Using PAWWS

Now that our editing process is under way, it has become easier to identify that PAWWS that are present in our trailer. PAWWS stands for: who is Present, who is Absent, What world is created, What is valued and Stereotypes that are present. We used PAWWS as a part of our research and planning last year when creating our teen angst film trailers, and it made the research and planning process a lot easier. Before we started filming this thriller product, we discussed PAWWS in our group and decided on how we would use PAWWS to make a successful trailer for our thriller film, as we would use PAWWS to help fit our thriller genre. This is how we used it: 

PAWWS

Present in our film trailer is a mixed generation of actors - as we have 2 actors (the main girl character and the psychopath antagonist) who are 17 years old, we have used 16-18 year-old's for the victims of the killer, and we have also used adults aged 30-50 years old as the detectives that are put on the case. Use of older actors was important in our film, as the roles that they play are ones that cannot be pursued by people that are of my age group. If we had used 16-18 year-old's for the roles such as detectives then the film would become unrealistic and this would lead to a lack of interest from the audience as it spoils the believability of the film.

Absent in our film are both cultural diversity and disability. There was nobody available in the school that weren't white British or had any noticeable disability - however we may be able to include diversity in our film as extras if we film on a day that we can include more people.


What world is created is one of distress and extreme violence, which is a stereotypical convention of psychological thrillers. The narrative is focused around a psychopath who committed school killings as a younger boy and has now escaped the mental institution that he was placed in - killing more people. There is one girl that he is after specifically as she managed to escape the school during his killing spree when he was younger - and when she finds out about the psycho's escape and that he may be after her - a world of extreme distress and panic is created.

What is valued in our film is safety, comfort and the help of others. When the psycho escaped from the mental institution, the girl he targets values her safety, protection and comfort and there are a lot of shots of her in her home that will be ussed in the trailer to represent her valuing these things. Also, when the detective works out that the psycho is after her, he contacts her and offers her his help and protection before the psycho can get to her - and these are other things that she will value more than anything else.

Stereotypes that are present in our film trailer can include a young female that the antagonist is searching for to kill. This is a stereotypical convention of the thriller genre as women are generally perceived as being weak and hopeless in comparison to a strong and powerful male villain and this links into Vladamir Propp's theory. We are also going to make it clear that the antagonists weapon of choice is a knife - and this is a prop that is commonly used in psychological thrillers as antagonists generally commit knife crimes etc.

Applying audience theories to our thriller film

As part of my research for my psychological thriller film, I have decided to apply audience theory to my thriller product. I will be talking about the Uses and Gratifications Theory, Stuart Hall's readings and the types of audiences that will be most interested in my thriller film.

Uses and gratifications theory
This form of audience theory can be divided into two seperate sections; personal relationships and personal identity. Personal relationships will be present in my thriller film trailer as the audience as consumers might see the trailer and might be tempted to watch the film with friends. After seeing the trailer, people may also talk to others about it to discuss their opinion on it - this can be done between peers or with stangers such as over social network sites. Personal identity can be created as two of the settings in my trailer are likely to be school and the house environment - these are two very familiar places for the audienec and therefore they can relate to the characters in the film when they are in these places.

Stuart Hall's readings:
The preferred reading of our film would be an audeince that can relate to the protagonist - someone who creates personal identity. For example; someone who has the same fears or someone that would find out antagonist fearful like the protagonist in our film does. The negotiated / oppositional reading of our film would be that the film isn't necessarily scary - but it is a psychological thriller which is something that would interest audiences.

Types of audiences:
The type of audience for our psychological thriller would be a niché audience due to the type of film it is. A psychological thriller would interest a particualr audience - as many wouldn't like films that are considered to be quite chilling. A particualr audience (one that enjoys and is familiar with this genre of film) would only want to watch this film as opposed to a mass audience - which is a wide open audience. 

Pitching film ideas

In this post I will be presenting the ideas that myself and the rest of my group had for our film and the explanations behind our decisions - including decisions based on:

• Our title - choosing our title, font and title colour
• Misé-en-scene - settings, characters and props
• Production company logo
• Unique Selling Point (USP)

These were ideas that we pitched to the rest of the class in a presentation last week in order to get feedback so we can improve our ideas and give ourselves a better structure and plan for our film. 

