Audience profile

The audience for our thriller film would be young adults, at student age, 16-25. This is because of the younger cast members, and the gripping storyline. It would be certified as a 15 due to the reference to identity theft, and the violence present in the opening scene. We can conduct from our surveys would attract both genders from our audience as the majority surveyed would rather have the female lead role, which we have included. Our film is likely to appeal to students due to the action in the opening scene, yet could also appeal to those higher up on the demographic model and to older viewers, due to the reference to classic films like Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'. Other films that may appeal to our audience could be those like 'Jackie Brown' - Quentin Tarantino, and several of his other films. This is because our film was inspired by his directing, with the use of location and femme-fatales.
Our film would attract an audience who enjoy tv programmes, such as The Bill, with the reference to identity theft and a murder. Our film could continue into being a Crime type thriller, a film proved to be favoured by some from our surveys.

Femmes Fatales

Femmes Fatales are female characters, who main characters often fall in love with, but later find out they aren't who they think, and lead to the downfall of the main characters. In the end of a film, a femme fatale is often either tamed, turned out to be good after all, or killed off.

"A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon.

The phrase is French for "deadly woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Typically, she is exceptionally well-endowed with these qualities. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm. She may also be (or imply to be) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; The Lady from Shanghai (a 1948 film noir) giving one such example. Her characteristic weapon, if needed, is frequently poison, which also serves as a metaphor for her charms.

Although typically villainous, femmes fatales have also appeared as antiheroines in some stories, and some even repent and become heroines by the end of the tale. In social life, the femme fatale tortures her lover in an asymmetrical relationship, denying confirmation of her affection. She usually drives him to the point of obsession and exhaustion so that he is incapable of making rational decisions."

Examples of Femmes Fatales


This is Lauren Bacall. She was a femme fatale in 'The Big Sleep'



This is Greta Garbo - best known for her role in 'Mata Hari'.



Lana Turner - Best known for her role in 'The Postman always rings twice'.

Whitechapel

These are some brief notes I wrote down whilst watching the start of crime/ drama/ thriller Whitechapel on BBC1.
Camera angles: Lots of tilt shots, making everything seem more surreal.
Close Ups, show you detail of the action/ emphasising areas
Shots from low on the street. - These shots make the action look more threatening, and could be from the point of view of someone whos just been attacked.

Lighting: Chiarascura - emphasises areas and makes threatening/ distorted shadows.
Set at night - street lamps give more authentic lighting. Strong light reflected from puddles and wet street pavements. Making everything more menacing or unglamourous.
This lighting and the colours are significant to the thriller genre as they are unglamerous, unnatural and dark. This makes everything more distoreted, tense and scary.

Music - non diagetic tense.
Sound - other than music - lots of shouting/ talking/ sounds of people in pain.

Costumes: hints of Victorian style clothing contrasting against police uniform and hoodies.
Setting/background - East end of London. Shows street name. Tower of London, Tower Bridge, dark narrow alleys (not well lit residential areas) Steps, cobbles, old buildings.
Titles- typography - jerky, flickering. Old typewriter font, but not neat, makes it more authentic to the period set, but also makes it more menacing.

How is it significant to to drama/ thriller?: The first written word scene, and opening shot, is an old newspaper clip (Murder) so immediately sets the mood. Links historical flashbacks with modern day life. They make everything more tense and dramatic.

Realistic: flashes of modern day realism (police versus youths) along with Victorian newspaper clippings and photos.
Shots of newpaper clips and photos - distorted + flickering type, similar to old fashioned typewriter typing. Covered in blood and roughly torn out.
Shadows/ chiaroscura lighting/ silhouettes are prominant.
Distorted, jumpy, silhouette shots
shot of street name / london/ landmarks (Towerbridge) easily lets you identify where its set.
First word - "Murder" - shocking.
Blood and knife keep repeating - emphasising danger
Man stepping in puddle with reflections of old fashioned lamps - tilted camera angles from high and low. Contrast of low life and high life - along with upper and lower classes.
Dogs barking in background makes a shot more menacing.
Tilt shot - shoes behind a doorway - manacing, secretive.

Costumes For Our Thriller

Pencil Skirt
We decided that a black pencil skirt would give a classic feel to the femme fatale image we were trying to create for the character Adalia. And being high waisted would recreate the image of the femme fatale you would originally associate with the 50's and 60's film noir thrillers.





White Shirt
We though that by teaming the black pencil skirt with a white shirt this would add to the classic femme fatale image we were trying to achieve, the white gives the illusion of innocence but with the black suggests hidden depths and a possible devious side.








