Police scene for thriller opening

On the 27th of November we filmed our 'opening' scenes of our film opening. This scene was meant to look like it took place in a police interview room so, with this being said, we needed to find a room within school that resembled such a room. We ended up using a meeting room at school, it was a very plain room with only a table and chairs within it - I feel it was very effective and fulfilled it's purpose. We also needed a male to play our police officer, we decided to use Mr Miles as he is a retired police officer and has had experience interviewing people so we thought he fit the part well.  

We wrote up a script for the interview so that it ran smoothly and sounded professional (I will attach an image of the script below). We used a variety of shots within this scene in order to achieve the most successful outcome. These shots included extreme close ups; particularly of Evie (the victim)s face, we chose not to feature Evie's face throughout the whole opening to add a sense of mystery which would be resolved if the audience were to watch the entirety of the film. We also used extreme high angled shots looking down on Evie, this made her appear vulnerable. Lastly, we used a tracking/match on action shot of Evie walking into the room, we felt this would help involve the audience in the film.

                                             

Meeting/Interview room

                                                 

Millie setting up the tri-pod to help record the exchange.

                                       

The tri-pod on the table to enable us to achieve a high angled shot.

                                             

The recorder prop we used to make the interview look realistic. Close up shots of the recorder were taken to show it's presence.

                                  

Filming the match on action shot.

 

                                  

Script

Filming Day

On Saturday the 22nd of November we all met as a group at 12 o'clock and made our way down to the orchard right near Millie's house.

We started the filming straight away using Kate's dad as our kidnapper. We got multiple shots of him; a point of view shot of him walking away - we will use this in a section of our opening where the victim is watching him, A panning shot of him running and finally a tracking close up/feet shot of him walking.

After we were happy with the scenes of the 'kidnapper' we moved on to Evie's (the victims) outdoor scenes. Again, we used a variation of shots for her scenes such as wide shots, more panning shots and low angle and high angle shots. We booked out two cameras from school in order to get different viewpoints of the same scene - we felt this would be really effective as it will not only allow the viewer to get a different perspective but also keep them on edge as it will look more choppy and disorientated.

When all of the outdoor scenes were  filmed we made our way into one of the abandoned buildings within the orchard to film the indoor scenes. It was a large, open space that already had certain features within it that we agreed would look effective in our opening such as a mattress and a dirty plate surrounded by plastic knives and forks. In our storyboard we imagined there to be a door, however upon arrival we noticed there wasn't one so we made one on set using a few wooden panes we found within the building. Inside, we used quite a few point of view shots, tracking shots and also high angled shots.

We plan to film the police scenes within school at some point during this week. Securing this scene will allow us to move further with our editing and such. It will also provide us with the voiceover that is a crucial part of our opening.

Here is Kate's dad acting out one of his scenes.

                                        

This is me using the tripod to achieve a high angled shot of the food being chucked onto the plate.

This is Evie acting out one of our scenes.

                           

Here you can see we taped the camera down onto a skateboard to help us achieve a successful tracking shot. I found the use of the skateboard really effective, it allowed us to get a shot that may not have been possible if we had to run alongside the actor whilst holding the camera.


Overall, I think our filming day was very successful. We were all very efficient and took care in securing scenes that we thought would benefit the film. Our grouped work extremely well together and I hope the finished opening comes out as we envision it too. 

                                     

Our Location

We chose an orchard in Upchurch as our location for filming as we were aware there were a few abandoned buildings there. The presence of the abandoned buildings will heighten the creepy feel we are going for with our opening. Not only did the location set the scene it also made the victim appear even more vulnerable as the building we chose to film in was very large and open spaced - engulfing her within it. There were lots of places for us to film and allowed us to get a variety of shots for our opening sequence.

                                       

                                        

This is the inside of the building we filmed in, as you can see it is quite big and there was already a mattress within it which was perfect for us. 

