Props

Props

• Drill – Used in the beginning shots of the stalker
• Pictures – Major part of the story line, they show Annabelle she was being followed
• Lamp – Used to light the pictures on the table when the stalker is crossing out faces.
• Mirror – Used when Annabelle sees her reflection.
• Camera – Used to show the pictures have been taken and that Annabelle has been ‘Captured’
• Black Tape – To show Annabelle has been tied up
• Piano – The piano is used to fall back on and as part of the mise en scene.

The various props and costumes are used relate to show the audience the distress and fear that the protagonist feels when she is awoken. They are not things that you see in everyday life. The costumes used are very casual to juxtapose normality with a surreal experience and moment in the characters life

Costume

Here is an example from the movie ‘Gothika’

As you can see, her clothes are quite plain. You can see where she has struggled and the trauma she has been through by the distressed look to her clothes. We plan to use quite plain clothing for the main scene of our thriller, as labels, words, pictures and sometimes patterns can detract from the main plot of the thriller.

In this case however, we will be using one distinctive piece of costume to link the first scene in the park to the scene in the garage, to allow the viewer to realise that these events probably happened within a short period of time and to know that this is the same character in the two scenes.

Storyline/ Setting/ Title/ Roles

Roles;

Acting-

• Annabelle will be playing a girl, who is awoken in a room surrounded by pictures of herself.
• Aaron will be playing the stalker, never seen facially but ‘capturing’ a picture of Annabelle at the end.

Camera work-

Both me and Joanne will be filming it all.

Editing-

Me and Joanne will both edit the video when we can, and share ideas together.

Soundtrack-

There will be some piano, classical music written for the piece, we will also use Freesound.org and other sound effects and music sites.

Story Title;

We didn’t spent too long decided the name of our thriller, after the story was developed it was very easy. The girl was captured and a camera is involved so we chose the title our thriller as ‘Captured,’ it has a double entendre of capturing a photo and the kidnapping of the protagonist.

Setting;

The main setting of our thriller opening will be mainly in the garage as this is where Anabelle wakes up.  The whole scene is mainly Anabelle discovering she is in a garage and the only outside shot is Aaron walking towards the garage and opening the door.

Storyboard

Here in our thriller the storyboard is used to plan out how our thriller is going to be filmed. It helps to seperate the most important parts. By using this storyboard it helps us as a group to stick to a regime which will make filming this thriller a lot easier and quicker. Not only does it make the filming a lot easier but it is a way of forming all our ideas, as a group, into one. At first we were forming different ideas but found it hard to stick to one so by using a storyboard we have managaed to agree on exactly how our thriller will be. By drawing it out we have a visual idea of how our thriller will be assembled.

Our thriller shows:

1 The opening to the thriller starts with the main protagonist taking a picture of her friends and family in the park. The reason for them being in the park is because they are all having a pcinic and enjoying the afternoon together. Here, the different shots used will be, extreme close ups, mid shots, tracking shots and a long shot to establish the mise en scene and the actions being carried out in the park. The idea was to keep the identity of the protagonist as a mystery untill right at the end when we see her taking the picture. The different types of shots will be of the camera as this is the motif used in our thriller.

2 The bright flash from the camera will make the transition to the next scene. It will be of an extreme close up of an eye opening. It helps for the reader to relate to the protagonist and realise that it is the same character as seen previously in the park.

3 The camera then changes to a mid shot so that the audience can estblish the mise en scene.

4 The cameras transition quickly moves to a long shot. This again helps for the audience to really relate to the setting. It reinforces the juxtaposition between the two scenes, the bright, happy scene of the park and then the dreary, gloomy garage.

5 The main protagonist looks into the mirror to see half of her face all cut and bruised. Here we will use a point of view shot so that the audience can really relate and experience what the protagonist is feeling.

6 The camera will then pan out to show a mid shot of the protagonist, this time however she has nothing on her face, it is fine.

