My individual story board reflects what i think would be an ideal opening scene to a thriller film.
The conventions of a thriller film are being followed in my story board, the dark landscape covered in trees is perfect for scary things to happen. The long sweeping shots of the forest will build tension for the audience and allow them to picture a small girl running through the woods where no-one will be able to find her.
Dark, lonely places like this are very conventional to thriller because it makes the thriller more suspenseful as a dark, empty place could he hiding any number of dangers.
The dark abandoned room is another key convention of a thriller film, it follows the enigma of a thriller because it is an unknown scary place in which a young female victim would be trapped in and tortured by a tall mysterious man. All these features in my story board follow the conventions of a thriller and will have the best impact on any audience. Furthermore they instantly feels sympathy for the vulnerable female character which leads them to fear the antagonist even more as they worry about the fate of the victim.
I also chose to use low key lighting because most thriller films are set at night in darkness, which creates mystery, fear and suspense. The iconogrpahy I chose is also very conventional of a modern thriller. Knifes ropes and all types of weapons impact an audience and look dangerous as scary, building up suspense and a sense of foreboding as the male antagonist is in power. The use of the iconogrpahy used in the opening scene will cereate fear and suspense from the audience which is soemthing that the audience would expect to see in a thriller.
The more conventions i include the more successful the thriller will be. After this my group looked at each story board and decided which features we would like to include to make our thriller the best it possibly can be.
Editing plays a vitally important part within filmmaking and its role has grown and grown throughout the history of cinema. This started with editing just one shot back when cinema was beginning, this is nothing compared to modern hollywood style films who have about 100 to 2000 shots. This is largely down to the advances of technology, editing allows the film to flow better and one can cut out and crop film footage that either contains mistakes or could be editing to make a better fast paced impact on the audience. Editing should always compliment the film and let in achieve its full potential.
In our own thriller we will use a variety of editing techniques.
These will include:
Slow Editing: We decided to use slow editing because it builds suspense and draws the audience in because it causes the film to be more dramatic. We will use slow editing when the female character is sitting in the chair crying. This will show her as vulnerable and let the audience take in fully what is happening to her and feel empathy for her. this will also allow the scene of horror to have the most impact on the audience. This is conventional to a thriller film because it builds tension and makes the enigma of the scene stay in the audiences heads, this will make our film more of a success.
Fade: we chose to use fade at the end of our opening sequence because the end shot involved the female character sitting in the chair and the male protagonist sitting on the floor near her legs. He drags the knife over the leg and the audience can see blood on her leg. He then begins to play with the knife provoking her fear and making her scared as to what he will do with the knife next. The screen then fades to black, again this is conventional as it builds tension and shows a clear enigma. This will then make the audience want to watch on and know what will happen in the actual film. This is all conventions of any thriller film, as it builds tension and makes the film more enjoyable to watched and allows the audience to grip with the scene and be enticed by what's going on.
Jump Cut: The next editing technique that will be a key feature in our thriller will be the jump cut. This will be used when the camera is focussing on her from behind and the sadistic antagonist grabs her. At this point, the camera focusses on the male character. At this point the camera will suddenly focus on the male character. This is a very well known convention of a thriller film as it reveals a part of the enigma and build the suspense. Once the audience has seen some of the characters identity there own mind will question where and why he is doing what he's doing.
An important aspect for any film is the opening credits, In a thriller film it is extra important to have good credits, so they don't distract from the tension building and draw the audiences attention away from the action taking place on screen. The crew members that are featured in the opening credits are members such as the director and others that have a massive contribution to the production of the film. General chronological order of Opening Credits:
NAME OF THE STUDIO)
(NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)
(PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION or/and (director only) A FILM BY (DIRECTOR NAME)
STARRING
(FILM'S TITLE)
FEATURING
CASTING or CASTING BY
MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY
PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Opening Credits of the Film Se7en
Looking at the opening credits from this film opening there are a number of conventions and characteristics that meet the eye. The credits jump in a shaky eerie way with non diegetic sound playing in the background. This is to build suspense and let the audience focus on the screen and see the narrative unfolding. This is conventional to a thriller film, as-well as the camera being-zoomed in to a key focus point to show an enigma of mystery within the scene.
The colours used are high contrasting with white words on a black background, this gives the audience a sense of foreboding and has connotations with death and dark terror. There are also hints of blood red which have connotations of murder and death, again fitting in with the conventions of a thriller film. the font looks like scribbled hand writing which also shows the characters persona. The credits have low opacity levels so the audience can focus on the plot of the scene and show the events occurring on screen.