                                        

                                       

Thriller Mise En Scene (Props and Costumes)

Props:

 A Black music station: This prop will be used in the police station scene as it will resemble the type of recorder they use to record victims relaying their experiences. We want this scene to look as realistic as possible.

A half eaten sandwich: This prop will be evident in the scene where the kidnapper is shown delivering scraps of food for the victim to eat. We feel this will be effective because it will really make a statement about the type of conditions she is living in.

Table and chair: these two props will be used in the police interviewing scene, the table and chair will have an effective yet subtle impact on the audience as it will create a juxtaposition between the good condition, safe police station and the run down shed that the character has been forced to live in. 

Torch: A torch will be used in the scene when the kidnapper is going out to visit his victim. We feel this prop will be effective because it highlights the fact that the kidnapper prefers to go and see his victim when it is dark, as no one is around and he is less likely to get caught. It will also add a sense of mystery because you wont be able to see him clearly behind the flash.

   
Costumes:

We plan to keep the clothing very simplistic throughout the opening as there is no need for extravagant clothing, it would not match the narrative.

The victim will wear a plain, dark jumper and black jeans. We feel this outfit is appropriate for this certain character as we want to portray her as just an ordinary young girl in clothes that many people of a similar age to us would wear- we feel this will have an impact on the audience of a similar age to us as it will hit home that she is just a regular girl and the situation she is in could happen to any of us. The clothing (when in the shed) will appear quite scruffy and tattered to make her appear dirty and as if she has been kept in there for a long time. The dark/black colour of her costume will also symbolise the dull mood she feels, this will also help to set a similar mood for the entirety of the opening. 

The police officer in the interview will wear a smart, full piece black suit to represent formality and set the scene for the setting of a police station.

The kidnapper will be wearing baggy, loose, scruffy looking clothing which will represent his lack of remorse and care.

Production Schedule

We plan to all meet as a group to film on the 22nd of November. We are going to be meeting at the orchard in Upchurch. We will be using one of the girls dads to act as the kidnapper. Essentially, we would like to get all scenes filmed so we will be spending the entire day there, this should give us time to re-shoot certain scenes if they do not go to plan. If, when editing we spot that a scene does not look how we wanted it too, we will schedule another filming day to ensure our opening is of the best quality possible.

Film Company Research

I began to look into film/production companies to get a grasp on what it is exactly they do within the production of a film and what types of films particular companies produce. This way I will have knowledge on existing companies and we may be able to feature their logo in our opening.

What does a Production Company do?

this type of company is usually involved in funding, helping to facilitate the making of, and distributing films and/or television programs.

Most often, the production company for films and television provides the money, and therefore generally has a say on the budget, and may also make decisions on what director, and actors can be hired. Budget often makes other decisions possible or impossible. A low budget film may not be able to be filmed in a remote location, for example.

The company may also come attached with certain actors, directors, or film editors and photographers. Often this is especially the case when it belongs to a major studio, likeTouchstone Pictures, which belongs to Disney. Directors who have contracts with Touchstone are more likely to be offered jobs produced by Touchstone.

A few examples of Production Companies:

I looked into the most popular production companies and some successful thriller films they have produced...




20th century fox: produced films such as Die Hard and Predator.






Universal Studios: Jaws.

Rogue Pictures: the strangers, Doomsday and seed of chucky.






TriStar pictures: Terminator 2: Judgement Day and District 9.







New Line Cinema: Se7en and Rush Hour. 




Here is a longer list of production companies and a few of their notable films: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_production_companies

Feedback From Pitch

In a recent lesson we had to pitch our ideas to our teacher and fellow class members. To ensure we got all of our points across, we prepared a short PowerPoint that covered topics we felt needed to be discussed, this consisted of things such as our narrative, ideas of where we could shoot, our target audience, potential props, music, shots we could use, how we would edit the opening and so on. Our pitch lasted about 15 minutes and we made sure that each person in our group had a chance to speak. After we had finished presenting we listened to some feed back.

