Storyboard, Planning and Analysis of Preliminary Task

Storyboard and Planning for preliminary task:




Commentary on storyboarding:
This is the first page of the storyboard for our preliminary task. We planned to make the powerful character wear black and the weaker character wear white to symbolise good vs. evil. The colour of their hair was also used in this way. Just from the first page, we have already established the characters; the two men, and set up a degree of enigma; what did the red haired man do and why does he look scared? We helped the audience understand the location by setting up a desk in a room like an office, so they are aware it is happening in the workplace. They understand by the subliminal messaging through colours used which character is more powerful, and realise the purpose of the evil character from the second storyboard page when the weaker character goes off scene and a gunshot is heard. However, not all has been revealed;
the audience do not know whether the character has been shot/ has been killed by the shot, so are still curious to continue watching the film to see what happens. This is important for the enigma to be continued.



Commentary on planning process:
We planned to use mafia-style, fast paced, eerie music to make the audience feel uneasy and that something is going to go wrong. When the evil man looks shify and put his hand in his coat to get the gun out, we slowed down the music and used a heartbeat sound to convey the seriousness, and we also put an effect on it so that when the other character jumped off the chair, it was in slow motion. We felt this had a good effect, and amplified the noise of the chair crashing to the floor.
Commentary on filming:
We filmed our preliminary task at school, as this was really just to help us understand the camera, so the location wasn't so vital. We used the three things which were suggested should be included; match on action; when the evil man walks through the door, shot reverse shot; when the two men are talking, and the 180% rule; we kept on the left of the evil man.

By doing the preliminary task we learnt many things;

• How to use the camera and techniques such as; zooming in/out, recording/ stopping, making sure a blank tape was inside, etc.
• To use a tripod; we didn't do this and this greatly affected our film as the shots were shaky and looked unprofessional, so we remembered to use it for our thriller.
• How to do over the shoulder shots; we took this far too literally and actually sat the camera on the actors camera! We have learnt since to just put the camera on a tripod behind the actors shoulder.
• How to upload the footage; the amount of film we have on the tape is the time it takes to upload, so its important not to film too much unnecessary footage.
• How to add effects; we played about on the apple macs which we had never used before for a while and experimented with different effects till we found the appropriate one.
• Where to find music; a legal website called freeplay was suggested by teachers, where you can type the sort of music you are looking for.

I think our preliminary task went well because we planned it all out on a story board so we knew what we were doing. This was our first time using the cameras so we were a little unsure; this is why the camera movements are shaky as we didn't use a tripod. Doing the preliminary task taught us aspects of timing and how to plan effectively, and how to use the equipment correctly for the best outcome.

Commentary

On Filming;
The Filming of our main thriller task is going well; we used a tripod to ensure still, smooth shots, and have filmed most of our thriller. All we need to film now is the flashback scenes with the kidnapper and the child. I'm finding the cameras easy to work with and we're looking forward to editing so we can put in some special effects!


Planning Process;
We spent a long time planning and storyboarding our thriller so we knew exactly what we were doing. We planned various beginnings to the thriller so we could decide which was best, and now we've finally decided. A few ideas in the pipeline were that it could be called 'Number Game' and the introduction would be 10 boys faces with a child counting to ten and then a knife stabbing the last picture, but we felt this was more in the thriller genre and decided against it, although we filmed it just in case.


How It Went;
Our task went moderately well. A few problems include trying to get all the actors on the same day, and finding the right weather suitable for each scene. I think we could have benefitted from having more time for both the blog and the editing as most people needed to use the editing suite at the same time and there were only 4 computers, but we came up a few lunchtimes to get this sorted.

Scipt

For Dialogue;
We didn't particularly use a script for the dialogue in the beginning for our thriller. For example, the scene where the family are getting ready, we chose not to have dialogue as we wanted it to be realistic and as they are a family in real life anyway, we decided they would act more naturally and come across as more believable if they just talked as they would normally. For other parts however, we used small sentences with a bigger meaning for the script, such as when the child says "It hurt me a bit" at the breakfast scene flashback, enigma is evoked as to why he's hurt, and what hurt him. This may foreshadow her childs mysterious death which the audience do not yet know how it occured, or the danger she puts the other child in. The sentence could also reflect her feelings of hurt and loss over her deceased child, and in any case, certainly cause the audience to consider the words.

Another sentence which we scripted was in the flashback where the kidnapper is reading her child a story. The words are actually from a real book; The Gruffalo, but we found the words reflected our storyline in a creepy, innocent, unsuspecting way that subtly foreshadows the rest of the film, "A mouse took a stroll in the deep dark woods, a fox saw the mouse, and the mouse looked good". The mouse represents the child she kidnaps; a small, blond, vunerable little thing, and the fox represents the kidnapper; more powerful, red haired and cunning. It suggests that taking the child seemed like a good idea to the kidnapper; she was lonely, and obviously in a mental state of confusion. The 'deep dark woods' represent the danger the child was placed in by being left alone, even for a while, whilst 'stroll' implies the innocence of the child.