Conventions of a thriller film show the credits to fit in with the narrative of the film when a pen is being used on screen the non diegetic sound makes the credits feel as if they are being scribbled. The credits are edgy and unpredictable, much like the plot of the thriller film. This is conventional to all thriller films as the opening scene has to fit in with whats going on a build tension in order to captivate the audience.
The order of appearance is as follows:
production company
director
actor
title of film
actors continued
casting
music costumes
editors
production
camera operator
co-production
producer
writing
director
The order of the film credits goes in oder of the mist important, The name of the director is last as it is conventional to David Flincher films, this is because he is known for making thrillers and has a good reputation.
American Psycho Opening Scene.
This opening scene also uses the key conventions of a thriller film. The colours used are dark and mysterious as the audience is shown a false sense of security. The non diegetic sound heard is a key convention of a thriller film and and is heard throughout the opening sequence. The credits shown across the screen are very bright which give the impression of eerie non suspect lights in high contrast against the light background.
the conventions of a thriller film give tell tale signs and clues as to the enigma of the film. The way the actor is screaming psychotic phrases builds tension and makes the audience sense foreboding. The credits are bold and spaced far apart this makes them significant but also not taking up too much room on screen
The non diegetic music also follows the conventions of a thriller, and the loud people in the background have annotations of anarchy and gives clues about the future narrative and what is to come.
The order of credit appearance:
co-producers
executive producers
produced
'based on'
screenplay
directed by
Again this follows the conventions of a thriller film, with the most important shown last.
Our Thriller 'T o r m e n t'
As a group we looked some different types of thriller films and the credits they used. We believed that se7en as was had the best opening credits they were suspenseful and very conventional to thriller films. The use of font, style, images and sound all went well together and followed key conventions of a thriller film. The elements caused the audience to feel shocked and surprised and built tension throughout the film. As a group we were inspired to make credits for our own thriller film. The font style in the opening sequence is conventional to a thriller and we will be using a similar font and style. The sound effects used will create suspense and give the audience a thrill and build tension. Our credits and sound effects will fit in well with the conventions of a thriller film and we will use sounds to startle the audience of our own thriller.
As a group we decided on the following: Size: small and subtle Colour: grey white glow around the edge Order in which they will appear: Production name, direct colours or, actor, editor, title. Font: grey white glow, title carved on a tree. bold but also small and scribbly.
These examples of fonts from famous films five good examples of what we can use in our thriller film. These fonts are iconic and the audience associate this style of writing with the individual film.
Along with the questionnaires we conducted at west hatch high school. we also decided to interview a variety of people from different age groups. This idea gave us more detailed answers and tell us what we should include in our thriller film to make our thriller successful. Also we wanted to give people an opportunity to voice there opinion in more detail which showed us what to include and gave us an elaborate answer with opinions of different aspects of conventions of a thriller film. This was an extension of our questionnaire.
As a group we think it is very important to insure everyone was safe whilst filming. This was so nothing got in the way of our filming and everyone one on set was safe.
We assessed all the risks and put them in a table, once on set we made sure we carried out safety checks before filming.
Our groups next task was to decide on a film schedule. This is so everyone was on task and came to various meetings in order to edit and prepare our thriller film. Below shows a log we kept of everything done in lessons and meetings we had outside school.
Camera shots are important to include in a thriller film, as they help portray the narrative of the story and build suspense and tension to improve the viewing experience for the audience. The shots demonstrate different aspects of a films setting. Characters and themes are displayed via the camera shots and are important for the directors as the shots display and lead the audience into what the directors want them to feel and experience emotionally.
