Props for our thriller opening.

Our thriller opening consisted of only a few props. For example, the police files, phone and bag it was placed in. We also made a dead body out of rope and a scarf, the rope was used to give more shape towards it.

This were the files I created for the detective seen. I researched police files on the internet and came up with a design which I thought looked relevant. I added 'confidential' in big red letters to make the files look important and added 'CASE: 00-172' which would show the case number their working with. Inside the files are pictures of the characters in out thriller and blank lines in so it looks like a file. We thought, as a group we could add the credits on the blank lines as the files are opening. We would used the 
macs for the credits.

This is the mask we used in our thriller. Jack's mum made this out of an old sheet, remembering to cut out eye and month holes. As we inspired our idea from 'The Strangers' we had to make sure ours was different in the way the make appeared. We added a point at the top and added a straight face rather than a smile. As a group we thought when the masked man would appear he could tilt his head to add a creepy feel to the audience. Also, we hoped that the mask would make the audience ask questions such as, 'why's he hiding his identity from the audience and the girl?' Overall, I think the mask will work well as we're filming at night so hopefully it will stand out for when he appears.


We also used a phone and a bag to place it in for the effect of finding evidence. I thought the bag worked well we were able to write the date and what case the murder was which made it more effective. We thought this was a good prop to use as when evidence is found at a murder scene they placed in a bag for safe keeping. I think we would be able to work with this prop as one line is 'what are we working with then?' and that's when we were thinking of holding up the bag.

Shooting script for our thriller opening.

1. Black screen - phone call taking place
2. Mid shot of the detectives looking over the dead girls body
3 Close up of a file opening - also over the shoulder shot
(at the this point the credits will be shown with pictures of the character)
4. Extreme close up of the girls phone - receiving a text message  'You're dumped'
5. Pan shot of the girl walking round the corner
6. Mid shot of the girl walking passed the building
7. Close up of the girls phone in a bag 
(detectives speech 'what are we working with here?'
8. Mid shot of the girl walking down the path
(the camera zooms into the girl so she's centre of the screen)
9. Mid shot of the masked man grabbing the girl
(girl screams and gets pulled to the ground)
10. Close up of more files as Detective Freebury hands Detective Coley the file
(shows their pictures for then more credits to fit in) - another over the shoulder shot
11. Close up of the girls reaction
(the masked mans POV shot)
12. Close up of the masked man coming towards the girl
(the girls POV shot)
13. Ends as a black screen.


For our thriller opening we decided to have flash backs of a murder, so this is why our shooting script jumps from the detectives finding a body to how the murder took place. We thought this would be an effective way of showing this rather than just the murder being taken place and then the detectives. We decided to have the phone call being placed over a black screen so the audience don't see who/what that character is. We also added a variety of shots including POV shots from two characters which we thought would be quite effective.

Narrative script for our thriller opening.

*Phone call*
Hayley (police): Hello, British Police department, how may I help you?
Jack (the killer): I did it again, bet you can't find me..
*Jack hangs up leaving the beeps..*


*Detective scene*
D1: Who was she?
D2: Don't you remember?
*Pause and hands D1 the file*
D2: Laura Robinson, three suicide attempts last month
D1 : I doubt that was the case here though
*Passes file back to D1*
D2: What are we working with?
*D1 holds up bag with the girls phone in*
D1: The murder took place around 4, due to a message she received on her phone
D2: Which would explain why she was out here alone
*D1 and D2 look at each other*
D1: Do you think it was him?
*D1 hands file to D2*
D2: It looks like his work
*D2 hand file back to D1*

Costumes for our thriller opening.

Hayley's (my) costume:

As a group we didn't really come with any costume idea's, just casual clothing. There didn't need to be specific rules of what clothing to where as she's just a girl out walking getting some air. We hope that the audience would agree with us about casual clothing, and the coats added for the effect of it being very cold at night.

Costumes for our thriller opening.

Toni's costume.

Toni's character in our thriller was also a detective. To be honest, the same dress code was used from Jack's second costume, black/white clothing. Also, hopefully the audience would see her as an important person and have a clue idea of her role in the opening.

Costumes for our thriller opening.

Jack's costume: Costume 2.

For Jack's second character role he will be smartly dressed as he is a detective. We thought the basic, white shirt, black trousers and tie would be appropriate for this role so it makes the audience feel like he is an important person.

                           

Costumes for our thriller opening.

Jack's costume: Costume 1.

Jack will be dressed in all black clothing with a white mask covering his head with eye and mouth holes cut out. The mask is used to hide his identity from the audience and also the girl he murders. As we our filming our thriller at night we hope that the white mask will stand out and create a tense atmosphere through the audience. The costume idea was inspired from the film 'The Strangers' but we made the storyline and mask different from the actual film.

Roles/characters for our thriller opening.

