Storyboard (attempt 1)

Shot list (The first attempt)

 

Shot Number	Description	Shot type
1	Sots of the landscape	Establishing shot
2	Girl walking down the road	Long shot
3	Girl on her phone	Side shot
4	Girl typing on her phone	Over the shoulder shot
5	Girl pressing send on her phone	Close up shot
6	Clothes on the floor leading to the shack	p.o.v shot
7	Shot of the shack	Long shot
8	Girl walking over	Long shot
9	Girl opening the door	Long/mid shot
10	Shot reverse shot	Close up
11	Shot from the inside of the shack and hand falling out	s.r.s
12	Shot of the hand	Long shot
13	Girl walking over to the board	Close up shot
14	Close up of the board	Long shot
15	Her face (looking confused)	Mid shot
16	Outside shot of her in the shack- slowly backing away	Long shot
17	Inside the shack- door slamming behind her	Over the shoulder shot
18	Getting her phone out	Close up shot
19	The phone on 1% battery	Long/mid shot
20	The phone dies	Mid shot
21	Shot of her worried	Mid shot
22	The girls face and a pair of eyes behind her	Close up shot

 

Props

We are using discarded clothes on the floor of the woods because that is how the girl finds the shack as she follows them. This is typical to a thriller as it adds mystery and leaves the audience wanting to know more.

Our idea was to have a hand fall out of a door to give the audience something to think about. Why is it there? What happened? How long has it been there? This will intrege the audience to carry on watching as they will want to know what happens.

 

 

 

We are using a shack-like building as that is where the story starts. We might change the shack into an abandoned building like a barn because of the convenience of the location but it will still be the main building in the opening. By using this kind of building it builds tension- lots of corners, and lots of abandoned rubbish to hide under.

We are using a footprint in the mud because that is another element that makes the girl go to the shack as well as the clothes. She does this as she is confused and wonders what it leads to. This was one of first ideas, so may not be included. However the footprint may give a clue to what kind of person it is. As it looks like a trainer, you would associate that with a male figure so this again leaves you in suspense.

We are using a mobile phone because after the girl gets locked in the shack she pulls out her phone to see if she has a signal. The phone will help create suspense as the signal bar will go down. This is typical to a thriller- a girl on her own, stumbling across an old shack, leaving the audience wanting to know more.

 

Location

 

We have had many ideas for our film such as, internet dating gone wrong, mental asylum/museum and then the idea that we decided to go with ‘the abandoned shed with a hand, the reason why we decided to go with this idea was it is a very unique idea that we can adapt with ease if needed, this was not the idea we originally wanted to go with, our first idea was the internet dating gone wrong, the reason why we decided not to go with that idea was because the internet stalker idea sounded a bit cliché and we wanted to try something different e.g. the shed in the woods idea.

 

 

· We have had many ideas for a location, one idea that we had was to film it in a wooded area.

· Some of the negative sounds of that would be the lighting may not be on our side as it could be too dark and we would not see anything that we had filmed

· There could be some very bright patches of sunlight that come through the trees that may make some of our shots barely visible.

· We had a look at different wooded areas around Bourne and Thurlby and we couldn’t find any old sheds that we could use but we couldn’t find anything that we could uses that fits the thriller genre.

· We then had a look on Google maps to see if we could find any old farms with sheds and or barns in abandoned areas

· We found one on south fen road which if located just off the back of cherry holt road (behind the big Tesco’s)

· We still need to ask about using the barn but it may cause some difficulties as there is no one around the area and also no houses so we wouldn’t know who to ask about the use of this location

 

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design.

Here we can see great lighting effects on the bike to give it the shine it’s looking for. The bike has been left in view of the audience to show them they are serious characters, and are not to be messed with.

We can see here the characters are in good light, yet behind them an even brighter light to illuminate their outlines. This tells the audience once again that they mean business.

 In this shot we see that the lighting is directed from one side of his face which gives a shadowed effect on the other side.

The audience know he is a bad character and this leaves them not having any sympathy towards him, only hatrid.

The location is set outside and has the biker theme runs throughout. The costumes are tattered and dark in colour. And the use of the bike keeps up with the theme of the scene.

Shots and stills from Harry Potter

5 shots and stills of Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 2

This still shows Hermione blurred out but her hand clear, holding up a hair. This gives an intriguing effect for a head-on shot.

By blurring out the face and having a close-up of the hair, it shows the audience the importance of the hair to that particular scene in the film.

 

Here shows the character gazing into the distance, with another character behind that doesn’t show their face as it has been partly blurred out.

Here, by blurring out the characters in the background it is showing the audience how he is injured and this may make them sympathise for him.

We have a character here that is shown lying down as they are dead. The shot is taken from above the head at an angle, so is looking down not just on the face. By having the close-up of the face, this may also make the audience sympathise for his loss.

Here it is shown that Harry is on the ground. It is a head-on shot that shows us the expression on his face. You can also see the wand he is looking straight at which tells us that is an important part in this scene.

 In this over the shoulder shot it shows two characters having a discussion. By the expression on this characters face it tells the audience how serious the conversation must be.

Costume

 

In our group we have discussed what costumes would work accordingly to our thriller opening. We decided to go with casual wear (for the male)- perhaps a black hoody and jeans for our mysterious hooded figure, and (for the female) an innocent white dress for our victim. By choosing these outfits we are setting the scene for the unknowing audience.

Thriller questionnaire

Thriller Questionnaire

How old are you?

10-19    20-29   30-39   40+

What is your gender?

Male      Female

What is your job title?  

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Do you read a lot of books?

Yes            No

If so, what kind?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Do you watch a lot of films, if so what genre? 

Yes       No

Thriller      Sci-fi      Romantic comedy      Action      Adventure

 

Do you like thriller films?

Yes           No

What your favourite type of thriller?

Psychological thriller         Action thriller           Religious thriller     Crime thriller

 (Black swan)                      (Taken)                         (Da Vinci code)           (se7en)

Medical thrillers                dystopian thriller

(Contagion)                         (Hunger games)

 

 

What makes a good thriller?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

What do you expect from a thriller?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

In what way would the opening to a film make you want to watch more?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

What things should we NOT include in our opening?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Do you think two minutes for an opening is enough to persuade you to watch the rest of the film?

Yes                            No

If yes why?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....

What music would you typically link to a thriller film?

Dramatic/tension building             slow and calming                upbeat           other

If other suggest what kind

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

 

Thriller genre analysis

The thriller genre is a very wide category that includes aspects from all angles. the conventions of a thriller include:

• suspense
• cliff-hangers
• villain driven plots
• twists
• scored soundtracks to influence an audience

Crime Thrillers often focus on the criminals and their leading up to a crime, then solving the mystery or tracking down the criminal. the sub-genre consists of fast paced scenes and fiction based plots, they emphasize on the action over psychological elements. the themes include serial killers, murderers, robberies, chases, and heists.

Mystery Thrillers relate to crime thrillers as the plot is crimes that must be prevented, these include: assassinations, terrorism, serial or mass murderers. it typically focuses on an investigator or a detective trying to undercover the crime. This sub-genre allows the audience to find out information and try and undercover the mystery for themselves.this causes a more dramatic effect and suspense to follow the conventions of the thriller.

Psychological Thrillers a heavily focused on the mental levels of characters, and how danger is exposed to them mentally rather than a physically. this genre includes elements of mystery, drama and often horror. this genre usually consists of two or more characters preying up one another by playing devilish games or physically trying to destroy each others mental state. the plot tends to play with the audiences minds to make them think something when rather its the other, which causes suspense within the audience.

