First Copy of Film

This is the rough copy of our edited piece of work:

We have not added the sound yet and the font of the title needs to be changed to the one our audience chose.

Locations

For our thriller opening, our locations were:

Forest Row Park

Maddie's Landing

Maddie's Dining Room

Maddie's Attic Room (Without all the clutter!)

Props

We will not use that many props in our film, as the majority of it is set in an empty room. However in the room we will use a mattress on the floor as one of the only props, this signifies the dire situation our character is in and will reinforce the idea of her being a hostage as this idea is used in many kidnap thrillers. 

A significant prop we will be using is a van in the flashback sequence, the van is used by the kidnapper, we draw attention to this by using focus pull.

Another prop we will use in the flashback sequence is a swing in the park. this connotes childlike innocence and joy which will make our audience sympathise with Hope Hardy even more.

Another prop used is Maddie's laptop, which the kidnapper uses to watch the cctv footage on.

Sound

We have not planned for any Diegetic dialogue to be spoken in our opening sequence as it is made up of a girl alone in a room and a hazy flashback, so there is no chance to have our characters talking.

In the flashback however we will uses snippets of conversation in which we cannot make out is being said. Such as: the girl singing a nursery rhyme, a voice shouting her name, and a manic laughter.

Non-diegetic soundtrack will include simple piano music with long areas of silence which will connote the time dragging by, we will also represent this by having the Non-diegetic sound of a ticking clock. The music will reach it's crescendo when the title appears.

How to use focus pull

We are planning to use focus pull in our film to draw the audiences attention to the van, when it pulls up in the background outside the park. This will connote to the audience that the van is significant, and make them fear for the safety of the main character. In order to achieve an effective focus pull, we watched videos and tutorials on Youtube. Here is one of the best we found:

What is focus pull?

We have decided to use a Focus Pull for in the flashback when the van pull up behind the girl, this will draw attention to the van and the upcoming danger.

Above is a youtube example why focus pulls are used.

Animatics

Here is an animatic of our storyboard. This shows our initial shot ideas and lengths.

This is our animatic with a voice over describing the shots, it is not in real time.

Certification

The likely certification of our film is a 15 rating because we want to target older teenagers as well as including some scenes of graphic nature which would be appropriate for the adult audience.

The possible viewing contexts of our film would be in various cinemas across the UK and other European Countries. We would then hope that the film would be released on DVD after it's time in the cinema.

Representation of Social Groups Through Characters

We want to represent a more modern view of Femininity through the characterisation of Hope Hardy, she will be a strong Female protagonist who challenges the stereotypes of the 'damsel in distress' type character. We will also show that youth can be more powerful and independent than an older character. 

We hope to show that social class does not define our lead character as it isn't specified what class she's from.

Target Audience

Age: Our film will aim to target adults and teenagers, because it is a Thriller, which is popular with an older audience, but also features a young protagonist which will attract a teenage audience.

Gender: We hope that it will appeal to both male and female because the genre is typically popular with a male audience. However, the use of a female main character will appeal to females, similarly to programmes such as 'Hunted'.

We will engage our spectators using different techniques. It uses ellipses as it misses out 12 years of the girl's life, which will leave the audience wondering what has happened to her character in that time. We will also present Barthes' enigma code as our opening presents questions to the audience for example; Why was she kidnapped? Who was her kidnapper?
We will use objective camera work to show an unbiased view of the situation which creates more mystery, it is also Restricted Narration as the spectator knows less then the character, for example the spectator does not know the identity of the kidnapper while the girl does. This builds suspense and will also create shock when the enigma is solved.

Flashbacks

Here is an example of a flashback from the BBC TV Drama 'Hunted'.

This is what we hope to achieve with our flashbacks in our final piece; to do this we will analyse the elements of Mise en Scene, Camera, Lighting and Sound, which we will then recreate in our flashback scene.

Mise en Scene: The clothing worn by the main character is similar in the present day and in the flashback (when she was a child). For example, she wears a hat. Also, her hair looks similar, so the audience connote that this is the same person but many years ago. There is a graphic match between the photographs in the file and the real life situation in the flashbacks, which creates a link between the past and present. We will aim to achieve this by using a graphic match of the child's eyes closing, then the teenager's eyes opening. Also, the child will be wearing the same clothes in the room as in the park during the flashback, creating a link between the locations.

Camera: The camera work is quick and jerky, to convey that the memories are fragmented and unclear. This adds to the mystery of the scenario, as the audience doesn't see exactly what happened. We will film our flashback similarly, to convey the day of the kidnapping, and how the memories of this day have scarred the character's life and will be the reason for her future actions.

