you gotta give the people what they want!

After closely analysing these graphs and their contents I have come to the conclusion that the majority of people would like to share the cinematic experiance with their other half, and most people go to the cinemas to see horrors or thrillers and like to be excited by what they are watching. I feel we could closely link this in to our project as we are doing a zombie thriller, this means we could incorporate a lot of horror twists and turns within our film to keep them on the edge of their seat and excited, which according to our graphs is what the people want!

Identifying The Target Audience- Arran Williams

All products need a target audience in order to produce a successful product. A target audience is defined using a number of conventions. We identify these conventions as:


GRASS
Gender
Race
Age
Socio-economic status.

   As we are producing a zombie thriller, we identified our audience as being, of any gender and race, for an older audience, with the use of frightening scenes, such as 16-25, this age range is typical as it is the age which mostly goes to the cinema, proving to make the institution more money. As the age range is for young adults, the socio-economic status would be between lower working class and lower middle class as young adults are usually just starting their careers.  
    The first type of audience profiling to develop was Demographic Profiling which is used to group the audience into smaller groups depending on variables such as gender. Using the Socio-Economic scale, we distributed that our target audience would be either, C1- Skilled non- manual e.g sales assistants, D Semi- skilled e.g cleaners, or E unemployed.
         Finally, Psychographic Profiling is also used. This is where the profiling presumes the audience to be complex. Young and Rubicam's devised a number of charactersitics such as Aspirers. In our opinion, our zombie thriller would be mainstreamers. This is 40% of the market, which is the largest section. Usually known to buy well- known brand names.

By Arran Williams

identified insitution: film four

Our identified film institution is the british company Film Four launched in 1998 to finance, produce and broadcast British films for the British public, but now shows many Hollywood Blockbusters.  Currently the companies message is "Great films for Free" this makes it a popular channel as it makes film seem more of an art form this is achieved through pre-film interviews with cast and crew.  It has channels on freeview and the major broadcasting networks such as Sky and Virgin Media, but it's main source of finance is its own production company 'Film Four Productions', which over the years has financed many high grossing films such as; Slumdog Millionaire, This is England, Touching the Void.

I feel that this institution is more closely related to the filming we are going to be doing as it shows a much more independent cinema but makes it relevant in mainstream television hitting on cultural and social situations as well as showing international films such as; Battle Royale, City of God, Oldboy.  As our genre of film is in the zombie sub-genre the Film Four company represents it with great respect as in 2007 when british zombie-horror 28 Weeks Later was released Film Four had a commited 'Zombie Week' which included interviews and showed classic and modern zombie films.

Questionnaire to Establish the Target Audience

Audience Questionaire.

Age:
Sex:
Ethnicity:

What is your favourite kind of film genre?

a. thriller
b. romance
c. action

d. sci-fi
e. horror
f. other.

With your chosen option, what reaction would you hope to achieve from this film?





When at the cinemas, what experience do you enjoy the most about a film?

a. cry

b. laugh,

c. scared,

d. happiness

e. thought provoking.

Who would you most want to watch a film with?

a. parents

b. friends.

c. partner.

d. grandparents
e. yourself.

How often do you go to the cinemas?

a. every week

b. once a foretnight
c. once a month

d. not very often

Through distributing this questionnaire through the public I hope to create a large research basis for our media project which can help us decide on the creative and direction wish to take our film in.

Opening title scenes- Arran Williams

Dawn Of The Dead.
During the title sequence of Dawn Of The Dead a number of techniques are used i order to make the genre of the  movie apparent and create tension and suspense throughout. The use of sound is appropriate here as the screams of the zombies make the audience feel scared and curious as to why these people are screaming, the theme of thriller is automatically clearly shown. The use of the opening credits is effective as the red writing suggests blood giving the impression that this film is going to be scary as well as gory. The TV broadcasts connotes with the music of Johnny Cash, presenting religion. The use of camera techniques is also effective here, the handheld shots of fighting and people running gives the impression that it is real, presenting a strong theme of realism.



Se7en.
Within the opening sequence of Se7en, there are a number of elements which present a thriller genre. Firstly, starting with an open book then quickly skipping to a dark black background with bright white writing, shows confusion and the juxta position of black and white also presents purity as well as gothic opposites. The use of random images such as the black hand prints and the books, again suggests confusion, causing the audience to wonder what is going to happen next. The use of camera shots is also effective here, the shifty movements portrays the thriller genre as it creates a dark, scary atmosphere. The blurry scenes also forces the audience to get involved as they want to make out the images and try and understand what is happening, as well as realise the story line. In conclusion, all of the elements above, successfully present the thriller genre.

By Arran Williams

Top Ten Thriller Films- Arran Williams

Thriller movies have proved to be one of the most popular genres of movies worldwide. This is due to the depiction of suspension and anticipating scenes which makes a thriller movie so successful. A survey by IMDB discovered the top ten thriller movies of all time:

1. Inception
2. The Dark Knight
3. Goodfella's
4. Fight Club
5. Rear Window
6. Psycho
7. The Usual Suspects
8. The Silence Of The Lambs
9. Elite Squad 2
10. Se7en.

