1)How many suspense films were released in 2010?38
2)In total, how much did these suspense films take, gross, to the nearest million? £42,000,000
3)Which genre of film had the highest gross in 2010? Action/Adventure
4)What was the most popular family genre in 2010? Action/Adventure
5) There are a lot of suspense movies made in 2010, more than horror, musicals, romantic comedy and sci-fi. The genre gross was £42,441,123 which i don't think is to bad however romantic comedy got £58,132,343 which is high and only had 22 no. films. This shows that suspense may not be the most favoured genre however i think it makes a really good sub genre. It got 4.2% of the years box office which isn't that high it got lower than both horros and romantic comedy.
Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. Quite literally, films borrow from each other, and you, the audience, may recognise certain camera angles, aspects of mis en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others. The movies 'What lies beneath' and 'Fatel attraction' both borrow from the movie 'Psycho'.
Images from the film 'Psycho'
From 'What lies beneath' we can see some similarities such as the white bath tub,white shower curtain, white tiles, white bath robe, female victim, sound of the shower running, same shower rose, same sound from string instrument like a violin.
Thrillers with a different sub genre have different target audiences. psychological thrillers will be aimed at adults 25-45. these kind of films usually take a lot of concentration and understanding to watch. Memento and se7ev are good psychological thrillers. Action thrillers are targeted more at a male audience that are 18+. 'Deja vu' is a good example of a action thriller. Unlike action thrillers, romance thrillers have a more female audience that are 18+. 'He loves me, her loves me not' is a romance thriller. 'The orphanage' is a supernatural thriller, supernatural thrillers get a more female audience. this could be because children are usually used in this type of sub genre and females tend to enjoy films with children than males would. The target audience would be teenagers and young adults. Political thrillers like 'Enemy of the state' would be aimed at older people 35+.
The movie 'Friends with benefits' is a romantic comedy. The film certificate for this movie is a 15 so the target audience for this film would be teenagers and young adults 15-24. The movie stars Justin Timberlake who is a well known singer and actor, this would attract many girls to go see the film. The poster shows a divide in the shot which separates Justin Timberlake from Mila Kunis. This tells us that they aren't fully together maybe to show they are not in love or can't be.
'Dream House' is a supernatural thriller. The age certificate for this is a PG-13 however i think the target audience will be slightly older females 24-34. Females tend to watch more supernatural thrillers because there are children in them like dream house. Daniel Craig is a well known actor however this role involved less action so he would be used to attract older women.
In the beginning of 'Taken' we get the production company and distribution. In this movie it is 20th Century Fox. the movie then goes into what looks like a home movie but is a memory of the main character who we then see. This gives us another convention to film openings because it gives an introduction to the main character. the film goes straight into the main characters bedroom so we don't have a classic opening of a city landscape. plus the setting and location isn't shown either. We do get title sequences from the beginning which last about 1 minute and 24 seconds. The flash back the main character has is silent and then these light effects appear and a weird noise. The effect of the noise and light shown after the main character returns from his flash back gives quite a spooky feel, it makes the audience feel the way the characters are feeling and how they want us to feel. This tells us the film isn't going to be a happy film but more of an action thriller. so the opening does set up the genre of the film. this also gives a mood and tone of the film that something is likely to happen involving his daughter. The film opening meets many conventions.
After having done research into film audiences for thrillers i realised that the target age for thrillers is approximately 16-45.
Silence of the Lambs (below) and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory... and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young adult male.
Then there are thrillers such as Memento, Se7en that target a more mature audience. Also there are classic thrillers (Alfred Hitchcock films) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults. Such as north by north west which takes more time and concentration to understand what is happening in the film. They are rated PG because there isnt much blood gory or sex. However the ideal age to start watching thrillers (after doing research) is 16. This would allow someone to fully understand the film and not have any problems. Also if any blood does occur it is suitable for the viewer to watch.
Hello group 12
Your blog is coming along nicely now. Don't forget that each blog entry must contain some sort of visual aspect (image, link, video clip, screen cast etc). You need to go back into some of the blog entries on the front page and add in the necessary visual content.
Keep the good work (and Hafiza - catch up soon...)
An action-thriller about a writer who takes an experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his mind. As one man evolves into the perfect version of himself, forces more corrupt than he can imagine mark him for assassination. Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra's (Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer elixir that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive. Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him. As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions.
Intertextuality is when a movie uses visual aspects of another film. Psycho is famous for the shower scene. Now different movies are using some of the visual aspects from this scene and using them for scenes in their films. For example alot of films who have a bathroom scene have plain white shower curtains instead of the modern ones with a design on them.
1)How many suspense films were released in 2010?38 suspense films were created
2)In total, how much did these suspense films take, gross, to the nearest million? £42,000,000
3)Which genre of film had the highest gross in 2010?Action/Adventure
4)What was the most popular family genre in 2010? Action/Adventure
5)Write a short paragraph of about 200 words about how the figures for ‘suspense’ genre films compare with other film genres in 2010.
