Case Study 2: Point Break

Institutions:
An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: Rick King

Cast:
Patrick Sawyze : Bodhi
Keanu Reeves: Johnny Utah
Gary Busey: Pappas
Lori Petty: Tyler

Production Company: JVC Entertainment Networks, Largo Entertainment

Release Date: 22 November 1991 (UK)

Country Where Made: U.S.A.

Box Office Return: $43,218,387 (USA)

Budget: $24,000,000 (estimated)

                                         

Audience: This is a film for anyone who is a fan of the thriller/crime genre, it has action but also retains some emotional performances and an area of romance for the main protagonists.

Audience Reception:

No.1: Quaint in its depiction of an alternative lifestyle, yet still an above average, really quite vicious action thriller.

No.2: While it can accurately be described as an action film, a heist movie, or even simply a thriller, Point Break is also the first "extreme sports" movie

No.3:  Bigelow's adept handling of the action elevates Point Break to guilty pleasure status.

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomatometer: 67%

Audience: 47%

Technology:

The technology in this film is not as up to date as other more recent films, thios also means however than it can be more realistic, such as Keanu Reeves actually had to learn how to surf in this film, which is a key part of the plot as he must infiltrate the gang, which means it was real as opposed to using a blue screen. Apart from some occassional explosions the film is relatively CGI free with the director choosing to use stunt men and stand ins for scenes such as the skydiving one.

Representation: 

The main protagonist in this film Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is played as a "fresh out of training, college football jock" which makes him a very tenacious character as he still has the enthusiam necessary to defeat the protagonists. Pappas (Gary Busey) however is the opposite as an old detective coming close to retirement and has been trying to catch the bank robbers for a while and has nearly given up, until Johnny Utah comes along. Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) is shown as a man who would seem at first glance to have been riding along with his life not making much money. However he is an adrenaline junkie, whos looks decieve him as he is a smart clever and ruthless bank robber, but at the same time to everyone around him, very likeable. This is a problem for Johnny as it is his job to get close to him and take him down.

Codes/forms and conventions of the thriller genre:  

Location:

The location of this film is an integral part of the story, as it is how the FBI agents eventually track down the Robbers and try to join the "pack". It is set in LA, mostly on the beaches, the criminals are tracked down via the chemicals in some hair which they track down to a certain beach.

Character Types:
The detectives are shown in two different ways, Johnny Utah is shown as an enthusiastic law enforcement officer whereas Pappas isold and looks like he cannot be bothered anymore. Bodhi is shown as a man who looks like he may have been riding along for a while not bothered about anything, whereas he is actually an intelligent criminal who organises everything in military precision.

Costume:
The costumes throughout are varied. For instance at the beginning the police all wear suits and tieswhich is very formal. This changes throughout to a casual look as going undercover plays a big part of the operation. Most of the cast wear beachwear throughout because the beach is anintegral part of the story, Except when the robbers are doing the banks, they wear suits that match the masks they wear, which are of the previous presidents.

Objects:

Most of the objects that are sent into the bank play a big part of the story and vice versa, as there are many bugs and traps throughout this film that are used to con each of the "sides". Also when it comes to the weapons in the film they also play a vital part towards the end of the film.

 

Sound: When it comes to sound most of it is diagetic with much talking, shooting, music inside of the story on speakers, etc. But there is a low amount of non-diagetic sound, as most of this movie if filmed in a handheld way and having no sound effectg music or orchestra sound makes it seem more realistic.

Film Synopsis

The film opens with our main character Alex, a nomal student walking home, his usual route goes past the phone box, but today is far from usual, the phone box rings, hesitant at first he walks over and cautiously answers, all he can hear is brething from the other end. He gives up andputs the phone donw. For the rest of the night e doent giveit a second tought, assuming its just some kids prank calling. It's a gloomy night. As alex walks home he listens to his music, oblivious to the fact that he's big watched.

As he walks home the night becomes darker until it's pitch blck, but he gets gome to find the door open.This doesn't phase Alex as he realises his parents have probably just left the door open so he thinks nothing of it. He takes is coat and shoes off and walks upstairs at the precise moment a masked figure appears at the window. He goes upstairs to pour himself a glass of water, leaving the tap running he walks across the landing, the light flickers quickly on and off bringing thr masked figure into view. he climbs into bed and goes to sleep. He is then woken up later by his phone ringing, again he thinks nothing of no-one being on the other end. He goes back to sleep only to be woken up by he light rapidly flickering on and off and standing opposite him the masked character wielding an axe. (This is our three minute thriller opening, and now this is  vague outline fo the rest ofthe movie)

Alex is captured after a struggle in his house, he has a broken leg. He is bound and gagged and trown into the back of a truck. He travels for hours and finally comes to a stop. He is thrown into a small cell like room. He is questioned for days. None of the questions ever make sense. They are in the same lnguage but mean nothing to him. After a few days there is noise. He is grabbed again, leg still broken he is dragged across the floor and outside into the burning sunlight. He blacks out.

