Pre-Production Research

We conducted an interview with young teenagers to see what they thought of our ideas:


What do you think of the storyline?
- Seems interesting
- Good idea to do something based on Twilight


Would you go see it?
- Girls said yes
- Majority of boys said no


How do you think it could be improved?
- Needs to be elaborated
- Different sides good vs bad
- twists


Do you like Twilight?
- Yes
- Its interesting
- Surreal


Do you like Vampire films? Why?
- Never watched any
- Yes because they're out of the ordinary
- Not into Vampire films 

Researching the Teen Vampire Action Genre

 Things to think about for a Vampire film:

• Mortality and Mortification - How can they be finally killed? What injures them? e.g a stake through the heart, garlic, sunlight, holy water etc.
• Many films and TV shows play around with the folklore of Vampires. Would ours be different?
• Transmogrification - Becoming a vampire
• Motility - Can they turn into bats? Can they fly?
• Dentition - Are fangs fixed or retractable?

Teen Vampire Films:

• Fright Night (1985)
• Once Bitten (1985)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• My best friend is a vampire (1988)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
• Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008)
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)
• The Twilight Saga films; Twilight (2008), New Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010), Breaking Dawn.

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant is a really good example when relating to our film. This is a clip from a fight scene of two half-vampires. It shows the darkness with the lighting in the scene and it shows the action.  
Budget: $40,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $6,293,205 (USA) (25 October 2009) (3074 Screens)
Gross: $13,698,390 (USA) (15 November 2009)
I thought this was a good film to research because of the link in genre with our film. However, it didn't do very well in receiving profits.

The Action genre is where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require

physical feats and extended fights. Story and character development are generally secondary to explosions, fist fights, gunplay and car chases. Action films have wide commercial appeal and typically enjoy box office success. The action film revolves around a hero or heroes and the obstacles their character(s) must overcome. 

Things to think about for an Action film:

• Time ticking down
• Theme songs
• Speed
• Gadgets
• Love interest
• Blood
• Close ups
• Fast pace
• Car chase
• Explosions
• High energy
• Physical stunts
• Rescues
• Heroes
• Villains

The Dark Knight: Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits.

Budget: $185,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $158,411,483 (USA) (20 July 2008) (4366 Screens)

Gross: $533,316,061 (USA) (1 March 2009) 

Production co.: Warner Bros. Pictures

I chose to research The Dark Knight because it hasthe Action part of our genre and is very dark and twisted, although we don't want our film to be too dark because of the age range, we still want it to seem dark.

Institution Research

Who would produce/distribute our film?

Warner Bros. Pictures

We chose this because of certain films that they have done, for example the Harry Potter films and the Batman films which relates to our dark and action part of our genre. However, they have also done films like Corpse Bride which is aimed at a younger audience but is very strange at the same time so I think that this would be perfect for our film.

Examples of films they have already distributed/produced: 

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
• Inception
• Clash of the Titans
• The Book of Eli
• Sherlock Holmes
• Terminator Salvation
• The Dark Knight
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Corpse Bride
• The Matrix

The Purpose of a Title Sequence

What are the conventions of Opening Title Sequences?