Choosing a genre (genre mind map)

Choosing a genre

Final genre: Thriller

Genre 1: Thriller

Pros:

·         Easy to think of a narrative (e.g. Taken)

·         Easy access to locations (e.g. Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead and Wrong Turn)

·        Tension can be easily created through music (e.g. The Purge)

·         Props are less likely to be expensive (e.g. P2, these are similar items that would have been seen in the film)

·         Could work with a relatively small cast (e.g. Crush, a 2013 independent thriller film about a secret admirer's crush on a high school boy turns fatal)

Cons:

·         Difficult to distinguish difference between horror and thriller (e.g. The Exorcist, Halloween and The Cabin in the Woods - they are all considered both horror and thriller which shows the thin line between the genres)

·         Easy to create something generic and cliché (e.g. Taken's plot)

·         The plot can be given away quickly (e.g. Taken as mentioned above)

·         Hard to pick a specific target audience (as mentioned above with the genres, makes it harder for the audience to decide due to the similarity between them both)

·         Difficult to use certain props at locations (e.g. guns and certain locations in other countries perhaps could be harder for lower budgeted independent companies to feature in their films)

Genre 2: Action

Pros:

·         Action achieved through pace

·         Can easily do a chase scene

·         Access to a lot of potential cast

·         Narrative does not need depth

·         Can be easily created through music

     

      Cons:

·         Chase scenes are generic and overused

·         Need access to expensive props if not doing chase scene

·         How will we achieve bird eye establishing shots, conventions of the genre?

·         Needs large budget or special effect software (not available in school)

Final selection: Thriller

We will overcome the cons of the thriller genre as we won’t purposely include gory or murderous scenes in the opening to confuse the audience between the two genres which leads onto not using such a classically thought out storyline. The storyline we use will be more unique than what you could normally do to get the idea for a thriller however not too different and in the opening, we will have to ensure that the entire plot of the film isn’t a giveaway to add suspense. As for the target audience, we have already identified our specific audience because it depends on the plot of the film and it will be for young adults (15+) as it is relative to that age range. Lastly for the props, we will make sure that if we do want to use props that may not be suitable to ask for permission or perhaps use props that are more likely to be able to be used however still ensuring it doesn’t look unrealistic.