Production and Distribution Companies

One production company that would produce my film is Working Title Productions. This company is known for producing British films such as Johnny English and films that include actors such as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This company would produce my film because the films that it produce are a range of multiple different genres and mainly include the production of English films. They have also produced a range of crime genre films such as Legend which is based off of the Kray twins, due to my films being a crime/thriller genre I feel that this company would agree to produce my film.

Warner brothers is a production that is well known for producing films of a range of genres and one of those genres are thrillers, they are also well known for producing the most recent DC film: Batman VS Superman. I feel this company would produce my film as it would include a range of action scenes as Warner Brothers is known to create action packed films such as ‘The Man From Uncle’. However, if they decide it not best to part of the production I believe that they would consider agreeing to distributing my film to the general public as they would not risk as much of their money being a distributor.

This production company focuses on foreign and independent films and has distributed recent successful films such as The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, Saw and The Expendables. I feel this company would consider helping to produce my film as it would be considered a foreign film as Lionsgate is a Canadian-American company, furthermore, Lionsgate is known for creating a range of films of multiple different genres. Although, if they were to reject the offer to help produce the film then I feel that they would help to distribute the film considering that they are known for distributing successful films, perhaps their popularity would help to promote my film if they were to distribute it.



My film is mainly a Crime/Thriller however there is also action scenes involved so it is also considered apart of the action genre, due to my film having these types of scenes it would require a larger budget due to the amount of money that needs to be spent on special effects and other items that are required to be included for the amount of destruction that a film with action scenes include. My film would need a budget similar to that of films of similar genres, for example, the film Sicario had a budget of 30 million US dollars and another film called Legend had a budget of around 25 million US dollars. Based on these couple of budgets I believe that my film may have a similar budget possibly somewhere between the two as my film will include action scenes but may not have as much destruction as the film Sicario. These types of films can be independently produced by a different company, however, it would possibly requiring backing from a much larger production company that has had experience in creating and distributing films of this genre to its audiences for the film to most successful it could possibly be.

BBFC Ratings

When it comes to an age 15 rating film any of the following are what an audience could expect to see in the film:

• Strong violence
• Frequent strong language
• Portrayals of sexual activity
• Strong verbal references to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• Discriminatory language or behaviour
• Drug taking

The rating that was chosen for our film would expect to be a 15. Due to our chosen genre of a Crime/Thriller including the use of weaponry and violence it would not be a suitable film for any audiences below the ages of 15. A film with this age rating would normally include the use of violence along with the showing of severely wounded or deceased characters with the use of blood spurting from the wounds. An example of a film that would have similar amounts of violence is a film called ‘Sicario’ as from the BBFC it states that a reason it received a 15 age rating was because it included the use of violence such as men being shot and blood spurting from the wounds and the use of showing detail of injury such as blood-stained corpses, a man bleeding from his throat and a man’s severed hand.

Another example of a film that has been given a 15 age rating by the BBFC is the film 'The Equalizer' which was given the age rating according to one of the following reasons: Strong bloody violence, the use of improvised weapons such as stabbing a man under the chin with a corkscrew and slamming a shot glass into a man's eye. However, this was given a 15 because the film had more focus on the character's ability to think quick and his skill rather than the pain he inflicted on the character's.











My movie will follow the generic conventions as we will keep the overall story a mystery until the very end this will draw the audience’s attention to keep watching until the very end, furthermore my opening will begin with an action opening to draw the audience's attention and only give them a few details to not leave them totally in the dark about what's going on. A Crime/Thriller would dictate the age rating as the way that the film industry has established most films that include an aspect of crime in it need to include violence as a theme to gather the attention of the audience, this is a generic convention that is seen used in multiple Crime/Thriller films as it has become an expectation people have for the genre. To ensure our film won't become an 18 rated film we must make sure that our film doesn't dwell on the pain inflicted on people and that our scenes don't include any strong sadistic behavior, this is an important detail to know as one of the antagonists will be presented as a mentally unstable character, this means that we would need to think about what would be considered acceptable but also what we can do to present to the audience that this person is borderline suicidal and is not afraid of death. It is also important to note that footage will be cut if it harms a humans morals and make crime look appealing to the audience. Overall, it is considered acceptable to include violence and crime in our film, although, we need to make sure that our film doesn't promote crime, violence and drug abuse to the audience as this would not considered acceptable at our chosen age rating and even an 18 rated film would not accept the any of theses guidelines as well.

