Year 12 Homework - Complete questions on Distribution for next Tuesday

06 g322 section b distribution 2012 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 13 Homework - Film Poster - Research & Planning

Homework for Monday.

Make sure that each group has analysed and annotated 5 posters in the genre of your film or possibly others that you wish to draw inspiration from.


 

Film posters examples for research from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

AS MEDIA - Sample Blog

Here is a student blog for AS Foundation Portfolio. Take a look at the Research and Planning which is labelled under 'Research Evidence' / 'Analysis'/ 'Audience'/ Planning

This Blog gets 18 out of 20 for Research and Planning. There are a lot of posts and some very good research ideas.

http://thrillerblog2011.blogspot.co.uk

Year 12 Homework this week

Read and answer questions...for next Friday...


 

05 g322 section b production 2012 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 11 Options Evening Presentation

Here's the presentation from the Year 11 Options Evening in case you want to browse with a little more time...any questions then please contact me at the school...

Options evening powerpoint from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Latest section of the Film Industry Booklet...

Complete questions 1- 3 by Friday 22nd...

04 g322 section b a history of british cinema since 1984 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 12 Work due

Planning work due by Sunday 17th November:

- Audience Survey
- Graphs - with write up on each graph
- Each student records a one-to-one interview with an audience member - more focused on type of film and discusses a particular thriller in your sub-genre
- narrative overview
- character plans
-location plans and recee of locations with attention to sound and lighting
- FULL shot list

Each group needs to ensure that they have tagged work that they have done and that all the group's work is up on the blog.

Year 12 - The British Film Industry 2012

03 g322 section b the british film industry 2013 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Click here to access the BFI Yearbook for 2013

Year 12 HALF TERM Homework for PRODUCTION

A reminder to all that the following work should be complete for Monday 4th November. We discussed this in class:
- Outline of film opening narrative (the group one now - just bullet points)
- Plans for each character in film including costume and real text influences
-location photographs and notes/  location recee if possible.  All locations must be covered.

Each member of the group must have all the work on their blog. Work produced by individuals should have your initials at the bottom.

AML.

Year 12 - Convergence Presentation

01a general introduction to the film industry convergence from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 12 Half-Term Homework

Read the booklets and answer the questions. Simples.

01 g322 section b general introduction from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

02 g322 section b film industry introduction 2014 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 13 Essay - for Monday 14th October

Q. Explain your understanding of Fredric Jameson’s theories about representation 'remixed' through pastiche, parody and intertextual references’ and postmodernism at play? (600-800 words)

Use Scream1/2 and Scary Movie and also ‘KKBB’ to help explain what you mean.

Refer to specific moments, quotes and scenes to illustrate your answer.

You can, of course, use examples of your own as well.

Year 12 & 13 Wider Reading homework

Films to watch this week on Freeview. Record them onto your Sky+ box or HDD if you can't watch them the night they're on. I'm recording them and can burn you a copy if you haven't got recording facilities...

'a Masterpiece'

1. Blade Runner: the Final Cut (2007) (dir Ridley Scott)

Starring Harrison Ford; Rutger Hauer; Sean Young; Daryl Hannah; Edward James Olmos

When & Where? 22:00-23:50 Thu 26th Sep 2013 110m  BBC4

After the original release in 1982 and the director's cut in 1992, this definitive version of Ridley Scott's dystopian masterpiece finally allows his ambitious themes about the meaning of life in an ailing society to shine through. It's still a fantastic melding of film noir and sci-fi, in which morose hitman Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) tracks down illegal replicants infiltrating humanity. But his character is now fleshed-out as a flawed antihero, troubled by doubts over his own identity - fears that are later confirmed by the expanded unicorn dream sequence. With the restored footage mainly culled from the original work print, some dodgy special effects corrected, the voiceover removed, and the "happy ending" made bleaker, Scott's visionary thriller makes the acid rain/neon-drenched Los Angeles of 2019 a far colder, more violent and depressing place.

Plot Summary - The "Final Cut" of Ridley Scott's futuristic thriller starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young. Los Angeles in the year 2019: police learn that four lethal androids have escaped from a space colony to find their creator on Earth. Former cop Rick Deckard, an expert in distinguishing humans from "replicants", is assigned to track the androids down.

