Film Synopsis

Final Thriller Opening Plot

First we see a close up of a pair of boots. They are an enigma because we don't know who's wearing the boots. Slowly, the character who is wearing the boots is revealed. He starts walking and he pulls down his hood. We see that he is wearing a skull mask, covering his face. The shots flicker to show how he looks normally. We see that he is a normal teenage boy but we know that something isn't right with him because of the unusual disguise. We see him pull out a weapon but we don't know why he has it.

The next scene is indoors. We don't know where it is but it's dark and mysterious. We see someone lighting candles, this is an enigma because we aren't sure who is lighting them and why they are lighting them. The next shot is of someone in the corner of the room, sat rocking backwards and forwards as if they are distressed or scared. We don't know who this person is. Next, we see the boy looking in the mirror at himself. He looks normal but we see flickers of his mask. We see his hand covered in blood. He lifts it to his face and smears the blood slowly down his cheek. He hears people shouting behind him so he slowly turns around. Lasers are being pointed on his chest. We realise that he has guns pointed at him. He says 'Bang'.

Location

For a scene in our film introduction, we have decided to use a graveyard in Wem for the location. Here is an areal view of the location. 

We went to the graveyard to have a look around. The path seems perfect for the main character to walk down when he wears the hood and mask. There is plenty of space for camera equipment and the ground is flat so it won't cause problems when filming on it.

The area is quiet so there won't be many distractions by passing members of the public.

The Sixth Sense

During the title sequence, we can see the text tracking. A blue/grey colour has been used for the text and there is an intense piece of music that's being played over the top. Also, there is a shadow that moves across the title. All of these factors create a sense of tension.

The film starts with an enigma. There is an orange glow that we can't quite make out at first, but the glow starts to get stronger and shows that its a lightbulb. The lightbulb introduces the location to being in a dark cellar.

Next, we see a woman in a dress. From her dress and hair style we can tell that she is at the house for some kind of celebration. Wine holders come into focus and we realise that she has come into the cellar to select wine.

The camera moves forward on a dolly, highlighting the fact that something unusual will happen. We hear a a diagetic noise from the other side of the room. This distracts the woman and surprises her. What made the noise is an enigma.

The next shot shows the woman on the left hand side of the screen, creating a large empty space, enough room for another character to stand in. The fact that there isn't another character there creates an uneasy atmosphere.

Her bright dress creates juxtaposition with the dark, shadowy back ground. This shows how alone and venerable she is feeling.

The next scene shows warm colours and candles which indicate that the scene is warm and comforting and romantic. This contrasts against the previous scene.

All of the Christmas cards that have been made by children create an enigma because we don't know who has given them or why there is so many of them.

When the couple are revealed, they are admiring an object. This object is an enigma because we don't know what it is yet.

The woman states that she is cold. This links to the ghostly presence that was felt in the wine cellar. 

When the couple start talking about the object, the enigma starts to unfold. 

The plaque is revealed. The director is known for using reflections to show two shots at the same time, in one shot. This slows down the pace of the film and makes it more interesting.

While they are talking, we find out the man's job and why he has a plaque.

The next shot of the stairs helps the audience transport their attention to the next scene, which is upstairs.

The third scene shows the couple drunk. The audience can tell that the wine that they were drinking downstairs for the celebration is the reason why.

We are shown a closeup of the phone on the floor and the broken glass. The camera pans up to reveal that someone has broken in.

A shadow goes across the man and the woman and they slowly approach the bathroom door to reveal the enigma of who is in the house with them. The music is intense to create suspense and the camera pans from the floor to the unknown man.

The camera is shaking to create a sense of intensity. The man of the house sits down on the bed, in shock, and leaves the crazy man stood in the doorway. This height hierarchy has given the unknown man the power in the situation.

We are shown shots of closeups of the character's faces to show their expressions. The camera tracks to show the sudden moment of realisation of the character.

We can tell that the unknown man is crazy and has problems because he is stood naked, after breaking in, in the bathroom.

The crazy man shoots the other man. He shoots himself while the camera is tracking to the left. This shows the picture that is hung on the wall. It symbolises friendship, joy and happiness. This is juxtaposition to the tragedy of the man shooting himself.

The camera moves up on a crane when we see the man lying on the bed. This signifies an out of body experience.

Make Up Experiment

For my thriller opening, I'm going to paint the actor's face to look like a skeleton. Here are some screenshots of a tutorial on YouTube shows how to do it in the style that I want it to look like. 

I'm going to need:

- black face paint

- white face paint

- a paintbrush

- a sponge

After trying out the make up, we decided that it would be easier to use a mask to cover the bottom half of the face and just paint the top half of the face with face paint. We decided to do this because it will be less time consuming. 

Shot Descriptions

Logo

This is the logo that I've made.

I like the contrasting colours and bold text. If I were to create another one, I would make the background less busy and the typeface more interesting.

I don't think that we will use this logo for our group project.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for my thriller opening. I drew sketches of what the shots will look like and wrote a few notes below each picture that explain what is happening for future reference.

Anamatic

This is my anamatic. It shows how long each shot will be and for how long the opening will last. It creates a good guideline for when I go to film the opening.

I created it by taking images of my storyboard and importing them into Final Cut. I changed the length of each image and put them together in the right order. This created an idea of how the final version of the opening will look.

Survey Analysis

I created a survey to gather information on what audience members like best in thriller films. This included who their favourite directors are, what type of music featured in thrillers they like and what devices they watch thrillers on. I had 8 responses to this survey, all helpful to what I should include in my thriller opening.

