Description of target audience

Our Target Audience

As a group we discussed that are target audience for our film 'Two-Faced' would be aimed at young adults aged 15-24 mainly, however that may not be the case depending on your class, hobbies and interests. 
The main demographic group is males and females of any ethnicity and i feel it would be focused more on single relationships as they would go and see this film with their friends rather than as a family outing. For example, there are horror seekers which thoroughly enjoy watching scary films as an escape according to Bloomer and Katz users and gratifications theory. Secondly, for Young and Rubicam's theory we thought it would focus towards the explorer and the reformer. We chose the explorer because they are up for a challenge and are often the first to try out new experiences and therefore, as our film is an unusual genre of psycho/horror mix then they will be the first to watch it. Similarly, the reformer as they enjoy enlightenment and pride themselves on tolerance, as a result being interested in new information. Furthermore, the socio-economic groups C1-E mainly as these people may have more time on their hands to go and watch films, whilst also having more of a relation to the character as she is an ordinary school girl of an average middle class family. The target audience psycho-graphic for our film would be, outgoing, thrill seekers who love gore and films with a hidden storyline. You could also say, their psycho-graphic would be people who are up for a laugh and dont take fictional films seriously. Lastly, the lifestyle of the audience would be confident, outgoing people who are thrill seekers when it comes to psychotic and horrifying story-lines.

Our Opening Sequence Pitch

Our Film Idea

The key points throughout our opening sequence...

Storyline: 

• Institutional Logo
• Begins with the main character turning up slightly late to her family birthday party
• Enters the kitchen and the family shout 'Happy Birthday!'
• Some action of the girl talking to her family like a typical birthday meal
• Then a push wipe into the family singing happy birthday with the cake entering to show time has passed (make it more concise)
• Mum says 'Make a wish!'
• Close up of the girl closing her eyes and blowing out the candles 
• Then there is a black out 
• Enters a subtle heartbeat in the background on top of our chosen music called 'hush'
• The montage begins including blurred and unfocused scenes of the murder scene and the birthday party
• The editing of this is going to include flickering clips whilst some also in slow motion (especially the knife cutting into the cake) and this can show the disorientation and distortion of the characters mind
• Overtime the heartbeat and music increases in pace and volume
• Then the music and sound effects suddenly stop and a party visitor who is the last to leave turns round to the main character and goes 'So what did you wish for' and the main charcter Ophelia replies 'thats for me to know and you to find out' in a slight sarcastic tone and closes the door
• Blackout
• The title two-faced appears and after a few seconds a set of eyes appear at the bottom of the screen and blink.

Institutional logo:

• We decided our logo would be 'Distortion Pictures'
• This has a direct relevance to our film idea and would fit in perfectly with the whole opening.
• This is just a draft so when we get to editing it may change depending on how well it fits in with our filming.

We feel this fits in well as the curvy font fits with the distorted effect. Secondly, the shadow behind the font is also is a convention of the horror genre which therefore is why we used it. lastly, we used a red colour as the font because it shows the psychotic side to Ophelia's character whereas the white background represents her hidden purity within.

Title:

This is our rough draft for our title which we made in lesson and i feel this is perfect as the letters are distorted and broken to represent the horror genre. Similarly, the title is also blunt and bold which stands out on the black background. We nay swap the style and font of the intuitional logo and the title depending on what best fits our editing when we get round to it. However, we like both of them and are going to keep them this way round for now.

