Conventions of a crime-thriller.

Crime thrillers generally follow set conventions of heists (e.g. ‘inside Man’), Ransoms (e.g. ‘Ransom’), Revenge and Captivities (A good example of this is how ‘Taken’ integrates both these themes). Thrillers generally entwine the audience and wrap them up into the film, and although granted most films aim to achieve this thrillers generally aim to captivate and stimulate the audience via use of almost an oscillary of emotion, going to high points and low points consecutively. Thrillers are also generally villain driven as opposed to the general protagonist-driven convention of most genres.

Thrillers tend to nest themselves amongst urban and sub-urban areas, though in some cases they tend to branch out into more exotic locations such as beaches and jungles with seemingly blunt threats, though in a lot of cases the threats are sometimes much more hidden, or in some cases actually just mental, take American psycho for example and its incredible ultimatum at the end. We will be adopting the classic feature of an urban environment; London.

Although there is no antagonist per-say all our characters show a good and bad side, and are all trying to maintain possession of this memory stick, so in a way both sides of the characters are shown, and focus is only met upon one character (opening and closing scene character), therefore we establish he is either the antagonist.

In conclusion we have established we will be following many of the conventions of a crime-thriller and therefore we shall hopefully be able to keep the audience ‘thrilled’ throughout.

Costumes

This is part one of my trailer reserch powerpoint. The rest will be uploaded shortly.

shot list first draft

this is the shot list that we originally decided on.

1. Fat lazy guy(5th character) at computer (mid shot)
2. guy taking out a memory stick (close up)
3. Memory stick thrown in the air (extreme close up)
4. 1st character catches stick in different place and shows his name and throw stick (mid long shot)
5. Playing cards (mid shot)
6. Old silent movie style (title shot)
7. 2nd character catches stick, shows her name and throw stick (mid long shot)
8. Sleeping around (long shot)
9. Old silent movie style (title shot)
10. 3rd character catches stick, shows his name and throw stick (mid long shot)
11. Beating someone with a brick (low angle long shot)
12. Old silent movie style (title shot)
13. 4th character catches stick, shows his name and throw stick (mid long shot
14. On phone talking business (mid shot)
15. Old silent movie style (title shot)
16. 3rd getting into a car quickly (mid shot)
17. Sea front walking scene with 4th and 2nd (long shot)
18. Amusement park scene with 3rd and 2nd (long/follow shot)
19. Fenchurch street 1st and 3rd meet and talk
20. Fat lazy guy at computer but with someone saying “back to this guy” (mid shot)
21. Goes back to fat lazy guy (5th character). He turns round and catches stick with his name coming up. (mid long shot)
22. Then throws it into box. Closes it up and stamps it with the name of the film. (close up)

Teaser Trailer Anaylsis (part 1)

Trailer slides (part 1)

More PowerPoint presentations from Alan Andrews

Magazine Cover Research

Here i have annotated various covers of 'Empire' magazine, which is the leadunig UK film magazine. I have annotated this as we will base our magazine front cover upon Empire's themes and components, by dissecting the covers i feel that we can use these 10 points i have highlighted to compose a decent replica of a film cover, though with our film and our features.
Below is more of an in-depth look into the ponits i have highlighted;

1. Contents.
It is a crucial trait on near enough every empire film magazine to have the contents (unless a prime exclusive, such as when 'the hulk' came out the cover was 3-D with jsut the hulk on it) of the magazines main points advertised on the front, in this case the films will be names of films other classmates are making, to add a more personal and realistic feel to the magazine.

2. Price and Date.
There is not much to say on this; we every empire magazine has this and we shall add it to, conventionally on top of the 'M' in 'Empire'.

3. Character in front of Empire logo.
Traditionally on the majority of empire film magazines the character will be standing in front of the EMPIRE sign, i feel that this gives the character (and therefore the film of the given character) prominence with the magazine, it catches the viewers eye and informs them of the main film article, therefore we feel this is a crucial trait to adopt and we will follow so.

