Software and technology

The software that we used throughout the thriller process was:

• Garageband
• Final Cut express
• Photoshop

We used Garageband to edit our soundtrack, Final Cut express to create the final cut of footage for the thriller and Photoshop to edit our company logo. The technology we used included HD cameras, and also digital cameras. We used the digital cameras because our opening revolves around photography and processing, and so we had to use the camera to take pictures to put in the opening sequence as montages. 

Music

We wanted the soundtrack to be different to most thriller's soundtracks. We also wanted it to be dominant throughout the opening, because we decided not to have any dialogue in it. We decided this because we wanted to story around the stalker to stay a mystery. Our soundtrack features a low drone that carries on until the end, and then a beat, that resembles a heartbeat, comes in and carries on till the end. Towards the end, we faded out all the other sound except for the heartbeat, because we wanted to create an effect of increasing tempo towards the end. We then stopped the drum element, and brought in a faster, disturbed heartbeat at the part when the lips are on the screen, signalling a secret, to show that that was the end of the opening. We used Garage band to edit the sounds that we had found, which were mainly drones and heartbeats.

Production companies

These are a few production companies that we would consider using to create our thriller:

• Hammer Film Productions - Started in 1934. It is a London based production company. It is in charge of producing the new "Woman in Black" remake.

• Universal  Pictures - Division of NBC Universal. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle. One of the oldest and most respected production companies.

• Sony Pictures Entertainment - Japanese company. Founded in 1989.Used to be Colombia Pictures Entertainment. Produced ghost busters and Men in Black.

• Newmarket Films - Founded in 1994. Produced Christopher Nolan films such as The Prestige.

• Coffee Film - British independent film company. Founded in 1996. Produces smaller budget films.

FINAL THRILLER OPENING.

Rough Cut

Analysis of Cache/ Hidden

Cache/Hidden is a 2005 production from Michael Haneke. The opening sequence begins with a long shot of a suburban flat/house in France. For a few minutes nothing happens, playing on the way that Michael Haneke likes to playwith the audience's patience, and then there is speaking over the film.

How does the opening sequence of this film use Thriller conventions?
There are many questions left unanswered in the opening sequence, as nothing really happens visually in the opening, there is just a voiceover talking about things that the audience wants to know about. This happens because the audience is waiting for something to happen. Also, because it is like the characters' house is being watched, it makes the audience ask who is watching them.
What questions does it pose?
Who/What are they waiting for?
How does it make the audience feel?
Confused, Unsure.

Unknown poster analysis



This is the poster for the new warner bros film, Unknown (2011). The film is about a Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) who wakes up from a coma to find that someone has stolen his identity, and no one beleives that he is actually the real Martin Harris and not the other man, not even his wife.In the poster, the tag line of "TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE" tells the audience about what the film is mostly going to be about, Liam Neeson's character trying to get his identity back. The strip picture through the middle of the poster is of 2 women and strange words and numbers randomly on the background. This introduces some more of the characters and makes the audience ask questions about these women. Also, the numbers in the background could make the audience look out for them in the film. However, these numbers and letters also make the film seem as though it's going to be a confusing film with lots of things and clues to look out for.

Shot List

Establishing shot of the photography dark room.
Over-shoulder shot of the stalker walking into the dark room over to the processing tray.
Mid-Shot of the stalker moving things around in the processing tray.
Close up of the pieces of paper, which have the credits on them.
Over-shoulder shot of the stalker walking over and past the photos that are already hanging up and surveying them.
Close-up of her hand going over each picture (red nails).
Mid-Shot of the stalker hanging up another photo.
Long-Shot of all the photos hanging up with the stalker's back in view.

Over-shoulder shot of the stalker walking into the bright room.
Mid shot of her back infront of the wall.
Close-Up of the middle picture on the central wall.
Zoom out to establishing shot of the whole wall full of pictures.
Close-Up of hand pulling picture off of the wall and screwing it up in her hand.
Mid-Shot of the screwed up picture being thrown into the bin.
Shot from inside the bin of the screwed up picture landing inside it.

