Certificate for film

After exploring the BBFC website, I have concluded that our film will be rated at 15. I think this rating is appropriate for our film as our film does contain most of the above. We want our action/horror themes to be graphic but just not gory enough to need an 18 rating. Frequent strong language may be used also, but not in an extremely aggressive way.

A 15 rating on a film means that no-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age. A 15 rated film consists of:

strong violence

frequent strong language

portrayals of sexual activity

strong verbal references to sex

sexual nudity

brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

discriminatory language or behaviour

drug taking

In a 15, there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this. However, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour. Also, sexual activity can be portrayed, as long as there is no strong or graphic detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category and may involve some nudity and movement. Though nudity may be allowed in a sexual context there should be no strong detail. Lastly, violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

lAW ABIDING CITIZEN individual analysis of a similar film
i have chose law abiding citizen as i think this movie in some parts relate well with our movie idea. as it is a bout a man who loses his wife and child when someone brakes into his house and kills them but leaves him alive. i think this is a good example of what our film is going to be about as a man looses his wife by someone braking into their house and murdering her. what is different to our film is that as the police come to the house the night she was murdered he kills one of the police officers and knocks the other one unconciouss as he thought the police coming into the house was the murderer, he has no choice to go on the run and look for the person who killed his wife. unlike law abiding citizen as he takes the law into his own hands and kills the people who murdered his wife but now the police are onto him as he is putting lots of people at risk.

this is a screen shot from the trailer. this shows a good example of what our character will be like. this shows that he looks like a normal late 30's man but who has lost everything. in the background it shows flashing lights, this is the police who is after him. this will be the same in our film because they think they killed his wife so the police will be after him.
for the credits we could use fade in and fade out this is how the words on this screen shot have been done.

this shot would be a good idea for our film showing the main character being questioned. also he is in handcuffs and a jumpsuite which shows he has been arrseted. these are the props that we will need to show that our character has been arrested.
throughout the film the lighting is low key this would be a good idea for the lighting to be like this in our film as it shows that it is a dark tail.

Distributers

I have researched some mainstream distributers and i have found that Columbia Pictures would be a good distributer for our film. Columbia Pictures distributed the film 'The Shawshank Redemption' which film links to our film and has a very similar plot. It also has distributed many films in this genre so i think it is a very suitable mainstream distributer for our film.
If we were to distribute our film from an independent company, i would pick Lionsgate films as they specialise in horror and action films which our film is.

Title Sequence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4thzyFFdvVc    Title sequence to 'Seven'

 

At the beginning of this title sequence for the film 'Seven' there is a very loud gun shot. The gun shot makes the audience know straight away that it is going to be a crime/action thriller. This would be good to use in our opening sequence as we would get our genre known by the audience straight away. We could maybe even use a scream or loud bang at the beginning or even at the very end to add even more suspense.

 

The non-diagetic music played created lots of suspense as it is very distorted and changes speed. It is also very mysterious and sinister which again sets the theme.

The words that are put on screen are also very distorted, this makes the opening credits look sinister and creates a sense of confusion.

 

Various cuts of different images are used fast which gives it a fast pace and again builds suspense. We could use these fast cuts in our opening sequence as it will keep the audience interested and wont seem like the opening credits are taking a long time.

 

 

CERTIFICATE FOR OUR FILM

After looking at the ages needed I have come to a conclusion that our film would be a 15 due to;

strong violence

frequent strong language (eg 'f***').

portrayals of sexual activity

strong verbal references to sex

brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

discriminatory language or behaviour

There will be potentially a lot of strong language throughout the film to convey how aggressive or mad a character is at  that time in the film. At 15 violence may be strong, but just not gory.

Analysis of similar film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OePtq2xIJIM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt05JcJ8Woo

The film I am choosing to analyse is The Shawshank Redemption. I have chose this as both the genre and story line are very similar to our film.
At the beginning of the opening scene, there is non-diagetic music playing. This contrasts with the first long shot of a dark, gloomy outside scene which makes the opening look sinister and like something bad is going to happen. We should use the music contrast in our film as it will make it have more tension and suspense.
First we see the protagonist in a mid shot. I think we should do this in our film as it clearly shows who we want the audience to focus on. Also, Andy is shown in a dim light to show that there's going to be something mysterious about him. Using shadows will be key in our film to create more mystery, confusion and uncertainty.

 

While he's in the car, there is a mid-shot of  a gun which Andy is holding. The gun links with the stereotypical iconography of a crime/psychological thriller which is what our film is based on. Having a gun or weapon shown in our film will make the audience know automatically what the film is about, which is what we want to get across quickly as we have a limited time.
The editing of the cut takes us to the protagonist in court. The court is the setting which is associated with this type of film, and I think it would be good to use it in our film to set the scene. Having a setting of a court in our film will fit in with the particular genre we want and will tell the audience what the film is going to be about.

The story of what happened to Andy is spoken diagetically from the judge. This tells us what Andy is being accused of and what is going to happen to him. This will be a good way to get our storyline across in our film as we only have 5 minutes to do it in. The editing of the 'flashbacks' or the past is also a good way to tell the story without the story actually being told by someone, which is boring and slow whereas if we have shot-reverse-shots and quick cuts, it will make our film more fast paced and will keep the audience interested.There is a shot-reverse-shot used with the judge and Andy which we will try and use regular in our film. The shot also shows the judge at a lower angle and Andy at a higher angle which shows the judge has more power and authority over Andy, we will try to co-operate this into our film.

Similar films to ours

The first one is The Fugitive; This film as a really similar story line to our film. Also, this film is a 12 which again helps me understand which age certificate ours could be and the rating are good which means people really take an interest into films like these.

