Why thrillers thrive

Why thrillers thrive

• People watch thrillers to experience life differently to how they do in reality. Thrillers creat and exciting jump from ordinary life to a life consisting of "emotional disturbances"
• Experiencing thrills at the cinema artificially is the best meidum for receiving the "shake-ups" we crave.
• People feel secure and safe being in a cinema as oppose to the people in the story. They are simply looking at it as if through a window, instead of experiencing the fear first hand.
• The fact we subconciously know we are safe means we can remain comfortable throughout as if we are "sitting in a comfortable armchair"
• The basic sense of security can never be undermined by the cinema as you are merely spectating the thrills.
• Connecting the audience with a character and helping them sympathise with them keeps them interested.
• The cinema beats the stage because you can believe the thrills you see. "The audience thrives on thrills, the cinema thrives on the audience, the director thrives on the cinema and everybody is happy"
• The more exciting the thriller is, the better.

Test footage.

We filmed some test footage so we could then play around with the light and try out some effects in Final Cut Express. I cut the footage and used a range of different techniques and effects on each section. In our thriller we aim to create a dark atmosphere. We are also planning to use a number of point of view shots to imply that the stalker involved in our sequence if following the girl.

• The first thing i tried to alterring the brightness and contrast within the footage. I tried to make it darker to create a sinister effect. I thought this was a very good tool to use and we will be using this in our final opening sequence.
  
• The second technique i used was altering the white and black lines in the colour correction tab. This worked well to create the image of a dark night or the image of a very bright, intense atmosphere.
• The third effect i tried was 'channel blur'. This effect blurs the footage to create a slightly distorted effect, it would be very useful to keep swtiching too when we are trying to create a view from the eyes of the stalker.
• I then selected the 'fish eye lense' on the footage. This created the effect of the fish eye. It distorted the footage and gave it a very abstract effect.
• I then used the effect of 'echo' under the heading of timing. It blurred the image like the 'blur' effect did but made it seem like you were seeing duplications of the footage.
• I then tried out the 'stobe' effect from the same catergory. This slightly delayed the footages and made it quite jumpy which gave the footage a very edgy effect.
• Staying within the same category i then tried the 'trail' effect. This trailed the image and duplicated it. It also gave the effect that it was vibrating almost because of how shaky it was. We liked this effect to use when we are filming handheld.
• The last effect i tried was the 'scrub' effect. It made it seem as if the footage was vibrating but i did not see that much difference to the footage.

From what I tried out i decided for our final footage we will use some of the effect found it the timing category to create the good effect when using the handheld camera trying to create the point of view of the stalker. The fish eye lense will definitely be used at some point because it creates an edgy lense like effect as if somebody is being watched. This research will definitely help us when it comes to doing the final editing of our thriller opening because we now know how to alter the contract and colours to make it seem as if its dark without having to film in the dark and the quality therefore being poor.

Target Audience

We decided the certificate of our film would be 15. We felt 15 was the right certificate in relation to our ideas for our thriller. Our target audience is teenagers (15+) we feel that the main character being a 16 year old would make it more suitable for teenagers as they can connect to the character and everyday life of that 16 year old.

Details Of Costume with Illustrations

Costumes For Thriller Sequence




Annabelle Monks (Girl Character) - Leggings, Cardigan, Uggs. We chose this outfit for the vulnerable girl character as this is something a girl would wear as a casual everyday outfit.
Stalker - We decided on this outfit for our stalker as we thought it would symbolise a shady and discrete character.

Practice soundtrack for thriller

The Practise Soundtrack


This is my rough idea of what type of music we will have in our final thriller movie, the music starts of slow and eerie, I then included some interjections to show that something different is going on, e.g credits or a close up. The sound then becomes more vigorous which symbolises the change in mood and atmosphere.

Definition of thriller, outline of different sub-genres and hybrids -

Thrillers

A thriller is a suspsenseful adventure. It is a type of film that keeps viewers on the edge for their seats. Thrillers can often be confused with horrors, a way to distinguish which is which is a horror has blood and gore in it where as a thriller seeks to simply thrill the audience as oppose to scare them. There are four different types of thrillers, psychological, crime, action and political. For our thriller opening we have decided to do a psychological thriller as we felt we would be able to do more with it. Our psychological thriller includes the theme of obsession.

Different sub-genres

Story board and Shot list

Final Idea

Thriller Opening Sequence

After the company credits, we plan to start off our opening with the girl sitting in her last class of the day at Long Road Sixth Form. We then create a point of view shot from 3 lads in her classroom admiring the girl from the other side of the room. This informs the audience that she is a very noticeable and likeable girl.
The girl is then filmed from behind as if she is being followed to get her bus into town. She is then followed on her way home through the grand arcade from a birds eye view. The identity will not be revealed to keep the element strong of the fear of the unknown.

