Thursday 19 December 2013
Pier Interview- Thriller Research
Wednesday 18 December 2013
General Research into Thrillers
In order to understand the genre we are working, I am writing on the Thriller genre in general in this post.
The genre is driven by the main aspects of suspense, excitement, anticipation; the need to get the audience 'on the edge of their seats'/ alert. These films have a tendency to be fast paced especially the action thrillers, and nerving/ increasing the adrenaline in the audience; getting the audience to expect one thing and reveal that it isn't the case and something unexpected occurs to keep the story fresh by reveal.
The thing with Thrillers is that they have a lot of overlapping themes with other genres, and subsequently also due to the variety in which Thrillers come as, they are split into sub- genres of which I've reviewed both psychological thrillers and an action thriller for the coursework, but seeing all the sub- genres that exist, I realize just how many Thrillers I've actually watched generally in my life time including; Crime Thrillers, Legal Thrillers, Science Fiction Thrillers, Religious Thrillers, Action Thrillers, Film Noir & Psychological Thrillers & even Erotic Thrillers.
............................
After accomplishing the Preliminary exercise, I'm wandering whether our short film would fall into the crime- thriller genre as it involves the cold, dark, mysterious killing of a suspect by a detective who could be considered a bit contradictory to what a detective does and seemingly the potential of an anti- hero character in how he seems to be the protagonist except his dark words/ actions seem uncertain between moral and unmoral.
............................
I've begun to questionnaire people I know about their knowledge and comments on Thrillers i.e. my parents.
What comes to your mind when you think of a Thriller film?
-Scary, Tense, exciting
-sitting-on-the-edge-of your seat
-holding hands to love ones
-Suspense, unexpected parts of film (equally expected parts- cliche's, but thrillers can sometimes cleverly bringing you into thinking something else; drawing you away from expecting an upcoming event)
What makes a Thriller good in your opinion?
-good build-up/ story
-good characterization/ familiarization with protagonist from the usual thriller beginning being a normal day-to-day character with a causal/ normal day-to-day routine
-eerie music (psychological thriller)
-isolated, dark/ Gothic places- dark/ sinister
How would you start a Thriller off?
-daily casual opening introducing protagonist
-(action thriller)action/intense opening (007 films are similar but really a genre of themselves)- to catch audience attention
Name a few other sub-genres in the Thriller genre...
-Political thriller- how government works- popular dramas- certain politicians up to business they shouldn't be doing/ corruption- very popular for an older audience (older adults)
I also did a questionnaire which 10 of my colleagues where I developed a pie chart with every response from a person (they were allowed to say more than one thing hence why the pie chart do not add up to 10).
The 1st pie chart deals with my peers' first thoughts on the word thriller, which will help me think up of the direction we want to take for the opening titles e.g. more action packed over scary etc.
This 2nd pie chart shows what my peers expect when they are about to see a thriller- regardless of sub-genre. These are key words worth implementing into the final idea for the opening titles.
Recently, we have decided on taking a similar step to the main task as the preliminary in keeping the opening mysterious e.g. eerie setting/ music, and making the audience slightly nervous right at the end. The only ways we would emphasize or intensify the action concept (action packed being mentioned a quarter of the time from the questionnaire) would be in making jump/ hard cuts from frame to frame to increase audience interest in an increase of pace, as this piece isn't action based e.g. explosions, guns etc.
For the opening titles, we have taken on board aspects from this questionnaire such as dark settings making up a lot of a thriller's environment, but this will probably be challenged in our final piece as we plan to shoot in our school grounds in a couple of empty corridors (although in the editing stage we can dim the lighting if we wanted to).
Hopefully there are other ways of making it intense and exciting after than a dim lit setting e.g. sound; background music or effects.
The genre is driven by the main aspects of suspense, excitement, anticipation; the need to get the audience 'on the edge of their seats'/ alert. These films have a tendency to be fast paced especially the action thrillers, and nerving/ increasing the adrenaline in the audience; getting the audience to expect one thing and reveal that it isn't the case and something unexpected occurs to keep the story fresh by reveal.
