Logo

The image below is our final logo. I designed it using Photoshop making a few different copies in order to see what looks best and most effective by changing a few aspects. I incorporated a film reel, film and a contrasted Sirius star with text, altering the overlays and contrasts. We all then decided which one out of them was most effective and asked 6 people which one they thought was the most successful and everyone of them but one said the one below.

We then had to decide what words we want to include within our logo as we need it to be very simple yet effective.

We still need to decide for definite which one works the best, whether we should include 'we are' or not in the text included in our logo.

I believe Rubie has done an excellent job with the production and design of our logo's as it is exactly we are looking for. We decided as a group that we want our logo to be subtle yet effective as that is what both we and our audience want to see. These logo's are perfect as they are simple yet also symbolic and effective which works really well for us and will help our group out a great deal when it comes to the presentation of our thriller opening.

Logo And Production Company Name Ideas

Following on from Rubies post about research into a potential logo for our group I decided to choose one of the designs we came up with give my personal opinion on it as well as my personal views about any potential company names. 

As previously mentioned we want our logo to stand our from all the rest out there already and in order to do this we need to create an effective logo and company name which will hopefully set a distinctive message and make our company stand out amongst all the rest. As for potential names there are a few I personally have in mind, these are:

WE ARE SIRIUS PRODUCTIONS 

SIRIUS PRODUCTIONS

WE ARE SIRIUS FILMS

SIRIUS FILMS

As for our logo there were a list of factors we decided as a group that we wanted to incorporate, these included eye catching, appealing, effective, simple, unique and interesting. 

So far we have had created a couple of designs and my personel favourite would have to be, 

This particular design is my favorite as I believe it is everything we want it to be. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and we wanted to incorporate some aspect of this within our logo if at all possible, so with this in mind and everything else we wanted our logo to incorporate i believe this design is the best for us. 

Production Company Logo/Research

As a company we want to be recognisable from others and to do this we need to create an effective logo and name which hopefully sets our company apart from the rest. We all decided quite early on that We Are Sirius  Productions would be our company name throughout, in a logo we may need to shorted it to Sirius Productions or Sirius Films just to make it more effective and easy to remember and recognise. All film companies have distinct logos so we decided to do some research into existing ones first by looking at some of the following images.

We decided to write a list of things we wanted our logo to achieve, these include factors such as eye catching, practical, pleasing to the eye, simple, effective, interesting..

As Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky we wanted to incorporate some aspect of this within the logo if possible while still relating to being a film company. So after collecting images of the Sirius star, and looking at fonts, we set about including the two together. The two images below are example of this.

Movie Title Ideas

"FACING FEAR" - Has some reference to the events in the storyline with the character later on in the storyline going to find out who has been stalking her at the deserted train tracks, as well as having that unique working with both the words beginning with the letter 'F' and implying a thriller.

"HOW" - Again reference to being taken back in time to see the events take place in the opening scene and also having that one word effect on the audience and implying a thriller movie.

Film Title Ideas

We have come up with a number of ideas for our thriller film title, now we just need to have a group discussion on what we think is best suited to our story line and what we want to portray.


The Unknown / Murder / The Fear Of The Unknown /  The Stranger /  The Victim /  The Letter / The Cry /  Missing / No Way Out

Thriller Storyboard

This is our initial storyboard for our opening of a thriller.

Thriller Opening Summary

It starts with an opening shot of a man walking his dog, (close to train tracks/in the forest.. walking away from the camera). He then walks past a newspaper which is now the focus of the shot, and all the pages are credits containing still images taken from the upcoming shots, and the titles are credit sub headings. Another page another credit.. Tension is built up with music then falls on a newspaper page with a heading saying 'Missing?' with a still images which then fades into the opening by the camera zooming in on it. The image it zooms in on is a picture of location (train tracks), this is then the establishing shot of the setting. Then we see the man who is walking his dog come into the shot, walking towards the camera from around the corner. He then stops in his tracks after the dog brings his attention to something he notices something on the floor. It's a lifeless hand containing a scrunched up note wearing a ring (which is of significance). The man cautiously bends down and picks up the note, he unravels it but the audience will never know what is written on it. He then drops it and through a point of view shot we see him dial 999, as he is doing this the man is hit on the head, he drops his phone and falls to the floor. The camera then goes back onto the lifeless hand... then a flashback is used! The hand fades onto a new scene where it begins on the same girls hand who is now typing on the computer wearing the ring so it is clear that it is the same girl, as she is obliviously typing away on her computer, there is a knock at the door and a letter is left on the mat outside the front door. The girl opens the door picks up the note and reads it, again we do not see what it says as we only see her reaction to it. The shot of her opening the letter then fades into the shot of a man walking on the train tracks. The opening ends on a pair of hands in black gloves, the same ones that hit the man over  the head, moving cuts of newspaper letters around on a table, which we will speed up  and then it will spell out the title of the film.

