Thriller: Actors

Actor 1 -
Actor name: Tom Hall
Character name: Steven Watson,
Profile- He is a normal everyday person. However he has dreams and nightmares, that effect his life, for the good and bad. The first scene he appears to have a realistic nightmare, where he is in a place where he has been beaten and tortured. He then appears to be to wake up, and get up to put on the kettle to have a cup of coffee. While he is switching the kettle, there is hard knocking on the door.

Actor 2 -
Actor name: Guillermo Guzman
Unknown character name
Profile- He is one of the people torturing Steven and other victims, he takes care killing victims after they have been tortured. He is dresses formally as he is has a normal job, as a business person, and he is in charge of his other a conspiracy. He is not properly seen as Steven, is drowsy and waking up in his nightmare.

Filming Location

The location I have chosen for this thriller is a apartment, with a few rooms. The first scene will be set in a room with white walls, a table with fake bood and a knife will be added. The main character will be strapped at the wall on one side looking at a door, what a man enters. The second scene will be done in the same place but different rooms, the scene starts in the bedroom and then goes to the kitchen and finally at the corridor, with the main character looking through a peep hole.

Risk Assesment

There are some risks, that have to be judged to see how likely they are to happening, and what can be done to prevent and or reduce threat. The risk might involve people or equiptment.

They are:

Mise-en-scene

Props I will need:

Knife

Alarm clock

Kettle

.

.

Costumes:

1st scene-

- Man charpening knife
Wearing black and white suit.

- Person tied up (Only see sleaves)
Shirt colour to be chosen at a later stage

2nd scene-

-Man outside door
Only for a brief moment through the peep hole.

-Person in bed
Night wear (i.e pyjamas.)

Storyboarding

This will be a point-of-view shot from a character who is apparently about to be killed. The shot will show a table with blood and a knife of it. The camera will have some hand held movement,as the person is moving his head looking around.

The shot they after a a few second shows the door opening.

A man walks through the door with something in his hand. He is wearing smart formal clothing.

The person struggles and make a few noises as he tries to get loose.

A fast cut to the man in suit as he sharpens his knife, the noise of scraping the edge of the knife will be loud and powerful.

A fade cut to a person in bed moving about as he was having a nightmare, the camera switches to the nightmare and back.

The camera closes up showing the emotion and fear as he wakes up.

A long shot of the person getting up and the camera pans as he leaves the room.

The walks into the kitchen and turns on the kettle at have a cup of coffee.

The camera closes up as he flips the switch.

and zooms in until the light of the kettle switch goes red.

the camera then switches to the door as the door knocks.

The person gets worried and it is shown with a close-up.

The camara shows the peep hole on the door from the inside.

and zooms in from the outside to see the other person looling out and the camera fades to black and titles are shown.

Mind Maping Ideas

I have been thinking of 4 main ideas that could possibly be used in the opening sequence of the thriller.

Description of main ideas that I have thought about, they are:

Idea 1: A stalker that follows a person from his house, to the meeting place that the stalker told the person to be by phone. The person realises that he has been set up, by the location of the meeting and the other person not showing up. Props needed:

• 
  
  Phone

Actors:

1 visual actor, 1 voice actor (for phone conversation).

Costume(s): Normal clothing (smart casual)

Location:

• 
  
  A house




• 
  
  Forest/ woods for the meeting place




• 
  
  Time: Nighttime

Conclusion of idea

Cons: The idea is not unique, it has been done a lot before. Also the idea has some dialogue and if the dialogue is not of a high quality it would not be believable. It does not match any of the thrillers I have researched.

Pros: The idea is simple to film, and the locations is not very hard to find and props do not have to be done or simple to find.

Idea 2: (Main idea)

The idea will be in the style of The Stepfather and Se7en, two different styles linked together the idea of normal life interrupted (Stepfather) with the low key shadow effect to add mystery (Se7en). The credits will be included in the scene with in the shadows created. The plot of the story is a male character waking up, he is tied up in a room. The shot will be blurring as he is not fully awake. Another character is entering a room with a knife sharpener, he is dressed formally. The room will have white wash walls and one table with what appears to be a knife and blood all over the table. When the other person enters the room the person tied up wakes up more and looks round with heavy breathing. The other person starts walking towards the tied up man the camera zooms in to the characters sunglasses reflection and the shot switches to a shot of a person waking up as the person was having a nightmare. He checks the time and gets up he goes straight to the kitchen and turns on the kettle and as soon as he flips down the switch he hears the door band a few time and runs straight to the door and looks through the peep hole and he sees a person and the title shows up. and fades to black.

Props:

• 
  
  Rope or chains




• 
  
  Knife




• 
  
  Knife sharpener




• 
  
  Pool of blood




• 
  
  Clock radio




• 
  
  Kettle

Costumes:

Victim

• 
  
  When he is in the room you will not see much clothing but the clothes you see are the slaves of a shirt.




• 
  
  When he is waking up from his bed he is wearing nightmare (pyjamas)

The other person:

• 
  
  Formal wear black suit, white shirt and black tie. - showing the type of suit syle of Resoviour Dogs




• 
  
  Sunglasses - adding mystery of his identity

Conclution:

I think that this idea is the most different to anything I've seen, the idea is not a horror but a thriller with a phychological feel like his mind is playing tricks. I think I will expand this idea and think about the shots when doing the storyboarding.

Starting planning

For the thriller task, I will be working by myself as I have a few ideas, the skills and confidence to produce a high quality opening to a thriller. I will not be acting in the film because I will be filming and directing the sequence. I have some ideas as the actors and props I will require for the filming. The editing will hopefully not too stressful, but I will make a few experiments with the footage having different: score/ music, length of shots and cuts.

I will borrow a camera and tripod over half-term and I am planning to film the sequence in one day/night, but there is the possibility of having two days or more to film. The props will hopefully be bought and made before half-term to know if the final idea I have is possible or not

Questionnaire results

To have audience research and opinions I have produced questionnaire, asking a few people what they think of the genre Thrillers. I have asked 10 people what they think about things like actors, plot and location. The results are shown as pie chart as they are easily comparable showing proportions of each answer:

Credits on opening scene

I have been researching the how common it is to have a full credits with cast and other things in a thriller. I have desided to include the names on top the clip, like in The Stepfather.

From Wikipedia in the page about opening credits for all kinds of films it shows the order of what comes first from studio name to director name.

The order is :

• *Name of the Distribition Studio*
• *Name of the Production Company*
• Producer name/ Director name
• Main actors
• Film Title
• Featured actors
• Music/ score / composers names
• Production Design
• Editiors
• Director of Photography
• Producer
• Story
• Writer
• Directors

I have found a animated video on youtube, that shows the order of the credits in a clever way using animation. The sequence is from the if 'Catch Me If You Can' it is 2:33 minutes long a bit loger than the video.

Coventions of Thrillers

From the lesson we have done the conventions of thrillers, I will be taking to consideration when planning the Thriller. As a class we found some that are:

• Rapid, Straight cuts- showing the impression as there in insecurity and anxiety, a lot is happening.
• Score and music - that adds anxiety, this important as the audience wants to be involved in the film as they are part of the film.
• Low key lighting- Adding to the mysterious effect.
• Common setting - So the audience thinks it could happen to them, so they feel anxious
• Mysterious Plot - There has to be an enigma to make the audience think about the film.
• A main aspect of the plot- What the thriller is based on, what is happening to make it a thriller.
• Victims and bad people- Show the difference between them as the plot evolves

This is a slide show I have found that shows some conventions of thrillers on different aspects.

(Below) From Slideshare

Conventions Of Thriller Films

View more presentations from bobsled.

Thriller Analysis

Se7en

Textural Analysis of film Se7en;

Camera angle and movement:

The use of the camera in this opening sequence is very good because the angles of the shots are high showing that the person writing is isolated and alone. This adds to the intensity of the thing that he is writing. The camera is close-up in order to see what this character is doing and show the details of the the props used and created for this scene. Minor camera movement, but slight adjustments to the camera when the hand moves.

Sound:

The sound in thrillers is considered one of the most important factors, and in this opening the use of the beats and score is very effective, because the first time I watched this it made me feel anxious, and I also played it with no sound and there was a significant difference. The grinding and scratching sounds added when the change of shot is done also adds the to the atmosphere, adding the feel of something sinister is happening particularly when the person is shaving his fingertips, trying to erase his finger prints.

Editing:

The sequence consists of mainly straight cuts, this is mainly because of the continuity. The scene is put together in the way that the shots where not too long, and some shot lengths where short adding to the tension of the scene. The overlapped section adds to the irregularity of the scene also making the audience think what is happening. What I found very effective was the editing effect of the camera reel having brake-ups giving a rustic feel to the shot.

Mise-en-scene:

The props created for this opening scene is really good, because it has a simple lined paper pad with words and sketches on it, also a razer and geometrical equipment is also used as props. Shows that the person is planning something, like a crime or conspiracy.