4. Text above empire logo.
The text above the empire logo, though for a formality, does occur quite often. The text is normally linked to the main article, such as an exclusive interview wth a cast member or exclusive pictures, though if there is another article in the magazine that is uncommon or particularly eye catching and is not related to a specific film but moreover films as a whole they will normally have this at the top, for example 'Dark knight is back!' or '1001 greatest movie moments!' respectively. We will use this feature advertising '20 greatest indie directors' which will involve past students in media.

5. Pictures.
Pictures aer representative, in empire magazine, of the main articles that are going to be included (par the primary prominent character on the front), this helps advertise other areas of the magazine. With our film we are going to have 3 pictures of shots from films that other students are doing.

6. Main feature.
The main feature is always linked to the main picture, examples are thorough on each of the magazine covers i have shown above. The main writing will always be very visible, and generally in a very bright colour, obviously to catch the audience's attention. We shall be adopting this trait via using red writing in front of oure main picture, so it not only matches the empire logo but also its bright and overt as to be easily legible.

7. 'Access' comment.
On near enough every empire magazine cover there is a comment introducing 'exclusive access' or 'exclusive interviews' etc, this shows a level of proximity amongst the magazine and the various sets/films they get access to, showing that they obviously have the most information and insight into the given area which they have access to, so we feel that this is necessary in order to catch audiences attention.

8. The 'stamp'.
Altough not literally a stamp it is quite common to see a circle that looks like a sticker attatched to alot of empire magazines, this sticker is not related to the main article/articles on the front in any way, but again gives another insight into other areas that are included in the magazine, for example one advertised information about 'tron' yet tron was not mentinoed on the front cover, and in the 'joker' issue of empire (see above) one of these 'stamps' introduces a section about the Coenn brothers. We will be using this to advertise an insight into Todorov and his theoreoms.

9. Barcode.
As exciting and crucial as a barcode is there really isnt much to write about it, we will have a barcode though.

10. Background
The background we feel is crucial in matching and appropriating the main picture, take the james bond magazine (above) with the desert background, and the pirates of the carribean picture with the sea background, thoguh these backgrounds are vague and blurred the reader can still see them as the correct mise-en-scene for the picture. We will be using this with our picture to create the appropriate background, and given the theme of our film we think it will have an urban-london esque background, or possibly a grey-industrial background.

In conclusion we will be following conventions of empire magazines covers', they are effective, well known and eye-catching.

Language Analysis

The langauge we will be using with be consistently cockney rhyming slang, par 2 characters, one will have an overt 'upper-class' accent, whereas the other will have more of a 'london' demographic and accent, using heavy colloquial language throughout. The cockney rhyming slang is gonig to help introduce the general theme of the trailer and help moreso introduce the character. Examples such as;

'Just jumping in the austin' -Going to have a shower. Austin Power=Shower.

'Got into some right barney last night'- Got into some trouble. Barney rubble=Trouble.

We drew our influences on films such as 'lock stock and two smoking barrels', mainly gangster based london films, and admittedly mainly from guy ritchie's films.

A prime example of the kind of cockney we will be using is shown here: (Though expletives are used, these wont be present in our film).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu7aj1SCE8k&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL7466AE6320B632A7

The more informal and 'urban london' kind of langauge and voicing we are going for (not to stereotype) is to show the more urban and 'common' language of that deographic, An example of both the 'agitated' and 'formal' use of this accent are demonstrated here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZ2ZRfSsLY

In an analytic perspective sentences such as 'This maths thing is alot of bother' would be adapted to 'Dis maths ting is alot ov bovva'.

The more upper-class accent we are going for is for a 'posh' early 20's aged woman, using formal langauge and vast vocabulary to give a regional boost to the strereotype.
An example of the formality we want is shown here in an interview with Helen Mirren;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N8VloTOcvg

Although given the age we need to apply this would also be a prime example;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMz1oue18MM

which is an interview with kate winslet.

