Survey and Mini Pitch - Jasleen

My Survey 

In order to help my group and I think of ideas for the plot of our thriller opening, I created a survey that would help get an audience opinion on what we should consider to make our thriller as best as we can. I asked friends and family members to complete this survey. In total, 15 people completed my survey, of different ages.

The first question asked the person their age. The majority of people who completed my survey were between the ages of 15-25. 4 out of the 15 that completed the survey said their favorite genre of film was romance (and this turned out to be the most popular genre). Many people also said the story line is what attracts them to a thriller film, which suggested our group had to have a strong story line in order to attract people to our thriller. 78% of those who took part (11/15) said the story line was the most important thing to consider when making a thriller, and 14% (2 people) said the music was the most important. 

Furthermore, tension is obviously important in a thriller and most people agreed that the music was the main thing that creates the most suspense, while some also said setting creates the most tension, as these are the forms of a thriller genre. This helped our group because it enabled us to understand how we can create suspense in our own thriller opening (we need an eerie setting and tension filled music to create suspense). This also conforms to the conventions of a thriller.

One of the most important questions in my survey was 'What do you think is the best way for a thriller film to open?'. This was one of the most important questions because our task is to create the opening to a thriller. We want to make ours as best as we can, and by the results of my survey, the best way to start our thriller is in the past or by using flashbacks and jump cuts.

Mini Pitch 

Title: Why so serious?

My idea for our thriller focusses on an extraordinary man in the park where he is in a standstill whilst the world blurs past time, the man has an eerie presence about him as the camera closes in on him, you can see scars over his face with blood all over him, but as time moves on you tell it’s not his blood but the blood of someone or something, someone is following him he don’t see the person but can sense them like he has a sixth sense. As the person is in touching distance the man disappears all of a sudden leaving the follower angry and distressed 

Visuals and Sound: 

The film would open on a black screen, and you can hear police sirens in the background. Suddenly, a man appears on the screen. This man is standing alone amidst a park and the fog is partially covering is face. His eyes are red and it’s quite obvious he may be using a drug. The sound of sirens would be echoing in the background, making it clear he is hiding from the police. The camera has a close up on his face and the camera shows the audience scars on this man’s face. He’s standing in the middle of the park with the police cars driving around the park. While his head is whipping, flashbacks would be shown. 

The first flashback would be of this boy, his 3 friends and 5 other boys (drug dealers) sitting around a table in a second floor flat. There are drugs on the table. It would then cut back to the man holding his head and blood dripping from his hands. The sound of the sirens has got louder and you can now hear the voices of the policemen in the background shouting.

When he whips his head around for the second time, another flashback occurs. This time, the flashback shows a couple of men bursting in to his house with knives. These men were searching for this man for a long time with a deep reason. This may have been the reason why this man has so many scars on his face and an eerie background.

The third flashback has the police bursting into the house. They are shouting and flashing lights. The police think that they have been involved in something and tries to arrest them. These men shout to one another "run.... get out" and all the men try to escape. He then jumps out of a window and runs. It then cuts back to present time. The sound of the sirens and the policemen's voices are getting louder and louder and he feels the police getting closer and closer. He walks slowly and mysteriously off into the park just to find out that he’s being watched and followed. The screens then turns black.

Mini Pitch Evaluation: New Idea First Draft

Title: Bystander

Our new idea will also be based at a teenagers house party, instead of it being based on the main characters doing drugs, one of the friends will go upstairs to find the bathroom, when he gets upstairs he sees something that he shouldn't have seen. As he makes his way up he can see a group of dangerous looking teenage boys pulling another boy into a room and quickly shutting the door, before he could hear the boys screaming "Shut up and stay put", just before the door slammed shot one of the bullies saw the bystander watching in disbelief, although he was aware that they were being watched they continued to scare the victim. This was followed by continuous screaming and threatening. The bystander walks away without saying a word. A half an hour passed until one of the bullies left the room and began searching for the bystander. 

Survey and mini pitch

My Survey (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/QRV2BPP)

In order to accumulate any ideas for our thriller opening, I created a survey using SurveyMonkey. I produced 10 questions which I asked my friends and family to complete. 12 people took part in the survey. Here are the results from those who partook in the survey: 

The first question I asked was the surveyor's preferred genre of film. I wanted to use this later to compare with what they would like to see in a thriller. This will allow us to decide on what our target audience would like to see, allowing us to determine the sub genre of thriller we would use.