Location report

We intend to film in a long road classroom, in the centre of town and the leisure park.
We are going to film at dusk to create a dark thriller feeling, but we also plan to edit the contrast to get the exact light we want to create our thriller atmosphere.
Every place we plan to film is public so we are taking into consideration the public's where abouts. When we film we will be very considerate and not get in the way of the general public.

Our schedule for final deadline of thriller opening sequence

We decided it would be a useful idea to plan our lessons productively, making sure we put aside enough time to complete every aspect of the criteria to a high level.

Draft shot list

shot 1 - the main character in a classroom at the end of the day + just walking out of college.
shot 2 - walking out of college with friends
shot 3 - credits
shot 4 - her leaving her friends later on to go home.
shot 5 - credits
shot 6 - a long point of view/handheld shot of her
shot 7 - close up of her looking around.
shot 8 - ringing a friend to comfort herself
shot 9 - credits
shot 10 - closer point of view shot
shot 11 - shot reverse shot, close up of girls face
shot 12 - credits
shot 13 - SRS closer point of view shot
shot 14 - girl walks faster
shot 15 - closer point of view shot
shot 16 - girl keeps looking behind
shot 17 - closer point of view
shot 18 - girl walks round corner and bumps into friend.

Pitch document

For our thriller we wanted to create a story that involved some kind of following. We had the idea of a young girl simply walking home from college like every other normal day and is oblivious to the fact she is being stalked. Starting off in a classroom with her class mates at the end of the day then the camera shots changing to mainly point of view shots to imply that she is being followed by someone. the identity of the character stalking is not revealed to sustain and create the fear of the unknown then throughout the film the identity is slowly revealed.
For the actors we are using ourselves and friends to create the classroom atmosphere and a range of suspects.
We are using Cambridge town and Long Road as our location as she is a college student and we want to use the centre of a town which is busy and also slightly dangerous.

Analysis of The Number 23

The music behind the opening was an orchestrated score which sounded eerie which created a feeling of suspense and tension. It helped to create fear of the unknown. There is shots of pieces of paper with the number 23 printed all over it. The space that the number 23 takes up on the paper gets larger and larger towards the end to also create a build up of tension. The number 23 on the page turns into looking like more of a pattern as oppose to many numbers. There is also an increasing amount of blood being shown over the paper. This also adds to the sense of tension and suspense maybe implying that as time passes more and more blood is being spilt. It is a very subtle yet very effective opening.

Conventions of a Thriller

Conventions.

Damsel in distress - there is usually a vulnerable female character who needs to be saved.
Complex narratives - non-linear films, beginning with the ending and things like flashbacks confuse the audience.
Location - putting a character in a familiar place e.g a house can give a false sense of security.
Fear of the unknown - not revealing too much keeps the audience intrigued and interested.
Protagonists - a character in danger that can adapt to the story, become interested in things that something that they wouldn't of before.
Identity - (doppelganger) having a character with a split identity.
Suspense - sound, silence and music and create a sense of suspense keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Lighting - dark lighting would be used in a thriller. Shadows are a good use of lighting. e.g Film noir
Objectification of women - getting pleasure from looking at something you shouldn't be.

Vertigo

The opening of vertigo included a few conventions. Initially there is a close up of a woman's eyes which is objectification of women. Her face is very lowly lit and covered in shadows, this implies something dark about her. The use of the music conveys a sense of suspension of what might be about to happen. A lot of time is spent showing colorful spirals which are implied to be inside her mind, this gives an impression that her mind may be spiraling itself.

Definitions

match on action

match on action is a type of cut that emphasizes continuity and a certain action in contrast to a straight cut. match on action is a type of invisible editing. it helps create 'reality effect'. the match cut is a contrast with cross-cutting between actions in two different locations that are occurring simultaneously or parallel editing, it links one angle of the action to another continuously.

shot reverse shot with over the shoulder shot.
shot reverse shot is filmed usually during a conversation, it is used as a form of editing known as continuity. it is usually done by filming an over the shoulder shot of one character and then switching to an over the shoulder shot of the other character to create the ........

establishing shot
an establishing shot is usually a mid shot used to portray the scene location and the props. It is used to give the audience a good idea of what is happening in the scene.

close up shot
a close up shot is used to invite the audience to become personally closer with the character or object.

long shot
a long shot is also known as a full shot or a wide shot. it's used to show the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings.