Locations - The Warehouse

Much like in Reservoir Dogs, we want our trailer to include scenes in a warehouse, with a victim tied down to a chair in some sort of interrogative scene.

For our location, we had a quick search of the internet for inspiration. We are hoping to include a warehouse in our trailer, used as the protagonist female character will be taken here and tied up while the antagonists decide what to do with her.

We want a grungy effect, with dark and messy rooms, surrounded by raw brick walls. There should be small windows to allow minimal light in, allowing for the film noir style we are going for. The examples shown above are what we are aiming for, and will be searching for something very similar to these.

EL

Final Narrative Idea

Intoduced to the three male characters, older guy (leader), younger guy (main character), middle (psychopathic)

Show how the younger guy is a good person, with a family, just got caught up with the wrong people

They are planning a robbery, decide on a house, scope it out, make sure its empty

One night they go in, are in the process of robbing the house when they hear a noise and see the girl who's house it is, she's seen their faces

They run and catch her, take her to a warehouse

Tie her up and have to decide what to do with her

Younger guy wants to let her go, middle wants to kill her, older guy unsure

They argue and fight over what to do

Older guy decides to kill her

Take her out to the woods to dispose of her

Younger guy lets her go to the surprise of the others

They are forced to chase after her

She's running away in the woods

She's escapes and goes to the police

Only tells them about the older two guys, leaves out the younger guy

They get caught and the younger guy escapes

1^st act

·      Introduce characters

·      Show families

·      Planning robbery

2^nd act

·      Them doing the robbery

·      They see someone in the house, meant to be empty, saw there faces

·      Run after her and capture her

·      Take her somewhere and tie her up to decide what to do

3^rd act

·      Montage

·      Debated what to do with her

·      Arguing

·      Punching each other

·      Gun to the girls head

·      Gun to everyones head

·       

·      Final shot of her in a chair and them all around her

·      They might know the girl


EL
EJ
AF

Audience Research- Prezi

EL
EJ
AF

Audience Focus Groups

In each of the focus groups, they were shown a trailer and then asked question about those trailers. The trailers are ones which we are taking influences from.

Focus group for 17-18 year olds:


Focus group for adults about 7 minutes:


Focus group for adults about The Dark Knight:


Focus group for adults about Night Crawler


Focus group for adults about Reservoir Dogs:


Focus group for adults about Welcome to the Punch:

EL

Audience Research - Survey

We decided to use Survey Monkey to conduct our survey. This was very useful as it allowed us to reach a wider audience by sending web links to recipients.


This is our survey below:


EEA Media Survey


We wanted to ask primarily questions about the action/thriller genre, to understand what people are looking for in films.

Audience Research- Classification

BBFC states that most thrillers are classified as a 15, a rating that has specific guide lines and specifications. The rating of 15 means that the film can be viewed by anyone aged 15 and over, any younger and it is not permitted.

As for our own product, we are aiming at a 15, as we feel what our film will include best fits under this certification.


EL

Audience Research - Demographics

Reservoir Dogs:

This demographic clearly shows that this is an extremely popular film, with all ages (apart from females aged 45+) rating it highly. It’s most popular with males under 18 (which is a bit odd given it’s an 18) and as the ages increase as do the rating given. This is most likely due to the graphic nature of the film, which older audiences may not like as much; this is something which we aren't planning to be replicating. From YouTube the trailer has fewer than 500,000 views this is due to the film being from the past and therefore the hype has died down and nobody really watches a trailer from a film which has already come out. It is however shown to be a very popular film from the 97% thumbs up, this means that this trailer would be good to be influenced by.

7 minutes:

This film isn’t the most popular one that we’re looking at, but it is liked by both males and females aged under 18 and males and females aged between 18-29. This is our target audience, as our film would be a 15 and therefore this film is perhaps something which we should look at taking influences from. The film also had the same rating in the US compared to non-US user which suggests the film was relatable across all users and not culture-specific, something which we need to be aware off. With just under 2.5 million views on YouTube, this film clearly gained a large amount of awareness, and along with 93% thumbs up you would assume it would have been very popular, however the IMDB figures don’t support this, this may be because this film hasn’t come out in all countries and therefore the IMDB ratings may be inaccurate.

