Storyboard
Due to our findings about our target audience we have changed our original death scene to feature more movement and a variety of shots. To do so I made a new storyboard for the scene.
Location
We are now using a telephone box on the corner of a street in a quiet village. This will allow us to use many different shot distances.
Due to the research into our target audience we have changed the second part of our title sequence (argument and death scene) so that we could include more movement and setting to interest the audience more so, but also help create a more diverse beginning to a story. Instead of 2 brothers arguing in a living room leading to the death of one, we now have one of the brothers going to a phone box to call a cab after a long night. This is not all because following him is a man in a hood, this man ends up murdering him when he enters the phone box. With the new setting we can better use continuity and a greater variety of shots, instead of just medium shots over and over again. Also now that we have decided to move the scene to an outside environment we were able to get clearer videos, because there was much more light than inside the house. The new scene’s storyboard will be uploaded and then possibly an animated one as well.
I have been conducting secondary research into audiences for our thriller film using the BFI statistical yearbook. In 2014 “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” had a box office gross of £4.2 million putting it at number one. The highest thriller on the list was Gone Girl by David Fincher at twelfth place. From this I can see that fantasy, action films were very popular last year, with thrillers losing some popularity. It is because of this that including some elements of action into our thriller title sequence would be good as audiences want this. Making “Spectrophobia” appeal to them is important, especially in the title sequence because that gives the first impression of the movie in their minds.
The next list of films I looked into was the highest grossing films of all time at the UK box office. From his we can see the winner is Skyfall if a box office of £102.9 million. This film is a part of the well renowned James Bond Franchise, which could be partial to its success. Our film has no prequel so we will need to make a big impact with our title sequence. The title sequence of this movie is very artistic. The different shots, colours and music all come together to make something that not only looks great but also tells a very abstract story in its own way. This is good as my group already has the idea to have a partially abstract title sequence, and now we know to include because it appeals to large audiences. In second place is James Cameron’s Avatar, which is actually the highest grossing film of all time but falls to second in the UK. This is an action packed sci-fi epic, which again suggests that we should include elements of the action genre to our title sequence or at the very least increase the pace with fast and different shots. We could include some more movement in our flashback scene by moving it outside and having the characters moving around more, and also a variety of shots.
The target audience that my group and I are hoping to aim at is aged 15-24, and so to do some research into our target audience I have looked up to see which films were watched by mostly this age group. On the BFI national Statistics yearbook for 2014 it showed the table displayed above. The film 22 Jump Street had the highest percentage of 15-24 year olds. From seeing this we now know that in 2014 15-14 year olds liked the action and comedy genre. This evidence is also backed up by next few films: The Inbetweeners 2, Godzilla and The Wolf of Wall Street. Due to our target audience having such a high interest in both the comedy and action genres, we have to consider using elements of both of these. Although because we are trying to go for a somewhat sinister or dark thriller, the aspects of a comedy genre would ruin what we are trying to create. It is because of this that we will not include any comedy genre conventions. Although the action genre conventions could be used, even if very subtly. The benefit of including action elements into our thriller would be that it would interest our target audience and make them more likely to enjoy it.
In conclusion from my Secondary research I think it is evident that my group’s opening title sequence needs to have some adjustments so that it is more enjoyable to watch for the target audience. The changes to our opening title sequence that will be made can be found on the following link: Changes to Spectrophobia
This is the director’s pitch my group and I presented to our class. It outlines how we chose a plot out of a possible 3 and the elements of our final production.
Directed by Zack Snyder
Budget: $130 million Box Office: $185.3 million
Production Companies: Legendary Pictures, DC Comics and Lawrence Gordon Productions
Audience: The audience for Watchmen will have been adults who’ve previously read watc
hmen because the narrative of the story may be difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with the source material. Although a more general, larger target audience would have been superhero movie fans. This is because of the movies focus on superheroes and it’s dark twist on how we perceive them, which would interest superhero fans more so. Superheroes in Watchmen are shown in a different, darker light as we are shown their corruption, unlawful ways and downfall.
The movie wasn’t received as well as some other comic adaption films as it had a rather big decline every weekend at the box office although many people who had read the comics rate it highly and the director, Snyder, has been praised for finally having made the comic into a film after 20 years of production companies trying.
Reviews: ” Watchmen the movie is not as good as the
graphic novel.” “Very good, even if you’ve read the book.” “It fails to truly capture the cascade of ideas and bracing cynicism of Moore’s writing. Yet there is a challenging, visually stunning and memorable movie here, moored halfway towards achieving the impossible.”- Empire
Rorschach vs Police fight scene
How is editing used to drive the narrative in the scene?
In this scene we see Rorschach- the films narrator and one of the protagonists- enter an apartment where he expects to interrogate Molloch (enemy). However he is dead and Rorschach becomes ambushed by the Police who he then has to face off.
The editing in this scene is important, as it helps to tell the story to the audience, in a way that couldn’t w
ithout it. We start off by seeing Molloch’s head from Rorchach’s point of view, drop backwards and reveal a bullet hole in his forehead. Using this point-of-view, close-up shot puts the audience in Rorschach’s state of mind and can help them identify with what he is experiencing, as well as the close-up allowing us to see clearly the lifeless expression of Molloch’s face. As we discover Molloch is dead, there is some use of non-diegetic sound that comes in the form of a suspense strike. This is a conventional sound used in moments of shock to amplify the effect on the audience, as it does here. It’s use from Rorschach’s point of view suggests that he himself is shocked. It then cuts to a two shot of Rorschach and Molloch, suggesting a link/ relationship between the two which turns out to be that Molloch has been used to trap Rorschach, as we hear the police shouting from outside in the same shot. This can foreshadow Rorschack’s capture, although it could also foreshadow Rorschack’s ultimate fate, death. Seeing Mollock dead in the same shot suggests this.
From here the scene has a change of pace with the shots becoming quicker, more varied and gaining more movement, however this is only true for shots of Rorschach. The police shots are still static, steady shots. This suggests that this event isn’t high-octane, which it is, but I think Snyder was trying to convey that Rorschach is in a frantic state of mind, further shown by his fast movements around the apartment. The static police shots are longer, and more of them are medium shots to show how confident the SWAT team is, as the lack of movement and pace conveys their lack of nervousness whilst the medium shots decrease the intensity as they take away the entrapped, claustrophobic feeling. We then see the SWAT team set up for a breach, and suddenly the diegetic noise vanishes and the shots become much slower, which builds the scenes suspense. We begin to see close-up shots of a sledgehammer and gun, to show not on
ly the strength of the team but also how trapped Rorschach is. All of this is quite conventional of a pre-action scene in the action genre, and it’s affect in this is to build suspense for the coming event. The sledgehammer drops in to the door but Rorschach opens it, leaving it to slam into the floor and diegetic noise returns whilst the shots leave the slow motion effect. Suddenly the power of the scene changes and this is shown by the editing as Rorschach is shown blazing a flame into the SWAT team and illuminating his way. The scene returns back to slow-motion for this, so we can capture Rorschach’s action all at once. At the end of the scene Rorschach is fighting the police and the shots are quite long and shot from a low angle, portraying Rorschach as strong and a hero as we look up to him, fending off his enemies. On the other hand the length of shots could also be to draw out the suspense to suggest we are about to see Rorschach be caught, as he isn’t quick enough anymore- portrayed by the shot time. In the end of the scene Rorschach is caught.
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Budget: $185 million Box Office: $1.005 billion
Production Companies: Legendary Pictures, Syncopy and DC Comics
Audience: I believe the audience for The Dark Knight was followers of the Batman comics and movies. This is because the movie is about Batman but also because it is in this film he faces his greatest nemesis, the Joker. This is something that would excite fans of Batman because they’d be expecting a great story. During the promotion of the film (trailers, posters etc) the Joker was focused heavily on in the media which could have been for this reason. The audience intended will have been over 12 years due to the age rating.
The response to the dark knight was huge, and it is considered as the best superhero movie of all time, and also one of the best films of all time on IMDB with a rating of 9. It has been praised for Christopher Nolans directing and writing, performances of the cast, practical use of effects and stunts and Hans Zimmer’s score.
Reviews: “Best movie of 2008 hands down!” “The Dark Knight is as good as everyone says and easily the best superhero film made” “Batman isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy.”-Roger Ebert
The Interrogation Scene
How conventional is the costume of the protagonist and antagonist in the scene?
In this scene we seen Batman interrogate the infamous joker to discover the locations of Rachel and Harvey. He beats him mercilessly, only to fuel the Joker’s raging laughter more so.
To begin with, Christopher Nolan’s Batman played by Christian Bale has a much darker appearance in the films than he does in the
comics and previous Batman films. His entire suit is matte black and so using Helmut Nickle’s theory, we can assume that even though Batman is the “Hero,” his moral fidelity may be depicted differently. We can see this as he mercilessly beats the joker, his eyes fuelled with anger. This can challenge the typical hero appearance of being depicted as good, kind and lawful, as Batman’s suit is so dark and unwelcoming. It’s matte surface can also be symbolic of having no emotion, although this is contrasted by Batman’s pure anger in the scene. Overall Batman’s costume is not typical for the thriller genre conventions, because it conforms more to an action costume with its armoured appearance and superhero identity. The effect of using this costume helps Batman to stand out in The Dark Knight, going against conventions that all other character’s costumes follow except one, which leads me to the Joker.