He wakes up to a nurse standing over him. After a few days of recovery he is sat down in front of the police. They need his help to raid the main base of the people who captured him, the are people known as the resistance Alex, is told to compare this to the antagonists in Fight Club. The reason they need Alex is because he should know the layout of the base. He claims to know nothing but the people say they can access his subconcious to find any thoughts. As he agrees they take him to a room and strap him in the chair, they anesthatise him.

He wakes up to the seemingly startled faces of the scientists. "Did you find anything?" Alex asks."Yes, but not what we were hoping for" he replies. "Oh?" "Yes, it would seem that we found out the leader of the group, which may help us just as much" "And?" "It's you..."

Thriller Update

We have filmed all of the ending again as we said we would because it wasn't inkeeping with the rest of the film. Also we have added it to the rest of our film along with some new music which will play throughout. This is because we felt it added more suspense to the story, and stopped the film from feeling like it kept starting and stopping. We added the sound of static and a phone off the hook just to emphasize that it was about phones being the antagonists way of select6ing his victims. Also it was a good way of showing the end of the film and it could be possibly be linked to the Alex's life possibly ending.

Final Call – questionnaire

 

1.           Do you think that the shots are put together well?

                 (Yes) (No) (Slightly)

2. Do you think that the costumes are appropriate for the style of film?
   (Yes) (No) (Kind-of)

3. Do you think the sound track creates suspense?
   (Yes) (No) (Slightly)

4. Do you think the plot of the film is good?
   (Yes) (No)

5. Did you enjoy the thriller film you have just watched?
   (Yes) (No) (It was alright)

6. Would you watch the rest of this thriller film from what you have seen so far?
   (Yes) (No)

These are the questions we asked our questionnaire participantrs to see what they thought of the film so far. Mostly we had positive results but we feel that this is okay as it was only the first rough cut.

Preliminary Project "Appleicious"

This is our preliminary project called Appleicious, one hungry teacher goes to find his lunch, we tried to use as many different types of shot as possible along with different techniques such as match on action, and over-the-shoulder.

Filming Changes

This week we decided that our film ending was not inkeeping with the research we did with our questionnaires and the rest of the film in general. We are hoping to do some re-shoots later in the week to alter this and make the film better. We will have to see if we can use the camera again this week but if all goes well we should be well into the editing process by the end of the week.

Audience Research 46-60 Year Olds

- How often do you watch thriller films?

Never: 2
Always: 1
Sometimes: 2

This tells us that the older generation of people are less likely to watch thriller films than the younger generation.

- If you do watch thriller films,what types do you like?

Horror: 1
Action: 2
Comedy: 4
Drama: 2

This also shows that older people are less likely to watch horror films and the majority watch comedy films, with others watching action and drama.

- Why do you like watching thriller films?

Some of the answers included - Its always entertaning - for the storyline and the action - keeps my attention with a fast moving plot - they are a laugh - because of the usually simple plot lines.

- What do you think is essential to a thriller film?

Fast paced plot - good plot, lots of action, car chases and suspense - a good main character with emotion - a good spread of characters and a good plot -a threat to the world.

- Would you prefer a more script based film (Inception) a film with more suspense (The Strangers) or a film with more action? (Die Hard)

Scripted: 3
Action: 2
Suspense: 1

- Do you think a soundtrac is very important to a film?

Yes, very: 3
No, not very:  1
Not bothered:  1

- What sort of location would your ideal thriller film be set it?

Desterted barren wasteland - Doesn't matter - a city like venice or san francisco - rural country setting, rarely seen - Outside, in a foreign country.

- Anything you would like to see more of in thriller films?

Older protagonists - women lead protagonists - believeable characters and a plot that is not completely ridiculous - suspense.

- What is your favourite thriller film and why?

Inside Man, becaus of the cleverness of the plot
Bourne Series
The Departed, it's never slow, it always keeps you thinking.


From all of thesequestions you cansee that the older generatin prefers much more of a soli plot lines and  serious story. Also music is important, another point is that most would like an older set of main characters.

Changes to Filming

We decided only to use one bad character, in this case Ed, to make this opening sequence more personal between the good and bad character. We are hoping that because of this,  the audience will feel more engaged with the film and the relationship between Ed and Alex will be clearer. 

We used a leather hooded jacket instead of a suit jacket because we felt as the only bad character this would match the characters personality better and show off his dark side. As Ed is the only bad character we only used one prop for a weapon and that was a knife, we felt it was better to have a believable weapon that having an unrealistic looking gun for example.

We have changed the location of our phone box because it was a more isolated scene, which aided filming and it also shows isolation within the film.