Amar's presentation

From Amar's presentation the steps we think will be most useful are:

Step 3, which was location Recce. This consists of going to the location before filming and seeing if its a realistic location.  

Another step is step 4, which is the digital storyboard. This is especially important this time, as our storyboard for our childrens was poorly done, as we did not do enough shots and good enough shots. 

The final step is step 1, which is script writing. this is important as we did not use one of these for our childrens film. This affected us when it came to filming our childrens film as we had to think of what to say whilst filming, which wasted a lot of time. Therefore for our thriller, we will have more time to think about other more important stuff such as our shots, which will improve our thriller. 

questions asked

What are you going to do with the music?
We are going to start of with slow mellow music and then it will become more up beat and dramatic.

What kind of thriller is it?
it is a crime thriller, but also an element of a psychological thriller due to the thoughts behind the death.

What house are you going to film at?
This will be located at Lauren's house, inside and outside.

Is it just the detective that sees the ghost, or can everyone else see it as well?
The new and less experienced detective will be the only person who dreams about the angel and sees her.

Part of it is going to be a dream, what effects will you use to show this?
We will use a black and white effect and a white fade sort of thing, so the audience can identify each worlds; dream and normal.

Who's acting in the film?
Beth will be the immersed angel and the two detectives will be Lauren's male friends. 

10 second breakdown

0-10 seconds: To begin with there will be a shot of one of the detectives in bed, and a shot of his daily equipment on his bedside table, such as his knife.

10-20 seconds: To follow on from this we will go into his dream; this will show the 'Angel '.

20-30 seconds: then there will be an extreme close-up of the detectives eyes wide open and he will grab his phone.

30 -35 seconds: Then the title 'Immersed angels' will  appear on the screen, followed by the credits.  Phone rings.

35 - 50 seconds: Detective gets ready for work.

50 - 60 seconds: switches to other detective waking up.

60 - 70 seconds: establishing shot of the drive towards an isolated house.

70 - 80 seconds: shot of two detectives meeting.

80 - 90 seconds: shot walking to the bathroom/ crime scene- observing things on the way.

90 - 100 seconds: close up shots of syringes on floor and on the side of the bath, then the camera pans to the body in the bath, starting from her feet, gradually moving to her head.

100 - 110 seconds: A close up of the detective who had the dream

110 - 120 seconds: Flash back, showing that the girl in the dream is the same as the girl in the bath.

Research into the Mise-en-scene of our thriller

Typical Props-

• Guns 
• Magnifying glass
• Pen knife 
• developed photos/camera 
• Un-obvious weapons 

 Our props: 

• Syringes - these will be used for our 'un-obvious weapons' - create more suspense for audience
• Bath- in your house where you should be able to feel safe.
• Camera - to take photos of the crime scene.
• Pen knife- this will be our detectives choice of weapon- a gun wont be used as this wont be a realistic prop for us. 

Typical costume:

• Detectives- one will be smartly dressed in dark clothes; the other will be naturally dressed.
• Victim- Their every day clothes
• Antagonist- Will be an everyday natural dress code, as this will make it more difficult for the audience to identify who he/she is. 

Our costume: 

• Detectives will be wearing the typical costume of one smartly dressed and the other naturally dresed.
• The victim will be wearing shorts and a white shirt, which are typical house clothes and the white shirt will reflect her 'Angel' side. 
• We will not be using an Antagonist in our opening sequence. 

Typical lighting (our lighting):

• dull/ artificial lighting in the crime scene
• natural lighting when the detectives are outside the place where the crime took place, creating a contrast.

Typical colour:

• Red- use of blood
• Black- representing death and murders

Our colours:

• Red- use of blood
• Black- representing death and murders
• Green- unusual drug
• Orange- colour of syringes- bring and stand out to be unusual.

