Target audience and Production Company

Our demographic is 18+ aimed for males due to a survey we created and asked local people of both genders which genre of film they are in to.  This would be considered as a niche audience. We asked an equal number of males and females (total of 50) to make results fair. The people we asked were aged 15+ to get a wider aspect however, our demographic is aimed for 18+ due to the excessive violence involved, the deeply psychological theme and general graphic images such as a lot of blood.

 Here is a list of the characteristics and lifestyle of our aimed demographic:

• The social class- C2 + D

• Disposable income around £18,000 - £25,000

• The location of our demographic would be Cambridgeshire- it is local as we are a low budget company.

• The ideal audience will either be living alone, with friends, partner or family members (parents).

• The audience will have an English ethnicity due to the area it will be known in. However, one actor is Polish (Ryan) and the other is Scottish (Glen).

• Full time work or full time education such as Uni

This is our ideal demographic due to the type of life they live. young people will have more time to watch films due to not having a family of their own. This age range (18-25) will also be able to relate to the main male character, Ryan. This can lead into personal identity and personal relationships as an audience pleasure from the uses and gratifications theory.

The ideal psycho-graphics are:

• Caring

• Interested in psychology - means they will understand the film more

• Sociable - due to their age

• Sympathetic - able to connect to Ryan (main character).

The uses and gratifications theory will apply to the audience through personal identity. This can be seen through the therapy sessions. Many people may be able to relate to what it is like to be in a situation of needing to get help and advice. This can be seen through the shot reverse shot of the conversation between Ryan and Dr.Phillips. Secondly, personal identity can be an audience pleasure through the narrative of Ryan's childhood. Many people suffer from home abuse/violence/parents arguing all the time or parents with an addiction. Many individuals have been bullied when they were younger too. This will ease the audience and lets them aware, they aren't going through or have gone through this alone.

Moving on to the production company:

Due to being classed as a low budget company, we decided to keep our logo plain and simple. We are called EA Productions which stands for Ernulf Academy. Our logo image implies we are a serious company through the colour black. The star in the middle implies that we are the best and aim star high with our films.

Thriller film poster research

I decided to do some extra research ready for when I come to creating my own film poster. I decided to use Instagram in order to present my pictures.

The link to my page-

https://www.instagram.com/a2_media_coursework/

Whilst looking at the thriller film posters, I noticed there is usually one or two main characters shown either in an action or still shot. This shows the audience either what it could be about or how the characters feel used by the mid shots and close ups used.

The colours mainly used for the background is either black or dark blue. This connotes a range of emotions such as worry, sad, paranormal etc. The colours are dark which tells the audience the film will be scary such as a horror or a thriller genre.

The titles are usually located at the bottom either in white or red font. This connotes danger. There is usually a tag line used at the top to give a little information out. There is also usually the release date located at the very bottom of the poster. Some of the posters have the celebrity names on in order to gain star power for the film.

Pitch and feedback

This is the Pitch for our Trailer.

We had to work as a group to put this together and we all had divided sections to cover.

The feedback I received was:

"You have a very good range of sounds planned for your trailer with reasons linked to the genre and your target audience. you explained the rationale behind using inter titles rather than a voiceover well and you explained the choice of settings. You related each of these to your research of existing films and have considered the practicalities of filming them. Be careful that you plan the mise-en-scene of the therapist office so it looks realistic and rehearse the filming at night to ensure it is not too dark and the audience can see the clues."

Reading the feedback I received made me think that rehearsing scenes would be a good idea and less time consuming on the day of filming.

Watching back from the pitch, I noticed my nerves got the better of me. I know next time, I need to be more confident so my speech flows better and I can get across my ideas easier to the audience.

Music and Sound

In order to find our music, we will be using a website called Free Play Music. This website has hundreds of different music types.

There are a couple of choices of music we have chosen to play throughout the trailer. We wanted a slow beat, mysterious sound at the beginning which then leads into a fast paced thrilling sound.
The types we have found are:

• Outrageous Whisper composed by Phillip bright

• Over and over composed by Phillip bright
• Horror Film composed by Warren Chadwick

We would like this non-diegetic music to play over the shots but dim down when there is dialogue.