The only other 'script' we used for dialogue was when the child was counting from the numbers one to ten. This was going to be significant in an early idea that he was going to be the 10th child she had kidnapped, celebrating the anniversary of the death of her child. However, we decided to go for a different angle with the film and wanted to make the audience share more empathy with the kidnapper through the sub genre of her phsycological problems, so when the child counts 1-10, this doesn't have as much meaning, apart from perhaps symbolising a ticking bomb about to explode mirroring the volatility of the kidnapper.

Voiceover;
We didn't have a voiceover in our thriller as we felt there was already too much going on to include a voiceover additionally. We did wonder about using a voiceover of counting through the numbers 1-10 during each flashback as the film was going to be called Number Game (relating to the paragraph above), but after discussed above decisions, we didn't. However, we learnt the skills of how to make a voiceover whilst deciding on this, which may become useful later on.

Why during filming process;

I can understand why you may need a script in films as otherwise your actors will not know what they are doing, or what they are meant to say and the storyboard will go completely out the window. However, 2 minutes is extremely short and as most openings of thrillers are either silent or have minor dialogue of seemingly little importance, we opted to do this. However if we were to continue making the rest of the film a more detailed script would of course be vital. It was easy for the actors to learn their lines because the child actor can count to 1-10, so we just turned the camera on, told him to do it and then could edit afterwards which was fine, and it seemed easy enough for him to remember to say "it hurt me a bit" when we told him to as well, which is good because usually working with children on films can be quite hard (we've heard). The actress who plays the kidnappers' lines were also easy; she was reading from a book!

SOUND

Soundtrack;
We used a soundtrack during the first 2 minutes, and although the music is quite slow and steadily paced, the action is lively to hook the audience. We got our music from 'Freeplay', a legal, copy-right free site where you can type in the search engine the type of music you're looking for. It is designed for people making short films like us that have no financial gain and may be using it for educational purposes, which we were. After downloading the song we had a little trouble as it was 10 seconds too short, which is quite a long time out of 2 minutes, so we replayed the first ten seconds twice at the beginning which we felt was barely noticeable and the best way around the problem.

Non/ Digetic Sound;
We used a lot of digetic sound, for example; the sound of walking, talking, opening doors, and general background noises.
We also Non-Digetic sound such as; the background music.

Planning;
We planned right from the beginning to have sound going the whole duration of the opening, but we had difficulty finding the perfect background sound. We wanted something eerie, but innocent and childlike, like a creepy lullaby. This was because we wanted the audience to feel unsettled. For a short period we considered only having this music for our flahsbacks, but upon listening to this it sounded strange, and not in a good way! So we carried on the search for the perfect music, and found it.

Storyboard and Planning of SILENT NIGHT our THRILLER

Before drawing our storyboard, we discussed how we wanted the story to go in the first 2 minutes, and wrote this down in note-style in the order of camera shots/storyline:

From these notes, we drew up a suitable story board which we thought represented what we wanted our thriller to:

Some changes we made to the storyboard were;

• We didn't begin with a separate picture of a child as we thought it would be too confusing if the kidnapper had a picture of him as well; this would also ruin the audiences' chances of empathising with her.
• We didn't play 'twinkle little star' during the thriller as we felt once watching it that the music didn't sound right, and we changed the name from 'Little Star' to 'Silent Night' as we felt this was a more adult approach which would be more likely to entice our target audience of young/adults.
• We didn't use a flashback of the kidnapper rocking her child to sleep; although we filmed this, we felt it just looked ridiculous and unbelieveable as the child is 5 years old and he looked too big to be rocked to sleep!
• We didn't use a specific toy for the child to leave behind when he went missing as we felt more emotion would be evoked if we just shot an empty space where the child was.
• We changed the order of the flashbacks and added addtitional ones to amplify the significance of certain clips and create more enigma and empathy within the audience.
• We didn't film the kidnapper taking the child as we didn't want to give the storyline away; although it is suggested the woman is the kidnapper, we thought we could use this as a red herring, and we thought there was more enigma if both characters disappeared.
• We didn't use the 'one month later' shots, as although we filmed them, we felt this was too much information to put in the first 2 minutes and we wanted to keep that curiosity going.
• Instead of having the last shot as the mother and the kidnapper & child looking out of their windows to show the two sides to the story, we used the flashback of the graveyard shots as we felt this would create more empathy for the kidnapper and was a more emotional, intriguing scene to end on.

Characters

The Characters in our thriller are vital to the story, so we had to chose actors who would be appropriate for each role.

The Kidnapper- Katherine Eck

We chose Katherine for the role as the kidnapper because we felt we needed someone with a distinct, memorable feature; this is her long, wavy red hair. This could then be used as a red herring or as a recognition device. The red coloured hair could also represent strong emotions which the kidnapper could be feeling such as love and hate. We chose to dress the kidnapper in black clothes to represent her feelings of depression, sadness, and mental illness. However, in the flashbacks, we dressed the kidnapper in a flowery dress, representing happier times. We felt having a woman as the person with power would be a twist on the thriller genre as usually a male fulfills this role.

