Choosing a story

I had lots of ideas for different genres, so I narrowed it down to one idea for each genre that i could later present my group with.

#1-Thriller
A detective is researching a series of murders and begins to realise that all the evidence leads to one person: Herself.

#2-Horror
A girl is walking away from a creepy stalker who coincidentally chases her so she is in a part of a neighborhood she doesnt recognise. She goes into the only shop she can see and asks for help and she is given a broach of protection which awakens a evil entity who wants to kill her.

#3-Romantic comedy
Boy who works in shop serves a beautiful girl, after flirting for a while she gives him a contact card. Later when he is home he calls her phone and realises shes a acting scout, but he is too embarassed to admit he thought they had relationship potential and agrees to work for her.

#4-Horror
Modern take on the story from mythology; Pandora's box. A girl opens a box which unleashes evil on the world.

After conversing with my group we decided to concentrate on idea #1.

Questionnaire results

After recieving my questionnaires back from those who had filled it out i sat down to take a look at their answers and see if it would benefit my film and help decide what to do.
Seven out of ten people said their preferred choice of genre is the thriller genre. I thought age and gender would affect this so i distributed my questionnaire to a range of ages and genders. Suprisingly only two people preferred the horror genre and one person liked romantic comedies.
It became apparent to me that a thriller film would appeal to the biggest range of people.
Most people agreed that slow and eerie music is most effective in the horror genre, and four people said they like horrors to be psychological, and four said they like horrors to have a detective theme, two said they like gore.
There was a tie as to whether people preferred to watch an authority figure/celebrity or and everyday person. Only one person disagreed that the ending should be a cliffhanger and wanted a happy ending. Six people said that a horror film should open with a flashback two said with a murder, one said with information and another said straight to present events.

Target audience- Questionnaire

I composed a questionnaire to help me decide on what to film for my project. In getting opinions from the demographic my film will be aimed at, i have more chance of producing a film which will be more enjoyable.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task helped me to get used to filming. I worked behind the camera, making the edits and positioning the shots.
Our story had a simple narritive of a dodgy deal. A woman comes to meet with another woman who gives her money. Although the narritive isnt very clear or overly exciting, this tasks' aim was to allow us to build confidence with the camera.

UK Film Council Summary

I have looked at the UKfilmcouncil statistics and have been able to draw results about different genres.
The most popular genre with the most films made, and biggest amount of revenue made is the Comedy genre making £206.6 million. Following after is the Thriller genre which got the second biggest amount of money £149.0 million. Judging through these results would lead us to believe that comedy is the most popular with the UK and Republic of Ireland, however looking closer, it took 127 Comedies to give it the highest amount of money, but it only took 50 thrillers to be second best. Perhaps if both genres released the same amount of films, the thriller genre would have proven more popular.
The horror genre appears 10th on the list, with 24 releases, showing that it isnt as popular as comedy, Thriller appears 5th with 28 releases, and with around the same amount of releases and a much less amount of money made shows that thrillers are much more popular that horrors.
The romance Genre is much further down the list, showing that a romance film is only carried by its comedy aspects.

Conventions of different film Genres

In preparation for my coursework, i have been looking deeper into the different genres of films to see the tecniques adopted by script-writers and directors to captivate their audience.

Horror
In the horror genre, a strong soundtrack is very important. Whether it be a simple yet eerie tune played during the credits (though many times this simple tune builds up to a creschendo), or a heavy (usually guitar-based) soundtrack, both are very effective in letting the audience know what type of fim they're about to view.
Audio in this genre is very powerful and compliments the on-screen action. Most of the sound in horror films is non-diegetic or ambient.
Black and red are the predominant colours used in the genre. Black has connotations of isolation, disorientation and the unknown. Red has connotations of anger, blood and panic.
Every horror film has a hero/heroine, who will always survive the bloodshed. Typically, the main protagonist will be intelligent and courageous. In some (mostly slasher) horror films a young, provocative, teenage girl will be amongst the first to confront the predator.
The outcome of a horror film isn't always apparent and has many twists and suprises.
The horror genre covers a wide spectrum of film. Sci-fi horror, detective horror, psychological horror etc.

