Synopsis of film

In a unknown forest, with a body just lying in the ground. Bishop the main detective with the trend and culture of the stereotypical detective, along side him, his partner Reece Youngs. This guy is the new guy compared to the experience Bishop has, with no where near the same personality... This time they find themselves confused and impressed of how this unknown murder has skills of a doctor to get clean cuts through a victims chest. The killer has some strange obsession with collecting certain things. This killer is an unusual killer, could he be helping Youngs and Bishop out? Bishop is starting to slowly get annoyed with Youngs. Could something happen to Youngs relating towards Bishop?

Tasks To Be Completed

Tasks To Be Completed:

Genre Theory: Christian Metz model of genre development, 27th - 4th
Image embedding for Christian Metz, 27th - 4th
Genre theory: Film Noir - HSR, 27th - 4th
Writing: Film opening sequence - HSR, 27th - 4th
Film Noir textual analysis: Maltese Falcon + Video/Image embedding - HSR, 27th - 4th
Media Theory: Stereotypical Representations in Thrillers/Horrors (Dracula/Single White Female) + Embedding Images, 27th- 4th

Genre and Classification - BFI Statistical Yearbook 2014 - Summary

With the data that is shown in the graph you can clearly see what films are preferred and which ones are not. The reason i know which films are preferred is because in the table you can see that for example, Horror and the Thriller genre are apart from each other, you can see that the Horror genre has done less films within the genre unlike the Thriller genre. Horror has done a total of 37 films unlike Thriller that have accomplished 64 films. This is a crisis because Thriller have spent more money in making more movies to get even more profit and unfortunately failed at this takes because their Gross box office (in £ millions) is near enough half the price of what Horror have made. In total Horror genre has accomplished 37 films with a Gross box office of 57.5 million which is incredibly more.

Unlike the Animation genre they have made even less films than Horror and Thriller but are at the top of the table. In total they have made 33 films with a Gross box office of up to 246.6 million. The reason for this is quite simple. Horror films have a target audience which would usually be adults are older teenagers, kids from 8 years old wouldn't appreciate been scared to death by zombies or ghosts so they would be unable to watch this from the cinema. Unlike Animation where kids from any age accompanied by parents can watch these types of films but also elderly people would also not appreciate being scared by the Horror genre but may enjoy the Animation genre films. This gives a much wider range of ages that will watch their films allowing more money to go into their company. Plus kids are more enthusiastic about going to the cinema than adults.

This table shows the amount of films that are shown on cinema screens overall in the UK. You can see that Sci-fi is the most popular with an Average number of 422 cinemas showing that kind of genre. This does prove people enjoy that genre much and it does have quite a big audience target as 12 year olds may to a certain extent enjoy this kind of film, but it is the 4th down in the 'Films Released' table, but only releasing 9 films but getting a Gross box office total of 87.4 million which is quite incredible realising the joint 3rd least amount of films released. You can see a trend within the Average number of releases, all the top 3 have really low number of releases meaning the US studios could massively advertise and promote these movies tempting more people to go watch these. They possibly could also pay more cinemas to release them for the public to watch them. You can see that the Genres that have a lot of films that need released are quite near to the bottom as they would have to spend money to advertise and promote all of these movies, so what i thought they would of done would be promote and advertise the best looking films so they can try make the most profit but unable to pay cinemas to possibly release them.

Planning for Movie

Character Profiles:

Detective (Bishop): Suit, long coat, single, cold personality,

2^nd Detective (Reece Youngs): Conflicts opposite number, sarcastic, similar appearance/attitude, social opposites

Killer: Blood stained shirt, tools in garage, Jar of hearts in garage, scruffy dress code.

Setting the scene: Old garage (with dark filter applied) body possibly in a woodlands/field.

Keeping the city unknown, getting a high up angle view of the woodland/field where the body is kept.

Script:

Fade in

Exterior. Unknown forest- late morning.

Closes into a crime scene, Detective Youngs is on the scene and Bishop is just arriving. There is a body on the floor with deep gashes around the chest and heart.

Bishop: What we got?

Youngs: Dead body.
(With a grin on his face)

Bishop: (slowly loosing temper)…I’ll ask again, what have we got Youngs?

Youngs: Young male, charged for possession of illegal substances 3 months ago, probably looking for somewhere to get high, but obviously hit a low last night.

Stage direction: Bishop looks up with a disgusted look. 

Bishop:(angrily) Christ sake Youngs, you don’t speak ill of the dead.

Stage direction: Youngs flails his arms in defence of his comment.

Youngs: But sir he was a low life drug dealer, if anything we've been done a favour.

Bishop: That may be the case, but think about this. That man has a family, I can’t go and tell his mother, or wife and children that their Husband, son or father has been killed but it’s not important. There are consequences to each and every action.

Youngs: Whatever.

(Bishop sighs)

Bishop: (Snaps) What was that Detective Youngs?

Youngs:(Sarcastically)  Nothing Sir

Bishop:Lets let forensics start processing some of this before any evidence deteriorates.

Stage direction:bishop walks past the camera out of the scene.

Youngs: Probably best.

Stage direction: Takes a final note about the crime scene.

Fade out

END OF SCENE

Stereotypes in horror films

Female Victim:

·         There is almost no horror film without a female victim, as they are portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection. This representation dates back to earlier horror films that were made in a more sexist era, and the idea continued. Usually young, blonde and attractive, will help to attract and hook a definite proportion of male viewers. The woman character can often be portrayed to be stupid and annoying (going back to the sexiest era when they were just meant to be house wife’s and not able to work) the stupid annoying ladies would be one of the only characters the audience sometimes will be to be killed. Although she is shown to be dumb, she isn’t typically the first to be killed because she is some sort of key to the narrative and will be needed throughout the movie. It will also give the hero someone to have some charm with. When she is unfortunately killed it is usually gruesome or graphic. The woman character helps to build up some suspense in the audience throughout the production, as her behaviour often puts them on the edge, and whenever she gets scared/frightened or possibly even jump, even when its unnecessary it will often make the audience feel the same.

