Planning: Opening scene narrative

Opening scene narrative

 

 

'He Knows You're Alone'. The scene starts with a wide shot of the antagonist in a dark location looking at a storyboard full of images of a young teenage girl and her boyfriend including a very dark and gritty soundtrack made by myself and Kloe. A zoom shot will then be used when focussed on one image which will then show the entire board. The next scene is then the young teenage girl, aged 15, at home listening to music and planning on getting ready to go to a local house party that night. Normal paced editing will be used for this and also a camera will be left still in a singluar shot for this. We then see the boyfriend who was meant to attend the party but instead decides to go to his friends house and play video games all night. We see him then text his girlfriend, camera then focussed on the phone, asking her to stay home and he feels it is not going to be safe. Although when the scene cross cuts, we see the girl leaving her room, forgetting her phone behind on her drawer. The camera will again be focussed on the phone to view the text from him, plus the lights will be switched off to create a good atmosphere in the room for when the message is recieved.

As the scene develops it features the girl getting to the party and having a good time drinking and dancing with her friends. However, little does she know a hidden antagonist has followed her and is secretively watching her from the corner of the room whilst she is dancing. A birds eye view would be used to view this, and possibly slow paced editing to highlight the young girl and the antagonist.

It gets to the early hours of the morning and we see her walking home alone, very drunk and insecure with a nearly empty vodka bottle in her hand, walking through a park way with little clothing to cover her reavealing outfit. An extreme long shot and a camera-placed-on-floor shot will be used to show her slowly walking home and how dark it is throughout the park until we see the antagonist far behind her then fast paced editing will be used to show him catching up to her till she is gropped and kidnapped by the antagonist. Just after we hear her screams, we then use slow paced editing to view the alcohol bottle slowly smashing into pieces on the ground into a blackout.

The blackout will last appoximately 4 seconds until we hear the young girl breathing heavily, still in a blacked out location until a black cloak is removed from her face showing the unknown location she is in. We will use a Point Of View shot to show that she is tied up to a bed in a average boy's bedroom and is very scared of not knowing where she is and who has kidnapped her. The camera will then be placed on a desk in the corner of the room for when we see the antagonist dressed in all black, face hidden, enter the bedroom and -using fast paced editing- we witness her being sexually abused and clothing removed from the young teen.

A blackout is then used once again at the end of the scene and a tension building soundtrack is played quietly in the background throughout the final scene.

The black cloak is then removed of her hair again and we see her, looking very messed up and skatty, tied to a chair and mouth covered with a bandana in the outdoors where a large light is beamed onto her . A pan shot will then be used to view table containing a wide range of sharp tools which the antagonist has placed there. As the antagonist walks towards the victim he revels himself.

Towards the end of the opening, he then appears behind her and starts smelling her hair in a very peverted way. This leads her to scream once again for help although it is very muffled and useless. The antagonist then selects a sharp butcher knife and places it against her neck intending to kill her, we use a reaction shot as she then begs and cries to be let free and then we use a close up shot of the antagonist, faced hidden with a black hood on, with a knife in his hand point it at her. As she screams once again the camera will be placed behind the antagonist who has the knife at her neck, then we see him -filming from behind- put the knife at the young teens neck as his hand quickly and forcefully strikes from her neck and up to the side. No sound is then made as seems as if he has killed her. He then places the knife back down on the table and we see the young teen still tied up but with her face down and hair covering proven that she is dead. At the end a deep and ghastly soundtrack is then used as the camera will pan the sight of a spade placed in already dug up soil where the antagonist intends to bury her. This is where the thriller opening will end. The audience will be left on the edge of their seats, empathising highly for the female victim and also the atmosphere will be very scare-filled and shocked.

 
Then you see the female victim wake up as if it is a dream next to the false antagonist. 

Planning: Final Idea

Final Idea

 

 

What makes a conventional thriller?
- A good range of characters. This is due to the fact that it will support the audience in configuring different opinions and likes/dislikes based on the characters personalities.

- An effective location. Setting the thriller within an effective location/locations will help to make sure the audience entertained.

- A good soundtrack. This is due to the fact that a good soundtrack can have a massive impact on a thriller. It contributes to giving the audience various feelings and emotions whilst watching a film.

- Use of costumes. Including a range of costumes for the characters to wear helps to apply and enforce gender roles and stereotypes which the audience will pick up on whilst watching the film.

- Different lighting and camera shots. Thia will also help the audience to keep entertained. An example of this is when fast-paced editing is used for scenes such as kidnapping or chase scenes which make it appealing for the audience to watch.

- Facial Expression and body language. These play a big role in a conventional thriller as they are what the audience will look upon the most. An example of this is if a murder has occured and a witness has been present.