 

2. High Noon (1952) (dir Fred Zinnemann)

Starring Gary Cooper; Grace Kelly; Thomas Mitchell; Lloyd Bridges; Katy Jurado

When & Where? 12:55-14:35 Wed 2nd Oct 2013 100m Film4

This is the film that put director Fred Zinnemann on the Hollywood A-list, revived the career of Gary Cooper and made Grace Kelly a star. If that's not enough, this multiple Oscar winner was also one of the first psychological westerns, breaking the mould of the gun-toting tales that had dominated the genre since the early silent era. It was also a highly controversial film, being seen as an attack on those who deserted their colleagues during the Communist witch-hunts that turned Hollywood into a place of fear between 1947 and 1951. John Wayne was chief among the film's critics, denouncing it as "un-American". Whatever the truth about the story's origins, High Noon remains a classic thanks to its sterling performances and marvellously suspenseful "real time" structure.

Plot Summary - Classic western, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Marshal Will Kane's wedding celebrations are interrupted by the news that his arch enemy is arriving on the noon train, seeking revenge.

 

 

Year 13 Media Homework

For Wednesday 23rd September - 600-800 words. Three detailed paragraphs.

To what extent can reality TV and the modern rolling news exemplify Debord's theory of the spectacle and Baudrillard's theory of Hyperreality?

Use lots of examples to illustrate your ideas, feel free to quote from my presentation to help you and make sure you quote from both Debord and Baudrillard in your response.

Here's the link to the YouTube videos on news and reality TV...

Postmodern Media Week 1 Videos

A2 SUMMER RESEARCH WORK

A2 Coursework

Summer Holiday: Research and Essay Task

Very Important work! It is vital that you have done this work for the 1^st lesson back or you will not be able to get going with the planning.

Please read this work carefully. You need to complete a proper essay for the first lesson back. Making a quick and confident start to the coursework relies on you doing this task over the summer holiday period.

TITLE: Explore the genre and conventions of your chosen media text. How do you plan to adhere to or develop these conventions?

Research is the 1^st part of the marks:

1)    Decide on a GENRE and perhaps a sub-genre for your trailer or short film

2)    Research into other trailers or short films which influence you. AT LEAST 8 trailers/ or short films.  You should make good notes on a lot of different trailers which you should post on your blog alongside the embedded video of the trailer.

3)    This is a close focus task. You need to refer to very specific shots.  Take screen grabs to exemplify what you are talking about. For each ‘real media text’ that you investigate, you should look at:

-       how they adhere to or subvert the conventions of the genre

-       how they use film language for effect  ie.: notes on mise-en-scene, editing, camera work, sound

-       the structure of the work – be specific - KEY section

-       for a trailer – the graphics/ critics awards/ titles

-       for a short film – the theme/ thoughts put forward in the film

4)    Write the essay after you have completed all the research in (2).  Post this essay also on your blog. I would expect this essay to reference and discuss a lot of details of the trailers/shorts you have studied.

Year 12 - Summer Homework

By the end of the summer if you are making a trailer you need to have completed:

1. An analysis of 3 front covers of 3 different film magazines. these are likely to be Empire, Sight and Sound and Little White Lies.

2. You should use a different technology with each analysis. E.g. Word, Photoshop, Prezi or Powerpoint.

3. You should upload each presentation to your blog, clearly label them research and planning and make sure you comment on how you found using each technology.

If you are studying short film you need to have analysed 1 front cover of a film magazine (Empire) and then analyse two review pages of two different magazines (Total Film, Little White Lies, Sight and Sound).

4. We then need to turn our attentions to the analysis of 3 Film Posters in the presentation below and you should focus on posters in the same genre as your intended trailer or short film. Who are the target audience and how do you intend on reaching them?

Year 12 - A2 Week 2 - Homework

Read copy of Sight and Sound magazine and pin down the audience profile - who reads this?

Read this to find out:

Sight and Sound Magazine

Using a different 'technology' than your annotation of Empire - likely to be Photoshop or Prezi - annotate the front cover of your chosen copy of Sight and Sound in detail. Use the prompts from the Powerpoint presentation on the Department blog.

12AB and 12AC - For Friday please.

Year 12 - A2 Week 1 - Homeworks

Read your copy of Empire Magazine.