7 we will then go back to the point of view shot seeing the cuts and bruises again.

8 Jump shots wil be used to flick through the photographs of the woman.

9 Her eyes focus on one of the pictures to show how she got to the position she is in now. The stalker is extremely posessive of her. This can be seen as he pulls her to the chair and straps her in.

10 We see how the protagonist ends up in the dilemma she is in now. Many different camera shots will be used here such as extreme close ups and tracking shots. This will all add to the suspense and intensity.

11 We see the back of the antagonists head and the protagonist in her chair. However, she is not aware that the antagonist is watching her so voyerism will be used here.

12 The camera then focuses on another picture. She sees that her eyes are gauged out. She realises that this is the future and infact this is going to happen to her. It will be like a dream so even the audience doesnt know if it is real or not yet. However the lighting will be slightly brigher so the audience can depict that it is a dream.

13 There will be a close up shot of her eyes gauged out.

14 Then a jump cut will be used to show the present and the protagonist watching what will be happening to her. All teh while the antagonist urges closer.15 Then quick jump shots wil be used to show the protagonist with her eyes gauged out and then not. Jump shots are being used so that it increases the intensity.16 Then a quick jump shot will be used to show the antagonist behind the protagonist ready to gauge out her eyes. This will be a quick shot with the sound of a camera shutting, as if its another picture being taken. This will ten lead to a blank screen with the credits with our candidate numbers on.

The problems that may occur with this storyboard is location. The park scene at the beginning will be very easy to get. The dark and gloomy room we were thinking of using was a garage. The problem with this is finding the time to shoot in a garage. Fortunately one of our group members has a garage so luckily we will be able to use this. However it may still be difficult to get the correct lighting as it will not be properly lit. The solutions to this is to add any extra lighting needed such as lamps and even mobile phone lighting as this will be very effective to light the garage as it will have a blue tint to it.

Our target audience will mainly be teenagers as our protagonist will be of seventeen years of age, this will make it relatable as hopefully they could imagine themselves as being in the protagonists’ position. The age of the protagonist is important as we want to illustrate her as being vulnerable. If an adult was to be used then i doubt the audience would believe her being dragged to the room and the antogonist being much stronger than her. It is important to show her as being scared so that the audience feels sympathetic towards her.

Editing Our Thriller Idease

We have thought of some initial editing ideas for our thriller opening scene. It will start with non diagetic and diegetic sound before the mise en scene is introduced. This will have the effect of representing the protagonist coming to her senses as she wakes in an unfamiliar place. There will be a constant theme of a camera, or a photo being taken. This will be implied by a bright flash lighting effect and the sound of a camera taking a photo. This theme led us to choosing the name of our thriller, ‘Captured,’ as it has a double meaning of capturing a photo and the kidnapping of the protagonist. The present will have a gloomy blue tint to it, to show the loneliness and sureal mood to the room. The past or flashbacks will have a grainy effect like a photo, and also be glowing and distorted at some points to show it is a memory. These are the editing techniques we have had ideas for so far.

Our Thiller Intro Plan

As a group we have began planning how our thriller would begin.

Our first shot would be of a sunny day, in a park, the protagonist and friends all doing rather naturalistic and leisurely activities, this scene would only be short, with the sun shining bright almost blinding the camera, then one character will take out a camera, as a picture is ready to be taken, the camera will be at eye level and a photo will be taken, the flash blinding the screen will then lead right into the dark dreary room, in which the protagonist is now being help captive. There may be a reoccurring sound, such as a drip on the floor, too emphasise the emptiness and desertedness of the environment.

            The character, now disoriented and dazed whilst being held captive (how so we have not yet decided), looks around eagerly, a point of view shot can be used here to put the audience in this characters shoes, looks to the side and sees a mirror. She has a disfigured face and is wearing the same clothes as the previous shot. Obviously distressed by the situation she starts to get anxious.

