Our Survey

We conducted this survey in order to find out people's expectations of the crime thriller genre.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9SVB9R2

We created a survey in order to help us improve or change our film opening by getting audience preferences etc. After 27 responses we got a general idea of what expectations there are from our genre. Here are some of the responses. 

As you can see from the question;'What would entice you most into watching a crime thriller', the results showed that the opening scene was most popular. This showed us how important film openings are and how interesting it needs to be.

 The second question about lighting showed that a low key and dull lighting was expected, clarifying our choice of a dark effect on the videos.

 The third question about the running scenes also clarified that our use of fast action shots were suitable for our genre. However there was also some responses for 'sometimes' showing that our choice to split up the running scenes with interviews is appropriate.




The fourth question links with the previous one, as the most popular answer about pace was that its expected to be fast. With action shots this was easily done, alongside quick edits and fast cuts to quicken the pace and make the opening more exciting.

The last question was about the time of day. As we filmed at lunch time we have put an effect on the videos to darken and make it seem like dusk or darkness. Our results showed this was the right decision as they expected this genre to be filmed at either afternoon or night. 

Filming the interview scenes for the first time on 26th January 2015

On the 26th January 2015, after school, we went to the Finch House to film our interview scenes. However, when we started to edit them, the sound was not clear enough to understand and we also decided that the journalist, Scarlet was not wearing an appropriate costume for this role. Therefore, when we film the running scenes again, we are going to film the interview scenes on the first day.

Cast Change

When we first filmed on 11th January, we used one girl and three boys for the gang of teenagers. However, one of the boys is now no longer available to film due to exams so we will now be reducing the group to 3 teenagers. This is not a big problem for us as it still works for our storyboard and the narrative can still be portrayed.

Our Production Company

Our company production name is CAPture Productions. We chose this name because our group (Chloe, Annie and Phoebe) spell CAP when you put together the first letters of each of our names. We then turned it into CAPture because this word fits in with the film industry. Also, as our film opening is about an ongoing investigation of a robbery and about how the criminals never get caught, 'CAPture' fits the context well. Our company logo is above.

As a new company, we have decided to focus on producing films for the crime-action genre reaching out for a target audience of teenagers.

Iconic sounds connected with the Crime Action Genre

I made this video of the iconic sounds associated with the crime-action genre because it is important that we are aware of the sound effects associated with this genre when it comes to the non-digetic sound editing process. It is also necessary because we would like it to be obvious to the audience what genre the film it is through the sounds.

Our certificate rating for our film opening

As a group, we have decided that our certificate rating for our film opening will be 12a.

To do this, we used the BBFC Website. We looked at the criteria for different age ratings and then confirmed our film to be a 12a. It is important that we choose carefully as we do not want to limit our audience too much but we don't want it to be too inappropriate or disturbing for younger viewers.
The following reasons are why our film is a 12a:
-There is an overall tone which affects the way the audience feels. This could be a dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience, this pushes the rating from a 12 to 12a.
-No strong language
-Suitable for 12 year olds
-No discrimination
-No sexual behaviour or scenes
-Moderate violence may occur later on in the film.
-Action sequences may be disturbing. To be on the safe side, the robbery itself may be slightly unsettling for some viewers so therefore our film opening is a 12a.

Iconography associated with our genre

I made a mood board of the Crime-Action Genre in order to help us with the type of images that you would typically see in a crime-action film.

Conventions of the Crime Thriller Genre

As a group, we looked in to conventions of the crime-action genre. We did this so when filming and editing our opening, it is obvious to the audience what genre the film is and we also needed to research conventions of the crime-action genre in order to meet the expectations of our audience.

Iconic Directors in the Crime Thriller Genre

We looked into iconic directors in the film genre that our film opening will fall in to.

Health and Safety whilst filming...

In order for our film opening to be safe for everyone involved in the filming process, we need to consider the risks involved and what we can do to prevent them.

One hazard is that we are filming near a main road and part of this is running across it. As we might have to take this shot multiple times, there is an increased risk of the actors being run over by a car. However, we are reducing this risk as we have chosen to shoot where there is a zebra crossing in place and we are filming on a Sunday evening so this is a time when the road will not be as busy and we will take extra caution when filming this scene.

