Sub genres and audiences

Sub genres and audiences

Sub genres are genres within a genre. Most James Bond films have a few sub genres. A genre is the main theme of the film, it’s clearly communicated, and the sub genres are extra themes within the film for example: if a thriller is set in the future is would be classed as a science fiction thriller.

Sci-fi thriller:

Often set in the future or on another planet. May also contain futuristic elements such as; time travel, robots, new technology. Sci-fi films usually contain story-lines that would not follow the rules of science. “Knowing” is a good example of a sci-fi thriller. 

Film noir thriller

Film noir thrillers are usually set in big cities, often in America, some where people would recognise without a lot of colour. “Femme fatale” a stereotypical woman would often be involved in the plot usually blonde with a hidden background.

Sub genres

 

 

 

Gangster thriller; (snatch) fast, music, freeze frames, cartoons, nicknames

Supernatural thriller; (the orphanage) search, shadows, torch light, music

Sci-fi thrillers; (alien and terminator) text-font, symbols,

Horror thriller; (seven) montage, mystery-extreme close ups, colour, sound

Third location

Third location: stamford

 

 

 

 

Richard and Felix drove us to and from each location. Because the locations we wanted to use were not all in the same close area we decided to use our own transport, rather than using public transport with all of our filming equipment.

To get a range of high and low shots Richard climbed onto the roof of his car. I think this shot worked well and emphasised the feel of the victim (Harry Preen) being followed or watched. When we were filming this long shot we had to take quite a few things into account. Firstly we had to be careful not to get any members of the public in the frame because this would ruin the continuity and the era we would be trying to set (1950’s). Secondly we had to take quite a lot of safety into account we had to be very careful with the equipment and Richard on top of his car. We did not move the car whilst Richard was filming on top of it.

We were hoping to create a sense of mystery and tension in this scene. This scene would show a long shot of the victim (Harry Preen) walking past the two German Officers (Richard Gledhill and Felix Rouch) we chose to film at St Georges Square in Stamford. We chose this location because it is usually a quiet street, also there are few cars parked in this area so we didn’t have to worry so much about what we could include in the framing. Finally we used this area because there are few shops of signs giving away the modern era this was very useful as we were hoping to create a 1950’s theme throughout our thriller opening.   

second location.

Second location: stamford

 

 

 For our second location we used a quiet corner in Stamford, a short walk from the meadows. We had to be careful with the framing of each shot to avoid any cars. We also had to be respectful of the local’s privacy so we tried to avoid including windows, Cars and front doors in our framing. We also had to take into account that we were using a public road and people were occasionally walking by, to avoid getting people in our framing we stopped filming to let them pass. In this time we checked how all of the footage was coming out and whether we needed to add more, we also tried out different camera placements so that we would have a range of low and high angled shots.

 

First location.

 

First location: Bourne

 

 

 

 

 We were lucky to have good weather for our filming day. Although it was November it was quite sunny and not too cold.

Our first location was at a farm path between two fields, it is usually used as a dog walking path between Bourne and Northorpe. We spent between 30minutes- an hour at the first location.

In the time we spent at the first location we managed to get a wide range of long shots, mid shots, and close ups all of Harry running we also tried a point of view shots to see if they would work when we came to edit everything together. We chose to use shots like these to create a sense that the victim (Harry Preen) was being watched or chased.  We have looked at films such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Defiance for inspiration.

When we arrived at the location there were a few tractors at the far end of the path. Luckily we did not need to use that end of the path so we didn’t get in the way of the farmers work. When we were filming we had to think carefully about the framing so that we didn’t include the tractors in any of our film because they would not have fitted the time era we were trying to replicate.

Actors

Actors

 

 

 

Harry Preen- victim/ runaway spy.

 

We chose Harry to play this character because out of the 3 guys in our group harry is the smallest also he looks the weakest and therefore the most vunerable.

We dressed Harry in a black leather jacket, dark jeans/ trousers and black boots, he also wore a shirt and tie and carried a, fake, gun. We dressed Harry in this way because we were hoping to achieve a similar look to one we saw created in the film “tinker, tailor, soldier, spy”. I think Harry’s character was well dressed because he looked like he would fit into a crowd but still look slightly out of place.

 

Richard Gledhill-German Officer (1).

 

We chose Richard as one of the two officers because he visually fits the role, also we thought it would create an intimidating. to act as this character richard wore a dark military style jacket and had his hair Jelled back in a smart officer fashion.

 

 

 

Felix Rouch- German Officer (2).

 

We also used Felix as a German officer because he too visually fits the role. We were also hoping to create an intimidating atmosphere by using two officers against the one spy (Harry Preen). Felix was quite hard to dress in costume, as he is quite tall! we managed to find him a dark

Military style jacket similar to Richards so that they would look alike and as though they were in uniform. We chose the darker jackets because dark colours and shadowing is often used in older films , such as double indemnity, to portray the “bad” in the characters. As a visual this worked well, especially as we didn’t have the option of creating much of our own lighting or shadowing.

 

 

 Helen Willcock- Backseat murderer.

 

I was chosen to be the killer in our thriller opening because we wanted to introduce a new character and to have a twist in our storyline. I also had the dark but unlikely appearance; small, girl and dark hair. When I was dressed in costume I wore my hat so that it tilted forward a little over my eyes, this was to create a sense of mystery because not all of my face was being shown. We also chose to hide from my eyes up, with the hat, because we didn’t want to show too much expression, this is similar to a technique policemen use. Overall we are hoping to have the audience questioning what Is happening and what is going to happen next.

 

 

 

 

We decided to split the characters in this way because in our group Harry is best at acting like a mysterious but weak character. Also Felix and Richard visually fit the theme of the German officers (blonde hair, taller). I was chosen as Harry’s backseat murderer because we wanted to add a twist into the story of our film; we were inspired by double indemnity in which there is a female character who plans her husband’s death.

 

Our Questionnaire Feedback

 

Our Questionnaire Feedback

 

We asked 15 students aged 17-23  The following questions to factor in what to include in our thriller opening. Each student we asked regularly watches films especially within the thriller genre.

 

1.     What is your favourite sub-genre of thriller?

2.     What is your favourite psychological thriller and why?

The most frequent responses from this question were:

 

Ø Shutter Island

Ø Silence of the Lambs

 

However other answers included:

 

Ø Seven

Ø The Machinist

 

 

3.     How do you hear about new thrillers?

 

4.     What is your favourite poster for a thriller and why?

 

The most common response for this question was ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. The explanation for this question was “Because it is simple and explains the entire film in one line… and looks very cool”.

 

Another response was ‘Kill Bill’. This response was because “the poster explains the plot in a quirky manner”.

 

 

5.     What is your favourite trailer for a thriller and why?

 

The most popular trailer for a film in the questionnaire has been 2013’s Gravity. One response said that ‘this trailer has the most impressive visuals I’ve ever seen and that was only a two minute trailer’

 

6.     What do you expect to see in a Psychological Thriller?

 

There was no set answer for this question and the responses varied from the participants but some key points that were raised were as follows:

 

‘Great plot and a twist at the end’

‘Interesting characters that betray the audiences trust’

‘Props that create suspense throughout the film’

 

7.     Do these Thrillers grab your attention on social media?

 

 

 

8.     What is the worst thriller you have seen and why?

 

There was no clear standout for this question. However some key points were for the same reasons i.e.

 

Ø Paranormal Activity: This film is completely fake and gives no compelling story to its audience

Ø Snakes on a Plane: Too silly to be taken seriously in the ‘thriller genre’.

 

9.     What do directors get wrong when shooting thrillers?

 

10. What characters appeal to you and why?

 

This question allowed us to find out how people react to certain characters:

 

‘A likeable hero, but with a history that will haunt them in the film’

‘A bad guy, one that has no limits to how evil they can be’

‘The main character needs to be mysterious. This keeps us guessing as to their true nature’.

 

11.                       What key things grab your attention in Thrillers?

12.                       What types of props do you expect to see in thrillers?

 

The most common answer for this question was ‘Guns’, although ‘Knives’ and ‘Masks’ were also used in the list.

 

 

13.                       Do you feel that black and white films have more of an effect in the thriller genre?

 

 

14.                       Do your personal interests affect the films you watch?

 

15.                       If so, then how?

 

The responses varied from positive to negative:

 

‘I massively like the supernatural world and this makes me prefer supernatural thrillers’.

 

‘My personal interest is historic events and this makes me more interested in espionage thrillers’.

 

‘I like all kinds of things, none of these have an effect on what I watch however’.

 

What we will do with the feedback

After studying the results from our questionnaire we have an idea of what we would like to base our thriller on. The most popular response from our target audience was to focus our storyline around a psychological thriller theme. to achieve this we well look further into psychological thrillers by watching the openings to a few, as research. in another area of the questionnaire we covered setting, in the planning for our thriller we will have to consider very carefully where we set our main action, as some people responded in the questionnaire saying they thought setting was one of the key aspects the directors got wrong.
With characters the character was preferred  to be likable. However with such a short amount of time (2 minutes) we wont have enough time for the audience to really get to know the main characters.We were planning to film our production in colour and then edit it so it would become black and white. However we decided against that idea after we read that the responses suggested we should keep the thriller in colour.









