Shooting Problems

In a group, meeting we had to brainstorm the problems with out shoot and what could go wrong, and these are the ways in which i, individually, am going to help the shoot run as smooth as possible.

• Forgetting Equipment: I have to always check i have mine, and to text everyone else in the group to remind them.
• Continuity Problems: I will help, like everyone else, to make sure we don't shoot over the same section of forest, and that we stick to all the rules, e.g. 180 degree line
• Time Wasting: I will help make sure no one time wastes, and to remind everyone of our tight schedule - although this is more relevant for the real shoot.
• Losing my patience with others: try to compromise more and remember we're all equal when it comes to new ideas etc

Our Group Idea

As a group we decided to centre our idea around Grovelands park as we all like it as a setting, i really like the idea of having a chase scene and having a tall, striking man chasing (striding confidently) after a dainty frantic younger girl. Dressed in black and white respectively to show the contrast. I think that the weakness of this idea is the fact that we will be shooting outside in December so as well as being unpredictable (rain, cloud etc) it will also be uncomfortable - which would be a problem getting actors on board, and obviously would put a strain on continuity. However we do all like the setting a lot and we like the idea that it will be challenging - particualry in the area of camerawork as the majority will be moving.

Initial Idea 2

I have another idea which i think could also use my garden shed which i think is really good as it's really quite creepy (i don't like going into it in daylight).

This idea is a little more vague than my first one, but basically the event happening in it would be someone discovering something very disturbing happening in the shed. So possibly it is a girl and her boyfriend is secretly a serial killer, and he has told her not to go into it but (obviously)she does it anyway and then at the end of the opening sequence he finds her snooping and we hear screaming (and then it jumps to earlier or later in the film).

Location

I never thought of it until someone mentioned it in a group meeting, but i have the best location for a thriller, literally, in my back garden. My shed is the creepiest place ever, I'm actually quite scared going into it in even daylight (which is why there are no pictures of the inside), and it has a particularly creepy atmosphere to it, which would be perfect if it captured on film.



I think this first photo would be a really good POV shot for someone looking at the shed because it seems almost like corruption in a nice, normal, rural setting.

Initial Idea

We have been put into groups and we are having our first meeting on Wednesday so we set a target to have an initial idea by then, and this the favourite one of mine:

The opening is shots of a normal, middle-aged (early 30s) man in his house (study) organising/arranging/cleaning surgical tools, and sometimes there is maybe a photograph of him and his wife shown. Then the phone rings and he answers it and you see him pick up one of the photographs, smile (slyly) and say 'I'm sorry she's not here at the moment can i take a message', then he snaps on rubber surgical gloves.
It's late (around duskish, or else it would be too dark to shoot) and he goes into his garden and starts to walk up his garden path towards the very overgrown part at the back of his garden towards his shed (with his surgical tools). He scrapes the door open and there tied up is the women in his photos - i.e. his wife.
I think the title should be something like 'the ultimate betrayal' - or possibly something a little more warped. I think this idea is good because it leaps straight into the action and because it taps into audience fears - someone close abusing your trust/something twisted going on right in front of you.

An alternate in the structure could use parallel editing - so in between the shots of the male lead there would be blurry POV shots of his wife waking up from being drugged/unconscious etc.
Although to add a real element of surprise he would have to be doing something very not suspicious so the audience thinks 'oh dear, he doesn't know his wife is in trouble' - but then as someone comes to open the door of the shed we see that it's him. But this presents the problem of continuity wise it wouldn't be much of a surprise as we would have to see him going towards a shed and the audience would inevitably assume he is going to see her.

So although there are still some formalities/problems i think it's good because, as far as i know, it hasn't been done in previous years as they seem to have focused on stalking, abduction, and gangster thrillers.

A Good Thriller

What i have noticed is that there is one key difference between a good thriller and an amazing thriller: a good storyline. This seems strange but a good thriller doesn't need an amazing storyline to be successful or even a believable (even within the diegetic world created), all it needs is enigma + suspense - because to me a good thriller keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the very end.

Example: The Omen - Original, 1976
Basically the plot is that a wealthy family's child was switched at birth with the actual offspring of Satan - personally i thought the plot was awful but it kept me interested through out. It did this by having suspense, but also in the way that it created enigma - through hints and clues left throughout the film for the audience to piece together. I particularly love it in films (especially in the SAW series) when you try to second guess the ending, so maybe that's why i liked it, but even so, despite the appalling storyline i still enjoyed actually watching the film.

Now, an amazing film has to have a good storyline - with twists and turns and hints etc as well as lots of enigma and suspense. Examples i love are shown on the right hand side (Primal fear, The Butterfly Effect etc).