We will also use the website, Freesound in order to get sound effect such as glass smashing, a bang sound.

The sound effects we will use are:

• A young child crying
• Door slam
• Emphasised sound on a glass smashing

We then have dialogue during the Flash back scene and the therapy session. This will tell the audience a little about his background and his condition.

We discovered that many film trailers use a voiceover. This tends to be spoken by a middle aged American male. However, we decided for our film that a voiceover will not be suitable due to there being too much information given away. In order to communicate with the audience, we decided we would use inter titles instead.

CHANGES MADE:

As a group, we decided we did not need any sound effects due to the non-diegetic music fitting in sufficiently. We filmed the high angle shot of Glen slamming the glass down, however we decided to cut this from our trailer due to it not being needed. We also decided to keep to Outrageous Whisper as the overall track the whole way through. This is because it fits in well with the footage and transitions used as well as it becoming more fast paced towards the end which is what we were looking for.

Comunications with people.

How do we stay in touch?

As a group, to stay in contact with each other about filming, we use a Facebook group chat to exchange ideas, work such as sending each other the link for the pitch, and when we are filming.

How do we arrange to film?

We use the group chat to arrange dates and times we will be filming and to see when people are free.

This is a quick and sufficient and modern way to interact with a group message.

Shot list

These are the shot-lists for each scene.

During the day of filming the flashback scene, I decided to include a shot reverse shot conversation between the two parents. This was so we had enough footage, and it also helped to trailer flow and helped make the conversation seem more realistic.

Shot reverse shot scene in the therapy room:
Stuart Hall stated "Media language must combine effectively if the intended meaning is to reach the audience." The shot reverse shot shows a conversation between a very intelligent man and a young adult who is unable to control his emotions and mind. This communicates meaning by showing the therapist is very clever and could be capable of causing pain to someone. It leaves the audience feeling unsure about his character. (Dr.Phillips).

Settings

We decided we would use a house as a main setting for our trailer. This is because a house is commonly used in thriller trailers. A house is somewhere people should feel safe and using it in a thriller film will make the audience feel more on edge. The main rooms we will use in the house are:

• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Ryan's bedroom

The kitchen will be used for the flashback scene between Ryan's parents. We chose a kitchen because that's where food and drinks are usually kept which fits in due to the father (Glen) being an alcoholic.

The bathroom will be used for the scene where Ryan takes his medication and looks in his reflection.

The bedroom will be used when Ryan has his breakdown. This is because it is Ryan's own private room.

We will also use an office to look like the therapy room. This is an unusual setting which is an advantage because it means our trailer will not be too cliche.

During filming (28th December 2015), I decided to change the setting of the kitchen to the living room, this is because the kitchen in the house we filmed in was too modern and did not fit into to specific time period (90's). We decided the living room was more suitable, it also relates to the character Glen being lazy which is a characteristic alcoholics have.

Script

As a group, we all decided to have an input on the script. This is a script of the dialogue, camera, timings and types of editing such as fade to black. Alex typed up the script and we have realised there are a few mistakes. We are changing parts of the script to make it more interesting and more clear to read.

Even though, the script says there are certain amount of time on each scene/shot, we will be filming more than we need just in case we need it.

We decided to change part of the script in the scene of the therapy session. This is because want we initially had did not flow and did not seem realistic, following on from this, it did not intrigue any of us and seemed very dull and boring. We also realised, a hypnotherapist realistically would not give a prescription in his office. We changed this part of the scrip and added in lines such as "Are you starting to forget?" which links into the flashback scene.

During filming, I also suggested Susan should speak a little more in case we needed more footage. I decided to film a shot reverse shot between Glen and Susan with more speech involved:

Glen: "Susan, What have a told you?"
Susan: "Im sorry."
Glen: "You stupid cow, why didn't you buy me more vodka?"
Susan: "I will go and buy you some more."

