The ideas.

Idea 1

This idea is mainly based on obsession, along with lust.

Lauren is an ordinary teenage girl (17/18 years of age) who goes to College and lives the normal life of a teenager. She is popular, beautiful, and envied by quite a lot of people. As to her high status, she believes in the whole college statuses, as to who is popular and who isn't and who can talk and sit with who. She is obviously proud of her status as she and her possy (The Untouchables) are very popular.

At the bottom of the hierarchy there is Karl. He is a stereotypical geek who has been head over heels about Lauren since they were 4 years of age, since their primary school days. We see flashbacks of the two of them from the beginning.

Lauren has never actually payed any attention to Karl so he hasn't really had the chance to confess about his feelings for her but after nearly 14 years of thinking about she'd react towards him, he finds the courage to address himself to her.

When he expresses his feelings for her, she responds by saying "Aaaaw Karl that is so.." then pauses for a minute making it even worse for Karl to hear what she is finally going to say. She finally finishes the sentence with "so.. pathetic!" Karl's face drops and he seems devastated.

She then goes back to her friends and informs them of what just happened. They all turn to look at him and laugh which makes him even more embarrassed and ashamed of himself. He felt so heartbroken and useless.

He also got very angry - a bit too angry for his own good. It's like he transformed into being a geeky little schoolboy who sits at the front of his class making notes on every word the teacher says, to this violent, red-faced vicious boy.

He plots his revenge on Lauren as to her rejecting him. He feels if he cannot have her, nobody can.

Idea 2.

This idea is mainly based on revenge.

Junior Kanes, a teenager of 18 years, vowed to himself that he would not get caught up in his families antics - enemies, drugs, hatred, murder etc.

He was a sensible boy, with everything going pretty well for him in life - a girlfriend, good grades in College, a family who loved him etc.

One night his mother had gone for a girl's night out with her friends but didn't come back home. She had been murdered. The immediate suspects were the Kanes' family rivals. Junior knew that it was time to avenge regards his mothers murder.

He becomes serious about having the killers of his mother dealt with. He wants to destroy every member of the rival gang and deal with them in a nasty way - causing pain for them. He becomes engrossed in doing this until he finds out all of that was a complete misunderstanding - he had suspected the wrong people! He finds out that it was his own blood uncle that had killed his mother!

Idea 3.

This idea is mainly about a girl having seriously disturbing nightmares.

It may have the impact of being a rom-com as the story line is based on lust and affection as well as it being a thriller.

Jennifer Gray suffered child abuse which got her shook for the rest of her life which resulted to her being sectioned when she was 18 years of age. She was kept in Jacob's Asylum. She had been so traumatised by her past that even when she was sleeping, she felt unsafe. She thought someone would try to kill her whilst she was sleeping but even worse - she even saw that in her dreams!

She had been deprived of having family and friends. The only person that she was close to and she could trust was her psychiatrist - Joel. It was like he understood her feelings, and knew how she felt. He treated her as if she were normal and respected her - not like the other men did in her taunting past. He was the only one that was there for her and who she could turn to. She also started to develop feelings for him but she knew that nothing could happen between them as he was in a relationship with a woman named Brenda, although she was more upper-classed and more up herself than he was.

Jennifer didn't really see the point in being alive and just wanted to give up on everything so she asked Joel to kill her but evidently, he refused.

After this, Joel and her begin to fall for each other but Joel has to break it to her that he is with Brenda. Jennifer envies Brenda and thinks of ways to break out of the asylum. She finally breaks out and attempts to murder Brenda. She wants her out of the way to keep Joel all to herself.

She does not know how she is going to kill Brenda but if she doesn't succeed in doing so, she makes a plot to kill Joel and herself, for them to sleep together, in peace, forever.

Idea 4.

This idea is mainly on revenge.

Luke is a boy who suffers from Schizophrenia. His behaviour is split, and he has different thoughts and delusions. His mind isn't mentally right. He thinks of things that isn't particularly clean and nice either. He's always had a problem of not being 'normal'.

After getting bullied by his peers at school, Luke had a panic attack and freaked out after the bullies took it too far.

In the canteen, Ross the main bully stole Lukes medication for his Schizophrenia (called Orap) which he needed in order for him not to go out of control. In front of everybody, Ross had accused him of being a 'freaky insane dumb-ass of the college'. This easily got Luke into an anger mode and very hurt.

