RESEARCH: FILM POSTER

When deciding on what our film poster should look like, I decided to do some research into film posters in the psychological thriller genre. I looked on various websites such as on Pinterest and on Google Images, to see what the main aspects were of psychological thriller film posters and what the poster did to draw the audience in. When looking at the posters, there was a common factor in most of them, which was that they all feature close ups of faces, including the sociopath and the victim.

On my Pinterest account, I created a board solely for the research of psychological thriller posters. HERE is a link to that board. The reason I chose to make a board for this was so that the development and construction of the poster would be much easier and I will know what to do. Another reason, why I decided to do detailed research into film posters of this genre was so that I could adapt some aspects so that my film poster could look believable.

There were many posters we looked at ranging from Psycho to Black Swan, however one specifically stood out for me, which was the poster for Single White Female. The Single White Female is the poster we will base ours off of, since it is a psychological thriller and is has a similar target audience, implying that both of the films revolve around young sociopaths. I thought that the poster was intriguing and really makes someone want to watch the film from the sinister look of the sociopath to the victim to the tagline which reads 'Allie's new roommate is about to borrow a few things without asking. Her clothes. Her boyfriend. Her life. Living with a roommate can be murder', I feel that this tagline really captures the story of the film and makes it stand out from others.

The aspects from the Single White Female poster that will be put onto my poster will be:
- Close ups of faces
- The Title of the film (Focus)
- A Tagline
- Billing Block
- Cast Members Names
- Institutional Information

An aspect which I will put on my poster which is not on the Single White Female poster is social media information, since every film in the past 3 years have a Twitter, Instagram and Facebook account for the purpose of attracting and addressing their audience. When Single White Female was released in 1992, there was no internet, let alone social media.

RESEARCH: TITLE SHOT

For the title shot, as a group we decided to do some research into what title shots of previous psychological thrillers looked like and which ones we thought we could adapt into our title shot. We tried using my Pinterest account, but unfortunately we couldn't directly find any, so therefore on Google Images we simply typed in names of psychological thrillers we had watched and added the words title shot to view them.

Most of the psychological thriller title shots looked quite similar, by simply having the name of the film in the middle and either a black background or a plain background, like in Gone Girl, the view of the sea, which is interesting, but not the sort of intrigue, which our group is trying to accomplish with our title shot.  To the right, I made a collage of previous psychological thriller title shots. My honest opinion is that they all look too similar and that they should incorporate the basis of their film into the title shot.

Out of all of the psychological thriller title shots we looked at, one stood out, which was the title shot for The Talented Mr. Ripley. The film's story was incorporated into the title shot since there are a range of adjectives flashed through before it sets on the adjective of 'talented'. This is so that the audience knows that he is a sociopath and that describing his sociopathic skills as talented is ironic.

Therefore, for our title shot we will incorporate the story into it, like it has been done in The Talented Mr. Ripley. We think that this will be a clever aspect to put in our film and will make the film captivating from the start.

PLANNING: 'PHOTOSHOOT' SCENE

Since the sociopath is a photographer, our group decided to construct and film a scene revolving around a photoshoot, where SAM gets frustrated with the models. We intend to show in this way how he has exacting standards and needs everything to be in focus. His frustration borders on bullying. If the film were developed as a full-length feature film, it is likely that his boorish behaviors towards women, his photographic models and his girlfriend in particular, would result in violence.

Jean Shrimpton by David Bailey

To research how to film the photoshoot scene, we decided to do some research on how photographers shoot their models and position them. Photographers are well known to be controlling and demanding of the models. The video, 'David Bailey 7 Images That Changed Fashion Photography' clearly demonstrates this. Our character SAM is a photographer with sociopathic tendencies. His job offers the perfect opportunity to control and command women, his models.

We ended up deciding that the pose used in the video by this model would be an excellent pose to use, since it looks elegant.  We will use two models in our photoshoot. One of them will be shouted at for not following SAM's instructions and the second model will comfort the other one.

In addition, we decided that one of the photographer's stylistic preferences would be to use black and white, therefore the photos produced for the scene would be black and white. It evokes a particular quality associated with quality and tradition. It is a serious rather than playful look, typical of the character SAM that we have created. The black and white theme gives a neo-noir feel to the whole film, which I feel will attract arthouse audiences. The dresses worn by the models will black and white.

PLANNING: INTERVIEW

To advance the development of the characters in the film, our group decided that we could stage an interview for our main character SAM, who is a sociopathic photographer. We were deciding to stage the video as a psychiatric interview with a mental status examination of his health.

We have researched into psychiatric interviews in film and television, to further develop how it will be structured, how it will look, and how the overall essence of it will be. An example, that stood out was the American television series, Lie to Me, which revolves around a psychiatric doctor who accpets assignments from law enforcement and assists in investigations, reaching the truth and complexity through applied psychology, interpreting micro-expressions, through the facial expressions and body language.

We got inspiration to do an psychiatric interview from FilmEscape. I read through this article by Charlie Sierra on how to get to know your character. I looked on real psychiatrists in England and how they actually talk their own patients, such as assessing their state of mind, using a range of psychological illnesses and on their own personal habits.

We will be asking him about various questions relating to character statistics (age, gender) and will also ask the character about his feelings, emotions, background and his mental state.

Basic Information about SAM:

Age: 20-22

Gender: Male

Height: 6"2

Weight: 180 Pounds

Appearance: Tidy, Smart

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: British

Social Class: Upper Middle Class



Psychiatric Questions: 

Do you think that this picture is demeaning towards women?

Do you think that it is acceptable to control and boss women around? Why?

Who has inspired you to become a photographer?


Do you think that your success has been based on your attitude towards women?

Does this work of David Bailey inspire you?

How do you think this has effected your attitude towards your loved ones?