Initial Ideas

Synopsis of our Thriller


Beginning

A teenage girl of the age of about 16 was going to a party. She was dressed up in high heels, a dark short dress and a hand bag. Her paranoid dad (Colin) had warned her not to take the short cut to the party through the park, he said dangerous people hang around there. The girl ignores her dad and decides to meet her friend in the park, through Facebook chat, before heading to the party. As she heads to the park she notices shadows and other weird things. As she stands waiting for her friend, she gets out her phone and starts to text. Meanwhile a mysterious man in a suit starts to walk towards the girl. As the girl texts her friend 'where are you?' she replies 'what do you mean?' before she looks up and is suddenly kidnapped.

Middle 

The dad an ex-marine was actually part of a criminal dealing that went extremely wrong and was threatened by the criminals the life of his daughter. When the police go to explain that his daughter has been kidnapped and ask for any reason he may know of why, he doesn't reply. But inside his head he knows why and he knows that if he tells the police, the lives of the rest of his family will be in jeopardy. So he sets off to deal with criminals to get his daughter back. 

End

The man has to deal with criminals from all over England and eventually is led to Manchester where his daughter is being held and after dealing with the criminals regains his daughter. 

Location Ideas

My first location is an empty school at night. I think this would make a good thriller setting as it is dark and dull and a common, everyday place. I think it would have a good effect on the audience as it is somewhere a lot of them go everyday. 
















The next few pictures are of the same place, just different views of it. It is the room under my outside patio. It has only recently been built and has (obviously) not been decorated yet. i think this would be a good location as it is at a house, therefore already people can relate it to their own lives and when it is dark it is a very dull, scary place. It would also be an easy place for our group to film. 

Thriller Questionnaire

Thriller Questionnaire

1.    Age:   10-15   16-24   25-34  35-45  46-59   60+

       (please circle one)

2.    Gender:         Male            Female

3.    In a thriller film, do you think you should the meet the main character(s)

        _______________________________________________

        _______________________________________________

        _______________________________________________

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4.   What do expect in the main character of a thriller film?

        _______________________________________________

        _______________________________________________

        _______________________________________________

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5.   Who is your favourite actor/actress?

        ___________________________________________

6.   What is your favourite thriller film?

 ___________________________________________

7.   What do you want to learn in the opening two minutes of a thriller?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

8.   In the opening of a thriller film, what do you like to see/hear?

      Cold, dark setting (low-key, dark lighting)

      Close-ups (to hide identity)

      Fast editing

      Symbolic imagery

      Other:  _____________________________________

Se7en Analysis

The Taking Of Pelham 123 - Thriller Opening Sequence

I chose to analyse this opening sequence as it is different from usual Thriller openings. 
It uses a lot of close-ups like thrillers normally do, it gives us clues but still leaves the audience asking questions like a thriller, we meet the main character(s) like we do in a thriller and there are titles like there are in a thriller however, there are a few differences.
This opening has high-key lighting, it is set during the day time. This, unlike other thrillers, doesn't make the audience worried or apprehensive, it doesn't really have an effect on them at all. 
Also, the music over the opening sequence is very up-beat, unlike any other thriller opening. It is a rap song therefore has lyrics to it, again this is much different from the usual choral piece in thriller. 
The titles in the opening, are quite bright and standout again unlike a usual thriller. 
This opening still makes the audience ask questions however in a different way to any other thriller. 

Conventions of a Thriller

Conventions Of An Opening Sequence

Conventions of a title sequence on Prezi

The Titles We See

The different tiltles we see in an opening sequence depends on the film. In the opening sequence of The Sixth Sense, there are a lot of titles;

1, The first titles we see are the logos of the production/distribution companies. First, Hollywood Pictures, then Spy Glass Entertainment. 

2, Then, even though we have already seen the two logos, the first title is:

'HOLLYWOOD PICTURES and SPY GLASS ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT' 

3, We then get the names of the production companies

'A KENNEDY/MARSHAL/BARRY MENDEL PRODUCTION' 

    -no logos.

4, The actors/actresses names now come onto the screen, starting with the

    most important character/the main character. 