 

The next one is not as similar to our film, however it is similar in that the protagonist seeks vengeance towards the people who the family he protect same as our character must find and punish his wife's murderer and clear his own name in the process.

 

The film which I am analysing and why

WHY I CHOSE THIS?

The film is about Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife and he must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt. This really work for my film as the genres are the same, also the story line are really similar. This really gives me an understanding of how to represent my protagonist and his trajectory throughout the film.

I THINK IT CAN BE INTERPRETED INTO OUR FILM

I think the cinematography used in this film would be key in our film as its all about representing Dr. Richard Kimble as an innocent man. Also, the fast pace in the film keep the audience intrigued and alert which makes the film even more believable.

THE ONLY NEGATIVE ABOUT THE FILM  

Has to be the chosen font used, I personally think it is very 90's and with todays audience they would be very bored and may misinterpret the rest of the film as a very dated and old fashioned.

As you can see it is very bulky and a very dull colour, which isn't really used anymore.

Memento Notes

cinematography:
close up of fingers holding an unfocused picture
same shot with slight changes to one part of the frame
black and white picturing
close up low angle shots of face
close up shots of random objects and certain parts of frames
extreme close up of wedding ring for split second, detailed shot.

editing:
movie makers name to begin
title of film overwriting first shot
voice is edited to match movement
black and white picturing
cuts from individual shots of random objects
reverse film

mise en scene:
picture of rubble
mirror
blood dripping
post-it notes

sound:
creepy sound before any image
shaking sound of paper
camera shot sound
man scream
quiet, calm and silent into a forced loud band/crash
narrating along with actions

Seven

"Seven" is a 1995 American thriller written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It is about 2 men who are homicide detectives who become deeply involved in the case of serial killer whose meticulously planned murders correspond to the seven deadly sins; gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust and envy. 

This could help with our story because the serial killer relates to the women who kills the person but the detectives are in comparison to the police who are investigating into what has happened.

shots from Memento

Close up of fingers holding unfocused picture shows mystery. I like how the movie makers and title of the film are edited over the image. I think this would look good in our film with creepy music to show the mystery and crime.

Same shot with slight changing image also set the mystery theme. It makes the audience think and slightly confused and I think in our film we should use confusion to set the atmosphere.

The black and white images used in beginning suggest that the first scene is from the past. I think this is a good way to start our film as it can show a flashback without the cheesy ‘in the future’ text.

Having this close up of the man’s face gives the impression that he is the main character as he is the first character you are introduced to. Our film would work well with this as it will set the concentration of the audience on the main character.

This is a very unclear image of dripping blood but in the black and white edit you can’t tell which also adds to the theme of confusion.

The separate frames with shots of random objects start to build the storyline of the film as they are followed by a puddle of blood. I think this would be a good way of starting our film as we have to show the storyline in the first 5 minutes of our film.

This show is important in this film as it make it obvious to the audience what has happened. I we did this we could possibly be giving away the storyline too fast. 

Film Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP4SeCLwlDU

This is the link for the film that I analysed- Memento

The creepy sound at the beginning before any images are shown set the mystery/crime theme.
The sounds such as the shaking paper, camera shot, man's scream and the loud bang out of the calm silence are all ways of creating suspense.
The narrating along to the actions of the man is a good way to get the plot across without having the characters talking. I think we could also add other sound effects over the voice so there is more going on.
I also like the way it uses reverse film to show the flashback and confusion in the character. This helps to make it obvious that the man has something wrong with him.

Genre’s

Thriller sub genres;

Crime Thriller

Crime thrillers often focus more on the criminals and there activities in leading up to the crime or in retrospect the ending of the film leading back to how it all started.  Central topics of the films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses.

Mystery Thriller

This particular sub-genre relates a lot to crime thrillers. It focuses mostly on the efforts of the detective or private investigator in order to solve the mystery. It looks at the circumstances of the mystery or crime itself in order to try figure out what the clues are

Psychological Thriller

This sub-genre plays with the audience’s minds and produces suspense in film because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotional hindered.

Conspiracy Thriller

This type of genre consists of some of hero or heroine who are stereotypically journalists or armature investigators who find them-selves trapped in a very powerful organisation. Conspiracy thrillers often play with the secrecy of governments and major organisations in history.

test

in most crime thrillers there is one police officer that is the main person involved, which there will be in our film. this reminds me of 'prisoners' starring Hugh jackman who is looking for his missing daughter and Jake Gyllenhaal who plays the cop that gets too involved in the case. 
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/prisoners-trailer-hugh-jackman-searches-560825
i think it would be a good idea to have a main cop involved as there would be more than one point of view other than the main character. 

law abiding citizen

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.
this is a recent crime thriller, the idea we have is a similar idea to what happens in law abiding citizen. a man who loses someone he loves then goes out for revenge and starts to think he is above the law. 

different types of thrillers
psychological thriller
the suspect does not use physical strength but uses psychology to get to their victim,
thee suspense created by psychological thrillers often come from two or more characters battling against each other's minds.
crime thrillers
they have a focus point of braking the law
police are involved a lot
the villains are normally the criminals
a good example is silence of the lambs
romantic thrillers
the story is usually relationship based with an aspect of thriller involved
good example of this is obsession
super natural thrillers
has a supernatural element to the thriller
usually has a twist to the plot.
action thrillers
they have a sense of violence throughout the film
also more blood sense to add effect to the violence

by researching different thrillers it has helped me to understand what kinds there are and how they are all different. The one that we have chosen is a crime thriller so i will be specifically finding out information on just that one.