update

Unfortunately our animatic is taking longer than our group originally expected. Within the space of two weeks I had to travel to Liverpool and back to help my sick Nan and I came down with food poisoning myself, which really dehydrated me. However I don’t like using this as an excuse. Once I’d recovered and got myself back into school I found I was extremely behind in all my subjects as all the final pieces where due in. The other two members, Sehb and Amber did a great job though making sure we didn’t fall too behind whilst I was gone. Now that we are all back together we are all working hard and communicating together to try get our animatic finished.

thriller development

After a lot of debating my group and I came to a rough idea for our thriller.

We had to take into consideration we have no budget, everything we use as props or locations will be from our own pockets. To make things easier for ourselves we’ve decided to use local locations and use actors who we are familiar with and who are able to take direction well. In addition to this we will have to film some shots in school locations so we are able to use our time wisely, even if it is typical.

To make our shots dramatic and effective without the cost, we came up with the idea of our protagonist being obsessed with water. Reasons for this may be because someone close to him drowned or he had a near death experience with water but that doesn’t really matter for our opening. We thought this idea could really be suitable for a thriller, also that it would be easily done in our homes as we could simply use a bath, which could also fit into the narrative quiet well as the protagonist will be a teenage boy living at home. To be drowned is also one of the most horrific deaths possible, including this should make our opening attention grabbing and most importantly, thrilling.

To make the narrative flow and make sense, the protagonist will have his own personal scrapbook of which he collects Polaroid’s of people he envies. Whether it’s about popularity or girls, the book will be full of people from around the school. However the photos will be taken secretively without the victim knowing, along with anyone else. He records their day to day life and try’s to figure out what their like so he is able to be like them and replace them once he kills them, obviously wouldn’t happen though as he’s psycho.

From ambers storyboard I was able to take photography for the animatic to give a good representation of what our thriller will hopefully look like. I believe they came out pretty good as I tried to get the correct lighting suitable for each shot. I also tried to use as many colour connotations such as the alcoholic drink, which I chose a bright red Lambrini. I also shone the light onto the bottle to give a red rippled water like reflection.

From the storyboard and photographs we have been able to make decisions on the detail of our props and locations.

Props:

- Scrapbook

- Polaroid’s of victims

- Shot glass

- Red alcohol

- Pens pencils

- Stationary, (anything for scrap book)

- Draws and desk

- Bookcase and books

- Anything that is generally in a bedroom

Costume: (male protagonist)

- Black skinny jeans

- Plain white top

- Black leather jacket

- Black beanie hat

- Bear feet

All of which are typical teenage fashion whilst including necessary connotations.

Victims:

- Fully clothed

General teenage fashion/ smart school wear.

Film certificates

Certificates are given to movies to control the appropriate footage that is used in the film for the certain target audience. From this research I’ll be able to decide on the most appropriate certificate suited to the thriller opening, although I will have to remember there is no budget in the making of it. The props and overall organization of the opening will be paid with our own money; this means we will have to use our imagination to create suspense with minimum resources.
For a thriller movie, nothing lower than a 15 would be suitable.

Certificate of 15:

• Language:

- May be frequent use of strong language and extremely strong language will only being excepted if justified. Use of extremely aggressive strong language won’t be accepted.

• Nudity:

-Nudity may be allowed but not in strong detail.

• Sex:

-Sexual activity can be portrayed but again not in strong detail.However there can be strong verbal references to sex.

• Violence:

-Violence is allowed but the effects shouldn’t be focused on and scenes of sexual violence should be discreet and brief.

• Imitable techniques:

- Dangerous techniques such as self-harming, suicide etc should not be shown in detail. This is the same for the accessibility and use of weapons.

• Drugs:

-Drugs are allowed to be shown but not to be shown promoting drug misuse

Certificate of 18:

A film with an 18 certificate will indicate that anything could be shown throughout the duration of the film, as 18 is considered as adult.

18’s could include extremes such as:

-Extreme supernatural gory horror scenes

-Sadistic violence

-Sexual violence

-Hard drug use

-Detailed attention to sex verbally and visually

I believe our thriller should be targeted towards a 15 certificate. I feel it would meet are target audience more specifically as the characters will be of a similar age but no younger than 15. To produce an 18 wouldn’t be appropriate as no one in our group/ year is over 18, it would also cost a lot more money that we don’t have to produce it.

Making a 15 still means we can have references to most aspects as long as its not in detail.

Thriller brainstorm

Thriller Brainstorm

Mystery – thriller

• School location

- bulling
- social status’
- stereotypes (chavs, emos etc)
- unknown unrealistic events happening
- least expected person

• Complex plots/character twists.

- Notes explaining ‘rules’ in which they have to follow.
- If rules aren’t followed, characters will have to suffer the consequences.

• Create tension by the unknown.

- Silhouettes
- Shadows
- Sound effects
- Darkness
- Missing people



Physiological thriller

• Physical, blackmail, touchier

- pedophilia
- racism
- wearhouses
- emotional blackmail
- threats


Teen horror-thriller

• location

- cinemas
- parties
- clubs
- school
- friends house
- boyfriends/girlfriends

• steryotypes

- makeup lovers
- nerds
- sluts
- try hards
- bullies
- drink/drugs

• romance

- killing of partner
- jealousy

Real continuity task

We were set this task to create a fluent piece of filming before making our actual thriller to ensure our capability and for general practise.
Whilst filming we came across a few problems, these being that we still were not confident using the camera and editing equipment, but whilst filming we began to improve using better angles helping to represent the narrative. Although, some of the shots could still be improved as some where unsteady and jumpy. The worst part of the film i would say is the editing, especially at the end where the sound is out of sync. Again this is something we will be able to majorly assess and improve but whilst editing the piece we were able to become more familiar with the software. Another problem was unwanted sounds due to our location. Unfortunately there weren’t any other practical locations to shoot in the time period we had.
Our male actor Lewis delivered the lines perfectly, however I wasn’t the best actress to use. Half way through the film i start smiling, completely ruining the narrative. We should have cut this out. Other than this i am pleased with film. My group and i both agree the best part of the piece is the shot reverse shot as it helped with the flow of continuity most considerably.



All of our pieces got peer assessed during class time, the majority of pieces were graded as a level two, including our piece. From seeing the higher grade films we are now aware of what we need to do and include to have a successful final piece.

The critiques we received from our teacher and peers were:
-Make sure are camera is steady at all times, although unfortunately our tripod was to blame as it wasn’t secure.
- To constantly assure the characters with the main importance or dominance are visually shown by the positioning of the characters and the camera. We didn’t really do this in our piece as our characters where often both marginalised.
- to include reaction shots not just shot reverse shot, this would help with the audiences understanding of the narrative.

This critique will defiantly be able to help us with our next filming.

We where given a task to create our first continuity task to try out using the filming equipment and using the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.

For this piece, I took the role of acting aswell as amber. Although this isn’t all I did. Both Amber and me also helped with the direction and the decisions made whilst Sehb filmed. We did find the task challenging, as all of us are more creative with the ideas and planning so we found it slightly difficult to get used to the technology side of the filming. Especially when it came to panning and moving the camera about as we where in such a small confined space. We also had to make sure we didn’t break the 180 degrees rule and I don’t believe we did break it. Although we weren’t able to finish the task, we included the key elements that we had to include.

We did find the editing difficult, especially getting the sound in sync with the shots. We did try really hard though and I do believe it was a good first attempt of using the camera and getting used to the rules.

I also think we work as a good team and once we get used to using the equipment/used to the rules and elements of filming, we will produce quality work.

animatic

This animatic was our first chance to experiment and learn how to use the programs Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe Sound Booth. At first I found it difficult to understand the technical side to the production of the piece, but with the help of my group we where able to produce the final outcome, even if it took a few attempts. We where able to use a motion tool to create a panning effect, allowing the audience to familiarize with the characters, we also used directional arrows for the drawings to be more clear of how the shot would be filmed.We were also able to edit the shots to create tension. We did this by lengthening and shortening the shots allowing the tension on the audience to build to the climax of the introduction to the vampire. We also created our sound through Adobe sound booth. We used a pre recorded backing track, which fitted in perfectly for the setting as the music is fast passed and builds up in texture, helping build up the tension. We also used pre-recorded footsteps that worked effectively.However we recorded the rest of the sounds by ourselves, for example the screaming and heavy breathing. I think overall the piece is good as it was our first attempt of using the programs and understanding how you produce film work. However next time we should be more organized and try and produce the work faster, but I feel this will happen as we’ll naturally become used to using the programs.

Conclusion

what to expect in a thriller opening.

• Depending on the thriller genre the camera speed and techniques will differ slightly. Generally the openings tend to be shot slowly, however when the film begins with action straight away, over the shoulder camera shots tend to be used to create hype and mystery.

