His portrayal of the refined-yet-cannibalistic serial killer-doctor is one viewers will never forget. I've enjoyed watching him in the sequels, too. The looks on his face, his fascinating vocabulary with intelligent sarcasm and frankness, never ceases to entertain.
"Silence Of The Lambs" has turned into a modern-day "classic." If by some odd chance you have never seen this movie, be warned it is a dark, difficult story to watch at times....but it will get your mind off other things.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/reviews

The rolling stone website has a review by Peter Travers on the February 14, 1991 claiming it to be a  "superbly crafted suspense thriller" and it states that "The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror" To Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-silence-of-the-lambs-19910214#ixzz1gJSy1l1p

Opening sequence psychological thriller research

Psychological thrillers

 For mine and James opening sequence activity we have decided to base the film on the genre of psychological thriller.

The main themes we will be trying to identify during our opening sequence include:

Reality – this idea that the character will identify the realism of their life – Characters often determine what is real and what isn’t within the narrative.

Perception – the idea of the characters own opinions, point of views, and generally how they see the world around them. Usually characters may misperceive events which will affect their perception on the world throughout.

Mind –The idea of the characters location of consciousness (including personality, memory, intelligence, emotion etc..)  Usually the idea of narrative conflict is used to further alter the characters perception.

Existence/purpose -the object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Usually the character will throughout from conflicted narrative, strive towards a purpose for their life.

Identity - The definition of one’s self.  Usually in the psychological thriller genre the character will have doubts or are confused about themselves in some way,  And try to rediscover there persona.

Death – The end of life’s journey.  Usually a character will be in fear or are fascinated in death.

For our opening sequence, we have decided to produce a psychological thriller with a female main character. We have tried to identify with other successful psychological thrillers for example Requiem for a dream; this is a brilliant psychological thriller that greatly outlines the ideas of main themes such as reality, existence, perception and identity through 4 main characters all with very different lives but all constantly conflict with the idea of a purpose.

Initial ideas

The initial idea myself and james thought up was a girl suffering from delusions, and hallucinations however she is unaware that she is mentally ill and claims someone or something is out to get her but she cannot talk to anyone apart from her only trusted friend.

The basic plot of the film is as follows:

2 main characters: the leading main female character, and her friend.  

A few extras will be needed to represent the hallucinations the main actor is experience.

The opening scene consists of the main female actor talking to her female friend at a café.               She then describes to her friend at how she has been feeling strange recently, but does not establish her feelings that someone or something is out to get her. The main actor looks into the distance, and thinks she can see something, the look upon her face looks disturbed however she is abruptly interrupted as her friends asks ‘Is everything alright’ there main character looks at her female friend before hesitantly answering ‘yeahhh’  the main character looks back at what she thought she saw to realise it was gone. The scene then cuts to them walking home, they split up and the main character walks into her own house alone. A time lapse of the clock is used and the main character is sitting on her sofa smoking a cigarette alone, she is interrupted as her attention is drawn upstairs at a loud banging noise, she heads upstairs but as she does the lights flicker on the stair way, the main character does not seem to find anything upstairs and looks out the window, there is a flash followed by a figure pressed up against the window, the main actor is startled and falls backwards a second flash occurs and the figure is gone. Her attention then turns to the door banging and the phone ringing, she walks out of the front of her house looking left and right she notices a mysterious person in the distance who looks at her and moves quickly towards her, she then turns and runs back in the house where further strange things begin to happen, more banging as if someone is trying to get in, she opens the curtains and the figure is there again but vanishes as she looks away. Time laps of the clock again, followed by the character walking back to the café to have another conversation with her friend.

Although this seems block information it is only a basic idea, story boards and a structured camera shot list are to follow in the near future.

Research for film opening task

Thriller research
  For our film opening James and myself have chosen to produce a psychological thriller, however before we can produce anything me must first conduct research, we both looked at thriller films that have had particular interest within a female audiunce a superb example of this was the 1991 crime/horror thriller 'the silence of the lambs'.