Institution Research

Film 4

Film 4 is a British film institution, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. Film 4 began in 1982 and since has gone onto be a major part of the majority of films made in the UK, or smaller budget worldwide films. Film 4 had previously tried to break into Hollywood territory by widening their budget to improve the quality of films and propose potential 'blockbusters'. However, Channel 4 had to cut their budget from the £30m, which they wanted to use to break into Hollywood, had to be cut to £10m following a failure to do so. 

Film 4 tends to base itself on less expensive and more low key (often British) films which perhaps doesn't require such expensive effects and scenes to make the film effective. I believe that our film would be more likely to suit the criteria of Film 4 as our film too does not use many hi-tec effects and therefore would suit Film 4. Also our film is set in Britain, in generally public places, thus no money is needed to hire out expensive scenes and no travelling is needed. Overall, I believe our film tends to suit the criteria of a Film 4 film, therefore I feel that if we were to adopt Film 4 as our institute it would advertise our film well. 

UK film council 

UK film council was set up in 2000 by the Labour government in the hope of the development and promotion of the film industry in the UK. It is a private company limited by guarantee governed by a15 directors and was funded through the National Lottery. Since it's formation there has been than £160m of lottery to over 900 films.The Development Fund aimed to broaden the quality, range and ambition of film projects being developed in the UK. With £12 million of Lottery funding to invest over three years, the fund aimed to build a talent-driven home for writers, directors and producers. It helped filmmakers of all experience levels develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films, be they fiction, documentary or animation, up until the moment they were ready to get production finance.

Props and costume 2

In my previous post I mentioned that Sarah and I had now been assigned roles in our film. To ensure that both Sarah and I's characters look realistic and professional we have had to base our costume on specific examples. 

 My character is a detective. Detective's often wear casual clothing, yet fairly smart, so criminals cannot recognise them from the public. Consequently, I have based my code on DS Arnott, a detective from 'Line of Duty', as I believe he optimises the classic costume of a detective, for example: 

DS Arnott from 'Line of Duty' was an inspiration for my character

DS Arnott's smart coat and shirt is what my costume was based on, alongside smart black shoes (which cannot be seen in the above image).  However, I opted for black, smart jeans which would reflect my more youthful age. Here is an example of what I hope to wear: 

Sarah, on the other hand was a college student therefore she needed to wear a casual range of clothing alongside a bag which would carry her college work. This is vital as Sarah is to be pictured outside college, thus her costume must reflect a college student.  This is the costume for which Sarah is going to wear and be based upon: 

Initial idea and progression of ideas

Our initial idea revolved around two primary characters (a conventional protagonist and antagonist) whom created a relationship through an obsessive stalker mishap. Charlie (the antagonist) was initially Laura's (the protagonist) stalker whom he wanted to kill. After filming and gaining peer assessment feedback we soon realised that our original conventions and ideas of an opening sequence was more of a short film with a beginning, middle and end. After much consideration, we agreed it would be best to introduce more characters and more of a storyline to ease the audience into the film which was to come. This would in fact make them want to watch more of the film to figure out what has indeed happened to Laura. By changing the storyline, Charlie is now more of a serial stalker than just focusing on one person. This creates tension and also links back to one of our influences of Sherlock Holmes having that one mystery antagonist who has the power and mind set to kill many more than just one person. This alone is an enigma code. The introduction of more characters makes the film much more interesting and thrilling as more characters means that the audience do not solely concentrate on two characters. Thus, putting the audience on the edge as they do  not know who is going to be attacked/victimised next. 

After great reflection and consideration, we, as a group, decided that the best option was to re-film our opening sequence, introducing two new characters. Sarah was assigned the role of a college student, who turns out to be Charlie's next victim, without the audience seeing the outcome. Whilst I (James), was given the character of a Detective Inspector, who is also Sarah's brother. This relationship, further on in the film would give the film more depth, thrill and suspense as James (me) would naturally fear and defend his family (Sarah). We feel that the addition of these two characters, along side new edits would improve the quality of our opening sequence. Furthermore, it will relate further to our target audience who are within the age bracket of college students (16-25), therefore making the film seem more threatening as their age group are the main victims. 

Team Roles

Initially within our team we assigned roles to one another:

- Charlie was to be the antagonist to reflect the classic convention of males being the antagonist. Therefore making it more realistic, conventional and more thrilling.




Voldemort (male) is the main antogonist in 'Harry Potter' and also wears the colour black like Charlie in our film

- Laura was to be the protagonist which would also reflect the classic convention of females being vulnerable, and arguably physically weaker. Therefore , Laura's role would further link in with the conventional elements of a thriller to reflect our aims into making a conventional, effective thriller. Also, Laura worked alongside Sarah as 'co-editor'

female protagonist, the victim of a violent shark attack in 'Jaws'-reflects convention of vulnerability and females

- Sarah was assigned as 'head editor' of our rough cut using the software 'final cut pro'.

- Whilst I was given the task of being in charge of our soundtrack  to be played alongside the film using soundtrack pro.

However, after analysing our film again, we felt that we could further improve the film by introducing some new footage and characters which meant Sarah and I now have an acting part.

- Sarah was given a role of a protagonist college student (another classic thriller convention), pictured leaving the college and stalked by antagonist Charlie.

- On the other hand, I was given the role of a detective. Detective's are stereotypically in film and television episodes to be men. Therefore I would also be matching a thriler convention as a stereotypical role of a male Detective.

DS Arnott from 'Line of Duty' TV detective drama, also a man showing detectives tendency to be men.

Before Soundtrack

This is our rough cut before the soundtrack. However, since this was posted we are no longer using this film due to the feedback from our class and other media students.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of our opening sequence.

Sound

This is our backing track for the opening sequence of our thriller film. It acts as an enigma code as well as building suspense in the opening sequence.