Research: Detailed genre specific research into psychological thriller teaser trailers

Signs





Characters

The characters in this trailer are represented as a middle class family. However, they are not stereotypical as instead of a mother and father there is a father and an uncle. Here, the protagonist is a middle aged man, played by Mel Gibson. In a low angle shot, he is shown as powerful and high up in his community and highly respected. He is also shown as a family man as there is a lot of scenes where he is pictured with his children who are both quite young. As there is no mother figure present, it seems he has taken the role himself.

It is not clear if the antagonist is a person or a group of people as there are frequent shots of crop circles, a sign of aliens.

Location

The location is based around the house. This is a typical genre convention of psychological thrillers. There is a clear threat to the location as there are a lot of areal shots, of the house with crop circles around it. This conveys that the family are surrounded and represents the danger to them.

The house itself is quite big and abandoned, another convention of psychological thrillers as the isolation means that there is greater danger as it would be hard to find help.

Sound

The sound in this trailer is eery and creates a tense atmosphere. There is repetition of the same sounds building in tension, with matches the genre perfectly. The same key notes are repeated over and over, whilst building in pace and volume. The pace of the music gets faster and faster towards the end of the trailer. When showing the crop circles there are shot quick booms, which makes the scene more impacting.



Vanilla Sky



Characters

Here, the protagonist is a man in his thirties called David, played by tom cruise. He appears to have no family as he is only pictured with other women. He is shown as quite a wealthy city man, as his clothes are smart and his appearance is clean and polished. There are a lot of shots where he is pictured wearing a mask, which conveys that there is another side to him, a frequent convention of a psychological thriller.

Again, there is no antagonist present, is seems more as if there is an inner battle that David is having with himself, as the editing merges the two images of david in and out of his mask. When he is wearing the mask his behaviour is very odd and sinister, whereas outside of the mask he seems 'normal'.

Themes

The themes present in this psychological thriller are complex and mature, which is key to the genre of a psychological thriller. Although there is not a binary opposite such as good vs evil there is a battle of identity with David as to who he is.

Sound

The sound of this teaser trailer begins unconventional as it is quite upbeat and casual. It stays this way till half way through the trailer, until it changes when David finds himself all alone in a city. The music becomes more serious and there is a lower tone. However it is then back to being upbeat and fast-paced, which is juxtaposed with images of David losing grip on his reality, which makes the trailer more effective.



Inception







Characters

The protagonist in this teaser trailer for Inception, appears to be a man in his early forties. He seems to be wealthy as he is often dressed in smart clothing or a suit, which is frequent in thriller films.

There are shots of two men fighting, showing a physical battle between two binary opposites good vs evil. The antagonist is not known which is typical for the genre as psychological thriller often keep the antagonist revealed at the last minute and it is usually someone who is unexpected.

Themes


The themes for this trailer seem to match the genre, as the intertitle reveals 'Your mind is the scene of the crime'. As mind games are often a convention of psychological thrillers, the themes present convey to the audience what genre this is. Crime is also another convention however it is not a physical crime like in crime thrillers of action thrillers.

Location


It is clear that the location for this film is in a big city, likely to be New York. This fits in with the conventions as psychological thrillers are either in very abandoned places in remote countrysides or in big, bustling cities such as New York. Accompanied with aerial shots of the city traffic and a helicopter taking off, the graphic images of buildings which finally construct the words 'Inception', makes it effective and highlights the fact that the location is key to the genre, which is true of the thriller genre.


The Sixth Sense






Characters

Here, the characters consist of a young boy, aged around 10. Young children are often used in psychological thrillers as the characters normally develop some sort of psychological abnormality in childhood, therefore this aspect of the film plays to the conventions of psychological thrillers.

An elder man is also a main part of the story line. He is also a conventional character as he has to battle conflicts of his mind and does not have an accurate view of reality: a frequent convention of this genre.