The key question I asked in the survey was "How would a good thriller begin?". The most popular choice was flashback. For us, I feel like this question was an amazing source of communication between our audience and us. The feedback used in this survey and the others from my group will be used to find the most appropriate beginning to our thriller opening which will appeal to our target audience.


MINI PITCH

My initial idea was a mixed group of 16/17 year olds from North London who enjoying going out and partying. They decide one night before a party to try a Class A drug because they want something new. The night takes a bad turn when one friend becomes unconscious and has several fits before going into cardiac arrest. The group of teens cover up the death by hiding the body and creating an alibi which gets them out of the clear...or so they think.

A potential idea for a title had to contain the central theme of youth, drug use and it needed to give away what the film is about, without completely spoiling it. In order to appropriately name the thriller, i decided upon Banged Up.

*PPT GOES HERE*

'The Breakfast Club' title sequence - Katie

Survey and Mini Pitch - Katie

My Survey 

In order to help my group and I think of ideas for the plot of our thriller opening, I individually created a survey that would help get an audience opinion on what we should consider to make our thriller as best as we can. I asked friends and family members to complete this survey. In total, 15 people completed my survey.

The first question asked the person their age. The majority of people who completed my survey were between the ages of 15-25. 4 out of the 15 that completed the survey said their favourite genre of film was romance (and this turned out to be the most popular genre). Also, most people said the story line is what attracts them to a thriller film, which suggested our group had to have a strong story line in order to attract people to our thriller. 78% of those who took part (11/15) said the story line was the most important thing to consider when making a thriller, and 14% (2 people) said the music was the most important. 

Furthermore, tension is obviously important in a thriller and most people agreed that the music was the main thing that creates the most suspense, while some also said setting creates the most tension. This helped our group because it enabled us to understand how we can create suspense in our own thriller opening (we need an eerie setting and tension filled music to create suspense). 

One of the most important questions in my survey was 'What do you think is the best way for a thriller film to open?'. This was one of the most important questions because our task is to create the opening to a thriller. We want to make ours as best as we can, and by the results of my survey, the best way to start our thriller is in the past. 






(Link to survey results) https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/KwmrtYXkT3MqT62qkg2ajOfpnoru1U8XJ5sf4A3O4DY_3D

Mini Pitch 

Title: Adolescents 

My idea for our thriller focuses on a group of 4 teenagers - mainly zooming in on one boy, age 17-18, who have found themselves on the run from the police. They are located in London (meaning most of the filming would take place in London. I imagine them to be from the Hampstead area). These 4 teenage boys have found themselves caught up in a drug scandal which has resulted in them on the run. 

Visuals and Sound: 

The film would open on a black screen, and you can hear police sirens in the background. Suddenly, a boy appears on the screen. This boy is running down a road at night, sweat covering his face. His pupils would be dilated and his eyes red - it is obvious he is on some sort of drug. The sound of sirens would be echoing in the background, making it clear he is running from the police. The boy then turns a corner. After this I picture a close up shot on this boys face while his head is whipping around looking for his friends, perhaps shouting their names quietly. He is still walking slowly while getting his breath back. While his head is whipping, flashbacks would be shown. 
The first flashback would be of this boy, his 3 friends and 5 other boys (obviously drug dealers) sitting around a table in a second floor grungy flat in Camden. Drugs are on the table. It would then cut back to the boy running. His pace has now started to increase again. The sound of the sirens have got louder and you can now hear the voices of the policemen in the background shouting. The boy is looking back, whipping his head around. 
When he whips his head around for the second time, another flashback occurs. This time, the flashback shows the police bursting into the house. They are shouting and flashing lights. The drug dealers that the 4 boys were involved with were known to the police and wanted. As the police burst in there is a lot of shouting - during this flashback the pace of camera work is slightly sped up. All the boys depart from round the table and run to whatever exit they can. The boy who we have been focusing on is shown shouting to his friends saying "run....get out". He then jumps out of a window and runs. 
It then cuts back to present time. The sound of the sirens and the policemen's voices are getting louder and louder and he feels the police getting closer and closer. The boy starts running faster. He keeps looking back to check he is safe, then turns a corner. As he turns the corner, he slams into someone. The screen then cuts black. 

