Conventions

Conventions for our own Thriller movie:

Scene 1: Title Sequence

Conventions in our title sequence is that it is in a dark secluded basement where the camera is zooming over lots of dangerous tools or 'weapons'which are widely associated with thriller films. The basement is dark and creepy which also gives off the creepy thriller type we are trying to create. Because this is the title sequence too we are having creepy music playing over the top so people understand the genre of the film from the beginning.

Scene 2: The Woods

When Isabelle is walking through the woods, you can automatically tell thats it's quite mysterious and creepy because the path is small and the threes are enclosed, it is also borderline dark. And when the sociopath (Gary) comes out of the trees you can almost automatically tell which direction the film is going to go in.

Scene 4: In the basement
Firstly, Isabelle wakes up when she is tied up to a chair which obviousley means she's been captured. Then Gary closes up on her and you see the setting of the basement around her which automatically makes you relaises where she is from the first scene.

Music used in Thrillers

Thriller films use music that builds suspense. The music will start off quiet and thin and as the scene intensifies the music will become louder and thicker.

   Thriller films as a rule usually have non diegetic music playing in the background creating a sound bridge to create and determine the certain desired atmosphere. Orchestral music is also often used within films of the thriller genre. This all adds a lot of tension to the film causing the audience to have a feeling that something bad is going to happen soon in the film. The sound in thriller films also seems to start off at a slow pace and then the tempo gradually builds and speeds up to make the shot more dramatic to the audience. Also, another thing is that in thrillers, separate sounds seem to be emphasized on a lot, usually in the part of the climax, for instance, water droplets hitting the ground.

Film Plan 2

Wednesday 6th March

Scene: The Woods.
Eerie path enclosed with trees. This is the scene where Isabelle is kidnapped.

Scene: Basement 2
Dark basement, stone slab centre table. Peeling paint walls.
When Isabelle awakens

What is needed:
-Camera (Shelby)
-Props
-Plan

Synopsis full film

The full film would last 113 minutes. This is because Thriller films usually last around 110 to 140 minutes. 

A girl, Isabelle Taylor, was walking home from college, when her mother, Jane, rings her complaining that she is late. She hangs up and carries on walking, she is taken by a man, Gary Mordecai. 
Gary Mordecai lost his daughter, Harley, two years ago. She was taken and killed by two men, the body was never found. Gary believes that Isabelle is his daughter. Gary believes that she is still alive, and that she is Isabelle. 
Isabelle awakens in a strange basement, she's confused and doesn't know where she is. Gary is calling her a strange name, Harley. As it gets later, Jane begins to frequently ring her, she can't answer. Her hands are tied behind her back. Gary gets angry, but then calms himself and tells her the story of Harley. 
Her mother is getting worried, she goes to the police but they can't do anything for 48 hours. She nearly gives up when she finds her daughters charm bracelet. She then continuously rings her daughter's phone, hoping to hear it, even faintly. 
While Gary is upstairs, Isabelle attempts to escape but fails.
Her mother hears the familiar ringtone, and starts to connect the sound to a house. She realises the directions it’s coming from. She rings the police, and then she scours the garden for a heavy object. She finds a shovel next the sociopaths shed, and then calls the phone again. She realises that it’s coming from the basement and tries to find the window down to the basement. She hears the police sirens in the distance. But still realises it could be too late, so she gathers up her courage and smashes the window and jumps through. The man grabs a blade from his belt, and threatens to kill her daughter as the mother jumps down in to the basement.  
Her mother jumps in and the crazy man is holding the blade against her daughter’s neck. Then the mother speaks up ‘wait, I just want my daughter back’ and slowly puts the shovel down. And as her mother is trying to convince the man to let her daughter go, and the man moves away from her, the daughter silently picks up the shovel and smacks the man with the shovel around the head and he falls to the ground. They limp out of the basement window as the police arrive, collapsing in each other’s arms.

Film Plan

Date: 

25th of february.

Setting:

Stairfoot penine trail. 

Eerie forest path, plenty of trees, and will be dusk by that time so it will look creepy.

Second setting:

Basement.

Stone slab table, dark with peeling paint.

Third setting:

Kitchen.

Modern kitchen, got knives and plates and pans in it and stuff. 

We will need:

- Camera

-Costume/ props

-Make up

Synopsis first 2 minutes- Awake

Awake

First two minutes

Gary Mordecai, a 42 year old unemployed man is sat in a dark basement, around him are pictures of his daughter, Harley, who was kidnapped and murdered two years ago. He sits writing and sketching in his journal. Mumbling to him self. There are medium close up on the name he has written down, these change to get different angles of him.