Firstly our teacher stated that he thought we had clearly put a lot of thought into what we wanted to do and how we could do it, however, he did have some comments about how we could improve. 

During the pitch we mentioned how we would like our opening to be in the form of flashbacks. We would start the opening with the victim relaying her experiences to a police officer and then use a voice over so that she could narrate whilst the flashbacks were playing. Although our teacher thought this was a good idea, he feared it may be a little hard to follow for the audience, he questioned how we would make it clear that the clips were in fact flashbacks and suggested we consider making them black and white to show the time shift. We thought this was a good idea as we have seen this used in thriller films before and agreed it was effective. We also suggested using fades between the clips to make it clearer that they were indeed flashbacks in which he agreed. 

In addition to his first piece of constructive criticism, our teacher questioned if we had found a middle aged male to play the role of our kidnapper to which we said no and admitted we planned on using a member of our group dressed up in males clothes and not featuring 'his' face. Our teacher said we could do that however it wouldn't be as effective as using a male as it may be clear it is a female due to our stance, we do not hold ourselves or walk like men so it may be difficult to portray ourselves as one. With this being said we have decided to cast one of our dads as the kidnapper as we think it will be more effective.

Pitch

We made a powerpoint to deliver for our pitch, the slides are as listed below...

Our thriller opening narrative:
We have decided that the narrative of our film will be based around a girl who gets kidnapped and is held hostage for numerous months. The kidnapper treats her extremely badly and rarely feeds her. She starts to physically and mentally deteriorate. Time passes and she uses all the limitless amounts of time she has to slowly form an escape plan. Eventually, she manages to channel all the strength she has from within and breaks free. Of course, nothing is that easy, the kidnapper spots her and chases her - what will happen next? will he catch her? will she really escape? we will build our suspense through leaving the audience to decide what happens themselves. We plan to not feature any dialogue within the scenes of our opening and use a voice over instead, in which we will hear the girl narrating us through what is happening in her tape recorded police interview. However, again, as we don't want to give the whole film away, we are limiting the dialogue to a minimal amount.

Location:
For our film opening, we would like to film in an orchard based in Upchurch. We think that this would be a good location to film in due to the fact that the woodland area will enhance the creepy theme we are aiming for- also orchards/woods can symbolise mystery and are a typical conventional setting for the thriller genre, therefore meaning that the audience will easily be able to identify this straight away.

Camera shots and story board:
For our opening we are hoping to use a variation of shots. The shots we plan on using consist of tracking shots, close-ups, point of view and high angle shots.
Tracking shot: We plan on using this particular shot when the victim is getting chased through the orchard. This will be a successful shot to use for this scene because it will feel as though you are following them and are actually there. Therefore, the viewers will be able to sympathise with the main character and will be able to get a grasp on how she may be feeling.
Close-up: We will be using a close-up shot of the victims feet when she is running. Not only does this emphasise the action she is doing in more detail but it also adds mystery as to who she is as we do not plan on featuring her face regularly  throughout the opening. Not showing her face will leave the viewers on edge and wanting to see more.
Point of view: This shot will be used when the victim is looking for an escape route. We feel this shot will be appropriate because it allows the audience to almost experience the horror of the situation she is in.
High angled shot: High angled shots are really effective in the fact that they make the person within them appear small and vulnerable within their surroundings. The feeling of isolation is important within our thriller because it accentuates the victims loneliness.

Sound:
As for music and sound effects, we decided on editing them in after we have edited our film so that we can see which ones fit it best and make it look realistic. We think music and sound effects are an important feature within thriller films and can either make or break them. We want minimal dialogue other the voice over because it creates the feeling of not knowing which will unsettle the audience.
The voiceover will consist of the victim relaying the traumatic experience she went through, however she will not give detail and will only state the emotions she felt at specific moments within the time period she was captivated for.  