• The first establishing shot is often a long shot, used to establish the settings and location. Although, depending on the genre again, close ups of a certain feature or object may be used to confuse the audience and increase the suspense and mystery. During the opening scene the majority of shots tend to be close ups, identifying the characters and their rolls, again this may differ from the type of thriller.

• The colour schemes tend to consist of a low saturation, creating cold and unwelcoming environments using the contrast of deep red, connoting the danger of which lies ahead, creating suspense.

• The music normally has a slow pace with the use of instruments like violins and piano to create a sinister feel and a sense of tension. However, some films use music completely opposite. Some often use fast, loud paced music, often reflecting on the genre.

thriller opening 5: Sin city - Frank miller

Action - thriller.

Camera:

• Sin city opens with an establishing shot tilted downwards upon the city location and an elegant woman in a low cut slinky dress. The use of this first shot allows the audience to recognise the editing techniques that have been applied, being the greyscale shots with the signifiers coloured in red. In this case, the women being the victim who is about to die.

• Close ups are further used to express their flirtatious body language and facial expressions. The camera focuses on the woman’s face, making it clear to the audience that she appears memorised by the male figure as her eyes are fixated on him. However whilst the male appears to be devouring her with compliments the camera uses a mid shot, expressing that he doesn’t feel that connection to her, he probably doesn’t care for her at all, thus being shown by the distance he is being shot away from her.

• The next mid shot is filmed in front of the two characters. This is used to show the camera slowly zoom in, emphasising the importance of the dialog in the shot. It could be suggested that the camera zooms in to represent the feelings growing and her sense of closeness towards him.
  

• Whilst the two character hug in the rain the camera tilts down on the woman showing her sense of security, then tilting up to show his facial expression, which appears to be blank as he gazes out rather than inwards towards her.

Sound:

• At the beginning of the extract a subtle short shrilling noise is used to dictate the atmosphere of what will become next. Faint ambient background noise of the location is also used to help the audience to recognise it is based in a city.

• Non –diegetic sound of saxophones and piano are also played faintly in the background, expressing the classy, romantic atmosphere of which is supported by the characters costumes.

• Ambient sound is again used further on during the scene. As the couple expresses their ‘feelings’ by dialog and body language, thunderstorm sounds are played. This intensifies the moment making the scene appear passionate until he shoots her, where the thunderstorm sounds become louder, actually expressing the unexpected negativity brought upon his actions

Editing:

• The director cleverly uses a limited colour range of black, white and red. The majority of shots are simply black and white, although all the shots have been edited to high contrast, making the colours oppose each other thus creating a comic book effect.

• The use of red has been use to emphasise the object in which is in colour, expressing their connotations. The woman is wearing a long sleek red dress, symbolising her elegance and class, reinforced by the red lipstick. However the use of the red also symbolises the danger she is in and that she is in fact the next victim.

• The woman’s eyes are emphasised by a slight tinge of green as the man expresses his love for them. This also draws attention that her eyes are completely transfixed on him showing her adoration for him.

• During the scene, black and white shots of their silhouettes showing what appears to be their closeness and affection, rain is used to intensify the moment. This has also been used to carry on the black and white comic book theme to the movie.

thriller opening 4: Shrooms - Paddy Breathnach

teen horror-thriller.

0.00-1.24

camera:

• The first 6 shots are made by CGI for the title sequence.

• The first camera shot is a mid shot of a silhouette running frantically away from something, which is immediately gripping for the audience as they become intrigued to know what is after her.

• A jump cut is used to completely change the shot to an old looking house, similarly to ‘room 4108’ the windows appear to be elongated, creating a creepy abnormal surrounding; this is reinforced by the gently blowing wind. It also appears to be shot with a different type of camera, it could be suggested that it may be shot with a fish eye lens, which would enhance the abnormal factor

• This type of filming is carried on throughout the shots inside the house. A close up is used to focus on the blood oozing out of what looks like a bucket. The darkness of the shot with the high contrast levels creates a gritty, seedy look to the environment. Close ups are continuously used to show the audience the unpleasant ‘thrilling’ environment of which the protagonist is probably running away from. An extreme close up is used for the shot of a hand covered in blood and blood surrounding it, suggesting death and violence, gripping the audience to find out how it all happened and who is doing it.