Film Pitch

In less than 25 words..

'Mysterious notes appearing through her door, an unwanted admirer and an unfortunate bystander which results in one death, but who, what, when, where and how?' - Rubie

'A normal girl in a normal world, until one day everything changes! But why?' -Harry

'A passing local uncovers the body of a young female or what it seems, we are taken back to see what the causes were..' -Will

Thriller Plot Idea Summary

We have discussed many different ideas and have agreed on a few main ideas we like the sound of. We have definitely decided on a young girl/women as the main character who is being stalked/harassed or even tormented. She is also just a normal, average person, with a good life and no obvious problems apart from the fact that she is being followed but thinks it's just in her head but then she is sent letters. She finally feels like she can't escape.

Our final thriller plot is... 

Beginning
The girl wakes up to the sound her alarm clock for the fifth time and rolls over and presses snooze. She's late for college and has to walk as she has missed the bus. Little does she know she is being followed throughout her journey. Just a normal day at school, with her friends consisting of two geography lessons and a dance class. As she opens up her geography book loads of letters and notes fall out and she is really concerned, all her friends question why, a stalker? love interest? etc. Basically an average day at college besides being late and followed. The man who followed her to school also followed her home but she starts to get a feeling that she is being watched.

Middle
The next day the situation increases, then the next and the next until three weeks later things start to get serious and the man approaches her on many occasions. Then we see the man at home cutting out loads of letters from newspapers, gluing down letters in order to make notes to her. He his sat at home in a room full of pictures of her. The torment increases, she is sitting at home on the computer and there is a knock on the door. She gets up, and goes to answer the door and there is no one there only a letter on the door step. She opens the letter and the audience doesn't see what it says but her reaction says it all.

End
The letter guides her to a place and a time which all will be revealed. She follows the instructions given and ends up making her way not only to a deserted train track but also to her death. There is an investigation into how she has died but no one ever finds out the truth.

Meeting 5 - 12/12/11

Today we had another group meeting in which we discussed some more of our plans regarding work in the build up to and during the Christmas holidays. As a group we decided that we needed to look more into possible production company names and possible logo's for our group. We came up with Sirius Productions as a possible company name. We have recently posted about our initial ideas for our opening including possible credit ideas, and setting options. We are now in the process of creating another post in which we plan to discuss yet more potential ideas for our opening including props and actors. We will post our progress once complete.

Alternative Storyline (First Story Idea)

Opening - Same.

Beginning - The audience gets to know the main female character a little bit more as well as linking events that have happened and might happen later on perhaps? At this current time and place she is in school having some of her usual lessons, in some parts you can see some small key references that play in her mind which makes her concerned and maybe nervous which is shown in her.

Middle - Some of the signs are now more aware able as before to he audience know more clearly that the character is being stalked which brings tension into the mix of the storyline, the stalker starts to message her on a number of her devices and communication applications there's no escape from this mysterious character. This slowly builds up where the stalker starts to learn more about her this gets to the point where she is too afraid to go out in public.

Ending - Some time has past and finally now the call has come from the mysterious stalker, however the main female character picks up the phone due to it being a blocked number we do not hear what the stalker said exactly but this results in her leaving the house into the cold outdoors and travels to the deserted train railway, the female character wonders about for a bit and turns around and screams horrifically which then leads to the end of the film, no one knows what happened which brings to think what happened..

Thriller Plot Ideas

These were some of my own personel quick-fire initial ideas for our thriller plot. It is good to have these to look back on and have as a potential back up if we decide to run with something else.

