Thriller audiences and our target audience

Classification of films for different audiences.

There are many different classifications, starting of with U for universal, all audiences can view this kind of movie, they are usually but not limited to children's movies, this is because they are not allowed to contain any strong forms of violence, drugs, horror, imitable behavior, nudity, sex or discrimination.

The second rating is PG, standing for parental guidance, so it is the parents choice wether the child is allowed to watch the movie or not. It is allowed to show very mild forms of violence, and references to sex however should not offend any one under the age of 8.

The third rating is 12, which means audiences aged 12 and over are allowed to watch the following film, 12A is a further given classification which is only used for theatrical viewings in cinema's, what it means is that they have to be attended by an adult to see it.

The fourth rating which is 15, is more explicit, however they still may not show, prolonged sex, gore and sadistic violence.

The final classification which is 18, is allowed to display any theme no matter how violent, gory, discrimminatory and abusive thus meaning that some audiences may or may not find them offensive, however some works would go into the R18 category which deals with sexual fetish, and pornographic material.

Appropriateness of different audience classifications.

Thriller movies don't seem very appropriate for young children, as thrillers often contain violence, murder, bad language, and generally things that are too scary for them to see. Following the BBFC ratings, the minimum I would give a thriller is about the 15 classification. However, there are many very violent thrillers that would also fit the 18 classification, and other mild thrillers that fit in the 12 classification. Something like a Conspiracy, Legal, Techno or Political thrillers would probably fit in the 12 or 15 classification. Crime, Psychological or Supernatural thrillers would probably fit in the 15 or 18 classification. However, something like a political thriller, may seem boring to a 12 year old, even though it is considered suitable for them to view it.

  

My target audience...

For my opening sequence, I would like to target the teenager to young adult audience. Looking at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) ratings, this could come under the 12, 15 or 18 rating. 

Looking at the 12 rating, moderate violence is allowed, no emphasis on on details (like blood). Weapons are allowed, but not glamorised. Drug use is allowed, but can't be glamorised. Very infrequent strong language is allowed. 

The 15 rating says that strong violence is allowed. Frequent strong language is allowed. Drug Taking is allowed. Discriminatory behaviour/language is allowed. 

The 18 rating says that very strong violence is allowed. Frequent strong language is allowed. Strong horror/blood and gore is allowed. 

After researching this me and my partner have decided for our film to be targeted at 15 - 25 year old demographics.

Thriller will attract many different demographic types, in particular young adults, who seek thrills and enjoy mystery, the person has to be into twists in the story and who enjoys working things out for themselves. They are more appealing to boys than girls slightly due to the suspense element which some girls enjoy less. I would target a young audience as they are the most likely to watch thriller movies, between ages 15 and 25, this is also the largest market for films. Some considerations would be to have young and attractive characters that would appeal to the young audience and someone that they can look up to. The content that I would have to use would have to be appropriate for a young audience, so I will include several fast edits to build attention and use appropriate tense score, there can be mild references to gore and violence, but I have to be careful not to show to much or else it could be classed as inappropriate for the audience that I would want to show it for by the BBFC.

Subgenre: Psychological thriller
Me and my partner want to make our film a psychological thriller because we think that is what a true thriller is, something that has elements which play on your mind like scary noises and clever editing and cinematography, we believe that this is what we want for our film to look like. We will not include any gore, strong language or discrimmination just thrills so for my opening sequence, I highly doubt it would fall over the 18 rating. It would probably fit under the 15 classification. I don't think the sequence will feature strong language or discriminatory behaviour, but it may include strong violence, or drug use, possibly fitting in the 15 category.

Demographic: 15-25 year old audience's

The kinds of audiences that would be interested in this would be people who enjoy mystery and tension and are drawn to suspense.

I want to do a film that would appeal to the teenager/young adult audience because I am of that age, and I think I understand what appeals to this age range, thus aiming my film for the 15-25 demographic, which is also a large section of the market.

For my movie I would most likely keep it to a “15” which contain the following:

-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

I am unlikely to use very strong violence, sexual violence, strong horror etc which are characterised by 18 films, and also to have a wider viewing audience of more ages.







-David Ziolkowski

Thriller Opening Title Sequences

As our project is to create a Thriller opening sequence, I have analysed several thriller opening sequences.  

This opening sequence from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' (2011) is a title sequence. The sequence is several different objects and people covered in a black liquid. They seem to be references to events that occur in the film. Production and cast credits run over the sequence, as well as the title. Quite punky/rocky music plays over the sequence. Over all the sequence is quite dark and horrific.

The opening segment to 'Taken' (2008) gets straight into the film. It starts with home video footage. Then a quick cut to the protagonist waking up, looking at the photograph, holding some instructions, then the film starts. The production and cast credits run over the opening. The opening seems to be making it easy to draw conclusions from, that the protagonist cares about his daughter, and he seems to live separately from his family. Nothing pretty thrilling occurs in this opening.

The opening sequence of 'Psyhco' (1960) is just titles. A dramatic score kicks in. The production and cast credits run over barred line graphics and black. Simple, but does the job. 

'Eagle Eye' (2008) starts with a production credit. The sequence takes place in the middle of events. The sequence starts with young kids running to a village. Cars are seen driving towards the village. A sinister score plays overhead. Foreign dialogue is heard as we see the point of view of some binoculars. Cutting between inside the office and the village creates tension, as the viewer knows something is going to happen. The score becomes dramatic towards the end as the people are blown up. Then the title is shown. The opening creates enigmas and gets the viewer in the mood for the rest of the film.

After looking at these opening sequences, I think my title sequence won't just be titles. I would like to set up enigmas, and really excite the audience, as it seems to be a far more interesting route to take.

Thriller Audience

The History of the Thriller Genre

The thriller movie's aim has always been to create 'suspense, tension and excitement' for the audience.
One of the earliest thriller movies was the silent movie titled 'Safety Last!' (1923). To create the typical thriller emotions for the viewer, score seems to play a big part in this film, as well as actor performance.

Several scenes highlight this. In the first ten minutes of the film, the protagonist gets locked in the back of the van. As soon as the doors close, the score becomes dramatic, almost pleonastic to the protagonist's actions. The actor, compared to today's standards, appears to overact, however, as there is a lack of dialogue, this would be to help the audience understand clearly how the protagonist is feeling. We get several long shots of the protagonist, to see his actions, like hitting the van, showing us he's desperate to get out. We also get a close up of his face, showing us his worry. These help the viewer feel tense.

                                     
Another scene later on, the most famous scene from the film, is where the protagonist climbs a building. The scene is around 20 minutes long, but the most dramatic part is where he's near the top and hangs off the clock. The higher the protagonist climbs, the higher the notes are in the score, also the tempo increases, adding to the suspense. The score reaches a dramatic climax as the protagonist hangs off the clock. Again, close ups and long shots of the protagonist show us his terror.

Alfred Hitchcock is famous for being a pioneer in the thriller genre, his first thriller film 'The Lodger' (1927) would start his career of thriller films, creating and inventing techniques to maximise the viewer's anxiety and fear, which are used to this day.

Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' (1954) is considered one of his best films.

This scene starts with a very long cut, lasting a hole minute, then a couple of long cuts follow. The long cuts create suspense, as the viewer anticipates something to happen, due to the nature of the genre. When we cut to the point of view of the protagonist, the score stops, creating tension. The man in the apartment appears to have knives, this creates enigmas. The background noise of outside adds realism. At the end of the scene, the close up of the protagonist's face shows us that he has the same ideas as we do, making the audience feel like they are figuring it out along with the protagonist.

In this scene, sound has an important role. Your can hear the the footsteps of the antagonist climbing the stairs in the background, making the viewer tense as he gets closer with every step. Also, the phone goes off suddenly, making the viewer jump, which then makes them even more tense. A close up of the door, showing the light under it going out creates even more tension, as the viewer knows he is right outside. The low key lighting as the antagonist walks in the room, just lighting part of his face, shows the audience he is a shadowy figure and the 'bad guy'. This scene highlights the fact that small details can be just as, or even more effective at creating suspense and tension then obvious techniques.