Rehearsal

During some free time we decided as a group to add in some rehearsals in order to make sure on the day of filming, we would know exactly what to do.

One main room we wanted to use as a therapist room we were un sure if we were able to use. Whilst waiting for the approval, we wanted to find a back up room which would be suitable. I decided to research what type of room a therapy room looks like. I discovered that the room used is usually white, with two comfortable chairs which looks very relaxing.

The room we originally wanted did not look like this, it looked more like an office. This is because there is a huge table with two chairs sitting opposite each other in a dark room. A stereotypical hypnotherapy room is white, with relaxation through the session being more informal due to the patient being able to lean back in their chair. The room is small which connotes the stereotypical fear of enclosure.

We looked at our script and thought the script was too simple. It is highly unlikely a hypnotherapist would just hand out prescript drugs. Therefore, we changed this part of the script to make the dialogue flow easily and it leaves the scene on a cliff hanger.

We decided to rehearse so we could pick out any in corrections along the way, as well as editing parts. Rehearsing was also an advantage due to being able to see if the camera angle we wanted to use worked effectively.

This is Alex practicing his lines and acting for when he plays the character Ryan when we properly film.

This is another scene where Alex has his breakdown. We wanted to use a low angle shot of Alex falling to the floor so we decided to test the shot to see how we would do it on film day. This is a good idea because it gives us a wide aspect of a backup plan in case this shot did not work. It is also les time consuming due to already practicing the shot.

Flash Back scene.

This is one of the scenes I worked on to make sure it was accurate when it came to filming it. There are several different shots used but they are mainly close ups to emphasis the heavy drinking.

This is one of the first scenes we came up with as a group. We were determined to have the use of flashbacks because it is not often seen in trailers which suggests ours will be a little different whilst still using many stereotypical conventions such as intertitles, non-diegetic music and fades to black.

In the end, we decided instead of using fades to black (which is included throughout other scenes in the film), we want to use a fade to white to show it is a memory.

Story Board

This is our story board which we created as a group. We used post-it-notes in order to rearrange any scenes or take away any if we chose too. In the end, we added more shots towards the end where Ryan has a mental breakdown, to show his emotions and what is happening to him. We added more due to the fact we realised it would be too short.

On the back of each note contains the shot type and how long the shot should roughly last.

I personally would recommend using this method for a story board because it is easy and more tidy, you can also play around with the order of your shots and scenes.

Mise-en-Scene

Lighting.

During the flashbacks scene, we wanted low key, vintage colours used to show it is set back in time.

The scene with the hypnotherapist will be high key to show Ryan is finally getting help and so the audience can see what is going on.

The scene where Ryan takes his medication in the bathroom will also be high key lighting due to it be filmed during the day and so the audience can see what is happening. However it could possibly be a good idea to use low key for this scene due to the contrast showing the audience something bad will happen.

The fast paced scene where Ryan breaks down is ideally going to be filmed in low key lighting to show he is distraught and coming to the end.

Costumes.

Susan will wear her work clothes to show she is the provider for the family whilst her husband stays at home being drunk. ( smart trousers).

Glen will wear dirty clothes to make it look like he hasn't washed in days, he is too busy drinking.

Ryan will wear normal clothing what a 20 year old boy would wear in 2015 such as a nice sweatshirt/hooded jumper and jeans.

The hypnotherapist will be wearing smart clothing.

CHANGES MADE:
The people we were originally going to use were unable to play the part of Glen and Susan, we had little time to film this scene. Therefore, I used my own parents and because it was a scheduled and short notice of time to film, Susan ended up wearing a jumper. The bottom half was not filmed therefore, it did not matter what she was wearing for trousers. The rest of the characters wore exactly what was stated above.

During editing, we tried making the flashback look vintage by playing around with the contrast, brightness and colours. We tried a black and white effect and decided this looked better than a more orangey/old/dated and dim colour.

