Analysis of Film Openings- Drama Genre

Conventions to take note of:

• Shot sizes
• Shot angles
• Shot durations
• Transitions and overall pace
• Sound effects
• Use of music
• Title fonts and colours
• Colour palette and lighting
• Setting
• Types of characters and their contexts
• Storyline/ plot development
• Overall tone/ mood/ atmosphere

Film 1- 'The Judge'

• Guitar music starts playing with black screen
• Opening shot- close up of glasses
• Close ups- low-key lighting, earthy colours, warm
• Font- white, all capitals, clear
• Establishing shot- long shot
• Long shot- showing setting of scene
• Music with faster pace/busy- busy place
• Mens toilets- bright lights/cool- represent his character
• Wearing a suit- character is a lawyer
• High angle/ over the shoulder shot- he is important

Film 2- 'Forrest Gump'

• Opening shot- long duration- set slow pace
• Calm piano music
• Ambient sound- when feather gets to the ground
• Font- white, clear
• Bright lights and warm colours 
• Setting- city/ large town
• Characters waiting at bus stop
• Forrest- simple character
• Tone- warm, not threatening

Film 3- 'The Time Travellers Wife'

• Opens with violin music
• Oprah singing- warm and happy
• Low-key lighting- night time
• Warm colours
• Christmas time- snowing
• Ambient sounds- cars/crashing/window smashes- sharp sounds
• Font- yellow text on dark screen
• Transitions- slower at beginning and get quicker
• Eye level camera angles
• Smaller shot sizes
• After accident- longer shot sizes
• Overall tone- tense, threatening, worried for boy.

Film 4- 'The Descendants'

• Loud ambient sounds before we see what is happening
• Close up and long duration of woman on speedboat
• Slow fade out
• Ukelele in background- happy and upbeat- contrast to what is happening
• Narration
• Hawaii setting- flowers on background
• Character- findout who they are from the voice-over
• Long shots of people in Hawaii
• Tone- grim

Film 5- 'The Age Of Adelaine'

• Tense, slow music in opening
• Narrator
• High angle/ birds eye angle of city
• Font- white, small, non-intrusive, handwriting-type
• Characters- Adelaine- mysterious, smart, not a cop
• Overall tone- serious, mysterious, intriguing

Film 6- 'Life of Pi'

• Establishing shot- long shot
• Music- calm and cultural
• High-key lighing- bright
• Setting- zoo; animals and cages
• Font- traditional, white/yellow
• Very slow pace
• No characters yet (3 minutes in)
• Overall tone- relaxing, calm

Genre Analysis (Thriller) - BFI Statistical Yearbook

BFI Statistical Yearbook- Genre Information
In order to amass quantitative data on the Thriller genre, we have referred to the BFI’s 2016 Statistical Yearbook as it is far beyond the scope of any survey that we could ever hope to conduct. In the BFI’s own words, ‘The Statistical Yearbook presents in one place all the available statistics on UK film and the UK film industry.’

Analysis

• The Thriller genre grossed £37.1 million, which amounts to 2.9% of all money grossed at the box office.
• Taken 3 was the top performing Thriller film of 2015.
• There were a total of 52 Thriller films released, amounting to 6.9% of the total number of films released in 2015.
• Taken 3 was number 18 for the box office results for the top 20 films in the UK and Ireland.

Significance

The Thriller genre was not most popular in demand in 2015 among the British public, as it was the tenth highest in the average box office gross per site. Taken 3 was the most popular Thriller of 2015 and was given a '12A' certificate, giving us a clear idea of our potential target audience. However, we also find out that 40% of the film's audience were aged 15-24 which may also be used as helpful as we know that this age group are more likely to watch thrillers. 

We do not find out the difference in percentage of the male and female audience, but we would most likely presume that there would be a significantly greater number of male viewers due to the stereotype of men preferring horror and thriller genre films.

The Registrar General's Social Scale
The Registrar General’s Social Scale is the way the British Government defines the populace through their occupation:

A benefit of the Registrar General’s Social Scale is that it can help companies to target audiences. However, the scale has been criticised for being both crude and rigid.

BFI Statistical Yearbook: Films with Above Average Shares of Audience Members from Specific Groups of the Registrar General's Social Scale:

Significance

Out of all the films that feature in this portion of the survey, the production we have in mind has most in common with Taken 3, which was the most popular film amongst members of the audience from the DE category. 

Storyboard for Preliminary Task

Script for Preliminary Task

MISS JONES

Come in Miss Brown.

KAYLEIGH walks through the door and simultaneously sits down along with MISS JONES

KAYLEIGH

Hi, nice to meet you, I am Kayleigh Brown and - - -

MISS JONES

(interrupts) Stop blabbering and let's get into this, I have wasted far too much time today on interviewing candidates for this post. I see you have a degree in English - - -

Camera tilts down and tilts back up at a different point in the interview 

KAYLEIGH

- - and due to this I have had a lot of experience working with children in a classroom set up.

MISS JONES

Everything is looking good so far (pause, close up on documents as she turns the page) so when were you planning on telling me about your criminal record, before or after you got the job?

Close up on KAYLEIGHs face to show her emotion

KAYLEIGH

Urmmmmmmm (clears throat) but it isn't going to affect my chances of getting this job (pause) - - - will it?

MISS JONES

(raises voice) You will have a huge influence on these children of course it is going to affect this! (pause) I am sorry but this is not acceptable - - - your application has been denied.

Basic Treatment for Preliminary Task

Working title
Criminal

Synopsis
A woman goes for a job interview as a teacher but the criminal record she thought was in her past comes back to haunt her.

Characters
There is the interviewer called Miss Jones who is a strict and unforgiving head teacher of a well-known comprehensive school. The interviewee, Kayleigh Brown, is a recent university graduate with a degree in English.

Film Techniques
We will film this with a DSLR camera using a variety of different techniques including; tracking shot, over the shoulder shot, two shot, match on action, tilts, zooms and close-ups and 180-degree-shot.

Production Considerations
We intend to film this in our school, using a classroom set up and making use of simply a desk and a chair. Additional props will be included such as folders and paperwork to make it more realistic.