Survey Results

This question was put into my survey because I wanted see that this survey is distributed to the correct target audience that I was going for and that I can have an idea on what they feel about films and their openings.

 This question was included to discover the age ranges of people who have decided to take my survey and to help me identify what age group the people responding to my survey are.

 This question was included to discover what kind of genre people prefered the most out of the options available. From the results it shows that most people either prefered either the musical or action/adventure genre. From the results one person choose the thriller genre out of the eight people who took the survey. This shows me that thriller genre films are not as favoured as other genres so it would be required to make an opening that would capture the audience's attention.

This question was to see how frequently people watch films per month. As seen from the answers people mainly watch up to five films per month, this was asked as it would help me to figure how likely a possible customer is to go out of their way to watch a film. As seen in the chart there is a chance that a person may watch my film as part of their usual 5 per month.

This question was asked to what people most likely watch a film on, as seen from the responses it is clear that it is pretty much equal across all the platforms except for the cinema response being just one less than the watching a film at home or on the internet. This could be useful when it would come to distributing a film as I could possibly distribute a film on all platforms on release in a similar style that the film 'A Field In England' had done by allowing people to view it on what platform they prefered and would thus allow my film to become more popular.

From this question I needed to figure where people mainly find out about the latest films that are coming out soon, from the results it shows that people mainly find out via trailers/TV advertisement, although people also find out about from films via social media. This is to expected as more and more people are starting to have an account on some form of social media, this is useful as people on social media can actually promote a movie for the company by spreading their hype about a film if it is popular enough among the public. Trailers are also useful as they give the viewer around a minute or two to decide whether or not they will keep an eye out if the movie is worth seeing or not.

This question was asked to gauge the interest that the people would have in a Crime/Thriller film. I feel this question is necessary as it give me insight into how many people are likely to follow in the production of a film with this specific genre.

This question was asked to see what importance people would put into a film opening. A sum up of all the results basically entails that the opening is required to draw in its audience into the film and give them a general idea of what the story is but not giving too much detail as to spoil what happens later on unless that is a required part of the opening.

This question asks how important the sound and music in a film is. As shown from the results it is important to most people however it isn't the considered very important. This is useful as it allows me to figure out that good sound music that fits well with the film is what helps to draw the audience in and immerse them within the film.

From this question I needed to see what people expected from a Crime/Thriller. The results show that it mainly needs to focus on character development and mystery to be considered successful, however, I need to include some of the other elements to fit the needs of the people who choose other than those two options.

Target Audience For My Film

For my media films opening the type of audience that I expect to gain interest in the Thriller/Crime genre are mainly a male audience however it is still quite an even split between genders which shows that there is an audience of females that enjoy this genre. The age range for our film would be mainly between the ages of 15 – 34 years, this is due to the averages and percentages showing that from both tables show that people in this age range showed the most interest watching the film ‘Taken’. The social grade that I expect to be the largest audience is the class C1, people in this class usually have a more supervisory or administration occupation. Also there can also be people from C2 that are expected to watch the film, which consist of skilled manual workers. I believe this because the film ‘Taken’ had an audience class that consisted of mainly C1 and C2 individuals. However, this film doesn't seem to appeal to the A and B social grades which consist of a profession that is management such as a middle manager or company director, this reason that this type of film deosn't really appeal to that social grade is due to the fact that these type of people prefer a film that shows a bit more intelligence, perhaps this is due to the fact that those type of people see this film and perhaps genre as a less intelligent film as its only real driving point is the action scenes that they contain. If I was to take the VALS framework into consideration along with the social class I have chosen then I believe that my main audience would come from the experiencers group as this is mainly characterised as young adults which around the target audience that I plan to gain interest in the film, due to them more willing to spend money they would be more likely to go to a cinema and watch a film with some friends.

Conventions Of a Film Opening

The purpose of a film opening is to hook the audience into wishing to continue watching the film and also to state the genre in which the film will be, each opening of a film executes this in multiple different ways, for example, some films like to introduce the antagonist first instead of the protagonist.

