Storyboards for our Thriller

These are our storyboards for our thriller, which explain what me and my group planned to film shot by shot. However, our idea did actually change from what these storyboards show. Although, we did still use some of the key elements from our original ideas, such as the use of guns and the "gangster" element.

Method 2: Unit G321: Research into Media Audiences

Analysing Film Posters

The whole idea of using film posters to promote the film, is that it has to automatically grab the audience's attention when they're for example, just walking down the street. Film posters are designed to become eye catching, as film posters are displayed around various places such as on a side of a bus, on walls, or on a bus stop. Therefore they have to look interesting to be able to draw attention to them.

Sin City (2005)
The first thing you notice about this poster is the blood red colour of the typography, which connotates danger, passion, love, sex and lies. This is indicating to the audience about what the film is about already, and the bright red automatically grabs your attention, and is the first thing that draws you to the poster. The typography is also very bold and thick, which makes the title of the film stand out to the audience, so the name of the film sticks in their head.
The symbol of the guns on the film poster connotes danger, and again suggests to the audience that the storyline and genre of the film is action and thriller. The use of guns also makes the film seem like it will have a tense storyline, which will appear to, for example teenager boys and young men walking down the street. The way that the rest of the poster is in gray scale compared to the bright red typography again makes the title stand out, and everything else seem more gloomy and dark in comparison, suggesting that the storyline will be quite mysterious.
The low angle camera shot portrays an image that the characters in the film are strong and powerful, compared to long shot of the one man walking down the street which is lit up by blinding light toward the bottom left of the poster. This suggests that the characters portrayed standing up strong and powerful in the poster are all together fighting against the one guy walking down the street. However, the blinding light surrounding him is very catching and draws the readers attention. One of the men holding a pistol gun in the poster is directing in an angle which portrays it as if it's pointing almost outside of the poster, creating a very clever 3D effect.
There are three male stereotypes on the poster, and it suggests that the film has one strong male lead by the way that one of the male protagonists is standing before all the characters looking stronger and more important, as its clear the camera s focusing more on him. One of the female characters on the poster is however in some ways stereotypical of a "slutty" female fatall, as she is wearing quite revealing clothes as her stomach is on show, yet she is also portrayed as being very strong by the way she is posing in a manner which portrays her as looking fearless. The other woman is shot furthest away from the camera, suggesting she is less important manner, yet from what you can see of her she is wearing very black, Gothic clothes, which goes against the girly, female stereotypes in thriller films. The way every character is wearing black connotes danger, mystery and a storyline of darkness to the audience. The mise-en-scene of the rain is quite effective to the audience as it stands out and technically looks very eye catching, and the dark background suggests to the audience that the film is shot in darkness for quite a majority of time.

I Am Legend (2007)

Straight away the mise-en-scene catches the audience's eye, as it's obviously the setting of almost a broken city. Therefore this suggests to the audience that the storyline involves devastation and action. The broken city scape behind the male protagonist looks very lonely, yet the brown, white and overall pale colours connote almost calm yet also creates tension in the atmosphere. The yellow typography for the title matches the colour scale of the mise-en-scene which makes the typography shine out above the ground, yet the lettering is very thin and stylish, suggesting to the audience that this isn't going to be a full on action film with loud gun shots and bombs. The word "LEGEND" stands out particularly to the audience, which will then stick in there minds and catch there eyes straight away.

The phrase stated upon the poster "The last man on earth is not alone," entitles the audience to gather what the storyline is about, which is obviously that the male protagonist displayed on the poster at some pint becomes the last man on earth and that the entire human race is killed. Again, the typography is simply laid out in the poster and blends in delicately with the mise-en-scene - quite a contrast compared to the Sin City poster. The name of the actor "Will Smith," is blatant set out at the top of the poster in quite big lettering so it stands out to the audience and Catches there eye as Will Smith is a well known, popular actor. Therefore, this film would appeal more to the audience as they know Will Smith is obviously the main actor, as he is the only human portrayed on the page.

The medium camera-shot of the male protagonist portrays the character is being quite lonely, as he obviously the only human around the world. The type of clothes he is wearing and the macho way the character is walking makes him look quite strong, and not afraid of anyone else. In the poster, you can also see that the male protagonist is accompanied by a dog, suggesting that he is the male characters side kick throughout the entirety of the film.
Overall, the whole mise-en-scene is portrays an image of a deserted picture, suggesting to the audience that film will contain quiet scenery's, yet contain plenty of tension, even though you can tell by the writing that the film wont star many characters.

