Treatment - "Researched"

Andrew Mathews, a very normal student, spends his time studying politics and economics. He researches the subjects in detail and finds out information about the government that should not have necessarily been found out. He is being watched by the government for the whole duration of the film, but only discovers this information, slowly, throughout the film and subsequently develops a very severe case of paranoia. Eventually, despite his best efforts to expose the authorities he succumbs and is eliminated.

Audience Research

During our audience research task, we gave fifteen people (aged 15-18) a questionnaire with ten questions. These questions appeared relevant to our project and helped us to also get an idea of the interests of our potential demographic.

We asked a mixture of qualitative and quantitative based questions; qualitatively asked questions allowed us to get an understanding of ‘why' our consumer chose their answer in depth, whereas the quantitatively asked questions helped us to collect and examine a relationship between different/similar responses.

Two of the ten questions that we asked included 6 and 9 were ‘What is your favourite psychological thriller (if you watch them) and explain why?’ And ‘In your opinion what makes a psychological thriller different to other thrillers’ respectively. Both of these are examples of qualitative research allowing the consumer to state the reason behind their answer.

When we asked ‘What is your favourite psychological thriller (if you watch them) and explain why?’ and the responses we got were as expected, different among others. Answers included The Number 23, The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, V for Vendetta, Scream and Basic Instinct as people’s favorite psychological thriller and reasons behind their chosen answer were because they had puzzling narratives and because it allowed them to put themselves in the characters position. When we asked ‘In your opinion what makes a psychological thriller different to other thrillers’ Answers included that they focused more on the mental state of the character rather than the narrative and some insisted that they were in fact even more scarier than other thrillers.

From this information we can interpret into our final piece and now we have a great understanding of what interests our particular target audience. We have to also make sure the film we make meets the conventions of a psychological thriller and not get to mired on the consumer response and not meeting the task needs. Overall we found the responses useful and helpful, and our group now feels more confident about what is expected.

Audience Reseach

For our questionnaire we asked 15 people ages between the ages of 15-18, as these were the people we were targeting for our film.
One of the first questions we asked was what they liked to do in their free time. This specific question helped is build up a customer profile, as we know who we are aiming the film to and can try to relate what they like to do into our film opening:

From this question we found out that most people they enjoy seeing friends and going out. We can interpret this into our opening as we can show our character leading an ordinary life style and take what we found out into the characters interests; like filming the character out with friends.


Another question we asked was what genre of film they most enjoyed. We gave the options of the most known and popular genres and also gave an “other” option to see if there were any genres we left out.
We found out that the most popular genre was comedy followed by action adventure and thriller. As we are aiming to produce a psychological thriller opening it would be difficult to include comedy as it wouldn’t really go with the genre we are aiming for. As horror also got a lot of votes we can make the opening scary, but scary as in psychologically scary and not gory scary. This will attract more viewers and will satisfy them as it was one of their top genres.


We then asked was the most appealing part of a thriller and found out that the most was symbolism, as we are aiming for a more symbolic opening rather then a narrative opening it is good and will appeal to the majority of the audience. Another top answer was narrative as well this could mean that we will make an opening that has a narrative aspect as well.
Overall I found the responses we got very helpful, and enabled us to get a better idea about the needs and wants of the people we are targeting.

Product Research

For my product research I focused on the Psychological Thriller; Misery. We are first introduced to diegetic sound of a typewriter and non-diegetic sound of soundtrack music which sounds disturbing; this is used effectively because it fit the conventions of a psychological thriller being sinister and perplexing. We will also use this in our practical piece to create a sublime feel and fits well with our symbolic theme.

In the opening credits the background is dark in contrast to red font; this is used effectively to symbolize blood which is commonly associated with psychological thrillers. When the opening we introduced to cigarettes, drink glasses and wine bottles, this shows luxury and how perfect everything seems, in comparison to what happens later on.

Then there a close-up shot of the type writer, and we get the idea of the occupation of the man who is just finishing his book. He then celebrates with the glass of wine and lights a cigarette after this scene, the music then stops. Once he exits his home in the next scene it is of him getting into a car which looks to be an expensive vehicle this is taken at a mid-shot and shows another sign of how luxurious his lifestyle is. When he switches his engine and the diegetic music of the car radio is switched on and it’s stimulating and enjoyable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgqu2W3Ore4&feature=fvw

Reece Tiwari - Product research

For my product research i decided to look at first 1.24 minutes of the psychological thriller "Exorcism Of Emily Rose". Ideas i have gathered from looking at the introduction to the movie are that non-diegetic sounds such as the screaming of the girl are used which we could also interpret into our piece with other non-diegetic sounds. The use of darkness is used to separate different symbolic shots, we could also do this in our piece at the beginning to create a feeling of uncertainty. The use of "blood" red font on the title of the movie also symbolizes one of the themes in this movie, this type of red could also be used in our title to create a feeling of uneasiness. A good establishing shot is used to show the mysterious house, from a high angle, we could use the use of high shots to establish our setting. This opening is very symbolic with the use of apples, which can symbolize sin which is another very important theme in the movie. A very loud diegetic "crunch" is used at 01.13 minutes this is very effective since it is unexpected and also resembles the idea of body parts snapping which also stands out above the other music, we could also have loud diegetiic crunchy sound effects in our piece.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EqVQBlSntw

Product Research - Disturbia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lovLNVsZWgA
At the beginning of “Disturbia” the screen is black with only dialogue playing; this makes the audience ask questions about what’s going on and gives a mysterious feeling. There is then a long wide establishing shot which allows the audience to see the surroundings and see the main characters first; this makes the audience want to carry on watching the film, as they want to find out more about the characters. Then followed by several mid-shots which allows the audience to get to know the relationship between the characters; we understand that they are father and son and they have a very close relationship. There is then many close ups to show the characters facial expressions. It then cuts to another establishing shot which shows the scenery to be calm, relaxed and empty.


The extract then cuts to the two in the car, then on the phone to his mum, it then intercuts between the father and son to the mum, which allows the audience to get to know the whole family. The next shot is of the side car mirror and the oncoming car, the music then heightens to create a higher sense of tension and to let the audience know something is going to happen.

Then during the crash scene, the editing becomes a lot faster than the rest of the extract. After the crash, the cuts are really slow and the shots become longer, also the music slows down and violins start to play, this alerts the audience that something bad has just happened. The shot composition of the shot where Kale (son) is looking into the car at his dead father and he is looking though all the rubble around him, the torn off car parts frame his face, this suggests to the audience that he will be the main focus of the film.

This oppenig is more narrative rather than symbolic, as the film is based on Kale’s life after his father dies. This opening ensures the viewers will carry on watching the film as they want to know about Kale’s life after his dad’s death and how he copes, or doesn’t...
After watching many different psychological thriller openings I would like to adapt from “Disturbia” the simplicity of the background and the fast pace of the editing. I also really like the crash scene and the special effects they do; but due to restrictions of time and skills we will not be able to do some special effects like that.