Mini pitch plus Q&A

As a group we came to a decision about the idea of what we are going to do for our Thriller. the ideas we gave in our mini pitch were a rough idea about what is going to be in our opening sequence. From the feedback we received about the ideas we had in mind of our Thriller were very helpful as we were able to see what was good or bad and if something needed changed a little. The feedback was good for our group as a whole because we were able to go in more depth to our audience and explain why we are having no dialogue in our opening for example to give them a better picture of our ideas which enables us to get good thorough feedback. As a whole the concept of our thriller was good and from the feedback it was mostly positive.

Mini Pitch

Mini pitch from melissapreston100

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WXHP55F

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WXHP55F

Podcast - Group discussion

https://soundcloud.com/melissa-preston-794115821/new-recording-2-media-2

Sound

When choosing the music for our thriller we needed to make sure we used uncopyright music that would fit with our opening and also the conventions of a thriller.
The screenshot below is the link we used in which we embedded the background music into our thriller.

When we were deciding on the sound to use we were stuck between three different one, these were:

But we chose the one which is at the top (first screenshot) because it created a more edgy feeling and worked the best.


The screenshot below is of the link we used for the ticking of the clock in our thriller.

Podcast 2

Initial Ideas Powerpoint - Eoin

Inital ideas group 4 from eoin69

A scatter of initial ideas- Aleks

Initial ideas for thriller openings.

1-
Forest establishing shot= tree line
time of day dusk or dawn
antagonist with spade, whistling- tracking shot below the belt or from the back- not showing face
TITLE
police office/ detective investigation department. phone call.

2-
Religious/crime thriller
zoom into statues etc in church
religious music
TITLE
camera sweeps interior of church (mass)
religious music playing
sermon/reading = a brutal part of the gospel; something on the lines of an eye for an eye
final shot: candle -candle goes out shot fades

3-
Car 
radio on
shot so you can't see the drivers face.
person in the boot close up, bloody bruised swollen
car comes to a stop- shot of wheels rolling to a halt
shot from inside the boot - person listening - sound of their breathing.

4-
Missing poster 
busy street filmed over 12hrs dark to light- sped up 
titles overlapping

5-
virus mutation
world war z style
lab (short shots)
vs news reports montage

6-

Initial Ideas

Brainstorm of ideas

Audience Research - Interview

Audience Research - Interview with sister

Interview with my sister about thriller films.

I = Interviewer (Myself)
S = Interviewee (Sister)

I: Hi Ciara just before we start is it okay if these answers are all written down and added onto my blog which could be possibly viewed by anyone online?


S: Of course, thats fine!


I: Great, right, I'm just going to answer you a series of questions about films in general and more specifically thriller films. What sort of things make a good thriller in your opinion?


S: Umm, well the main thing is that it has to bet thrilling! There has to be a big twist which constantly keeps you questioning the film after you've finished watching. I also love a thriller with lots of misleading or false evidence in them, that always seems to keep me gripped to a thriller film.


I: Great answer! What sort of things do you expect to see in a thriller opening?


S: I feel that it needs to have a bit of action or mystery to it. If theres nothing interesting about the opening, it can really put you off the film! Many times I've seen boring openings, then just turn the film off and don't give it a second chance.


I: Right, and finally what's your favourite sub-genre of thrillers, for example action, adventure, psychological, horror and why?


S: Without a doubt psychological! My favourite film of all time has to be Shutter Island which is a pretty much perfect psychological thriller in my opinion. I feel that psychological thrillers require more thought, and often you have to watch the film multiple times just to understand it fully. I love psychological thrillers and it most definitely is my most favourite genre.


I: Great! Thank you so much for your time!


S: No problem

Audience research - Focus group

 

We collected a small group of people who are roughly the audience we are aiming our Thriller opening to be targeted at and showed them the opening of the film Six Sense. Before they watched the opening we asked them several questions which were...

 

What makes you want to see a film?
How often do you go to the cinema? What would make you go more?
What would you expect from a Thriller opening?

Now that the  group have watched the opening, we then asked these questions...

What did you think was particularly effective about this opening?
Was there anything you thought was unnecessary or what would you change if this was your Thriller opening?
What sub genre of a Thriller do you think this would be?
What sub genre of Thrillers do you like?

Focus group

Focus Group Response -

A second series of questions was based on the opening of the Sixth Sense.

There was a criticism of the credits which were said to be too long; we can conclude from this that we should have credits that overlay the shots on our opening rather than two distinct halves( :credits on a plain black screen and then the opening scenes) so that credit can be given to the film makers but simultaneously an establishment of action can take place.

Focus group

Focus Group Response-

Taking in mind that the audience for our thriller would be 16+, we collected a focus group of four people from 16-17.

Initial questions gave background to their film watching habits; visibly the cast and crew (and thus the quality of acting and montage) is an important aspect, as is genre.
Thriller came as quite a popular genre among our interviewees with the most important elements being the construction of tension and suspense. It was suggested by our interviewees that a good way of creating suspense is in particular through sound and music; seemingly a vital elements of a thriller opening, through this response it is clear that our group must put emphasis on the creation of tension and incorporate music in order to do this.

Audience Research IMDb Research

Highest Rated Thriller Feature Films With At Least 1,000 Votes

1.Airlift

9.6/10

2.RangiTaranga

9.1/10

Top-US-Grossing Thrillers

1.Jurassic World

$652M

2.Avengers Assemble

$623M

Lowest Rated Thriller Feature Films With At Least 1,000 Votes

1.The Hellcats

1.8/10

2.Birdemic: Shock and Terror

1.8/10

Most Popular Thriller Feature Films

1.		The Revenant (2015)      8.3/10  A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu With: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter Adventure | Drama | Thriller | Western156 mins.
2.		The Hateful Eight (2015)     8.0/10  In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters. Dir: Quentin Tarantino With: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller | Western187 mins.

Audience Research

Film Listings- 

what's on and where?

ODEON-

           

The Revenant is a new 2016 release, which is a 15.

It is shown 17 times a week in Uxbridge, which is a large cinema as it has 9 screens.

Find your breaking point is a 15 and is shown 3 times a week in Bournemouth. This is because it only has 6 screens.

VUE- 

Spotlight is a 15, which shows 15 times a week in Westfield London. This cinema has 17 screens.

Cineworld - 

13 Hours is shown 12 times in Cariff Vue cinema complex and it is a 15.

This information is useful to know as it shows Thriller films are very popular all over the country and are shown a lot through out the week. The majority of the Thriller films in cinemas have an age certificate of 15 which is useful information as it shows us what age range our opening should be for and targeted at.