Market Research/ Analysis of Existing Products

  Market research

We are conforming to the typical codes and conventions of a thriller film. We are gathering inspiration from films such as Obsessed and Prom Night. We will be analysing mise-en-scene, camera angles/shots/ editing and sound. The codes and conventions we are following are:

Eerie Music- Music creates an intense atmosphere and gives us a sense of what the genre is and builds up tension.

Dark lighting/setting - Thriller films are usually set in mysterious settings that are usually unpredictable and enigmatic for example the motel where Marion stays the night in Psycho. She is not familiar with the location.

Other films about obsession:

Obsessed is a 2009 thriller film directed by Steve Shill, written by David Loughery.

A psychotic temp stalks a successful businessman, and only the man’s equally psychotic wife can stop her. The film raises the issue that sexual harassment in the workplace is not only directed towards women, but that men too can be victims.

Prom Night is a 2008 horror film from Screen Gems directed by Nelson McCormick and starring Brittany Snow. The film is a re-imagining^[2][3] of the 1980 Canadian horror film of the same name.  Screen Gems is an American subsidiary company.

Prom NightOpening sequence – white writing credits and black background is shown before going into the scene. Starts off from the ocean to set a calm/relaxed mood. The writing is standard and average size which is legible to the audience. As the scene continues to play, following the car over the bridge, the opening credits still show until 02:29 where the music overlay stops too so we can begin to focus on the scene.

Sound - Music Overlay (non- diagetic) an eerie, up tempo sound is played as the credits are shown. Opening sound lasts for 2mins 33secs. Dialogue is exchanged, gets straight into the action, the conversation held talks about “prom night” which is the title of the film. A continue shot reverse shot is shown during the conversation.

The music overlay restarts of an eerie type, which changes to a rapid, heart pounding tempo at 3:29 till 6:08 as she first discovers the murder of her brother.

Within the first five minutes we are hooked as an audience into the film opening. Although we find out it is a dream, it has drawn the audience in, which allows us to conclude on what a great impact the opening sequence has onto the rest of the film which we await to watch.

                                      

Music Video - we used the opening of this music video as inspiration to start off our film sequence. it followed the genre we are focussing on and gives an insight of what our end product should hopefully look like.

Mood Board

We used these images to gather inspiration for our film, Behind Closed Doors. We used images of the setting we will be filming in which is a park background. The door image represents what goes on behind the closed door. We used images of DVD sleeves relating to the genre and style of the film we are creating.

H:\KS5\AS Media Studies\Mood Board.mht

Questionnaire and Summary

Target Audience Research

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONNAIRE

People asked:  20                                                   

Gender

Females: 10

Males: 10

Age
12-14: 1
15-17: 16
18-20: 3

Preferred film genre (the lower the total, the better response it received)
Horror/Thriller: 54
Comedy: 61
Action: 63
Drama: 68
Romance: 73
Sci-fi: 86

Average monthly cinema visits
< 1: 2
1-3: 13
4-6: 2
7-9: 3

Preferred film endings
Happy: 1
Sad: 3

Bit of both: 4

Cliffhanger:6

No preference:6

Encouragement to watch a film

Friends/family: 3

Film trailers: 14

Posters/advertisement: 2

Boredom: 1

Preferred film length (hours)

1-2: 11

2-3: 7                                                                           
No preference: 2

Preferred film openings
In medias res: 2
Build up to action: 4
Suspense: 6
Twisted: 4
No preference: 4

Preference on how credits should be shown:
With sound: 10
During the scene: 9
No preference: 1

Preference on look of credits:
Animated, black and white: 6
Inanimated, black and white: 2
Animated and coloured: 10
Inanimated and coloured: 2

Our chosen target audience will be teenagers as we can relate to them and so we can incorporate conventions of thrillers which we like into our opening.

The result of the questionnaire came out as thrillers being the preferred genre, which is good as that is our genre.

Most recipients preferred cliffhanger for a good ending or did not mind how it ended. However, this does not pretain to our opening.

The most preferred opening is a suspenseful one. This tells us that our opening needs to use great techniques to grip our viewers into the film.

A sound/soundtrack being played whilst the credits are shown was the best preferred, closely followed by whilst the scene is being acted. There techniques are very different, but are both liked, so our group will need to decide wisely about which is best to create the desired atmosphere.

Finally, the preferred look of the credits is animation with colour, so we may utilise this information in our opening credits. Although, we have to keep in mind what will create the desired emotion in our viewers.

Treatment

Treatment:

The film will emphasise how a deep betrayal by a boyfriend can lead to a deep obsession, and how suppressed anger can spiral out of control, verging on a possible tragedy.

‘Behind Closed Doors’

Prepared by

Anika Rahman, Bethenay Longley, Licia Johnson, (and initially Daniel Andrews).

For

Harris Crystal Palace, Media AS

Address

 Harris City Academy Crystal Palace  

Maberley Road, London, SE19 2JH

It is proposed that the film opening will be of two minutes duration.  


Locations
It will be filmed at Beth's house in Penge, entirely in Beth's room, and edited at Harris Crystal Palace.

Possible Limitations and Constraints

- Not being able to keep the cameras overnight means we will have to figure out ideal dates and times which will suit all of us.  If one of us cannot make it, then filming would most likely be cancelled which would hold us back.

- The majority of the opening will be in Beth's room, so three people maneouvering around may be difficult.

- We are most likely not going to be using a tri-pod as there is not much space and we have not contemplated on tracking shots, so we will have to hold the camera steadily ourselves.

Our Initial film idea:

  Daniel is Beth's ex-boyfriend who is now with Anika.  Beth is distraught and her deep emotions are shown in the opening to the point where she would seem insane.
1) Credits roll with pictures in black and white of Daniel and Beth in happier times, then fade into pictures of Anika and Daniel in colour, where black and white represents the past and colour the present.

(2) Beth bumps into Anika on the road and they seem to be friendly. Anika has recently started dating Beth's ex-boyfriend and is asking her how she feels about it. Beth seems to be fine and understanding.

(3)  A door shuts, Beth is seen in her bedroom, crying and angry, surrounded by ripped/scratched photos. She rings her best friend Licia for comfort and support.

(4) Licia is angered by Daniel's betrayal, but can she sit back and ignore it? 

Unfortunately...

 Daniel left due to personal reasons so he was replaced by Beth's real boyfriend George, and we had to drastically adapt our idea to ...


(1) We see Beth crying in her room.  There are photos of her and her ex in her room.


(3) There are flashbacks of her and George in a happy relationship.


(4) She rips down the photos angrily, makes a 'potion' and runs out of her room with it.  What is she planning? 

Brainstorm

Brainstorm

First idea:
Credits include pics of each couple.
After credits, there is a split screen of a phonecall between Beth and Licia.
Beth burns a picture of her and Daniel which fades into a flashback of a happy moment before the break-up.
Rapid cut back to ECU of Beth's face with mascara running.
Flashback of Beth and Daniel arguing.
Cut back to Beth.
Flashback of Beth watching Anika and Daniel.
Cut back to Beth.  She's getting ready to go out and something tells the audience she's going to do something bad.  At the front door she turns around and throws something at the camera and the screen shatters.