Storyboards:-

Storyboards:-

Storyboard:-

Target Audience:-

Potential Target Audience: 16-35 years old.

This is because our opening sequence starts with a 16 year old girl and a 18/19 year old boy and the rest of the plot is about the girl being older. We chose this age range of target audience because they will be able to relate to our plot more and it also links in the ages of the characters.

Target audience of a lot of psychological thriller is 16 +, this is because the film could contain some violence and some things that are quite disturbing which shouldn’t be seen by young people.

Our target audience is 16 – 35 because there is a car crash which could be quite upsetting to younger viewers and there are links with psychological problems

Roles and Responsibilities:-

Camera Work:  All three of us

Ditector: Tiffany Pickford

Props/ Costumes: Brogan Adams

Location: Maisie Hesketh

Equipment: Maisie Hesketh

Organisiation:  Tiffany Pickford

Time Mangement: Brogan Adams

Co-Ordination: All three of us

Actors: Brogan Adams- 16, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall
           Jeff Leyland- 17, brown hair, dark eyes, tall




Locations: Birmingham Bull Ring

                   Birmingham New Street (Christmas Market)

                   Folly Lane, Cheddleton

                   Derby Street/ Broad Street  and Aldi Car Park, Leek

Pitch:-

Presentation and Audience Feedback:-

We created a pitch for our thriller opening sequence idea, and presented it to the rest of our class on Wednesday 23rd November. We created a questionnaire and handed out copies to each person for them to fill in whilst we were presenting our pitch. We brought all of the completed questionnaires together and have made a summary of everybody’s opinions. 

What did you think of our overall pitch?

People said that our pitch was good, clear and well detailed. Also mentioned was the strength of our pitch. They also thought that it was a good idea to use pictures on the presentation and to explain them verbally instead of reading from the text on the board as it allowed the audience to connect and feel more involved. However, they said that some points could have been clearer and some points and ideas better explained as sections were slightly confusing. Nonetheless, overall, our feedback for this question was positive.

What did you think was our best idea? Why?

The main answer to this question seemed to be the car crash for various reasons including ‘dramatic’, ‘realistic’ and ‘dynamic’. Next was the singling out of one person in a crowd – our audience said that this would be dramatic and effective if it was pulled off well. Camera shots including focus pull were also mentioned positively as this was said to effectively show emotion and isolation. They also seemed to like the idea of the sparkler burning down throughout the film. Some people liked the drug use as it allowed the audience to relate to the characters effectively and others mentioned the originality of the ideas themselves.

What did you think was our worst idea? How could we improve this idea?

The feedback seemed to suggest that the idea of graphic match through circles was our least effective idea as it was perhaps too complicated or irrelevant. However, on further explanation our audience seemed to like the idea and to understand the relevancy more. Other people said that the drugs made the events of the sequence too obvious and took the enigma –which is a key convention within the genre- away from it. Also mentioned as a weakness was the fact that our pitch didn’t mention a specific plot.

Did you think our ideas matched the genre? If yes, how? If no, why?

There was an obvious split in the answers to this question; however, the majority said yes. The reasoning for answering ‘yes’ was because it conformed to many conventions through different forms including psychological, flashbacks, memories, car crashes and audience relation through drugs. Those who answered no said that they could not see the connection with the ideas of childhood. Also stated was that they could not answer as they did not feel that the idea of circles had been given enough explanation for them to make a decision upon.

Was the sub-genre/hybrid clear?

Again, the answers were split; those who said yes mentioned conventions, psychology, and flashbacks. There were again also those who were unsure, and those who found that it wasn’t mentioned or was unclear.

Target Audience

Our questionnaire simply confirmed the fact that our target audience should be from the age of fifteen to the age of thirty.

At which stage of Todorov’s theory does our sequence come in?

Our questionnaire also confirmed that our opening sequence will come in at the second stage of Todorov’s theory; the disruption of equilibrium.

Genre Research:-

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition to drama and mystery, many psychological thrillers contain elements of, and often overlap with, the horror genre, particularly psychological horror.

·       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

Devices and Techniques

·      Stream of consciousness – a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character's psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.

First-person narrative – a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, "I". This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters' minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator.

Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions.

Themes

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

·       Perception

·       Mind

·       Existence/Purpose

·       Identity

·       Death

These major subgenres help develop the plot of a psychological thriller film, shaping the characters'personalities. eg. usually character will find the true identidy/ the devil side of himself/herself in psychological thriller, in which it is one of the architypes - the loss of innocence.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_thriller