Which sub-genres of thriller do you prefer?

The answers concluded that the most preferred sub genres are supernatural and phycological. The least preferred are mysteries.

How often do you watch thrillers?

1-2 times each month is the most popular. No one doesn't watch thrillers but not many people watch them very often.

Where do you watch thrillers?

The majority of people watch thriller films on Netflix. Second to that is the cinema and on DVDs. Not many people watch thrillers online.

Which directer do you prefer? 

Out of the four directors, Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino were the most popular.

Why do you prefer that director? 

7 people gave interesting answers to why they prefer their chosen director. Most people enjoyed the creative aspects that these directors brought to their films. 

What devices do you normally watch thrillers on?

The majority watch thrillers on T.V. The cinema and laptops are closely followed. 

From looking at the results of this survey, I have found out what the audience prefer to see in thriller films. I can now apply these factors to my own thriller and I have information on how the audience view thrillers, giving me an idea of how to release the film later on.

My target audience will like supernatural/psychological thrillers, watch about 1-2 thrillers every month, watch thrillers on Netflix through the T.V. and like Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino for their creativity. My target audience would be between the ages of 15 and 30.

Film Introduction

I created a short film introduction for a thriller. I decided to call it 'Inbetween'.

To use text, I clicked on the icon of the 'A' at the bottom right of the viewer and a drop down menu appeared. I clicked on 'Text' then 'Text' again from the next drop down menu. 

After that, I wanted to enter the text. To do this I went to Controls and typed in the text box. For my project, I entered 'Inbetween'. 

After that, I changed the font to 'Old Press' in the font drop down menu. I then changed the size with the size slider.

Once I entered the text, I dragged the text off the viewer and onto the timeline.

After that, I imported a clip of damaged film. I placed it on the timeline, above the text. This gave the text texture.

I added an effect. I did this by going to Effects, Video Filters, Glow then Bloom. I also added a Bad Film effect and Vignette. Bad film made the text shake and Vignette created a faded black boarder.

I then made another piece of text that also said 'Inbetween'. I placed this underneath the other text and changed it's size so that it was extremely large. I changed the opacity so that it faded into the black background. I also added Gaussian Blur as an effect.

I positioned the large text to where I thought it looked best. I then made it so that it tracked to the right. 

I rendered my work regularly so that I could see how the whole piece looked as I was working on it. 

Here is my completed film intro: 

Creating a Protagonist

The protagonist that I have created is called Alia. She is female, 20 years old and lives in England.

Lighting - spotlights, she'll always be in the light even when in a dark setting.

Camera - she's shot as the taller character in the visual hierarchy because she is the most important character, close-ups of her face, mid-shots and long-shots to show body language, shaky camera movements to make it seem more dramatic.

Editing - fast, dramatic cuts, montages to show time passing.

Sound - loud, fast-paced music for action. English accent - shows seriousness. 

Mise en scene - She wears all black. Jeans and top. Long brown hair. Dark makeup - black eye makeup. Mobile phone for a prop and possibly a weapon. Location - on backstreets/alleys. - All of this creates a dramatic and cool look for the character.

I think that my protagonist would look similar to Tris Prior from Divergent.

Survey

Here is a survey that I have created to gather information about Thrillers.

http://katiee98.polldaddy.com/s/thrillers

North by North West

The opening scene of North by North West starts with a green background and the production company logo.

The lines that appear on the screen are an enigma because we don't know why they are there yet. We soon realise that they are the outlines of windows on a building.

The text is easy to read. It's in italics and they are white to stand out from the background.

The text is quick to move off the screen. This is related to the busy streets that we will see later on in the opening. It mirrors what is about to happen.

Every now and again, a white rectangle moves quickly on and off screen. I think that this is supposed to make people think of lifts, again hinting that the lines are an outline of a building.

Here, Alfred Hitchcock's name is shown in large, capital letters. This is to show his importance in the making of the film. It also makes you familiar with his name.

The green fades out and reveals that the lines were an outline of a building. Text is still being shown so that the setting is being revealed slowly. Now that we can see the building and the reflection of the city, we know that the setting is probably New York because we can see yellow taxis.

The music in this opening is fast paced and is similar to the action of the people rushing around. We can tell that the time is rush hour because everyone is wearing work clothing and is walking fast.

The text is now smaller and therefore less important.

In this screenshot you can see the disclaimer. The company places this here because they are worried about getting sued. If someone accuses them of using a story or a character belonging to them, there is the disclaimer to back the company up.

'ALFRED HITCHCOCK' is shown again. This is to reinforce his importance and to make the audience familiar with his name again.

The green bus links with the green colour theme at the start of the opening. This ties up the opening nicely because it links back to the beginning.

Storyboarding

This image is of a storyboard that my class created. We drew out the boxes then decided on what camera angles, lighting and sound would feature in the scene. This was practice for creating our own storyboards on a thriller opening of our choice. 

The thriller that I chose was Goldeneye. I started by folding the paper into 8 parts. I then drew the objects and characters in the right positions, as they are shown in the actual film. This is so that they give a good representation on how they would be filmed and how much space each object would hold within a shot. I put in little detail but just enough so that the drawings are clear. I also added arrows to show movement. Some of them show the direction in which an object/character moves and others show when the camera tilts or pans.

On the back of the paper, I have numbered each box to indicate the order of the shots. I have written brief descriptions of what happens, sound effects and camera angles. This is so that the reader can have more detail about how the scene is going to be filmed.