British Board Of Film Classification (Age Rating of our film)

I have researched into the age rating of films and how films are actually rated. I found that the best website for this part of my research was the British Board Of Film Classification, I used the age guidelines hyperlink in order to navigate my way to the specific page. Because me and my group have decided that our fillm will be rated at an '18', I have linked only this part of the website to my blog below. We rated our film at 18 because the conventions of our film opening fitted the criteria on the BBFC website.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/18-2/

Target Audience Research

What is a Target Audience?
The Target Audince for a film is the specific group of people within the target market at which the film is aimed at. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group,gender, marital status, and more. A Target Audeince is extremely important when producing a film, 'who will it be aimed at', 'who will it appeal to' are all common questions when producing a film.

Deciding the Target Audience for our film:
We conducted research via a questionaire into the thriller genre and what age group of people mainly watch thriller films. We discovered that the majority of people who watch thrillers are 18+, this age group is therefore our target audience. Moreover we are aiming our film at people with a high socio- economic status. So middle class people with a good education, a good occupation and a good income. This Target Audience research has also helped us to decide on the age rating of our film, which will be 18+ because we plan to include images that may be deemed inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18 to see, also we may include swearing in our film opening, so it was best to just rate our film as an 18.


Here are the examples of the questionaires we conducted and the results we recieved. based on our Target Audience and Age Rating.

This is the Original Copy of the Questionaire. We then gave the questionaire to three of our classmates to gain their preferences on thriller films and what they thought a thriller film should be rated at.

 

These are some of the responses we received when asking people to participate with our questionnaire.

Video Inspiration 3 (NEW CONCEPT)

The video above is the Opening Titles from the film 'Seven'. We have used this video as inspiration as we like the style of the titles. I like how they are incorporated into the filming, which is the style that we wanted to replicate. This adds a surreal and creepy effect to the footage. The font of the text / titles is a sort of scribbly, etchy handwriting style, this style of font suits the footage as it sort of reveals something about the nature of the film. We want our font style to match the footage that we record and therefore reveal subtle hints about the storyline of our film.

Video Inspiration 2 (NEW CONCEPT)

This is the trailer for the film "One Hour Photo'. This film is about a man who becomes obsessed with a family through developing their family photographs. The film is powered by the haunting and chilling performance by Robin Williams. Robin Williams fades away from our senses and slips into the ever so sweet and innocent yet psychotic role of a supermarket's photo developer.The way in which Stalking is represented in this film is somewhat different to the way I want to portray stalking in our two minute film opening. This film shows a man who becomes obsessed and begins to stalk a family after developing their photograpghs ,this is a fairly old fashioned notion of stalking someone. So like the trailer, (Red Road) I want to show stalking in a new and inticingly scary way.

Video Inspiration 1 (NEW CONCEPT)

This video is the official trailer for the film 'Red Road'. The film revolves around a ceratin type of obsession and stalking. The films plot is fairly unusual as the stalker in this film is actually a woman, this notion of a female stalking a male totally subverts and goes against the sterotypical norms of a man being stronger and superior to a woman. This feature makes the film fairly interesting and enticing. This video has inspired me to use stalking as a central theme, only I know that I want a male to portray the stalker in my film opening. The film shows how easy it is to stalk someone through modern technology devices that are easily accessable to anyone with a computer. So we want to use modern technology to emphasise this certain aspect.

Complete Planning For Our 2 Minute Film Opening

Opening Titles

We are going to incorporate our opening titles into our filming. We will begin filming by moving the camera towards a door, the door will open to reveal a man sitting down in a room. The man will then approach the notice board in order to pin up a note about our victims schedule. There will then be a close up of the notice board to show his victims daily schedule. This shot will contain a name for the beginning of the opening titles. He then walks towards the computer screen and sits down on the floor. We will then do an over the shoulder shot to reveal what he is looking at on the computer screen.Here we will see, several folders of names which are in fact his previous victims. There will also be another name which is part of the opening titles screen. We will then use a pannning shot to show a folder that will have part of the opening titles on its cover.

First scene

Our male character will open a folder which will reveal disturbing images of his victims. Giving the viewers an insight into his frightening nature. At this moment we will edit in a voiceover of the male charcters thoughts which will link to the images in the book.Whilst our male character is looking at the book we will include some non diegetic music playing in the background, to add a mysterious effect.

