Another Update For Our Thriller Film

We have now finally got the rest of our footage for thriller film. Therefore we have now been able to edit all the footage and we will be finished very soon.

Titling Practise

Me and Stef decided to do some titling practise for our opening to our thriller film. I think it turned out quite well, a lot of work went into this effect. I think this effect will link very well with what our film is about. This is because our film includes a lot of uses of technology.

Thriller Opening (Planning): The Risk Assessment and Shooting Schedule

Below is the shooting schedule and the risk assessment we filled out before we started shooting for the thriller opening. They aren't too clear due to the camera we were using but you can still read it at least a little bit.

Thriller Opening (Planning): Thought Process 2

Here is the second part of our thought process for our opening sequence. It consists of the character profiles, the soundtrack, more costume ideas and some ideas for props for the opening.

Update on Film

We have recently tried to film the opening for our thriller film, we like the footage we have so far but I personally think we need to get some more footage to make it longer and to make the storyline flow better. There for we are going to have to set another date soon, as to when we are going to film once more.
Another update will be published when we decide on the date and what we need to film.

Schedule (day of filming update)

We will be filming most of the opening of the film on the 20th January 2015, from when it gets dark onwards, to create a good atmosphere.

Gender Roles Within Our Thriller Film

In the thriller opening that me and Stef are making, there is going to be 1 male character and 4 female characters within the film. Therefore we must use male and female representations to help show our audience get into to the film faster and get them to understand the characters.

For example, the mother character went insane from thinking that she was seeing ghosts in her house, therefore the female representation that we are using to make her quite a stereotypical female is overly emotional (this is what led her to become insane).

Alternatively, the male character is very strong and independent, like that he is going in the house by himself because he wants to prove himself to be a powerful and worthy ghost hunter.

Camera Angles and Shot review



Long Shot

Over the Shoulder/ shot/ reverse shot

Two Shot

 

Low Shot

High Shot

Close Up

Extreme Close Up

Establishing Shot

I have been looking at camera angles and looking what looks good and what would look good in our film. I think we should include at least one of all of these shots within our thriller film.

Idea For First Shot

This is what we are planning to use in our thriller movie as well as the first camera shot within the opening.

Thriller opening (Planning): Thought Process 1

Here is the first part of our thought process for our opening sequence. It consists of the ideas for the plot, the script, costume ideas and mise-en-scene for the opening. Me and Stefanie will update about costume in a later blog.

Company Logo

 

The title of our company will be 'LockDoor Productions' and our logo within this title would be the vault and the lock, varying between the two. We decided on this after we had no inspiration for a company name and we ended up agreeing on an idea which we came across when we spotted a sign saying, "The door needs to be locked." We somewhat went with this idea as well because it sounds like the name for a horror or thriller type of film company.

One Page Pitch

We did a one-page pitch to pitch our ideas of our movie towards a producer of some kind to look at.

Working title: Systems Down
Film Genre: Psychological Thriller
Length: 110 minutes
Target Audience: 15- 24 year olds
Why?: This is because of the genre of the film and content that’s within the film itself, the suspense and fantasy type of feel to it from the ghosts, an audience younger than 15 may think of it as something real, as though ghosts do genuinely exist. We believe that the audience will be all genders but it may appeal more to the males who typically like ghost and thriller movies more, stereotypically anyway. This is meant for an audience who’s not so much as a serious film goer but watches it for just entertainment and for those who enjoy movies like paranormal activity for example, just films that would keep the audience on edge.
Tag-line: Murder doesn’t stop when you’re dead.
What if premise: What if the psychotic thoughts of a woman drove her to destruction yet still lingered, even in the afterlife? What if the woman who sees ghosts, turns out to be the ghost?
Plot Synopsis: The protagonist is a beginner ghost hunter who has encountered an advertisement, asking for help about something ‘spooky’ occurring within the house. Taking up the job of investigating, he goes to the house to only come across the owner of the house and talk to her about the issues occurring, after hearing the information on the happenings within the facility.
He then installs cameras about several rooms that the owner reported the strange happenings occurred in, the cameras are known to pick up ghosts. He then travels back to the kitchen where he’d set up his ‘base’ before looking through the cameras at midnight, when the occurrences were rumoured to start, he then noticed the ghosts stood before the camera. Staring in awe, he then checked other cameras through the system and spotted them in different locations.
These ghosts seemed docile at first before gradually growing quite fierce and restless as they slowly noticed the man’s existence within the kitchen and slowly approached the kitchen as he could see through the cameras where they were and how fast they approached him.
One by one, the cameras start to go down, showing only static as he falls into fear and panic. Looking up though, slowly from the screen, he spots the three ghosts before him as they just seem to stare at him. Before they decide to take his life though, he catches a glimpse of their past and what had happened to them.
Statement of Intent: This was inspired by the game Five Nights at Freddy’s but has obviously taken a slight turn as we altered accordingly to not be seen as plagiarism. We wanted to tell this story because of it being chilling and it takes a twist of things, as some plot twists occur within it. The audience in the younger range of our audience may take a thrill of all the events that occur so we are hoping they will enjoy it. It’s a film over a TV drama because of it being cut so short as the main protagonist is *spoilers* ‘killed off’ by the ghosts with grudges, hence why it’s a film, also, it’d be difficult to figure out how to continue it.
Visual Realisation: We have realised that a similar thing has been done but with Paranormal Activity though ours isn’t a mockumentary style, instead it’s simply more like a point of view film. The Babadook is how we wish to portray our film as its recent and uses effects that we’ll be able to find now but in particular, how things are shot is good as well. The dialogue is limited to only a little as this is found during the opening sequence mainly with the woman explaining the events that have been occurring before the ghost hunter arrived on the scene.
Audience Appeal: We understand that our target audience may go for things that are visually scary and enjoy watching things to do with the paranormal, believing in the possibility of them existing, so we decided to add in some plot twists as well which would keep the audience on edge as that is what is assumed that the audience will enjoy, an example of the plot twist is that the woman who currently owns this house is actually a ghost.

We decided on some young actors as well, such as Emma Watson as an example as she’s a young actress who appeals to our young male audience that we’re hoping to gain, as well as popular actors such as Josh Hutcherson from the Hunger Games to appeal to a female audience and hopefully attract their attention.

Practicing Lighting Shots with Stef

 

I decided to practice different lighting shots to create different moods that I could use within the thriller opening that me and Stef will be making. I really like the 1st and 3rd picture with the lighting shining up on the face and the lighting shining down. The light shining up gives a thrilling sense for the audience in my opinion and is quite the cliche lightning style. The light shining down shot gives a little bit of chills.

Starting Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for our thriller movie opening so far, it's just a rough outline of what we're thinking of making.

The Original Drafting and Planning Process

This was the original ideas sheet we used to figure out what we were going to do for our thriller opening, let alone how we'd do it as we thought about certain things to do and went through a couple of ideas as well, for example, mannequins that would go about a house that was seen as an attraction, these are now ghosts with masks.

Prop for Ghost Characters

Masks For The Ghosts

For our film their will be people dressed like ghosts. To get the effect of a ghost, the people who are acting in our film will be wearing masks like these, this is because we want them to have no expression and look blank, we want them to  have a 'death' like look to them. But also have a real person look to them. Therefore making them look like 'living death'.

Possible location for our film

Abandoned/Possessed/Haunted House 

This will be made to look a lot scarier, and the lights will be low to created a suspicious and dark atmosphere.