Drive:

This film is extremely popular across all age ranges and genders. This film was also highly praised for it’s visual style, which is what we are taking influences from. This film rated lower with females in every age range, by around .3. This however is most likely due to the violent nature of the film rather than the visual style. This data was also unexpected due to Ryan Gosling being the lead, who is generally very popular with the female demographic. It isn’t however a noticeably difference but we still need to make sure that we aren’t alienating part of our audience.  On YouTube the trailer got over 5 million views and only 588 dislikes showing the immense praise that this film received.

Nightcrawler:

This film received wide spread acclaim across all ages and genders. It peaked with males aged under 18 at 8.5. The rating was largely the same after 30+, at around 7.7. This is still a great rating even for older audiences. The style and tone of the film is something which we are using as an influence and therefore it is great to see that it’s so universally liked. The trailer on YouTube has the highest view count, from all the trailers I looked at, at 6.1 million and also has 95% thumbs up. This again reiterates the universal love for this film. Jake Gyllenhaal being such a respected and liked actor certainly brought in a large amount of viewers, which our actors wouldn’t bring so therefore we need to be wary of targeting the right audience.

The Town:

The Town is another film which is seemingly liked by all demographics. As this film is quite similar to our own, a heist film, the highest demographics are important to make sure we target the right audience. For The Town it was given the highest rating by Males aged under 18 and Males aged between 18-29. This is useful as this would most likely be a target demographic. It is also however liked by everyone, as it’s lowest rating was in the Female aged 30-44 category, this could be attributed to this demographic not commonly being associated with action/thriller, they however still found the film to be good and therefore it is also important to please a wide range of people in order to make the maximum amount of money. The trailer is also well liked, however I was surprised to find it having so little views after seeing the ratings that it was given.

Trance:

This film is slightly unusual in that the females have given it a higher rating, 7.1 than the males 6.9; I have attributed this to the lead actor being James McAvoy who is very popular with that demographic. The highest rating given was by females aged under 18 which was 7.7 closely followed by males under 18, who gave it 7.5. This shows the importance of having a popular and attractive lead actor, in order to attract a wide demographic. The film is also popular was people aged 18-29 with an average of 7.1, as this would most likely be another demographic we are targeting, this is important to note. The film is also slightly more popular outside of the US, 6.9 compared to in the US, 6.8. I think this is due to James McAvoy being Scottish and therefore attractive a large following in Britain. The YouTube figures also show that it’s a well liked film with 94% thumbs up, however I was again surprised to see a view count of only 1.2 million, as seeing how well liked it was on IMDB on the demographics’ which are most likely to go on YouTube. Perhaps the trailer didn’t do the film justice; this may be something which we look into at a later date.

 Welcome To The Punch:

This film received average reviews across all demographic apart from females aged under 18 where it got 7.3, 0.8 higher than any other. I think this is due to the lead actor of James McAvoy who is extremely popular with that demographic, this shows us the importance of getting a popular lead. The film was also well liked by males aged under 18, another demographic which we are aiming to target.  The trailer has a n unusually low number of views for containing such well known actors such as James McAvoy and Mark Strong, this I think can be attributed to bad marketing and outside factors as it still received a high amount of thumbs up and only 74 thumbs down.

BFI:

From the graph we can see that it’s a great decision to make our film a 15 certificate as according to the BFI the highest cinema admission per age group are 15-24 which make up massive 33% of all cinema admissions. This is very important to be aware of we were making a real film we would be aiming to attract the largest audience. The other table shows what kind of films had a 15-24 year old majority viewing percentage. As Kick Ass-2 and Fast & the Furious 6 are both similar genres to our own, this gives us confidence that our film would be popular within our target age group.

From this research we learnt a great deal of things such as our decision to make our film a 15 certificate, as then we can attract the largest possible demographic. We also believe our film would be more popular with the younger age group due to genre but hope that our style and tone would also entice people from other age groups to see our film. We have also noted how it’s important to get a James McAvoy kind of lead actor who is popular across all demographics and would hopefully boost our ticket sales.

AF

Audience Research - Certification

The Process:

The certification of a film can greatly affect the type and age of audience that come to see a product. For our research into audience, we have therefore looked at the possible certification of our proposed product and its target audience.  To first understand ratings of films we needed to understand the process of certification. This is carried out by at least two examiners on films that are due for theatrical release, and are judged using the published guidelines.  Decisions on certification are often passed onto the Senior examiner for final approval, but when examiners are in doubt or fail to agree, the product may be seen by a member of the board.  When more challenging products require certification, many opinions are taken into account before a final certification is passed.  When deciding a certification, examiners look at criteria such as sex and language, whilst also considering the context. The consideration of the context is important, as many films such as Memento contain the violence of a 12A, yet the psychological feelings evoked after watching make it an 18.  The aim of certification to protect younger audiences from media that may prove harmful to their well being, or hinder their age dependent development.

