Props in our Thriller

There are not many props to be used in our Thriller. In the title sequence the main props are all the photos on the clipboard that is set up like a shrine. Other than that Andrew mentioned he thought that amongst the photos there should be cameras, pens, pins, a diary, cables and a phone to show that the person is still working on it and these objects are they have used to make it. The diary would suggest the dates and times the person has recorded of when they have seen the future victims. These props will add to the verismilitude of the scene. The sequences of the victims before they have been took by the killer will feature no props- the characters and setting are the focus and no props have been planned/ deemed necessary.

Actors in our Thriller and the Costumes

Actors

We have decided as a group to all act in our own opening sequence. Thats me- Thomas Adcock and Sophie Neil, Andrew Tinley and Josh Curran (Left to Right on the pictures above). We have decided to 'star' in it ourselves because we are all experienced in and enjoy acting plus we all took GCSE Drama and are currently studying AS Drama and Theatre Studies. Therefore the acting should be realistic and we do not have to worry about directing others who are not use to acting. Meaning we do not have to waste time- which is crucial when there is so little. In addition we are all 16/ 17 and match the target age of the victims of the killer in our thriller. We can act like normal innocent teenagers and therefore it will be realistic and hopefully the audience will empathise with them. The audience should also relate to the situation of the victims being kidnapped as this is a serious current issue in the world.

Costumes

We have decided as a group that no specific plan for costumes is needed. Because we are teenagers our own clothes will be appropriate and the clothes we will wear on the day of filming will be the costumes. We plan to film sections that go together/ slot with each other on the same day and so will not need to worry about wearing the same clothes on another day however if we don't manage this the person involved will need to remember to wear those same clothes for continuity purposes. The only real plan for costume is Josh as the killer will need to wear a black coat and a hooded jacket. This costume is what you expect a killer to wear to fit in and hide his identity.

Photo Taking for Pan of Pictures Sequence (28th February)

Today me and my family were going out for a meal in Nottingham but we had a walk down by the canal before hand. I thought this would be a good outdoor location to take pictures for the pan sequence part of the project as it is an area where someone could be watched or kidnapped while walking somewhere. Because it was a spontaneous idea we did not have a proper digital camera to use so we used my phone however the quality of the photos doesn't matter because the pictures are the style of following/ watching someone. Besides the quality has come out fine. I will print the pictures off in tomorrow's lesson and mix them with the photos the others have done and create a pin board and shrine with lots of pictures to pan over. When taking the pictures I told my Dad to take them from different angles, from different positions in front and behind me and get the lake and trees etc in the background. Some of the pictures are taken behind trees and on bridges and effectively achieve the feel of being watched. Some I zoomed in on or added a blur effect. The images will look good when they are mixed in with lots of other photographs and will create a sinister effect. I should have took some more on the Saturday in a different place and different clothes to show the passage of time in which these photos have been taken however I have the photos we took in Friday's lesson.

Start of Production (26th February)

After the first half of the lesson was spent finishing off planning we decided to start taking photographs of teenagers being watched/ followed. Andrew started taking some of me and Sophie on a nearby field where a young couple had just met up. There are photos of us walking together, sitting on a bench, hugging and talking. These are actions that couples are expected to perform and will give off the effect of them not knowing anyone is there. We told Andrew to have branches of trees or bushes in the photos to make it look like the photos were taken of the killer hiding and I think we have successfully pulled this effect off. Although it was raining the dull weather adds to the pathetic fallacy and mood needed in a dark thriller. We also practiced taking shots of all four of us however only some of these will be used. At the end of the lesson we decided that all of us should aim to take around 20 or 30 photos with the effect of being watched over the weekend ready to be printed off on Monday. They will be cut out and placed on, and scattered around a clipboard to create a shrine which has been made by the killer of the next victims. We will pan over them and they will become part of a montage which will make up the opening sequence. The opening sequence will act as a prologue to the film and these victims would be past cases in the investigation of this killer. Here are some of the photos we took today:

Storyboard

Below is the storyboard created for our opening. In each box the sequence of shots we have planned for each seperate scene is illustrated and explained.