The filming of Ryan in his bedroom was not filmed with low key lighting, however when we edited it, we changed the brightness down to make it low key.

Characters

Ryan- 20 year old male. Ryan shows off many characteristics throughout the trailer such as weak minded. This fits into the thriller genre due to the definition being the psychological mind. The character is young which shows he does not have much wisdom and knowledge about every day life. However, he is independent due to living on his own and getting himself some help. Due to his young age, he is easily influenced which leads him to taking more pills each day. We chose the name Ryan due to the fact it is a common name during this time.

Susan- (Damsel in distress)is a 40 year old mother who is married to an alcoholic, she is too scared to leave Glen due to his violent behaviour. Susan is very vulnerable and scared. She tries her best in making sure everything is perfect for her husband so he doesn't get angry with her. She loves her son and persuaded him to get hypnotherapy sessions when he was younger.

Glen-  (Viewed as the antagonist of Ryan's past) is a violent alcoholic and very demanding. He will not hesitate laying a fist on anyone. We chose the name Glen due to the fact it sounds excitingly thrilling. Also, the brand 'Glens Vodka' backs the point up that he is an alcoholic. Glen is Scottish which is an advantage for our trailer due to Scottish people stereotypically being associated as a drunk.



Levi Strauss can be applied to Glens character through his theory of Male Vs Female. Glen is portrayed as dominant and over powering of his weak wife Susan. This can be seen through the shot reverse shot of the two characters with dialogue of Glen saying "You stupid cow" and "Why didn't you buy me some more vodka?" this connotes Glen is very demanding. This is a stereotypical feature a male has in general however, it is stereotypical as Glens actions make Susan look vulnerable which is stereotypical for a woman in the thriller genre.

Dr.Phillips-(Audience will be unsure if he is a protagonist or antagonist) This character is the hypnotherapist. We chose a psychology teacher to play this part due to his knowledge and his looks fit in to the character we had in mind. This character appears in two different ways. He seems genuine and normal but there's something about him which the audience finds hard to trust. This gives a thrilling experience for the audience.

Props

Here is the list of props we will be using:

• Bottle of alcohol and drinking glass- Connotes an alcoholic, depression.

• Clipboard- Professional job. (Dr.Phillips will have the clipboard to write notes).

• Pills- connotes medical problem/illness. Drugs- associated with young people.

• knife-Connotes danger, death or possibly self defence.

• Phone- Shows the film is set in modern time.

• Mirror- commonly used in thrillers because it connotes the reflection of the characters inner self. In our trailer, Ryan will be reflected in one of the scenes.

These props will act as clues for the film which keeps the demographic engaged and intrigued to want to watch the film. For example, a knife will be shown but the audience will not know what it has been used for.

CHANGES MADE:
We didn't use a phone in the end. This is due to Alex not being able to use a spare phone to throw, therefore it would not have been suitable due to health and safety but also because Alex uses his current phone, to throw in case it broke.

We also did not use a clipboard. This was because we did not have time to get one, however in the therapy scene, there are books stacked up as well as a name tag for 'Dr.Phillips'. These props fitted appropriately for our scene.

Narrative

We came up with many different ideas however due to finding out through research that a thriller is mainly based on a psychological mind, we decided take that route. After many discussions we decided we wanted our main character would have a tough childhood such as an alcoholic and violent father. This then creates depressive moods for Ryan.

Ryan's mother then takes him to a hypnotherapist as a young teen due to being bullied at school. The sessions helped. A few years later, after Ryan moved out after family issues getting worse, he decided to go back to some hypnotherapy sessions.

These then led to Ryan taking prescribed drugs with severe side effects.

Stage one- Insomnia. The pills are making it harder for Ryan to sleep. He sweats at night, followed by having bad dreams which keeps waking him up.

Stage two- Hallucinations. Due to Ryan's lack of sleep, Ryan then starts seeing and hearing things in his head which psychologically makes him turn insane. He thinks he starts seeing supernatural things, he hears voices in his head, he reviews flashbacks of him as a child repeatedly.