Lighting: The lighting used during the present day scene is low key, but the torchlight shining on the file shows the audience that it is a significant prop, which will initiate the flashback. During the flashback, the lighting is also very dark, connoting the disturbing nature of the scene as well as adding mystery. In our opening we will use low key lighting in the room, but contrast it with brighter scenes during the flashback to show a juxtaposition between the two locations, as well as connoting the mental state of the character changing.

Sound: The sound in the present day scene is of tense non diegetic music, which foreshadows the disturbing and important scene which will follow. Then during the flashback, the music can be heard faintly which acts like a sound bridge, however non diegetic horror style sound effects and diegetic sounds of voices can be heard, again showing the jumbled thoughts in the characters mind as she has the flashback. To achieve an effective thriller opening full of suspense, we will use similar sound techniques as our soundtrack.

TITLE IDEAS

One word:

• Retribution
• Ultionem - 'revenge' in Latin
• Redde-Retro - 'pay-back' in Latin

Main Character's Name:

• Hope Hardy - Brave

Longer names:

• The Revenge of Hope Hardy - to the point
• Losing Hope Hardy - parents lost their child - she's losing hope - makes us ask questions, doesn't answer them.

FINAL DECISION: 'LOSING HOPE HARDY'

Font ideas: We got our font ideas from 'Dafont'.

This font is in our top 3 favourites because of the damaged effect which could connote the psychological and physical damage that our character faces. However, the word hope is left unbroken, which shows that the character has not yet lost all hope and has a chance of surviving the ordeal.

This was another of our top 3 fonts, because its simplicity could connote  the focused and determined mindset of our main character, as well as showing how her life in captivity has been constant, plain and unchanging for the past 12 years.

This was our third favourite font, because we thought that although it is simply, some of the letters have parts missing, which represents the ellipses in our plot, as well as connoting the losses our character has suffered and how she has been damaged.

This was a variation of the font above which we liked, however, we decided against it because we thought it looked too robotic- perhaps suited to a sci-fi film instead of a thriller. We felt that this took away the emotional impact of our film.

Although we thought the fragility of this font was effective, we thought that it was too quaint and lighthearted to suit the thriller genre of our film. It reminded us too much of a children's story or fairytale book, and this wasn't a connotation we wished to present in our film. 

We liked this font, as we thought that fade added mystery and enigma, which reflects the theme and content of our film. However, the text wasn't very clear as the fade at the bottom made the letter 'E' look like an 'F', which could cause confusion among our audience.

Again, the simplicity of this font was a positive, as well as the line above the text connoting a force pushing down, representing how trapped our character is in the film. However, we thought this font looked too dramatic, and would be more suited to a Disney film or something more old fashioned.

This was one of the first fonts we were drawn to, because of its simplicity and frailty. However, we recognised this font from various other products/media texts, and we wanted to create a unique brand when marketing our film.

Final decision: WE thought that the top two fonts were most effective and suitable for our film and we couldn't decide which one to use, so we asked the opinion of four unbiased peers and this is what we found:

Font 1

Font 2

We asked our peers for their opinions on our final fonts, these were the results we found:

From our peer evaluation of the fonts we found that Font 2 was the most popular , this is called 'Twofold Uncomplete Design' from Dafont.

Thriller opening.

Our idea is based on the kidnapping of a girl. we see her alone in a locked empty room, when she  closes her eyes there is a series of quick flashbacks showing the day she was kidnapped from a park. When she opens her eyes again she is still in the room but she is now a teenager, this shows how she has grown up locked in the same room.

Plot Ideas

THRILLER:

• Murder - serial - sacrificial.
• Kidnap - torture - ransom - serial kidnapping.
• Revenge - death / imprisonment of innocent family member - beaten / abused as child.
• Flashbacks - to tell the whole story (plot begins at the end of the story) - to the time they had been kidnapped / tortured.

FINAL IDEA:

• Plot: Girl kidnapped at young age, we then see her when she's older still in the room, escapes, seeks revenge on her kidnappers.
• Narrative: Girl kidnapped from a park, she is kept in the same room for 12 years being kept alive by her captors through a small hole in the locked door through which she is supplied with food and water. She has been kidnapped because her Father failed to complete a job for the kidnappers, so she was taken for leverage. After being held hostage for 12 years she loses hope of any rescue and so decides to escape herself. After escaping she discovers her parent's murder and so seeks revenge on her kidnappers for both her imprisonment and the death of her family.

The difference between a Plot and a Narrative is that a Plot is what the spectator will see on screen and the chronological order of the scenes can be manipulated, whereas the Narrative is the character's whole story and is always in chronological order. The plot uses ellipsis to eliminate the story events that are not important.

Storyboard

• Here is the first draft of our opening as a storyboard, as well as some information on characters, actors and settings.