Another hazard is that we are filming with a tripod and our opening involves a lot of running. This means there is an increased risk of the actors tripping over the tripod whilst shooting. In order to prevent this, we will be warning and reminding the actors constantly to take extra care while running.

For one of the shots, in order to get the angle we want, one of us filming will have to get onto a high wall in order to succeed the high angle shot for our CCTV Footage scene. We will have to be careful when doing this as it is possible that we could fall off the wall and badly hurt ourselves. However, we are stopping this by helping each other to get onto the wall and off the wall.

Finally, the last hazard is that in order to create the correct tone and atmosphere for our particular genre, we need to film when it is starting to get dark. This means, it could potentially be quite dark when we are shooting. As running is involved, the actors may not be able to see where they are going very easily so we will be shooting where lots of street lights are present to prevent injury.

University of Kent

On the 14th January 2015, the AS Media students went to the University of Kent for a film workshop day. I found it very interesting and learnt many new things which will help us with our coursework.

Firstly, we learnt about screenwriting. This will help us plan thoroughly what exactly will be happening on the screen in every aspect such as camera shots, scripts, mise-en-scene etc.

We then had to create a short film which included required elements. However, this was tricky because the cameras we used meant we couldn't watch them back and delete them so we couldn't have any out takes. This meant we were very cautious and careful when shooting and planning. This will help us with our coursework because it will make us think very carefully about the shooting process.

Filming on the 11th January

We filmed the footage for our opening on 11th January. However, after watching it back and reflecting, we have decided that the footage was too dark, and when we attempted to make it lighter, it reduced the quality severely, this is evident in a picture from our filming below. We have come to the conclusion that this was our test shoot and we are going to reshoot in the next few weeks. Until then, we are going to plan more thoroughly so we can make our film opening even better the second time.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our film opening.

We had to redo our story board a couple of times because we either missed out scenes so it lacked continuity or we had to add in what type of transitions they will have between scenes.

We hope to stick to our storyboard as much as possible so our film opening looks similar.

Research into the Crime-Action Genre

Our film opening fits in with the crime-action genre.

Crime-action films are films that focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains.

The central characters are involved in crime, either in its investigation as the perpetrator or, less commonly a victim. While some action films could be labelled as this genre purely because it has criminality and thrills. Examples include Untraceable, Silence of the Lambs, Heat, Seven, Witness, Memories of Murder, The Call and Running Scared.

Filming equipment

Below is a video we made about the filming equipment we are going to use for our film opening.

Costumes

We sketched some ideas of what each character should wear so they meet the conventions of our plot. Our ideas are below. When we come to filming, we will not be able to get the exact clothing as planned as we do not plan to buy clothes especially but the actors will wear clothes as close to our vision as possible.

Coursework so far

We are close to filming and this week we have started to get the final things ready. For example we have finished creating the two newspaper articles online using the website www.fodey.com, and downloading as an image to use in our movie.
Also, we are consulting our 4 actors using social media to contact them and tell them about filming schedules, allowing us to keep in touch.
We need to decide on sounds which is not a major priority until after filming due to it being part of the editing process.
We also have decided locations for filming, which is Lloyds in Sevenoaks and the backstreets in this town. The interviews will also take place in our houses, and will not take too long which gives us longer to edit.

Script

This is the script for our film opening. However, we will only be using this script as a guideline as we want our opening to appear as natural and realistic as possible. Therefore, the actors can use this script but change it when necessary so it feels right for them.

The Imposter

As part of our research, I watched the opening of the film 'The Imposter.' By watching this film opening, this helped me to get a sense of the genre our film opening will be in.

Below is an Emaze presentation of my analysis of the film opening.

This is the clip I analysed.

Research for our final narrative idea- Anonymous interviews!

We decided to go with our robbery idea for our film opening. This is because we felt we could develop it more than the other idea and it was more original and more challenging for us.

A big feature of our opening is the anonymous interviews by the robbers who are confessing anonymously to journalists. Therefore, we looked at various images for inspiration on how we could do this in our film opening. Our research is shown in the Emaze presentation below.