Luke then planned revenge on the bullies that had made him lose his self-confidence and esteem. Luke's sufferance from Schizophrenia makes his quest of revenge more straining and mentally mind-boggling as to a normal doing it.

Youtube.

Codes & Conventions

Thrillers
Thrillers are characterized by frequent action, fast-pace, and sometimes heroes and villains. It also has various sub-genres.

There are mainly heroes and villains in most thrillers. Traditionally, the villain drives a plot and the hero must overcome this issue. The story usually has a lot of mystery in it to create the suspense and dilemmas. They also have cliffhangers in it.

Thrillers are all about thrilling people more than scaring them. Horrors are easily mistaken for thrillers as they are quite similar - they both have the same kind of story lines. Thrillers have more suspension in there sounds and suspension at the beginning of the film so you can tell what genre the film is from the beginning. They tend to be more spooky and screechy.

Ten most popular thrillers of all time.

Basic Instinct (1992) about Douglas’ cop falling for Sharon Stone’s man-killer dominatrix author.

The Big Sleep (1946) was the film in which Bogie fell for Bacall: the chemistry between the two is almost incendiary.
Casino Royale (2006) Debut for Daniel Craig as 007. Gadgets, the tireless bed-hopping, the excessive stunts.

Fargo (1995) Kidnapping gone wrong, an unhappy marriage and a wealthy businessman who refuses to pay a ransom. Set during a Minnesota winter.

Get Carter (1971) Gritty thriller meets Greek tragedy. London-based gangster travelling to Newcastle to get payback for his brother’s death. With the violence as unglamorous as a pub brawl and a mood as bleak as Tyneside winter, it’s one of the nastiest and most honest films about revenge ever made.

Jackie Brown (1997) Absorbing tale of an middle-aged air hostess outfoxing a shrewd gunrunner over a stash of money. The intricate plot is a model of machine-crafted precision, but the leisurely pace allows for some rich characterisation and some soulful reflections on ageing.
LA Confidential (1997) A scabrous attack on Hollywood’s blind devotion to the culture of celebrity. So it’s a minor miracle that a big studio should ever have financed this sprawling, densely plotted tale of police corruption, shady movie stars and tabloid journalists in the first place. The greater miracle is that Ellroy’s vision was preserved in all its gloomy brilliance by Curtis Hanson’s sharp direction and fearless performances from a first-rate cast.
Le Samourai (1967)A major influence on US cinema’s crime wave in the ‘70s.A hit man is a stone-cold classic violence. The film combines the tough-guy cynicism of film noir and crisp Parisian cool – with an added dash of Eastern mysticism.

Memento (2000) A tale of a amnesiac victim of crime attempting to solve the case. Disassembling the constituent parts of the thriller, Nolan pieced them back together to use the genre to probe the nature of identity. A profound, perplexing puzzle-piece of a film.

The Usual Suspects (1995) Revolving around five professional thieves brought together for a police line-up is played like one long, expertly deployed con trick, pulling the rug from under us so many times we’re left reeling. An unspoken law of omerta forbids viewers of the film from revealing the movie’s glorious final twist.

Here's some expected codes and conventions to be in thrillers:

Sound and editing : Involves several different camera angles and quick snaps and changes between shots. Music tends to be full of tension and has a racey sound to go with the action etc.

Lighting - Shadow, mirrors and stairs are mostly used.

Narrative - Normally shown from different characters points of view. Not just one persons view. Normally it is made out so the audience has empathy for one of the characters.

Setting - According to what the story line is based on. Not a particular setting-base.

Mise-en-scene - Dim/dark lighting, (illegal) weapons for props. Camera shots are normally close ups or normal shots. Quite a lot of camera movement.

Sub-genres of thrillers:

Conspiracy thriller is a sub-genre with a secret. Usually the hero becomes a threat to the conspirators, and must escape their response. An example is the novel'The Chancellor Manuscript.'

Ecothriller tales, involve some threat to the environment, either globally or locally. The Green Rain is an example. Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear became a best-seller.

Legal thriller often includes legal figures like lawyers who put their lives at stake in order to solve the mystery. It mostly takes place around the courthouse/room. An example is 'The Firm'.

