Today my group and I started to finalise ideas, put together our contact sheet, and start on a rough script of how we want the thriller to play out. We also put together a step-by-step page of what happens.
Today we sat down with Matt to talk about our idea and get approval to take it forward.We told him our idea and he said that it would work well, and gave us some suggestions on how to improve it, such as the setting and the reason for the attack. He suggested that because normal English hotels don't normally have spaces under the beds, we should think of another place to set the thriller, such as Siberia or Brazil, where we can create a realistic room with a space under the bed. We decided on our reason of attack to be a wrong-place-wrong-time type of thing, where the couple have been together for a while, which will add to the tension and drama more than a one-night-stand.
This is what we presented to Matt, however our idea has changed slightly since then. This includes the test shoot:
This is what we presented to Matt, however our idea has changed slightly since then. This includes the test shoot:
To prepare for the test shoot we wrote up the shots we wanted, decided on a rough storyline and a location - a bedroom in a boarding house.
This test shoot is important because we can actually see if our idea would work well or not, and it also gives us the chance to play around with shots and camera angles before doing the real thing.
We didn't entirely follow the original shot list because our idea had changed slightly after doing it.
This test shoot is important because we can actually see if our idea would work well or not, and it also gives us the chance to play around with shots and camera angles before doing the real thing.
We didn't entirely follow the original shot list because our idea had changed slightly after doing it.
As a group we re-told each of our 3 ideas and discussed possible thriller intros that would include elements of all of ours. We really liked Myles' original idea, and decided to expand on that with part of other ideas included. We likes his because it had a good narrative, and could be effectively filmed, and would look original. The initial plot decision was difficult because we had to decide between two different ideas. One way was to have the man save the girl, the other was to have the man not save her, and stay in the cupboard.
Everything in our thriller will be shot from under the bed. The main idea is to have a couple in a hotel room (initially talking, looking for a tie, getting ready to go out etc.), when they hear gunshots and shouts in the distance and question what they are. They start to panic, and the man goes outside briefly to check. He rushes back in, quickly pushing the girl under the bed in order to save her first. He just has enough time to hide in the wardrobe before the door gets kicked in and two men dressed in combat black. One shouts 'room service!', before pulling open the wardrobe door, dragging out the man, throwing him to his knees and asking 'is there anyone else in the room?' (or words to that effect) and shoots the man. He falls to the floor, staring at the girl under the bed. The men begin to leave, but the girl lets out a strangled cry, and a pair of boots stop, and walk back towards the bed, where the scene cuts to black.
We've spoken to other people about our idea and the feedback so far is good and has been constructive and helpful in how we do our thriller.
Everything in our thriller will be shot from under the bed. The main idea is to have a couple in a hotel room (initially talking, looking for a tie, getting ready to go out etc.), when they hear gunshots and shouts in the distance and question what they are. They start to panic, and the man goes outside briefly to check. He rushes back in, quickly pushing the girl under the bed in order to save her first. He just has enough time to hide in the wardrobe before the door gets kicked in and two men dressed in combat black. One shouts 'room service!', before pulling open the wardrobe door, dragging out the man, throwing him to his knees and asking 'is there anyone else in the room?' (or words to that effect) and shoots the man. He falls to the floor, staring at the girl under the bed. The men begin to leave, but the girl lets out a strangled cry, and a pair of boots stop, and walk back towards the bed, where the scene cuts to black.
We've spoken to other people about our idea and the feedback so far is good and has been constructive and helpful in how we do our thriller.
This week we were put into groups with the people who we'd be working with on our thriller intro. In my group is me, Myles, Elena and Emma. Here are some pictures of us on the test shoot:
1.
Intro outline:
A man sets up a sniper on top of a building or out of a window. We see what he sees through the gun's scope
, with cross hairs on the screen. He's looking at a football match (for example) focusing on different people as if searching for his target. Whilst doing this, he's making sarcastic and sadistic comments about the match, imitating a commentator. He locks on to a target, says 'he shoots' - the screen goes black - 'he scores'. The title comes up and we hear a crown cheering.
