I decided to use a questionaire as this would help me in developing my film and making it tailored to the audiences' preferences. I gave this questionnaire to 20 people, 10 female and 10 male. I used these results to help me decide what genre to use for my work
1) How old are you?
12-15 16-17 18-24 25-30 31+
Out of the people I served all of them were in the age range of 16-24. So this will become my target audience as this is the audience group I have resourced information about.
2) Which of these is your favourite film genre?
Horror Thriller Romantic Comedy
40% of those surveyed favourited the horror genre while thrillers and romantic comedies were favourited by 30% each of those surveyed.
3) Why is this your favourite?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Most of those surveyed gave reasons like 'it scared me which is always fun' and 'it made me think more deeply into the storyline'.
4) What do you dislike the most about each genre?
Horror? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thriller? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Romantic Comedy?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The general answer for this question under horror was that sometimes it can be overly predictable and sometimes the gore was too much. For a thriller many of those surveyed said that sometimes it can take too long to get in to. Where as the general answer for romantic comedy is that they can be too stereotypical and 'soppy'. This answer helped me as I could avoid doing the things people disliked in my film opening.
5) What is your favourite film from each of these genres?
Horror? ________________________________________
Thriller? _________________________________________
Romantic Comedy? ___________________________________
For this answer many listed films such as 'Halloween' 'Se7en' and 'Love Actually' as their favourite films for each of the genres. By having this data it allowed me to pick parts from each of the films and be able to use them in creating an opening for which ever genre I chose.
6) What makes you like these 'favourites' the most?
Horror? ________________________________________
Thriller? _________________________________________
Romantic Comedy? ___________________________________
For those who chose horror they generally answered 'it scared me' whereas those who answered thriller simply put 'it made me think and scared me without that much gore' and for those who put romantic comedy answewred 'it made me happy and laugh'.
7) What is the best ending for a Thriller?
A cliff hanger With closure With a twist
Many answered this question with 'A cliff hanger', this gives the impression many of the audience like being made to think what happens at the end opposed to being just given the 'answer' to what happens.
8) Do you prefer a strong female or male protagonist?
Male Female
Many of the females surveyed chose they'd prefer a strong female protagonist conpared to a male, but also some males who were surveyed chose the same option. Knowing this I decided that whichever genre I chose to do I would make sure I had a main female protagonist.
9) Do you like pre-title sequences?
Yes No
Many answered 'yes' for this question, this heavily influenced me into having a pre-title sequence. By having this also it would let the audience get an idea of what the film would be about instead of just having a title sequence which may be unclear.
10) What style of editing do prefer?
Fade Dissolve Choppy
For this question the 20 surveyed put a variety of answers down so not one type of editing came on top. This gave me the idea that many people enjoyed all of the editing style but it depended on the context of which the editing was being used.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Monday, 29 November 2010
Analysising A Romantic Comedy: Love Actually
The scene I shall be analysing is shown below. View it before you read the rest of this blog post if you please.
Love Actually Opening Monologue. from lanthanomai on Vimeo.
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy which was directed by Richard Curtis. The film stared various big name stars such as Colin Firth, Keria Knightly, Martine McCutcheon, Hugh Grant and other stars.
The film had a budget of $45 million dollars and its gross revenue was $246,942,017. Love Actually is seen as one of the many successful British romantic comedies.
There were many studios which backed this film project such as Studio Canel, DNA Films and Working Title Films. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures.
The film delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. The ensemble cast is composed predominantly of British actors.
The title sequence of Love Actually is a monologue made by one of the film's main characters David (Hugh Grant). During this David is talking about love while there is a scene going on in Heathrow Airport. The lighting in this scene is very bright and very typical to be featured in a romantic comedy as they are generally brighter and have a 'warmer' feel to them compared to horrors or thrillers.In this sequence it features many medium shots to show couples, families and friends coming together at the airport. The choice of shots and the voice over give this sequence a very 'docummentry' feel to it. There is also mon-diegetic music playing under throughout the scene. The use of music gives the film a warm feel still and fits the scene well. The titles in the film are white and red. The use of these colours set out the fact it's a romantic comedy as white symbolises purity and red can symbolise love.
Love Actually Opening Monologue. from lanthanomai on Vimeo.
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy which was directed by Richard Curtis. The film stared various big name stars such as Colin Firth, Keria Knightly, Martine McCutcheon, Hugh Grant and other stars.
The film had a budget of $45 million dollars and its gross revenue was $246,942,017. Love Actually is seen as one of the many successful British romantic comedies.
There were many studios which backed this film project such as Studio Canel, DNA Films and Working Title Films. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures.
The film delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. The ensemble cast is composed predominantly of British actors.
