Developed Storyline

After getting audience feedback on anamatic, it was hard for the class to understand what was happening. So we decided to change our opening so that instead of being found in the house, he is hung in the woods.
This works better for creating verisimiltude of a person hanging, with use of branches and trees, and different camera angles. It also creates a better twist at the end of the story, as he attacks someone in the woods, but lets the person go, who then calls the police. As the police pulls up in their cars, he hangs himself in a tree, in hope that they will see him in time to cut him down before he is strangled, therefore breaking free from his final fate of death.

The woods makes a more creative location & mysterious atmosphere. Being filmed in the time around sunset, hopefully there is a location in which the sun can be seen setting which can create some good cinematography. To make sure there is enough light, car headlights could light the ground from the policemens cars, and search torches to light the body and trees.

Also with the character being older, the flashbacks we originally thought of suited a younger central protagonist, but needed changing to suit the older audience and character.
Here are our new flashback ideas :

• Burnt toast (to foreshadow the bad events about to happen)
•  Mothers wake (funeral would be harder to film, with location and extras, so instead the wake in the family house, in which the centeral protagonist is flicking through an old photo album, and girlfriend comes in to comfort him)
• Gets fired (shots of  him packing up all his items in his office into a box)
• Getting mugged (Ally way -claustrophobic space- 2-3 hooded youths attack him)
• Car stolen/vandalised (shot through window? of someone breaking into his car)
• Evicted from his flat (Shot of him coming down a flat stairs with suitcases)

- Expostion will be used through non digetic sound of answer machine messages, played over the top of the cuts of the body hanging, audio bridging over into the scene in which something related happens.
Messages will be from :

• Boss calling -threatening to fire him if he doesn't come to work
• Police - found his car, stolen and vandalised
• Girlfriend - demanding he picks up
• Landlord - reminding him his final rent deadline.

Podcast : Filming Update

After our first week filming we've done a podcast just to update on how we feel its going, and what we still need to do.

Vodcast : Making sugar glass

For one of our scenes in our media production, we want to have someone breaking into a car.
To create verisimilitude we researched into how to make sugar glass, which breaks easily without any harm. Indy Mogul is a website which has video tutorials on how to make special effects, and this is where we found out how to make it.


We vodcasted our making of our own sugar glass to include in our blog.






List of ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of 'corn syrup' - golden syrup
• 1/4 tspn of cream of tartar

There was a slight issue of not having a thermometer available, so we had to guess when it would be ready. This might have effect on the final product, but if it fails first time, we will try again, and possibly purchase a thermometer as well. - it is a low budget production for a reason.

Possible Film Titles

For the title of the film we want it to be related to the theme of recurring dreams, hanging, or general fate and destiny.
Here is what we came up with:

The Snared.
–noun

1.

a device, often consisting of a noose, for capturing small game.

2.

anything serving to entrap or entangle unawares; trap.


Phantasmagoria
–noun

1.

a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

2.

a changing scene made up of many elements.

Premonition
noun

1.

a feeling of anticipation of or anxiety over a future event; presentiment: He had a vague premonition of danger.

2.

a forewarning.


Blue Funk
n.a state of depression. : You've got to get out of your blue funk and get back to work.


Denouement
–noun

1.

the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.

2.

the place in the plot at which this occurs.

3.

the outcome or resolution of a doubtful series of occurrences.

(definitions found from online dictionary)

Distributor & Box Office

Distributor


For a film to be seen, it has to be distributed.
This selling of the production can be done through Cinema, Television and DVD. However its not just the showing of the film that is done through distribution, but also marketing.
A huge impact on British Cinema is Hollywood, and making a production appeal to the American audience, which is also important within distribution. If a film is produced for the american audience, but the distribution within America fails, then its success will also fail.

Marketing includes promotional posters, dvd sleeves, interactive marketing, interviews and reviews.
Often with posters and dvd covers, there will be different versions for America and UK. This is due to wanting to appeal to the American audience, which in some cases is very different in the way it appeals to the UK audience. An example of this is Bridget Jones Diary, a British film, which was made for the american audience.

On the UK DVD cover there is just the central protagonist,  Renee Zellweger, and the names of the other actors, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant rather than the images, as the UK audience would recognise the names and not necessarily need the images of the actors to be attracted to the film. On the other hand, the American DVD cover features all 3 main characters and the names to signify who is who. This suggests that the cast is less well known in America, even though Renee is an A list American actress, it is not enough to pull in a huge crowd.


Box Office


So in distribution it is important to attract the right audience, which in psychological thriller is quite undefined, as the box office figures have little that comes from a psychological thriller.
The latest psychological thriller that has been released was Shutter Island, which directed by Martin Scorsese and staring Leonardo DiCaprio advertised itself with those two people enough to make it more popular than other psychological thrillers. In its opening weekend in the UK Shutter Islands box office figure was £2,250,178, and $41,062,440 in the USA. In contrast to other opening weekend figures on the previous weekend, the rom-com Valentine's Day got $56,260,707. This suggests that the genre is not as popular, and does not have such a wide audience, even if it is directed by a famous director and stars A-list actors.