Typical set

• Natural environment, e.g the victims house
• Detectives bedroom 
• Outside of the crime scene

Our set

• The bathroom in the victims house
• Detectives bedroom- where his 'dream' will take place
• the drive up to the victims house- showing the isolated house

Mood board of inspiration

We took the idea of having two detectives from the film Se7en. 

We also took the idea of showing a crime scene in our film, which again we took from Se7en.

We used the idea of having a ghost that tries to give other people a message to help them, which we took from sixth sense. 

To make the crime scene look more weird and confusing, we are going to use syringes that are going to be placed around the crime scene. 

We took the typical convention of using a natural environment where people should feel safe, which will add to the suspense and will make the audience feel more disturbed.

cast and crew

props and costumes = Kelly

Sound = Lauren and Beth 

Editing = Kelly 

Director = Lauren

Producer  = Beth 

The Immersed angel = Beth 

Detective no. 1 = Jake (he looks older and more suitable for the role of a detective) 

Detective no. 2 = Scott 

Planning for our thriller pitch!

for our film, we are going to call it The Immersed Angel, because immersed means being forced under water, which is based around our narrative. Also, we used Angel as she becomes a spirit after she dies and tries to help other people.

To begin with, one of the detectives has a dream, and the 'Angel' appears, trying to give him clues but the detective is just confused about the whole thing. the next morning he gets a phone call, informing him of a murder that happened the night before that he had to check out.
the detective enters the crime scene and sees a girl who suffered a painful death due to a strange murder in her own bathroom, with the use of elixirs and syringes. This will make the audience question, why she has these weird props in her bathroom, which will add to the suspense. when the camera focuses on the girls face in the bath, a flashback takes place showing a close up of the girls face in the dream, making the detective realize that its the same person.
our film will then carry on with the two detectives around the crime scene, and trying to figure out who the murderer is.  They then find themselves being 'haunted' by the spirit in the bath, however this is just the spirit trying to contact the detectives to get the murderer behind bars. as the story goes on they get different leads to suspects which are actually not guilty get killed off, as the spirit is trying to get across that they are not the cause of her death. She gets angry with the detectives for not finding the right suspects.

We will be filming in a isolated house, with the crime scene in the bathroom. We have chose this location because its a typical thriller setting and make the audience feel on edge, especially if they watch it in their own house, because you don't expect that to happen in the safety of your own home.

CLASSIFICATION:

Our film will be classified as a 15, this will allow us to show syringes and elixirs however, they do not come in contact with the bodies therefore it will not cause any distress to the audience, and we do not encourage drug use. We will not be including any sexual scenes or acts of discrimination, which will be suitable for our target audience.

BLK production company logo.

This is our logo for our thriller production company. The name 'BLK' is the initials for our first names, all put together. However it seems to look like a shortened version of the word black, which goes with our thriller film.
If we get time to animate our production logo we will make the word 'productions' come up in each letter as if it were being typed on a typewriter.
we have used red because it represents death and evil, and we used black as it represents evil.

Production logos

New line cinema links to the thriller genre as its dark and mysterious which is part of the conventions of thriller films, such as Se7en. A limited amount of dark colours have been used, as in thrillers they do not use light colours, only dark and gloomy colours, which represent the narrative of the film. the movement before the still image of the logo showed 5 ladders, but three of them fell into the blue light, leaving only two ladders remaining which reflects the general narrative of a thriller as there are normally murders involved. 

Analysing past thriller opening sequence

• 1st analysis: 
• The camera was held steady throughout the sequence, which allowed it to look professional.  
• They included the characters hallucination within the framing, which created a really good effect and allowed the sequence to flow. however, this continuity was not consistent throughout the sequence, such as in the forest, which made the narrative misleading. 
•  they used a variety of shots, such as long shots ,which allowed the audience to identify the location as well as close ups which allowed us to identify her emotions. Another shot used well was low and high angle shots, which showed the audience who was in power of the situation and showed the female characters emotions.
• I think the material used was appropriate to the task, but more thought could have been put behind it.
• The location used was very typical of thrillers, as they used  isolated areas, such as a forest and long daunting corridor.
• the editing of the hallucination made the narrative clear to the audience. They used appropriate transitions which allowed the clip to flow well; cross fade was used well. 
• the sound track went well with the clip as it started of slow and then sped up as the action got more intense, which creates the right atmosphere for the audience. 
• They did not include a title, therefore the audience could not identify the name of the film, next time they should include the title. 

