Crime Thriller: A definitive Guide

Evaluation

Final Product

Storyboard

Synopsis

Synopsis


Rick who is the bad guy in our movie, escapes from prison. Through
out the film Rick will be perusing police officers who have tracked him
down for previous crimes and got him sentenced to a stretch in jail. On
the wall in his house, Rick has five photos of the police officers who has
selected as his targets. These five police officers are the people who he
wants to kill. In the opening of the film, there are shots of the fourth
police officer who has been murdered by Rick.

Robert, who is our fifth police officer is seen on the phone speaking
with his wife whilst holding a photo of himself, his wife and their child.
This scene shows that Robert has been away for a while as he seems
to idolise the picture and this is also backed up by the dialogue with
his wife. This is the equilibrium at the beginning of the film which is
essential. Rick has decided to go after Robert’s family while he is away
which causes there to be a disruption in the storyline which ultimately
carries the story forward.

As for the disequilibrium, Robert returns home the following day to
find his wife dead and his son having been kidnapped. In replacement
he finds a note saying ‘Revenge is sweet…R’ This angers Robert and
primarily convinces him to track down Rick and save his son. Whilst
on his quest, Rick attempts several attacks on Robert which are
unsuccessful until one attack almost ends Roberts life. However, Robert
comes back stronger against Rick.

In the final scene Rick is brutally murdered in a wood chipper attack
performed by Robert in the final scene. After this attack has happened,
he establishes a new equilibrium when he rescues his son.

Script

SCRIPT

Robert: Hey darling, how's it going?
Wife: Not too bed, we both miss you, it's been too long
Robert: Yeah, I know it has, but I'm home soon
Wife: Good, we can't wait to see you
Robert: How's Robby and his school?
Wife: He's great, fitting in well
Robert: Aww brilliant is he looking after you?
Wife: Yes, of course, but he misses you loads
Robert: I miss him too, I'm back tomorrow so we'll have a proper catch up
Wife: Great, we can't wait
Robert: But I have to go now, but i'll see you tomorrow, I love you

Character Profiles

Character Profiles

RICK WEAVING (VILLAIN)
Rick is the villain in our narrative, he looks psychotic – he has long hair, that covers his face, rough clothes and looks generally very untidy - which is ideal because he’s an ex-convict. He’s seeking revenge on the 5 police officers who put him in jail, at the start of the narrative he’s already had revenge on 4 of the officers and the last police officer, Robert Shaw, is who he’s seeking revenge on, he does this by kidnapping Robert’s son and killing his wife. Rick is a very a aggressive and angry person, most think this stems from the fact that his father was very abusive and both his mother and father were alcoholics, so his only way to turn was to crime. His character is a generic convention of a crime-thriller as and audience expects to see a villain and when looking at the audience survey, it was clear that the audience expected the villain to be an ex-convict. 

ROBERT SHAW (HERO)
Robert is the hero in our narrative, he looks innocent – neat hair and clothes, he looks friendly and is polite – which is expected because he’s the hero, and his son plays the ‘damsel in distress’ (Propp), his wife also plays the victim as she is killed by Rick. He’s the 5^th victim of Rick’s; he’s the last one on his list that Weaving is planning on getting revenge on. His character is also a generic convention of a crime-thriller as the audience expect for a police officer character to appear, this was made clear by the audience survey as a police officer was one of the top choices from the people asked. 

We have based the characters on Propps’ narrative theory as we have used a villain and a hero, which according to Propp are the stock characters within any film and can be applied to all. We’re also using Strauss’ theory of binary opposites as we have two characters that have different aims within the film.

Institutional Research

Institutional Research

After doing some in depth institutional research we have decided to choose 20th Century Fox as our main production company, as it is proven that they have had much success over the years since they were founded in 1935. Over the past 78 years they have helped create many well-known thriller movies which is yet another reason that we decided they were the best company for our movie.

With this great amount of experience, they have produced many fantastic films such as Prometheus, X-men and Die Hard which are all esteemed films, which adds to the reasons for our choice as we know that their skill and understanding of the film industry would allow them to be able to help make our film just as incredible as those previously named.

As for the distribution aspect of our film we decided to choose Lions Gate Entertainment as our main distributor as they are a rather new company which gives them an edge compared to the older companies as they have newer ideas of how to get their films across to the audience and distribute it a more innovative manner.