So in order for my opening sequence to have the potential to turn into an amazing thriller, it will have to do one of two things:

1. Have an event/conversation which is interesting in itself but doesn't lead onto anything in particular in the reader's mind - e.g. the discovery of a body (without any clues as to who the villain is) as this should disorientate the audience and keep their attention
2. OR, it has to make the viewer read into it in as many different ways as they can, so they are trying to second guess it and make sense of it - e.g. discovery of diary (which of course won't make sense to them at the time, but that would come later on)

Conventions of Opening Sequences

There are a few conventions of opening sequences:

• The production company
  
• The distributor
  
• Credits - director/actors


• Establishes either the main characters/themes or


• Shows the disruption straight away (Todorov's theory)

I think that the opening sequence which establishes the main characters/themes is almost like an introduction to the film, during the credits it gives you an idea of what to expect - and going back to Field's theory it helps the audience decide if they are going to like it or not. Saying this, it doesn't mean that an introduction-style opening sequence is absolutely necessary, for example when the opening sequence shows the disruption to the equilibrium it doesn't give the audience an introduction it just goes straight into the action/storyline - and to me this indicates that the rest of the film will mimic this (very fast moving/exciting etc) and therefore won't take a very long time to get properly started - for example, unlike rear window.

Opening Sequence: Point Break

The opening sequence to Point Break is interesting, but it doesn't make sense to you at the time. It depicts parallel editing between the lead character - Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) - taking part in a police training test for shooting accuracy and Bhodi (Patrick Swaze) surfing during rain. These are the two main themes/lifestyles shown in the film - laid back surfers/police officers or detectives. It's quite an emotional opening sequence - in that in both the events occuring simultaneously there is quite a strong atmosphere, mainly passionate. The two things which are shown are the things which the repsective characters love most in the world - being a policeman/detective and surfing.
I think this is really good for an opening sequence as it gives the audience information on exactly what the film is about, particularly the main characters - who for the next 90 minutes or so are the main people in the viewer's mind.

The Blair Witch Project: The Website

http://www.blairwitch.com/

The Website played a massive role in the advertising campaign for the Blair Witch project, it was set up a year or so before the film was released to create the illusion that it was all in fact real. So when the film came out all the people who had been on the website obviously wanted to find out what really happened.


Here are some examples of how the illusion was set up that it was real:

The first screen fades to this message (In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared into the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found). So as there is no reason for the viewer to doubt the legitimacy of the site yet, this statement is just taken as a fact

Mythology
There is also a section of the site called 'Mythology', where lots of different stories are told of the 'Blair Witch'. For example:

August 1825
Eleven witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull ten-year-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body is never recovered, and for thirteen days after the drowning the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks. (and bundles of sticks play a slightly significant role in a part of the film so the part of the audience who have seen the website will keep making links back to it - decreases their doubt)

March 1886
Eight-year-old Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties does not. Their bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock tied together at the arms and legs and completely disemboweled.

After a few more examples of these the story of the 3 filmmakers is told in a few lines - so if the viewer believed the previous stories then they are given no reason to doubt the story of these 3.
(http://www.blairwitch.com/mythology.html)

Aftermath
The section entitle 'aftermath' is just full of police-style photos of different places/props from the film as if they were from official reports. For example, this photo comes under the sub-heading 'evidence' - which again suggest fact.


A more important piece of 'evidence' which increases the credibility of the story are the film canisters:


Under Mythology there is a further sub-heading of 'search' and i think one of the most inventive pieces they put on the website was the missing person's poster:



All of these little words (like evidence and the dates) and photos work together to make the audience believe this tale, and so i think that when the film was released the website played a very large part in it's success - it made nearly £5.9 million in it's first week.

The Blair Witch Project

I watched The Blair Witch Project on Halloween and it was one of the most scary films i think I've ever seen (apart from possibly the Saw series), and the amazing thing was that afterwards i realised that you never actually see anything scary, the whole film plays on the audience's imagination. It's also quite inspiring because it's similar to the thriller i will create in that it was very low budget of around £2000 - cheap for a cinema screened film of course.
I think the most effective factor of the film is the iconography:

Setting
Set in a large forest it provides the scariness factor of shadows, noises in the night time and total isolation - i think this isolation plays on audience fears the most therefore making it even more thrilling. This is all also emphasised by the fact that they are lost and are in unknown territory.

Mise-en-Scene
Is generally very dark - this provides the unknown factor again, the lack of glamour to their clothes and general look adds realism to the film/story so it makes it seem more believable and therefore scary.

Camera
Is entirely handheld (or at least on a very shaky track) so it heightens the sense of their isolation from the world because it allows the audience to suspend their belief and think that there isn't a film crew there. At some points the screen is just black because it is night and they don't want to turn their lights on, and i think this panics the audience a little. It's almost like a break from having to close your eyes in fright but at the same time you want them to turn a light on in case something jumps out - so it dramatically increases the suspense.