The Mother- Clare Payne
Clare was chosen to be the mother because she is the child's mother in real life, so we felt the bond would be more realistic between them. As a mother, she should be able to relate to her character more and perhaps understand how she might feel. Her brunette bob seems motherly and homely which is appropriate for her role. We dressed her in jeans and a white t-shirt because she should come across as an ordinary mother, who wouldn't expect to lose her child. Her green cardigan worn in the house represents her caring, nuturing side and nature, which also links to the park which they later go to.

The Father- Nigel Payne
Nigel was chosen because he is already married to Clare so we thought they would have good chemistry and be believable. As he is also a father, he would be able to understand the trauma his character is going through. Nigel also wears jeans and a neutral top to look father. His balding hair suggests stress; a source of which the audience are not yet aware of in the first 2 minutes.

The Child- George Gallon, 5

George was chosen as the child because we felt thrillers didn't feature enough vunerable males; it is usually females, even in films where children are feautured such as 'Flight Plan', the child is female, so we wanted to challenge this. George's blonde hair represents his innocence and naivety. We put him in a grey hoodie to show he's just a normal child, with the grey foreshadowing the fogginess of his times ahead. His army print trousers suggest he is a fighter and will survive, and also that there may be a war/struggle in the future.

The deceased child- George Gallon, 5

We didn't have access to many blond 5 year old boys suprisingly enough, so had to use George as the kidnappers deceased child also. This wasn't a problem though, as we wanted the child to look the same to create enigma for the audience. We hoped they might wonder whether the kidnapper ever had a child or if he was a figment of her imagination, or if the child was in fact a figment of the mothers imagination. The first 2 minutes really don't give much away as openings to thrillers shouldn't. We dressed George in a colourful stripy cardigan for this to show how happy the kidnapper used to be, and imply the kidnapper may see George in his grey hoodie and think he's unhappy and that she can make him happy by taking him.

Planning Locations

We had 5 locations;

1. The park
We used the park for the location of the kidnapping as parks are usually innocent, unsuspecting places. We had to make sure that the day we filmed at the park the weather was a grey day, so we would get the desired gloomy natural light we wanted to reflect the kidnappers mood. Again, the bare trees symbolise her bare and empty life.

2. The family house
Only the living room of the family house was filmed as this is where they were all together for the last time, and we tried to make it look homely. The fireplace indicates they are a warm, caring, loving family, but also danger. Warm colours such as oranges and browns have been used to make it look warm and comforting, and the lighting has been made to look warm also. The drawn curtains reflect the protectiveness of the parents over their child.

3. The kidnappers house
We wanted to kidnappers house to look strange and disjointed; it was only one small room for her whole living area, and had little inside. This was to symbolise how empty her life has become and hint her mental problems. However, during the flashbacks, we used lots of colourful props to symbolise a happier time.

4. The graveyard
The graveyard was used to evoke emotions and used as the last shot for this reason. We wanted the audience to feel for the kidnapper and perhaps understand her more, although they are left confused as to whose grave it is. The pink flowers suggest it is a female grave, although this is not the case. The flowers were chosen because pink is a colour of happiness and joy, which reminds the audience of her flashbacks and the pink colours used there.

5. Outside the kidnappers house
The setting outside the kidnappers house was a small garden and an alleyway. The garden was made to have the same strange look about it as her room; an empty rabbit hutch symbolising her empty life, a bean trellis with yellowing, dying bean leaves mirroring her dying, lonely life, and poison ivy climbing up the walls, suggesting she wants to make her life better, but is doing it the wrong way (poison).
Alleyways are often associated with danger, so this location shows her to be a dangerous, powerful character. The low angle shot inforces this idea. The door in the alleyway is peeling and rotting like her life, and an air vent near the bottom shows pieces of fluff blowing away, symbolising her need to escape from her house full of sad memories.

Titles of thrillers

Title
The plot of our film is about a young boy who is kidnapped by a mentally ill woman whose own son died the year before.

Before we thought of names, we made a spider diagram about what we wanted from our name:

From this, we managed to come up with 6 ideas for names which we felt covered most of the points we wanted.

1.Little Star
We thought this might be a good title because in our film opening we are planning to have sound effects of a child singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.

2.Hide and Seek
This idea behind this title is that in our film we are planning to have the child being kidnapped when the child and his parents are playing hide and seek.

3.Number Game
We also thought that this may be a good title because of when they are playing hide and seek because we plan to have a shot of the child counting and then more sound effects of somebody repeatedly saying ‘1,2,3,4,5’.

4.Taken
We thought this might be a good title because it is simple and it indicates what happens in the film.

5.Kidnapped
This is another title, which we may use because it is also simple and indicates clearly what happens in the film.

6. Silent Night
We thought this would be a good title because it suggests the silence the parents endure during the night when their child has been kidnapped, and sounds mysterious like a thriller.