Acting roles:
Murder scene:
Jack: The murderer (masked man)
Hayley (me): Girl that gets murdered
Investigation scene:
Jack: Detective Coley (detective 1)
Toni: Detective Freebury (detective 2)


Camera roles:
Murder scene:
Toni on camera as she's not in this scene
Investigation scene:
Hayley (me) on camera for this scene


Characters:
Jack: Muderer (masked man)
From the audiences view it would seem as he has something against the girl he attacts. On the other hand, it could just be that theres something wrong with him. He's nasty and generally creepy. He stalks the girl in which he attacts and knows when exactly to strike. His identity is hidden which also shows he doesn't want to be known.

Jack: Detective Coley (detective 1)
He is vital to the development of the story and is serious in finding out what has actually happened. He has an suspicion of who has done it from a previous case and him and his colleague are vital to solve the case. The character stays close to the body to go through the investigation with his colleague.

Hayley: Girl that gets murdered
The girl has no idea that she is being stalked and completly unaware of the maked man following her around. She is completly unawre of the the maksed mans plot to kill her. It's cold and dark so the girl feels helpless and vunerbale. Also, as she is alone in the middle of nowhere no one is around to save her so it gives the murderer a clear get away leaving her for dead.

Toni: Detective Freebury (detective 2)
Also, she is vital to the development of the story and has a clear idea of who has done this. The files contain information on the girl which leads her to comiting suidide. The props she finds would also head them into a direction of her comiting suidide. The only way her mind is chaged is when she dicovers how the murder has took place and in what style. The character stays close to the body to figure out more clues.

Location for our thriller opening.

Our thriller opening is going to be set in Morton fen.
We chose this as it is an abandoned  building with a creepy/thriller look to it.
Also, it is in the middle of nowhere so the surrounding consists of fields and a straight road.
As half our thriller will be set at night the location will be more realistic for a thriller film.

Storyboards for our ideas and final idea. (our thriller opening)

Final idea storyboard.

Each of us came up with a storyboard for our idea. In the end we mixed idea 1 and 3 to make our thriller opening. As there were two different names we had a group decision about what title would explain the opening. We chose 'Pestilence' as it sums up what the evil character is.

Idea 1 storyboard.

Idea 2 storyboard.

Idea 3 storyboard.

Questionnaire and results analysis

This is a questionnaire to show different people's opinions on Media as I am currently working towards making a thriller opening. I would be grateful if you took your time to do this.

Please circle your preferred answer?

1. What gender are you?
Male
Female

2. What age range are you?
13-15
16-18
19-21
22-24
25+

3. What do you do in your spare time?
read books?
watch films?
play sport
listen to music?
other __________________________________

 4. What do you find more important in a thriller film?
location
music
plot
characters
costume
credits
props

5. What is your preferred genre?
horror
thriller
romance
comedy
adventure
sci-fi
drama
mystery

6. If you had to choose what film would you be more interested in?
Psycho
The Happening
shaun Of The Dead
Donnie Darko
Saw
Inception
Orphan

7. At what age range would you show a thriller to?
5-10
11-16
16+

8. What would your expected location to be for a thriller?
woods
old creepy house
church
haunted house
dark street
other ____________________________

9. How do you expect a thriller opening to start?
a chase
a murder
flashbacks
'24 hours earlier'
'24 hours later'
other ______________________________

10. What do you enjoy most about a thriller?
the tension it builds
the music building
the plot
the characters
the setting
other ____________________________

11. What age certificate of thriller films do you watch the most?
12
15
1

 12. What age certificate do you find more entertaining?
12
15
18

13. On average how many thriller films do you watch a month?
0-3
4-7
8-11
12+

Questionnaire results

We wanted to have a mixture of males and females on our results so it was fair as different genders will have different opinions. This is why I did half and half.

The main age range that come up in my results was 16-18 - so my age range. This was good because it would give us a good respond to what people our age like about thrillers. There was a range of 25+, this might be good for research as they might of seen a range of thrillers and they could know what makes a good thriller and what good conventions are used.

Three quarters of my results said they watch films which would be a good help with our feedback, it just depends on which genre of film they watch to get our specific feedback from. It helped as most of the audience do watch films. Another three quarters of my results replied with other, this ranged from going out to sleeping. These results weren't really relevant as they hadn't got anything to do with watching films.

This feedback helped us in figuring out what the audience find more important. The most popular was music so we worked on this a lot to keep the audience watching. The second popular was characters, so we worked on the characters to make them different from other characters in films.

These results showed me what was the most popular genre people like watching. The preferred genre was a mixture between comedy and thriller. As were making a thriller is was relevant to listen to their opinions as it would help us in creating the opening so it would be interesting for them to watch.

These results were very close together and was hard to see where we could base our thriller. The popular choices were all thriller films rather than having a bit of comedy in. It did help us in some way, of helping us keep our thriller on the scary line rather than adding comedy.

As you can see from these results the most popular answer goes to 16+, this is probably because most thrillers are rating 15 0r 18. From these we tried making our thriller more conventional and suitable for viewers above the age of 16. 

These results showed that the most expected location would be in a wood, with an old creepy house coming close behind. We had a thought about doing our thriller in the woods but we thought it would be hard to film around the tree's and possible people walking around. We thought about an old creepy house, but then there was the problem with getting permission and actually finding a house. In the end we did our thriller in an abandoned, half knocked down building in the middle of nowhere, which we though was a good location for a thriller convention.

