Our Chosen Genre & Research

The genre that I have picked in my group for our own film opening is Thriller. Our group and I picked this kind since we feel that our arrangement for our story line would fit in well inside the Thriller classification. Likewise, we enjoyed the possibility of one of the  generic conventions that you would normally find in a Thriller film, that is to state that the principle point of a Thriller film is to make tension and excitement for the gathering of people so that the audience would be ignorant of what would occur next. This would keep the gathering of people firmly in their seat all through the film as they would need to continue watching to discover what occurs in the film.

There are several characteristics inside a Thriller film. A major one amongst the most vital of these is suspense.

Tension for the watcher is the point at which they feel a feeling of reckoning, pressure and nervousness. This implies the audience of people feels anxious of what is or may occur in the story and tension implies that the watcher can't distinguish what is going to happen which thus makes the film additionally fascinating and exciting.
In most thriller movies, tension is regularly connected with expectation and uneasiness with suspicion of the ending of the film that there will be a cheerful ending for the hero characters.
Other different characteristics include themes, characters, story & setting.

For Example,

Shutter Island (2010)

By recognising what the Thriller genre is about and what it comprises of, it will help me while making my own particular film opening by permitting me to have the right information.

Our Opening Re-make

Our group and I chose to make a re-make of a film opening keeping in mind the end goal to enhance our insight into film openings additionally, in light of the fact that we needed to perceive how titles ought to be utilised accurately and different conventions that ought to typically be in a film opening.
By making a re-make of a film opening, it will help me by permitting me to have the  adequate knowledge of generic conventions and titles with the goal that I can apply my insight to when I make my own film opening to make it resemble a professional film opening.

Differences Between Mainstream & Independent Films

Independent Films

Mainstream films are described as films that are widely released in cinemas, examples of this would be Hollywood movies and blockbuster movies. Typical Mainstream movies are released in cinemas for a short period of time and are commercialised to attract customers and are then released for home use and sold in usually popular stores.

Independent films are described as films that a produced outside a major film studio, independent films are usually distinguished both by the style and the artistic way the director chooses to show them. Independent films have a considerably lower budget than Mainstream films. Independent films tend to have a limited release and are heard of by word of mouth usually and reach out to specific audiences.

Characteristics of Mainstream Films: 

• The genre is mainly specific and has gritty graphics.
• Less titles and less personnel due to low budget of the film.
• Titles don't distract the viewer from what they need to see.
• Mainly distributed by a major studio for example Warner Bros, Sony, Universal and many more.
• Star marketing, brand/franchise is done to a excellent standard  for example Spectre.
• Commercial success 
• High production values for example different types of camera's used, motion capture etc.  

Characteristics of Independent Films:

• Small budget as well as less well known actors.
• Hardly use establishing shots in their opening.
• They provide clear explanations of their motivation.
• A lot of close up shots are often used which shows connotations of what or how the characters feeling or thinking. 
• Majority may have many characters with no stars. 
• Normally contains a lot of flashbacks and dream sequences.

SPECTRE (2015)

AMERICAN HONEY (2016)

By investigating into the differences between mainstream and independent films, it will help me when creating my own film opening by allowing me to know how to structure and plan the film opening. Also, to make sure that I don't include irrelevant features in my final film opening. 

Film Opening & Audiences

 FILM OPENING 

The purpose of a film opening is quite similar to a title sequence as credits and some titles are included. However, an opening normally sets a scene of the film with an establishing shot, this also helps the audience of knowing what genre it is. The film opening also gives us an insight to the film and what it could be about and the type of character they expect to see. 

THE STORY/THE FILM OPENING 

An establishing shot also helps to tell the audience where and how the story is starting and what the genre could be. The film opening can also establish the main character through the film opening with sequence of long shots, mid shot, and close up shots which can attract the audience to find out who the characters are.

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way. 

The theory suggests that media is absorbed by the general public, however opinion leaders are the ones that pass on their own thoughts and ideas about the media that they just absorbed. The theory assumes that the majority of the audience is passive, and therefore simply listens to what they’re told and believe in whatever they see or hear in the media. The Minority of the audience is active and take their time to reach their own opinion on the media, and therefore pass it on. The image above gives a visual representation of the idea.

