The Counsellor

     



Production budget: $25million
Domestic total: $16,816,402

Total lifetime grosses:
   Domestic : $16,816,402     35.9%
    Foreign$30,000,000          64.1%

Domestic summary:
   Opening weekend: $7,842,930
     (No. 4 rank. 3044 cinemas, $2,577 average)
       percentage of total gross: 46.6%

Widest release: 3,044
In release 33 days/ 4.1 weeks



This film is sold to the audience on the idea of drugs and violence. In the running titles there are big named actors with their awards underneath their names. This lures the audience in to believe this will be a good film due to the actors cast. However, the reviews are seemingly negative and has had few positive reviews.

I will be producing a short film based on the Horror genre and I will be making this apparrent by using some of the main conventions of that genre.
I plan on using lots of jump cuts to keep the viewer on edge and create a sense of disjointedness within the main character. At this moment I have not made a clear decision on what the narrative will be, however I have a brief outline. It will follow the main stereotypes of the Horror genre but with some controversial changes.

• Target audience of 15-25 year olds, interested in the psychological area 
• Either a short film or a film trailer based on the Horror genre with psychological aspects
• Use and adapt existing themes and ideas from Horror films
• Use dutch and other such unconventional angles 
• Editing will be the main focus of the sequence and will play a big part in the feel of the clip

Film Noir

 In this short film we created a Film Noir themed setting by using the available architecture in and around college. Such objects as grave stones and spiral staircases are popular conventions within the Film Noir genre.
The film begins with a close up of a hand and the shot is held for 2 seconds and then zooms out to reveal it is a dead body. The two seconds in which the viewer is unaware of whose hand this is or anything to do with it, the viewer is anticipated as to what this hand will show. This is shot at a dutch angle to show the obscurity and unorthodoxness of the situation.
It then cuts to a female standing in the doorway and then stepping over the dead body.The viewers are unable to see her face so it creates mystery as we are not yet sure as to who this character is, what she represents and her involvement in the situation. After she steps over the body, the camera follows her as she walks past and down the stairs. Following this, it cuts to a slow motion shot of her continuing down the stairs, however the camera is now at the bottom of the stairs as opposed to the top which shows she now has dominance of the situation and ultimately the rest of the film.
The next scene is the female continuing to walk away from the camera, down a path, in a graveyard, towards the church. In this shot, she is in centre frame, which , again shows she has dominance over the situation and she is able to determine what happens next.
Following this, the female meets a male and they talk whilst holding each other. In this shot the viewers cannot see her face as it is filmed from behind her so the mystery of this character continues. The shot fades out and into the next one which shows the male and the female walking out of the grave yard and closing the gate. The viewers are still unable to see the female's face, they may feel confused as to what her motive is and why she has killed this man. It is implied that she has killed this man who is her husband/partner to be with this other man. Typically, in the Film Noir genre, the female is 'Femme Fatalle' and she performs the murder or wrong doing to be with somebody else.
The film ends with a tilt shot of the male and female walking towards the camera. The camera tilts only as far up at the female's neck and then cuts to a  close up of both male and female's feet. At this point the viewers are anticipated as the camera tracks upwards as it creates suspense as they believe they may be able to see her identity. However when it gets extremely close to showing her face, it cuts away.
We were aiming to achieve mystery and I feel we have achieved this effectively primarily with the use of keeping the female's identity concealed.