• Girl is walking home from school and treads on grave. 
• From then on she is haunted by something. 
• Girl receives letters, hears voices.
• As the film goes on the torment increases until the girl is driven to suicide.
• When the girl walks home and treads on the gravestone she triggers a demon? 
• Girl has normal average life before all this but then everything changes.
• Demon is never seen, only heard and talked about. 
• Whenever the demon occurs or is mentioned sinister, tense music plays in the background.

Another Idea I had was, 

• Girl gets hit by a car.
• She wakes up in a hospital.
• She can't remember who she is or what happened.
• As time goes on she starts to remember who she was with and what happened. 
• One night she is home alone and there is a knock at the door.
• The girl is then kid-knapped.
• It becomes apparent someone is out to get her.
• She's on her own and has to find a way of escaping. 

Initial Thriller Settings Ideas

As well as thinking about the plot, we felt like we needed to have some good ideas about where we wanted to film our thriller so our story line would work well.

Some possible places we have thought about include: deserted train tracks, old bridges, old road track, forest, deserted/old house, london underground, church or a graveyard. These are just a few of many possibilities but we all liked the idea of train tracks as if done well with a good story the use of the tracks and its surroundings would be very effective.

Initial Opening Credit Ideas

After researching into a few different opening credits for thrillers I came up with a few initial ideas of my own.

Firstly I liked the use of flash backs a lot, and an opening which isn't very clear, but partly summaries what is going to be shown in the film but not a clear representation until you've watched the whole film then the opening makes sense. I thought about the idea of an newspaper flicking pages in the wind then falls on a certain page and the camera draws attention to certain words on the page such as murder and girl.. so it sets the story line up for the film but doesn't give why it actually happened away. Then the credits would run in a newspaper style with different images on each page, some moving, some photos and then the text in the credits would be in the style of headers and titles in newspapers. I think this would be very effective and could even be related to the story line as it could be about a journalist. This would then fade into an everyday situation leading onto...

I also thought about techniques and fonts we could use.

Initial Thriller Plot Ideas

We sat and thought of an individual idea then shared them between us, and incorporated parts of each with other parts in order to get a range of initial ideas after doing our own.

These were some I came up with...

A girl is walking along the train tracks then loads of flashes of thoughts/scenes are running through her mind. She looks as if she is searching for something or someone but she doesn't actually know what herself but she knows she is looking for something she just can't work out what. After she has been looking for hours through the rain, dark and sunrise she pulls out her phone from her pocket as she receives a text which says something like 'it's time' then looks at the time on the clock and it reads 13:13, then there is loads of flashbacks to situations which show the number 13 everywhere.. and then she screams.
So it then flashbacks to the events before this, so basically her life building up to this situation.. i.e. how and why and when she got there. So it goes to her being a normal girl in an everyday situation.
The end is basically a summary of what happened in the beginning and giving a reason into why it has happened. It turns out that the girl is being stalked and in the end you see the stalkers face and his motive.

Another idea similar to the one above could be about a young women or girl who is receiving creepy/threatening letters made out of newspaper cuttings, these would be put through her post box, in her bag etc. It eventually pushes her to suicide as she jumps of a bridge then there is an investigation following on from her death. So in the end they find out why she did it as no one had any clue about any of the letters and thought she was just a normal happy girl.

Things To Consider For Our Thriller Opening

Opening
Credits
Film productions (own logo, name etc..)
Name of the movie, needs to have some significance to the story as well as standing out
Cast and crew..
Producers, directors, writers etc
Music, maybe relating to the theme of the story/movie

Introduction
Main characters that are going to have the most impact on the storyline of the movie
The plot/summary of the events that will take place and why perhaps (giving the audience an idea of what's to come/tension towards it)

Camera Shots
Establishing shot (tells the audience where the movie is set)
Capture reference or clues towards things that might have some importance to the storyline of the movie

Editing
Convincing effects so that the audience can relate more towards the storyline/movie or if not don't include
Plays a part on the theme of the movie (dark, images, backgrounds etc..)

Sound
Music that relates to the theme of the storyline or movie itself (thrilling, horror including dark and scary soundtracks playing in particular bits that may bring tension into it)

Storyline Clues From The Opening of The Usual Suspects

What clues do you get about the rest of the storyline from the opening 5 minutes?

