Audience research (age/gender)

This is a Psychological Thriller as it is between two characters battling against each other's minds, though the mental state. This means it can be aimed for older people as Psychological Thrillers are more mentally challenging.

Should be aimed for females as they may feel more emotion and empathy for the girl due to motherly connections to the girls in the film. And also because generally, if the main character is a girl then a film will tend to be aimed to girls. Also there is research to show that females are more interested in psychological thrillers as they generally have more empathy and boys.

15 rated rather than 18 rated audience certificate means there will be a wider audience, meaning more people can go. Therefore a higher profit will be mad. This means it  must fit the 15+ guidelines. 

According to the BBFC...


15 rated: No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children

Limits - No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

15 rated film can have; 

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

AC

Costume: Man

The other character in the film ,apart from the girl will be a man in his mid 40's.  Going along with the idea in the film, of him seeming a normal level headed man, who seems to have lost his child, we don't want his outfit to be creepy, or smart.  We want it to be really casual, and subtly mimicking what builders wear to give a 'geezer' effect, making him seem ordinary.  We took inspiration from the film Shifty as the men had a manly urban look.  Also this fitted with the characters they played in the film, so as the costume worked with their general look, we thought we should use them as inspiration.

Also in Collateral, the character Jamie Foxx plays gives an 'ordinary guy' feel, and we thought he would be good inspiration as we don't want the man to look like a kidnapper.   Also in Jamie Foxx's character, he wears glasses and through his actions, he seems to have a slight edge, making him be more than just an ordinary man.  We want to think about this when choosing props and when filming, as we don't want only the costume to portray the character of the man and his purpose in the scene.  

This is a mood board of what we want him to wear, making it easier for us to picture the character.  We wanted him to wear simple clothes, as if he is about to start a normal day.  We think this will be a thrilling contrast to the girl cowering in the other room.  It also builds the thrill as he seems so ordinary but is capable of kidnapping, and creates the idea that your neighbour could be a kidnapper as he seems so normal.  At first we though of tracksuits and baggy tops, but going with the 'dad' theme we also added shirts, jackets and jeans, to make him seem older, adding to the creepiness.  The cigarettes will give the scene an urban gritty feel and again will add to his ordinary perception.

IW

Location: Girls Room

Due to the idea of the opening that we want to create, I am picturing the teenage girl in a very modern stereotypical, young, childish style room. Making the room resemble a child's room of today makes the rest of what is going to happen a lot more realistic and therefore more thrilling. The photos above is my interpretation of a young girls room of around 12 years old. The idea of having an older girl aged around 17 placed in a room which resembles a young girl will immediately look out of place and suspicious. This is the type of effect that I am trying to portray. It should slightly unsettle the audience and create questions. A lot of the bedrooms I looked at it is mainly pink with toys and posters on the walls.

As we do not have access to this style of room we are discussing if we could transform a bedroom temporarily to accomplish this look. This would include posters being stuck on the walls, pink accessories, a diary, and different subtle additions to the room. This means that we can have an establishing shot as the camera pans around the children room creating an eery environment. This effect is fairly easy to establish due to the audience taking in other horror and thriller films shooting in a child's bedrooms, this means that they will automatically anticipate something to happen. The following shots are from different films using similar ideas:

This first screenshot is from a horror film called 'Women in black' and is taken in a young girls room just before they are made to commit suicide. Although the set does not resemble the bedrooms above, it shows similar ideas but is set much earlier in time.

This is from a film called 'Ouija', again it is a fairly scary film which is about a young girl reaching out to spirits, a lot of the beginning of the movie is set in her bedroom where she first finds the board etc. The room is of an older girl but still gives off a very innocent characteristic which contrasts to the film making it eery.

This is a young girls room which stars in 'Annabelle' which is a horror film, this room is made to resemble a nursery room and is where the doll, and main features of the film are located.

I have only given three examples but this idea of using a child's room to create a sinister ambience due the fact that it is meant to be a safe and innocent room as it is where your child is at its most vulnerable state. Using this knowledge which the audience have prior to watching the opening of this film it means that we are able to suggest that something is wrong without spelling it out leaving a slight mystery to the scene.

EB

Costume: Girl

The main girl who has been kidnapped, needs to clearly portray her emotion, and this can be shown through her dress.  As she is probably going to be in her early teen (14+) then we want her clothes to be stereotypical of that age group and gender.  

When thinking of inspiration the main girl form the film ‘Lovely Bones’ inspired us as she gives off an innocent feel, and as her character as a whole seems to work with the plot of her getting kidnapped, we thought she would be good inspiration. 

This is a mood board of the types of things the girl should wear.   Aswell as looking at the girl from Lovely Bones, we took inspiration from what teenagers commonly wear, but also referring to our interpretation of the sterotype of a teenage girl.  To make the scene look more creepy, and to exaggerate her youth, we were thinking of making her clothes more similar to what a 5 year old girl would wear(pale pink, dungarees, kids brand logos)

The mood board was quite easy to create as we based it off our own clothes when we were younger and also from the clothes we see young children wearing, nowadays.  The jewellery and frilly socks give off an innocent feel that would suit the girls character.  I tried to get accesroies that little girls would want, from what I've seen in shops aimed at this age group like 'Claires'.  

Our other idea was that the girl has been dressed by her kidnapper in his scruffy baggy clothes.  This would add to her vulnerable look and make her seem more exposed.  It was also make the connection between the man and the girl more obvious.  Again, this is slightly exaggerated as we really wanted to portray the manly look.

Our main inspiration for manly clothes came from what characters in tv shows such as 'Eastenders' and 'coronation STreet' and what the builders tend to wear.  We also based it off what our dads wear as the man in our film is going to be around the same age as our dads.  They are quite baggy clothes and details like the socks being mens which add to the first impression of the girls state, which is very important.

IW

Coursework

• ·      Style/Genre – Tone, atmosphere, night, day, light.
• ·      Research into similar media texts.
• ·      Idea – Treatment
• ·      Visually interesting, camera angles, movements, positioning.
• ·      Script, dialogue, voiceover.
• ·      Foley sound
• ·      Audience
• ·      Storyboard – organization, stages, visual
• ·      Cast – ‘look’, stereotype, archetype, realistic, actors
• ·      Costume, props
• ·      Locations/recces – day, winter, time, interior, exterior, light
• ·      Film language vocabulary
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