Questionnaire

The group carried out a questionnaire about Thrillers to find out what people knew about Thrillers and what they like about them or in. The results could be used to influence aspects of how we make our thriller. We tried to ask as many people as possible of different genders and ages to get a wide range of results, the total amount of people we asked was 30. Here are the results:

1) Are you:

Male: (17)

Female: (13)

2) What age group do you belong in:

0 to 10:

11 to 20: (17)

21 to 30: (4)

31 to 40: (9)

51 to 60:

60+:

3) How would you define a thriller:

Most frequent answers include

• Fast paced
• Thrilling
• Scary
• Violent
• Epic

4) Do you watch Thrillers?

Yes: (14)

No: (16)

5) What sub-genre of Thriller would you prefer?

Action: (9)

Crime: (12)

Psychological: (5)

Medical: (0)

Disaster: (4)

6) Would you prefer little or lots of dialogue in an Opening?

Little: (23)

Lots: (7)

7) Do you prefer films in colour or black and white?

Black and White: (18)

Colour: (12)

8) Which title sounds the best for a Thriller?

Dirty Lens: (3)

Possession: (10)

Camera Shy...: (1)

Out of Focus: (11)

Smile for the Camera: (5)

Planning of Thriller- Part Two (22nd/ 26th February)

This week has not been particularly productive or progressive as in our planning time we were all unclear on what an exact storyline was. We decided to complete a storyboard so we could all become more clear on what was going to happen. We knew that the first part of the opening was, various photographs (approximately 30/40) being panned over very slowly.Then after that we had three scenes in mind, like taking pictures of a couple, but concentrating on the boy rather than girl, person having shower, or getting out of shower, taken though window and a person in a kitchen or lounge. We also thought one of the images in the photo pan could then become a moving scene. We obviously had to check that our idea was "do-able, we checked with the technical helper in our class and he approved the idea and said it was possible. We finished our storyboard, but we may have to re-do this because we aren't all clear about it. We then went out to start taking the photos for the photo pan sequence. This will be discussed in one of my following posts.

Speed- Opening Sequence (Research)

Se7en- Opening Sequence- Analysis (Research)

Camera-

This sequence mostly uses close ups or extreme close ups. This technique is very effective in an opening sequence- particularly in this one as it controls how much the audience can see and ensures what they can see is clear and hints at what is to come. Therefore little is given away but what you see is crucial to remember as it will be key in the film. For example the shots of hands/ fingers, razors, pictures, books/ research, DNA examples etc will all be relevant to the plot and capture the audience attention as they try to work out their relevance, what is going on and who the person who is looking at/ doing those things is. The close ups of these objects build a dark and tense mood and theme thus creating tension as the audience will feel uncomfortable. The film is obviously a dark, horror/ psychological thriller with the hands most likely belonging to a villain. The extreme close up is a shot we could use in our thriller as we can control what the audience sees and does not give much away only provides hints and clues.

Sound-

A continuous and repetetive slow beat and rhythm is used from the start of the sequence which contains a strong 'dum' beat which is used every few seconds in comination with a dark undertone. In addition enhanced ambient sounds like razors and knives plus sound effects like scraping, white noise and screaming are also used. All of this creates a dark tone and tense atmosphere and builds up suspense- drawing the audience in immediately and keeping them on edge.

Mise- en- Scene-

The extreme close- ups allow for little to be known about much of the mise- en- scene of the sequence however this is the point. However you imagine this person to be in a low lit room, the room to be messy and full of stuff in an abondoned industrial area (I have not seen the film and do no know if this is correct). Props such as razors, books, diaries, film reel are the highlight of the sequence and hint at their importance in the film perhaps being motifs (recurring objects).

Editing-

Straight cuts are used to cut between the close ups of the different objects. This creates a simple effect and enables the audience to focus on the objects rather than transitions- highlighting their importance. Quick, disjointed fades/ dissolves are used to cut to a black screen and titles, this matches the music and creates tension by adding an air of dark, gothic and 'weird' to the sequence. Extensive editing is used by adding images over the top of shots that move quickly and randomly- this also matches with the non- diagetic music.