Medical thriller often involves medical people such as doctors. They have their own lives at risk again, either by a mysterious disease being broken out, or their life is threatened by a patient etc. An example is 'Death on Call'.

Psychological thriller build up slowly until the action/violence takes place later on. It normally is on emotional or mental conflict between the characters. The conflicts may not even be possible in real life. For example 'The ring' is not something that would happen.

Religious thrillers usually have an artifact or historic secret that centres up the plot.

'The DaVinci Code' is an example of this.

Action thrillers usually involve violence, aggression etc. It includes weapons and guns, explosions etc. An example would be 'The Bourne Identity' & its following films.

The Pitch

We had to make a presentation of The Pitch in front of the class, telling them what our main story line and what the opening sequence was going to be about. It was about and about the other ideas in brief detail. We also explained what the characters will be like. We also shared some statistical research we had done. We then got feedback from the class and answered the questions.
Overall, I think it went well and figured that our peers found it interesting.

Movie ratings

12 means it is unsuitable for anyone younger than 12 which means it is not right for shops to sell a DVD to anyone under that age. 12 titles may have stronger moments of violence or references to teenage experience but nothing gratuitous. There may also be swearwords that you wouldn't hear at the PG level.

15 means it is unsuitable for anyone younger than 15 which means it is not right for shops to sell a DVD to anyone under that age. 15 titles may have a fairly adult theme or contain scenes of sex, violence, drugs, or violent language which are unsuitable for younger teenagers.

18 means it is only suitable for adults (persons over the age of 18) which means it is not right for shops to sell a DVD to anyone under that age. An 18 title will certainly have an adult theme and might well contain strong scenes of sex or violence and frequently use sexual swearwords.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1. Are you :

Male / Female

2. Are you between :

15 – 18 / 19 – 22 / 23 – 26 / 27 – 30

3. What is your favourite genre?

____________________________________________

Horror / Thriller / Rom-Coms / Other
____________________________________________

4. What do you expect in a thriller?
___________________________

5. What is your favourite thriller?

_____________________________________________

6. What characters would you like to be in the film?

Psycho’s / Skitzophrenic / Murders / Other


7. What do you like about thrillers?

_____________________________________________

8. What storyline would you prefer?

Death / Revenge / Obsession / Other
_____________________________________________

9. How often do you watch movies?

Everyday / Once or twice a week / Once or twice a month / Other

The Results:

The results that we got from the people were expectations of dilemma's and puzzle's to be in thriller movies. The next option was murders and death and then the last of the options was suspense.

The characters expected are mostly psycho's, then Schizophrenics and then murderers.

People like the fact that thrillers are films that make you jump, followed by liking how scary and suspensive they are. People didn't really seem to like the 'twists' in them.

Obsession was the most favourable story line, followed by revenge, and then death.

We based our story line on the things that we found most people like and would find interesting to see in a thriller.

Textual Analysis'

Over her dead body

There are a lot of romantic comedies out which have stereotypes in the way the film is presented from its opening sequence. At the start of ‘Over her dead body’ (OHDB), the music is slow and romantic which shows it is just like a typical Rom-com beginning. When the audience sees the pictures of the man & woman together, this tells them straight away that it is a romantic comedy as it shows evidence of them being a couple. It also shows a marriage certificate of theirs which makes it all realistic and fits the mise en scéne. After the marriage certificate is shown, a loud and jolly up-beated music is played which makes it more energetic. This is used as it is the day of the wedding so they want it to be more lively with the music being faster. The setting of their wedding being organised is a typical romance scene as in most romantic comedies, the couple either get married or live happily after. This is not that stereotypical as in most films, this scene happens towards the end of the movie whereas this was right at the beginning, not showing any of their romance before that.

One of the main characters (the lady) is shown when telling the waiters what to do and how to set everything out. Soon after, her husband is shown in the scene and it shows they are the couple by them hugging. This is something that rom-com’s do, by showing the main characters straight away into the movie so the audience knows exactly who the main people are. The editing between the shots is invisible. The credits of the names and the title fade in and out throughout the sequence. With the editing there are no fade outs. There is a mixed range of cuts between the shots and some shots are used as following the characters as to where they were going. Some shots also zoomed into some shots to make the shots into medium i.e. close-ups when the couple were hugging. Close up shots are used when the man is explaining the ice sculpture. There are also non-diegetic sounds used for the happy, jolly vibe of the wedding. There is no narrative voice used in the sequence. There is a jump cut when the lady falls on the floor and the screen turns black until she re-appears by fading into the scene. This is a special effect used on the opening sequence.