Application to our product:

The common certification for films in our genre is 15, this is seen in some of our influences such as The Town. However, a film such as Drive (2011) was rated an 18, and in comparison The Dark Knight (2008) was rated 12A. For our own product we want to aim for a 15, as it will allow us to reach a wider audience who may enjoy the action/thriller genre, whilst also allowing for a certain level of violence or thrills to be in it. Furthermore, the largest potential market in the UK is from 15-25, thus meaning our product would be directed at this.

EJ

Final Narrative Desicion

After discussion, we have decided to go with the core ideas of Ewan's proposal.
The main style and tone was best conveyed through his proposal and both Adam and I were happy to go forward with the idea.  However, we have decided to minimise the cast by having 3 primary characters rather than the 7 in Ewan's proposal.  We have also planned to include elements of the thriller genre to hopefully make it a nail-biting trailer to watch.

EJ

Proposal - Sound

My Proposal

Thriller trailer music has a varying style, to create a different mood. When the audience is required to be scared, eerie children's nursery rhyme music is often used to create a juxaposition to the images on screen. In comparison some thrillers, primarily action thrillers, have upbeat music following the images on screen. This builds suspense and makes the audience greatly anticipate what will happen next.
 

However this style of music may be hard to achieve as it is very advanced and as students we would struggle to produce such professional work. We would more likely be able to produce something such as the music below as it is compositionally much more basic, yet it is still able to create an unsettling feeling.
 



EJ

Ewans's Proposal

I want to include a series of sound bites in my trailer, where the explanation of what is happening is played alongside the footage of it actually happening. For example I wish to have part of the 'planning of the heist' to be a soundbite while footage of the actual heist are shown. This should allow for suspense to build up, before the soundtrack that has a bass like rhythm plays as soon as the heist fully begins.

As for the soundtrack, I want it to be similar to the Dark Knight, as shown below in the opening scene of the heist:




As well as this, I hope to include lots of sound effects, where there are deep 'booms' and cuts to allow for the sound bites, something that is used a lot in the trailer for the Dark Knight, as shown below also:

Adam's Proposal

Act 1

• In this act non-diegetic sound would be a piano, calm, soothing, shows the beauty of the AI and the technology. This is done is numerous other trailers and sci-fi trailers in particular
• Voice over in this act as well. The dialogue from the press conference would carry over through out the other shots in the act. This dialogue should be taling about the AI what it can do/and can't and show the shots of the robot helping

Act 2

• The music would stop completely during the hit, to be replaced by a screeching sound?
• After the hit it would start up again but faster and a much creepier tune

Act 3

• Fast paced - drums to go along with the montage, should be at the same beat - heartbeat
• screeching sounds used during montage? (classic sci-fi convention)
• Music getting faster and faster
• Then stop as the titles come up
• No music while the title are shown

Proposal - Titles and Graphics

My Proposal

To begin my research on graphics, I first looked on artofthetitle.com, who have an extensive range of stylised and famous film graphics. I particuarly liked the title artwork for 'Manhattan', a TV drama.  It is the use of the thin black font that i believe would look nice for the title of my proposal as for the title graphics, i am interested in this stylised slick font.

I then looked at film titles and posters, examples of this would be the title of Taken. This graphic looks much more furturistic and harsh than others i was looking at as it has a much thicker wording and the orange font colour lifts it off the primarily black background. I also like the main title of Inception, primarily the use of spaced out lettering.  This creates a much more imposing and professional feel as it consumes much of the screen.

I also like the idea of using yellow combined with either black or white. I believe this makes a statement  and also creates a sense of unease though the punchy colours and bold graphics 

Using this for a graphic, would make it look very unusual however would fit with the thriller nature of the film.

EJ

Ewan's Proposal

For my titles, I want the graphics to be plain and simple, with some sort of distortion, maybe a blur or have them fade in from some flare. Examples of these are trance: as shown below, where the use of the blur on the grunge background makes for the text to be clean. 

I also want to look at the use of motion graphics, such as the 'welcome to the punch' titles, as they fade in from distortion caused by flares as shown below. 

