STORYLINE FOR COURSEWORK

Report

For my coursework I will be creating a DVD cover and poster marketing a thriller aimed at a teen audience. I did research to find out about more about thriller movies so I could complete my production while meeting my targets.
I looked at trailers, posters, and DVD covers to help me get a general idea of thrillers. I also looked at the difference between Horrors and Thrillers as they are quite similar and I feel as if its easy to turn the genre into a horror. Looking at the differences and similarities between the two genres helped me to think of ideas for what my poster and DVD cover could be based around.
From my research I was able to notice the main features of a thriller. For example most thrillers contain violence, are fast paced and contain a lot of suspense. However, there are not many thriller movies which are only thrillers, they are most often combined with another genres, e.g drama or sci-fi. There are many types of thrillers; Conspiracy thrillers, Crime thrillers, Legal thrillers, Political thrillers, Psychological thrillers, and Supernatural thrillers.
By looking at basic things that make a good thriller it helped me to gain a basic understanding of what should be a in a thriller.

From looking at posters I noticed that a lot of posters for thrillers usually have the main characters face with the setting of the movie in the background, for example like on the Shutter Island and House At The End Of The Street poster.









I also noticed that if there wasn't a setting as a background then it would be dark to resemble the mood and atmosphere of the movie. In action, thrillers, the posters main image would be an action shot from the movie. One example of this would be the Taken poster.

Weekly news 5.5

"Lindsay Lohan posts sexy topless selfie before quickly deleting as she celebrates opening of her boyfriends Greek nightclub"

This article talks about a one naked picture she posted and deleted and how she celebrated her boyfriends club opening. The article also highlights the fact that she's still wearing her engagement ring from her ex fiance.
All these things sound like a basic stereotypical article on women. It's suggesting that women are just good to look at and spend time out with their partners and nothing more.
 The article could've spoken about her recent trip to Syria but instead they choose to humiliate her. She had obviously deleted the picture for a reason yet the writer decided to publish it for everyone to see.

research

•  mouth covered by hands (may or may not be her own), relates to title "lights out" 
• Black background so main focus is on the women.
• We are told at the top that the movie is from the creators of Evil Dead so that same audience will be intrigued. 
• The women is looking up in shock suggesting shes seen something terrifying. This makes us as the audience want to know what she sees.

• Black background so main focus is her face
• Train tracks are in red maybe to signify blood or danger.
• Title is a bit distorted, maybe to resemble her personality or mindset
• "what you see can hurt you" - women is looking directly at the camera, maybe telling us this phrase to scare us.

• Broken light switch as the main image to represent the title of the movie "lights out"
• Tape has been put over it maybe to show that someone has tried to repair the destruction.
• white but dirty background

All these DVD covers are very similar. They all have a still from the movie as the main background for the back and them multiple smaller stills as a taster. They all have a summary of the movie to entice the audience.

                                                                             

Weekly News 5

"Shocking moment cop drags terrified school girl, 13, across the floor in handcuffs during school gates brawl" 

Source:  The Sun

This article talks about two school children who were having an argument outside one of their schools when a policeman came and forcefully removed one of the schoolgirls from the situation. Apparently no violence occurred between the two having an argument and family of the victim say that force was completely unnecessary. One witness says "he just drags her like a piece of meat"

I picked this article because most of the stories you hear about police brutality occurs in America and even though this incident wasn't the usual with a black person dying, policeman here in the UK are beginning to act more aggressive. Perhaps we are only being told these situations now and its always been going on and the media have been keeping it hidden this whole time. Maybe the media are slowly beginning to get, us, as the audience to despise the police. If everyone continuously was to hear or experience negative things to do with the police we'd all think negatively of them.

I was reading the comments to this article online and there many people that believe the policeman was just doing his job and that this article is just another way of showing policemen in a bad light.

If you click HERE you can watch the video for this where it shows the policeman picking the handcuffed girl up from the floor who was unable to stand up properly due to the way he was handling her. Obviously we were not there so we don't the situation properly but maybe the girl was violent towards the police officer, maybe she did show signs of resistance and aggressiveness, we don't know because the The Sun has the authority to show us exactly what they want.

Character Analysis: Inside Man

Detective Keith Frazier:

Detective Frazier is seen to be quite determined to do his job, perhaps because he and his partner haven't had a good case in a while. Even after his boss tells him to drop the case he is still eager to find answers, this shows his passion for his job. His main goal in the movie is to free the hostages and find the criminals. His obstacles are probably the physical ones e.g the door because hes actually unable to get it without the criminals harming anyone.


