Thriller Film Target Audience

For this blog posting, we could research anything that would be related to our project so I chose to research more about our target audience. I will be talking about who our target audience is and how we are going to draw them into watching our film.

Who are the people that's going to watch the film?

The people that would watch our film are mainly younger adults in which it's the age group ranging from 17-34 year olds. The kind of people that would like the film are people who like scary, horror films more specifically horror/psychological thriller. Our film is going to incorporate many different mise-en-scene elements with darker colors like black and the darker versions of colors like blue and red and make an eerie atmosphere to engage the audience and make them excited when they are going to watch our film.

How are we going to draw them into watching our film?

We are going to show lots of previews and trailers of the film along with behind the scenes work onto social media to engage the viewers. Some of the social media apps we are going to incorporate are TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. By doing these methods, we can draw the attention of many movie theaters and streaming companies so we can get our movie up on a big name brand.

A good example of what our film would look like to viewers trying to get a reference to our movie is the shining. If viewers find “The Shining” good, which it is, they would also enjoy the film we are going to put out

Cambridge Portfolio Schedule

Portfolio Project Schedule

Today, I will be showing you guys my schedule for how I am going to approach me and my groups portfolio project. I will be describing how I will plan it out by showing what I am going to do and when I am going to do it.

1. Research

- Lots of research about our chosen genre(Mainly horror)

- Analyze several different film openings to get a good idea of what our project is going to look like

2. Planning

- Decide the genre

- Create a background overall story on a word document 

- Storyboard on paper

- Decide what roles everyone is going to be 

- Choose the locations for filming

- Script

- Decide on the songs

3. Production

- Plan out the filming scenes

- Record the scenes based off our planning

- Re-record anything that was not to our liking

- Make any foley sounds if needed

4. Editing

- Edit the film opener

- Include title

- Include the credits

- Add any sound effects

- Add music 

5. Revision

- Watch our film opening multiple times to see if its to our liking

As I am writing this blog on February 6th, I still have many weeks left until the deadline of March 25th. I would like if I can finish it by spring break so I would not have to do it over my time off.

Now I will show the dates of everything:

Week 1: 1/29-2/2

This was the start of the project that has already passed but it's good to include all the steps to how we are going to do this. Basically we got introduced to the project and did research with my previous posts about transitioning to this and genre ideas that we got.

Week 2: 2/3-2/9

- Decide on the genre officially(Horror/psychological thriller)

- Confirm with my group that we will be doing this for 8 weeks

- Plot the movie plan

- Make a storyboard so we can get the scene ideas for our film

- Think about the actors for the roles that will be including in the film

- Find locations for shooting the project

Week 3: 2/10-2/16

- Meet with our teacher to discuss about our idea and to see where we are at with this project

- Start shooting some of our scenes

- Record foley sounds(if needed)

Week 4: 2/17-2/23

- Start editing one version of a project

- Record foley sounds(if needed)

Week 5: 2/24-3/2

- Analyze our first version

- Edit the 2nd version of the project

- Compare the two and see what we think would look better for the project

Week 6: 3/3-3/9

- Make sure our chosen version of the film is good and still check it just incase

- Reflection

- 1st question of CCR post

Week 7: 3/10-3/16

-2-4th questions of CCR post

Week 8: 3/17-3/25

- Make sure everything is good and ready to be submitted

I feel like with this schedule, we can be the most productive with this and I will update about anything that changes or happens with the plan.

Thriller Genre Credit Sequences

 

Thriller Credit Scenes

Yesterday, I posted about how a film opening should look like with instructions and 3 different examples of film openings. Today, I will be using those same three films but showing how they used the credits to build onto the film opening.

I will list again what a film opening needs to be like

A film opening needs to have these things: 

-Establish a tone: Certain color schemes and lighting
-Illustrate genre: Show the setting and background that your film will be around
-Include credits: Director, Producer, Writer, Main Actors, Editor, Copyright music, etc.
-Include title of film
-Develop a purpose: Whats the conflict
-Engage the audience

Halloween (1978)

https://youtu.be/8_tGvktfjjk?si=XyGSoh_SFQ9I5bSp

Now looking at the credits, names are being listing, title was including and we get a setting of where we are going to be at. The music starts slowly and then starts building up getting more intense with zooming into the pumpkin. The director already wants to make it clear that this will be a horror movie with all these elements in the credits without even starting the film. The lighting is dark that establishing a tone and at the end of the credits we see the camera walk up to a house.

A Quiet Place (2018)

https://youtu.be/INMh0ozFxH8?si=aPfdDxOzHjO8fJUF

A Quiet Place starts off with all the credits for people involved and the title with beeping sounds effects and the sound effect of getting concussed adds to the horror like aspect. Something to notice while the credits are playing is the TV's that are in the background and the running of people spotted on camera creates the tone of the movie along with the channel on the TV being corrupted.

Jaws (1975)

https://youtu.be/e6pa35-kpkI si=xm6ZeHHDO5x1qlTb

The credits start by showing all the names of everyone and then they cue the infamous music in the credits that creates suspense every time the shark is near and they get a shot inside of the water as the sharks POV. It then cuts to a gathering near a bonfire. 

Thriller Genre Film Openings

Thriller Film Openings

Today, I will be talking about three different horror film openings that I will be inspired by for my portfolio project. These film openings all show how a film opening should look like in this genre. 

A film opening needs to have these things: 

-Establish a tone: Certain color schemes and lighting
-Illustrate genre: Show the setting and background that your film will be around
-Include credits: Director, Producer, Writer, Main Actors, Editor, Copyright music, etc.
-Include title of film
-Develop a purpose: What’s the conflict?
-Engage the audience

I will be linking the videos of each ones to give you guys a good idea of what I will be going to talk about. 

Halloween (1978)

https://youtu.be/Rg3E8NhyJ74?si=2_XnsZ6LiruRyUjH

Starting on the opening of the film now, something that immediately gets my attention is the use of a handheld camera throughout the film. This factor creates a sense of realism, immediacy and a more subjective viewpoint when viewing the film. We can see in the opening the person walk up to the back of the house stalking two lovers in there living room. The person now sees the light shut off which starts the sound come into play. The sound here really elevates the tone of this scene creating a more scary feeling with the added dark background of the scene already. The person breaks into a house grabbing a knife from the kitchen and that right there would grab the attention of the audience and see what's going to happen next. The man leaves the house and the person walks up the stairs into the woman's room. He grabs a mask and walks into the woman's room silently and the woman screams "Michael!" before Michael stabs her and walks out the house. Note in this entire sequence of events in 4 minutes, this was back in 1963 as stated in the credits so we see a flashback of something that could lead up to what we see later in the film.

A Quiet Place (2018)

https://youtu.be/T_FdjXqSZlc?si=-p9eBd4sfio1w1So

The film opening starts with a little boy playing with his toy and everything around him is awfully quiet and the father tells the boy through sign language and lip reading to lower it and and by the looks of it they are in a bad area as the family looks to be packing up. The family leaves and the sister comes to console the little boy and they go on there way. As the family nears a bridge, the little boy stops and starts playing with his toy again. The toy is loud and alerts a creature noted by the music building up and the dad tries to save his little boy but the kid gets abducted and the scene ends there. The film opening would perfectly describe how the movie could possibly play out as the title "A Quiet Place" means to stay quiet or any loud noises, you die.

Jaws (1975)

https://youtu.be/8_E5ZKX3XZc?si=TVPI0y34mf1wt7_v

Then the opening scene starts with a guy approaching a girl as the sun is setting creating the tone of the action that will occur when the girl runs off into the ocean and the guy tries to catch up but ultimately fails and lies down into the sand. The girl is swimming and gets caught off guard when a shark comes from below and eats her to death. Before and during this sequence, the music created suspense when the shark was approaching her and when the shark was eating her and we get cuts of the two while this is happening.

Transition Posting to Portfolio Project

After many projects that I have accomplished throughout the year of AICE Media Studies, I have finally reached the one that matters the most, the Cambridge portfolio project, which is worth fifty percent of my final grade, my diploma relying on this very moment.

When I first got introduced to this portfolio project by my teacher, to be honest, I was stressed out of my mind. The pressure that I had considering that this was fifty percent of my final grade was at its breaking point. But once I took a deep breath, took everything in and processed it, I thought to myself, it cannot be that bad, it is just a two minute film opening. 

That is when I remembered I am not exactly an amateur to filming, as my filming journey started in seventh grade when I got put in my first film class. I enjoyed that class so much I went selected film two for an elective the year after. It did not stop there though as now, fast forward to today, I am in a college level film class, AICE Media Studies, and I am not stopping here, as I will put my all into this Cambridge project.

To make sure this project results in a great success, I have to plan it out very carefully, and spread out my work so I do not leave anything for the last minute. I have two things I have in mind to make my project result in a great production, resulting in a great grade.

The first thing I am doing is putting my filming days into my calendar, not only so I can track my progress, but so I can see if I am caught up or left behind with my work. My team would have the same calendar so we are caught up with each other and scheduled.

Secondly, I would overshoot while filming my portfolio. It is always better to have extra shots than run short on my film and that is one thing I would not want to happen. I would also need to try out different approaches when it comes to my genre of this film opening. The two that I am interested in at the moment are drama and horror, drama my number one option because I could build more off of that, while on the other hand, horror is a little bit too basic and most films as such as too similar to replicate.

To wrap it up, I am extremely excited to begin with this film project and I cannot wait for the grand result. My teacher has prepared me for this very moment, and I think I will do just fine, now I just have to go through the trial and error process in the making of this process, because everyone knows, nothing good comes on the first attempt.

Portfolio Project Genre #2

Genre #2: Horror

My secondary option for my portfolio project is horror films. As a fan of horror myself, I am interested in making a film of my own, but this genre has a little more flaws in the making. For a beginner film maker, it can be hard to produce scary content, as it could appear cheesy or just not good. The reasoning behind my interest for this topic is that I just love the suspense and mystery behind those scary scenes. Even though I do not relate to or connect to these films as much as drama’s, it is always just such a fun, interesting watch for me, simple as that.