High Heeled Shoes
High heeled shoes represent a confident woman and this was an image we were trying to create for Adalia.








Red Beret
The splash of red (the beret) is a reference to blood, which is why we decided to include it in the costume for our thriller film.

Thriller codes and conventions

Crime at the core of the narrative.
- False paths, false clues, red herrings, enigmas (Anna in "The Third Man" is enigmatic/unreadable. Questions asked why she is still in love with Harry Lime who committed henious crimes against children by watering down penicillin.)
- Resolutions to the crime often ambiguous. (For example "Se7en" - the villain/psychopath has been hunted down but the detective's wife is murdered/beheaded, thus a dark ending.)
- Protagonist/main character is disempowered and drawn into a web of intrigue by antagonist (the person or persons opposing him or her. Holly Martens in "The Third Man" is drawn into a web of intrigue in post war Vienna and is mostly out of his depth.)
- Protagonist is often flawed (For example Holly Martens crashes into Vienna like an innocent and refuses to accept his limitations.)
- Extraordinary events occur in ordinary situations (In "Heavenly Creatures" two girls murder their mother on a walk in park land. Also, In "The Godfather part 1" where a mafia rival wakes up in bed with the bloodied head of his horse on the pillow beside him. In "Psycho" Marion Crane is knifed to death whilst taking a shower in an isolated motel.)
- Themes of voyeurism, (For example the point of view shot in the opening of "Psycho", the camera takes the audience through the window of a cheap hotel room where Marion Crane is having a rendezvous with a married man.)
- Elements of mise-en-scene frequently reflect the protagonist's emotional state. Shadows, lift shafts, alley ways, car parks, car bots, spiralling star cases all redlect the entrapment of the hero and the suggestion there is no way out. Wet streets and narrow roads indicate a fall into a world that is confusing. In "The Third Man" the tilt shots, noir lighting, spiralling stair cases, the sequence on the ferris wheel all connote the web of confusion Holly finds himself in. In Peter Weir's "Withness", after the child witnesses the mirder in the toilet John Book takes the child and his Amish mother, Rachel Lapp, into the unglamorous streets of New York, thus indicating her sense of horror and the murky unforgiving workd John Book exists in.
- The hero is often in peril towards the end of the film thus building up suspense.
- Deviant women/femme fatale is a convention of classic noir thrillers. This woman is usually unglamorous and seductive and draws the hero/protagonist into further peril.
- Themes of identity - who is the protagonist/antagonist.
- Line between good and evil often blurred. (For example "Blade Runner", a sci-fi film with thriller conventions. The replicant and Deckard, blade runner - roles are reversed at the end of the film.

The results of our questionnaire

From the graphs above, it can be concluded that with younger audiences, choice of thriller genre is varied, for instance females aged 16-18 enjoy Crime Thrillers, whilst the males do not, also a higher proportion of males aged 16-18 prefer Psychological Thrillers then females. The graphs also show that as males and females age, their favour in thriller genres even out, and more or less become the same proportions for each gender.

Psycho

Recently we watched Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho. The basic plot of the part of the story that weve seen so far is that a woman, Marion Crane, has stolen her boss' money. She stays in a hotel over night, while on the run. She meets the owner of the hotel, Norman Bates, a lonely man who runs the hotel and is living with his mother. His only real passion is stuffing birds. Whilst showering, Marion is repeatedly stabbed and killed, by someone who looks like Norman's mother.


Names are very cleverly used in this film. Bates means that he is luring people in, and Crane is a very magestic bird. This may mean that Bates is drawing Marion in, so that he can stuff her like his other birds.

Our questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that we issued to people to help tell us what sort of thriller films people like. Then we can make our thriller in a way that the magority of people will enjoy.



Questionnaire1. How old are you?……………………………………………………………………2. Female?
Male?3. What is your favourite thriller film?……………………………………………………………………4. Why?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5. Rank these thrillers in order of which you prefer? (1 being the highest)Action thriller? (e.g Kill Bill)
Horror thriller? (e.g The Grudge)
Crime thriller? (e.g Pulp Fiction)Psychological thriller? (e.g Saw)6. Would you rather have a female or male lead role in a thriller? Female?
Male?7. What type of thriller do you prefer? (e.g Black and white (film noir) or a more technologically advanced one etc)……………………………………………………………………8. What sort of ending would you like in a thriller? (e.g cliff hanger)……………………………………………………………………9. Why?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10. Name up to 3 thriller films that have caught your attention in the past?···