Blumhouse Production Company

     Considering that my group and I are going to be creating a very low-budget thriller film, it would be best for us to use Blumhouse Production Company to produce our film. Blumhouse is known for producing low budget thriller/horror films, including but not limited to Get Out (2017), Truth or Dare (2018) and The Visit (2015).
   
     To start off, the extremely iconic film Get Out had a budget of merely $5,000,000, tying with The Visit who's budget was also estimated at $5,000,000. Truth or Dare had an even lower budget of $3,500,000, all 3 of which were produced under Blumhouse and were successful horror/thriller films. Together, they grossed approximately $439.62 million dollars worldwide combined. Blumhouse would be the ideal production company for our film because they specialize in low-budget filmmaking, which is exactly what our film is. Along with that, Blumhouse is very well known for making thriller/horror movies that become very popular and grow rapidly in America. This is beneficial to our film as it will help to ensure our low budget film will be able to gain a greater amount of viewings and thus a larger box office profit if it were produced under Blumhouse versus other low-budget production companies. We also plan on using Blumhouse because it is a smaller, independent production company. This is useful for our film because it gives us far more creative freedom to portray and create what we want on film, without having to worry about a large studio company such as Universal telling us what we can and cannot do. In this way, we can give our film a more unique and personal feel to it, and make it stand out. Along with that, since using an independent production company means we have a smaller budget, we will not require as much viewership to pay back costs of production. It won't be as big of an economic risk at the box office, but this also means we have a greater chance of making a profit since our budget is so low to being with.

 

Our choice of the production company (Blumhouse) will effect how audiences engage with our film in a positive way because Blumhouse is known to produce thriller/horror films. Though Blumhouse is a relatively small company, it is still well known for it's products, and will help shine a spotlight on our film because Blumhouse has attracted viewers after creating many thriller hits such as "Get Out" and "Split". Also, being produced under Blumhouse will help us to attract a younger audience, which matches with our target audience (which can be found in my "Who Shall Watch My Movie?" post.) of people aged 18-24. Younger people tend to watch thriller/horror films at a greater rate as they are more attracted to the suspense and violence present in them. Considering the simple fact that Blumhouse produces thriller/budget films, this works out perfectly.

Sources: 

https://www.imdb.com/

http://www.blumhouse.com/about/

                                                         

Do You Even Title Sequence Bro?

     When asking the question "Why are title sequences important in movies?", a bland person may respond by saying the typical "Well, because they give credit to the cast and crew of course!" However,  I think it is fairly obvious that there is more importance to the title sequence than making sure the cinematographer gets his name on the screen for 2.5 seconds. (That sounded shady... there's no shade here!)
     To begin, the title sequence is literally the first thing viewed in your movie. Those first 2 minutes (approximately) are the very foundations that leave a good or bad first impression on the audience about your movie. So the title sequence requires a lot more attention that one may think. A well functioning title sequence should accomplish these 2 tasks:

1. Set up the genre of your film

If I were to be blind-folded, guided into a movie theatre, and sat down to watch said movie without any prior context as to what the film is about, then I should at least be able to tell what genre the movie falls under after I watch the title sequence. If I'm exposed to outer space or advanced technology then I could, with plausible cause, assume I'm watching a sci-fi movie. But if the sci-fi movie starts out with 10 high school outcasts performing an A-level musical number on stage in bright neon clothes... and I wrongly assume I'm watching a musical... then the title sequence wasn't set up right! Title sequences are vital to exposing the audience to what they are about to watch, and should represent their genre with crystal clarity.

2. Foreshadow themes of the movie without overshadowing the movie itself

When watching a title sequence, the audience should be able to have a basic (yet detailed enough to gain attention) understanding of what is happening in the film. Or, better yet, some title sequences even foreshadow events that we can't connect immediately. But once the movie is done, we are left admiring the title sequence for how it handed us so much vital information who's extreme value was just not quite understood yet. The details exposed in a title sequence should be enough to engage the audiences attention and have us wanting more information. It should keep us glued to our seats, spoon feeding us just enough to make us stay and watch. Along with that, when making a title sequence, many things should be considered, such as typography (red writing to evoke fear in horror?), color pallet (bright and colorful to show ambition and happiness in musicals?), and even cinematography (high/low angle shots to show power in action films?) should all accurately evoke the right emotions within the audience which filmmakers wish to create. 

Here is an example of a good thriller title sequence within the 2018 thriller film Bad Times at the El Royale. 