 Another way in which a film can be opened by the use of a flashback instead, this is used in films that wish to make the flashback a main part of the plot, the flashback method usually makes it incomplete as it may have some importance later on in the film, for example, Memento uses flashbacks as a key part of their story due to the protagonist losing all memory of everything he has done the previous day but uses pictures as a way to keep track.

In some films they include an establishing shot of where the scene or film will be taking place in, if the film includes an iconic location it may include that as well to help the to understand which city/country the film is set in.

Some films include narrations in their openings as a way to give the audience background information on what the situation is and what each character is like, this is useful as it can help the audience to gain some insight early on so that the film will make sense later on instead of possibly confusing the audience, for example, in the film Fight Club the film includes voice-overs in the first part of the film as a way of familiarising the audience with the Narrator's inner thoughts and immersing them in the materialistic lifestyle that he expresses a discontent towards.

Another method is to start off the film with an action sequence, this is used to get the audience immediately hooked on the film and make them want continue watching to figure what is going on in the scene, this method is chosen only if the films genre requires them to include such a scene, for example, The Dark Knight starts off the film with the joker and his men robbing a mob bank of its money, this is effective as it immediately gets a hold on the audiences interest.

It is important that the film opening gives the audience some idea of the story, however, genres such as mysteries give more questions than answers, although, due to my chosen genres being a crime/thriller the same rules apply however it doesn't require to hide as much at the start as crime thrillers usually introduce the antagonists and protagonists at the same time to show the characters reasons for being important to the story, however, it is also important to leave certain details out to be discovered later on by a character that will help the films plot develop further. All film openings also include the all important title sequence that is used to show the cast and production team, sometimes depending on the way the director wishes to present the opening may include the titles in their own sequence separate from the opening scene or may be included during the opening scene as a way of building up suspense. However, there are some directors that may wish to go against these conventions and create a unconventional and unique style opening to make their opening different and more artistic than most other films.

Mapping a Film Opening

The Equalizer Opening Scene Analysis

The opening begins with an establishing shot of a city, the silent sound of background music help to fill the silence it then does a harsh cut to the view of the city from the angle of the protagonist's apartment, the serious background music is used to show the audience that he is a serious character even before he is even made an appearance in  the movie. The camera then begins to zoom out and pan around the seemingly spotless apartment. As it zooms from shot it shows an alarm going off and the time 7:30 on the digital clock, this shows then audience that the protagonist must not have been up that long but has already made his bed and made his way towards his bathroom. The bedroom is clean, the living room is spotless with books placed neatly vertical on bookshelves and the kitchen is also shown to be clean and tidy. This is done to show the audience that this character has a sense of OCD as everything is placed neatly and in its proper place, from the looks of the apartment it shows the audience that this man has what could be classed as a 'normal' life as it has all the essentials and luxuries that you would expect your average person to have, however it looks too normal in a way, making the audience feel as though this man has had a very different life in the past.

As the camera pans it shows the protagonist in the dark of the bathroom with only the light shining in the window to make it brighter. The fact that the bathroom is darker compared to the rest of the apartment can be a symbol to the life the protagonist used to have before pursuing a normal life. The next few shots then proceed to show his morning routine by using close ups to give the audience an even greater idea of type of person this character is. A close up of him shaving his head can be a clue to the fact the protagonist used to work in the black ops, the next shot is of the protagonist making a healthy milkshake with a range of fruits, this is used to show the audience that this man cares about his health allowing people to make a positive assumption that this man can be considered a very strong and healthy person, the next shot is of the protagonist cleaning his shoes thoroughly with a toothbrush, this reinforces to the audience that the protagonist likes to be presentable and to feel clean in along with his surroundings. The shot then changes to an over the shoulder view of the protagonist in the mirror, he seems to be wearing normal clothing, however his shirt tucked in is used to show to audience again that this character likes to look presentable.

