Our Questionnaires

Media questionnaire.
1) When you here the phrase thriller, what are the first films you think of?

2) How often do you watch thrillers?

3) (Tell the person about our thriller) do you think our thriller would be a good one?

4) How do you think we can improve our thriller/ capture more of a thriller essence?

5) Do you like our title?

6) Would you change our title?

7) Do you think our title captures the intended thrilling atmosphere?

8) Over all would you watch our film if it came out in cinemas?

9) What would you rate the film just by being told a brief amount of it?

10) Do you think this film would be successful?

Script for our piece - first edit

Scene 1-

INT: bedroom –night                          FADE IN:

A small bedroom. Walls full of pictures of a girl. The camera pans across the room and stops at a mirror. Through the mirror we see a figure getting ready; we do not see the characters face but only his back. The room is lit with candles giving an eerie atmosphere. The music is classical. Quite a dichotomy of the actual situation. Credits fade in and out.

 EXT:  car park – night                                            JUMP CUT:

Girl is walking through a car park. It’s dark and cold. She is walking casually. She walks towards the life. Something drops on the floor. She turns around to look. There is nothing there so she enters the lift and the doors close. Edit to a shot of the man in mask walking past the lift.

INT:  elevator – light                     JUMP CUT:

Close up of the girl in the elevator looking forward. She hears her phone ring and looks to see she has a text. The camera zooms in on the phone. There is a text from an unknown number saying’ I see you’. She panics and there is a close up of her worried face. The lift door opens and the man in the mask is standing right outside the door waiting for her.

CUT:

A long shot, of the man in a mask. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a weapon (whatever’s available on the day that is a appropriate.)he lunges toward the girl and we hear her scream.

JUMP CUT

To a black screen where the credits roll.

Final idea- Treatment.

Whe put all our idea's together and we finally decided on an elaboration of the idea 'Masked Assassin' however we changed the plot and the story line and we called it ' I see you'

Media opening.The shot opens with the character of the stalker getting ready in his room. The camera pans across the room and we notice there are pictures all over the room. The camera zooms in on the different pictures and it is apparent that the main character within the pictures is a young girl. The audience have no idea who this girl is and the significance she has within the film. This brings up unanswered questions. We also never see the stalkers face so we cannot identify him, he walks out the door and we notice he has a weapon in hand.
The camera jumps to a car park where we notice the same girl who was in the pictures; she appears to be walking towards the lifts at the other end of the car park. The camera captures her walking away at a distance after she walks past we notice a different set of feet walking behind her and with the bat in hand. We automatically no it’s the stalker. The girl gets into the lift while the stalker quickly takes the stairs.
The shot jumps to an over the head shot of the girl lift doors closes and the girl presses a button. When the lift starts moving, the girl gets a text saying. “I see you”. She simply ignores the text but seems a bit worried. A close up of her eyes looking around and a twitch to her mouth. She tries to text back but she has no reception. The lift doors open and she looks up to find some one standing in front of her. A reverse shot from the stalkers side to capture her reaction or emotions. Then the shot jumps to a low shot from the angle of the bat. The man steps forward and the shot jumps to black and the title appear.
The shot to open to a dim lit room and we see a close up of the girls hands and legs which are tied to the chair that she’s sitting at. She stirs and begins to wake. She then notices that her legs and arms are tied. Then she looks around the room and the camera mimics her blurred vision. Then clarity at the figure sitting opposite her. Then cut to black

Pre-Production

Initial proposal:
when it came to deciding what we wanted to create we all had very different ideas, so in order to make it all fair we decided to create a pitch table so that each individual person could bring forward their ideas then finally the idea that everyone agreed on would be the one we stuck with.

Pitch table:

Film name	Genre	Target audience	Brief idea
Asylum	Thriller/ horror	15	A group of kids end up trapped in school after hours. They decide to stay there until the morning, only to discover the secrets that the night unleashes
The Secret	Thriller/ drama	12A	An intern at a government branch is accused of stealing government information. She’s on the run.
Written	Psycho thriller	15	Based on the film ‘knowing’. A child writes down the future and what will happen, and his family set  out to save the world
Masked assassin	Psycho thriller with elements	18	An assassin, hired by the best of the best to kill the leaders of the world. Identified by only the mask ,people are out to find him.

Treatment: (personal; The Secret)An 18 year old girl interned at government international services, when top secret information goes missing, all the evidence points to her, and the government are out to get her, refusing to cooperate she flees and a game of cat and mouse arises. in hiding she decides that she no longer wants to remain a victim and so she sets out to find who framed. along the way she makes friends and discovers what the government don't want her to find out. its not long before she finds her self face to face with the truth that the government are so keen to keep a secret.

