New Headlines

I've found some new newspaper headlines as some of the ones we previously chose weren't all natural disasters, so add to these if you find others or take any away you feel wouldn't work.

Final Storyboard

We felt our first storyboard was quite complicated in the short time and lack of experience we had to film, and so we've re-drafted and have come up with a more symbolic opening (like Se7en) that displays the obsessiveness of the character and draws in more Thriller elements through the use of light and shadow. Some information, such as actors names and other credit information, is missing and so we will decide on these when we get closer to the editing of the film.

New possible sounds:

http://www.freesound.org/people/Johnc/sounds/20682/ - heartbeat
http://www.freesound.org/people/thanvannispen/sounds/9665/ - voices in ear

Overall, our opening will last 2minutes 6seconds.

New Storyboard Ideas?

Although it's not of the Thriller genre, this music video uses quick close ups of different areas of the face and body, such as the side of the face, hans and eyes, and this is something we wanted to draw into our new storyboard in order to show the nervousness and stress in our main character. However, we will make use of shadow much more and sound to convey the Thriller elements in our work.

Test Shots and New Timetable

In period 7 today, we filmed two test shots to test out the lighting in different rooms. We used an English classroom and the drama studio, and found the lighting in the English classroom was quite dark once the blinds were closed, however could have been darker and so may need to cover the windows even more when we begin filming. The drama studio worked well for darkness, however we struggled when it came to manipulating the lighting and so will need to ask someone from the drama department to help us with this. Despite this, the shot still conveyed light and shadow in the areas we wanted. The drama room is also only available to us Friday p7, and so we will need to make use of other classroom locations that don't need as much manipulation of lighting during our shooting days.

We've also chosen drama student Taylor as our actress, and the timetable below displays the times she is free to film.

Prop List

• Classroom set up (We're using an English Classroom Friday p7, and will need to ask permission to use the Drama studio as this will be easier to manipulate lighting)
• Clocks (Available from school)
• iPhone (Conor and Rochelle both have)
• Computer keyboard
• Codes of clothing: White shirt, black cardigan, black jeans/trousers, no eye makeup or nail polish
• Desk
• Paper, pen
• Watch
• Exam timetable

Distribution

We've researched 20th Century Fox, as we've looked at the most popular distributor for Thrillers and they've distributed many, and are also a mainstream company, in which our film is. However, after looking at other distributors that more associated with typical Thrillers, we've decided on Lions Gate as it produces both Independent and Mainstream films, and our film has touches of Independent within the filming, and therefore gives us a wider audience. Lions Gate has produced and distributed cult Thriller American Psycho, along with Saw and Fahrenheit 9/11, and so we felt this would be the perfect company to present our film.

Things To Do Today

1. Find distribution company for our film credits

2. Refine storyboard

3. Sort out props we need

Newspaper Headlines

In order to offer hints at the narrative, we wanted to include inter-cuts of local newspaper headlines in our opening to suggest the anxiety of the characters mindset, and so below are possible suggestions of headlines we could use. We’ve used headlines from the internet as our audience research displays the internet is the number one source our audience use to keep updated with the media.

Opening Scene

Monaire and Rochelle, you two should watch this opening scene of Seven (Se7en). It gave Zoe and I a few ideas on how we could shoot our opening.

The Dark Knight Opening Scene

The opening scene emphasises conventional ideas of a thriller, the darkness and deadlyness of the opening seems to suggest to the audience that whats to come is not going to be good. The use of non-diagetic sound helps to engage the audience as it makes them want to make sense of what's going on, it also helps to add to the dark element implied at the beginning of the scene. The soundtrack used for the non-diagetic sound, starts of softly which can connotate goodness but as it gets into the scene the sound slowly becomes fast paced and more violent as the scene becomes more action based. There are a varitey of mid-shots and establishing shots of the characters at the beginning when the characters share their first piece of dialogue. From this the audience get a insight on what's going on and what's to come "Three of a kind, let's do this". The next scene where the clowns reach the bank, the non-diagetic soundtrack becomes more fast tempo this then is removed from the scene and diegetic sound is used including the dialogue and the gunshots used in the scene. Tracking is used during the robbery scene, to keep the audience drawn into the film allowing them to understand every action. A shot-reverse- shot is used when the bank owner comes out with a gun and the clowns are hiding. The bank owner is then shot by the clown who is hiding. The last scene involves a lot of dialogue between the two clowns.