Props List and locations

Prop List:

• Red Lipstick
• Red Nails
• Stalker pictures
• tongs
• Credit prints
• Chemical bath

Locations:

• Photography Dark Room
• Bare room (Garage or changing room)

initial ideas for opening thriller

Our first idea was set in a derelict building, where two protagonists are provoking each other's weaknesses. However, we had a few problems with this idea. For example, we found out that the safety of this idea was probably not that good, and that it would be hard to find an abandoned building.

Another idea is the thriller of "Paranoid". The thriller would be set around a protagonist who has paranoi and therefore thinks everyone is out to get him. We would introduce a antagonist to fully explore the protagonist's weakness. The opening would contain the protagonist walking through a busy shopping centre, whilst the camera is distorted and abstract to create a panicked atmosphere.
We thought though, that it wouldnt be possible to film the shots we needed without being told to leave so this idea was scrapped and we brainstormed some more of our ideas.

In the end, we settled with the idea of being obsessed with someone because we had many different thoughts as to how we could film it, what our mise en sene would be (like our polaroid pictures) and how we could leave the audience answering questions after our opening sequence, like why they are obsessed and who is the one being followed.

Script - Stage 1 of planning

We a start off shot of a dark room, and a match is struck which in turn lights up the ladies face. It is then blown out and screen is black again and the name of the film then appears.

Woman picks up torch and the surrounding area glows up. The torch is then guided past the photos that are hanging up, which the woman has previously developed with the surrounding photography equipment. These photos are of 2 women throughout key stages in their life. After 3 photos have been revealed, the woman's red lips are shown just before she clicks the torch off. Fades to black and credits appear.

Opening resumes in different setting: smaller, light room with white walls. There is a picture on the central wall that has one of the previous photos, however one of the faces has been scratched out with a marker pen. The women then puts the photos she has just developed up on the wall with the rest and begins to scratch out faces on these. The picture is then torn off of the wall, rolled into a ball and then thrown into the bin.

(Location photos) - Stage 2 and 3 of planning

This is the dark room in Long Road Sixth Form. We thought it would fit into our opening sequence very well because of the lighting, which is red and symbolises danger, and also because it creates an eerie setting. It also fits in with the plot as we centre around photographs, because of the stalker. We found very limited problems with this setting. One of the only problems we encountered, was the fact that within the dark photography room are a number of heat sensors, and so this meant we couldn't light our match within the room itself. However, through extended planning, we have worked around it and will light the match in another room with similar lighting, and also use a torch to highlight the hanging pictures in the room instead.

This is a possible setting for our second part of the opening, where the stalker has a room dedicated to the person she is obsessed with. We thought this wall was good because it is in a scary setting, an empty locker-room, and it is a central wall with a dreary, off white colour. Again, we found hardly any problems with this location. The only possible problem we found was that the location does look a bit like a school, because it is in a school, and therefore softens the eerie atmosphere. To solve this problem, we are looking into using another possible location for the second part of the opening sequence.

This is one of the test shots that we took to get an idea of what the shot would eventually look like. This is in the second part of the opening and shows the part when the stalker enters the room full of photos.

Past Thriller Work

Analysis of The Return
The first convention used in this student's work is that it seems that the opening sequence centres around some sort of crime. This is because parts of the sequence are filmed from a CCTV camera's point of view, which hints that the action in the scene is focusing on a criminal. Also, people are seen to appear and then disappear suddenly and there is a part where a boy in a hood is running away, which again both hint that something isn't right.
The sound, editing and mise en scene are all used as well to create suspense within the opening sequence, which is also a generic convention of a thriller. For example, the scene has been edited so that things appear and then disappear, creating an illusion, and the sound is eerie, which creates suspense as to what will happen next.

Analysis of Piece by Piece
One of the conventions used in this thriller opening is the distortion of an everyday action. For example, throughout the sequence, someone is seen to be playing chess, which shows that the thriller is going to be a game between 2 people. It also hints that there will be a protagonist and an antagonist. Through the use of the 4 micro-elements, this student group create suspense as through sound, and use close-ups of the weapon to show violence and a threat that the film will end in tragedy.

Initial Ideas for production companies

This was our first idea for our prouction company logo. The idea of 'Twenty 11' at first seemed up to date and simple. We thought it was short and snappy, but we soon realised that it wouldn't really mean much after the year of 2011. It would quickly become outdated.