Find examples of how Empire conforms to the audience profile of affluent (ABC1) 76% male, movie fans and cinema hounds...

You might look at the adverts as well as the content...

To be completed by Wednesday for group 12AC and Thursday for group 12AB.

This is preparing you for your second homework of the week, an analysis of an Empire magazine front cover.

Look at slides 5, 31, 32 & 36-38 of the presentation below to give you some tips on how to annotate.

You need to annotate 3 different magazines by the end of Week 2 of your return (21st June) - Empire, Sight & Sound and another film magazine - Total Film or Little White Lies or something similar. You'll be able to find an Empire magazine cover online.

Those of you considering the short film option - you need to annotate at least one magazine front cover and then turn your attentions to the review pages of a couple of magazines. See the second section of the presentation for more details.

 

A2 media Empire magazine cover and review from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Weeks 3 & 4 - Shifty and Skyfall Case Studies

Here are the last two case studies:

 

 And here's a bonus case study from the old days...

 

Easter Revision from Mr Grogan

Revision for the Film Industry

1. Monsters & Shifty

You must watch the film Monsters that I have given you on DVD. If you find it won't play on your DVD player you may need to watch it on a computer using the free VLC Player available from download.com. Monsters (2010) will be used as an exemplar case study for a micro-budget film along with Shifty (2008):

http://www.monstersfilm.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/shifty

If we can get access to a very busy film producer we may also use Broken (2012) as a case study. It looks great and worth viewing even if we don't have to...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/broken

We will also be looking at Working Title Films as a Case Study. It would be very useful for you to watch some Working Title films. There are 'classics' like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually but also more quirky (and less successful) releases like The Boat That Rocked (bad film but good case study). Try and watch at least one in the hols...

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com

Other films worth watching might include The Inbetweeners Movie, The Hunger Games, Attack the Block, Inception, The Dark Knight, Cloverfield or Skyfall. I will be putting together various case studies over Easter to help you answer the essay question in the exam.

2. Film Industry Revision Documentaries

You will be given a DVD containing 4 documentaries on the film industry that cover Production, Distribution, Exhibition and Film Piracy.

You should watch these and make notes on what you think are the key elements.

Each documentary lasts 25 mins.

3. Film Industry Revision Booklets

The last three revision guides for the film industry (on Exhibition, a Case Study on production and distribution of the low budget British film 'My Summer of Love and information on the Film Industry in the Digital Age) are all available on the department's Slideshare account here:

http://www.slideshare.net/mickgoogan/edit_my_uploads?type=documents

And I have updated ALL the revision guides from before Christmas as well and these are all available at the same location. Here's the booklet on Exhibition to get you started:

07 g322 section b exhibition 2012 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

All the booklets are available to download. Which is my way of saying you should download them, read them, make notes and review the questions as knowing a lot about the film industry is the way to get great marks on questions about the, er, Film Industry.



Work hard and you will do well in Media Studies in the summer. Don't do the reading, and watching, then prepare to underachieve.

Evaluation Question 5

Deadline for Evaluation Question 5 - Thursday 21st March

Here's an example of an annotated YouTube film opening - now your films are complete you need to annotate in the same way - this should take you about an hour or so.


http://alleynsmedia-turnbull-walter.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/evaluation-question-5.html

You have to explain how you've attempted to address your audience, make the film interesting for your audience and, using your feedback from your questionnaire, what parts of your film your audience like (and even dislike).

Annotating Youtube clips is relatively straightforward and is essential to you using different technologies to help you answer evaluation question 6, which is up next...

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience of your film?

Evaluation question 4 is all about your understanding of film certification and how it applies to your film. You should also use feedback from your questionnaire to help show how the audience you intended to target are actually interested in your film.

Film surveys - You need to prepare a questionnaire/audience to watch the opening of your films and be prepared for feedback.

Your questionnaire needs to find out info about your target audiences film viewing habits and then have a couple of questions about your film.

12AC - Film showings on Friday lunchtime - 1.45.

12AB - Film showings on Monday lunchtime - 1.45.

We'll need about 10 people across your age range for each viewing.