 

Feedback from our Pitches

 

 

We decided to use our first idea of an Espionage thriller. mainly because it was the most practical. Also we all were really eager to have a go at making a 1950's style thriller.

This idea also had the best response from our group and teacher after we put forward our three pitches. I think this idea has the most potential and we will have quite a lot to work with and try out.

Planning: health and safety

Health and Safety

 

 

 

Because we are working as a part of the school we had to take quite a few things into account. We were told a few basic rules regarding the content of our videos, We are not allowed to show any use of drugs or alcohol, we were also not allowed to show any of the students smoking during our film.

 

 

For a short few mid- long shots in our film we did show the victim carrying a gun, although it was not real. Because we were not allowed to use a real weapon, unsupervised, during our film I made a wooden gun and painted it black so that from a distance it would create a silhouette of a real gun. When we were filming in public parts of Stamford we had to be very careful, so that people did not get worried or think that we had a real weapon with us. When we weren’t using the wooden gun we kept it safely out of the way in a spare camera bag.

 

Quite a few of our opening mid-long shots showed the victim (Harry Preen) running. We had to be careful that he wasn’t running along an unsafe path or road because we wouldn’t want him to be in any form of danger. The first path we used was a farming track in-between two fields, there were a few tractors further down the path but for the time we spent filming none of the tractors moved. If they had been using the path we would have had to move to another area.

 

When we were filming in Stamford we used a cobbled road (to help fit in with the 50’s theme) if the weather had been rainy we would have had to use a different road. Although there were no cars there was a slight slope which would have made running up it a little dangerous if the weather had been different.

 

storyboard

Original Storyboard 

Box 1= we would like to open our thriller with a man running through a field. When we shoot this scene we will be focusing on the “spy/victim” (Harry Preen). This scene will be shot at mid-day so we won’t have to worry too much about making our own lighting. We will be using a leather jacket and the fake wooden gun in this scene.

Box 2= Following the field scene we are going to film in an alley area. We have chosen an old street in Stamford, Kings Mill Lane. To create a smooth transition we have also filmed Harry running from the Stamford Meadows over a bridge leading into the town area.

Box 3= we are hoping to create quite an intimidating for the victim. In this shot we are hoping to create a double over the shoulder shot. By Using the two “officers” (Felix and Richard) to frame the shot Harry appears smaller, he also looks quite weak. Over all we would like the audience to think that the victim is always being watched or followed.

Box 4= This will be a follow from the Officers OSS. We have decided to move to a close up of Harry’s face to show his emotions clearly. This OSS shot will also include the officers walking towards harry to create a sense of tension. Box 5 continues the sequence of The spy/ victim walking past the Officers.

The next few shots will be mainly of the car sequence. We will be using quite a lot of match on action in this sequence; Opening the car door, getting into the car, closing the car door, noticing an open window, and point of view from the victim and the backseat killer.

 

The last few shots of our opening will show different points of view shots between the Killer (me) and the Victim (Harry Preen). There will also be a mid-shot pan in the car moving from the victim, lying on the steering wheel, to a newspaper. To Film in our titles we are hoping to create a French newspaper and use headshots of everyone in our group as article photos, we would then incorporate our names and candidate numbers.

Props and costume planning

Props

 To help complete the theme of 1950's we are going to use props related to the era. The first prop we are going to use is a mens hat, we have found a black hat the style of which was popular in the 50's. We have chosen this look because Hats are good to portray a shady or dark character, similar to the way male characters are portrayed in the Film Noir genre, For example we all watched

Double indemnity.

(FAKE)

 

 

To help add to the "spy" and war themes within our thriller I have made a wooden gun as another prop ( gun is fake and made from wood) we decided to use a gun prop to create a sense of danger and protection, as the victim is running away from something. We made a gun to fit the theme as well as to complete the charcters look, we took insperation from films such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

We have added a leather jacket because we were trying to follow a similar look seen in the film "tinker tailor solder spy". By the day of Filming we had collected quite a few other jackets to try out as well. In the end we used my Grandmas Black leather jacket (which suited Harry perfectly) we also had another Black hat although we didn’t end up using it until almost the end.

 

 

 

 

We were quite fortunate because Harry has a 1950’s Morris Minor we were able to use, this was lucky because the car fitted in with the era we were trying to re-create. We also used the car keys in quite a few cut away shots to add extra details.  

Thriller idea 3

Thriller Idea 3

 

 

Our last idea would be ideal if it were to snow on our filming day. This idea is quite similar to the other two so we could easily adapt to the weater. the basic storyline is about  a man and a body in an abandoned warehouse. by the end of our Opening sequence we would like to leave the audience questioning why the man had the body, why they were at that location and who the body is.