What Makes A Thriller Effective

Location's and Costumes

Locations and Location Rea-suruch:

- Car park (this can be down in the Hurtwood House bottom car park, two cars can quite easily be found from the teachers or students if we get permission for us to use them). This is were the main women will be getting out of her car and one of the extras will be taking the pill inside their car. She then gets out the car and sets off down the high street.

- Town/High street (this could be done in Cranleigh). We will have the main women walking up to this area. We are hoping that the town will have quite a few people in it so that it looks like a normal town street.

- Bus Stop (Cranleigh). This is were the main women will walk pass with a man standing there taking the pill. 

- Meeting room (Media Sweets/Dave's room; both of these rooms have a big round table in them which would be very useful for the meeting room shot)or the career's room. This is not the picture of the meeting room we intend to use but this is the sort of idea that we have in mind. There only needs to be four place settings and water glasses to.

- Establishing shot of a building that she walks into – Hurtwood House

Costumes:

Main Woman – Suit e.g. tights, pumps, skirts, blazer, brief case

Business- Main 1 – suit

-       Man 2 – suit

-       Man 3 – suit

Added Extras – Adam normal school wear (smart casual)

-       Mats normal dress (casual)

-       Couple, normal everyday clothes (jeans and top/casual)

More Research

I then decided to go and have a look at more sequences. I thought I should begin to look at ones which may not be directly linked to my thriller but to particular aspects for example; zombie sequences, voice recordings, interviews and anything which I felt grabbed my attention and give me inspiration.



The first one I looked at was '28 Days Later':
 
I chose to look at this because of the zombie theme. While I do not know much about this movie I noticed that instead of taking the typical stereotype of a zombie there is a monkey in these opening sequence. 
It struck me that this could quite possibly be an outbreak because of some sort of research taking place and a panning shot across a lab then goes to show a CCTV cam shot of 'cam 3...Cambridge Primate Research Centre'

The camera work in this particular opening title sequence is like that of 'Dawn of the Dead'. It uses a flashy short jumpy shots showing different things; of what looks like the outbreak and riots of the town going crazy. We jump to the conclusion that this is because of the research that is going on. We make this judgement because before these shots of the town are shown it is made clear that there is research going on. 
This is approach that we need to keep in mind. This sequence had made it very clear that were is research going on some particular medical trial. This is possibly what is causing the riots and this outbreak. 

 We then get a contrasting shot of the police trying to deal with hundreds of crazy people to one man in a neglected area. This makes it very obvious that something has gone wrong in order for everyone to disappear. There are more close up shots of this man - he is in a doctors uniform. This informs us that he is a doctor and most likely is something to do with the research going on.

Narrative Action

•          A blackout screen and we hear a voice recorder and someone interviewing ‘one of the lucky survivor after having the life threatening reaction to the prescription'.
•    An establish shot of an office lady getting out of her car in a car park. She sees there is a man sitting in the car next to her. She ignores him and gets her bag out from the car.
•       Once she gets the bag, she locks the car and is about to go to work.
•     Then we see a shot of the man who sitting in the car next to her taking a pill.
•    As we see him taking the pill, there is a voice over of the main character being interviewed. She is asked about why she prescribed a kind of pill. She answered that was because of bad headache.
•    The shot comes back on her and follows her walk through the town to get to work.
•    During her actions, there is not information given, but we know the interview is going on by hearing the noise of the recorder or possibly her thinking and breathing.
•    It is also when the credits come out on the screen, while she is walking through the town.
•    There are shots of different people taking or carrying the prescription. Possibly someone comes out of a shop with it or someone gives the other the pill. She has no idea about these events happening.
•    While we see someone else taking the pills, there is non-diegetic sound of her being questioned ‘Were you aware of the side effects?’ ‘Were you recommended by someone else?’ ‘Have you recommended the pill to your friends or family?’
•    A establish shot of her getting into her work place. We still hear the noise of the recorder and her breathing.
•    There are people in her work place have the pills with them as well. Or even someone thanks her for recommending the pill.
•    She goes into a meeting and sits down. A close up of her putting her hand to her head to show she is having a headache.
•       She reaches her bag and takes a prescription bag out.
•    Voice over of her being asked how she felt after taking the pill.
•    A close up of her taking a pill. And she seems to be better at the moment.
•     As we see she takes it, then it is a black out. We hear the sound of the recorder.
•    Then we hear her heavy breathing, and she mutters something saying she doesn’t feel right.
•       It is still a black out. We then hear her flip out, screaming, scouting, heavy breathing sounds.
•    After the black out ends, we get a screen collage of different people taking the pill. 
•       At the end, the collage forms into the title of our thriller.

