Character profiles

Our thriller will apply to our chosen target audience of boys aged 15-24 by the following things.

Boys of this age like films that are:
1) packed with action
2) don't linger on
3) always has something happening
4) has a concept of there life at the moment, so drinking, driving, etc


How our film links to these factors:
1) our film will never stop having action in it, as when it first starts it shows someone running. Then someone being hung. Will then cut to two years before where there is a party. and etc...
2)our film will always follow a story line and wont contain boring bits in it.
3) our film will never have a blank boring scene, it will always keep the audience focused on the film.
4) our film focuses on the life of two 18 year olds, so will represent the life of our target audience.

Brief summary of the opening scene

The opening scene starts off with a shot of a phone with a message from Linden, saying something along the lines of “it’s too much now, goodbye.” this then cuts to Jamie and shows the extreme shock in his face. He then checks find my iPhone to find the location of Linden, and starts running towards that location. When arrived it shows shots of all the items he has used associated with suicide, then slowly pans up to a shadowed figure hanging from a tree. Jamie then falls to his knees, and it fades into a 2 years before shot. After this a quick intro of two years before happens to establish what happened.

Story Board

This is our first attempt at a story board. This is a general run through of the story line of our thriller opening. It also includes the short types and the sound we are planning to include in our thriller. We start with an establishing shot of my house. We then move to a mid-shot of me laid in bed playing fifa. We then see a close up of my phone, illustrated in picture number one. Several different shots are then used to show Jamie walking over to his phone, unlocking it and reading his text. A low angle shot is then used to show his phone drop to the floor before a high angle shot and a zoom are used to allow the audience to read the text. We then use a variety of shots to show Jamie's journey from his house to the place where Linden has hung himself. Low angle shots are used to show him hopping fences and close ups of his shoes to show the pace at which he is running. We then use an establishing low angle shot of the floor to show the state of the area he arises at. Razor blades, smashed glass and bleach bottles are scattered around the floor as well as other items associated with suicide. We then use a close up of the rope around the neck, a high angle shot of the suspended feet and a mid-shot of Linden with rope around his neck to symbolise the hanging. We then cut to a title screen and a screen that reads "1 year later" we then see the boys playing happy and drinking beer at Jamie’s house.

 

 

Strauss and Barthez

Levi Strauss – Binary oppositions

 

Levi Strauss was less interested in the order of events in narratives and was more interested in the themes underneath. Levi Strauss argued that narratives depended on binary opposites or conflicts between two terms, for example good and evil.

·         Binary oppositions can quickly establish who the good and the bad characters are in the text

·         The idea that we cannot conceive the concept of good without the concept of bad with which to compare it to and therefore compare it against.

·         Binary oppositions are obviously present in narratives because fundamentally a narrative must be based on the conflict of two forces.

 

 

Barthes – Narrative codes

 

Action code: The audience will recognise in an action code in a media text as it’s used to indicate what next logical step is. It advances the narrative e.g. the buckling of a gun belt in a western film signifies the start of a gun fight.

Mystery code or enigma code: This code is used to explain the narrative by controlling what and how much information is given to the audience. It grabs the audience’s attention by setting up an enigma or problem that is resolved during the course of the narrative e.g. someone’s murderous hand in the opening sequence – who does it belong to?

The semic code: Basically, this code is all about signs and meanings in a text that tells us about the narrative and its characters e.g. in a horror film, the supernatural would be signified by the fear of light/ garlic, an increase in body hair etc.

The cultural code: This code is used in order for the narrative to make sense to a culturally and socially aware audience. It makes references to elements form the real world that the audience will recognise e.g. Aston Martins and Martinis in James Bond films

Code of oppositions: This code refers to a narrative that relies on binary opposites e.g. Black vs White, Hot vs Cold, Nature vs Civilisation, War vs Peace etc.

 

“The good, the bad and the ugly” – Codes.

The placing of the rock on the ground is an action code as it shows him emptying his hands for what is about to come. We can presume what is about to happen by the cultural code of the cow boy hats wore by both men, stereotypically cowboys settled there in differences via a dual and we presume this is about to take place by the presence of these two codes. The cultural of the environment is stereotypical of western films as it is set in a dry deserted waste land, the pre dug graves is also a code as it represents death and the death of at least one of the guys in the scene. The code of oppositions is shown through the facial expression of the good guy the scene in comparison to the bad guy. The hero’s facial expression rarely changes throughout the scene, he looks confident and assured through the clip. Whereas, the villains look nervous which is shown through the sweat on their brows and the constant unnerving looks towards each other through the clips duration.