The final stage- Depression. After weeks of no sleep, and going insane with his mind, he becomes unattached to himself. His moods change all the time. One minute he gets angry, like his father, the next he hates himself and feels lonely. After a while he plots to kill...Who is it? Throughout the trailer, the audience will not know if there is a death and if there is a death, they will not know who he does kill or if he simply kills himself.

Planning for the trailer. (Initial ideas)

This is the first part of planning. We jotted down the narrative first. We all had different ideas and then decided to settle on one. We then moved onto characters.

We have mixed ages of characters in the trailer. There is a two year old seen during a flashback scene. This is of Ryan when he was younger showing the audience his childhood. We then have a middle age man and woman as parents. The mother is called Susan and she is vulnerable and timid. Glen on the other hand is the name of the father. We decided Glen due to the name being unusual and sounds like he could be violent. We then have a working hypnotherapist. This character is in his early 30's. He is young and understands peoples minds and every day struggles. This character we wanted him to look suspicious to leave the audience confused as to whether he is good or bad. This is stereotypical due to thrillers having a convention of the un-known. We then have Ryan who is mainly seen as a twenty year old. He is very young an still understanding the purpose of life. This character needs to be seen as weak and distraught.

Trailer Title

As a group, we have been suggesting many names for our film. We decided to choose our name after we sorted the narrative, shot lists, settings and filming dates. We thought deciding a suitable name would be beneficial to find during the last couple of lessons we had left to get everything sorted. The names we suggested were:

• Deranged
• Un-hinged
• Un-balanced
• Delirious
• Un-stable

We all decided as a group we loved the name 'Deranged' for our film title. However due to another group previously using this name, we were unable to use this. The term deranged simply means insane which is ideal for our trailer. The main character, Ryan, ends up turning psychologically insane and unstable in his life.

However, in the end we decided to go for the title Un-hinged. This is because the meaning of this lexis is the most suitable for the trailer this being because it fits the synopsis of Ryan being un-attached to his mental self.

We did not want our title to give too much away about the film, which is why we decided a short title would be more effective. During my research, I have found that many thriller film titles are short which gives an enigma of the main synopsis. For example, the film Psycho (1960). This is a one worded title which connotes that the main antagonist is a psycho.

One worded titles can be seen on many thrillers such as Prisoners (2013), Identity (2003) and Taken (2008).

Risk Assessment

The camera can get damaged through the following reasons:

1. Not looking where you are walking. This can be resolved by being careful about your surroundings.
2. The camera or tripod falling over. This can happen by not closing the legs of the tripod whilst walking through doors. Make sure someone helps you whilst walking through the door.
3. Do not stand on tables, chairs or climb anything. This can cause the camera to break or fall or possibly hurt yourself.
4. Dropping the camera can also be an issue. To make sure this does not happen, make sure the camera is attached to the tripod properly or the camera being strapped around your neck.
5. Be careful about your surroundings. Do not go any where dangerous which can cause you harm. This can be resolved by selecting settings which are safe such as a path instead of a busy main road.

We also have a knife involved with our trailer. It is vital to be very careful with this prop and not mess around with it. Always hold the knife facing away from you and put it away as soon as you are finished with it. An accident may happen if Alex is not careful or is paying attention to what he is doing.

Further research: What is genre?

The genre our trailers are based on is the thriller genre. Genre is a text which has been classified through the identity of key elements which can range from:

• Music
• Mise-en-scene
• Paradigms

Denis McQuail says "the genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass audience". this suggests that genre helps the audience know what type of films they are into.

Buckingham stated "The media don't just present reality, they re-present it". My trailer supports this quote through the use of issues involved such as Ryan's past with his alcoholic parent, being bullied at school, feeling depressed and seeking help. The other side of representation in my trailer is the use of crime. Someone ends up dying during the film, whether it is a suicide or a murder, the audience will not know until they watch the film. However, an enigma code is used during the mid shot of Ryan trying to take some pills. This makes the audience want to watch more to find out why certain things are happening. The representation is crime. Crime is an everyday thing which has always happened. It lets people aware to make sure they look after themselves and aware of everyday life in reality.

