Storyboard For Preliminary Task

The preliminary task helped me in many ways:

• I got used to the camera equipment
• I got used to editing using the Apple Macs
• I got used to all the different camera shots, angles and Techniques

Overall the preliminary task helped me fulfill the needs of the main task, as when we were filming the main task I had already had the experience of filming and could therefore confidently film, using all the needed shots and angles.

I could also use the Apple Macs a lot easier as I had a better understanding of how the editing programme worked. Therefore when editing the main task I knew where to find all the different types of transitions etc.

Planning of Location

We had chosen to use Codicote Bottom as our location for our Thriller. Codicote Bottom is woods and is perfect for our location. This is for many reasons.

We will film our Thriller in the early evening, and therefore the lighting will be dark and dingy. As it is nearly pitch black the trees in the woods will create shadows, this will create tension. Also when the wind blows and howls through the trees and bushes it will give a ghostly feel to the thriller opening scene. It will also give a sense of mystery.

Also by having the perfect lighting it will fit the conventions of a thriller well and it will create tension and anticipation of what is going to happen next.

Woods are not a usual pathway home, so it will make the audience wonder what is going to happen next, this creates suspense.

Overal we felt that this location was perfect for our thriller film as it fit the conventions of a thriller and we thought that it went very well we our plot.

However when filming our first scenes, we came across many problems. When we eventually got there after school we found that it was far too dark to film. As codicote was far away we then decided it would probably be best to look for a closer location that we could get to easily.
Therefore we then looked at filming it at Ickleford Woods. But we soon realised that although it would be a good place for a thriller to start, we realised that it would take away our storyline. It would not fit with the idea of the 2 girls walking home as by looking at the pictures below you can see it was set near a train line.

But then we found a closer and better location, this is the woods near our school. This was obvioulsy the best place to film our thriller as it fitted the conventions well and also fitted the plot well. Also it was so close to our school therefore there was easy acces to it and we could manage to film after school as it would not be too dark.

The picture above shows where the man will be standing between the trees. We think this looks good as it gives a sense of mystery and as the man will be standing with a hoodie on we will not be able to see him very well. Which is what we want.

The picture to the right shows what the over the shoulder shot will look like with the man and the photo. Also looking at the girl walking off around the Blind Corner!

The flashback part of our opening scene will be filmed at Alices house and this is because it is a old and very mysterious house. We feel that it will create a lot of tension and scense of mystery.

Below is some pictures of the house and some pictures of the shots that we would like to do.

Planning of Characters And Actors

Annie - Played by Francesca (our friend)

Annie's Friend - Played by Elizabeth (our friend)

Man - Played by Sam (our Friend)

Annie is the central character and has a friend. We have not given Annie's Friend a name, this is on purpose as we don't want to draw attention away from the central character, Annie.

We are using to play Annie as she is 'the girl next door' and comes across very innocent. She fits the vulnerable character of Annie very well. Also we have made her wear bright red shoes, to try and fit the steryotype 'dorothy' character. We think taht this will also make her stand out more

Elizabeth is going to play Annie's friend as she is her best friend in real life and therefore there will be a connection between them and it will not look fake. It will generally look in the film that they are good friends.

We are using Sam to play the part of the Man that watches Annie in the woods. This is because he is older and will appeal to the target audience well. We will dress him appropriately to make him look more scary and mysterious.

Costumes

Fran and Elizabeth will be wearing their normal school Uniform, to indicate that they are walking home from school. Fran will be wearing red shoes. This is to show that she is the main character in the film. Therefore she will also stand out a lot more.

Sam will be wearing dark coloured clothing, this is so that he does not stand out. Also to make him look mysterious and scary. He will have his hood up on his hoodie, so that we can not see his face very clearly. This will also create mystery, and anticipation of who actually is the man.

Ideas For The Title Of The Thriller

As a group we have thought of many ideas of what the title of our film could be. Here are some ideas;

Annie, Ruby (after the characters names), The near encounter, Encounter, Near Miss, Too Close and Blind corner.

After thinking up of these names, we did an audience survey of what title they most liked and asked them for any feedback, these are our findings.

Annie 3
Ruby 0
The near Encounter 5
Encounter 0
Near miss 6
Too Close 0
Blind Corner 8

The numbers represent how many people liked the idea of the thriller title.