4 Different Camera Shots Close Up - A close up shot contains only one characters face and only a fairly small part of the scenes fills the screen. The use of this camera shot allows the audience to clearly see the character which helps them to feel empathy for the character. Our own thriller will use the close up camera shot a number of times, at the end of our opening scene when the male villain pulls a knife close to the young girl. We chose to use this camera shot because we felt that it was important for the audience to clearly see the emotions on the characters face, displaying stress and agony. This show will help make our thriller conventional because it allows the audience to build a relationship with the character and feel sympathy and empathy towards her, which is something the audience would expect to see from a thriller. Mid Shot -A mid shot shows the character in the shot from the waist-up, with some of the background on display. This shot helps the audience to see the characters more clearly and shows there interactions with the other characters. In our thriller film we will use the mid shot when our character is running through the forest, this is because the audience need to see where she is and see clearly she that she is running from danger. We also will use this shot when she is in the room and the male character walks in. This is because this shot will show everything of importance in the room, whilst still giving the audience an indication of the females emotions. Being able to see the location and emotions all in the same show is conventional to a thriller film because it helps the audience to understand the situation the character is in which helps them build empathy and a relationship with her. Long shot - A long shot shows the landscape, therefore giving the audience a more specific idea of the setting and location, There may or may not be a character within this shot. In out film, the long shot will be used when our character is in the room to show her as little and weak. We shows this shot because it will tell the audience exactly where she is, and how isolated her location is in which she cant escape from. Deep focus- This uses photography techniques of depth of field which is the technique that shows one thing in the shot in focus, and the rest out of focus. In our thriller the deep focus will be used when the male and weak female are in the room. This will show the importance of the male civilian and how his psychological actions are effecting the girl and making her panic. Zooming in on the man will make him be seen to the audience as mentally unstable and to have hidden mental problems. This is conventional to a thriller film as it shows characters raw emotions and show to the audience there hidden intentions, which build up a relationship for the viewer. The shots we are using in our thriller film are all conventional of the genre. We have included the shots which we think will effect the audience the most. Our target audience will be able to build a strong empathetic relation with the characters as they can feel sympathy for the weak female character who is held hostage (her emotions and angst shown my the close up, and the frantic running shown via the long shot). The target teenage audience will also feel scared of the villain and the enigma of the scene will be guessing his identity and why he feels the need to inflict pain this is shown using the deep focus to home in the mystery of his identity and show him as being dark and powerful.
In our group, we all looked at each others story boards and different ideas and combined them to make sure everyone was happy with our narrative. We discussed which aspects of each we liked and wanted to include in our group storyboards.
Our ideas are conventional because we have used ideas that are typical to a lot of t thriller films, such as our theme of isolation and kidnap. We also used conventional locations such as the forest at night and an abandoned room/house. We wanted to use as many conventional aspects as we could because then our thriller would have a greater chance of being successful and enjoyable.
The opening scene to our thriller film will begin with a long shot of a dark, empty room with a teenage girl sitting tied to a chair in middle of the room. She will be gagged and will have mascara stains on her cheek to show that she has been crying for a long period of time. This fits in with the conventions of a thriller, as the enigma will make the audience ask why she is in that situation. Her hair will be messed up and her clothes dirty and disheveled to show she has been struggling to escape. The room will be dark so low key lighting, with a dim lamp in the corner. The editing technique we will use will be slow editing which will build the suspense.
Next there will be a flashback and this will be shown when the scene changes and to do this, we will use a jump cut. The female will be in the forest, running fast, as if she is running away from somebody. For this shot, we will use an extreme long shot, fitting in with as much of the location as possible to show to the audience, and they will also be able to see her running. At this point, we will include some non diegetic music that will build the tension and suspense. The tension will be built further, as sounds of the victims heart beating and her breathing will be heard. We will then change the shot to a close up when the female looks anxiously over her shoulder at something terrifying behind her. She is breathing heavily and her facial expressions will show that she is terrified and worried. The music at this point will be get slightly louder to build the tension even more and the audience will then begin to hear another set of footsteps along with the victims that were audible in the previous shot.
We will then use another jump cut to show her running again, and then the audience discover just who she is running from. We will use a mid shot to show the male catching up to the young girl and her being overpowered by the male and capture her then dragging her backwards. Then, the flashback ends and the girl is back in the room, tied up, just as she was before. We will use a panning shot to give the audience another look at the room she is imprisoned in. We will also use slow editing to build the suspense and tension which is conventional to a thriller film.
Also we will use a close up shot of the girls legs being dragged away. The of the autumn leaves will contrast with her struggle and show colours her being dragged away struggling in horror.
The scene will change again, and this time, the male victim will be present in the room. For this shot,we will use deep focus, and the male will be in focus in the front of the shot. This will show the audience that he is an important, dominant character. The female will be in the back of the shot, smaller than the male due to the camera angle and she will be out of focus, to show her weakness and his power over her. This will show the man as more powerful and feared. We will use slow editing in this shot to build the suspense. The scene will then change again to a mid shot and the audience will be able to see the young girl sitting, tied to the chair, whilst the antagonist is slowly walking around her. He then stand behind her and slowly drag the knife up to her neck. We will use slow editing to make this last part of the scene very suspenseful and tense. The, when the knife gets to her throat, the screen will fade to black and that is where the scene ends.
Character representation is very important in within a thriller film because it shows the conventions of a thriller and various representations within a thriller film because having different types of characters helps the audience to identify with at least one of the characters. This also helps to clearly show which character is the villian and which one is the victim. Both characters are conventional to a thriller film. The representation of characters is also very important becuase it helps the audience to identify them and to guess and be shown there identity and characteristics. eg, a young female victim would be wearing white/light coloured clothes because the audience to instanty feel sympathy for her and an older, strong male victim dressed in ark clothing instantly makes the audience fear the character as they already are given a sense of foreboding and danger. The female character will promote sympathy and some audience members will feel empathy towards her and maybe picture themselves in her shoes.
The Victim; Name: Rowan Age: 15 Gender: Female Race: White Background: Belongs to a middle class family is completly inoccent Purpose to the narrative: she is the most recent victim of the antagonist and gets kidnapped, tied up and held captive against her will in the abanonded house in the woods because she fits the criteria of the villians oppsession How will the character appeal to the audience: she will fit the conventions of a thriller film becuase she is a young weak female character. She is young and innocent and the adience will be able to feel empathy for her and relate to her story as she is kidnapped and tied up and held prisioner.
The Villain;
Name: Reggie
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Race: White
Background: He has an obsession with young blonde teenagersand has kidnapped girls like this before and killed them, thats part of the engima of the film that we dont fully know his background.
Purpose to the narrative: He is tall and scary and his identity is hidden the audience will be scared of him.
How will the character appeal to the audience: he is a dark unknown character and fits the conventions of a thriller film, the enigmas will make the story more exciting and the audience will be frightened and wait in anticipation of what comes next.
Settings and Iconography As a group, we discussed the location for our film in quite a lot of detail because we wanted to make sure we chose the right place. The key feature of our thriller film is the young female has to be tied up, we though this would look best in a grimy abandonded location, which would look authentic with the killers character and fit the conventions of a thriller film. We will only shoot inside the house as we want to keep the enigma about where and why the character is trapped and tormented within this room which will keep the audience interested and build suspence. The iconography we will use in these shots will be very simple yet effective to promote a feeling of foreboding to the audience. There will only be a chair and a dim lamp in the room and she will be tied up with very simple ropes. We chose to use very little iconography because if fits with the underlying theme of isolation that will run through out thriller. By putting very little objects in the room with our character, she appears even more alone which will lead to the audience feeling sympathy for the victim. Another location we will use is a forest, and we will use this when she is running away from the antagonist. We chose a forest because the forest is a place that can be very obscure and empty, so it would be the perfect place for someone to kidnap another person withough risk of being caught all together. The forest of also a very dark place, which again is conventional to thrillers, because alot of thriller films are set at night in dark places. We will use even less iconography in this shot, because all shes doing is running through a forest, so we dont need to use props. However, we will use a scarf a bit later on in the narrative when the protagonist gets caught. Costume, Hair and make up The costume our female victim will wear wil be a white very light coloured dress. This is becuase the use of plain, white/ light colouted clothing will give a clear indication of her innocence and vunerability. This is something the audience would expect to see in a thriller film so is conventional. She will have minimal makeup but wear mascara to show she has been crying. This again will cause the audience to feel sympathy for the character and it will help convay to the audience the horrific situation the girl has found herself in. Her hair ill be slightly messy to show she has been struggling, even more indication that she is there against her will. Our Villian will be the opposite to this character, and wear dark clothes ( dark trousers and a jumper with a hood), this will show that he is a dark twisted chacter, something that is convenrtional to a thriller film His identity will be hidden which will again fit in with the suspence of the scenes and be conventional to the thriller film as it displays a clear enigma.
Facial Expressions and Body Language; As the audience will not be able to see the antagonist, there can be no indication of his facial expressions, so the actor will have to rely on body language. His movements will be swift when he's in the process of kidnapping the protagonist. However, once she's under his control, his movements become slow and deliberate which will build the tension.
However, for a lot of the scene, the protagonist will be tied up, so will have to mainly rely on facial expressions. The only times body language will be important is when she is running, because the audience will need to know that she is running away from somebody in terror. But this will also need facial expressions to help achieve this. She will also d be struggling slightly when she is tied to the chair, in an attempt to get free. Her facial expression will always be panicked, fearful and distressed which will show the audience exactly what sort of situation she is in.