Scream

In the horror film ‘Scream’, it has a title as the first thing. The title goes from big to small font and is in the colour white at first and flashes in red, then eventually changes to a red font. This represents the colour of blood and shows a sign of danger in the movie. Special effects are also used when the red title zooms into the screen making the whole screen red. There is non-diegetic sound added when the title is shown too. It has sounds of a girl screaming, hence the title and also adds a sound of a knife cutting something which gives the audience a vague idea of what the film is going to be about - a horror film. It is predictable that the film is going to be scary as when the voice on the phone is heard, it is croaky and echoey which shows that it is mysterious. One of the main characters are shown straight away as the scene begins which tells the audience who one of the main characters are. There is a scene from outside where it’s dark and it shows a tree, and a swing moving. This shows someone is there and creates suspense for the audience. From shot to shot, there is invisible editing and no fading used. There is a jump shot from the outside shot to the shot of the fire turning on the hob where the popcorn. This is another sign of danger for the audience to look out for. The character slides the knife up from the holder when describing the scary movie which is also another sign of danger. This mise en scene makes it predictable about what is going to happen and makes it all create suspense. The sound of the popcorn sizzling and the bag getting bigger and the popping creates tension. The mist in the garden looks spooky and mysterious when the girl is looking for the stalker. The camera angle on the phone when it is in the first scene of the movie is a medium close up as it shows the phone has to do with most of the sequence (and the rest of the film). The camera moves from the phone to the girl picking it up and that’s where she is first shown. The facial expressions on her face are shown by a close up shot. When the girl is running there is non diegetic sound of loud beats which creates fear and tension for the audience. The setting looks more darker and spooky to give it that extra effect.

What Lies Beneath

What lies beneath is a thriller which has stereotypes which gives it away to the audience as soon as they see the opening sequence of it. The movie starts off with slow, dark music. It gives it a scary effect. There is a blue mist which then turns into a pitch black screen - this happens twice. It creates a mysterious effect of what the blue mist could be and also takes its time to get to the first scene to add suspicion to the audience. Credits are used in middle of these blue and black screen shots which are faded into and out of the scenes. The credits are of ‘21st century films’ and ‘Image movers production’. There are no names in the credits used at the opening sequence. The title is shown in capitals showing it is the title. A special effect is used on this as it seems like the text is in water, and the text is moving the way the water is. After the title is shown, the screen turns black again. This shows that it is cut in between the shots. Non-diegetic sounds of whispering noises are used to scare the audience, and warn them what kind of movie it is going to be. When the lady is in the water and comes out of the bath choking, a screechy sound is used. These non-diegetic sounds are used to create a scare to the scene and make it jumpy. She is the first character which is shown in the movie as soon as it starts which points out to the audience that she is one of the main characters who are used in the film. A close up shot is used when her face is first shown. A long distant shot is used of her sitting in the bath and then it zooms into it. The camera movement is following where she is moving to and where she is putting her hands. When she is choking whilst getting out of the water, when there is a misty mirror, when the socket blows and she gets an electric shock and when the hairdryer stops working, this adds up to the fact that the story is bound to be jumpy and scare the audience. In the bathroom scenes, invisible editing is used. When the shot is moved from the bathroom scene to her daughters’ bedroom, there is a jump shot. The scenes change dramatically as in the bathroom, it was very jumpy and shooken and in the next scene, it is of her waking her daughter up and opening the curtains just like a normal day which makes the movie look a bit confusing at first but then it gets deeper.