A good film to compare older thrillers to more contemporary thrillers, and show the differences to thrillers now, would be 'Disturbia' (2007), as it is inspired by 'Rear Window'. The films shows us that there are several techniques which are still used today, and others which a clearly modern day versions of original techniques, trying to maximise the tension and suspense of the audience with technological enhancements and new ideas.

This scene uses kinetic camera work, unlike in 'Rear Window', by the cameraman and the protagonist, making the scene feel more real, making it even more tense for the viewer. The video camera used by the protagonist, when its shaky and zooms in, reveal less about what is going on then the camera in 'Rear Window' did, creating even more tension. The dramatic score, going silent when the antagonist can't be seen, and kicking back in when he returns, is similar to older thrillers, except the the score seems even more dramatic and screechy in this contemporary thriller. More and shorter cuts, and a quick dolly shot create an even faster pace, pumping the viewer with tension. The score quiets down when the protagonist looses the antagonist, but jumps right back in again when he is spotted, making the viewer jump. Overall, this scene shows us that today we still retain elements of Lloyd's and Hitchcock's work, but also have made our own improvements to create the most thrilling scenes possible.

Thriller Sub genres

A thriller film is never just classed as a thriller. It will most probably be one, or several Sub genres of thriller. Here are some examples:

• Action Thriller - Majority of the focus is on action
• Conspiracy Thriller - A protagonist, usually by themselves (as they only realise the threat), must confront a powerful organisation
• Crime Thriller - Tends to be of the point of view of the criminal, as they try to allude the police, and only at the end of the film do all the pieces fit together, usually
• Disaster Thriller - A natural disaster takes place, and the protagonist(s) trys to stop it, or just save themselves from it
• Legal Thriller - Takes place in and around a courtroom, centring usually around a lawyer and a case that may end in death for the lawyer or client
• Political Thriller - Focus on a hero/heroine ensuring the stability of a government, usually previously low down
• Psychological Thriller - A mental conflict, rather than physical conflict for the protagonist
• Supernatural Thriller - The supernatural tends to be the antagonist, or the protagonists may have supernatural abilities
• Techno Thriller - Technology an important role, works either with or against the protagonist

For our own film, some genres would be easier to achieve than others. A sub genre I would like to do is a Psychological Thriller. A Psychological Thriller would be interesting to do because of the enigmas and red herrings, letting you play with the audience, and it seems to feed into other sub genres.

Looking at a scene from the Psychological Thriller film Se7en, you can see some Psychological themes.

This scene starts with a kinetic camera, making the viewer disorientated, and adding realism. Tilting up to the masses of air fresheners, this starts to raise some questions, as it isn't a normal thing to do. The dramatic drone score really makes the viewer tense, especially where it crescendos when the camera dollys backwards from the torches, into the room. The slow reveal of what's in the room increases the suspense, with long cuts. The low key lighting of the room makes the scene feel realistic and dull. Several enigmas are set up in the next few shots, like the dolly into the word SLOTH written on the wall, the photographs of the victim, the jars of their waste. Close ups of several props and the victim makes the audience fell like detectives, trying to analyse every detail to try and figure things out. When the body moves, it is followed by fast cuts and more dramatic score, making the audience terrified. 

Thriller analysis of different sub genre

This opening sequence is in a different sub genre compared to the two that i have already analyzed, this movie is more of a social-realism/ crime sub genre of thriller and it is titled London to Brighton.

Conventions and analysis of opening sequence and thriller + enigma's.

We start of with an ident of vertigo films over black followed by the fundee's  'UK film Council' and 'The National Lottery', the next section is also about the above with a difference of the presence of a presents which begins the focus and attention on the film, following this is a "Steel Mill Pictures & Wellington films Production. The typography is simple and readable with basic font, iconography likewise, in a way this builds tension, the vagueness creates a feeling of suspense and mystery as to what is about to happen, which further exploited by no use of score, this is making the audience settle down and turn their minds towards the film. Of course during those titles only important information and main credits are displayed, unlike some older movies that have credits appearing at the start. We see a tableau: "London 3:07 am" which begins laying down narrative, creating story and clarifying location plus time, suspense is low, already at this some of the audience may begin to wonder why its set so early because 3:07 is not a usual time for things to be happening.


