Location Ideas

One of our main locations is Graces house as this is where her safe place is and where the final scene is. we chose this location as our target audience could relate to the different settings in the house as it will be an ordinary middle class house. Within this the main location in the house is the bathroom, this is an iconic seen is our film and is present in many other psychological thrillers, this could be to do with in a bathroom it is your own private place.

 This is another one of our locations, we chose a dark long pathway is it give a mysterious feel to the film and ere to as alleys are associated with danger. Also as it is a remote location is will emphasis that Grace is in danger and alone.

 Another main location for our film is the detectives office as this is where a lot of the films based, the room will be filled with props such as notice boards, which are seen in a lot of the trailer as it gives the audience clues as to what the film is about.

Story Boards

Here you can see the draft story board for our film deranged. We have included on the story board the shot type, what non diegetic sound and non diegetic sound will be included as at the time of doing them we knew roughly what shots we wanted but we wasn't certain on what order we wanted them to be in and so they are not in chronological order.

Risk Asessment

Risk                 Who Is At Risk             How To Prevent The Risk                         Risk Level



        Falling over              Zoe                        Check her pathway for any obstacles              Medium
        whilst running                                       to ensure there is a clear pathway





         

       Slipping over in       Matthew                  Walk with precaution                                      Low

       ran whilst

       walking



      Tripping over       Crew and actors/          Making sure everyone is aware                       Low
       camera leads             actresses                 of where the leads are and making
                                                                        sure they are out of the publics
                                                                        way as they are not aware of them      

Applying audience theorys to my film Deranged

Stuart Halls Reading

The preferred reading of the text would be that the audience accepts that Grace is the main victim in our film, this also applies to Laura Mulvey's idea of the male gaze where women are the object of desire. The audience would also accept that Parker is the antagonists he is male and they are seen as more dominant. They will also accept that the leads the detective is following is correct and that they can follow his ideas to try and figure it out themselves. The negotiated read would be that the audience finds it hard to believe that a teenage boy could escape from an mental asylum but excepts it anyway due to the other factors in the film being realistic. The oppositional reading would be that audience doesn't accept the any of the text as it doesn't seem plausible.

 

Uses and Gratification Theory

I think that diversion would apply to our text as this film takes the audience full attention and most likely has lager problems in it than the audiences and therefore they would forget there own.

 

Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs'

I can also apply some of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to my film.

Physiological- This can be seen as the main victim needs shelter, food, water, etc when hiding from the antagonist.

Safety and Security- this is applied to my text as the victim grace needs to find somewhere she thinks is safe in order be safe from the antagonist.

Self actualisation- in the film our characters will forget about what they value in the world that is created and will focus on their strengthens to survive reviling their true personality.

 

Stereotypes And Pawws

Present in our film

Present in our film is a mix of teenage boys and girls aged 17 as this age group is our target audience. We have also included actors in there 40s/50s as we want our film to come across as realistic by using the right age for our characters.

Absent

In our film we have not included any one above 50 as this is a psychological thriller based on teenagers and so there it was not necessary to include them. We also do not have any different races(apart from white British)or people with disability's as it did not fit in with the narrative as these groups were not being targeted.

What world is created

The world that is created in our film is one of violence and fear, we have created this thought many aspects such as camera work, for example we have a long shot of Grace running towards the camera looking back to check for Parker.

What is valued 

Valued in our film is the safety of the public and in particular the girl he is looking for as the main focus of this film is about keeping her safe from Parker.

Stereotypes and Counter types
Stereotypes we have included in this film is a male antagonist, which is a generic convention of psychological thrillers. This stereotype is also shown through mise-en-scene as he will be wearing a mask, however in other films of this genre they usually are wearing a themed mask where as in our film it is a plain white mask which connotes that he does not have emotions. Another stereotype we have included is a female victim, women are usually portrayed as being weak and vulnerable. However she is also a counter-type as at the end she defeats Parker. Finally the last counter type we have included is an protagonist how is male, as they are seen as being intelligent and being the one to figure the puzzle out.

Dominant/Hegemonic Reading
Our hegemonic reading would be that people would believe that this teenager could break out of a asylum and is on a mission to find this one girl 

How I will apply these conventions in my film

Titles
I will use a metallic colour for the titles as the weapon our psychopath is using on his victims is a knife and so this is iconography. The font is going to have sharp edges and so this also represents the weapon and danger which plays a significant part in our film. We are going to include a blue glow around our production logo as this connotes mystery and the producers will be focused around psychological thrillers and we want this to come across. We're also considering using a outer glow as this also can signify mystery and the unknown.