Shooting the scene

As a follow up of our plan on the short scene, on Friday, my group (Myself, Sinead and Armanee) started shooting our (45 second) short film. Armanee was in charge of the camera and was filming whilst Sinead and I were acting out the scenes. The short film is based where two people are in a school and are meeting up to exchange sweets. There is humour in this as it looks like they are dealing with something serious i.e drugs, whereas they are simply dealing with sweets.
We filmed this in our school hallway. It wasn't easy to film as people kept on walking past and interupting our scenes. Also, we had the odd few people coming into our shots on purpose which made us have to start again allthough we had finished in time for when the lesson had ended.
Armanee also had a few issues with using the camera as to how to rewind and record over scenes that weren't wanted but in the end, we got there.
This is the first time in Media where we were doing teamwork, and was also the first time of us all using camcorders. Working as a team went very well as we all co-operated and made each other understand what we were doing, or if any of us were doing something wrong. Overall, the filming went well and we now know how to use a recorder better than before.

Day2:
Paula saw the way we did the film and in her feedback said there was room for adjustment so we decided to do it again. We decided that we were going to use different actors in the film so that way, Sinead and I could help Armanee out with shooting the scenes and camera work. We filmed it again due to some scenes being too fast and not knowing what is happening in it. We made the second film show the shots more clearly as this now can make the audience aware what is happening in them.

Task 3

We had to choose our groups for our coursework and work in our groups to plan on producing our first recording. It can be no less or more than 45 seconds so it is a short recording. It has to include the 180 degree rule in this so we have to include a scene which shows that we understand it. We will be filming this in Fridays lesson.

Task 2: Research into Existing products.

In recent lessons we have been analysing and looking at different types of programmes and films and how they are addressed to the audience. We have been doing textual analysis' of the opening scenes of different genres of films.

Textual analysis' consist of:

- Types of Shots
- Camera Angles
- Editing; Visible & Invisible
- Sound & Audio; Diagetic (sound which is expected to be heard) & Non Diagetic (sound which is expected to be heard)
- Misé en Scene.

Genres

The 3 genre's we have been looking at for Media are Romance, Horror and Thrillers.

The film genre that I have chosen to work on is ________. Horror and Thrillers are very similar and can be confusing about which one is which. They both have the impact of giving the same vibe of scaring the audience.

Horror

With horror movies, they make the viewers have fear and involves story lines like death and criminal lines etc. and makes stories which are very strange and alarming. At the beginning of the film, they have to make you really scared and terrified so they have to add scary music to make you shake abit. This category of films also make the audience suspicious as to what is going to happen next. The setting of the films are most likely to be in creepy places, making it a traditional horror film with the atmosphere being really spooky. They are set out to frighten the audience and make them creeped out by the film, whether the story is real or not. The story has to be catchy and attention-grabbing in order to grab the audiences eye straight away. They have to include quite a lot of Non-Diagetic sounds to make the reader jump out and get shocked. The font used for the credits are often with blood dripping down them or having sharp-looking fonts.

Some horror films are:

- Day of the dead

- The grudge

- Scream

Thrillers

Thrillers have sub-genres i.e

- Conspiracy thriller

- Crime thriller

- Action thriller

- Disaster thriller

- Drama thriller

Thriller films are the type to thrill the audience. They have a high level of suspense and nerve-wracking tension in them too. They are both similar and different to horror movies. They both have non diagetic sound at the beginning of the movie to attach the audience to the movie and make them interested. Thrillers are differentiated from horror films as their story lines aren't the same. They have a lot of mysteries or impossible escape missions. These kinds of films have some kind of suspense in the story to keep the reader interested in the film and often have a rather suspicious ending - going onto a sequal or having a twist at the end. Thrillers include characters having conflicts with one another - the good and the bad. The font for the credits used in thrillers are just like the ones used in horrors, to give that affect to the audience of it being a scary film.

Some thrillers are:

- What lies beneath

- Hannibal

- Blade

Romantic Comedies

In romantic comedies, the setting is set to be really cheerful and bright. There is some non diagetic music as a jolly, happy tone of sound. The setting can be set at different places for this kind of film and doesn't have to be based in one environment i.e. A city or a park, etc. The usual storyline for ROM-COM's are 'Boy meets Girl' which ends up with them falling in love and having a happy ending but also have a part in the middle where they fall out, and then re-unite. Most of the opening scenes show where they are going to meet. The moods of these films are always more to the brighter side of things like making the audience laugh and trying to amuse them. The credits used in this are mostly with a font being bold and big. With having the font like this, it shows that it is going to be a rom-com and not a thriller or horror.

Some romantic comedies are:

- Pretty woman

- Valentines day

- Over her dead body