Soundtrack

When choosing the soundtrack I wanted a track that contrasted with the shots. Unlike the fast cuts of the video, I wanted the audio to be quite slow and to gradually build up tension before reaching its climax. Although this technique opposes key thriller conventions and is therefore risky, I felt that, should it be carried out correctly, it would be much more effective than a more obvious use of soundtrack.

This inspiration came from a song I heard in the film 'This is England' by Shane Meadows. The song had a big effect on me because it made me very intrigued into what was happening and even created a sense of anxiety because of its gradual build-up. The sost music was unexpected alongside the fast cutting action in the film - it was this juxtaposition that gave the dramatic effect I am addressing. Below is the official video of this track:

I eventually decided on a track from http://www.mobygratis.com/ called 'brandish'. Although quite different to the track above, it still gives the same effect and so I was very pleased with this track and how it sounds in my edit. I feel that the juxtaposing audio to video can really allow the audience to focus on the content within the film and the slow pace of the music forces them to think more thoroughly about closer details.

Props

We deliberately chose not to include many props in our thriller. We felt that this would allow sole focus to be on the characters, and the enigma they produce, as they prove the key feature in our opening. We did however, choose to use a couple of props that we feel would successfully connote the topic of violence, a key theme of the thriller genre. The use of these props came from an inspiration of other thriller films which have used the same objects.


Wallet:
This proves a key prop to our thriller opening. It creates something out of the ordinary. Robbie finds a wallet on the floor of an isolated public bathroom. He is intrigued and eventually it results in his fate.
The wallet also proves an enigma in our thriller opening because we do not know how the wallet has come to be on the floor of these toilets, and we dont not why.
Money is often the cause of violence which proves a key theme throughout many thrillers. The shot which involves the wallet will be edited using slow motion as I feel this will successfully highlight the disorientated feel I am attempting to show through my video. It will also foreshadow the fate of the character of Robbie. 

                                                                                    
                                                                                    Car:
Although only at the start of our thriller, the car plays a key role in determining power. Because of its sheer size, we assume that the person in the car is in control, as opposed to the young, vulnerable boy walking alongside it. An enigma is also created with this object because we are unable to see who is inside.
Cars have been used throghout many thriller films to symbolise different things. For example, in Jackie Brown by Quentin Tarantino, Ordell is forced to get into the trunk of the car and then goes on to be murdered shortly after - here the car is playing the role of angel of death. Also, in Thelma and Louise, the size of vehicle gives us an understanding of power and authority - Thelma and Louise are in a little car that is driving between two huge lorries. Other films that use this object/prop are Taxi Driver starring Robert De Niro and more notably Essex Boys starring Sean Bean.

Original Pitch

In our opening lesson we were handed a worksheet to fill out with a base idea for a thriller. Although a lot of the information has changed, the base ideas have remained the same.

Original Pitch

Character profiles/Casting decisions

Because we were only asked to film and edit just the opening of a thriller film, we made the decision to keep character numbers low so that no confusion was caused. Therefore only two characters play a significant role in our thriller opening. Their character profiles and casting decisions for their role are below.

Character Name: Robbie

Actor Name: Charlie Soffe

Decision: We decided to cast Charlie as the character Robbie because we felt his look matched our original interpretation of the character perfectly. The clothes worn by Charlie are much similar to the costume worn by the cast of 'This is England' which was the film that originally inspired our costumes and his general look also replicates this interpretation.

We also felt that Charlie's long, curly hair which partly covered his face, would help to emphasise the enigma behind his character and would create suspense and mystery as a result, which is exactly what we wanted to get from this project.

On top of this, Charlie was also a successful GCSE drama student which meant his acting history also helped us to determine that he was perfect for the role.

Accessibility was also easy with Charlie acting in our film because of the fact that he was also in our filming group.

Character Name: Damien

Actor Name: Will Spalding

Decision: This character was, at different times, played by several different actors. However, once editing we realised that Will was perfect.

His look of a classic, viscious, mischievous teenager/young adult was exactly what we wanted.

The majority of the clothes Will is wearing here are from well known, high-street shops. We thought that this would allow our target audience to relate to our film, which would therefore potentially make it more successful. The clothes are also very plain and dark which mean that they are not giving too much away about his character and therefore keeping the enigma of the character in tact. 

Will also has quite a 'hard to read' face. This allows us to re-inforce our enigmatic theme to the thriller. Hard to read faces are something we researched when planning our thriller and they are used in many successful thriller films such as with the chracter, Louis in 'Jackie Brown' and several characters in the classic thriller, 'The Third Man'.

Also like Charlie, will was in our group which of course made it easy to have him for all shoots.

Shot List - Worded

Below is a rough draft of the shot list for our thriller film. I chose to make it not too detailed because it is likely that much will be changed through the filming and editing process depending on how things work out.


Catch it, Kill it.

• The opening shot for our thriller will be of a wet, dim street. It will be a straight shot and a vanishing point will be in the distance.