Who are the target audience for thriller films?
It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film.
Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory... and they're rated 18+. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults.
Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as M. Night Shyamalan films The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror, the target audience would be slightly different... probably younger and more female based.
And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience... and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults.
But a target audience for a generic thriller film... I'd have to say the young adult from ages 18-25.
These suspense films took £42,000,000 to the nearest million
Action/Adventure films had the highest gross in 2010
Action/Adventure films were the most popular family genre in 2010
If we look at how many suspense films were released and compare this genre to the rest, suspense was '5th' in the amount of films released in 2010. It also took a fairly low percentage of the years box office with only 4.2% I think this appears fairly low because genres with less films released have a higher box office percentage e.g Animation had 26 films released and took 18.2% of the box office. So in 2010 roughly 6.6% of the films released were in the suspense genre.
Intertextuality is when films "borrow" ideas from each other.
The shower scene in Psycho is a prime example for this because of the famous shower scene. A few clips that we watched today from the films 'What Lies Beneath', 'The Stepfather' and 'Fatal Attraction' showed intertextuality because they used a lot of the same elements from that scene. I also noticed links from one film to the other not just from Psycho. The main things that I picked out were the knife used, the shower curtain, the bath and the bath robe worn by one of the characters in each clip.
These shots are from clips showing intertextuality that we watched in class from the films; What Lies Beneath, The Stepfather and Fatal Attraction. They have all taken ideas from Psycho which I have also included shots of (black and white images).
These shots show intertextuality because of the knife and the stance.
Since researching, analysing and discussing a wide range of thriller films, I would say the core target audience is around the ages of 25-45. Other age groups watch thriller films as well but these are considered as the secondary audience.
If we look at this poster for the film 'Fair Game', we can work out the genre. I would say that this is an Action Thriller with elements of politics. The circle around the two actors reads 'central intelligence' around the inside of it which suggests the film may be political. The way they are both dressed also suggests this. We can already see that this film is not targeted at a teenage audience. So setting the target age at around 25-45 also allows us also to look deeper into the fact that 'central intelligence' also could mean that this film requires concentration and intelligence to understand the film and maybe pick things up that are almost hidden within the plot.
The 'Friends With Benefits' poster almost immediately gives off the impression it has aspects of romance. The white and pale blue background suggest it is a comedy as it is light. The font also suggests the film is an easy watch and the font colours are mainly white and blue which match the background. The expressions on their faces suggest there is a connection between them and also that this i a light hearted film.The title is positioned right down the middle of the poster separating to two main actors suggesting that something is in the way of the two being together and makes us think will they over come the barrier. Then looking over all of the things I have just said about the poster I think it is easy to classify this film as a 'Rom Com'.
A genre is a way of categorizing films, for example; Thriller, Horror, Action, Adventure, Comedy etc. Genres are useful for institutions because each genre always includes the same sort of things. Genres also help the makers to market the film and decide release dates as a good time to release a Romance or 'Rom Com' could be February because of Valentines day or October for a horror because of Halloween as they may gain a bigger audience in the cinemas.
A sub genre is when two genres cross, for example; Action Thriller, Supernatural Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime Thriller, Political Thriller.
I watch quite a lot of thriller films but the ones I tend to prefer are Action Thrillers and Crime Thrillers because I think they are easier to watch. I also like Supernatural Thrillers but tend not to watch them as much. Psychological Thrillers are aimed at an older audience roughly around 25-45. Some younger people like to watch Psychological Thrillers too although I think the target audience is aimed older because it takes a lot of concentration to watch them and adults may pick up and understand more things in the plot than a teenager.
Phone Booth is a Thriller film that I really enjoyed. This type of thriller inspires me because it is full of suspense and even though the whole film is set on a man in a Phone Booth a lot of things happen. This clip is from nearer the end of the film as i couldn't find the film opening.
Another Thriller film that I though was very effective was Green Zone. I would class this as an Action Thriller.
Whilst researching sub genres I have also found what is called 'Disaster Thriller' which is set around a natural disaster. An example of this sub genre would be the film 'Twister' (1996) which i have seen.
In film theory, genrerefers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are
constructed.Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism. As with genre in a literary context,
there is a great deal of debate over how to define or categorize genres. Besides the basic distinction in genre between
fiction and documentary, film genres can be categorized in several ways.
