Research

GENRE-
Firstly, we decided as a group we would make an opening sequence to fit the genre of a horror/thriller. But after more ideas and thoughts being produced, we decided to go along the path of a psychological Thriller/ Indie drama genre as we felt this would allow us to be more experimentive with camera angles and editing techniques.

"A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize form of art or utterance. Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The scope of the word "genre" is sometimes confined to art and culture. particularly literature and music, but it has a long history in rhetoric as well. In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared to originality. Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or participating in the conventions of genre." -Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre


"Drama films-
Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets." - http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

"Psychological thriller-
A specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Also, occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging Horror genre.
Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.
The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.
Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play."- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_thriller


TYPICAL CONVENTIONS WITHIN OUR CHOSEN GENRE-
COLOURS- Typical colours used and created during editing of a Psychological Thriller usually are used to represent emotion. For example, the colour red usually is used to represent anger, like in the opening sequence to Usual Suspects; the flames and fire giving off have a red a red glow to them, which gives off a sign of danger and anger. Howeverm colours such as yellow and blue are often used also, as they help portray a sense of disorientation and mood in a film.
LIGHTING- Lighting in our chosen genre is used to create shadows and create a certain tone to the film. An example of this is that in the film Gothica, the lighting is very dark and shaddowed, which makes the audience feel uneased and also gives a sence of danger, mystery and suspense to the film.
A GROWING SENSE OF DANGER- In horror films, the use of escalating sounds and pace change build up the intesity in the film, which gives off to the audience a growing sense of danger. This is produced well in the film The Hills Have Eyes.
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS HAPPEN IN ORDINARY PLACES- The film Paranormal Activity has a prime example of the use of extraordinary events happening in ordinary places, as the setting of the film is a typical house. However wierd thins occur within the house, such as footprints appearing and unexplained movement from around the house, leading the character that playthe owners of the house to complete disarray.
CAMERA MOVEMENT- Camera movement in our chosen genre is used to relate to the intensity of plot. Sudden and fast movement usually show dramatic and out of control movements in the shots produced. Whereas slow movement and steady panning in a shot gives off a sense of danger and suspense to the shot produced.
THEMES BASED AROUND SOCIETY'S FEARS- A typical example of this would be a film like The Grudge where all the characters in the film are killed.
TARGET AUDIENCE- Psychological Thrillers are most commonly popular within the audience range of Young Adults/Adults. This could be due to the fact that most Psychological thrillers include a cast that range between this age, to do with the certification Psychological Thrillers are given and or also to do with the themes involved in a typical phsychological thriller film, i.e Graphic scenes, moderate violence, scenes of a sexual nature.


FILM RESEARCH-
We looked at certain film sequences we felt fitted out genre stlye and storyline. We looked at the camera use, editing, lighting, mise en scene, props, sound and locations shown in the films sequence.


SKINS-
We started by watching episodes of the TV Series Skins, as it is a drama about young adults experiences in life. We watched a stereotype scenario of a young girl taking drugs, with point of view shots of her paranoia and distorted vision. Non-diegetic sound is added at parts of the sequence which adds to the tension and suspense of what will happen next. We noticed during the sequence alot of shots we had already discussed had been used, which made us feel more confident in ourn planning. The lighting used in parts of the clip also help add to the distortion of vision and the young girls messy state of mind. Blue and orange tinges of lighting add to the strangeness and worked well with the use of a blurry fuzzy effect which portrayed the girls point of view.


SHROOMS-
We also looked at scenes from the film Shrooms. This film is about a group of young adults that go camping in a forest and come across "Shrooms". The film shows the effects the shrooms have on the characters and their wellbeing. The genre of the film is somewhat Horror, but certain sequences in the film were very useful and compatible to our ideas. This film also used the same unfocussed and blurred effects which works really well and makes it more interesting and help understand the situation and narrative. It also had a shot very similar to Skins in the forest, showing the trees above in a 360 degree pan. We found this effective, as it could resemble the characters on a high, spinning around or there vision and mind distorting. Another interesting shot was when the camera was put on its side. This was effective and made the sequence feel very strange and distorted again and we felt that this could be included in our opening sequence also.


DONNIE DARKO-
We looked at Donnie Darko, as the genre of this film is a psychological thriller and included very interesting camera angles and shots. Donnie Darko is a film based on a young boy who becomes possessed by a strange friend, "Frank". The lighting throughout the whol film is very dark and it is heavily edited. This makes the film seem more intensifying and wierd. In one scene the camera work is effective and we considered using it in our sequence; the camera does a full 360 degree turn from the characters point of view in slow motion. This adds the the distortion and psychological aura to the film and adds confusion for the audience.