            She then sees in the mirror behind her, a wall with pictures and post it notes of her. She turns and the camera shows jump cuts of the different photos, with white flashes between photos, a photo of her with her impaired eyesight will be shown quickly though this will not be too obvious to her as she is quickly looking at them. Following on this the camera will focus on one or two photos where significant flashbacks will be shown. Finally she will look back upon the one picture where her eyes are gauged out.

            The camera then turns to the protagonist, struggling to escape, as we see a figure appear behind her with an object in hand it cuts to black and the titled ‘Captured’ appears.

Ideas For Thriller Opening

Our group are not to sure on the idea for the thriller however we have thougt upon some things that may influence us upon our future project. Via looking over the popular video networking site ‘youtube’ we have stumbled upon a few ideas; 

We would like a vunrable protagonist who people can relate to, and there to be a powerful antagonist who can manipulate the protagonist in some sort of way. We want our thriller to be set in a dark room, the gender is not yet specific but the main character must be confused as they wake up. We have a plan of opening with a close up shot of the protagonists eye as he or she awakes. say. This empowers the audience to become more acustom to the characters state of mind and relate to them, the become familiar with him/her and feel part of the story.

Saw 2 for me is one of the most inspiring movies in the psycological thriller sub genre (which we are basing our movie on). The begining creates a complete enigma, questions are asked instantly and the audience is left almost as scared as the character in the film. We are thinking of using pictures of the main protagonists life,being plastered all over the walls, creating a sense of his life being vouyerism. The key factor that entices me to create such a film is the audiences confusion, to create anticipation and grip the audience using a cliffhanger resulting in them wanting to see more. As a group we decided we dont like slow moving thrillers and we want ours to be a more intense one.

In Absenthia is a video my group stumbled upon whilst browsing youtube and found it really infulencial. The movie itself is inflenced by ‘David Lynch’ (the famous director of ’Eraserhead’) Whilst it began quite slow (something i mentioned earlier that wasnt to our taste) it did have an enigma and was confusing, then the mirror scene was introduced, this was something i myself had never seen and i found it very effective, almost astonished at the effect i vowed that we must try to use this effect in our own film. The lack of sound and silence being promonant was also interesting, it created a very haunting ambience. From this we concluded when making our thriller, we may use a limited amount of sound and a greyscale format.

There is a constant use of motifs in this movie and does not leave the audience with questions when the cause of death is discovered  when they can piece together the clues. There is a great use of continuity editing which, whilst being simplistic comes across as very effective.

In conclusion, these  a great help, all are infuencial and show a great use of cinematography . Looking at these the movies are not made for a specific age group or target audince however these movies are intended for people in their teens at least and i feel that ours should be made for our own age and over as that way we can include more sexual references, violence, blood and confusing storylines.

Blog Criteria

Our Powerpoint Presentation!! (video)

This is our presentation that was kindly filmed by our teacher (Mr Dunford: http://mrjdu.wordpress.com) << check it out.

How the primary research will affect my thriller coursework

The powerpoint we created will be extremelly useful in the future for our thriller coursework

Firstly we looked at the best thriller films and the top two thrillers, this proving that a plot is key to in making a successful film great.  From this we have learnt that intricate plot details and mystery is obviously a must have in the making of a great thriller. From the results of best and worst thrillers we also concluded that our movie is going to be more influenced by older and well known thrillers than modern ones, which rated highly in the worst thrillers.

Secondly by using our survey we were able to discover that peoples favourite thriller sub genre is ‘Psycological Thriller.’ Which helped us decide that our thriller is going to be a psycological one. Using the interviews in our powerpoint we got more honest answer than getting people to write down answers which was time consuming for both us and them, People didnt give us their true opinions, so we found that interviewing was the bestway to survey people.

In conclusion our primary research helped us discover what we need to do in our thriller and how to create one that will appeal to many people. That we need to add mystery, enigmas and suspense in our thriller, very little cliches and obvious endings are what we must avoid using.