Set plan

This is a plan of how we would like the office to look like, it is not very complex, we just want an average office to make the scene as realisitc as possible.

Cast List

Here are the four members of our cast:

This is Philippa Barrett, she will be contributing to our thriller as the ballerina. We chose her because she is an incredibly skilled ballet dancer and she can do all the ballet moves required by our thriller. She also has a very innocent, beautiful look which contributed to the elegance of the piece.

This is Phill Ward, our media teacher, who we would like to have contributing as someone in the office scene, he is the right age for the part and he looks like he means buisness which is the kind of atribute required for someone who works in a detective's unit of a police station.

This Jason Mazzocchi, he will also be contibuting in the office scene for the same reasons Phill will be, he also looks very formal and intelligent which again are things required for the position

This is Abi Hoyle, she will be contributing in the office scene as we thought she looked like a classic female office worker and would be a really effective person to have in this section of the thriller, making the whole thing more believeable

The office scene

We have now done some research into the office scene idea and have contemplated a verity of things which we believe will be required. Here are a few images of how we want our office space and a few things which we would like to be included in the office space:

The key factor of the office will be a board which will have important detective information on it, this is an example of what I mean:

Here is an updated storyboard of the office scene idea which will replace the previous idea of the car scene:



And lastly here is an updated version of our shot list:

 

Focus group

A pilot thriller is a prototype, an opportunity to investigate the finished product before production begins. It is also to test the product on the audience and see what they have to say.

We did a focus group in class where we showed our pilot thriller to the rest of the class to see what feedback they could give:

We had mixed reviews throughout the showing but over all they liked it except for the ending.

For the ballet sequence they loved the elegance of it but 13/13 people in the class felt it went on for a little too long. I think this is something we cannot change because we need this sequence to be long enough to show the credits, but it can be improved if we were to make the music more thrilling as it was at the beginning we could also include some more interesting shots to keep the audience interested.The focus group were all girls which is slightly biased because if we showed it to boys they may have a different opinion as they may not be so keen on the ballet bit and they could give us advice to make it more interesting. We did however have Phil our teacher with us and he thought when we come to shoot the real thing we should hardly see the ballerinas face, we should just concentrate on close ups of her feet and arms as this is where the tension of her dance lies. The ballerina in this scene will not be our main character but naturally the person from the focus group thought she was. If we go with Phil's idea about close ups which means we will hardly see her face this will hopefully suggest she is not a main character. Personally I have seen films which open with characters who end up not playing a big role in the film even so I see where the focus group are coming from. In some ways it may be a good idea to make the audience think she is a main character and then when she gets killed early on the audience will be surprised and recognise our movie as a thriller which is going to be shocking. Lastly, people felt that our thriller looked like two different movies due to the abrupt change in music and the whole point is, is that we want the two to flow together otherwise the whole idea of having the start of the movie wont work, and idea suggested to solve this problem was to cross-cut between the ballerina and the car chase to create a good contrast, but the issue would be what music to use that is appropriate to both scenes. 
It was clear that the focus group really did not like the way we filmed the car scene which I agree with. They liked the concept of the car scene, said that it would be too difficult to film it to the standard it would need to be filmed at for it to be effective which we agreed with so we decided to alter the idea a little. We presented the idea about the crime scene office as an alternative to the car. Now we are moving forward with the office scene idea and we are currently casting our actors and looking at set design.

Audience Review

Here is some feeback we got when asking some members of the public a few questions about what they look for in a movie:

1) What key points have you learned from the interviews:

The interviews have showed me that most people enjoy comedys, so it is important in films to have some humour so we keep the audience's attention. I also learnt that the film 'Salt' is a common one that people enjoy so I have looked into that film and noted down some good features of the film so give insperation for our thriller.

2) Do boys/girls or different aged audience members go for different films or do they enjoy different aspects of watching films:

Overll boys tended to enjoy more action films and girls preferred romantic comedy. But it appeared obvious that when a film it is good it can be enjoyed by any age group or gender.

3) What do you think the target audience for your thriller sequence will be:

I think the target audience for our thriller will be people of our age, teenage, as it is made by our age group so most of the aspects in it are going to be based about what we think is good and entertaining so other people of our age group are likely to enjoy it too.

