When we got into our group, we quickly gathered all our ideas together and went through each individual’s idea picking out favourite specific details in each and considered ways to bring all the chosen details together to form an effective, successful opening sequence towards our thriller. For example, from my idea, my group and I particular liked the use of shots that I offered, including long shots, extreme close ups and many more of a young girl and a man. We also decided on who we wanted in our thriller by taking inspiration from my ideas, from the way I presented my two characters to look and appear, for example, having an older man wearing black dark clothes and contrastingly having a young girl featuring. Also for instance, we unpicked the best part of Jess’s and came to conclude we wanted out thriller to be located in a maze.
Therefore, my group and I primarily decided to mainly use Jess’s idea as her thriller was located in a maze, we wanted to set our thriller in a maze as we wanted to film something creative and original, and found a maze has never been used before within thrillers at Hurtwood, so this creates imaginative aspects and originality. However, when discussing a story line, we preferred Ella’s idea as a base line, so we confidently mixed the two ideas together as we found these two elements would effectively help build the tension and suspense within our new thriller.Story Line:
Our initial idea consists of a girl that had a nightmare one night whilst she was in a maze and a scary man steadily followed her through the maze. The girl started to have a nightmare each night, but her consistent nightmares quickly flowed into a story, so it was not a new nightmare but a nightmare, which carried on. During the day the girl is seen to be stressed about the situation and would frequently start to get visions of her nightmare in everyday situations and routines. For example, if there were a mirror at some point during her day, she would see the exact same mirror in her nightmare too. The girl started becoming confused about what was happening but at the end she understands that her nightmare is actually her death and the visions were just signs of awareness leading to her death, to tell her the moment was coming. This nightmare carries on for 6 days until the seventh day while she was sleeping, the nightmare actually becomes reality and she ends with her death so she never woke up. The whole film is based on this nightmare and her visions and the struggle she has to go through to try and understand the visions and the idea of trying to chase time.
Opening Sequence:
The opening sequence is the introduction to her nightmare. We are met with an establishing shot of the maze to set the location and we will then have an immediate extreme zoom, so the camera suddenly enters the maze and immediately follows the girl, who is trying to find her way out; so we have many different shots of her running and walking around in the maze. It is all dark and smoky and the girl is standing in her nighty, holding a lit lantern and is very confused hinting aspects of frightfulness; she doesn’t understand why she is positioned where she is or what she’s doing. We then introduce a long shot of her walking oppositely to the camera and we have contrasting feet walking in front of the camera, appearing from nowhere and we are then met with a figure that is starting to follow her. We have many shots showing contrasts between the two figures creating steady build up of tension throughout the sequence. Then the girl starts suddenly running as she hears noises but is stopped by the reflection of herself, as she meets with a dirty, full length mirror. She starts to look at her reflection and notices how scared and terrified she is until she sees in the reflection, a figure of a man in the distance standing behind her, the same man that was following her. She then turns quickly around to see whose there and the figure is gone and nothings behind her, confused she turns very slowly around and instead of seeing her reflection in the mirror she realizes the mans the reflection and not the mirror. The girl gets so scared she drops her lamp and it suddenly switches off, leaving the audience with a black out screen.
Possible Problems:From overviewing my thriller idea, I have created a few main drawbacks, however my group and I are prepared for any obstacles that might appear but we are prepared to carry on whatever the condition or situation. For example:
- The location could be an issue as we could have problems finding a maze, however we have thought of alternatives to either film it in the woods or in a building.
- Filming the maze could be a challenge as we wish to use a drone to establish our wide-angle shots but we might have difficulty in finding a drone.
- Weather could change our plans but it shouldn’t stop us from doing anything.
- Lighting could affect our shots, as we have to rely on daylight and a small lantern.
- If we decide to shoot in the dark, we are going to have less time to film.
Inspiration:
- We were inspired by ‘Harry Potter – Maze’ for our location as we found this clip every effective and useful for our thriller. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCR1gAurnoI)
- Similarly, for our mirror idea, ‘The Woman in Black – The window scene’, also inspired us, creating suspense and tension where appropriate. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od_XDxlOlUw)- We were also inspired by a previous thriller as they use a drone to the same effect as we want to.
- Lastly, when researching I found a young actress for our cast, named ‘Martha Dancy’.
- From completing research, we found a maze in ‘Hever Castle’ looks most beneficial for us and suitable for our thriller.
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