Sub-Genre
Film Sub-Genres: Listed below are some of the most common and identifiable film sub-genre categories, with
descriptions of each type or category. These are identifiable sub-classes of the larger category of main film genres,
with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas, and iconography. These are some of the thriller sub genres:
Horror Thriller
Supernatural Thriller
Psychological Thriller
Romance Thriller
Action Thriller
Political Thriller
Crime Thriller
Dejavu
Dejavu is an action thriller and it inspires me because I like the idea of the Dejavu happening, also the race against time to save a boat full of people creates an excellent thrill. I would say the target audience for this film is 16+ because its not so easy to understand and it takes 100% concentration to understand and enjoy.
A lot of the tension in dejavu is built with music and fast actions such as fast cars and all the noises that come with that. This may affect my film opening by the choice of music.
Genre is a way of categorizing films e.g Thrillers, Trailer, Action, Adventure, Horror. Genre is important to institutions because it gives a set of tools + conventions for the makers and it also helps them market the film.
A sub genre is like subdivisions of an encompassing term. Like if you say you saw a movie labeled -drama- could you watch it and see if it was a romantic drama? Its taking groups like comedies, mysteries, poems, and making the thinking narrower.
Different types of genre and sub genre for thriller films
Action Thriller
Supernatural Thriller
Crime Thriller
Erotic Thriller
Crime Thriller
Political Thriller
Psychological Thriller
Romantic Thriller
Action Thriller
Target Audience
The Target Audience for this movie (Drag me to hell) is mainly aimed at mature teens/ young adults to more mature adults ages 16 - 30.
Genre is a way of categorising films. Eg. Thriller, Romance, Action, Comedy, Horror
Genre is useful for institutions because it gives a set of tools and conventions for the makers. it also helps them to market the movie.
Genre helps audiences decide what film they want to see.
Sub genre is a subcategory within a particular genre. Eg. Action thriller, romance thriller, psychological thriller, drama thriller
I enjoy action thrillers and they are my favourite sub genre, i like the film 'In time'. Movies with action thriller are usually fast paste. It could influence my own film opening because it's quite different. It begins with a voice over and then goes into the movie. I like movies that don't have a long discrete beginning because they get boring. 'In time' is a movie all about time and how short there life can be so the whole movie is quite fast paste and you always know something interesting is about to happen.
I found the lesson on title sequences really useful because I have never taken note of most of the things we learnt. We have looked at a lot of film openings and the title sequences last a lot longer than I originally thought they did.
Title sequences seem to have a standard layout, being;
company idents, presents (e.g 'summit entertainment presents'), title, main actors, supporting actors and then everything after is the people involved in the production side e.g editors, producers, casting etc
Below is print screens of the title sequence for the film 'The Roommate'
In class in our group, we analysed the film opening for 'The Roommate' and filled in the sheet we have taken pictures of and shown below. We answered questions on where the title nearly always appears we also answered questions on film titles such as what fonts are used and time it takes to go from production company to distributors.The production company is usually the first thing we see at the beginning of a movie. this could include the logo of the production company. The distributors are then shown after it. If there are A-list actors/actresses they are usually shown before the title of the movie however 'The Roommate' doesn't have A-list actors or actresses so the movie title appears before the names of the actresses and actors. After the title there is usually the supporting actors and then all the main people involved in the production process, e.g. music, casting director, costume, music, editor, producer, writer. Below is the company ident used in 'The Roommate'. This appears before anything else.
Over the holidays I watched the film Mission Impossible 2.
Mission Impossible 2 is a sub genre thriller (Action-Thriller)
Its Success
The film was a financial success. In its North American opening weekend the film grossed $57,845,297. The film eventually grossed $215,409,889 in its North American release and $330,978,216 in other territories, totaling $546,388,105 worldwide.
The Cast
Mission Impossible 2 starred big stars such as Brad Pitt which is known for actions and thrillers. Having Brad Pitt as a main actor means that is an instant attraction for action-thriller lovers and Brad Pitt lovers. These attractions affect the success of the film.
Hello group 12
Your blog is looking very empty - you should be at about 12 or 13 blog posts each by now.... Alex - you are the only person to have completed the holiday work (well done - it's looking good). Boys - you are letting the blog down.... (hint hint).
During the Christmas holidays I watched the film 'The Town' which is a crime thriller. Ben Affleck directed the film as well as helping to write the film and star as the main character.
The film includes some big names in the industry for example:
- Ben Affleck
- Jeremy Renner
- Blake Lively
The film is set in Charlestown and the first thing we see after the company idents is writing.
It reads: "One blue-collar Boston neighbourhood has produced more bank robbers and armoured car thieves than anywhere in the world." We then see quotes from people from Charlestown/Boston: "Bank robbery became like a trade in Charlestown, passed down father to son." and "I'm proud to be from Charlestown. It ruined my life, literally, but I'm proud."
These short pieces of writing set up Charlestown to be a place filled with crime and a very unsafe neighbourhood to live in.
Ben Affleck stars as Doug MacRay who is a Charlestown thug and bank robber. The film opening has Doug MacRay voicing over what is going on and the camera is filming the man he is talking about. We then see him and his 3 associates robbing the bank. They make the banks assistant manager open the safe, then once they take the money they take her as a hostage and drive away in a van. They blindfold her and release her at the beach unharmed. She walks towards the water and later we find out she was told to walk until she feels the water on her toes. We also instantly see that Jeremey Renner who playsJames Coughlin is the one out of the four who will kill anyone without question if needs be, so we see him as the most violent.
The four main characters from left to right:
Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan, Doug MacRay, James Coughlin, Desmond Elden
There is also a scene shortly after the bank robbery where Doug MacRay goes to a community church hall type of place. Just before we see him there, there is a voice over of people talking about experiences they've had in their life whilst Doug is in his flat. There is also almost a theme tune that is soft that we hear a few times in the film so it acts as a sound bridge along with the voice over which I think is really effective as it shows he is actually a caring character and obviously is not proud of what he does. Also because of where this scene is set it could maybe suggest that he has gone there to seek forgiveness from God. I think this is really affective because we although the film is mainly about crime, there are already elements of kindness creeping in. I find this inspiring because I think that having a sort of second storyline to a character is a clever way to draw the audience in as people are intrigued to find out what the character is really like.
Doug and the woman (Claire) that they kidnapped in the bank meet in the laundromat. Claire sees blood on her shirt from where James hit her colleague in the head with his gun. She starts crying and Doug tries to comfort her. I think this scene works really well with his character because although you would think that he is being friendly doing it to get closer to her, the comforting comes across to the audience fairly genuine. I think this because the camera is taking a close up of his face and we can see the expressions clearly. Even though we know Doug has a motive, it reminds us again of the caring side to him that we saw in the community church hall. He obviously gains her trust because in the following scene in the car, she talks to him about the bank robbery and what a horrible experience it was for her when they kidnapped her and left her on the beach. Doug says "I'm sorry" and she replies "It's not your fault" when the audience already knows it is. Most of the shots in these scenes are close ups so we can read their emotions easier by their facial expressions, but at that moment the camera changes angle so we are looking into the car through the windscreen. I think this is really effective because after all those close ups we can see both expressions. Doug appears to look guilty and genuinely sorry for what he did to her, whereas Claire has is smiling. I find that this change in shot works really well because the audience feels as if the expressions should be the other way round.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Shot by Shot Remake
Video taken after filming on a flipcam
Final edited remake of the collateral clip
Original Still Images From Collateral
I think our collateral shot by shot remake went well but we could've added more to make it look better e.g. A cut in of the bags falling on the floor to show the viewer what is going on.
We got a few of the shots correct but we failed to get the correct close up. This is a good start for our 1st day recording and we will learn from our mistakes as we go along.
two SD cards (A&B) which correspond to the card slots A&B on the camera
battery slides in to the left and clicks / press button to release the battery
built in microphone but an external microphone is recommended to film dialogue
press in the blue button on the silver dial and rotate to turn it on
you cannot tape over footage
to open the lense there is a slider on the left side of the camera near the lense which reads 'open' and 'close'
for an extreme close up use the manual focus by selecting 'MF' then selecting 'Focus' on the slider and press 'user 1' to use focus assist
to bring up footage press the 'cam/media' button
DO NOT change the menu settings on the camera otherwise the files may not be compatible with final cut pro on the macs and this means you will have to re-film
NEVER take it out in heavy rain, if it is drizzling get an umbrella for the camera from the technicians
if the camera gets broken it is seen as the whole groups responsibility to pay for it
Extension Task
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Film Openings
The film opening am writing about is William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996)
Right at the beginning we see the company ident for '20th Century Fox'. Straight after this we are told the basic storyline of the film by the woman we see gradually getting closer. This makes it feel like it is already drawing the viewer in as the TV screen she appears in becomes bigger. After that we see the city's landscape drawing into a particular statue with the words 'In Fair Verona' flashing on the screen. This sets the scene really well as we see where we are as well as being told. On the top of two of the tallest buildings we also see the words 'Montague' and 'Capulet'. We are told in the beginning that there are 'star cross'd lovers' who take their life but we also see a fair amount of police and what appears to be violence which sets the genre. Then there is the introduction to the main characters where the film freezes on an image of each main relative to Romeo and Juliet and text appears at the side which states their name and relation. The title appears after all of the above conventions and then the film continues.
The film opening i have choosen is from the film Bad Boys.
This opening sets a good location, showing the sun and palm trees. It also shows some credits of the main characters such as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The Production and Distribution Ident is shown at the beginning (columbia). The opening shows its an action comedy, by having funny scenes with weapons and violence. The music is up tempo and this makes it more exciting for the viewer.
A classic film opening is to have a pan of the landscape (location that the film is set) this sets a location. Then having a shot zooming into a window.