Romantic comedies
The soundtracks in Rom-coms usually link to the title of the film (E.g. Pretty woman). Or they are used as a way of expressing the characters thoughts, emotions or relationships.
Romantic comedies have alot of stereotypical characters: A family member or friend of the main character to provide comic relief, a gorgeous woman, and a charming male. Although sometimes the main character could be described as a underdog, a fumbling and insecure character who gets gradually more attractive and steals the heart of the love interest.
The storyline of rom-coms become apparent within the first few minutes of the film and is repetitive in most films; Eyes meet across the room, build up of relationship, breakdown of relationship and make up of relationship and happily ever after (at least until the sequel).
In romantic comedies there is always a obstacle standing in the way of the relationship, social norms dictate that the couple shouldnt be together (social class clash, family problems, hidden motives etc.) However despite the problems the couple face, love conquers all and a happy ending will occur tying all loose ends.

The Matrix (1999)- Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski.

The matrix is a action packed film right from beginning to end, throwing the audience right into the frenzy without hesitation. It starts with special effects. This tells the audience that this film is quite technological and modern. The soundtrack is a quite exhilirating composition of various instruments which eventually builds to a creshendo to support whats happening on screen and an electric synthesized sound, suggesting technology. sure enough after this a telephone rings and we hear a conversation between two people who's dialogue suggests they are a secret organisation. A woman and a man who speak of the "chosen one". We can hear the ambient sound of electronic clicking and looking at the screen it looks a computer displaying a code. The black background has connotations of secrecy and evil, and the green code contrasting with the black suggests millitary activity and on screen we become aware that the camera is in subjective point of view listening into the conversation, and later in the film the code, telephone and secretive talk is explained.

The establishing shot shows an extreme close up of an officer with a torch and a gun scoping the dark, musty, almost derelict building with his comrades, which gives an eerie feel to the film. This confirms the theme of spies and secret organisations. The atmospheric sound adds to the creepy vibe. The men then walk into a room where a person is sitting facing the wall which creates tension along with the dramatic pause. The camera then pans upwards to show a medium close up, showing her determined face and the lights behind her imply power. The camera now jump-cuts to the outside of the building, panning downwards showing a sign that reads "HEART o' the city hotel". Men in black suits, shirts, ties and sunglasses show up in a black car, their costume suggesting authority. There are alot of police cars outside denotating that the woman seen inside the hotel is dangerous. This is confirmed when after being scolded by the men in suits for not listening to their instructions, the police officer says; "I think we can handle one little girl, i sent two units, they're bringing her down now" and the slow speaking, seemingly wise man in a suit replies, "No lieutenant, your men are already dead." Then the camera cuts to the action inside the hotel where this woman (who comes to be known as Trinity) has her hands behind her head with the camera doing a close up of the officer getting out his handcuffs. He slowly walks up to her and the violence commences. The impressive fight scene includes a freeze frame when Trinity does a jumping kick in the air and the camera does a 180 degree clockwise rotation around her whilst she is seemingly frozen in mid-air.

This trick was actually done by setting up 120 normal cameras in a circle around Trinity with two motion picture cameras. By merging all of the photos one after the other it creates the illusion that the camera has moved at an impossibly quick speed. After the fight sequence Trinity speaks with Morpheus on the phone who tells her to get to a phone booth as quickly as possible. The non diegetic music starts up again as she begins to flee, running through long corridors. Eventually the chase ends up on a roof where Trinity jumps across a large gap, landing on another rooftop. This action is caught by the camera in an aerial shot and slow motion. This shot allows us to see how high up Trinity is as we can see the cars underneath her and we hear the diegetic sound of a police siren. The camera zooms in on the police officers face when he sees that the man in a suit has made the same incredibly high jump as Trinity. All is eerily silent as the man in a suit closes in on Trinity, but as the camera focues on a tiny window, the music starts up again as her next escape plan is made clear to the audience. Her jump is super imposed into the film but looks realistic. She lands at the bottom of a staircase and a shot reverse shot between Trinity and the window shows her fear of being chased. The mise-en-scene here of a light moving back and forth because of Trinitys movement caused the build up of suspense and is the only diegetic sound here. Next she is heading towards a phonebox when she sees a truck with the men in suits controlling it. A shot reverse shot shows that the race is on to the phone booth and Trinity reaches it first, just as the truck crashes into it. A close up of Trinitys face with the phone to her ear makes us wonder if she'll survive. The camera pans across the rubble and it is confirmed that Trinity has dissapeared. The suits then speak about tracking down "Neo." And the film properly begins.