Online questionnaire reponses

These are the responses from our online questionnaire:

Research into film poster design

The film poster for Shutter Island fits the original conventions of it's genre, as it has a sense of mystery. This is achieved by only lighting half of the main character face, giving the impression that he has two sides to his personality, which then fits in with the story like, a man who leads a double personality as he tries to block out his horrific past by living his life through another personality he has created. The island itself is portrayed to be very dark and dingy, making it look scary at first glance. On a closer look, its noticeable that the island is actually made up of photographs, taking out all sense of realism and making it seem as though it should actually exist in that spot.

The posters main text simply states the name of the film, whereas directly above is the name of the biggest star in the film. This endorses the film as it makes people aware of who is actually in the film, and the more popular/famous the characters are, the more likely the film is going to do good as the actors/actresses will have a bigger fan base than unknown actors, so it would be useless naming them.

The most common reoccurring factor of any film poster are the credits at the bottom. These are printed in small, indistinguishable lettering so they don't draw the eye, and aren't the main focus on the poster. They usually just credit the director and other actors in the film, so they get mentioned in the poster.

Viral movie advertisement research

Viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use social networking services and other ways to increase brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as making someone want to watch a film). It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the internet. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive flash games, advert games, ebooks, brandable software, images, text messages, email messages, or web pages. 
The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create a buzz about their media in an attempt to make people interested in their film etc. This will then increase revenue in their final product.

An example of this viral marketing is shown by the film Inception. The studios released an online game called Mind Crime. Once completed — which could be done by following QR codes linking to an online instruction manual — the film’s poster was revealed. The next level of the game shared a hidden trailer, and eventually more surreal marketing tactics were unleashed. You can still play the game over here, or you can watch the youtube video of it below.

Viral Advertising

Viral Advertising

What is viral advertising?
It is a direct marketing technique where a company uses technology like social networks, mobiles, emails, Youtube, etc to generate word of mouth publicity in the hope of creating a fad or craze. The whole purpose of film company's using viral advertising is to help increase the interest for their films, helping increase the sales.

Different types of viral advertising:

The Dark Knight - launched In 2007, Warner Brothers used a viral advertising for the new batman film, The Dark Knight. They set up a fake newspaper called 'The Gotham Times' and a website whysoserious.com 

Toy Story 3 - They launched a unique viral video campaign with fake, vintage '80s commercials for the toy Lots o' Huggin Bear, (a character in the film) Internet-only videos like one with Woody and Buzz on an IM chat and hilarious 70s-themed interviews with the Ken doll called 'Groovin' With Ken' as well as his advice series 'Ken's Dating Tips.' All of this excess creative content, as well as a Facebook applications that allowed fans to purchase advance tickets through the site and update their friends when doing so increased interest for the film.

 

 

 

The Blair Witch Project - Before YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, 'The Blair Witch Project' set the standard for guerilla marketing done virally. The film gave the impression this was real, actual "found footage." The filmmakers and Artisan Entertainment supported that by building a website that backed this claim; they also circulated the rumours via online message boards. The film terrified audiences all the more when, in the back of their heads, they thought it might just be real.

Carrie (2013) - The new Carrie film, generated interest using Youtube with a video titled 'Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise' with the hashtag #FlexlikeCarrie. It shows a Carrie based prank in a New York coffee shop where a female character uses her "telekinetic" powers, like Carrie White's in the Stephen King novel allowing her to throw a man up against the wall, knock over tables and throw books off a shelf. 

The first day the prank was uploaded on 7th October, it had more than 2 million hits, boosting the Carrie movie. The films stars, Julianne Moore and Chloe Grace Moretz used their popularity and took to Twitter to share the viral prank to millions of their followers.   

 

 

 

Classifications - 15

Classification 15 powerpoint

Progress Report 2

In regards to our last progress report, we have now filmed our audience questionnaire, we've created rough story boards in line with our script, we have done research into the genre of our film and similar films. Other than our film, we have also created a 'journey' through filming, just to practice our editing skills and to get used to the programme again.
In the next couple of weeks we will look at tricky shots that we may use in our film, take location shots and may even consider starting our filming.

Audience Questionnaire Results

Go To Our Audience Questionnaire

 

Media a2 audience questionnaire EMS from shannon guthrie on Vimeo.

Rough Story Board

Conventional Music

Music

Usually music in thriller films is used to create even more suspense and to draw the audience in right at a crucial point. A widely used tool used is silence, often forgotten about as 'sound' it is one of the most effective, it creates huge fear and suspense in the audience, during silence diagetic sound may also be heard. One of the most commonly used diagetic noises is heavy breathing, with a tremor. This adds massively to the effect, on the other hand at this point non diagetic noise may be heard for example a heart beat, portraying the characters fear or exhaustion. Orchestral music is often used, mainly string pieces in the beginning which add to the delicate atmosphere showing how things are so fragile, it gradually gets louder drawing the audience subconsciously further and further in without realizing it, it also can be used to empathize with a character, the sound will come to a climax when there is danger etc and often be accompanied by heavier bass sounds.

