Certificate research

U (Universal): films which are suitable for all viewers. Some examples include The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, and Shrek.

Parental Guidance (PG): films are allowable for any age. However, some scenes may be unsuitable for young children under the age of 8. Such scenes may contain mild language and sex/drug references. Some examples of PG rated films are A Cinderella Story, Home alone and Maleficent. 

12: films which are for people of the age 12 and above. 12A rated films are usually given a 12 certificate when released on DVD. An example of a 12 rated film is Perks of being a wallflower. 

12A:  films which are unsuitable for young children. Cinemas are only permitted to let in children under the age of 12 if they are accompanied by an adult aged 18 and over. These films may contain views of soft drugs, occasional strong language, discrimination, reasonable violence and or nudity. Some examples are of 12A rated films are:  The Fault In Our Stars, The Hunger Games and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. 

15:  films which are only suitable for those aged 15 and over. Films within this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, and consistent use of foul language. Some scenes can also include strong violence and strong sex references, nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed 
but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may also be shown if discreet and acceptable by context. Some examples are The Heat, Let’s be cops and 21 Jump Street 


18: Films which are only suitable for people aged 18 and over. Films within this category do not have limitation on foul language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed; explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context. In addition some scenes in films within this category can also include very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence. Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is excessively graphic. Examples of films within category include: Taken, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Spring Breakers.



Through the target audience and certificate research I think our film will most likely fit under the 12/ 12 A category because this is where most action dramas are placed and our film will have moderate violence and certain mature themes. It will therefore, not be suitable for children under the age of 12. However, the certificate rating of 15 and 18 may be a little bit too high and will most likely lessen the variety of our audience members. Therefore, the certificate rating of 12 years and above will be most suitable as it is where most dramas/thrillers are placed. But if released at cinemas, it may be more reasonable if it is a 12 A due to the elements of violence and action as it is a psychological thriller.

Font research

I used the website Dafont to try out and research different types of fonts in order to see which one will be most suitable to use in our film. There were many fonts on that website but I managed to narrow it down to the ones above. I then looked over more films similar to the one we want to create and saw what type of fonts they use for their inter titles and credits and tried to see what each fonts connote and what affect they have and if they furthermore, link to the genre and the look we are going for.   I looked at films such as Taken, Faster and Stolen and saw that they use similar titles to the ones on the right. I think these fonts are suitable as they give it an edgy affect and  makes it stand out and gives more emphasis on what will be written/ displayed. I feel like it furthermore, goes with the flow of the film we are going to make ( I feel like the first one or other fonts similar are more appropriate than the second one). However, we need to try it out because some fonts look completely different when displayed at different sizes. Although many films may use traditional fonts, I think that they are not suitable in this case as we need the fonts to be gripping and bold. 

I additionally, researched on Dafont a couple of other fonts which brought certain hints of disorientation to them which I think links very nicely with the storyline of our film. The ones I like most are Nervous and Hacked as they look quite distorted and technical and other than this they also bring a more dramatic and intense sense to them. Similarly to the name of our film, these fonts link as there is a abnormal concept and makes it difficult for the audience to understand why the sufferer feels the way she does. To additionally enhance or foreshadow elements of what will happen in our film we would like to make one word in white and another in red to make it stand out more (possibly connote blood loss or distress and the white could connote an element of innocence of the protagonist). Furthermore, I think this will be best suited as white and red are popular in drama/ thrillers and usually appeal to the conventions of the genre.

Diary Post 4: 15th of October

In our lesson on the 15th of October, we looked at audience research and who the target audience for our film will be. I went on the Pearl & Dean website and looked for some films of a similar genre to the one we want to create. I looked at Taken, because we decided that we are using Taken as an outline and inspiration as we want to create a film of that sort of genre and we feel that Taken manages to accomplish that in a very affective way. I then looked at films similar to Taken and I found Ransom and Taken 2. I also used The Hunger Games even though it is a film with a different genre to ours. I used it because it has similar scenes that we'd like to include in our film. I learnt a lot through this lesson and came to the conclusion that the target audience of our film should be males between the ages of 15-24.

Music Research

 http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100778.

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400041.

http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/atonement-2

http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/being-followed

http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/running-fields

I like the first  piece of non copy right music because these are the sort of soundtracks I'd expect to be played in a scene where there is a race as the beat and pace of the music get faster and faster. In addition, I think the last 3 were a much better find for the music of the scenario we are looking for due to the reason it creates intensity and has an affect of making you feel like you are involved in a situation as the music draws you in. I believe this is very affective as we want our audience to feel empathetic and identify with the main character of our film as I think this way it will have a better outcome and will furthermore create the atmosphere we are looking for.