(dip to black)

• Medium shot of the same street. A teenager walks on the path with a car driving alongside him. They walk directly towards the camera and the shot ends up with a close-up of the cars headlight as the boy exits the shot.

Titles: bottom right of the screen, reads 'Dench Productions' in white writing.

(dip to black)

• Medium shot of teenager turning corner.

(Straight Cut)

• Medium shot of teenager walking along another wet path. We can only see the lower half of his body.

Titles: bottom left of the screen, reads 'Film by Charles Clarke' in white writing.

(dip to black)

• Medium shot of teenager continuing to walk. He begins to walk up a set of steps.

(Straight cut)

• Close-up shot from underneath the steps of only the teenagers feet walking up the steps.

(Long dip to black)

• Close up shot of who we assume to be another teenager following the first character up the same set of steps. The shot this time is from the opposite side of the steps with the railing of these steps being the focus of the shot.

Titles: bottom centre of the screen, reads 'Charlie Soffe'

(Long dip to black)

Location changes to public toilets.

• High angle medium shot of first teenager walking in through the door.

(Straight cut)

• Low angle close-up shot of teenager turning corner in the public toilets.

(Straight cut)

• Medium tilt-shot of teenager entering shot from the right. A wall was originally blocking view of him. He walks into a cubicle.

(Dissolve)

Time jumps to when the boy has finished.

• Close-up shot of teenager washing his hands.

Titles: middle right of the screen, read 'Will Spalding' in white writing.

(Straight cut)

• Long, point of view shot (from seecond teenager) of first teenager leaving the sink and walking towards the hand drier. The camera shakes slightly.

(Straight cut)

• Low angle, tilt shot of boy trying to dry his hands. The drier does not work.

(Straight cut)

• Medium shot of boy turning around and walking towards something we cannot see.

(Dip to black)

• Close-up, slow motion shot of a wallet on the floor. The teenager picks the wallet up.

(Dip to black)

• Low angle, slow motion, medium shot of teenager looking at the cubicle ahead of him. He begins to reach out for it.

(Dip to black)

• Medium, slow motion, point of view shot (from somebody inside the cubicle) of teenager opening the door. Reaction shot of teenager. He is shocked at what he has revaled.

(Dip to black)

• Low angle, slow motion, close-up shot of another young man who appears to be dead or unconscious, sitting on the toilet.

(Dip to black)

Title shot: Black Background with text central, reads 'CATCH IT' in white writing.

(Dip to black)

• Long, slow motion shot of second teenager stadning at the entrance door of the public toilets. First teenager's leg is out of focus at the front of the shot. Second teenager begins to wlak towards the camera ferociously.

(Dip to black)

Title shot: Black Background with text central, reads 'KILL IT' in white writing.

(Dip to black)

• Low angle, slow motion shot of second teenager pushing first teenager.

(Straight cut)

• High angle, slow motion shot of the push being completed. Shot ends with first teenager up against the wall.

(Fades to black)

Storyboards

I drew up several storyboards in order to gain feedback from others. Their reflection on a basic outline of storyline and shot list will allow me to debate what does and doesn't work.

Below is a brief storyboard of what key shots my thriller will consist of and when, where, how and why they will be used.

Shots 1-6

Shots 7-12

Shots 13-16

Costume

Costume is an important aspect of mis-en-scene, especially within the thriller genre. Many classic thriller film see a traditional suit uniform with a trilby hat. However, as our thriller is a modern interpretation we were forced to research more recent thriller products. We focused the research on films such as essex boys. We also looked into the film series 'This is England' by Shane Meadows - although not a typical thriller, we felt that the audience that this series is aimed at replicated the audience of our thriller.

It is important that the chosen audience are able to relate to the characters in the film. The classic punk/mod/skinhead look, originated in the 70/80's but has more recently come back to fashion amongst the teens of today with mainstream, highstreet shops stocking and selling clothes much alike the ones made popular in Meadows film. With our characters modelling a similar outfit, it will ensure that the thriller is relatable to our audience.
The 'mod' look is often associated with violence which fits perfectly with the representation of youths of today I intend to show; the violence within our film could be labelled as a key thriller convention as it is a topic that is often addressed in the thriller genre.
The main character, played by Charlie Soffe, will be wearing a baggy denim jacket over the top of a check Fred Perry shirt with skinny jeans; almost identical to the majority of costumes worn in Shane Meadow's series.

Intertextual References

In order for our film to be a success we have carried out independent research into the thriller genre. It is important that thorough research in to successful and well known thriller films, as well as other contributing material, is carried out so that certain references from other sources can be made.

Below are several references we have found during the research process that will be incorporated in to our short thriller opening.