With a genre such as psychological thriller, a successful film might not get high figures in its opening weekend box office, however over a period of time of being shown in cinemas, and through word of mouth, a film has the ability to generate high box office figures, regardless of how successful the opening weekend was. An example of this is Silence of the Lambs, with in its opening weekend in February it got $13,766,814, yet by October 1991 it had earned $130,742,922

Storyboard

The initial storyboard for our production.

A more detailed storyboard will be created before filming

Audience

BBFC rating

With psychological thrillers stereotypically consisting of a complex plot line and mature characters, which naturally would attract an older audience, 25+, they can also attract a younger audience, of 15+, who like films which explore aspects of mental issues being shown differently to other genres of films. The themes of the psychological thriller can mean the BBFC rating doesn't have to be 18, as the issues which surround the plot line are mainly focused on the mind, there is less of a high volume of sexual scenes or extreme violence which could mean the rating has to be at 18, only viewable to an older audience. Therefore the rating can be a 15, increasing the range of audience of the film. 
 


In America, there is a different system, MPAA, which is as follows

[Found on Wiki]

From the psychological thrillers that I have watched, these are the ratings that they have, and a brief description into the content.

Memento : BBFC 15.  MPAA R.
 Includes aspects of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, frightening/intense scenes. Further details are given on the IMDB page

Don't Look Now : BBFC 15. MPAA R.
Includes mild aspects of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, frightening/intense scenes. Even though there is limited offensive material within this film, the rating could be related to the age that the film targets at as opposed to being based on how offensive it is.
Further details are given on the IMDB page

88 Minutes : BBFC 15. MPAA R.
Includes aspects of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, frightening/intense scenes. The violence and gore is quite strong, as the film is based on the story of a murderer hanging women, therefore the film has included quite graphic scenes.
Further details are given on the IMDB page

The Prestige : BBFC 12A. MPAA PG-13.
Total explicit content estimation 20/50.
Includes a vary of levels of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, frightening/intense scenes. The reason given for the 12A rating is the aspects of violence and disturbing images. Further details given on the IMDB page

Mr Brooks : BBFC 18. MPAA R.
Includes some strong levels of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, frightening/intense scenes. But there is no details under the aspects of alcohol/drugs/smoking.
Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, nudity and language
Further details given on the IMDB page

The Machinist : BBFC 15. MPAA R.
Includes some mild levels of sex & nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, frightening/intense scenes. Was rated R for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language.
Further details given on the IMDB page

In terms of our own production, after seeing the ratings for similar films, I think a BBFC rating of 15 would be best for our film. I have come to this conclusion due to there being little images of sex & nudity, violence and gore, there could be some profanity throughout the main film, but nothing in the opening sequence. Use of alcohol/drugs/smoking may be seen, but no extreme levels. The main aspect would be within frightening/intense scenes, of which a man is hanging. The narrative would also suggest this audience with the plot following a psychological thriller, but understandable for an audience of 15+.

Ethnicity:
Although there is no non-Caucasian characters in the opening scene, it does not suggest that it is strictly Caucasian audience. No representation of non-Caucasian is present, positive or negative. Representation of the Caucasian characters does not really follow any stereotypes, and the characters themselves are based around the story rather than creating a representation of ethnicity.

Gender:
Targeted to a mainly male audience through the:

• Genre
• Male protagonist

However there is a lack of male gaze, as any female characters aren't the stereotypical busty blonde. 

There is also an attraction to the female audience through:

• Storyline -> sympathy
• No excessive offensive material

Class:

The preferred class would C1, an upper middle class, where a plot following complex mind issues could easily followed by an ABC1 audience as opposed to a C2DE audience, which would prefer a film containing more action than dialogue. However the boarderline of C1/C2 is hard to distinguish and this film could target either audience. Within targeting an older audience, there is the thought of whether ABC1 would spend their time watching movies, as they could prefer to go to the theater or to a play, therefore the targeting of C2 would come in to attract the older audience who do watch films in their spare time.

Nationality/Region:

Little aspects suggest the region of the film, as each scene could be anywhere in the UK, and does not follow any particular stereotypes of the Yorkshire Region.

Nationality accents are northern, but not as too strong that could cause confusion to audience of different regions and allowing them not to be able to follow the story.

Sexuality:

The theme/genre of our production doesn't really portray sexuality as such. The central protagonist is in a relationship, which could show representation of a hetrosexual male, but there is no particular positive or negative representation of sexuality on the whole, nor targeting one particular audience.