Planning - Audience Demographics and Psychographics

Here is a table for the different types of demographics. Our main target is category E, which contains people such as students, casual workers or unemployed people. This is mostly the target audience for most films as these are the people that have a lot of time on their hands and can watch films regularly.

As our film is largely based around mental illnesses, our target audience could possibly even be from category A. These people in higher status job roles, especially doctors or therapists have had first hand experience with mentally ill patients and they may find more interest out of our film.

Our thriller targets many different psychographics. Our main ones include Aspirers, Strugglers and Reformers. As shown in the table, Aspirers are mostly younger people, who stereotypically have interests that lie within clothing, appearance, fashion, persona etc. Our film contains a teenager male lead role, who also has similar interests. This could make the audience relate to him.

A struggler is what our character is portrayed to be. He has few friends, buys alcohol, drugs, and is alienated and disorganised. The drugs and alcohol link to seeking escape. The truth is there are many people like this in our society and they may relate to our character. Having a character so diverse, and being the only main character leads to us appealing to a very wide audience..

Our last psychographic are Reformers. They usually are focused on themselves - This includes personal growth, independence and freedom of restrictions. Our character falls into some of these sub-categories, especially freedom of restrictions. This many make our character relatable and draw in a wider audience.

Those 3 psychographics are the main ones however aspects of every single one could fall into the target audience for our film. For example, Succeeders could fall in because they are typically in higher roles of management. If they have any involvement in psychology or metal health, then the film may interest them.

Planning - Age certificate

Our age rating is a 15, and our target audience are 15-35 year olds, however it is perfectly suitable for anyone older to watch if they enjoy the genre.

We chose the rating of 15+ for these reasons;
It contains blood and violence, but the sequences that show this are not prolonged or show anything in massive detail.

The drug use is quite a big aspect on why this is a 15+, as the amount of violence used could be argued to be suitable for a 12. There is quite a heavy emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse. These scenes are also not prolonged or hugely detailed however the implications are all clear to see. We felt like the drug use was not enough to make the film an 18+ as it does not make drug use look fun or puts it in good light, it shows the negative effects of it, which is why it suits the rating that we gave it.

Like the majority of thriller films, it contains a large amount of suspense and scenes that may potentially be frightening for children to see. For example, there are connotations of death and suicide, like putting a sharp blade towards the neck. Again, nothing is actually shown but the inferences that can be made (suicide) is why we put our film at a 15. It is not suitable for a 12 year old to see yet isn't bad enough to make the film an 18.

It contains many adult themes, such as violence, drugs, and more controversial/sensitive themes such as suicide or school shootings. Parents may not want their children to be exposed to these topics in detail which is why we put it at a 15. Some adults still may find these themes sensitive and it will be their choice to make on whether if it is too much for them.

Planning - USP

We feel like our unique selling point is that we explore the life of a mentally ill teenager and actually show the effects of his mental state. The plot is fully focused on his mental illness, rather than the character having some mental illnesses, and the plot going elsewhere. There are not many films that do this. Films where characters have mental illness, but is not the focal point of the plot include Black Swan and Shutter Island.

Black Swan has a character and she has Dissociative identity Disorder and Schizophrenia. The plot focuses on a twisted friendship and the fact that she has these illnesses are sort of ignored or get washed away in the plot.

In our film, we are trying not to do this and are focusing the story line on mental illnesses. This sets our film apart from others as they do not address these ideas and topics in the same level of detail that we do. The implications and effects will also be addressed, may be slightly dramatized however will on the most part be correct in terms of symptoms shown.

Planning - Props

The props we will use in our film trailer will consist of:

A kitchen knife - There will be implications of suicide and this will be one way by which it will be portrayed.





Empty alcohol bottle(s) - There is drug and alcohol use in our film and empty alcohol bottles portrays this clearly and also does not show the characters actually drinking.









Pills - This further emphasizes the drug use. Actual illegal drug pills obviously will not be used, but we would use some cheap legal tablets that are easily accessible and will make them out to look like illegal drugs.










LSD tab - again shows the drug use. Will also not use real LSD, just get some paper with a little picture or symbol on it to show an LSD tab.













Cigarettes - further drug use, shows he does not care about his well-being.







BB gun - This is a key prop because it infers the twist. It is blue and black however we will spray paint the whole gun black. This is to make it look more realistic and the process of this is shown below.










All of these props are linked with illegal activity or anti-social behaviour. It shows the character's bad background and all the negative external influences that Brad is being faced with.

For all of the drug use, we got our inspiration from the film Traffic (2000). It shows teenagers taking drugs throughout the film and the plot and subplot's main themes include drug abuse, which is very similar to our film.

For the knife, we got the idea from The Number 23 (2007). In this film, the use of a knife is seen quite frequently. There are many implied murders with knives in this film and there is one scene where a character has slit wrists. We implemented this into our film with a slight twist, as we do not show any gory scenes in the trailer however the slit wrists and neck is implied in our trailer.

We got the idea from Elephant (2003) for our use of the gun. It is shown in our trailer very briefly and is there to slightly infer the twist. In Elephant, the film is about school shooters and in our film, the protagonist is so psychologically harmed to the point where he goes and shoots up a school, which is very similar.

Planning - Risk assessment

Planning - Production Company Logo

We chose the word 'Solitary' as it has multiple connotations. One meaning of it is singular or unique, which we feel our films reflect and is one of our unique selling points.

Solitary confinement is where a prison inmate is confined from other people. The prison bars also relate to solitary confinement and in some thriller films, crime can be a key theme and generally, with crime, comes imprisonment.

Planning - Characters

Costumes - Our main character; Brad, will wear an all black outfit. (Hoodie, jeans, trainers). These are all casual clothes which is what the majority of teenagers wear, however the all black connotes mystery or death, which are key themes throughout many thriller films.

His friends will wear similar clothing (hoodies and jeans) however it will not be all black, which helps Brad stand out. This type of clothing is typical to see within groups of teenagers which makes the film more relatable and believable. Our target audience is 15+ which involves teenagers, and these types of clothing is what teenagers wear.

Brad's parents will wear typical casual clothes that you would expect middle aged/ older people to wear. This is typically what a lot of parents will wear and again makes the film more realistic and/or relatable.

Make-up - The only use of 'make-up' used in our film will be blood. It will not be used excessively to fit our 15+ age rating and blood will make the film more realistic when used right.

Research - Se7en film poster annotation

Research, Planning & Feedback - A2 Thriller Pitch

https://youtu.be/7KKNDMQF_ds - Link to our pitch.

Questions:

A gun is used as a prop in our thriller film and the question was how we were going to acquire a gun. We are going to use a realistic BB gun and we are going to spray paint it black. This is because the original colour was a bright blue and this would make it look unrealistic. A concern that was raised was that having a realistic looking gun in a public place could lead to people being frightened if they see it. To prevent this, we are going to use the gun indoors in empty rooms. This makes it so people cannot see it.

In our pitch, we showed the characters and a female character was not explicitly named. The question we were asked was if we would use any female characters in our film. We definitely are going to include female characters, such as the mother who is abusive of female friends, however these will not be main characters.

We put in our pitch that our film would have a 15+ rating. A concern was whether the film should be a 15+ or an 18+. We think that the film is a safe 15+ as there is violence however there is not too much and it is not prolonged or detailed. The drug use in our film shows taking drugs as unpleasant and harmful, and does not encourage it or make it look fun. There is no direct showing of drug use either, it is mostly implied. The film explores very dark themes throughout, such as suicide and these are the reasons why we believe the film should be a 15+ rather than an 18+.