Tuesday 25 March 2014

Leverage


My Thriller Title - Leverage

After researching what many different words meant, I came across the word 'Leverage' which is defined in the dictionary as 'the power to influence a person or situation.'

I felt this was appropriate for my thriller as there is the stalker who feels he has the power over the dad and whenever he feels ready, he will kidnap his son. Also, there is the man who keeps getting the dad to pursue drug dealing so he thinks he's in control of his life. I believe this title really indicates the themes of my thriller.

I checked to see if there were any other films with this title as I wanted something original. there was reference to a TV series however, there were no recent films called Leverage. 


Monday 24 March 2014

Leverage Sub Genre



My thriller is a psychological crime thriller making it a hybrid. Originally my thriller was only
going to be of the crime genre however, during editing, I realised that if I change the order of 
my shots it could be viewed as psychological as the shots are not being shown in 
chronological order. 

Thursday 20 March 2014

The Inspiration for my Thriller

Memento is the film that inspired me to create my thriller. The use of crime and the twist to create a psychological thriller really intrigued me. Although I made my film quite different, I used the sub genres used in this film and put my own ideas to it.


I was originally going to have the stalker taking photographs of the family which I got the idea from this trailer with the camera sounds however, I realised when editing that it would be more successful if I show the rewinding and fast forwarding which is more interesting to watch and represents the stalker watching the videos back. 'Memento' also uses a rewinding effect when the man is shot. Here is an example from both 'Leverage' and 'Memento' whereby there is a rewinding effect to go against generic conventions of going back in time. 

I chose to use the rewind effect during the drug deal to symbolise the stalker watching the video he has taken. I think this is effective because the constant change in time means that the chronology doesn't have to be in order like other thrillers. 



 In 'Memento' we can see the bullet is rewound into the gun after the shooting and the gun is rewound back into his hand. I thought this was effective because you get to see it happen again to show it's significance.

I was inspired to change the chronology of my thriller after seeing it being done in 'Memento' as Nolan has chosen to tell the story backwards. He starts at then end and finishes at the beginning. To reflect this in my own opening, I have started with heavy breathing on a black background to create tension and I have ended my opening with that same breathing with the visuals to show the audience why he was breathing like that. I like how this created suspense from the start and makes the audience want to know whats happening so it helps build the narrative and keep them engaged. It was not my original intention to adjust the chronology of my thriller when I first started editing however, I wanted to be more creative and intrigue my audience, therefore, I thought it would be good to make my thriller different to most.

I was also inspired by a thriller called 'The Call' which was released in 2013. The plot of the film focuses on the role of 911 operators in law enforcement. Specifically, it follows Jordan, an operator who is still suffering emotionally from a bad experience with a teenager who she couldn't help in time and therefore, died which she feels responsible for. This links to the backing story of my thriller where the dad had something to do with the stalkers daughters death and therefore, his revenge is kidnapping his son. The idea of a kidnapping was used from this film because I think it was filmed really well and I like the man playing the kidnapper which is also a convention I chose to use. This was the main inspiration of my narrative whereas 'Memento' inspired my edit.




'The Call' focuses on kidnappings and murders however I have only used the idea of a male antagonist being a kidnapper. I also chose to stick to the conventions of not revealing his face to keep a sense of hidden identity until the audience see the entire film.



Thursday 13 March 2014

Soundtrack


I had intended to create my own soundtrack on garageband however, I looked online first to see if there were any tracks suitable for my thrillers narrative. After searching through all of their soundtracks, I discovered one called 'Night in the City' which I thought was very appropriate for mine with the outdoor scenes. When I added it to my footage, I automatically started to like it as it went really well with my narrative and contributed to the sense of mystery. I downloaded my soundtrack off of a website called 'Purple Planet' which is not copyrighted.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Shot List


Shot List








Actors - Leverage

My Actors


Name:   Daniel Mendez
Age:      23
Role:     The dad who is forced into dealing drugs
Clothing: Navy tracksuit bottoms, white t-shirt, navy hoodie and trainers
Character Status: Working class, employed 



Name:   Aidan Mendez
Age:      11
Role:     The son who is being watched and is going to get kidnapped
Clothing: Yellow t-shirt, chinos, white socks
Character Status: Working class








Name:   Rachel Mendez
Age:      17
Role: The teenager who buys the drugs off of the dad

Clothing: Pink hoodie, jeans, white trainers
Character Status: Lower class, unemployed







Target Audience & Age Restrictions


Target Audience & Age Restrictions

After carrying out research through questionnaires and other thrillers targeted audience, I have come to the conclusion that my thriller would be aimed at teenagers and young adults aged between 15 and 40. 


I went on to the 'BBFC' website to find out about the guidelines and age restrictions and it helped me to choose the rating for my thriller. I have come to the conclusion that my thriller is only suitable for ages 15 and over. I believe the reason for this is because of the drugs which appear however, my thriller doesn't encourage the use of them which would then make it an 18 rating. Also, there is a stalker watching the son might be disturbing for younger children. I discovered that these sort of things don't appear in 12 rated films. 