This genre is widely used and produced as it easily hooks the audience into the movie and makes them want to watch on and find out what happens in the story line. This genre is suitable for young adults as well as the older generation and so appeals to a primary and a secondary audience. It is obvious why many movie makers use the thriller genre in order to produce a successful and popular movie. As well as Thriller, zombie genre is also popular. In our opinion a genre thriller movie would capture the eyes of a wider audience and will also prove to be a popular movie.

By Arran Williams

Top 20 box office films

Rank	Title	Worldwide Box Office
1.	Avatar (2009)	$2,781,505,847
2.	Titanic (1997)	$1,835,300,000
3.	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	$1,129,219,252
4.	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest(2006)	$1,065,896,541
5.	Toy Story 3 (2010)	$1,062,984,497
6.	Alice in Wonderland (2010)	$1,023,285,206
7.	The Dark Knight (2008)	$1,001,921,825
8.	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone(2001)	$968,657,891
9.	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End(2007)	$958,404,152
10.	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)	$938,153,345
11.	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(2007)	$937,000,866
12.	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(2009)	$933,956,980
13.	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)	$922,379,000
14.	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(2002)	$921,600,000
15.	Jurassic Park (1993)	$919,700,000
16.	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)	$892,194,397
17.	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)	$887,773,705
18.	Spider-Man 3 (2007)	$885,430,303
19.	Shrek 2 (2004)	$880,871,036
20.	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets(2002)

These are the top 20 box office films of all time. As you can see There are quite a few thrillers within the top 20 films such as Jurassic Park, Spider man 3 and The Dark Knight, which is the second highest grossing thriller of all time, as recognised IMDb. This shows me that thrillers are one of the most popular genres amungst the general public,  and generally apart from films such as Shrek many of the films have a thriller aspect within them. This leads me to the conclusion that our zombie thriller should go down very well with the audience and we should recieve very positive feedback about it.

Joshua Bray

The Top Ten Zombie Films - William Leather

The zombie film genre is recognizably one of the most highest grossing sub-genres within horror, it has some classic such as Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George.A.Romero to much more creative takes on the genre such as Braindead (1992) by Peter Jackson.  The group have decided to get into this genre as many of the films are watched and adored by film fans all over the world.

The zombie genre is also one of the most controvesial as it treads on underlying fears of infection, war, genetics and the most basic of human instincts the need to survive.  For example the zombie blockbuster 28 Weeks Later connotes to the war in Iraq and the paranoia of invasion of the west.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLQmDBQawE

The Top Ten Zombie Films:

1. Braindead (1992) by Peter Jackson
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George. A. Romero
3. Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness (1993) by Sam Raimi
4. Dawn of the Dead (2004) by Zack Synder - Remake of Dawn of the Dead (1978) by George .A .Romero
5. Zombie (1979) by Lucio Fulci 
6. Re-Animator (1985) by Stuart Gordon
7. Cemetery Man a.k.a Dellamorte Dellamore (1994) by Michele Soavi 
8. Bio Zombie (1998) by Wilson Yip
9. 28 Days Later (2002) by Danny Boyle
10. Day of the Dead (1985) by George. A. Romero

This shows that the zombie-genre film culture is split between the straight forward zombie film such as Night of the Living Dead to very outlandish ones such as Peter Jackson's bloodbath Braindead.

Braindead (1992) by Peter Jackson:

Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George. A. Romero:

I think this genre is the best to combine with a thriller genre as it enhances the fear and pumps the audiences adrenaline making the zombie genre one of the greatest and most well recognized part of the horror film industry.

William Leather 

The Preliminary Video

This is the groups preliminary video, it is a job interview which is acted out by Josh Bray and Arron Williams and was filmed by William Leather at St Marys along a corridor and in the editing suite of 408.

Even though the continuity of the film is quite good the group struggled with editing and we had to reshoot the opening sequence along the corridor.  This short video was made to show what rules and techniques we have learnt to use such as the 180 degree rule and shot-reverse-shot, but we hope in our forth coming film to use a wider range of techniques.

William Leather

Initial Ideas

Some of the inspiration for our two minute piece are as follows:

Possibly the main inspiration for our piece was the opening of the sequal '28 Weeks Later' , the film directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.  In this scene it opens on to a barn in rural England which contains a group of survivors who have hidden themselves from the highly infectious 'Rage' virus which turns it's victims into highly aggressive and cannibalistic 'zombies' or infected as they are referred to throughout the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHf6Th-E3kE&feature=related

In this scene we realised the suspense built up by the sound of silence, also the use of point of view when looking out the barn door and the sudden extreme close-up of the infected eye combined with the scream of the victim a horrifying opening. Another part of the film which added to the inspiration of our piece is where the main character, 'Don' played by Robert Carlyle, leaves his wife 'Alice' played by Catherine McCormack trapped inside the house attached to the barn which has been overrun by the infected. We thought this part created the suspense through the use of handheld camera which follows the pair being chased around the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pc17rXbC6c

William Leather

Opening Sequences and Narrative

After reviewing the process of producing and editing a film we decided any future production should establish:

• To create a time and place which the audience can notify and understand.
• Keeping the conventions of the film specific to the chosen genre.
• By creating a situation/situations the audience can enjoy and get into.
• To introduce the main character or the protagonist within the film.
• Include enigmas which may entice the audience and make them watch the film.
• To create an equilibrium which can later be disrupted.
• To perhaps link the film with a situation or ideology in the world.

Will, Josh + Arron.