Results from questionnaire - Mrs.Begum

Results from questionnaire

What is the important get back and analyse feedback? Relate to direct, specific audience feedback. 

The most important answers to get back and analyse would be the thriller based questions because that is the most important information you need for reseach the diegetics would be a secondary or an add on even because it isn't as important.

Example of various graphs you created

Example 1 - The bar chart/graph:
This graph is the most basic and easy to read of all the graphs, I chose this specific graph for this question because this question was a closed question so I could only get a yes or no answer and seeing as there was eith one answer or another there was no point in using a more detailed graph, this one shows everything I need. How many people in total answered and how many said either yes or no.

However there was times when i had used the barv graph for multiple choice questions but this was selected as the preffered graph only because there was no 'other' answer given so other didn't need to be specified. 

Example 2 - Pie chart/graph:
The pie chart was my chosen graph for the more high detailed questions with more various options used. This is because the graphy uses a circle diagram and breaks down each slice of the circle as a different answer and breaks it down into a percentage giving a clearer undertand of what percentage of people chose what option. This graph helped especially for the "what is your favourite thriller weapon?" question because there were many options to chose from.

How has the research been beneficial 
The research has been beneficial because it has helped me gain understanding of what the target audience want to see in my thriller and the graphs have made it clearer and easier to read, which is better than just tallying the answers of my reseach

Research: Questionnaire - Mrs.Begum

 

 

Research: Questionnaire

 

What is the importance of primary research? Relate to direct, specific audience feedback.

 

Primary Research is important because it's your clinical, personal research that goes towards your own individual specific findings. This is needed in my media research because it's going to help me find an idea of what my target audience want to see through their feed back in the answers in the questionnaire. The advantage of this would be that we know what the audience want to see in the film, the disadvantage  of this is that if they go against your own personal ideas then this would change how you wanted your film to be.

 

 

 

Who did you ask and why?

 

I only asked my target audience in which case was secondary school pupils because they tend to know the latest in thriller movies, however I also asked some teachers and adults because they have knowledge on classic thrillers.

 

Example of your questionnaire

 

Here is some images of the questionnaire and the types of questions I asked. In the beginning I started with the diegetic questions, personal to the person answering them this is to gain vague knowledge of there background to put them into categories much easier.

 

 

Then I began to ask basic multiple choice questions and if they had picked the 'other' as an answer I had asked them to specify just in case others also had that answer.

 

I then gave them open questions giving them the freedom to answer whatever they liked, for example what "movie do you like?"

 

Research: Age Cerification - Mrs.Begum

Age certification

The BBFC are the is the British Board of Film Classification, they are important to the film industry because no film is allowed to be put out into the UK without having been rated and view by the BBFC so it can be branded with an age certification.


An age certification is the age label you'd see at the side of the disk or poster for a film this means if you have to be at that age or over to view the film anything below this then you aren't allowed to watch it due to the fact the content of the film my be inappropriate to anything under the age of the branded viewer.

However certain films might not have an age but they would have a letter(s) like U PG or maybe even 12A. These are basically regulations to watching the film,below is a screen shot of the meanings of each symbol.

The 12A rating came to be after the release of the previous Spider-Man sequel because the BBFC found it to be too violent to be a kids film, however the creators of the film said it wasn't fair to deny children of seeing their favourite comic book character. But the BBFC still wouldn't let up because it could influence kids in school to solve their problems with violence  just as Spider-Man does in the film, therefore as a result of the this, the BBFC created the 12A rating so kids could view it but only if accompanied by a parent/adult. This means that it was down to the parent of the kids if they wanted to let their child watch the film which also gave the film industry some free will. Since then a lot more films are rated 12A because they border line that of what kids might be influenced by but its content isn't enough to be a higher rated film (because there isn't really any blood death or strong language in them).

Thrillers tend to get higher ratings then most films because the content they carry. They have a lot of adult themes and plots that wouldn't be appropriate for the viewing of children because thrillers are made to excite viewers and the theme of danger amongst other aspects come into play to deliver this experience to viewers, but no one is going to get a thrill from child themed plots genres and ideas it doesn't have the same affect. This is why thrillers are usually directed at an older viewing audience. For example the conventions of a thriller such as weapons and violence can corrupt and influence a younger audience because they aren't ready or responsible enough to see these conventions.

I would give my personal thriller an 18, because I plan on using an extreme amount of blood and maybe strong language and weapons will be shown also the narrative may be beyond a younger viewers understanding none of these factors point towards a child rating.