This was done quite well for many reasons. First, I immediately get the sense that this falls under thriller because we are exposed to the character tearing up his hotel room to drop a mysterious red bag under the floorboards. This raises immediate suspicion, and foreshadows future events in the film, which is enough to keep the audience glued to their seats. We also witness many jump cuts throughout the title sequence which very effectively conveys the feeling of urgency present in the film. The ending, which shows the character getting shot, makes the audience question why he is getting shot which once again leaves us yearning for further information. Notice how hardly any information was given away and the movie itself was not spoiled before it began. Instead, we were given small glimpses into the world of the film which were enough to tell us the basics of what is going on, and make us want to know more. I would also like to acknowledge its proper usage of sound. We were exposed to on-screen diegetic sound coming from the radio, which sounded rather upbeat. Yet it was accompanied with action on screen such as the mysterious bag hiding and the spontaneous, unexpected murder. This gives off a sense of irony, directly spooking the audience.

Sources: 

http://what-when-how.com/motion-graphic-titling-for-filmvideo-and-the-web/the-purpose-and-functions-of-a-title-sequence-title-sequences-function-with-form-motion-graphic-titling/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vWIwNTr_0

I Love Me Some Non-Diegetic Sound!

     The importance of sound in a film is one without comparison. There are many factors that add meaning to a film that only sound can produce, such as using non-diegetic sound, on screen sound, and dialogue (to name a few). Generally, sound is used to show the audience how filmmakers want viewers to react to their movie. Are you supposed to feel scared? Relieved? Curious? Chances are, a films score will give you all you need to know, and have you reacting exactly the right way.

     Personally, my favorite sound to analyze is non-diegetic sound, because of how effectively it evokes emotion while being so stealthy. Half of the time when watching movies, you hear the non-diegetic sound, but you don't realize all of the effects it has on the current action shown on screen. To prove this, here is the famous "Get Out of The Water" scene in the 1975 Jaws film. 

Within this clip, there are many factors of sound that are used to create a sense of emotion. We can hear on-screen, diegetic sound when the ocean waves crash to help us feel a sense of peace and calmness. When the children and adults both begin to yell and scream "get out of the water!', this usage of dialogue allows us to understand the state of panic occurring within the minds of the audience. The most impressive usage of sound in this clip, however, is the usage of non-diegetic sound starting at 1:32 - the iconic sound motif associated with Jaws the shark in all of the Jaws movies. As soon as the audience hears this, we instantly are suspicious and then immediately anxious, assuming that impending doom is soon to come. This sound is specifically used for the audience and to get us to react to the film, and the characters in the movie cannot hear it. Another interesting trait about the non-diegetic sound beginning at 1:32 is its usage of loudness. It starts off rather quiet yet still audible, but then proceeds to become very loud right before the attack, showing that the louder the sound is, the closer death is. Could you imagine if, leading up to the shark attack shown in the above clip, the scene had been quiet? We would not have felt nearly as scared as an audience, which would have taken away from the overall feel of the film.

Here is another great example of the importance of non-diegetic sound in Jaws. The first part of the clip shows this scene without any background music. Then, the second half shows the same scene but with background music present. The emotions felt when watching the former and the latter differ greatly. In the first half, we don't know what to feel as viewers because the scene feels bland. Instead it feels more like real life, because we don't actually walk around with a soundtrack following us every day. However, in movies, we basically demand it to be present. It shows us the gateway towards what to feel, which is why in the second half of the clip, we first feel anxious waiting on the men to tie up the bomb and to shoot the shark,  followed by a feeling of relief after the mission was completed successfully, all thanks to the power of non-diegetic sound, and sound in general in movies.

Sources: 

http://thecinematheque.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/LanguageofFilm07.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW23RsUTb2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1Z_fWDZ7s

The Upmost Importance of Font

Titles are essential to a films overall connection with audiences. The way titles are portrayed help to evoke certain emotions to viewers, such as fear for horror movies or humor for comedies. For the thriller genre specifically, fonts are usually abnormal. Rather than appearing professional like Arial, Times New Roman or Helvetica fonts, titles in thriller films are typically built to create a stronger, immediate sense of fear or suspicion.

To start off, lets first evaluate the very popular Netflix original phycological thriller "Black Mirror". The title for this was deliberately made to appear as if it was cracked from the glass to promote suspense, which directly follows along with the emotions a thriller movie tries to create. Along with that, the show "Black Mirror" uses a customized edition of the Sans Serif font, to show the creepiness of the show. Note the white color as well, and how white gives off a sense of new creations and futuristic technology. Imagine if the font was in Comic Sands, and was hot pink... we would no longer be drawn in by the thrilling and suspicious factors of the title, but we would instead be fooled into thinking it's a chick flick about mirrors! The size of the title is also of importance. It is big enough to read and enough to draw in our suspense, but not too big as to be overwhelming, such as what we may expect from action movies.