New First Draft of Plot Narrative

Having researched into new idea's and looking into opening title sequences to help us reform our idea we came up with a new plot narrative:

The thriller opens with a black out screen and we hear a voice recorder and someone interviewing ‘one of the lucky survivors after having the life threatening reaction to the prescription’. We then get an establishing shot of a women getting out of her car to go to work.  As she is getting out the car and locking it we see someone in the car next to her taking a pill. She is unaware of this and carries on getting out of the car and locking it. As we see this person taking the pill there is a voice over. The voice over is a recorded interview of the main character being interviewed about the pill and the side effects of what happens. We only hear the voice over when we see someone taking the pill around her. During the action of the main character there is not information being given although we do hear the noise of the recorder and possibly her thinking about her answer or her breathing. This projects the idea that this is a bad memory for her and she is finding it difficult to talk about. The action carries on and we see her walk through the town to get to work. As she is walking through the town we see different people taking the pill, possible coming out of a shop, at a bus stop, as she walks into her work place we also see people taking the pill in the hall way or holding a prescription bag. The recorded interview playing the voice over continues while this is going on in the same pattern as before. We see the main character go into a meeting and sit down. As she sits down she puts her hand to her head and we see that she has a headache. She reaches into her bag and takes out a pillbox; we see that this is the prescription drug that everyone has been taking on her way into work. As she takes the pill there is a black out and we only hear the background sound of the recorder. We then hear heavy breathing and the main character mutter something saying she doesn’t feel right… we then hear her flip out, screaming, scouting, heavy breathing sounds. After this black out ends we get a screen collarge of all the people that she see’s going into work taking the pill forming into the title of the thriller.

Researching Thrillers' opening sequences

There was something in our idea that was not working although we were not quite shore what. We though the beginning scene was a bit cliche and the main body of the scene would be very hard to do realistically. Having this in mind we decided to go and have a look at opening title sequences for films that involve zombies. 

The first one we looked at was the opening for dawn of the dead:

From this we there were certain aspect which we liked the dynamic of. We thought that the black out shots between every other action shot. In these black out shots there is commentary, members of the public asking about the out brake of this 'illness' and someone high in society answering the questions.
We thought this was very effective and began to think how we could incorporate this into our thriller to bring in information about the zombie brake out from drugs in our sequence to help the viewers understand what is going on.

We then looked at 'Shawn of the Dead' - the comical remake of 'Dawn of the Dead'. 

This take a slightly different view  of what is going on. He wakes up on a monday morning and goes out to get some stuff before work. Being so asleep on a monday morning he does not notice the zombies around him.We liked how this sequence was more flowing and was not as jumpy. 
We thought that we could use this idea and have a women going to work and on her way to work we see people taking some sort of pill. Us as the viewers will notice this yet she will just carry on with her journey as normal.


Using these two scenes as are our main source of inspiration we though that we could have something along the lines of the flowing aspect of not noticing what is going on around her coming from 'Shawn of the Dead' and the news reel in the background from 'Dawn of the Dead.'

We then decided to have a look at the opening title sequence of 'I am Legend'. 

This is highly appropriate to link to our triller because not only does it use the voice over interview aspect but it is also about a pill that everyone has taken to cure cancer and has caused an outbreak and caused everyone that has taken it to turn into a zombie. This follows the same sort of pattern as our opening sequence and how allowed me to see how they have done it effectively.

Plot Narrative

·         2 girls are at a party running around the place looking as though they are already quite drunk. Holding onto one another with their arms entwined.

·         The girls then run up to the port-a-loo whilst one is holding a bottle of some sort of alcohol. Running up the steps falling over the place.

·         Once they are in the port-a-loo they then go into a cubicle together, we see them talking and laughing together. They then go in and close the door.