The people that we surveyed were of all different ages in our 15-25 target audience. This gave us a good idea of what they would like to see. We also told the people the plot, so that they could give us again an idea of what title would work best.

We quickly realised after doing the audience survey that by calling it after the characters name, we probably would not create as much interest. This is because it does not sound like a thriller film, it sounds like a sweet and Innocent film. Which it is not.
We liked the idea of The near encounter but then also realised that it by watching the opening credits and then knowing the film title, it would make our audience think that Annie got away and was away from harm.
We were left with Near Miss and Blind Corner as these were the titles that people liked the most.
We have chosen to use Blind Corner as the title for our film. This is because we felt that it would make the audience think about the film in more depth, also we think that it would get them more involved. The title gives us a sense of mystery as the opening scene does show that she has made the wrong turn, as there is a man following her. It makes the audience wonder what other wrong turns/decisions is she going to make during the film. Although we have found that this is a title of a film already, we have given our film a twist as the original film is a horror. Our film is going to be a thriller film and therefore is different to the horror version.

We decided not to use Near Miss as our title as when the audience saw the opening sequence and then the title, they would think that the girl was fine and that she was away from harm. it would make them think, 'is this a thriller'?

Our Target Audience and Genre Conventions

For our Thriller film we have decided on a target audience,

 

To be specific our target audience will mostly be:

• 15+
• Males and Females
• Male and Female Students as it will relate to them more, but also 18+ people who have got normal working class jobs.
• People who are interested in Thriller Films, and like the sense of mystery in films. Also being on the edge of their seat during a film, and people who go home and still think about the film once they have seen it.

The certificate of our film will be a 15. This is because we feel that our thriller would contain scenes that would not be suitable for children under 15 to watch. We think that some scenes may be too disturbing, and scare them. Also our thriller will contain mild swearing.
We have planned to meet the expectations and interests of our audience in many ways. We have planned our opening sequence many times and have thought of as many possible ways to grab our audience in the opening 2 mins. To meet their expectations we have watched many other thrillers and analysed them to see what works and what doesn't. Following this we asked many people in our target audience what they like about thrillers and we have tried to transfer their thoughts into our opening sequence. We have tried to match our audience's interests by making our storyline relevant to what they like to see. Also we will try and get our audience involved by using current issues and events in their everyday lives to help our thriller appear more interesting and appealing to them.
We have considered our audience when planning our thriller by doing many questionnaires as already stated we asked people in our target audience what they like and dislike about thriller films. We have also done questionnaires on what title they preferred (see post Ideas For The Title Of Our Thriller). We also did questionnaires to see what font for the title our target audience preferred. We did some research which showed us what age certificates some thriller films were given. This advised us what age certificate to put on our thriller film.
Our chosen target audience would be encouraged to watch our thriller as it involves people of their own age, so they can relate to them. Also it is not a full on scary thriller, it holds a sense of mystery and this is different to many other thrillers.

To target our selected audience, we will make sure that adverts pop up on msn, facebook and all other social networking sites, that the age group will know. We will also have the trailers appear on the television, but obviously on at a time suitable, just so that children are not scared.

 

Genre Conventions

Our thriller stands out as being original and unique, and this is because it does not have the same storyline as many other thrillers and we have aslo used actors of a younger age, which is not normally seen.
Our thriller meets the conventions of the thriller genre in man ways. For example it includes;

•  A flashback scene
• Black and White scenes
• A morally ambiguous charatcer
• A vunrable character
• Action being built up in a number of ways
• A soundtrack which fits the scene and genre

 The planning of our thriller matches the ideas of some of the other thriller opening sequences that we have watched, for example we have built up the action and suspense very quickly just like it does in The Usual Suspects.
We have also included the sense of confusion and anticipation like it does in Psycho.

Institutions Producing The Thriller Genre

There are many different institutions within the Thriller genre.

To start with there are many different animation studios, that have all done some sort of CGI for thriller films.

• Blue sky Studios (20th century fox)

These have made brilliant CGI films including Ice Age and Robots. They specialise in photo-realistic characters and animation.

• New Line Cinema

Often known as New Line, was founded in 1967 and is one of the major American film studios. It has helped films like Se7en distribute and they have also worked alongside the production team.

• Touchstone Pictures

Helped with producing and distributing Flight Plan. Established in 1984, and is under one of the many labels of Walt Disney pictures. It releases more mature themes, e.g thrillers. rather than the typical Disney child films.

