Gang member tattoo ideas

When thinking of our trailer ideas we thought that it would make the trailer interesting if we used gang tattoos. This would be useful in our film because the hitman kills the gang member (Jerome) as then realises that he is part of a gang member because the hitman sees a tattoo on his arm, which is the symbol of the gang. We have researched some symbols on the internet and have found some examples of what we want our gang tattoo to look like: 

Shot list for key scene two

1. CU of danger sign 
2. Mid-shot of Wayne walking along minding his own business 
3. Establishing shot of Wayne walking down the alleyway 
4. OSS shot showing gang members walking behind Wayne 
5. MS from in front of Wayne of the two members behind grabbing him
6. LS of the other two gang members joining in 
7. High angle shot looking down on Wayne and the group
8. LS pushing Wayne up against the wall 
9. POV shot showing the gang members shouting abuse at Wayne 
10. CU of the gang members face
11. MS of the gang members huddling around Wayne
12. LS of one gang member putting bag over Wayne's head
13. LS of them dragging Wayne over to the boot of a car
14. Low angle shot of them dragging him towards the camera
15. Black screen to show sudden ending 

Shot list for key scene one

1. Establishing shot of the house in the evening/night time with voice over of phone call between the wife and the boss 
2. MS of the Boss' wife cooking dinner 
3. ECU of the flame 
4. CU on the pot over flowing
5. MS of her getting quite stressed trying to turn down the heat 
6. LS of her trying to sort the mess, the doorbell rings
7. Tracking shot following her feet 
8. POV shot of her walking towards the door 
9. Over the shoulder shot of Jade pushing the wife back 
10. Two shot of her looking away and Jade being in her face
11. CU of Jade punching her in the stomach 
12. Long shot of the wife sliding down the wall in pain 
13. POV and long angle shot from the wife's perspective watching Jade steal possessions which is blurry and fades in and out to show half consciousness 
14. Canted angle to create a feeling of disorientation 
15. BCU to show Jade's face looking behind her to ensure no one has arrived
16. LS of Jade crouching down to the wife's level 
17. MCU of Jade lifting her chin and her pulling her face away 
18. Shallow focus of the wife in the foreground on the floor resting against the wall and Jade's feet in the background heading for the front door 
19. POV shot from the wife's perspective watching her leave 
20. CU and pull focus of Jade's face walking away, walks out of the frame, so the audience can see the house behind with the door left wide open

Key scenes of our trailer

1. Breaking into the house, wife getting assaulted 

Our first key scene is taken from the beginning of the narrative when a young hooded, masked teenager (Jade) breaks into a house.  She forces his way into the Boss' house, however she does not know who lives there or the Boss' authority, the Boss' wife is home alone and gets pinned up against the wall by her neck. Jade will be armed with a knife and be dressed in dark clothing, she grabs anything she can which could be worth some value. She leaves the wife half unconscious and cowered in a corner where she is crying and shaking with fear. Jade will then walk out of the house leaving the wife on the floor and the front door wide open.

2. Kidnapping of the hit man (Wayne)

After Jade was killed by the hit man, the gang members want to seek revenge. The scene begins with Wayne (the apprentice hit man) walking down a quiet alley, two gang members approach him from in front and as he begins to turn around another approaches from the other side and grab him. They start beating him up and pin him up against the wall. They begin shouting abuse about the attack and murder of Jade and put a black bag over his head and drag him over to the boot of a car. 

Inspiration for our trailer

This film is an action, crime thriller which is a new 2014 film about a man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and has dedicated to beginning a new, quiet life. But he meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can't stand idly by - he has to help her. 

I can take inspiration from this trailer or incorporate elements which follow our detailed narrative. This plot is similar to what we want to create because it involves violence and weapons such as guns and knives as well as a group of people (Russian gangsters) which is the equivalent to our gang made of teenagers. 

I think the scene where the main character, Robert McCall goes to confront the Russian mob (starting from 1:13) uses a good range of camera angles because it builds suspense.  There's a quick establishing shot which allows the audience to see how many men are positioned around the room. There is then a MCU of the door handle being turned and unlocked to show intrusion.  A long shot is used with a zoom in to draw attention to McCall to portray power and importance however there is a pull focus showing the men laughing showing they are not worried because he is surrounded and outnumbered. There's a ECU of McCall's eyes which show his anger and cuts quickly to a CU of a knife in his hand which suggests violence and tells the audience there will be head-to-head conflict. Another CU with a slight low angle of a Russian gang member shows sly, intimidating behaviour and an ECU shows McCall's eyes again which look to the side to show he has noticed them starting to move and prepare to attack him. A wide shot shows the gang member pulling out a gun next to his leg, with quick fading to black effects to create tension. There's a mid-shot and then ECU of his watch which adds the element of time which creates more suspense. I also like the music that is playing as the soundtrack which is Eminem - Guts Over Fear ft. Sia, this is contemporary music which is seen as 'cool' and 'up-to-date' and shows that McCall is not intimidated or scared of the men. 

Treatment for movie trailer production

Production company name: Insignia 
Production team members: Claire Lewis, Eve Foran and Megan Sutton
Genre: Crime thriller
Title of production: Infraction 

Synopsis: An ordinary boy attends college and is secretly  a hit man and receives a phone call offering a large sum of money to kill someone. However the hit man kills this individual but later realises he is part of a gang. In revenge they kidnap the hit man and he must plan his escape before his life is taken too. 

