Target audience for different types of thrillers

Religious Thrillers

Religious thrillers use the histories and myths of religion (e.g. a religious artefact is discovered and many different people and groups fight to control it or the devil returns to the earth and people have to try and stop him). The target audience for this kind of thriller can vary between ages 8 and up because if it is executed in a way in which younger children can understand what is going on without the over-emphasis of action and romance. Or it can also be aimed at a target audience of 18 because in some cases like the film 'End of Days' there may be use of intense violence and gore and strong sexual content.

Political Thrillers

Political thrillers usually involve political relations or the fate of the entire government to be at risk and it is up to the main protagonist to prevent something from happening that causes this to happen. The target audience for this kind of thriller is for more mature and intellectual audiences, this is because they are more likely to contain mature themes and violent moments and it is too intellectually demanding for younger audiences because it is likely that they will not care about political issues at all.

Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural thrillers involve transcendental elements which are used prominently in an antagonising way and some characters may have supernatural abilities which help them to advance through the plot. The target audience for these thrillers would be young adults from the age of 12 and up because the elements help to inspire their imagination because they are at the age when it would be most prominently used.

Conspiracy Thrillers

Conspiracy thrillers usually involve a protagonist (or group of protagonists) who is trying to confront a large, powerful organisation that only they seem to know about. The target audience for these kinds of thrillers would be 18+ because there would usually be increasing scenes of violence, disturbing imagery for the ill hearted, notable scenes of sexual content and therefore certain kinds of thrillers would need the viewer to be intellectually capable of understanding the extent of what is supposed to be happening.

Target audience for thrillers similar to mine

From asking questions to various types of audiences and from prior knowledge of other movies which are fairly similar to ours, we have gathered that the target audience for our film would be around 15 to 25 and so our thriller would get a 15 rating. The film might appeal to young adults who want to see some action and excitement in a film. The market from 15 to roughly 25 is largely due to the action and the gadgets used in the opening sequence of our thriller which means that the audience can enjoy our film as they might relate to it.

The certificate of 15 we believe would be used due to:

- Strong language, which will be used in our film
- The dangerous behaviour such as the use of weapons in our film
- Strong violence throughout film

Examples of Action Thrillers with Different Target Audiences

3 Days To Kill - (15)

This film involves the character Ethan Runner who has a dangerous career. Ethan becomes ill and can’t carry on due to his terminal illness.  Ethan has the opportunity to live when the agency offer him a cure for an exchange to kill the most violent terrorist. This action thriller is similar to ours with the idea for an exchange and the use of violence and strong language which means it has been rated a 15.  Due to the similarity in film and same use of references it shows our film is also suited to the certificate rating of 15.

Sabotage - (15)

Sabotage is an action thriller film. The target audience for this film is also a 15. This is shown through the use of drugs, violence and sex references. This film is about a crime and involves action and a mystery case. The film is about the mystery of a stash of cash going missing and a group being targeted by violent people. This film uses a lot of weapons and mystery which shows how the film is rated as a 15.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – (18)

This film is about a detective who is on the streets on Sin City. This film involves the detective Dwight who receives a call from his ex girlfriend, Ava Lord. Dwight refuses to meet her. The story also involves a stripper called Nancy who is plotting against a corrupt senator and finds herself in deep trouble. This film involves nudity, drug use and extreme violence. This difference between this film and our film becomes clear as does why this film is rated 18 and why ours should be rated 15. Our film does not involve nudity or have the same extent of violence as this film does. Therefore this film gives us the greater knowledge for why people under 18 can watch our film.  

The Two Faces of January - (12)

This thriller is about tourists who are misled and approached by a local con man who is scamming people as a tour guide. These American tourists find themselves in a situation that leads to danger. The film involves strong language and moderate violence. There are also some scenes of smoking. This film does not show as much violence or have as significant weapon crimes as our film does and therefore shows clearly that our film has stronger than just moderate violence like this film does, making our film best suit a 15.