• Miramax Films

Is an individual film division of again Walt Disney Pictures. They act as both producers and distributors of films such as Hostage. It was the leading independent film company in America until Walt Disney acquired it.

• PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

This was the English film company that helped with The Usual Suspects. It produces many films using other companies help on many occasions. The usual suspects had an English company helping it, an American company and then a company to manage the worldwide scene.

There are many ways of using music in a film and there are different institutions of getting the music into a film.

1. Musical film soundtracks, where the musical company record their song and allow the film company to use it.
2. Film scores where they showcase music in the background from non-musicals, this is usually music that has been composed by someone and made.
3. Music from pop albums/albums in the music industry, these are soundtracks of music that is already in the music industry, therefore the film company have to ask permission to use it.

Significant Developments Within The Genre: The Introduction To CGI

The obvious development within the genre and over all genres is that we now have our thriller movies in colour.

The film Psycho was in black and white and although it gave you a sense of fear and tension, it was not good as you couldn't quite relate yourself to the film. Nowadays thriller films such as se7en are in colour and they use it to there advantage. They use it to create dark shadows and cause us to be on edge throughout the film.


Another development with thriller films is that they used to be more physiological rather than having a fast moving plot. Take Psycho again as an example it was very psychological, and now the thriller films combine psychological elements with fast moving plots etc. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) has a fast moving plot and has many special effects and is very different to Psycho. They were mainly psychological because they did not have the advanced technology that we have now days, so therefore they made there thriller films play with your mind, rather than make it fast and exciting.


CGI is Computer Generated Imagery and this has made the thriller films fast and exciting using animation and many special effects.

It is a relatively new concept within the thriller genre. For example when Thunderbirds was released we could see the strings of the puppets etc. Now in the thriller movies we have people flying through the air, e.g Spiderman etc.
The first films that were heavily created with CGI were Tron(1982) and The Last Starfighter(1984). These films were commercially a disaster.

It was the film Jurassic Park in 1993 that revolutionized the film industry. As the dinosaurs fitted in seamlessly within the action scenes. 3D CGI became a success.

Then 2D CGI became increasingly popular and was used with the traditional animated movies such as Beauty and the Beast.

In 1995 the first fully CGI animated film was produced, Toy Story. This film was a big commercial success.
After this success many other animation studios went into production. (see Institutions Producing The Thriller Genre)

Thriller films benefit lots from CGI because many of the scenes now look realistic and they also help with all the needed conventions within Thrillers.

Now many other types of genre are using CGI as it is so effective.

Sub Genres Within The Thriller Genre

There are many sub-genres within the thriller genre. For example there are;

• Psychological Thrillers -these are where the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. The Alfred Hitchcock films are well known for this type of thriller.
• Medical Thrillers - These are where the main characters, hero's and heroine's play doctors or something involving a medical profession.
• Action Thrillers - these include a lot of violence and often a race against the clock. Also include guns and crime. They have a sense of mystery to them. A good example of these films are the James Bond movies.
• Drama Thrillers - These include convention of both thrillers and dramas. We get to know the character more and we see many plot twists along the way.
• Disaster Thrillers - these often have a natural disaster like floods for example as the main plot of the film.
• Crime Thrillers - These are where the film concentrates more on the crime that has taken place than the mystery of finding out what has happened, by detectives. For example Se7en is an example of a crime thriller.
• Conspiracy Thrillers - Is where the Hero or Heroine confronts a large powerful group and only they know the true extent of what the powerful enemies are. JFK is an example of this type of thriller.
• Political Thrillers - Is where the Hero or Heroine must make sure that the government stays stable.
• Spy Thrillers - This is where one of the main characters work as a government agent and they have to take violent action against a rival government. An example of this type of thriller is Mission : Impossible.

Treatment of ideas for an Opening Sequence of a Thriller

I have had many ideas with my group about our Opening sequence.

Here is a brief outline of our ideas so far...

Our opening sequence is about two girls walking down a path, talking to each other. One of the girls looks at their watch and decides that she needs to go. Therefore she walks down another path to go home and the other girl carries on walking down the path. The path is going to be dark, with trees either side. We have shots of her walking down the path, she walks around a bend in the path and goes out of sight. Then we have a shot where we see her back and we see a man, hiding in the trees looking at her. After the build up of these scenes we will cut to a black and blank screen, and we will have a sound effect of someone screaming( in this case the girl who was walking down the path). After this we will have the title come up on the screen.

