Thriller Audiences:

Thriller Audiences Research:

Whilst making a film it is important to understand audiences, therefore we were given the statistics of Movies released in Uk Cinemas in 2009, this data separated different genres and presented the gross, this enabled me to realise how successful the thriller genre is. 

Thriller genre data:

 This shows out of 501 which were release only 31 covered the Thriller/Suspense genre, this genre doesn’t satisfy a large audience, this could be related to thrillers tend to have age restriction, and a lot of the people how go to cinema’s are families and teens, therefore age restrictions limit their audience.  People say Thrillers are predictable, and would rather watch modern animations because it doesn’t attract one audience.

Gender and audience:

 

My group intends to attract the thriller audience hence it is necessary for us to know details about the audience we are trying to attract, here we see thriller and suspense is closer to the middle attracting both genders, this is useful as it shows we are aiming to attract a wider audience and shall include things in our thriller which isn’t bias.

My Response To The 'Watching' Documentary:

Watching a Documentary:

In  class I watched a documentary which explored the opening of films, Thomas Sutcliffe pin pointed the most important techniques of creating an opening, he affirms that "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment" meaning the beggining is what gives them the need to watch on, hence it's a vital part of the film.

Techniques used & reactions: 

Establishing shots- This is a camera shot which asserts a location, this is used in openings to notify the audience where the film is set. I believe including this in an opening reveals a lot, rather than leaving the audience anticipating. Yet this opening style puts the audience straight into a scene, and doesn’t fuss around, it can excite the audience dependent on the location being established e.g. a crime scene, this could inform the audience where there are but wondering who is involved and what happened before hand therefore they’re motivated to watch on, to find out the prior story.

Instant arousal- This is when a film starts at a climax for, in the documentary we were shown a movie staring Jack Nicholson which starts with an explosion, this stimulates the audience builds up a thirst, director Jean Jacques Beineix mentions this could also be risky,  because the film has the climatic beginning to live up to and if it fails to match the peak , it will bore the audience and be remembered as a tedious film. If this is pulled off well and the rest of the film lives up to the expectation the beginning built, I believe it could be a potential masterpiece.

Foreshadowing- This is hinting towards future events, this can be done by creating an atmosphere with pathetic fallacy, for example a storm dim lightning this was used in ‘Film Noir’. By setting an atmosphere it creates an uncertainty, and the audience can predict misfortune. 

An Opening shown in the documentary:

Touch of evil-

‘Touch of evil’ uses a tracking shot throughout, following a couple’s journey through a town, there are no cuts and this allows the audience to feel like we’re stalking the couple, because  our eyes are never cut to another shot our focus stays on the couple, this builds tension as we are unaware of the couples fait. This opening is unique because it had to be filmed in one take, allot of work must had been put in to get it right, the fact they pulled it off perfectly, makes the opening is different to other openings and the rareness of this style made me realize I shouldn’t feel limited to do a conventional opening whilst making my thriller opening.

Overall response:

This documentary taught me the intention of an opening scene, to arouse the audience by starting with something which enlightens them to watch the rest of the film; it shall create an expectation and also situate an image which is relative to the rest of the movie. I understand that different techniques have different effects, for example being discrete creates more suspense this is something I will consider in my opening.  Different openings are suitable for different genres and whilst making an opening you it’s essential to establish some sort of narrative yet not reveal too much as too much exposed will make the rest of the film pretty pointless.

Structure of openings:

Structure of thriller openings

For one lesson we focused on structure of openings we were shown a number of clips and examined the how they were constructed. Firstly we learned the aim of an opening- to establish and engage, inform and create anticipation for the rest of the film. The reason we studied openings, was to give us the knowledge of the conventions they have hence we can later create an opening that’s proficient. We looked at various openings that differed from each other therefore; we could get different inspirations and not feel restricted to the usual openings.

Se7en:

 



Se7en- This opening didn’t follow the typical opening, of establishing an location instead it, included all close up of pictures and somebody working, we can’t identify the character, but we are informed this is the main character also, by doing this it engages as they want the character to be revealed. It also played music to add anticipation, and presented the cast and production line, which is important to include in openings. As this opening doesn’t reveal too much it’s called a discrete opening, these are best to use in thrillers and horrors.

The Shining: 

 



The Shining- I believe the most effective thing about this opening is the music, although the footage gives us and establishing shot of the landscape, and focuses on the one cars journey, it’s the spooky music which creates suspense making the audience. The cast is also shown and the production company likewise to any other opening.
  
The taking of Pelam 1,2,3: 

 



The taking of Pelham 1,2,3- A opening I examined previously, includes the cast and production line, whilst it establishes the location with the skyline of New York, it also uses editing which creates a effect of the subway, relative to the streets of New York, the characters are then introduced. This opening is informative, as it clearly presents the location and characters. It works well because of the editing is modern and done like a music video making it fluent and appealing to watch.