Method 5: Research into Warp Films

G322 B Institutions and Audiences Case Study on “This is England and Warp Films.

Research into Warp Films

Information on Warp Films: gained from www.WarpFilms.com
Warp Films has created some of the most exciting pieces of British film making in the last five years. It has won numerous plaudits and awards (including three BAFTAs) since being set up in 2002.

'My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117' was Warp’s first short film and was directed by Chris Morris. It won the BAFTA in 2003 and for its television premiere on Channel 4, more than one million viewers tuned in to watch it. Warp sold an astounding 22,000 DVDs of My Wrongs and was the first DVD single in the UK market.

Warp's debut feature 'Dead Man's Shoes', directed by Shane Meadows, received a record eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Achievement in Production. ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ was also nominated for a BAFTA and won the Southbank Award for Best Film. The film has received nothing less that rave reviews across the board, and is being hailed by some as a landmark in British cinema.

Chris Cunningham directed Warp's next film, Rubber Johnny, –an experimental short and 42-page book that shocked and amazed audiences.

Following Rubber Johnny Warp made the critical success 'Grow Your Own', a film written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (24-Hour Party People), which tackled the subject of immigration.

In 2006 Warp made their most successful production to date: 'This is England', the story of Shaun, a boy who is befriended by a local skin-head gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. With its evocative soundtrack, dazzling young star and emotive content it has won numerous international festival awards as well as scooping Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. At the same award ceremony Warp collected it's third BAFTA as Paddy Considine's directorial debut 'Dog Altogether' won best short.

Warp Films has also worked closely with the Arctic Monkeys, producing two music videos for them and collaborating on the short film 'Scummy Man' starring Stephen Graham, which won best music video at this year's NME awards. Richard Ayoade has recently directed a feature length live show film with of them. Shot at their final concert of a world tour.

Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with directors Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, Chris Cunningham, Richard Ayoade, David Slade and Lynne Ramsay. They are also dedicated to seeking out new voices; this goal is reflected in their recent ventures into promo making and the new digital slate, Warp X.

Explaining the Purpose of Warp Films:

Warp Films are different from any other film company as they support independent and unique films, instead of the mainstream Hollywood block busters. Warp Films have created a number of successful British movies, such as “Dead Man Shoes” directed by Shane Meadows which received a record eight British Independent Film Award nominations. Warp Films don’t follow the route of Hollywood and USA films, yet they create and support the independent British film industry. For example, in 2006 they created there most successful film yet “This Is England,” also directed by Shane Meadows, which is film completely based on England’s traditional and historical values.
Warp Films also make the type of films which tend to show the reality of Britain. For example, they don’t make films which portray an image of British people talking in a posh London accent like the Queen and go round shooting pheasants all day. Yet instead, the type of films directed show perhaps the “rougher” side of England, and the lower class.

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham first forged his relationship with Warp Records in 1995 with his debut promo “Second Bad Vibel” for Autechre, and since has directed a score of mind-bending videos for the likes of Squarepusher, Bjork, Madonna, Portishead and most memorably, Aphex Twin. His role within Warp Films is that at the moment he is currently developing a feature length script with Warp Films. He has also created films such as “Rubber Johnny” – an experimental short and 42 page books.

Chris Cunningham’s Music Video “Africa Shox.”

Chris Cunningham’s music video is shocking, and certainly portrays America in a bad view, as it’s representing how white Americans treated Black African/Americans. The main guy in the film looks like a completely broken man, with no-where to go. At one point during the music video, you see a white man sitting down on the bench reading a newspaper completely ignoring the black African/American, which proves how badly treated they were and possibly still our.
There are certain resemblances to “Africa Shox,” and Shane Meadow’s film “This is England.” For example, Africa Shox and This is England both show the reality of their countries. For instance, This is England portrays the real image of what England is actually like, and shows the lower class side of living in a British city, and Africa Shox portrays the harsh reality of how people are still treated in America, not the rich living white Americans. Both films also use quite real life settings, as This is England uses the setting of a rough end of Grimsby, and the setting of Africa Shox looks as if it’s also set in a rough city in America.

