Now I have surveyed the cross sections I was targeting I can now identify who would be the "principle" target audience.
My target audience is the 20 - 50s. I know this is a big age range but it definitely could appeal to a more mature audience. The people that 'Doctor Death' would appeal to are those who would like to watch a film several times over and who like a films that make them think an which reveal more as they repeat viewing. They also like the plot to take its time to develop with a more complex storyline. My target audience would be from the socio-economic groups of C2 and above.
My target audience would most probably want to buy the DVD instead of downloading illegally unlike a lower age target audience might.
I will address the needs and desires of my audience by producing a film that has attention to detail and a complex storyline. I will add in details early on which get answered later on in the film which will keep them engaged for the duration of the film. Details such as "why does the doctor use his medicine on himself?" and "why are there lots of signatures written on that paper?"
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Costume
For the costume of the Doctor It needed to be 100% authentic, because otherwise it would ruin the film. When I first thought about costume I looked into some old pictures which I have also uploaded earlier on the blog. It shows that men of the time wore mainly tweed suits and waistcoats. So I had a look around several charity shops trying to find anything similar but I was unsuccessful. So I looked in the yellow pages for a costume hire outlet. I avoided the fancy dress shops in the centre of town because I have already had past experience with there limited clothes and high prices for my last film.
But I found one a couple miles out of town. I made an appointment and went to see what they had for offer. It was a small warehouse in a back garden, It had over 8000 thousand of costumes to choose from! Luckily the lady that owned it narrowed it down to three. Here are the pictures of my Dad (who is going to play the part of Doctor death) in costume.
The poor lady who gets killed in my story will just wear a long black skirt that comes to the ankles and a black throw. In her hair she will wear a black thing with a feather in it.
But I found one a couple miles out of town. I made an appointment and went to see what they had for offer. It was a small warehouse in a back garden, It had over 8000 thousand of costumes to choose from! Luckily the lady that owned it narrowed it down to three. Here are the pictures of my Dad (who is going to play the part of Doctor death) in costume.
I decided to go for the last costume on the end. The one that had a waist coat, this was one of the main deciding factor, also because it was tweed and looked the part. The first one was not right because of the shorts. The second one almost convinced me but did not have a waist coat so I went for the last one.
The poor lady who gets killed in my story will just wear a long black skirt that comes to the ankles and a black throw. In her hair she will wear a black thing with a feather in it.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Location Scouting
When choosing the location for my Film I started to think of previous Films that have roughly the same time period as to mine. Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton 2007) was set in the mid 1800's and mine is set the early 1900's I know there is about 50 years difference and fashion definitely changed in that time but I decided to watch the film and focus on the location. In this picture you can see a slanted roof with a big window. Also the walls have old wallpaper with a basic pattern of vertical lines with two different shades/colours.
So when thinking of locations of where to film. I thought of my grandma's house. It is an old house, the room I want to film in has a slanted roof and it has plain white walls. So it was practically a blank canvas.But once I looked into how much It might cost me to make or buy the wall paper I decided I needed a cheaper alternative. Also I decided the room was too small for what I wanted it to be, a Doctors office.
After disregarding this location it took me a while to find another, but it was literally around the corner from the first house I had thought of. It was my Dad's friend's house, I remembered the old wall paper in there so I asked if I could film in his house. He agreed and this was the location I stuck with. It turned out to be even better than I first thought, because all the items inside were 100% authentic. There was an old fashioned fireplace and the original curtains were still in place. I was given a lot of freedom, the owner let me move stuff from all around the house into this room where I filmed. As you can see there is a big bed in the middle of the room. I was allowed to take it out and rearrange any furniture I wanted. This turned out to be the perfect location.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Prop Design - Bottles
For my medicine bottles I wanted really old looking glass with an old looking label and Top. I went down to the chemistry department in school and asked if they had any spare bottles, I was in luck because they gave me 20 smaller brown glass bottles and 5 clear glass bottles. I then made different labels using Photoshop and a font which I downloaded form www.Dafont.com
I wanted the labels to look old and simplistic, so the font is an old type writer font with extra spacings between each letter. The label also has a simplistic navy blue boarder. For the lid the bottles originally had plastic tops but in 1912 injection moulding was not around so I decided to use corks instead. I was given a big bag of corks from Mama Fitch and I cut each one down to size to fit the tops of the the medicine bottles.
I researched other drugs other than Diamorphine and Morphine, such as Arsenic, Candonum, Opium and Chloral.
I then listed how I could make replicas for the bottles.
Arsenic – White crystals – flour
References:
I wanted the labels to look old and simplistic, so the font is an old type writer font with extra spacings between each letter. The label also has a simplistic navy blue boarder. For the lid the bottles originally had plastic tops but in 1912 injection moulding was not around so I decided to use corks instead. I was given a big bag of corks from Mama Fitch and I cut each one down to size to fit the tops of the the medicine bottles.