Editing:
Editing is something we want to think about when we have actually filmed our video. Doing so will allow us to create an overall successful opening. Although we haven’t thought a lot about it we do know we want lots of face paced cuts which will excite the audience and add a sense of mystery as the clips are not long enough to provide with any information.

Mise en Scene:
We have begun to think about mise-en-scene by discussing what the costume could be like. We think the character should have scraggly, tangled, dirty, unbrushed hair so that straight away you can tell the awful conditions she has been 'living' in. The clothes are one of the main aspects of the film opening due to the fact that her tattered rags will really tell the story whilst at the same time, make it appear moreprofessionally created. As well as this, we think her makeup should look withdrawn, pale and lifeless which will make her appear gaunt and also reflect on the physical aspects of being held hostage for such a long period of time. We plan to develop this further as this is all just an idea.

Target Audience:
As our film will be rated 15, our target audience will be from the age of 16 all the way up to 24, as this is the age range that spends the most on cinema tickets also 16 year olds are allowed more freedom and can relate to more themes within the film.

-We are going to appeal to the 16 year olds as the main character is a teenager, like they are so they can relate to her in some way.

-We are going to appeal to the 24 year olds as the story line is quite grown up and the use of psychological themes will intrigue them, as they are more likely to understand it.

-Our target audience is obviously aimed towards people who like horror films as they are the most likely to watch our film.

Completed Storyboard

These are our final storyboards, we plan to use these when filming our opening to ensure we don't miss anything out. The storyboard focuses on the types of shots we plan to use and it also states exactly what  is going on in every shot. We have chosen to use a range of different shots throughout our sequence. These vary from close up shots to focus on smaller details such as in the scene with the voice recorder to point of view shots such as the one used when the victim is peering out of the door, these types of shots will involve the audience within the opening and help them to understand it on a personal level. A majority of our sequence will use fast cuts to swap from scene to scene to keep the fast pace of it up, however this is just an idea, we would like to try out other transitions when editing aswell to make sure we choose one that benefits the film and makes it look of a high quality.

Age Certificate Research

When planning our opening it became apparent to us that we had to think about what kind of themes we wanted to involve within it as we were aware that certain themes are only acceptable in certain age certificates. With this being said we began looking into the different age certificates and what sort of themes are listed within them...

Age 12/12A:
Works classified as 12 contain material that is not always suitable for children who are younger than 12. No one younger than 12 is permitted to view a 12A film in a cinema unless they are accompanied by an adult. Adults taking a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child. There is some allowance of swearing however it can not be excessive and must be used in context.The topic of sex may be briefly and discreetly mentioned, nudity is allowed however nudity in a sexual context should be discreet also.As for violence, it is permitted as long as it isn't overly detailed. There should be no emphasis on injuries however occasional gory scenes are permitted if it fits in with the context. Action sequences and weapons are permitted but weapons easily accessible to 12 year olds (such as knives) should not be glamorised. Sexual violence such as rape or assault may only be implied briefly, they also need to have a strong contextual justification. 

Age 15:
No one under the age of 15 is allowed to see a 15 rated film at the cinema or purchase one. There are a range of topics that are permitted within a 15 certificate film, these include;strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'), portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking. Although the themes within an age 15 film are able to be more lenient than those in a 12, they are too sometimes limited as to the amount of detail allowed to be contained within it and usually need to relate to the context.



                      Age 18:
18 certificate films are made for adults. No one under the age of 18 is allowed to view an 18 film at the cinema or purchase one. They are not suitable for children. 18 rated films are the most lenient of them all in the fact that they can contain more detailed/controversial subjects. These rated films can include; very strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’), strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore,  real sex (in some circumstances)and discriminatory language and behaviour. 

As our video is only the opening of our film, it is almost impossible to even include all of the themes mentioned. However, we feel that an age 15 certificate is most suitable for our film. We believe this is an appropriate certificate for our film as we are producing a psychological thriller which may be difficult for anyone under the age of 15 to comprehend. It may also emotionally effect anyone younger than age 15 therefore, having the age certificate as 15 will hopefully prevent anyone younger than that from watching it.  

