Our research and pre - plan

Story Synopsis - Laura
Our story is based on a school girl around the age of 16, being bullied by a group of students in class who she believed to be her friends once. Due to pressure and depression from the grief they are giving her, she jumps off the cliff, whilst one bully tries to stop her, realising the damage has been done. The bully finds her dead at the bottom of the cliff. Panicking, the bully buries her.

Several years later, a policeman comes across the body by digging it up. The policeman however is her older brother. He finds a photograph ripped up in her pocket, and realises who must had done this to her. Filled with anger and hatred, the brother decides revenge is the best punishment and hunts down the bullies one by one.

Our group is filming two minuits of the introduction, which will include the suicide, the bully trying to reach her in time, and the burial of the body.

Naomi's Five Thriller Opening

The Ghost By Roman Polanski

Camera Work-

·      Begins with establishing shot. Shows the surrounding it’s at a harbour.

·      There’s along shot and you can see people standing there in front of the cars but you cannot see their faces this creates mystery and panic.

·      There are then two long establishing shots of the seaside and a man (assuming he is dead) in the water.  This is a completely different setting, which confuses the audience and makes them ask questions.

·      There is then a two shot of two men at a bar talking to one another. You can tell their in a bar by the framing if the shot but not to much is given away to the audience about who these people are. These guys are having a casual conversation when we have just seen two previous scenes, which are bazaar. The audience is confused and knows nothing in the first opening two minutes – Ristricted Narrative

Editing-

·      You see the cars moving around one car there’s not many cuts so the audiences attention is focused on this one car that’s not moving

Sound -

·      Non-diagetic sound the music playing is very sinister

·      There are extreme sound effects when the car alarm goes off, it’s over all the other sounds, which makes it significant, and it automatically brings a sense of panic. The audience ask questions, their curious as to what is going on.

·      There’s no dialogue until third setting so when they begin talking as soon as we cut to this scene the audience is shocked and bewildered.

Mise En Scene-

·      Urban location lots of cars it’s very public this makes things seem realistic adds to the creepy theme. There is a contrast in the settings that are in the first 2 minutes.

·      Beach setting its isolated adds mystery.

·      Distraught colour. Dark low key light gives a sense of enigma

·      It’s raining. Rain is associated with bad/sad things. Pathetic fallacy. Its foreshadowing that something bad Is going to happen

Theme and Atmosphere-

·      Enigma: the audience isn’t given any information about whom anyone is which creates mystery.

·      Confusion the audience are thrown into 3 completely different and irrelevant scenes.

·      Danger

Touch Of Evil By Orson Wells

Camera Work-

·      It begins with a close up of someone’s hands holding a bomb and setting the timer. You cannot see their face restricted view it views only a certain aspect of this person, which creates an enigma code. The audience’s attention is brought to this object and questions are raised about what is going on and the identity of the person who is setting the timer on the bomb.

·      You see the person put the bomb in the boot. The audience is omniscient they know all where as the characters do not. This builds tension because you are just thinking how long until it goes off!

·      Overhead shot of the car, the camera pans over a building and follows the car. This keeps the audiences focus on the car adding to their apprehension and tension

·      Pull out shot as the car stops at traffic lights (tracking shot) this enables the viewer to see more of the setting and then more anxiety is caused when the car drives towards the camera.

·      The camera is tracking the car and the couple.  The camera is linking the car and the couple together.

·      Theirs a fast cut and zoom on the explosion of the car, which intensifies what’s happened.

·      Although the audience are omniscient as they see someone place the bomb in the boot of the care there is also Restricted Narrative as some elements of the story such as why this has happened? Why did someone put a bomb in the car? The audience are not sure of. This is not presented in the opening sequence to create intrigued.

·      Causality (cause ad effect) the event with the person placing the bomb in the boot leads to the other events that follow, which processes the narrative in chronological order

Editing-

·      Cinéma vérité. Single long tracking shot. There are no cuts. It’s incredible its one continuous shot with no edits it give a sense of realism. It keeps the viewers train of thought without any distractions. Keep their full concentration.