Editing
We will be placing clips from the end of the film when the psychopath goes to the girls house as this section of the film shows character relationships as this is when they come together. It is also where a lot of action occurs and the context will leave the  audience on a cliff hanger as they will want to know to outcome of the action, for example who wins the fight. Our footage will consist of fast pace short clips as we do not want the give the film away, also the fast pace will make our film come across as exciting. Transitions will we use will consist of black fades, white fades and cross dissolves. This is as we want to use simple transitions so that we do not take the target audiences attention away from the context/narrative. In our film we will not use any special effects as they do not fit into our film however we might make our footage faster or we might slow it down.

Camerawork
We will use a range of shots such as high angle and low angle as this suggests power. We will also include panning as this will show action and make our film exciting. We will also use match on action in our film.

Mise-en-scene
Our psychopath will be wearing baggy clothes and he will be totally covered up. He will also be wearing a plain white mask. We have done this as we do not want our audience to see him as it let them imagine what he looks like, we have also done it as it does not give away the characters emotions. Our detective will be dressed in a suit, it will be a black jacket and a light shirt as the light connotes he is a good person and the black jacket contrasts this by showing he can be dangerous. We are going to loosen his tie to show that he is tiered. We have chosen to dress him in a suit as it shows intelligence.

Target Audiecene and Rating

Our target audience is aimed at males aged 18-28, this is as males tend to be more interested in psychological thrillers. However as one of the lead characters is female, it could be appeal to females as well. As our film contains mature themes, we have decided to rate our film as a 18, as the content would not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Deranged Presentation

                                                                              Title

We decided to use an metallic font for the film title as it connotes the colour of the blade of a knife which is the choice of weapon for our antagonist in our film. The sharp edges on the letters in the title have also been used to connote the point of a knife. We wanted the title to look like it had been engraved so that it can relate to the antagonist in the film as it connotes someone who is crazy. We chose to include a black background behind the title as the film cover is going to be black. We used this as the black colour connotes darkness and gives the audience a chilling effect.

               Narrative

Beginning
The beginning of our film if it were going to be made into a full film would firstly consist of  new reports and shots of news articles focused around a psychopath who has killed 11 out of 12 students in a classroom at his school. Then the focus is around psychopath who is now in a mental institution as he was to young to go to prison.Then the attention went to the victim who manged to escape the class during the killings and she will be the main character of the film as she is the lone the psychopath wants to find her and kill her.
Middle

The middle of the film will start will when the psycho breaks out of the mental institution in search of the one girl that got away from the school killings. The detective who is looking into the case of the breakout puts all the evidence together after looking back to the school killings that the psycho committed where there was one girl that got away and figures out who the last target is. The detective then tries to contact the girl before the psycho found her and before it was too late.

End
The detective goes to Graces house and tells her she is in danger, they plan to lure him in. Grace locks herself in the bathroom so that she is safe. She pretends to be unaware of the psychopaths presents and she sing as if she is getting ready for bed , meanwhile the detective is hidden in her bedroom waiting to catch the psychopath. Parker knows that the detective is there and he kills the detective without Grace knowing. Its then been a while since she heard anything and so she looks outside the door to find the killer standing there. There is then a fight scene between them when eventually she kills him with his knife.

                                                                      Mise-en-scene

Settings
The settings that we are going to use will be ones that are generic convention on psychological thrillers, we are doing this so that the audience can recognize the film genre we were thinking about using the school fence at some stage in order to promote the idea that the psychopath is trapped in a mental institution and that this is where he escaped from. We are going to use the drama room as one of our settings as it will create a dark and chilling atmosphere when the psychopath approaches his victim from behind. This is most likely be placed at the end of the trailer to keep the audience guessing about what happens to the victim. we are also planning to use an small alley which will be featured as a murder scene, if possible we want people to act dead. We are going to use a home setting for the closing scenes of our film as houses are considered to be a safe place and this is will compromised by the fight scene between the psychopath and the victim, making it more frightening.
Characters 

We haven’t come up with the names for the characters in our film yet, but we know what sort of roles are going to be portrayed. The characters that we have chose to include in our film are a Psycho, Detective, the main girl that the psycho is after and extra’s for the victims that will be shown throughout the trailer. The roles of these characters will be outlined in the narrative on the following slide.

