Audience Survey Results

These are he results to our audience survey.

Audience Survey

We have made a survey using surveymonkey.com in order to conduct our audience research, this will help us to see what the audience want to see out of our film and to make the film to these specifications.

There is a link below to take you to our survey:
Click here to take survey

Group Treatment

Michael was an average teenage boy, after a game of 5-a-side football in the local sports centre he found himself alone walking through some woods. After being chased down and killed, the investigation starts. Michael seemed a popular boy, but with his arrogance was not loved by all, which found out the hard way. This leads to an investigation into who was the murderer. Chief inspector Patterson is a ruthless man who is renowned for getting to the bottom of every case, he sets out to find the murderer but it becomes more of a challenge when numerous suspects are brought forward with no alibi and big motives.

WM - Analysis of opening sequence - Bad Boys II (Michael Bay, 2003)

Genre

· This film comes under the ‘Crime Thriller’ genre

· The opening sequence follows residual expectations of the crime thriller genre as it starts with a crime, the manufacturing and exportation of drugs. There is a clue to one of the main characters in the film early on as it shows how one man owns the drugs and is making sure that everything is going to plan.

· The text seems to stay within the boundaries of the genre as most crime thrillers involve a crime, the laundering of drugs, and have a main ‘bad guy’ who the audience will be against.

Film Language

· During this sequence, there are a lot of props used to convey that it is a crime thriller. The fact that the opening shot is of a scientist manufacturing drugs shows that the film will involve these, the opening screen tells the audience early what is going on as it states the destination, ecstasy lab. The use of coffins signifies death, filling them with drugs is ironic as they can be the cause of it. The first shot of the owner of the drugs is of him in an expensive looking house, this shows the audience that he has lots of money and usually some sort of power comes with money.

· There are a lot of CUs of the drugs and manufacturing process, this helps to show exactly what they are as the pills are small. The camera looks up when pointing at the man in charge of the drugs to show how he has a status and power.

· During this sequence, there is background music, this ads depth the scene and also tension. The quick tempo of the music allows it to fit in with the fast cutting rate.

· The first line of dialog used is ‘ya, all this is under control’, this signifies that an operation is being performed and that it has some level of importance. The other line of dialog used allows the audience to realise who is behind the operation, and the money stated lets them know that he is very rich and so powerful.

· The director uses a blue filter at the start when showing the pills, this ads some sort of disorientation, it also means that the opening shots have some colour not just grey and white.

Narrative

· The narrative starts with the manufacturing of drugs and goes to show them being transported and moved to a different country. This explains that the story will probably be about those drugs and what is happening around them.

· The audience in the narrative if positioned against the drug owner, the way he looks and sounds makes him easy to dislike, also the way he mentions his money could make people jealous as he is very rich.

· The major themes in the opening sequence is crime, from the use of drugs you can tell that the film will be based around these and as the genre is crime thriller you can tell there is going to be some sort of investigation or arrest over these drugs.

· Tension is kept through the sequence through the use of music, also the fact that it can be seen that a lot of drugs are being produced, the use of long shots of the drugs show this. The lack of dialog builds tension as when you see people working together u expect them to be talking but there are only two lines of dialog in the whole opening sequence.

Representation & Ideology

· The social groups represented in the sequence are youths as they are most commonly thought of as involved with drugs, also with criminals as they are represented in the fact that there is a mass crime taking place.

· During the Process of making drugs, there is never any sign of the feel of wrong doing in any of the characters. This backs up the ideology that criminals don’t really care about the crime, just the money. It shows that the values of the criminals are low and that they only care about themselves and no one else.

· In the opening part of the film, the general characteristics of crime thriller films are followed; these are usually setting up the crime and introducing main characters. Although some crime thrillers reveal the plot early and then build up to it, in this film, the plot is not reviled in the opening sequence so the audience are kept in suspense over what will happen.

Media Audiences

· I feel the target audience for this film is young males, as the certificate is 15; I feel the main age range is 15-21.

· One possible way audiences read the text will be that they see that a crime is going to take place so they understand immediately what is going on. People could watch the opening of the film and feel that violence will be involved as that’s what drugs can lead too.

· When I see this text, I read it as a regular crime thriller. I see the drugs and hear the music and it seems similar to most other films in the genre, I feel my age and gender does not affect this much neither does my background.

Institutional context

· In this film there are 2 big name actors used, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are both police officers, the fact that the two most famous actors are both on the same side positions the audience with them as they can relate to them and are familiar with them.