IMDb figures - Jasleen

Maze Runner: Scorch Trials (Wes Ball, 2015)

Box Office

Budget:

 $61,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $30,316,510 (USA) (18 September 2015)

(3,791 Screens)

Gross:

 $81,687,587 (USA) (8 January 2016)

Jurassic World  (Joss Whedon, 2015)


Box Office

Budget:

 $150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $204,600,000 (USA) (12 June 2015) (4,274 Screens)

Gross:

 $652,177,271 (USA) (13 November 2015)

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999)

Budget: $40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:                                   

 $26,681,262 (USA) (2,161 Screens)


 £257,479 (UK) (9 Screens)


Gross: $293,501,675 (USA) (12 May 2000)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (James Gunn, 2014)

Budget:

 $81,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $42,000,000 (USA) (13 February 2015) (3,204 Screens)
  £4,152,128 (UK) (1 February 2015)

Gross:

 $128,248,205 (USA) (26 June 2015)

This shows us that a lot of films are very successful in bringing revenue, especially during the opening weekend. The films above were very successful at the box office and therefore made a lot of profit. Most of these films are also release near the end or right at the starting of the year and this may be a reason to why they are so successful and maybe we should also follow that path.

Film Distributors' Association Research

By looking at the FDA website (launchingfilms.com), we can see the latest and upcoming thriller films to hit the screens and compare them in a range of ways.

FILM	BOX OFFICE (GROSS)	CERTIFICATE	RELEASE	RATING
The Boy	$30,778,587	PG- 13	2016	6.3
Deadpool	$235,394,887	R	2016	8.6
Misconduct		R	2016	5.4
The Revenant	$165,116,550	R	2015	8.2

This could suggest the content that would be appropriate to show our target audience. 15 certificates are much easier to carry out and this may be a good option to consider as there is an abundance of themes that can be included but due to the age restriction, these themes must be cut off for less mature audiences. This will enable our thriller opening to contain themes of a grown up nature, i.e. violence, however, this can only be taken to a certain extent. 

Profile Natalia Compa

General Survey Results / Mini Pitch Natalia Compa

The results that I have obtained from my survey have shown me that the majority of 17-20 year old's enjoy action / adventure films and they are all mainly informed about films through trailers. Everyone agreed that the storyline stand out the most in thrillers and that the credits are not too important. In their opinions, music creates the most suspense in thrillers and the best way to start a thriller is with flashbacks, while some others chose action. Majority said that an introduction to characters is not too important in the opening.

I will be creating an idea for an opening to a thriller based on the results from the survey which I composed, aiming to create something for an audience aged between 17-20, as the majority agreed that a thriller based on psychological issues would appeal to them the most, with teenagers and drugs coming up second; I merged the two together and came up with the storyline.

Title: psycho-teen
A group of about 5 teenagers, aged 17 and located in London had come across drugs for the first time at a festival about 6 months before where they are now (as the opening will be based on current time) their experience was frightening though magical at the same time. Since then these teenagers have taken many more drugs, and it is gradually becoming a regular thing for this group, this introduction has brought many arguments and anti-social behaviour to this group who were quite civil before. As some have fallen out, others left the friendship group while the rest were being taken over by drugs. They've encountered many problems on the way with parents, police and drug dealers. On a few occasions the use of drugs became slightly out of hand and the teenagers were not taking it too well, with violence and sickness. Eventually one girl ended up in hospital, with serious injuries and was strapped up to life support, at this point they owed some people money which carried on building up. This left the rest of the group in a lot of danger, the drugs began to eat into their minds and they became very delusional however they never stopped taking drugs. People started to notice their behaviour and informed their parents and police about it, the teenagers could not take control of their own bodies. One evening they decided to go to an abandoned building, the police became aware of their location, of course they were doing drugs. It became silent and very suspicious until the police broke in, the teenagers made a run for it into a forest. They had used a large amount of drugs, became unaware of their surroundings. They found themselves in cells the next morning.

Visuals:
Most filming will be located around London, and it's outskirts showing the contrast between the two. I want to capture the busy life that Central London creates. But I also want to capture the hidden areas of London that aren't so popular, where the teenagers are hanging out. E.g. parks
Lighting will vary throughout, during actions scenes, lighting will be low-key to create suspense and an eerie atmosphere, whereas scenes during the day there will be natural lighting and during the night it will be dark with artificial lights (e.g. lampposts) to show a contrast between London at night and day.
Costume will be quite basic to start off with, jeans and tees. As the opening progresses costume might become more revealing as the teens take more drugs and become more violent and misbehaved.
Make-up on females will work similarly to costume, normal day make up at the beginning, as it progresses darker and more make up will be used e.g. dark lipstick and dark eye make up
As introduction to characters is less important to audience, we will focus more so on camera shots and angles rather than specifically filming the actors and their lives.
Close ups on teenagers to show difference between how they start and finish, to show differences in make up and facial expressions. Special FX make up will be used to create more believable wounds.
Within editing there will be many jump cuts especially during the action scenes to increase the pace and intensity of the film, almost building up to a climax.
In terms of music we will use tracks which are popular within the audiences who will be watching our opening do that they can become more immersed in our opening, these tracks will play quietly under the action or the dialogue, the audience will be able to relate to our opening and will enjoy watching as they would be eager to find out more.
Sounds effects of police sirens may be used to help create more believable crime scenes.