I have learned that age certification is a very important concept in the film industry and I need consider wisely what my thriller film will be due to its content. it needs to be appropriate for my viewing audience.
 

Research: Mise En Scene Setting and Iconography - Mrs Begum

Research: Mise En Scene Setting and Iconography - Mrs Begum

Setting and iconography are important to thriller because they both tend to attract people see the film, for example if the person likes guns and films based in the city and they see this in the poster or trailer they would tend to go and see that film because thats what they want in film. It's also a must to stick to conventional settings and iconography because it's these ideas that keep a film interesting and original, because they stick to the best thriller types.    

If it's an action thriller a typical setting for this would be in the city and if it was a Horror thriller it may be in an isolated place, a small city or a church somewhere isolated to main branch civilisation. This is because with this setting the director can get the most out of the narrative this is because it's more tailored to the storyline an example of this would be something such as 'Nightmare On Elm Street' or 'Children of the Corn' Both setting is in isolated areas far from someone to help them making them more vulnerable and easier for the antagonist to prey on their victim(s) without being caught or stopped. 

How are settings dependent on sub-genres? - examples

Typical thriller settings all depend on the sub genre because thriller has such  various ideology and genre so when matched up to a sub genre it can be decided as to where the settings will be from there. For examplev a Horror Thriller is much different to an action thriller for many reason one being iconography and narrative. this is why something like the 'Bourne' trilogy is set in cities and alot of public filled areas becsause it can be use to express just how good an agent he is when he's on the run with so many people chasing him in such a tight, compact area. 



And somthing like Sci-Fi thriller like 'Riddick' Is set in places of Science fiction (non-exsistant) like planets and star ships because it's an inter-galactic based film.

 

Typical thriller iconography would be guns and knives this is because these are both deadly weapons. As for connotations a guns primary use is for peace keeping puropses but they can kill people, however a knife has many other uses mainly for cooking. As for dennotations by the way they are shown in the specific scene via lighting and the soundtrack can identify the intentions for the objects used. In this clip we see BatMan suiting up before going out to fight crime when thge lighting and soundtrack has been added to the film alothough its his costume it has added meaning to what he is doing, it's different from some just picking up objects.    

iconography is dependant on sub genre because sub genre changes exactly what kind of film the thriller is for example once again  'Riddick' being a sci-fi film has alot of futuristic weaponary like laser beams and non exsistant creatures where as a reular action thriller like. '007 James Bond' is set in present times so he deals with regular present timed weaponary. 

Research: Narrative Themes and Plots

Research: Narrative Themes and Plots

Themes in film are very similar genre and sub genre. They are  general factors that are carried within the narrative, a theme is a a big factor or the backdrop in film for example a theme in the famous 'ScarFace' Would be drugs because that is a big contributing factors to the storyline and essentially why all the various characters are in the situation/predicaments that they're all in. 

However plots are the idea's carried by a charachter in the narrative this maybe the protagonist's ideas or plans within the film such as revenge and murder which are main plots in the film like the film 'Double Jeopardy'. 

In order to identify the difference between themes and genres you need to look at the brain storm on the left . Genre is the main idea as to what the narrative will be as in Action, Sci-Fi, Horror, Comedy and more they don't go into much detail about the time setting like a theme or the characters specific goals like a plot either.  

Common themes in thriller would be Drug dealing, murder and revenge. They need much darker themes becausde this is what makes a thriller and thriller films need to shock the audience and give them a rush of exileration you couldn't get that kind of thrill from something thats got a main theme of romance or comedy you need to have them on the edge of their seats and thats what thriller and these kind of themes can bring to the audience. An examp[le of this would be The Dark Knight trilogy. Although this is a BatMan film this time around it's a much darker and deeper interpretation to Gotham's crime detective, this time around there is alot more violence and crime exploited than ever before. 

Themes that impact audineces would be something they may be able to relate to because they may be influenced to do the same like what they see on the film thats why you must be very sensitive as to how you portray characters and what you show in thre narrative. 

In my thriller I think I would go for the classic theme of revenge, this is because it's a darker theme than the other thrilller themes including murder, this is because revenge in thriller is usually based on an innocent character driven to the path of something darker in order to avenge someone close to them who has been killed or dramatically done wrong. I feel like you can get more out of a character who is exploring their darkerside because you can shape and expand your ideas and turn them into whatever you want.