During our opening sequence we will use diegetic sound mostly, but we will use some non-diegetic sound to create tension. We will use many different camera shots, for example we will use over the shoulder shots, close up, mid and long shots. We will also use point of view shots. For the first part of the opening sequence we will use a tracking shot to follow the girls talking.

For the pint of view shots the camera will be hand held, instead of being on a tri-pod. this should give the audience a sense of realism.

For one of the shots we will tilt the camera, to show that the place that she is walking is a bit odd and spooky. Also it gives the audience a sense of confusion.

We shall be using low-key lighting. To create a dim and dark effect. To give a sense of urgency by the girls getting home in the light.

We will use transitions of fades, dissolves and Jump cuts to make some of the opening sequence keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

Research 5 Directors of Thriller Films

David Fincher

He is well known for directing brilliant thriller films. For example he has directed Se7en and Fight Club.

He has many 'trade marks' that make his thriller films so good.

• In his films you often see many single frames that flash up on the screen during a scene.
• He often uses silhouettes, and frequently has characters in the shadows where you can't make out their face. (Kevin Spacey in Se7en)
• His films usually end in suicide or attempted suicide.
• He often uses low-key lighting with blue and green colour temperature.
• The films frequently shows wide shots.
• David frequently casts Brad Pitt.
• The films almost always end with downbeat endings.

Bryan Singer

He is Known for directing The Usual Suspects. He also has some 'trade marks' that have made the usual suspects such a good thriller film.

• He often uses music from John Ottman, they have worked with each other for a long time and therefore they help each other out.
• He also works with cinematographer Tom Siegal.
• A recurring theme of alienation is used in his films.

He works with many other people in the industry a lot when directing his films, and this seems to help as he has made some brilliant thriller films.

Alfred Hitchcock

He has directed many of the top thriller films, including Psycho. He also has many many trade marks.

• He uses a recurring motif of a mistaken identity and the feeling of being lost. Also the motif of assumed identity is used in Psycho.
• To create suspense in his films he would alternate between different shots to extend cinematic time. (like the shower scene in Psycho)
• Also to create tension in his early films he created more shadows on walls etc.
• Again to create tension his driving scenes were always filmed in a particular way. They would alternate between the character's point of view while driving and a close-up shot of the inside of the car from opposite directions. This technique kept the viewer 'inside' the car and made any danger encountered more realistic.

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis is famously known for making the all time best thriller, The Godfather. He again has many trade marks that make his films very good.

• He often casted his own real life extended family members in the films. Which was successful as he got over real emotions to the audience in his films.
• He also includes the authors name in the title of his film e.g Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Which made people know what the film was, and knew what it was roughly about.
• He also Works with cinematographers and many different producers. This shows that him and Bryan Singer, know how to direct the best thrillers by using many different people in the industry.

Luc Besson

He is well known for directing the film Leon. He also has many trade marks for making a great thriller film.

• He often casts Jean Reno.
• The music is always done by Eric Serra.
• During the opening titles, the camera moves up to something important in the movie. Then it looks down until the important credits are shown. Then it swings up showing a certain place or character.
• his films often include fully enclosed sets with no lighting.
• Car chases often very low shots and close up to the front bumper.
• Films usually have a scene that is edited into real time.

Analysis of the Conventions of the Thriller genre

According to Saul Bass a thriller should 'settle them down and create a sense of anticipation.. hit the ground running'

A thriller should follow a set of rules/conventions that are needed to make a good thriller film. There are many conventions that the thriller genre should have. Using an example I shall see how it conforms to the set conventions.