Positioning of Characters/Objects; Our character will be placed in the middle of the room with a dim lamp near her. this low key lightening will allow the audience to know that she is an important character and also the emptiness of the room. This will portray the theme of isolation. The fact that she is tied up will show the audience that she is under someone's control and they will begin to feel empathy for her and start to build a relationship with her.
Lighting and Colour;Throughout the whole scene, there will be only low key lighting, because this is a convention of thriller films, and gives the impression of mystery. We will also use plain, dark colours to keep our thriller simple and the dark colours will portray the darkness of the thriller and the personality of the antagonist. The dark colours will also give an impression of mystery.
There are a number of roles within any production. These people are responsible for there field, they are skilled and in charge of all tasks within there role.
There are many roles in production both in front of camera and behind the scenes.
Any genre of production be it, news, comedy, factual or entertainment has a list of roles and jobs for people to perform well in this includes:
Actors - These people are the ones acting within the scene, they will be told what to do my the director and follow his instructions
Camera Operator - This person is filming the scenes and is in charge of the camera and all tasks that relate to the filming. The director will tell the camera operator what shots to do and how to film the scene.
Sound Technician - Sound technicians are required to assemble, operate and maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound. They are given tasks and what sounds to put into the scenes and where.
Editors - This job is very important as they have the responsibility of editing different clips, cutting and putting footage together in order to make the film the best for the audience intended.
Film shooting on location in Downtown Los Angeles
Film Director - A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors.
Location Manager -The location manager is responsible for the finding and securing locations to be used for filming. They are also heavily involved for the production to successfully find the ideal locations for each shoot.
Storyboard Organizer - This person is responsible for organizing the storyboard. This is also important because it determines the plot behind each scene and lets everyone know what the aim of achievement is.
As a group we have decided on roles that would be best suited to our skills. We will work well, and help each other with our tasks so that everyone is doing well in what they are supposed to be doing.
Beckie will be location manager and be responsible for finding locations in which we can film well in. This will be an important role as it will effect our filming. Beckie is taking on this role because she can find good locations and is good at making a final decision.
Sumbal is the Director, this is because she is very organized and will be able to give out tasks well. This is a very important role as she will be able to decide what footage to use and put forward important ideas that will effect our work.
I am taking on the role as camera operator and set designer. This is for a number of reasons, as i have experience with handling cameras and have a good eye for design. I will be in charge of mise-en-scene and iconography. This is important as I will be responsible for everything within the shot to come together well and insure our group has the best footage in which we can all edit.
We will all take part in sound editing and story board organizing. This is so we can all put our ideas across and be completely happy with our final piece.
Throughout recorded history story telling has been a big part of all walks of human society. The conventions of a thriller film show traits that many of these storys have. So in a way the 'thriller' has always been around.
Alfred Hitchcock director of 'psycho'
Well known fairy tales such as little red riding hood (1697) also have the features of a thriller inbeeded in them and this is an early example of a psycho-stalker story, about a girl who walks through the forest to deliver food to her sick grandmother. A wolf wants to eat the girl but is afraid to do so in public. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood and she naively tells him where she is going. He suggests the girl pick some flowers, which she does. In the meantime, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be the girl.
Moving away from literature, the early 20th century witnessed the birth of the modern thriller film through a number of directors. Perhaps the best being Alfred Hitchcock. throughout the 30's and 40's Alfred had developed a recognizable brand of suspense-thrillers, such as 'Rebecca' and 'suspicion'.
Hitchcock is renowned as being one of the first and best directors of his generation and many stereotypical enigmas of modern day thrillers stem from his own work.
People were enticed by this brand of film because much like now days, the suspense and adrenaline give the films a more jumpy and exciting feel. Many of the first thriller films used simple and effective iconography and sound effects that were put together using household objects such as washing boards and banging of metals to give the impression of claws and knives. Many of the old fashioned horror films used slow scenes, and close zooms to give the impression of violence and murder, as special effects were limited and no computer software was used.
before
Stephen Speilburg
Directors of these thriller films had to be cunning and clever to put together believable scenes that would excite an audience and keep them entertained. This made them perhaps more hardworking and clever then modern thriller directors who are spoilt by the use of modern cgi and better quality cameras.
Modern talented directors such as Stephen Spielburg are able to capture scenes on a rage of equipment making thrillers better then ever. the editing process is always digital and takes a long time to cut and crop every shot of a thriller film in order to give the maximum impact on an audience.
