Final Edit - Gone

Consent form (Dowsby Hall)

Actor auditions

Actor auditions

 

These auditions show that we will need to pick an actor that can show fear well. This is important because there will be a lot of close ups in our opening which need to  show that the person is scared to create a sense of realism for the audience, this will make them more scared and will create more tension.

 

Also judging from these actor auditions it will be better to pick a female actor because they are typically more vulnerable and weak.  

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

Costumes
Our Opening only features two characters, the Protagonist (Victim) and the Antagonist (Kidnapper). The victim will be a teenage girl, this is because the girl will be seen as stereotypically weak/vulnerable. The weakness enhanced by her costume being mainly light grey and black connoting innocence that has been tainted but still lingering showing that she has been through, and is still going through, a traumatic experience that has left emotional damage. The Antagonist will wear mostly black to connote darkness/evil and the clothes will be big and baggy, this is to hide the shape of the person portraying the antagonist which creates an enigma as to who the kidnapper is and what the possible motive they have is. The most significant part of the antagonists costume is the big black boots that will be seen briefly following the path of the victim, this is significant as the audience will see the contrast between the flimsy grey shoes of the protagonist and the large, black, tough boots which will connote the growing sense of helplessness the victim is experiencing as the harsh style much over-powers the small grey shoes.

Protagonist:

 

 

Antagonist:

Props:  

We will be using props to display our titles. Firstly we are using nails and paper to nail titles to trees as our protagonist runs past them in the woods. Also we will have an old rusty chain to follow up to where our victim is inside the house, this will connote danger in the area as this helps the area to look unsafe creating more fear and tension in the audience because they are unsure as to where the place is and why the victim has been brought there. The last props we will use are leaves as we hide some titles with them so that the get uncovered as the victim runs past and trips over them. We decided not to use any main props and to not use lots of props in general because the aggressiveness in our thriller is suggested through the bruises and state of the victim (e.g the ripped tights and messy hair) instead of being explicitly shown through a weapon, this again creates an enigma as the audience are yet to find out exactly what happened to the girl and why. Because we do not clearly show the situation the characters are in we believe that it will intrigue and perplex the audience causing their interest in the rest of the film.

 

Lighting: When we film in the woods we will be using the natural lighting as we are filming mid-day meaning we should not need any additional light sources, however we will edit the clips in post-production to make them seem darker to create a more mysterious setting. When filming inside the hall we will be using industrial lights as we will be filming after dark, this will ensure that while the setting will still be eerie but will not be grainy and of bad quality. The darkness that we will create for our opening will add to the tension for the audience as it will be slightly harder to see all of the shot so it will seem as if something is hidden and this creates a feeling of foreboding as it will seem as if something is going to happen that we cannot see.

Actors:  Protagonist (Victim): Becky Girard (Age 16). We decided we wanted Becky to be our victim as she has an extensive background in the Performing Arts that no one in our group possessed and we believed that to make an effective opening with our idea we would need a person who can portray our terrified/weak character well so we believed Becky is the best person for that job. Also Becky is the right age to portray our character as she looks young enough to connote vulnerability. Antagonist (Kidnapper): Anni Wilson (Age 16). We have Anni as our

antagonist as she is our group so she will definitely be available for our shooting sessions and also she is very different to Becky in personality meaning she could have the right demeanour to be able to portray the collected and eerie killer. Anni also had many of the costume items needed for the character such as the boots and trousers, meaning that they would fit her and we would not have to buy a pair for a different person.

Makeup: The only makeup we will use for our victim is a fake bruise on her eye and messy/sweaty hair. This is to create a more convincing scene of an escaped kidnap victim because it is suggested that the kidnapper had harmed the victim causing the bruise and the victim will be sweaty from running and will not have cared for her hair since she was kidnapped. These small things create a more realistic, and therefore effective, opening. The kidnapper will not have any makeup done to them because their face will be obstructed from view the length of the opening by the hood they are wearing so there is no makeup needed.

Setting:

The two settings we have chosen are Bourne Woods and Dowsby Hall. We have chosen the woods because it is an isolated place that is easy to get lost in so our escaped victim will have to find her way out to be free which seems impossible, creating tension that builds as the protagonist gets more deeply lost. Also the use of the woods would suggest that the place the victim escaped from in in/near the woods meaning it is isolated making a larger sense of seclusion and fear as it is unlikely that there is any people nearby. We decided to film in Dowsby Hall because it has an eerie style which works well with our narrative and the rooms inside are un decorated and bare making it look like a stripped down room to hold our protagonist, also the hall has an extremely long drive which we plan to include in sped up shots as if it is a rewind of the victim’s escape which get faster as the victim gets closer to capture and the drive and view of the house works perfectly for this purpose.