In the scene the Joker is wearing the same outfit he wears for almost the entire movie. It consists of a green waistcoat, purple shirt, purple trousers and black shoes. This is an unconventional outfit for a villain due to it being very colourful. This continues with the Jo
kers face which is covered in badly applied makeup: very pale white skin, black eye liner and red than covers his mouth and scars to resemble a giant smile. The costume is that which you might expect a clown to wear and so it challenges the conventions of an antagonist’s costume in thrillers which would usually be dark. Although because the makeup is so badly applied and his smile is wickedly insane it looks more psychotic that comedic, giving a more sinister tone.
Directed by The Coen Brothers
Budget: $25 million Box Office: $171.6 million
Production Companies: Miramax Films, Paramount Vantage, Scott Rudin Productions, Mike Zoss Productions
Audience: I believe that the target audience for “No Country” was intended to be young adult men. This is because the movie involves 3 male characters as the leading roles- targeting the male population- and has its fair share of action throughout, again targeting men but more so young adults.Obviously there are women who would like a movie such as “No Country” but I fell it was intended for young adult men.
“No Country for Old Men” was overall very well received by audiences and critics alike. It won 4 academy awards and has an IMDB rating of 8.1/10. Although there are a handful of people that disagree with this and most of them say the film is slow and boring with a simple plot line and that it is highly overrated.
Reviews: “A hauntingly flawed unconventional masterpiece” “Possibly the most overrated movie ever made” Rolling Stones-“Joel and Ethan Coen’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel is an indisputably great movie, at this point the year’s very best.”
Coin Toss Scene
How is the antagonist/ protagonist represented in this scene?
In the Coin toss scene from “No Country For Old Men” there is only two characters: the antagonist of the movie, Chigurh, and the tiller. The scene involves the two talking in a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
Straight from the beginning of the scene their is a foreboding nature to the mise-en-scene; the trees are leafless, the area is deserted, which is exaggerated by the extreme long shot that helps to
show the scope of desertion. In the distance a dark shadow can be seen encroaching. All this can point to Chigurh and the evil that follows him, also his nature of killing almost everyone he’s met up to this point. The shot then cuts to a medium shot of the tiller, harmlessly jotting down in his notepad. This shot of the tiller from the previous shot suggests that he is the next victim of the encroaching shadow of evil, Chigurh. This is further anticipated by the sound of Chigurh’s heavy footsteps in the silent setting. It portrays Chigurh as someone of great power, relating to the heavy footsteps of the Giants in stories. Their conversation starts with the price of Chigurh’s peanuts and gas, which is normal. However this changes when the tiller asks Chigurh “Getting any rain up your way?” Chigurh is shot looking up at him with a medium, close-up shot, giving him his full attention and replying “what way would that be?” It represents him as annoyed by the tiller asking him questions, because he likes to be the one in control and so he replies with a question to regain the control of the conversation. This is continued throughout the scene with Chigurh asking all the questions, conveying he is stronger than the tiller. This is daunting as it suggests the tiller is helpless in the situation, and so Chigurh is presented as terrifying because his contact with people renders them helpless. The tiller says he could see Chigurh was from “Dallas” and this angers Chigurh. This even more so represents Chigurh as controlling- due to his level of power- because he doesn’t like that someone has been watching his movements and to an extent tracking him. A level of this anger may be due to Chigurh being a hitman and tracking others down, not the opposite. By this point a clear dislike of the tiller is shown by Chigurh, although when the tiller says he was married into the gas station, Chigurh chokes on a nut. This conveys he is in disbelief that someone would marry into such a place, this then leads on to a disgust of the man not amounting to anything but his wife’s father’s gas station. This is when he asks the tiller to call a coin toss which seems a rather innocent act however the tiller asks what he stands to win, and Chigurh replies “Everything.” This suggests if the man loses he loses 
everything, which in this case is his life. This leads to Chigurh being presented as daunting and somewhat psychopathic for letting life come down to a coin toss. The tiller wins and Chigurh congratulated him but with not even the slightest emotion, conveying that Chigurh didn’t care whether the man lived or died. This presents Chigurh as an arrogant character, who believes he is better than others and can decide their fates. At the end of the scene, we can see signs of Chigurh’s abnormal mind. He tells the tiller “don’t put it in your pocket with the others or it will become just a coin… Which it is.” This again implies that Chigurh feels he is better and can tell others what to do, also he feels that the tiller should remember this coin and its importance to him, having saved his life. It all seems crazy but to Chigurh it is important. This presents him as insane or at least delusional. Throughout the scene Chigurh is wearing dark, black clothing, which can be a use of the black/ white hat theory. Because he wears dark clothing we perceive him as evil or a villain and therefore Chigurh is represented as the enemy in all his scenes, never the hero.