Cut and paste this link to see some surveys from a few years ago...

http://alleynsmedia-turnbull-walter.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/evaluation-question-4.html

In the initial stages of our planning we envisaged a very accessible film opening, specifically targeting an audience of those around 15-25, yet an older audience could also enjoy aspects of it. In terms of classification, we decided a 12 or 12A certificate would be suitable, due to the statement of the ‘bbfc’ website; “Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them”. Which seemed to address the opening well. The website further stated; “Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained”, which is true with our opening as elusions to more adult themes are brief and subtle. For example, the sexual reference of the women letting the man in to her house is not overtly sinister and the weapon used in the final moments is never scene or ‘glamorised’, just the sound of a gunshot is heard. The classification also means that our opening could appeal to a family with children of around 12 and older who are looking for a compromise, in the sense that, they want something intellectually stimulating for the whole family.

A particular niche audience of action/ thriller enthusiasts would be likely to see our opening, however this is a broad term and would not amount to a cult following of action films such as, Spiderman or batman, which encapsulate all the comic book fans.

In order to confirm our initial perceptions of a suitable audience we took a survey, inviting friends and teachers of different ages and genders to give their opinions on our film. The surveys mainly reinforced our predictions. We largely asked people aged 15-24 (ideally our target audience) and a large majority said they would like to see the film in the cinema and made additional comments to say how the genre and style of film appealed to them. There appeared to be no gender split of our opening being favoured by a male audience, which surprised us and the research also confirmed that the film was found to be engaging- ridding initial doubts we had over the plot. Finally, many of the questionnaires showed a particular interest in the “several different characters of which I wanted to see more”, as stated by one person. There seemed to be a particular attraction amongst the test audience to our characters, confirming he success of our very ‘character driven’ piece, whereby we took the risk of not including much dialogue or confusing subplots.

Here's Jordan's information presented as a voiceover.

http://alleynsmedia-fyffe.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/evaluation-question-4.html

TV Drama - Representation of Disability/Ability

Representation: Homework 

Please complete the following questions this week for homework. We are looking at the representation of disability/ ability.

You should also remember that you are selecting your own extract to present to the class in the next double lesson. Please be prepared to say something about it in terms of its' representation.

Consider the stereotypes of disabled people. The BFI site has some interesting material on this which you can research.

Extract 1: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcVhqcKukw&list=FLNk2J4osIv4sK-GkbYZhaUg

Make notes on the representation of disability/ability in this extract. You should watch the extract at least 3 times for this work and in your notes refer to camera, editing, miss-en-scene and sound.

Extract 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr3ScWp0tm0&list=FLNk2J4osIv4sK-GkbYZhaUg

As above make good notes on the representation of ability/ disability in this extract.

Extract 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt1qJYqdARg&list=PLAC15C50BB775177D&index=28

Evaluation Questions 2 & 3

The deadline for the completion of these two questions is Friday 8th March.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here you get to discuss and show-off your use of representation. You can either produce a DVD voiceover with script (see below) - or a more traditional essay style response. If you produce the essay response you should write up and present everything in word and then upload your document into Slideshare and then embed the slideshare document into your Media Blog.

Here's an example essay response from a few years ago (I've removed the original images - you should illustrate this with screenshots of your film opening):

The opening to our film is set in a family environment in the centre of London. We wanted our characters to fit the stereotype of a warm, loving family with kids. However, we deviated away from having a mother for the two daughters in our film, and kept it a single parent family. I believe this showed the audience the strong bond which can be formed between a father and a child when a mother is not present, because normally the mother is considered the main caregiver. Especially in this case, the two children are daughters who would normally relate better towards their mother, but the absence of a mother makes their relationship with their father stronger. This in turn makes the struggle for the father to find his kidnapped daughter more passionate and dramatic. On the other hand, one may view fathers as being naturally worse at caring for children than mothers, and therefore when the daughter is kidnapped, the audience may view this as the father being naïve or ignorant for leaving his two young children vulnerably home alone.

We had to choose the actors to play our characters very carefully, as we wanted to make sure that the right representations were carried across to the audience. For example, for our two young actresses, we had two completely different ideas to make them seem younger and more vulnerable. The eldest daughter we tried to portray as being an angst teenager who would be disobedient towards her father’s demands and subsequently lead to the kidnapping of her younger sister. This look is similar to that portrayed by Taylor Momsen in Gossip Girl. This also encourages people of her age to come and view our film as they can relate to her actions at that age in life.