Shot Types

Rule of Thirds:

The Rule of Thirds is one of the most common shot types. The basic principle of Rule of Thirds is to imagine breaking down the image into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, so your then left with nine parts. You now have four important parts of your image left in the frame, therefore you make these four parts the most interesting, so the shot type grabs the audience's attention.

Panning Shot:

The panning shot is overall just he horizontal movement of the camera. Therefore, this creates the image that the object you are filming is also moving horizontally.

Dolly Zoom Shot:

This is a diagram example of a dolly zoom shot. The dolly zoom is an un-settling in-camera special effect that appears to undermine the normal visual perception in film. This effect is achieved by adjusting the camera lens, to adjust the angle of the view. This is happening while the camera moves toward or away from the subject.

Tilt Shot:

This is quite a simple shot, and basically just involves moving the camera angle just up or down slightly, so the angle isn't always at the same level. This therefore creates either a high or low angle shot. This can make the object appear smaller or larger to the audience.

Vertigo 1958

The film Vertigo was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958. The one thing which I noticed straight away in this film was the fantastic mise-en-scene which was used, as it was all stylish and authentic. For example, there is a lot of the colour red used within the mise-en-scene which creates danger, love and passion. The colour red is used in many scenes, such as for the colour of the walls, the red lipstick worn on the female fatale and the also the red clothes that the female fatale wears. However, the scene with the roof top chase is a great thriller opening, as it automatically engages the audience, and brings them into the action themselves, which therefore makes the audience want to continue watching the film. The chase scene also means that film isn't giving anything away at the beginning, which is therefore keeping the audience guessing. The film also has the scenery of a house, which is quite light. This is a normal everyday setting, meaning the film isn't being to fancy, and wants to give away a feeling of the characters living an ordinary everyday life.

The female protagonist wears old fashioned clothes which obviously suit the time that this film was made. At one point within the film she wars a green backless dress which creates sexuality. As it is backless it is made to make the women stand out above the crowd, and green is the colour of envy, suggesting she's showing of to the men and making other women jealous of her looks and hold upon the men. There are plenty of effective sounds used in the film. For instance the music is quite sinister and non-diagetic. The music builds up, and is quite jumpy and contains a creepy feel about it. However, it keeps changing tone from loud to quiet to build up the audience for something to happen, then bring them down, which keeps the audience engaged. Certain thriller signifies used is the detective, and this is quite typical of a thriller. Special effects used are spirals around the characters eyes at the beginning, which gives the effect of dizziness to the audience and engage them.

The type of camera shots used varies, for example there are extreme close-ups used of the women's mouth and eyes. A birds eye view shot is used on a stair case (another known thriller signifier), which is effective yet simple to achieve. This emphasizes on the picture, and gives the audience a different view of the scenery. There are also plenty of quick angle shots including long, mid and close-up shots. The audience is also left with the question "Do you think Madeline is still alive?" This creates tension and engages the audience themselves to solve the mystery.

The script for our Voice Over

"It wasn't the first time I've got mixed up in a deal like this. For some reason something went wrong, and the rest is kind of a blur. All I remember is those flats and being carted away in that white van. Everyday I find myself walking back there, hoping that somehow I can change what happened."

We chose to use this for our Voice Over, as it's quite simple, and we didn't want a voice over running over the whole of the introduction. We are going to separate parts of the voice over to match in the timings of certain scenes of the film. We're using a females voice as it's a female lead we are using as this goes against the typical casting of a thriller, and it's also a female we use for the shots of the character walking back to the scene of the chase.

Editing our Thriller

So far, editing our thriller has become very successful. We decided to use the colour of black and white as these looked more stylish, and we have edited the shots down to make them look slow paced in some sections, yet fast paced during the chase scene. We arranged our thriller to alternate between the chase scene and shots of our female protagonist simply walking back to the place where the chase all happened. We did this to almost confuse the audience, yet at the same time we have a voice over which help explains what goes on. At the moment we are using a combination of music and a voice over. The music is very fast paced to match the fast paced style of the film, and the music is quietened down while the voice over is running. We are also having the titles appearing in edited transitions across the bottom left of the screen as we have our female protagonist running. They appear only for a short duration each to again match the quickened pace of the film. However, at the end of the introduction we end with a gun shot and the title of the film will appear in just white and black, which we are hoping will create a stylish end to the introduction.