Se7en- Opening Sequence (Research)

Planning of Thriller- Part One (8th/ 12th February)

In today's lesson we started by discussing what we thought a thriller was, all writing any features we thought a thriller had. This helped us establish what everyone already knew and if our viewpoints were wrong. It is important to know what a Thriller is, and its features and style otherwise our openings would not have the correct style.

We then sorted out our groups for the project. My group consists of me, Sophie Neil, Andrew Tinley and Josh Curran. We chose to work in this group as not only are we friends, we work well together and have an understanding of how each other works. Many of us have worked together before to produce high level pieces of work and hopefully that can be achieved in this project. A further advantage of this group formation is that we all study AS Drama and have acting experience, this can be helpful as we can bring experience to the characters.

The mind map above shows the initial ideas we thought of in the planning process. We first discussed sub genres, such as Sci-Fi Thriller, Action- Thriller, Horror - Thriller. We decided as a group that "Sci - Fi Thriller" wasn't going to be easy and due to the limitations of time and equipment we couldn't make it look realistic. We could not make sets or have special effects so it would be very poor quality. We liked the Action - Thriller and Tradegy - Thriller genres, we discussed ideas on how we could merge these two sub-genres. We also discussed the do-not elements of this course, which are displayed on the mind- map.

The mind map above relates to the sub genre we chose, which was a combination of the Action, Crime and Tradegy genres. We discussed the limitations/disadvantages, ideas, plot... and locations. Firstly we thought about the limitations, as mentioned above, the element of filming in the dark could mean you cannot see what is going on, it is also hard to plan time to film in the dark. For the ideas part, we discussed themes like psychological, death, car accident, jealously, murder and stalker. Some of these ideas where developed upon such as murder and stalker.

Our initial thoughts on our opening is that we wanted it to be original but achieveable. We did not want to go down the route of predictable walking sequences that have litte thrills. Although there may be some walking sequences present we plan to film them from various angles to make them more interesting and music will create tension. We all decided that a killer or stalker plotline would be suitable for a thriller where if it were a full film a detective would try and stop the killer, this matches the conventions of a thriller as common stories involve this type of characters attempting to stop an antoganist. To add originality me and Sophie had an idea no one has done before in this project. We had the idea of having lots of photos scattered across a surface. These photos would be took by the killer of various teenagers who would become their next victims. There will be lots and lots of photos and we would take them so it looked obvious that the characters were being watched and oblivious to anyone being there. Although we do not have an full idea of a complete storyline as of yet we intend for each member of the group to play a victim in the photographs which would be took in several locations. We went out and practiced a few of these type of shots in the lesson. We discussed some of the areas we could take photos, these being shops, streets and even the victims house where killer takes pictures of them from afar when they are near a window. The mind map below shows our discussion of these ideas.

We also discussed Music. We liked the idea of the power of using silence- a common feature of thriller openings used in films such as 'The Lost Highway' and 'Blood Simple'. This builds up tension and creates an awkward mood. We would perhaps use silence but would also use some powerful, mysterious music that created a tense atmospehere. Towards th end of the lesson we started searching through variouys copyright free music sites. We found a track that all us thought was perfect- it was dark, mysterious, hinted bad things would happen and fit a detective story theme. The track was from http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/.

Thriller Sub- Genres (Research)

There are many sub-genres within the Triller genre which include different elements, some sub- genres include-

Action Thriller- features a race against time, contains lots of violence and an obvious antagonist. They also contain a large amount of guns, explosions and elaborate set pieces. Examples include the James Bond films, Speed, Die Hard films and the Bourne trilogy.

Crime Thriller- features a focus on criminals rather than the policeman or investigator, murder and other crimes and emphasise action over psychological issues. Examples include Seven and Reservoir Dogs.

Disaster Thriller- features a battle with a natural or artificial disaster such as floods and earthquakes. Examples include The Day after Tommorow and Volcano.

Medical Thriller- features medical doctors as heroes trying to stop/ solve a growing medical crysis.

Psychological Thriller- features a conflict that is between the main characters mental and emotion feelings/ problems, rather than physical. They can also mess with the audience.