Audience Theory

Through this research we found out that the target audience for Taken, are males aged 15-24 and are mostly in the middle class. It is however also relatively popular with older demographics.  The gender which mostly saw this film were males, this is mainly because they generally like violent and dramatic films. On the contrary, a huge part of Taken’s audience are female viewers, this could have been a result of the stereotypical view that women get more emotionally involved with the film. However, just like the male gaze, I believe the reason that Liam Neeson is the lead character is due to the reason that the mainly older part of the audience of females think he is a very attractive man, especially through his character and personality appeal, which I think has helped massively with challenging the stereotypes that only men enjoy watching action packed films. Similarly to Taken, I also researched Taken 2 and looked at the results in their target audience. The results again showed that the bigger percentage of the audience were male viewers, although since Taken the percentage of female viewers increased which suggests that when Taken 3 is released an even bigger percentage of females will be a part of the films audience. For Taken 2 the age group included the ages 15-24 again which suggest that they kept the same level of violence and scenes which may be inappropriate due to violent content, for children under the age of 15.

The target audience for Ransom, are mostly males, the class is mostly aimed at middle class (c1.).Similarly to Taken, Ransom almost has the exact same target audience. This is because the genre is in fact very similar; Taken is a Action- Thriller film whereas, Ransom is a film which genre is Crime-Fiction & Action. Again, just like with Taken the range of male viewers is much bigger than the female viewers due to the reason that it appears boys/men enjoy more action packed films than women. Furthermore, the results of this research suggests that Ransom is a much more wider enjoyed film as the target audience ages range between 15-24 (38%) and 25-34 (37%). This could also be a factor of the different genre of the two films. 

 The Hunger Games is a film of a completely different genre to the film we want to create, however some of the setting we want to use for our film is included in The Hunger Games. The gender percentages are very similar but there are more males which could show that overall action is more popular with males. Like the other films I looked into, the audience for The Hunger Games has a high percentage as part of their audience of males of mostly 15-24 in the middle class. This connotes that this is mostly what film makers of the genre action/ thriller target their films to.

To conclude, this research helped me begin to see what our target audience will be. I believe that from these target audience research screen grabs we can see what we should include to entice this precise audience. Examples of how we could accomplish this could be by using mysterious music and intense quick shots and a pretty female as the main character to attract the audience through the male gaze theory.  

Exemplar blog: 18/20 marks for research and planning

 http://thrillerblog2011.blogspot.co.uk/ 

This student received 18 marks out of 20 on their Research and Planning. I think the main reason to why they achieved this grade boundary is because although they only used 4-6 different technology formats they presented the numerous activities they produced on a very good standard and in a very interesting and sophisticated way. 

The main source of technology they used to present this information were: 

1. YouTube
2. Scribd
3. Prezzi
4. Screengrabs  

 Tasks they carried out: 

1. They recreated a scene of a film on YouTube 
2. Preliminary task & evaluation
3. Prop, character and narrative analysis which included screen grabs and film posters
4. Gender representations (male & female) analysis with screen grabs. 
5. Analysed posters
6. Music and sound track analysis 
7. They gave initial planning of their preliminary tasks ( scripts, outcome, story-board) 
8. Many two minute opening analysis 
9. Thriller sub-genres analysis
10. Film pitch PowerPoint analysis
11. Production and distribution research
12. Target audience research
13. Group planning
14. First shooting 
15. Editing to build tension in a film included screen grabs/ photos

Faster: two minute opening analysis

Faster is a crime/drama/action film made in 2010. The film is about a bank robber who was just released from prison that goes on a rampage to avenge his dead brothers death and is later on pursued by two relentless police officers and an eccentric hit man.

In the first two minutes we are firstly introduced with the films production company which is Tri-Star (picture top right). This gives the audience a rough guide of what the film will be like, as they are known for although making a variety of films, mostly making films of the genre action comedy. We are then shown the logo of Castle Rock Entertainment which is another production company. As shown just seconds after this we are told through these logos that this film has three production companies involved, one of which is CBS which is not only a film production company but also a distribution company which suggests this film might have a big audience but also may have high box office figures, as it might be very successful due to the combination of contributors.



We firstly see a man walking back and forth through a doors glass window. The man we see appears to be a very intimidating and strong character. Through what we see, the audience can come to a conclusion that this character is in a building that is not necessarily run down but one which its tenants may not care all that much about the appearance. Something for example like a government/council estate.

We then see this man walking back and forth from a birds eye angle. The confine space, the fact that this man is in a room which has a bed and a metallic toilet in one space suggest he is in a prison. (picture on the right). The actions this character is doing seem to be placed in order to make him seem worried about something perhaps for his safety as at one point we see scars on this characters body. His prison cell seems isolated in the sense that it appears he doesn't have many personal belongings linking to the idea that prisoners don't give too much away about themselves in order not to appear weak. 