·         Over the head shot of the girls in the cubicle handing back and forth the alcohol while one of the girl gets a small plastic bag out of her pocket with some kind of drug inside it.

·         As they are drinking the alcohol they both then start taking the pills, as they are quite drunk already they are drinking quite quickly.

·         Close up shot of them laughing at each other then the shot dissolves into a blackout.

·         The shot comes back in with a males hands round the edge of a metal tray with pill bottles on top of it walking down a hallway going into a room.

·         Once into the room the man/Doctor places the pill bottles on the shelf with the camera on a Close-up on the man’s hands holding the pill bottles.

·         It then goes into a brief black out.

·         Then cuts to wide shot of the Doctor standing over the girl in bed holding a clip board walking around the room checking her monitors and seeing if she is okay.

·         This is when the credits come up, while he’s walking around the room.

·         The shelf of the pill bottles are behind him while he s standing over her, going into a close up of her.

·         Whilst still on a close up of her we go into the Doctors P.O.V of looking closely at her face while she is unconscious.

·         This then goes into an over the shoulder shot of the doctor walking towards the door about to open the door.

·         As he walks towards the door the heart monitor beeping starts to get much quicker and louder, he then turns around and starts running back towards the girl.

·         The camera then zooms in on her foaming at the mouth and shaking violently with her eyes wide-open going crazy.

·         Just before the doctor gets to her the scene cuts out.

·         It the goes into a black out when the title then comes up.

·         Whilst the title comes up, in the background all we hear is crunching, screaming and deep breathing sounds.

Plot of Narrative Action

The thriller opens with an establishing shot of a port-a-loo, with the background sounds and with the shot of the port-a-loo we can tell that it is at a party. We see two girls running off and giggling going into the port-a-loo and a shot of them going into a cubicle together.  The cubicle door then shuts and we get an over the head shot of the two girls, one reaches to get something out her pocket while the other is holding a bottle of some sort of alcohol. We see that the girl has got some sort of drug out of her pocket and the two girls pop the pills whilst washing it down with the alcohol.

We have a brief black out before going into the main body of the thriller. This opens with a shot of the doctor’s hands holding a tray whilst walking down a hallway and going into a room. We then have a close up shot of the pill bottle’s and him placing them onto a shelf in a room. The background sounds at this point are heart monitor beeping and deep breathing sounds of the girl lying unconscious in bed. We then see the doctor approaching the girl whist he’s checking his clipboard and checking all of her monitors. The shot then focuses on her and the sounds that are in the background. Once the doctor is done we see him walking away to go out of her room as he becomes close to the door the monitor sounds start getting quicker and the volume is cranked up. The doctor then runs back towards her and we see her starting to fit and foam at the mouth with her eyes wide open, just before the doctor gets to her the scene cuts off into a blackout when the title then comes up. As the title comes up in the background all we hear is crunching, screaming and deep breathing sounds.

Losing a Member of our Team

For unknown reasons Luka left the school so we are now a group of three. Although it is a shame we do not have his input anymore we are able to carry on just as a group of three and will continue to work  hard on developing out ideas.

First Draft of Our Story Board

We started drawing out our story board showing the different shots which we want to sure and where be wanted to show our credits. 

When we were story boarding we really had to think about what sorts of shots we wanted involved. 

By drawing out the story board it really enabled us to be about to visualise what was going to be happening in our scene.

Our Story Board:

Once we had drawn out our story board we and were able to visualise the scenes more we realised that we may need a small scene right at the beginning showing the girl taking the drugs, so we no how she got there. We also felt we were drifting away from our main source of inspiration so this new scene would help enable us to bring it back to this point. This was also so we could see someone taking the drugs. 

We discussed and listed 10 different ways we could do this scene they are:
1. Club bathroom
2. Young couple 
3. Bonfire night
4. School girls bunking off school 
5. Party/gathering 
6. Quite night in - small group of kids
7. Port-a-loos 
8. Park 
9. Classroom - under the table in a lesson 
10. Bus - about to go out 

Leaning how to storyboard

I thought that i would look up on You Tube a video about story boarding to enable me to learn properly how to do it. 

"A storyboard is a plan, a way of figuring out the story of the film before you put in the enormous amount of work of the animation itself. Basically, it is the story of the movie drawn in pictures, very much like a comic strip."