Thriller research task- Gabriel Mohammed

Salt-Phillip Noyce (2010)  

The film begins immediately in disruption, a woman is being held hostage and tortured in North Korea. From this we can see that the film does not follow Todorov’s theory of classic narrative. This opening is similar to many other thriller opening scenes as it creates many questions; who is the woman? Why is she being held against her will? Is she telling the truth? These questions are created to keep the viewer interested in the film. However this opening seen can be seen as dissimilar to others from its genre as it is more action oriented than some others. This shows what the rest of the film will go on to be like.

Editing- the editing used in the opening scene was very simple. Straight cuts were used for most of this scene to keep the audience engaged and to make the scene seem more realistic. A fade is used to signify the passing of time to when she is released.

Camerawork- A point of view shot is used to create empathy in the audience for this woman as we can see firsthand what she would be going through. An extreme long shot is used to establish the setting to show her situation.

Mise en scene- the makeup in this scene has Angelina Jolie looking very bloodied and tortured. The compilation shows her surrounded by guards which conveys her vulnerability and the lack of control she has in the situation.

Sound- in this scene there is a simple non-diegetic, off screen soundtrack, this adds atmosphere to the scene.

True Grit-Coen brothers (2010)

The film opens with a proverb from the bible, “the wicked flee when none pursueth” this sets an image in the head of the audience that the film will have religious connotations in it and that this proverb will be a strong force in this film. This film seems to follow Todorov’s theory closely; as the girl gives a voiceover she tells the viewer of how her father died. Before he died we assume that they were in a state of equilibrium and that her father’s death was the disruption. The audience can then go on to figure out that this is a revenge story and she is going after her father’s killer to seek resolution.

Editing- the editing in this opening sequence is incredibly simple, only two shots are used. A dissolve is used to go from one shot to the other and communicates to the audience that they are connected.

Camerawork- the first shot used is a very long continuous take. It tracks in and also zooms in at the same time to the figure of the dead body which we assume is the girl’s father.

Mise en scene- lighting is used very well in this opening scene, at the start of the film there is a single light as the rest of the shot comes into focus. Also at the end of this scene we see who we assume to be the main antagonist and he is lit with very low key lighting making it look very dark which connotes his villainous characteristics.

Sound- most of the sound used in the opening is non-diegetic off screen. It starts with a calming piano piece which contrasts what you would expect from a thriller opening. Then the voiceover from the girl starts, from her accent we can determine a rough location of where the film is set (western America). The only diegetic sound in the opening is a Foley of a galloping horse, this suggests importance and as it happens at the same time as the girl describing her father’s killer we can assume this is who it is.

Tinker tailor soldier spy-Thomas Alfredson (2011)

This opening is very simple, yet it creates a lot of mystery and questions mainly through the dialogue. We do not know who these two men are or how they are connected to the plot. This state of enigma is very common in thrillers and tinker tailor soldier spy follows suit as a classic thriller.

Editing- there is very little editing in this scene, straight cuts are mainly used for continuity. The most noticeable cut takes the audience to Budapest.

Camerawork- most of the shots are eye level shots, this is done to make the film more realistic and to immerse the audience. Near the end of the scene the camera zooms into the older man, this signifies his importance over the other character. As the setting changes to Budapest an extreme long shot is used to establish the setting.

Mise en scene- the lighting throughout is very low key and natural. This sets the tone as darker and very real for the viewer. The props used in the old mans house portray that he lives a very hectic life as nothing is organised; this could be significant to his character.

Sound- the diegetic dialogue in this scene is very quiet, this creates tension and mystery as they seem to be worried that they might be overheard, this shows that the subject of their conversation is very important. 

Taken-Pierre Morel (2009)

The opening to this film begins with a flashback; this is a very common theme for thrillers as it can show the audience the state of equilibrium from Todorov’s theory. In the flashback we see a young girls birthday, we assume she is the daughter (or someone equally close to) of the main protagonist. The setting of the flashback and the present are quite contrasting and this conveys that the present is not a positive time and that there may have already been a minor disruption.

Editing- in the flashback sequence the quality of the picture is lowered through a filter to make it look like a home video, this implies that the memory is very close to the protagonist.

Camerawork- in the flashback sequence it is filmed using a freehand camera to, again, add to the realism that it is a homemade video and not something professional.

Mise en scene- the lighting when the flashback stops is very low key and dull, this signifies that the character is unhappy and connotes sadness and loss.

Sound- the non diegetic soundtrack during the flashback is sad, slow music. This suggests that something bad has or will happen to these characters. It contrasts with the visual as that sends happier signals. 

*the pictures that accompany this post failed to upload as they were rejected by the server.