Brain Storm (philip)

Preliminary

Preliminary Task

Audience

The Target Audience Our Production Is Aimed At Are For Our Film We Are Aiming It At A 15-25 Age Range, As Our Film Will Be Rated A 15 Certificate We Would Be Aiming It Towards This Segment. Our Film Will Interest More Males Than Females, As The Opening Scene Is A Torture Scene, Which Would Captivate A Male Rather Than A Female Audience. It Would Not Really Appeal To A Race Because they Are Both Of The Same Ethnicity So There Is No Interracial Torturing.

Our Production Will Appeal To Our Target Audience Because We Have Researched What Genres They Prefer And Have Catered To The Needs Of The Audience

Vance Packard (1957) the Hidden Persuaders
“Media Can Directly Inject Messages”

Uses & Gratifications
• Blumler & McQuail (1968) Suggests That People Get What They Want From The Media
• Young People Watch MTV For The ‘Music’ – Middle Aged Men Do It For The Semi-Naked Pop Stars
• They Are Active Interpreters And Choice Makers

Reception Analysis
People Interpret Media texts Differently According To Class, Ethnicity, Age, Etc.

Morley(1980) – Messages Often Have Many Meanings (Polysemy)
Audience Has Three Responses
• Dominant Response
• Oppositional Response
• Negotiated Response


An empirical study in the U & G tradition might typically involve audience members completing a questionnaire about why they watch a TV programme.
Denis McQuail offers (McQuail 1987: 73) the following typology of common reasons for media use:

Information
finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
satisfying curiosity and general interest
learning; self-education
gaining a sense of security through knowledge


Personal Identity
finding reinforcement for personal values
finding models of behaviour
identifying with valued other (in the media)
gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction
gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
having a substitute for real-life companionship
helping to carry out social roles
enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment
escaping, or being diverted, from problems
relaxing
getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
filling time
emotional release
sexual arousal

(reference http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html)

American Psycho

Patrick Bateman, a young, well to do man working on wall street at his father's company kills for no reason at all. As his life progresses his hatred for the world becomes more and more intense.
Patrick Bateman, lives Wall Street by day and his nights are spent in ways impossible to fathom. He's a soul-less, modern monster whose zealous materialism and piercing envy fuels his homicidal activities.
Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence.

90 Minute Synopsis

A lawyer who is a psychopathic killer, tortures and kills the clients that he believes are guilty, depending on the seriousness of the crime that they have committed. Despite being a psychopath, the lawyer is very good at his job; he always manages to get people off. The beginning of the film shows his latest client to be tortured in the lawyers grotty garage, the lawyer is beating the man and interrogating him. We see the lawyer at work meeting clients and then we see him find and kill the ones who he believes are guilty. but one client he perceives to be guilty really is not, so he goes to find him to kill him but the client works out what the lawyers game is and tries to escape form him. The lawyer then gets a taste of his own medicine.

Target Audience

It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film.Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory, and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults.Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are border line horror films, such as The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenage girls), the demographic would be slightly different, probably younger and more female based.And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults. But if you just need a target audience for a generic thriller film, I'd have to say the young adult demographic from 18-25. For our film we are aiming it at a 15-25 age range, as our film will be rated a 15 certificate we would be aiming it towards this segment. Our film will interest more males than females as the opening scene is a torture scene which would captivate a male rather than a female audience.

2 minute Synopsis

The beginning of the film starts with an establishing shot of the grotty garage where the twisted lawyer tortures and kills his guilty clients. We hear a narrative of the lawyer saying “you know what I hate most about my job…are the ones that get away with it”. There is a close up of the mans horrified face as we see him tied to a chair in the garage. The lawyer is beating him up and interrogating him. The man somehow escapes and the credits begin once the lawyer has tried to hold him down.

Definition of a Horror

Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality. Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that simultaneously attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre, although thriller films may have some relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the killer/madman. Horror films are also known as chillers, scary movies, spookfests, and the macabre.

Definition of a Thriller

Several characteristics help to define a thriller. Thrillers also have a lot of action, which is often chaotic, and they typically feature resourceful heroes and exotic settings. The plots of thrillers can vary widely. Some are supernatural, for example, centering around mystical antagonists. Others are scientific or medical in nature, forcing their protagonists to contend with biological agents or mysterious scientific happenings. Some are simply straight mysteries with clever, horrific, or intriguing antagonists, while others be focused on the inner workings of the legal system, environmental threats, technology, or natural disasters. One long-established thriller genre is the spy thriller, featuring an often heroic and dashing spy who must confront whichever enemy happens to be popular at the moment. Some thrillers are extremely intellectual and of very high quality, encouraging more educated people to enjoy them. Many such thrillers incorporate a psychological aspect, forcing people to examine the motivations and back stories of the characters to figure out the plot. Others are more simplistic, in the vein of the penny dreadful and designed to appeal to a much wider audience. Many thriller books are adapted into movies, and thrillers can also be turned into comic books and television shows.