Reflection of test shoot

I do indeed think our test shoot was very helpful in the overall progression to our thriller. I'm hoping that our thriller will go along the same lines as our test shoot as it was very similar to what we as a group want our thriller to be like. It was great to have a test shoot as it helped us explore and experiment with different angles and really get to know what we wanted the acting style to be like.

We did decide however after we watched the footage back from the test shoot that we would have it as two boys instead of a boy kidnapping a girl as we thought that would be a great way of subverting the stereotype and also would be a good use of tension and mystery which helps convey the thriller genre hopefully in our end product of our thriller opening sequence.

Test shoot

Minute meetings

My media Thriller production Group consists of Evelyn, Sam, Eloise and myself.

Yesterday (18.11.2015) we discussed about our main idea; what idea do we want to pursue?

We decided that we wanted to work with my first idea of the psychopathic painter, and have brought up several ideas to develop it a little.

The ideas of what we wanted to add are:

- A hallway at the beginning with a trackingshot that would lead to the camera "finding" the killer in the room.

- Shooting in a warehouse.

- No sound other than exentuated diegetic sound (dripping, etc.)

Today (19.11.2015) we thought about what we use as our backup idea. We decided on one of Sam's ideas; here is a brief summary of what that idea is:

- The entire thing is shot in a public toilet, shot from the toilet bowl/top of the toilet.

- A man in a suit staggers in, leans on the toilet, and plops things such as his wallet, phone, and clothes into it.

- The idea basically revolves around a man getting rid of his life - there is a psychopathic element included in this.

We then decided to continue talking about our main idea, and decided to make a Scene outline.

This is where things got a little out of hand, as we began concentrating on the details; we had thought of things like:

- First shot: going down the hallway, the lighting is creepy, like only one part of the warehouse is lit, it's a steadycam shot, shot going towards the door.

- There are extreme close ups of small details like paint drips, the paintbrushes, and facial expressions, etc. It would never reveal what he's actually doing, and reveal that there is someone else there - you wouldn't notice what is actually going on though.

- At the end of the sequence the main character would be looking at the face of the Body, staring it in the eyes.

- Man starts going crazy a little, Frustration, man is upset. Close ups of the Frustration - screaming at the body.

This is where we lost it a little.

What are we going to do?

I thought that it would be a good idea for us to go back to our houses and try and attempt to shoot the sequence we had in mind. I think hat this could potentially work, and would give us an opportunity to look at the timing of everything.

Sub genres within Thriller Genre.

Thriller
Thrillers are usually defined by the mood they elicit (hence the name). “Sensational and suspenseful” stories and stories creating “fearful excitement” are two definitions I found. Because of this, thrillers are crossed with almost every other genre. I’ve tried to only include mash-ups when their combination falls under my definition of “interesting.”

Action Thriller
Take any other thriller subgenre, give it’s defining elements a back seat, and focus on the action, and you have an action-thriller. This is more common in movies than novels because of the visual appeal of explosions and violence.

Conspiracy Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone.

Crime Thriller
This subgenre focuses on crime, and is usually from the criminal’s point of view. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to discover the criminal.

Disaster Thriller
In this subgenre usually a natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course.

Eco-Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist must stop a threat to the environment (man-made or natural) that will have consequences for society if left unchecked. The damage could be local, but nation or even world-wide stakes are more dramatic. ;)

Forensic Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist(s) are forensic scientists whose involvement in an unsolved crime threatens their lives.

Legal Thriller
This subgenre takes place in and around the courtroom. Usually the protagonist is a lawyer who has found their case threatening death for either them or their client.

Medical Thriller
This subgenre involves something usually used for medical purposes becoming a deadly weapon. Often it is a virus that is leaking out to the public. The protagonist or antagonist or both are doctors.

Mystery Thriller
This is a subgenre of both mysteries and thrillers. It differs from a regular mystery by being much more fast-paced, with the protagonist on the run and the threat of another crime serving as the “ticking clock.”

Political Thriller
In this subgenre political relations or the whole government is at stake, and the protagonist is employed by the government to stop the decline. The protagonist may have been low-level before having attracted attention.

Psychological Thriller
A personal favorite. In this subgenre a lot of the conflict is mental, rather than physical. The protagonist has become involved in a dangerous situation which literally threatens their sanity. They must use mental prowess to overcome their opponent, whether the battle is inside their own head or it a battle of wits.

Religious Thriller
This subgenre uses the history and myths of religion. Usually a religious artifact or historical secret is discovered, and different people and groups vie for control.

Romantic Thriller
This is a subgenre of both thrillers and romantic novels. The plot line follows a typical thriller’s tension, suspense, and excitement, but a main element is the growing relationship between two characters.