Conclusion

From looking at 2 action thrillers with the target audience of 15+ gave us the idea that our thriller will also show similar traits and a similar use of violence that is portrayed in those films. The other 2 films (the 18 and 12 ratings) also shows that our film would not appeal to all of our target audience. If we made our film a 12 it wouldn't appeal to our maximum target audience as a 12 can only have moderate violence. Our film does not meet that criteria and we believe it requires extreme violence due to the kill list and the weapons that Sean has to use for his task in our action thriller. The 18 will also miss out on some of our prime audience from 15-18 as they won't be able to see it, although as we have concluded they should be able to as the violence isn't too extreme. We believe that our main target audience on top of 18-25 will also be interested in our film. Prior to this we questioned people so that we could find our target audience and recorded it where we found that mostly men preferred thriller films even though we do believe our film will attract some women. Overall, we are targeting men between the ages 15-25 as our main audience due to the strong language and violence that our film entails.

Filming a run-through of my opening sequence in school

Above is the mock run through of our thriller opening sequence. In most shots the camera will be mounted on a tripod so the filming is steady (except in those shots which we want to be shaky). Additionally, the video itself and the audio will be of much better quality. We will also be improving the script slightly along with the the editing, the music and even possibly the camera shots (including camera angles) as we come nearer filming our actual thriller opening sequence.

Shot list for our thriller

What I have learnt from storyboarding our thriller

Storyboarding our thriller has developed it in many ways. It has advanced the concept of our thriller into a visual representation of what each shot will look like, coupled with and enhanced by annotations which display our intentions of what will accompany what we see in each shot. For example, we have written the planned duration that some shots will last for so it is easier when it comes to editing. However, we have not noted this for every shot as those which contain dialogue are much more difficult to assign a length to due to the uncertain amount of time it will take to say particular lines. The annotations also include the camera angles we have established would suit each shot to help us understand the motion of the scene. The moment at which the scene cross-cuts between Sean and Sebastian further assists with this, which is demonstrated in the storyboard as the shots are matched with the script and so it shows the point in the script when the shot is focused on each character. Additionally, we have explained the specific actions in each shot so we know what we aim to film in them, and we have commented on what sound we intend to hear in a few shots so that if the sound doesn’t occur when filming, we know what sound to add in during the editing process.

Making the storyboard has helped us convey the thriller genre as it has prepared us with information that we can use when filming so that we can get all the shots we want and allow us to communicate our idea properly. By completing the storyboard, it has also allowed us to decide that we will show the name of our thriller at the end of our opening sequence to intensify the uncertainty when the tension is at its highest.

After storyboarding, we are going to film a run-through of our thriller using our storyboard. We will try to follow our storyboard when filming, but it may change slightly while editing if the shots don’t fit well together or if something doesn’t work well.

Title sequence storyboard

Inspiration for title sequence

I came up with the main idea for this storyboard as I have seen American Horror Story (which is a television series of the horror/thriller genre, thriller being the genre of our film) and thought that the discrete title sequence for its first season would be a perfect inspiration towards the title sequence for our thriller. This is because I thought that the disconnected, jumpy editing creates a really creepy and sinister atmosphere, along with the bold credits which again seem disconnected from the rest of the sequence and give a feeling of uncertainty and so brings a lot of tension. In addition, I liked the shots of the different bottles and containers and thought that for our thriller we could instead film shots of different chemicals as the antagonist has made a toxin and the chemicals would be an indication of this and so would connote his effort and determination to kill.

Storyboard for our thriller

The pictures in our storyboard for our thriller were drawn by Bianca Shirk, while what would be in each shot, the camera angles of the shots, the duration of the shots and the sound in some shots were determined by our whole group.