 To the right I have the movie poster for the popular 2018 thriller film "A quiet place." Once again, we notice a lack of common professional fonts such as Times New Roman or happy fonts such as Comic Sands, but a new, spookier looking font. It appears sharp and rugged, which helps foreshadow to the audience how there will be a possible fight for survival within the film, building tension without even watching the film. Also, the color scheme of the font is similar to that of "Altered Carbon" with the usage of white which shows a sense of newness, indicating the film has a new and unique environment for the audience to explore, promoting suspense. However, the usage of red in the font color mixture should be noted as well, as red demonstrates violence and points towards the more mysterious and gruesome parts of the film present.  The size is also very similar to that of "Altered Carbon", as it is big enough to read, yet small enough to draw in suspense and has our eyes draw themselves to the picture at hand.

Following these, I decided to analyze the title sequence for the 2013 thriller film "Limitless". Within it, I noticed that the information in the titles included the cast/crew names and the roles they played. For example, I could use this information in my project through crediting my partners for their work by putting "Editor - Ben Isaacs" in my title sequence. Another thing I noticed was that the credits were not placed perfectly center frame but instead were put more towards the bottom of the frame. This is done to ensure the audience can focus on the images and action portrayed on screen rather than them being distracted by the fonts. It will be important to ensure my titles are around the edges and not center framed when making my own title sequence. It was also evident that the titles for the roles each person took on was smaller than the name of said person. For example, in my project, we could say "Production Designer - Bianca Raby". (Preferably written horizontally and not vertical, of course). 

My sources:

https://venngage.com/blog/font-psychology/

https://fontsinuse.com/tags/2150/thriller

https://www.slideshare.net/BenAmbrose2/fonts-in-thrillers

http://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/top-10-title-sequences-of-2018/#

Who Shall Watch My Movie??

The intended audience for my film is mainly young women aged 18-24. This is because 57% of females prefer to watch thriller movies whereas only 43% of males do. Along with that, a younger audience is more inclined to watch movies involving twists, suspense and possible graphic content than the members of older generations. To further this, the majority of Americans only go to the movies a few times per year. To ensure my movie has the best shot at the box office, I will make sure to do research as to when huge blockbuster films are to be distributed to the theaters. Considering my movie does not have a large budget or famous actors, I will have my movie play at the theaters when there are no blockbusters playing, or a low amount of them, so my film has a greater chance at being watched. Also, considering that most people aged 18-24 are big social media enthusiasts, I will make sure my marketing consists of advertisements on popular social media accounts such as releasing videos on YouTube, and possibly advertising on sites such as YouTube or Snapchat to gain a young audiences' attention. Lastly, since most people aged 18-24 also have jobs, I would get the theaters to play my film at nighttime to ensure most of my audience could attend considering most people work day shifts. This way I would have a more successful box office profit.   

Within my genre (thriller) there are many common forms of representation as well. One of the most dominant factors that can easily be picked out is the representation between gender. Females tend to be portrayed as pretty beings who are subject to bad fate, and are sought to be "easy bait" in thriller films. With the assistance of mise-en-scene (costuming, hair style, etc.) women usually dress in a seductive fashion or wear lots of makeup to make themselves victim to male gaze and to increase their sex appeal. Along with that, women are usually seen as weak, and are either caught in a bad situation (kidnapping, murder, etc.) or are saved by a man before anything too extreme happens. This leads into the representation of men in thrillers. Males are usually seen as quite the opposite; they are leaders, they are strong, and they don't need any saving. Usually a male is portrayed as 1) the strength-fueled protagonist who saves the day or 2) the notorious antagonist who cannot seem to be stopped due to his power. A strong example of this would be the iconic low-budget film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Within it, there is a very well known murder scene which can be viewed here. We notice as viewers that the female protagonist was portrayed as someone who is beautiful and weak rather than strong or a leader. Moments after getting in the shower, we watch as antagonist Norman Bates (male) enters the bathroom and slashes the female to death with ease, all while the female struggled for the entire duration of the slashing.

Another representation that should be noted is the representation of race. African Americans are usually portrayed as strong beings in a physical state (large muscles, athletic, etc.), but they can also be portrayed as a less superior race and as inadequate. This is especially true when African-Americans are playing in films with a strong white-race center, as the white people tend to be represented as the "leaders" and as powerful socially. A very strong example of this is the very popular 2017 thriller film Get Out scene "Chris gets his revenge on the Armitage family" which can be viewed here. Within the scene we see both a representation of whites appearing superior to African Americans but also we see the representation of African-Americans being a very strong race. In the beginning it is evident that the film made black people less superior to whites as the black man Chris was tied up in a chair and had to fight white people mercilessly to get free. However, Chris was able to successfully defeat every white person who came in his path, showing African-Americans being represented as very strong beings physically.


