Research Stage

1. Research Stage AICE Media Studies – Gabriella Calixto & Parker Bennett

2. Mood Board

3. Mood Board Analysis • The mood board presents us with the main similarities and differences between the four movies we chose within our genre to analyze. • The names of the movies provide the audience with a clue as to what the movie will be about without giving away the entire plot. i.e. Psycho; one would assume this movie will be about a psychopath. One would be correct in this assumption but would never guess as to why the antagonist is a psycho (I won’t reveal any spoilers). • Each thriller has a subgenre within thriller which distinguishes it from the other three. i.e. The Shining is a Thriller but also falls under the subgenre of psychological horror/mystery. This subgenre is one aspect that makes it unique and distinguishes it from the rest of the movies selected. It can also help a viewer to choose which kind of thriller they would prefer to view. Some people (as discovered by our later slide of questionnaires) prefer action with their thrilling suspense, others prefer gore, while yet others prefer more supernatural, paranormal mysteries which progress as the plot unfolds. • Each individual poster also presents a visual as to how different the story plots will be yet they all still fall under the same general movie genre of thriller. Each poster is menacing in its own way, provoking the viewer into a sense of unease at the mere sight of it using color, expression (of characters) and textual style.

4. Our Target audience • Our target audience will consist of people who enjoy thriller movies with a suspense aspect added to it. All ages 16 and up will enjoy our movie as long as they are interested with thriller movies. Both males and females will be included in our target audience. After looking at the questionnaires, our target audience seems to be on par with what a wide range of people enjoy, with the exception of only a few. • Our target audience will appeal to people who enjoy not only thriller movies but also suspenseful movies that have a sort of questioning factor that keeps the audience intrigued. Out of all the people questioned, the majority enjoys thriller movies because of the story plot. Females will enjoy the fact that they may be able to sympathize with our main female characters’ plight during the movie. The males will enjoy the horror, action, and suspense that are embedded within the story line. • Overall, male and females of ages of or past 16 will be our target audience.

5. Primary research - Questionnaires • Persons aged 13-24 like action and lots of movement in their thrillers. • Mainly enjoy the plot in a thriller film. • Male student enjoys gore and more aggressive types of violence. • Females enjoy constant action or no thrillers at all. • All three ‘favorites’ chosen by students are on different ends of the thriller genre spectrum. • -Slumdog Millionaire is an action thriller. • -Oculus is a paranormal thriller. • -And not liking thrillers at all is rather common as well.

6. Persons aged 25-45+ like thrillers that have both action and lots of mystery. • Like the younger group, the main enjoyed aspect of thrillers is the plot. • Male adults both leaned towards an aspect of mystery with an aspect of action. • The female adult leaned towards mystery as well but also prefers films that have semi gory aspects (murder). • 2/3 adults mentioned films that get to the point without an extensive opening narration or story line. • Once again, the three favorites chosen are on different ends of the thriller genre spectrum. • -Eagle Eye is an action thriller. • -Aliens is an extraterrestrial thriller. • -The Birds is a horror thriller.

7. Audience analysis : questionnaires • Male adults prefer thrillers that have suspenseful openings with a hint of mystery. • Females enjoy a more detailed plot than men who enjoy the simplicity of action and sometimes horror. • All people questioned, 4/6 enjoy thrillers for the plot. That’s about 67% which is a majority. • The younger demographic enjoy horror, action, and violence, regardless of their gender. • The older demographic enjoy horror, action, and mystery, regardless of their gender. • We can draw the conclusion that cumulatively, both genders of all ages share similar interests in movies with suspense and mystery with some action.

8. Secondary research – Notes on film openings • Solid black background • Screen separated into stripes • Green patterned stripe effects • White letters slide ono screen with credits • Leads into a cityscape shot from a bird’s eye view • No characters established • Color contrast and broken effects on movie title • Suspenseful music which foreshadows movie plot will • be suspenseful as well

9. Upbeat music consistent with upbeat nature of movie (action/drama) • Names glow against background then turn to ‘dust’ and fade away • Use of blue gray colors add a cool vibe to the credit sequence • Main character is introduced at the end of the sequence with a gen in his mouth • Credits progress from the inside of the main characters brain progressively making a path up to the POV (point of view) of the subject handling the firearm.

10. Suspenseful music (which becomes known for the movie) • Plain background with white lettering at first • Becomes an underwater POV shot (of the shark) with white lettering • Suspenseful music picks up speed and increases in volume. • Jumps to shot of people enjoying a bonfire on the beach and participating in various activities including playing of a guitar and harmonica which changes the background music. Laughter and chatting is also heard, portraying enjoyment. • Main characters are not yet introduced (technically)

11. Suspenseful music • Zooming shot of lake and mountain scenery • Becomes bird’s eye view shot of a car driving down a winding road. This insinuates that the car may contain the main characters of the movie. • Shot changes perspective multiple times but continues following the car • Credits are ice blue and scroll across the screen from bottom to top • Music becomes progressively more suspenseful and strange • Shot ends on a mansion/resort looking building in the mountains

12. Conclusion – film openings • Most of the film openings, excluding Fight Club, began with suspenseful music. Other than this, all of the films began differently. The Fight Club was the only one which introduced the main character in some way. Psycho had no movie scenes at all, only animated stripes and letters coming on and off of the screen. All of the movies except for Psycho set the setting for the movie at the ending of the final credit. Not many special effects were truly used. Jaws and The Shining seemed to mainly use camera shots while Psycho and Fight Club seemed to rely on computer animation for their main background sequences. Fight Club and Jaws both jumped right into the action. Fight Club is also the only movie of the four which had some sort of beginning narration. The two preferred text colors were blue and white. Fight Club and Jaws both incorporated point of view shots in their opening credits as well. • Directors of thriller movies seem to have established multiple standards for how a movie should begin (the previously mentioned similarities) although they also seem to each have their own individual artistic differences. Hitchcock personally chose a much different route than the other three directors by not including any sort of clue as to any aspect of the film Psycho.

13. Films that have influenced us • Psycho, being completely honest, had too basic of an opening. It did not particularly appeal to the creativity in which our project idea is based upon. • Fight Club’s music was really appealing, maybe we could incorporate the idea of an upbeat song to our action thriller idea. The way the credits glowed and then turned to dust was also inspiring. Most importantly, the way the credits led up to the climax of the scene was a real cliff hanger, exactly what we would like to do with our movie, maybe even with the short narration, just to set an extra tone/mood to the opening. • Jaws had the multiple shifts in background and music while the credits remained constant. It was nice to see how it can be done without looking too choppy. • The Shining wasn’t too influential in that the blue lettering seemed a bit out of place; to each their own though. The constant shift, not in background like Jaws, but in point of view was rather interesting as well.