The shot then becomes an extreme close up of the protagonists watch and from the looks of it he has been timing himself on how long it takes him to get ready for the day ahead, it's as if the protagonist has made it a sort of time trial that he needs to be beat each morning he wakes up. This will be the protagonists motif as he will be shown timing himself with the stopwatch through the movie. The music that plays in the background  is used to help set the serious tone to the audience and to also show them that the protagonist is a serious character. An enigma is created as it would draw the audience into the story as to why he has become the person he is now and what lead up to events of of this opening scene.

The scene then transitions to the protagonists commute to work via train along with everyone else to further enforce the idea that the protagonist has an average life like everyone else. The scene then transitions to a construction supply warehouse and the protagonist is shown to be an employee of this company, this is used to further the enigma and create further mystery about who he was, furthermore it is shown that he hasn't worked there for many as a fellow younger employee asks the protagonist if he didn't have to push dolly's at his old job. The following scene then presents a low angle shot to make the audience feel as though they too are also an employee in the staff room and then pans it to follow the protagonist make his way to a sit.

The following shots are a mix of medium, close up and over the shoulder shots as the protagonist begins to converse with a man, throughout the 180 degree is followed to make sure the audience is immersed, however it is to also make the audience feel as though they are intruding on the conversation. The protagonist is shown to be a helpful character to those in need as the other individual is getting help from the protagonist to lose weight by eating healthy as he desires to become a security guard.

There is then an establishing shot of the kind of surrounding area the protagonist lives around, which is shown to be a friendly looking neighbourhood. The following shots then once again follow his routine but instead this time it's for after work, the motif of the protagonists watch is once again present showing him timing himself doing average chores such as cleaning the dishes. The idea of time is shown to be a major factor in this film as nearly most shots in the opening transition to showing the time on the clock, this is done to make the audience question as to why he acts the way he does and what reasons he has for wanting to be as efficient as possible, making the audience question the protagonists backstory and what happened to him in the past to cause him to either get fired or leave his previous job.

Snatch Opening Scene Analysis

Snatch Opening Analysis

The scene begins with a fade into the back of a mysterious figures head and pans over the view to a two shot of two individuals named Turkish and Tommy. The room in this shot is made to be dark to represent the type of lives these individuals live and to make the audience feel uncomfortable so that their emotions are aligned with how they are feeling in their situation.

The scene then cuts to a close up shot of Turkish to show that he is one setting the scene and introducing himself and Tommy, the connection is made that these two have known each other for quite a while now as Turkish mentions “Known for as long as I can remember.” The close up is also used to show the characters facial expressions, Turkish is shown to feel quite chilled in the situation whereas Tommy is constantly finding things in his surroundings to distract himself for the situation, it is clear that Turkish is the one with more control than Tommy and that even though he causes him trouble he still cares for his well-being “I try to keep him out of as much trouble as he inflicts on me.”

It is made clear to the audience that they are in a shady place as the sound of a fly shows that place is unkempt and it is used to break the silence as there is no music throughout this scene. They introduce their job profession as a boxing promoter; however, the current room shows the audience that they aren’t promoting legal boxing. The next scene is set as Turkish mentions what little he knows about diamonds and says that they come from Antwerp, although he seems unsure as he questions it himself.

The next scene is faded to black where we are in point-of-view shot of a security guard viewing the cameras to keep an eye on four individuals who are shown to be dressed in clothing that represents Jewish believers entering a high facility building. The audience are put in the perspective of a security guard to feel untrustworthy about them.

An enigma is created as the audience is made to assume that a robbery of a priceless diamond occurred as the use of narrow hallways and the four men standing so close together makes the audience feel uneasy and untrustworthy of these men. The fact that the hallways are black and white make the building feel more prison like than an average bank, making the audience feel more unease.

The following shot is of the men standing in the lift, once again extremely close together to continue to make the audience feel uncomfortable. As the four men make their way towards a locked door the camera pans towards the door the men are standing behind, the tension in the audience is still high as the calm music is dropped; however, it is made apparent that they have been expected as a man screams “Rud! Rud! Let them in please!” most if not all suspicion of these individuals are dropped. The following is a match action shot of the four men entering the room that has not yet been officially identified, leaving only assumptions to the audience.