We then came up with the idea of Skyline Productions. This is our initial idea for the logo. We thought that the the seperate letters had a good effect as it emphasied our production name, making sure the viewer was drawn straight to our company name. 

This is the final company logo. We chose the name Skyline Productions because it is modern and is also quite futuristic, due to all the large buildings. Cities are sometimes the setting of thriller films, which also ties in with the Skyline idea. The image comes across as a big, 'blockbuster' logo, with high budget, up  to date technology and experience in the film making world. 

Walt Disney Pictures

The Walt Disney Pictures Logo is effective because it is clearly linked to the genre of childrens fairytale/fantasy style films. This is because you associate the castle with the fairtytale genre, which is very stereotypical of this style of film. 

Memento Review Writing

Christopher Nolan is a famous British film director, screenwriter and producer. The main genre that he works with is thrillers, and he frequently uses famous actors such as Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Larry Holden. Some of his other work includes thrillers such as Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige and the Batman series. He has previously won many awards including AFI awards and also Critics choice awards.

Memento features the main character, Leonard who has a 15 minute memory loss from an injury in a robbery, as he tries to find who murdered his wife. The storyline starts at the end of the happenings and moves backwards, where key clues are uncovered as the plot  is revealed. In the end, it turns out that his wife didn't die when Leonard "remembers", but however died due to an insulin overdose given to her by him. Teddy plays the role of the investigator trying to find out about how his wife died, and in the end the audience discover that he was just using Leonard for his gain, just like Natalie was to kill a drug dealer that was harassing her.

The opening sequence starts with a polaroid picture of a bloody murder scene, with a close up of a man's hands shaking it to get it to develop. However, gradually, the picture begins to disappear until the polaroid is blank and it becomes evident that the scene is moving backwards. This is important as it hints to the audience that the events unroll backwards. The person who has been murdered is then revealed to be a man, who we later learn is Teddy/ John G. This introduces the thriller genre because the beginning is planned around a murder, which is a convention of a thriller. Also, after the murder scene, it cuts to a hotel room where the non-diegetic voiceover makes it clear the the protagonist Leonard has no idea who he is, or where he is.




A key scene in Memento is the scene where Leonard finds a tattoo explaining not to answer the phone, whilst he is revealing personal information on the phone - clip above. A thriller convention in this clip is that an ordinary situation of answering the telephone is turned into something with tension and suspense when the line goes dead.

Another key scene is when the audience sees the character Sammie, and realises that Sammie is in fact a made up person that Leonard created, to hide the that he infact killed his wife with insulin shots. The conventions in this scene that make it a thriller is the made up identity in order to convince himself later on, when he had forgotten, that he didn't kill his wife.

My opinion on Nolan's "Momento" is that it is a good thriller as it has many of the main conventions, and holds the suspense throughout the film very well, due to the story being told in non-chronological order. However, I think someone watching a thriller for the first time would be put off them for life, as the plot is very confusing and twists a lot, and takes a lot of thinking to work out. I would recommend this thriller, however to an audience that would appreciate having to think to work out the story. 

From the opening of The Prestige it appears that the film is going to be based around a murder.

Both characters in the film play the roles of the protagonist and the antagonist. There is an aristocrat and a commoner who are both magicians, the roles of protagonist and antagonist keep switching. We are made to believe that one character is good and the other is bad, this then swaps over. This helps to keep the audience interested and questioning everything that the characters are doing.

Sound- there is a non-diegetic voice over that runs throughout the opening. This voice over is quite symbolic. It links into the theme of the film really well, but it is clever as at the same time as it is giving an summary of the narrative.  It explains the stages of a magic trick. There is quiet background music that seems quite eerie, it helps to add tension.

The mise-en-scene also helps to add to the theme and create tension. There is a contrast between the man showing a magic trick to the small girl. This is made to appear quite light-hearted. However, at the same time it keeps switching to the big magic trick, this is made to seem much darker and intense. The black hats on the floor of what appears to be a wood at the start seem to suggest some sort of darkness also, which to the audience suggests that something negative has happened previously.

Quick cuts are used to grip the audience and show the panic of when the man is stuck in the tank.

Preliminary Task