Questionnaire Responses

The questionnaire responses indicated to me that people of age groups between 16 and 24 are much more likely to go to the cinema to watch a film of a thriller genre rather than another genre such as romance which they would prefer to view at home.

The majority of the responses from the questionnaire showed that 40% of the people who go to the cinema are interested in the film depending on who is starring in the movie. However the other 60% tend to be interested in a film depending on how well the trailer and advertisements has caught their attention.

People also indicated that they like the genre "Comedy" which is interesting as most thriller films generally have a decent amount of comedy indulged in with the intense thriller. This is a good technique to use as it allows the audience to feel shocked during a moment where suspense is building and then allowing the audience to feel relieved and laugh when nothing actually happens yet. This can be classed as the disruption throughout the film.

In What ways does your media prodict use, develop and represent real life Media?

The idea that My group and I have created conforms to real life media as a vast majority of the events that are challenged throughout the short title sequence represent issues that occur during everyday life.
An example of this is being kidnapped and being thrown into the back of a car during night time; as less people will be aware of what is happening. It is highly unlikely for someone to hear the screams of a kidnapped victim due to the majority of people sleeping and the vast majority of people are unable to see clearly due to the darkness at night time.

Violence occurs everyday, therefore people are aware that this happens and are able to point it out when seen, however different forms of violence stand out to people more depending on what happens. As this scene will involve screaming from the young girl being kidnapped (Shannon) you would expect maybe her closest next door neighbours to hear this. However there are many reasons why they may be unable to hear this as witnesses of a crime.

Some of these reasons are:

• Nobody may be at home


• Could be sleeping


• In a part of the house where the main road is not seen


• Turn a blind Eye

All of the above occur frequently without being deliberate. Therefore whether the kidnapper escapes away safely with his victim will be a mystery.

To ensure that our media product applied to real life and had a sense of the "norm" instead of unrealistic events, it was essential that we used the correct code conventions to create a brilliant thriller sequence. Tension is built up throughout the film and the camera shows what is on the screen when the main characters are watching a film. We done this so that we could have audience involvement. for example when the characters jump it is likely to cause the audience to jump depending on how scary something is. Audience involvement was cardinal as this also creates suspense for the audience.

Our media product has been shot in a unique way using different camera shots and lighting to emphasize on specific scenes and what they portray to the audience. The use of close ups on the characters faces allow the audience to understand what emotions the character is feeling. Fast editing has been used to ensure that the audience are aware of the genre of the film, this also builds suspense.

Preliminary Task

Case Study 2: David Fincher

About David Fincher:
David Fincher was born in 1962 in California(Marin Country). His career first started to take off at the age of 18 years of age as he had many aspirations within this career path.

Who has he worked with?  

David Fincher has worked with great music artists, and directed their music video's. Some of these people are: Madonna, Michael Jackson, Sting and George Michael. 

What Movies has he created?

David Fincher has created and directed many  movies since his career path has began. Some of the movies he has produced are: Fight Club, Seven, The Social Network and The Curious Case of David Button. All three of these movies done exceptionally well allowing David Fincher to become a very well known film producer. This also helped his career further allowing him to make ample amount of profit.

The majority of people who are interested in action and thriller based movies are able to recognize a David Fincher movie by a specific flashing light that he uses at the beginning of the start of his movies. The majority of his films tend to end in death which is also a great significance of a David Fincher film. This is normally done by a suicidal attempt. however sometimes this attempt fails and there is a disruption.

The films I am analysing:

The two films that I have chosen to analyse are "Fight club" and "Seven"

Fight Club:

The Narrative of the story Fight Club was fully produced in 1999, however it is a film based on life during 1996.

The plot of the story is: A travelling auto-mobile company employee (Norton) suffers from insomnia. Despite this his doctor is refusing him to take any medication for his illness as he feels that his illness is not as severe as others suffering from the same thing. He advises him to visit a support group to see the other examples of more extreme suffering for himself. The process of this soon turns into an underground fight club that twists into an extremely violent revolution. 

During the year 1999 when the film was distributed into cinema's and box office. During the first week, Fight Club was shown on 1,963 screens making a total profit of $11,035,485 in the USA.  In the UK, Fight club was shown on 322 screens allowing David allowing a profit of $1,177,219 to be made. This is a brilliant amount of profit that David Fincher gained from in the first week of the movie being released.