We asked 30 people that fell into our target audience category which title they preferred and came up with these results:

These results show that the most popular name was 'Silent Night'. I think this is because it is an original name, as we recently discovered some of the other names such 'Taken' and 'Hide and Seek' have already been used for thrillers; however this confirms that they were good ideas for titles. I think 'Kidnapped' got the least votes because it isn't subtle enough as thriller titles often are. I think the idea behind 'Little Star' was good which is why we had 6 votes, but I don't think it sounds fitting enough for a thriller. Due to the results from our questionnaire, we have chosen 'Silent Night' for the title for our thriller.

Producing Institutions

WARNER BROTHERS

Warner Brothers started off producing short cartoons called 'Looney Tunes', featuring well known characters such as Tom & Jerry, and Tweetypie. From then they have gone on to produce well-known popular thrillers such as cradle 2 the grave, Harry Potter, and Mystic River.

They are a company from the major company called Time Warner, which also controls a number of television under the name of HBO including Warner Bros, Computer games and AOL. Time Warner Inc, a global leader in media and entertainment with businesses in television networks, filmed entertainment and publishing, uses its industry-leading operating scale and brands to create, package and deliver high-quality content worldwide through multiple distribution outlets.

Their revenue of $11.8 billion shows how successful they are at what they do and have certainly established themselves. Founded in Hollywood in 1918 this multi-billion company will continue to produce films, TV programmes and video games in the future.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is consistently ranked as one of the top-grossing movie studios. Some recent thrillers that they have produced include 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Shutter Island'.

Developments within the genre

The newest development within the thriller genre is the use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). It is debatable whether this is a thriller convention; I think it can be used within the sub genres of thrillers such as sci-fi or horror thrillers. For example, the films such as Jurassic Park; a sci-fi adventure thriller film, used CGI to enhance the verisimilitude of the dinosaur island. To the left is a very realistic picture which in fact used CGI and not a dinosaur! This shows how far the thriller industry has come since King Kong, which is probably why they remade it using CGI (right).






You can see the process of CGI on an example below. This is from the Pirates Of The Carribean trilogy, feautuing Davy Jones as the man under the mask (or CGI).


We decided not to use CGI in our thriller. For starters, we don't have the skills, equipment or knowledge worthy of making a really good piece of CGI, but more importantly, even if this were true, we still would chose not to. This is because it just does not appeal to our target audience; it is mainly female; not usually attracted to CGI as such, more to the personalities and characterisation of the actors and the story behind the story. Equally, our target audience are adults, who are perhaps not from the generation of CGI and may prefer a slower paced, intricate plot than CGI action. If our thriller were for a younger generation such as teenagers however, we may have considered the merits of using CGI. Another reason why we didn't use CGI is because our sub-genres do not typically use CGI; dramas focus more on character development, as do phsycological thrillers with the mental wellbeing of the character. Overall, CGI doesn't suit our plot, but we can definitly see how it has increased revenue and interest for thrillers amongst young people.

Sub-genres

The thriller genre is incredibly large, and often overlaps with other genres, including;


- Drama; 'The illusionist', 'The interpreter', 'The prestige', 'Sleeping with the enemy'
In which the story consists of the elements of a thriller and drama film. These films are usually
slower paced and involves a great deal of character development along with plot twists.

- Erotic; 'Basic instinct', 'Dressed to kill', 'Fatal attraction', 'In the cut', 'Eyes wide shut' etc..
This consists of erotica and thriller. The genre became popular in the 1980's and the rise of
the VCR market penetration.

- Military; 'Bloody Sunday',

- Supernatural; 'What lies beneath'

- Horror; 'Vertige', 'Hurt'

- Religious; 'The Da Vinci Code'
In which the plot is closely connected to religious objects, institutions and questions. 'The Da
Vinci Code' has led to a current boom in religiously orientated thrillers.

- Action; 'James Bond' films, 'The Transporter', 'James Bourne' films
In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an
obvious antagonist. These films often contain a large amount of guns, explosions, and large
elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. They often contain elements of crime/ mystery
films, but these elements take a backseat to the action.

- Romantic; 'Twisted', 'Crush'
Common plots are usually; Love me, thrill me, kill me.

- Political; 'Munich', 'All the presidents men'
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of political power struggle. They usually involve various plots, rarely legal, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him from getting it. They can involve national or international political scenarios. World War II is a favorite scenario, as are US presidential elections.

- Medical; 'Awake'
In which the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem.

- Spy; 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mission: Impossible', '24', 'From Russia, With Love'
In which the hero/ine is generally a government agent who must take violent action action against agents of a rival government or terrorists.

- Physcological; 'The Good Son', 'Suspicion', 'Shadow of doubt', 'Strangers on a train'.
In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.

- Crime; 'The Killing', 'Seven', 'Reservoir Dogs', 'The Asphalt Jungle'.
This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crossers.

- Conspiracy; 'Three days of the Condor', 'Capricorn One', 'JKF'.
In which the hero/ine confronts a large, powerful group of enimies whose true extent only he/she recognises.

- Sci-fi; 'Jurassic Park', 'Sunshine'.
Stories that involve technology or scientific principles that contradict known laws of nature in a
thrilling manner.

- Animal; 'Jaws', 'Birds'
Usually involving a power struggle between the hero/ine and the predator.