Props
Our main props include a mask for the killer to his identity, this is a generic convention of physiological thrillers. We are going to use a plain white mark that is not showing emotion, this connote that Parker does not have any emotion or feelings, before going for this idea we thought he could wear a themed mask, but this was to stereotypical for our film and it did not represent Parker in anyway and so it would be irrelevant.
Our next main prop is Parkers clothing, which originally was going to be overalls as we wanted him to be covered up to hide his identity as we wanted our target audience to use their imagination on what he looks likes . we also wanted him to be in scruffy clothing as he is meant to have broken out of a mental asylum. we decided to have him wear the clothes of a victim a this idea seemed less cliché, the cloths would have become scruffy from the attack.
Another prop that will play a big park in our film is a knife. This will be Parkers choice of weapon ad will be an iconic image throughout distribution. We wanted to chose a simple weapon to make it realistic as a teenage boy could easily get hold of one
Our last significant prop is the detectives notice board. On the board will be notes and pictures that will lead the detective to finding out t is Grace Parker is looking for. We thought this would be a good prop as in the trailer we can show multiple shots in the trailer and give clues about the narrative  without giving it away. It also is a good proper to get the audience drawn in to wanting to find out answers.

                                                                    Unique selling point

The unique selling point of our film is that the antagonist is a male teenager. This is a counter type to the psychological thriller genre as they are usually men. Our antagonist is going to played by Matthew as his fit the antagonists profile. Another point that will attract our audience is that the antagonists victim already have a past/history together, this will be promoted interest. This will help the audience create a more personal relationship with the main girl as they will look into her past.

                                                                      Editing

Lighting and Cuts
we were discussing lowering the saturation when we are filming the psychopath when he is trapped in the mental institution. this could help us create a darker picture,creating a chilling effect for the audience. We will also use fast past cuts in our trailer as this is a generic convention of physiological thriller.
Transitions
We will use standard transitions such as plain cuts, black fades and wipe fade. These are stereotypical conventions of physiological thrillers. We will use these as we do not want the attention taken away from the context of the film. We will use wipe fades particularly when we show the multiple news articles as it will look as if the page is being turned. We will also mainly use black fade transitions at significant points in the film that we want the audience to take in. we will also consider using black fades if we decide to use cross cutting. for example when the detective is on the phone to the girl who the psycho is after, we must use cross cutting at this point which will go to a close up of the psycho knife scrapping across a wall.

Conventions of a Psycohological Thriller Traliers

Titles and Colour

Common colours used in psychological thrillers consist on blue,purple, black, white, transparent and red. The blue and purple connotes mystery while the black and white connotes darkness and purity and if they are put together it could connotes the taking over of/ clash of good and evil, transparent connotes the supernatural and red connotes danger and gore. Another common feature on titles is an outer glow, this could suggest multiple personality's or the supernatural.

Editing

Transitions are commonly used in thriller trailers are black fades, white fades and cross dissolves, this is as the producers do not want to take the attention away from the context/narrative. Special effects are used occasionally to show action and excitement, when they are used they are sutle as a producer does not want the genre to be mistaken for a action adventure. special effects such as CGI will be used in paranormal psychological thrillers to make the film realistic.

Camerawork

High and low angle shots are commonly used to show, this is as they show who holds the power. The footage in trailers will be short face pace clips are they do not want to give the plot away and as this way they can put in the most exciting footage in to draw an audience in. Clips of narrative will also be switched, for example clips from the end will be placed at the begging, this is to help tell the story and so they the audience cannot follow the story and guess what happens.

Mise-en-scene

Low key lighting is a generic convention for psychological thrillers  as it connotes the darkness in the film. The antagonist will generally where dark clothing as this makes them look smart and professional where as the protagonist will wear ordinary clothing to as they are usually ordinary people.

Poster analysis

 

Black Swan

 

Text                                                                               

The main text that stands out is the film title. The title is black and is thin, this makes it easy for the viewer to read as it is simple. It also looks elegant which connotes the elegance in the context of the film. white, suggests elegance and purity where as black suggests the opposite, this suggests that something pure has a darkness coming over them. The rest of the text, such as the awards it has won, is in grey, I believe this is not to distract the attention away from the name of the film as there would be no connotation to that text being black.                                                                               

 

Colour

The colours in this poster consists of white, grey, black, there also red tones in the image and pink tones used for the text below the title. I think they have used a small handful of colours as they represent the film, the red, black and grey, connotes the evil in the film while the white contrasts this is connotes purity. There is a lot of black also around the person in the images eyes and lips, I think this is to show the audience, this person is/will become evil as the rest of her is pure white.

 

Image

There is one image in this posters which is of the female lead. The image is not scary, however it is eeerie, I think this is due to the elegance of the characters, as she does not look like she could harm someone but the red eyes and the dark heavy makeup contrasts these ideas. The image is in the centre of the poster. There is also a soft focus around the image that stops at the main feature features to put emphasis to this and to bring it to the attention of the viewer. The main character is also looking directly at the viewer, giving the poster a eerie vibe.