Props:

• Knife
• Red velvet cake
• Fake blood
• Shattered glass
• Candles
• Wine Glasses 
• Party Banners/ Balloons

 Key Camera Shots:

• POV shot of the body at the murder scene
• Canted Angles to show the distorted mind
• Extreme Close ups for impact
• Close ups
• Low Shots to show the power of authority this character believes they have and also to see the perspective of the body on the floor
• Medium Shots
• Establishing shot of the house at the beginning
• Tight frames
• Long shot
• Shot-reverse-shot to show our knowledge of the 180 degree rule

Mis-en-scene:

• Everyday Clothing with an element of white for Ophelia (the main character) to show her hidden evil is being covered by a sense of purity which the other characters (her family) thinks she has
• Family should wear a normal formal outfit with light colours

Lighting:

• Low-Key lighting at the murder scene to add the geographical context of the time of day (night time) whilst also creating a sombre mood.
• High-Key Lighting at the party scenes to create a vast contrast
• Dimmed lighting when the cake enters- typical party lighting

Sounds:

• Loyalty free music- 'Hush' because it has a great build up and has a creepy industrial tone about it
• Heartbeat- adds suspense to the piece whilst also getting faster and faster and therefore fitting perfectly with the music.
• Typical party sounds- such as laughing and the clinking of glasses and some in slow motion.

Final Film Idea

Film Idea

Age Rating

We have chosen a certified rating of 15 because it is going to have elements of murder, and gory scenes of blood. Also as it is a horror genre it will have scenes 

Genre

The genre will still be a mix of psycho and horror as we feel it is a very appealing genre and will be very popular.

Narrative Storyline

We are going to do a non-linear narrative illustrating the girls life in a flashback format before the murder scene occurred. This adds more suspense and allows all the audiences narrative enigma from the opening sequence to be answered. Similarly, it will also add a more interesting aspect as it is an unusual affect used for the duration of the film and i think if this was a real film it would be successful. Secondly, the storyline we have chosen therefore challenges Todorov's narrative theory because we do not start with the equilibrium, we chose to start with the distraction in the opening sequence and then the film will be a flashback starting with the equilibrium then and explaining all the narrative enigma. We decided to do this as it compliments with the characters psychotic mind as the film seems to be disorientated and in the wrong order.

Characters

Ophelia- Is the main character who is also the protagonist of the film. The film shows her life before the murder scene.

School friends ensemble- Friends of aphelia's as we see them together in a school environment and at sleepovers to show her normality before this incident. Ophelia will have 2 best friends which will be vital in the change in her personality and they are there to talk and discuss with Ophelia why she has changed. An idea could also be the friends eventually ditch her and she becomes worse and worse.

Coral (Ophelia's best friend)- this is the person that Ophelia kills and throughout the film we receive clues due to why. Firstly, as she is turning psychotic she begins to become jealous of Coral's looks and her popularity. therefore, Ophelia feels she is losing her best friend as she is fading away to her other close friends. Another reason Coral is leaving Ophelia is because she is too dependent and engrossed into her boyfriend therefore leaving Coral out anyway.

Family ensemble- I feel that the family are also background characters as this film is just going to focus on Ophelia's journey. So, i feel that the family are only going to be preset in our film and we will probably not see them throughout the film.

Teachers- Ophelia's teachers in school may be a key part in the film as they can assess her progress from a normal everyday teenager to a psychotic and twisted character. This could be shown in clips of a parents evening where they create enigma answers to how she evolved into this type of character that was shown in the opening sequence. There will be a few main teachers which will be more present in the film.



Ophelia's boyfriend (Flynn)- Her boyfriends
personality would be very caring and sensitive and by the end of the film the only person who is there for her is him.

Location/Setting

Most of the film is going to be situated within the school environment as well as friends and Flynn's house. Ophelia's house is also shown in the opening sequence and the exterior is included in the film. Lastly, the alleyway is obviously a key part to the film as this is the murder scene.

The Initial Ideas For Our Opening Sequence

Initial Ideas

Straight away, my group felt strongly about doing a psycho/horror opening sequence as they are a great way to create suspense as well as allowing narrative enigma to entice the audience to keep watching. Therefore, I decided to mind map my ideas to help exhibit the storyline,costumes,sounds,title,script and sound that I thought we could use. Below are these mind maps, and as you can see I began by showing ideas based on the horror genre, and then after discussing with my group I wrote our base line for our opening sequence.

A mind map of the initial ideas we could use for our horror opening sequence

A more detailed insight into our piece after discussing it in depth as a group

We do still have a lot to discuss to make sure that our sequence it is the best it can be however these are the basic ideas we have and overall we feel confident ,as a group, for our piece. 