EXAMPLE: Flight plan

• One convention of a thriller is to build up to the action, flight plan does this very well as there is not much dialogue and the use of music and action makes the films' action build up.
• The creation of fear and uncertainty is made by the non diegetic sound as it is very loud and abrupt.
• Dark and shadowy atmosphere is used lots and it is used a lot on the people in the film, especially the girl as it shows that she is the one to watch.
• The mood and atmosphere is established very well as again there is not much dialogue, and this shows that the film is going to be very uncertain and mysterious.
• Another convention of a thriller is that there is a delay in showing the face of a significant character, or an significant piece of action. This is used in the opening sequence of flight plan and works well, the girl has a delay in being shown and when she is shown we get a sense of her being very vulnerable and scared.
• The creation of suspense using soundtrack music is used also very well in flight plan as the soundtrack music is very childlike and this reflects the girl in the film. Action and suspense is used by the soundtrack going up and down in pitch.
• In thrillers there is usually a morally ambiguous central character. There is a character in flight plan that stands out in the opening sequence and it is the male flight attendant, as he shows up every now and again in the sequence. This gives us a sense of mystery.
• There is also usually murder in a thriller and therefore a suspecting audience. In this film, the murder (or disappearance) is of the girl, and this then gives a suspecting audience.
• The realistic setting is created by the credits being on the side of a train, as if they were actually there. Also they follow the background action by, for example moving with the closing of a door.
• The opening sequence has many flashbacks, for example when there is a close up on an eye, we go spinning into a flashback that they saw.
• There are many twists and unexpected turns in the sequence, mostly from the flashbacks.
• The opening sequence keeps me on the edge of my seat and makes me tense, this is because we never know what is going to happen next, the sequence is quite fast and keeps you interested.

Analysis of Opening sequences in Thrillers

Opening sequences are used to set up a degree of curiosity and to make the audience ask questions that will be answered later on in the film. They also cut between the title (credits) and action. The opening sequence gives a sense of mystery and it usually contradicts realism.

When looking at the opening sequence of Se7en I liked the following;

• The background music created tension and anticipation. This was because it had sound effects of scratching and screaming, this is also good as it fits the typical conventions of thriller.
• I also liked how it had scenes of a man holding blades, cutting up photos and crossing out writing on newspapers etc. this created a sense of murder and makes us question what the man is doing. It also gave us an insight to what the film may be about.
• The way that the credits and film title is very well represented. The writing is very childlike and it 'etches' in and flashes. This makes you feel on the edge of your seat almost, gives you a sense of fear.
• The mise on scene is very dark and has many shadows and this again causes fear and tension. It is very good as it also gives us a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen next.

On the other hand when looking at the opening sequence I noticed that it did not have the typical convention of a heroine or hero in the situation of threat or struggle. However overall the opening sequence is very good as it creates lots of anticipation and gives a very tense atmosphere . It has nearly all of the conventions of a thriller.

When looking at the opening sequence of the film Hostage I liked the following;

• The background music was again very good, this is because it was very 'creepy' and odd. This is good as it made me very tense and gave me a sense of fear.
• There were images of guns and other weapons and this signified that the film was obviously going to involve some sort of murder, or action with weapons.
• I also liked the use of black and red, and I presume that the red signified blood. Which again is good as it is letting us know that people are going to be hurt.
• I liked the use of shadows and darkness as it gave me the sense of fear and not knowing what is going to come next.
• The credits of the film were on buildings and posters and this gives us a sense of a realistic setting, whilst making giving the setting an unusual setting.
• The title of the film was 'spun' into the screen and was 3D like the credits and this makes us feel that something unusual and out of the ordinary is going to happen, as you don't always see words in 3D.

Although the opening sequence had many good points about it, it did have some floors. These were that it was quite slow paced and this sort of steered away from the idea of a thriller as it did not give us a sense of urgency for example. Also because the credits came on slowly and kept coming on through out the opening sequence we kind of got bored watching them. We did not see a lot of action or previews on what is going to happen. Therefore I was not that interested in watching the rest of the film.

The Usual Suspects is another film that I looked at, what I liked in its opening sequence was;

• The use of diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds. The diegetic sounds made the setting realistic in a scary way. The non-diegetic sounds contributed to making the opening sequence give you a sense of fear.
• I liked the amount of action that has been put into the opening sequence, it gives you a sense of you know whats going on, but really you don't know who is who and what the storyline is yet.
• The use of camera angles was very good, going from a high angle shot on the suspect to a low angle shot on the villain. It was good as it gave me a sense of fear and made you feel as if the villain is important. Also the use of close up shots on the suspect create tension.
• I like the sense of confusion that you get, as you don't know where they are or why they are there.
• the use of dark colours and shadows are good as again you don't know what is coming around the corner.

I personally thought that this opening sequence was very good as it fit nearly all of the conventions of a thriller and made me want to watch the rest of the film.