Production/Distribution Company

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Wikepedia:

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a film division of 20th Century Fox, established in 1994. It specialises in indie and British films, alongside dramedy and horror as well as non-English language films, and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films. Fox Searchlight's Slumdog Millionaire won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 81st Academy Awards as well as a further 7 academy awards. Other Fox Searchlight films receiving Best Picture nominations include The Full Monty, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine and Juno.

This suggests that Fox Searchlight Pictures would be a good production company for our film 'Neurosis' because it specialises in indie and Britsih films. Moreover, it produced the psychological thriller 'One Hour Photo'.

New Line Cinema

'The Butterfly Effect', which focuses on similar themes to our film 'Neurosis', such as a teenage love obessesion and the mind, was produced by New Line Cinema in 2004. New Line Cinema initally started off as an independent film studio, before becoming a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996, and Warner Bros in 2008.

Columbia Pictures

It is an American film production and distribution company that now forms part of the Columba TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Columbia Pictures has produced psychological thrillers such as 'Secret Window', 'Misery' and 'Panic Room'.

BBFC Research & Target Audience

From our research of the BBFC and our analysis of psychological thrillers, my group has decided to rate our film a 15. Three out of the six films that I studied were rated 15, which suggests that most psychological thrillers are aimed at 15+. In addition, we want to aim our film at teenagers so by rating it an 18 we would be eliminating our target audience.

Contrastingly, we have chosen to use a teenager for our main character unlike most of the films that we have watched. We chose to do this because we wanted to challenge the conventions, as a lot of psychological thrillers are 12A/15 so teenagers are allowed to watch them according to the law. However, most psychological thrillers use middle-aged men as the main characters rather than teenagers. We know that teenagers like to be scared as they are the target audience for most slasher horror films, therefore a psychological thriller aimed at teenagers would appeal to them because they like to be scared and a psychological thriller with a teenager as a main character would scare them more than a middle aged character because it is more reminiscent of their own lives.

Research & Planning

BBFC CERTIFICATION GUIDELINES:

Suitable for 12 years and over

Discrimination: must not be endorsed by the work as a whole and any misuse must be infrequent and should not be glamourised

Horror: moderate physical and psychological threat providing they are not frequent or sustained

Imitable behaviour: dangerous behaviour (e.g. hanging/suicide) should not dwell on detail that can be copied

Violence: no emphasis on injuries or blood

Examples from films that I have studied:

Suitable for 15 years and over

Discrimination: must not be endorsed by the work as a whole and any misuse must be in frequent and should not be glamourised

Horror: permitted unless sadistic

Imitable behaviour: dangerous behaviour should not dwell on details which could be easily copied

Theme: no theme is prohibited provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds

Violence: may be strong but should not dwell on infliction

Examples from films that I have studied:

Suitable for adults

No limitations unless in breach of the law (e.g. criminal law)

Examples from films that I have studied:

Psychological Thrillers Conventions Task

Analysistable4

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Psychological Thriller's Opening Titles Analysis

To get a sense of what the opening of our film would be like I analysised the opening titles of two psychological thrillers:

The Secret Window:

Titles (and the time that they appeared):
Columbia Pictures Presents 2:36
a PARIAH production 2:39
Main actors name 2: 43
Title of the film (fades from white to red) 2:48
Actor's name 2:55
Actor's name 2:59
Actor's name 3:04
Actor's name 3:07
Actor's name 3:11
Casting by.... (had 'C.S.A' after their name) 3:15
Costume designer 3:20
Music by 3:24
Edited by... (had 'A.C.E' after their name) 3:28
Production Designer 3:31
Director of Photography... (had 'A.S.C' after their name) 3:36
Executive Producer 3:40
Produced by 3:43
Based upon the story... 3:58
Screenplay by 4:11
Directed by 4:17

What can you tell about the storyline of the film from the opening titles?

