Thriller Film Audiences

A thriller film has a range of target audiences, this is based on the type of thriller it is. There are many types of thrillers such as 

• Psychological Thriller
• Comedy Thriller
• Mystery Thriller
• Crime Thriller
• Action Thriller
• Religious Thriller

Many of these thrillers target different audiences as some may be unsuitable for audiences or simply that a type of audience may not be interested. 

For example the film "Speed" or "Die Hard" falls into the Action/Crime Thriller sub genre which would mean its target audience is young male adults. 

Although there are films which have a sense of horror such as "The Sixth Sense" or "The Village" which would be targeted towards a younger female audience as horror films target females. 

We also have a psychological thrillers such as "Momento" or "Cape Fear" which would target a mature and older audience as the movie would involve the audience to think thoroughly. 

Overall I think a generic thriller film would have a young adult audience ranging from 18-25..

Genres & Sub Genres

A genre can be associated with most concepts such as films to gaming or music to books. A genre is normally defined as what type of category the whole concept falls into. The movie "Friends with Benefits" could be easily associated with the genre Romance. Although it could be perceived as a comedy. The Romance would be due to the love interest between both protagonists whereas the Comedy would come from their banter. A movie with two genres is called a Sub Genre such as a Rom-Com which is "Friends with Benefits" genre.

Genres are important to an industry as without a genre the audience will not be interested. The film industry is an excellent example as the audience will watch films that are part of a recurring genre such as an action film. This means that a successful genre brings in audiences, which is the key reason why a genre is repeated over and over again. As audiences, we seem to watch the same genres repeatedly as our expectations are based around our understanding of the genre. If the narrative of the movie is understood by the audience, we instantly feel smart as the narrative is similar to our expectations of the genre. Overall the film industry exploits our habits & interests.

A thriller sub genre which inspires me would have to be "Disturbia". Disturbia has the genres of a thriller and a mystery. The film puts the audience on edge and causes them to doubt the reality or fantasy in the film. It creates an ambivalent feeling towards the protagonist whether he is delusional or telling the truth. The audience feels compelled to believe the protagonist as we see what he sees and understand whats he talking about. This instantly makes us feel superior to the other characters in the movie as they are unaware of the mystery whereas the audience and the protagonists are educated in the mystery. This film could possibly influence our film opening as it highlights key elements of a thriller sub genre and overall makes the audience feel ambivalent over the movie.

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RESEARCH- Analyse conventions

Analysing conventions in a film opening.

 

 

I have chooes to analyse this title sequence because i think it is a very powerful opening to a film;

 

It starts off with a very loud thunder like sound what turns into a contunious pattern of a high pitched snear sound, because of the strange sounds used we can automatically asume that the film is going to be tense, there isnt any dialoge spoken in the title sequence which could infer that there is a suspicious case.

The titles are shown on a black background in white "child like" handrighting all over the place this comes up inbetween clips of the title sequence, the order the titles come up in are very obvious that the most known actors/actresses are shown first then follows other cast member and then the production team and other team members.

We get to see some insites into the film itself through some objects shown for example the hands, weapons and other suspicious items, we get the idea that a murder could be involved in the film but we cannot be 100% sure as we are'nt given too much information, many of the same item are shown more then once eg: the book this lets us know that the book must play an important part in the film.

There are also alot of fade in and outs of differtent objects which creates a sence of confusion between the audience and the film.



Shot by Shot - Final Remake of Collateral

Shot by Shot Remake - Collateral Original Video + Still Shots

Research on Film Opening Convections

The film opening which follows most of the key convection's which are deemed as important is from the film "Panic Room", this film follows key convection's such as;

• Sound
• Credits
• Teasers of the story

 The opening sequence starts of with some thunder and the company behind the production of the film which would be "Columbia". The thunder could foreshadow the dangers or troubles to be aroused as the film escalates. While the opening goes on, there is a eerie and tense music playing along with the 3D  credits and the film name. The music and the titles name of the film works alongside as "Panic Room" sounds pretty suspicious and daunting due to the work "Panic". The teasers from the opening sequence would be from the location which looks like a city -New York. This would give the viewer the idea that the film is set in the city and anything could happen as a city is full of troubles and is very unreliable.

'Watching' Documentary Questions.

1. Thomas Sutcliffe is referring to the opening of a thriller, when he says "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for a instant arousal is almost irresistible'. The first part of a film is crucial for grabbing the audiences attention and ensuring they continue to watch the film and be intrigued to know what the outcome is.