                                              ***                                              ***Opening sequence: The establishing shot is of a room with students about chatting and some working. the camera stops at a table with a group of girls talking. the shot cuts to an over the shoulder shot of a woman walking down the hall, she then stops at a door and the though the glass you can see the group of girls. the reverse over the shoulder shot of the girl allows us to see that she has noticed the woman standing there. the camera does a quick pan and we see the woman and the girl talking silently then the girl walking out the door, the camera follows her and then jumps to a shot of men waiting at the front office their faces are hard and show little to know emotion. the camera pans across the foyer and at the balcony we see the girl approach. extreme close ups of the girl and the mans eyes indicate eye contact. the girl turns and runs. the man scream "GET HER"

A Contemporary Thriller- Dead Mans shoes

In dead man shoes, Shane Meadows uses simplicity to capture the nature of the film, the characters are mostly non famous, or actors from workshops, he does this to create a freshness to the film, so that we are living a new experience, it is like taking a fresh breath of air.
when we analyse the film we notice its location which is Matlock in Derbyshire. this allows the audience to understand the purity of the location that is haunted by the impurities of the actors actions or events in the past. Meadows outlines the ways in which murder goes on, not only this but other crimes that go on unpunished. this brings the plot into view of one taking justice into their own hands. from seeing this the audience are set at a place of eerie tension and left in suspense to how far this person will go to self proclaim the justice that was lost.
Along with the location, the accents and colloquial language used by the characters also prove a very clear and different atmosphere.Shane goes about capturing the intensity of the emotions or the situation that is in hand.
Meadows does not use lots of affects in the film, no fancy programs, only black and white footage which appears as though the film is broken in flash backs from the editing to the camera. the camera focuses on each character, a combination of long shots, close ups and mid shots all help the audience to understand each individual character and the role they play in the situation present.
the music in the background is simple and helps exploit the emotions of the characters.the audience can empathise with the characters as they watch and adore the bond between the two brothers. the raw emotions like the burning anger of revenge from the avenger.
All this is done to capture the reality and the nature of the film. the punchline that rips your guts open and the coldness that runs through your spine when you discover the twist. the brotherly love that could never end till death, the pain, sacrifice and hurt and finally the search for redemption.

The British Thriller

When we hear the words British thriller we automatically think 'Alfred Hitchcock' or we think 'Shane Meadows'
but when we observe the actors we see common faces such as Daniel Radcliffe or Kiera knightly and Paddy Considine, we notice a more natural approach in the characters as most British films don't overdose in make up and do not drown actors in artificial editing.
When we look at for example 'London to Brighton' the actresses do not have much on and we notice the less expensiveness to the feel of the film, though it captures the emotions to a maximum, the audience feel exactly what the girls feel and enter the roller coaster of problems that they encounter.
when it comes to mise-en-scene and the though of British locations, we always think of dingy flats, small dark streets, London it self, then the contrast of the silent countrysides.  then we combine the mise en scene with the blood and gore, the gangsters, misunderstood teens and vulnerable elderly women.

In my own thriller, I will be using a set of lifts that are in a damp vandalised area, and the combination of hidden agendas and the darkness of the area will give it a British identity. suspense fear and a realisation to the area is what I want my audience to experience.

Classic thrillers!

Well as you may all know or may not know, Alfred Hitchcock is best known for his contribution to thrillers, and when we watch most modern day thrillers we notice the influence that he has in them.

what are the most common features of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers?Again we understand that Hitchcock pioneered many techniques in the suspense and the psychological thriller genres.through his directing we see a distinctive and recognisable style, for example the camera is manipulated to move in a way that follows a persons gaze, this puts the audience in the shoes of that character, allowing the viewer to see what they are seeing. shots are framed to exploit the feelings from the audience and heighten the levels of anxiety, fear or empathy. He also used creative editing to demonstrate the point of view of the characters. Most commonly Hitchcock combined the storyline of a fugitive on the run with a 'hot blond' female character. Alfred Hitchcock also combined twists with deception points, along with murder and crime cases, intense psychoanalysis of a character to capture the audience within the plot.

How do I intend to to manipulate the feelings of the audience in my own piece?
In my thriller me and my group will use different techniques.
 controlling what the audience can see...
Buy limiting what the audience can see we allow room for their brains to ponder on questions of identity and reason. in the opening of our thriller we will not show the face of the criminal or 'the bad guy' you will notice and you will see their trail of action but none of will make sense fully as you don know why they are behaving the way they are. On the other hand you will see the victim but again well leave room for you to ponder on why they are the target and what significance have they to bring upon the table of the tale. are they really the victim? buy doing with we allow the imaginations of the audience to run wile before uncovering the truth.
when it comes to anxiety and fear, the way in which the characters will proceed in working will bring an anxiousness of what will happen next.

How do I intend to demonstrate the point of view of the characters?
The secret is the camera. When we studied Alfred Hitchcock work it became obvious that he was the icon to base our work upon. different shots such as panning across the room to mimic the gaze of some one, different speeds will insinuate different emotions that the character is feeling for example the camera moving in quick movements and unable to keep still could highlight someone's fear or anxiousness, while showing alarm, never the less a slow eerie pan could show the full fear and realisation of dance or could show calmness. the beauty of constructing a thriller is the combination of emotions that leave you in limbo, you don't want to watch any more but you cant look away. that is exactly what my group are aiming for.