Behind the scenes- Fonts

Within thrillers a variety of font types, shapes and sizes can be included. However, a chosen font can determine the genre of thriller but also individualize the thriller from others available.An awful font can ruin the movies onset, so getting the font style right is key in order to accomplish the desired effect of the thriller. The style of font can enhance the film hugely by making it easily recognizable before the thriller has even begun. For example, the genre of romance fonts are often small, italic and soft at the edges to adding a feminine approach, appealing to a more feminine audience. Fonts often follow the stereotypes to appeal to selected and targeted audiences, instantly labeling the conventions.A font can define the genre instantly. For instance, in 2015, 'Furious 7' was released having a large and sharp edged font, from the font it is instantly recognizable that the film is an action-thriller, but with some curved edges to parts of the font creates a feminine quality, appealing to all genders, especially on the S's as well as, the O's and R's taking a dominant let.

Below I have looked at a range of fonts incorporated in thrillers, in order to use as inspiration when we chose our own thriller.This will also give us a general idea of what fonts are mainly targeted in thrillers, appealing to stereotypes and convention but what also fits comfortably within the film. 

Most  of the lettering that I have looked into are very bold and define in shape, however,'what lies beneath' is very soft and feminine which  may have been used to link the font to the idea of the main role being a female character.In contrast,  when researching I found fonts that were bold,  having male dominant characters rather than female characters and vise-visa with soft and italic fonts. The fonts that I have looked are express more action-thrillers which are powering and bold, often having guns, violence and fast cars in them. Although, those films which surround psychological themes replicate curved fonts with medium sized text. In relation, to the colours of the fonts, most fonts show a chrome vibe of black and white, either way round. For example, 'The woman in black' font colours are black and white to replicate the depth of death and darkness in the black, but the white for the slight hope he has to be reunited with his wife, who died in labour. The black creates the whole atmosphere and what the film is about which is ghost haunting the village.

In contrast, the font in which I would like to use the style of is 'what lies beneath' as we have used this film as inspiration of our bath scene, its a very simplistic look that makes the film seem innocent, but the hand within the picture, giving the film a slight suspicion of what the story-line is. The font is subtle and simple, but effective in creating the lack of plot or giving to much away. With the help of Dafont.com I came up with a selection of fonts that I feel could work as the title of our movie, each displaying strengths and weaknesses although each font being unique in its own right. 

Fonts

1. DK face your fears- 

This font in my view replicates paint-like brush stroke marks, with a range of dark and light patching depending on how much paint was on the brush when paining each part. The lines create a roughness which I like, but I feel that the style is very cliche to horrors that were created in the 70's like Frankenstein , which the text reminds me of. However, I want a more modern and fresh vibe rather than a dated look. I feel that the D's dominate the text and the I, fading out more.I would use this in more of a spoof feeling thriller rather than a modern and fresh vibe in which we are looking to achieve. 

2. Coldnightforalligators- 

This font shows a splattered effect with the splashes showing blood-like motions, although, I like the idea around this font, i fell that it is more of a horror that is intense with blood and gore surrounding the story-line. The lettering itself is short and compact but has been spaced evenly. The heavy patches of black indicate bullet marks. I think that this font is a little over the top of what we want to produce and doesn't fit with what we are trying to create. Overall, this font is very dramatic and complex , where as we need something that is simple and easy as our story-line is complex; therefore using this would make our thriller too much rather than being minimal. By having a complex story line and simple font they would balance evenly against each other.  

3. Hacked-

This font shows exactly what it shows within the name, hacked. The font displays a glitch feel, relating to computers and hacking, rather than emotions in a thriller for which is what we want to achieve. I do like this font in the way each letter is sharp at the points that the lines meet but also the glitch happens towards the bottom half of the lettering, therefore, implying that in the end half of the film, the twist and turning point happens. A great way to show a subtle touch with a big twist towards the end that the audience may not notice but it's a subtle indication to those who do.This font shows a modern and computerized feel, which would be great for films like Hackers or Tron. To conclude, this font is too computerized to transfer the ideas that we are trying to show in our thriller.  

4. Corona 4 typewriter- 

This font would be great for what we want to achieve as it is simple and easy to read, but I would prefer the text to be longer, having each letter all of the same size, creating unity within all of the letters. I like the fact that the text creates the lettering of a typewriter. This would be great for 50's and 60's based dramas.This text would not overpower the story-line but I feel still wouldn't be enough to remember the font or name of the film. The spaces between each letter shows the font very clear. However, with the lettering having no spaces would enclose the main character and make her feel claustrophobic, showing and indicating the emotions of feeling trapped and making her feel alone, for which is what we want to create. Overall, this style font is similar to what I would use but is not exact.  

Involved in the making- Actress

Profile-

Tia Avey

Tia is a sixth form student alongside her key passion for music, she is 17 years old which, could be interpreted as a naive age or the age of confused/ stress over many factors including school work, work, peers, friends, family, teachers and perhaps the fear of University. Making it great for her to feel the pressure along with knowing she is schizophrenic. We want her feel trapped and like she has no one she feels that she can talk to. However, she is going to and will make the perfect lead character. She is very comfortable with her body, making her the perfect candidate for the lead role. Her personality creates a vibe of darkness and depth. She is very dramatic in a sense of energy and the fashion style she often wears; consisting of blacks, grey and khaki, gives her formal look but sight sadness or her lack or desire for colour, which would assist the sense of the character having a mental illness; but also wears accessories like finger-less gloves and hats, plus many layers which may add a vulnerability to her within the woods scene. Adding a contradiction from the openness of herself within the bath. Therefore, she is open to herself but finds opening up to others impossible, a cause from her schizophrenia. Her acting was amazing; she used her facial expressions effectively within the bath scene. in content of the bath scene she was great and versatile to what we wanted her to do. She is also very photogenic and put her own dramatic twist on the scene acting more heavily then we told her two or intended her too.

However, the woods scene has changed due to various reasons so instead we are shooting that scene at school in front of a green screen. This is because our actress is extremely busy and filming in a wood could be very time consuming. We are sticking with using the masks and creating all the same effects but the setting will be different. This has changed the date of film from the 21st of February to the 8th of March. The scene will also add some extra shots and editing will also play the role of what is happening inside her head.  However, the masks she will be wearing rather than four others to create the idea of her feeling trapped and enclosed from her, which is the effect of the schizophrenia. It will add more tension and drama, but also add isolation from the rest of the society.

Institutional research

In this table I have processed in looking at a variety of production companies that make films including independent companies and conglomerates companies. From this is then selected 5 to look closely at and pull apart the fragments of the companies in order to narrow down what companies we would use when creating our opening. But, also what companies we feel would support our ideas and create the most success for our opening as well as what would link effectively to what we have produced. Overall, from the researches we have concluded to 3 companies which are all 3 of the independent companies: White Lantern films, Hammer film production and Coffee films.

Conglomerates: This refers to a company that produces synergies through ties to film studios, TV networks and publishing etc. Film scores developed from corporate owned library.

Independent: An independent company solely focuses on one aspect in this case producing films. However, they also do not work with other production companies to assist their work. They rely on own funding or contributions and grants from a singles person who wants to invest in the production of the film.

However, the reasons as for why we have chosen the three independent companies is because we feel that they are the main source of stereotypes in terms of basing their work mainly on thrillers and horrors for which we are trying to achieve in our work. These contradict from what the main conglomerates companies are as they work on more animated and genres that feature to wider audience rather than our narrow audience that thrillers target. Overall, the independent companies achieve what we want and would find our thriller would be more suited to them rather than anything else.

This is the original layout of the table in which I constructed to achieve the research and place them into a table to make the information easy to understand.

Production Companies

Questionnaire feedback

Questionnaire Results Work

These are the results of the questionnaire that was released to a variety of people to get an insight of what they want and don't want in a thriller. From this feedback I have analysed each result and from this anything that they we have changed to cater for the audiences needs. Overall, the results conclude that most of the target audience like thrillers but not thrillers that are typical such as the idea of being stalked or the stereotypes of a thriller. However, in order to construct the questionnaire we used a online application called survey monkey, that created our template but we wrote the questions that we wanted to ask our audience.

