Storyboard - by Devki & Shreyaa

Here is a rough storyboard we made for our opening sequence. Our storyboard shows what camera angle each shot is from. We also included some of the titles to show roughly where they would be. 

                                    

Our Target Audience

Our target audience for our opening sequence is marketed at males and females under 18. Looking at the questionnaire feedback, we originally wanted to rate our film as a 15. However doing some research, we had to change our rating to an 18, as some scenes in film opening contain disturbing violence. This would not comply with the guidelines of the 15 rating.

Analysis of Questionnaire - by David and Manan

From our questionnaires we got a total of 20 responses as we felt that was a sufficient number of responses to get in order for our research, 11 of which being females and 9 being male. Our main age range was between 16-24.

Our questionnaire results revealed that the public mainly sees films either weekly or monthly. Furthermore, they said that they view films with people of their own age, indicating that our main target audience was 16-24, therefore a 15 certificate would be suitable for our film as it would capture most our audience.

Question 3 results

Certificate Rating - by Devki & Shreyaa

For our film opening we were orginally intent on using a 15 rating. This was because we wanted it to appeal to our age group which is between 15-17. However, we changed this certificate to 18 because we realised that our opening contained various scenes of disturbing violence. This would not have complied with the guidelines of the 15 rating. 

These are some of the guidelines for a 15 rating:

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

These are some of the guidelines made us change our film to have a 18 certificate. 

Violence

Where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a

criminal offence. Where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might, for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault.

Test Shoots

From our shoot, we have now got an idea of how we want to film our opening. Initially, we went to film our real opening, however due to unforeseen circumstances we have used the shoot as a test shoot. We now know how we want to film our opening as we've learnt from our mistakes. We felt that the test shoot showed what went wrong for example when we got there early in the morning there was a lack of crowds, and we needed large and busy crowds to film. We felt that our angles were good as we got all different types high, low and medium angles in our test shoot and we are happy with this.

Day 1 Shooting - Brent Cross Shopping Centre

On Thursday 9th we went to Brent Cross shopping centre to shoot our 'crowds' scenes. We reached there at about 11 o'clock and found that there weren't many people in the shopping centre. It looked quite empty as it was still quite early. So we waited until about 12 ish, and gradually it started to become crowded.

First we shot our ‘high angle’ scene of the crowds. We achieved this by looking down from the second floor, in the shopping centre. We shot a couple of takes. We then filmed various other shots of the crowds, such as side views, and low angles. We also filmed shots of parts of the ‘following’ scenes in the shopping centre.

Shot List

Shot 1 – Road – Extreme Wide Angle/ Establishing shot

Shot 2 - Road – Wide Angle/Establishing shot

Shot 3 – Road – Mid-Shot

Shot 4 – Torture Scene' – Over-head angle

Shot 5 – Road – Long-shot

Shot 6 – 'Torture Scene' – Medium shot

Shot 7 – Road – Long-shot

Shot 8 – 'Torture Scene' – Extreme Close-up

Shot 9 – Road – Wide Angle shot

Shot 10 – Road – Wide Angle shot

Shot 11 – Road – Point of View

Shot 12 – 'Torture Scene' – Close up
Shot 13 – Road – Long Shot - Character walks up to camera
Shot 14 – Road – Character walks into shot - Long shot into a Wide angle 
Shot 15 –'Torture Scene' – Close-up
Shot 16 – Road - Medium Shot turns into a Close-up as character walks towards camera
Shot 17 – 'Torture Scene' – Extreme Close-up
Shot 18 – Road - High Angle 
Shot 19 – 'Torture Scene'' – Close-up
Shot 20 – 'Torture Scene' – Close-up
Shot 20 – 'Torture Scene' – Mid-Shot 

Synopsis Survey

Here we have created a synopsis survey, to give us an idea of what our target audience think of our concept for the thriller opening scene. We still have to give our survey to people.

Target Audience Research

Se7en (1995)

Directed by David Fincher

Genres - Crime, Mystery, Drama

The certificate for se7en was 18+ which suggests this film was aimed at mature audiences. It was rated R for grisly afterviews of horrific and bizarre killings and for strong language.

Bourne Ultimatum

Directed By: Paul Greengrass

Genres- Action, Adventure, Mystery

The certificate for bourne Ultimatum was 12A, which suggests that this film was suitable for teenagers. This is because there are only very minimal scenes of drugs and alcohol and the violence is not too gory. 

Questionnaire

 

Here is our first questionnaire we created  to get an idea of what types of thrillers people enjoy watching. The questionnaire was sent to a variety of people, so that the results weren't biased. Doing this questionnaire would also help us to determine some sort of target audience. This is still an on-going research.

Feedback Of Pitch

The feedback consisted of:

Good Points:
-We were told we have a good plot, that it was a good idea with the birdseye view shot of the crowded scene.
-Use of variety angles.
-Good idea with cross cutting the two scenes of torture and crowds.
-Interesting idea of the enigma, hiding the main characters face leads to the audience questioning whether he is good or bad.

Bad points:
-Be careful with lowkey lighting.
-Possible problem of filming in harrow, have to seek permission.
-Rethink title.

Our Thriller Opening Pitch