Communicating the horror genre

Communicating the Horror genre

The genre we have chosen for our opening sequence is horror however as the theorist Robert Stam suggested the genre of a film is difficult to define as films may fall into more than one. Our film overall will include elements of a psycho and romance. On the other hand, Rick Altman's theory demonstrated 2 factors which were semantic and synaptic demonstrating how the sounds, lighting and location influence the genre. Lastly, the way we communicated the horror genre is using Steve Neale's theory that all films go through a cycle and change through its lifespan. We decided our film pushes the boundaries as we have chosen a classic genre (horror) however have tweaked elements  and added the psycho feel to make it unique.

Throughout our piece we will use a variation of hyperbolic, non diegetic and diegetic sound. This will allow us to make our piece seem more realistic.

Another way we will be communicating the horror genre is through the characters. The main character, Ophelia, will be represented as an emotional and hidden teenager who has no one to confide in and keeps everything to herself. Low key lighting and a contrast of light are conventional to a horror genre so using these in our opening sequence create narrative enigma and keep the audience engaged.

The credits we are planning to use are simple yet effective. A bold one colour large font is conventional in a horror films so using a white or black font will stand out from the background making it aware to the audience. The production logo will also be kept simple however will have a slight horror element to it. 

Using these conventions in our opening sequence makes the audience build up fear and feel the tension set by the film which will make them want to carry on watching it.

Credit sequences Analysis

Credit Sequences

        

Analysis of student made opening sequences

Analysis of student made opening sequences

I decided to analyse a students piece of work which really helped my group decide on a final idea for our own piece. This piece of work got an A grade and included all the elements that an opening sequence needs. Lastly, it is relevant to our piece because 'the inner evil' connotes the idea of one person with two identities and so our piece is exactly like that however with some psychotic and horror elements as well.

The inner evil (2013)

It begins with the institutional logo which is filmed in the same setting as the actual opening sequence to create more relevance and show that it is sponsoring the film.  The music is not a conventional thriller song which I believe makes its more unique whilst also creating enigmas of where this film is going to go in terms of the narrative. I also like the idea of the flashbacks/ forwards as it is an unusual technique within this genre therefore creating individuality. On the other hand, I believe that the use of shaky camera movements such as the shallow focus of the glass was intentional as it contributes to the portrayal of the genre and the shakiness may represent the disorientation of what's happening in the characters mind. Secondly, the location it was filmed in connotes an everyday scene to show the simplistic elements and that this film would be based through the eyes of an ordinary teenage girl. Lastly, I feel the concept of this film is slightly unclear as the 'inner evil' creates enigmas whether the girl is dreaming all of those dramatic moments or whether they would actually happen later on.

In contrast to this, I found an opening sequence which I believe has various elements which let it down and therefore came across as very unprofessional.

The Bloody Suit (2013)

Firstly, the storyline behind this is too clear and it doesn't feel like an opening sequence however, after reading the overview underneath the clip I found that the narrative was completely different different to what came across showing it wasn't clearly thought through enough. Similarly, there were various continuity errors for example, running the bath without putting the plug in and the male character had a change of clothes near the end which also contributes to the poor quality of this sequence. There was no institutional logo or title to the film once again showing that the group were not organised and lacked knowledge about  conventions of opening sequences. Likewise, the credits were a very plain white font and they could have used that as an ample opportunity to exhibit their genre. I noticed that some credits were accidentally repeated as well which could have been a very easy thing to fix. Although, their music clearly resembled a thriller genre, the way it was integrated into the piece was very poor and at points it wasn't necessary as it only played for around 2 seconds. In my opinion I think they should have used only one song and had it continuously playing throughout the whole piece. Lastly, the camera work did have various shots and used a variety of editing techniques such as cross cutting from the car to the house and colourising (when the knife is being removed), however overall it wasn't a polished piece of work and I feel they could have done much better.