From these results you can see that most people would expect to have flashbacks in a thriller opening. Using these results we thought having flashbacks would be an attraction on the audience so included them in our thriller opening. The least popular choice as '24 hours later'. We were debating putting this into our thriller, but when we got the results back we decided not to as the audience wouldn't expect it, so we just kept with the most popular choice.

The most popular result was the tension it builds so we really worked on this to keep our audience watching. We thought about the music, the editing we'd use, camera shots etc. For the editing we thought about having some shots freeze framed and in black and white to make it different from other thrillers with a voice over on top. We also thought that the music should be quite slow and creepy with non digetic sounds added. For example, heart beats.

These results helped us figure out what age certificate to rate our film out due to what people watch the most. The most popular was 18 but we've decided on going on 15 as we wont be able to make our thriller for only 18 to watch as it would have to be scary, jumpy and have quite a lot of thriller conventions. 

Once again these results helped us work round what our thriller would be like entertaining wise in certificate ratings. The most popular was 18 but again we went for 15 as I don't think were that experience to make a high rated 18 thriller.

These results show us how often people watch thrillers in a month. The most popular answer was 0-3. Considering there is a wide range of genres out, watching thrillers at least once a month is still positive feedback. It also gives us a chance to get into that target area and add a new, exciting thriller for the public to enjoy.

Our Final Idea!

After pitching our presentation to the rest of the class we had some possitive feedback on what idea would be suitable for our thriller opening. We decided to mix idea one and idea three.

Narrative:
-scene starts black
-fades into the picture of 'jack' on the phone (old red pay phone) breathing down the phone.
hear someone saying hello...

-flashback of him stalking a girl while the investigators are talking
-scene keeps changing depending of the subject being tole
-POV shots of the girl running, also a slow building song choice.

Location:
-Morton fen

Credits:
-police files - being opened by the detectives

Characters:

-girl running

-masked character

-two criminal investigators (detectives)

Costume:

-smark suits/skirt and blazer (detectives)

- whitemask with eyes and a creepy smile cut out (with black clothing)

-casual clothing for the girl (going to be a dark mise en scene do clothing here doesn't really matter

Props:

-police files

-pens

-ipod?

Soundtrack:

'There is someone walking behind you, watching your footsteps, turn around, look at me'

-either played on the girls ipod - so muffled or the villian talking the lyrics while stalking the girl

-music as the credits are shown.

USP

Definition

Unique selling proposition: a feature of a product that makes it different from and better than other similar products and that can be emphasized in advertisements for the product.

The Unique Selling Proposition (a.k.a. Unique Selling Point or USP) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s.

It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands.

The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company.

Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.

Target audience

Definition

The particular group of people to which an advertisement, a product, a website or a television or radio programme is directed:

Niche market

Definition

A small area of trade within the economy, often involving specialized (= unusual and made for a few people) products

Inference and deduction

Inference and deduction

Infer is something we think might happen

Deduce is what we know

Symbolism

Definition

• The use of symbols in art, literature, films, etc. to represent ideas

Religious symbolism is very characteristic of the paintings of this period.

• Specialized a type of art and literature which began in the late nineteenth century and which tries to express ideas or states of mind rather than represent reality, using the power of words and images

(Compare: Naturalism; realism; Expressionism)

• A system of symbols or representations.

A symbolic meaning or representation.

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is a 2001 psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The film has been carefully made so that there are multiple explanations to what happens. The explanation heavily revolves around the book Donnie gets from his teacher, "The Philosophy of Time Travel" written by Roberta Sparrow.

Donnie is a troubled teenager with visions of a large bunny called Frank that only he can see. Frank often urges him to commit a series of dangerous crimes in which he doesn’t remember.

We first see Donnie lying in the middle of the road near the top of a mountain slowly awakening. The non digetic music is very light here and you can here keys of a piano being played which was added so the audience felt intense. The camera slowly pans towards him focusing on the scenery more so, which is dark and mysterious so it connotes to the thriller genre. The scenery also focuses on the mise-en-scene as the titles are in the thunderstorm so it relates on the audience that something bad is going to happen. As the titles are being viewed Donnie is out of the picture. Then the camera jumps to him and he smiles in amusement at his own sleep-walking, which is how he got there. His smile is disturbing and seems as if he’s proud of whatever he’s done. The music suddenly changes to fit the way Donnie is riding his bike. The music is by ‘Echo & the Bunnymen’. It’s quite upbeat and moving just like Donnie on his bike in which he bikes home where everything seems to be pretty normal.

Donnie's whole appearance is very laid back and comes across as he doesn't care much about himself. His face is often hid by the lighting which helps connote with the darkness of the film. It could come across as him being evil as he is in darkness with just his creepy smile appearing. Also, the audience could feel some confusion as Donnie appears to be in his own world laughing to himself (or at Frank) so he is oblivious to anything around him.