Evaluative report of AS coursework draft

 Evaluative report of AS coursework draft - Zaki Dowd

Section 1) 

The task we were set was to create an opening sequence for a thriller film. In groups of 4 we were to choose a typical thriller sub-genre for the production and then individually come up with ideas for the film. We also had to draw a detailed storyboard that showed camera movement and clear director instructions. The opening sequence had to be three minutes long, include the film title and credits, positively establish the chosen genre and target audience, and clearly show common conventions of the chosen thriller film. We chose to do a psychological thriller. We also did research into our chosen sub genre, we evaluated psychological thriller openings. I evaluated the opening for the movie 'se7en' which is a very we'll known psychological crime thriller. I chose this films opening sequence as it includes many typical psychological thriller conventions. The purpose of this research was to identify common thriller conventions e.g. certain shot types, camera angles, film noir and to be able to identify them when watching a film. In my research I also identified the target audience for my thriller, aged between 15 and 60. This is because, to understand a good thriller the viewer must engage in the story and keep interested in it. The viewer must be old enough and mature enough to understand the film and also young enough to not get bored and not bother with the film. The target audience for many psychological thrillers are 18, this is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers. My thriller however, will only be aged from 15 as it will not include any content which will disturb the viewer. The gender of the viewer is not very important as it depends on the persons personal preference, regardless of their gender. However, in my thriller, the viewer will have to put up with a bit of blood and fighting, which typically men prefer and women do not. Because of this the movie may be slightly more appealing to men. However it is more to do with the persons personal preference of film, whether they are male or female. The viewer must also have an interest in the sub genre of the film (psychological thriller) so they can engage and relate with things in the movie and follow clues and hints hidden in the story. overall my target audience which i am aiming to attract are 15+ males or females interested in psychological thrillers. The movie will have a age rating of 15+ as it will contain aspects of violence, death and a character with psychological problems. However i am not rating it an 18+ as the content is not overly explicit and teenager will enjoy the movie§ as adults. Psychological thrillers with similar target audiences include ‘Memento’ - directed by Christopher Nolan, ‘Se7en’ - directed by David Fincher and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ - Directed by Jonathon Demme.

Section 2) 

From the research i carried out i learned how to identify thriller sub genres. A way of doing this is using Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements, this is a useful framework to follow when analysing genre. Lacey breaks a texts down into these five areas to identify the elements in each:

• Narrative - (a spoken or written account of connected events)
• Iconography - (symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image, images or an object)
• Characters - (The characters in the film)
• Setting - (The position, direction, or way in which something, such as an automatic control, is set.
• Style - (The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed e.g. camerawork, editing)

From doing my research i have added certain things into my opening which i would not have thought of before. For example, from watching the opening scene from ‘Memento’ it gave me the idea of playing the opening scene backwards. This was interesting because i had never seen this before and made it very memorable. Another example was watching the opening scene for ‘Heat’ gave me the idea to have an establishing shot of a busy road in a city to open the first scene. I asked 4 people from the age group i had selected (15-60) what aspects of psychological thrillers they most enjoy. I asked one 16 year old boy, one 16 year old girl, one middle aged man, and another 16 year old boy. The two 16 year old boys and the 16 year old girl all said that “the best aspect of psychological thrillers are the plot twists and changes in the film”. However the middle aged man i asked said that “a psychological thriller must have a solid storyline and not have too much going on so it is hard to understand.” This showed that it is obviously much easier to engage in a film if you are younger than older, it also showed me the different aspects of a psychological thriller which people most enjoy, this helped me plan my opening by giving me guidelines of what people want to see in a psychological thriller and helped me think of ideas to use.  

Word count: 870

Zaki Dowd