In the first five minutes of "The Usual Suspects" there are a number of clues relating to the rest of the film. These include themes of crime or murder. We get this impression from what may occur later on in the film due to the following factors:

• A gun shot is heard without showing who or what was shot and who was behind the trigger. This leads us to believe that a crime/murder has been commited.
• Following on from the gun shot, we see that the boat it was heard from was set a light and in the previous clips before this we see a man pouring petrol around the floor and setting it alight while smoking. This makes us think that the man who was pouring the petrol initially was the one who was behind the gun and therefore set the boat alight. Also makes us think that the boat was set on fire as a coverup to a crime.
• While the boat is on fire we see a close up on some ropes and gun parts which doesn't lead us to believe anything unusual has happened yet although in the following shots we are taken to an interrogation scene in which we see a man being questioned about a boat containing stripped gun parts. This leads us to believe and question if what we have previously seen relates to this.

Taking this into consideration for use in our own opening we obviously don't want to give a lot away but we do want to make the audience question and try and figure out what will happen later on in the film. This effect will be vital to us as a group if we are to produce a successful opening full of mystery for our thriller opening.

Meeting 4 - 7/12/11

Today we had a group meeting about what we wanted to achieve  before we break up for the Christmas holidays. In the next week or two we need to have a good set of credit research done and look into the fonts and openings and analyse all of this. As well as that we need to scan in our preliminary storyboard and film our preliminary and also we need to evaluate it. We have also started to brainstorm ideas for our storyline for our thriller and have already come up with lots and lots of promising ideas. Initial thoughts on setting ideas include deserted train tracks, church graveyard, bridges and the forest. One of our initial storyline ideas include a person who is being harrassed or tormented. We were also discussing how we want to use the fear factor within our thriller, for example how people relate certain objects or things with fears such as black cats, mirrors and the number 13. Overall we had a very successful group meeting today and we are confident that we are on the right track and completing everything, keeping it up to date.

Opening Credits Analysis (Se7en)

I decided in order to have some more inspiration for our thriller openings credits it was essential to watch a variety of integrated/superimposed credits in order to see how successful the effects have been created.

The Opening Credits of Se7en.


We watched the opening of Se7en previously and I really liked the way the opening credits were composed. The music used was incredibly effective in creating an atmosphere that is jumpy and it fitted in well with the images and text used. The music also wasn't too loud and overpowering, it definitely wasn't the focus of the opening just added to the effectiveness. Over all the opening was very jumpy, through the use of jump cuts between the credit title names and the images and clips made the whole opening very distorted and not clear at all. I liked how at the very beginning the book pages are being turned as it reminds me of my own idea about newspaper pages turning in the wind. The way the camera is constantly filming close ups and only shows hands and movement around the hands and things which are being used by them such as book text, pens, photos etc. I especially like how you can't make anything out, things such as the sequence and true meaning of it. It makes you question every little jump cut clip as you keep asking yourself if there are any clues within this opening that will be key later on. It also gives nothing away about the film obviously, creating a sense of mystery to the audience which results in them wanting to watch on to see what all this was about. I also love the way the editing has been done in this opening, the way the clips jump cut and fade onto others is very successfully done, and I think it would be a useful technique to do within our thriller opening.

Opening Credits Analysis (Psycho)

Another set of opening credits I decided to analyse was that of Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho.

The opening starts with what appears to be a distorted image of the Paramount Pictures graphic. This then fades into black and a very sharp and fast paced credit enters the picture in which a set of black lines stream across the screen revealing Alfred Hitchcock's name, this straight away introduces the audience to the the producer of the film. This is then followed by the same graphic in which black lines can be seen shooting across the screen as the music becomes even more sinister causing great tension as the name of the film "Psycho" is revealed in a bold white text on a black background which makes it stand out and really grab the audiences attention. This is then distorted and more credits are revealed such as actors and other companies involved with the production of the film again with the black lines shooting across the screen and the tempo of the music increasing all the time. Having said this, some credits are bigger than others this could be because some people may be more significant than others and Hitchcocks want his audience to know this. At the end of the credits there is another bold white text graphic of Hitchocks name this time confirming him as the director with the words "directed by" clearly seen on screen. This then fades out as the credits are complete.

Again this will be very usual for our group when it comes deciding our credits when it comes to our opening. This is very different to the credits of "Panic Room" so it gives us another option or path to consider.