2. Director Jean Jacques Beineix believes that strong openings of films lead the audience to wanting to know more, this creates a problem as the film must answer all the questions that the audience want to know the answers to during the opening sequence. The risk is that the questions that the audience ask may not be answered.

3. The beginning of the movie must establish the narrative and characters without revealing information, the tone of the movie must be set however it is important that too much information is not given away so that the audience are drawn into the film. After an opening of a thriller, the audience must feel like they do not know enough about what will happen, but they must want to know more.

4. Stanley Kauffmann describes a classic opening as an establishing shot (such as of New York city), a close up of a particular building, then a shot of a window and then the camera would go past the receptionist desk into a private office, showing the character. This shows the location of the film and the occupation of the character or hero, therefore, it introduces a film without any dialogue.

5. Kyle Cooper's title sequence to Seven is effective because the title sequence includes shots relating to the thriller, the title sequence introduced the main character without revealing information, thus becoming the first scene of the movie.

6. Orson Welles wanted his film's opening to be a scene without credits and title music as he wanted the audience to be immediately drawn into the story without having time to prepare for it. However, Universal Studios removed the effect that Orson Welles wanted by adding the titles to the opening sequence.

7. 'A favourite trick of Film Noir' is when the opening of a film is actually the end of it, this means that the audience will want to watch the film so that the know the destination of it. The beginning of the film is infact its ending as it reveals what will happens at the end.

8. The opening of The Shining creates suspense as the car is being tracked by the camera in a way that makes you feel as if the car is being followed as if by a predator, the audience are made to feel as if the people in the car may be travelling to somewhere that they shouldn't be, this creates suspense and anticipation which keeps the audience on edge and wanting to watch the film.

PLANNING: Storyboard.

Above are the images of our story board, there is a brief description of the framing and camera work of each shot.

PLANNING: Shot by Shot Remake.

As a group we decided to use 'Collateral' for our shot by shot remake. We made a rough story board of the shots and wrote a brief description of the camera work and framing of each.

The character of Tom Cruise will be played by Ami who will also bring in a pair of dark glasses.

Layla is playing the other main actor and both Nyomi and Emma are directors and taking control of the camera work.

The other prop needed is a brief case which will be provided by college.

The location we decided to use is Angel Tube Station as it would work well with the busy environment that was in the film.

PHOTOGRAPHY TASK

Here is a big close up of Layla's face, it is used in filming to show someone's facial expresssions, it is especially useful in thrillers and horror to convey the character's emotions.

 Above are two wide shots used to establish a location. The first shot is of a corridor and is a good example of a wide shot. The second is from a high angle and shows the college canteen.

We experimented with different shots of feet, the first is from a slight low angle and can be used to show someone walking. There is bad framing in the second and third shot as there is alot of unused space.

Here is a well framed over the shoulder shot which is used to in reverse shows to show the dialogue between two people. There is no empty space in this shot.

 The above shots show bad framing as they break the conventions of the rule of thirds. There is alot of empty space above Layla's head, the first shot also shows bad lighting conditions as the image is extremely dark.

 This shot follows the rule of thirds as there is not much space above Layla's head and her face is in the top third of the frame, this medium wide shot has space for another character to enter the frame. This shot also shows how lighting can effect the shot as Layla's face can not be seen due to the lighting from the window in the background.

In this shot both Layla and Nyomi are in the frame, it follows the conventions of the rule of thirds as there is no empty space in the frame.

Here is a shot to show how bad lighting can effect a shot. This shot shows bad framing but also shows that disrupts the viewers eyes from the character.

RESEARCH: Examples of how conventions of film openings is followed.

I researched some other thriller openings and found that 'Donnie Darko' followed the conventions of a film opening.

Titles:
These appeared first, in comparison to some other openings where they appear during the opening sequence. They showed the production company and director but did not show the names of the cast. At the end of the opening the film's name was shown (shown on the right).

The distribution companies of this film were Newmarket Films and Pandora Cinema, the company ident's were shown before the opening of Donnie Darko and can be seen on the left.


The mood:
The use of low key lighting adds to the feel of the film, the mood appears to be very sinister, this is reinforced by the performance and non-diegetic sound.

Insight:
Jake Gyllenhaal's performance helps to give an insight into his character without revealing any information about him. The location is also shown, although it is not clear where exactly the narrative is set, it seems to be in a rural area, this is also reinforced by the sound of birds which can be heard under the music.

Sound:
Although the music in the opening sequence is unlike some more obvious choices for a thriller, it is still used to suggest that something bad will happen during the film as it helps to build tension so that the audience are intrigued to what will happen next.