Next, we decided to choose a very young actress to play our youngest daughter so she could create this cute child image; playing with her dolls, talking to her dolls, listening to beautiful music while dressed up. This image which we wanted to be portrayed in our film is the same as that by Drew Barrymore in E.T. and Abigail Breslin in Signs.

Finally, in our planning we had to decide on who would play our dad. We came up with the type of real actors that would suit the role that we wanted to be played out and came to the conclusion that someone like Jason Isaac would suit our role as being a caring father but also have the potential to be brutal, strong and forceful at the same time. This idea of the main man in the film being masculine and macho falls in line with the hard lead for men in thriller films. Nicolas Cage in Kick-Ass is a suitable example of the type of image we would like to be represented in our film, especially as Cage also plays a father who has a 'dark' side as well.

For cultural background and social status our family is within the bracket of middle-class and British. They live in a big house in the centre of London and later on in the film as the father’s past is revealed, we uncover a secret, spy lifestyle which pays well for him. The absence of a mother adds to the “good father” image which has been created in the opening to our film and is fast becoming more popular in today’s society. The audience will naturally feel sympathetic towards the father as he lost his wife to illness a few years before the time our film was set. It also exemplifies his heroism at the end of the film and therefore makes the ending more dramatic and interesting. I believe verisimilitude is heightened in the opening of our film because of the mundane nature and family environment of which it is set in. This will suit and interest a lot of different audiences as many find it difficult to relate to things so unrealistic or non-representative of the society we live in today.

Here's an example of a DVD voiceover answering this question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhjR8Em7t4&feature=player_embedded

And here's the film opening that Jordan is referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jc7GnmZAYvs

3. What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

In this question you need to explain what kind of company would distribute your film. Here it would be useful to refer back to your work on the Distribution and the Film Industry completed last term.

06 g322 section b distribution 2012 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

You should produce a 2 minute scripted voiceover for a presentation that refers to similar film distribution and exhibition companies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cRNVyUMl310

Most of you will have created an ident to go with your production company. Consider from your research and planning what kind of company will distribute your film? Think about 'real world' companies that are similar to your invented one. Offer examples of the kinds of film they have released in recent years that target a similar audience to your film.

Then consider where your film might be shown. What kind of cinema might pick-up your film? You may ned to refer back to your work on exhibition for some details. Here's some ideas to get you thinking...

1. Multiplex

A North American concept, the first UK cinema opening in Milton Keynes in 1985 owned by the American Multi-Cinema Corporation (AMC). There are now a number of chains such as UGC, UCI, Warner Village and MGM. Most Odeon cinemas outside London also now have multiplex sites, although some are still 4-5 screen high street sites.

The multiplex cinema tends to be a recent/new building situated on the edge of a large conurbation or city and houses between eight to fifteen screens. The US distributors determined that cinemas should be located close to large shopping centres, restaurants and other leisure pursuits (bowling, ice‑skating rinks etc.) to attract as wide a potential audience as possible. Easy access and parking for cars, an opportunity to combine a cinema visit with a shopping spree and a meal out has changed the concept of cinema going and seems to have been fundamental to the success of the multiplex. It has turned cinema going, literally, into a 'family centred' activity.

The number of screens can range from 12-15, and in some cases up to 25, such as Star City in Birmingham. However, this `megaplex', which boasted shops, restaurants, a tattoo bar and screens that were to be dedicated to art house and Bollywood fare, has proved to be problematic. While there is a greater representation of Asian cinema than usual for a multiplex, reflecting the local demographic, the commitment to art house cinema appears to have fallen victim to the Hollywood juggernaught. Multiplexes claim to offer a wide range of choice, but in reality, across the country they will all play the same 8-10 core titles.

2. Multi-Screen Cinema (City Centre)

Slightly different to the large, out-of-town multiplex - the multi-screen cinema is an upgrade of the old 1970s ‘flea-pits’.

Not only were these old cinemas renovated, but the old large single auditorium cinemas with an audience capacity of fifteen hundred people, were divided into three to eight screen cinemas. These became known as multi-screen cinemas. The multi-screen cinemas echoed the multiplex notion of offering a choice of films in a modern, comfortable environment. However, they attracted a different type of audience from the multiplex due to their city centre location. Very few can offer the large car parking facilities of the multiplex but most are easily accessible by public transport and are convenient for those working or shopping in the city centre.