medication research

"Aripiprazole is used to treat the psychiatric disorders schizophrenia and mania.It is used to treat adults who have schizophrenia which is a disease characterised by symptoms such as hearing, seeing or sensing things which are not there, suspiciousness, mistaken beliefs, speech that cannot be understood, flatness in behaviour and emotions, feeling depressed, guilty, anxious or tense. It is also used to treat mania a condition with symptoms such as feeling high, having excessive amounts of energy, needing much less sleep than usual, talking very quickly with racing ideas, sometimes with severe irritability. Aripiprazole can also be used long term to stabilise mood and prevent further manic episodes in patients who have already responded to aripiprazole." 

http://drugs.webmd.boots.com/drugs/drug-33-Aripiprazole.aspx 

The meaning of schizophrenia in my eyes is a psychological disorder that effects the chemical reactions within the brain. This causes a variety of effects of hearing,seeing and sensing things that are not there, they are a figure of the imagination. This medication particularly treats mania and having extreme amounts of energy. This drug is a long term use for stabilizing moods and stop manic episodes from getting worse. 

This is the medication that will be represented in the scene which is used to repress the effects of schizophrenia. We have done research in order to replicate the right medication that would be used for someone who is actually suffering from the condition.  

props and costume list

1. Protagonist – White underwear (bra and knickers) to show innocence and red to show danger. One part of underwear will be red and the other white. within the woods scene she will be wearing black. 
2. Red bubble bath for the bath scene- which is the colour red relating back to the idea of anger and a deadly sin as well as the colour red creating a sense of danger. 
3. Ring member one (antagonist) - Mask- paint with red lettering for which will say anger, representing anger. Black clothing making it hard for audience to see identity. 
4. Member number two- Mask- paint with Green paint for which say envy in green lettering. Black clothing making it hard for audience to see identity.
5. Member number three- Mask- paint with yellow which resemble the word gluttony. Black clothing making it hard for audience to see identity as well as making all the cast in unity with each other.                                          
6. Member number four- Mask- paint on with acrylic which resemble the word Lust. Black clothing making it hard for audience to see identity as well as making all the cast in unity with each other.  
7. Script- cue cards for the cast to learn their lines of what to say from, parts of poets have been used from this section from a variety of poems.
8. Pills- they shall be in bottle and tic-tac’s will be used to represent the idea of real pills being in the shot. They shall be in the corner of the bath and be in background view of shots. 
9. Towel rail- This shall be placed on the wall with one single towel for which she will get from the cupboard and place on the towel rail herself. 
10. Razor blades- they shall be placed on the rack which usually holds sponges and soap, However, in order to stop them falling through cello tape will be underneath to keep the blades in place.                                       
    

We listed the props and costumes needed in a word document, ensuring we included everything that is needed. However, to make the set seem slight odd we also are using razor blades that will be placed in the room create a unsure idea of is she suicidal.  

Script preparation

Script prep

    

The preparation for the script included mainly parts of poems that discussed and involved around the deadly sins. The part in which we have chosen are going to be chanted within the woods scene while the main character is positioned in the middle of the circle, they shall begin with being about to hear them clearly but eventually they will be chanting there script over each other. They will chanting the script that relates to their sin. For example, envy will be chanting their script about envy. This will apply to each sin in the scene. we have included this to create a sense of confusion for the main character and portray her emotions of what her daily thoughts are as she is suffering from mental health issue for which is schizophrenia. We are showing the reality of her condition and the way it distorts her daily actions and life.

production schedule

This is a production schedule of what will take place including locations, props and costumes needed as well as what actors or actresses we need. We decided to divide each aspects into separate elements to make it easy and clear for the cast and for us to see what is needed for each day. Overall, we have displayed this through a table on a word document. before each day filming day this will be checked to ensure we are prepared with the correct equipment. This table collaborates all elements like props and costume into on table, one area for us to look at rather than flicking through pages of research. This table will make each filming day run as smooth as possible.

Production Schedule

The table devised for the cast as well as the director and myself, the assistant to the director as well as having control of what goes on within the scene and what shall be in the scenes during the filming process.

Location research

When looking and analyzing locations that would be suitable to film within, but also portray what we want to portray, we found a list of local setting to film from.  These local settings included Riverside country park, Cozinton Park, Capstone Park and Mote Park. However, the location for the bathroom setting we considered a variety of options including Morgan’s Bathroom, Tia’s bathroom and my bathroom. Through this research I have discussed the positives and negatives of each location in order to conclude to one location for each section which includes the bathroom and woods.

Location Research