Thrillers
A thriller is more psychological and requires more thought and explanation as to what happens within the film
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Conventions of a Thriller
-Low-key lighting
-Chase sequences
-Female protagonists
-Crime
-Emphasis NOT on killing
-Suspense driven
Thriller Film is a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense
What is a thriller film?
Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers moods giving them a high level of anticipation
Some examples of a thriller would be
- Get out
- Us
- Seven
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'Marion disappears after stealing money from her employer. Her lover and sister try to find her and end up reaching the infamous Bates Motel, where they meet Norman Bates.'
Psycho is a 1960 American psychological horror film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and written by Joseph Stefano. It stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, and Martin Balsam, and was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch.
Thriller films
In his classic horror film, Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock transforms Norman Bates, the film's villain, into the protagonist by exploring Norman's relationship with Marion Crane and his mother, and by manipulating the viewer through psychological and narrative techniques. Norman is the obvious antagonist he's a murdering psychopath. But at the same time, the antagonist isn't quite Norman, it's his mother. For most of the film, you think the mother is the murderer; it's only at the end that you realise that Norman and his mother are the same.
The Pelican Brief is a 1993 American legal thriller film based on the novel by John Grisham. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Julia Roberts in the role of young law student Darby Shaw and Denzel Washington as Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham. After two Supreme Court justices are killed by an assassin, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed.
The Pelican Brief grossed $100.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $94.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $195.3 million, against a production budget of $45 million
Panic Room is a 2002 American thriller film directed by David Fincher. The film stars Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart as a mother and daughter whose new home is invaded by burglars, played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam. The script was written by David Koepp.
Koepp's screenplay was inspired by news coverage in 2000 about panic rooms.
The film was commercially released in the United States and Canada on March 29, 2002. The film grossed $30 million on its opening weekend. In the United States and Canada, it grossed $96.4 million. In other territories, it grossed $100 million for a worldwide total of $196.4 million. Critics generally praised the film. Panic Room has been assessed for its portrayal of childhood and feminism.
Seven is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and John C. McGinley. The film tells the story of David Mills, a detective who partners with the retiring William Somerset to track down a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as a motif in his murders.
Seven was the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year, grossing over $327 million worldwide.[2] It was well received by critics, who praised the film's dark style, brutality and themes.
What is a proposal?
What are the conventions of a film opening?
From my research i have learnt that the conventions of a thriller are
-Low-key lighting
-Chase sequences
-Female protagonists
-Crime
-Emphasis NOT on killing
-Suspense driven
The conventions of a thriller opening are titles, story line, camera angles and shots. The film Seven is an excellent example of great titles, the reason why it is excellent is because the audience want to see something new and they want to see more than just a name. The story in the thriller opening is probably one of the most important parts of a thriller and it usually grabs most the attention.
A proposal is a document you present to a potential customer to show that you can solve a problem or set of problems.
My proposal
For this film making project we are going to produce a thriller film opening. our group consisting of me, Laila, Matty, Jack, Jacob, Carly, Fran, Jai and Kai will film in the science lab. The film genre we have chose is a medical thriller, it is about a scientist (Laila) who is testing a unknown liquid on her test subject (Matty) when the liquid is injected into Matty's arm he has a reaction which causes infection. To show the infection Carly will use make up to create a bruised/beat up look. Laila and Matty are our main actors so the rest of us are in charge of filming. Our target audience for this film opening is will be for both genders between the ages of 17 - 30. In terms of props, we will use 10 beakers, 2 Bunsen burners, a tripod and hazard stickers. Laila will then also be wearing a lab coat and goggles.
What is a rationale?
A rationale is a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or belief.
My rationale
After considering our budget, we decided to film our thriller opening in our school science lab. This is because we do not having the funding or the budget to film in a proper science lab out of school. We also decided to film in our school because it is easily accessible. The idea of a medical thriller was well suited to us because we had facilities near us. We have decided to base our medical thriller around a scientist who is testing an unknown substance which results in a outbreak of an serious infection. Laila has been in charge of creating our storyboard which will help us along the way with knowing what we should be doing each day of filming.
Budget list
Story board
This is the film budget list that has been created, it helps us gain a understanding of what a film would typically cost vs what ours costs.
Location Recce
We have decided to film in our schools science lab because it fits our film theme and is also easy and accessible. These shots have given us a rough idea on which shot types we need.
Make up/Special effects
A big part of our film opening is the make up. In our film there is a infection outbreak, therefore we used make up to help us achieve the look of an infection.
The props list is very helpful when filming as we can take it to out set and make sure we have got everything that is needed on that certain filming session.
Each time we film, the equipment list helps us have a understanding of what we need for each filming session.
Our contingency plan will help us with possible problems along the process of filming and editing, for example if Laila wasn't in one day we could use another girl and film shots where her face isn't in it.
Our title plans and choices give us a rough idea of what font, size etc we want our title and opening credits to be. Carly chose 8 different fonts and we all voted for which one we want to use and why.
Jai found seven different pieces of music and we each put one over our rough edits of the film opening and chose which one sounded best.
This shot list helps us plan the shots we want to do in our thriller opening and tells us when to use them.
Storyboard
Creating story boards has been really helpful throughout filming and editing, this is because we assigned one section of the story board to each day which helped us be more organised. Also when editing it helps us know what needs to be where in the film opening.
Pitches
Group Feedback
Group feedback : Export 2
Less blue tint
Insert company logo
music stays but lifts from black
insert a fade to black at the begging
Change syringe shots cannot be back to back either cut first clip out or implant another video in between.
There needs to be a clip of him alive at the start so that we get some sort of character introduction.
Titles are still missing .
This filming and editing schedule has been very helpful throughout our filming process, it has made sure people who are filming know they are and that people can just quickly check when and if they are filming.