Final Animatic

Audience Research - Thriller Questionnaire

1. What age category do you fit into?

16-18 19-24 25-30 10-35 36-40 41- 45 46+


2. Are you male or female? _______________________________


3.What thriller sub genres do you prefer? (Please circle as many as apply)

Action
Romantic
Crime
Drama
Medial
Physiological
Supernatural
Political
Techno
Spy
Other


4. What do you look for in terms of story with a thriller? – E.g. Twists,


5. What type colours do you expect to see? (Please circle as many as apply)

Red
Black
Green
White
Grey
Yellow
Blue
Purple
Brown
Pink


6. How much gore do you expect to see in a thriller?



7. Do you like to do some of the thinking during the film? (Figuring out bits of the story etc) Or even after?

YES / NO


8. Do you like a cliffhanger even if there isn’t a 2nd film? (Please tick one)

YES / NO


9. What do you like about the thriller genre? (Please circle as many as apply)

Confusion
Suspense
Hero vs. Villain
Twist
Cliff Hangers
Mystery
Danger


10. How do you think a good thriller should open? (Please tick one)

Death Chase Everyday Life Flashback Other


11. Which of the following thriller films have you seen?

Psycho
Seven
Silence of the Lambs
Sin City
Jaws
Grand Prix
Seconds
Hostage
Signs
Walk on the wild side


12. What is your favourite thriller film? _______________________________


This is our questionnaire. We chose these questions based on the information we wished to receive from our target audience. Firstly we used the questionnaire to establish who are target audience was and then decided to make a film classed as a 15 certificate. We also used this questionnaire to see which sub genres of are most popular and which conventions of Thriller they most prefer to see as well as what plot twist and story lines people like to see in a thriller film. We will put this research into graphs in order to see what the most popular answers were and what our audience want to see. From this information we can evaluate our ideas and make improvements to our film ideas based on our research.

Thriller Opening 5 -Signs - M. Night Shyamalan, 2002 (Sci-Fi Thriller)

Camera
There is very little camera movement in this opening sequence. The angle of the camera being straight and centralised in the middle, focusing on the characters names. Slow zooming out through he window away from the view of the garden jumps straight to a picture of a family, could it suggest they live there or used to live there. This sets the narrative. Male character is introduced in centre of the screen as he wakes up. This suggests he is the lead role in the film as he stays centralised. He walks around the house the camera follows him. This sets the scene and creates an atmosphere. Camera movement and pace speed up towards the end as the man is running around looking for someone. The camera is tracking and panning to keep the audience feel involved in what is going on and to show the audience what the man sees and what he is doing. Overall the camera movement is very slow.


Editing
Speed becomes faster in the way in which the titles come up faster, the speed of music also increases, style of the titles and music is the same, however the music is different at the start and at the end. The pace of editing is slow. Mostly straight cuts are used. As the speed of the music increases it increases the tension caused for the audience, similarly as the pace of titles becomes faster the music seems to become faster making it even more intense. Music ranges from fast to slow, indicating something might happen and that it is something out of the blue and shocking. It alerts the audience making them aware and keeping them engaged. The speed of the background music at the start of the opening is completely different from the end. This could be to signify the start and the end of the opening titles leading onto the introduction of the actual film.

Sound
The non-diegetic background music is continuous throughout and is ranging with different tempos of music throughout. It starts of quiet and eventually gets louder In order to build up suspense and create tension. This relates to the theme of thriller very well as this is a commonly used technique of thrillers. We can immediately identify that the film is a thriller due to this music as it is conventional of a thriller to have this spooky sounding fast pace music. The sound in this opening fits in really well, and links to the theme of the film. It clearly introduces the narrative and suggests to the audience that this film is going to be an action based mystery thriller hence the fast pace chasing music which when it gets quieter suggests mystery. E.g. a chase scene and the loud up-tempo music suggest the person is running and getting chased and the low tempo quieter pace music suggest that the character could be hiding.


Mise-en-scene
A continuous blue colour is used throughout the titles, giving us a calm and relaxed sort of tone to the opening. But also a mysterious sort of tone as the spotlight is blurry suggesting it is hiding something. No props or costumes used in the opening. The lighting and colour of the opening stay the same throughout.


Special Effects
No special effects are used in the opening except the spotlight effect.


Titles
Blue background being a spotlight fading in and out, with black font over lapping the blue spotlight. The titles fad in and out also in a dark blue font which connotes mystery. This makes the titles stand out to the audience and make it very clear to read. Doesn’t really link to the film, as the colours are not very significant to the sci-fi genre or to thrillers. However you could relate the colour blue to a blue light of police car sirens or to water.

