Thriller opening scene - actor

Actor: Matt Fisher

We feel that Matt Fisher would be the best candidate for the protagonist in our opening scene as he may look young but we are not going to show the protagonists face so how he looks does not matter. However, we need someone who could act like a powerful figure so to do this he needs to be tall and have broad shoulders, Matt is 6"3 which is the kind of height that we wanted and his shoulders are quite broad to pass for someone who is much older than him. Another reason why we chose him is because he is our friend and lives close to both of us which means he can get into town easily for our shoot, this means that he is available and ready for filming whenever we need him which is an important aspect of our actor.

Thriller opening scene - storyboard

Thriller opening scene - Audience research

Question 1:
We asked the age ranges of our audience as we wanted to know the opinions of thrillers amongst a different range of ages therefore getting a more reliable opinion on our story and what we want to base our story around. The answers were that we asked 8 16-21 year olds, 1 22-30 year old and 2 31-49 year olds. We thought this was a good range but we could have extended it towards the 0-15 and 50+ year olds, however if we extended it too far towards the 0-15 year olds some of the people might not be old enough to watch certain thrillers and won't have a good view of all genres of thriller.

Question 2:
We then asked what sub-genre of thriller that they liked the options were: horror, mystery, crime, comedy and supernatural. The horror sub-genre got 4 votes, mystery got 6 and crime got 1, this means that we can do our original idea as it mainly has a mystery theme throughout.

Question 3:
Our next question was about how thrillers make them feel, we chose this as when we are designing our storyboard and filming our shots we can try to change camera shots, angles and ideas to suit what they like to feel. Our data showed that two person liked nervous, six liked being intrigued and three people liked to be tense, this means that we are going to have to make sure that we make our shots to be as intriguing as possible by not giving too much information about the protagonist and showing inserts of the location that would be considered to be interesting yet scary.

Question 4:
Our next question was about peoples opinions on our narrative for our opening scene, this question is crucial as we can get their opinions to see if our idea is any good and if they want to they can tell us some helpful suggestions as to how we can change our narrative to make it better. Overall they seemed to like the story as there was no votes under 3 out of five (1= terrible and 5= very good), we got two votes for 3 out of 5, six votes for 4 out of 5 and three votes for 5 out of 5.

Question 5:
Question 5 which was our final question was to do with font, we included three types of font which we quite liked for our thriller, however these are not definite choices as we are still looking for fonts. Font 1 got five votes, font 2 got two votes and font 3 got four votes, if we do not find another font that we want to use then font 1/3 will be what we will use, in addition if we find a new font then we will compare the new font to the winner of the questionnaire font to see what people like best.

Thriller opening scene - Costumes

Thriller opening scene - Locations

Location one - abandoned school
^^ link to the website these pictures are off, we had to get these pictures off of this blog as we havent been there yet but once we have I will post another blog post of the recce shots.

 Location one is an abandoned school on the outskirts of the town centre, it would fit the theme of our thriller as it is meant to be quite mysterious and is meant to make people feel uneasy as they the atmosphere is creepy. However, the place is very far away as we would have to take a 30 minute tram journey and 10 minutes of walking to get to the location so reshooting would be more of a hassle than somewhere nearby.

Location two - fields by George Spencer

Location two is a 2 minute walk from our college or a 20 minute walk from our houses, this location is very close and easy to get to if we need to reshoot some scenes or if we want to add more scenes into our thriller opening. However, it isn't as good as the school as the atmosphere isn't as creepy or mysterious but would be an okay area to 'hold/kill' a captive if this shoot was to be logical.

Thriller opening scene - Narrative

Storyline: A man in scary place and walking down a corridor and whilst texting his woman saying something like, ‘be home soon honey bringing dinner’ then walk towards captive and draws knife out then the camera cuts.

Lines:

H=killer 

W=wife

W - (Texting)Hey honey will you be home soon?

H - (Texting) Sure babe I've just left work

W - (Texting) okay please be quick, I'm starving

H - (Texting) Of course Hun, let me just grab dinner x…..