Lions Gate Entertainment is part of a vertically integrated organisation as they own several separate divisions including Lions Gate Films, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, Lions Gate Music and Publishing and Lions Gate Television. With this in mind, it will be very significant for the distribution phase of film as it may allow them to promote our film on a much larger scale as well as allowing the film to be available in various formats such as the cinema to DVD’s which would increase its popularity and our income.

This company has also had some major previous successes including films such as The Punisher, Abduction, The Expendables and American Psycho, which have all had large amounts of fame with help from Lions Gate Entertainment, which is was an important aspect whilst deciding the distribution company. These films that are named are also thriller films which is significant as they follow the ideas of our film, so we know that this company is more than capable of doing a good job distributing this style of films.

Preliminary Task

Audience Profile (Xtranormal)

Summary and Evaluation of Questionnaire Results

Audience Research Evaluation

For our questionnaire we asked 30 different individuals to answer our questionnaire and from those 30 people, 1/3 were males whilst the rest were female. This may not seem fair, however we have taken this into account and are aiming for a mixed gender audience as this would reach to a wider base, therefore there’d be more people interested. 

From the people we asked, only three people were aged outside the age bracket of 15-19 which gives us a better understanding what younger audiences prefer which will give us more ideas, however we will consider other ages as well above 15-19 as the thriller genre appeals to more than younger people. As 80% of our potential audience watches films regularly, this ensures that the opinions we are given are more reliable as they have previous knowledge of films that interest them. When given the options of what thriller subgenres they have previously seen, the results were very close with action being the most seen with 22, whilst our chosen subgenre, crime came third with 20% which does not sway our initial decision to chose crime as there is still a large audience who would be interested. This s proven with the next question as the interviewees stated their favourite subgenres and crime came second with 27% just under action with 30%. This indicated that their responses can be quite accurate as they can give better opinions on what attracts them to this style of films. The main reason behind their decisions is because they find these films exciting, which 33% of answers agreed with. This was followed by the fact that they also find the films either action packed or full of suspense, which we could incorporate into our opening. As 5/6 of our potential audience have previously watched crime thrillers, we are sure that the feedback we receive for this subgenre will be reliable rather than false. 

According to the interviewees, plots that include murders and the bad guy getting caught are the most popular and expected so this gives us ideas of what to base our work around. The most preferred sounds include loud, tense and spooky noises as they help to create more tense atmospheres, which is what they want so we may incorporate the same sounds to appeal to the audience. The ideas for the protagonist character were rather close with 42% suggested to use police officers whilst 32% preferred detectives, however the antagonist character was rather conclusive as 16 people believed that having an escaped con as the bad guy was the best idea, therefore this gives us a better idea of what people to use and adds to the plot. Weapons were considered the most iconic props in the subgenre as over half o the people we asked agreed so we will attempt to incorporate these as much as possible. There were mixed views on camera movements as the results were close, however the most preferred shots were close ups and establishing shots so there will be important during our planning and filming. Finally the editing was considered, which also produced rather close results but the best were slow motion editing and fast cuts, which we will also add to our introduction. 

Textual Analysis: Pulp Fiction Opening Scene

Mise-En-Scene

• The lighting is natural to the scene, the light is coming from outside through the blinds, using natural light creates a sense of realism for the scene. this also challenges the typical conventions of a thriller movie because they normally use dark lighting.
• the man is smoking in this scene, smoking is usually seen as a male thing, therefore it's typical of the producers to have had him smoking because they are reinforcing the idea - because this is something men do - that men are of higher importance as they do things that women don't.
• The clothing he is wearing have lighter colours, whereas we'd normally see darker colours on a man because darker colours are what are typically associated with men, it may be taken that Tarantino is challenging gender stereotypes. 
• However, the woman is wearing colours that would usually be associated with women, she's wearing a pink top which is typical of a woman to be wearing. so, in this sense Tarantino has conformed to gender stereotyping.

Camera Shots

• For a long length of time the camera stays in the same two-shot of them just sat at the table. In the shot they're just talking and the stillness starts to make the audience feel uneasy as we feel as though the shot is still because something is going to happen, but it doesn't and this anti climax is challenging the normal conventions of a thriller because in a thriller when the frame is still for a long time, it's a build up to something that is about to happen, whereas in this scene nothing happens, Tarantino does this because it may later leave the audience thinking that after every long frame it's just an anti-climax and can shock them.\
• the extreme close up of the waitresses is face is at a low-angle, which is unusual as the connotations of this shot are that the person has a superiority or power, however this is no the case, Tarantino challenges the ideology of this shot. 
• the medium close-ups are used when each character is talking, in the frame it shows the length of the restaurant, which is important because they are planning to rob it, so the audience is able to see what they're going to rob.