Opening Credits Analysis (Panic Room)

In order to create the most effective thriller opening possible we will have to have a very unique set of opening credits as they are a key factor within any thriller, so in order to do this I decided to look at a variety of  different opening credits to gain some ideas and a better insight into what makes a good and effective set of opening credits. 

In order to carry out this research I used http://www.artofthetitle.com/ to view the opening credits for the film "Panic Room" this was a very useful website as it enabled me to have a real look and analyse why these credits are so effective and the impact they have on the audience. 

The opening credits start with a trademark Columbia pictures graphic however the music and sound have been changed, the normal gentle and warm sound has been replaced with much darker sounds such as the crashing of thunder and lighting. This is effective as straight away gives the audience the impression that this film is that of a dark nature. This then fades into black and you can then hear a set of sirens in the background what appears to be an establishing shot of New York, with the first set of text appearing on screen, the text is bold and clear and is also 3D, this is an effective way of drawing the audiences attention towards the credit rather than whats happening in the background shot of the city.  this is then accompanied by some very sinister music again giving the audience the impression this film is quite dark and very serious. Following on from this the credits then take the audience on a journey around the city and different buildings within it, each building is accompanied by a jump cut and a different set of credits, whether it be actors within the film or big companies involved in the production. Whilst all this is taking place the sinister music and background noise from the city remains, this is an effective way of building up tension which is something usually associated within Thrillers. Eventually there is a panned shot in which the title of the film is revealed, the text is a lot bigger and stands out a lot more in this shot, not only this but the music becomes much sharper and the tension increases to give the audience a real sense of authority and power. The is a very effective way of titling as it draws the audience into the film straight away. The tour of the city then continues with yet more buildings and credits of companies and people involved with the film however the music is now slightly more upbeat and cheerful accompanied by can only be described as a 'ticking' sound. 

Personally I believe as a group we can take a lot from this, we can analyse what Panic Room did well and how effective it was in drawing it's audience in making them feel apart of the action from the start. 

Red Road Credit Research

Red Road could be seen as an example of a low budget film. I decided to look at one which wasn't seen as a typical hollywood thriller film and would be slightly more similar to the one we would be making as we don't have a bugdet for our film and I came across this one. Initially I thought it was a low bugdet film but after some more research it became obvious to me that depite winning an award for being low bugdet it actialy cost 1.3 milion to make and produce so I don't think I personally can class this as a low bugdet thriller. I do however especially like the opening titles in this as it is very realistic so we could come back and look at this films titles when we need inspiration for our opening titles.

Preliminary Evaluation

Evaluation of our preliminary task.

Planning: Our planning went well however it did take us a little while to actually get our ideas down on paper, not only this but i think because we had so many ideas we may not have included everything we perhaps wanted to. I think if we had spent a bit more time on our planning, going over finer details and improving the quality of our preparation we would have had a much better end result.

Filming: I believe that we rushed a majority of our filming and we didn't take full advantage of the equipment available as we neglected the tripod for the majority of our shoot. This resulted in a lack of smooth and free flowing shots, instead we have a very wobbly camera which showed in our final product. However, having said this our filming was done within half an hour and was relatively easy to capture.

Editing: Personally I believe the editing our task could have been better as it did take us a lot longer than expected. As a result of this we rushed some parts which show in our final product. However it gave us a valuable insight into how to edit our future production and how we can improve.

Taking into account the limited time we had we used our time efficiently and got as much footage as we possibly could. We may have had to take each shot a couple of time which at the time became quite tedious the spare footage we did obtain actually turned out to be very useful for us, especially when it came to editing. Looking back at our product there are a variety of different mistakes which could have been prevented. I think we have learnt a lot from this and it will only help us grow stronger and improve in the future when we come to produce our full production.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

This is the result of our preliminary task.



Planning
The planning of our preliminary experiment went well once we got our idea down on paper. Although I think we should of drawn out a picture storyboard and made it more detailed so when we actually came to film it we would know exactly what we wanted to carry out.
Filming
When filming our preliminary experiment certain parts went a lot better than others. I think that we should of made more use of the tripod so our shots were steady and panned a lot more smoothly.
Editing
When we was editing our preliminary footage it did take longer than we expected as we hoped to get it done within an hour but we did need to take time editing it.