Location

The locations used in this trailer are very conventional. Often they are in a house, which is decorated with mirrors and has long hallways, which are used in thrillers to build suspense in a particular scene. There are also a lot of shots of stairs. Stairs are often used in thrillers in order to portray the character walking down the stairs ( running away from danger) or walking up the stairs (entering danger ). In this trailer, the young boy walks slowly up the stairs before being attacked, which keeps to the conventions of the genre.

In every location, low key lighting is used in order to create fear and low level lighting makes shadows. Shadows are often used in thrillers as they heighten fear and anxiety as there it highlights the character's vuneralbility.

Themes

The themes of this trailer consist of conflict of the minds and psychological unstability, which are the two frequent themes that run through psychological thriller films.

Editing

The editing in this trailer begins slow paced, with shots lasting around 5-7 seconds each. As the trailer goes on the pace picks up, with shots lasting just over 1 or 2 seconds. This editing technique is often deployed in psychological thriller trailers as it builds up tension and anxiety.

The Machinist





Location

The location featured in this trailer uses and challenges the conventions of psychological thrillers. The first location to be seen is an underground tube. This location can be used in a thriller film as the mise-en-scene suits the genre. There is low key lighting, shadows against the walls and an eery atmosphere. There is also a sense of claustrophobia, which is a convention of a psychological thriller as it makes the audience feel unneasy and anxious. 

Characters

The character used in this trailer represents the genre well as he appears to be a troubled character. His body language reflects the inner struggle he is having and the conflict with his mind. This is shown in the shot where he is looking into the mirror. Here, the mirror acts as a metaphor for the fact that there are two sides to him, and the audience are able to see both. This is conventional and can be seen in a lot of psychological thriller films.

Music

The music featured in this trailer follows conventions of psychological thrillers as it creates an eery and tense atmosphere. There is also a use of sound effects that highlight the important parts of the teaser trailer, which is very effective as it makes the audience listen/watch carefully to these parts.

Research: Film magazine Analysis

Research: Film poster analysis

The colours in this psychological thriller poster for 'Silence of the Lambs' are very haunting.Under the mise-en-scene, there is little use of colour and the poster mainly consists of light and shadow. A face can be seen represented photographically with her face in the light; the shadow underneath her, which connotates that she is an innocent character. She is easily recognised as Jodie Foster, a well known actress, which immediately creates an audience for the film as she may already have a large audience. However she has also starred in many other psychological thrillers, hinting to the audience that 'Silence of the Lambs' is a psychological thriller. Her face also conveys she is the protaganist as she has a soft face with big brown eyes and a slightly scared expression. She is not looking directly at the camera, therefore she is not confrontational and the audience warm to her more easily.
As the character has no make-up on and her hair is hidden, it shows the audience that this is not a glamourous film and also hints she is not as weak as previously thought. There is a butterfly across her lips, which makes the poster very eye-catching and unusual. The butterfly is an important symbol in this poster, which the audience realise as it is in a warm orange colour against the characters pale face. This shows the butterfly is going to be an essential part of the film. Although the butterfly is a delicate, calm insect, the use of it covering the characters mouth adds a different meaning and makes the symbol more sinister, hinting the film is a dark, sinister thriller. This gives a shock factor to the poster in order to attract the audiences attention. However the poster does not make it obvious what the butterfly signifies completely and this is a persuasive technique in order to get the audience to go and watch the film, as they wonder the significance of the butterfly and want to know the relationship between the character and butterfly.
The messages in this poster are primarily visual, as the photo takes up most of the frame and there is little text other than the heading which reads 'Silence of the Lambs'. As Silence of the Lambs already exists as a book, this gives the film an immediate audience being anyone who has read the book. This heading is centered at the bottom of the page below the character in a small text size, going along with the conventions of psychological thrillers. The use of the colour red for the title, connotates danger and a sense of threat to the character in the poster. The text below the headline reads 'from the terrifying best seller', reminding the audience that this film has come from a book, and the superlative 'best' tells the reader that the book was very successful. This promises the reader that the film will be successful and therefore there are no critic quotes as they aren't needed.
Overall, I find this is an extremely effective poster as it reveals what genre the film is, gives insight into the characters personality and also uses enigma codes such as the butterfly to leave the audience wanting to know more about the film.