Mise En Scene-

·      Setting busy urban streets

·      The lighting is dark and shadowy to add to the dark theme

·      Protagonists: the detective is shown, as he is the main character and the hero in the opening sequence. His clothes show he is smart sophisticated he is known and liked by other characters, which tell the audience is a protagonist.

Sound

·      When the car gets closer the music playing in the car becomes louder. This emphasises that the couple are becoming closer to the car, which creates a threat and panic because we know there is a bomb in the boot of the car.

·      The bongos are like a bomb ticking.

·      There is a mixed of non diagetic and diagetic sounds this adds to realism and theatre feel of the opening sequence

Themes and Atmosphere-

·      Suspense 

·      The theme here is crime and passion we see its crime as the detective involved and the death of the people in car is shows passion








h

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Camera Work-

·      There’s long shots and close ups. Quick shots.

·      There’s shots of the door at when they enter the room and leave the room to signify they’ve finished.

·      The camera work in the room infers that they know each other. And what they’re doing is planned. Everything they do, there movements are synchronised with each other. It shows what there doing is planned.

·      There are lots of shots of objects, which make the audience question their use. And what they’re going to be used for!

·      Observation shots. The shots are very steady enable us to have great focuses.

·      Initial shots- moving slowly to suggest spying which implies these people are not doing what they’re meant to be doing gives an effect of “eves dropping”

·      Close ups used a lot on props

Editing-

·      Shallow Depth Of Field when the two men are buying things in the shop like the saw, drill, rope this draws the audiences attention to these and emphasises the importance of these objects.

·      Fast cuts between close ups and long shots between the cars and then the car park to establish that they’re in a care park and give a sense that their doing something sinister before the characters are even seen.

Mise En Scene-

·      There is a few different settings to create confusion

·      There’s a variety of exterior settings such as urban and rural (shop and wood). Rural is an isolated location. Even when they are in the urban settings such as the shops, car park etc there is no other characters.

·      Props used are associated with danger and threat e.g. drill saws this makes the audiences ask questions thinking and wondering what these props are going to be used for.

Sound-

·      There’s no dialogue between the two characters. There’s lack of communication between them, shows they know each other very well – they don’t need to communicate. Adds to the idea that what there doing is planned.

·      The music sound pace is fast to go with the movement of the cuts, and then changes tempo when the camera moves setting to the room. The music then becomes very sinister and creates a creepy mood.

·      There is non-diagetic sound as there is a sound track.

Theme and Atmosphere

·      Suspense

·      Danger

·      Passion in the killing 

The Revolver By Guy Richie

Camera Work-

·      Medium shot with one person and two people walking either side. Because the guy in the middle is in the frame and the other two are not completely the audiences attention is brought to this character. You only see the back of them which creates enigma.

·      There’s a shot just of the feet walking and again the one in the middles feet is the only one that’s completely in the frame

·      There’s close up shots of prison doors opening and shutting to signify this person is out

·      Medium Shot of a police officer standing at a door and when it opens the guy who has been anonymous his face is now revealed. Having a shot of the door opening gives the audience suspense as they are waiting to see the mans identity.

·      There is a low angle shot looking up at the top of a building and the camera tilts down without any edits to the two main standing outside the building this establishes where they are an the position of these two people

·      Extreme long shot of the two men when the camera moves down

·      It then zooms in on them to create a two shot

Editing-

·      Cross cutting editing to bring the group of people in the car and the two people standing outside the casino together

·      Manipulation of time it jumps to two years later.

·      There’s cuts between certain shots of people walking e.g. there feet there upper body and black screens with memos on them this makes the audience read the memos which are relevant to the story, having the momos on the screen in-between shots adds to the enigma of this opening sequence and making the audience read keeps their attention and indicated that they need to concentrate.

Sound-

·      Off screen sound you here keys rattling and doors shutting when the screen is black. The audience can here these sounds but cant see what’s going on at this point this creates questions from the audience and curiosity. You then hear footsteps before you see characters. 