Our company logo

This is our finished Film company logo. I have stuck to the mainstream components of a lesser known film company logo, the square black background, with a white logo on the front, we have followed these conventions as we thought it would be best to do so given the high popularity of these specifics amongst other logos. We have incorporated two hands into the piece, and they are doing the conventional 'ok' sign, which is holding the index finger to the thumb; this gives a friendly theme, and the skeletal x-ray shows a darker side, which is matchnig to our film, humorous but with more serious themes also.

Film Logo Collage

Film Company Logo Analysis’

Though a company logo is obviously crucial and should be original, by analysing the various other film company’s logos we have been able to begin constructing ideas and giving reason for them more thoroughly, for example the vast majority of them are sticking to the simple code of black and white, these we feel are this colour as they can be more easily memorized and inevitably would help with their progression; whereas more recognized company’s such as Universal and DreamWorks for example can more or less just throw themselves out there and already have a lot of recognition. By using this to reach an ultimatum we have decided upon using a simple film company logo, one which can be easily remembered and easily recognised, so we will be sticking to a black and white logo, which we associate with ‘finger and/or thumb’.

The pitch

Our film is a London gangster film that’s about stolen goods and a lot of betrayal and confusion. Our films perspective is set from various eyes of various key people (and not so key) in the film, it mainly follows a memory stick that gets thrown into the hands of various people and the general motif of the film is all about the stick and where it ends (although that obviously will not get shown in the trailer). The main ‘hook’ of the film is that each character seems so confident when they are in possession of the memory stick; in which it is taken away. The trailer will have light humour throughout as to not make it seem morbid, although there shall be serious parts they will also be recovered via humour or light hearted scenes.

The filming itself will be set mainly around vastly urban London areas, and although well known landmarks (Big Ben, London Eye etc) would be recongizable and therefore ascend the approachability of the film we also feel that it might take away the ‘moody’ (as in a ‘moody watch’) feel to the film. Our main locations will be London; Liverpool street, Fenchurch street, Stratford and Leytonstone, whereas our more local areas will be Basildon, Wickford, Shotgate and Southend. We feel that these locations will be best suited as they are urban, very occupied and also we are inspired by Guy Ritchies heavy use of London.

Locations

Locations Analysis.

London; Liverpool Street, Fenchurch, Stratford,
Local; Basildon, Wickford, Southend.

Liverpool Street:
Liverpool street station more precisely, there are many commuters, many diverse ethical backgrounds and its also quite an urban and rushed chaotic environment, which is perfect. It’s a well known area, via name, not visual recognition which is why we shall show the sign more also.




Fenchurch Street:
Fenchurch street, although not particularly distinguishable from other areas of London, is home to many sky scrapers and many shops etc. this provides good shading, without use of disruptive or ever changing back grounds. Although Fenchurch street station was the first to be constructed within the city, the modernised culture of london has nevertheless enforced this station to be modernised and suited to our common day london, therefore there will be no era-sense or chronological-seeming error.




Stratford:
Stratford boasts both a heavily popualted area, and highly cultural diverse one also. Due to the regional variation of stratford itd be ideal to get various cultures from it. It is situated in part of the west ham district and also is home to the University Of East London (UEL) and therefore has a high student ratio, furthermore adding to the diverse array of people.



Basildon:
Basildon is a much more local location for us to film, it is culturally diverse, urban, boasts a massive shopping area, but more importantly there is a market that we plan on using for some key shots in the film. A running shot, some talking shots and a fast paced ‘flickering shot’ (it’ll make sense when seen).



Wickford:
Wickford is a small town situated in Essex, and is also the town where our school is situated, and therefore a very local place; although we are not only filming there due to accessibility. Wickford is not as heavily populated as the other areas we are filming, and therefore we have can single out more key and specific shots with less hassle. Dialogue can be pronunciated more clearly and there will be far less background noise.



Southend:
Southend is going to be one of our more secondary areas of film; The main areas we will be using are the amusements, the seafront and the pier, and these shots will not be key shots either they will be more focused on quick snapping shots, although a walking scene will be held next to the amusements, pier and seafront.