Thriller poster analysis

This poster is for Gothika. Many areas suggest that it's a thriller. The first to stand out is the title, its the brightest part of the poster, the font is scratchy like it was written into a hard surface with a sharp tool, the intense white glow suggests intense heat and pain, like its throbbing. Another piece of text with isn't as easily noticable is the 'not alone' that appears to be scratched onto her arm. It appears to be a drak reddy brown like a scab, it suggests a theme to the film that she feels alone but isn't.
Her facial expressions shows to me, confusion and disbelief. Her eyes suggest confusion and the way her mouths open slightly suggests shes in disbelief or maybe shock. The way her hands are placed suggests shes against a glass window of some kind, maybe searching for help or trapped. how ever the only pressure being applied to the glass is by her finger tips if you were frantic like you would be if trapped or looking for help more of her would be pressed against the glass like her whole left arm or possibly her body to.
The atmosphere created is one of darkness. The background suggests shes without light, hope and security. The rain also suggests she is outside. The costume in this poster is a grubby tank top which again suggests shes been outside and been in contact with the floor, maybe in a struggle.
The lighting is quite lowly lit, her face has more color in than her body which forces the viewer to look at her face. the lighting is effective because it depicts her. Some posters that have a detailed background often lead the viewer to miss the main part of the poster with the most impact. This poster doesn't lead the veiwer a stray with backgrounds. The background blends in with her hair this could suggest somethings closing in or consuming her, maybe a mental fear (psychological thiller) or an attacker is getting closer (crime/action/psychcological thriller)

Analysis of thriller trailer - The Dark Knight

How does the music work along side the editing to create tension and build suspense?/How does the music indicate to us that the genre of the film is a thriller?

The music plays a crucial role in the trailer of 'The Dark Knight' as it essentially works along side the editing of the footage to build tension and continously engage the audience throughout the trailer. The first sound to be heard is non-diegetic sound of a fairly low-beat, dominant and fierce soundtrack that creates the atmosphere and sets the scene of the trailer. Throughout this part there is a sound similar to a heartbeat that can ben heard, which keeps the opening to the trailer fairly grounded and still. After around 5 seconds the main characters voice appears in a very creepy/evil approach, at this point the non-diegetic sound quietens to indicate the significance of the voice of the Joker. The sound alternates between the soundtrack and the voice of the Joker, the non-diegetic sound is low-beat and slow-paced to compliment the the voice of the Joker which is also slow and deep. This makes the trailer appear quite dominant and fierce, therefore indicating the type of movie it is. This continues until the audience hears an evil laugh - after this the trailer intensifies and and pace begins to speed up which ensures that the audience stays engage.

The audience can also every now and again hear diegetic sounds such as guns, the fast movement of cars and fire explosions. These sounds are highly exaggerated to suit the type of movie it is and to add dramatic effect and increase the intensity of the trailer. This helps the audience identify what may be included in the narrative and the types of settings, location the film is located. As the trailer persists, the footage jumpcuts very often and as it continues the jump cut becomes almost instant to give the audience hints to the footage, as this happens the the music connects to this by intensifying and becoming faster, this reveals the approaches in the movie by indicating what is going to be included, without fully giving everything away. All of a sudden, the audience sees a lorry crash, in which all other sounds have been muted and then everything pauses and to allow the dialogue to return, this gives the impression of a sense of uncertainity. At the very end, the Title appears in which the music enriches the importance of this part by the sound being loud, dominant for the audience to focus on the screen.

Analysis of thriller poster - American Psycho

This is the official poster for 'American Psycho', a thriller made in 2000. The use of mise-en-scene in this poster tells the viewer a lot about the movie. Firstly, the use of props such as the knife which is very central in the poster reveals its significance. Including a weapon instantly indicates to the viewer the types of themes that are going to be included in the opening, therefore making it obvious as to the what genre the movie is. The use of a knife has an ambiguous interpretation as it could be viewed as a weapon, however the positioning of the weapon on the page in which it reflects the face of the character makes the viewer interpret it as a mirror suggesting the notion of vanity and pride. Considering that the tag-line for the movie is 'Killer Looks' and 'Evil never looked so damn good' it excites the curiosity of the viewer as they are uncertain of the role of the character as there is a twist in the poster.

The costume in the poster plays a significant role of identifying the type of character he is. It gives a vivid sense of professionalism and smartness, suggesting that the character is a career-focused, respected and business-like individual. The man character is played by Christian Bale, a well-known actor in the film industry. Using a world-wide famous actor encourages people to watch the movie, and as the main character is viewed as attractive it encourages females to watch the movie, which widens the target audience of the movie. The notion of glamour is evidently indicated through the use of the sparkles surrounding the knife. This ensures that the viewers focus their attention on the knife, which gives the impression that the knife is of a high importance, emphasising the glamourised approach to the prop.

The use of colour on the poster closely follows the conventions of a thriller by using dark colours, such as black, grey and red. This helps reveal to the audience that the movie is a thriller as the colour suggests the type of narrative likely to be included. The repeated use of red in the background and on his tie symbolises the the idea of death, danger, blood etc. which hints the narrative in the movie. The strong non-diegetic lighting also creates an atmospheric surrounding by showing light areas on key features of the poster such as the knife and there is light on the side of the character's face, whereas the other side is dark, suggesting a mysterious, suspicious character.

Lastly, the font of the title and the tag-line matches and accentuates the themes portrayed in the poster. The tag-line has used simplistic, italic writing making it appear fancy and glamorous. The colour makes it stand our against the black background, which makes the more eye-catching for the viewer.

Evaluation of filming 2

On the Tuesday after halfterm, our group filmed the first part of our thriller in our lesson. We used an empty classroom that was near to our media classroom and we chose that classroom almost straightaway as the classroom had a layout that is helpful for our filming and the type of camera work we had planned to do. In order to minimise the colour that can be seen on the screen, we removed the displays of people's work off the wall so that there was as little colour as possible and Bronte put the displays back when we had finished filming, we also needed to move some of the tables and chairs so that they weren't visible in our footage.

The main problem that we had was that for our tracking shot we needed a dolly in order keep the camera very steady, however, the media department said they didn't know where one was so as an alternative we had to use a chair with wheels on and then placed the tripod onto the chair. We slowly and steadily moved the chair whilst holding onto the camera, however the first tim we done it the camera slowly tilted to one side which meant we didn't get a steady shot.

We felt quite organised as Jess remembered to bring in the 'Stalker board' that she had made and Bronte remembered the storyboard to follow. Lewis was suppose to bring in his suit, however he forgot to but somehow remembered his blazer...
Bronte emailed our teacher, Holly during the halfterm to ask to use the camera during our lesson, therefore Jess and I were organised for this part of the filming, to ensure that the filming went as effeciently as possible. Although we had planned everything well and we felt we were organised by having our ideas ready and bringing in the props some problems still occurred - as Tom was unaware of the ideas for this part, it was Bronte's role as director to direct and explain to the Tom what was happening as he filmed parts of it, however depsite our thorough planning and Bronte's control of the group, Tom had a mind of his own and decided to do his own thing which prolonged the filming process. As a result the filming took just under an hour and a half, which is one lesson worth.

Analysis of feedback

we received our feedback well, one comment was on the wrong post but the bad comment they made was about adding time intervals, which was already done on the left post.

Most of the feedback can now be used very constructively, as our problems and areas which we can improve on have been identified. we will review our work together and will then try to improve on areas where we can as our feedback was majorly positive feedback, so we do not have as much work to do as other groups in the class who have done a shorter, and less detailed post.

feedback from S1-23

The blog has good detail throughout giving us a good idea of how the film will flow. The music should be fast paced to build tension and the varied shot type is good.

feedback on final ideas

We think that the ideas were good, and you went into a lot of detail about your stalker wall. You mentioned different shot types briefly but could have gone into closer detail and split the writing up into ten second intervals which would have made it clearer.

feedback from S1 20

We can see from the breakdown that the final idea has been very well thought out and they have covered all aspects of filming. They have thought about the way in which the camera movements and sound can relate to the theme, e.g. ''The music played at this point will be really slow and have a low-beat that will suit the movement of the camera, this will build the tension and add suspense to the atmosphere we would like to portray''
They seem to have understood the importance of conventions well and used them correctly to fit the theme.

Feedback from 21

Feedback from S1-21;
The ten second breakdown is explained well and gives you a visual idea of their opening sequence. It shows a creepy, almost scary impact to the audience. The conventions such as variation in shots is good well explored. However filming outside may not go according to plan, so they need to make sure they begin filming earlier in order to capture all their footage encase the weather is bad. Having a larger group you need to make sure you are all on the same level and know what is going on, so making sure to remember the props and costumes for each other is essential to film. Over all 22's thriller film is well organised. The music definatly relates to the theme well.

:)

Ideas and planning for Filming 2

The next part of our filming we will be doing after the halfterm when we are allowed the camera's again. The final part we will be filming is our opening part of approximately 40 seconds which will primarily show the 'Stalker board'.

Our thriller will begin with a long shot/establishing shot of an isolated room that appears empty and will give the impression that it is unused. The camera will very steadily and slowly to zoom into the room in order to reveal more to the audience. Around the corner of the room there will be bare wall that has our 'Stalker board' displayed on it. Lewis will be standing beside the wall looking at the photos, he will be dressed in his suit to ensure that there is continuity onto the next scene. As a glimpse of Lewis's character appears on screen and before the audience can fully identify what is on the wall, the camera will do a sudden jump cut to another viewpoint of the wall to fully reveal the images etc. that is on the wall and then will slowly zoom in likewise to before. This will immediately allow the audience to identify with the themes and narrative involved in our thriller.

There will be non-diegetic sound played throughout this part that will start as soon as the fooage appears on screen. The music we aim to be instrumental that is fairly quiet and becomes gradually louder to build suspense. There will be a sudden jump cut to a medium shot of the photos on the Stalker board. We will make the camera vary its shot distances to show both close-up and far away shots of images on the stalker board. At this point, the tension will become more intense and the pace of the camera movement will speed up to give a sense of uncertainity. As the camera then slows down it will then focus entirely on one photo - the camera will then return to the steady movement as it was at the beginning and zoom into this photo until it is a close-up of the image. As the camera is zooming in Lewis's hand will appear on the screen and he will aggressively pull the image away from the wall to emphasise to the audience that the person in the photo is significant in the narrative. A close-up of Lewis's wallet will appear on screen and he will fastly and nervously put the photo into the wallet.

How is this part of our opening conventional to a thriller?
Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene will appear dark and the colours apparent will be fairly neutral, except for the red pen markings on the photos that will be red, symbolising danger, death, blood etc.
Sound
The main purpose of the sound is to appear eerie, creepy that will add suspense and build tension in the opening which follows the conventions of a thriller
Location
To follow the conventions of a thriller the location is deserted, quiet and empty which emphasises the creepy approach
Characters
In this part of the opening, only on of the main characters is shown - he appears isolated, mysterious and dark which makes audience unable to relate to him.
Props
The props used are to gives hints to the themes that occur in our thriller, therefore making it relate to thriller conventions
Camera shots/movement
There is a lot of variation in the camera shots/movement and in particular close-ups mean that the audience are unable to see elsewhere in the frame as they focus on one area, which adds mystery and a sense of the unknown

Props that will be needed for this part:

• Pins to hold images together
• Stalker board - photos, map, drawn images, newspaper article titles
• suit
• wallet
• paint
• string
  

Following our first filming session for the thriller task, we have analysed our problems, therefore in the hope of minimising the occurrance of similar problems.

Thriller title ideas

In order to come up with a title for our thriller I thought it would be a good idea to look at the characteristics of a stalker as if our title was to be a word to describe a stalker it would give an insight to the theme of our thriller. I think that a one word title would make the title more striking as although it would be very simplistic it would have a high impact and be very effective.

This is a list of the characteristics of a stalker:

• compulsive
• manipulative
• dark
• obsessive
• strives for control over others
• is unable to take "no" for an answer
• isolated
• views self as a victim
• unable to cope with the rejection
• jealous
• does not take responsibility of own feelings or actions
• mysterious
• deceptive
• sense of entitlement
• obsessive

These are my ideas for our title, although before we decide on one, we will need to decide on a title as a group of what we all think would work best.

Certificate for our thriller

Our thriller would be best suited to be a 15 for several reasons. The themes included in our thriller would be accepted to be a 15 as although the themes are mature, the portrayal is suitable for the age group as it isn't explicit or very frequent. The use of horror is very moderately psychological and the sequences are not disturbing or frequent, therefore making it suitable for a 15 rating. Any form of dangerous behaviour is not included in our thriller and use of strong language is not used at all in the opening.

BBFC certificate criteria

These are the certificate guidelines published by the BBFC for the certificate ratings for 12 and 15.
Discrimination
Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be used explicitly and aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be accepted

Drugs
Misuse of drugs must be infrequent and must not be encouraged or glamorised.

Horror
Moderate physical and psychological threat are allowed, as long as disturbing sequences are not
frequent.

Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not be included explicitly which could be copied, appear pain free or harm free.

Language
Moderate language is acceptable. The use of strong language must be infrequent.

Nudity
Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief.

Sex
Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not be beyond what is appropriate for young teenagers. Crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme
Mature themes are acceptable, but their portrayal must be suitable for young teenagers.

Violence
Moderate violence is allowed but should not be in detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, however occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context.

Discrimination
The film as a whole must not encourage of endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs
Drug taking may be visible but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,
aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror
Strong threat are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should be detailed if it could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language
There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest terms may be
acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail.

Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context.

Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence
Violence may be strong but should not focus on the pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence
but portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet.

Tips for filming

1) Always film shots more than once

It is important to film the same part more than once, so that when it comes to the editing you can decide which shot has worked the best in order to make the whole footage that has been captured better.

2) Plan thoroughly beforehand
If you have planned what needs to be achieved and how you are going to achieve it well in advance this will mean you will minimise the issues that may occur when you come to film. This will also reduce the amount of time spent rehearsing/practising what you need to do on the day to make the filming process more straightforward and efficient. This means that the you can focus on the practical elements of your work, in order to make the outcome have a higher impact.

3) Film everything for longer than expected
By doing this is it means that when you come to edit you cut and edit the parts that aren't imporant in order to use the parts that are most important to be in your footage. If you film to little, you will have to make do with what you have, however if you film for longer than you need you can work out and decide which part you want to use and how long you want that part to be played. If you film for longer it means that the camera person can figure out the best camera shot/movement is best.

4) Always use a tripod unless it's for effect
this will increase the likelihood of creating a steady shot. If the camera is constantly moving and shaking it means that the audience are likely to be distracted by the unsteadiness of the camera. This means that they won't concentrate on the presentation.

5) Film close to the object
If you are trying to create a close-up of an object, instead of zooming into the object it is better to physically move closer to the object. This will allow the object to be clearer and the sound quality will be better, which means the whole screen will look better visually and aurally.

Call sheet for filming

Date/time
We are going to film on Monday the 8th February at 4:00pm when college ends. The plan is for Lewis, Bronte and Jess to meet outside our media classroom and go to the media office together to pick up the camera and tripod. As Jess is going to Poland the next day and Bronte isn't in college until 10:45, Lewis will take the camera equipment home and return it to the media department before 9:00am on Tuesday.

Location
We have chosen to film on Cherry Hinton road which is near the Cambridge leisure centre. We decided to film here because of the accessibilty to get to this location. The appearance of this location is ideal as it is near recreational shops that make the location appear casual and similar to everyday life. The bus stop is very similar to the bus stop we had in mind and we will be able to have sufficient space to film what we need. Additionally, this location is easily accessible as there are many buses running through this area, therefore we can get the bus from college to the cambridge leisure centre (outside Hills Road) and then walk down to the bus stop. We are planning to get the citi 7 bus. As this location is in a public area, there are more health and safety considerations we need to take into account. The main issue is that we need to be considerate of are the vehicles and pedestrians that will be passing by.

Lighting
We will be filming at around 4:30pm, therefore we want to film as it starts to get dark in order create an atmosphere through the lighting. However, we don't want it to get too dark, so that the screen quality is affected.

Actors
The people who are acting are:
Lewis as the stalker, who is the main character
Bronte as the teenage victim, who is the second main character
Jess as the extra person at the bus stop to make the location seem more natural.

Lewis and Bronte are the characters who will be having a conversation, we will be taking the script that Jess and Lewis wrote with us so that the characters know what to say.

Film Crew
Everyone in our group will be taking it in turns to film different parts of our thriller, although Jess is the main camera person who will be filming the most, as she is acting the least.

Props
We will need several props to take with us on the day and Lewis, Jess and Bronte will be in control of taking different props. Bronte will be bringing the shot lists and storyboard sheets, rabbit mask, cat ears, eyeliner for cat make-up, black clothes and photos for 'stalker board'. Lewis will be bringing in his suit and Jess will be bringing in her wonder woman outfit.

Back-up plan
As we are filming outside we will need to consider the weather, if the weather was to be bad on the day, we will postpone the filming until another day, as we have no other choice but to film outside because the location is an important aspect of the filming.

In this part of the filming we will be filming the last 3/4 of our thriller, we will be closely following the storyboard we made in order to get the certain camera shots/movements we want. There aren't any particular sounds we need to capture during the filming, as this will be added in when we edit.

Our stalker board

These photos are of our stalker board in progress, which I made. It features things we thought were appropriate for a stalker board.

This is our initial map on a piece of A1 board. It features Cambridge and the surrounding areas, the area where our thriller opening is set.

Here I started to cut out newspaper clippings and relavant headlines that will stand out. These headlines include 'More Die' 'Buried Alive' and 'Lost'. Eventually all the writing down the left side will be covered by various newspaper clippings. The clippings don't actually have any reference to anything in particular but they arn't there to be read by the audience merely an insentive, a hint almost that they are connected to the crossed out photos and headlines.

Here i have started to add pictures and string going from the headlines and photos to locations. On this picture the string appears to be the same color as some of the roads but in real life they do stand out.

In the right corner is where Bronte's character comes in. Using a ringed papparazzi style photo along with a sketch of the rabbit mask should indicate to the audience shes next. The rabbit mask sketch should indicate a masked man? or like other photos where I've included sketches it might indicate whats going to happen to her. This corner will have no newspaper clippings near, nothings happened to her yet so she wont have had any stories published about her at this time.

This photo also shows 3 colored photos in a pile, which will be 4. They are for our opening credits. They were printed in color to make them stand out from the images connected to the stalker and his doings. These photos will have our roles underneath so our credits can link to the stalker board and the audience will know everyones part.

Close up photos of our color photos and roles.

These are unfinished i need to add 'Editor' trim off all the white paper and stick them on the stalker board. Hopefully they have a nice 'stalker board' feel to them. Each letter is an individual cut out from the Sunday Times newspaper which took a long time but all worth it.

This is our final stalker board. The only thing missing is our color role photos, but I thought the rest of the group would appreciate putting theirs where they wanted.

I feel there needs to be more newspaper clippings but looking at it I think its only the right hand side thats lacking but that would counter act the string, I didn't want it to look to busy.
I think more chunkier headlines wouldve been good but there are slim pickings. Lots of these sorts of stories are from Iraq, China, Turkey and Russia so the stories are in tiny sections all on half of a page, so the headlines are small. The foreign sotries were used the middle on the right hand side and the bottom. These two and one more, the one in the top middle are true stories. The one top, middle was a print out but I felt the paper stood out so I chose not to carry on with this method of story finding, even though searching through 40+ newspapers is time consuming. The story is about a women dieing on station train tracks, I linked this with string to Cambridge station.
I doubt is going to work on a classroom wall but i have faith in my groups choice to do so.

The roles of each group member

Director: Bronte
Producer: Bronte, Jess
Camera: Jess, Lewis, Bronte, Tom
story written by: Jess and Lewis
Editor: Jess, Bronte, Tom, Lewis

Below I have clarified the defintions of each of the roles we have undertaken to make clear who has done what for the production of our thriller.

Director:
Someone who controls, manages and supervises and instructs the actors and filming crew.

Camera:
The individual or group of people who operate the camera.

Producer:
The person who organises the production of the film including the goods/services (props)

Story writer:
The person who originates or gives existence to anything

Editor:
The person who edits the material/footage

1st day of filming - evaluation

Yesterday Lewis, Bronte and Jess filmed approximately 3/4 of our thriller opening. We booked the camera from 4pm and returned it the next morning. As originally planned we started to film as soon as it started to become dark in order for the lighting to be dark and mysterious to fit the conventions of a thriller. Most of the filming went to plan, as we had organised and planned the filming beforehand in order to minimise the problems and issues that may have occurred on the day. Our storyboard and shot list was particularly helpful as it enabled us to have a guide to work from in order to make the filming process more efficiently done and more straightforward.

However, some aspects we were unable to control - as it was snowing continously throughout the day there was a chance that we were going to be unable to film and that would have ment that we would have had to postpone it to another day. This would have had to be after halfterm as Jess went to Poland on a school trip the next day and was not returning until Friday. Despite this we filmed from between around 4:30 pm and 5:45pm. The area in which we had chosen to film in was a busier road than we anticpated and as a result we experienced many vehicles going past and during the busier times, we had to stop filming for a while before continuing to film again as we tried to reduce problems with the sound quality.

The plan is to film the 1/4 we have left to do after halfterm when the 'Stalker board' has been made. As this part is being filmed inside we expect that less problems are likely to occur and we have an efficient time to plan the filming process for this part.

Possible Locations- Planning for filming

Location 1:
This is one of our possible locations, located down Trumpington Road, it is pretty deserted most of the time, but the only downfall of this is that it may be fairly busy on the roads which will disrupt our sound quality.

Location 2:
This is another possible location for our thriller film it isn't as deserted as the other as there is shops behind it and other recreational shops e.g Chinese restaurants, the shops are not very inconspicuous with bright yellow signs and displays. This possible location is on Cherry Hinton Road.

Location 3:
Addenbrookes hospital bus stops (back roads)
- these are very quiet and rarely used - our film would be more likely to have a better quality with less disruption from traffic etc, however, occasional traffic could be used as ambient sound to add atmosphere. So there are benefits to traffic and other noises as well.

We had to seriously consider what would be our best filming location, we had to think about the noise of traffic and other people which could effect the quality of our film if it was considerably bad, this lead to a lot of planning and research on where we could film.

Prop - Rabbit mask

Having been influenced by the rabbit in 'Donnie Darko' this mask is a photo of the mask we are going to use in our own thriller. The aim of the mask was to be a freaky looking rabbit that appears really creepy, rather than a cute, happy rabbit mask in order to fit with the conventions of a thriller. Having the rabbit mask in our opening has allowed us to create a dramatic ending to the opening that adds an ironic twist to the narrative, with the intention of wanting to engage the audience into continue watching.

The film 'Donnie Darko' is about a teenage boy, Donnie, who lives in Middlesex and is viewed to be abnormal. He sees a therapist regularly as his parents believe that he is going insane. This is because Donnie Darko has an 'imaginary' friend called Frank, who is the rabbit. The main purpose of the rabbit is to provide and assist the narrative of the movie, likewise to ours.

The image below is an image of the rabbit, Frank from Donnie Darko:
Before Jess managed to get a rabbit mask, I made this rabbit mask as preparation for our filming as this was one of our crucial props. My aim when making it was to create a rabbit that looks freaky and suspicious that is to act as a disguise. However, because Jess was able to get mask we didn't use this in the end. I think that the mask we did use was more professional and made our mise-en-scene more advanced.

Detailed shot list for our Thriller opening

These two photos are our shot list demonstrating the camera angles, actions, location and props involved in each shot/section out of 21. This shot list is to assist the our explanation from our storyboard that included writing and illustration of our thriller opening. This shot list has given our group more guidance and assistance for when we come to filming, that will hopefully be of good help in order to make the filming process more straightforward, having planned this part more thoroughly.

Shot list part 2

Detailed timeline of finalised idea

This is a detailed timeline explaining the each 10 second segment for the two minutes in our thriller opening. It explains the props, location, dialogue, music and shot types and how they follow the conventions of a thriller.

At the beginning, we will show our ident but as we haven't finished animating it, we will see how time goes towards the end of our project before to see whether we have time to make our ident.

0-10 seconds
Our thriller will begin with tracking shot, where the camera is very slowly moving into a room and it will curve around the room to reveal the photos on the wall and a glimpse of Lewis standing there looking at the photos. Lewis will be wearing a suit to emphasis his business-like and ambitious character. The props included in this part will be the photos and images displayed on the wall.
11-20 seconds
After 10 seconds the part from above will continue as the camera will be moving slowly to enhance the mysterious approach in order to fit with the conventions of a thriller. The camera will then jump cut to another part of the room, this will be a long shot in which the photos will be shown from another angle. The music played at this point will be really slow and have a low-beat that will suit the movement of the camera, this will build the tension and add suspense to the atmosphere we would like to portray.
21-30 seconds
A medium shot of the camera skimming over the images so that the audience have a closer view of the photos in order to introduce the themes in the thriller. On the left side of the screen the audience will be able to see the side of Lewis's face - this will add a mysterious approach as the audience will have been introduced to the main character but not fully. The music here will be fairly quiet and relate to the fast-paced movement of the camera.
31-40 seconds
As the camera movement slows down it will focus onto one photo (a photo of Bronte) the camera will zoom in to signify her importance in the narrative. The music played at this point will change from the existing music to highlight the importance of this part. As this is happening Lewis hand will appear as he aggressively rips the photo off the wall.
41-50 seconds
Another close-up will appear of Lewis hesitantly and slowly putting the photo into his wallet. The music will become louder and the pace will become faster to create an atmosphere to relate to the themes. The location will still be in the same room as the beginning but as it is a close-up the surrounding won't be important. There will be a sudden jump cut to Bronte sitting at a bus stop, therefore the audience can see the relation between the photos and the the next part of the footage. Bronte will be dressed as though she is going to a Halloween party. There is a change in location at this point from the room to a bus stop - this will be a long shot in order for the audience to establish the location and to see the next main character Bronte. In order to make the scene look more realistic and authentic Jess will also be standing at the bus stop dressed in an outfit for Halloween. The atmosphere here is fairly ordinary.
51-60 seconds (1 minute)
There will be an over the shoulder shot from Lewis's point of view of him removing the photo of Bronte from his wallet, while in the background the audience will be able to see Bronte waiting at the bus stop. This will emphasises the mysterious and suspicious approach.
61-70 seconds
The camera then returns to a long shot of Lewis walking casually along the the street, we will have exaggerated footstep to make him appear powerful. He will be dressed in a suit to give the impression that he is on his way home from work. The suit gives a sense that he is a well-presented and well-respected business man. At this point we will use match on action in order for the audience to see more than one angle of the main character. The music at this point will add dramatic effect so that Lewis's importance in the narrative and to make this part of the opening significant.
71-80 seconds
This continues during this section and the audience will then see Bronte again waiting at the bus stop. A long shot will then show Lewis walking past Bronte to emphasise the suspicious approach in the opening that will follow the conventions of a thriller. Lewis makes eye-contact at Bronte and then walk past to add a dramatic effect.
81-90 seconds
The audience then see Lewis turn back round and start walking back to where Bronte is, there is a pan shot of Lewis walking closer to Bronte, this is where the dialogue is going to begin. As the conversation between Lewis and Bronte starts, we will use shot reverse shot to display both of the character talking. Lewis's personality will appear to be confident yet dark and mysterious. Whereas Bronte's reaction will appear weary and uncertain.
91-100 seconds
The conversation continues, as there is a shot reverse shot there will be a low angle shot facing Lewis to highlight his dominance and authority. In contrast, there will be a high angle shot of Bronte to display her weakness. Towards the end of the conversation Lewis begins to become impatient and walks away. As Lewis walks away and he appears off screen, a pan shot from Bronte's perspective to see an empty bus stop.
101-110 seconds
She begins to look away still waiting for the bus stop. Here the music becomes more intense to signify to the audience that something is going to happen, however Bronte will appear oblivious to the situation. Lewis will then reappear in a mask even though Bronte is unaware of Lewis's actions.
111-120 seconds (2 minutes)
As Bronte is sitting there the camera zooms into a close-up in order to make the audience unable to see what is happening elsewhere, in order to enhance the suspicious approach. As Lewis sits beside Bronte the camera zooms out. He speaks to Bronte and Bronte turns her head in shock. The music will be a high beat and fast paced to make it seem intense and then it ends...

Analysis of 'Six Feet Under'

This is a Screen garb from the long road media website, of the clip which I am going to analyse.

The opening of the film introduces the audience to the theme of death of the television program, Six Feet Under. The music plays a big part in the

portrayal of the theme and influencing emotions to the audience.

Crows are shown almost immediately in the opening (see image below), the bird could be representing evil, or death, as the credits are in white, but when the Crow flies into it, it falls apart and starts falling apart. I think this represents people dying, introduces the audience to the theme.

There are fades used in between in this programme,

Analysis of the 'Panic Room' credits

The first camera shot apparent to the audience is an establishing shot of a cityscape, this enables the audience to acknowledge where the film is set and they can guess as to the types of characters, narrative etc that a likely to be included in this movie. The camera moves very steadily and slowly zooming in to the image on the screen to allow the audience to remain focused with the image. Throughout the opening credits there is a selection of frozen images of the building/landscapes etc. that you would expect to find in a city. The camera stays on one image for a few seconds before moving onto different image, this allows the overall feel to be relaxed and very civilised, as there is a lack of energy and liveliness. It is perhaps that this approach makes it appear dominant and powerful is camera is very sustained.

In order to keep the audience engaged and to develop the sequence of the credits, the camera movement develops into a variation of pan and tracking shots, it enabled the audience to see more of the images on the screen. Once the main title has been introduced, the pace of the camera movement picks up and becomes more energetic.

The colours used in the credits are very natural looking, keeping to very basic and harmious colours that adds to the authenticity. Colours such as browns, greys and greens are all very realistic colours that resemble the colours you would expect to see in the city. The font style has a significant role in creating the overall style that are conveyed in the credits. The use of captial letters makes the font appear dominant and authoritative. Having a large and exaggerated font placed amongst the city buildings makes it look powerful and of a high importance, so that the audience pay attention to the text. The font style represents and fits in well with the city scape to make it appear really eye-catching as they are placed within the buildings.

The sound also has an important purpose of creating the strong and serious approach to the credits. The non-diegetic sound begins with a very low beat sound, that is slow paced, this type of sound continues for the first quarter of the credits. At the beginning, when the establishing shot is on screen, there is diegetic sound apparent, where general traffic noise can be heard. However, as the credits persist only the non-diegetic soundtrack can be heard, therefore the audience become more involved with the credits, without the digetic sound overpowering the atmosphere of the credits music. When the text: 'PANIC ROOM' is on the screen the music deepens and the pace as it is really slow, signifying the importance of the text. From here onwards, the music becomes more upbeat, louder and faster in order to change the atmosphere and keep the audience engaged and interested. As the music is more energetic, so is the camera movement as it becomes faster and the jump cuts between images are quicker, which makes it appear bolder and active.

Idea for camera movement when the photos are on wall and credits idea

Unfortunately when Jess filmed this clip above, she didn't turn off her front room lights, so they aren't suppose to be there and are not actually included in the clip. The sections of people dying in this clip are irrelevant to our thriller opening, as we are focusing on the other aspects included in this clip.

The focus of this clip is to concentrate on the camera movement that occurs when the camera displays the newspaper clippings on the wall. We chose this film as inspiration for the camera movement at the 'photos on the wall' part for our thriller as the portrayal of the atmosphere at this point is something we would like to pursue. Having been influenced by the camera movement here, we would use a pan shot similar to the panshot on this clip, the camera would move very fast-paced to create a chaotic feel and confusion for the audience and then it would suddenly stop and freeze on an image long enough for the audience to identify what the photo is of, before chaotically moving again. The variation in the speed of the camera movement we thought would work particualrly well to create an atmosphere that follows the conventions of a thriller. This would be by building tension and creating suspense at this point, as well as engaging the audience with the themes in our thriller opening.

At this point, our idea is to intertwine the photos on wall part with our opening credits at the same time. Jess's idea is to have a simular set up to the newspaper clippings on the wall but include pictures with faces circled and crossed out. This section of the film will include our credits: the initial idea was to have a picture of each of us from our group and then when the camera tracks to that shot underneath have what there role was in our film for example under a picture of Tom we would have "Director'' or something of a similar meaning. We thought this would be an effective and dramatic idea as the camera movement would allow the audience to identify the themes and gain clues about the storyline, this part would add hype and tension, whereas the credits would calm down the atmosphere.