- Comedy; 'Goodbye Lover', 'American Dreamer'
Includes dark humour and topics which are usually considered a taboo are treated in a comedic manner whilst maintaining their seriousness.

and the best part is most thrillers contain most of these genres which is what makes thrillers so special!

And how does this help us?
Knowing about different genres can help us discover our target audience. For example, we wanted to make our thriller a phsycological/drama thriller, which is good because it matches our target audience of female, young/adults; they were polled to enjoy this genre of thriller the most. We made sure we used the conventions of dramatic thrillers by involving character development of the kidnapper by using flashbacks to help the audience understand her as a person; this also links to the phsycological aspect as the audience can empathise with the character as one flashback features a graveyard which suggests why she is in the mental state to kidnap another child.

Target Audience: Audience Research

This is my research into the thriller genre and its target audience's for different films.

It is now possible to make a target audience profile for our thriller film in production.The age group of the target audience is 30+ females and females around 16-25 years, as 35% of the thriller-viewers sample were students. For our film, this can be related to by the audience, as one of our main characters is a child, and our audience have just come out of childhood into teenagers/young adults, providing a pathway for connection from the audience. Teenagers and young adults also, from the results of various questionnaires, have found the issues of abduction and mentally ill people intriguing. Our thriller is also targeted towards adults, aged 30+, especially parents, as they are able to relate to the trauma of losing a child and get caught up in the action.

The gender of the target audience isn't as specific as age ranges or demographic classification, but is important nonetheless. For our film, the gender of the target audience would mainly be females, though males could be attracted to the film also. This is because, research done into the films we were "inspired" by, showed that females enjoyed the type of film more than males. Sleeping With The Enemy, for example, is also a physcological dramatic thriller aimed at females. Similarly to our thriller, the protaginist is a woman. This shows how the female audience is already attracted to our type of film. I think the demographic choice for us will be young/adults, due to the fact that they can afford luxuries like the cinema, and have the means and time to go see films or buy DVD's, which will increase our revenue. To increase this even more, we could use a method which some large film companies use; for cinema our thriller would be rated 12, as this gets the highest ratings at cinemas, but when we bring it out on DVD, we could make it a 15 by adding a few scenes as this is the most commonly bought DVD rating.

THRILLER Film Openings;

5 Films I've Watched and Analysed;

SEVEN- David Fincher

Seven (styled as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The story follows a retiring detective and his replacement, jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

Techniques:

- Cuts between scenes quickly; common in thrillers
- Camera movements shaky; makes viewer feel uneasy
- Mysterious character; only see his hands/Close Up shots
- Curiosity is evoked; as to what the character is doing
- Strange font for the text and credits; raises questions
- Unsettling music; unnerves the viewer
- Colour red feautured; danger, more associated with horrors
I chose to analyse this movie because it features crime and murder which were issues we wanted to lightly touch upon in our thriller. Some ideas we took from this film are; cutting between scenes quickly; the flashbacks with the eye, shaky camera movements; when the kidnapper is first introduced, mysterious character; the kiddnappers face is always out of shot/ focus, curiosity is evoked; where did the child go? who is she? why did she take the child? are they flashbacks or flashforwards? Unsettling music; a creepy lullaby type music was played during the opening sequence. Features we chose not to include were having strange font for the text and credits; we felt this was innappropriate for our thriller genre and target audience, and we didn't feature the colour red much as we felt this was mostly in horror films, although the kidnappers red hair suggests danger.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS- Bryan Singer
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. The film tells the story of a small-time con man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat.

Techniques:

- Establishes victim/ murderer; common feature
- Enigma; why did murderer kill victim?

-Flashbacks; creates suspense and evokes questions
- Establishes one character more powerful; low angle shots
- Location established; old building

- Purpose discovered; to blow building up

- Cuts straight to a flame; explosions similar to actions
- Sounds are eerie; puts viewer on edge
- Mystery; we never see the murderers face

I chose to analyse this movie because I knew it featured flashbacks which was a feature we wanted to include in our thriller. The flashbacks in this thriller helped us decide about how to go about making ours; it should show not tell, have a smooth, clear transition. We made sure the audience knew when a flashback began and ended by using the eye of the kidnapper opening and closing as if we were looking back in her memory.

Like 'The Usual Suspects', our thriller establishes the victim and the power character by using low angle shots such as in one flashback where the kidnapper in tucking a child into bed as seen in the picture. We chose not to have the purpose revealed as in 'The Usual Suspects' as we thought the viewer would be more captivated and want to keep watching if they didn't yet know the purpose of the kidnapper. The sounds in 'The Usual Suspects' are eerie, so we chose to include a few eerie sentences in the flashbacks that hint danger, for example, in one flashback, the child says "it hurt me a bit" and in another, the kidnapper reads a story that relates to their situation.