'BRUCE WILLIS'

5, Then is the actual title of the film

'THE SIXTH SENSE'

The other cast members now come up, from most important to least (hence why Bruce Willis was before all of them);

6, TONI GOLLET

7, OLIVIA WILLIAMS

8, HALEY JOEL OSMEP

9, GLENN HITZGERALD and MECHA BURPION

10, TREVER MORGAN and BRUCE NORRIS

Then we have the names of the crew, this time from least important to most important,

11, Casting by Avy Kaufman

12, Costume Design, Joanna Johnson

13, Music by James Newton Howard

14, Editing by Andrew Mondshein

15, Production Designer, Lucy Hulton

16, Director of photography, Tak Fujimoto ASG

17, Executive Producer, Sam Merger

18, Produced by Marshall, Kennedy and Mendel

19, Writen and Directed by M.Night Shyamalam

          The last title: Most important job

Bridget Jones' Diary (Maguire, 2001, UK/Ireland/France)

Rom Com vs Thriller 


Similarities:
   - The music is used to reflect the genre of the film.
   - Both establish a setting
   - They both introduce a/the main character(s)
   - They both have titles (that reflect the genre)




Differences: 
  - Thriller has dark, orchestral music whereas rom coms have up beat (often well known) lyrical
    songs. 
  - The way we meet a character
  - The vibe we get
  - Thriller often starts with something gruesome/bad, romcoms start with something funny and/or
     happy
  - The lighting is different
  - The target audience
  - The character age/sex

Spiderwick Chronicals (Waters, 2008, US)

The First shots are the company logos (seen below) however, the films music is playing over them which never normally happens. 

After we have seen these, the camera cuts between quick shots of things in a room. It makes the audience ask questions about what they are and where they are. Also, who's are they?

We then cut to this shot below. It is the first shot with titles in it. the background is quite dark and dull, out the window you can see it is night time.

As the door opens, light is let in the room, it is not natural light, it is a yellow colour. We can also see a mans feet, his shoes covered in mud. This would suggest he has been outside. He seems to be rushing, maybe in a hurry to do something/get somewhere?

We then see this shot of him holding a lantern, this could suggest 1, that there are no lights in the room 2, again he has just been outside with it and 3, it is set a while ago when they didnt have torches.

The camera then pans round the room looking at all of the stuff. From some of the things, you could assume that this man is a scientist or historian of some sort. 

He is looking at lots of things at his desk, we then see this. All of a sudden we think supernatural. It makes the audience question what is going on. 

We then see this mid, high angle shot of the man sitting at his desk observing is find. It makes the audience ask  what he is going to do about it, and what is he thinking ?

Another high angle shot is used to show this magical, mysterious book he has just written and drawn in. We see lots of creatures the we dont understand which obvious makes the audience ask questions. He then seals the book with melted wax and a letter stamp. Does he not want anyone to read it? If not, why?

There is then a big gush of wind, it blows the flower to pieces and all the papers on his desk too. 

We then see this again supernatural effect round the house, like a force field type thing that surrounds it. 

We finally see the mans face, however he looks worried and almost scared about something. This again has a big effect on the audience as they want to know why he is like that. 

He then runs to the window with the book and stares out as if looking at something in horror. This builds up a lot of tension for the audience. 

The camera then tracks through the trees and we see the title of the film. 

The last shot is of the house that looks like its getting older and older until this title comes on to the screen.

Wallander Opening Sequence

The scene starts with the camera tracking along the water. There is dark music as the camer keeps tracking. It then tracks over a rural landscape, you can see the bright white sky and lots of feils. It is an extreme long shot

It makes the audience ask questions like; where is it? who will be there? why?

We then see this shot. You can see some sort of car. the door is openand you can see two people walking away from it. The open door might suggest they have left the car in a rush  .

This makes the audience ask questions like; who are they? why are they walking away? what are they walking away from? has something bad happened? why have they left the door open.

We then cut to this shot of two girls. They arent talking or looking at each other. At this point the audience might be confused as they are not running and from what we can see they arnt pannicd.

The audience would be asking; who are they? why are they walking away? why are they not talking? where are they going? why?

We then cut to this rather unexpected shot. the blood splater on the window as well as his head on the steering wheel suggests that he has been somehow wounded. At the side of the image you can see a taxi licence. So now we asume this man is a taxi driver. Through the front windscreen you can see the two girls walking away.

At this point the audience are asking lots of questions; did they kill him? if so,why? who is he? was it self defence? did they know him?

Now we can see the girls faces, the girl in the foreground has blood splaters on her face. This automatically suggests that she (or they) have hurt the man. They both look very serious and are bothing looking straight ahead. The fact that the girl in the background has been slightly blured out might suggest that she hasnt got a big part of what is going on and that she is almost just a follwer.

 We then get a close up of the mans face. He looks like he has ben beaten up. At this point the auddience might assume that he is dead however his eye slightly twitches.

why have they done this? who is he? is he alive?

We then get a front view of the two girls walking away from the car. They both have a slightly worried look on their faces. You can now see more clearly the blood on the girls face.

When we see this picture we almost feel guilty. It shows that the man has family and it makes the audience ask why he was hurt/killed?  but also why are they showing us this keyring?

 The last shot we see before the titles is this one. It answers alot of the questions the audience had but they are now asking new ones; why did they do it? was it her choice? why are they in the middle of nowhere? why him? she looks like she is holding quite tight, maybe this is cause she is shaking so she is tensing her hand. as she drops the knife to the floor she streches her hand out.