Typography and production company

Typography and Production Company (This was also the script used for the Pitch)

For the fonts, my group has decided to do non-superimposed and to hand write or type the titles onto paper and have them featured in the opening on trees, in puddles, leaves and on the actress's body. This is for the main titles such as director and actor. We thought this would be effective because it will fit with our sub-genres of mystery and psychological, and it will reflect the corrupted mind of the protagonist and reflect the isolated landscape.

For the other titles such as costume designer and make up artist will be hand written and scanned in just like the opening of se7en.

For our main title we will use Broken Detroit as it was voted the best out of our options, We will get this off the website Da Font. We like it because it is very bold so it stands out, it also slight gives off the effect that something is sinister and wrong because it has slight acid wash in the corners of some of the letters.

The influence of this style is from the thriller opening 'Se7en', because we liked the way it was written and superimposed into the opening as handwriting, and the way it jumped in and out of place to represent how the mind of the protagonist is depraved, it also gives off a sense of schizophrenia making it disorientating for the audience to watch.

We have experimented with normal A4 paper to see how our ideas would work, before actually doing them in our opening. We used A4 paper, mud, puddles, grassy areas and a normal black biro to scribble on the paper where the titles would be and then placed them in the grass, puddle and mud and then photographed them so we could see what effect the different conditions where. We think it was successful because it connotes a creepy vibe because of how the paper gets changed in different ways as it is placed in different conditions. It also links with our sub-genres of psychological because the mental aspect of the protagonist is shown by the way the paper changes and the way the natural elements destroy it the way a mental illness can destroy the mind.


We have chosen the production company Universal Studios because we think it will benefit out thriller because it is a well known company which has made some good thriller films in the past such as Jaws, The Purge and Psycho. It was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmie and is the world's fourth oldest major film studio.

Time line

Concent form (Bourne woods)

Thriller pitch

Poll results (font)

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Audience profile

Production schedule

 

Consent form

A Level Thriller Opening scene
Sunday 15th and Monday 16th November 2015

Discharging and signing of this document will let our A level media group film and take photographs of the surrounding area and the premises. 
Dowsby Hall will be filmed on Sunday 15th November and we will be needing the basement, attic and the stairs. We are hoping you will be able to let us film here to create a sinister affect for the whole opening. 
Bourne Woods will be filmed on Monday 16th November and we will need to have access granted so we will be able to walk round the premises and film in the location we desire. Much obliged. 

Member of Dowsby Hall, Please sign here: _________________
Member of The Bourne Woods Team, Please sign here: ____________________

Location scouting

Risk assessment

Risk Assessment by Mia Gillan

Thriller typography ideas

Initial ideas

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Soundtrack

Production company influences

Shot List

Storyboard

Job Roles

Thriller ideas

Thriller audience profile

Thriller audience profile

For our thriller we are targeting an audience of the ages 15 – 30 years old. Our thriller would have an age rating of 15 as the movie would most likely contain violence and strong language.

Our thriller with be aimed at both men and women as there is no specific elements only aimed a man or a woman, most of our feedback from our vox pops were similar from both sexes so our thriller would appeal to both. It is also aimed at both genders because it is easier to use a wide range of elements aimed at both rather than having to be picky about what will suit one gender in particular.

Our target audience would be in the socio-economic group of either C1 or C2 meaning they will have a job and a family or a relationship. If they are not old enough to fit the target they would maybe have a part time or Saturday job and be in full time education, this would mean they would fit into the socio-economic group of D-E.

My ideal target audience would be up to date with technology and would be using social media such as face book, twitter and Instagram, the would be interested in drama based tv shows such as Breaking bad and Orange Is the new black, they would also like some psychological shows such as American Horror Story.

I think that having a wide range of music taste throughout my audience is important because you can use different types of music to create different effects which can cater for everyone. Being a fan of music could also mean that my target audience are more social as they would probably attend concerts and festivals with lots of other people. Ideally the music taste would contain styles such as punk rock, jazz, charts and rock etc..

The main psycho graphics of our target audience would be explorers and strugglers. I would argue that an explorer fits well with my thriller because they are typically young and adventurous. They like challenges and trying new things for the experience so they would most likely go and watch our thriller. Strugglers also fit in well with our thriller movie as they are typically disorganised which links well with psychological thrillers, they are also consumers of alcohol and junk food which puts them in the D or E socio-economic group. I think that strugglers would watch our thriller because they like the impact that the film would have on them.