BBFC - audience research

British Board of Film Classification Research

In order to make sure children are not exposed to unsuitable or harmful content in films and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film before deciding to watch it, the BBFC examines and age rates films before they are released.

Usually, two examiners view a film before a theatrical release. In most cases a Senior Examiner will confirm the examiners recommendation of certification. But if the examiners are in doubt or fail to agree, or if important policy issues are involved, other members of the Board may have to view the film (sometimes even the Director and Presidential team) in order to come to an agreement. Occasionally, specialist advice about the legal acceptability of film content or its potential for harm is needed.

Issues such as horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour and more is looked at when making decisions. The theme of the work is also an important consideration, as well as the context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the potential audience also need to be considered.

Every 4-5 years, the BBFC partakes in a major public consultation exercise to find out what the public thinks about the age rating of films before they are released and whether the BBFC's classification standards meet public concerns. 
The BBFC adjusts its standards and criteria in response to any changes the public suggests. 

U Rating: 

PG Rating

 

12 and 12A Rating

 

15 Rating

 

18 Rating

 

Survey Monkey

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SC2LMPL

I have created a survey using www.surveymonkey.co.uk in order to find out everything that I need to know audiences for thrillers. I composed questions which were best suited for gathering the information which is vital in order to create an opening to a thriller, the answers will hopefully inform me about which aspects are most important within thrillers, whether these are the characters, props and location OR music, sound effects and lighting etc.

IMDb Research: Natalia Compa

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs and video games, including cast, production crew, fictional characters, biographies, plot summaries, trivia and reviews.

Top Box Office (UK)

Weekend of February 12 - 14, 2016

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Deadpool	£13.7M	£13.7M	1
	Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip	£4.3M	£4.3M	1
	Zoolander 2	£2.1M	£2.1M	1
	Dad's Army	£1.3M	£4.9M	2
	Goosebumps	£1.1M	£4.2M	2
	The Revenant	£0.7M	£19.6M	5

Reported by Box Office Mojo © 2016

When The Revenant (2016) was released it stayed top grossing for three weeks, however just in two weeks it went down by 5 places, with now Deadpool (2016) at top grossing in it's first week, the film has currently in total made £13.7 million, which was made in the weekend of it's initial release. The Revenant has been one of the top grossing films for 5 weeks and counting, in total it has made £19.6M so far, £0.7M was made in the first weekend of it's release.

THE OSCARS

1.		Add to WatchlistBirdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)   7.8/10  Illustrated upon the progress of his latest Broadway play, a former popular actor's struggle to cope with his current life as a wasted actor is shown.Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu With: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward NortonComedy | Drama119 mins.
2.		Add to Watchlist12 Years a Slave (2013)   8.1/10  In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.Dir: Steve McQueen With: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael FassbenderBiography | Drama | History134 mins.
3.		Add to WatchlistArgo (2012)   7.8/10  Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980.Dir: Ben Affleck With: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John GoodmanBiography | Drama | History | Thriller120 mins.
4.		8.0/10  A silent movie star meets a young dancer, but the arrival of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions.Dir: Michel Hazanavicius With: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John GoodmanComedy | Drama | Romance100 mins.
5.		8.0/10  The story of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.Dir: Tom Hooper With: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham CarterBiography | Drama | History118 mins.
		The top five films under 'The Oscars' on the IMDb website are all 'drama' based films, with Argo (2012) having a thriller element to it also, proves that the most popular films are thrillers, action and drama based as in my opinion audiences are most focused and interested in films which are fast-paced and action packed, but ones that a full of information too, so that we are fully immersed and completely understand what is going on at all times. This tells me that for our target audience (people aged 14-23) my group and I should aim to create something fairly action packed so that our audience can almost relate to our opening and also so that they can enjoy it.