Location - Colour/Tone

Probably the three biggest influences to us in terms of colour and tone are, 'Welcome to the Punch', 'Only God Forgives' and 'Hummingbird' (Redemption). We particularly like the Blue neon colours in 'Welcome to the Punch' that cover the buildings and invade the screen, creating an extremely glamorous/glossy/slick effect that we like very much. We feel we can recreate some of this using the natural lights of Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. The tone is very much focused on being dramatic and fast-paced, which is again something we would like replicate in our trailer, using interesting angles from particular shots and the lighting as aforementioned.

The contrast between rich/poor (related to the different levels of power in crime), light/dark and use of colours in 'hummingbird' was also of great influence to us. Similar to 'Welcome to The Punch', they use bright red/blue/purple neon lights to great effect to highlight the glamorous side of crime compared to the dark/dull alleyways, which are also used to show the 'dirtier' side of crime. Colour is something that is used a lot in 'Hummingbird' and is something we would like to use as much as we can in order to show the contrasts as previously mentioned. Again, we can use the natural lighting in Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, as well as editing on 'final cut' to create and even borrow some of the effects from 'Hummingbird' and 'Welcome to the Punch'.

'Only God Forgives' also deploys the use of colour to great effect. It uses the neon lighting as aforementioned to create a specific tone and feel to film, which is quite dark and gloomy. The aesthetic adds a 'big-budget' feel to film as seen in 'Welcome to The Punch' and adheres to the dark/gloomy tone, which is present through the camera shots and the script writing/storyline. The use of lighting in 'Only God Forgives' was of great influence to us when thinking about our own trailer as we are particularly interested in showing the more glamorous side of crime and we feel the best way to do this, is through the lighting, especially the neon style seen in 'Only God Forgives', 'Hummingbird' and 'Welcome to The Punch'.

MT

Location - Sound

JL

Location - Research

These are a few pictures taken from multiple locations (namely Chinatown and Leicester Square), which is where we are interested in filming a few of our scenes. Due to the fact that we have been strongly influenced by Welcome To the Punch, especially the blue florescent colours that dominate the shots in it's trailer, we decided to aim our focus around taking pictures that not only highlighted the buildings around the filming area but also the buildings that were interestingly lit. The outside of the Aquarium building is of particular note here as it was completely covered in a blue 'neon' style light that made it stand out in comparison to the buildings around it. Chinatown was a location we wanted to use before we even began to think about the trailer itself, due to the colourful lights and winding streets. We undoubtedly wanted to make full use of the locations available to us living in the city and Chinatown is a relatively un-tapped filming source in most, if not all crime/thriller films we have seen. We would like to create an interesting effect using the lanterns above and fluorescent red and blue lights running alongside the previously mentioned, winding streets.     



We would also like to use some darker, more sinister alleyways as seen above to create a contrast between the beaming lights of London's city, giving our trailer a sense of glamour and the darker alleyway's, highlighting the other end of the crime spectrum. This is contrasted well in Hummingbird (dark alleyway compared to bright lights of Soho etc), which has been one of the biggest influences to us when deciding upon our trailers tone and general aesthetic.

These are good examples of some of the streets in Chinatown - perhaps a chase scene through the winding streets would be effective.

We would also like to create a blur effect similar to the one in the above picture, with all the people walking as they would normally in the background. We would like to create this sense of 'hustle and bustle' in the city but still with the central focus on our main character. This would again create an interesting contrast between our clearly troubled main character and the normal civilians getting on with their everyday lives.

This is another interesting alleyway that could be used to highlight that contrast between the glamorous world of crime and the dirtier, more sinister side.



The fluorescent red in the photo above was particularly interesting for us as we would like to use different colours to create our desired effect (glamorous city)

The bridge would be also be an excellent location for a chase scene perhaps? or even a conversation between two important people? I am particularly fond of the picture with the man dressed rather 'suspiciously' above.

The blue fluorescent building in the background is also similar to the kind of shots seen in Welcome to The Punch.

This is yet another example of an alleyway that could be used to show the previously mentioned contrast or even a private conversation/meeting between two people. 