Colour
Is all natural browns and greens - which adds realism again. Then sometimes when it's black + white it makes it seem supernatural and almost adds glamour - in an old movie style way. By glamour i mean something out of the ordinary - they seem to have very normal lives and i think the black + white symbolises this extraordinary event (also could be put into 'camera')

Rating: ****

The Illusionist

What i found interesting about the illusionist before i watched it was the fact that it was a PG and still managed to a thriller - i know they don't all have to contain violence but it's a very common convention. The film is about a magician Eisenheim (Edward Norton) who falls in love with Sophie as a young boy but she is a Duchess and the two are forbidden to see each other.
Years later he comes to town as a master illusionist and the 2 meet again at a performance, they oinstantly realise they are still in love and make a plan to run away. However Sophia is engaged to the Crown Prince he finds out of her love and she is found dead in a river.

From that point on most of the story is driven by one question 'Is she dead or was it a trick/an illusion?'. After she is found 'dead' Eisenheim leaves town and sets up a different kind of show where he summons the dead (however it is all a trick) and he summons Sophia and finally himself at the end. The final scene is him running to Sophia and therefore showing she was alive all along and they are now going to start a new life together as everyone believes them to be dead.

Back to the point about the PG rating, i think this shows that the film is easy to second guess because there is really only one you want to know - is she dead or alive, and that it's easy to understand. Despite this i think the way it explores pushing the boundaries of what people will believe is really successful and interesting.

Rating: ***

Inspiration: Past Thriller Projects

Under the Gun



I think that the Mise-en-Scene and Cinematography in this opening sequence is particularly good. The colour in it appears as if it used to be so vibrant and saturated, and it's not that now it's cold with blue/grey tones, it's just that it's faded and become so much less passionate. The lighting also creates suspicion from the audience, the shadows and dark corners seem very sinister, connoting something very illegal/underground etc. The Mise-en-Scene as a whole creates the sense of past glamour/the darker side of glamour - the glamour connoted by the suit, cards, crystal glasses, but it's all dragged down by the grimey ashtrays and tiny box room. The cinematography is full of tight frames, the use of CUs and MCUs and low angles shows the panic of the male character and the disgust and passion/feistiness of the female. It also shows how to-close-for-comfort the tiny room is, and how intimidating the male lead is.

Exposure



I think the continuity in this opening sequence is by far the best because it follows all of the rules.
It has lots of brilliant matches on action - for example when he bursts through his bedroom door
It had dissolve transitions to slow the pace down and to heighten emotion
It also has a fade to black at the end of the clip which conventional symbolises the passing of time, so possibly the opening sequence is in a separate time frame to the next part of the film.
It increases realism with loud diegetic sounds like the running water, keys rattling etc
The pace is fast at the beginning which a little unconventional but it balances this out by slowing it down after a minute or so.

Techniques: Continuity Editing

For all films with all genres in order to make it seem real to the audience and to make the action seem continuous there are certain rules/techniques that a film maker must follow. These rules ensure that the film seems to be in real time.

Rules
Camera

Shot Order
So that it makes sense you need to move your audience across space smoothly by using a logical order, for example:
LS to MS to CU
Jumping straight from first to last is a little disorientating and should only be used to effect

180 Degree Rule
In a scene there is a 180 degree line which the camera goes up and down but does not actually cross, this is one rule which is never broken because the effect it produces is only confusion. It is mainly applicable during conversations because if the camera crosses the line the 2 subjects appear to be looking in the same direction.

30 Degree Rule
If the camera switches shot but has more or less the same framing (i.e. changes by less than 30 degrees) then the camera seems to jump and it makes the clip seem jumpy and amateur.

Eyeline Match
This ensures that the clip is realistic, so for example if one character is tall than the other, the short one is seen to be looking up and the taller one down.

Match On Action
During action, for example a car moving or a person running, if you decide to cut to another angle or distance then it is important that in the second shot the car/person appears to have moved. Otherwise the action (car moving/person running) seems to repeat.

Shot/Reverse/Shot
This rule is for shooting a conversation

1st shot: Master shot - both characters
2nd shot: CU character 1
3rd shot: CU character 2
Further shots: BCU to show emotion MS can also be used

Editing

Transitions

• Cuts are most common for seamless movement from one shot to another, creates pace and rhythm
• Dissolves provide a slow and relaxing atmosphere (sometimes for a montage effect). Can also be used to show time moving forward and to show a relationship between 2 shots.
• Fading (up/out/to black/from black) shows a significant amount of time passing
• Wipes aren't conventionally used in film, mainly for children's television

Sound

Diegetic
This heightens the realism of the film for the audience as it makes it seem more like the real world

Non-Diegtic
Music can alter the mood dramatically, and is particularly effective at creating suspense because it lets the audience know that something is about to happen. Voice over's aren't very common in films but if they are present they help the audience understand/empathise.