2nd analysis:

• the camera was held steady throughout the sequence, making it look more professional.
• the framing of their shots included the specific props which were essential for their clip.
• they used a varied amount of shot distances, close ups and long shots etc. for example when they are in the car and out of the car.
• the mise en scene wasnt thought through very well, as the main character dragged out a dead body next to a main road in broad daylight, when they couuld of followed conventions of a thriller by doing it later on while it was dusk and in more of a secluded area.

crime thriller conventions

• At the start the protagonist is always introduced and the scene always starts as a crime scene, which includes an investigator this gets the audience drawn into the movie and ask questions.

• Crime thrillers also usually follow a troubled and confused character, who has had some form of a distorted background. Throughout a crime thriller, this mysterious troubled character is slowly revealed through hints about his background, which are usually shown as flash backs. 

• There are usually two main crime scene characters, whos personalitiys are binary opposites; one is all serious and formal, where as the other is the opposite and is very unformal, which is usually a handsome character. These two main crime scene characters are also usually well know actors, such as Morgan freeman, who has a reputation in playing the role of a detective.

• The location involves bad whether, such as rain, which prevents the investigaters from getting on with their work. This slows the narrative down, which gives the criminals more time to carry on their illegal crimes, this builds up the plot and leads it to a climax, which allows the audience to stay tunned in the film, as they want to see the villains succeed and over power the criminals.

Action/thriller (Bourne identity)

1)

a. Conventions: in action thrillers, we gathered that the characters are really skilled at fighting, which builds tension. The protagonist always runs into trouble because of the antagonist, which makes the audience want the protagonist to succeed and win. they are usually always younger than the antagonist, which attract the young female and some male audience, as they are usually attractive.  Another convention that is used, is guns and money, which build up a narrative around violence, which stereotypically males conventions, which targets them.
The shots used, are usually a variety of parallel shots, long shots of the location, so the audience can identify it and 180 (degree) rule.
The loaction is usually set in well known locations, which makes the audience feel important as they can identify the location.
The music is always upbeat and fast, when action is occuring, which creates tension.


b.  The main protagonist character (Matt Damon)  is introduced at the beginning of the film, so the audience can build a relationship with him and  gets to know who he is and get his background information, such as in Bourne, we learn that he does not know who he is. The title is represented through the character, as he does not know his identity.
The main antagonist characters are also introduced, which creates tension as they are trying to find the protagonist.
Both, the antagonist and protagonist, have a helper(s) in order for them to succeed in their mission.


c. The parallel shots shows two bits of action as the same time, which builds up tension as they are edited in a fast pace and the audience have an idea that the two parallel shots will come into one and create a tense action scene. The clips have been edited to create continuity, as the audience understand what is happening.

Political conventions for the thriller - The Constant Gardener

normal thrillers are similar to political thrillers, however the narrative just revolves around a certain political issue.

political thrillers are usually based in different countries, like in this film where it is based in Kenya. 

Poverty is a main political feature of this film.

The government get involved with the character when he is pushing boundaries to try and solve the case of his murdered wife.

There is always a protagonist trying to prove their innocence.

Protagonists getting into trouble with the law whilst finding out who the murderer of his wife is

as the film goes on, more and more of the clues unravel. find out problems of the government and healthcare.

Get to see how the poverty hits Kenya, how the people live.