Editing

• in the extract they only use straight cuts, this creates a sense of realism. this is because the continuous flow makes it seem more like real life and this means that the audience can relate to it, which is important as the audience's entertainment is the main objective for the producers.

Sound

• There is no background music, the only sounds are the two people talking and the general diagetic sounds of the coffee place. this 

Audience Research Evaluation

These graphs are the results of the questionnaire we produced with details underneath each.

This shows that the majority of people we asked were females, however we will consider this when creating our work to make sure that it is not biased.

This chart substantially shows that the main age group is between 15 and 19 compared to the others, so this may be our target audience as we know more about them.

This chart substantially shows that the main age group is between 15 and 19 compared to the others, so this may be our target audience as we know more about them.

This pie chart shows that the most Thriller subgenres are watched evenly by the people we asked so their opinions are reliable as they already have an insight into the genre.

From the information that I had this shows that crime and action thrillers are most popular for the audience that we asked.

This graph shows that the main factors that appeals to the interviewees is that they are exciting, action packed and full of suspense, so we may incorporate these elements in our work

This graph shows that 5/6 of our interviewees have previously watched a crime thriller which shows that their feedback will be reliable and not false.

This graph shows that the best plot for crime thrillers according to the interviewees consists of murders and then the antagonist getting caught, probably by the protagonist, so we may consider this during the production and filming of our work.

Loud, spooky and tense sounds are the most preferred by the people we asked for a crime thriller so this will help us choose our sounds for the intro.

By using those preferred sounds the main atmosphere that is created is a tense one, which will be idea for our thriller as it will keep the audience watching.

According to our potential audience, police officers and detectives are their main ideas for a protagonist which aids our initial ideas of using police officers.

Escaped cons and the apparent ‘helper’ styled characters are the most popular in crime thrillers according to our interviewees which again confirms our initial ideas of using an escaped convict.

Weapons were the most preferred props for our potential audience, which indicates that we may need to include some forms of weapons in the intro

This graph shows that camera angles were rather important in creating correct atmospheres as the results were close however, close ups and establishing shots were dominant so this shows what we should include during out filming.

Yet again these results were close, yet slow motion editing and fast cuts were the most preferred among our potential audience which gives us an idea of what to do during the editing stage.

Questionnaire Results

Audience Questionnaire

1) Male/Female 

2) Age
15-19   20-24   25-29   30-34   35+

3) Do you watch films often?
Yes/no

4) Which of these thriller subgenres have you seen?
Crime- (e.g. Dark Knight)
Psychological- (e.g. Black Swan)
Conspiracy- (e.g. The Bourne Ultimatum)
Spy- (e.g. Skyfall)
Action- (e.g. Die Hard 4.0)

5) Which of these subgenres are your favourite, name two from above

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6) What do you like about them?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

‘CRIME THRILLER’

7) Do you watch crime thrillers?   Yes/No

8) What plot do you expect from this subgenre?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

9) What music/sound do you expect of this subgenre? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

10) What atmosphere does it create? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

11) What hero characters do you expect from this subgenre? (Circle 2)
Police officer
Detective
Family Man
Business man
Ex-military

12) What villainous characters do you expect from this subgenre? (Circle 2)
Old man
Escaped convict
Single male
Ex-military
The helper (villain)

13) What sort of props do you expect to see?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

14) What types of camera angles do you expect? (Circle as many)
Long shot
Low angle
High angle
Close ups
Extreme close ups
Establishing shot
Extreme long shot
Mid shot
Canted shot

15) What types of editing do you expect? (Circle as many)
Slow motion
Fast cuts
Straight cuts
Jump cuts
Fade to black (Fade out)
Fade In
Flash backs
Flash forward

(mindmap) Crime Thriller: Codes and Conventions

(mindmap) Genre: Codes and Conventions

Opening: The Dark Knight Rises

Opening: Silence Of The Lambs

Opening: Fight Club

Opening: Miller's Crossing