Similar to the previous one, this poster is primarily visual as the image covers the entire poster, a frequent convention of psychological thrillers. The image here communicates to the audience clues of what the film is about. The character on the poster is instantly recognisable as Leanardo Dicaprio, a very well known actor who has a large fan base which immediately gives this film an audience. Dicaprio's face uses half the sapce on the poster and is surrounded by darkness, with half of his face in the shadow, conveying that there is more than one side to the character. This is a very frequent convention of psychological thrillers as there is usually a complex character who is hard to understand. Some of his fingers can also be seen holding a match, which is positioned over a illustrated picture of an island; the illustration gives the connotation that the island may not be as real as you think.
The lighting under the mise-en-scene is very dark, which gives connotations that the island is a dangerous, dark place. The match in this poster is a symbol for light and as the character is holding this match over the dark island, it conveys this film is composed of binary opposites being light vs dark, good vs bad.
Next to Dicaprio the tagline reads 'Someone is missing'. This short but effective tagline immediately draws the audience in as it sets an enigma code and make the audience question 'Who is missing?''Where have they gone?' This is effective at making the audience want to go and watch the film in order to answer their questions.
The headling 'Shutter Island' fades from yellow to red, giving the effect that the match is lighting it up but there is also a connotation of danger.
The mise-en-scene and the actor used in this poster, hints to the audience that the target audience for this film are people aged between 15-50. The dark theme to the poster indicates that no one below the age of 15 should watch this film as it may be too dark. This is also conveyed through the actor as he is around 30-35 showing that the film would contain adult themes.
I find this poster is very effective as it communicates to the audience in a visual way, gives some clues to the film's character but leaves the audience questioning a lot of things about the film which overall makes this poster very effective.

The colours used in this film poster consist of blues, greens and browns. These cold colours give the connotation that the genre of the film is a horror/thriller.
The poster is dominated by a young girl, in a medium close up, around the age of 9 and this picture is represented photographically, making the poster more effective.
The young girl is looking straight on and the expression on her face is hostile and unfriendly, giving the connotations that she is going to be an unfavourable character in the film.
She is wearing make-up which is unusual for a girl of a young age, which conveys that she has something to cover up.
She is wearing a dress, with a collar around her neck and bows in her hair, which is the opposite of what you would expect from looking at her face, therefore this creates a sinister atmosphere and makes the poster more impacting. Her outfit is of an old style and looks Victorian, which gives enigma codes to the audience and makes them question why, thereby increasing the chance they will go and watch the film.
The tagline at the top of the poster reiterates the message of the picture, which is that Esther is not a normal 9 year old girl and ‘there’s something wrong’ with her. This confers with the tagline at the bottom as it hints to the reader that Esther is carrying a secret, and the use of the tagline in a red font, conveys that it is a dangerous secret.

This psychological thriller poster has a primary focus on the characters of the film, a man picture in the bottom right and a young boy in the top left of the poster. This immediately tells the reader that the film is going to be based on the relationship between these two characters.
The man in the poster is recognised as Bruce Willis, a well known actor for staring in action thriller films, which gives the audience a clue as to what genre the film is. He is in his early 40's, which shows he may have a father type relationship with the little boy who is also featured in the poster. The man is wearing a shirt and a coat, which shows he is moderately weathly. His expression on his face looks concerned but also brave, showing he is a strong character and is therefore likeable to the reader.
The young boy is around 10 years old, making him immediately sympthetic to the reader. He looks very scared which makes the audience question what he is afraid of but also tells them that this may be a dark film with a serious tone.
There is a yellow, orange light coming from the top right corner of the poster, shining both of the boy and the man, showing that they are good characters. However this light also highlights the smoke coming out from the young boys mouth. This isn't clear as to the purpose of the smoke to the reader which makes them want to go and see the film as they will want to know more about the reasons behind the smoke.
The smoke is also a symbol in this poster and it is clear that it is going to be a big part of the storyline.
Overall, this poster is very effective as capturing the audiences attention with the strange use of colours, yellow and black. It also is effective at getting the genre of the film across to the reader.