HOSTAGE- Florent Emilio Siri

Hostage is a 2005 action/thriller movie about a failed police negotiator turned small town cop, who must save the lives of a family held hostage, which draws him into a much more dangerous situation.
Techniques:
- Only city location is established; mystery
- Curiosity evoked; what will happen?
- Credits hidden in background; mysterious
- Weapons focused; more common with actions/horrors
- Red, Black and White used; suggestive to good/evil/danger

I chose to analyse this film because its about a hostage, similar to ours which is about a kidnapping. The opening of 'Hostage' is very different to our opening, as their opening only establishes the location and not any characters. Our credits are also different; more obvious. We used the same colours subtly though; the kidnappers hair, her black coat and white gloves suggest confusion over good, evil and danger, which forces the audience to question her motives and whether she is a character to empathise with.

Sleeping With The Enemy- Joseph Ruben

Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 psychological thriller film about a woman who escapes from her abusive, obsessive husband. She captures the attention of a kindly gentleman.

Techniques:

-Opens on black background; suggests darkness, danger, death.
-White, thin font; symbolising the thin, fragile heroine
-Classical music; violins, harp, orchestral, flute
-Birds flying above lake; symbolising freedom
-Digetic sound (birds)
- Woman stands alone by shore, relaxed; hints she is vunerable, happier alone
- Tall man dressed in black walking towards; black signifying danger
- Woman is crouching, birds fly away; camera angles show he has the power, happiness goes
- They hug, she looks away worried; suggesting unhappiness, audience confused
- He walks away, leaving her alone on beach again; foreshadowing
I chose to analyse this movie because it is a drama thriller which is what we wanted to make. Some ideas we took from this film are; trying to make the young child look vunerable, using high angle shots to try and emphasise his height, and his blond hair symbolises his childness and innocence. We also used classical music during our opening and used digetic sound. Our font was also white, and small, suggesting the innocence of the child. We tried to suggest the unhappiness of the kidnapper by using a shaky camera to show her unstabilty and unpredictableness. We also used suggestive foreshadowing such as when the sweets are put in the kidnappers bag and then filmed later left by the bench, or when she is by the graveyard it hints death in the film ahead.

Strangers on a train- Alfred Hitchcock
A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement.

Techniques:

-Long shot of a black and white arch; arch symbolic of new gateways
- Dark lighting; suggesting danger/ uncertainty
-Orchestral violins; common in thrillers
-Large white font against black; suggests good vs evil
-Camera follows a taxi, close up of door; shows this is the main character
- Shot of only the shoes getting out taxi; hides identity of character, suspicious
- Camera follows as shoes walk away;
- New cab pulls up, follows different shoes out; hints this is other main character
- Switches between both pairs of feet; causes confusion
-Pace of music fastens; panic created
- Shoes get on train, sit opposite; characters still unidentified
I chose to analyse this film because it was directed by Hitchcock, and I was interested if I could take any ideas from him. It is also a phsycological thriller which is another genre we were interested in including. We chose to include Hitchcocks idea that the character's face shouldn't be shown in the first 2 minutes to convey mystery. We kept the kidnappers face out of camera shot, just having her from long shots or from behind with her distinctive red hair, or if she was facing the camera we made sure this was during flashbacks so her image could be blurred. We included the idea of fastening the pace by fastening the time in between each flashback.

I'm glad I watched these films because without them my thriller may not have been so sucessful; I have adapted many ideas from each film, especially those with occuring themes that must be common in thrillers, such as keeping the main character unidentified to create enigma.

Directors of thrillers

ALFRED HITCHCOCK:

Alfred Hitchcock is an all-time famous director of 'thriller' and produced movies such as 'Physco', 'Vertigo', 'Strangers On a Train' ( the beginning of which I analysed!) and many, many more. He is ranked as the best director of the thriller genre: http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/reviews/d18440.htm

Hitchcock's successful screen thrillers earned him the nickname of "Master of Suspense" and is considered as one of the greatest film directors in the history of cinema. He started out in British productions as a title and set designer, working his way up to the position of screenwriter and director by the mid 1920's.

To Hitchcock's tribute, there are a number of Hitchcock-like thrillers from other notable directors. All films serve up thrilling tales of terror, intrigue, menace, revenge, obsession, and insanity.

What about now? CAN ANYONE EVER TOP THE HITCHCOCK?

No, but they can come close...

STEVEN SPIELBERG

Steven Spielberg has directed many of the top-grossing films in Hollywood history, and is still alive and directing films today! His career spans over 4 decades, but out of the 3 box office records he achieved, 2 were thrillers; 'Jaws' and 'Jurassic Park'. Spielberg has won 2 Academy Awards for Best Director (I'm guessing he'd like to say so far..) for 'Schindlers List' and 'Saving Private Ryan', which come under the thriller genre.

hmm, so that's one great dead director, and one great alive director, I feel we have some competition!

Both directors Hitchcock and Spielberg produced outstanding thriller movies but both in very different concepts. 'Physco' by Hitchcock was a very mind playing film full of suspense, whereas Spielberg's 'Jaws' was very physical and action packed. Through research I have found out how such varied films can be in the same genre; through sub-genres. These are good examples of how the same genre can be completely different and yet still thrill the world on their cinema seats.