From the opening titles you can tell that the main character is a man, who appears to be in his late thirties. He storms into a motel room and finds a man and women in bed together, which the audience presumes to be his wife as whilst steering the car at the beginning of the film the audience can see a gold wedding ring on his finger which suggests that he is married. After that the shot changes to show a remote location where there is a red house in the woods by a lake and as the camera goes into the house the audience notice a laptop on a desk surrounded by books. From this use of mise-en-scene the audience would assume that the main character is an author of some sort. In addition, whilst the main character is in the car at the beginning of the film you can hear someone talking, although the main character's lips are not moving and there is nobody else in the car with him, because of this the audience is lead to believe that the voice we can hear is coming from his mind and are therefore, his thoughts. This suggests that the film may have something to do with his mind.

Genre?

The Secret Window is a psychological thriller as psychological thrillers are based on elements that are related to the mind and processes of the mind e.g. the audience hearing his thoughts. The audience can also tell that it is a psychological thriller because of the tension building music in the background and because the title of the film fades from white to red (and red or white titles are quite a generic convention of psychological thrillers).

Technical Analysis: (mise-en-scene, camera work, lighting, editing and sound)
Lighting - the lighting at the beginning of the opening is quite dark, which suggests that something bad is possibly about to happen as usually in psychological thrillers bad things happen in the dark rather than natural lighting.
Mise-en-scene - at the beginning of the film the main character is seen to be wearing all black, which is quite an ominous colour and has of death, perhaps to signify the death of his marriage. Also there is a Long Shot of the motel and the motel sign is in red, which is also the colour of the doors on the motel rooms. Red has conntations of danger, stop and passion, all of which tie in with what is going on in the opening of the film. Futhermore, towards the end of the opening titles the main character is seen lying on a sofa in a blue bathroom with a massive hole on the shoulder, this could be to signify that the character doesn't care about their appearance as they are still traumatised by the incident at the beginning of the film.
Sound - the sound is mainly non-deigetic. Throughout the opening there is constant use of tension heightoning music to keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the music leads to a climax in the action. Whilst the main character is the motel room the music changes and it makes it sound like there is a voice in his head that whirling around and when he screams "NO" it sounds really disfigured and un natural which is why I think that the change in music is to do with the noises in his head.
Editing - there is an overlap of two shots (the shot of the motel and the shot of the lake) where the shots fade over each other really slowly to show the passing of time. Moreover, for most of the opening a normal cutting pace is used.
Camera Work- From the lake it one smooth, continous shot that draws the audience to the main character that is lying on the sofa and also makes the audience feel as if they are intruding as the camera goes through an open window. In addition, the camera goes through what appears to be a mirror that is hanging on the wall and as it does there are slight traces of smoke on visable on sreen prehaps to suggest that camera is entering an alturnative reality and that the mirror is 'the secret window' to another type of world or as it is a psychological thriller the main character's mind.

Panic Room:


Titles (and the time that they appeared):
Columbia Pictures Presents 0:21
A Hofflund/Polone Production 0:26
An Indelible Picture 0:29
Main actress 0:32
Main actor 0:36

Main actor 0:40
Main actor 0:44
Title of the film 0:48
Smaller actor's name 0:55
Smaller actor's name (two onsrceen at the same time) 0:59
Smaller actor's name (two onscreen at the same time) 1:03
Casting by 1:08
Costume designer 1:12
Music by 1:15
Film editors (two names onscreen at the same time, followed by 'A.C.E.') 1:20
Production designer 1:24
Director of photography (two names onscreen , followed by 'A.S.C.' and 'A.F.C.') 1:27
Produced by (four names onscreen) 1:32
Written by 1:37
Directed by 1:40

(NOTE: average time of four seconds between each title appearing)

What can you tell about the storyline of the film from the opening titles?
The opening titles do not give very much away apart from that the film is set in New York City, which the audience can tell because in some of the shots you can see yellow taxi's and there is a shot of what seemed to be Centeral Park and Times Square whilst the titles were appearing. The audience can also deduce that it is autumn time because there are brown leaves falling from the trees whilst the female character is talking. From the dialogue that she exchanges with the other character, "42 hundred sqaure feet, four floors, perfect. Courtyard and back south facing garden" it is possible that she is an estate agent, property developer or event planner that leads a hetic lifestyle. The audience can also tell that she is impacient because she says no to waiting for a car service because she does not want to "sit in traffic forever".

Genre?
Panic Room is a psychological thriller. The audience can tell that it is a psychological thriller because of the title of the film and the non-diegtic music played over the titles, as it is tension heightoning music which is commonly used in thrillers. Also most psychological thrillers start with the equilibrium of a normal day.