·      Music begins which is

·      Voice over narration

Mise En Scene-

·      When the guy walks out of the prison it is raining heavily and the use of rain and lights make it hard to see his face, which adds to the mystery.

·      The lighting is low key adding to the dark theme.

·      The clothes the two guys are wearing outside the casino shows they have high status this is emphasised by that the audience can see other people in the back ground but the colours of their suits are all black which indicates to the audience that these characters are significant as the clothes their wearing are brown and grey.

Theme and Atmosphere-

·      Enigma

·      Suspense 

The Untouchables By Bian De Palma

Camera Work-

·      It opens with an over-head shot or birds eye view this shows the mans position and gives the audience a clear idea of his power and status because of this shot. This over the head shot pans down to fit the character more in the frame without any cuts or edits. This gives a realistic effect, as it is a true story in the sense of the prohibition in 1930. The fact there’s no edits for the first 20 seconds or so enables the audience to focus on him.

·      There is a lot of medium close up of the main character in this scene, which enables the audience to focus on this character a lot and try to understand him and realise what the film is trying to communicate to the audience about him.

Editing-

·      The use of long takes is important because it establishes the storyline and helps the audience to connect with the character in this scene.

Mise En Scene-

·      The colours in the room are rich colours which suggest power It also suggests antagonists with the way he approaches the man when he cuts his face.  This is emphasised through colours as Robert Di Nero is wearing a white top with white shaving gel and the man shaving him also has a white top on and when the blood appears it is such contrast. The blood is emphasised through the colours.

·      The facial expression on the actor shows when he has accidently cut Robert Di Nero’s face he is in complete horror and shock this tell the audience that this guy expects to be punished and is waiting for him to shout. As he doesn’t because of the people around him, it infers to the audience that this man is deceiving and not to be trusted (antagonist)

·      At the beginning his face is being hidden by a white cloth this builds suspense because there’s all these people around this one man therefore enigma is created.

·      The setting is in one room

·      Natural lighting

Sound-

·      Diagetic sound adds to the realism

Themes and Atmosphere-

·      Crime

·      Immorality

For our Thriller opening sequence I would love to do a long shot with no cuts or edits like in Touch Of Evil. But I understand this would be a very hard process and we would probably not have the equipment to do that such as a tripod with wheels so you can track and pan a whole scene. However I also like the way The Disappearance Of Alice Creed is edited with the tight framed shots of objects to create enigma etc – this would be a good idea for the opening of our thriller. I would quite like to create a theme of mystery and suspense in the opening sequence also do something interesting in the story line to make our audience shocked. 

5 Thriller Openings By James

SEVEN

What enigma codes are constructed from the opening?

• Why does the Morgan freeman character live alone?
• Why does the Brad Pitt character fight to get the job with Morgan Freeman's character?
• Why does the Morgan freeman character carry a knife as opposed to a gun?
• Why does the Morgan freeman character start the metronome before he goes to sleep?
• Restricted narration is created in this piece when the Morgan Freeman character goes to the murder he looks at the body yet it is hidden from view and we cannot see a lot. this has been achieved by partial framing of the door.
• We find out in the beginning scene that Morgan Freeman is always very precise in his actions, and he asks many questions, this appears to make him rather unloved by the other policemen. however it doesn't particularly effect his abilities.
• The Brad Pitt character is more layed back and naive he is a much more modern type of detective and he is very different to Morgan freeman's character.

• The Mise en scene in this piece seem relatively normal, until we arrive at the scene of the crime. we then see blood and a brutal murder this is very shocking to the audience.

ASSASSINS

What enigma codes are created from the beginning of the film?

• Why is there two men in suits exchanging briefcases of money?
• why did the man in the white suit get shot?
• why did the man shoot for the heart not the head?
• why did he shoot the man in broad daylight?

• Restricted narration is achieved by use of alot of close up shots and we can hear the little girl singing off of screen. when the assassin is setting up his sniper rifle we can only see a P.O.V shot and we never see his face. we don't see the face of the guy in white until he looks up as the assassin shoots.