Title: He knows you're not alone

 

Final Idea & (Opening Scene Narration)

'He Knows You're Alone'. The scene starts with a wide shot of the antagonist in a dark location looking at a storyboard full of images of a young teenage girl and her boyfriend including a very dark and gritty soundtrack made by myself and Kloe. A zoom shot will then be used when focussed on one image which will then show the entire board. The next scene is then the young teenage girl, aged 15, at home listening to music and planning on getting ready to go to a local house party that night. Normal paced editing will be used for this and also a camera will be left still in a singluar shot for this. We then see the boyfriend who was meant to attend the party but instead decides to go to his friends house and play video games all night. We see him then text his girlfriend, camera then focussed on the phone, asking her to stay home and he feels it is not going to be safe. Although when the scene cross cuts, we see the girl leaving her room, forgetting her phone behind on her drawer. The camera will again be focussed on the phone to view the text from him, plus the lights will be switched off to create a good atmosphere in the room for when the message is recieved.

As the scene develops it features the girl getting to the party and having a good time drinking and dancing with her friends. However, little does she know a hidden antagonist has followed her and is secretively watching her from the corner of the room whilst she is dancing. A birds eye view would be used to view this, and possibly slow paced editing to highlight the young girl and the antagonist.

It gets to the early hours of the morning and we see her walking home alone, very drunk and insecure with a nearly empty vodka bottle in her hand, walking through a park way with little clothing to cover her reavealing outfit. An extreme long shot and a camera-placed-on-floor shot will be used to show her slowly walking home and how dark it is throughout the park until we see the antagonist far behind her then fast paced editing will be used to show him catching up to her till she is gropped and kidnapped by the antagonist. Just after we hear her screams, we then use slow paced editing to view the alcohol bottle slowly smashing into pieces on the ground into a blackout.

The blackout will last appoximately 4 seconds until we hear the young girl breathing heavily, still in a blacked out location until a black cloak is removed from her face showing the unknown location she is in. We will use a Point Of View shot to show that she is tied up to a bed in a average boy's bedroom and is very scared of not knowing where she is and who has kidnapped her. The camera will then be placed on a desk in the corner of the room for when we see the antagonist dressed in all black, face hidden, enter the bedroom and -using fast paced editing- we witness her being sexually abused and clothing removed from the young teen.

A blackout is then used once again at the end of the scene and a tension building soundtrack is played quietly in the background throughout the final scene.

The black cloak is then removed of her hair again and we see her, looking very messed up and skatty, tied to a chair and mouth covered with a bandana in the outdoors where a large light is beamed onto her . A pan shot will then be used to view table containing a wide range of sharp tools which the antagonist has placed there.

Towards the end of the opening, he then appears behind her and starts smelling her hair in a very peverted way. This leads her to scream once again for help although it is very muffled and useless. The antagonist then selects a sharp butcher knife and places it against her neck intending to kill her, we use a reaction shot as she then begs and cries to be let free and then we use a close up shot of the antagonist, faced hidden with a black hood on, with a knife in his hand point it at her. As she screams once again the camera will be placed behind the antagonist who has the knife at her neck, then we see him -filming from behind- put the knife at the young teens neck as his hand quickly and forcefully strikes from her neck and up to the side. No sound is then made as seems as if he has killed her. He then places the knife back down on the table and we see the young teen still tied up but with her face down and hair covering proven that she is dead. At the end a deep and ghastly soundtrack is then used as the camera will pan the sight of a spade placed in already dug up soil where the antagonist intends to bury her. This is where the thriller opening will end. The audience will be left on the edge of their seats, empathising highly for the female victim and also the atmosphere will be very scare-filled and shocked.

Advantages:

~Also an interesting and basic storyline

~Will be quite simple to produce although some scenes may not be.

Disadvantages:

~Filming at a house party will be difficult as their will be a lot of characters which will make it hard to manage

~Filming at night will also be difficult due to weather conditions being very cold so tripods will be used to keep the camera still and not shaky also lowkey lighting will be managed

Characters:

Shanelle - 15 year old teenage girl. (Female Victim)

Jay - 15 year old teenage boyfriend of female victim

Hidden Antagonist - 'Unknown'

MES:
The thriller is filmed at night time so it will include a lot of dark lighting using lowkey lighting whilst filming.

Location - Home, Party, Hidden Location.

Lighting - LED's, Lowkey Lighting

Clothing - Revealing Clothing for Female Victim, Antagonist dressed in not black, Friends dressed casually

Key Iconography - Alcohol Bottles, Mobile Phones, Storyboards, Sharp Objects and Tools

Film Influences:

Scream 4 - This movie gave us the idea of a male antagonist causes harm on a female victim

Halloween - This movie gave us the idea of the antagonist stalking their victim

The Last House On The Left - This movie gave us the idea for the use of brutality shown by the Antagonist.

What themes does my thriller present?

The themes in which my thriller presents are Obsession and Hostage. This is evident as the antagonist is obsessed with the female victim and due to this obsession it leads him into kidnapping her and making her his own.

What response will i get from the audience?

I hope that my thriller will gain a fairly good response from the audience as it will be very entertaining and contains fast paced thriller scenes which will put the audience on the edges of their seat and create tension.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our group have now came up with our final idea for our thriller. We have identified what makes a conventional thriller, what MES will use and a full rundown of our narrative/plot.

 

 

 



Planning: Developing Ideas

Developing Ideas

 

 

Idea 1 narrative

A child is found wondering around the forest and a male and female finds the female child. When the two couples find the child and finds out that she is lost and her parents have died, and the two parent take her to their house to comfort and keep her safe. As soon as the two couples leave the girl to sleep they go to their room to go to sleep as well. As the child knows that the couples have feel asleep she goes down to the kitchen and takes a knife to kill the two couples, as she has mental problems and she only knows to kill people that try to help her.

 

Title: Help.

Sub-genre: Psychological Thriller

 

Characters: Evil Child, Female victim, Male victim.

Narrative Structure: Aristotle Theory.

 

MES:

 

Location – Forest, Isolated house.

Iconography – Knife

 

Costume

- Child with bloody clothes, dirty muddy.

- Female victim has a white jumper and blue jeans/ white pjs.

- Male victim has grey jacket and white t-shirt with tan chinos/ blue pjs.

 

Lighting – low key lighting, dim and faint.

 

Body language – Child is loose and head is always down, also the child’s feet drags when she walks.

 

Advantages:

Conventional thriller narrative

Characters that are clearly shown in the thriller genre

 

Disadvantages:

 Getting people to play the characters of this narrative.

Having a child to play the character and also the acting of the child.

 

 

 

 

Idea 2 narrative

A mental ginger antagonist has escaped and then finds a vulnerable female that chases and she is a typical female victim, along an alleyway and through the park, chases a young typical female victim. She would be kidnapped and taken into the antagonist house, and then the antagonist will dig a hole, intent to kill the victim.

 

 

Title: Gin
Sub Genre: Psychological Thriller

Characters: Female victim, Antagonist.

Narrative Structure: Aristotle Theory

MES:

Location – alleyway, park, garden

Lighting – Low key lighting

Clothing –

Female victim, revealing dress

Antagonist, Black cloak

 

Iconography: Alcohol.

 

Advantages:

Easy to film

Conventional thriller

 

Disadvantages:

Audience might not understand the name.

The characters might not be reliable on.

 

 

 

Idea 3 narrative

Narrative: The child watches a movie that isn’t for his age, and after he watched it he didn’t know that when he imaged from the movie into real life, he thought his parents was the antagonist that want to kill him, but he doesn’t know that his parents are no harm. Then when they start to try helping him, he kills them.

Title: Imagine.

 

Sub Genre: Psychological Thriller

 

Characters: Child, Mother & Father.

 

Narrative structure: Aristotle Or Barthes

 

 

MES:

 

Location: Home

 

Lighting: Low Key, almost blackout

 

Clothing:

Child- black t-shirt and black trousers

Mother: White Top, Jeans

Father: Black Top, Jeans

Advantages:

Easy to film

Conventional Thriller Narrative

 

Disadvantages:

Child to play character

Child that would act properly in the thriller

 

 

Conclusion

As we have made some ideas for the narrative, this has helped us as a group to create a narrative with collective ideas from the whole group. With doing this the other ideas that have been made have been put into the group narrative and as a group we are happy with the storyline of the thriller. With doing this the decisions that have been made are all the camera, angles, size and movement because it has helped us create an image of how our thriller will be.

 

 

 



Planning: Questionnaire & Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire & Questionnaire Results

 

 

 
 

In order to create our thriller movie, we were required to produce a questionnaire in order to gather some information and research on what are target audience would want to see from us. This procedure would help us when producing our thriller opening as it would help to make it appealing on our audience and also in order to make it conventional to the thriller genre.

Pictured above are some of the questions that I asked our audience. When counting up the results I found that the majority of the people I asked liked thriller movies. This was a great result because we knew that the thriller genre would be a popular option. 

Do you enjoy thriller movies?

This question was asked because it was essential in planning our opening and building a base. It also made us more comfortable in knowing if making a thriller opening would be a successful option. This question will also help us to make our opening as conventional to the thriller genre as we can.

 

 

 

What is your favourite thriller sub-genre?

This question helped us in deciding our thrillers sub-genre. The most popular sub-genre was crime thriller. We decided that this would be the best sub-genre to have it is the most popular amongst our audience and it also went well with the settings we planned on using such as a house and a garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What emotion do you most experience when watching thrillers?

We asked this question as the audiences emotion is a major factor in making a thriller movie effective therefore we're going to try to provide a lot of tension and a range of emotions within the audience.