Long shot, a sixteen year old girl, Isabelle, is walking home from college through the woods on a narrow path. It's getting late when her phone rings, Medium close up. It's her mother, Jane, a 32 year old part time accountant. Jane shouts at Isabelle, short-reverse-shot is used, over the phone because she is late home, Isabelle rolls her eyes not taking in a word she is saying. She hangs up. Isabelle carries on walking, medium long shot, keeping her head down as she goes. Everything seems quiet and calm. She feels uncertainty and starts to walk faster. Gary appears from out of the trees and grabs Isabelle, medium shot. In a struggle, Isabelle's charm bracelet snaps (close up). Gary puts his hand over her mouth, muffling Isabelle's scream. Fade to black.

It cuts to the dark eerie basement. Gary's sketches and journals are sprawled all over the stone slab table. It cuts to an extreme close up of Isabelle's eyes as she opens them. Medium close up, She is tied to a chair. She starts to struggle, the obvious fear in her eyes, as she tries to break free. Medium long shot, Gary is sat in the corner, staring ahead of Isabelle. He seems to be mumbling Harley to himself. Gary notices that she is awake, he walks over to her stuttering as he tries to talk to her,medium shot. He stops less than a meter away. Isabelle turns away turning her head, as if the smell of him repulses her. There is a close up of her phone as it starts to ring, the familiar ringtone of her mothers, she cant answer it. It cuts to a medium close up of Gary, as anger builds up in his eyes.

Research into a Similar Film

 

A film similar to ours would be Taken. Taken is a thriller which involves A man trying to save his kidnapped daughter. Our film is a thriller based around a girl getting kidnapped by a sociopath and her mother trying to get her back.

 

Taken has an average rating of 7.9/10 from 279,815 users, and made $24,717,037 on its opening weekend and went on to make $145,000,989 in total.

 

The phone scene from Taken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmO32IdwuE 

    



Title Sequence Research

SE7EN Title Sequence:
We are going to do a title sequence from inspiration of the film SE7EN because the beginning of our film starts with sociopath flicking through images and photos and writing down information and planning routes on paper hunched over his desk in a dark basement with barely any light. We were going to do the title seqence at this point because it creates the eerie feeling of which we are trying to provide within our film. Our main idea is to do a new title everytime he flicks or turns a page so the noise queues a new title.



I also thought the title sequence of the film BURIED was quite clever because it was only 3 colours, black, white and orange and it had a creepy basement kind of feeling to it as it went through. Although the lines made it seem quite sci-fi like, it also gave off the impression being quite strange. I just liked the way the words were formed around different objects and lines.

Thriller genre research

Thriller films are based around keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, they don’t have to be scary, they use anticipation and suspense to keep the audience tuned in.

Sub genres of thrillers are crime thrillers, action thrillers, religious thrillers, psychological thrillers and science fiction thrillers. There’s also another type of thriller, it’s not a sub genre, but more a term for a distinct, stylistic type of crime-drama or thriller that was popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Film-Noir is characterized by a black-and-white style with stark lighting effects. The main character is usually a cynical hero. Film-Noir relies on a narrative voice and various flashbacks to explain the intricate plot.

Notable thriller films:

 Se7en, Silence of the lambs, Shutter Island, Psycho.

Notable thriller directors:

Christopher Nolan

Alfred Hitchcock

David Fincher 

Music Idea

This is one of the possible songs that would be playing as Isabelle is walking through the woods and gets taken by Gary. I think this song would be appropriate because it gives you that eerie feeling, like what you'd get while you're walking through a dark, scary place on your own.

Script

Jane Taylor

Jane Taylor

Name: Jane Taylor

Age: 32

Height: 5'7

Hair colour: Brown

Eye colour: Blue  

Occupation: Part time accountant

Jane is a very brave determined woman who will stop at nothing 

to get her daughter back after she is kidnapped by Gary. She is very protective over her daughter, and easily worries about her. She also wishes she had a better relationship with Isabelle. With her being young she is in with the trends, she tries to act younger than she actually is. She gets along with Isabelle's friends which usually causes arguments between her and her daughter. just before her daughter was taken, they had an argument, Jane blames herself for her daughter being taken.

Part in film

Jane is the mother of Isabelle, with her protective nature she takes the burden of finding her daughter (after receiving no help from the local police). She starts to think all hope is lost untill she finds her bracelet. Nothing could stop her finding her daughter.

Settings

Setting One:
Scene one:
Setting one is in a dark basement with a large desk, and one chair and all light apart from a small lamp is blocked out.  The walls are all stone and grey, and the floor is concrete. It is too dark to make out any specific objects but there are dark silhouettes of what could be thought of as 'weapons'

Setting two:
Scene two:
Setting two is in an open field in the middle of winter so it is quite dark out at half 5, only a few streetlights surrounding the field are lighting up the area. On one side of the field is a lot of trees and then there is a path going through the field close to the trees.

Setting three:
Scene three:
In a house in the kitchen and living room. There is a dog to make it seem more homely. There is freshly prepared food laid out on plates, and the kitchen is a bit scattered with kitchen utensils.