MT

Audience Research Prezi

MT
CM
JL

Theory: Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a narrative theorist who bases his supposition on 5 narrative codes - These are as follows -

Enigma Code - The structure of puzzles in the text and the way in which we are hooked into the narrative by a desire to find the answers
Action Code - The ways in which we identify familiar situations and actions though conventions of language and the use of key phrases and words; we do not need everything spelt out for us, so from words such as "betrayal" and "love" we can decode plot elements
Semic Code - Details concerning individuals in the work which allow us to build up a profile of the character
Symbolic Code - Refers to the way in which themes are developed throuh the use of recurring symbols, usually in order to convey a message
Cultural Code - Details in the narrative that confirm the cultural context, such as its location, when it was taking place and the kinds of moral values, ideas and fashions which are associated with the time

In order to make our trailer appealing to an audience we must include some of the above narrative codes as it creates either a link between the characters in the film and the viewer or an interest in the narrative/characters in the film which must then be followed up by going to watch the film. In our trailer, we are planning on utilizing the Enigma Code, the Action Code and the Semic Code which will have the effect of creating a mystery which the viewer would wish to complete, as well as emphasizing the previously mentioned link through the familiarity of characters and situations to real life/the viewers schema of what certain characters should be like.

Barthes also had a theory concerning Readerly and Writerly texts. The idea is that the readerly text the reader follows easily, while and writerly text makes the audience construct the narrative for themselves. Usually, the first act is completely readerly while the second act introduces a sense of the writerly. In the final act, the montage, there is majorly writerly however the aim of the montage isn't to show narrative but the best shots in the film. We wish to emulate this structure as it will maximize audience interest while maintaining ambiguity in the narrative.

JL

Theory: Uses and Gratifications

'A voluntaristic and selective orientation by audiences...media use is motivated by needs and goals that are defined by audience members themselves' - Mark Levy and Sven Windahl

The uses and gratifications theory contradicted and refuted the Hyperdermic needle model that suggested that audiences are passive and receive media images as such.

As uses and gratifications suggests that audiences are more active in consuming media texts, it also suggests that there is more than one reason for doing this, surveillance, correlation, diversion, and interaction being some of the more prevalent:

- Surveillance - Individuals might use a text for information and to formulate ideas
- Correlation - A consumer may seek to relate to characters or situation depicted in media texts, to learn behaviours and values or to feel validated
- Diversion - Escapism is a common reason for popularity in the media, especially with serial dramas
- Interaction - One might seek to form 'relationships' with characters or figures in media texts, and form an emotional bond - one might care about a particularly sympathetic character

All of these ideas go against the idea of a passive audience and as such the generally accepted idea has become that of uses and gratifications theory of an active audience. Cultivation theory, covering how media shapes individual outlooks and worldviews, as well as Social Cognitive theory, which allows for a more personalised application of the uses and gratifications model, stem from the idea of an active audience. A piece of media, especially a piece of advertising media such as our trailer, must be made to engage the audience as much as possible in order to be as effective as we would like it to be. This is useful to us as it gives us an idea of the way in which our trailer might be received and will allow us to cater for the needs of the active media consumer and a wider audience in general.

CM

Theory - Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall is a narrative theorist who proposed the encoding/decoding theory, which is split into a four-stage model outlining his views:

He stated that the producer cannot be certain that his product will be perceived by the target audience in the way he had intended because the message is never fixed or determined. The audience members will not view it passively and so he proposed his four-stage model.

Production - This is the encoding part of the process. The producer is creating a message that relies on societies views and ideologies. Societies opinion is very important to this stage as it often determines your target audience.
Circulation - This stage determines how people perceive the products. Hall believes that how something is circulated, strongly influences how the audience members will receive the message and thus apply it.
Use - This is the decoding part of the process. The audience will interpret a message in an active way and thus attempt to understand it.
Reproduction - This takes place after the audience have interpreted the meaning of the particular message in their own way based on what they have experienced. The success of the message is found here.

