Planning

This is my page dedicated to planning, here you will discover all the aspects of work I have completed, along side research, in preparation for the final product. I looked at at the codes and conventions of the thriller genre, the best camera and editing techniques and general features to maximise it's viewing ability. 

Planning the plot

After being set the task to create an opening to a thriller film we decided that although everyone is able to freely contribute their ideas in what features we would like to include in our thriller opening, it was best to be as organised as possible and to give the opening a good structure we would have to advocate specific roles to people.

The roles we assigned were:

Sophie Perrin – Camera woman and props/costume designer

Caitlin Gomersall – Main actress and co-editor

Beth Young – Editor and co-camera woman

Here is our basic storyboard and the plot we tried to follow throughout:

One we were given the challenge to create a thriller opening one of the first aspects that the group mutually agreed on was that we would stay away from chases scenes and more action based thrillers because. This was due to the fact that we believed this would be typical of students to over compensate on the action as it’s an easy way to increase someone’s adrenaline. We also felt that if we were to create a more action based thriller that we wouldn’t be able to include all the camera and editing techniques that we had learned. Our main aim for our thriller opening was to maintain the same intensity and adrenaline but with more emphasis on camera work, editing and sound rather than basic story plots. However, this does not mean that the storyline has to be ‘boring’ and basic we wanted to create an eerie atmosphere with our thriller opening that would keep the audience on ‘the edge of their seats’. We all decided that we wanted the sense of anonymity to be present, this meant that our characters wouldn’t be stated until later in the film; the idea of the unknown is worrying to everyone and we could really enhance that in our opening. The storyline comprises of a younger character walking home at night and is being pursued by a mystery character who is texting her urging her to meet at the nearby park.  There would be a build up to what is at the park and who this mystery text could be off, once our main protagonist arrives she in unable to see anyone but knows someone in there, we decided we would end the opening on a cliff hanger to keep the audience interested.  

The main section of our thriller opening will take place in the same location so therefore variety for fill in shots was limited. However, the most part of our thriller will be composed of a lot of tracking shots, close-ups, pans, point of view a few mid/long shots as fill-ins. Over the shoulder and extreme close up techniques will also be used to emphasise certain parts of the opening. Although there is a variety of camera angles and movement within our thriller this will be thoroughly highlighted by the use of fast cuts, this shows the fast pace of the mystery character.

The main two characters that feature will not be identified and therefore an uncertainty as to who they are is kept throughout the opening. The anonymity of the antagonist only further employs the idea of him/her being a villain and adds to the suspicion that follows his/her presence. In addition, the anonymity of the protagonist only excited the audience because they’re not fully aware of who they’re inevitably rooting for.

The titles will appear in quick cuts throughout the opening sequence to enhance the tension of the opening. They will be shown as a simple shot of a black screen or a still image with white text, this is simple but we felt would look effective. This allows the audience to stay on the edge of their seats as their anticipation reaches a climax. By doing this the excitement is maintained throughout the whole of the opening sequence.

Title sequence

Opening credits are a creative part in films that communicate to the audience who the main roles in making the film were and what their role was. The opening credits can give the editors a chance to be creative in introducing their talented workers. We had a clear idea how we wanted to present our titles which would be done by often cutting from the action to a spooky, out-of focus shot with a name. The font we have chosen is “Courier New Italic” as we felt it had a slight sinister look to it. We used this font throughout the sequence, even using it for the title of the name of the film. We kept the titles simple and effective. On the last shot, we show the title of the film - we chose to position this in the centre to grab the attention of the audience and imprint the name of the film into their head.

We aimed not to distract the audience from the action too much when showing the title, therefore in between the action a simple shot cut form the action to show a credit. Not only did this mean that the audience wasn’t torn of what the focus on but this method also built tension and suspense which was our main aim. Each credit were distributed and ordered carefully, in between the action, this built suspense and tension. The method is used by a lot of film makers thus we decided to use this effective way of opening the film. Like a lot of films, we have used the idea of only showing the main roles as credits and the end of the film would show the whole cast and crew. Furthermore we used the idea of using sinister foreboding music throughout which makes the clip intriguing. This is present in the effective opening credits of the film “Se7en”. This film’s opening credits clearly have a lot of equipment we, unfortunately, do not own. However we used this extremely good example to help us when creating our film. We aimed to create an engaging and exciting start to begin the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEq-4fua3lM

Planning our location

Before we started developing a storyboard we set out to find local recording spots that would fit the criteria in our desires. We wanted to use somewhere that was simply accessible but would meet the criteria of being eerie and dark.  Much to our dismay, there were only really two local spots that would benefit our recording process considering we don’t have enough money or time to build our own scenes. However the local spots used proved to be better than expected.  

