Taken analysis (looking at conventions of the film genre):

Taken analysis- Thriller/ action genre.

The genre is introduced smoothly with a mid-shot and a range of medium close ups to show the main character’s facial expressions and body language. For example, the character seems to be turning left to right looking for something, he tends to be worried and is talking to his daughter on the phone, this shows that something is wrong, hinting to the audience that something is going to go wrong and stereotypically this male will solve it. 

Because a medium close up has been used it helps the audience to understand how is feeling as you can see closely his facial expressions which tend to be confused a lot of the time.

The man upholds stereotype by being the strong and brave male who solves the crime/ issue helping the young girl that is in danger. You can see that he is taken control of the situation, taking the archetype of the big shot, someone who is the main source of attention.

The second character, the daughter is introduced with a mixture of mid shots and close ups to as well as introducer herself and her emotions towards the situation. You can also tell a lot from her body language, the woman is represented as a stereotypically weak person who needs help from a strong male character. Her hair is plated back which is normally what little girls have in their hair when their mothers do it, which suggests that, the background is a pale green/ blue which suggests uncertainty, the audience know that something bad is going to happen, the colours reflecting her mood/ reactions. The female is pacing back and forth along the room which also shows from body language that she is worried, she cannot sit still as she is just waiting for something to happen.

The actions from both the characters introduce the genre of the film, its followed by up-beat fast music which is dramatic which builds tension and suspense for the audience again, suggesting that something bad is going to happen. 

Survey results:

Currently writing about my results, I have had 26 answers which is great, in terms of the information that I would like to find out so far this is enough people.

80% of people who took part were 14- 18 and mainly the rest was 18-25 which is very useful to me because my target audience is within these age groups. I had an answer from a 31-40 year old, despite them not being so much in my target audience as well as the other age groups that responded it will be interesting and useful to see what results they had.

As expected, more females took part in my survey, but this is not a problem because I also had a fair amount of responses from males as well making my survey fair.

I asked where people would normally expect a horror/ action film to take place because for my film I wasn't sure whether to make it very stereotypical or challenge stereotypes. But from my research I feel that taking the more stereotypical route to my film will help in making it more recognisable as well as maybe something the younger generation are able to relate to.
From these results it wasn't too clear what path to go down. There was a number of different results which you can see from the graph that I put together, But the most popular results I had was the woods or an abandoned house. Because of this I wanted my storyline to go down the route of including a setting such as one of these. But because I was just producing the opening I wanted it to be a familiar setting, something realistic and then be able to devolp the story into one of these chosen settings which I think would work really well, for example where the girl will be taken to and held.

I asked this question because I wanted to know what feelings I could project to the audience given from my films actions. As expected fear and worried emotions were the most popular, I feel this is because the younger audience want something exciting to happen which is great as I feel that my film will project these emotions well.

I asked this question because I felt that this was an important way of identifying the audience and who is appealing to watch my film. Again, I had a mixture of results, I believe this is because the people who filled out the survey didn't have that much knowledge on these different answers to chose from as I could only briefly fill them in. 

As a result of this my results came back as a mixture, also they could have different interests but the majority of the results had been of an individual.

Great response from this question, as 18 of the results were horror followed by 8 being action. This is a postive outcome for me as it means that my film is aimed at the correct target audience and it is good to know that they are most likely to come and see the genre of my film.

For these results it didn't work as well as I had hoped, this is because I had received some answers which was immature such as '#BANTA' and 'no sorry baby'. I also had results of names of actors which are not directors so overall I do not think this question was as affected as I had hoped for. 

Again, great results which are just what I wanted, my film opening is all about tension building and wanting to know what happens next, as for the 'other' responce, it had said that they wanted something exciting to happen which I feel links in with the first two options anyway, so I am planning on keeping my idea of my film opening.





































Lastly, I chose to ask this question because in terms of making a film may all be good, but you need to understand how people are attracted to watch the film in the first place. My main answers was an interesting storyline, which again is a great result as I feel my film will offer this in the future.