Adam's Proposal

• Titles would appear at the end after a fade to black
• no actors/directors name shown throughout the trailer as they are not bankable stars and therefore wastes time. Can show them at the end along with the titles however as seen in Moon
• Festival awards should also be shown at the start to get the audiences excitement

Title

• Due to being a science fiction film, the text would most likely have to be futuristic or computer like
• However I would like to keep it simple as I feel thats much more effective
• As the film is about AI it perhaps could introduce some thing along those lines? Computer code?
• Moon (as seen above), Enders Game and The Phoenix Project all contain these ideas

Proposal - Character

My Proposal

PROTAGONIST

I think the main character should be like your 'everyday girl', wearing informal clothing and acting relaxed.  An example of this is in Scream, with Drew Barrymore wearing relaxed clothing, mimicing a typical teenager at the time. Another example is 'Single White Female', which follows a very similar story plot to what i would like to create, having a female character obssessed with her friend. An adaptation of this film was made more recently called "The Roommate". Both of these film contain young 18-25 year old characters who are the target of the obssession.

ANTAGONIST

The anatagonist, whether male or female would be hooded when following the protagonist in all black clothing. This would make the audience less able to see the characters face, particuarly if shown at night.

EJ

Ewan's Proposal

5 Key characters: 

ALL CHARACTERS ARE STRANGERS WHEN MET
But, not initially known, two join together and plot to kill the other members after the heist is complete.

1) The heist leader:
His identity is unknown, though is met through the phone and messages. His voice is deep and husky, and he has the element of being creepy and sinister. He should be played as though he is slightly insane, much like the Joker from the Dark Knight, dressed in smart, dull clothes. - creepy, scary, intense. (minus the face paint)

2)Heist member (1) - The guy with everything to loose

He plays a young, nervous man who is desperate for the money. Though it is not initially clear, later the rest of the heist members learn that he is a single father with a young child - desperate for expensive medications that will save his daughters life. His character should be like Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs, yet slightly younger, and slightly more unsure of himself. He needs to be dressed more casually and speak in a hesitant voice. However along with these faults, when he is pressured he need to be aggressive and violent. 

3)Heist member (2) - The good looking, relaxed guy (1)   

Much like in Reservoir Dogs, this character needs to resemble Mr White, in that he is cool, relaxed, yet intelligent. He should be handsome, muscular and clearly the one in charge of the game. He is dressed in a smart suit, and his mask resembles that of a gas mask. He speaks calmly and collectedly. 

4)Heist member (3) - The good looking, relaxed guy (2)

Much like in heist member (2) this character needs to resemble Mr Blonde, in that he is cool, relaxed, yet intelligent also, but he is younger than (1). He should be handsome also, but with blonde hair, muscular yet knows his place beneath heist member (2).  He is dressed in a smart suit also, but different coloured, and his mask resembles that of a gas mask also. He speaks calmly and collectedly., and his character is very similar and gets on well with heist member (2). 

5)Heist member (4) - The smart one

He plays a slightly older and mature heist member, who resembles that of Jacob from Welcome to the Punch. He should be dressed similarly to relaxed guy (1) and (2), and talk clearly with an under tone of superiority to an extent. A mark strong kind of character. Mark Strong

 I want all main heist members to be wearing suits, similar to the style that of welcome to the punch:

Adam's Proposal

Creator -

• Most likely male however could be a female
• Needs to be extremely well spoken, can tell that he's extremely intelligent straight away
• Should wear a casual suit
• Examples for what he should act like are: Johney Depp in Transcendence at the start of the film and Indiana Jones
• He should also dress similar to the character in Transcendence with a suit and an open shirted suit

Robot - 

• Female
• Should be young, around early 20s
• Should act exactly like a human, even though she's not
• Just like Ava and Rachel in Ex Machina and Blade Runner where even though they are robots act just like humans
• Should wear normal clothing, dress?- should be innocent, nothing provocative, again see Ava

Father/Mother -

• Should be middle aged 30s/40s
• Middle class family
• Both wear different clothing in different shots - formal wear, suit/dress and casual wear - jeans, t-shirt to show progression of time
• Father should be a heavy drinker?
• Father should be loud/aggressive
• Mother perhaps a bit more passive but still horrible, abuses her in a different way?
• Example for the father is one of the dad's in Boyhood or the military father in American Beauty
• Or the father in Radio Flyer