· This film was distributed by ‘Sony Pictures’. This makes it an industrial film.

This film is a sequel to ‘Bad Boys’, this means that the name is already familiar. The use of viral marketing with a website and trailers sent out helped advertising the film

JP - Analysing an Opening Sequence: Law Abiding Citizen

Genre

-This film belongs to the crime thriller genre, and the audiences generic expectations are both challenged and fulfilled in the opening sequence. They are challenged in the initial sequence when it seems like a nice normal family, however then audiences expectations show through as two men storm in with weapons.
-The text conforms to the characteristics of the genre with the opening credit font used, although there is a certain playfulness with almost idyllic opening, whilst still keeping to the typical thrillers traits by changing this suddenly with weapons and violence.

Film Language
-Mise-en-scene conveys meaning throughout the opening, there is low key lighting which adds mystery and suspense to the sequence. Props are key in this, the little girl is making a necklace whilst the man appears to be using a soldering iron which is in complete contrast, it shows the man to be quite hands on and as he is wearing a bracelet made by the little girl it show the good relationship between them. Then there is a bat, tape, and rope which signify violence and show the genre of the film.
-It opens with close-ups of the little girl making her necklace and the man soldering something, which adds mystery to the scene. Also the shot reaction shot of them talking shows their close relationship. It shows a point of view shot of the man with the bat as he opens the door, so that the viewer can easily see the man getting hit and his reaction to this, the fast cutting rate is used to show this action sequence which adds suspense.

-The sound anchors the images by changing as the sequence develops, with non-diagetic music being played over as the men come in, this builds tension and signify action.

-The dialogue in the opening sequence suggests that the man is a loving father with his conversation with his daughter. Also the two men are shown as the villains as they are swearing and have an agressive tone.

-Other visual effects used in the opening sequence are putting the camera through the magnifying glass to give a distorted realistic effect.

Narrative

-The narrative starts the father and daughter making things and having a conversation then as a conventional thriller would do the tone changes and the attackers enter and stab the man and the women it then ends the man taking away the daughter which makes the viewer wonder what he is going to do to her.

-The audience is definitely positioned with the family rather than the two men, as they are shown as dirty with their scruffy attire and foul mouths.

-The major theme of the opening sequence is crime, the use of knives signifies violence and the blood also connotes crime. You get the feeling that this sets the scene for the rest of the film and as we are positioned with the man that he will play a part in the film and maybe seek revenge for the crime that was committed.

-The tension was created by separating the scene with the door opening and was maintained by the change in lighting, the fast cutting rate, and the music played over the background to keep up the high action tempo of the scene.

Representation & Ideology

-The Social Groups represented in this sequence are the loving family and criminals. The family group is shown by the atmosphere at the beginning with the clear loving relationship between the father and daughter, along with the mothers reaction when the man come. The men are represented as criminals with their foul mouths and weapons.

-The value and beliefs are that there are some people who are evil and will disrupt such a perfect family for greed. It shows the idea of being powerless as the man can do nothing as he has been wounded and thoroughly restrained.

-The knives connotes violence and danger which is further shown by the baseball bat being used to knock the man over the head, the weapons construct a bad representation on the two men.

Media Audiences

-The Target Audience for this film would be a predominantly male audience originally between the 18-25 age bracket, however it has since been changed to an age rating of 15 from 18 to increase its target audience.

-The possible reading of the text is that it is about revenge for the murder of the man's loved ones, because of the way he is shown it suggests that he does not die and he has the main role in the film.

-When I watched this sequence I saw the film to be a thriller that would probably be very action packed by the fast cutting rate and the weapons and murder within the first few minutes of the film. It appears to be straight to the point much like other thriller films where they pack as much action in a film as they can, because that is what the target audience want to see. I believe my age gives a good reading on the film as if I were older, or female I may not appreciate the violence. I do not think my background affects my view too much.

Institutional Context

-Gerard Butler stars in this film and although is not as well known as some actors he is still a star within this genre and it is important to have a star in a film like this to set it apart from other films and to get the audience to see the film, as after all it is a business.

-Gerard Butler and his production company called Evil Twins developed the film.

-Law Abiding Citizen had a production budget of $53million has grossed almost $100million worldwide. The have released a trailer for the film which includes the films main attributes and the bankable stars, along with a poster with a big picture of Gerard Butler on it, which has similar affect.

-The institutional context is evident within the opening sequence of the seen by showing some clear conventions of the type of film it is.