The Process of Filming

After the decision of me and my group to change the idea of our thriller, filming it has been more successful, and we are achieving what wanted. We've mainly been focusing on creating established shots, and concentrating on the style of our film. We changed the location to a block of the flats within the city centre, which we used for our chase scene between our two characters. We chose the block of flats as they contained a very "city" feel about them, and it was easy to imagine a chase scene happening in them.

The layout of the flats were also quite symmetrical, and looked effective with stairs leading down to the ground either side, which is where we filmed parts of the chase scene. We also used a range of thriller signifies in our thriller, such as spiral staircases, as they are a known thriller signifier, and looked very effective. We also filmed a white van as white vans are normally associated with kidnappings, and we wanted to suggest to the audience than the main female protagonist had been kidnapped.

Women in the Film Industry

During my media lessons it has become apparent that men certainly have the upper hand within the film industry, as most directors appear to be men, especially in the Hollywood film industry. If you look at the films which have won the most Oscars within the last 10 years such as "Titanic," in 1997 who won 11 Oscars, "The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King," in 2003 who won 11 Oscars and "Ben Hur," in 1959 who also won 11 Oscars, they were all directed by males. This is a huge problem within the film industry, as without women as directors, the audience loose out on seeing women views. However, this also creates the problem of male actors playing the leads in both films and TV series. For example, how often do we see an action or thriller TV series with a female protagonist playing the lead? In fact one of the only TV series which we do see a female taking charge is in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," or programmes also such as "Charmed," which have three women leads who are viewed as being very powerful, and hold the upper hand against men.

Thriller Conventions

During my media lessons, I have learnt what actually makes a thriller, and what thriller conventions are. For example, a thriller doesn't include super-hero's which have the ability to climb up walls or have magical powers. Instead thrillers are corruptive and often quite dark and bleak. Often they also have the certificate of a 15 or 18, and not for the younger audience. They also use real protagonists who are often dark characters who have the ability to kill people and corrupt there lives.

Examples of these type of thrillers are films such as "Chinatown," "Sin City," "Reservoir Dogs," and TV series such as "Spooks." Conventions include crime at the core of the narrative. Examples of films including crime are "Psycho," which involves a human being being murdered while taking a shower. "Sleeping with the Enemy," where Laura is the victim of systematic and violent abuse by her husband, and plenty of other plots from films include penicillin being given to vulnerable children. All these type of plots are defiantly chilling, and not for the younger audience.

Other conventions include false paths, false clues, red herrings and enigmas. An example of these type of conventions being used and conveyed is "Third Man,"where questions may be asked to as why at the end of the film when she walks past the well intentioned protagonist Holly Martins because she is still in love with the character "Harry Lime," who committed heinous crimes against children. This crimes included watering down Penicillin and selling it on at the black market.

Resolutions to the crime are also often ambiguous, and the protagonist is often dis empowered and drawn into a web of intrigue by the antagonist (the person who intends to oppose the hero). The protagonist is also often flawed. For instance, in "Pulp Fiction," Jule's brutal past is redeemed by his sudden professed conversion to Christianity, which is presented as threatening and hilarious.

The antagonist is also often attractive, but the arrogance of the characters can often be there downfall. Extraordinary events also often occur in ordinary situations. For example, the gruesome scene in "The Godfather (part 1)" where a member of the mafia wakes up in bed with the bloodied head of the horse sitting on the pillow beside him. Most possibly one of the most gruesome scenes throughout the the trilogy of "The Godfather." This also induces the shock factor.

Themes of voyeurism is also used, and elements mise-en-scene frequently reflect the protagonist's emotional state. Shadows, lift shafts, alley ways, car parks, car boots, spiralling stair cases all reflect the entrapment of the hero and a suggestion that there is no way out. Thriller signifies such as wall streets and narrow roads indicate a fall into the world that is morally corrupt and confusing.

Deviant female fatale is also classic of noir thrillers. For instance women are often filled with glamour and sexual seduction and pulls the male protagonist into further peril. The themes of identity of who is the protagonist who is the antagonist or line between good and evil are often blurred of confused. The narratives are also often very twisted, which us again a known thriller signifier.