4) What do you think are the key things you have included in your thriller that will appeal to your target audience:

I think the slow motion and camera work will appeal to the female members of our audience as they will appritate the beauty of the shots and I think the second half of the clip, the car bit, will appeal to the male members of the audience as it is more fast paced and exciting.

Evaluating our pilot thriller

We were really happy with the way the ballet part came out, as it really expressed the beauty of the piece which is what we were aiming for. One thing we would alter about the ballet part is it gets a bit boring after a bit and it looses its thriller feel, so we need to make things more interesting so we don't loose the attention of the audience, also we thought that we should have the windows blacked out so it gives the impression we are in the evening which automatically makes the clip more thriller like. I also thought that the location was really effective as it accurately gives an idea of her isolation, foreshadowing her potential isolation later in the film.

Here is our pilot thriller:

Filming our pilot thriller

Today we filmed a pilot for our thriller so we could get an idea of what it will look like, it also led to us coming across some problems which we can solve now instead of having the issue on the real day which would cut into our filming time. For an example, a problem which arose in the car scene was where does he get the gun from, and does he stop the car then get the gun? We resolved this issue by him keeping the gun in his chest pocket and he will stop the car suddenly, with the screeching sound of the tyres, and then get the gun out.

Here are some shot of us filming

 



Location location location

When thinking about what location would be required for our thriller it was a pretty simple assumption to choose a dance studio which we have one on sight a school which is perfect, here are some shots of the studio:

We thought this location was particularly good because it is a very plain studio so there wont be anything distracting from the beauty of the piece and the audience can really appreciate that. Also, it is a  common thing for the setting of a thriller to be in an remote place like the woods, and this studio is a perfect example of this as it is big and empty thus making our actress look more isolated.

Change of plan

We have kept our title sequence the exact same but we have changed the beginning of the film. We changed it from one of the main characters walking to her new collage/uni and picking a leaflet for a roommate wanted flier to a man in a car driving like a maniac to him then pulling out a gun. We though that to have a girl pulling down a leaflet doesn't really say anything different to our discrete sequence before hand, so to contrast the beautiful image of a ballerina we now have a high energy action packed sequence of road rage. We thought a handheld camera would be very effective in this sequence to highlight the craziness of the scene.

Here is our re-configured synopsis:

Here is our new story board for the last section:

Lastly, this is our new shot list

Costume

When discussing costumes, we decided that the best thing for our ballerina to wear would be something simple, but elegant and we want it to be plain white to add to her innocence. We thought something like this would be effective:

This costume would be perfect as it does not distract from the main thriller feel of the piece as it is not a complex outfit. Plus it allows the audience to focus on her actual ballet skill, and her facial expressions, which can potentially create the ultimate thriller feel.

Slow mo

We discussed that our thriller is supposed to be very elegant and graceful. The camera must emphasis this beauty so we decided to incorporate slow motion, this adds to the natural phenomena of the clip. Slow motion can add to the tension and suspense of a clip for instance, slow motion is used in a suicide scene in 'The Deserter', in which a man jumping into a river seems sucked down by the slowly splashing waves, so we wanted to include slow motion to make the scene appear to have a more important meaning, making it seem more thriller-like.
Here is an example of where slow motion is used:


I really like how much detail can be obtained by slow motion, it adds so much more purpose to each second of the shot and thus makes the clip much more interesting.

Thriller work

Today we discussed with Phil how our thriller is going to pan out. We decided that nothing really happens in our thriller and we wanted to make it more intresting, and take it out of the environment of the dance studio, so we thought we would include the first few seconds of the actual movie to make the sequence more intresting. We went through some ideas of what would be effective in the first few seconds and conluded that we would have our main character going towards a building, suggesting she has just started uni, and then she would enter the building and go towards a notice board, she would then see a 'roommate wanted' flier and take a ticket from it. We believed this would be in context with what previously occured and it would be a clear way of starting a movie.

Then we made a synopsis of the film:

Our film will open with a ballerina dancing. We will have lots of slow motion shots of her dancing and a few tracking shots . We will have non-diegetic music. The song we have chosen is called raindrops. This is graceful classical music but it has a dark edge to it at times which fits into the genre (thriller). The lighting will be soft and dim to fit in with the graceful movements. While this scene is going on the titles will appear over the top. We will then have a thirty second opening to the film. It will be an everyday day and we will have a long shot of a street. The main girl (the ballerina from the opening) will walk down the street and grab a flyer. The flyer will be advertising for roommates.     


