Video Contextual Research

Film has been a popular medium with audiences for around 100 years and is continually improving despite the challenges that new technologies bring; from the initial naive attempts of early silent films through to slick professional contemporary films, ‘movies’ have captured the emotions and heart of millions of cinema enthusiasts. For this part of the coursework, I need to research the film industry and learn the basic features of the openings of films and how they have changed through time.

  Films are split into three parts: the set up, the conflict and the resolution. The opening of a film is called the set up and it is a very important aspect of a film. A good opening title sequence sets the tone of a film and serves to establish rhythm and pacing. In order to draw attention to the audience films need to introduce many things. From the opening of a film we are able to identify the genre, particularly from the music. Different genres use sound in different ways; thrillers use ambient music to reflect the mysterious atmosphere and the suspense that it is trying to emphasise. However, in a romantic comedy, music would be used to reflect the upbeat and happy atmosphere to draw attention to the audience.

   The openings of films also aim to inform the reader about the main characters. Films generally aim to provide important information about the main character by using shots such as close ups to introduce us to the character. Some films also provide a narrator to tell a story. For example in No Country For Old Men, it uses a number of establishing shots of the settings to show where the film is located whilst the shots are shown there is a running voice over which tells a story. Another example is Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the opening scene is set in New York and we are able to tell this because it starts with the camera situated in the middle of new york city where we are shown the yellow taxi’s and a view of the empire state building.

No country for old men is a 2007 American crime thriller directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. The film opens with the titles, which are presented on a black background with white writing allowing the writing to stand out; the font reflects the gloomy and dark genre of the film. The titles also use the same format for the title of the film ‘No Country For Old Men’. After six seconds, an establishing shot fades in whilst a voice over runs. A new establishing shot is shown every eight seconds, as each shot is shown they become brighter. It uses long establishing shots to allow us to get a clear view of the surroundings. The first thing that we hear is ‘I was a sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old’. This tells us about the character and the way that he is an important feature of the film. We know from this that he is telling us about his past because he says ‘I was’. We also know that he is older from the old and deep style of his voice. The film has a unique style, which uses no music. There is a non-existence of music throughout the duration of the film. This represents mystery and suspense. Although there is no music, the film uses a slight wind sound to reflect an uneasy feeling and a present a naturalistic approach.

The camera then cranes to the right on a mid shot, which gradually leads our eyes to a police car. This shot shows two characters, the shot is a wide angle, long shot allowing us to see the figures but only slightly. The use of wide angle, allows us to see more of the scenery of the deep south of North America. We also see a sheriff, which presumably is the main character, which is also the voice over. This also tells us that the opening of the film could be about his past rather than the present, which he has been informing us about through the dialogue.  Overall, the opening of No Country For Old Men creates a naturalistic and atmospheric feeling. It does this through the slow paced editing and the use of the thirteen establishing shots, which show the picturesque scenery and informs us about the setting of the film.

Marnie is a 1964 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Coen brothers (directors of No Country For Old Men) said that Hitchcock is the master of thriller films. Marnie opens with two minutes of opening credits. Up until the 1970’s films required the opening credits to contain most of the details, leaving the closing details with minimum detail and sometimes simply ‘The End’. In recent years, opening credits have decreased, meaning that the details of the cast are left for the closing credits. Generally, films now just display the title of the film, the name of the director and often some of the principal actors in the opening credits. The opening credits of Marnie were in the format of a book with the page turning transitions. The music that is used in the first 40 seconds doesn’t fit with the genre of the film. The music used is almost fairy-tale like. However after 46 seconds the pace of the music suddenly changes into a more thrilling piece.

The first shot we see is of a yellow bag in the arms of a mysterious woman. Gradually, as she walks away from the camera, more is revealed about her although we still are unaware of her facial features or expressions. This makes her seem more mysterious, because we are unable to see her face, as well as her dark hair and dark clothing. The film then uses a cut away to move to the next scene. This scene uses a mid shot of an older man looking directly into the camera saying ‘robbed’.

The use of long pause inbetween each word he says, gives the audience the impression that the crime is very important. The openings of most thrillers have crime either at the beginning of the film. Marnie uses this convention well and follows what a normal thriller film would contain.

Research

Initial Ideas

The brief asks for only the titles and opening of a non-fiction film, which will last no more than 2 minutes. Due to the short amount of time, I need to ensure that I introduce the film and still think about what could happen next. Many modern films begin with a main character being introduced and any key features that are important are shown. I started with a few ideas for my main task, however I then looked at each idea and analysed how well they would work. I then had two main ideas, which were:

My first idea is the opening of a thriller/horror film. I have thought about creating the opening to my preliminary task. The film would start with the main characters dream/nightmare. The main character is a 25-year-old female who works as a sales executive for a local medium sized company. The film starts by showing the house outside from the outside with the titles displayed at a constant pace. I am also going to include a shot which will last about 10 seconds which shows the moon and the sky getting darker into the evening. I am going to include this because the moon reflects fear and darkness as well as night time, which automatically create suspense. After the house has been introduced, the main character will be introduced whilst she is having a nightmare. The film will show the characters nightmare of her running along the street where she sees strange figures. She will then wake up and the camera will show her in her room frightened.