Toilet Scene - Witness
The key part of our short thriller opening is shot inside public toilets. This idea originated from an initial interest into the scene in 'Witness' where a young boy plays witness to a murder that takes place in a public bathroom. The clever use of intriguing camera angles such as high angle shots and close-ups, merged together with an eerie light and a soundtrack creating the ultimate suspense, results in a tension throughout - the perfect thriller scene. Due to all of these contributing factors we decided it would be a good idea to use a similar setting with similar techniques and hopefully create a scene as thrilling.

Wet Street - Thelma and Louise, Jackie Brown, Essex Boys
We have considered using a dark, wet path in the lead up to the toilet scene. We wanted to make the path look a similar setting to the ones used in 'Thelma and Louise' and 'Essex Boys' etc. The wet street is explained by rain, meaning that it is a dull, gloomy day - this would therefore represent the feelings and emotions of the characters throughout the film, as well as the general, negative feel. This is known as pathetic fallacy - 'the weather is bad, therefore bad things will happen in the film'. Also, in order for rain to occur, there would have to be a break in the sky - this is perhaps symbolising or representing a break or fracture in society as a whole - a key theme of all of the above films as well as thrillers as a general genre. The wet street we will use will be in the walk leading up to the final toilet scene. We felt that the presence of a wet street will, together with other techniques used, help to portray the youth in our thriller as fractured members of society. The portrayal of certain groups is essential in thrillers - often a particular social group are given a negative representation and this often provides the film with its main content (for example Essex Boys).



'Bar effect' - Essex Boys, Jackie Brown
Several thriller films I have watched during my time researching into the thriller genre, have involved a shot I have named as the 'bar effect'. This is where either a reflection with the use of light (Essex Boys) or a projection/layer of another object (Jackie Brown) creates the illusion of bars in a shot. This effect can be seen to symbolise prison bars and therefore is perhaps portraying or maybe even foreshadowing crime and/or violence. We have decided to attempt using a shot similar to this in our own thriller opening as we feel it is a good way of presenting violent tendencies into the scene which is a key thriller convention. It will create drama and an added suspense amongst our audience because they will feel as though something bad is certain to take place.



Enigma - Kill Bill
'Enigma: An inscrutable or mysterious person.' Many thriller films contain an enigma (often a person) which results in a suspense filled story line. In Kill Bill, Bill plays the role of the bad guy and is never shown to the audience. His absence adds to the phobia of him and his presence and creates an 'edge of your seat' atmosphere when consuming the film. Concluding from independent research, an enigma produces suspense amongst the audience which is a necessity for the success of a thriller film. Incorporating this factor in to my own film was something I felt essential and it can be easily done to a high level of quality should the correct techniques be used in a productive way. The figure who will attack the main character in my thriller will never be clearly seen. Should they appear on camera I will use a low, dim light in order to disguise their identity as well as suggesting they correspond with the darkness. A blurred effect in my edit will ensure that the enigma is present and the disorientated/violent/mysterious characteristics of the figure are portrayed.

Location/practise shots

A scene we watched in class from a film called 'Witness' by  Peter Weir was the main inspiration for the toilet scene that will take place in our thriller opening. There are mirrors in various different positions in the toilets we are going to shoot in. Mirrors symbolise a different view on somebody and can cause great suspense if used efficiently as well as presenting an enigma for the audience. These props are the main feature of the mystery/thriller film, 'Mirrors', starring Kiefer Sutherland. The film gives off immense suspense throughout due to the clever use of the mirrors to create drama amongst the audience. If we are able to duplicate the techniques used with these props I believe an intense thriller feel could be created in our opening. I felt that the scene has more impact when the lights were turned off and only natural lighing can be seen. This slight darkness correlates with the darkness of the events that are going to take place in our thriller opening. It also strikes a contrast between the brightly lit hallway that we may choose to shoot prior to the bathroom scene, emphasising how the bathroom can be seen as a whole new world. However, although the darker shot seems more fitting for the thriller genre, it may be interesting to challenge key generic features of the genre. This was done in the film 'Jackie Brown' where Robert De Niro shoots a woman in broad daylight in a public area and worked very well. It proved shocking and ruthless to the audience.

This is a shot we saw as perfect for the follow scene leading up to the toilet scene. The wet path is considered a key thriller convention and is used throughout many successful thriller films in the past such as 'Jackie Brown' and 'Thelma and Louise'. The wet street tells us that it has been raining, this is then further associated with the mood of the film. In this case, seeing as it has been raining, the mood and feel might be sad or gloomy. We considered both a straight high shot and a tilt high shot and eventually decided that the latter best suited our opening because it shows disorientation and foreshadows that something abnormal is going to occur.

I was inspired by a shot I saw from the film 'Jackie Brown' where the characters Ordell and Beaumont are walking to a car and they pass a set of railings as the camera pans with them. With a closer look, these rails give the effect of prison bars and therefore forebode negative occurrences. Another shot like this was used in Essex Boys where a reflection from lights is used to represent bars. We were lucky enough to find bars in our location which could give this 'bar effect' and so used this opportunity. The fractured society that the shot represents fits perfectly with the meaning behind our thriller.