Se7en (David Fincher)
The film Se7en is another movie by Fincher and again he uses mystery as a big aspect of the movie, however it is all has a much darker tone using the narrative of death. The film is about 2 cops who are on a case trying to catch a serialkiller who’s victims are punished based on the seven sins.
In Se7en the opening title sequence uses lots of close-up, table-top shots throughout. This creates a claustrophobic atmosphere which conforms to typical thriller theme of entrapment, with the effect being that it induces fear into the audience. The close-up shots also hold practical value as well because they provide rich detail on the possessions. The audience is able to gain some insight into their owner who can be perceived as the antagonist. The first shown is a journal with a picture of broken hands. This can portray the killer’s methods and that he prefers to be the one who installs punishment to those who have sinned as if he likes doing it; the crippled nature of the hands conveys this sick mindedness. Throughout the scene more disturbing photos of bodies being mutilated and crippled are shown, this conveys even more so that the antagonist is psychotic and due to the bodies being harmed he’s portrayed as a killer. A psychotic murderer is a conventional character in the thriller genre and the effect of it on the audience is it excites them, because there is no knowing what might happen. In the title sequence the antagonists hands are shown to be writing pages and pages of text, which can convey that he is obsessed. This obsession is clarified when they are shown sewing the pages in such a surgical manner, as it conveys he wants his work to be great and is obsessed with this need for perfection.
In one of the shots the antagonists hands are shown using a razor to shave off the tips of his fingers. The sight of this alone is unsettling but the fact he may potentially be doing this as self harm for his own sins is horrifying. The develops the thriller conventions as this shot gives a sense of danger, which is more conventional of the action genre themes but it is psychotic so stays within the thriller conventions. The editing in the Se7en title scene uses different techniques to achieve different effects. Firstly it has a great contrast in its colours. This was done by a process called CCE (colour contrast enhancement) which basically makes black blacker and bright colours brighter. The great contrast in the colours can create a sense of conflict between right and wrong, which is befitting of the antagonist as he unlawfully punishes people for their sins. Shadows are typical iconography of the thriller genre and in Se7en they are made to be more menacing and dominant in the shots. The shots are incredibly static conveying the antagonist’s fitted view of religion and rules but again holding practical value as it is easier for the audience to focus on details in the close-up shots. Even though each shot itself is very still, the cuts between shots can be very drastic and fast to excite the audience with this spontaneity. This is also done with the actual text of the cast and companies. The intensity of the sequence increases throughout because of the cuts becoming more often and drastic. The words at crooked and at times for just a few frames they’ll break apart and distort, linking to the shot editing techniques.
The title itself “Se7en” is also abnormal. The letter “v” has been replaced by the number itself, right in the middle of the word. It is an unconventional way of spelling it, however we can still read it as seven. This could portray the antagonists methods, though unconventional they get his message across. The overall outcome of this editing is that it really pushes on the idea that this antagonist is an unpredictable, psychotic human being. It conforms greatly with thrillers typical characters however it nears a point where it may challenge it’s conventions. The killers madness is greatly exaggerated in the title scene so much, it makes him someone who is to be feared, and so this conforms more so to the horror genre and challenges the thriller conventions. The effect of this on the audience is it makes them tense and fearful. In the title scene of Se7en there is a specific piece of editing where graphic match is used. The hands are shown crossing out text, changing what has been written in the book. This then cuts to him crossing out the eyes of a man who we can assume is one of his victims. It’s as if he believes he can change the real world as much as he can change what is in the book just by ridding of a few words, or in this case people. The narrative of death is conventional in the thriller genre and always creates tension in a film for the viewers but also excitement. The sound in this title scene consists of non-diegetic and diegetic and is almost indescribable because it sounds so tortured. It makes the already sinister imagery go from uncomfortable to undoubtedly tense, so much so it should give the audience “goosebumps”. The loudness of the non-diegetic music represents the anger in the character, whilst the constantly changing pitch in diegetic sounds (creaking, clicking) builds suspense for the audience. Overall the title sequence for the film “Se7en” is a masterpiece of editing and cinematography. It is psychotic, abnormal, tense and dark, which makes it a befitting opening for a film as sinister as “Se7en.”
AS Guilsborough Media 