RESEARCH: Film Poster Analysis

Hannah has been working on analysing thriller film posters:

The main conventions of a thriller poster

A dark setting/dark background of the poster Sense of enigma, not much given away A list of the companies and people involved in the film An uncluttered look. One main character and some of the setting Shows some of the directors other films Well known actor’s names are highlighted for emphasis The colour red is used a lot A play on good and evil e.g. a child shrouded in darkness, a white face on a black background The title is the biggest text on the poster The title is normally at the bottom end of the page

Posted by Hannah on 28/09/11

Audience Survey

Emily working on Survey Monkey:

Here is a link to our survey to gather information and feedback about the film trailer and the film poster so it gives us an idea of what the audience are expecting from us.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T958LM2

RESEARCH: Top 10 Thriller Directors

Top ten thriller film directors

               

1		Alfred Hitchcock Directed 58 films	1. Rear Window (1954)                                2. Psycho (1960)                                3. Vertigo (1958)                                4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
2		Steven Spielberg Directed 32 films	1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)                                2. Jaws (1975)                                3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)                                4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
3		James Cameron Directed 13 films	1. Aliens (1986)                                2. Terminator, The (1984)                                3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)                                4. Abyss, The (1989)
4		Quentin Tarantino Directed 9 films	1. Pulp Fiction (1994)                                2. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)                                3. Reservoir Dogs (1992)                                4. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
5		Martin Scorsese Directed 32 films	1. Taxi Driver (1976)                                2. Departed, The (2006)                                3. After Hours (1985)                                4. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
6		Christopher Nolan Directed 8 films	1. Dark Knight, The (2008)                                2. Memento (2000)                                3. Inception (2010)                                4. Insomnia (2002)
7		Roman Polanski Directed 25 films	1. Chinatown (1974)                                2. Repulsion (1965)                                3. Ghost Writer, The (2010)                                4. Cul-de-sac (1966)
8		David Fincher Directed 7 films	1. Fight Club (1999)                                2. Zodiac (2007)                                3. Se7en (1995)                                4. Game, The (1997)
9		John Carpenter Directed 23 films	1. Halloween (1978)                                2. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)                                3. Dark Star (1974)                                4. Escape from New York (1981)
10		David Cronenberg Directed 23 films	1. Dead Zone, The (1983)                                2. Fly, The (1986)                                3. History of Violence, A (2005)                                4. Eastern Promises (2007)

Post made by Adele on 28/09/2011

PLOT IDEAS

After discussing the plot ideas for the three different types of movies that we researched, we came up with these three ideas:
RomCom - A wrongly convicted female criminal falls in love with a male police officer or prison guard and their love unites them into battling for her freedom.
Girly / Teen - A nerdy teenage girl who is gifted at singing and playing instruments wants to follow her ambition to become a pop star, but in order to do that she needs a complete makeover and experiences challenges in changing her appearance and fitting in with the popular scene.
Thriller / Horror - A group of students or young people are quarantined in a large laboratory complex which is teaming with test subjects that are infected with a serum that turns them into human - flesh - hungry zombie like creatures that were originally experimented on to see if they could be made to live longer. The students have to fight for survival.

After a group discussion along with some of our classmates, they voted that the film concept that they favoured was the Thriller / Horror plot. Not only did it have slightly more depth to it than the other plots, but it also could target a wider audience that just females and also could be easier to make with a lower budget.

A detailed example of our Horror/Thriller plot:

The army are testing a new serum in labs in the UK that are designed for to make their soldiers live longer/make them harder to kill so that they could have a better chance at winning wars and obtain the worlds most powerful army.
When it came to human testing, tests subjects are given the serum and then monitored and interviewed about how they feel or any side effects. After about 1 or 2 hours the people who have taken the serum show rabid symptoms and become aggressive and instinctively hungry for everything. With no recognition of personalities left the scientists attempt to kill then infected but they cannot easily be harmed. A lot of the staff or killed or infected and the whole building is put into quarantine.
There are a small group of people who are trapped inside (e.g. a group of friends who work there, a group of med-students doing work experience or even younger people on a school trip) who have to fight for survival until help comes or they can escape. They could be met with great difficulties throughout, such as killing other infected humans, or having to be separated from an infected friend.
In they end they escape, but the infection may be an airborne virus and a danger to all of mankind.

Here is a video of Adele telling us of an alternative idea she and Emily came up with, which could be a Teen RomCom:

Post made by Francesca on 28/09/2011

Why we chose horror/thriller

We initially chose horror as we all had been watching scary films during the Halloween period and had therefore gained a lot of inspiration from many films such as "Last house on the left" and "Insidious". We wanted to create a unique twist to the horror genre and so we incorporated a slight science theme whereby the government had created a serum in order to make members of the army live longer. Additionally, we had numerous ideas as to what to include in our costume and make up and thought we could create a realistic plot using these tools. Moreover, we had the ideal location for a horror film already in reach in the form of our school grounds which has many creepy corridors and low lit rooms, which gave us further inspiration for our film trailer. We also wanted to include many sound effects and music which is a key feature to any successful horror trailer, by looking briefly through Soundtrack Pro we gained several ideas for sound effects which ignited our enthusiasm for creating a horror trailer.

By Adele

INITIAL GENRE RESEARCH

Our first task is to research 3 different film genres, listing the code and conventions and common themes that occur throughout the narrative and trailers. The genres that we chose to look into were: Romantic Comedy, Teen/ChickFlick and Thriller.

 RomCom research (by Adele Tyrer)

Codes and conventions of a Rom-Com

• Two protagonists, one male, one female
• Typical three part structure: A boy and a girl will meet, and for some reason, they will be torn apart. They will realise that they are meant to be together, and try and back to each other. In the resolution of the film, although it might not be a happy on, the characters will meet again and work out went wrong between them.
• Usually meet through a humorous or unusual situation
• Characters need to be down to earth so that the audience is able to relate to them
• Morals and the theme of true love explored throughout
• Audience likely to be introduced to the protagonists best friends or family members. They add support for the characters as well as light humour.
• Audio- known pop songs relating to love
• Usually set in a well known big city such as New York or London, however some films are often set in smaller towns.
• Protagonists may be opposites in terms of social class, temperament

Friends with benefits is a classic example of a Rom-com, below is the trailer.

This is a good example of a rom com as all the key conventions are shown: Set in New York, obstacles to overcome, ending with the couple starting a relationship.

The holiday is also an excellent example of Rom-com , happening at Christmas times, features big cities – los angeles, known pop songs used

Teen/ChickFlick research (by Emily Barnes)

Conventions of a teen film genre

Targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way.

Films in this genre are often set in high schools, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes are also common, as are nudity and crude forms of humor

Codes and conventions of the teen film genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties and all-night raves, losing one's virginity, relationships, social groups and cliques, and American pop-culture.

The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include:

·                    The Jock/Cheerleader

·                    The Princess

·                    The Geek/Nerd

·                    The Rebel

·                    The Misfit, or The Outcast

·                    The Average Girl/Boy (the boy/girl next door)

·                    The New Girl/Boy

·                    The Loner

·                    The Band Geek

Conventions of a chick flick film genre

Chick flick is a slang term for a film mainly dealing with love and romance designed to appeal to a female target audience

Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based (although not necessarily romantic as many other themes may be present).

Chick flicks often are released en masse around Valentine's Day

Some frequent elements of chick flicks include having a female protagonist, thematic use of the color pink (along with metaphorical allusions of the color), and romance and/or dating based story-lines.

Teen and Chick flicks

Teen film genre and chick flicks can be combined. For example mean girls

‘..I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular..’

This is a typical representation of a teen chick flick as gaining popularity is a key aspect of a teenager’s life and there will be jealousy between teens as they are on different popularity levels.

Stereotypes are represented throughout the film stereotypes are this is the social classification of a group of people identified as a common characterizes, such as the 'dumb' blonde.

There are many different cliques as you see “the Plastics” the most popular girls, “the Jocks” this is the most popular boy that every girl desires to be with, the “nerds” this is stereotyping all the clever pupils and calling them nerds.

Here is the trailer which clearly defies the different stereotypes:

Thriller research (by Hannah Milton)

Atmosphere	Characters
Aims to make the viewer experience: a higher level of anticipation, ultra heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, suspense, excitement, tension and terror Low lighting is used in the film to create an eerie atmosphere The genre also uses a lot of fast paced music to give tension	Conventional characters are: Convicts/ criminals Stalkers Assassins Innocent victims (often on the run) Characters with dark pasts Psychotic individuals Cops The hero is normally ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. The victim is normally someone who is innocent placed into the story because of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.
Storyline
Crime thriller- Ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge and kidnappings Mystery thriller- Investigations and the whodunit technique Psychological thrillers- Mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/ death-traps, obsession Paranoid thrillers- False accusations, paranoia and sometimes action Involves characters that come into conflict with each other or with outside forces- sometimes the threat is abstract or unseen The tension usually arises when the character is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escape seems impossible. Life is threatened usually because the main character is involved in a situation that is unexpected.

Shutter Island:

• This is a psychological thriller as it is set on a mental institution
• The audience are uncertain about the plot of the film. Is he a patient or is it a conspiracy?
• They anticipate what is going to happen. What is going on in the lighthouse
• The main character is set up as a US Marshall come to investigate the disappearance of a mentally ill patient
• The main character also has a dark past which is played on a lot within the film
• It is unsure as to whether he will get off the island or is stuck there. Also if he will escape unharmed