Sound Track Research:

Music/ the backing track for a film is very important, also looking at existing film openings it tends to be very important for openings just as much as the rest of the film. I believe that the soundtrack adds to the image that you are trying to introduce to your audience as the film is beginning. My film is a action// horror so I believe that the soundtrack for my film needs to be tension building especially as I am planning on opening my film mid action on a flash back.
So, I began by looking at some copy right free websites to see if any of the soundtracks was suitable or just to get a rough idea of what sort of soundtracks which are copyright free sounded like and if they differed a lot from soundtracks which are not copyright free.
The first website I looked at was called http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300013, this website was helpful because it let you choose what sort of music you was looking to include, there is various types of sounds for different genres, which was really helpful. The soundtrack that I found most likely to use was a mix between a few different ones as I was unsure on how well it would mix with the footage that I would of recorded.

I also looked at another website https://ia600408.us.archive.org/22/items/EerieCreepyAndScaryMusicForYourScoresDvds/DvdThemeMusic-chasePulse.mp3  which had again, different tracks to choose from and customise to my choice which was helpful. I found one track that was slightly creepy and mysterious which is sort of what I am aiming to go for but mainly I believe that I am going to create suspense for the audience. As I am the age of the target audience myself and from my surveys I feel that building up tension is the best way to keep the audience hooked onto a film, leaving them wanting to know what happens next resulting in them watching the whole film and most likely to discuss with friends afterwards.

However, looking at these different soundtracks made me want to experiment more with what music that I choose to use. As a result of this I began to try out different effects on the music that I had chosen to use. For example, on IMovie I was aloud to make the soundtrack deeper or more echoey or slow down the pace. I believe that this is a good element for making my films soundtrack because I feel that I have given my own change to it, also fitting the original soundtrack with the edited footage and seeing how well it fits with it/ making changes will depend on the editing techniques and how fast it is moving because I am looking at building tension.

Overall, I feel that researching into copyright free music was helpful in terms of choosing something for my film opening because I found that it is had to choose something to fit in with my own footage, and as a result of this I looked into further of editing the copyright free music to fit in more with my footage and also have a more personal feeling to it for my film making it slightly more different from others being able to use the same backing track, as I have edited it, nobody will have the same music exactly.

Creating my survey:

As part of my research I conducted a questionnaire in order to have some feedback on what my target audience may be looking for in a film such as the one I am currently planning on creating. 

This is a screen shot of my survey which I had created online which was easy for me to share with people hoping they fill out the questions.  

 I thought it was important to ask for the audience members age and gender because even though I am aiming to target both genders, I am able to look at the individuals results and I thought that it would be interesting to see the differences between the genders, As for the age, I am targeting a certain age group so it is important that the right age group is filling out my survey and if they are not then I can look at the other age groups answers and look at if they would be a suitable target audience for my film as well.

 The other questions are important because throughout creating my film because I am able to not only see what my typical audience member is like/ interested in viewing/ appeals to but also I am able to analyse my results that I gain back and change my film if I feel need to be.

I am glad that I have used such a clear and easy format to allow my audience to fill out my survey quickly and without any problems as they could become frustrated and end up not taking part as it is not something they need to do.

Film opening 2 minutes analysis of The Proposal:

The proposal- Romantic comedy analysis. The genre is introduced by two characters (male/female), they both live different lifestyles, but work at the same job. The female however is challenging stereotype because she has higher authority in the work place compared to the male, you can tell that it’s going to be a boss and employee relationship. I can tell that the film is set in New York because of the of the buildings outside of the females window, you can see the type of buildings as the camera pans past her head while she’s on the running machine and its followed by yellow taxis . The forest start is normally associated with a horror film, but from the music you can tell that it isn’t a horror. The non- diegetic music is light, upbeat and soft which introduces the genre being quiet positive. The woman is represented as strong, independent and bossy. Her appearance is neat and tidy; she is wearing a black suit which is ironed which is black and white, with her hair sprayed back perfectly. The way that the woman’s house is laid out is spotless; there is no mess anywhere which reflects her personality and her appearance a lot too. An example is when the woman goes into her kitchen and all the surfaces are spotless and everything is in its place. On the other hand the male is the complete opposite. Even though he is again in the same everyday setting of his house, he is running late and rushes out of bed to get washed and dressed, whereas the female had already got up early and started the day off with exercise. Also his room is dark and in a mess, nothing seems to be in order for him. You can notice the difference between the positive of the woman and the negative of the man by the lighting, as she is up bright and early enhances how clean her house is as well as how dull his room is for how unorganised he is. There are a range of wide shots during the opening of the proposal; this was done to introduce the setting, including mid shots to introduce the characters too. All the staff sends E-mails to each other saying for example ‘it’s here’ and ‘the which is on her broom’ which shows that nobody in the work place likes her. You can tell by the way she walks in and everybody turns to do work as she struts through the office with a lot of negative attitude. The popping sound of the E-mail keeps it light hearted however again introducing the genre of the humour side to it. It’s very clear that there is no relationship towards the two, however it follows the traditional ‘two opposites attract’ and one helpless person left out which would be the woman in the coffee shop who had already made the man’s orders ready for him and he skipped the line, he tells her that she ‘literally saved his life’, the gestures could suggest that she may be a secret admirer/ lover, which follows the usual storyline. The subtitles order: Touchstone pictures, Mandeville films, Presents amans productions, Touchstone films, actors names.

Film opening 2 minutes analysis of Sweeney Todd:

Sweeny Todd is a film about the life story of Benjamin Barker who plays Sweeney Todd.
The Genre for this film is horror/ drama, which I believe is made very clear from the opening of the film.

The mis en scene is dark and creepy, with props which stand out such as splattered blood, a dramatic set up of the chair in the middle of the room, lighting and thunder is exaggerated and all of these are stereo typical examples of horror films. I believe by following stereo types it helps the audience to gather a feeling of what the rest of the film is going to be like which is important in terms of attracting the right audience. So, from the props and mis en scene I am going to look at how I can include some of these into my own film, maybe looking at what type of street the main person is on, what she is wearing or what the kidnapper is wearing maybe for example.
The dark atmosphere is great as it all links in with the footage as well as the soundtrack played in the background. Following the conventions of horror films, again showing the audience that it may be gory.

The film starts with the DreamWorks logo, which is well known and may already make a first impression on the audience who is about to watch the film. It is important to include logos or clips of production companies for example as I am looking to follow conventions of existing films closely.  
Soon after the logo, it is followed by loomy, creepy music which seems to be played on a organ or a similar instrument. Soon after the music seems to be mainly high stringed notes with drums and sometimes trumpets when a title appears or an action is about to be taken during the film. This is a good technique used to show that something bad is about to happen, also the sounds tend to increase in speed which is also tension building and can be another technique that I use for my own film.
The fonts that are used during the film are very gothic and serif, giving it a more serious styled look, also suggesting to the audience that maybe a serious action is about to take place. Little hints like this during the film is also something that I would like to try and include to keep the audience engaged with what they are watching and hoping they would want to watch more.

The titles throughout the film opening are all red and white, normally on a black or dark background which suggests danger (red) and something genially bad. This is a hint to the audience that something bad is going to happen, usually associated with blood and again is just making it more clear to the audience also what type of film genre it is. 

Institution Research:

For my institution research, I looked at films that are similar to mine and help influence me to make certain aspects of my film. The Taken films were distributed by 20^th Century Fox, this is only one film out of many that have been distributed by them, for me I saw a lot of action films made by them which links into my genre nicely. The first Taken film was produced by M6 Films, Canal+ and TPS Star.

Another film that I was looking closely at was Hush which was released in 2008, a British horror/ thriller which had a similar storyline to my own. The film is directed by former BBC Radio 1 DJ, Mark Tonderai, and stars William Ash and Christine Bottomley. The film was produced by Warp X, UK Film Council and Film4 who supplied the funding for the film. The film was distributed by Optimum Releasing.  However Hush was distributed by Optimum releasing which is a film distributing company working in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company releases many films, including foreign language films, anime releases such as Studio Ghibli's films, and independent British, Irish, and American films in the United Kingdom and sometimes Ireland.

Even though these are the two institutions iv looked at for the two films that relate well to my film, I also have a variety of production companies to choose from, which for me is beneficial, as when I create my film I am able to see what would suit it better as in the process of creating/ planning my film little things may change, but despite this at the moment I believe that I am most likely to choose 20^th Century Fox as it is targeted many films such as my own.

I need to choose one that relates well to my film as for example if I chose Buena Vista Pictures it wouldn't make sense as firstly it no longer exists and secondly all their films was targeted towards children, just like Walt Disney Pictures who have now taken over.