Firstly, we looked back at the sub-genres we had come across when researching thrillers in general and discussed which ones we believed we could create effectively before concentrating on two in particularly. We liked the idea of a psychological sub-genre, however we were also interested in including a crime and mystery sense within this, aiming to combine the two together. We looked at both of these in more detail to consider how this could be done to its best.
- Psychological sub-genre: we understood that this element of genre often included mystery and drama to enable it to establish the particular effect it was looking for and we took this into account. Having watched a lot of thrillers to enable us to associate ourselves to the experienced writers and understand the effects they use, i have seen that this particular sub-genre focuses much more on the characters themselves than other thrillers. Most tend to look at characters as being representations of a particular stereotype rather than looking at them as an individual and there personality, mostly using the surroundings to create the thrill they are looking for. I much prefer this, believing that the audience would have a larger reaction if they are able to relate to a character and become interested in wanting to figure them out if they are brought to their attention more often. I also read that although there tends to be two or more characters messing with each others minds here, it can sometimes be that one character alone needs to learn to resolve conflicts and control there own minds, relating to spilt personalities perhaps.
- Crime sub-genre: this is a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime and often concentrate on the criminal or victim rather than the person trying to prevent it. This could include any element of crime such as bank robberies, escaping from prison, murder, rape, abductions etc. we will try and include one of these elements within our opening of a thriller, helping to convey the psychological issues our character will have, having the ability to carry one something like this. This would also help us widen the audience in which would be interested in our thriller, making it interesting to a wider range of people.
After much thought we briefly outlined that our story would be about before realising that we needed to decide on a location before planning further, enabling us to make as much use out of this as possible. We wanted somewhere that looked unusual and different from those locations that i found a lot of media students tend to use. We also wanted to be sure that no one else would be familiar with this location, keeping the mystery element in which we wanted our thriller to have. When considering the clips we wanted to be shot, we needed to show a house within a scary environment as the audience would have to be able to see both at the same time to help them to establish a link between them both. Knowing this, we understood that we were unable to film around more than one house and therefore housing estates seemed highly inappropriate, as did any busy environment. Ideally, we needed to find a house that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, situated away from civilisation - a scary element to include within a thriller in itself. Living in Baswich we realised that it would be difficult to find what we were looking for due to the street lights and amount of houses that were situated far to close to one another. We decided to travel to Brocton to do our filming, remembering that a friend lived there, situated around what we believed would be perfect for our particular thriller. We found a number of interesting locations around here, believing that we could make much use of not just the land, but of the creaky doors and the slightly Victorian look of the house itself. We believed we could make good use of the moody lane, leading towards the house and of the half broken fences which looked particularly scary. This location gave a real sense of chill and perhaps even confusion, idyllic for our thriller.
Having decided on the location and realising what would be effective here, we then developed our plot around this. We asked lots of people what kind of story line they would prefer to watch in relation to thrillers, both media students and others not associated with this cause and found that a high percentage of them would like a psychological element to be included. We went on to develop this. We decided that i would act as the main character and would suffer from psychological issues, being oblivious to whatever crime it would be that i would commit. We believed this would make an interesting opening to a thriller.
We went on to create a detailed account of our film ensuring that all the factors were considered and thought about. These factors include; Mise en scene, costume and make-up, location, characters, audience, the danger/threat, audio and lighting and the shots and editing we would use.
Mise en scene: the majority of the film will be set at night and will therefore be dark and not very well lit. It will be situated in an abandoned like house around large fields, giving us plenty of space to work with. The dark alley ways will also be made use out of in which the character will be seen walking back to the house by. The surroundings will be scary with a secretive feel and it will be quite. Diagetic sound will help convey this. We want the main character to seem normal during the beginning of the opening, enabling the audience to relate to them, because of this we will ensure that the props within the shots that can be seen in the house are what would usually be there.
Costume: the main character will be in her pajamas, as due to the filming being done at night this gives it a realistic feel, also adding to this feel of normality, the character will also have no makeup on, as this would have been taken off before she went to bed. Due to her going outside in these however, shows that she is a little confused and would be seen as unusual, disorientating the reader a little perhaps. We will also aim to exaggerate this, showing clips of the characters feet and that she does not have any shoes on even though she is walking in the mud and having her in a short sleeved top rather than a long one, making the audience believe that she would be cold, yet has not put a jumper on for example. Ketchup and make-up elements will be used in the killing scene, hoping to show the pain he must be in and to try and make it look more realistic.
Location: this has previously been discussed. The house will be old and Victorian like, fitting in with the surroundings. The surroundings will be quite and only land and sheds will be seen.
Characters: due to our plot, we need two further characters (victims) along with the main one (villain). We wanted these characters to be around the same age and represent what we believe to be typical of teenage, using them as stereotypes in some way. We decided on two friends that were willing to help, both aged 18. The main character will be me, aged 16.
Audience: this has been considered throughout the planning. We decided to try and aim our thriller to suit the fifteen and over label, making it thrilling enough to be effective, rather than only being able to use small horror elements. We will use effective shots which we believe will convey what we want to the best and will also ensure that our film can be understood to some extant although we still want them to be left with questions to ask afterwards.
Danger: due to the shortness of the film, the audience will be evident of the danger quite quickly, however we still aim to not give to much away and leave the audience slightly unsure as to why the main character is doing this. Having come across a number of effective techniques, we also decided that we would tilt the camera slightly in some cases, to somewhat, distort the audience.
Sound: we would definitely use non-diagetic music throughout our clip, believing it helps give across the mood and create a more scary atmosphere, particularly in relation to a thriller. Due to our environment we will be filming in, we will also include some diagetic sounds - ones heard in the background as these tend to be quite scary anyway, such as the creaky sound when opening the doors etc and we will also include a few lines of dialogue. We aim for the music track to fit in with the film efficiently and intrigue the audience.
Lighting: We will use very low key lighting when doing the outside scenes, causing the audience to have to concentrate fully however we will sure that the characters and what is going on is still visible. Most of our footage will be in the dark, and due to there being no natural lighting, this allowed us to control where it would be coming from etc. We will use the natural light in the morning scenes, but again, it will also be controlled within the house when it is dark. We will also use this effectively when editing, as having flashbacks in our piece, we will be changing the lighting of these sections to make it clear.
Shots/editing: we will aim to have a number of fast clips, helping to convey the amount of action happening on the killing scene. There will be two shots evident and close ups will also be effectively used, to help show the emotion of the characters.
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