MALE GAZE THEORY 

The Male Gaze, developed by feminist, Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera (and thus the gaze) comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres.

TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

Inglourious Basterd

In inglorious basterd, the director chose not to display any titles in his film opening. The reason for this was because he wanted the story to start without giving the audience any time to predict what to expect in the film. The director did this because he wanted the audience to get a clear view of where the first scene is taking place and how one thing leads on to a disaster leaving the audience traumatised.

Making A Film With Jelly Babies

We decided to conduct the jelly baby experiment to give us an idea of where the film title and the titles of the people who help produce the film such as the producers and when they should be introduced. Also, by using these jelly babies it allowed us to get a feel for what a film opening should be like.

 How will it help you make your own film? - This will help us make our film as it gives us in insight into what a film opening is like and where specific titles should go  and where titles such as institutional logo's should go.

The Generic Conventions In Film Openings

 Generic Conventions

Generic conventions will be seen in the opening and most of the time will be incredibly obvious.

Toy Story (Genre Giveaways)

• Brightly coloured titles 
• Friendly; calm music 
• "Toy" -  Family & children orientated 
• Non-diegetic - song is about friendship 
• Diegetic - dialogue is the child exchanging words with the toys 
• Mise - play

The Shining (Psychological Thriller

• Non-diegetic music (scary; intimidating & eerie)
• Titles shown as credits - unconventional & simplistic 
• High angle view of car (makes the car look vulnerable)
• Audience has to watch it to understand it.

Superbad (Comedy)

• Non - diegetic music - funky; upbeat
• Narrative - dancing comical 
• Colours - bright & vibrant 

Dawn Of The Dead (Genre Giveaways) 

• Blood and gore depicts horror 
• Music - about being scared about something coming around 
• Font style - Smeary blood writing 
• Diegetic sound - Screams & mews reporters 

Drive - (Genre Giveaways)

• Dark background 
• Not much giveaways 
• A lot of lowkey lighting used 
• Make the audience want to know 

The Vow - Genre Giveaways 

• The title "The Vow" 
• Singing "I can do anything for love"
• Quite slow pace editing
• Connotations of romance were portrayed 

Impact Of Certification

 Film affirmation are chosen and granted by the British Board of Film Classification, with a specific end goal to shield youngsters from unacceptable and even harmful content in movies and recordings and to give customers data they may require about a specific film or video before choosing whether or not to view it, the BBFC looks at and age rates movies and recordings before they are discharged.

The BBFC watches films and videos all the way through and awards an age rating and insight to each one. They reach an age rating by applying the standards and criteria. They consider issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex and violence when making decisions. The theme of the work is also taken into consideration. They also consider context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the audience.

According to the BBFC "The Woman In Black" was considered the film to be on the border between the 12A and 15 categories, because of the number of scenes of supernatural horror and threat in which the ghost of the 'woman in black', plus the ghosts of her victims, appear to and threaten the central character and others. Therefore several factors needed to be considered by the BBFC before a decision on the final category for the film could be made. When this decision was made it meant that children who were 12 had to go and watch this movie with an adult which some children won't feel comfortable with, going to watch a movie with an adult but rather prefer going with their friends. 

The Lego Movie was once a U however, it then got changed to a PG due to the following reasons according to the BBFC. There are lots of fight sequences in which the good characters take on various baddies, including Lego robots and Lego skeletons. The Lego figures kick and punch at each other, while leaping around in fantastical style. Very few of the blows are clearly seen to land and all the action involves toy figures rather than humans. Occasionally the heads of the Lego figures pop off during fights, and one character's head is knocked off by a flying coin but continues to talk to his friends. Other sequences have science fiction space ships and robots shooting laser beams at others, causing explosions and crashes. No one is seen to get hurt and the fact that all the fighting involves animated toy figures means that the fantasy nature of the violence is very clear. These were all analysed by the BBFC therefore, making them come to a decision to change the certificate of the film.

This will help me create my own film because it will help me acknowledge what I should and shouldn't  include in my film in correlation to my target audience and the certificate of it.