Questionnaire Results

What age are you?
- 10/14 (2)
- 15/19 (14)
- 20/24 (4)
- 24/28 (3)
- 28 + (0)

Are you male or female?
- male (1)
- female (23)

Are you employed, self employed or unemployed?
- employed (7)
- self employed (0)
- unemployed (17)

How often do you go to the cinema?
- once a week (3)
- twice a week (0)
- once a month (12)
- not very often (8)

What type of film would you usually go and see?
- horror (4)
- comedy (18)
- thriller (2)
- chick flick (6)
- action (1)
- fantasy (0)

Do you like thriller films?
- yes (11)
- no (4)
- they're alright (8)

Do you like the films to start slowly, or would you rather it start with a bang?
- slowly (8)
- start with a bang (10)
- other (5)

What would you expect to see in the opening 2 minutes of a thriller film?
- not a lot (1)
- something strange, but establishes the main character (15)
- something that makes you jump (4)
- a lot of dialogue (0)
- not much dialogue (3)

Anything else you'd like to add about what you like about thriller films?
- it depends what you class as thriller I guess... I don't like things that make me jump, I think of that more in horror films... if films like Speed are classed as thrillers then I like the tension of wondering if things are going to go badly or if it will all be fixed in the last minute.
- more in relation to the last question, i'd expect there to be something of a sort of mystery to happen, that is basically what the plot goes down to solving. i don't really watch that many thriller films, but when i do i like to have to guess what's really happening, rather than it all just being laid out on a plate from the start.
- the twist at the end. i think a good thriller knows how to create an ending no one would suspect, leaving the audience wanting more.
- they should star johnny depp. that's a helpful answer, right? yeah thought so.
- i think it depends on your definition of a "thriller." i'm not very fond of movies that always have something jumping out at you to make you jump. i think it's because it gets me every time. i also don't really like blood and gore, so horror movies are not really my favorite genre. i don't mind movies that are just suspenseful, those can actually be quite good.
- an awesome twist.

Questionnaire

What age are you?
- 10/14
- 15/19
- 20/24
- 24/28
- 28 +

Are you male or female?
- male
- female

Are you employed, self employed or unemployed?
- employed
- self employed
- unemployed

How often do you go to the cinema?
- once a week
- twice a week
- once a month
- not very often

What type of film would you usually go and see?
- horror
- comedy
- thriller
- chick flick
- action
- fantasy

Do you like thriller films?
- yes
- no
- they're alright

Do you like the films to start slowly, or would you rather it start with a bang?
- slowly
- start with a bang
- other

What would you expect to see in the opening 2 minutes of a thriller film?
- not a lot
- something strange, but establishes the main character
- something that makes you jump
- a lot of dialogue
- not much dialogue

Researching What Should Be included In our Film Opening.

Analysing the first two minutes of a film

Is the genre established ? What is the genre ?
1. Thriller
2. Romantic comedy
3. Chick Flick
4. Gangster
5. Action/ adventure
6. Sci-fi

How is the genre established ? What conventions are used ?
1. Blood and gore
2. The man talking to the dog.
3. High school setting, the main girl is pretty
4. New york accent, dark shadows, city setting.
5. The ship, costume, misty.
6. Computer based numbers continuously on the screen, green colouring.

What else does the audience find out in the first two minutes ?
1. The boy is hurt and his dad finds him seriously injured.
2. Introduced to the characters. Woman is cross with man.
3. Introduced to the characters. The main characters background is explained.
4. The main character is an inportant ganster person.
5. The pirates are the main enemy of the wealthy family.
6. They have an enemy. They are watching someone. There may be a reationship involved.

How does the audience find this out?
1. Blood, close ups of the young boys shocked face.
2. Dialogue.
3. Narration of the story.
4. Narration of the girls background.
5. Dialogue, man worries girl about pirates.
6. Dialogue, phone conversation.

Conventions of genre i would like to do.

Thriller
- Blood and gore.
- Tense background music.
- Questions about what is happening.
- A main blonde girl, doesnt survive.
- A main brunette girl, survives.
- A dark person, shadow.
- A scary voice narrating the play.
- Black and white flashbacks.

Horror
- Blood and gore.
- Cold and misty setting.
- Dark lighting.
- Tense music
- Scary setting.

The genre my group has chosen to do is a thriller. The target audience will be teenagers, because there would be more interest from them, rather than adults and young children who would not be watching this type of film.

