Script

Script by CallumHarris

Script research

For our film opening, we must produce a script. 

Professional screenwriters are already aware of programmes with professional solutions such as Final draft, Celtx and Adobe Story. These options particularly focus on formatting and collaboration.

The script is usually written so that one page roughly equals one minute of screen time, the standard font is 12 point, 10-pitch courier. In a draft of the script there is a very minimal technical direction and the scenes are not numbered where as in a ‘shooting script’ each scene is numbered and technical direction is given.

In the script there is dialogue, this is the lines that the characters are speaking, and the action, which is written in the present tense.

• The interplay between typeface/font, line spacing and type area, from which the standard of one page of text per one minute of screen time is derived. In the United States letter size paper and Courier 12 point are mandatory; Europe uniformly uses A4 as the standard paper size format, and has no uniform font requirement.
• The tab settings of the screen elements (dialogue, scenes headings, transitions, parenthetical, etc.), which constitute the screenplay's layout.
  
  
• The dialogue must be centered and the names must be capitalized. A script usually begins with "FADE IN:", followed by the first scene description. It might get more specific, e.g. "FADE IN ON AN ECU of Ricky as he explains the divorce to Bob." A script will usually end with "FADE TO BLACK", though there are variables, like "CUT TO BLACK" for abrupt endings.  

A speculative screenplay is a script that is being written to be sold with no promise of payment, the screenwriter usually thinks up the ideas in the script. A writer who has been hired writes a commissioned screenplay, the idea of the film has usually been thought of a long time before a screenwriter has been hired.

Now that script writing has been researched, we will create our script.

Film Treatment Audience Feedback

In order to see if our film opening would appeal to the target audience, our group asked 3 people in the 25-34 year old age bracket what they thought of our film treatment. Here are their responses:

Doug, 26 year old: "I thought the idea was interesting. Even though it wasn't an 100% original idea it would still draw me in as a film opening, and I would probably want to end up watching the rest of the film."

Adam, 29 year old: "I would have prefered it to be more of a physcological thriller, where the protaganist doesn't know if he murdered his friend or not and then that would be the mystery throughout the film. The plot for this verges on a slasher horror film. Not sure if I'd watch it."

Joe, 32 year old: "I would definitely watch it. Being as the opening minutes of the film are so tense, it would make me want to carry on watching to see what happens next. I love thrillers, so this is right up my street."

Given the feedback, we have decided to stick with our treatment. Hopefully the way that we shoot the opening should put Adam's fear of it turning into a horror film at rest, and we think that the plot is strong enough to carry a strong film opening.

After finally deciding upon all the details of our treatment, the next step is to research script writing and write a script for our film opening

Target Audience

For our project we have to consider our target audience. Target audience is the group of people that is expected to watch our film (for example middle class males if we were making an action film).
To be able to pick a target audience, we need to know the different aspects of our film. We would have to consider things like if our film had swearing, violence, and the genre of our film to help us determine a target audience.
The tags of a youtube video show the different aspects of the video, if our film was a Youtube video, it's tags would probably be thriller, suspense, dark, murder and nightmare.

We also must consider what the appropriate classification for our film would be. Below is the British Board of Classifications List, and a link to their website. They have the guidelines for what classification a film should be given depending on what is in that film.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Following the BBFC's guidelines, we have decided to rate our film 15. This is because if it was a full film, violence will be included, as well as frequent strong language and threat. In the opening 2 minutes, blood can also be seen from a stab wound, and strong language is also used once. 

In general terms, our target audience would be aged between 25-34 years old males, who enjoy thrillers  and maybe horror films. We think that because they would be at an appropriate age where they can appreciate psychological thrillers, and would want to see maybe a bit of action. We also think that they would be of B or C1 class (see below). We think this because in B and C range they would have the money to see films often at the cinema and would also have the money to buy films to stream off Netflix or to buy off itunes. They would also probably be able to afford hi tech tvs' to watch the films more enjoyably. People in class A probably wouldn't have enough time to take a high interest in films. They are likely to find out about this film on Facebook, and through reviews elsewhere (like on the radio or in a film magazine). 

 Pearl and Dean

Pearl and Dean is a film website that shows the viewing statistics of films. Here is two examples of similar films to ours and their comparable profiles of viewing statistics.

Zero Dark Thirty

Killing Them Softly

Target Audience Profile

In order to get a more specific idea of exactly the type of audience we would have to watch our film, we must have a Target Audience Profile of one of our audience. We have chosen Jack, a 28 year old graphic designer:

• He enjoys thriller, horror, action, and comedy films. His favourite films are Inglorious Basterds, The Silence of The Lambs, The Strangers, and Die Hard. 
• He lives in a 2 bedroom house in North London with his girlfriend.
• He went to a state high school and did well in his A levels, so was able to go on to University and study graphic design. 
• He is a graphic designer and works at Hurricane Media. 
• He usually watches films at home on his own or with his girlfriend, or at the cinemas with his girlfriend.
• His favourite music is 'indie' music, and some of his favourite bands are Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, and The Strokes. 
• He takes an interest in film and music, and reads magazines like Q and Empire. He uses his Apple mac and iPhone often.