Sound Bridge
This is a way to link 2 scenes quite effectively. It is when the picture and diegetic sound change at different times. Conventionally the sound from the second scene is heard before the picture is shown.

Opening Sequence: Scream

I thought that the opening sequence to the film was the best (maybe even the only good) part of the film. The use of the scary voice on the end of the telephone and the thought of that person being in the house really hooks the audience in, creating such tension and suspense. I think it particularly shocks the audience because the girl shown in the first few minutes is set up as the main character - she is sweet, blonde hair, and flirty at first so the audience expects her to escape. So then when she doesn't and is brutally murdered it hooks the audience in further because they realise that this film is going to be very hard to second guess and will keep them interested until the end.
One of the main reasons i think the opening sequence is so good is because it immediatly taps into audience fears, not just current but on going, because one of the scariest things to most people is the thought of someone being in your house, so that you are so vulnerable, without your knowledge. Another good part is when she turns on the porch light and her boyfriend is there, this makes her seem less isolated though as there are others in the vicinity, but it makes the whole thing seem a lot more sinister and twisted.
One thing which i thought was awful about this film (and the opening sequence) is how unscary the villain was, some costumes (such as halloween ones) can seem sinister but this one made the whole film a lot less scary because it was quite comical.

Rating: **

Syd Field's Theory: Fatal Attraction

Applying Syd Field's theory to Fatal Attraction:

Act 1
The audience are shown Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is normal caring husband with a perfect life with a wife (Anne Archer) and children.
The main hook for the audience in the first 30/40 minutes is that Dan risks all of this by sleeping with Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), but mainly it is plot point 1...

Plot point 1 - Alex slashes her wrists, this is when the story changes dramatically as Dan realises just how serious this little 'fling' has become.

Act 2
Alex starts to stalk Dan despite his attempts to move house and change his number, to the extent that she feigns pregnancy (possibly real) and also befriends his wife.

Plot point 2 is the boiling of the bunny, this forces Dan to realise that Alex has to be stopped before anyone is harmed and that he can't really do this by simply talking to her.

Act 3
The final confrontation is physical and ends with a struggle between Dan, Alex and Dan's wife, where Alex tries to stab both of them and finally Dan's wife shoots Alex.

Another Narrative Theory

3 Act Plot Structure - Syd Field

Act 1
During in the first 10 minutes the audience decides whether or not they like the film
Therefore they need to be shown/given a reason why the should care - like a hook
Then for the rest of the first 30 mins we learn the nature of the problem

Plot point 1 (particularly important points in the story, which alters the general dynamic of the film - they occur 3 times, in between acts and one in the middle)

Act 2
The main characters fight their enemies helplessly, in more and more extremely problematic situations
There is then normally a point where the situation begins to improve - possibly the protagonists win a small battle, but there is still a long way before a resolution.

Plot point 2 - the protagonist realises they have been tackling the problem in entirely the wrong way, this then leads into act 3

Act 3
The hero takes control and will normally battle the enemy on their own territory

Actors

This is a friend of mine you i think would be good for a thriller role:

- she is taking AS drama

- she is petite

- she has an innocent and sweet look about her

This are just some extra shots i took of her in Grovelands park:

Location

I think my local park - Grovelands - would be an ideal environment in which to shoot a thriller:

Although there is the down side that it could end up looking a little 'blair witch-ey'

So far...

I don't really want to start putting solid ideas together, i want to gather themes, characters, locations etc which i like and then start to piece them together.

• A 'normal' setting - suburban
• Innocence - corruption of
• A sickly sweet, cute (innocent) female
• A false hero

I don't tend to like films in which the villain is medically mentally unstable, i think it's much more unnerving for the audience if the villain has nothing physically wrong with them - more of a socio-path

Titles

The titles of films can tell us a lot about the film just at a quick glance and they therefore act as a hook for the audience.

There are some very common themes in thriller titles but criminal activity features more or less features in them all.

• Death
• Supernatural
• Watching/Following
• Obsession
• Isolation
• Memories/Pasts

Titles are the most carefully chosen aspects of a film, they need to connote many things at once, yet be enigmatic to make you want to find out more/if you suspicions are correct - this is where a blurb comes in - to give the audience a little more information and often hook them in even further.

For example:

Fatal Attraction - this connotes obsession, seduction, death, betrayal/unfaithfulness

Memento - memories, the past, leaving a mark

The Silence of the Lambs - corrupted innocence, death, massacre, isolation