RESEARCH-conventions of thriller openings

In the first lesson on thriller openings we discussed the conventions of a thriller film opening, the main points we came up with as a class were:

• That the mood of the film is set.
• The persific order of titles that come up. 
• Any sounds heard usually sounds that build up tension and suspense. 
• Any teasers (insights) of the film also know as a "hook" as they get the audience hooked wanting to watch the film this can included insights to the characters life's, the location and the all over narrative. 
• There don't have to be dialog in the opening of a film. 
• The producers ident is always shown at the start of the opening. 

On the film opening of "panic room" we can get a clear insight of the location the film is set this helps to give the audience the mood of the film and gives the audience something to relate too. This could also be used as a hook because the audience know a small detail about the film and makes them want to continue to watch to find out what will happen later on.

Research - Conventions of a Film Opening

To get an idea of the conventions of a "thriller" film opening, I had the chance to watch some openings of a thriller film. Whilst watching them, I noticed some key elements which made the openings unique as opposed to others. Each opening had its own way of altering my perception of what was supposedly happening, this was done through;

• Teasers of the story 
• Special effects
• Sound - Edgy, Eerie, Atmospheric, Scary, Sinister and Tense
• Titles - Film crew, Production company etc...
• Dialoge - Significant to characters representation

All these elements created a different mood, these elements were key to the creation of the mood as they created an ambivalent feeling within myself. 

The image to the side is from the film opening "Se7en", the text of the title creates an overwhelming feeling as it looks pretty suspicious and sinister. Also the drawing of the hand emphasises the creepiness within that frame.

During the opening credit, there is a lot of eerie and dark music which plays apart in the creation of the creepiness opening. Although there is no digetic sound within the opening the non digetic sound helps the viewers conjure and idea of what the opening represents and connotes.

The film Se7en follows most of the key convections of a film opening as the elements -Sound, credits, teasers subsequently create a feeling for the viewer depending on the film opening. The film Se7en overall creates a dark and creepy atmosphere thus working alongside the thriller.

RESEARCH: The conventions of film openings.

We watch some openings of thrillers in class and discussed the conventions of film openings. Some of the main aspects of the opening of a thriller include:

• The hook: a teaser of the narrative
• Special effects/ sounds effects
• Music: this is used to build tension
• The production company's/producer's ident
• The titles: these include the production company, main cast, the film's name, other cast members and the directors. The order in which these appear varies between films, for example, the actors may appear before the director if they are more famous.
• In some cases, an insight is given into themain characters of the film or the location of the thriller may be told.
• The audience are able to have a sense of the film's mood. 

One of the film openings we watched was 'The shinning'. In this opening, the order of the titles were: production company, main cast, the film's name, featuring cast and then the directors. 
I liked the use of music in this thriller as the tension that is built is in contrast to the scenery. This helps to add suspense and make it clear to the audience that something will happen. The car is also tracked, this shows that it will be important in the narrative.

Another opening that we looked at was 'Seven'. This was extremely different to 'The shinning' and I found that it built alot more tension as there were a variety of shots which gave an insight to what the film was going to involve.

The film director and actor's names were shown on a black screen as well as overlapping the shots. Below are some examples of this.

The order of the titles followed the conventions of film opening's as the movie stars were shown before those involved in the making of the film. The opening also used music to add suspence and helped to give a sense to what the film may be about without revealing any information.

RESEARCH - Conventions of film openings

Although different films may have different genres many films go by the same structure when creating an opening for the film.

SETTING THE MOOD
Most films will create the mood for the film so that the viewer has an idea of what the film is going to be about or based on. The idea is the hint at this but not to give too much away about the actual film.

SOUND
In class we looked at the opening for the shining. The music used in the opening helped to indicate that the film may be a scary film or a thriller and it helped to build tension. This was done by using slow music and having sudden sounds which may surprise the viewer on put them on edge. However if the film hap a happier tone the music used may have been more upbeat or relaxing so that the viewer felt comfortable and not on edge.

SPECIAL EFFECTS
The opening of the film my use special effects to provoke a certain reaction from viewers. This can be done by using different transitions between shots. For example there may be quick transitions from one shot to another to make the viewer jump.

TITLE SEQUENCE
The title sequence usually has a certain structure and order to what names are shown on screen first. Films usually show the producers ident first for example MGM have the roaring lion before their films start. This is usually followed by the director, then the names of the most known/ important stars, then the name of the film and then followed by the other members of the cast.