Feedback for our thriller idea and getting opinions for the target audience

To conclude, this feedback showed us that this thriller will appeal more to men. This is because the genre of “thrillers” is generally more appealing to men then women. However we do believe some James bond fans and some women will like the thriller due to the action sub genre we have included within our thriller. The feedback also showed that the gender of the actors does not make the thriller any better or worse which is because we were mostly told that the action in the film is more important and how the setting and characters are portrayed. This therefore shows that the climax of our film is the most important feature. The feedback for the plot itself was liked by all of our participants who found the idea “exciting” and not something they have seen before. Even though our idea is inspired by other films and news articles there are not many films like ours and the idea does have some unique features to it, which have attracted our audience. Our participants also confirmed the age for our target audience where they believe the thriller would appeal to teenager’s to young adults. We do still believe that our thriller may appeal to some middle aged men since they may relate with the man character (Sean) who is also a middle aged man.

Possible names for our thriller

Up till now, we have not had a definite title for our thriller. But we have recently thought about some names that we could use.

‘The 36-Hour Contract’:

This will give people an idea of what will be involved in the thriller. It shows that there will be high pressure to perform a certain act or acts under a narrow time limit in order to receive something in return.

‘129,600 Seconds’:

This is similar to ‘The 36-Hour Contract’ in that it displays an amount of time, however there is nothing to suggest that it is a deadline. This therefore leaves the plot fairly ambiguous and mystery so people will be intrugued to watch it.

‘The Toxin’:

This title suggests that someone or more than one person has been injected with a poison which indicates that the thriller will involve trying to find a way of curing themself/themselves.

‘The Antidote’:

It is clear that an antidote is necessary to cure a particular poison, but it is unclear how many people are infected by it, how they came to be infected by it or how they plan to acquire the antidote.

‘Chase for the Antidote’:

This name is very much alike ‘The Antidote’, however it also hints that the antidote needs to be obtained fairly quickly.

‘Kill List’:

This insinuates that the plot involves a list of people who someone is going to kill, but as far as the title goes it is for an unspecified reason.

‘Life or Lives’:

This is quite alike the title for the film ‘Kill or Be Killed’, however instead of suggesting that someone has to kill or they themself will be killed, (although our thriller is about that,) this title flips it around and shows that either one person will live or lots of people will live.

‘To Save Myself’:

This name shows that someone has to do something in order to survive, but it is left equivocal as to what that ‘something’ is, although it is most likely that it will be contentious as it isn’t made clear in the title which hints that they are ashamed of it.

‘The Deed’:

This implies that someone has agreed to do something consciously to achieve an objective that we don’t know from the title and so can create ambiguity. This means that it can draw people's interest as they might feel that they need to find out.

‘Exploitation’:

This title shows that someone is treating someone unfairly by manipulation in order to benefit from them. However, it doesn’t show what this person is making the other do or what they are using as leverage.

‘The Trade’/‘The Exchange’:

Both of these are synonyms of each other but could each make good titles. They both indicate that someone will give or do something and receive something in return, although we don’t know why they are having this trade/exchange or what they are each promising to give or do.

We have decided on the title ‘The 36-Hour Contract’ as we like the sound of the name and we think it gives enough hints as to what the audience can expect from the thriller, but it also leaves many questions open.

Script for our thriller

The script consists of our ideas and will help us when storyboarding. The script will also help when filming as it gives us a guideline and has helped us bring the whole story of our thriller together. This is a working script, however we believe we will stick to it. We may change the script a little when coming to editing if necessary. This script also shows our intentions with stage directions additionally included in our opening scene.

Scene starts, alley way, slow pan over man lying on the ground. Cut to close medium shot as he sits up, frowns and rubs his head.

Sean:*Sitting up and rubbing head*

*Phone rings*

Sean:

*Picks up phone*

“Hello?”

Sebastian:

“Sean Finch - “

Sean:

“How do you know my - “

Sebastian:

“I trust you had a nice sleep? Wake up feeling a little… Peculiar did we?”

Sean:

“Well, yeas actua-“

Sebastian:

“The reason for this call is to… Inform you. A little over three hours ago, you were injected with a toxin of my own creation. The only way to be cured is with a very… Specific antidote. If you would… Indulge me in a little game, I’d be more than willing to part with it.”