Technical Analysis: (mise-en-scene, camera work, lighting, editing and sound)
Lighting - The lighting in the opening of the film is natural and soft to make it seem like its a normal day.
Mise-en-scene - One of the female characters, presumably the main character, is wearing a long grey coat with fur on the lapel. This makes the character seem affluent, which is reinforced by the knecklace that she is wearing as it appears to be made out of diamonds. Also her and the other character, that is dressed in black, are wearing sunglasses, which adds an air of mystery to them to keep the audience guessing.
Sound - The sound is mainly non-diegtic, apart from the last five seconds or so of the opening titles and even then the non-diegtic music is playing over the diegtic dialogue. The music is repetative to build tension and it gives an eerie feel to the opening of the film. A continous ticking sound is added to the tension heightoning music after the title of the film appears on screen. The constant ticking gives the opening of the film a sense of urgency as it is as if time is running out, or could possibly even link to a bomb ticking. This keeps the audience of the edge of their seats and foused on what is going onscreen because they do not want to miss any of the action. In addition, there is also a sound bridge used from the shots of the appartment/office blocks to the female characters talking to link the two shots together. At the beginning of the opening titles one of the first things that the audience hear is a police siren, which is also an indication that it's a city and could be a possible forshadowing of the events that are going to unfold during the course of the film.
Editing - A normal cutting pace is used throughout the opening titles.
Camera Work - When the two female characters are introduced on screen a tilt shot (a movement which scans a scene vertically) is used as a way of allowing the audience to scrutinise the characters. However, for the most part of the opening Long Shots are used to allow the audience to take in the surrounding area.

Psychological Thriller's Opening Analysis

The Butterfly Effect Opening Analysis:



At the begining of the film there is a quote from the chaos theory that gives the audience an explanation to the idea that the film is based on:

It has been said that something as

small as the flutter of a butterfly's

wing can ultimately cause a typhoon
halfway around the world.

-Chaos Theory

It appears on a black screen in white writing, which is quite a typical convention of titles in psychological thrillers (either that or red coloured text). The opening of the film starts at the end and goes backwards in time, this technique helps keep the audience guessing and at the edge of their seat as they are unable to quite figure out what is going on onscreen, which helps to keep them interested and is also a common convention used in psychological thrillers.

Throughout the opening of the film there is a mixture of diegtic and non-diegtic sound. At the very beginning there is non-diegtic music playing in the background that heightons tension to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

There are a viariety of different camera angles used throughout the opening of the film, however the most common types of camera angles seem to be Medium Shots and Close Ups. Both of these shots allow the audience highlight an important piece of dialogue (MS) or an object or emotion of particular importance (CU).

The amount of characters that the audience see are quite limited so as not to bombard the audience with too many characters all at once. Moreover, during the film the costumes that the characters are wearing seem to give an insight into the characters mental state or mood as well as their position in society or job. For example, the boy (the main character) is wearing a blue tracksuit top with a red streak down the middle. The colour connotations for blue is usually calm and collected, whereas, red has connotations of danger, which links in with the character as he is shown to be calm and collected in some parts of the opening (e.g. whilst writing in his diary at breakfast) and then dangerous (e.g. whilst holding a knife in the kitchen and is unable to remember how it got there). Another example of costume giving an insight into the characters possible state of mind is the main characters mum. She is seen wearing a beige uniform, which has possible colour connotations of neutrality and therefore peace of mind.

Misery Opening Analysis:

The opening of Misery starts as if it is a normal day, which is a typical convention of a psychological thriller. However, there are also many signs and signifiers that something is, or is going to go, wrong. For example, there is a CU of the main character writing 'THE END' could be a possible signifier for the end of his life. The main character is also wearing a red shirt with a black t-shirt underneath. Both of these colours have ominous connotations of danger and death. During the opening ten minutes, there is a flashback to before the main character went to finish his book, in the remote montainous location. This gives the audience an insight to his motives for being there and also serves as a way to confuse the audience to make them stay focused on what is happening onscreen. Flashbacks seem to be a generic convention of psychologial thrillers as both The Butterfly Effect and Misery have them.

