Day: February 5, 2019

Audiences can vary depending on the sort of movie you want to show to them. After looking at certain demographics and effects movies can have on an audience, finding the right audience for mystery movies proved to be a bit of a lot to research, but I was able to find what I was looking for using a variety of websites and different psychological concepts.

Demographic for Mystery

Mystery narratives tend to draw in the older crowd, typically 18+. Not particularly because of the content, but it deals with a lot of mature themes that usually don’t appeal to a younger audience like and action super hero movie would. According to Paul Ardoin, a mystery genre novelist, his demographic of age is only 5% under the age of 30, and the rest 31 and above. Seeing this age curve when it comes to the mystery genre in simple novels translates to film, but can be skewed lower since younger people won’t have to read and instead enjoy a movie. Mystery movies used to bring in more males with the use of many male leads, but as these sorts of movies evolved in representation, women and men seemed to even out a little more.

Another thing that goes into the demographics of mystery narratives is the idea of the Hermeneutic code, introduced by Roland Barthes. This code refers to the idea that an element in a story isn’t explained or is left for the viewers to wonder why it’s unexplained and it keeps them hooked on the story. This creates a sort of enigma, and the story throughout is able to tie up any loose ends and give the audience the answer they are truly looking for (Chandler, 1). For a younger audience, they might get impatient or ask too many questions/get confused as to why it isn’t out in the open for them. An older audience would be able to try and figure out why this happened or why it didn’t and their anticipation to figure out what’s going to happen next.

Demographics in thriller

Thriller films typically draw in a younger audience. As it says in the name, a thrill comes along with seeing a film like so. When I say younger audience, I typically mean young adults, as reflected in the graph, from 18-24 years old. Since thrillers typically depict more heavy subjects (such as violence, drug abuse, etc), it makes more sense that a more mature audience would be the dominant demographic of that genre. Since our film isn’t too much focused on thriller demographics, not too much research shouldn’t be extremely required since most of our research has steered towards two genres.

Sources

https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/5codes.htm

https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/5codes.htm

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-demographics-for-mystery-crime-novels

https://cmpalexgilbey.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/8/7/38878453/horror_film_research.pdf

Since I’m doing a more Classic Detective title sequence, analyzing a film with that same sort of genre and its title sequence would be beneficial to my own film. I thought Crooked House, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, would be a good representation of the genre I need for my title sequence. It has elements of crime, mystery, drama, and thriller content.

Mise-en-scene

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Lighting

• lowkey lighting
• done so to create an ominous and mysterious mood
• couples with the non-diegetic sound

Props

• needle and liquid create a mysterious aura
• needle associated w/ poison

Costuming

• man in plaid shirt to show a normal person
• woman with red nails and bracelet
• contrast between the two characters

Framing

• open framing
• keeps the character’s identities hidden
• offscreen space used to keep up the mystery

Blocking

• woman standing over man
• position of power
• could show the evil ways of women

Cinematography

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Movement

• pan-tilt after woman leaves frame initially
• pull-back as woman leaves the frame

Angles

• low angle shot of house at the end
• tilt moving from a low angle to a high angle

Distance

• long shot of woman
• close-up of needle

Misc.

• establishing shot of woman (also a long shot)
• open framing
• shallow focus

Editing

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• one long take
• possible cutaway from man in the chair to the house
• superimposition of titles
• continuity with long take

Sound

Diegetic

• mysterious coughing in the back
• clicking of heels (possible femme fatal)
• slight sound of needle injecting liquid

Non-Diegetic

• low pitched soundtrack all throughout shot

Summary

All throughout the title sequence, every little thing done is meant to show a sort of mystery. The setting being dark with the lighting and the use of a needle with an unknown liquid all equates to a mysterious atmosphere. The contrasting costuming between the two characters show that the women are represented as evil or manipulative with the use of the needle and the mysterious liquid. The blocking of the woman and man showed the woman in power since she resides above him and is injecting something in him. For the use of cinematography, the establishing shot is of the woman, but in shallow focus since her identity is still a mystery. The close-up of the needle shows the importance of it within the next scene while also preserving the identity of the woman. There wasn’t anything too significant with angles, just that the house being shot from a low angle could show its superiority. The editing didn’t have too much within it, since the whole sequence was one long take rather than shorter and quicker paced editing. The scene possibly cutaway from the man in the chair to the shot of the house to show the importance or connection of the house to the woman and her antics. The titles were superimposed onto the screen just to display the titles of course. The diegetic sound added to the mystery since there was coughing coming from offscreen and the audience would have no way to tell where it might’ve come from. The clicking of heels might’ve signified the woman as classy/materialistic since heels are expensive, then might’ve symbolized a femme fatal character type. The non-diegetic sound, just the soundtrack, which is low-pitched, adds to the mystery since its suspenseful and spooky sounding.