Thriller opening scene - Other clip research

To get good ideas about what I should and shouldn't do when filming and designing my storyboard I believe that some research on some other A level clips that have been done in the past that range from the highest to one of the lowest grades you can get for your piece.

Torn.

This thriller piece received 56 marks which is an A so this means this is one of the pieces I really need to take notes from on what to do in my piece as the person who made this did it very well. One of the things I really liked in this piece that made it tenser and like thriller film such as fight club where they have inserts that flash up using quick cuts of creepy images that fitted well with the narrative of the opening sequence.

The costume that the main character was in was really good in my opinion because it gave the character a sense of normality as he's a man in his dressing gown going into his shed to start working or read his paper, however this juxtaposes his actual intentions as they would be considered to be not normal and creates the sense of insanity about the man. This creates tension as we do not know anything about this man or why he is doing this therefore creating mystery about what the future of this narrative holds which keeps us watching it.

The narrative in this opening sequence is perfect for a thriller piece as it creates tension without telling any story or giving away the plot of the rest of the film therefore creating mystery and suspicion about the character.

In conclusion this piece is a good reference point for when we come to design and make our thriller piece as it was an almost perfect piece as it was close to full marks, tips I need to take away from this piece is that: quick cuts create tension and can give the audience another view of the setting or what the character is doing that he might not be able to see, the costume is a key part in a mystery thriller so try and make the costume look as normal as possible and not to include anything unrealistic or ridiculous and finally the narrative is another key part and cannot reveal the story in any way.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

The strengths of our preliminary task is that it covers everything that we needed to have on our task such as the four lines of dialogue, a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character, a match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. I think that our strongest area was definitely editing as we managed to make the clip look very professional and the continuity was very good on the finished product, however that was due to the amount of the clips that we cut if we were to do it again then we would have strived to get the continuity more accurate. I also feel like we used the equipment well when filming to make our shots look smoother and look less shaky, examples of these pieces of equipment like a spider mount, tripod with a weighted anchor and a normal tripod.

The weaknesses of our preliminary task were that some of our shots that we recorded were out of focus, shaky or had some of the lens in the shots, therefore we had to reshoot some shots and wasted time trying to get each shot perfect for the editing stage if we could go back then we would try to make sure that everything is perfect to reduce the time wasted. If I could reshoot one scene again then I would reshoot the shot where it shows the feet of the insane man walking into the room, I would have also had a shot of Kai walking in through the other side of the door to make the continuity better when he comes into the room.

Unlike this task, in the proper piece of work that I am going to film for my thriller opening scene I am going to think more carefully about costume, background and diegetic sound as they were lacking in my preliminary task due to having to film my piece as soon as I got told about it so didn't have much time to get all of the things that we wanted prepared.

Preliminary Task - Finish Product

Preliminary Task - Filming

When filming the preliminary task we learnt a lot of skills that we could use when it comes to filming our final piece on our thriller opening scene, we had a lot of continuity errors when we filmed and we had to go back and reshoot some scenes to make sure that they flowed nicely and didn't look out of place. A couple of the shots that we filmed when holding the camera using our hands were a very shaky and we had to go back and re-film these scenes, the only difference was that we used the spider mount to rest the camera on when walking towards the table as a POV shot this made the shot stable and looked more professional. To film our over the shoulder shots to get our shot reverse shot scene we had to use a tripod with a weighted axel to film our shots as there were only two of us in the group, we had to place the tripod carefully around the room so we didn't break the 180 degree rule.

Preliminary Task - Editing

Kai and I edited our preliminary task on Adobe Premiere Pro, it was an easy program to use once you got used to it after some teaching of the controls from the teacher it was simple and we got our editing of the scenes done in no time at all. In our editing we added in effects in-between scenes to create a smoother flowing interchange so it wasn't all amateurish quick cuts, however we did include some quick cuts as this can add more tension to a scene as it makes the pace of the scene increases. To make the shots flow nicely to create a good scene we made cuts to the shots we had filmed, this was to make our continuity better and to make sure our scenes didn't have any things in it that looked bad or that we didn't want such as us standing still or talking out of shot. We also included back ground music in the end credits where 'Insanity.' comes up to create tension as the music is quite quiet and relaxing which when in contrast with the scenes themselves creates and eerie and mysterious feel about as to what is going to happen next.