Plot:
The film is about match fixing in sport, and when it doesn't turn out the way the fixers want, someone needs to pay the price. The job of the sniper man is to eliminate the people who fail to meet the demands of the fixing, and some people are in need of eliminating.
2.
Intro outline:
An average man is sitting on a sofa in a living room, eating fast food (eg. pizza or burger). The TV is on in the background, with a news report of a series of brutal murders done with a weapon of some sort (eg. a hammer). The light from the TV is shining on the man's face as the lights are off. He hears the front door being unlocked, casually stands up, grabs a bloody hammer that was not shown before and heads towards the noise. The door opens and a thunk is heard as the screen goes black.
Plot:
The man on the sofa is the villain of the plot. He's trying to avenge his family by murdering all of the possible suspects - even though most of them are innocent. The thunk you hear at the end of the intro is him being killed, not him killing another person - but the audience doesn't know that. The person who kills him is the focus of the film, trying to hunt him down.
3.
Intro outline:
Similar to the second, but the news report is about decapitations, or bodies found with missing limbs. The man gets up at one point, goes to the fridge and opens it to find limbs and a head or two. He grabs a can of coke and walks back to the sofa to carry on watching the TV.
Plot: The man on the sofa is again the villain, but the rest of the film is the police trying to figure out who did these murders and why, then tracking him down before he tracks them down.
Intro outline:
A man sets up a sniper on top of a building or out of a window. We see what he sees through the gun's scope
, with cross hairs on the screen. He's looking at a football match (for example) focusing on different people as if searching for his target. Whilst doing this, he's making sarcastic and sadistic comments about the match, imitating a commentator. He locks on to a target, says 'he shoots' - the screen goes black - 'he scores'. The title comes up and we hear a crown cheering.
Plot:
The film is about match fixing in sport, and when it doesn't turn out the way the fixers want, someone needs to pay the price. The job of the sniper man is to eliminate the people who fail to meet the demands of the fixing, and some people are in need of eliminating.
2.
Intro outline:
An average man is sitting on a sofa in a living room, eating fast food (eg. pizza or burger). The TV is on in the background, with a news report of a series of brutal murders done with a weapon of some sort (eg. a hammer). The light from the TV is shining on the man's face as the lights are off. He hears the front door being unlocked, casually stands up, grabs a bloody hammer that was not shown before and heads towards the noise. The door opens and a thunk is heard as the screen goes black.
Plot:
The man on the sofa is the villain of the plot. He's trying to avenge his family by murdering all of the possible suspects - even though most of them are innocent. The thunk you hear at the end of the intro is him being killed, not him killing another person - but the audience doesn't know that. The person who kills him is the focus of the film, trying to hunt him down.
3.
Intro outline:
Similar to the second, but the news report is about decapitations, or bodies found with missing limbs. The man gets up at one point, goes to the fridge and opens it to find limbs and a head or two. He grabs a can of coke and walks back to the sofa to carry on watching the TV.
Plot: The man on the sofa is again the villain, but the rest of the film is the police trying to figure out who did these murders and why, then tracking him down before he tracks them down.
As obvious as it sounds, a 'thriller' film is meant to thrill its viewers, hence the name. The dictionary definition is 'a film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.' and is said to give viewers 'heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Alfred Hitchcock is an example of a director well known for his successful thrillers such as Psycho and The Birds.Other examples of thrillers include:
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Memento
- Shutter Island
- Inception
- The Sixth Sense
- The 'Jaws' films
A thriller normally tends to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, by including plot twists and withholding certain bits of information to keep the audience questioning what's going to happen. There tends to be a villain who drives the plot, and a 'hero' type character that needs to defeat said villain.
Many thrillers have elements or themes of horror, however there is a grey area as to where a film's genre can fall. The multiple sub-genres can help to distinguish a film, some of which are:
- Action
- Crime
- Disaster
- Forensic
- Psychological
- Supernatural
There are many more sub-genres which cover a wide range of films.