 

 

Conclusion

The use of a questionnaire has helped us with the production of our thriller movie opening as we are now able to make our opening relate  with the public's responses. Moreover, this will help us make our opening conventional to the thriller genre as we are able to use the questionnaire as a guide. After collecting results, we decided that our main target audience was 15-20year olds of both genders who wish to see a thriller film providing alot of suspense and tension. This information is vital to our group as we now acknowledge who our target audience is and what they want to see in our thriller.

Research: Opening Credits & Typography

Opening Credits & Typography

Opening Credits

Opening credits are written information demonstrated when a film commences. Opening credits informs the audience on important information on the film such as who is starring in it and the production roles such as the director/s and the main actors/actresses. Opening credits are utilised before a film starts as it supports the audience in familiarizing themselves with the films content before watching it. It also helps to promote the film as it can influence the audience to watching it if they for example see their favorite director or actor in the opening credits.

Purposes of opening credits

Opening credits has various purposes such as:

• Advertising a film
• Promoting a film
• Giving credit where its due
• Influences audience to watch a film
• Helps to set the tone 

Information in opening credits

The audience expect to see at least two main actors/actresses which are used to catch the audiences attention. It then provides a list of the producers and other roles that were involved in the production of the film in order of importance.


Effect they have on the audience  

Opening credits are effective in films as they help to build tension and also create other emotions such as confusion within the audience and also makes them ask questions, therefore making them likely to want to watch the film.

 Example of opening credits - analysis

                                                 Se7en opening credits analysis

In the thriller movie 'Se7en', the opening credits is very effective in promoting the film. This is due to the fact that the opening credits included the names of the actors and they directors that were involved in the film. This was featured in order for the audience to be aware of the actors/actresses that are playing important roles in the film. In addition to this, the actors/actresses presented were in a form of most important roles to the least important. This form then continued into the production roles where it also went in order of importance.

Typography

Typography is a term used to describe the font that is used in the world of media. Font can be utilised in many things in media such as film credits. Typography also features the size of the font that is used aswell as its colour.

The typography utilised in the opening credits of the thriller 'Se7en' epitomizes the fact that its coming from a thriller movie. Different fonts are used in the opening credits and the font changes during the listing of the production roles. 

Conclusion

From looking at different film opening, I have come to a conclusion that I will be utilising medium sized text in dark colours such as black and red which both symbolise terror and fear.

Research: Age Certificates

Age Certificates

Who are the BBFC and what is their role?

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an
independent, non-governmental body. They've classified cinema films since 1912, videos/DVDs and some video games since 1984. Accountable to Parliament, their primary aims are to protect children and other vulnerable groups of people from harm.

Why BBFC is important in the film industry

The BBFC provides a wide variety of services to the Film and Home Entertainment industry

They are committed to:
issuing trusted age ratings and content advice in accordance with their published Guidelines, drawn from large-scale public consultations and   specialist research;
being fair and transparent in how they conduct our business;
ensuring information relating to their products and services is clear and understandable;
providing cost-effective statutory and non-statutory content labelling services for business of all sizes, reinvesting income to deliver further value promoting and protecting the creative industires through our support to law enforcement agencies and their extensive education programme.

Age certificates:

Suitable for all - U
A‘U’ rated  film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should not feature any violence, threat or horror.



 Parental Guidance
 General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.Unaccompanied children of any age can watch A ‘PG’ film. A PG rated film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content in a certain film may upset younger or more sensitive children.





 
             12 and 12A

The same criteria are used to classify films at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Films which are classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them.
                 
 The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless they are accompanied by an adult. Films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult.














                     15
 No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ rated film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated DVD. These films may show medium violence with reference to sex or drugs. 















                        18


No-one under the age of 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one under the age  may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated film. These films may show strong violence and heavy use of drugs and sex. 





 12A age certificate - Spiderman

The 12A age certificate was created during the Spiderman movie age rating controversy as most viewers filed in complaints that Spiderman (2002) had too many violent scenes and was not suitable for children aged eight and over.
  Subsequently, BBFC took the complains on board and gave the film a 12 rating however, this sparked another argument that Spiderman is a comic book hero that most kids grew up looking up to and it would be an unfair decision not to allow children to watch it. BBFC Then changed the age certificate from 12 and created 12A age certificate which meant children could only watch such rated films whilst accompanied by an adult.

 

 

 Common thriller age rating 

 

Most thrillers tend to receive an age rating of 15 as the content the film contains are either disturbing or too harmful for those younger than the age rating. Scenes that may contribute towards a thriller film getting an age rating of 15 and above include graphic violence and frequent strong language.

Conclusion

 

Looking at the different age certificates and the materials they contain has allowed me to have a better judgement on what my thriller age certificate will be and how I'll be able to make the trailer appropriate for my target audience.