Considering the limited time we had to film I definitely felt we used our time wisely and got as much footage as possible. Even though we had to film each shot a few times which during filming was annoying, the extra footage was actually very useful when we edited it. Looking back at the outcome there are many obvious mistakes and many ways to over come these. Overall we have found out a lot from carrying out the preliminary experiment which we will be able to use when filming.

Preliminary Task

This is a continuity task involving...

• shotlists
• layouts
• scripting
• story boarding

This film clip must involve a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom they then exchange a couple of lines of dialog. We need to demonstrate match on action shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

We are doing this to be able to get some experience in the editing programs we are going to use and also with the camera and different shot types, this will make our actual production run a lot smoother.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Prelimanary Task Shotlists

1. Establishing Shot - To Set The Scene

2. Close Up (Focusing on Students hands) - To Emphasise The Situation And Scene 

3. Medium Long Shot From the right side of the room/office - To Show The Student In Full For The First Time

4. Low Angle Shot of Receptionist followed by Close Up Shot of Students face - Creates Sense of Authority of Receptionist Over Student. To Capture The True Emotion of The Student

5. Matched Cut - To Cut Short The Action And To Generate Tension

6. Over The Shoulder Shot - To Enhance Image of Voyeurism 

7. 180 Degree Rule - To Display Dialogue

Prelimanary Task Script

Student - Will
Teacher - Miss Mapp
Receptionist - Harry's Voice
Camera Man - Harry and Rubie

*Establishing shot of the courtyard*

- (audience is then taken into as school reception where a student is waiting to be seen by an authoritative figure)

- students hands rapidly tapping and shaking with fear and anxiety, head low and also sweating sightly

- (receptionist walks in)

Receptionist: Mr/Mrs/Miss... Will see you now

- (student walks through door and upstairs to Mr/Mrs/Miss's office and knocks on door and enters)

Student: You wanted to see me Sir/Miss?

-(teacher facing opposite direction to student, looking out window then spins round to face student) 
 
Teacher: Ahh yes.. Come in *180 Degree Rule*

Teacher: Take a seat

Student: Have I done something wrong Sir/Miss? *180 Degree Rule*

Teacher: Where shall I begin... *180 Degree Rule*

(Camera fades out)

180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule on Prezi

Match Cut And 180 Degree Rule

Meeting 3 - 25/11/11

Today we had another meeting which we all attended and we wrote down a little to do list for each of us just so we could see exactly what we wanted to have on the blog by the end of the next week. We also need to look into characters within thriller films as this will be very helpful when it comes to creating our own opening.

They Just Look Like Everyone Else

Unexpected Hero

The unexpected hero is someone who the audience wouldn't usually associate with being the 'world saver' there the sort of character who's just in the right place at the right time or just happens to be the one person within a storyline who either has all the answers or has that little brain wave which solves everything. They don't have to be brave or tough, they just have to be able to handle the situation they are faced with by any means necessary. A classic example of this would be Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series who often turns out to be 'The unexpected hero' most notably in the last film in which he is seen saving Ron and Hermione from Voldermorts snake. They may either be simple bystanders caught up in a situation or actually fighting for a cause. Unexpected hero's don't tend have a set dress-code as it could be anyone, at anytime in anyplace under any circumstances. It just happens to be there day.

The character is useful for us to look at because it given us an option as to what we could include within our production and gives us an insight as to what an unexpected hero really is.

The Innocent Victim

The innocent victim/bystander, is usually just happen to be in the wrong situation at the wrong time, and don't have to be clueless or dumb just clueless on the situation. Without them villains wouldn't have hostages or human shields. Innocent victims could even be the superheroes of the story. Basically they are the ones who need to be saved, protected or rescued from a horrible situation or villain that may torture or kill them. These victims may also be the ones that are killed the most just to show the extent of evil that the bad guys will go to, to get their point across. The victim/bystander may be dragged into the situation as the hostage for example. As well as this they may be caught up in events that they don't understand and by the end of the film they could become something of a heroic bystander/victim and these characters could also become a main character in the film just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This character could be useful in our thriller film as the audience usually warms to the innocent victim, and they help add to the characteristics of the 'bad guys'. It would therefore be useful to have when keeping the audience interested in our thriller and wanting to find out more about them.

Characters Commonly Associated With Thrillers

Common characters involved within thrillers consist of: innocent victims,, terrorists, escaped convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, fugitives, terrorists, escaped convicts, police officers.

