Pre-Prodcution: Location

Looking for location was a bit of a challenge, as we want our thriller to be filmed in a small, empty room, almost cell like, however many places were over our budget. Therefore, we alternatively looked at filming our thriller in the studio at school. From doing this comes many advantages, for example, the costing’s will fortunately massively reduce as the school can provide us with equipment. There will always be availability and we can design the location exactly how we want it to look, having easy access to many things. The lighting will be easier to work with as we can control the lighting however we want it.

In order for personal preferences to be achievable, we have drawn a set design of what we intend for our thriller to look like. We will also talk to them face to face, to see if there our any problems and so the designers have a clear idea of our set.

Pre-Production: Props Order Confirmation

Pre-Production: Props

For our props, we bought 300-400 different types of old keys varying in sizes and style. We decided to use old keys as it will show contrast against the modern set and it will be more effective on camera than silver yale keys. Similarly the actor is not use to old keys on an everyday basis, so it will confuse him even more. We also looked at large, bulky, old padlocks for under our budget. We found ‘Amazon’, ‘Ebay’ and ‘Not on the hightstreet’ gave us the best results. 

When the old padlock and the key arrived, we realised the key was silver and would easily be spotted between the golden old keys, so we decided to spray paint it. When the old padlock and the key arrived, we realised the key was silver and would easily be spotted between the golden old keys, so we decided to spray paint it. 

Pre-Production: Makeup update

I researched alternatives incase Sasha couldn't do it the makeup. I firstly looked on youtube for some inspirational special effects makeup. There were many videos I found but I chose the best three videos that helped me and inspired me.

I also then looked up makeup to buy on eBay and
Amazon including, fake blood, spirit gum and liquid latex which fitted in my budget.

Pre-Production: Makeup and Costume

 The costume we intend the character to wear is a black suit tie or a tuxedo. My group and I want him to wear a suit, as we want him to look mature, practical and the representation of a spy. We firstly asked our actor if he has a suit or we will also order a suit if not. From research, I found some potential suits he could wear in our budget. Alternatively, to reduce costing’s we have also emailed our costume designer at school for possibilities. We emailed Elizabeth, a costume designer who works in the Drama department to see whether she has a suit that we can borrow.

As we want our character to have bruises and cuts across his face, we asked Sasha, a makeup artist to create special fx makeup on his face. We sent her email regarding whether she is able to do this or not. We have researched equipment under our budget of we need for our special effective makeup.

Pre-Production: Casting

Firstly for our pre-preduction, we looked at casting as we realised this is a crucial aspect to our thriller. It is essential that our actor will suitably fit our sequence and be able to easily do what we tell him to. We wanted our actor to look and act similarly to James Bond, so we considered using Phillip Ward, a media teacher who looks between 25-40 years of age. We also considered using Ben Radcliffe, a theatre student as an alternative, whom we could make look early 20’s through the use of makeup and costume.

We emailed both these people requesting to be in our thriller, and quickly got a response from Phillip Ward unfortunately saying he could not be in it as he lacked acting skills. So therefore, we are still waiting on response from Ben to reply, however he has been asked to be in several so he might not be able to do it, in which case we will consider using someone else for the role.

Pre-Production: Storyboard

We created a storyboard to visually consider some shots and camera angles we want to use. For instance, we included high and low angled shots, mid long shots and close ups to enhance different angles on frustration and to confuse the viewer. We also planned to begin our opening sequence with a slow pan using a dolly track, starting at the characters feet and gradually moving to his face to allow the audience members to immediately establish the characters appearance. My group and I decided we are deliberately going to start the shots slow and steadily, and then when tension builds the shots will similarly increase and become faster to exaggerate the panic and tenseness in the atmosphere. Our storyboard has helped us to generate a rough sketch of approximately how it will look.

Pre-Production: Moodboard

To prepare for our thriller, we created a moodboard consisting of the main elements that inspired us.

We discovered various different photos on the Internet considering similar props, costumes, makeup and set design. We made a moodboard to arrange and evoke our ideas more clearly of what we visually had in mind. For example, the costumes that inspired our sequence suitably would be a smart, light suit as this familiarises the audience with a stereotypical spy. The makeup designs we considered for our male character included deep bruises, cuts and scrapes across his face to portray he’s previously been beaten up.

We similarly looked at the set design and props and considered which door to use, for instance, we thought about using a heavy-duty door; we want to use this, as the male character will have no way of breaking down a heavy, metal door. Conveniently we researched hard, weighty padlocks, additionally considering a padlock the protagonist would not be able to easily break.

For our props, as we are using keys, we researched possible yale keys as well as old keys and consider which is more tolerable. Equivalently we looked at inspiration for the way we will also present them.

Opening Sequence in more detail

For our opening sequence, I have considered many different choices and alternatives for specific details. For example, firstly my group and I needed to decide options to show the audience time was running out. By using time as pressured mechanism, it allows the tension to rapidly build within our sequence, and allows the protagonist to have a reason for needing to escape; he then will act with more panic to force even more intensity. Primarily, we thought of having a note stuck on the door for when he try’s a key or on a clock letting him know times running out, this allows us to include
loud pleonastic sounds within our thriller.

