Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is known as the man that transformed title sequences of movies into an art form. He has worked on over 100 film title sequences with his most memorial works being Dawn of the Dead, The Spiderman Movies and Superman Returns. Cooper wanted to raise the bar for creativity in film title sequences.

Kyle Cooper studied graphic design at Yale University where he earned a M.F.A. (master of fine arts). He then had a job as a creative director at R/GA an advertising agency. During this time he made the title sequence for the 1995 American Crime Thriller se7en which was said by Times Magazine to be 'One of the most important desgin inovations of the 1990's'. The title sequence aso inspired many young designers.

In 1996 Cooper co-founded Imaginary Forces, a creative agency that came out of the R/GA. Cooper also directed a feature film in 2001 called New Port South. In 2003 he left Imaginary Forces because he thought he was to involved in the running of the business and wanted to focus more on the creative side so he founded the creative agency Prologue which created title sequences for Iron Man, Tron:Legacy and The Walking Dead. 

In 2008 Cooper was a finalist in the National Design Awards as well as having having five Emmy Award nominations and one win for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards. He also has the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London

The Pitch

I think The Pitch to Matt and Simon went very well. We didn't get any very negative feedback and they seemed to love our space idea. They only said that because our idea is set a few years back it may be hard to pull of the 80's look. Our ideas were presented well and I think this contributed to them liking our idea. Now we just have to see how we develop it further.

Our Thriller Idea

We have been given our thriller groups and I am in a group with Imi, Molly and Georgio. The way we decided on our thriller idea is by each of us going around in our group, explaining our initial thriller ideas and then choosing the one in the group that everyone liked best. We choose Molly's because it was something different and we thought it would it would make a really good idea as a thriller. 

Target Audience Research

We conducted empirical research into target audiences of films. From our small scale research of 25 people, both male and female we came to the following conclusions as to what different ages like about films.

15-24  Males:

o   Want excitement, action and mostly enjoy action adventure and thrillers.

o   They are influenced about what their friends say about films.

o   Will mostly watch a film if their friends say its good.

o   Are influenced about how attractive the female actress is.

15-24  Females

o   Girls want a film that make them think about something.

o   Also influnenced about what their friends say about the film.

o   Want an attractive leading actor or actress.

o   Are more likely to watch the film if the trailer is good and there is lots of advertising promoting it.

o   Less likely to watch thrillers than boys, more interest in Rom-coms but will watch a thriller if the character is well developed and the actor is attractive.

25-55 

We interviewed a range of 25 to 55 year olds and found that they are influenced by the following:

o   If the film made you think and question about life.

o   If the actors were believable in the roles.

o   Favorite genre is Sci-fi and thrillers.

o   Also influenced by how film critics reviewed the film when deciding whether to watch it or not

Interviews On Target Audience

The Sub Genres of Thriller

                  Conspiracy Thrillers

A conspiracy thriller is a sub genre of thriller film that can also be called a paranoid thriller. Its plot normally consists of a bad people trying to do bad things while the good people try to stop them.  Although the common theme of these films is that the good people struggle to find the truth because it is covered up with rumors and lies. Often a lot of conspiracy thriller films will be based on true events, which gives the viewer more satisfaction in watching it because it can somehow relate back to them. Some examples of conspiracy thrillers are The Conversation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Da Vinci Code.

                                                          Spy Films

These types of films can be placed into a thriller genre as well as action. Spy films can either be more realistic like political thrillers or can be more fictional based more on fantasy like the James Bond films. Spy films normally involve secret agents hiding from their enemies whilst trying to exploit them at the same time. A lot of car chases, exotic locations, technological thrills and exciting escapes are involved in spy films and this is one of the reasons they are so popular worldwide. Examples of Spy films are The Bourne films, Salt and James Bond.

                             Political Thrillers

 

Political Thrillers are very similar to conspiracy thrillers. Normally a Political thriller plot is a political power struggle, which involves someone having the power and other people trying to take it away from them. They can involve a number of different political scenarios such as corruption, terrorism and welfare. It’s more than likely that a political thriller will be based on real facts like in the film JFK. A basic plot of a political thriller is someone uncovering a secret that leads to a giant conspiracy most likely involving many people in a political or governmental environment. Films like The Ghost Writer, State of Play and JFK.

                                         Physiological Thrillers

These types of thrillers involve many other elements from over genres such as mystery, drama as well as a little bit of horror. Its plot normally consists of unstably emotional characters of who try to over come others not by physical strengths but by playing deceptive games or trying to leave the other with a demolished mental or emotional state. Great examples of this are the films Silence of the Lambs, Black swan and Psycho.

                              

                                     Techno-Thrillers

 

These type of thrillers are normally non realistic and also combine science fiction  within the thriller. They normally are very technologically descriptive because technology and their function play a major role in these types of films along with things such as espionage, material arts and politics. Techno thrillers are used to try and give an idea of how the world might be in the future including military and political action. Techno thrillers can also the elements of conspiracy                       thrillers. Some examples are I Robot and Jurassic Park.

                             Supernatural Thriller

These films bring fantasy and supernatural elements into the thriller genre with a mix of mystery, tension and the plot constantly changing direction. The plot normally consists of the main character having a super power or psychic abilities; they can either be the hero or villain in the story. This film deals with less action but more tension building in order to keep an interesting yet forever changing plot involving things like people seeing dead people or strange supernatural forces. Some examples of supernatural thrillers are Super 8, The other and The Sixth Sense.