Sean:

“You - You’re sick”

Sebastian:

“Perhaps… Check your pockets, Sean. You’ll see a list of people you are going to have to kill in order to earn my favour and my antidote…”

Sean:

*Checks pockets, picks out knife and note*

“The knife?!”

Sebastian:

“Well, I’d hardly expect you to kill them with your bare hands now would I!”

Sean:

“And I’m supposed to murder them, in broad daylight? What if I get caught?!”

Sebastian:

*Chuckles*

“I never said it would be easy… Get creative, add a hood and mask or something, I don’t care, just get the job done!”

Sean:

*Slowly lowering knife*

“And what if I say no?”

Sebastian:

“Then you die… Slowly… Painfully… Your choice… You have 36 hours to complete my contract.”

*Hangs up*

Sean:

*Lifts up knife again and looks at it*

Costumes for our thriller

We would like to get the ‘Slim Fit Suit Jacket’ from George at Asda as it is fairly cheap for a suit jacket and we don’t need to get trousers as we will only be showing the upper body (but not the face) of Sebastian. The suit also connotes that he is superior to Sean and gets what he wants. In comparison, we want to buy the ‘Tailor & Cutter Stripe Shirt and Tie Set’ and the ‘Tailor & Cutter Textured Trousers’ from George at Asda because they aren’t that expensive in contrast to many others like them and we would like to rough them up a bit by ripping them up so Sean looks like he has had something happen to him the night before and is no competition for Sebastian.

These costumes will appeal to our target audience as they are the type of clothing people would see working men wear and therefore people can connect and identify with the characters more.

In addition, we also plan to buy black 'Leather Gloves' from George at Asda again because they are cheap compared to other leather gloves from other sellers, but Asda is still reliable. These will be worn by Sebastian which will create a sense of mystery and ambiguity for the audience (in addition to not being able to see his face) as well as for Sean. It connotes that Sebastian is trying to hide his identity by hiding his skin which also means that he shouldn't have left any fingerprints on Sean, the karambit or the list of names to kill. This indicates that he knows what precautions to take as he has committed many crimes before. The gloves are leather which is usually more expensive than most other gloves and suggests that Sebastian may have earned money from exortions. The gloves are also black which emphasises Sebastian's 'darkness' and clearly implies that he should not be trusted.

Props for our thriller

There are not very many props needed for the opening scene of our thriller. However, two phones are necessary in order for the primary component of the scene to occur and proceed. Sean will have a clearly older and less expensive phone than Sebastian to indicate that he is inferior to him. We think that Sebastian should have a Samsung Galaxy SIII as it is a fashionable phone which suggests his ability to exploit and influence, while we think that Sean should have a Nokia 6600 Slide as it demonstrates his pitifulness. These are also good choices of phones because the Nokia is quite cheap on eBay compared to other phones, while we can get the Samsung from Play.com - CheapestElectrical for a very good price, bearing in mind how new the phone is.

The Samsung will appeal to our target audience (15+) as it will be recognisable to the youth of the 21^st century because the phone is updated and current. Moreover, the use of the Nokia will make the audience feel sorry for Sean due to it being dated.

Additionally we are going to buy a ‘Martial Arts PP Material Karambit Training Knife’ from Amazon as it isn’t very expensive and it is fake so it won’t cause anybody harm. This prop will be found in the pocket of Sean when he wakes up, planted by Sebastian, as a symbol for and an insinuation of all the people he is going to kill. Finally, we will also get ’Stargazer Fake Blood’ from Amazon as it is quite cheap and we will put some on the karambit to imply that it has been used to kill people before and will be used for the same reason again.

The karambit will appeal to our target audience as they may find it interesting that a different weapon is being used rather than just a plain knife or a gun. The fake blood will also appeal as it will make the circumstances seem more convincing and create a realistic sense of the pain that the karambit can inflict.

