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.

For Next Time

From listening to Matt and Luke’s feedback, my group and I will respond to their comments positively and constructively. For example, we will start to rebuild and construct new fresh ideas for our thriller opening sequence and now know that we need to start with something small and tight instead of thinking big. I have found our aim is not to try to scare people, but to think of it as a thriller and not a horror.

From listening to Matt, I understand that we need to look and start thinking about situations of what’s going on in the news, and get ideas from current news articles instead of ideas from our heads or convocations. This is because, I learnt from Matt and Luke that ideas work when individuals rebuild real things that have happened in their lives or which they have been affected by or through research and therefore this then creates accurate, successful results.

Feedback from Matt and Luke

Feedback

Overall, Matt and Luke did not like the concept of our idea, as they thought it was based too much around a horror, rather than a thriller. Matt started out by stating one of worst ways to end a thriller is on that end beat of it all being a dream as it is too predictable to do as an opening sequence. However, they thought our ideas were cool and thoroughly thought out, as they were admiring the imagery we created, the props picked, and the location of a maze. They also pleasingly said they liked the idea with an arc and Cassandra complex, of the idea of being able to see into the future and can’t do anything about it and no ones listening to you; but we need to draw close attention to what are trying to show and what we want to do.

So therefore, Matt considered ways of approaching this, for example, he said maybe its better to progress forward by moving on wholesale with the idea as the practicality is going to be hard, for instance filming in a maze and they said a maze is a film cliché. By filming in a maze, only you can personally experience it and not the viewer, so after we’ve filmed opening shot/ establishing shot, the maze could just be three hedges as audience wouldn’t know. However they stated three key problems, getting our equipment there, fear of getting lost and the risk of no leaves on the hedges due to the weather or season. Also, they said shooting mirrors are really difficult to film and work with.

Therefore, they said we’ve got good opening salver of ideas and it is all really well thought, for instance, as we tracked down the maze and considered using a drone and they also appreciated the thought of the lantern as this is sticking to a different time era and portrays aspects of Victorian times. But, they concluded that its time to start thinking of next set of ideas by considering what’s around us, what we’ve got access to, what we’ve got abundance of and also remembering when film making, one could either go massive or really small but we don’t loose the concept of the idea as its still the same level of effectiveness.

One of the main problems was the practicality within filming in a maze, however my group and I were fully prepared by saying we have contacted different mazes, for example, Heaver Castle, Hampton Court, Tulleys farm and we had also contacted Denbies vineyard as a back up and alternative. From coming prepared with contacted information, Matt and Luke were very impressed and fell more engaged into what we were saying, but there were still obstacles in the way.

Overall, they concluded we’ve gone too big, and found problems within practicality of the maze, and they found it hard to connect to our character. So therefore, we need to start thinking of something small and tight and move past what is scary and go find something, which is thrilling.

Preparation for pitching to Matt and Luke

My group and I pitched our chosen idea to Matt and Luke on Wednesday. In preparation we produced a presentation including relevant, appropriate information towards our idea. Our presentation also consists of the problems Mike came across in our last pitch and how we’ve overcome them or considered other possibilities. Even though we had already been given constructive criticism from Mike, my group and I were prepared for more from Matt and Luke.

 

Media pitch from hannahbeapalmer1

Test Shoot