Spy Thriller
It’s hard to call this a genre mash-up when spy novels almost have to be thrillers. At any rate, this subgenre focuses on the high adventures of field agents. It is usually set against the backdrop of some war.

Supernatural Thriller
In this subgenre otherworldy elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in the romantic thriller, the plot line and feel or distinctly that of thrillers. Some characters may have psychic abilities and other supernatural novel elements may be present.

Techno-Thriller
This genres is a cross between near-future science fiction and thrillers. Cutting-edge technology plays an important role, either as something to obtain, or working for or against the protagonist.

Conventions within a thriller.

The different categories in Media/Film depending on its conventions and themes.

Examples being...

Action, Adventure, Thriller, Comedy, Drama,  

Horror, Musicals/Dance, Sci-Fi,War and Westerns.

 A Category/subdivison within a genre of film.

For example for thrillers there are many sub genres including: Psychological thriller, Mystery Thriller, Supernatural thriller, Crime thriller, Film noir thriller, Legal thrillers, 

survivalist thrillers and religious thrillers.

Combination of two or more main genres in film.

For example...

Romantic-Comedy, Action-Thriller, Comedy-horror,Science Fantasy, Supernatural drama, Crime fantasy, Horror thriller and Fantasy Thriller.

Idea number 2 feedback

On 13/11/2015  - Police man murder of himself

Mia- Love that he's walking through and no one says anything to him, makes you think why is no one saying anything to him. When he says we need to solve a murder 'our murder' she finds exciting.

Amr - Love the idea, the only thing to consider is because he's walking through it for about a minute and a half and the action will only start happening in the last 30 seconds it would be hard to keep it interesting throughout the entire sequence. Think about how it would remain interesting, and adding some intensity.

Tash - Likes how the audience would be wondering where he is going, it would come  as a hit that he is the ghost.

Mike - Understands about the length and keeping it interesting, you want to make the opening sequence as interesting as possible and if you have 1 minute and 40 seconds of something quite uninteresting and then a cool reveal its not ideally enough. Premise for the film is fantastic, very original, However the worry is that the genre is blurred a little bit, Its a cool line 'our murder'. Delivered in the wrong way and brings everything down, why does he have to be told that he is going to be killed, the ghost element is what is making it science fiction. Maybe as a suggestion have the guy at a crime scene to film the flashing lights and ambience, he walks in and everyones looking nervous and he asks who is the victim and everyone tells him 'you' and he looks down and the guy dead is him, so like nothing is given to us. Feels to much like an opening to a tv programme. Could make it better by bringing a slow build up to a line that hooks us in. Got the right ingredients but just need to mix it up a little bit. Make it so we are engaged as soon as it starts and don't believe the murder our murde line in a cheesy manner. Very promising though and loves the originality. Likes the fact that I've tied it in with the prospect of him overtly trying to avoid his destiny he goes about creating it.

Feedback on Thriller Idea 1

On 13/11/2015 - Psychopath killing in Artist style.

eloise: Liked the change on the perception of what was happening, liked the spotlight idea more than the shed idea, more interesting.

Evelyn: Agrees it would be more effective it being in the studio and would be more dramatic and make it more thriller esque.

Ollie: Might be quite hard to get the length of two minutes.

Nanci: Loved the idea, individual and creative, don't expect that its going to end how it does, conveys the genre.

Mike: Could get around the length, Incredibly violent opening, borders on horror, soundtrack is the wrong way to go, sound effects, muffled screaming and slowly coming through with the sound that adds tension and would make it more of a thriller. Love the idea, love the simplicity of it, spotlighted black room as opposed to the shed idea, the shed idea makes it feel more amateur and the studio would be much better. Already different ways to think of it you could shoot with a perspex glass, you could do a pop of the victim to make it look like the brush strokes are happening to you even though they would be happening to the victim. Overall film is slightly cliche but opening sequence is excellent, little bit of tweaking on making it more suspense than horror.

Media Thriller Idea 4

Whole film - The film is about The girl being reported missing shortly after this scene and we see a big memorial for her outside the school. we then follow the school throughout the movie and it is one of those stereotypical murder ‘who did it’ thriller films. We grow close to a couple of characters until one of the english teachers best students go missing under nearly the same circumstances as Katie. We find out in the end it wasn't actually her brother who throughout we are led to believe it is because he is emotionally unstable hearing of his sisters death we all think because the guilt has literally consumed him.But actually it is the lovable english teacher who everyone grows to love in the film.

Opening Scene - A lovable teenage girl called Katie is practising a monologue after school probably about 7/8 o clock, no one else is at school but her and the lighting guy and maybe her teacher, It’s set in the theatre so its a big empty space with just one spotlight on her then the lighting guy says he has to lock up and she's fine with it and then he ‘leaves’ and then then lights turn off and then turn on and everything is distorted for example the stool she was stood next to is over turned and there are pieces of paper from the book scattered everywhere also they’re torn and the girl herself is not there anymore and she has mysteriously disappeared.

