Comparing Main Actress

Dakota Fanning:

Dakota Fanning is a very popular and very wellknown actress.  She started acting when she was very young and has continued to carry on her career as she got older.  In our film we need a actress that is just like her when she was younger as she showed real emotion which was very believable.  She played a very convincing role in a film call 'I am Sam' (2001) she played a 7 year old girl with a Dad who was
mantally handicapped, had to look after herself and to a degree after her Father from a very young age. 
In our film we need a young actress who can show raw emotion just like this.  We need her to look realistic and believable and for the audience to connect with her.

Dakota not only connected with the audience but connected really well with her fellow actors for example in 'I am Sam' Dakota co-starred with Sean Penn who was her on screen Father.  Through the way they both acted it was believale that they were related.  She also acted in 'War of the Worlds'(2005) and was the daugther of Tom Cruise, just as in 'I am Sam' she related really well to Tom Cruise and it was totally believable that he was her Father.

Just as Dakota can show real emothion she can also be really hard faced if required when acting. For example in the 'Twilight Saga' she plays a villain vampire and we see a different side to her acting skill from the innocent young girl to the unemotional, hard villain vampire.

In our film the young girl will need to display many emotions, at the beginning of the film she is a normal happy child but as the film continues she has to show that she is frightned and her emotions will change throughout the film.

Target Audience For A Psychological Thriller

For our film we decided to give our film a 15 certification.

This means no-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ certified film in a cinema and no-one under the age of 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.We have chosen this as it will allow us to incorporate the required aspects of our genre such as the horror and psychological thriller.  A 15 allows a strong threat and menace unless sadistic which is what we are aiming for and dangerous behaviour. We may also look at using strong language at times in the piece and a 15 rating allows us to do this as long as it isn’t repeated.

Our film is a psychological thriller which is aimed at a British audience of whom are interested in mystery and horror.We are targeting the class groups B through to E, people of middle management, creativeness and teachers down to students and casual workers as all of these will be able to relate to our film.
Our film is based on a topic that is frequently brought up in the news which makes it easier for the variety of different demographic groupings to relate to the film. We are aiming our film at both men and women of about 15 years and above (as our film has a 15 certificate) as there isn’t anything to single out either men or women, the film depicts both genders equally.

Deffinition and History Of Psychological Thrillers

Definition of Psychological Thrillers:

• Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. 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.
• Thriller – 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.
• Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. 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

History Of Psychological Thrillers:
Many psychological thrillers have emerged over the past years, all in various media (film, literature, radio, etc). Despite these very different forms of representation, general trends have appeared throughout the narratives. Some of these consistent themes include:

• Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
• Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative
• Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
• Purpose – The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
• Identity – The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
• Death – The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Psychological Thriller Opening timeline of titles Of Hard Candy

0.01 Line Gate film presents
0.10 A Volcant Production
0.12 In Association with Launch Pad Productions
0.16 Patrick Wilson
0.20 Ellen Page
0.24 Hard Candy
0.28 Sandra Oh
0.33 Jennifer Holmes
0.42 Casting Valerie McCaffrey
0.46 Original Score by Molly Nyman & Harry Escott
0.48 Digital Colourist Jean-Clement Soret
0.52 Editer Art Jones
0.57 Production Designer Jeremy Reed
0.59 Director of Photography Jo Willems
1.02 Co Producers Ryan Nelson & Hans Ritter
1.07 Executive Producers Paul G Allen & Jody Patton
1.10 Executive Producer Rosanne Korenberg
1.13 Produced by Richard Hutton & Michael Caldwell
1.18 Produced by David W Higgins
1.22 Written by Brian Nelson
1.26 directed by david Slade

By doing this i have learnt all about the ordering and importance of titles. The titles of Hard Candy helped me understand

Psychological Thriller Mood Boards

Our group made two psychological thriller mood boards. We found a number of different pictures and words that we associated with psychological thrillers. Our images reflect psychological thrillers and sterotypical items and scenes in within this genre. we have also included water and mirrors which incorporates with the genre of psychological thrillers.

Extra Research On Psychological Thrillers

Extra research

View more presentations from LITTLELJT.

Student Film Analysis

We started to do research on existing student film in order to give us an understanding of differences of film openings and film trailers. We viewed three films within our media lesson and looked at different aspects of each film. We picked out strengths and weaknesses from each film in order to give us an idea about how to create our own film openings.

Student Film 1
Strengths:

-the music and setting of the film fitted in well with the horror genre

-the layout of credits at the beginning were good, didn't go on for to long

Weaknesses:

-the font of credits and titles was too blocky and didn't relate to the genre

-it came across as more like a film trailer rather than film opening and the narrative was left closed.




Student Film 2

Strengths:

-the music and titles related to the horror genre.

-effective editing techniques such as the transitions

-even though there was a lack of continuity, the storyline was understood and everything linked in well.

Weaknesses:

-the filming was more like a trailer than opening to a film and the narrative was closed.

-the introduction and titling took up too much time




Student Film 3

Strengths:

-this film was open narrative with a clear opening (not like a trailer)

Weaknesses:

-doesn't portray the genre as well

-the 'bad apple productions' title does not fit in with the film or the genre as it looked too computer generated.

-didn't erase editing errors such as smiling and movement.



This enabled us to see what and what not to do when creating our film opening and improve upon these weaknesses in order to create a stronger film opening without the weaker aspects. We must make sure that our film opening is an open narrative so it does not look too much like a trailer and make sure that the atmosphere, titles and music all fit in with our desired genre.

Analysis of two other film openings.

Resevoir Dogs:


Narrative:
-Open narrative
-Introducing Characters
-Suggesting the characters are important
-Suggesting he characters are professional

Genre:
-Action
-Gangster
-Gangs

Character:
-Eight men
-Reservoir dogs
-Introduced with text

Atmosphere:
-Masculine
-Rough
-Lively

Themes:
-Gangster
-Black tie
-Boy group

Setting:
-Exterior
-Car Park
-Street

Sound:
-Rock
-Gives ideas of a solid group
-Upbeat/ relaxed

Titles:
-Introduces actors
-Box office appeal
-Strong coloured which stands out to audience


Superman returns:


Narrative:
-Open narrative

Genre:
-Action

Atmosphere:
-Masculine
-Lively

Themes:
-Superhero
-Comics

Setting:
-Exterior
-Universe

Sound:
-Superhero theme tune
-Upbeat
-Picks up and gets faster and more intense

Titles:
-Introduces actors
-Box office appeal
-Strong coloured on strong background
-Matches the out of space theme.