Research: Mise En Scene: Costume, body language and facial expression - Mrs.Begum

Research: Mise En Scene: Costume, body language and facial expressions - Mrs.Begum

Costume hair and makeup body language and facial expressions are another part of the Mise En Scene. these factors are important to the thriller convention because they give viewers an incentive as to who the characters are (in terms of roles) or they can use that to their advantage by tricking the audience into thinkin a character is something their not, it's important to stick to the conventions because you don't want to confuse the viewers with unessessary costumes, you need to make a clear bold statement as to who a character is and that makes it even better if you intend to misguide the audience with a specific character or two.  

Certain costumes, hair and make-up over the years have come to be a stereotype within thriller film however it's not so much the specific charater models that dragged on to the next film it's the ideas taken with them, for example their can only be one scream character because it's a brand but we still see the concept of the outfit in film till this day. Antagonists in all black with some kind of mask or makeup concealing the identity of the person and bearing in mind scream came out in 1997 so this was clearly an affective costume idea.

They are also important because the connotations are also a statement to the persons intentions within film for example we know that the guy in a black rope with a concealed identity and a blood stained knife is up to know good. However this is a key factor to a physcological thriller because our own beliefs and stereotypes can misguide us a good film example of this would be 'Devil 2010' a film based in an elavator with different types of people in terms of age, race,gender and general background one by one a person is killed when the light goes out and the viewers along with the people in the film are trying to find out who is the devil who is disguised as one of them. (SPOILER ALERT)  (First link 'Devil') trailer showing the different types of people. Second Link the end scene who it is) 

in the end it happens to be the old white lady which out of the possiblilities who was in the elavtor. This was quite a shock to the audience because one expected it to be the most fragile innocent looking one of of the bunch, but like the trailer says "someone is not who they appear to be". 

In a thriller a strereotypical victims would be regular colthes and hair (with no make up) which connotates that they are ordinary people but the colour choice would be brightly coloured clothing which is a symbolism to innocence and purity. 

During the film their costume may change throughout the film to match the changes made to them in the films for example in the beginning the costume is every discribed in the first stereotypical victim/protagonist paragraph (above) however throughout the various stages of the film and by the end thier costume maybe torn dirty and stained, hair maybe undone and messy from all the ostacles they haver individually had to overcome during the film but this is also symbolism as to they're innonce and cleanliness has been torn apart after being put through such events. This shows through the way the characters have changed from the beginning and are willing to do things they would'nt have in the begining. 

A stereotypical antagonist would wear alot of dark clothing, this symbolises the bad and dark intensions along with the characters actions a more basic idea as to why darker clothing is used is because it helps the antagonist not to be seen when moving around in the dark and in thriller there are alot of sneak attacks and scares to make the audience jump this is affective because the attack happens so fast and to have the antagonist jump out and cosume the screen with a darker colour they are wearing it would shock someone when happening unexpectedly. In terms of body language they tend to be big and muscluar a classic body language was slowchy and sloth like movemnets like zombies and Jason from 'Friday the 13th' however the game has changed and it's no longer believable because a person would get away so the antagonist tends to be alot more agile and mobile in morden day films.

Facial expressions are another key element to both antagonist and protagonist because the way the appear on screen has to be believable yet strike fear into the viewers with just a glare from the bad guy. The best example of this i know would be the late  Heath Ledger who played as the joker in the second Dark Knight film. His brilliant acting along with the make-up artist helped him pull off the look incredibly. Another reason i have chosen this is because the joker is a chasracter who shows more than one look on his face and this image shows this. (BELOW: The Joker) 

Stereotypical victims hair costume and makeup are the opposite of the antagonist because they are sometimes also unaswer that they are under attack until it happens. They tend to wear brighter coloured clothing which is symbolism in the sense that they are usually innocent and don't have murderous intentions towards others. However througout the course of the film this may change along with their outfit. It could be a complete darker change of outfit or the begining outfit could be ruined via stains of blood or mud with some tears and wholes. this is also symbolism as to due to the characters expeirence in the film they have had a slight personality change and are willing to do thngs they wouldn't have in the beginning in order to survive. As for facial expressions and body language they must be believable and look quite shaken up during a tense scene. (Below is an example of this 'Scream' attack scene.   

In this scene we can see just about everything i have covered to do with the 'Scream' movie we see the use of costume, body language and facial from both our antagonist and victim (Drew Barrymore & Scream) and how all of them combined are used to make the scene what it is.

In my thriller I will have my protagonist in all black with a concealed face until the final 2 minutes of the film in order to create affect to shock my audience my protagonist also needs carry the right body language and be able to pull of striking facial expressions whivch will be assisted with and hair and makeup if need in the narrative. 