The title sequence of Love Actually is a monologue made by one of the film's main characters David (Hugh Grant). During this David is talking about love while there is a scene going on in Heathrow Airport. The lighting in this scene is very bright and very typical to be featured in a romantic comedy as they are generally brighter and have a 'warmer' feel to them compared to horrors or thrillers.In this sequence it features many medium shots to show couples, families and friends coming together at the airport. The choice of shots and the voice over give this sequence a very 'docummentry' feel to it. There is also mon-diegetic music playing under throughout the scene. The use of music gives the film a warm feel still and fits the scene well. The titles in the film are white and red. The use of these colours set out the fact it's a romantic comedy as white symbolises purity and red can symbolise love.
Analysising A Horror: Halloween
Here's the trailer for Halloween, you can watch this before if you wish.
Halloween 1978 (Trailer) from Roy Chen on Vimeo.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Analysing A Thriller: Se7en
My first task was analysing a thriller. The thriller which had been chosen for me to analyse was Seven (also written as Se7en)
The scene I shall be analysing is shown below. View it before you read the rest of this blog post if you please.
Seven Opening Sequence from Artifact on Vimeo.
A Background on Se7en
Seven was released Septmber 22nd 1995 to critical acclaim. The film was directed by David Finche and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It's running time was 128 minutes. Se7en had a budget of $30 million and made a gross profit of $327,311,859.
Opposite is a poster used in the promotional campaign for the film.
It's main actors were Morgon Freeman and Brad Pitt who played the characters Detective William R. Somerset and Dectective David Mills. A supporting actress in the film was Gwyneth Paltrow who played Detective Mills' wife named Tracey.
In the title sequence it shows an unknown character (presumed to be the antagonist) creating a scrapbook. The character is creating the book which complies graphic images of children and what can be seen as possible victims of the characters crimes.The images include ones of naked children with biblical writing and other extracts, in this writing certain words have been scribbled out. The nature of the images of the scrapbook gives the viewer and insight into the mind of this character. The fact that the images have the eyes scribbled out show that the victims have some sort of hold on the character as the character doesn't want to see the eyes as they can be seen as the windows to the soul which the character cannot bare to see. The character can be seen as criminal as they are shown to be shaving their fingertips off so there are no finger prints.
This sequence uses a variety of shots. In particular close ups and extreme close ups are used the most. These shots are used mainly on the scrapbook, this shows the viewer that this scrapbook holds importance in the film. The fact that the presumed antagonist's face is never shown and that their hands are only show (with no fingerprints) gives the viewer the need to know more and keeps the viewer in suspense. This suspense is paired with the fact the actor who plays the antagonist is missing from the titles. The titles are also shown as handwriting and very choppy as they appear which also gives an insight to the mind of the antagonist as not being of a very healthy mental state. Also the editing is very choppy which adds to the idea of the antagonist's mental state, also the choppiness intrigues the viewer and sets the scene for what type of film they are watching. The non-diegetic music present in this sequenced is used to create an eerie effect. This effect begins to scare and creep out the audience and make them slightly uncomfortable from the start.
The scene I shall be analysing is shown below. View it before you read the rest of this blog post if you please.
Seven Opening Sequence from Artifact on Vimeo.
A Background on Se7en
Opposite is a poster used in the promotional campaign for the film.
It's main actors were Morgon Freeman and Brad Pitt who played the characters Detective William R. Somerset and Dectective David Mills. A supporting actress in the film was Gwyneth Paltrow who played Detective Mills' wife named Tracey.
In the title sequence it shows an unknown character (presumed to be the antagonist) creating a scrapbook. The character is creating the book which complies graphic images of children and what can be seen as possible victims of the characters crimes.The images include ones of naked children with biblical writing and other extracts, in this writing certain words have been scribbled out. The nature of the images of the scrapbook gives the viewer and insight into the mind of this character. The fact that the images have the eyes scribbled out show that the victims have some sort of hold on the character as the character doesn't want to see the eyes as they can be seen as the windows to the soul which the character cannot bare to see. The character can be seen as criminal as they are shown to be shaving their fingertips off so there are no finger prints.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Introduction
Welcome to my blog.
My name is Faye Slater and I am a Media Studies student.
This blog will be the place that will be home to some of my coursework throughout my time while I do AS Level Media Studies.
I hope you enjoy viewing my work as it accumulates over the nest few months to help me create a 2-3 minute film opening of either a Romantic Comedy, Horror or Thriller.
So sit back and enjoy reading.
Thank you.
My name is Faye Slater and I am a Media Studies student.
This blog will be the place that will be home to some of my coursework throughout my time while I do AS Level Media Studies.
I hope you enjoy viewing my work as it accumulates over the nest few months to help me create a 2-3 minute film opening of either a Romantic Comedy, Horror or Thriller.
So sit back and enjoy reading.
Thank you.
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