This poster for Jaws 3D is primarily visual, and consists mainly of the colours blue and red, the blue as the film is set around the ocean and the red connotates danger. The image uses two thirds of the poster which makes it stand out and catch the audiences eye. Within the image, a sharks head can be seen however it is slightly covered by shadow, conveying that it is a dark creature and also emphasises the danger that sharks aren't easy to see coming.
The people on top of the ocean are water skiing and are oblivious to the fact that there is a shark underneath them, which is a frequent convention of thriller films as often the victim do not realise they are under any danger.
The title of the film 'Jaws 3' is in the top third of the poster in a big, red font making it unmissible but the colours red convey danger and blood. Which is a known convention of Jaws films.
The tagline at the bottom 'A deadly new attraction' tells the reader that this sequel has something 'new' to offer than that of what they previously saw in the other films, which makes the reader want to go and watch the film in order to find out what the 'new attraction' is. The words 'deadly' tell the reader how powerful and dangerous the shark is.

Research: Reflection of learning on teaser trailer research with links to own trailer

THE MACHANIST TEASER TRAILER


The pace of this psychological thriller trailer begins very slow and gradually builds to a very fast pace. We liked this effect and so chose to have our teaser trailer have similar pace.



WHAT LIES BENEATH TEASER TRAILER

We liked the effect of the eye in this psychological thriller trailer, as it is effective at building tension. Therefore, we used a shot of an eye in our trailer towards the end to increase build up. As the shot only lasts for a second in this trailer we made our shot similar length.














HIDE AND SEEK TEASER TRAILER

In this trailer for 'Hide and Seek', there is a white fade out to show a flashback taking place. We liked this effect and chose to use it in our teaser trailer.

GODSEND TEASER TRAILER

This shot of a young child in a hallway is really effective in the teaser trailer for 'Godsend'. The lighting coming through the door windows gives an eery atmosphere to the shot, therefore we replicated this lighting in the shot of elizabeth in the hallway.

Research: Reflection on learning of film magazine front covers with links to own

A magazine front cover we closly looked at and got a lot of ideas from was the Empire addition of 'Silence of the Lambs'. First of all we liked the use of red on black, as it conveyed a dark film. We also liked the use of the shadowing around the face, as it made the character seem dark and mysterious. We liked the use of 'PLUS' on one of the cover lines showing that the film was the main feature. We also liked the list of celebrities featured in the bottom right hand corner. However, instead of this we gave a smaller list with some more detail in order to entice the reader to read on. Overall this magazine gaves us ideas on the colour scheme for our film magazine front cover.

Research: Reflection of learning of film posters with links to own film poster

1. When creating our film poster, we were inspired by a number of thriller/and psychological film posters that we saw.

1. The Girl, Interrupted

For this poster we liked the idea of the girl staring at you, as it creates an effect on the viewer. The cut off face idea I liked, during the primary editing stages we tried to re create it on our poster:

We tried to adopt the same eye effect also, but changed the colour of the eye to a striking blue. One item of the poster we thought was best not to have was a picture of another character in the background. We felt that it diverted attention from the main shock factor of the staring girl and also gave too much away about the plot.

2.

This was another poster that helped us to learn and gain ideas for our film poster. We adopted a similar faded editing effect on the face. The dark tones are similar on our teaser trailer and film magazine. We also liked the shadow effect used on the face of Bruce Willis and adopted this technique. We also liked the idea of using red in our poster because it connotates danger and blood, and this poster used it.

Our film poster:

Note the similar white and black effect used on both posters.

3.

Although it is ironic that the two films we used to help us learn more about film posters have "Perfect" in their titles, we liked both of them and the perfect witness used the eyes to attract attention to the poster. Although the majority of the colour tones are a in bold skin colour, we decided to adopt a similar technique to change the colour of the eyes on our poster from a dull blue to a striking blue in one eye and green in another. This is because it connotates fear, as clear can clearly be seen in the girls eyes on the poster.

