Genre/film research

Phycho by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock has been called 'The master of suspense', Hitchcock often applied Freudian concepts to his thriller as in Rebecca, Spellbound, Vertigo, Phycho, Marnie and Rear Window. Hitchcock makes horror films more psychological rather than action based, this pretty much revolutionised the horror genre.

Psycho (1960)

The film depicts the encounter between a secretary,hiding at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner and manager and the aftermath of their encounter.

The films opening two minutes is not available to view on http://www.youtube.com/ so I couldn't view that to relate it to my film, so instead, I took a look at the well know shower scene. What I like about this scene is the mystery of the antagonist, he is silhouetted but you can still tell the gender of the antagonist which is male. The fact he is male makes the female look even more venerable. The music in this section builds up tension even more. This music is stereotypical of a thriller film, I personally do not want my film to start with this type of music I would want my film to start with natural sounds such as the sea as this makes it all seem more realistic and will give a greater contrast in mood when the action begins. I think I would like to have upbeat modern music although I think that this will give me a smaller range of audience possibly due to music tastes I think it will really liven up the beginning scene.

 

 

Hitchcock deals with political issues within his films, like Americas problem with Russia. I personally doubt that I can deal with current political issues with the UK as I don't think that I'd be able to do it without being offensive.

Characters

Characters:

Do I want to stick to a conventional protagonist, on an odd protagonist. If I choose to create an odd protagonist it may alienate my audience and turn them away and then they wont want to come an see my film there for audience figures will be low and so box office figures will be low and my film could end up losing a large amount of money. If I created an odd protagonist it may make the film a lot more realistic but it's whether I am willing to take this risk or not.

Trailer research

How do you decide what goes into a trailer?
Characters- You want the audience to see the main character and recognise them for when they actually see them in the entire film so in Precious' trailer they do show a lot of the main girl- Precious; but at the same time they cannot give too much of the storyline away. So I think for my trailer, whatever I decide to do, I will follow this idea of just showing a few snippets of the less important characters and more of the protagonist in showing more of his or her personality than the storyline.

Character and situation development

My comedy idea with the Queen in it would infact make a very good comedy action film but there is a problem with me creating this film which is that I do not have access to a large Hollywood style dudget so I cannot get to or create different locations that I need nor can I afford to get the special effects or the actors who look like the intended royal family which would make the film slightly more realistic.

More film/genre research- ELECTION

Election (1999)
Director- Alex Payne: Who also directed 'Descendants' which wasn't aimed at my generation but more 25yrs old+ This may have been because George Clooney brings in the older women and is a male icon for the older generation, not so much my generation.

In the opening of the film the girl (played by Reece Witherspoon so possibly making the film more attractive to female teens to watch) setting up her table for her presidential campaign and she does it in a certain order and doesn't put anything out of place it's all in perfect alignment. From that small sequence we learnt a lot about her character and it's so simple to recreate so a short yet fast paced sequence to introduce my characters to the audience would be perfect for my trailer.

This film although a high school film focuses on the teachers and their point of view, using narration and POV shots, these POV shots are sometimes frozen to make the audience aware of specific characters, this is a technique that I think is very effective and one that I am likely to use.

Character and situation work

My character: The Queen

Who does she interact with? The government

What does she want? War

What circumstances does she face? Death

Story line: The Queen has a lover from another country, Holland maybe? Somewhere with a funny accent. But, they fall out as she realises she does truly love her husband and she's scared of their love affair getting out so syhe wants to declare war against the land in which her lover was from. So she goes to the government for help to bomb the country and it leaks out to the public so people from all over try to kill her and the rest of the royals.

Genre: comedy/drama

Audience: 15-25yrs?

Locations:
- Buckingham palace
-Houses of parliment
-Other places owned by the royal family
-The public from all over Great Britain- Shown via accents and 'Welcome to....' signs.
- The public from the country that she wantsto declare war on and their leader.



This is ovbiously a rough idea that I probably will not use, but, I felt as if I should look at different genres and create ideas for each and decide which suits me more. If I choose to do a Comedy Drama I will probably devlop this storyline.

More film/Genre research- High School Conventions

A lot of comedies aimed at my age group 17 years old (or younger) is a lot of the time set in a secondary school or a high school.  So I thought of the stereotypical view of each gender in a high school film.


Female high school conventions:
-love interests
-popularity
-looks
-class and status
-wealth
-success
-bitchiness
-backstabbing
-upset
-sentimental endings

(examples of female high school films are Easy A and Mean Girls)


Male high school conventions:
- Fit body
- Humour
- 'Gross out'
- Stupid situations
- Daring
- Fights
- Unconforming
- Chaos
- Parties
- Geeks and jocks but the geek gets the girl at the end of the film


(examples of male high school films are American pie and Piranah)



In general American High School films show the students succeeding in what they set out to for example, the geek character will almost always get the girl. The one who works hard will get their scholarship etc. But in British High School films there is very rarely success shown in the films, it's normally theft or shootings or something a lot more gritty. I think that with my film if I do do a film based upon a high school I will show it through my point of view, so just the normal life not over exaggerated shootings nor the entire school loving one another.