Male Characters Voiceover

( Dialogue + Script )

Emily Weston – She was my first embrace, the first time I found myself. She was a difficult one, she was a screamer I soon put an end to that. A tongue on the floor says it all.

Julie Andrews- Second was Sparky. She was a sight for sore eyes as her body lit up with volts.

Mary Anne- The tool. She was a vain one, she knew she could get whoever she wanted, so I soon used a tool on her. A screwdriver to the temple and a hammer to the head took care of her vanity.

Amy Brooks- The sizzler. Burning flesh smells so unique. Just like her. Petrol buried her scent, so I buried her beneath the flames.

Charlotte Hale- She will be my fifth lady in red. My Sistine chapel, my current addiction, maybe she will be different, she just might listen.

Second Scene

This scene will show the male charcter shutting the book and exiting the room. The next shot will show our male character in the garden, in which he will then climb a fence and look through some binoculars. We will edit black circles onto our filming to show an eye line match to show that he is only looking at her. To emphasise that she is the most important person to him. We will film from a distance towards a window, which will show Charlotte in her room.

Research into Stalking

In order to make the stalking aspect of our film opening as realistic as possible, I researched into the issue of stalking and how it effects people.

Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an attention by an individual or group to another person.Stalking behaviours are referred to as harassment and intimidation and may include  following the victim or even monitoring them. Stalking can be defined as the wilful and repeated following, watching or harassing another person. Unlike other crimes they an be a one time offence/ act whereas stalking is a series of actions that occur over a period of time. Although stalking is illegal some of the actions that can contribute to stalking are initially legal such as gathering information, calling someone on the phone, sending  gifts, emailing or instant messaging. They become illegal when they breach the legal definition of harassment . e.g an action such as sending a text is not usually illegal , but becomes illegal when frequently repeated to an unwilling recipient.


When conducting my research I discovered that there are several types of stalkers. I have listed some of them below:

• Rejected Stalkers- pursue their victims in order to reverse, correct, or avenge a rejection, e.g (divorce, separation,termination of a relationship).
• Resentful Stalkers- pursue a vendetta because of a sense of grievance against the victim, the stalker is mainly motivated by the desire to frighten and distress the victim.
• Intimacy Seekers- seek to establish an intimate, loving relationship with their victim. To many of them the victim is a long - sought after soul mate, and they were 'meant' to be together.
• Incompetent Suitors-, despite poor social skills or courting skills, these type of stalkers have a fixation or in some cases a sense of entitlement to a relationship with those who have attracted them their amorous interest. their victims are most often already in a relationship with someone else.
• Predatory Stalkers- spy on their victims in order to prepare and plan an attack- often of a sexual nature on the victim.

I think that our male stalker will be most similar to that of a 'Predatory Stalker', as our male character spies on our victim in order to attack her and then eventually kill her like his previous victims. This research has helped me to pin the conventions and mannerisms of a stalker, to make the stalking aspect in our film opening more realistic and believable. 

Change In Film Name

Now that we have come up with a new concept we decided to change the name of our film, so that it suited the new concept and gave some insight into what the film would be about. We didn't want to change the title a lot , only a subtle change would benefit the new idea, so we changed the name from 'The Lady In Red' to 'His Lady In Red'. We believe that this name suits the new idea more as it suggests that the victim belongs to him (our male stalker) that she is his possesion. That she is in fact 'His' Lady In Red.

The new film name:   'His Lady In Red'

The New Concept

For our Film Opening we have completely changed the concept of our idea. Our first idea was about the struggles that a young girl faced due the prostitution she was exposed too. After we reviewed this idea we realised that it was a little cliche, and that showing a flashback in the first 2 minutes of our film opening was not a good idea. Also we were unsure about having a drug scene within our film opening. Taking all this into consideration I decided to totally subvert our idea, and have a central theme running throughout our film. We also decided that our film should become a psychological thriller as our idea was suited to the conventions of this genre. Our theme would be the scenario of stalking, and how modern day technology can aid a stalker. I need to do more research on the issue of stalking and how we can successfully portray this particular issue in our film opening.