The document summarizes the stage 2 research and experiments portion of developing a thriller film project. It discusses conducting primary research through questionnaires and interviews to understand what makes a thriller. The document then analyzes the target audience which is identified as 15-21 year olds, aimed more towards males. British Board of Film Classification guidelines for a 15 rating are reviewed in terms of content considerations like language, violence, sex, and more. Potential production techniques are researched including montage/audio examples from Psycho, use of push-ins, and panning shots. Camera/editing/audio experiments are mentioned but not detailed. Constraints that could impact the production related to time, personnel, cost, technical abilities, locations, and organizational

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Emily Grace Porter

2.  You MUST conduct a questionnaire/survey/interview or a combination of all three.
Summarise this and add in any other primary research you feel is appropriate
 My Questionnaire: What makes a thriller?
 5 Questions
 7 Responses
 Conducted on surveymokey.com

3. Question 1

4. Question 2

5. Question 3

6. Question 4

7. Question 5

8.  Research viewing figures, sales figures, demographic and psychographic info.
Look up article, features or stories related to your potential audience

11.  For this you should summarise your primary and secondary research, through this
you should then be able to produce an audience outline that you intend to target.
For this you could also produce an audience profile.

12. My target audience age rating is between 15-21, fitting with BBFC
classification (15). This is due to the dark and atypical content and
my chosen genre. Mostly aimed towards males due to the tense
and chilling atmosphere of film but also has aspect that’s females
would engage with, for example, the main character is a lonely yet
handsome young 20 year-old male who lives alone therefore they
will sympathise and grow fond of him.
My film is unusual and demands a open minded audience, my first
though for my target audience was students that’s how I came to
my age range of 15-21.

13.  Given your idea generation and your audience research, what sort of content
would you define as the appropriate. Consider issues of taste, certification [BBFC
might be a good starting point for this], etc. Look at what you’d like to include and
what you are allowed to include.

14. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent,
non-governmental, not-for-profit, co-regulatory body. They are
funded through fees charged to those who submit films and video
work for classification.
Guiding Principles:
 To protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful
or otherwise unsuitable media content
 To empower consumers, particularly parents and those with
responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions
General classification considerations include: theme, context, tome
and impact.
Specific classification considerations include: drugs, imitable
behavior, discrimination, language, sex, nudity, threat and violence.

16. 15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over
Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse
discriminatory language or behaviour, although
there may be racist, homophobic or other
discriminatory themes and language.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the work as a
whole must not promote or encourage drug
misuse.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging,
suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on
detail which could be copied. Whether the
depiction of easily accessible weapons is
acceptable will depend on factors such as
realism, context and setting.
Language
There may be strong language. Very strong
language may be permitted, depending on the
matter in which it is used, who is using the
language, its frequency within the work as a
whole and any special contextual justification.
Nudity
There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual
or educational context. There may be nudity in a
sexual context but usually without strong detail.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually
without strong detail. There may be strong verbal
references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest
references are unlikely to be acceptable unless
justification by context. Works whose primary
purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are
unlikely to be acceptable.
Threat
There may be strong threat and horror. A
sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is
unlikely to be acceptable.
Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on
the infliction of pain or injury. the strongest gory
images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong
sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

17.  Research potential production techniques you might want to use
or feel would be most appropriate – these can be related to
camera, editing, story, sound, etc
 You should look at a minimum of 3 related products in your
research.
 You should collect clips/still images/how to guides/etc that might
help you. When watching scenes from films, etc you could also
ask potential target audience what they think.
 You will need to add extra slides!
 With each technique you should assess whether you can use it or
how you might employ or why you may want to disregard it
completely

19. PRODUCT 1 – MONTAGE/ AUDIO - PSYCHO (SHOWER
SCENE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY
This montage is famously effective through the emotional impact and visual design which are
achieved through the editing together of many brief shots from different angles as well as the
famously known music which adds to the atmosphere of the genre.
My favourite part of this scene is when Janet Leigh pulls her arm out and grabs the curtain before
pulling it down and falling over the bath. I think this is so dramatic and such a classic scene
remembered in film history as one of the greatest. When this film first came out no one expected
Janet Leigh to die off especially this early, because she was such a big actress as the time, but
Hitchcock wanted to surprise his audiences he wanted to catch then with the element of surprise.
Before Janet Leigh’s character gets into the shower, it is very quiet with non-diegetic music slowly
building up to an eerie slow paced music which builds up the tension nicely. The music then stops
and all you can hear is the water from the shower. You can faintly see someone approaching her
through the shower curtain, and with only the water noises the whole scene is realistic and viewers
get anxiety whilst watching this innocent women wash herself not knowing something awful is going
to happen her. As soon as the shower curtain is pulled away the high pitched music is then played
again, this time much louder and faster, it’s a piercing sound which reflects the stabbing taking place,
whilst the director doesn’t make this death seen so gruesome he manages to create a suspensful,
scary and effective death scene using the piercing audio, and the montage effect of editing together
of lots of quick takes.
I want to develop my piece through the idea of using a montage the whole way through. I like how
the story is being shown through different persectives and different angles protray different
feelings/emotions. For example, I want to feature a low-angled shot facing up towards my
protagonist, who is looking down to the soup. I think this will give an eerie effect and will foreshadows
the soup is going to cause a problem.

20. A push in is the act of moving the camera towards the subject usually by
using a slider or a dolly. Push ins are used by the director that want to
insinuate something or put a lot of attention on some information or a
subject itself. I want to use a push in because I think it fits the atmospher of
the genre and I also think there is a part in my film where it protrayed
exactly what I want it to. That part being a low angled shot from in front of
the pan of soup, facing up at the protagonist who indicates something is
wrong (we know this through facial expressions) doesn’t know what
exactly. I’m going to slightly push in to indicate more to the audience that
this is the turning point, this is when things start to take a strange turn.
Push ins are all about the visual language and using camera movement to
help fuel the story.
PRODUCT 2 – PUSH IN
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007)
– FORREST GUMP

21. This scene is so aesthetically pleasing to they eye, in a sense the camera
follows the mans movements without following him directly. That panning
shot is slow and on a 360 degree angle, this creates a clean looking shot
that looks like the timing is perfect because the man seems to get on with
his daily duties but following the camera. Due to the small room which the
scene is being taken place in, the panning shot allows the viewer in and
feels like they’re in the room with the character, as they get a feel and a
view of the whole atmosphere of the room.
PRODUCT 3 – PANNING SHOT – CLOWNWISE(2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7fp7u_vlk

22. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

24.  What elements of your experiments will you include in your final
product?

26.  What elements of your experiments will you include in your final
product?

28.  What elements of your experiments will you include in your final
product?

29.  List all the potential constraints that might affect or limit your production, you
should consider issues from each of these categories:
 Time/Personnel/Cost/Technical/Location/Organisational