Preliminary Task - Dialogue

Walking guy - Kai Gilchrist

Sitting man - Guy Nicholson
Camera man - Kai Gilchrist, Guy Nicholson

-Hello, how are after your little ermmm….episode

-I’m fine I don’t know what really happened that night

-It’s okay that is why we're here, to help you to help yourself

-To help myself?!? What do you think I am insane!!!!!

-Actually you are (hands sheet)

Preliminary task - Storyboard

This was the storyboard that we designed to illustrate what we wanted the outcome to be for our preliminary task, we included camera angles, details on how we wanted the camera shots to be and if there was anything that was going to move in the shot then we put what direction it was going to move. Even though the storyboard was not well drawn when considering the character costumes and aspects of their look, we included every prop that we wanted in the task in the story board from the insert of the you are insane sheet to the tables and chairs we have used.

Inception

Inception.

Camera:
There is a close up of the back of the bald man's head who is in the Chinese style board room, we can't see his face but we know that he is talking to his henchmen and that he is the leader as they went to his with the man's belongings that they found on his when he washed up on their beach. this makes it tense as we don't know who this character is and we are still clueless as to which character the bald man or the guy who washed up on the beach is the good or bad character so we still don't trust either of them, we are drawn in by this scene due to the tense atmosphere it creates as we don't know what he is going to do with the intruder or how the intruder got to where he is.

Sound:
The music in the opening scene is very orchestral and the distinct violin sounds make the scene sound tense and scary as there is a lot of violence and Leonardo the obvious main character in the film is being chased and shot at this makes us fear for him, therefore our eyes glued to the screen as we need to know what is going to happen to him. The diegetic sound of the waves crashing against the rocks gives mystery and a sense of the unknown to the scene, it makes the scene tense as we worry for the character who has washed up on the beach as we don't know who he is and if he is in trouble or not as washing up on an island is associated with danger as he might be stranded.

Mise-en-scene:
When the protagonist wakes up we can tell that he has washed up on a beach due to the waves crashing against the rock, sandy beach and sand castles that the children have made, this doesn't make us uneasy at first and not tense in any kind of way, however once we start to realise that the children are a figure of his imagination we started to feel uneasy and the scene becomes more tense as we wonder where he is or if the whole setting is actually real or not.

Editing:
There is an insert of the spinning top that is found on the man who washed up on the beach and the bald Asian man recognises it from someone he used to know, this makes the scene tense as we think that the man who washed up on the beach might be the same man or had something to do with the man who used to own the spinning top. Another aspect that makes us feel uneasy is the fact that the spinning top keeps spinning in the insert, whereas usually the spinning top would start to wobble and shake this spinning top is remarkably still, this leads us to believe that this place isn't real and that something bad is about to happen between these two characters.

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace.

Camera:
There was a long shot in the construction yard which shows a small man-made cliff edge where they have done some mining, James Bond drives very close to it and makes the scene tense as it is another situation where James Bond has almost fell off of a height that would have either killed him or got him captured by the pursuers. There was also a mid-shot when James Bond is in the car and has just got hit by the truck driver and the broken bumper has took the door off, this mid shot creates tension in this scene as we are scared for James Bond as he is in a dangerous situation as he is more vulnerable to the spike and bullets than the chasers as they have the door to act as protective armour for them.

Sound:
The music in the first few seconds of the scene the music starts to pick up and it is mostly orchestral, this creates a lot of tension as it is quite fast and mimics the car in the tunnel and the speed of the car chase, it makes us tense by building up our emotions and eager to see this car chase which the James Bond series is known for. The diegetic sound in the opening scene of the gun shots and the car engine roaring makes us concentrated fully on the film as we know that there is a violent chase going on between the three cars and that the chase is even more dangerous than just having two cars racing each other, it makes us tense as we recognise Daniel Craig from the last James Bond and we know that he is the good guy in the film so it makes us sweat as we want him to survive this.