What makes an effective thriller opening?

Psycho shower scene analysis

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Thriller Vox Pops and analysis

Vox Pops analysis.

Filming the vox pops I learned that you need to focus on having the interviewee in a quiet place but still with the public in the background which lets the audience know that they are part of the public that will give us their honest opinion and not someone that answers the question the way we want them to.

You also need to focus on lighting because if the lighting is too low it can make it hard for the audience to see, it also makes it really noticeable if the light changes between clips.

 After filming my vox pops I leaned that the majority of thriller audiences like thriller openings that build up tension because it keeps them on the edge of their seat and makes them want to know more about the movie so they keep watching.

Most of my interviewees preferred crime or psychological thrillers to other sub genres, mainly because they play around with your fears and make you scared or confused, they are also more relatable as they are things that could happen in real life. They are also usually very dramatic which can mean they contain things like explosions and fight scenes which was a specific interest of one of my interviewees.

I think that our vox pops went well as we successfully got a good amount of people with a range of ages to answer our questions; this meant that we got more of a range of answers. We also managed to get a variety of men and women to answer so that the answers were more diverse and fair. We edited it so that there were short clips of each person we asked to make sure that the audience don’t get bored watching one long answer. We also added a few funny parts within the vox pops to keep the audience interested which makes them want to watch. We kept all of the interviewees at the right side of the field of vision which meant that you can see the background. The only interviewees that were not in a public were Mr Lewis and Callum although Callum was filmed in an area with background noise so that the viewers are aware that he is in a public place.

 The information that we got from our audience has helped us to think of some ideas to put toward our thriller, for example nearly all of our interviewees commented on how they like tense music, because we got this feedback we will focus on music that will build up suspense.

 A few of our interviewees supplied the same answer that they like a crime scene that is unexplained at the beginning of a thriller because it makes them want to watch the rest of the film to find out what happened. Anther common answer to what makes an effective thriller opening is a psychological twist or effect to engage audience.

we also learned that non of our audience are interested in supernatural aspects of a thriller film because no one mentioned it, therefore we will stay away from anything to do with a supernatural story line.

Thriller genre/sub genre conventions

Production company

Shutter Island opening sequence analysis

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Shutter Island opening sequence timeline and analysis

Title sequence analysis.

The first titles to appear in this sequence are red and blurry, this makes them quite hard to read which gives a sense of disorientation. The main titles include the...

Director                      

Producer                     

Writer                         

Main cast                   

Editor                        

In this shot you can see a long dark and gloomy hallway that is lit from above and the back, there isn't much detail in this shot and it doesn't tell you too much about the film, it is just used to create a sinister effect.The red title is there to tell you who the film is by, the red also suggests danger and acts as a warning sign for the audience letting them know that something bad will happen. The titles are also have a very straight edge and are quite bold, this contrasts with the background which is quite messy and dirty.

This is a low angle shot of a large building with big black gates, this gives the impression of power as it looks big and powerful, it also shows that the gates have power because they are keeping somethiing in or keeping something out, they are portrayed as very important. you can also see guards behind the gate which implies there is something important behind the gate. The titles in this shot are white and bold, they stand out against the darker background but not enough to make the audience focus entirely on them.

The titles in this shot stand out more than the titles in the previous shots as it is not blurry and stands in front of an almost black background which draws the audiences attention to it. in the background there is fire which implies danger, this could foreshadow danger happening later on in the film.

This shot shows a large shoe (male shoe) standing on a gun, this shot starts to tell the audience that there will be weapons involved, there will be crime and danger.

The title again is against a contrasting colour so it stands out, it is also very neat and easy to read.

This shot shows a prison cell which suggests there will be crime and criminals in the film, it also gives a sense of power because there are people with the power to take control over criminals and lock them up. The titles are quite blurry because they move in and out of focus, this creates a disorientated atmosphere that puts the audience on edge because it creates a sense that something isnt right.

This shot creates suspense for the audience because the match lights up the shot which shows that it is the only source of light, This means that the person holding the match doesn't know what is beyond the light, this creates an atmosphere of mystery.

This is an establishing shot which tells the audience where the drama will take place in the movie, this particular location is quite sinister and creep as it is isolated and remote, this means that there is no way out of the island easily which can create suspense.

The final title is the main title of tthe film informing the audience of the name of the movie, the title is big, bold and red which draws your attention. The red suggests something threatening that makes the aus=dience want to know more.