Dalton Russel:

This character is also very eager. He's quite positive on the fact that he will accomplish his mission and is very calm about everything. His main goal is to steal the diamonds and walk straight out the door freely. His obstacles are obviously the policeman and the hostages in a way as they cause trouble.





Madeleine White:

Madeleine is another character where you can see shes very passionate about her job. She doesn't seem to care all that much about what's in the safe but instead goes out of her way to get the box and give it back to the owner. Her main is to get it back and her obstacles are the detective and Dalton.

Character profile

Character Profile:

• Female
• 17 years old
• Chatty
• Independent
• Intelligent
• Loud
• Average height
• Very caring towards everyone
• Rude back to rude people
• Enjoys education
• Enjoys a bit of good gossip
• Bit lazy 

Weekly News 4

Donald trump man...

"Donald Trump sexism tracker: Every offensive comment in one place"

 In this article is a list of over 30 stupid sexist things Donald Trump has said about women. "Fat. Pig. Slob. Disgusting animal" are some of many examples. He's said and done a lot of things that make it seem as if women are simply objects and nothing more. His views are very similar to that of those in the past where many men thought they were better than women and belittled them.
Trump sexually harassed a women and said "when you're a star, they let you do it" So basically he seems to think just because he's "known" he can get away with it? The other crazy people of the world will begin to think its okay and these things in society will never change and get better.
I thin this relates to our media course because its showing how women are still stereotyped and devalued in the 21st century.


Also I know I'm supposed to make it pretty and put pictures but its Donald Trump so that's not going to happen. I looked at his face too much when i was reading the article, nobody needs to see it.

Todorovs theory:

Todorovs theory suggests that all narratives have 5 parts. They start off with equilibrium where everything is balanced and then destruction occurs where the calm is ruined. The next part is 'recognition' where everyone begins to become aware of the destruction and panics. Then comes 'attempt of repair' where the destruction is tried to be fixed. And lastly is 'new equilibrium' where everything restores back to being balanced like the beginning.

Taken:

1. Equilibrium: Kim goes to Paris with her friend
2. Destruction: Kims friend agrees to going to a party with the stranger
3. Recognition: Kims dad is on the phone to her while her and her friend get taken
4. Attempt of repair: The dad goes to Paris to search for clues
5. Kim is found and reunited with her mum and step dad back home  

Propps Theory 

Propps theory suggests that in every narrative there are seven main character types:

                        In Taken:

1. Hero: Kims Dad
2. Helper: The dads friend
3. Villain: Kidnappers
4. Prize/Princess: Kim
5. Mentor: Kidnappers friends
6. Donor:??
7. Blocker: ??

Weekly News 3

How social media is turning peoples private breakups into 'celebrity spats' 

This article talks about how divorcing couples take to social media to attack each other in order to gain sympathy from family and friends. They do this in order to get with celebrity culture as when celebs get divorced it is no secret.

"They suggest that if it’s good enough for this actress or that pop star, then it’s good enough for them."


"estimated that at least one in 10 cases now involve a spouse attacking the other on social media"

There was also a case where one couples children only found out about their parents divorce from pupils talking about social media.
This story stuck out to me because it goes to show how some people like to hide behind computers/phones rather than express feelings face to face. Many people don't think about the repercussions before tweeting/commenting etc.
 It also shows just how much celebrities lives influence others.

research: posters

Shutter Island:

• 
  

•   Face half hidden by shadows
• setting
• dark background
• title is big and bold
• one flicker of light; could represent hope

                                                                                                                                                                                     











House At The End Of The Street:

• Close up of face showing her fearful expression.
• House in the background to show main setting and the possible "house at the end of the street"
• everywhere is dark except the women's face and the house.
• short phrases to draw audience in: "fear it secret"

Research for coursework pt2

The next trailer i will be looking at is for the movie "Nocturnal Animals"
There's a lot of flashing of different scenes which all look very different, this makes us question what kind of movie it will be.
There's a lot of unanswered questions that would make the audience want to watch the movie. There are a lot of blackouts throughout the whole trailer.
The ending gets more fast paced as does the music. The use of the gunshot towards the end creates the silence leaving us in suspense.

Research for coursework

The first trailer i will be looking at is 'The Girl On The Train' which is a thriller, mystery.

I like this trailer because it started off quite slow then began to get faster and showed all the fast paced scenes towards the end. Also a good touch was that the sound was muted for the fast scenes and there was just music over it. The music also created tension and build up. The use of screens with writing on was good as it helped to give away the whole plot. It gives us enough to entice and draw us in but not enough to give it away. The use of small dialogues such as "because i'm afraid of myself" leaves suspense.