Assignment 15 finished research

Assignment 15: Research

Chelsea Fashole-LukeLaura CukRosie Zein

Rosie Zein – 7479

Chelsea Fashole-Luke – 7357

Laura Cuk – 7341

Inspiration from real film opening sequences

Se7en

Montage style opening sequence.

Enigmas are presented to the audience, as to who this character is.

Cast names flickering on a black screen, emphasises the sinister atmosphere of the sequence.


Zombieland

Starts with a close up of an American flag and a narrators voice can be heard.

Cinema Verite – handheld camera style and direct address towards the camera.

Enigmas created – the audience wants to know the country got into the state of being known as ‘Zombieland’.

Zombieland

The titles are interactive with the images of the opening sequence. For example, the letters in the names are affected by the movement of the characters.


To Kill A Mocking Bird

Close up shot of a box – the audience does not yet know what the contents are.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/to-kill-a-mockingbird/

The title of the film is displayed as part of the diegesis of the film. The child prints in the words onto the paper.

Montage style opening sequence, with names and credits displayed over the images.

Each shot fades into the next.

Creates an enigma because the audience doesn’t know what the film is about, and the childlike imagery of crayons and the lullaby-like music in the background contrasts with the harsh title of ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird’.

Real film opening sequence ‘Psycho’

My inspiration from this film opening sequence is the use of the tense music. The violins made the opening sequence give a sense of anticipation.

The use of the dark background gave off a gothic mood.

The style of the credits/fonts come across the screen and fix the letter together.

Real film opening sequence ‘Se7en’This films opening sequence was inspirational because it used the convention from a thriller and that is montage editing.

The style of the credits/ fonts are flickering on and off of the screen.

The style of the opening sequence is enigmatic. It makes the audience curious as to what the character is doing throughout the sequence.


Sucker Punch : My thoughts on the opening scene.. I liked it because it was very dark and sinister. It introduces the main character and creates enigmas like

what happens to the girl after she is taken away? I liked how the sound combined with the video created an

intense atmosphere and the volume control was used really well.

Inspiration from real films

Story/plot/theme:- Online social interaction- Control over another character- Emotional manipulation

Hard Candy


Story/plot/theme:- Obsessiveness- Captivity- Stalking of a person

Misery


Story/plot/theme:- The making of a social network- Life changing invention- Online interaction

The Social Network


Characters: Hayley Stark (Ellen Paige).With the consideration of the age of the character, her representation connotes her vulnerability. This stereotype is challenged because she soon appears to be the more dominant role in the end.

The colour used in this scene was very sterile

Hard Candy


Fatal Attraction

This is a thriller film about a married man’s one night stand comes back to haunt him. That lover become obsessed with him and begins to stalk him and his family.

After the man continues to reject this ‘lover’ her rage becomes more intense and starts to escalate into violence.


When a stranger calls

This is a thriller film where there is a villain that is calling with an unknown identity.

A teenaged girl has a job babysitting and then she starts getting these peculiar unknown calls from someone.

The teenager then realises there is a man wearing a mask in the house and she knows that she must save herself and the child she is babysitting.


Phone Booth:This film is very intense and suspenseful as the villain is unknown. In the film the man has to stay on the phone with the villain, or the villain will kill his loved one however, ultimately the man knows he will die.

When a stranger calls:This is a thriller film which also has a villain who’s identity is unknown and this relates to our opening sequence. In this film a teenaged girl goes over to babysit at some peoples house and while there she starts getting calls from an unknown number.There turns out to be a masked man in the house, and the girl has to save herselfAnd the children she is babysitting.

Genre and conventionsConvention Explanation Example from real film

1. Perception of reality The main character is unaware or has no sense of true events that occur in the reality outside their mind.

Shutter Island

2. Death of a loved one The death of a loved one causes or spurs the main character to go through several actions or events, such as the need for revenge.

Memento

3. Mystery/enigmas The opening sequence shows an unknown person going through various unconventional actions, eg. Cutting the skin off their fingers.

Se7en

4. Mental danger – to do with the mind The main character has hallucinations or sees things that happened, differently causing them to think certain things have happened, when in fact they have not.

Black Swan

5. Identity The main character is seen to have multiple personalities, struggling to make sense of their true identity. This makes it unclear to the audience, presenting enigmas such as what their true personality is.