Titles:

This poster didn't follow conventions and used minimal titles at the bottom of the poster. We decided that in order to make ours seem more realistic, we would add credits at the bottom, similar to other film posters on the market. However, we did like the white "Perfect Witness" colour as it stood out, and decided to make our font white when we made it in Indesign. A difference was the actual font and ours was against a black background.

Research into the most popular target audiences for films

The UK film council states that the main and most popular target audience seems to be the ages between 18-35.

This is because they are able to watch films that are strictly for anyone over the age of 18, yet they are still able to watch PG, U, 12 and 15, certificates.
Therefore our target audience 15- 35, as this includes the widest audience for films but also allows for people slightly younger than 18 to view our film therefore increasing our target audience.


The most popular audience for psychological thriller are people aged 18+. This is because this is the most frequent certificate for psychological thrillers as they contain a lot of violence, bad language and mature themes. However, as our media product was not as violent and didn't show illegal drug substance we were able to bring our certificate down to a 15.

Research: Institutional context research into film companies and Youtube

We looked at modern film companies and which genre they specialise in today.

Working Title

Working Title is a British film company, based in London, UK. Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. Working title is an extremely successful film company, showed here by previous box office hits dating back to 1986.

Due to the extreme success that Working Title have with British films we decided to use them as the production company for our media product.


BBC Films

BBC Films is at the forefront of British independent filmmaking, and co-produces around eight films a year, working in partnership with major international and UK distributors. Recent titles include Nigel Cole's BAFTA-nominated Made in Dagenham, Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe, Debs Gardner-Paterson’s Africa United, Max and Dania’s StreetDance, which was Britain’s first-ever 3-D movie. BBC Films has an impressive back catalogue, which includes titles such as Lone Scherfig’s Academy Award®-nominated and BAFTA award-winning An Education.



Universal studios

Universal studios is one of the leading film companies in the world. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle it is one of the oldest American movie studios still in continuous production.

Box office hits such as ET,Jurassic Park and Jaws have given Universal the reputation for being one of the greatest film companies of all time.



DreamWorks

DreamWorks is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each.
DreamWorks began in 1994 as an ambitious attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (forming the SKG present on the bottom of the DreamWorks logo) to create a new Hollywood studio of which they own 72%.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox's most popular film franchises include Avatar, Star Wars, Ice Age, Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, X-Men, Die Hard, Alien, Speed, Revenge of the Nerds, Planet of the Apes, Home Alone, Dr. Dolittle, Night at the Museum, Predator, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Chronicles of Narnia (which was previously distributed by Walt Disney Pictures), The Beach, plus famous TV shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad!. Some of the most famous actors to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star Dorothy Dandridge.




Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is consistently ranked as one of the top-grossing movie studios.

Research: Film classification research

In order to make sure an audience suit the film they are watching, the BBFC, have created 5 categories for films.

The first category is U. U stands for universal and is therefore suitable for all. ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

The film Gnomeo and Juliet is rated U as it contains infrequent use of very mild bad langauge, no violence, and though problematic themes may be present, they are dealt with sensitively.


The second category is films rated 'PG'. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.

High School Musical is an example of a PG film as it mild bad language only and there is no glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons.

The next category is 12A. This is for films that are suitable for children over the age of 12. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12

Legally Blonde is rated a '12' as it contains moderate language, mature themes are present and there is dangerous behaviour.


The fourth category is '15'. These films can be viewed by anyone 15 and above. These films can't be rented by anyone younger than 15.

Paranormal Activity is rated 15, as it contains dangerous behavior, there is strong threat and menace and violence may be strong.

The last category is films rated '18'. This means that no one under the age of 18 may see the film.

The film Piranha 3D was rated an 18 as there is a detailed portrayel of violent or dangerous acts, illegal drug use and there are more explicit images of sexual activity.








Therefore, we have rated our film 'Beneath the surface' a 15, as it does not contain illegal drug use or explicit images of sexual activity, however it does contain dangerous behaviour and there is some bad language.