Questionarre I made to use for my research

1. Age:
2. Gender:
3. Occupation:
4. How do you prefer to watch films?
5. What is your Favourite genre of film?
6. Recent films that you have watched?  
7. Identify 3 thrillers you have viewed?
8. What do you expect to see in a thriller?  
9. Do you think that it is important that Britain has a film industry?
10. What attracts you to a film?

Thriller research

The demographic for my thriller is most likely to be males between the ages of 16 and 24. The main character from my film is around 16 or 17. This allows an audience of this age to relate to the character well.

The social classes of the characters in my film are not clear.  The setting however, suggests a poor working class background. Because of this i believe that a more working class audience would be attracted to my film.
All of the actors used in my thriller are white British people. Because of this it is likely that my thriller will attract a mainly, western, white ethnicity.
Films that may relate to my own are:  Leon, because of the relations of drugs to the father who is murdered.
Eastern Promises, due to the fight scenes.

A typical image of someone from the target demographic would be a 16-24 year old British male who lives fast and for thrills, of a working class background.

My Thriller target audience

Gender – This film would be aimed relatively specifically at an all male audience aged between 16 and 24  This is simply because of the all male cast and general masculine interest in punch ups and motorbikes. 

The audience will be able to relate to the characters as they are of young ages.  Also, the idealistic adrenaline fuelled excitement of a classic ‘boys toy’ would increase interest mainly of a young, male audience.

Character dress

The main character (with the most screen time) in my film opening is dressed to look simple, plain and inexpensive. This is because we are showing his background and that he is not in complete poverty but at the same time he is definitely not well off.  The plain and boring colours represent his unhappy and pessimistic outlook on his own situation.  We chose his shoes to be big, stylish and purple.  This is to give our character some obvious identity (considering our film is mostly set in the dark). This makes the film less confusing for the viewer.

The second character (Thug) has a hoody under a leather jacket.  The hoody is typical of modern, young, thuggish type teenagers/young adults who are discreet about their identity.  The leather jacket over the hoody represents a gangster type thug.

Social class

My thriller would intrigue both a working and middle social class because of the unfortunate young character Tom.  He has a poor background that people could relate to and he is young, also intriguing a younger audience.

Character Profiles

There are 3 characters that will be in our thriller.

One is being played by Tom, he is the teenager who has been kicked out of school for drug abuse and general behaviour issues linked to it. He is the main character in the film, the one who gets beaten up because he owes money to the gang in relation to his drug addiction. He is a character who we are to feel sympathetic for in his situation.

The second character in the film is going to be played by Sam’s brother George. He is playing a sort of messenger for the gang, he meets Tom's character in the car park and beats him up and threatens him. We see little of his face to create mystery.

The third character in the film is my uncle. He will be playing a biker who comes across Tom laying down in the dark in the car park after the conflict between tom and the gang member. Instead of having the usual biker who is mean and a bad guy, our biker is going to break that convention and help me. We are doing this because we didn’t want everything to be the same as every other thriller that involves a biker, we wanted to create conventions and also test them to try and intregue the reader further.

Mise en scene

The mise en scene of our thriller follows the conventions. The lighting in the car park creates a very good atmosphere because you can only see one side of the car park, this is because lights only work on one side and the other side is completely black. There are only a few cars in the car park which gives the feeling that it’s a very derelict place. All of the graffiti on the walls suggests that no one really cares about the car park.


The clothing in the film is very generic to what type of person we are trying to portray. My character is very scruffy. He wears a coat which is too big for him and messy shoes. This portrays that he doesn’t really care about his appearance. This is also portrayed well through his smoking habit which is also a convention. The second person in the film is Sam’s brother George. He is wearing a hood and a leather jacket. The hood is usually linked with gangs and other bad types of people. It also creates a sense of mystery which is what we wanted in order to create curiosity and interest. The leather jacket is just another piece of clothing which helps to convey the message that this man means business and is possibly in a better financial position.

Shotlist

1) Birds eye view of traffic, it will be sped up.
2) Side view of the traffic, medium shot, still sped up.
3) Long shot to medium shot of character one walking towards the camera.
4) Extreme close up of the characters face whilst smoking.
5) Close up of character two walking down stairs, there is a fence in the foreground.
6)Long birds eye view of character walking.
7) Long shot of character two walking past a pond.
8) Close up of the pond & character twos reflection.
To be completed...

Preliminary task

Leon - Conventions of a thriller

In the 1994 film Leon there are many conventions that make it a stunning example of a thriller film.  These are present throughout the film.

