Organising

This is an example of our communications as a group, this was us organising which days to film on.

Narrative Theory

Vladimir Propp: This is the theory that there are defined characters roles. He originally did research into character roles in fairy tales. It shows that there is a similarity in two stories that are completely different. The roles that Propp suggested are;
The Hero - Has a quest
The Villain - Against the hero
The Donor- Helps the hero by giving them something
The Dispatcher- Send the hero off
The false hero- Assumes the role of the hero, but only temporarily
The Helper- gives aid to the hero
The Princess- The reward for the hero

In modern day stories/films, the character roles are not that clearly defined and some are missing however, they can be adjusted in a way that most stories contain these roles. Our film/film trailer contains a villain- Owen, a hero- Katie and a princess- Chloe.

Tzvetan Todorov: His theory was that films have distinct sections to them. They start with an equilibrium where everything is fine, then there is something that disrupts this, a disequilibrium and then the problem is solved causing a new equilibrium. Our film follows this as Chloe and Owen are in a relationship, this is the equilibrium, there is a disequilibrium where Katie tries to help Chloe to escape from the relationship because Owen is being too controlling, and the New equilibrium is where Owen finally gets rid of Katie and can go back to just him and Chloe's relationship.

Roland Barthes: This is the theory that there are action codes and enigma codes. Action codes show the audience what the resolution will be/ what is happening and this is shown clearly. Enigma codes are used to not give away anything to the audience but instead to give clues like a riddle so they audience have to wait to see what the outcome is. An example of an enigma code in our film is what will happen to Katie. An action code is that Owen is willing to do anything to keep him and Chloe happy.

Claude Levi-Strauss: The theory of binary opposites was developed by Levi-Strauss and can be used not only in films but in many contexts in media. Binary opposites are two conflicts in values or behaviours. Some popular examples are Good vs Evil, Men vs Women and Weak vs Strong. In our film, Katie and Owen are binary opposites as they believe in treating Chloe differently and are fighting for their own reasons.

When a Stranger Calls

Lighting - Low key lighting is used as this is a convention of the thriller genre, it is an example of pathetic fallacy as it creates an atmosphere of gloom and tension. It plays of people's fear of the darkness and the unknown. An example is the opening when the house is dimly lit in contrast to the fairground next door, which foreshadows something bad will happen at the house.

Camerawork - It switches between the two contrasting scenes of the dimly lit house and the brightly lit fairground. 

Music - There is non-diegetic music which is typical of the genre as it is unsettling and increases suspense and tension for the audience. There are screams used which tell the audience someone is in trouble and so they emphasise with the situation and this builds tension for them. The use of a phone call is again playing on the common fear of the unknown for the audience and the characters. 

Setting - The fairground is usually associated with fun and joy, so to set a thriller there is unusual however, the isolation of the place the fairground is suggests suspense, especially at night. Also the character was in the house alone, which at night is scary for many people as it is dark and this is a common fear. This builds tension for the audience. 

Editing - Editing in thrillers is usually quite similar with the start being slower paced, and the pace of editing picks up throughout the film, which builds tension for the audience. However when the editing has mixed pace throughout the film, the audience are unsure about what will happen and builds suspense. 

Audience Theory

Hypodermic needle theory: This is the theory that the messages and values in the text directly influence the audience. They are 'injected' into them like a drug and the audience accept the message as they are passive and do not actively use the text. This can be applied to our film since we portray characters in certain ways and the audience accept that certain characters such as Owen are bad and other characters such as Katie and Chloe and good.

Uses and Gratifications Theory: This is the theory that the audience are active and challenge and use the text in certain ways. The four ways they can use the text are Diversion, Surveillance, personal identity and personal relationships. Diversion is when audiences use the text for entertainment and pleasure, Surveillance is when they gain knowledge or understanding from the text. Personal relationships is when the audience can discuss the text with others use it for companionship, personal identity is when the audience can relate to the situation or characters. For our film, diversion can be applied as they will enjoy watching it, personal relationship as they will discuss the film with their friends and personal identity as they can relate to the situations in which the characters find themselves.

Stuart Hall: The theory that a text has three types of of readings. A preferred reading are the target audience and people who accept the text completely, a negotiated reading is when people accept most of the text but challenge certain points and an oppositional reading is when the audience reject the messages and values completely. The preferred reading are our target audience of males between the ages of 15-26 but also people who are fans of thrillers. A negotiated reading are people who may watch thrillers if they are with friends but not want to watch them all the time. An oppositional reading may be people who are retired and people younger than 15 as most of them will not enjoy it and will reject they messages and values.

First Draft- Comments

Our first draft of our thriller trailer was shown to the rest of our class who gave us feedback on what they believe we could improve. We hadn't finished it completely at the time but this is the feedback we received:

What Went Well:

- The non diegetic soundtrack worked well with the genre and told the audience what to expect from the film
- The intertitles narrated the trailer well and helped to set the pace of the trailer. They also liked the style and design of the titles and thought they matched the genre
- The pace of the trailer was good and matched the genre, it made suspense and made it obvious it was a thriller 

Improvements:

- It looked a bit too much like a film opening

- More diegetic sound to help narrate it a bit more and mix it up from the intertitles 
- Make the main character Owen look  more controlling and aggressive, maybe by adding some more footage

We have since gone back and added some diegetic speech to the trailer, but have kept it to a minimum and we think the intertitles are important in setting the pace and narrating the story as well as keeping it tense.

Target Audience

When considering our target audience we also had to consider the age rating our film would have, we decided to give our film a 15 age rating as it would contain possible scenes of violence, graphic content and strong language. Since it is a thriller there are many stereotypical feeling that you associate with the genre such as tension, fear and sometimes gore, and we thought this would not be appropriate for people below the age of 15. We didn't make it an 18 since it is a thriller and most of the tension and suspense comes from the narrative and how it makes u think and feel, we felt like there isn't too much difference between the ages of 15 and 18 when it comes to just tension and suspense.

Demographics:
-15-26 years old
- Males
- All ethnic backgrounds
- Social Grade: E-C2

Psychographics:
- Social people who enjoy films with others and can discuss them after(Personal Relationships of the uses and gratifications theory)
- Because of the large age range in our target audience, they will have different lifestyles. People in the social grade 'E' will have a lot of spare time and if they are students and work part time, they will have a lot of disposable income and so will go and see the film. However people who are higher on the social grade and usually older, won't have as much time or free money and so are less likely to see it while in the cinema.

The BBFC states that in a 15 these are some of the points that are expected to be seen, these points are taken from their website:

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

As a thriller our film contains some of these points and as i previously stated this is the reason we have given our film a 15 rating. We won't move it down to a 12, despite the film not containing all of these points, because we feel like certain topics may influence a 12 year old, whereas a 15 year old i mature enough to understand what is wrong. 

Poster- Draft

This is the initial draft for my film poster. It is missing the main picture of the characters from the film as well as institutional information.