After researching these two directors, I think our directing style is more like Hitchcocks as we played more with the mind and the phsycological aspects with suspense filled flashbacks rather than full of action.

How to... make your movie like HITCHCOCK

This information comes out of many books and interviews from the man himself and has been simplified for your consideration. This page is mostly for filmmakers who are sad and depressed because their movie is so average that nobody will watch it. Stop crying and pay attention. What is written here will save your career (at least until tomorrow morning!)

STEP 1: It's the Mind of the Audience!!

Change everything in your screenplay so that it is done for the audience; nothing is more important than how each scene is going to affect the viewer. The content must engage with them, reeling them in. Characters can tease the viewer and pull them along desperately wanting more. Hitchcock knew why people are drawn to a darkened theater to absorb themselves for hours with images on a screen. They do it to have fun, in the same way people go to a roller coaster to get thrown around at high speeds, theater audiences know they are safe. As a film director you can throw things at them, hurl them off a cliff, or pull them into a dangerous love story, and they know that nothing will happen to them. They're confident that they'll be able to walk out the exit when its done and resume their normal lives. And, the more fun they have, the quicker they will come back begging for more.

STEP 2: Frame for Emotion

Emotion (in the form of fear, laughter, surprise, sadness, anger, boredom, etc.) is the ultimate goal of each scene. The first consideration of where to place the camera should involve knowing what emotion you want the audience to experience at that particular time. Emotion comes directly from the actor's eyes. You can control the intensity of that emotion by placing the camera close or far away from those eyes. A close-up will fill the screen with emotion, and pulling away to a wide angle shot will dissipate that emotion. A sudden cut from wide to close-up will give the audience a sudden surprise. Sometimes a strange angle above an actor will heighten the dramatic meaning. Hitchcock used this theory of proximity to plan out each scene. These varations are a way of controlling when the audience feels intensity, or relaxation. Hitchcock compared this to a composer writing a music score - except instead of playing instruments, he's playing the audience, and so should you be!

STEP 3: Camera is Not a Camera?!

The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room. This allows the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story. Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements. This relates to Hitchcock's beginnings in silent film. Without sound, filmmakers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas. Hitchcock said this trend changed drastically when sound finally came to film in the 1930's. Suddenly everything went toward dialogue oriented material based on scripts from the stage. Movies began to rely on actors talking, and visual storytelling was almost forgotten. Remember; always use the camera as more than just a camera.

STEP 4: Dialogue Means Nothing!

One of your characters must be pre-occupied with something during a dialogue scene. Their eyes can then be distracted while the other person doesn't notice. This is a good way to pull the audience into a character's secretive world. “People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs.” The focus of the scene should never be on what the characters are actually saying. Have something else going on. Resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. "In other words we don’t have pages to fill, or pages from a typewriter to fill, we have a rectangular screen in a movie house,” said Hitchcock. (Schickel)

STEP 5: Point of View Editing

Jimmy Stewart looks at dog and then we see him smiling. Jimmy Stewart looks at a woman undressing and then we see him smiling. Those two smiles have completely different meanings, even if they are the exact same smile. Putting an idea into the mind of the character without explaining it in dialogue is done by using a point-of-view shot sequence. This is subjective cinema. You take the eyes of the characters and add something for them to look at. - Start with a close-up of the actor - Cut to a shot of what they're seeing - Cut back to the actor to see his reaction - Repeat as desired You can edit back and forth between the character and the subject as many times as you want to build tension. The audience won't get bored. This is the most powerful form of cinema, even more important than acting. To take it even further have the actor walk toward the subject. Switch to a tracking shot to show his changing perspective as he walks. The audience will believe they are sharing something personal with the character. This is what Hitchcock calls "pure cinema." (Truffaut) Note: If another person looks at the character in point-of-view they must look directly at the camera.

STEP 6: Montage Gives You Control

Divide action into a series of close-ups shown in succession. Don't avoid this basic technique. This is not the same as throwing together random shots into a fight sequence to create confusion. Instead, carfully chose a close-up of a hand, an arm, a face, a gun falling to the floor - tie them all together to tell a story. In this way you can portray an event by showing various pieces of it and having control over the timing. You can also hide parts of the event so that the mind of the audience is engaged. (Truffaut) Hitchcock said this was "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience." (Schickel) The famous shower scene in Psycho uses montage to hide the violence. You never see the knife hitting Janet Leigh. The impression of violence is done with quick editing, and the killing takes place inside the viewer's head rather than the screen. Also important is knowing when not to cut. (Truffaut) Basic rule: anytime something important happens, show it in a close-up. Make sure the audience can see it.

STEP 7: Keep the Story Simple!

If your story is confusing or requires a lot of memorization, you're never going to get suspense out of it. The key to creating that raw Hitchcock energy is by using simplistic, linear stories that the audience can easily follow. Everything in your screenplay must be streamlined to offer maximum dramatic impact. Remove all extraneous material and keep it crisp. Each scene should include only those essential ingredients that make things gripping for the audience. As Hitchcock says, “what is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out…” (Truffaut) An abstract story will bore the audience. This is why Hitchcock tended to use crime stories with spies, assassinations, and people running from the police. These sort of plots make it easy to play on fear, but are not mandatory for all movies.