The titles will be in the style of No country for old men. I think that this would be a suitable font for my titles because the black background and white reflects the dark and gloomy genre of my film.

My second idea is the opening of a romantic comedy. The first shot would be of the main female characters feet walking in town. I would use high heel shoes to represent the female character and reflect her importance and glamour. The female character works as a business sales woman and she is walking to get some lunch on her break. However, the first shot will only show her feet to keep her identity hidden and to make the audience want to see more. The second shot will be of the main males characters feet as he is walking in a different place on his lunch break. Similarly, he works as a businessman as a managing director. The male character is wearing a black suit to reflect his masculinity; his formal shoes would be shiny black to show he is wealthy and able to afford luxury items such as his shoes. I would use a number of cutaways, which would cut back and forth to the two characters situations. Slowly, more of each character would be revealed whilst cutaways are taking place. The idea behind the film is the difference between a male and females life. However, although there are two main characters one being female and one male, the audience is fooled into thinking that these two specific characters fall in love. However, the two main characters do not know each other and both characters both fall in love with people that they meet and the film aims to clone how differently males and females feel about their partners and what they think about during the day.

Research into media institutions

Jason Blum opened Blumhouse Productions in 2000. Since opening his own company, he has produced six feature films that demonstrate his unique taste and creative sensibilities. In 2011, Universal Pictures signed the prolific produced to a three-year first-look deal. Per deadline Blum and his production team have scored big in the horror realm with the original Paranormal Activity, which cost about £15,000 and grossed £193 million. Insidious cost $1.5 million and grossed £81 million worldwide and is still rolling out. Paranormal activity is a supernatural horror film, which is set in a house where ‘paranormal’ activities happen. This is similar to my product because it is using a real life situation in a house. Paranormal activity was created through Blumhouse Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks pictures. Its budget was $15,000 and it made a box office profit of $193,355,800. Paranormal activity continued to grow and paranormal activity 2 and 3 have been distributed and consumed by millions of people worldwide. Paranormal activity 3 was created and distributed through the same institutions; however the budget this time was $5 million. This resulted in a box office profit of $205,703,818 and the story is still left unfinished leaving millions of people waiting to watch the next one.

Twisted pictures is an American independent production company which focuses on the creating mainly horror films. Evolution Entertainment’s Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman founded the company in 2004. Twisted pictures formed after the box office success of Saw in 2004, which lead to a nine-picture distribution deal with Lionsgate. The company went on to produce six additional sequels in the Saw film series.

James Wan created a film called Saw in 2004, which developed into 2010. Saw was created in Twisted Pictures studio and distributed by Lionsgate. Saw is an independent horror film, which involves two men, chained in a dilapidated subterranean bathroom and they are each given instructions via a microcassette recorder on how to escape. The first Saw film had a budget of $1-1.2 million, which made a gross profit of £103 million. Saw continued to develop through 6 additional films, which left audiences from all around the world wondering what will happen next. The final Saw film was Saw 7 -The Final Chapter, which was distributed in 2010. It was created and distributed with the same institutions. This time though, the budget was $17 million resulting with a box office profit worldwide of $136.1 million.

Historical Research of the product/genre

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer’s moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline rushing, gritty, rousing and fast paced. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. Common subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers and mystery thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, the political thriller and the paranoid thriller genre became very popular. A rather more action-packed subgenre of thriller is the spy genre, which are espionage films that could be fact-based stories or fanciful-escapist films. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The horror and action genres often overlap with the thriller genre.

James Patterson (2006) says that ‘...Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. The intensity of emotions they create gives the variety of thrillers a common ground, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all important thrill. If a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job’.  The earliest thrillers began in the 1920’s. Alfred Hitchcock began his career with his first silent film The Lodger (1926), a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story, followed by his next thriller Blackmail (1929), his first sound film. Thriller films developed into the 1960’s where Director Michael Powell's tense Peeping Tom, with Carl Boehm as a psychopathic cameraman – the film was released prior to Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). After Hitchcock's classic films of the 1950s, he produced the shocking and engrossing thriller Psycho (1960) about a loner mother-fixated motel owner and taxidermist. Thrillers are now becoming more popular and more advanced due to better equipment, and advanced effects allowing thrillers to attract the audience as much as possible. Thrillers have now developed sub-genres which may involve elements of other genres. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double crosses. Some examples of crime thrillers are No Country For Old Men, Seven and Silence of the Lambs.

                                                                                                                                       

Alfred Hitchcock focuses on Psychological thrillers in which the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. Characters, either by accident or their own curiousness, are dragged into a dangerous conflict that they are not prepared to resolve. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s films Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train.

Target Audience Research

The target audience for thriller films can vary due to the different sub genres that most thrillers nowadays have. Most thriller films are aimed at young male adults due to males being more attracted to violent, gory films. No country for Old Men and Silence of the lambs were both rated ‘R’ and particularly aimed at young male adults. However, there are also films that are considered to be borderline thrillers. These types of films such as the sixth sense and the village are close to horror films, because of this the demographic would be slightly different, and probably younger female based. Films that are aimed at younger audiences tend to have a simpler story line which enables them to understand the film. Also there are legal thrillers such as Fracture and crime thrillers such as Se7en that target a more mature audience and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults.