Our Research & Planning

So far, we have started planning our film trailer after researching films of the same genre. We are going to create a social realist action thriller which focuses on youth crime and gang violence in Britain today. We have decided to use, after researching thrillers, a female lead character to challenge these common codes and conventions and offer another alternative view on a teenage life in UK society. We want to offer an explanation for why some teenagers may become antisocial, violent and disrespectful but there is a fine line between giving an explanation and appearing to be condoning what we are showing. In this case, we will have to make sure it is clear that what we are producing does not support or positively portray violence or antisocial behaviour, but is simply reflecting the lives of a minority of British youths whose lives are troubled so they turn to crime and violence as a way of gaining control of their lives and rebelling against a society that may have failed them. Some scenes will obviously have to be a bit dramatised to make the film more exciting and action-filled to conform to codes and conventions of the genre.

Our film's key theme is the representation if gender, as our female main character - Erin- starts as appearing weak, timid and vulnerable. A physical and emotional transition is triggered which makes her change dramatically and take control of her life by using aggression and force to gain the attention and control she has always wanted. Our main character will hopefully appeal to both male and female teenage audiences, as I know that I, as a female viewer, really enjoyed other films such as Harry Brown, Shank, Adulthood and Kidulthood which are of a similar genre but have male protagonists. Our character aims to be relate-able, not in the way she is violent, but in her vulnerability and loneliness due to her neglectful and isolated past. Our aim for this trailer is to appeal to a wider audience and involve females more in this genre by representing them in a different way to the norm - as strong and controlling with hints of naivety and insecurity which will make the character quite endearing as she is not acting the way she is for a mindless reason.

We have now chosen a name for our film. We have decided to call in 'Raze' as we wanted to look for a word that was similar to the themes of the film so we looked up words such as wreck, crash and derailed as Erin's character goes off the rails and out of control. We found the word 'raze' which means: destroy, ruin, knock down and flatten which we thought was suitable for our film as Erin's character aims to use violence to control her life and others around her, not worrying who or what she destroys while doing this. The way the word is spelt with a 'Z' makes it quite sharp and edgy which would represent the film's grittiness, as well as being a simple and bold title which I think will work as a strong name for our thriller film.