I researched other drugs other than Diamorphine and Morphine, such as Arsenic, Candonum, Opium and Chloral.
I then listed how I could make replicas for the bottles.
Arsenic – White crystals – flourMorphine – clear liquid – water
Candonum – pink liquid – water and food colourings
Opium - flakes when raw / brown rock – Corn flakes
Chloral – Colourless oily liquid – water
References:
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Survey For Thriller
Thriller Questionnaire
How old are you? 17, 24, 16, 17, 19, 18, 20, 35, 48, 32.
Are you male or female? Female, Male, Female, Female, Male, Male, Male, female, Male, Female.
What Sub-genre of thriller do you prefer? (max 3)
Sci-fi: 3
Based on true events: 3
High adrenaline action: 4
Murder mystery: 6
Conspiracy: 2
Set in the past: 3
Set in the future:
Psychological: 7
Horror : 2
Do you watch a lot of thrillers?
Yes, yes, yes, Yes, yes, yes, No, yes, Yes, Yes.
Yes, yes, yes, Yes, yes, yes, No, yes, Yes, Yes.
When watching a Thriller how do you like it to begin?
Straight into the action: 4
Time taken to set the foundations for a more complex plot: 6
Do you prefer a Male or Female protagonist?
Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Female, Female, Male, Male, Male
Do you like to know who Antagonist is straight away?
No, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, No
Do you prefer a Male of female Antagonist?
Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Male, Male.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Thriller Production - Initial ideas + Research
Initial Ideas:
1.I chose 1912 because I wanted a type writer in my film and I researched when the typewriter became commercialised and it was 1910.
2. I added on two more years because it’s the year the titanic sank and I would love to use a newspaper in one of my shots to help the audience relate to what time period it is set in.
3. Diamorphine was banned in 1914 and was discovered as a worse version to morphine, as before it was the replacement of morphine because it wasn’t addictive. Diamorphine is better known as Heroin.
5. By setting it in this time period, I beleive the story of Harold Shipman makes more sense and intresting. It makes more sense because people were more unaware of use of drugs. And intresting because 2001 is normal, seeing something in the past is more engaging.
Props needed:
Glass bottles -
From the 19th century, various types of fancy glass started to become significant- so a mixture of glass brown and clear.
Wall paper
Two period costumes –
Fashion 1910’s:
High waste gowns
Lots of fur coats
Big hats with feathers
a craze for Orientalism
Old curtains becuase curent look too new
Glasses - small oval
Syringes - Glass + metal
Paracetamol
Table/ old chair
Book shelf
Flour /talc
Light with filters
http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/information/-/page/history_of_the_cheque
When Borders book shop was closing down, I found a book called "Daily Mail. True Crime - Classic, Rare and Unseen." I bought it with my thriller in mind because most Thrillers are based around murder. This book showed old news paper article's dating back to 1910 - 2001. The book basically brings all evidence and background story together. The first story which catched my eye was The West or as the press called it "House of Horrors". A couple who killed people in the late 60's/70's and buried them under their floor. one of which being the first mrs.west...I decided against this because I thought it was a tad too much for an opening and it sounds more like a Saw film rather than a thriller opening.
The next story which caught my eye was the story of Doctor Harold Shipman whom which the tabloids called "Doctor Death". It was revealed in 2001 and made alot of news. Harold Shipman overdosed his patients with diamorphine, He targeted old women who lived alone and few relatives. He made the women write out large sums of money to him, or he would forge them. In one case the one that discovered him, he made Mrs Kathleen Grundy leave every thing to him in her will. This then led to all his crimes being revealed. Doctor Shipman Killed 297 Patients.
This story was alot more thriller potential in comparison to the wests. So I decided to base my Story on Harold Shipman, but with a twist, Instead of it being in 2001 I have decided to set it in 1912. I chose to do it in the 1910's for several reasons.
1.I chose 1912 because I wanted a type writer in my film and I researched when the typewriter became commercialised and it was 1910.
Standardization: By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter)
2. I added on two more years because it’s the year the titanic sank and I would love to use a newspaper in one of my shots to help the audience relate to what time period it is set in.
3. Diamorphine was banned in 1914 and was discovered as a worse version to morphine, as before it was the replacement of morphine because it wasn’t addictive. Diamorphine is better known as Heroin. 4. Insperation from Dr.Hawley Harvey Crippen -1910- He also used his medical knowledge against the people that trusted him and in his case, loved him, he killed his own wife by given her hyoscine hydrobromide, the quantity he aquired was enough to kill her 7 times over. Once he killed his wife he married his misstress.
5. By setting it in this time period, I beleive the story of Harold Shipman makes more sense and intresting. It makes more sense because people were more unaware of use of drugs. And intresting because 2001 is normal, seeing something in the past is more engaging.
Props needed:
Glass bottles -
From the 19th century, various types of fancy glass started to become significant- so a mixture of glass brown and clear.