We then filled in a story board to get a shot by shot idea of how the whole scene will work. Here is our stroy board:

We then made a shot list, which consisted of the specific camera work which we think will add to the thriller effect of our title squence. Here is the shot list:

1)     The scene opens with a close up shot of a ballerina putting her feet into grit, and there is a loud crunching sound as she does it.

2)     Slow pan shot of the room through the mirror to introduce the setting.

3)     There will be slow motion shot of her trying her ribbons around her legs.

4)     Then there will be a wide shot of her doing some stretches.

5)     Then there will be a close up shot of her face where she is breathing heavily in preparation for ballet.

6)     Then she begins to do some pirouettes, the camera slowly tilts down her body and reaches her feet, the camera then tracks her feet in a 360 degree motion, in the opposite direction to the way her feet are turning.

7)     Then there is a wide shot of the ballerina, continuing to do her pirouettes.

8)     The camera then moves to a birds eye shot and the ballerina starts moving around the room.

9)     There is then another close up of her face, we can see she has become tense.

10) Close up of her feet, her toes are going up and down, looks painful.

11) Wide shot of her moving towards the camera, when she reaches the camera there is a black out.

12) Wide shot a quiet street.

13) Zoom in of a character on the street.

14) 180 degree shot so camera is now on her front.

15) Camera zooms in a bit so it is a mid-shot, she walks into a building, looks at a board and smiles.

16) Camera then turns back around and there is an over the shoulder shot of what she is looking at which is a ‘roommate wanted’ sign.

17) She then reaches out her hand and then takes one of the tickets the camera follows her hand as she does this.

 

Transitions

Following on from the idea of including the first few seconds of the film, we looked into different ways we can make the transition and what different effects doing this has.

1) The Cabin in the Woods, this is an example of how a discreet sequence ends and then it cuts to somewhere completely different and everyday:

Discreet opening titles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the very fast swipe transition where we move to everyday life



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is when we have come to everyday life to prcoceed with the film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought that this was an effective trasition as the two scenes contrast so much making it intresting. The moment we are introduced to everyday life we can see what kind of setting we are in, it is an american commercial buisness building. We pick this up through the suits the men are wearing and their accents, plus the coffee machine.

2) The Others. In this sequence the image displayed in the title sequence fades into the real everyday image:

This is the last shot of the title sequence showing a small house

Then the previous image fades into this one, which is very similar to the animated image, but it is a virtual version

It then cuts to this shot of a woman screaming and the movie commences

 

I thought this method was very intresting, I liked how the blended the two sequences together in that cleaver style and I would be very intrested in including this idea for my thriller.



 

The thriller group in action

Music Video Shoot

Today, Phil took us to the studio and have a look at how A2 media students shot their music video. It was really interesting to see what could be in store for us. The one we saw is set by a river and they use water and the reflection in water to make an interesting video. The casts wore light white dresses and they used lightening to create an underwater atmosphere, their make up was shiney to add to this effect. The group we watched were clearly very well prepared and this made it clear that preperation can be key for a good shoot. This visit to the music video shoot got me really excited for shooting my thriller and gave a me a clear idea of what is required and what to expect on the day of shooting.

Thriller Idea take 3

This is a final thriller idea, we spent ages, coming up with ideas, then ruling them out, it was a very tense process but we have finally come up with an idea.
Our idea begins in a dance studio, it is about 6pm, but it is winter so it is dark outside. There is a ballerina in the studio who is doing some pirouettes, she is quite stressed and frustrated as she cannot get them right. She then falls and cuts her fingure, there is a small drop of blood from the cut and this foreshadows what may come later in the film
A film which gave us this inspiration was The Stepfather:

He has just shaved and cut his chin, causing him to bleed, we instantly get a feeling this will not be the first time we see blood.


What would then happen in the title sequence would be her to continue to do ballet, but she begins to struggle more and this is clear.  This is ultimatly the main idea of our piece, we liked the idea of keeping it simple so then we could put more detail into the camera, sound, m.e.s and editing which we beileved would be more effective.