Research: Narrative Theory - Mrs.Begum

Research: Narrative Theory - Mrs.Begum

What is narrative and why is it important to audiences

 Narrative is the outline to the storyline that in being told in a film or a book.

Creating meaning in texts: what four elements allows the audience to find meaning

 The four elements that allow the audience to find meaning are:

• Connotation -  "an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning." In film this would that an objects actual/ main meaning or reason this is usually shown in the props used within the film for example in thriller ( image below: 'Hannibal') a knife is a conventional weapon, the connotation of the knife would be kitchen use, for example cutting food which is what viewers would usually use it for.

• Denotation -  The Denotation however expands the idea of the objects primary use and channels it to what it could be used as specific to the genre of that film like in the picture above we see the man looking like he's using the knife more as a weapon, this point is also backed up because of the blood stains on his white shirt.

• Characters - The characters are the most important factor to help the audience find meaning, this is because the audience will be more engaged with them more than anything because they are the main focus in any story.

• structure - The narrative has to have a structure to the film otherwise the audience will very quickly lose interest in the film the most basic structure you could have in a story is beginning middle and end some directors however cleverly mix this up to engage the audience even more. An example of the would be 'inception' the film starts showing a scene at the end and then goes back to the beginning capturing the viewers attention and making them want to watch the film to the very end to actually find out how the last scene came to be. 

However this is a hard technique to pull off and not all directors are as successful, one film that wasn't so good with this was 'Momento' the narrative itself was clever and a good reason to skip back and fourth and replay scenes but the poor structure lead to alot of peopkle losing interest before an actual point in the storyline was made it was also very hard to keep up with at times and nobody would enjoy trying to catch up on something while the film is getting further into the storyline.

Propp (characters): who was he and what did he say? Refer to examples Propp's characters is a theory about charaters in genres that would also apply to thriller (because it is a genre). His theory is that characters within narratives tend to be the same due to the genre being the same meaning that they would go through the same/ similar trials and tribulations. An example of this could be the fairytale genre if we compare two films together 'Disney's Sleeping Beauty' and 'DreamWork's Shrek' 2 different stories with different Prducers and directors however they are in the same genre and therefore have certain characters that play the same roles.

Todorov ( eq=diseq=new eq): who was he and what did he say? Refer to examples 
Todorov's theory was about structure. He believed that every narrative had a start a middle and end. Each stage has a different scenario he called them:
 
Equilibrium (the beginning) - Normal/ Peaceful stage
When everything is at peace and our protagonist has no rival to face.


Disequilibrium (the middle) - Phase of disruption/ a problem
The problem arises and the protagonist finds out what he has to face, the peace has been disturbed.




New equilibrium - (the ending) - A solution has been found and new peace is found
The protagonist finds the strength to over throw the antagonist and win the battle of good vs. evil (final stand off). Once this has happens a solution is found for a new peace or peace is once again restored. 

These pieces of structure can be changed around and varied at the directors own risk to engage the audience. (see structure sub-heading). 

Aristotle (themes and emotions):who was he and what did he say? Refer to examples

Aristotle believed that narrative had a different structure which was more based on theme and the audiences emotions towards a character to get the best out of the narrative. here is a graph of his structure within narrative (bottom). This creates good narrative because we actually get the time to get to know the theme of the narrative and connect emotionally with our protagonist to gain more enjoyment out of the movie or story.

 

Barthes (semiotics):  who was he and what did he say? Refer to examples

What narrative structure do thrillers tend to take and why?

Thrillers happen to take a mixture in structure when it comes to the narrative because thriller is meant to make you feel a mixture of emotions so for example for a thriller to be remotely interesting you must have similar character roles to other classic thrillers but make it your own (Propp's Theory) you must also have a basic structure within the narrative for the story to be thrilling/ eq-diseq-new eq (Todorov's Theory) and you must attach the viewer to the character emotionally so that the audience if anything was to happen to the character would be more engaged and amped up in a action scene involving the protagonist because they don't want anything to happen to them. This could also make them prone to any jumps and scares in the scene because they don't want the character to die and in a sense they care about the character (Aristotle).  

Conclusion: what narrative theory/ies will you use in your thriller and why?
Because my thriller is only to minutes and that doesn't give me a lot of time to mix any theories together, I would go for Aristotle's theory and use it on an opening character to create affect on the audience because for example I could attach emotion/ empathy towards one character and they would be able to play a pivotal role in the rest of the film. Through empathy and then tragedy you could make them the protagonist, antagonist, the victim or even a misunderstood hero. It would also give me enough time to strike/thrill the audience with such little time because they care for the character.