Media Thriller Idea 3

Whole film - This film is all based around A guy called Sam who is Jane’s brother who is an ex cop who was fired after accusing the wrong guy and trying to shoot a man who he suspected was the serial killer who killed his sister. He is then applying for a job, we can immediately tell he has a heart of gold. He finally finds a job that will take him with a criminal record in a mask shop called “Maury’s Masks” He is an artist so thinks this is a perfect job for him. Slowly throughout the film he is given lots of clues using his cop mind frame to determine that Maury is the masked serial killer. In the end we see a scene between Sam and Maury which is a high action fight scene and ends with ‘plot twist’ sam being killed. We then watch Maury walk away and know he has got away with it.

Opening scene - We start with a girls phone ringing and zoom in on it on her bedside table. Lots of missed calls from her best friend Jane. She picks it up as she runs out from the shower singing along to the song playing from her laptop. She tells Jane she will be outside in 5 minutes which is an obvious lie and Jane says she’ll wait for her outside. She then continues to get ready  and turns her phone on silent as she turns he music up to the loudest it can go dancing around stupidly. While this is going on we slowly zoom in on her phone which has suddenly got about 20 missed calls and a lot of texts starting with a simple “Im outside babes, hurry!” escalating to more urgency in her texts which shows obviously something is wrong, texts like “help”, “someone is here” and “he is going to kill me” all popping up on her screen. Jane of course has turned it on silent so she has noticed any of this until we pan up to jane and she is ready she slowly walks toward he phone which she checks and then drops in fear. She runs downstairs to check for her friend with phone in hand and she is nowhere to be seen but there is a pool of blood on her driveway. She then looks down on her phone and there is a text saying ‘run’ from Janes account which had been sent about 5 minutes before, which is obviously someone else before she can even have a chance and we pan down to the floor as we see her drop to the ground obviously having been shot.

Thriller Idea 2 -

Opening Sequence - Long shots of a a normal looking man with a hat on and we follow him from behind pov, he walks through an office sort of seeming to be ignored. We see him walk through a busy foyer seamlessly with out being asked any questions, hopefully making the audience trust the guy we are being shown. We then see him knock on a door and hear a voice say come in, all this time still not seeing the face of the man who had knocked on the door, we come into a normal cop in his office, the man enters, and we see the man at the desk looking at the man who has just entered, he then asks the cop to solve a murder. When the cop asks who was murdered in a laughing sort of tone, the guy who has walked in says'We were,' and we are then shown a mid shot of the guy lowering his collar & taking off his hat to reveal that the client is the cop is himself, as a sort of ghost from his own future, trying to solve his own murder before it happens. 

Whole Film- The film would follow the cop trying to solve his own murder being driven by himself/ his ghost throughout. the ghost would make the cop question his trust with every person near or not so near and dear to him. Eventually driving him to near insanity and ending up with him trusting no one. It ends with him killing himself, which the ghost has been trying to warn him not to do all along but by him being so uptight he sort of drives himself to kill himself.

Thriller Idea 1

THRILLER IDEA  1 - 

Opening Sequence - Intense looking man, psychopathic looking. Vivaldi’s 4 seasons/serenade 13 in g major by mozart playing loudly in the background, man looks as though he is painting a large canvas, intense motions like he is passionately painting. extreme close ups of the face to show intensity, sweat dripping down his forehead, wearing a boiler suit with splashes of JUST red paint on it, close ups of paint palate of just watery red paint (at this point the audience feels as though the worst thing he’s doing is painting with blood). At this point you don’t see the canvas or the instrument he is using to paint with. The man steps back from his ‘painting’ and reveals that what should be a paint brush is actually a scalpel and the camera pans round and his ‘canvas’ is actually a human body, tied with its hands above its head, still alive, gagged and bound with lots of blood coming from the stomach. Final shot is an extreme close up of the man smiling maniacally and laughing softly to himself obviously pleased with what he has created. 

(The song in the background totally contrasts the actions of what is happening, the calm nature of the man suggests psychopathic tendencies, goes against some general thriller conventions, but conforms to others like the introduction of an protagonist without giving too much away)

Whole Film - The man we are shown is a hitman. He is payed by mobsters mostly to do there dirty work but also gets a sick pleasure out of all his killings as he feels like he needs to do them in a perfect way, maybe he has obsessive compulsive disorder possibly. He clearly enjoys his job and feels no sense of remorse for lost life. We are following his killings throughout until finally his bosses kick him out of the mob or they get arrested and he is out of a job and a way to channel his psychopathic tendencies. 

Conventions of a thriller using tagxuedo.