Contradictory to my first pick of genre interest, the majority of the audience for horror films are men, even though most teenagers are attracted to such thrills, the range going between ages fifteen through twenty-five. Teens just like me do not relate to films like this, but the reason it is so popular is because they will go to the movies with their friends or girlfriends to enjoy a good jump scare or two. People also like to see the bad guy in films lose, as most of horror productions end up with the slasher going to jail or killed. The idea of diving into another world to experience adrenaline rushes and confronting their fears without any real-life consequences is an experience a young crowd craves.

Going on to how most horror films are, they share common conventions with content and technique. The atmosphere of a scene or film can really determine the success of the production. Most of them focus on the scenery along the lines of a dark forest and abandoned houses or asylums, making it an unsettling environment that builds suspense for a known impending danger.

Themes of death, the supernatural, fear of the unknown, isolation, and suspense also take part in how scary a film could be. Characters such as ghosts, demons, clowns, and other supernatural entities unlock the audiences' deeper fears about topics relating to death or idea of the afterlife. Ideas of horror that we cannot predict nor understand is used to implement suspense to the watcher, showing a mysterious evil is lurking beyond the character’s control. Another situation a character can be put into in a film of such genre is by themselves, removed from the safety of society, building tension, leaving the audience wondering how the fate of said character will change.

Lastly, the use of gore and CGI makes horror films what they are today. Using bloody scenes and gruesome deaths will always get an emotional response out of the audience while also showing how dangerous the antagonist is and what the protagonist has to face to defeat evil. This proposes themes of survival and justice as the character needs to find a way out of their situation efficiently and fast.

Some examples of horror films are “The Exorcist” and “Terrifier.”

 

The Exorcist is a great example of a horror film as it presents the idea of the supernatural, with a regular family making a turn for the worst as the daughter gets possessed by a demon. The rest of the movie is the process of trying to get rid of this evil, hence the name, the Exorcist.

On the other hand, the Terrifier has a different approach and mixes many themes, including the supernatural, using a character like a clown which looks human but is actually a demon, which goes beyond the audience’s understanding. This movie is just a modified slasher, similar to the Scream saga, but definitely more intense as the producers use components such as gore to reveal their point about Art the Clown.

In conclusion, the genre of horror is a very interesting one, with a lot of diversity that I would like to research more about before producing a film of my own for my Cambridge portfolio. Once I do that, I just have a decision to make, what could I, as a student produce that would end up more successful, an eye-catching drama or a suspenseful horror film?

Portfolio Project Genre #1

Genre #1: Drama

For the start of my Cambridge portfolio project, one of the genres that caught my eye that I knew I wanted my film to be based on is drama. The reason behind this is because I have always loved films that are serious and have a deep meaning behind it, as it makes me feel like I can connect with the characters or even relate to them. I have been looking into this genre and some of the stuff such as people who enjoy watching drama films have surprised me.

To begin with, the target audience for this genre is not what I thought it would be, as most of them are women, ages eighteen through thirty, fairly young women, as they may connect most to the themes of relationships, emotions such as love, illness, even discrimination, perhaps life struggles as some may face within that age range as they are becoming their own person, becoming independent. The reason some might connect to films as such is because they may feel that that specific film can change their perspective on life, implementing some personal growth within. They also like to see characters that reflect their own lives, showing them that they are not alone, that the character represents their personality in a way.

Some more finding in my research on drama films is about genre conventions with content and techniques. What you will find in a lot of drama films is when characters leaks out their emotions and thoughts out loud for the audience to understand their motive behind what they are doing. This connects into the field on narration as it can give the crowd some background information to explain why the character are the way they are. In drama, direct address’ is very common as it breaks the fourth wall, inviting the audience into the world of play. Lastly, the use of masks plays a huge part towards building drama in film. Incorporating a mask into a performance allows the actor to transform into a different character, giving off a sense of mystery and suspense to the audience, leaving them hanging, wondering why they need to conceal their identity, are they that important to do so, or what their background is.

Now, some examples of drama films are “Forest Gump” and “Interstellar.”

In Forest Gump, the themes of love and loss are shown, focusing on the American experience, as the main character Forest is displayed as an innocent man who has to deal with the hardships of bullying, war, the death of his friends and girlfriend. He builds character along the way while still remaining the humble simple man he was from the beginning, conveying a very sad emotion to the audience while throwing in a few strands of humor on the way.

Another film displaying a dramatic production is Interstellar, showing themes of love, a common one, sacrifice, and family. The main character, Cooper, has to make a decision, one that decides the humanity’s fate, but he has to leave his family to do. As the pressure builds up, to break the news to his family that he has to leave Earth to save it, he also faces other problems in outer space as he encounters stuff in space beyond human interpretation, and by the end of the film, he is a completely different person.

To wrap it up, drama is a genre I definitely want to consider to base my final portfolio project off of. The majority of drama films are so moving emotionally and I think to myself, why not make one of my own?