Detailed narrative outline: A house is broken in to by a teenager, in the process a woman is attacked and injured with bruising around her neck, she steals some of her possessions and leaves her mentally scarred and alone cowering in a corner. A young 18 year old boy attends college however he feels socially excluded and doesn't have any friends. He receives a phone call while he is at college from his boss saying 'I have another job for you' and offers the largest sum of money he has ever been offered (£100,000). The boss wants him to murder someone who has attacked his wife. The boy accepts and follows the individual down an alley way and shoots them before she can defend herself. As the hit man approaches the body he sees a gang symbol/tattoo on her arm. The gang later realises one of their members have been killed and they want to seek revenge by tracking down the hit man and kidnapping him. He wakes up in a dark, basement room and must escape before they kill him in vengeance. 

Intended target audience: Both male and females from social classes A to E as the film can appeal to people with well-paid jobs, middle class, lower class as well as students. The age range will be 15 +, this is because we do not want to put a limit on our audience as it depends on the individuals taste. 

Key characters:

• The hitman - aged 18    Wayne 
• The victim - aged 18     Jade
• Gang members - between the ages of 17-21   Roxie, Dominick, Reagan 
• The boss - aged in his 30s/40s
• The boss' wife - also aged in her 30s/40s

We have decided to have the burglar as a female character called Jade because it opposes the stereotype that a burglar would be a male. Jade is very intimidating and violent and also carries a weapon (knife) which shows that females can be equally as dangerous, scary and cruel. Most of the audience would expect the burglar to be a male however we want to challenge this stereotype as people perceive women as being non-aggressive and more nurturing, this will surprise our audience and make it more interesting as a different angle has been taken. 

Mise-en-scene: 

• Costume - dark clothing, smart black jacket, balaclava, leather gloves, gang tattoo 
• Props- gun, mobile, rope, tape, blind fold
• Lighting - mostly low key lighting to portray the mystery to ultimately thrill the audience

Location: The film trailer will be set locally in Birmingham. We will use at least 3 locations to keep it interesting, this will include; Plantsbrook School, an alleyway and a basement or dark room. 

Market Research

We have received 25 responses on our survey after we posted the link on Twitter and Facebook, 32% were males and 68% were females which shows that more females have taken the survey. This is probably because females are more likely to take time to complete it, also as we are females ourselves we could have a larger amount of female followers and friends on these social networking sites. Therefore it is unlikely we will ever get exactly the same amount of male and female responses as we cannot influence their choice otherwise it could be bias. However it would be useful to have a range of results from both genders as it provides us with opinions which is important as we are targeting our film trailer at males and females. 

The age of our audience seems to be mainly 15-25 year olds as 60% are between these ages which is due to the fact our social networking friends and followers are around the same age as ourselves and are predominantly teenagers. This suggests that crime thrillers will be popular amongst this age group and they would watch the film at the cinema, online or on Netflix etc.  People who are over the age of 25 may not use social networking sites as regularly, 16% were between 26-40 which was the smallest age group in the responses we received. These adults are important therefore it would be beneficial if we could get more responses from them as they make up a large majority of our target audience, we might need to obtain their results in a different way as we do not have many friends or followers of this age. This could be done by finding individuals and giving them our phones to access the survey and getting them to answer the questions on the spot as they are familiar with technology. In the 40 and above age group 24% responded to our survey which could involve parents and other family members. We only have a very small percentage of middle aged and elderly friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook as they are not likely to have an account, this means we might have to use questionnaires to get their feedback. 

From the three individual ideas that were put forward idea one, about a girl who is kidnapped and held hostage because her boyfriend was in debt for drugs and he must rescue her, got 9 votes which is 36%. Idea two, about a group of girls who carry out a bank heist, got 7 votes which is 28%. Idea three, about a hit man earning money for a better life for his younger sister who framed by his step-brother also got 9 votes which is 36%. These results show that idea one and three were the most appealing, although the results were very close therefore elements from each idea could be incorporated into the final treatment.

We asked our audience if there is anything they would change or add from their most preferred idea by adding a suggestion box at the end of our survey. Some of their responses are shown below; 

My idea to put forward to production

After meeting with my production group, we have decided the best way to choose a final idea is to create an online survey on www.surveymonkey.com to post on social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook. The survey will incorporate all of our individual ideas so the audience can give honest feedback on which outline idea they prefer without being bias. The questions we will ask our audience are; 

• Are you male or female?
• How old are you?
• Which idea do you find the most appealing?
• Would you add or change anything from your most preferred idea?

The idea I will be putting forward to production is pitch idea 2 however I want to incorporate a few elements from pitch idea 1. 

A girl is walking along to a train station with her earphones in listening to music, however unknown to her, someone is following her. She sits and waits for her train and pulls out her phone to go on while she's waiting, she texts her boyfriend. As the train passes the girl disappears and her phone has been left on the platform, the caller ID shows her boyfriend calling her. When she comes round, she is tied to a chair with tape across her mouth with two masked people standing behind her. She has flashbacks of the kidnapping at the train station. The kidnappers film a video message of her telling the boyfriend that he must pay them for the drugs (cocaine) he is in debt for, plus interest. She is unaware that he has ever been involved in drugs. The boyfriend trashes his room looking for a gun which is hidden in a box at the back of wardrobe, he goes on a mission to rescue her. At the end there will just be dialogue of one of the kidnappers saying 'You have 24 hours or she dies. Good luck.'