Thriller Opening 4 - Flightplan- Robert Schwentke 2005 (Action/mystery Thriller)

Camera
The long shot establishes that she is alone at the train station and the close ups enable a full view of her facial expressions in order to show the audience how she is feeling. The long shot at the beginning not only shows that she is alone, but her character isn’t introduced emotionally straight away, which leaves a surprise for the audience when she is seen. This builds up suspence.
Mid shot of moving train. Long shot of the back of a character sitting down, in front of a stationary train. Camera zooms into character- but her face not yet seen. Camera switches quickly from behind to in front. Camera then zooms into her face- portraying her fear.

Long shot of the room is seen and a coffin is centred with the main character in front. Mid shot of character walking out. Low angle of a man- camera moves up. Shot reverse shot of the man and woman. Long shot of the couple at the train station- the same train station she was seen sitting alone at. Long shot as they enter the train. The long shot of the coffin leaves the audience speculating who is in there. The shot reverse shot highlights both characters expressions and juxtaposes her expression before hand. The long shot of the moving train again contrasts the speed. The shots used all draw attention to the loneliness and seclusion of the characters and the fear of the woman. Long shot of character walking towards the coffin, close up of water dripping off her umbrella, low angle of character looking at the coffin and then the camera pans and zooms in slightly.

The panning and zooming out from the train goes into a long shot of the couple walking up the stairs. The long shot of the couple outside shows that they are still alone and are possibly being watched. The camera goes round to see the character in the coffin, which adds to the shock and anxiety of the audience and as it is the same man seen at the train station, it builds up the narrative.

At the end of the opening, the long shot shows the couple outside and then birds fly up and into a black screen, which causes shock to the audience when the next shot arrives. After the black screen, a long shot of outside appears but this time she is alone and only one pair of footsteps can be seen, which leaves the audience doubting whether the man was really there. This creates suspense and builds up tension.


Editing
A mixture of slow and fast pace editing is used throughout the opening title sequence of this film, along with straight cuts. The fast straight cuts and pace contrast the shots, which connect with the character and the pase of the character. Similarly the moving train compared with the pace of character juxtapose one another.

The opening sequence has fast paced editing; shot of something unknown- possibly a train, then straight into titles. Continuous straight cuts are used from train to titles. Pace slows down. Slow editing contrasts to the music. Straight cut into character entering a room, two other characters are also present. Train moves and the camera watches as it moves off. Another straight cut into character slowly walking towards the coffin. Straight cut back to the moving train. Fading out from w the couple were walking on the street portrays the atmosphere changing. A straight cut from inside to outside, straight cut back to the room with the coffin.


Sound
Diegetic sound of the train, no music. Non diegetic music appears- quiet and tense- as the camera zooms in. The non diegetic music is tense and juxtaposes the pace of editing. A lot of diegetic sound is used in this scene, such as, the character breathing and dialogue. Dialogue appears in a non-English language and she replies in English. The tone the females voice also represents grief and fear. These emphasise this character’s unknown fear and pain helps the audience to connect emotionally. It leaves the audience guessing to why she is behaving in this way. A man’s voice appears. Diegetic sound of the water dripping emphasises the silence within the room. Nonetheless, quiet non diegetic music is used, which builds up tension and atmosphere. The effect of the tranquillity within the opening sequence helps to connect the character with the audience, it enables the audience to establish the emotions and feel for the narrative. Increased in sound volume creates tension and suspense and reinforces the change of shot. Dialogue- mans’ name introduced as David. Diegetic sound of birds, female character is startled.


Mise-en-scene
The lighting is bright inside from the electric lighting but when outside it is much darker. This creates the atmosphere and ands to causing tension. Furthermore, throughout the sequence the train juxtaposes the character. This train plays a significant role as it is the only thing that moves fast within the opening. When the camera shows the characters face, tears can be seen in her eye, which establishes the emotion of the character but leaves the audience distance and wondering what has happened. Taken as a whole, the facial expressions are fairly sinister and dark and show a lot of feeling.

Character hasn’t moved. When the characters face is shown, she seems very scared and deep in thought, with tears in her eyes. Other characters in the room change their expression quickly and break away. Facial expression alters as she sees the man- happiness, relief and surprise/shock- highlighted through her breathing. She quickly opens the door and her expression changes- she appears surprised at seeing somebody but then upset at what the character asked. Slight aggravation is shown. The dark clothing contrasts to brightly coloured yellow train.



Special Effects
No significant special effects are used.
Shadows of planes are seen over the snow- shot fades out.


Titles
Simple, white font over black.
The titles are used in this way so they are not a distraction to the audience and so they are easy to read.