Identity

Psychological Thriller

Genre and Conventions

• Genre: Psychological thriller

Convention Explanation Evidence from real film

Tension music The music makes the opening sequence seem eerie and suspenseful

Psycho (the violins gets higher pitched and gives a sense of anticipation)

Flashbacks Flashbacks are used to show a thought or memory. Commonly shown in black and white lighting

Momento(Momento is not filmed in chronological order –

Montage editing Connotes the juxtaposition of seemingly unconnected images in order to create meaning.

Se7en - all the different types of shots of images are all over the place.

Genre and conventionsConvention Explanation Example from real film

1. Incorporates elements of mystery and drama

Mystery to keep the film suspenseful and drama to connect with the characters emotions

Seven

2. Deep focus on the characters state of mind

to be able to understand the character

Phone booth

3. The film is usually narrated.

Usually first person narration to get an idea of what is going through the characters mind.

Momento

4. The music used within the film is usually high pitched and eerie

To set the atmosphere of a typical thriller film.

A woman in black

Themes/topic mindmap

Research on topic/themes

Dangers include:- Fraud- Identity theft- Stolen information- Exposure of personal information (twitter, Facebook etc.)

The dangers of social media

Research on topic/themesOnline relationships

Many people in online relationships (romantic and platonic) lie about their real identity.

These people are known as ‘Catfish’ – the term used to describe someone who creates fake profiles using other peoples information and/or picturesThe TV show ‘Catfish’ which sets out

to discover if people in online relationships are genuine or not. Source: wikipedia.org

Research on topic/themesOnline communities

More and more people now have access to the internet, which means online communities can grow quicker than in the past.

Some online can be beneficial to people, becoming a place of support and friendship.

However, some online communities can be quite harming to people - mostly mentally. E.g.. Online communities for people with eating disorders looking for ‘thinsporation’ and ‘support’ from other who share the same disorders.

Source: wikipedia.org

Research on topic/themesCyber stalking

Source: wikipedia.org


• Online relationshipsOn the internet many people who are involved in online relationships tend to lie about their real identity.

An example of this would be the reality TV show ‘Catfish’.

This TV show receives messages from people who have been messaging someone for quite some time and would like to meet them. This shows helps these people to figure out whether or not these ‘catfishes’ are who they say they are.

The term catfish is used when someone has used a fake picture or a fake account. Almost like stolen identity.


• Real life situations

• Our opening sequence is going to be based on a real life situation where an intense online relationship has a bad side to it. An example of this would be the movie that I also chose for an inspiration film; Hard Candy.


Reality/ Real life situations:Our Opening sequence is based around social

networking and the ‘bad side’ to it.An example of this in a film is the film ‘Hard Candy’. The reality within these films makes them all the more scary, as it means that the things in the film can happen to people in real life.


Identity: Our opening sequence also includes the theme of unknown

identity. An example of this is in the films Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

and Friday the 13th.

This theme is used regularly in thriller films as it creates a lot of suspense as the audience doesn’t know who the villain is and creates an enigma


Mind: Our opening sequence is based on the psychological thriller

genre and will include a character who is fixated on another character.

The mind plays an important role in psychological thrillers as it is mainly about the villain being mentally unstable and this leads them to become villains and be evil.

Some examples of these characters are, Jigsaw (Saw), Scarecrow (Batman), Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)


Death:Characters either fear or are fascinated by

death.This can also link to the theme of the mind as

being fascinated by death links to the idea of a psychopathic villain.

Some examples of these characters are Jigsaw(Saw)

LocationsFirst Location (FLASHBACK):On a bus going towards/ past an area with business buildings.

Second Location (FLASHBACK):A busy café, probably in a shopping area like Whiteleys. The character would be sitting in the area outside the café.

LocationsThird Location (FLASHBACK):Outside an office building – the character will be coming out of the building in work clothes.

Forth Location (FLASHBACK):On a busy normal street where the characters will be crossing the street on opposite sides.

Inspirational charactersCatwoman

- She is strong and independent.

- Her identity is an enigma

- She goes against the stereotype that women are weak

- She emphasises that women can be just a strong as men

Inspirational characters

• #1 Catwoman

Catwoman’s identity is unknown, it is enigmatic.

She challenges the stereotype of woman being less dominant than males.

Throughout the film she connotes that females can be as dominant as men.


• #2 Hayley Stark (Hard Candy)

At first she connotes a weak, vulnerable teenager, but then switches it all around and becomes the more dominant gender role.