Take a look at the BBFC website for a more detailed look into age certification: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Analysis Of Opening Sequences

In class we watched a variation of thriller film openings making sure we noted down elements we found successful and elements we found not so successful. I feel this was a very helpful task as it allowed us to analyse work very closely and will direct us as to what to include in our own opening.

28 Days Later:
The opening to 28 Days Later used extreme high angled shots which almost engulfed the main character within his surroundings. To add even more emphasis, this surrounding was in fact a very desolate London. This shot was effective as it made him appear tiny amongst the towering buildings, giving the audience the impression that he is vulnerable and weak amongst the large city and what it may possibly contain.

An example of an extreme high angled shot within 28 Days Later

 I would like to use a similar shot within my opening however I don't think it is very realistic and wouldn't look as professional as the one featured in this movie as I do not have the same equipment. I feel using London as the setting was really effective because city is known for being busy so the fact that no one else was present makes the audience feel on edge, we question where on earth they all are, why is the town we all know for being so busy so empty? Boyle also frequently used feet shots, the use of these bring a sense of uncertainty, not only does it guard the characters identity but it also guards where they are going, we don't really have any idea what is going on, making us want to continue watching the film in order to find out what happens. One thing I found strange about this opening is that it featured no music or mass amounts of dialogue. I found it strange because I had never seen it before in a opening, however, along with the general idea of the one male character being alone in London, the lack of music fits nicely and I think it makes the opening eery. I also noted how when the male character went out to explore, when he shouted, his voice would echo around the empty surroundings which I found really effective because it clearly makes a point that there is literally no other noise apart from the noise that he creates.

Arlington Road:
Arlington road was one of my favourite openings. I felt like although it introduced the movie, it was very vague and didn't give a lot away, this made me want to watch on. It started with a blurred feet shot, displaying feet that were staggering along. Instantly we wonder who it is and what is wrong with them. Within a matter of seconds the shot fades into a blurred mid-shot, we still cannnot see eaxtly who it is but a little boys figure with blood near the center of his body becomes apparent, at this point we are sat on the edge of our seats wanting to find out exactly what has happened. The shot then fades again multiple times into a range of shots, mainly extreme close ups, only revealing the boys identity about 2 minutes into the opening. 

Extreme close up in Arlington Road

By now a man has pulled up and offered the boy help as a close up reveals the boy has a very bloodied hand and seems totally unaware of his surroundings. The story then starts revealing itself and the man takes the boy to hospital. I think suspense was built really well in this opening and it definitely made me want to watch on. The music within this opening was quite faint but you could hear creepy music and distant screams alongside a whispering voice over. I feel the choice of music was effective and appropriate for what was going on within the scene. When making our opening I think it is important that we pay close attention to which soundtrack, if any we use as I feel music is a very crucial part of thriller films.

The Shining:
This opening began with a tracking shot of a little boy on a tricycle, the further he drove round the more evident it became that he was in a hotel. I thought the use of a tracking shot here was very clever as it gave us an insight on the setting in an interesting way as well as following the action that was taking place. I also feel that the use of a tracking shot involves the audience, we feel as though we are following the little boy ourselves. The boy soon comes to a halt outside of a room door, here the shot changes to a point of view shot enabling us to see the room number '237' swiftly the shot changes to a close up of the little boys face, which looks frightened.

Point of view shot in The Shining

 Although this room number holds no significance to us, Kubricks choice of shots reveal a negative feel about it. Immediately after seeing the boys face we fear for him and wonder what he has seen. I feel close ups are very effective in thriller movies as they allow us to capture someones emotions and feelings without them even having to say anything. Alongside the successful use of shots, Kubrick used the diegetic sound of the little boys tricycle wheels rattling, making us feel nervous and suspicious non-diegetic music enhancing our nervousness.