• After another shot of the silhouette frantically running again, the shots in the house change to mid shots to show the surroundings. The shots shows shadows and shaking bloody hands, creating exhilaration for the viewer until a shot of a person turning unsteadily towards the camera making the audience feel uncertain and confused.

• Similar shots are used throughout the opening, the use of blood helps the audience easily establish the genre of horror, which is reinforced by the editing and sound.

Sound:

• As the titles of the producer companies appear centralised on the screen, accented sound is played as they appear on screen. The sound also fades out as the name zooms forward, expressing the titles importance. Although as the directors name pounds on screen, extra diegetic sound is added of someone breathing heavily and excessively getting louder as the title zooms forward.

• The breathing is used as a sound bridge to introduce the first camera shot of the girl running, it continuously becomes louder until the next shot where it completely changes where the sound becomes softer, yet creepier of gentle wind blowing. This sound is kept through the shots of inside the house but for each different shot a new sound is added for a different effect on the audience.

• Prominent sounds of whispering, ropes tightening, children crying and doors slamming are used successfully as it shows a nightmare become a fake reality, thrilling the audience.

Editing:

• As the silhouette is running the shot is fairly long in comparison to the rest of the shots inside the house. However the director has filmed the shot of the silhouette running using over the shoulder techniques. The shot Is unsteady and isn’t prominently in focus on anything, although the camera is still tracking the figure running.

• Two-second takes are used to show the havoc inside the house without displaying the location too much and keeping the unknown a mystery keeping the audience engaged.

• The use of colour has been used cleverly. The shots of the silhouette has been edited to a low saturation whilst keeping the warmth low, creating a light blue colour, connoting coldness and loneliness. However, in the house the shots are edited in complete greyscale besides the deep red blood, gaining emphasis to the shots, signifying their importance.
  The shots have also been edited so the contrast is high, creating a dark, grim, dirty surrounding and atmosphere.

thriller opening 3: Scilene of the lambs - Jonathon Demme

physiological-thriller.

Camera:

• There is no use of camera during this title sequence as it is made with the use of CGI.

Sound:

• The non- diegetic music played by a Xylophone in 4/4 beats creating a very slow paced beat, similar to a ticking clock. The use of this music creates an eerie creepy effect; the single beats create a thinking effect as if the mind is ticking, perfect for a physiological thriller.

• As the sequence follows though the music becomes polyphonic, making the texture thicker whilst keeping the same pace and beat. It could be suggested that the music is representing intense physiological thought path that a character during the film might portray.

• The introduction of droned cello creates a melancholy feel, reflecting on the deep, dark and twisted mind the protagonist has.

• The final section of the musical script changes and the texture again becomes thinner. However, the xylophone and violin have been taken out and replaced with single crotchets played by the piano, whilst keeping the droned cello. The piano being the instrument to express emotion most effectively finishes off the title sequence whilst creating an unnerving atmosphere.

Editing:

• The first shot is appears to just be white dashed lines creating a shape, although it is symbolising the stitches the machinist would make in his job tailoring dresses. The grey shape becomes clearer when the shape separates from the black background when the music becomes thicker, forming a silhouette of a dressmakers tailored manikin. Further more, the outline appears to have large curves, symbolising the chunkier size 16 girls the machinist would kidnap.
  

• The shot then swiftly zooms into the name of the first actress, dotted lines cut across the screen from both diagonal directions, trimming the name, symbolising the cutting of peoples skin and keeping with the sewing machine aspect, subtly informing the audience about the movie.

• The title then zooms in even more until the next name appears. It could be suggested the replacement of names could symbolise the use of the girls then the fact he threw them away and moving onto the next one.

• The last title being the development of the ‘S’ symbolises the pieces of the human body being put together to create something. The use of the ‘S’ is also important as it could be symbolising the curvaceous females he used whilst spelling out the name of the title, ‘silence of the lambs’.

thriller opening 2: Room 4018 - Mikael Håfström

horror -thriller
0.00-1.38

Camera:

• The title sequence is created though CGI technology at the beginning as focuses on the production labels and directors name, emphasising their importance.
• The black background fades into the first setting location of which is a long shot, showing the viewer the dark, Insolence of the surroundings.
• The camera slowly pans round to where the headlights shine intensely, where the title ‘4108’ appears creating a ghostly effect for the audience to recognise.
• Close ups are used to show his confused expression, which is reinforced as the close up focuses on his hand whipping the steamy windscreen as the torrential rain has completely muffled it. This expresses that he is concerned about where he is or if he is in the correct place. Further more the shot then focuses on the protagonist scrambling for a map, expressing their sense of panic and uncertainty.
• As the car drives away, the shot fades into the next shot, changing the location but keeping the car in the main focal point. To which he arrives in a sinister surrounding where the architecture is all elongated creating a creepy abnormal effect.
• All the shots are filmed in the rain and in the dark, as the senses heighten creating a more engaged audience. All of which the shots are quite lengthy as its familiarising the audience with the location, the introduction to characters and the main location, being a hotel.
  