Idea for photos on stalker board

These examples of pictures we gathered are like the ones we want to put on stalker board in our thriller. The pictures of photos, newspaper articles etc are to make the board look more sinister, varied to create a stark, negative atmosphere that will introduce the themes.

This photo shows similar drawings to the ones i shall include on our 'stalker board'. Not that we know it at this part of the film but these sketches show ideas for the ''games'' jigsaw later uses during the film.
i shall include images such as razor blades, people tied up, all things that would suggest how or what hes going to do to them later in the film if it were to be created.

This shows how larger scale this mans 'stalker board' is. Also included is a blown up picture of a tape cassette that is a key feature throughout the film.



This image shows the mans obsession, he has a TV hooked up to a tape player and keeps watching through video footage.

This man isn't stalking someone he's trying to catch someone. however we wanted to spin this round include a map to suggest our guy is a stalker.

Camera movement influences - first few seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF9rP1w2sCE (first 20 seconds)
The link above shows the clip of the opening to 'American Psycho'.

As the first part of our thriller introduces the themes involved in a our thriller, I have taken inspiration from 'American psycho' based on the camera movement in the opening seconds of this film. The first part to our opening is set in a room which has a wall covered in photos of girls with Lewis standing next to it. A method of introducing this scene is by having a very slow-moving tracking shot in which the wall blocks the audience's view of the photos before they are fully introduced in order to add a mysterious approach to this part. The aim is to have the camera moving really steadily around the corner of the room before the images on the wall are fully exposed. As the audience get a glimpse of the photos, the camera will cut to another viewpoint of the room, likewise to the camerawork in this example where it camera cut to an image of a bed.

The music at this point will also be very crucial in order create an immediate, suspicious atmosphere and quickly engage the audience to the thriller. Having been influenced by this film for this part, I think that this idea closely relates to the conventions of a thriller. This is by the slow-paced, mysterious non-diegetic sound. This sound will build tension and add suspense top this part. Additionally, it clearly yet suspiciously introduces the narrative of thriller that focuses around crime and the character being introduced is viewed by the audience to appear dark and perhaps not socially accepted, therefore making him an isolated character. The location also follows the conventions of a thriller by being set in a deserted place.

Storyboard of our Thriller opening

This is our storyboard using illustration and annotation about the different shots in our thriller opening. It is very detailed giving us clear and organised guidance when we come to our filming stage. It thoroughly explains the different camera shots/movements we will be using and what other micro-elements we will be using in order to achieve the typical thriller conventions.

Why "Thrillers" thrive

The article called: Why "Thrillers" thrive is about the deep contrast of horror and thriller films and how thriller will always dominant horror films. This article explains to the reader what makes a good thriller - considering that the article was written in 1936, we can see that the 'Thriller' is still very much the same; and one of societies favourite genres of film.

One quote which stands out to us is: 'it isn't practicable to experience sufficient thrills at firsthand.' For us this shows that thrillers movies are filling a gap and catering for something that we can't legally experience in our everyday lives - i.e. killing people or purposely crashing a plane into Zeppelin. Furthermore we see from the article that 'watching a well-made film, we don't sit by as spectators; we participate.' - this reinforces that the audience are sub-consciously involved in the film as the audience can often relate to the narrative therefore being more engaged.

Furthermore, the choice of micro-elements and conventions used in the creation of the film, in the article the film is said to have a '-blackout-' this convention is added into the film to represent the death of the pilot (which we as the audience have been in the point of view of') - and the effects of this are clear to us 'a palpable shuddering runs through the audience' this gives the vivid sense that a thriller is adrenaline-rushing yet is safe as it isn't first-hand experience.

The last paragraph we think as a group is very simplistic but the effect has a high impact. It straightforwardly summaries the articles main point, explaining that a thriller will always live and the horror will die. "A "thriller" must be wholehearted - the more exciting the better. And that is why the authentic "thriller" will live and thrive, and the "horror" film will die." The last words written in the article are likely to stay in the readers mind because of the significance it has.

Thriller Opening rough script

Lewis and Bronte at the bus stop after walking past and then coming back...

Lewis: 'Have you got the time?'
Bronte: 'Erm.. its 6:45'
Lewis: 'Thanks very much, I don't have a watch, what's your name?
Bronte: 'I don't think you really need to know..'
Lewis: 'Come on, I just asked a question, it's not like I'm a stalker or anything'
(both laugh)
Lewis: 'So where are you going?'
Bronte: 'To a party'
Lewis: 'I'm having a party, you should come with me I need someone to go with'
Bronte: 'No thanks'
Lewis: 'What did you say?!'
Bronte: 'No thank you'
Lewis: 'No-one says no to me, you'll regret this.'

Lewis' lines should be well-pronounced and deep yet mysterious to fit with his suit and business-like appearance.
Bronte's lines should be quite slangy to represent her age.