The man then suddenly stops and stares at something. The  main focus, however is not on what he is looking at, but him. What he is looking at is blurry, suggesting that it is important to him as he may be focusing on it with a lot of emotion. The focus is mainly of him standing there looking at what we can make out to be a photograph. The thing that stands out most in this precise scene is the scar on the characters back, this prisoner appears very strong and muscular yet this scar seems to appear very big across his wide back although it is actually small in size. The scar gives emphasis to the fact that this character may not have had an easy time in prison suggesting that he may have been in brutal situations. Furthermore, the scar appears to be old but very deep connoting that it was very painful.

We are then revealed what the character was looking at. A photograph which has him and another man together, through this picture we can come to the conclusion that the person in the picture is perhaps a family relative of the main character, as their body language suggests that they are very close. The way we are presented with this scene suggests that this person had/has great significance to this man. In addition, this gives it away as we see that this photograph in the only thing that appears to be in this characters cell that may have personal value to him and that may give something way about him. We are presented the picture with the way that this character sees it; we see the picture from a shot that has been taken over his shoulder, the part of the man that is visible is blurry yet the picture is very bright in comparison to the rest of the setting in this scene suggesting that he is looking at it with a lot of emotion.  

The next shot is one which is zoomed in of just his eyes. Through this we see that this man is indeed looking at this photograph with a lot of emotions as although we can't see his whole face we can see his eyes. In this scene the main character looks content looking at the photograph, but then seems very angry.when we are introduced to him as the 'driver' , he has a very angry look on his face. Only half of his face is visible as it is bright from sunlight. The light could symbolize that this is a very important day for the Driver in some sort of way as we then see that the prison guards approach him to  take him somewhere which is not clear to us yet. From the beginning of the scene until this part the music is very upbeat and has a fast pace suggesting that this is a very adrenaline full movie. When this character is outside of his cell and is walking in-between the two officers the music continues however, the music becomes quieter while the sound of other prisoners, one by one shout while he walks across their cells. Each time the Driver walks past a cell the prisoners become even more aggressive towards him. 

 This tells us that he might have lost this person through a possibly horrible even and is distraught about it however, the memory of this person seems to keep him determined. 

Cinematography & plot:

I chose other scenes from the first five minutes of the film that I thought were very interesting and we could possibly use certain camera, plot and sound techniques for the two minute opening of our own film.  The picture on the right is of the scene after where the guards are taking him somewhere. While they are walking the music and aggressive sounds seem to fade away and become a part of the background, as the voice of the man becomes louder and louder as if he is narrating a story whereas he is talking to the Driver where their conversation actually takes place in the scene where they are sitting in this man's office. ( the screen grab Day 1). 

I liked this angle used in these scene for screen grab 1 because it is as though we are walking and seeing what the main character is going through which results in us empathising with him. Furthermore, I think it gives us a clear image of a sense of authority within the prison as it appears that this man has a higher authority to than the main character. I like how they used inter titles, for example labelling it 'day 1' showing that this character has a long journey ahead of him but still remains optimistic about the situation and is very focused.  

Furthermore, I like the next scene because while they are in the office and the man is talking to the Driver, we are again placed in his situation, making the older man's speach and image slow down and appear out of focus while the main focus is on the clock which is in his office suggesting that time is an essential factor to his plan. In this scene there is no use of music however, they want to show the importance of sound as the only thing we can clearly hear is the sound of the clock ticking and his heart beating faster possibly because he might be nervous for what follows after his release.
















In addition, I chose this scene because I like how as the main character is running it looks like every other five strides he makes another inter title appears with credits and the names of the actors in this film. Similarly, I like how it is a focused/ zoomed in shot of his feet while he is running and looks a bit blurry to match his speed and pace of how fast he is running or how he is feeling. Furthermore, I like how in the scene where the film title appears, the main character is shot at from a wide angle behind him, the background and surroundings look very isolated suggesting that the movie is action packed but the main focus is of him and what he is trying to accomplish when he is released from prison.

Lastly, I really the editing in the scene that I screen grabbed in the picture on the left. I really like how you can see him driving from within the car and can see him very determined. The thing I liked the most and am hoping we will be able to use or replicate in the  two minute opening of our film is how they made it seem that the speedometer is third dimensional. Through this scene we can assume that the speed may suggest the pace of which he taking things and is trying to accomplish his plans.


As explained above, I feel like there are a lot of techniques used in the two minute opening of the film Faster that would be very effective if we used in our film as it is a film within the genre similar to what we would like to make it. Throughout the two minute opening, I believe that it manages to capture the audiences interest and make them want to watch the rest of the film as it gives them enough detail yet doesn't give too much away.