Stuart Hall stated that all texts have preferred meanings, but the decoder will not always read them as they are originally intended by the producer as everyone has a different social and/or cultural background. Texts or films that are meant to communicate hegemony will be encoded so that they are easily interpreted and understood by the mass audiences who attempt to interpret them. The hegemonic position is where the consumer decodes the text/film in the exact way it was encoded, meaning they understood what the director/writer was trying to achieve. However, if in the case of films, the preferred meanings are blurred and the information handed to the audience is not enough for the piece to be decoded then the ratings of particular films can become tricky if not impossible to predict. This is something, which is important to us when thinking about the narrative and most importantly, our audience. The preferred meaning is important to think about when we are encoding the narrative as we would like to restrict our audience to 15 and over. For us to do this, we must ensure that their is no doubt over the preferred meanings themselves and that we follow the BFI guidelines.

MT

Audience Research - Age surprise

Whilst doing some extensive research into our particular target audience and their respective ages we found some interesting results. We learnt that many of the crime/thriller films we have been influenced by are not only popular amongst the younger audience members (15-23) but are also significantly important amongst slightly older audience members (men and women aged 45-50). This has caused us to change our mind in terms of focus groups interviews and thus I am going to interview someone who is between the age of 45-50 to supplement the other interviews of our younger target audience.

MT

Secondary Research - Audience

Youtube/IMDB ratings:

Hummingbird Trailer - It is clear from the demographic breakdowns below that this film is most popular with men who are 18 years and below. However, it is almost just as popular with females of a similar age, which is useful for us when developing our product and conducting focus group/vox pop interviews. This is similar to Welcome to The Punch, which is in fact more popular amongst females, which could be down to the fact that the lead actor is James Mcavoy. The ratings clearly show a sharp dip amongst those over the age of around 23-45 but then slowly rise again after this age. This rise is most likely down to the fact that Jason Statham is the lead in the film. We can concur from this graph that the film is more popular amongst men but there is still a large proportion of females who would want to watch it. 

Nearly 8 million youtube views with nearly 10,000 likes and only 687 dislikes. Suggests a lot about the popularity of the film. This, backed up with the user ratings just above are helpful to us as they inform us about the popularity of the film and let us know what age groups and most importantly, what gender we should be targeting our film at. This is vitally important as if, (thinking as though we were real filmmakers) we were to gain a cinema release then knowing the audience we are aiming the film at is undoubtedly important, otherwise we wouldn't make any money. Distribution/Production companies will not go ahead with the making of a film if they are not entirely certain on whom the film is aimed at and this further emphasises the importance of knowing your target audience.    

User Reviews

This is what I've been waiting for

28 June 2013 | by Anirudh (England) – See all my reviews

I was glad to see Jason Statham in this film. This was the perfect opportunity for him to showcase his acting talent in a rather dark, dramatic role than the usual action-hero roles that he's better known for...and he made good use of it. This one is quite different from the usual 'a guy seeking redemption' story. It is in many ways an introspective kind of film and it does bring out some emotions and make you feel for the characters portrayed by the lead actors (If you're into these kinds of films, of course). If you're expecting this to be another of his high-octane action-thrillers, you may end up disappointed. But if you're looking forward to watch him in a more existentialist role in a well written crime-drama with a few bits of action in it, you'll definitely like it.

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These kind of reviews are also extremely useful for us to read and gather what people have liked and disliked about the particular film. 

Eastern Promises Trailer - It is clear from the user ratings that this film is popular, especially amongst men around the age of 18. It is still extremely favourable amongst females, which is useful for us to know as it is clear that crime/thriller films are just as popular with women as they are with men. This film is clearly popular amongst all ages however as the ratings only differ by .2, except for females under the age of 18. The ratings are also extremely similar in the US compared to non-US users, which suggests that the film was relatable amongst all users and was not culture-specific. Over 1 million views on youtube, with 944 likes compared to 63 dislikes, which again suggests a lot about its popularity.