Mise-en-scene:
James Bond is driving an Aston Martin and wearing a very posh suit even though he is in a dangerous car chase which is very violent, this suggests that he is a very either rich or important character as he has very nice things it creates tension as because he is important we want to know why these people are chasing him and whether this important character is going to make it out alive from this. The high mountain motorway that the cars are chasing each other on is very perilous as any of the cars could easily fall off into the water or the mountain passes down below probably killing them, it creates tension as we don't want James Bond to die and he gets into and escapes from many potential crashes which could have sent him over the edge of the road.

Editing:
At the start of the scene there are fast cuts on different aspects of James Bond's car, this creates tension as the fast paced cuts tells us that a chase is happening as this is the classic way a car chase is usually shown by using these types of cuts. As it is fast paced it goes hand in hand with the cars pace that it is travelling at and keeps us on the edge of our seats as we are waiting to know who's winning. The dark tunnel that James Bond drives through is very dim and made like this through editing to make the tunnel seem scary and mysterious, it makes the scene tense as we don't know where he is entering and what's going to happen to him it also makes us wonder why those men were chasing him which is later revealed when he empties his trunk of his hostage which was obviously what they were after.

Titles:
Sienna, Italy - quite fancy and posh writing which suits the location of where James Bond is as Sienna is a very nice area due to its Italian origin.
ALBERT R. BROCCOLI'S
EON PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DANIEL CRAIG 
as IAN FLEMING'S JAMES BOND 007 in
Quantum of Solace
- these texts are in bold and very plain writing which contrast to the video in the background which is complex and full of action, it matches the neatness of James Bond as he is always in nice, neat and clean suits.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises.


Camera:
In the opening scene there is a five shot where you see the back of the main man with the gun and on army soldier guarding the captives, we see the captives with black bags over their heads this makes us question them and wonder what they have done to be able to have this kind of security on them and thought makes us keep watching as we are eager to know who these characters are. This adds tension to the opening sequence as they are unknown and we don't know what is going to happen to them and whether they might escape or not. There's a lot of over the shoulder shots and there is on that creates enough tension for the opening to this thriller when the main guy that runs the aircraft is taking the hostage mask off of Bane, we cannot see Bane's face at this point but it creates tension as we don't know what kind of human being the man is about to unmask and the fact that the hostage is the only one talking shows he is the leader and therefore is the most dangerous creating even more tension for the audience. all of these techniques keep us watching as we are eager to learn more about this dominant character called Bane and are excited to see what he will do next.

Sounds:
The music in the background of the opening scene when they are on the aircraft is very fast and has lots of deep base sounds in random places, this creates tension for the audience cause the music is stereotypically associated with something bad that is going to happen and we continue watching as we want to see what is going to happen. The music is very similar to the Jaws theme which had lots of base sounds in it which link our minds to the tension we felt in that film when we hear the soundtrack. The dialogue in the scene is very hostile and threatening especially by the main army man as he says things like "first person to talk won't be thrown out of this plane", this is a clear threat to the hostages to try and get them to talk about the man Bane which they are hunting for. The dialogue creates tension because the army man would not have had to make threats if these hostages weren't dangerous therefore keeping us on the edge of our seat and hungry to now more.

Mise-en-scene:

There are a number of soldiers on the plane with the hostages; we know this due to their camouflaged bullet-proof vests and lethal weapons. This creates tension for us as by looking at these soldiers we know that their hostages are high profile and extremely dangerous or they would be escorted by normal police officers, now we realise these are dangerous men we start to wonder what they are capable of and whether they might escape or not. Near the end of the scene another plane comes into view and is controlled by Bane's men, this shows that he is a powerful force as not only is his plane bigger he also has men with army gear and weaponry to take out the other army men that are his captors. This creates tension as it makes Bane seem more powerful and almost unstoppable.

Editing:
Right before the hood is going to be taken off of Bane there is a sudden cut to where you face Bane but the hood is still on, this creates tension as we are now coming face to face with the man behind the hood and see who he is and what he wants. There are also fast paced cuts between different angles and people when Bane's men drop from their plane, this creates tension as it is building a climactic atmosphere and is reaching the crescendo before the main army guy realises Bane's master plan which then, once it is revealed, makes us realise that these men are in trouble and therefore we are biting our nails with anticipation.