For the majority of the opening of the film the lighting is natural. However, whenever something bad is about to happen the lighting becomes slighly darker. For example, when the main character was driving down the mountain the lighting was darker in comparision to when he was in the house writing the novel.

In addition, many different camera angles were used. However, similarly to The Butterfly Effect the most common seemed to be MS and CU. When the main character woke up for the first time after the accident the camera was a low angled CU shot the the woman, Annie. This camera angle made her seem dominant and the audience feel inferior and vulnerable and could be an indication to her not necessarily being as nice as she seems.

The colours red and black came up repeatidly in the opening of this film. For example, the tablets that he took were red and the main female character Annie was shown wearing all black twice. Therefore, it seems that another generic convention of psychological thriller is to have the colours red and black dominate mise-en-scene.

Research & Planning

Genre: As a group we decided to do a psychological thriller for our coursework.

From my research I found out that a psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the wide ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre.

Deconstruction of the definition:

Psychological - elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind.

Thriller - a genre of fiction that attempts to thrill its audience by placing characters at great risk.

Psychological thriller - by combining these two terms, the definition changes to a narrative that makes the characters exposed to danger on a mental level rather than a physical one. Characters are no longer reliant on physical strenth to overcome their brutish enemies, 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.

Common themes that occur in psychological thrillers are: reality, perceptions, mind, existance/purpose, idenity and death.

Preliminary Task

Deadlines:
Finished filming: Monday 11th 2010
Finished editing: Wednesday 13th 2010

Script: “THE GUMMY BEAR THIEF”

Characters:
Leon- Criminal
Jemima- Police officer

Leon sitting on chair (medium close up/mid shot)

Jemima opens the door, walks in across the room and sits down
opposite Leon (separate shots)

Jemima bangs sweet bag on table (close up of hand, camera follows arm to Jemima’s face- close up)

Jemima: How do you explain this? This is a Class A gummy bear! (Stern authoritative voice) (medium close up)

Passes exhibit bag to Leon (over the shoulder shot)

Leon pushes exhibit bag away (close up)

Whilst Leon speaks he holds his hands up (medium close up)

Leon: They’ve got the wrong person, I don’t even shop in Tesco I shop in Sainsbury’s! (defensive tone) (medium close up)

REVERSE SHOT

Jemima: Wait (pause) how do you know it’s from Tesco? (Medium shot)

REVERSE SHOT

Leon: It was a guess…um…yeah it was a guess. (Apprehensive tone) (Medium shot)

REVERSE SHOT

Jemima: And, you were arrested in Tesco’s so obviously you do shop there. Your photo has been posted in all the Tesco branches; I’ve been tracking you down for a long time. (medium shot)

Slams wanted poster on the table: WANTED SERIAL GUMMY BEAR THIEF WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE PRIZE: 1000 GUMMY BEARS CALL: 999

Jemima passes poster to Leon

REVERSE SHOT

Leon picks it up, looks at it.

Leon: That’s not me it’s my twin! (MLS)

Stands up suddenly, a pile of gummy bear’s fall on the floor. (Close up of gummy bears)


THE END
(NOTE: SOME CHANGES WERE MADE TO THE SCRIPT DURING FILMING)

What we had to include:

For our preliminary task we had to show a character opening a door, then the same character crossing the room and sitting down opposite another character. After this they had to be seen exchanging dialogue with each other. We also had to show our ability at using the following techniques:

Match on action shot - technique can preserve temporal continuity where there is a uniform, unrepeated physical motion or change within a passage. A match on action is when some action occurring before the temporally questionable cut is picked up where the cut left it by the shot immediately following. For example, a shot of someone tossing a ball can be edited to show two different views, while maintaining temporal continuity by being sure that the second shot shows the arm of the subject in the same stage of its motion as it was left when cutting from the first shot.

Shot/reverse shot - is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

180 degree rule - A cinematographic technique which states that the camera must remain on the same side of an imaginary line, perpendicular to the camera's viewpoint, from which the establishing shot is taken. The 180 degree rule is an important element of the continuity style. To make sure that I understood the 180 degree rule I watched this video about it on youtube:

Preliminary Task Film:





Evaluation:

Preliminary Task Evaluation Report

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