Research And Planning

Key Areas
- Forms and conventions (Conventions, ingredients included in the film)
- Productions contexts
- The role of technologies
- Audeinces/ users
- Representations


Conventions of a horror film
- Cold/ misty scene
- Scary setting
- Blood and gore
- Tense music
- Dark lighting

Analysing Paranormal Activity Opening

Paranormal activity is a perfect example of a pshicological thriller. It opens with a black screen with white writing on with writing that portrays the film to be real life. The first shot the audience sees is a long shot of a flat screen television and the camera then moves around in a wobbly way. This straight away shows you it is a hand held camera which makes the audience feel that it is real. The camera leads to a reflection of a middle aged man holding a very big and heavy camera in the mirror. This shows that he has a lot of money because of this big expensive camera. The camera then shows the audeince around the lounge and shows the stairs. This gives the audience a sense of welcome into the house. The phone then starts ringing in the background and the audience are then led to the kitchen by the camera. The middle aged man then answers the phone and the camera then cuts to outside the front door watching a small white convertable that has a young woman inside. Obviously they are partners by the way they speak to eachother. The man calls her "baby", and straight away she asks what he is holding in his hand. This shows that the two of them have a very close relationship. The camera is slowly zooming in to the woman sat on the drivway in her car while chatting. The man is obviously experimenting with his new camera by the tone of his voice. The man then asks her to park the car and the camera cuts to the woman walking through the door talking to him. They are messing around with the camera and she kisses him which then shows they live together and that they are very close, young partners. Still hand held the man shows the womans every move. He watches he go up the stairs and shows thier everyday life which makes the film look even more realistic. It is based in a bogstandard house with normal furniture in a normal street, which makes the film seem more real because it could happen to anybody. She then starts messing around and experimenting with the camera herself and only seeing the archway of the lounge, you hear in the background them talking why they have the camera. She asks him if he thinks it will work and he says that it will catch whatever "paranormal activities" that are occuring in the house. This gives away the story and the audience then understand what is going to happen and the storyline .

Arlington Road Opening Analysis

The very first thing the audience is shown in a black screen that fades into a bright white, blurry screen with a very faint figure standing in the centre. A sharp, pearcing sound is heard as it changes. Tnere is faint music on in the background of a piano. All shaky and wobbly the figure moves closer and you can tell that it is distressed in some way. The figure then gets vcery close to the camera and the camera fades into a new shot which is clearer and further away showing he is walking up a street with houses either side. This shows that it is set around the same time as it is now. The way the figure is walkig towards us shows he is hurt/drunk. His feet are walking inwards and he keeps tripping. A face then appears merging together with the person struggling up the road merging together to make the audience feel uneasy. Then close close up of the face is more detailed and iot looks as though he is drugged up. He is lookiung directly at the camera which makes the audience feel worried about what will happpen next. The camera angle then changes to a point of view shot which is shaky and blurry as if it is comiung out of the figures own eyes. It shows him looking upto the trees whicch ives the audience a weloming to the setting. The camera then changes to the ground where a close up of his feet walking. He is tripping over his own feet and obviously is struggling to walk straight. The camera then shows thwe back of his neck where you see him swaying from side to side. The camera then shows the boys lips and the moves up his face to his eyes which look very scary because most of his eyes are white and looking up like he is going to faint. The point of view shot then comes in again showing houses and cars that are on the side of the road. Then the camera aims at the side of the boys head showing his ear and side of his cheek which is sweating. This shows the boy is shocked or worried. The boys eyes then appear again moving around and around, not focusing on wear he is going. The boy suddenly moves as if something is there and the shot the moves to the side of him showing all of his body. Still blurry, you see a bloody type object or thing that he is clinging on to. He looks very wary as his face is continuously moving from side to side to see if anyone is watching him. The shot then shows his eyes and the focuses on a line of the pavement. Shots then change from his face, his lips and then his eyes. When you see the whole of his face hes look very scary because he is in shock about something. The shot then quickly changes to a point of view shot for a second and then shows his feet moving strangly again in slow movion. You then hear a heart beat. There is then bloody dripping onto his blue and white shoes which shows the audience that he has injured himself or someone. The camera then zooms out to his legs which is walking faster and bloody is dripping onto his treouser leg and shoes. This makes the audience worry. His feet are are srumbling in different directions as if he cannot control which direction he is walking in. The screen the turns completely white and the setting then chamnges to inside of a car. The camera is aiming at the windscreen, the audience is able to see where the car is going. The car then turns a corner and then surroundings are very similar from where the audience have just come from. The music then changes to a more hyper thumping sound. This give tension. The man then turns onto a long straight road and the figure is very faintly seen walking down the centre of the road. The camera then shows the boys face which look determind to get somewhere fast. The setting then changes to the car again as it gets closer to the boy. You then see the car stop from the outside very quickly. A middle aged man then gets out the car door very confused. The boy is then shown from behind still struggling. You hear nothing but the man shouts his name making it obvious he knows the boy. There is no response to the boy so the man runs to him knowing something must be wrong. The man the gets to the boys side and turns him around. There is thena close up of the boys arm, all bloody and black. He has obviously burnt it or harmed it very severely in some way. The boy then lets go of his arm showing there are no figures and the injury has taken all of the boys skin off leaving nothing but the bone. The man thn kneels to him holding his arms and shaking him to try and get a response. The boy then falls into the mans arms and the man holds him tightly. The camera then circles the man and the boy with the man shouting help but there is no sound. This 2 minute opening gives the story away before anything was even shown. This makes the audience want to watch more to find out how the boy hurt himself.