Treatment sheet.

Me and my group have not yet come up with a name for our thriller, so over the next couple of days we will be discussing ideas and names for it. 

Ideas/Story 

For the plot of our film we are going to be following the life of a boy. On this particular night he will be at home, watching television alone. While watching the tv the protagonist will get a knock at the door, he finds it very strange as he is not expecting anyone and is not expecting his family to be back till around midnight. When he opens the door, he doesn't recognise the two men and is more sure about this as the man asks for someone that he knows doesn't live there. When the protagonist has sent the men away, a while later he gets another knock at the door and strangely it all happens again. The protagonist definitely feels like its happening all over again. As he starts to get worried about this door knocking, he decides to call a friend that will come round and just watch some tv with him. Again there's a knock on the door, the protagonist automatically presumes its his mate so he opens the door but stood in ahead with his back to him is a man. When he comes out to confront the man he is approached by three other men who attack him and gets hit over the head with a bat. We then see him getting picked up and put into the back of the boot. The last scene of the film is us seeing the car driving off in the distance. 

Settings/props/costumes

Setting: house/road 

Cast: 6 actors overall 

The 4 kidnappers will be wearing all black clothing which will make them look and come across as very suspicious and mysterious 

Protagonist: Casual clothes, wearing pastel colours 

Getaway car, rope 

More ideas

We have decided to shoot the thriller at night so the darkness adds to the mysterious and suspicious tension in the atmosphere. Whilst the protagonist is at home watching television and he gets the knock at the door, dark and nerve racking music will be played. Contrapuntal to make the audience suspicious. When the car is driving off with the man in the boot, the audience will feel confused and will ask questions to why the protagonist is being kidnapped. 

TheArtOfTheTitle.

Today I decided to look at 'theartofthetitle.com' and I realised that the reason for having this site is to show off to the public the title designs of many artists. This website has a large variety of film and television title sequences. 

A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programmes present their title, key production, starring actors and the staff members or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sounds.                                                              

Sound for our Ident Company name.

Today me and my group found the sound that we are going to use for our Ident Company name. 

Inception 2010.

On saturday, me and my mum watched the film 'Incpetion' a 2010 sci-fi thriller film directed, written and produced by Christopher Nolan. This film stars a very famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page. 

This film is about Dom Cobb who is a skilled thief, the absoloute and for most the best in stealing valuable secrets from deep within someones subconscious during their dream state; this is when the mind is at its most vulnerable.

Although I found this film to be very confusing and hard to get my head around but I did really enjoy it. I liked how tension was built up in the film as the music started to get really fast and up beat, or when the characters were in their dreams and it made me unsure of if they was going to wake up time.  

Our thriller changes!

Today me and my group planned to go and role play our thriller film so we had a more accurate idea of how we would actually shoot the film when its the real time. However, due to several reasons two people from our group were absent so therefore we could not proceed with this. We hope to do this and post it on our blogs within the next week. 

Changing ideas.

Due to several reasons, we have decided to change the plot of our film slightly. We have decided to have the protagonist in their house and then they get a knock at the door. There will then be 4 other people in the car, one being the getaway driver and the other 3 taking part in the kidnapping of the protagonist. 

List of characters.

So far we have not confirmed our actual list of characters that will be involved with our thriller. But we know that there will be: 

1) Charlie Brien who will be the person who is kidnapped. 

2) Kidnapper 1 - He is going to be the character knocking on the door asking for someone, then later on taking part in the kidnapping.
3) Kidnapper 2 - He will be the main kidnapper in the film.
4) Kidnapper 3 - He will be assisting kidnapper 1 and kidnapper 2 in taking charlie and putting him in the boot.
5) Getaway driver - He will be the one who drives off once Charlie is in the boot of the car. 

Past students work.

Whilst in class, our teacher showed us several openings of past students' thrillers. While watching the openings, they made me want to carry out watching, made me want to know what was going to happen next. I liked how the music is some of them was very erey and strange and made the atmosphere feel really tense and suspicious. I also liked how one of them showed us flashbacks of what happened the night before whilst showing us what was happening at a different time. 

In the Cut.

Whilst in class, we watched the opening credits of the film 'In the Cut'. This film is a 2003 erotic thriller in which is written and directed by Jane Campion starring actors like Meg Ryan, Jennifer Leigh, Nick Damici and so on. This film follows the plot of a Newy York writing professor, Frankie Avery who has a spiteful affair with a police detective who is in which investigating a cruical murder of a young woman in the neighbourhood.

Whilst watching the opening credits, the music is very erey and makes us very excited to watch the film. I like how the names of the actors come up along the ice as the people are skating. For me, I also like how when the title of the film is shown to us it is on the bottom rights side of the screen and appears when the person has skated over the ice. Once it has appeared, and 'In the Cut' is visible, it seems as though the letters start to bleed which give us an idea in our heads that the film probably is going to contain blood and deaths.

Analysing some of the results.

By looking at my survey so far I can start to anaylse some of the results I have received.

The first question I asked was, 'Are you male or female?'.
From asking this question, I found out that 5 of the people are female and the remaining 3 are male.