Right at the beginning of the scene we can established that something bad has just happened and that the girls are at risk of someone or something, we can see that the young protagonist girl is in pain and scared. We also begin to see the two girls relationship, the older is looking after and providing for the younger, which is demonstrated by the older woman getting the food and the money for the train. Very early on the audience will be asking questions like why is there a young girl with an old woman? Why is she wearing makeup? Why does the older one have a bruise? why are they both so dirty? What are they doing so early in the morning? These are enigmas which are creating mystery and a drive to want to find out whats happening felt by the audience. The narrative seems to be just dropped in the middle of the story with out a propper introduction and scene setting, this is used in thriller plots sometimes so that the audience find out pieces of the puzzle bit by bit later on and fit them all together at the end, this is done through flashbacks and discovering.


A non linear narrative is present- it begins to abruptly; we slowly learn about the characters and the possible antagonist with references to him like "what about that man Derrick?" or "what will that man do?" We realise the older woman is caring and helpful but also that she sells herself which might be and oxymoron because we would expect her character to be low in terms of moral standards and selfishness, which is a connotation of her character, however she is not. We can pick out numerous details from the diallogue, like the girl is expecting money for something she must have done "what about my money?" the audience judge the characters and because the young girl wants money and is with effectively a prostitute, then certain thoughts may be going through peoples minds. At this point in the narrative, we have the opposite of dramatic irony and narrative withholding because the characters know more than us. Another example of judgement is towards the girl, she is so young and up to no good, people may be thinking where are her parents? She is also frightened of something most likely the man Derrick for reasons which we don't know yet. The camera shots are kinetic and moving all the time which suggests panic and rush, further augmented by the elliptical edits which condense time down time very quickly and also add a feeling of hurry, a lot happens in the 3 minutes those feelings are absorbed in the narrative which then reflects out as tension. Finally we get the film title right at the end of the introduction with some asynchronous screaming in the back ground setting a sort of depressing tone. 


This analysis has also given me good idea's especially in the use of enigma's, me and my partner have decided to layer our opening sequence with enigma's so that the audience will try and figure out what and why some things happen, for example in our opening sequence we will have one of the main characters underground with a candle, this will lead the audience to possibly think why is he there? We will then reveal this enigma by the character recording and studying signs and symbols to figure out his own enigma, which will also lead to another enigma and another and so on, so that the audience will always be tense trying to crack the code of what is actually happening.

Thriller Conventions and key concepts.

Conventions


Thriller as a genre Thrillers are usually regarded as being full of suspense, tension and excitement, they are the main emotional elements that play a role on the audiences mood. Thrillers often use a high level of anticipation and a lot of expectation, uncertainty, surprise and anxiety. Another very common element in the thriller genre are the buildups, peaks and lulls of suspense, at some points the score, diagetic sounds, mise en scene, cinematography and editing are very slow, the build up in suspense gradually, until there is a sudden shocking moment with heightened everything and more adrenaline building which gradually calms; thrillers have multiple peaks and lulls sometimes in very short spaces of each other.

There are several techniques in thrillers that make them what they are
-Prolonged cross cutting
-Quick cutting montages
-Quick cutting
-Very long shots
-Close ups/ extreme close ups
-Extreme zoom shots
-Use of profile or silhouette
-Dramatic tense or foreboding scores
-Use of enigma codes -Use of action codes
-Use of dramatic irony
-Red herrings

The codes and conventions signify what we expect in a genre, thrillers have very particular conventions which if broken could easily be presumed as a different genre, as Theresa Perkins said, ’’It can be difficult to see where one genre ends and another begins’’ due to the very fine lines between each genres the conventions help us identify a thriller, ofcourse its still very complex. A common theme however is of characters being placed in menacing situations from which escape seems impossible, with the menace often being abstract, uncertain or shadowy.
Common character types are:
-Criminals
-Fugitives
-Stalkers
-Assasins
-Innocent victims caught up in events.
-Police
-Femme Fatale

Common themes include:
-Terrorism
-Political conspiracy
-Espionage
-Pursuits
-Dangerous obsessions
-Psychological crime
-Oppressive but unseen supernatural occurances.