Wall paper
Two period costumes –
Fashion 1910’s:
Male
formal daywear - includes wing-collared shirt, three piece suit with wide lapels and pressed trousers 1912
three piece suit with characteristic collarless vest or waistcoat. His short has a tall, stuff collar -1912
Female
Lots of fur coats
Big hats with feathers
a craze for Orientalism
Old curtains becuase curent look too new
Glasses - small oval
Syringes - Glass + metal
Paracetamol
Table/ old chair
Book shelf
Flour /talc
Medicine shelf
Newspaper -
Desk light / research when it was made -
electricty was standalized in 1900. Could not find any history on the desk lamp, but if there was, it would be a very low wattage. maybe 10watts max.
Cheque-
first recorded handwrittern cheque in the UK was 1659.http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/information/-/page/history_of_the_cheque
Thriller Analysis
One of the Thriller openings I am going to analyse is David Fincher’s Panic room. In the opening title sequence we see an urban landscape with titles on top of buildings. By opening the film with an urban landscape it sets the scene and lets the auidence know it’s in a big city and in this case New York. The titles are 3-D and are placed parallel in front of the building, this is done for aesthetics and just makes the opening title sequence more interesting than a 2-D Title cards. After the titles we are introduced to the protagonist (Jodie Foster) and her daughter then we are introduced to were the film is set the house. The music used is all string music which really creates atmosphere and keeps the auidence on edge suspecting some thing bad is going to happen.
There is not much which I wish to take from this extract in my own work other than use of string music to build tension and make intresting titles.
The extract below is only 1:51 because I couldnt upload or find a longer extract.
The next thriller opening I am going to analyse is Mary Harron’s “American Psycho” (2000). The opening is miss leading, it makes the audience start to think that there is blood coming down the screen and just to reassure you it blood there is a couple of blood splats. But then you see a squiggle of red then you question which you first thought thinking maybe this is art? Then a massive knife comes into shot with the protagonists name on it! Yet again making you question what you last thought. Harron keeps making the audience think from the first second and this keeps the audience engaged and wanting to know what is happening within just the titles sequence! Harron then goes on to set the scene in this extremely high-class restaurant were we meet our protagonist suggesting that he is also high-class. Harron has also used string music at the beginning but it isn’t as minor and as eerie as Fincher’s “Panic room”.
I would defiantly love to use some elements of this in my thriller such as the engaging beginning and string music.
here is the link to the extract because the user has disabled embeding this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bXESFT2sRQb
The next thriller Opening I am going to analyse is Bress and Grubers "The Butterfly Effect" (2004) The opening is a title card with quote saying "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterflys wings can ultimatley cause a typhoon halfway around the world - Chaos Theory" The title card is white on black showing its quite serious and the quote also has a serious nature about it. Unlike most of the other thrillers I have seen or writern about this one goes straight into the action without introducing the actors or cast. We see a person walking on the other side of the glass, but because the glass is textured we cant tell if it's male or female or protagonist or antagonist. This adds and air of mystery to the beging. We are then introduced to our protagnosit who kicks the door open wearing what seems to be a patients scrubs. He is quite a rush he jumps under the desk with a pen and paper and starts to write what he is going to do, which now seems very odd.
There is not much which I wish to take from this extract in my own work other than use of string music to build tension and make intresting titles.
The extract below is only 1:51 because I couldnt upload or find a longer extract.
The next thriller opening I am going to analyse is Mary Harron’s “American Psycho” (2000). The opening is miss leading, it makes the audience start to think that there is blood coming down the screen and just to reassure you it blood there is a couple of blood splats. But then you see a squiggle of red then you question which you first thought thinking maybe this is art? Then a massive knife comes into shot with the protagonists name on it! Yet again making you question what you last thought. Harron keeps making the audience think from the first second and this keeps the audience engaged and wanting to know what is happening within just the titles sequence! Harron then goes on to set the scene in this extremely high-class restaurant were we meet our protagonist suggesting that he is also high-class. Harron has also used string music at the beginning but it isn’t as minor and as eerie as Fincher’s “Panic room”.
I would defiantly love to use some elements of this in my thriller such as the engaging beginning and string music.
here is the link to the extract because the user has disabled embeding this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bXESFT2sRQb
The next thriller Opening I am going to analyse is Bress and Grubers "The Butterfly Effect" (2004) The opening is a title card with quote saying "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterflys wings can ultimatley cause a typhoon halfway around the world - Chaos Theory" The title card is white on black showing its quite serious and the quote also has a serious nature about it. Unlike most of the other thrillers I have seen or writern about this one goes straight into the action without introducing the actors or cast. We see a person walking on the other side of the glass, but because the glass is textured we cant tell if it's male or female or protagonist or antagonist. This adds and air of mystery to the beging. We are then introduced to our protagnosit who kicks the door open wearing what seems to be a patients scrubs. He is quite a rush he jumps under the desk with a pen and paper and starts to write what he is going to do, which now seems very odd.
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