• We automatically see that the assassin is a perfectionist as he is very precise in the way he sets out his gear. everything has its own place and it is all concealed around his body then produced, assembled and placed in its correct position very quickly. also when he lines up to tke the killing shot there is no hesitation and it is sighted quickly.

• we can see that the man in white is an older gentleman and he is quite relaxed and at home considering he has a large amount of money in his briefcase. when he looks up we see that he is quite shocked to see the gun pointing at him yet he does not scream or shout this makes us see that maybe he has a trick up his sleeve and he is experienced at the kin of work that is going on.

•  Mise en scene in this opening is very typical of the thriller genre. weaponry and money is displayed here. while costume is quite sophisticated almost James Bond like. The location is definitely foreign as it has the feel of a paradise location which is immediately shattered by the brutal killing.

MEMENTO

What enigma codes are constructed from the opening?

• Why is the man shooting the other man?
• why is he taking a photo?
• why is the sequence playing in reverse?
• why is it in colour one minute then black and white the next?
• Restricted narration in this opening is created by the use of close ups being the mane shot in the beginning this means we struggle to see what is happening.
• We don't see the guy who gets shot face although we know it is a man we don't know why he is being shot or why he is kneeling.
• We can see that Leonard played by Guy Pearce is well dressed although slightly haggard looking. He has blood on his face and we don't know why. he does not hesitate when it comes to shooting teddy and therefore we know either he doesn't care that he is killing people or that he has done it before.
• We don't get to know teddy at all as we only see the back of his head however he is sweating a lot as if he knows what is going to happen and also he is not as well dressed.

• The mise en scene in this piece is very dark. It is set in a bathroom this is quite a confined space combined with the close ups making this a claustrophobic scene. there is a gun in this scene and it is used to shoot Teddy. However the most shocking and confusing technique is editing the scene is reversed. this creates suspense and confusion in the audience. 

THE BONE COLLECTOR

What enigma codes are created by the opening of this film?

• why is the doll hanging?
• why is everybody there?
• Who is he?
• Why are they in the tunnel?
• why is it him who is both the csi guy and the victim?
• why did he wake in hospital?
• how did the body get to where it is?
• who dropped the block on him?
• Restricted narration in this film is created through the use of low key lighting which makes it hard to see. also we hear alot of voices of screen because we are not focusing on the area but only him. he is in a tight enclosed space and we are only seeing a close up. Like Memento this makes the scene claustrophobic.
• We can see that he is a well distinguished man he is the author of several books and he is a decorated policeman. we see that he is well liked among his colleges as they all great him and follow him. this may be because he is a man who has recieved great success at work and earnt the loyalty of his men. 

• we also see that he is willing to go trough things most people would not usually do at work when he forces himself under all of that concrete to get to the body where he could of assigned someone else to do it. 

In conclusion I see that most thrillers start with a murder. This is done to entice the audience into watching. Restricted Narration is paramount to keeping the audience interested and guessing. as to what will happen next. Costume is a way for audiences to see who is the "goodie and badies" (binary opposition). However as it is thriller this is not always what you would expect. Props are also used to create enigma and fear in the audience. I feel that for our piece originality whilst still keeping some typical thriller conventions is the best way to proceed. I also feel time manipulation like in Memento could be a clever thing to do.

Feedback from Andrew

preliminary video

here ya go

• We felt that the lighting was good
•  there was good framing however we feel that we should work on that
• the use of match on action was good and we felt that it helped portray the continuity of the whole clip
• We should experiment more with shots and not be afraid to get closer in the frames
• Match on action was used at 0.27 seconds, this was shown by when we walked through the door into the interrogation room.
• We also used the same clothes even though we shot these two shots on different days.
• the 180 degree rule was not broken during the interrogation even though there was movement from a sitting position to a standing. 
• the seated positions such as when Brendan is sitting back in his chair with his hand over his mouth, this is kept the same during the whole piece and when he moves, it is not too drastic.
• the only thing that we would change would be how much Brendan stands up and sits down.