The film was able to sell well due to the promotion of the movie and the recognition of the director. Also word of mouth is always a brilliant strategy for people to use as people are recommending the movie to watch due to an experience of enjoying the movie and watch it portrays. Whether it conveys realism towards the audience and audience involvement is an extremely important key within film. The synergy that was used to help promote the film were an excessive amount of film posters to raise the awareness of the intended target audience who are people who have an interest within this genre of film and also on an age of 15 plus. Video trailers were shown on a number of sites alongside miscellaneous links for the new upcoming film at the time. The was available to see in the Cinema, box Office and shortly after was able to be viewed on DVD and downloaded from online.

Seven: 

The plot synopsis of the movie Seven is about two homicide detectives desperately hunting for a serial killer. The reason for this is due to the serial killer stating that the reason for each of his crimes is due to the worlds ignorance of the seven deadly sins. The movie explored a variety of the victims life, as the tortured remains have been left. The movie is completely intense and ticks al of the boxes of conforming to a thriller movie as the conventions are all correct. The genre of the films appeals to a target audience who are particularly interested in Thriller Films alongside Mystery and crime which all create suspense for the audience or viewer.

The movie scored a total of 8.7 star ratings altogether which suggests to all viewers that the movie is definitely a recommended film to watch conveying all the conventions that a thriller film should have.

The box office budget of the film was $33,000,000 however the movie seven allowed the director David Fincher and the company to make a massive amount of Gross profit that reached $316,400,000. This also helped to raise awareness of the company and the famous and upcoming popular Director David Fincher.

Four Thriller Opening Sequences

•  The opening of a title sequence should engage and create interest for the audience as this creates audience involvement and will encourage the audience to continue watching the film.
• Jeepers Creepers: The Jeepers Creepers opening sequence follow the conventions of thrillers well. Some of the conventions used in this opening sequence are a variety of Camera Angles and shots to emphasize on some of the scenes that take place throughout the movie. The majority of these shots are close up and high angles. The use of this is to make people look bigger and more dominant suggesting that there is a victim. Close ups also allow you to see the expression on someone's face e.g. if someone is scared or unsure a close up may be used on there eye. The close ups that are used in the opening Sequence emphasize the surroundings and help the audience to understand what the thriller is about. High Angles are used are used to make someone seem smaller and less powerful. The high angles used in the opening sequence give the audience a sense of intimidation for the main character showing that they are slightly victimized throughout the film. Dark colours are used throughout (red and black) which are normal conventions for a thriller. Low key lighting is used as the scene has been filmed in the dark.

• Scream 4: High Key Lighting is used in this opening scene due to the fact that the scene is filmed in a house. The use of sound is mainly with the characters, however non deigetic sound appears as one of the characters go outside to meet a stranger who has been continuously calling her. The main image for the movie cover is of the mask of a black face with its mouth wide open. This mask highlights the film (scream) as people are aware of what film they are being attracted to when they see the mask. The subtitles are highly effective and eye catching. The name of the film has been spelt as "Scre4m" This is a smart way to show the audience that this is the fourth edition to the movie Scream. As the number four has been used as an A for the word scream. This is also a brilliant way to attract the main intended audience who would range from teenagers to young adults. (15 to 25). As the age rating is 15 onwards.
  

• Paranormal Activity: The opening sequence of paranormal activity allows the audience to immediately establish the genre and narrative just by visualizing the mise-en-scene. The movie Paranormal activity is set in a large house (most likely to be a mansion as this conveys to thriller conventions). Living in a large house means that the access for people is easier to break in and harder for the residents to realize the intruders despite having security alerts and alarms. Dark Colours have been used throughout the opening sequence (mainly black and dark grey shadows). The editing that has been used is extremely effective and has been used to for the subtitles to show the actors/ actresses names. The subtitles including the name of the film are shown against a pitch black background which helps to emphasize the white and red writing that has been placed onto it.

• SinCity: The sin city opening sequence represents an action based thriller starring Quentin Tarantino. The movie has a total amount of 8.5 star ratings allowing the audience to see that the movie is highly rated and recommended to watch especially for its intended audience who are people that take an interest in thriller movies. This could be due to the adrenaline that thriller movies allow the audience to feel. the amount of sound perspective that is used at the beginning of the opening sequence is limited to a point that the audience becomes more interested in what they can visualize rather than what they are able to hear. an establishing shot is used at the beginning to emphasize what the movie is portraying, this shot is set in a club which helps to highlight the plot/synopsis of the movie. Long shots as well as close ups have also been used to show the surroundings/ settings plus the emotion on characters.