For opening sequence:

We are going to get syringes from MediSupplies because they are very cheap and we plan to use them in our stylised opening sequence where the credits will come out of the syringes. The syringes will appeal to our target audience as it will subtly give them an idea of what to expect from the film and arouse their attention and excite them.

Location for our thriller

Sean's Location

This location for our media set is based next to a graveyard and in an alleyway where not a lot of people walk. The alley way isn't paved and is muddy, which creates a more eerie atmosphere for our location. The graveyard next to the alley way foreshadows Sean’s possible destiny due to the fact that he has been injected with a poisonous toxin which he has 36 hours left to earn the antidote for. It also foreshadows all the deaths Sean will cause. The graveyard can be shot in our opening stylised title sequence to showcase the location. We will also possibly shoot in the early hours of the morning so it will be moderately dark making the atmosphere more ominous. There are only a few lights around the place so we will need to bring our own lights to make the subject appear on camera and to be the main focus. The location is also desolate and has litter around it, making the place seem neglected. Even though we won't have an unlimited amount of time to film in this location due to the lighting, we have everything prepared so we can make the setting a dominant feature of our thriller.

This location will appeal to our target audience as it is a normal alleyway and not a false setting which has been made. It instead shows the reality of how Sean got there with the road on the other side of the alley way and makes his situation seem more convincing.

Sebastian's Location

 The studio in our school is the location we want to use for our villain Sebastian. This is because there is a black curtain which we want for the background to look suspicious and so his location is unknown, creating an ominous feel to the character. The desk will also include syringes, which we will show to illustrate Sebastian’s psychotic mindset. The studio also has different lights, which we can use to create a mood in the studio connoting danger, For example, using lights with filters such as red to show this. This location is simple and allows us to record easily without being under pressure for time since it is at school.

This location will appeal to our target audience as they will appreciate the mystery and darkness surrounding Sebastian making them become more fascinated and intrigued by his motives and how the events he is causing will unfold.

How Charles Augustus Magnussen from ‘Sherlock’ relates to our character Sebastian Giles

Charles Augustus Magnussen is a rich businessman who has information on everyone which he uses to threaten people into doing his bidding. He is cold, calculating, and conceited with a harsh dismissal of solicitude, while also possessing an extraordinary intellect. Magnussen is very cruel and manipulative, not caring about the feelings of others except for when they serve his purposes for his advantage. Additionally, he has a highly eidetic memory which he utilises to store incriminating data on important people. This is in order to deduce the pressure-points of individuals so he can exploit their weaknesses and blackmail them into submission.

Magnussen from ‘Sherlock’ relates to our character Sebastian Giles because Sebastian is also a sinister rich man who is using blackmail to get what he wants. He, like Magnussen, has great intelligence which allows him to think of and carry out barbaric methods of gaining control.

How Emperor Palpatine from the 'Star Wars' franchise relates to our character Sebastian Giles

Emperor Palpatine (A.K.A. Darth Sidious) is the central antagonist from the Star Wars franchise. He is the Dark Lord of the Sith who is hell bent on ruling the galaxy and throughout the prequel saga he plays two identities, a charismatic Senator and the Emperor of the first Galactic Empire. He is shown to be incredibly manipulative as seen when he tempts Anakin Skywalker with the ways of the Dark Side of the Force and when he does likewise with Luke Skywalker, taunting him with his friends' seemingly futile defeat at the hands of the Empire. This relates to our thriller because Sebastian is also incredibly manipulative as shown when he is taunting Sean with the fact that he will have a difficult time trying to accomplish the task that he was set to do, while Palpatine is taunting Luke by the fact that his friends will most likely be killed when they arrive which is shown in the scene where he says “Oh I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive”. Moreover, Palpatine in his Darth Sidious persona during the prequel trilogy and his tenure as Emperor in the original trilogy is always shown to be wearing a hood that covers most of his face, giving him a more mysterious aura. This relates to our thriller because Sebastian also rarely shows his face to add to the mysterious nature of his character. However, the reason Palpatine wears a hood is simply to emphasise the fact that he is the enmity of evil and to cover his deformed body, but Sebastian doesn’t show his face simply because he does not want to be recognised for his profession.