The scene transitions into a busy office as the POV shot is changed into a medium shot of the security guard , many employees are hard at work and the fact that none seem to care about their presence would make the audience feel as though they weren’t a threat after all and begin to lower their guard as well. Although, the feeling on the audience is short lived as the Jewish men don't even acknowledge the bank manager with a single greeting. A long shot is chosen for the for the following scene as they want the audience to feel a sense of distance between the two characters, and how there should have been no trust placed on these individuals what so ever.

Afterwards, one man reveals a combat vest containing four pistols, one for each man. The moment the guns are revealed the shot immediately zooms into a medium shot of the Jewish men and then the bank manager, this was used to show the audience the feelings of being in that situation as the zoom in is meant to represent the realisation of the heist that is being committed on the bank. The background music begins to play and raises in volume and tempo to show the ever increasing danger of the situation and is used to represent the employees feelings of disorientation. This is played throughout the whole development of the situation, however it the music and fast intervals between shots begin to slow down and cease once the robber asks of the location of 'The Stone' to the manager, the camera angle is positioned over the shoulder of the manager to make the audience feel as though they too are being interrogated by the man as to make the audience feel a sense of fear to be aligned with the emotions of the manager.

The following scene then immediately transitions to the back of a van however it begins the scene with a close up of the diamond which is shown to be the key to the main plot of the film. The four Jewish men then proceed to undress and discard all clothing items that represent the Jewish faith to show the audience that they only wore the clothes as a disguise. The shot in this scene is a medium shot and makes jumps between the time it takes the men to undress. It then does a close up of a robber holding the diamond in his in his hand and inspects the, the title of the film appears on screen and zooms into the diamond to represent that this is what Turkish was talking about earlier on in the opening to the audience. This creates an enigma for the movie as the purpose as to why they wanted the diamond and how Turkish and Tommy are involved, this also brings the question how are two boxing promoters involved with a group criminals that robbed a diamond from a completely different country.

After this the film begins it title sequence which consists of the cast of the characters that are going to be in the film, which is a common thing when it comes to Guy Ritchie films, This can be considered a common convention for this genre as most films that follow generic conventions usually begin a film with a small amount of plot to give the audience an idea of whats going on, introduce some of the characters that will be playing a major part in the film and then have a title sequence either during the opening, before or maybe even after the opening sequence.

1st Opening Analysis: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Opening Analysis

The scene begins with an establishing shot of the city and slowly tracks towards a skyscraper, for the duration of this track however the sound of a slight ticking can be heard in the background along with music that is slowly building in volume to create tension for the audience. Eventually we are shown a window breaking on the skyscraper and are abruptly cut to a shot of two masked men in the interior of the skyscraper; the sound of the broken window can be heard continuing on until the one of the masked men loads the grappling hook again. The shot starts with a close up before immediately cutting to a medium high angle shot, this is used to build the tension as the amount of cuts between shots slows as the man loads the grapple hook, and this is used to emphasis the slower tempo of the action sequence.

The scene then cuts to reveal a man with his back towards the audience although his intentions are made clear to the audience as he is seen with a mask of clown in one hand to show that he is part of the plan with the others in the skyscraper and a bag to show his intentions to help them steal what they desire. An enigma is created for the audience as we are not yet able to see who the man as he is also hunched over to hide his facial features, however, we are shown clear details of his mask so that we know where he is during the opening. We can assume that he is the leader of the whole group as his placement in the shot is at the very centre and extra time is placed on this specific character.

The group in the office building attach a bag to their zip line and then proceed to zip line down to the roof themselves. As they go down the camera fallows them out the window and then quickly tilts down to show the way down to the street to create a feeling of vertigo upon the audience, as it does the soundtrack suddenly makes a large boom noise and as it cuts again it carries on as we see a long shot showing the clowns zip lining with the street beneath them. It cuts again to show them landing safely on the other side.

We see the other group in the car, a total of three people wearing clown masks. Throughout we don't see a single one removing their mask to reveal who they are, the lighting contrast between the outside and the interior of the car is used to show the audience their malicious intent and that they are all criminals. It cuts to a close up of the one of the clowns, however, the other two are still visible in the background, and they are talking about the plan of the heist and mention a specific named character known as "The Joker". The two clowns in the front are the only ones talking, although, you can still see the third clown on the edge of the shot to remind the audience of his presence there as well. 