3. Commercial Art House

A number of commercial cinemas across the country now mix art house and multiplex programming, the most successful being the City Screen chain. City Screen run the Curzon Soho Cinema in London and also a number of sites across the country in towns such as York, Stratford Upon Avon, Cambridge and Brighton where there is no other art house provision. Technical facilities are usually excellent, and most sites have a bar and restaurant. As with multiplexes, the financing of the City Screen circuit is complicated, based in London and New York.

Evaluation Question 1 - Thriller Conventions - Some Ideas...

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To answer this question you are to produce a short film with a voiceover using Final Cut Pro X. You will need to import images from your film, and other films, on your timeline and script a voiceover.

The deadline for this is Friday 1st March.

You need to comment on all the different generic thriller conventions you have referenced and include references to other films, film directors and cinematographers that you have researched as part of your planning.

Here are the areas you need to reference (not in order of importance):

Locations./Mise en Scene - why have you chosen your specific location? What other Thrillers have used similar or different locations?

Costume and Props and Iconography - what other films use similar conventions? How do you signal that we are watching a Thriller using these elements of your film?

Music, Sound, SFX - where did you get your ideas from?

Themes of the Thriller - how did you conform to or play with traditional themes of the thriller.

Camera shots./angle/movement/positioning - where did you borrow ideas from - reference specific films and even specific shots.

Editing - cross-cutting/continuity editing - how did you set up enigmas in your Thriller using editing?

Genre - what generic conventions did you use?

Plot - where did you get your ideas from? What films? What current affairs stories?

Title - How did you come by the title of your film?

Tiles/fonts/graphics - you should have looked at a variety of film title sequences from the website 'The Art of the Title' - here's where you get to discuss your ideas and where they came from.

What amendments/changes have you made from your original plan that indicate you conform or challenging the generic conventions of the Thriller?

How does your lighting help conform or challenge the conventions of the Thriller?


Here is a copy of an evaluation by a student from two years ago:

http://alleynsmedia-desalis.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/1-in-what-ways-does-your-media-product.html

http://alleynsmedia-turnbull-walter.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/evaluation-question-1.html

Here is a video that highlights some of the Thriller conventions seen in the movie 'Memento':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1_P4uZvR8

Thriller Conventions in 'The Dark Knight':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYxFo2tmkEo

Conventions of a Thriller - A Level Media:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsobNoNJzOc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLzEjk6IwpM

Showreel of Thriller Openings from Long Road VI Form College:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF0C030C9F405A86B

http://thrillerproject.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/thriller-conventions-1.html

Here's a short script from a student blog from a few years ago to give you some more ideas (it's not a top band response but it may help get you started):

When starting to look at different film genres in preparation for starting our group piece, we looked at different film genres and the conventions of each of those genres. For example rom-com would be very high key (lighting) and would usually had younger attractive people falling in love, with a struggle separating them. Then there was drama; using fast paced editing and lots of action to keep the audience enticed. Then we began to look at horror and thriller and as we did this we focussed deeper and deeper in on it, realising this is probably what we would want to choose for our own genre. And we did. The horror/thriller crossover share many common conventions such as a dark environment (often) with a main murderer, and a main victim (or possible victim). Some of the common themes of horror are death, victims, as well as the conventions of the production such as ominous music, and editing or creating a story which itself creates and enigma for the audience: leaving them guessing. Two examples of this are Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ (1960) as well as ‘The Shining’ (Kubrick, 1980) as well as many others. Both films holdback information until the end so the audience are more intrigued and, ultimately, more scared. We generally fit to these conventions of the horror thriller genre by having the classic characters of a ‘victim girl’ and a ‘nasty murderer’, as well as using enigmas, by not showing the murderers face until the third thing he says, and having him sign in at the very beginning as ‘Julie’ making audiences believe him to be a woman. We used iconography similar to that of other horror films. These included the location; a dirty cellar and the lighting; low key and shadowy. Another way we represented the genre of a horror/thriller is that we used the theme of stalking, which has been used is film such as ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (Gillespie, 1997). We also used chilling music such as an ominous drone. In our audience feedback it showed that they all thought it was horror/thriller, so it shows that sticking to the conventions works well.