Conventional Editing

The Editing
The editing more than often used is quite fast paced. This is a strong tool the editors use to portray the characters thoughts, which in thrillers are often strange or delusional. They may also use layering, which will repeat certain scenes from the film which are significant. The illusion that things are going a lot faster than they actually are gives the all too well known feeling of 'on edge'. The idea of fast pace editing can be seen mainly in a chase scene, where there is little dialog and choppy cuts from shot to shot to give the rushed feeling. This creates uncertainty within the audience, the fluidity of previous scenes allow the audience to fall into a false sense of security, where they feel they know what will happen next, however using this type of editing changes that illusion, keeping them guessing.

Music conventions in Thriller films

A common convention of Thriller films would be the type of music they use. Although nearly all films have some type of non-diegetic music in them, Thriller films are notorious for using non-diegetic music to build on the suspense and tension. The build up of eerie music adds to the emotion thats trying to be portrayed from the main character, and more than often links/is similar to music used later on in the film. Using strong base lines to layer the music makes it seem scarier and deeper in a sense that it seems to travel through the air more.

An example of this would be 'Time' by Hans Zimmer on the Inception soundtrack.

Research Into Certificate

Click Here To Go To My Prezzi

Conventional Lighting

The Lighting
The lighting in a conventional thriller is often subtle. It doesn't necessarily scream 'the dark is scary' however it does this as said before in a subtle way. There is little light however just enough, often there is a slight grey tone to scene which adds to the 'grunge' feel about it, making the audience subconsciously identify something is wrong. The lighting obviously must differ from scene to scene however if you look closely there is hardly ever a 'normal' light, it will be in extremes...Bright and white can often be seen, this i feel gives it the effect of almost an asylum, exposes everything which is there however the audience still know something is wrong, which adds to the effect and suspense as they can't quite pinpoint what it is. The second type of lighting which is often used is spot light which commonly is used to illuminate half of a characters face portraying they may have a split personality or that they are hiding something.  Note below a match is used to illuminate the scene, obviously not all the light is from the match however using a flame slightly adds to the danger and the striking of the match adds to the tension All of the above can be seen in the following video...

Props List

HDV 1080i Mini Sony Camera

Tripod

Laptop/ Computer

Phone

Car

Table

Chairs

Cutlery

Plates

Cast and Crew

                                                                                     Cast:
                                                                            Megan Newton
                George Allott
               Robert Newton

                       Crew:
                  Ellie Lovatt
             Shannon Guthrie

Progress Report

So far we have...
Created a script
Created all character profiles
All published a film idea and chosen one
Designed an audience questionnaire
Looked at conventions of thriller films

In the next couple of weeks we will...
Film our audience questionnaire
Create a story board
Certificate research
Identify short films
Look at tricky shots we may use

Character Profile - Hollie Robertson

Name: Hollie Robertson
Age: 17
Occupation: College student
Appearance: Short, medium length blonde hair,
Personality: Quiet, lonely girl. Very private, unsocial and seen as weird by her peers. She isn't use to attention from the opposite sex so is over the moon when she receives a friend request from Ethan. She enjoys spending most of her time on the internet in her bedroom and rarely goes out. She is an animal lover and enjoys confiding in her dog as she trusts him.
What she does in the story: She accepts the friend request of a boy called Ethan and begins to talk to him daily. She arranges to meet him and gets stood up. On her way home she is snatched by Ethan and bundled into a car

Conventional Themes And Narrative

Themes

Thriller films often revolves around anticipation and suspense. Thrillers often emphasize danger and often build to a climax. At some point violence will be a key point within the genre. Often the protagonist is a female and is shown as a vulnerable. The antagonist often leads the audience through a chain of events and at the end often achieves their ultimate goal.

Narrative
The narrative  of a typical thriller will usually be shown from the protagonist point of view, by using this point of view it allows the audience to empathize and almost become the vulnerable person. However other points of views can be used for example the antagonist as it can reveal to the audience why they are 'evil' or act the way they act, which similar to the protagonist point of view can create sympathy and the audience may possibly feel sorry for the villain or in extreme measures can feel guilty for their actions. During the narrative it will show a series of events which lead to a big finale event as a result of all the 'mini' events. Thriller films can often be deceiving and can often lead to an unsuspected result, which maintains audience interest

Character Profile - Ethan Bennett

Name: Ethan Bennett
Age: 19
Occupation: Ground worker at Palmer Construction
Appearance: Tall, Dark haired male. White British
Personality: Ethan is a cocky male, who is confident and self assured. He is outgoing and loud and enjoys talking to new people. He keeps his thoughts private however and enjoys his own company. He is a little 'geeky' when it comes to gaming  and enjoys games with violence for example, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto. He loves films as he study media at college, one of his favourite films is Clockwork Orange shortly followed by Hostel and The Saw Franchise.
What they do in story: Ethan is a 'catfish' and deceives a young teen called Hollie. He leads her on for several weeks allowing her to believe he is actually Ethan. He has a track record of doing these things and takes his inspiration from the many horrific films he watches. He kidnaps Hollie and we see the cycle continue as he changes his facebook one again.

Character Profile - Hollies Dad

Name: 
Hollies dad
Age:
45
Occupation: 
Business man
Appearance:
Ginger man, quite short. White.
Personality:
Holies dad is a warm hearted, understanding man who has always have patience with his daughter. Ever since his wife died when Hollie was young, he's had to play both the mother and father figure to Hollie at times and she's rejected this, rebelling. He enjoys classical music and relaxing. He also dabbles in cookery, and is quite the chef.
What they do in the story:
Hollies dad tries to get through to Hollie with no luck and finds her laptop when its too late to help her.

Script