Following that there is a parallel action as the other group of criminals on the roof continue their conversation about "The Joker" and helps us know a little bit more about this character, this is also used to emphasise the importance of this character.

 






The shot then cuts to the group leaving the car and walking towards the entrance of the bank, the camera is following the third clown who is the only one yet to talk or mention anything to do with "The Joker". There is then a match action shot of the criminals entering the bank and firing warning shots to create a panic among the civilians at the bank, however, they miss one man along the way towards the front desk, and are shown to be an important part of the opening scene.

 






The camera is hardly kept at a single position after the gun is fired to keep up the speed and tempo of the situation. The focus then cuts between the group in the main hall and the group on the roof to show the coordination between the two groups and that they must trust each other with their lives, however, it is a short lived thought as once the clown in charge of disarming the silent alarm gives the all clear he is disposed of so that the cut between them gets bigger, this shows the audience that even though they are working together they are all alone on this job.

 The silent third clown (who still has yet to speak) is shown giving the civilians grenades to keep them under control. The timing between shots once again pick up to keep up with the tense feeling of the situation as the group in the hall are shown to feel under control of the situation, however, have still failed to notice the man at the desk near the entrance. The now one man clown from the roof is shown to have entered a room containing the vault door, the music then goes mute for a second to focus on the vault and that can be heard is once again the ticking of a clock before picking up volume again as it cuts to the clown drilling the vault and once again to the group in charge of crowd control. The following shot is a medium shot of a clown beating a hostage and keeping things under control, but once again cuts to the man at the desk with a close of him turning in the direction of the criminals, the music picks for the duration of this movement to show that the man is going to retaliate and defend the back, it then cuts back to the medium shot of the clown being shot in the back by the man, cutting to the silent clown scrambling for cover with the man out of focus in the background to show that the silent clown is focused more on getting to cover from the man before dealing with him as a threat, the music picks up in volume to create the sense of panic during the evolved situation.

The silent clown is shown to scramble for cover as it cuts between the clowns keeping low while running and the man fires his shotgun at the clown. The silent clown meets up with another clown hiding before being asked "He's out right?" remaining silent he gives a nod of confirmation, this makes the clown stand up to return fire but is immediately shot down, the man with the shotgun realises he is out of ammo and is gunned down by the silent clown and the music stops to show the situation is still in the clowns favour. The clown that was shot them gets up from the gunshot and heads to meet the clown in the vault. Once he opens the vault he explains his task of removing the previous clown on the roof and that the other was told similar before gunning him down and collecting the money.

Once collected the clown points the gun at the silent clown claiming that "I'm betting the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash." The audience was probably expecting his continued silence, however, replies that he was tasked with killing the bus driver, the clown is confused at the statement before being run down and killed by a bus crashing into the bank.

As the final clown left begins to enter the now money filled bus he is stopped by the man who survived his shot and begins to insult him and his methods, although, the clown walks up to him and places a grenade of gas in his mouth all while the music tempo and volume picks up, the clown takes his mask off to reveal that he is in fact "The Joker", the one who planned it all, the music volume and tempo drops again once he does.

He leaves him behind and drives off down the road using a row of school buses full of children as a type of camouflage from the police who are only just arriving. The opening uses this to create an enigma as to why he needs all this money and what his plan is, this in turn draws the audience in as they are intrigued to find out the whole story. This whole opening sequence was created with the purpose of building up the Joker and how he acts towards people and how he plans to spread terror across Gotham, even when he is silent and still wearing his mask, the other characters share their thoughts on him and how he acts and looks and this in turn creates his character to audience eve with out having to physically see him in the opening. The choice to not include any titles in the opening is probably due to the producers feeling that including the titles may steer the audiences focus away from creating the Joker that the audience expects. This film is made from an already established universe and a dedicated fan base that has large expectations when their favourite comic book characters come to life on the big screen, this is why the opening is important when it comes to creating a Joker that fans are proud of, the idea that he tells his own men to kill each other and then run off with all the money himself shows the fans and the audience that this Joker is similar to the original as he is meant to be insane and only really feels that he can cause chaos which they pulled off successfully.