Now that we have determined our target audience, we must ask members of the target audience to give use feedback on our film treatment.

Audio Recording of Film Treatment

In order to get appropriate feedback on our film treatment, our group must determine a target audience for our film. This will take place in the next post.

Film Treatment

Film treatment research

A film treatment is a two to five page document that tells the whole story of the film, focusing on the highlights. The things that are usually included in treatments are: a title, the writers names, a short synopsis of the film, introduction to key characters, 'who, what, where, why, and when', act 1 in a few paragraphs to set the scene and introduce the main conflicts, act 2 in a few more paragraphs to show how the conflicts introduced in act 1 have lead to a crisis, and act 3 in three or less paragraphs to show the final conflict and resolution. The audience for film treatments are film studios, and people like producers, who you would want to see your idea and to perhaps commission your idea into a film.
Below is our film treatment:
Film Treatment

Film Ideas Discussion

This is the discussion that me and my group had about what we're going to create for our project:

Part 4

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

After a lengthy discussion we finally came to an idea for our film. The next step is to research and produce a film treatment for our film opening.

Our Ident

Before deciding on our film opening, we quickly made this ident. We think it fits a thriller film, as the colours are dark and basic and the sound is eerie.

My Production Team

My production team includes myself, Callum, Jon, and Jontie.
Here are the links to their blogs:

Callum- http://cchasmediagwhs2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Jon- http://jdasmediagwhs2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Jontie- http://jmasmediagw-hs2013.blogspot.co.uk/

The first thing we need to do is to agree an idea for our film opening.

Individual Film Pitch

The above is my film pitch. As you can tell by watching it, my idea recieved a lot of constructive criticism, mainly because the drug theme was a bit heavy.

After watching all of the groups' pitches, Mr Hood will put us in to production teams, and those teams will be who we work on the main task with.

Thriller Conventions

Thriller conventions are what are typically included in thriller films (like low lighting etc) and what the audience expect to be in the films. Through my research in the last blog post, I have been able to spot thriller conventions that are used in the majority of thriller films.

• Low-lighting, maybe shadows on the wall.
• Dead space in certain frames to create tension.
• Eerie, dark music for atmosphere.
• Mysterious antagonists, and sometimes mysterious protagonists.
• Twists in plotlines to keep the audience guessing.
• Props such as knives and guns used. Sometimes fake blood is used.
• Cliff-hanger or twist ending.
• Dramatic climax.

Some of the conventions listed above I will need to include in my film opening in order to create a realistic thriller and to please the target audience.

It is now time for me to think of a film opening. With all the research from my previous blog posts I have been able to realise what is appropriate for a thriller film opening, including the conventions, and I now must prepare a pitch for a two minute film opening idea to my peers.

Introduction to Thrillers

Thrillers are a genre of film which include suspense and tension to captivate audiences attention and to draw them into the storyline. Thrillers typically feature the main protagonist in some sort of dilemma, which they may or may not overcome, with surprise and drama throughout. Often there is a sense of impending doom, as the protagonists antagonists fates are unknown, with the audience waiting in suspense until the inevitable climax. Thrillers can often end on a cliff-hanger, and use twists in the storyline to subvert the audiences expectations and further draw them in.

Thriller Sub-Genres

There are many sub-genres of thrillers, which is what makes it such an interesting genre to work with. Here are examples of some of the more popular thriller sub-genres:

Conspiracy thrillers: main protagonist believes that a powerful organisation or group of people are after them. The film would track the protagonists fight against the corrupt organisation, with the obvious trials and twists along the way. Examples of this sub genre are The Bourne Ultimatum, The Constant Gardener, and The Adjustment Bureau.

Crime thrillers: crime thrillers typically follow the criminals and their activities leading up to a big crime, but can sometimes follow a protagonist who's either trying to infiltrate the criminals gang to try and defeat them. Crime thrillers usually involve robberies, murders and chases. Example of crime thrillers include Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction and Training Day.

Mystery thrillers: involves even more twists than other thrillers, to keep audiences constantly on edge. The protagonist and audience usually find out information about the 'mystery' at the same time. This can sometimes cross over with physiological thrillers and the horror genre. Examples of this are Shutter Island, The Talented Mr Ripley, and Rosemary's Baby.

Political thrillers: usually uses real-life political scenarios in which the protagonist must stop bad things like assassination and wars from occurring  or try to become more powerful in politics, and sometimes battle government corruption. Examples are The Assassination of Richard Nixon, The Contender, and All The President's Men.

Psychological thrillers: much like mystery thrillers, the aim of this sub-genre is to get inside of the audiences head and make them think, and subvert their expectations. Examples of psychological thrillers are Silence of The Lambs, Taxi Driver, and Rear Window.

Popular thrillers

Here are some examples of famous thrillers that I could research for inspiration for my opening film: 

Goodfellas: crime thriller following a man and his friends working their way up the mob hierarchy.

Inception: physiological thriller set in a world where technology exists to enter the mind through dream invasion.