STEP 8: Characters Must Break Cliché

Make all of your characters the exact opposite of what the audience expects in a movie. Turn dumb blondes into smart blondes, give the Cuban guy a French accent, and the criminals must be rich and successful. They should have unexpected personalities, making decisions on a whim rather than what previous buildup would suggest. These sort of ironic characters make them more realistic to the audience, and much more ripe for something to happen to them. Hitchcock criminals tend to be wealthy upper class citizens whom you’d never suspect, the policeman and politicians are usually the bumbling fools, the innocent are accused, and the villains get away with everything because nobody suspects them. They surprise you at every step of the plot.

STEP 9: Use Humor to Add Tension

Humor is essential to Hitchcock storytelling. Pretend you are playing a practical joke on the main character of your movie. Give him the most ironic situations to deal with. It's the unexpected gag, the coincidence, the worst possible thing that can go wrong - all can be used to build tension. In Marnie, Tippi Hedren is stealing money from an office safe and is just about to leave when she notices the maid happens to be cleaning in the next room. The maid is completely innocent and unaware. Hedren will get caught if the maid sees her, but the audience is already hoping that she gets away with it. The more happily the maid mops the floor and the closer she gets to seeing Hedren, the higher the tension. You'll also find that Hitchcock tended to use comical old women to add a flavor of innocent humor in his films. They will usually be opinionated, chatty, and have a highly optimistic view about crime. If someone were committing a crime they might even help with it!

STEP 10: Two Things Happening at Once

Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. Usually the second item should be a humorous distraction that means nothing (this can often be dialogue.) It was put there by you only to get in the way.When unexpected guests arrive at the hotel room in the Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day are in the midst of a tense phone-call. The arrival of the guests laughing and joking serve a dramatic counterpoint to the real momentum of the scene. In Spellbound (1945) Ingrid Bergman sees a note which has been slipped under her door. Just when she grabs for it, her colleagues walk in and speak with her about the dissapearance of Gregory Peck, completely unaware they are standing on top of the note from him! The end result is - the audience pays more attention to what's happening.

STEP 11: Suspense is Information

"Information" is essential to Hitchcock suspense; showing the audience what the characters don’t see. If something is about to harm the characters, show it at beginning of the scene and let the scene play out as normal. Constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense. But remember - the suspense is not in the mind of the character. They must be completely unaware of it. (Schickel, Truffaut)In Family Plot (1976) Hitchcock shows the audience that brake fluid is leaking out of a car well before the characters find out about it. In Psycho (1960) we know about the crazy mother before the detective (Martin Balsam) does, making the scene in which Balsam enters the house one of the most suspenseful scenes in Hitchcock's career. “The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information." --Alfred Hitchcock

STEP 12: Surprise and Twist

Once you've built your audience into gripping suspense it must never end the way they expect. The bomb must never go off! Lead them in one direction and then pull the rug out from under them in a surprise twist.In the climax scene of Saboteur (1942) Norman Lloyd is cornered on the top of the Statue of Liberty as Robert Cummings holds him at gunpoint. Just when you think it's over, Cummings begins to speak, startling Lloyd to fall backwards over the edge!

STEP 13: Warning: May Cause MacGuffin

The MacGuffin is the side effect of creating pure suspense. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn’t really matter what the story is about. If you've done your job and followed all the previous steps, the audience is still glued no matter what. You can use random plot devices known as the MacGuffin. The MacGuffin is nothing. The only reason for the MacGuffin is to serve a pivotal reason for the suspense to occur. (Schickel) It could be something as vague as the "government secrets perhaps" in North by Northwest, or the long detailed weapons plans of Mr. Memory in the 39 Steps. Or, it could be something simple like the dog blocking the stairway in Strangers on a Train. Nobody cares about the dog. It's only there for one reason - suspense. It could have just as easily been a person, an alarm, a talking parrot, or a macguffin!

What is a thriller?

Saul Bass said; "Settle them down and create a sense of anticipation.. hit the ground running", which means complexity within simplicity.
What is a thriller? The thriller genre is incredibly large, and often overlaps with other genres. There are certain things to spot in a film to tell whether its a thriller;
Conventions of a thriller: Thrillers typically involve;

- Sudden plot twists

- Red herrings; keeps viwers uncertain about what is going to happen

- Narrative builds up to the action; creates tension & leaves the viewer in suspense

- Intricate plot; creates fear, causes tension

- The hero/ine seen in situations that threaten danger/ peril

- Ordinary location, extraordinary events/ behaviour

- Villian ensaires hero/ine through a series of intricate moves

- Typically centered on a crime; often murder

- Hero/ine is fallible, vunerable, likeable, flawed

- Audience are put in position of voyeurs

- Often includes mistaken identity; relates to red herrings

- Themes of mirroring (reflections)

- Mazes and Labyrinths often feature; physical or physcological

- Women/ children often victims

- Powerful man often villain