As soon as we thought of a narrative we knew the exact setting we wanted, the Thriller would be set first in an alley way and then in a park.  We decided to use a simple local alley way with one single street lamp, this would create the dark and dismal atmosphere we intended but it wouldn’t be so dark that we would struggle with lighting. We also decided our second location would be a local park, at night the park would be empty and therefore spooky. It would also help to enhance the main protagonists young and vulnerable age. The group also felt that this would be the perfect setting as we wouldn’t have to worry about health and safety and both settings were easily accessible as both settings were public places so were deemed safe.

Character analysis

In the opening of our thriller only two characters are present; these characters are in fact at both the opposite ends of the spectrum when in terms of film characters, one being a protagonist and the other an antagonist.

Our protagonist will be a young female so is her age and stereotypically her gender can be used to emphasise her vulnerability, naivety and helplessness.  She will be wearing simple causal clothing, a jumper, jeans, coat and trainers as she is outside at night. From this representation the audience can depict that this protagonist is an average teenage girl.  She is being pursued by an unknown antagonist so she isn’t equipped with any object that she could defend herself with. She initially isn’t aware that she is being perused but as it becomes clearer that she isn’t alone in her walk she will begin to portray elements of fear, uncertainty and doubt. The target audience needs to relate to his innocence and helplessness, she needs to address their moral side and try to get them to root for her despite her naivety.  The audience by the end of the opening are almost pleading with her to escape and are almost annoyed at her for being so naive. This will maintain the tension throughout.

The protagonist is not essentially the main character, maybe a joint effort from both actors, but is definitely the main attraction. The audience only get to see the back of the antagonist for a few seconds as their identity remains a mystery. There are point of view shots used as well as snippets of third person angles dispersed in between.  

On the other hand we have our antagonist. This character will be a little older than the first character however this is not shown in the opening; the elusive uncertainty of the characters identity is what keeps the audience intrigued. His/her hooded figure stereotypically portrays their antisocial behaviour and insinuates they are in control and not someone to mess around with. He/she is wearing a dark hoodie to disguise their identity and jeans and trainers, similar to the protagonist so that they don’t stand out as being untrustworthy to passers-by.  He/she aims to kidnap the protagonist to add to their collection of many young female girls which are locked in a cellar never to be seen again by family and friends. He/she allures the young women by tricking them and eventually kidnapping them due to their naivety. With these scenes the character must display a sense of control and proximity, the suspense of the audience reaches a climax when they discover the close proximity of the two characters. The simple references to basic stereotypes will automatically make the audience uncomfortable and eerie towards her/him as a character.

By introducing both characters from the start this allows the audience to decide their first opinion on the two, although no dialogue is used the audience can still detect a significant difference between the two characters. The fact neither characters face is shown keeps the mystery and obtains some of the plot for nearer the end.

Sound Planning

When planning what music/sound was going to be used we first had to analyse our storyboard in detail, look into where the best place was to introduce a soundtrack, furthermore, what soundtrack to use. The sound used within different scenes needs to be carefully addressed so that optimum sound efficiency can be obtained and the viewers don’t lose chosen sound. We drafted a few sounds from copyright free websites; we felt this was the best option so we didn’t have to use time asking composers if we could use their music in our opening. The website we used was http://freesound.org , this was very useful as it included the wide range of diegetic sounds and non-diegetic soundtrack we were looking for.

After browsing the website I managed to recover a spooky, building thriller based sound track from this copyright free website and it seemed to fit perfectly when added to the thriller opening, there wasn’t much deliberation, once I showed my co-scripters/directors/actors there were in mutual agreement. This particular track covered the main base for our thriller opening and it was only some small additional sounds that emphasise the scene that were needed. These included a creaking swing, a rocking horse, breathing heavily and finally dramatic suspense music at the very end of the clip to reach a climax.  These were also taken from the same website. The mix of natural sound, artificial sound and soundtrack all complimented each other well to create the high suspense thriller opening we desired.


Shot list

·         Wide shot of girl walking down alley way

·         Low angled shot of her pulling her phone out

·         Close up of the phone screen with texts on

·         Mid shot of the girls confused face

·         Over the shoulder shot of girl on her phone

·         Wide shot of girl being followed by the pursuer

·         Point of view shot of the alley way

·         Panning shot of the field by the park

·         Low angled shot of girl entering the park

·         High angled shot of girl on swing

·         Over the shoulder/close up of phone screen

·         Low angled shot of girl getting up from swing

·         Mid shot of swing

·         Wide shot of girl hiding

·         Over the shoulder/ close up of phone screen

·         High angled shot of rocking horse

·         Low angled shot of girl getting up to look around her

·         Credits all shown in a still shot that pans upwards

Costume

Causal women’s clothing

Protagonist: Jumper, jeans, coat, trainers.

Antagonist: Hooded jumper, jeans, trainers.

Props

 Mobile phone