An example of a high school film that in ways conforms with the general high school but seems so different is Rushmore (1998).




Director: Wes Anderson, who has also directed films such as Fantastic Mr Fox.
Genre: Comedy/Drama - It's an unconventional comedy in the sense that it doesn't make you laugh out loud yet you still notice all the key comedy moments.
Stars:Bill Murray (He is well known for being in comedies)

Rushmore school is a private education high school, which immediately indicates upper class people (unless they have scholarships like Max Fisher does.) This class is backed up in the film by the music, which is very much orchestral sounds.

The film digs at private education, Murray's character even says that you gotta be rich and you'll survive no matter what, and if you're not you gotta take them down; Which is a really realistic approach to take for a film. This sort of dark view on society is backed up the the lighting choice chosen by Anderson, he used a very muted colour scheme. For my film I think I probably will show the problems within society but make a joke out of it rather than just pointing it out, and depending on what audience i'm aiming my film at will depend on what part of society I focus on.

The film is conventional in the sense that it has the typical characters the geek, jocks, the girl; But, The 'geek' character- Max doesn't have good grades he's only at Rushmore as he wrote a play when he was 13. He also doesn't have the personality of the normal 'geeks' he has a lot of confidence. The camera uses a slight fish eye which makes his head bulge slightly giving that over confidence visually.  This is an effect I may use in my trailer to show peoples status/ personality.

More genre/film research- AMELIE

AMELIE (2001)


Director- Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Genre- Realism, Comedy, Thriller
Star- Audrey Tatou
Audience- Females? Female protagonist appeals to the female generation.


It is a french film, I focused on looking at the opening a lot more than the entire film and in many ways it doesn't feel conventional as it has this sort of yellow filter over it which gives a surreal and old style feel to it, it also opens with quick paced editing and a montage of 'Amelie's' start to life. This I thought is rarely done but in this occasion was done really well and effectively as it had quick paced talking in the form of a voice over to accompany it; this was really horrible to listen to and see at first but after a while I adjusted to it and it actually got me really involved and in a way heightened the comedy whilst giving the feeling that we had to catch up with her life as an audience. I really like this really fast paced voice over and it might be something i use for my trailer as I think the trailer does have to be fast paced to give the audience a true feel of the entire story of my film, but still not give away too much at the same time.

More film/genre research

Paper Heart (2009)
Genre- Romance/Comedy/Drama
Director:Nicholas Jasenovec (Also well known for Superbad)

This film is quite small and unknown.The film takes up a sort of documentary style which is quite unconventional. This film is also cheaply made so I could use a few of the techniques that Jasenovec does.




The taming of the Shrew (1967)
Genre- Romance/Comedy/Drama
Director- Franco Zeffirelli
Stars- Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Cyril Cusack

Originally a William Shakespeare play. 






These two films although of the same genre are very different films, this gives me the knowledge that even if I chose one specific genre I can alter it to suit my ideas. 

More film/genre research- Great Expectations

The Charles Dickens book has been remade multiple times into different TV series and movies.

Great Expectations- 1946 (26th December)

Genre: Drama/Mystery/Romance

Director: David Lean
Stars: John Mills, Valarie Hobson, Tony Wager, Jean Simmons.
Colour: Black and white.

David Lean was a British director, he also directed:

- A paggage to India

-Hobsons Choice

-Oliver Twist

-The sound barrier

Great Expectations (1999) 

The TV movie.

Genre: Drama

Director: Julian Jarold

Stars: Ioan Grufford, Justine Waddell and Charlotte Rampling.
Colour: In colour

I have watched both of these films separately. I preferred it in the 1999 version as it was more updated to suit my generation yet still keep in the style of Dickens whereas I thought that the 1998- Alfonso Culdron version was too modernized for my liking and strayed too far away from the original book.

American Classic Narratives

I looked at the typical American Classic narratives, I think that these are what the Hollywood producers nowadays rely on not just for horror but for all genres. It's a simple template to follow. However other directors such as Thomas Alfredson who directed 'Let The Right One In' do not follow this to as much extent as the Hollywood directors. I think this is an unconventional method to use, and many independent film makers do not use this and it may disorientate the audience and to secure an audience I think it would me more appropriate to keep on with this American Classic Narrative.

Horror Films

Media horor

View more presentations from Oliviacalleja.

Some people in my media class alone have said that "The horror genre is dying out, nobody wants to go see it anymore." So, I have made a little brainstorm to see in my opinion whether the horror genre is in fact 'dead' or still very much 'alive'.

A2 MEDIA- THE HORROR GENRE on Prezi

Genres

For my trailer I thought I'd try and think of genre that suits me before researching into a specific genre in more detail but I realized that I need to think of the genres that are cost effective and easy to do in the time limit given and also the location restrictions (restricted due to cost. So I have narrowed it down to Horror, Comedy or Romance so far...