Gangster Squad Trailer - The trailer of this film on YouTube has gained nearly three million views with 5,241 likes compared to 221 dislikes. It is evident from the user ratings on IMDB that this film is more popular amongst females (6.9 in favour of the females, compared to 6.8 for men). Despite the small difference it is fair to say that this film is just as popular amongst men and women around the age of 15-29. This is useful for us as it gives us a good guideline for which type of audience we should be targeting. However, this movie might have gained for female viewers due to the actors involved, such as Ryan Gosling. Equally, It might have gained for male viewers because the likes of Emma Stone star in it. This movie is significantly less popular amongst the US users in comparison the non-US users, which is also interesting for us to know.

MT

Audience Research - Questions

These are just a few questions we are going to ask our specified audience in order to gain some valuable information for our particular trailer.

1. How often do you go to the cinema?

2. What is your preferred type of cinema?

3. In what ways do you find out about new films?

4. What about film trailers entices you to watch them?

5. Rate these genres in order of preference?

•  Romance
• Comedy
• Horror
• Thriller
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• Mystery
• Reality/Drama
• Crime 

6. Which of these films have you seen?

• Hummingbird
• Memento
• Gangster Squad
• Welcome to the Punch
• Eastern Promises
• Shutter Island
• Se7en
• Dark Knight Rises
• Only God Forgives

7. Place the previously mentioned films (that you have seen) in order of preference?

8. What do you like about Crime/Thriller films/Trailers?

9. What do you think has been overdone in the films/Trailers linked with the Crime/Thriller genre?

10. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Thriller film?

MT/JL

Audience Research - Demographics: Class & Gender

The new model of defining class in the UK gives 7 separate classes; Elite, Established Middle, Technical Middle, New Affluent Workers, Emergent Service Workers, Traditional Working, and Precariat. This gives us new criteria for targeting our audience that we must consider.

A general overview of thriller targeting based on class is as follows:

Upper class - Arthouse, high budget mainstream, noir, drama-based
Middle class - Mainstream, both action and drama based (a majority of films are aimed at the middle classes due to their excess time and money)
Lower class - Action based, social realist, crime based

We had intended our film to be crime based, drama based, and fairly mainstream, partly to serve our narrative and partly due to our limitations in budget and equipment. This complicates our targeting in terms of class, even if we go by the traditional (somewhat antiquated) system. The seven class system complicates matters yet further.

Information regarding the class makeup of cinema goers and film consumers is difficult to find, making it quite difficult for us to target the film based on secondary research. In my opinion, our film ought to be targeted between the Established Middle and New Affluent Worker classes (just under half the population), however a final decision on this will come following discussion with the other students and primary research.

Gender:

Traditionally, the thriller and crime genres tend to be targeted at a predominantly male audience, however despite this I feel that all genres can be met with approval from all genders.

This chart indicates the ratings of the same four films that I looked at in age, but arranged by gender. As is evident, within each film the ratings are extremely close between the genders making gender in terms of targeting less of an issue for us than factors such as age or class. Particularly interesting is that the two films that are, in my opinion, most alike to ours in narrative and style, Hummingbird and Welcome To The Punch, have an gender equal rating and a more favourable rating from women respectively. This is likely to be down in some part to the casting of Jason Statham and James McAvoy, however it remains indicative of the increasingly small gap between genders when it comes to the consumption of crime thriller films.

CM

Certification For Influences

Goodfellas:

We can see here on the IMDB certification ratings that 'Goodfellas' falls into the rated 'R' category (America), which is the equivalent a 15+ rating in this country. It was interesting for us to learn this as we all thought that 'Goodfellas', due to the amount of violence and scenes of profanity involved that the rating would higher. However, it is useful for us to know that the rating is still similar to most of our other crime/thriller influences, despite the increased levels of violence in this particular film and even trailer. 

Zodiac:

IMDB states that Zodiac is also a rated 'R' or the equivalent of a 15+ but slightly contradicts itself in that it says that it's suitable for people aged 13 and above in comparison to Goodfellas that states its suitability for children/adults aged 16-17 and above. It is important for us to think about the certification of our film and especially due to the fact that we have identified a target audience and so by recomending the film for an age group that doesn't correlate with out audience research would be a mistake. However, our audience research suggests that our target audience falls into the 15-24/5 age range and so by making our film certification a 15+ would work well.  

MT