Lighting

We considered having the lighting to be dim and subtle to build immediate, automatic tension throughout. Potentially a small light would be ideal to give the idea of darkness and it will change the way, some audience member’s perspectives, instead of having a bright, harsh flashing light.

Props

For our props, we are only using a padlock and several keys. We are considering whether to use modernised normal keys or old ancient keys. The point in using the keys are for the actor to panic more easily and this leads to him dropping the keys as he is constantly fumbling to find the right key. He will begin to become very frustrated and signs of fright will appear, as his hands will become slightly shaky.

Sounds

My group and I have considered using sounds throughout such as a soundtrack of non-diegetic sound, for example, a heartbeat or a beat to add an increasing dramatic effect. This will keep playing with the audience’s minds and keep them alert for anything to happen, as the sounds will increase at tense moments in the thriller.

Ending

The opening sequence could finish in many different ways, for instance, firstly he could just find the correct key and escape from the room just in time, allowing the audience to see an outside space when he has opened the door; or the audience could see another room the same size with exactly the same set up of keys as the pervious room he has just escaped, so therefore he will have to find the correct key again to escape the next room. Or differently, he could open the door and he could just be met with a concrete wall, showing there was no way of him escaping anyway even if he hadn’t found the correct key. Or lastly, it could end with him turning the key but the audience is left without knowing if he will escape or not as the thriller will cut off before the door opens, leaving audience members asking thrilling questions.

We will continue developing our ideas and specific details to produce more information for our pre-production information.


Pitching our new idea to Matt and Luke

As our previous idea wasn’t as successful as we intended it to be, my group and I learnt from our mistakes and created a new thriller idea. When we built our idea we considered all of Matt and Luke’s appropriate, helpful and beneficial comments from our pitch from our previous thriller.

When pitching our idea to Matt and Luke for the second time, we were more prepared for constructive criticism. We all similarly spoke with confidence and understanding of our thriller and all notably remembered the most effective techniques towards a successful pitch. In preparation, my group and I produced a detailed overview of our story line and the opening sequence including relevant, clear information towards our idea.

Story Line

When creating the story line, I tired to make it as simple as possible as I find this is most effective, therefore the story line is simple and straightforward and leaves audience members asking questions. I watched many different films and news documentary to help be inspired for my thriller. For example, the character ‘James Bond’ in the film ‘Spectre’ inspired us to construct our idea, as we know the character well and therefore could adapt our creativity to alter the character into something unique and original. Our film will be based around a male character, allowing the audience to focus on him as he is shown to be the hero in the movie.

We have created two alternative ideas for our story line, for instance, the first idea is having a male character represented as a hero as he is caught up in a mysterious mission allowing him to follow people and kill villain’s but similarly at the same time the villain’s can hunt him down to avoid him killing them. So therefore, the whole film is an ongoing chase of action between the hero and villains. From this story line, the opening sequence could connect to a mission he was completing but the villain’s find him and beat him up by wanting to torture him for the rest of his life instead of killing him straight away.

The other story line is based around a young man with a very basic lifestyle, including a simple, ordinary job, and living alone with his younger sister who needs serious care, as she is ill. They don’t have any parents, as they both died in a car crash. From his parent’s loss, a lot of problems have started to abrupt. For example, he doesn’t have enough for himself and his sister’s everyday needs, let alone to provide enough money to pay for a cure for his sister’s illness.  Although, one day he meets a woman who surprisingly can help his sister and will pay for her treatment to cure her, however he has to kill several people in return for her helping his sister get better. From him either completing this crime or not, he is putting someone’s life in danger whatever he chooses to do, as if he kills someone he puts his life at risk but is he doesn’t his sister doesn’t receive any treatment. However, he decides to put his life at risk and goes round killing targeted people the women demands he kills. From murdering several people, he begins to have enemies that want to kill him too, but he saves his sibling’s life.

Opening Sequence

The opening sequence is located in a small, cold, empty grey room, almost looking like a cell, to portray the effect claustrophobia and this will help to build tension. We will include a big heavy-duty door with a single padlock on it and hundreds of keys spread all over the floor. Our opening sequence consists of a male protagonist with bruises and cuts on his face waking up, in the small confined room, confused about where he is. He wakes up to find lots of different keys directly in front of his eyes and soon realises he needs to get out of this room. However, he recognises the door is locked and he needs to quickly find the correct key to get out, although time is rapidly running out.

From pitching our story line and the opening sequence to Matt and Luke, their feedback overall was positive and very effective and therefore they gave us approvable for our idea. They said they felt they could connect to our character and quoted “it could be a very successful opening sequence.” Their advice for us was now to think of all the different possibilities for the character to get more frustrated and tense, for example, through the use of sound of a clock ticking or screaming from other victims.