'What is your age?' This question gave participants several answers to choose from and therefore I found out that 0 people were under 15, 6 were between the ages of 15-20, 1 was between the ages of 21-30 and 1 between the ages of 31-40. There was no participants between the ages of 41-55, 56-75 or 76+.

.

'Do you enjoy watching thrillers?' From this question I found out that everyone apart from 1 person likes watching thrillers.

 

'How often do you watch thrillers?' I purposely asked participants this question so that I could get a rough idea about how much people tend to watch thrillers.



'What is your favourite sub-genre?' I wanted to ask this question so that I could find out what type of thriller film people like to watch most. Therefore asking this question helped me find out that most people prefer to watch action films.

  

Thriller codes and conventions.

What is a thriller?
A thriller is one type of genre of a film that uses several techniques to pull in an audience. They use suspense, tension and excitement as the key elements or ingredients.
Conventions of a thriller are to do with sound and editing. These could involve quick cuts and the different angles of the camera. It also includes the music that is added for example to make the atmosphere more tense and adds excitement. Another could be the use of lighting within the film, how shadows and darkness is created or how light and bright parts are. Other thriller conventions include:
A crime at the core of the narrative
A protagonist who has no control or power over the antagonist
Themes of mirroring
Mise en scene
A complex plot which follows false clues, paths and resoloutions.

Psycho

The film Psycho 1960 is a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Joseph Stefano and Robert Bloch. This film also stars actors such as Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. The plot of this film follows a young woman who unconsciously steals $40,000 from her employer's client. On her way to see her boyfriend, she stops off at an old motel which is run by the odd Norman Bates. Whilst in the shower, she is crucially murdered. Her sister, boyfriend and a private investigator are looking for her as they don't have a clue that she is lying in the bottom of a bath dead. We also come to learn about Norman Bates. 

Summary of films studied in class.

Whilst in class, we studied the opening of several films. The first thriller film that we looked at was Memento. The man character in this film is Guy Pearce. The director of this film is Christopher Nolan and the writer Jonathan Nolan. The plot of this film follows a man, suffering from short-term memory loss and therefore has to use notes and tattoos to hunt down for the man who he thinks killed his wife. 

A second film we looked at was Children of Men, 2006. This film is set in 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer produce children. However, a former activist agrees to transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea in which her child's birth may help out scientists to save the future of the human kind. 

The last film was History of Violence, 2005. The plot of this film follows a man who becomes a local hero through an act of violence. However this sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core. This film is directed by David Croneberg and written by John Wagner and Vince Locke.

Coursework brief.

We have been set a coursework assignment of producing an opening of a thriller, including titles and which is aimed at a 15 or 18 certificate audience. This thriller opening should have a duration of approximately two minutes. 

Collateral 2004.

The film 'Collateral' 2004 is a crime thriller that stars many famous actors. These actors include Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox. This film was directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie. Collateral is set in Los Angeles, California. 

The plot of this film follows a very simple and quiet life of a cab driver called Max. Another cab journey it is for Max as a beautiful Da called Annie gets a lift. They both have a very friendly and welcoming chat about her stressful upcoming events of trial appearance and his dream business of a limo company. At then end of the ride Annie gives Max her card and takes herself for a night of hard work. 

After this journey, a man approaches the cab but Max is fairly busy concentrating on something else but notices him just in time and calls him back. This man introduces himself as Vincent, a friendly business man that offers him $600 to drive him around for the night. Without thinking twice Max agrees to his proposal. However, Max regrets his words as later on in the night a dead man falls on top of his cab. Soon finding out that when he's putting the man in the back of the cab, Vincent's the killer. 

Although Max doesn't want anything to do with these killings, he is forced to by Vincent's and goes to several places not afraid of using his gun. 

Livetype.

Today me and my group are using LiveType to come up with our production company name.

We played around with LiveType trying out different fonts, colours etc and we come up with the name 'Monkey Grape Productions'.

Checking up on my survey.

Today, I decided to check my survey to see how much people had completed it. So far only 7 people have done the survey, however I will be checking over the next few days to see how many more will complete it. 

The Bone Collector 1999.

Last night I watched 'The Bone Collector' 1999 on channel 5. This film stars actors such as, Denzel Washington (Lincoln Rhyme), Angelina Jolie (Amelia Donaghy), Queen Latifah (Thelma), Luis Guzman (Eddie Ortiz), John Hickey (Dr. Barry Lehman) and so on. The writers of this film were Jeffery Deavor and Jeremy Lacone and the director was Phillip Noyce. The genre's of this film contain crime, drama, mystery and thriller.

In the film quadripeligic (paralysed from the keck down) ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme was looking forward to his assissted suicide when he gets the news that there is a serial killer on the loose: going round in a taxi abducting people and leaving them to die in cruel ways. As time is ticking on between abduction of innocent people and the their death, Rhyme recruits rather-unwilling Amelia Donaghy who is haunted by her cop father's suicide and thinking she's next, into working the crime scenes to track down the killer. Both Rhyme and Donaghy are left with clues from the crime scene by the serial killer that are obviously there for a reason. These clues therefore lead them onto having an idea of what he is planning on next.