After considering whether my thriller would be a 12 or 15, I thought about how I would intend to continue my storyline. I feel that I would include scenes of violence between my main character who is being pushed into selling drugs and his boss when he blames him for his son going missing.

Teenagers are clearly targeted as the film contains generic conventions of a crime thriller. This includes having teenage characters, and including key issues in the narrative which are specific to teenagers such as drug abuse, violence and having a family at a young age.
Adults may also be targeted as the film contains many themes suitable for an older generation possibly up to age 40 despite only being a "15" rated film. An example of these include drug abuse, violence, crime.  


This is the profile of a typical person who would watch my thriller:




jacob-artist-glee-season-4.jpg

Name:      Daniel East
Age:         19
Address:   Broadfields Estate HA8
Info:          Student, University - Studying Psychology
                  Enjoys spending time with his friends, going to parties, watching movies and loves to play football. He enjoys action, crime and films that relate to real life situations.




My Core Target Audience: 

Leverage is not a film someone would go go to watch in order to clear their head and be happy because of the themes involved. This includes drug dealing from a young age, violence and children being kidnapped. This film will allow the audience to escape from their own problems and focus on the characters problems. It is a start of a social conversation as it involves drug dealing, drug use and young people doing nothing but being bad role models to the younger children around. The drug dealing by someone who is responsible for a child in the film could make the audience aware that this happens in our society today in London. This might even relate to certain audience members and could help them to become aware of the situation or teach them what is the best thing to do.

I read this website: 
I now have a way of coding my thriller audience.










My thriller Leverage would be viewed mostly by an audience from section 'D' and 'E as it could relate to a similar situation in their life due to low income which could be the reason for getting into drug dealing as they need the money. Audience members from section 'D' and 'E' are more likely to be of a young age which means they will relate to the character as their playing ages range from 8-20. This could help them to place themselves in the characters shoes to understand what they are going through. 

I posted a rough edit of my thriller (Leverage) on Facebook and it got 15 likes. 10 of these people were under 20 and the other 5 of them were over 21.

My thriller's core audience is people from sections D and E, ages 15-23 and my secondary audience is going to be for ages 24-40 as people of a higher income might appreciate that they have been lucky with the life they have made for themselves. It is an extremely popular subject and is very enjoyable so I think they would also enjoy watching it.



Storyboard

Storyboard



Titles

Titles


I looked on Art of the Title to discover the order of the titles as well as to give me ideas of what I should use for mine. Here are some examples of what I found and liked:

In the thriller 'Se7en', I liked the white text on the dark background so I chose to do the same with mine.








I also liked the example from 'Red Lights' which uses a very simple and clear, bold title for the name of the thriller.









Name of the production company:

A Bedlam Production          

Name of director:

A Nicole Fleming Film

Starring:

Daniel Mendez
Aidan Mendez
Rachel Mendez

Film title:

Leverage

Casting:

Casting by Lauren Lin

Music:

Music composed by Anna Willis

Production Designer:

Production Designer Colin Hamilton

Costumes:

Costumes by Laura Stone

Editing:

Edited by Karen Smith

Production:

Produced by Tony Dickson
Executive Producer Darren Rice

Writer:

Written by Katie Johnson

Director:

Directed by Nicole Fleming

Location, props & costumes


Location:


A house in Weston Drive, Stanmore:           The corner of the street where the drug deal will take place:
                         



Props:
  • Mobile Phone
  • Package (The drugs - flour)
  • £100 cash
  • A camera

Costumes:

Child: Chinos and yellow t-shirt - casual

Dad: Tracksuit bottoms, white t-shirt and navy hoodie - casual

Stalker: Black jacket

Teenager: Pink hoodie, jeans, white trainers


The weather is cold but it's not raining so I shouldn't encounter any problems whilst filming my outside shots.

Script


Script

As the dad comes down the stairs and is about to leave the house he says goodbye. 

Dad: "I'm just going out babe."
Mum: "Alright"

I am only using a couple of lines of dialogue as from my research I have found that in order to not give too much away, there should not be long conversations telling the story. Everything should be shown to the audience through the use of camera shots and angles.

Shooting Schedule

Shot Dates


Monday 24th March 2014 (5pm-10pm)

  • Shot 1
  • Shot 2 
  • Shot 3
  • Shot 4 
  • Shot 5
  • Shot 6
  • Shot 7 
  • Shot 8 
  • Shot 9
  • Shot 10
  • Shot 11
  • Shot 12
  • Shot 13
  • Shot 14
  • Shot 15
  • Shot 16
  • Shot 17
  • Shot 18

Tuesday 25th March 2014 (3:30pm-5pm)

  • Shot 19
  • Shot 20
  • Shot 21 
  • Shot 22
  • Shot 23
  • Shot 24
  • Shot 25 
  • Shot 26