180 degree rule 

Laura's five chosen Thriller Openings

The Beach

Camera Work -

• A extreme long shot is used to open the film, with a male by a busy road, this makes the audience show that he must be off importance to the film. Due to the extreme long shot, it's much more harder to see his face and identity, making the audience wonder who he is.

Editing - 

• Speeding up the cars represented time passing by whilst he was waiting, this makes us wonder as an audience who he may be waiting for for such a long time. 

Mis en Scene - 

• He is wearing a big rucksack, this makes the audience think he is travelling as he is abroad and we wonder where he’s travelling too and why.

Sound - 

• A voice over of the main male character is used to introduce himself, this makes the audience trust and like the character, and we see everything from his point of perspective. 

Inception

Camera Work -

• The slow tracking used helps let the audience see the location of the beach, making the audience wonder how he ended up there in the first place.
• The over the shoulder shot hides the male in Black’s face, hiding his identity making the audience wonder who he is and what his part is in the story.

Editing -

• The dis-orientation of the camera angles represents the main male’s confusion to when he wakes up, this makes the audience wonder where he came from to get to this beach.

Mis en Scene -

• The guards that spot the male on the beach are armed with guns, showing high authority and power.
• Low key lighting is used inside the castle, this gives a sincere effect, making the audience wonder what the purpose of this building really is. 

Sound - 

• The parallel soundtrack creates tension as its unexpected what was going to happen next.  

Themes and Atmosphere created -

• The themes created are mystery and and violence.
• The atmosphere created was a hostile one.

Leon

Camera Work -

• The use of a tracking shot makes the audience view the setting and surroundings of where the beginning takes place
• The extreme close ups of the males in the shop hides their identity, making the audience want to know who they are and what they are up too.

Editing -

• The use of parallel cutting with the extreme close ups of the faces shows a link between the characters, the audience wants to know who these characters are and how they are linked.
• The use of the fade cut going into the shop adds mystery to the surroundings in the shop and what type of shop it is, as the only thing the audience can see is the close up of the two males expressions.

Mis en Scene -

• The use of the sunglasses on one of the male’s faces  hides his  character, the audience would wonder who he is as they are restricted to seeing only half his face.
• The photograph put on the table was in black and white, this makes the audience feel he is being watched upon them as he is in mid motion down the street, probably unaware of the photo being taken. This also asks the question to the audience why they are discussing that man in the photo.

Sound - 

• The dialogue between the two men start off in a different language, this gives the sense that they are doing something in secret, and the audience gets a feeling that they work well together. 
• A contrapuntal soundtrack used in the beginning is a contrast with the busy city life, the audience may be given a clue here that the protagonist is not generally around this area.

Themes and Atmosphere created -

• The atmosphere created is a calm one with the music being slow and wind instrumental
• The themes raised are violence.

No Country For Old Men

Camera Work -

• The use of extreme long shots help show the location of the film, the sense of isolation makes the audience wonder who would be in this location and why.

Editing - 

• Parallel editing, the sets all link into a semantic views of isolation, giving the audience a ‘goose bump’ feel.

Mis en Scene - 

• The setting is in a desert landscape, with no houses or towns, giving the isolated feel to the audience, making them ask questions what is important to this location and what is happening here.
• The protagonist costume is a sheriff, who has a high status due to his role in society, and you can tell that by his uniform.
• Low key lighting is used in some extreme long shots of the dessert, so the audience only have the restricted view of the mountains, making them ask questions where the location is.

Sound -

•  A voice over of the main male character is used to introduce himself, this makes the audience trust and like the character, and we see everything from his point of perspective.
• The foley effect of the wind reinforces the isolation of the setting, and makes us wonder if there is any life surrounding at all.

Themes and Atmosphere created -

• The theme is crime
• The atmosphere felt is isolation, and being trapped.

For my thriller opening, i would like to use a different language if dialogue is included, to give that sense of mystery and secrecy to the audience, like they did in Leon. I also like the voice over narration like in No Country For Old Men and The Beach, and also the isolated feel with the setting like No For Old Men. For most of the Thrillers i watched, the theme violence was involved, which is one to create tension and mystery, so i would like to base my team's thriller on a story related with violence.