Our title

The decisions we had to make on our title were crucial to the successfulness of our film trailer and our film poster and film magazine cover when we come to make them, as it needs to be as appealing as possible and fit the genre of the film in order to appeal to the target audience. As our film is focused around a teenage psychopath, we looked up possible synonyms for the word 'psycho' that would sound appealing as a movie title. Possible synonyms we considered were words such as 'insane' 'deranged' 'disturbed' and 'crazy'. We felt as if 'deranged' sounded best for our film and was the one that stuck out and sounded the most powerful as being the most appealing for the target audience. Also, having on a one-word title was something we were very interested in as it is a typical convention of thriller films to only have a one-word title - for example thrillers such as 'Se7en' 'Saw' 'Inception' and 'Momento'. We used the 'Animated Glow' font that can be found at the Cool Text website here: http://cooltext.com/Logo-Design-Animated-Glow . We took off the glow and added a black background behind the word 'Deranged' as this is our title and black will be the colour of our film front cover and poster. We used this font as it is sharp / pointy and this symbolises a knife and the words looked as if they have been carved into the background. This was important for us to create iconography as the killer in our film uses a knife as his weapon of choice. Also, the text is in a metallic silver colour which again symbolises a knife.

Misé-en-scene

The settings that we are going to use are ones that are common feature in the thriller films genre. We were thinking about using school gates and fences at some stage to film the psychopath behind them to give the idea that he is trapped in the mental institution at the beginning of the film before breaking out. We have asked one of our teachers to film in it and he has happily agreed and we will be using his office for a lot of the scenes as the detectives office, after we have given it a make-over to make it look more conventional with the props we have designed for it. We are also using particular outdoor settings at night that create a chilling effect such as dark alleyways outside of some of our houses. We are also using the home setting that will feature a lot in the trailer as it will make the fight scene that is being shown in the trailer more intense - as home settings in films are generally a 'safe place'. We haven't yet decided names for our characters but we have got plenty of pupils at this school that have happily volunteered to take place in the film, as well as the teacher which we plan on using as the main detective in the film. We have the main protagonist and antagonist booked, as well as the detective and have agreed scheduled times for all of them to film when they are available. We will use the mask of the antagonist which is what he finds when he escapes from the mental institution. A mask is a stereotypical convention of thriller genre and it will feature a lot in the trailer as the antagonist is always seen wearing it in order to hide his identity and appear 'emotionless'. We will also use other props such as the notice boards for the detectives. These are very commonly used in detective's offices as it shows how the cases have progressed, and the evidence they have gathered in order to try and find the killer and work out their motive. 

Antagonists mask

Notice board (part 2)

Notice board (part 1)

Production company logo

We haven't yet made our production company logo but it is something that we will do soon as it is something important in the making of our film trailer as it is a typical convention of film trailers as they always feature at the beginning. We want a production company logo name whcih presents the idea of finest quality and words we have come up with are ones such as 'optimum' 'optimal' and 'ultimate'. The one we are most likely to use would be one such as 'Optimal Productions' and it would include colours or iconography that would also present the idea of fine quality. It is also important for us that we make it clear in the production company logo that they often produce films of the same genre. 

Unique Selling Point

The USP of our thriller film is that the main antagonist in the film is a teenager - at 17 years old. This is a countertype of the thriller genre as the main antagonists are usually always adult men. However, ours is a teenage boy who is going to played by one of the students at our school and therefore this doesn't fit the stereotypical conventions of a thriller film, making it more interesting and appealing to the audience. It is likely that more people will want to see the film as the antagonist is a teenager and it makes the story more unusual and interesting. The audience will be intrigued to know the psychopaths background and his motives. Another USP of our film is that the psychopath and the main girl - the protagonist - have a history, which will be made clear in the trailer to promote interest. This will help the audience create a personal relationship with the main character as they take a look into her past.

Narrative

This is a short summary of our film narrative if it were going to be made into a real film, divided into three sections; beginning, middle and end:

Beginning: This would firstly consist of news reports and shots of newspaper articles focused around a 16-year-old psychopath who killed 11 out of 12 people in his class at school. Then, the focus would be on the psychopath in his current state, with shots of him being locked up in a mental institution not far from the school he used to attend, where the killings took place. The attention will then be on the main character of the film, a teenage girl who later in the film is identified as 'the one that got away' as she was the 1 person who managed to escape the psychopath's attack. The filming would follow her throughout her every day life, giving the audience a perspective on what sort of life she now leads and how she has moved on since the psychopath's attack in the past.

Middle: The middle of the film would be when the psychopath breaks out of the mental institution in search of the main character, the girl who got away. The detective in our film, who will be played by one of our school teachers in the trailer, is put on the case in order to find the psychopath and in order to do this he must determine what the psychopath's motive for escaping is, in order to plot where to find him and where he would be likely to be found. After a number of killings in the area, the detective analyses all the cases and realises that it is the psychopath who is committing these killings in search for the girl who got away. The detective then tries to contact the main character before it is too late.