Psycho: mystery thriller when a woman is on the run after stealing money from her employer's client, and stays at a motel ran by a loner man too long under the domination of his mother.

The most popular directors of thrillers are Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorcese. All of their thriller films are highly respected and could be used in my research.

Audience

The target audience for thrillers I would say is between 25- 50 depending on the film. Thriller films are usually always given 15 or 18 age restriction certificates, which shows that the content in the films won't be sutiable for younger viewers due to things like murder, drugs, or sex scenes. Thriller films are intended to make the audience think about what they've just watched, and people that are older are inclined to want to watch a film where the plot has substance and maturity, as appose to a, for example, slasher horror film, where there is a lot of gore but not much thought taken in to the plot.

After researching various thriller films, I am made aware of the conventions of thriller films and what is to be expected from them. I will explore this in my next post.

Choosing A Genre (Pros & Cons)

Choosing a genre for our film opening was a harder task than expected. The media group wanted to do either horror or comedy, as they're the types of films our age group are more inclined to watch, and they would also be fun to make. Overall, the majority of the group opted for comedy as the genre of choice, but Mr Hood was sceptical of the decision and gave us a homework task to come up with one original joke. Unfortunately, no one had a 100% original joke, but some of the jokes told made some people laugh, whilst others (Mr Hood) failed to find them amusing. This proved that humour is subjective, and that a genre choice that we thought was 'easy' was actually quite hard to produce, and also in danger of alienating the audience. This made us all think harder about what genre would be easiest to do, and what the audience would be more inclined to watch and enjoy. We produced a mind map in the lesson of genre and sub-genres pros and cons:

We eventually came to the unanimous desicion that thriller was the best choice of genre, as it has simple conventions, would be fairly easy to produce, and would appeal to a wider audience.

As we have chosen the genre for the film opening, the next step is to explore and research that genre.

Film Ident Research

Film distribution studios focus on the marketing of a film, like public screenings, trailers, advertisements, and the release date for films. Film production studios make films. They supply actors, manage props, scripts, filming schedules and location. All film production studios and film distribution studios have idents, which help the audience to clearly identify them. Film idents are at the start of all films you will see, even small budget films will have the ident of the film production and distribution studio that worked on that film at the start. Film idents can also set the tone for the film, and show what the genre of the film will be (horror/fantasy) etc.
There are 6 major film production companies, whose idents are popular and well known. They are Universal, Columbia, Disney, Fox, Paramount and DreamWorks. Popular idents (like the ones listed) also have the power to change their ident slightly to fit the film (for example 20th Century Fox changed the iconic ident to be blue tinted and snowing, and with different music for the start of Edward Scissorhands, and for The Wedding Planner the iconic lady holding the torch was dressed in a white wedding dress holding up a bouquet of flowers).

Universal - popular film studio

The Universal ident (shown above) lasts 21 seconds. It is effective in many ways as the name 'Universal' is large and the world being shown in the ident suggests that the film shown will appeal to a wide audience range, all around the world. As the word 'Universal' travels across the Earth, the different countries light up, possibly signifying that watching films by Universal will make people happier and 'light up the world'. The music is dramatic, but uplifting, and is obviously recognisable, so makes the audience want to carry on watching. As it fades out and shows the world lit up with space around it and 'Universal' across it, there is the Universal website address below it, which would appeal to an internet-savvy audience who would perhaps want to find out more about Universal and its future projects. This shows that Universal is in touch with a more technology advanced audience, and it shows the audience that the film is relatively new and modern. The colours used in the ident are bright, as the lit-up, inviting Earth stands out across against the black space, making it noticeable and appealing. Some of the films Universal have produced/distributed are Jurassic Park, E.T, and Jaws, hence why it is so popular around the world - like the ident suggests!

Icon - independent studio ident



The Icon film ident (shown above) lasts for 15 seconds before fading out. Even though it's shorter than the Universal ident, which could have been a positive, this ident doesn't give much of an impact. No music is used over the ident, instead it's the sound of thunder rumbling, which does create a dramatic effect, but you don't exactly signify the sound of thunder with Icon studios, and it also sets a moody tone for the film, which doesn't exactly go with some of the films Icon has produced (example being Kevin and Perry Go Large). If they had of used their own music, they might be slightly more recognisable and therefore a little bit more popular. The icon of the mans eye is shown all the way through, and the use of some sort of animation might have made the icon more appealing to all audience, instead of being quite plain. However, the icon of the man's eye stands out across the black background, and is fairly recognisable as being the Icon logo.

Things to consider with my ident:

• Time- too long can bore an audience, and being as it's only two minutes of film we have, the shorter the better.
• Colour- eye-catching colour like in the Universal ident helps to make an audience remember the company and have the ident will have more of an impact. However, as it's the opening of a thriller that we're creating, the tone set should really be more like the tone from the Icon ident, with muted colours.
• Sound- the music should really be dramatic and tense to set the tone, as happy music at the start could make the audience confused about what they expect to see from the tone.
  
  
  I have finished my research into film idents, so the next logical step is choose a genre for my film opening.