The credits are shown in a black screen with white handwritten style font. This shows that link between what the person is downing with that titles.

The lighting is low-key this adds to the mysterious effect of the sequence, showing that he is alone and isolated doing mysterious things that people will not see.

Thriller Research

Although not a film the opening sequence of US television series 'Dexter', is effective is an beginning, to every episode. The genre of Dexter is a 'dramatic thriller', that makes watching it and using the opening as inspiration and research for the thriller project.

The opening is a normal day-to-day routine but with hidden meaning, everything Dexter does reflects what he does with his victims when he kills them, from tying shoe laces to shaving. The music help the scene to add in normality but not tension, this is an effective way to start a thriller as the audience is not aware of what the character is showing.

The placement of cast names is also a good way to show the names of the actors and also keep the audience focused on the actions, the queuing is matching the sound irregularities as high pitch sounds are added.

This is the morning routine for the TV series Dexter video (Below)

Starting Researching Thrillers

I have seen a resent remake of a film called The Stepfather, the film overall was not very good, but the opening was very effective to add a sense of mystery. The original film stars Terry O'Quinn, which recently was part of the cast of US TV series 'LOST' as John Locke. The remake stars Nip-Tuck protagonist Dylan Walsh, the name of the character is different to the original, with a more common name and surname.



The original film was made in 1987 and the opening scene is similar to the remake, the main character Jerry Blake is cleaning his self and trimming his hair to change his identity because of something he did. The opening shot starts in a normal suburban neighborhood with a paperboy delivering the newspapers. The shot has some movement downwards, and as the paper boy gets closer to the camera the cameras pans showing a 'Normal' looking house and closes to the house to an upstairs window. The scene then switches to the inside of the house in the toilet as a man with medium length hair and a Beard. Every seams kind of normal until the camera closes on the man's hands and face as the have blood on them, the man cleans himself then starts cutting his hair and shaves his beard looking at the mirror. The shots are effective as they are close to the parts of the mans body he changes to look different, the man then smiles at himself when he is changed making the audience feel that them man is weird.

The sound in this particular scene is important as it sets the mood of the film from the start, without the sound the film could be any genre. Up to the point where he is cleaning blood off his body, I felt as something was not right about the setting, I was curious about the setting by just the sounds.

The opening scene is effective as drags the audience into the film like you are part of the film. The sequence also shows credits within the shot in corners, that is a requirement for the thriller task, they are red that could have been chosen for a reason because of the theme of the film.

Different types of thrillers

There are many sub-genres in thrillers, some examples are:

Crime

This involves some kind of crime, a good example of a Quentin Trarantino's first film Reservoir Dogs, this was a low budget independent film which was very successful for the genre and for the actors. The film is about a group of people with code names are doing a crime and they get found out by undercover police.

• Conspiracy
  

This sub genre involves a plot to be at the top of the chain of command, this sub genre shows how they do it and succeed or fail. A example of a film I have seen is Valkyrie it is an apparently true story set in the time when Hitler was in power and a Sargent who looses some limbs wanted to plot to demolish Hitlers regime.

• Phychological
  

Phycho is the best example of this sub genre because the emotional conflicts involved with the audience and the characters.

• Mystery
• Erotic
• Medical
• Political
• Religious

and more...

Thriller Introduction

The main task is a 2 minute opening sequence to a thriller, it is important to think about past thrillers, by researching them and also thinking about the whole idea/plot of the film to get an idea of what to show from the opening.

I will be looking at 3 main thrillers showing, how a thriller opening is produced adding tension but also showing the important information, as in the main cast, directors and distributors.

Looking at the list of best Thrillers from IMDb.com, I have found that there are a mixture of new resent and old thrillers in the top 10. Below are images of the top 5 thriller front covers, from the 5 top thrillers I have seen 3 of them.

This is the top 10 list at the colums are arranged by (Position, Rating, name and date of release, and (£) money made.

1.	8.9	Pulp Fiction (1994)	446,307
2.	8.9	Inception (2010)	294,471
3.	8.8	The Dark Knight(2008)	499,156
4.	8.8	Goodfellas (1990)	245,650
5.	8.8	Fight Club (1999)	411,511
6.	8.7	Rear Window (1954)	126,604
7.	8.7	Psycho (1960)	153,707
8.	8.7	The Usual Suspects(1995)	283,009
9.	8.7	The Silence of the Lambs (1991)	263,806
10.	8.6	Se7en (1995)	30,380