Personally for me, I would say that throughout the second half of the film I felt like I was on the edge of my seat. This was because I didn't really know what was going to happen next or when the serial killer was going to attack. I thought that tension was built up coming towards the end of the film when the serial killer had abducted a man and his daughter and the police were looking for them in a hurry as both of their lives were in danger.

I would say that the best part of the film for me was when the serial killer had made his way to Washington. His first kill there is Washington's loving nurse Thelma. He makes his way into the apartment and washes off the blood from his glove. At this point tension has increased as I know that Washington has no defence as he is paralysed in bed. We hear the water running from the tap and the footsteps of the killer. We also hear Denzel calling out, "Thelma is that you?" With no answer from the killer the tap soon stops, and appearing from round the corner is Dr.Lehman. Washington looks at him very confused, they have an eye to eye contact and Washington try's his best to get help, not by only pressing a button on the bed but by calling out for Thelma. The scene then reaches it's climax when we see the doctor about to stab Washington when Amelia breaks in and shoots him to the ground.

Creating our animatic.

Today me and my group finally finished our storyboard which gives people a rough and basic idea about what is going to take place in our thriller. Once we had finished our storyboard on paper, we then took individual pictures of each shot and uploaded them to Final Cut Express. This will then create an animatic for us so we can see the shots all together. Below is our animatic that we created.

Mobygratis.

Just signed up to 'mobygratis.com' so that me and my group can soon start to decide what music we would like to use in our thriller film. 

Gathering ideas.

Today me and my group come up with a rough and basic idea of what our thriller film is going to be based upon. Basically, we thought that we could base the film around a kidnapping. We are going to have a car involved in this kidnapping and have the protagonist walking along the road peacefully listening to there ipod music. We decided that although they are listening to the music through earphones we are going to hear the music out aloud. Having this music playing will therefore mean that the protagonist can't hear the car coming along.

What is an Auteur?

Today I found out that an 'Auter' is a filmaker who has a personal style and keeps control over his or her work. Often using certain techniques, use similar themes and try to get across the same point but in different ways throughout their films.

The Manchurian Candidate 2004.

The Manchurian Candidate is an American thriller film based on the 1959 novel 'of the same name' by Richard Condon. In the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers and kipnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes. It stars actors such as Denzel Washington (Bennett Marco), Liev Schreiber (Raymond Shaw), Jon Voight (Tom Jordan), Meryl Streep (Eleanor Prentiss Shaw).

In this film during the ambushing in the Gulf War, Sergeant Ranymond Shaw saves his fellow soldiers as the commanding officer, then captain Ben Marco is knocked unconscious. Soon after this, Shaw is elected a vice presidential nominee, whilst this is taking place for Shaw Marco is soon haunted by dreams of what happened in Kuwait. As Marco starts to investigate as he wants to find out what happened, the story soon unravels. As it unravels, Marco questions himself and asks did it really happen?

In the final scene, the film reaches it's climax as Raymond realises his soul is corrupt, and realises that the damage he could cause on America is too much and therefore sacrifices himself and his mother.

Survey.

Today I signed up for surveymonkey so I could create a survey in order to find my target audience. I come up with 10 questions that would enable me to find out the information I need to know. These questions included asking 'what is your favourite thriller, how many times do you watch thrillers and what do you think makes a good thriller'. Creating this survey only took me a short time and I will be posting up shortly my results from this.

Se7en

Above is the opening credits for the thriller film 'Se7en'. While watching this clip, you start to see several disturbing images. The music you hear also starts to add to this as it is very eiry and unsettling.

I started to look at the opening scenes of several thrillers to see how the credits are presented in order to help me and my group with ours. I thought that the opening credits for 'Panic Room' really helped me get an idea of what we can do. I like how the names of the actors and directors etc come across as very big and bold letters with the large buildings behind which emphasises their size.

Creating our storyboard.

In today's lesson me and my group decided to create a storyboard of what our thriller film will be about. We drew visuals of the sequence and wrote down ideas of props and the settings that we will include in the thriller. Completing this gave us a more accurate idea of what we want to do.

Jurrassic Park 1993!

During the christmas holiday I watched a scientific film thriller series known to us as Jurrasic Park, the one I decided to watch was Jurrasic Park 1993. The director of this film was a man called Steven Speilberg and runs for 127 minutes. This film stars actors such as Richard Attenborough (John Hammond), Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm), Sam Neil (Dr. Alan Grant), Laura Dem (Dr. Ellie Sattler), Ariana Richards (Alexis Murphy) and Joseph Mazzelo (Tim Murphy).

I really like Jurrassic Park because I like how the tension is built up for us in many scenes as they are accompanied and under attack by dinasours such as the T-Rex. This is shown to us in the scene where the two young children, Alexis and Tim are in the kitchen and soon find out that there are dinasours outside trying to get in. The tension is built up as the children have to be dead silent, trying to creep around the kitchen in able to escape from them. I also like the scene where the two men and the woman are in the truck and they are chased by the T-Rex. I think its really tense as the T-Rex gets closer and closer to them building up the tension to make us think are they going to get away in time.