There are many more sub-genres including Sci- fi, spy, political, legal, conspiracy, tragedy, horror and drama.

Conventions of a Thriller (Research)

I conducted some research to explore the conventions of a thriller. A better understanding of their style will be reflected in my group's project being an accurate sequence.

Conventions/ Typical Traits:

1. Thrillers often take place whollyor partly in exotic locations such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions or high seas (this will not be achieved in our thrillers because it is not possible however it could be hinted at)
2. Heroes in thrillers are most frequently 'hard men' accustomed to danger, such as law enforcement officers, spies, detectives, soldiers etc. However they also can be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident.
3. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened; while a murder mystery would be spoiled by a premature disclosure of thr murderer's identity, in a thriller the identity of the murderer or villain is usually known all along and focuses on stopping them rather than working out who they are.
4. Thrillers occur on a grand scale, the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of a government.
5. Jeopardy, violent confrontations, and big set pieces are common plot elements
6. A mystery climaxes when a mystery is solved but a thriller ends when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving their own life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by film noir or tragedy the hero is often killed in the process of stopping the villain

The third point is the main convention the group I will be in will focus on to include in our thriller as it deals with plot elements and is actually achieveable to include.

Thrillers (Research)

It is important to know lots of information about Thrillers if I am going to make my own opening sequence one. So I have conducted some research about the Thriller industry.

According to http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html Thrillers are 'are the type of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of aniticipation, ultra- heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features'. (Meaning there are lots of different genres within the Thriller style)

Thrillers are one of the most popular genres in cinema. The Top Ten voted Thrillers at the current time are:

1. The Godfather
2. The Godfather Part 2
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Dark Knight
5. Rear Window
6. Fight Club
7. Psycho
8. The Unusual Suspects
9. The Silence of the Lambs
10. The Matrix

Introduction to Thrillers (1st February)

In this lesson we had an introduction to the main part of the coursework- the task of creating an opening sequence to a Thriller. We first discussed what everyone thought a Thriller was. I had the impression that Thriller's are fast paced and usually a race against time to stop an antagonist carrying out a plan usually fuelled by the want for money, war or revenge. This was true, however my impression was more of an action thriller than a thriller in general. We looked at some conventions of thrillers, which we will need to know so the style and feel of our sequences are correct. Some conventions are- having a natural evil rather than supernatural villain, generally they aren't scary but incorporate dark or mature themes, they can range from political intrigue or cat and mouse in style. The stories are often on a grand scale and usually follow characters trying to stop someone or solve something.

Next we looked at the openings of three actual Thrillers , again this will help us be aware of the style a Thriller opening has. We analysed the sequences, focussing on how Camera, Sound, Editing and Mise-en-Scene were used. The films we looked at were:

1. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)
2. Signs (M. Night. Shyamalan, 2002)
3. Blood Simple (Coen Brothers, 1985)

'The Lost Highway' used a long sequence of a point of view shot from a car travelling down a motorway with loud beating music. The length of the shot and the music combined to create tension as the audience wonders of the significance of the shot. The opening went onto live action and the rest of the sequence was a complete contrast to the start. The use of silence and ambient sounds like birds created a tense atmosphere as if building up to something happening or a moment in which you are made jump- which never comes. This is powerful in the opening sequence in a film as you are immediately on edge and asking questions as to what is happening.

In 'Signs' a similar technique is used- within the title sequence loud, high-pitched dramatic music is used continuously as credits appear. Then once the film starts in earnest there is silence with only a few ambient sounds being heard. The low lighting creates a dark mood and surroundings are not easily visible. Again as an audience member I was asking questions as to what is going on and you are plunged into the story immediately. At the end of the opening sequence tension is created by a close up of Mel Gibson's character's feet walking slowly through a field. This is creates a 'heart beat' slow motion like moment in which you wait to see what he is approaching. The camera cuts to a close up of his face- a reaction shot- this builds up tension by delaying the revelation even more as you wait to see what he is looking at.

'Blood Simple' felt very similar to the Lost Highway. Near the end of the opening a character sits in silence- moments go by with little happening and little noise. This creates tension as you wonder what is happening.