Sources:
https://www.filmsite.org/psyc.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Lx4Yb8cNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY

Thriller for the Win!

So after some more discussion, it appears that my group would rather create a thriller title sequence than a horror one. So, I've decided to analyze another thriller title sequence from the hit thriller movie "Split" released in 2016 (Link). Right from the start, I noticed a representation of class.

To the left, we can see a group shot of 3 characters standing together, who gave off a stronger "wealth" vibe than our main protagonist, shown in the next image. These 3, with the help of mise-en-scene, show higher class with the usage of more formal clothing (costuming) and more expensive looking hairstyles

In the background, we can see the main protagonist standing all alone. She gives off a "lower class" vibe as her costuming is loose fitting and darker than her higher-class counterparts. She is also standing alone while the other 3 stare at her from a distance, making it appear as if the higher class are judgemental, and the lower class are outcasts or lonely

Here, this thriller uses common horror-genre cinematography, but uses it to build suspense instead of to evoke fear. In this screenshot, we see the character staring right into the "camera", or in the context of the scene, the character is making direct eye contact with the antagonist (POV shot from the antagonist). POV shots are wise to use in horror or thriller movies because they place the audience right in the characters shoes and in the middle of the action

Pictured here is another POV shot, this time from the eyes of the main protagonist within the car. Again, this POV shot was used to evoke a sense of abnormality and get the audience on the edge of their seats, but it is not used to create fear. This title sequence does a very good job at introducing a thriller movie because it shows minimal action (through gassing the teenage girls in the backseat until they pass out). It is enough to tell the audience something abnormal is occurring, and is enough to get the audience suspicious, but does not generate great fear, as opposed to horror. Instead, it gets the audience to ask "why?", and sets up the events for the rest of the movie

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVYKO22FjU

Horror vs Thriller... Which Will it Be?

So after some discussion, my group has discussed the possibility of creating a title sequence for a thriller film rather than horror. Initially, we had thought horror and thriller were pretty much the same thing (with some minor differences) but with some research I found that they do have their own separate characteristics which make them unique from each other⇩⇩⇩Here is the link from which I got my information. (Link)

Thriller:

• Psychologically scares audience
• Aims to make the audience question events and contemplate what they just watched afterwards
• Occurrences are more realistic
• Typically contains a twist or a mystery; aims to make the audience feel shocked or "on the edge of their seat", not horrified

Horror:

• Aims to scare the audience by scary masks, gore, torture, etc.
• "Jump Scare", makes the audience scream or shake from fear
• Revolves around repulsive or horrific occurrences
• Aims to make the audience have nightmares
• Less realistic events (coming back from the dead, possessions, etc.)

In order to prepare for the possibility of our project following more closely to a thriller, I've decided to analyze the title sequence from the thriller movie "Get Out". From personal experience, I know that this film definitely scared me psychologically. I wasn't horrified after leaving the theatre but instead I was contemplating and questioning what I had just watched, because the events seemed extremely realistic yet so twisted... it "thrilled" me.

The most noticeable detail about this thriller title sequence is that the events give off an extremely realistic vibe. First, we have who we can identify as the protagonist walking down the street at night time in the suburbs. The character was talking to his girlfriend on the phone, his costuming was very casual, and even his actions represented normality as he turned in the other direction once he noticed the car was following him. This differs sharply from horror films as they typically aim to scare you immediately with a spooky, isolated setting, creepy characters/makeup/costuming, or just presenting events that would be identified as unrealistic yet still scary. This clip, however, appears very realistic. But right from the start we as an audience are questioning the events, such as "Why is this car following him?" "Why is the driver door open?" "Why is this man being drug unconscious into the back of a car?" These questions pop up as a result of the film's events purposefully trying to get into our minds and have us wanting to know more information. Yet we're not scared, just simply full of suspense. Another aspect of this clip that sharply differs from horror is the lack of violence shown. We know by context clues that the protagonist was strangled and drug into the trunk of a car. However, we did not see any actual violence: low key lighting was used so we could not see any signs of suffering on the protagonists face, no weapons or dangerous props were shown and no blood was splattered. A horror film would typically amplify these aspects to make the audience feel fear. In this case, however, we are asking why did this happen? Along with that, sound was used in a different way as well. Horror films tend to use spooky ambient sound such as footsteps or non-diegetic sound to make the audience feel fear towards what will happen next. In this scenario, we saw onscreen, diegetic sound coming from the stereo in the car. The music was upbeat and happy rather than eerie, which makes the audience thirsty for more information.