Immediately conventions are used.  Extreme close ups show two characters in conversation restricts our awareness of who they are leaving us 'in the dark'.  One character smokes a cigarette, a classic thriller convention giving a serious and sinister image.  Another classic convention is that of a spiral staircase.  These are conventions because they obscure the literal view of things on different levels when they can or may still be heard.  This creates an unnerving atmosphere.  Also they can represent distance, disorientation and confusion. In this scene in the hotel, high angle shots are used to show the main man in danger as vulnerable and as if easy prey for the 'hunter'.  Later in the film after the first scene in the hotel, there is yet another spiral staircase.  Here a young girl sits at the top of the staircase smoking a cigarette.  This creates a contrast between the apparent innocence of a young girl and the fact that she is smoking which connotes the complete opposite.

From the first scene we are aware that drugs are heavily involved in the motivations of some of the characters within the film.  This is a classic motive for a thriller film because of the stereotypes of drug dealers.  How Leon is different is that the criminal drugs related dealing situation is put into the context of a family and them suffering the consequence of the involvement in such things.

Leon is revealed as a hit man early on in the first scene however, in the second scene he is shown as a kind man with slight immoralities (stealing milk).  When he saves the girl from the murdering gangsters he shows yet even more compassion to the girl who he has sympathy for.

Leon is represented as an excessively organised person who does everything systematically, he also appears not to be social around people which almost suggests some form of autism.  It is frequent to have a significant character who has an unusual mental state, for example in Phsyco where Norman Bates has a split personality disorder which leads him to commit murder.

Preliminary task

Planning

Before shooting we planned what we would do and how we would shoot it by creating a floor map of the location we had chosen to shoot in, a storyboard to show the shot types that we would use etc and we also rehearsed what we would do when we filmed it. This was all useful because we could discuss why we would use the shots that we chose and any errors would be found and dealt with in rehersal.  I believe that planning could have been improved by better organisation and improved storyboarding descriptions and mise en scene. 

Camera skills

I have developed my skills with using the camera, using the 180 degree rule for example. I have improved my confidence with using the dolly and generally using the camera.  I have developed skills in using the camera to get specific desired shot angles.  I believe this could be improved, mainly by practice or improved equipment.

Editing

I have learnt how to cut in and out points on the editing software, i have also learnt how to put in fades and various transitions/effects.  This could be improved by practice and a greater length of time dedicated to the editing.  I greater knowledge of the software would also have helped.

Cinema City.

In the school holidays the cinemas make most of their money. This is when the big Hollywood blockbusters are released, but for cinema city however Cinema City gets their biggest audiences when they hold live events and premier showings. The live events are unique to independant cinemas and this is where they sell most tickets.

Television was the first main technological advance that hit the cinemas badly in the 1950's onwards and then soon after, VCR's were introduced so films could be sold to the public.  DVD's came later in 2000.  These forms of film distribution reduce cinema audiences. 

Cinemas have attempted to increase their audience numbers mainly by introducing 3D screenings. Independant cinemas for example Cinema City have introduced screenings for specific desires, for example screenings where you are allowed to take toddlers or showings where popcorn isn't allowed.  This is in an attempt to adhear to the desires of target audiences to attract more people.

As Cinema progressed...
In 1945 the top 20 films accounted for 25% of the market. In 2000 the top 20 films accounted for 50% of the market. 
US films took a 20% share of the market in early 1970's. In 1998 US films took a 63.3% share of the market.
From this we can attain that the film market is being taken over by U.S film producers which is impacting and damaging film industry in most, if ont all other countries.
Here are some statistics on average spending of hoseholds in the UK
Exhibition related leisure pursuits now = 14% of household spend.
Home - based ancillary (TV/video etc.) markets = 43% of household spend.
From this we can tell that Films are most likely viewed mostly at home as opposed to at the cinema.
A cinema such as Cinema City used to get around 80% income from subsidies and 20% from ticket sales. How has this changed? Compare this to Vue/Odeon. How are cinemas funding new revenue streams?
For cinema city the government now only give about 20% of the income, the rest they make through their services and ticket sales. Independant companies struggle more with the lack of subsidies than multiplex cinemas. This is because the multiplexes are funded by rich american companies because they have control over a huge majority of film production and distribution. Multiplex cinemas may gain filming elsewhere however, Vue has funding from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
  Cinema City underwent a significant refurbishment programme in and reopened in 2007. Why would Cinema City be unable to carry out these refurbishments if it was trying to do so today?
Their would not be sufficient funding to carry out such refurbishments now, mostly because of the governments reduce in subsidies that they gave the British Film industry.  Also television technology wasn't quite as good, HD for example.  Because of this ticket sales would have been higher and more profit would have been made.

