Aims and Context

AIMS AND CONTEXT

 

The defined audience for my film project are younger people (16-25), as my film would appeal to them more than others. I think this aged audience would be more suitable for my film project as younger people tend to enjoy scarier movies more than other age groups, because they seek the thrill and anticipation of a frightening film and usually go with a group of friends, to have a good time and laugh at each other.  I also think my film would appeal to this age group more, as it is based on teenagers and all the characters are within this age range.

Stylistics of a psychological horror films usually involve a back story of what has previously happened to make the antagonist/ killer the way they are, making things more clear and obvious to the audience. I’m also going to use voice over, not necessarily to narrate what’s going on in the film, or what’s already happened, but to make the film seem more frightening that what’s been shown on screen. I’m going to use the voice over as a sort of whisper in the characters mind, to play with the audience, and to form a stronger emotional response from them.  The structure of a psychological film usually has a murderer that seems normal on the outside, but is completely disturbed mentally, and plays mind games and tricks on other characters, getting them, and the audience frustrated. The film ‘Se7en’ is an example of a psychological thriller, as we see the characters get more and more wound up at not being able to find nor catch the serial murderer, who is leaving them clues, until the very end of the film, which has a huge twist in the plot, in the last few scenes. ‘Silence of the Lambs’ is also a good example of this sub-genre, as the main character has to use one well known murderer, to catch another, with serious plot twists.

The roles that I’m going to be taking during creating my film project are Director, Storyboard artist, Editor, Script writer, Producer. I’m taking on a lot of roles whilst making my film and have to do different things that will require a lot of work.  I want to be able to edit the colour and contrast of my film, giving that eerie effect, given that my chosen genre fits within the horror field. I would like part of the script to be a kind of voice over, but still so the character can hear it, but think that it’s their head, adding to the psychological part of my film, which is the sub-genre I’ve chosen to do.

With previous work from AS level and FM1, I think I’ll focus on cinematography and how I want things in the scene framed and angled. These are important to my chosen genre because the audience would be able to see more of what was going on in the backgrounds of shots, whilst also focusing on what was front centred in the same shot, even though different things would be happening, that the forward character wouldn’t be noticing, but the audience would, creating effects for my sub-genre.  I want the lighting to be quite dark, grey and, depending on that particular shot and what’s happening. As the lighting gives effect and in additionally contributes an emotional response within the audience. I also want the camera to be quite shaky when the tension in the film rises, giving the audience an indication that something is going to happen shortly. This will also gain a response of suspicion and put the audience on edge, as they will be expecting something soon, but don’t know what or when and hopefully play with their minds. I’m going to apply previous knowledge from AS level and examples of films I’ve watched to try and make my film as relevant to the genre as possible, by noting how previous directors and producers have done certain things to attain their goal in their selected genre and reactions from their chosen audience, and how they did it. I’ll closely monitor this by watching films from this genre repeatedly at home, and making notes on what has been done, at which point in the film, and how this how codes and conventions have been added into the film, without being too obvious to the audience.

I’m hoping that everything through making this project will make things I do in the future more organised and timed appropriately, as time plays a very big role in this whole project and course, so if I get it planned and sorted now, I’ll realise that timing is important for everything I do, and take a similar approach to other things, as I did to this. Learning the codes and conventions in AS helped with deciding on which genre to do my project on this year, because it made things easier when thinking what I had to do and what specific things were needed in order to achieve my chosen genre.