When we start to plan our thriller all these characters will be been taken into account as we will need a variety of different personalities and characteristics and as these are commonly associated within thrillers creating a list such as this will be very helpful to look back on and analyse an possibilities.

Characters in Thrillers

In order to decide about characters in our thriller we need to research into different styles of characteristics and people that are commonly found in thrillers.

The most common include: convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, unlucky losers, innocent victims, fugatives, terrorists, escaped convicts, police, menaced women, psychotic individuals, characters with dark pasts.

When planning our story line we need to take into account all of these characters.

Target Audience Profile

After carrying out interviews, questions and online data collection and research we have come to these conclusions.

Our Target Audience
-The age which we would want to appeal to is 17 to 25.
-The type of people we would want to appeal to is students and people with a creative nature.
-London and Cambridge are the locations we are going to try and aim to appeal to.
-We are aiming to appeal to middle and lower class yet some higher class people may also be attracted to our production if they like that sort of films.
-Ways of consuming our films will be on YouTube and blogger as we have found the audience we want to appeal to look at film reviews and trailers on these websites.
-Other films our target audience enjoy are ones which contain a lot of suspense and tension, and include a lot of mystery within the plot and prefer a dark and slightly gloomy thriller film.
-Our target audience wants a setting that promotes realism and authenticity in order for them to be able to relate to the situations that occur.
-The plot must be exciting, gripping and full of suspense and mystery.
-The characters must be realistic and have unique characteristics which make them enjoyable and interesting to watch.
-The actors must be able to play their roles effectively and believably to high acting standard with realism.
-The music must relate well to the film.

We can learn a lot from this and it will all really benefit how us during the planning of our opening.

Audience Research Online

Following on from Rubies Online Data Collection post I decided to do some of my own online audience research using two films from same top 50 thriller film list on imdb.com/chart/thriller web page.

I decided to look at two films which had been recent successes and wanted to try and analyse why this was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/

Inception

Inception was rated number 3 in the top rated thriller films on imdb. As a result of this rating one would presume people must have deemed a good watch. Inception is about "a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves his toughest job to date."

As of January 4th 2012 Inception has made $825,532, 764.

Since reading through some reviews and articles online, one word springs to mind "clever" as one one person described it as an "architecture in cinema on every level: conceptual, visual, symbolic, clever." not many people seem to have a bad word to say about this film and personally I tend to agree with them, it delivers on all fronts, providing exactly what you expect from a thriller ".. an action thriller, a psychological drama, a con game and a puzzle picture with wonderful visual delights".

With the use of YouTube I also discovered that one the trailers for the film had picked up a considerable amount of views, a mighty 872 likes compared to a measly 27 dislikes not only this but it had over 800 comments and 500 favourites.

Not only this but i also found out that a majority of the views had from both America and Canada as well as Australia. With the video being most popular with males aged between 35-44 as well as women aged 13-17. 

From all this i can see that this particular film definitely hit home with its target audience, not only this but it has appealed to a variety of different cultures as people all over the world have seen this film and given huge amounts of positive feedback. The marketing and performance of this film has nothing but boost its success and helped it get to where it is today. 

The Dark Knight

The Dark Night is an action thriller and was released in 2008. As of today is ranked number 2 in the top rated thriller films of all time. The Dark Knight is where "Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with a terrorist mastermind, known only as the Joker." 

As of the 1st December 2011 The Dark Night had made $1,001,921,825 worldwide. 

Once again i read through some of reviews online and could only find praise for the film especially for the late Heath Ledger who played Batman's infamous rival the Joker. With someone describing the film as "simply incredible" and the acting as a "masterclass." 

I also had another look on YouTube and discovered that one of the trailers had acquired a vast amount of views. It had 2,097 likes to 71 dislikes, displaying huge amounts of positive response. With other 6,000 comments, the current top comment being "This wasn't a batman movie.. it was the Joker movie!" 

Unfortunately i couldn't find any videos that provided information about who the video was most popular with and where in the world it had been most viewed so i cannot comment on this. 

However what i will say is this, from what i do know and have read it appears to be on a very similar track to that of inception. Providing it's audience with everything it expects and more, it has become quite clear that this is how to become successful. Not only this but large marketing also helped this film get to where it is today helping boost the films hype and buzz upon release. 