However to be more creative we didn’t stick rigidly to conventions, for example, we used a modern but still twisted storyline, involving the internet, and we also had two murderers which is uncommon in most horror films. We also used a modern piece of music which sounded like a dial-up internet connection to continue our particular theme. We stuck to most of the old forms and conventions of horror with modern twists to it, such as its modern context of meeting people over the internet. We didn’t choose to stick to Todorov’s classic narrative pattern of staring with an equilibrium, with a disruption that eventually gets resolved, because we felt it made more of an impact on the audience to start with disruption.
We also had to look at the conventions of an opening sequence in order to create a film that was accurate in content and in its production

Conventions include:

Introduction to key characters (Elle in Legally Blonde, Luketic 2001)

Titles throughout

Music (Shining)

Info on what is to come (Magdalene Sisters, Peter Mullen 2004)

Main themes of the film (killers obsessive record keeping in Seven, Fincher 1995)

Visual references to the title (pumpkins in Halloween, Carpernter 1978)

Sense of danger from the offset-only for horror (Seven starts with a dead body)

Symbolic/iconic images

We stuck to all these conventions I believe as we introduced our murderers (the girl was merely the first victim), we had titles throughout and music, introduced the main theme of the internet and gave an insight into what was to come. We have used many narrative techniques in our sequence such as editing it in real time, using cross-cutting, and a small ellipsis between bits in the conversation. Some of our action and enigmas codes include our montage sequence at the end, and the enigma is when you can hear the printer sound but are unsure as to who is printing it. We used the classic characters roles from horror films such as the victim, insignificant to the overall plot but just one to add to the body count. In our film she is a girl like most horror films including ‘Scream’ (Craven 1996). The overall style of our piece is very eerie, with close-up camera work to show the expressions of both murderer and victims face, be it scared or smug. Our sequence has continuity such as match-on-action and shot reverse shot, however breaks this by having a montage at the end.

Here's another response to give you some further ideas:

One of the main ways in which our media product defied conventions of similar media products - that is to say, British crime thrillers - was in the costumes of the characters. While most British crime thrillers such as Kidulthood often have hooded or unsavoury looking characters, we made our characters well dressed, one of them wearing a suit and the others dressed fairly inconspicuously. Through this, we hoped to give our characters a more unpredictable edge and not make them caricatures of British street criminals.

We also decided to make our opening rather slow-paced and use no shaky camera motion for it. This is unlike other thriller openings we studied such as Collateral or London to Brighton, and we chose to shoot the opening in this way to establish the characters and setting rather than put the audience into the action, as we felt that our film would be more of a slow-burn character piece. This meant that we often focused on the main character in between scenes of shot progression such as when he meets the two other men and begins following the girl. This reminded me of the film No Country For Old Men, which focuses as much on the behaviour and actions of the main characters than the general crime story it is based around.

For the graphics, we decided to go for a font called Bank Gothic - this font has been used in many films and TV shows, such as 24, The International and X Men.

We were influenced by some other more character based crime dramas for our opening, notably the films Drive and Heat in terms of cinematography, location and costume. Drive is noticeable for its lack of handheld cameras and slow-paced cinematography, while Heat opens on the Los Angeles MTA and uses several establishing shots - we were originally going to have our film set on the London DLR though could not. We did, however, use several establishing shots of the location in the way that Heat did.

It can be seen here how the cinematography of Heat is atmospheric and consists of slow and steady cinematography which our film also had elements of.

The main characters in Heat and Drive are also dressed fairly inconspicuously when we first meet them: Robert De Niro's character in Heat in the opening is in fact dressed in disguise as an ambulance driver, while Ryan Gosling's character in Drive wears a simple satin jacket and jeans.

We did, however, not want to make our characters seem totally inconspicuous as we wanted to also build a mounting sense of mystery with regard to the story. Drive also influenced us directly in this aspect as we had our character wear leather gloves identical to those that the main character in Drive wears. In this context, these are particularly suspicious given that the character is not a driver.

One trope present in many crime films of a similar budget and setting to ours, however, was having a female character killed or attacked. This is often more surprising than killing off a less innocent looking male character and can be used to put the audience on the edge of their seat. We decided to make the character getting killed female as it demonstrated the dangerous nature of our possibly sociopathic main character.