Order of Opening Credits

1. Name of the studio (e.g Universal) (…Presents)
2. Name of production company (A…Production)
3. Director (A…Film/A Film by…)
4. Starring (No more than 5 names)
5. Film Title
6. Featuring actors
7. Casting by
8. Music by
9. Costume designer
10. Production designer
11. Editor
12. Director of photography
13. Co-producers
14. Co-executive producers
15. Executive producers
16. Written by
17. Produced by
18. Directed by

First Storyboard Draft

This is a rough draft our of storyboard, displaying the first ideas we've come up with. From this, we need to think about lighting, props needed, locations and codes of clothing, and so will include these ideas in our final storyboard. We also need to think more about the location of titles - whether they will be on their own seperate shots, or over specific shots on the storyboard already. Along with this, we need to look back and decide whether the shots we've chosen to use are appropriate and really help convey the Thriller genre.

Sound Research

In today's lesson, Me and Conor researched sound that we could include in our opening sequence, and our first idea was to use a constant ticking sound in order to create suspense - something our audience like in Thriller openings. My first idea was to use a Metronome, as we could pace it at the speed we wanted and could record it ourselves, therefore not having to rely on other sources for sound. However, we also looked at copyright-free sound websites, mainly http://www.freesound.org/, and found some fitting sounds we could possibly use.

http://www.freesound.org/people/digifishmusic/sounds/49112/ - metronome http://www.freesound.org/people/jackstrebor/sounds/34855/ - clock ticking http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/46722/ - clock ticking

These are all at a good pace and would work in our opening. We also researched sounds such as sirens and cars screeching to add in the background of some shots to convey the idea of 'disasters' that will happen in the later narrative.

http://www.freesound.org/people/musicmasta1/sounds/131385/ - car crashing http://www.freesound.org/people/sonsdebarcelona/sounds/72711/ - sirens

For other sounds we may need, such as footsteps or the sound of writing on paper, it would be best to record these ourselves as it would be more in synch and natural when editing the sound with the shots. We also looked on Youtube for some examples of sounds that would fit our piece, just to get an idea of pace:

From this, we have many ideas and so will narrow these down at a later date as to whether we will record our own sound, or use the copyright-free sounds mentioned above.

Title Design Research

In today's lesson, me and Rochelle began searching for fonts to use for the opening credits of our opening. As our treatment is surrounded by time, we wanted to find an analytical type face that looked like a digital clock to really push the idea of time into our audience and make the theme clear. Using dafont.com, we found a few fonts that we felt could work, and when we come together as a full group we can decide which of these will be the best choice.

DS-Digital

LCD Mono

Transponde

Segmental

Hammer Keys

24 Opening Credits Season 1/ Repulsion /Carrie

24

As the main theme for our treatment was that the main character is obsessed with time I looked at the opening titles for 24 to see how we could possibly present the opening titles for our opening sequence. As 24 have a similar font to what we wish to use in our opening sequence, I thought that perhaps I could look at that opening sequence for Inspiration. The opening titles I thought could be an option for our sequence as they focus on the time and the clock however I thought that the choice of the shots of the characters near the end of the 24 opening could not be used as a potential option in out opening sequence.

I also looked at parts of Misfits to see how they portrayed the characters obsession with time and dates, however, because the character seemed more mysterious and heroic I felt that we could not use this portrayal of the character to our advantage.

Repulsion/Carrie

After this I thought about looking at openings that were set in a school environment and then with the character in the school environment presented as an outsider (Psychological thriller openings).I looked at the opening and trailer for Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and watched Brian de Palma’s Carrie

after looking at the trailer and opening of repulsion I thought the trailer would be more useful to us because like repulsion, we too could used an extreme close up to become uncomfortably close with the character, or more so the objects around our character.

We could possibly use a fade as did Polanski during the trailer where he makes the shot of the close up of the main characters face and the underlay of the collaboration of shots featuring different men; this possibly connotes what things that are going on In her mind.We wanted to show what our character was thinking about in our opening and could possibly use Polanski's editing technique to show it

I also watched Carrie, even though it is more a horror than a thriller it Involves the key themes that we wish to Involve In our opening sequence, such as a school girl who is an outside and who is obsessed. In the opening for Carrie the establishing shot is clearly set on school grounds showing the environment that the problems are going to occur, it then focuses on the main character showing her as the loner of the school ; we also want to do this , we wish to show the school grounds as the area all the problems are going to happen and to show the lead character as a loner however Instead of establishing the school area then focusing In the character, we wish to focus on the clock and then zoom out to show that the area Is an school area. De Palma also pans across the locker room showing everyone being friendly to each other, emphasising Carrie’s isolation which Is a possible way we could too show that our main character Is an outsider .

Sound

When considering these different things I thought about the sound in the lovely bones and how the dramatic scene where the girl is sneaking into the murderer’s house the littlest sound is made amplified making the audience’s heart pump. I thought we could use this as a way showing the ticking in our main characters head by amplifying the different clocks ticking and beeping.