Lisbeth Salander (The girl with the dragon tattoo)

Lisbeth is an inspirational character because: She overcomes her fears She is a strong character She saves the second main character from theVillain

Inspirational Characters

Sarah Connor ( terminator 2: Judgement day)

Sarah is an inspirational character because: She is a strong character She tries to help protect others She is selfless She fights against evil

ActorsThe people acting in our opening sequence will be Rosie and Laura. They are available often and good for the role because.......

Strengths Weaknesses

Hard working and reliable.Uses artistic abilities in the filming and editing.

May fall behind in work

Strengths Weaknesses

Hard working and sensible Find it difficult to meet deadlines

Actors Actor of the stalker?

I wanted the stalker to be played by a girl because a common stalker is a guy.I planned on using the same plot of the characters like hard candy (girl is the psycho in the end).

Strengths: Good actressCapable of hiding identityArtistic skills can be applied in costumes and props etc.

Actors

Actor playing Danny Archer:

We wanted to challenge the stereotype of a vulnerable girl.We wanted the victim to be a brunette instead of a blonde character.

Strengths:ReliableSensible

Costume and props

• Costume of stalker I wanted the stalker to wear all black clothing to give a sense of mystery. This connotes that I am reinforcing a stereotype.

Costume and props

Costume of victim:The costume I want the victim to wear would be something basic like a plain white t-shirt and denim jeans with white converses.

Titles and credits

The fall: The tile appears within the smoke in the movie.

It the disappears as it is fanned away by the character, along with the smoke.

Paranorman: The title of the film stays within the genre of spooky, yet mild comic horror and gore.

The creepy hand and the ‘N’s being bigger than the other letters emphasises this.

Titles and creditsTwin Peaks: Very basic, but allows the audience to at least understand that the title is also the name of the setting of the film.

Red Lights: also simple, yet affective teamed with the sinister music.

The title on a black background creates emphasis on the flickers of red light that momentarily surround the title.

The name of the main character is also the name of the film.

The presentation of the title fits in with the high school theme of the film, by showing the audience the title on a student ID card.

Music/sounds

‘Disembark’ – under category of dark/brooding – freeplaymusic.com- Creates mysterious and enigmatic atmosphere- You don’t know where the music is going at first, leads the

audience to question what I going to happen next

‘City Cranes/ - under category of ‘eerie/ethereal’ – freeplaymusic.com- Sounds very eerie- Not knowing what to expect- Creates a chill in the atmosphere

Mainstream or independent • Mainstream films are big budget films whereas independent films have a

smaller budget.• Our film would be a mainstream film as it is not a hard hitting film which

considers issues within society, it would be a film which appeals to a wider audience and so would need to have a bigger budget to be able to distribute to many places.

Some examples of mainstream films are:Avatar TitanicThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Some examples of independent films are:A separationTrain spotting

Target audience

Our target audience would be a mass audience as it would be a mainstream film we would it expect it to attract many viewers.

Also, our chosen genre (psychological thriller) usually attracts a large audience.

BBFC and film rating• To understand what BBFC and film ratings were we researched it and found the official site.• We found the different types of ratings which are U, PG, 12A, 12, 15, 18 and R18.

BBFC rating

Our opening sequence is rated 15.

Here are the different types of ratings:

Production Company #1

• Hammer Film ProductionI chose this as one of my possible production companies to produce my film because this type of company specialising in producing psychological thrillers.

Production company #2

• Lions Gate Entertainment I chose this as one of my possible production companies to produce my film because this particular company produced one of my inspirational films ‘Hard Candy’.

Production companiesBefore choosing our production company we researched our genre to see which

production companies were most commonly used.

BLACK SWAN: Black Swan is a thriller mystery film which used the Fox Searchlight Pictures as their production company and also as it is a conglomerate they used it for their distribution company.

Production CompaniesSE7EN:

Se7en is a crime/mystery/thriller film which only has two production companies which are Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema.

Production CompaniesMEMENTO:

Memento is a mystery thriller film that had four production companies and only the Newmarket company was used as a distributor out of the four.

Production Companies• After doing some research we decided that the would have two production

companies which would be Cross Creek Pictures and New Line Cinema.• We decided to use these production companies as they are very successful and

well known.Click here to watch the New Line Cinema logoClick here to watch the Cross Creek Pictures logo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7VIHtxQPEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V68BIqtqmVI

Distribution companies• As New Line Cinema is part of the Warner bros. Corporation it also

distributes its own films.• For example, New Line Cinema was both the producers and distributers of

Se7en.• So for our distribution company we decided to use New Line Cinema asit

would mean we would pay less.

• Another distribution company we could use would be

Fin.

Entertainment & Humor

Assignment 15 finished research