Science fiction Thrillers consist of manipulation to sophisticated technology. it includes elements of action and science fiction, creating a more realistic approach as typically the plots revolve around technology. the themes of this genre include futuristic technology and high tech weapons.

Supernatural Thrillers consist of elements that are mixed with suspense, tension and twists. the typical plot involves one of the characters having supernatural powers that lead them to the source of the problem. the powers are usually caused by demons, devils or ghosts which slightly links to the religious thriller. 

Thrillers have 'restricted narration'. It offers minimal information regarding the narration to create a suspense effect. The narrative structure is complex with false paths, clues and resolutions which creates apprehension for the audience. Narrative often includes riddles and problems that are there to be questioned whilst being solved. The narrative will build towards a dramatic climax. Narrative will often show the evil in society, that no one else seems to notice or see.

Mise-en-scene:
The settings of thrillers are normally presented in normal everyday places. This is to create the feeling of not knowing what's going to happen, which creates suspense for the audience. The props are very important in a thriller as they can reveal a lot about the characters. They create a sense of danger to the audience and also creates a tense and uneasy feel to it. The costumes and makeup make the characters seem more realistic and fully identified. Makeup is used a lot in thrillers as it helps to highlight and create their disguises. Lighting is such an important factor in thrillers as it can immediately display to the audience what kind of genre it's going to be. Colour is also key as they can show the wide range of different emotions to the audience. Sound within a thriller is sectioned into two different categories, diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is the sound that within a frame, for example a character talking or screaming because they are scared. Non-diegetic is a sound that has been added in post production, for example theme music or voice overs. It plays a huge part as you would need to create suspense for something such as a gun shot or a door slamming. You can also tell what kind of atmosphere the scene is going to be by how loud/quiet the volume is, and the pace of the sound- whether it is fast or slow.

Evaluation

Media Preliminary Task Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-SRml-sk3s&feature=youtu.be

Our preliminary task was to create a short clip by filming and editing a sequence of a person entering a room and speaking to someone else.

For our clip we started off by introducing a dark corridor with a silhouette of a person walking down in a head on shot, this is creating mystery to find out who that person is. The lighting changes as we move into a room in another location. Whilst this mysterious character is walking down, we show clips jumping from another room back to the corridor. In the other room you see another character, this time in full light, trying to get into some cabinets, perhaps trying to find something. By jumping to and from the different settings it starts to build the tension and make the audience wonder what is going to happen.

You see a hand reach for a door handle, we focus only on the hand to show a range of camera techniques and to keep the tension building. As the door opens you see the look on both characters faces, one startled, one confused and annoyed. We are shown this by the different camera angles. We used an over the shoulder shot for character 1 and a head on shot for character 2.

As the two characters quarrel about why one character has betrayed the other the shots flick back and forth from each character to show the conversation is just between the two of them, we then see a change in mood as character 2 offers character 1 a biscuit. The atmosphere changes as we jump to a scene where both characters are shown sat down with a cup of tea.

The editing worked well as the clips roll smoothly from one scene to another, however to improve our video next time we could work on how our conversation could have more versatility. The conversation would have more range if we included different tones of voice and we had more expression and belief in our overall performance.

Sub-genres

Sub-genres

Action

• Taken
• Speed
• Red eye
• No country for old men

Pschological

• Silence of the lambs
• Se7en
• Momento
• The shining

Sci-fi

• Alien
• District nine
• Inception
• Terminator

Crime/Gangster

• Shallow grave
• The departed
• Goodfellas
• Bound

Noir Thriller

• Double indemnity
• The big sleep
• Sin city
• Touch of evil

Religious

• The omen
• The body
• Constantine
• Stigmata

Erotic

• Basic instinct
• Fatal attraction
• Eyes wide shut
• Unfaithful

Supernatural

• Paranormal activity
• What lies beneath
• The ring
• El orfanato

Political

• Ideas of march
• Enemy of the state

Dystopian

• Hunger games
• 1984
• The matrix