We thought that this clip from The Black Swan was similar to what we wanted to achive in our thriller:

 This shows us what she is doing, and her body language about the situation.

 This shows the tension in her feet and it seems painful.

This shows the distress in her face, and how she is finding the task stressful







Here are the mind maps we made when coming up with our final idea of the ballerina

Titles

Following on from creating my idea for a thriller, I chose two other thrillers which were similar to the story of mine. I then watched the title sequences of these thrillers and wrote down the order of what the titles came in.
Here is the work I did on Cape Fear and The Negotiator:

The Negotiator:

I thought The Negotiator had a really effective titles sequence, I felt it was relivant to the story line of the film and it was entertaining. The use of music was very powerful, it was quite a tragic song which was really good, then there were the occasional sound effects when some photos came it, it was a kind of lighting swiping sound, this worked really well. The editing was also very effective in this clip, I really liked the use of black and white as it made the clip more mysterious , there are also images dissolving into each other.

The Negotiator (1998) — Art of the Title

After analysing these two title sequences I came up with an order of titles I believed would be effective for my thriller:
00:10 - Production Company
00:18 - Director
00:25 - Leading Actors
00:40 - Name of film
00:50 - Actor
00:53 - Actor
01:01 - Actor
01:04 - Actor
01:10 - Casting by ...
01:15 - Costume by ...
01:20 - Music by ...
01:25 - Title sequence by ...
01:30 - Editing by ...
01:35 - Co-produced by ...
01:40 - Executive produced by ...

Thriller idea take 2

In this piece I got insperation from the movie The Lovely Bones, in the scene where he is digging the basement to take the girl to.

Its early evening, sunset sort of time. There is a large open field, very isolated, nothing around. There is a man in his 40s digging a whole. The camera work is intense, constant movement to show his distress, he becomes crazed over the hole he is digging, the mes.en.scene of his body language and facial expressions will show he is impatient and wants to complete his task asap, he is sweaty and tired, clearly out of breath. The sound will focus on his breathing, there will be no dialogue and the music will be dramatic. The editing pace will increase throughout the clip to show his stress building. Then there will be a birds-eye-view zoom out revealing something about what he has been digging… tbc. 

Title Structers

There are four different types of opening titles for a movie:
1 - Text on a black background then the film starts
This is a basic introduction to a movie, it doesn't give away a lot but it will usually give you a brief idea to the genre and story line of the movie through the font, colour, movement of text, extra graphics and music. An example of a movie that uses this is 'One Hour Photo', the font is in negative to give the idea that cameras will be involved in the film, the colour is very effective as it begins white, then there is a flash and the text fades off in red so this gives the idea that the camera in dangerous. The music used creates a really effective sense of suspense.

This is the original opening of the text

There is the a flash of a camera

And the text fades to red

2 - Straight into the film with the titles on top of the film
This is a basic flow on narrative information, there is usually no dialogue or narrative events, just a basic introduction to the type of characters we will be dealing with and the genre of the film. For an example 'The Stepfather', all we get in the first 3mins is a guy calmly & methodically changing his appearance, this gives an understanding of where we are which is modern day America and we can see that it is Christmas time.

This shot shows us that is is Christmas time

This shot is the first sight of the stepfather

This shot shows him applying hair dye

3 - Discrete, separate from the rest of the film 

This sets up ideas for the rest of the film without giving anything away. Like in the opening sequence of Casino Royal, we can see form the titles that it will be set in a casino, there is going to be lots of fighting, there will be high-tech gadgets and weapons, lastly, there will be a sexy bond girl. Although we have not met the characters and we don't know any specific events, we have learnt all this information. 

This indicates there will be fighting

This reveals it will be a casino scene

This shows weapons will be involved

4 - Stylised film opening, this is a different style of editing, a combination of 2 and 3

It is number 2 because the film has begun and we've been introduced to some characters and narrative events. It is number 3 because the editing style is different from the rest of the film so it stands alone. We are not in a hectic, packed scene, the audience is slowly being given information about characters and events, plus the tone is set. For an example, The Taking of Pelham 123.

This shows us the setting

This introduces us to some of the characters

This gives us an idea of what the movie will be about