Sound:

• During the beginning titles the shots only have a slight background silence drone of which is unable to make out, creating the first sense of naivety upon the audience and reflecting on the unknown location the protagonist is in.
• The drone becomes louder and appears to be played in minor key, expressing the negativity of the film.
• Digetic sounds are added of rain and the stereotypical sound effect of horror-thrillers, the wind.
• As the title ‘4108’ appears, high key violins are played quietly yet frantically to signify the importance of the numbers and to relate the unnerving feel the numbers bring throughout the movie.
• Dialog is introduced, although it is unclear whether it’s from the radio or from the small building where he is parked next too. The dialog sounds unclear until it emphasises on the sentence ‘ the open gates of hell’, which could be reflecting on where he is driving too, or it could be suggested it is used to emphasise the negativity in the surroundings.

Editing:

• Fading is used predominantly throughout the opening scene during the introduction of thetitles. The first three titles shown are centralised with only the use of black and white colourings, expressing the importance of the titles as they are made to be the focal point.
• As the black background fades into the first set location, the surroundings are still dark but with the road and house contrasting each other, still keeping the light and dark effect, creating a sinister surrounding.
• The titles of the actors are still in white font, although not as bold and of which swipe down gently until they fade out, yet again creating a ghostly effect.

thriller opening 1: Psyhco - Hitchcock (horror-thriller)

Camera:

• There is no camera movement during the title sequence, as it is mostly made by CGI.

Sound:

• Sound is a major factor during the title sequence. The non-diegetic dissonance sound played presto reflects on the fast paced stop and start suspense created throughout the film.

Editing:

• The sequence consists of fast paced shots changed by a wash of black and grey parallel lines, it could be suggested that its representing the blood that washes away when the woman is stabbed. However it is hard to come to a full conclusion that this suggestion is correct as the whole movie is filmed and edited in greyscale because of the lack of technology development.

• The last shot after the title of Alfred Hitchcocks name the parallel lines oppose each other, creating a visual effect of a heart monitor, expressing the up and down build of the thrill and also suggesting there may be death involved.

• The title of the movie and the director’s name split into sections and jolt vigorously, emphasising the importance of the text.

pre production research.

What is a thriller?

Thrillers are designed to keep the audience on edge with anticipation, tension and suspenseful action, achieved by the use of conventions being mainly location, narrative and the characters. However the genre ‘thriller’ is a vague title as it has a vast amount of sub genres, differing the conventions used. Sub genres are hybrids of which two genres are used together, intensifying the exhilaration for the audience as the director often makes them to be more relatable with the use of the hybrid conventions. Some examples are: action-thrillers, disaster-thrillers, serial killer-thrillers, medical-thrillers, religious-thrillers and historical-thrillers.

Key conventions for a thriller:

Narrative:

• Often based upon mystery and the un-known. Physiological technique to keep the audience engaged making them want to find out more leading them to carry on watching.
• Twists are commonly used, creating confusion and naivety upon the audience enabling them to relate to an unfortunate and often unrealistic event depending on the sub-genre.
• Climax is achieved by the number of unfortunate events leading to the revilement of the cause.
• There is never a set location for a thriller; it is dependant on the other half of the sub-genres stereotypical surroundings for the audience’s recognition.

Location:

• As the genre is still a thriller, the location still has to maintain a sinister, unnerving surrounding, even if it is somewhere unexpected, it adds to the relatable factor for the audience and the mystery. Although the thrill is often created mainly by the use of codes, semiotics and mise-en-scene.

Characters:

• The characters are similarly dependant to the other half of the sub-genre. Whether this means they’re a life saving surgeon in a medical-thriller or a detective officer in a crime-thriller.

• Like most genres, thrillers commonly have ‘good vs. evil’ characters, being the protagonist against the antagonist who is often the cause of the thrill and problems. However, thrillers often use an antagonist as the leading role, apposing to most genres, intensifying the thrill upon the audience.