  
When it comes to male characters you can really see the instinctive stereotypical look of eachother. For example Dracula is one of the biggest American made films to current date with many different copies of the original with most played complete different actors, but when you are to look at them in the movie they both really look the same. This is because big productions/studios do not want to un-attract the media or public away from the film because something is different. With the public it is hard to convince them to watch something different when the originals where just so fantastic, so they have to keep the stereotypical look of Count Dracula the same. The Stereotypes are listed:

He always has something related to a Bat
He can not be seen in a mirror
Every Dracula has some sort of Cape
They can fly

All Dracula's actors have been usually 6 foot ish white men.

If you were to change the height or definitely the colour (race) of Dracula i think it would be really hard to hook the viewers because they want/like the original story so much it will be hard for the viewer to hook to the movie. You just couldn't have a black Dracula as it has been going on for so many generations i believe it would shock people if some studio/production changed the race of Dracula (It's like you couldn't have a black 007)

Film Noir and Genres

·         Where did genres come from?

Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best. In later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre became a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art. Because art is often a response to a social state, in that people write/paint/sing/dance about what they know about, the use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings. In fact as far back as ancient Greece, new art forms were emerging that called for the evolution of genre, for example the tragic comedy.

·         How did the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ re-inforce genres?

the Golden Age. In the popular imagination, this is a glitzy era stretching from the '30s to the late '50s that is, essentially, present-day Hollywood cranked up to elven with hollywood costuming and gorgeous period dress. While there were some really great movies made during this era, let's remember that Sturgeons Law and the Nostalgia Filter apply.

Actors during this time include

• Cary Grant
• James Stewart
• Great Garbo
• Humphrey Bogart
• Robert Mitchum
• James Cagney
• Marilyn Monroe 
• Joan Bennett

·         Which genres became popular in Hollywood

• Action Adventure
  Action adventure movies make the big headlines with the record-breaking ticket sales. However, huge ticket sales are usually matched by huge budgets, which means that these movies bring in a lot of money, but not the best ROI. For instance, to date, "Avatar" has made over $2.7 billion, yet its ROI is "just" 500%, as compared to lower-budget action film "Mad Max" (1979), which returned 24,837.5%. In the top 20 movies that have the best ROI, you won't see any of the blockbusters you'd imagine, and "Mad Max" is the only film of its kind in the top 20.
• Drama, Romance and Comedies
  Dramas and romance don't typically have huge budgets for special effects and sets, so when one really takes off, it can make an incredible ROI. The movie "Once" was made on a shoestring budget ($150,000) and took off, gaining Oscar nominations in the music category and taking in nearly $19 million. Overall, it has the 10^th-highest ROI at 6,232.39%. George Lucas' second film, "American Graffiti" is number nine on the list at 8,909.01%, "Napoleon Dynamite" is at 12 with a 5,667.62% return on its $400,000 budget, and the classic "Gone With The Wind" is at 15 with an ROI of 4,906.73%.
• DocumentariesWith little in the way of cast, crew, special effects or big name stars, documentaries can often be made for a tiny fraction of what it costs a big-name Hollywood film, and when these films become popular, the ROI is astronomical.

  The film "Tarnation," which is pieced together from videos the filmmaker recorded throughout his whole life, had a reported budget of $218. However, take that "budget" with a grain of salt, as it is the amount that it cost the filmmaker to make the movie, but does not reflect the amount for marketing and distributing the film. Still, taking that number as a rough estimate of the film's costs to create, the ROI is 266,416.97%. This film is only beat out by one on the ROI list. Following "Tarnation," in fourth spot, is the anti-McDonald's film "Super Size Me," which cost $65,000 and had a return of 22,614.90%. There are no docs in the bottom 20 for ROI.
• Horrors and ThrillersHorror is another genre with a lot of huge ROI hits and few misses. The number one movie for ROI is the hit "Paranormal Activity," which was made for $15,000 and had a box office gross of $161,830,890 for a return of 539,336.30%. "The Blair Witch Project" gave the studio a lofty 20,591% return. "Night of the Living Dead" comes in at six with an ROI of 13,057.89%, "Friday the 13th" is (coincidentally?) at 13, with 5,332.24%, "Open Water" follows at 5,110.09%, "Saw" comes in at 18 with 4,195.68% and "Evil Dead" closes out the list at 3,820.00%. Horror makes a much smaller appearance in the bottom 20 for box office ROI. 

·         Why do audiences like genre films 

• predict story outcomes based on applying knowledge of prototypical storylines — for example, predicting that at the end of a romantic comedy, differences plaguing a couple’s relationship will be resolved, or predicting that a detective will sort through conflicting clues to solve a murder.
• identify the symbolic meaning of images, techniques, or characters’ practices — for example, knowing that images of black or darkness in film noir or a gangster film represents evil; that suddenly breaking into song in the musical is a familiar, if not unrealistic technique; or that the sidekick figure is often attuned to the local environment or world in ways that assist the hero.
• infer the function or role of the setting or context to explain characters’ actions — for example, knowing that the eerie noise or music in a horror movie is signaling the potential for something dire will occur, or knowing that the “live-audience” setting for the talk show serves to enhance the talk-show host’s sense of performing for both a live and a television audience.