Pshycological Thriller conventions of 'Disturbia'

The protagonist is unusual as he is a teenage male, who has been made to stay within a certain distance from his house as he has been in trouble by the police by punching his high school teacher. After this, the character develops an obsession with trying to catch his next door neighbor as he realises that he is a psyhco killer. 
The theme of the film 'Disturbia' is dark- also the audience can get an idea of the narrative by the film title. 
The film has twists in the pot which opens questions for the audience- for example, the antagonist acts friendly with the protagonists mother to get everyone thinking that the character is making up stories in his boredom. Which then makes the character want to prove his innocence and that he is not making up things, but is telling the truth.
The antagonist has a fascination with death and has had to dodge the law and create different identities where he has moved from state to state. His house has secret rooms and passageways where he keeps dead corpses and disguises to create mental stress for the protagonist.

conventions of a political thriller

Conventions-

• threat is set against aback drop of political struggle
• plot is designed to give political power to somebody while the opponent tries to prevent it
• innocent people drawn into political world
• proving innocence
• different locations
• different cultures/ countries
• Deceit- false hero
• 'helper' character is important

conventions of a psychological thriller

Conventions-

• crime twist- tricks
• end on a cliff hanger- not always a resolution
• clever/ unusual plots
• questions reality- even the audience aren't sure what to believe
• unusual heroes- everyday characters
• themes are often dark
• memory/ dreams etc- focusses on one
• characters have a fascination with death
• typical narrative stricture not used
• parallel edits are common
• use of flashbacks
• characters in conflict with their own mind
• two characters preying on each others minds danger in mental level rather than physical level
• mystery is important 

Conventions of the thriller- Seven

The film seven meets the conventions of a thriller as the film starts off with the well known actors trying to solve a crime. This sets out questions for the audience to answer which makes them want to keep watching. in the crime scenes, dim, artificial lighting is used which is a convention of a thriller. This is followed by the titles which give the audience an idea of the narrative, as the photos set out an idea of what the character that is yet to be introduced is really like. The title also give us an idea of how the title of the film represents the film. The deaths aren't ordinary, and the audience never see anyone getting killed.
The protagonist, Detective somerset, is isolated and lives alone. The other police don't like him- he is smart and controlling and likes to work alone. His choice of weapon is a knife, not a gun, as he thinks there is less chance of him making a mistake. His binary opposite is a younger detective who has been transferred from the suburbs and is played by another well known actor, Brad Pitt.
This thriller is set in the city so that the characters have no where to escape.

Conventions of a Thriller

Conventions-

• Music is dark which creates a gloomy atmosphere.
• Low key lighting - dark/shadows
• Titles give a clue about the narrative
• Takes an ordinary situation and makes it extra ordinary
• Binary opposites- protagonist (hero) and antagonist (villain)  
• Villain causes problems for protagonist
• See protagonist in peril
• False equilibrium- plot twists
• Female objectifications
• Voyeurism - audience is voyeur
• Themes of mistaken identity - mirroring, illusion
• Protagonist is often isolated- achilles heel weakness

Preliminary task

On 4/1/11 we filmed the preliminary task. firstly we draw out storyboard and our shot list before going to film our task, so we knew the sequence of the shots that we needed to film.
we then filmed kelly walking down the corridor, besides the library and internet cafe., which was an establishing shot. We then did the close up shot of Kelly's hand opening the door to the internet cafe. this shot was followed by the match on action shot to show kelly walking into the room then a reaction shot was used to show Beth's reaction of kelly walking through the door. next, a long shot was used to show kelly walking through to sit with Beth and the sequence finished with us using the 180 degree rule for Beth and Kelly's conversation which consisted of three over the shoulder shots. we filmed each shot more than once to ensure we got the best shot possible.

On 7/1/11 we edited out film in final cut pro. after capturing the shot we had to begin sorting through our clips so we could cut them at the right point so each clip flowed in to the other. we included transitions such as fades to make the whole thing more fluent.