Why did Cinema City install a 3D projector in 2010?
They need the revenue that it would provide from a mainstream audience and to keep up with technologies in both other cinemas and at home.  
What is a 'sleeper' film? How is Cinema City better positioned to adjust schedules for 'sleepers'?
Sleeper films are films that start slowly and are not immediately popular.  They eventually increase greatly in popularity and without a flexible shedule, mainstream cinemas may miss out on this rise in popularity due to more fixed screening regimes.  Cinema city has an advantage on the multiplex cinemas here as it can accomadate personally to the consumers desires.

Why wouldn't Cinema City show 'The Expendables' but they would show a Tarantino film?
Cinema city has a more disearning audience that have different tastes and they would wish to gain something different when they watch a film to a general multiplex film consumer.

Who do Cinema City show Sex and the City/Mamma Mia? 
This targets another specific audience that cinema city needs for the revenue despite its mainstream appeal. The actors in the films attract a female audience that ranges around 40 years old which is also similar to the general audience at cinema city and so there are links that may make this film enjoyable for regular cinema city film go-ers.


Cinema city provides clubs for specific types of audiences for example 'kids club' which provides for a very specific audience
What does Cinema City use its screens for other than showing films?
They use their screens for live events (music etc), film maker Q&A's, film premiers, productions transmitted from the Royal Opera house for example, broadcasted satellite events and various stand up performances.

Cinema city generally has an audience of people of both sexes age 40+because they screen and re-screen old films in different ways and the cinema screens have compfy seats and a more relaxed and mature atmosphere to multiplex's.  The films are also in general, more interlectually challenging and possibly contravirtal.

My Thriller Treatment

 

The first shot is a wide long shot of car traffic of which we intend to get about half an hours footage which we would then speed it up so you see the progression from day to night. The next couple of shots would be long shots to mid shots of some dark, urban areas around the city. We would then cut to a long shot going up a ramp of a multi-story car park which looks out on the sky. Our main character is situated on the top of the multi-story car park being beaten up by a gang which revolves around drugs. He owes this gang money because they had given him some drugs but he never actually payed them back, so they came looking for him. The next shot would be extreme close ups of the man who has just been beaten up. The victim owes money to the gang. After the gang leave there would be a birds eye view of the man leaning against the wall and on the other side of the wall there would be the night time city traffic. This shot would be good because it makes us feel that the man is separate from everyone else and that he is exposed to the night and that he is vulnerable and alone
You would hear the background music which would consist of atmospheric piano, this sets the scene because it creates an atmosphere which cannot be made by any other instrument. It relays a sense of mystery. There would be a conversation between the leader of the people that beat up the man and the man himself, they would be talking about what the man has to do in order to pay off the debt he owes them. Whilst they were talking there would only be extreme close ups of the mens faces in order to keep a sense of mystery and darkness. After-wards the gang would leave and then the only thing you would hear would be the man crying.  I will aim to use conventions of thrillers such as a spiral staircase i will use in one of the car parks.  Also chiaroscuro lighting and key lighting as the film is set in the evening, this will be essenitial in the creation of the atmosphere. This concept i have learnt about from 'The Third Man' which uses extreme lighting techniques throughout.  According to some research i have carried out, people of the target demographic I am aiming my film at prefer action films to thrillers and therefore in order to appeal more to my target daomgraphic I will aim to make my thriller relate more towards the sub-genre of Action Thrillers.

Thriller Location Shots

                                    1.
We thought using a spiral staircase in  the thriller was a good idea because it is one of the most used conventions.

2.

We decided to try and use this shot in this location because it shows the divide between the character and the rest of the city.

3.

This one is the same as above but just at a slightly different angle.

4.

We want to use this shot because it is something different. Because we aren't seeing the person normally, we are seeing their reflection walking and how the windows are positioned help give it an extra effect.

5.

This is the spiral staircase but from a different angle, this angle i think works better because you are able to see more and you're able to see further down.

6.

We want to use this shot in the film because you get a close up of the character but he is looking over a lot of the city, in my opinion i think this is a good shot.

7.

We're going to use this shot because the blind type window gives a very good effect whilst you're watching the person walk down the bridge.

8.

This is where most of the filming will be done. This is an underground carpark and during the night, it gets really dark and the lighting in there is bright on one side and very dark on the other.

9.

This is the car park from a different angle, this angle shows where the light would seperate from the dark during the night.

10.

This shot shows most of the car park, the lighting in here is perfect for a thriller.