 

Layout

The image on the poster covers the majority of this poster and the text is placed on the bottom third of the poster, I think they have done this so that the views pays close attention to the image rather than text. The main pieces of text that stands out it the title which is places in the centre of the poster but low down, so that it doesn't bring attention away from the image. There is also information on where the film has been shown at festivals placed either side of the image, I think this text stands out the as well due to its font size. I think they have placed this to show that the film has been seen and is successful worldwide. The three main actors are also seen in a clear serif font, the text isn't as big as the title but is large enough to be seen, they have placed this text just above the title, I think this is as they want to viewer to notice it as it tells them that the film should be successful considering the other films they have been in.

 

The Rite

 

Text
The title of the film, the tag line and the release date is the main text at the bottom that stands out, there is other text such as their website and who the producer and distributor is, however this text is not that important information and so they have put it in a smaller font size. The title text has a small 'the' as it is not significant to the film however  the text 'rite' is the largest text on the poster, which is a conventions of psychological thriller posters. in the title we are shown that religion, specifically Christianity is important and plays a big part in this film, this is done by the 't' being made not from letters but a crucifix. The text is in a metallic colour connoting the importance of metal or something metallic in the film.

Colour
The main colours used in this text are black, grey, and red tones. The black suggests darkness and black being used is a generic convention of psychological thrillers. The main grey colour is on the image of the main character, his skins is grey toned and even though it is a light colour, which usually suggests purity, it is dull, making the man look cold, he is also surrounded by darkness which emphasises the point that he is 'evil'. The red tones in this image suggests blood is present in the film, as it about religion it could suggest sacrifice.

Image
There are two images which have been layered over one another. The image on the bottom layer is of Anthony Hopkins(the main character) and layered on top of it is a large crucifix which his face is coming through behind it to show that there is a connection between this man and Christianity. The outside of the crucifix consists of fleshy tones and red tones connoting that humans may be hurt in this film. Furthermore the sides of the crucifix looks like a blade suggesting that Christianity causes conflict and pain in this film.

Layout
The tagline is just above the title of the film and so it looks like it reads 'You can only defeat it when you believe. The Rite.' I think they could have done this to show that there is something called 'the rite' in this film that needs to be defeated. I also think they have placed the text 'Academy award winner Antony Hopkins at the top as they want the viewer to see this information as he is a successful actor and therefore the film should be. Moreover I think they have placed him as the main image, firstly as he is the main actor but also as viewers looking at the poster may have seen his other work  and therefore would be interested in watching this film.

Repentance

Text
Colour
Image
Layout

 

Text
Colour
Image
Layout

 

 

 

Mood Board For Psycologial Thriller

Mood Board

The films I have included in my mood board are

• The Shining
• The Purge
• The Ring 
• The Last House On The Left
• Cabin In The Woods
• The Blair Witch Project
• Paranormal Activity
• Sinister
• Friday 13th
• Vacancy
• Child's Play
• The Woman In Black

Antagonist

 Here are some real life media examples of generic conventions of psychological thrillers. I have included an iconic image from the film the shining of the antagonist, who is a male, this is one generic convention. Furthermore the antagonist will usually have some disability where that is mental or physical or they will have a morphed/mutated face, this is as it is more frightening to see.The second convention I have is masks, this feature is seen in many psychological thrillers as it hides the antagonists identity. 

Setting

Another generic convention I have identified is the location. They are usually in a isolated location or an historic old building with some history, usually a haunted house. I think this is so that the protagonist cannot be heard

Characters

 Another generic convention is that children are usually seen in psychological thriller films. I believe this is as they are usually vulnerable and innocent and so it is more frightening seeing a child being portrayed as something evil. Similar to this is the use of dolls, again they are objects belonging to children and so they are seen as being nonthreatening, also they are objects that do not have any life in them. Furthermore most people have one of these in there house and so they could relate to the object as it could happen to them and will be frightened of this object. The last generic convention I have included on my mood board is of an female victim, they are seen as being vulnerable and they need to be protected.

 Mise-en-scene

Low key lighting and a foggy setting is also a generic convention of psychological thrillers this is as it makes the footage unclear to see and therefore unexpected things can come onto the screen. I have included a photo from the ring of the antagonist as the dark hair is another generic convention. 

Possession is a common feature also in psychological thrillers as it is an event that could happen and has not been proved whether it happens or not.

Camerawork

Where camera work is concerned I think that hand held camera are a generic convention as it connotes non stability and makes the audience film uneasy.