Following on from all this i decide to have a look at a few of the worst rated thriller films on imdb. I had a quick look at films such as "Compelling Evidence" and "Blood Deep" it soon became quite clear to me that where Inception and The Dark Knight had provided there audience's with exactly what they expected if not more, these films had done complete the opposite with numerous people branding the films "a waste of time" and "the worst film i've ever seen." 

From this I believe I have learnt a great deal in how providing an audience with what they expect and want is crucial to any success that and money seem to go a long way. 

Audience Research.. Online Data Collection

In order to discover the target audience we should use for our thriller film, we need to use online resources to look at recent and current opinions and reviews, numbers and figures on a number of thrillers. By doing this we will get some guidance who to aim our production at.

To get an idea of what was the most popular films, we were able to find a chart listing the top 50 thriller films, here is the top 25 as stated on imdb.com/chart/thriller web page.

Therefore with the aid of this chart of the best selling thrillers I am able to choose a few films which I will know for certain have been successful, some more than others however with the majority of them being fairly recent as we need the most up to date research in order to truly know what people like now.

Black Swan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/

Even though this wasn't rated in the top 25, it was however number 44 and therefore still in the top 50 I still decided to use this on a research basis. Black Swan is about a ballet dancer who wins the lead in Swan Lake and she is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan, Princess Odette, but she slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.

The film has made $106,952,327 as of the 1st of May 2011.

After reading through many articles and reviews online, it soon became clear to me that not many people had a bad word to say about the film. It is widely described as a thriller and mystery film and also been described as a masterpiece of obsession and what that obsession ultimately does to a person. I would say that it doesn't typically strike me as a thriller because of the main character and setting but as soon as the story evolves and the characteristics progress it becomes clear that in fact it is. This is mainly because the lead character is a women and despite it becoming more common within thrillers the lead characters are usually male.

I also had a look on YouTube at the films trailer and found that it had a substantial amount of views, and over thirty thousand likes compared to only over a thousand dislikes. It also has a considerable amount of comments, and a few reactions with most of them being 'incredible'.

The audience target for this film was generally for the majority of people and I thought it would appeal to the older generation more however the YouTube trailer was mainly watched by females aged between 13 to 17 and 18 to 24, and surprisingly popular with males aged 25 to 34. I was also able to see where in the world the Black Swan trailer is popular in. 


It is difficult for me to give my personal opinion on the films audience targets and my own review as I haven't seen it, therefore I think I will take time to get and watch the film.

Se7en

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/

I thought I would take a quick look into some information about the audiences for thriller films from a while ago instead of limiting it to only recent ones so therefore I chose the 1995 thriller called 'Se7en' as we had previously watched the first few minutes in lesson time and I really liked the way they had done the opening credits as it related to some ideas that originally went through my thoughts when we first found out about the task. I also think I am going to take time to watch this film, as from the initial beginning I was keen to find out more because of all the letters and writing used in the opening credits.

The film Se7en is a film in which two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi. It is widely described as a thriller, crime and drama film and has made 316,400,000 at the box office worldwide.

It has been rated the 9th best thriller according to imdb.com.


Unfortunately there was no statistics available on YouTube about the audiences that watched related clips to the film, but I think that is understandable seeing the film was first released in 1995 when YouTube wasn't around as a way of getting your film trailer seen. Despite these factors the trailer has nearly a million views. I was however able to find a demographic breakdown which displays the ratings from viewers.

The audience target for this film was 18+ as the certification for Se7en was 18, this demographic graph shows that most males and females between the ages of 18 and 29 gave a higher rating for this film as a high majority of people who voted fell into these two categories.


The Dark Knight

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

The Dark Knight is an action, thriller and crime film which was released in 2008 and still is ranking number 85 out of all films and ranks in at number 2 on the top thriller charts according to imdb.com. In The Dark Knight, Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by a terrorist mastermind known only as the Joker, as he drives each of them to their limits.

As of the 1st of December the box office of The Dark Knight, managed to gross $1,001,921,825 worldwide.









Also to see what made thriller films unsuccessful I decided to look at the top worst ones in order to see what not to do in our film. These were the top ten voted worst according to imdb.com  However this may be because they have received far less votes than the top 50 films, so taking this into account I still wanted to look at a few of these despite this.