Conventions of a film trailer

I decided to list all the conventions of a film trailer before planning my own. Doing this will help ensure that my film trailer has as many conventions as possible.

Individually, I did a thought shower on what I thought a film trailer consisted off. These ideas were initial ideas I had collected from watching previous trailers before hand. During a film trailer, I noticed a lot of information through text and dialogue is shown. There are many ways in which a trailer can connect to the audience such as the use of a narrator and inter titles.
When trailers use a narrator, I found out that the narrator tends to be a middle aged British/American male with a low tone. This is effective especially for a horror or thriller genre through the husky voice putting the audience on edge.

During a trailer, the end usually always consists of the production it self. There is information is small print as the last shot. Actor's names and the director names are usually shown along with the release date and any other related information.

I also noticed during thriller trailers, it tends to start slow paced then gradually gets faster into fact cuts to emphasis drama and thrill. This is effective because the demographic does not get shown too much and the non-diegetic music fits in well and makes it more 'scary' for the viewer. Personally, when I watch a trailer with this convention, I tend to say I would go and watch it to see what happens.

1408 Trailer

In order to increase my knowledge on film trailers, I decided to watch 1408. Whilst watching this, I picked out many conventions such as low key lighting and things what make people scared such as enclosed space.

 

I liked the idea of the voice over, however It would not be suitable for me film trailer because too much information will then be revealed. In order to connect to the audience, we will use inter titles instead.

 

I also like the idea of having bad weather to increase the mood of misery. I like this idea and would like to include in my film trailer due to it being a stereotypical convention for this genre. 

Initial Research

I brainstormed what I thought 'Thriller' was. This task got me thinking about all kinds of things such as my own definition and how thriller is different to horror.  It also got me thinking about what types of films come under the thriller category.


Firstly, I noted what I personally thought comes under the thriller genre. I decided on many things such as a thriller film tends to have bad weather.  Rain  connotes misery or depression and thunder connotes danger due to the loud noise it makes. Bad weather can be seen in many thriller films such as The Last House on the Left.


This scene contained rain after the character got shot. This supports my opinion on bad weather being in thriller films. The rain connotes sadness and being worried

.
I then moved on to thinking about what makes people scared. This helped me understand what type of narrative I could have for my own film trailer. There are many  fears individual people have therefore, the list could go on.
However, I believe these are big issues which many people are scared off which are listed above.
I then decided to start thinking about sub genres.
Thriller does not have to be just one genre. There are sub genres such as a comedy thriller such as The Worlds End. This is suitable for anyone who likes comical films as well as genre. The comical side takes away the scariness of a stereotypical thriller film which is an advantage for those who do not enjoy scary films. There is also a Drama/Romantic Thriller such as Gone Girl.


Gone Girl is a thriller however, it has a twist due to it being a drama. This film involves an investigation as well as death which are conventions used in thriller films. Looking at sub genres made me think about all the possibilities I could use for my film trailer. I now know a thriller can be anything from comical to romantic.

Trailer research- The Exorcism of Emily Rose

I did some research on The Exorcism of Emily Rose. This will enable me to have an idea of what a trailer contains in order to make my own trailer a success. I have learnt that trailers tend to start of slow and gradually builds suspense by the chilling and cold non-diegetic music. Inter titles are used in order to give the audience extra information. Fast paced editing is used when action is happening which is used to give a thrilling experience for the audience.

Film title research.

I looked at some thriller film titles to get an idea of what impact is given from some examples. I personally like The Last House on the Left title. This is because the 'House' is creative through the colour red which connotes danger. Along with this, the 'House' has blood splattered from it. This connotes someone may die or get injured inside the house which is represented as dangerous. I feel the title does not give away to much of the film which is a positive thing, however, it does show the audience a house will be a main setting. The word 'Last' connotes loss as it could mean someone dies or that someone or something is alone.