End: The end of the film would consist of the detective trying to get to the girl's house to protect her before the psychopath arrives. However, the psychopath beats him there and manages to get in the girl's house as she goes to lock the front door - as he gets in through the back. The end would then feature an intense fight scene between the main character and the psychopath in which it looks as if the psychopath will kill her, however the detective manages to get to the house in time and kill the psychopath, saving the main character and resolving the crisis.

The decisions regarding our sound, music and editing choices are yet to be made as we haven't filmed yet - however once the filming has been completed and the editing process is well under way this information will be presented on my blog. 

Pre-production planning

In this post I will be discussing the different areas of post-production planning that myself and the rest of my group have completed in order to create a successful psychological thriller trailer as a part of our A2 media coursework. Below are the types of post production planning that I have completed and that I will be presenting in this post:

• Props
• Shotlists and storyboards
• Location/setting ideas
• Organisation of actors/filming schedules
• Risk assessment

Props

Two examples of props that we created are ones that will be hung up on the detectives notice board - which will feature a number of times in the trailer. We decided to use these particular props as it will help the audience develop a better understanding on the narrative of the film. The long shots of the detective analysing the notice boards and sticking things on it will help the audience understand what role this detective has in the case. Also, close ups on the newspaper articles and the victims of the psychopath murderer in our film will allow the audience to create assumptions on the type of character this psychopath is - and they will also be interested in trying to figure out what his motive is after his escape. 

The newspaper articles are ones that the detective has put up, both on the psychopaths previous killings, as well as his killings after escaping from the mental institution he was placed in - this will allow him to work out who the psychopath is now targeting. The second prop is pictures of the victims that he has killed after his escape, and where they were found on a map of the local area.

This is how these props will be used in the product in the detectives office: 

As you can see by the image on the left, we have also used some pictures that we took of murder scenes on the notice board, and spread them across his desk. This will promote he idea that this is the only focus for the detective and that he is getting worked up over this case. Another prop that we were going to use is a knife - this would be the killers weapon of choice. The knife isn't going to feature in the actual footage for the trailer, however it is mentioned all over the notice board as his weapon of choice - and it is likely that we will use a knife presented on the poster for our film as it is a stereotypical convention of thriller films that a antagonist has a weapon of choice for his killings. 

The last prop that we have arranged, is this mask. This mask will be used for both our trailer and our movie poster. This is a stereotypical convention of psychological thriller movies - for example in the film 'Halloween' the main antagonist has a mask. We decided to use this mask as it appears emotionless and this is how we want to portray our psychopath. We want him to appear to have no emotion and no care for any of the murders that he has committed. We also want his face to be hidden, this is because we want him to have a hidden identity so the audience can create assumptions based on his appearance.


Shotlists

These two pictures are of the storyboards / shotlists that we created. These involve pictures that we drew that give us a perspective of the type of shot that we will use and the characters / props that are in each shot. We have supported these pictures with the shot number, a detailed description of what occurs in each shot, the shot type and how long the shot will be used for. This will give us much better organisation and preperation ahead of filming so we know what we need to do on the day. This will help us more time efficient and organised. 

Locations / settings ideas



As you can see in this image I used earlier of the notice board - we have taken pictures of a variety of different locations / settings that we are going to present in the trailer to give the audience a better understanding on the areas that the psychopath has committed his killings. The other locations that we will use are the detectives office, which was shown above, and the main character's house. A detectives office is a stereotypical location for a psychological thriller as there are usually always detectives - like in the film Se7en for exmple: 

Detectives office in Se7en

Also, the reason that we used the location of a home setting is because this is considered a 'safe place' by audience viewers, and that conception will be tested in our film as the psychopath breaks into the main character's house - therefore making it an unsafe place. The break in will make the audience uncomfortable due to the misconception of the home being a safe place and it will make the film a lot more appealing to see how the main character reacts to the situation. 

Organising of actors / filming

We arranged all of the actors that we will need for filming through asking them at school, and messaging them using social media. We were able to organise all of the actors that we planned for filming, and we arranged a filming date with them that they were all able to be present for. We decided on the different dates for our filming which will all take place next week before we break up for school - this will allow us to have the end of the week and January to edit the trailer using Final Cut Pro. 

Risk assessment 

We had a teacher present when we were designing the detectives office - and this helped us to ensure that everything in the room was safe and that there were no concerns for health or safety when putting things up on high shelves for example. He helped us put things up on shelves that were out of reach for us and we tidied up the floors and desk too. We also tidied up the house which we intended to use for our filming and made sure that there were no risks to filming in there. We arranged particular outdoor scenes in places that were not likely to concern our health and safety.