How Keyser Söze from 'The Usual Suspects' relates to our character Sebastian Giles

Keyser Söze is the main antagonist from The Usual Suspects. He is a notorious crime lord who’s reputation is so great that it is almost legendary. He is also incredibly ruthless as shown when he responds to an attack on his family by killing his entire family instead of fighting against the attackers like an honourable person. This relates to our thriller because Sebastian also has no regard for the people he kills because he is poisoning Sean Finch with no real concern for his family or anything that he holds dear. Moreover, Söze also blackmails four different convicts into destroying a large shipment of drugs being shipped by his Argentinian rivals due to the fact that his notorious status is a large danger to their lives. This relates to our thriller because Sebastian is also using his power and skills to blackmail Sean into carrying out a crime, just like Keyser Söze was doing with the four criminals he was using. Furthermore, Keyser Söze is shown to be highly intelligent as seen when it is revealed that the supposed hero of the story Verbal Kint was him all along and the entire story that he was telling to the police inspector was completely made up from various details found on a bulletin board. This relates to our thriller because Sebastian is also incredibly intelligent and manipulating as shown when he manages to get Sean to obey him without question or objection since he is almost taunting him when Sean is asking how he is supposed to carry out the crime. 

How Walter White from 'Breaking Bad' is an inspiration for an anti-hero

Who is Walter White?

Walter White was a fictional character created for the TV Drama 'Breaking Bad', a show about a man who was once a promising chemist, and the founder of multi-billion dollar company: Grey Matter. However, he sold his share in the company and settled down to become a high school chemistry teacher. After being diagnosed with lung cancer on the day of his 50th birthday, Walter White realised that he didn’t have the money to pay for his chemotherapy or the surgery to remove the cancer. Upon seeing his brother-in-law DEA officer Hank in action in a drug raid and seeing the large amounts of money taken from the methamphetamine dealers, Walter reunites with ex-student and drug addict Jesse Pinkman to build up their own drug business to help Walter pay for his treatment.

How is he an inspiration for Sean Finch?

Walter is an ideal comparison to our character of Sean Finch in terms of being an anti-hero as they both do dark deeds for good intentions. In Walter’s case, it is cooking methamphetamine and building a drug empire, and in Sean’s case it is making a decision of whether or not to carry out a list of assassinations in fewer than 36 hours to save his own life. Looking forward in terms of the potential entirety of our thriller, we could also play Sean even more against the character of Walter White by putting him in similar dilemmas, for instance how Walter "earns" enough money to be able to support his family after his death, yet decides to carry on the cooking as he enjoys the thrill and wishes to make as much money as possible, eventually ending up with more money than he or his family know what to do with; similarly Sean may end up enjoying the thrill of killing and violence so much that, upon completing the 36 hour contract and being given the antidote to the toxin, he may even go on to kill Sebastian for injecting him in the first place, or we could swap the scenario entirely and Sean could disregard the contract, accept death and focus on simply killing Sebastian instead. Either way, the opening sequence to our thriller will only show enough of Sean’s character to make the audience ask themselves the question of whether or not he will indeed fulfil the 36 hour contract, or if he will let himself die.

Basing our actor for Sean Finch on Jason Statham

Jason Statham is as an ideal actor to play Sean Finch and so we will have someone who resembles him as Sean Finch in our thriller. We could use this kind of look with the bald head and beard because it works well for our character as it can demonstrate that he is an average, middle-aged man, but he also looks mysterious at the same time. Jason Statham has played characters like this a lot and has featured in 'Crank' which has a similar concept to our thriller and therefore illustrates the similar aspect of our idea of him waking up in the middle of nowhere to a strange phone call.

Originally our idea was that Sean Finch was going to be a teenager, played by a teenager. But we felt that it would be more exciting if someone as regular as a middle-aged man, who is typically less violent than a teenage boy, ended up in a situation like this.