The thing with Thrillers is that they have a lot of overlapping themes with other genres, and subsequently also due to the variety in which Thrillers come as, they are split into sub- genres of which I've reviewed both psychological thrillers and an action thriller for the coursework, but seeing all the sub- genres that exist, I realize just how many Thrillers I've actually watched generally in my life time including; Crime Thrillers, Legal Thrillers, Science Fiction Thrillers, Religious Thrillers, Action Thrillers, Film Noir & Psychological Thrillers & even Erotic Thrillers.
............................
After accomplishing the Preliminary exercise, I'm wandering whether our short film would fall into the crime- thriller genre as it involves the cold, dark, mysterious killing of a suspect by a detective who could be considered a bit contradictory to what a detective does and seemingly the potential of an anti- hero character in how he seems to be the protagonist except his dark words/ actions seem uncertain between moral and unmoral.
............................
I've begun to questionnaire people I know about their knowledge and comments on Thrillers i.e. my parents.
What comes to your mind when you think of a Thriller film?
-Scary, Tense, exciting
-sitting-on-the-edge-of your seat
-holding hands to love ones
-Suspense, unexpected parts of film (equally expected parts- cliche's, but thrillers can sometimes cleverly bringing you into thinking something else; drawing you away from expecting an upcoming event)
What makes a Thriller good in your opinion?
-good build-up/ story
-good characterization/ familiarization with protagonist from the usual thriller beginning being a normal day-to-day character with a causal/ normal day-to-day routine
-eerie music (psychological thriller)
-isolated, dark/ Gothic places- dark/ sinister
How would you start a Thriller off?
-daily casual opening introducing protagonist
-(action thriller)action/intense opening (007 films are similar but really a genre of themselves)- to catch audience attention
Name a few other sub-genres in the Thriller genre...
-Political thriller- how government works- popular dramas- certain politicians up to business they shouldn't be doing/ corruption- very popular for an older audience (older adults)
I also did a questionnaire which 10 of my colleagues where I developed a pie chart with every response from a person (they were allowed to say more than one thing hence why the pie chart do not add up to 10).
The 1st pie chart deals with my peers' first thoughts on the word thriller, which will help me think up of the direction we want to take for the opening titles e.g. more action packed over scary etc.
This 2nd pie chart shows what my peers expect when they are about to see a thriller- regardless of sub-genre. These are key words worth implementing into the final idea for the opening titles.
Recently, we have decided on taking a similar step to the main task as the preliminary in keeping the opening mysterious e.g. eerie setting/ music, and making the audience slightly nervous right at the end. The only ways we would emphasize or intensify the action concept (action packed being mentioned a quarter of the time from the questionnaire) would be in making jump/ hard cuts from frame to frame to increase audience interest in an increase of pace, as this piece isn't action based e.g. explosions, guns etc.
For the opening titles, we have taken on board aspects from this questionnaire such as dark settings making up a lot of a thriller's environment, but this will probably be challenged in our final piece as we plan to shoot in our school grounds in a couple of empty corridors (although in the editing stage we can dim the lighting if we wanted to).
Hopefully there are other ways of making it intense and exciting after than a dim lit setting e.g. sound; background music or effects.
Monday 16 December 2013
Opening Titles Development 6; Storyboard Development of new idea
Our New idea involves a simply to shoot opening title scene of an assassin breaking the neck of a victim whilst constantly flicking to another scene of a pianoist who at the end of the opening is revealed to be the killer.
Main Task Names
and Reasoning
Name
|
Reasoning
|
The Whisper
|
The masked murderer says something o the victim before he kills them.
This simple title is not detailed enough to let the viewer’s know what
happens, creating tension, and can be used to pique interest due to its
simple name which gives away minimal spoilers. Since what the murderer says
is inaudible, it can create even more tension with a title like this as you
want to know what he whispers.
|
Sound
|
This can have a double meaning relating to the masked man. It can
firstly relate to the thing he says to the victim, which is inaudible. This title
makes it seem misleading so it could mess around with the viewer. Secondly,
it can relate to the piano scene with the music, which is what the viewer
mostly hears. It hardly gives anything away to prevent spoilers.
|
Drip
|
Refers to the tear on the mask of the murderer, but also the fact
that he has blood on his hands. This title is more revealing but simplistic
and only has implications without giving much of the plot away. It could be
interpreted in sinister ways but other than that it gives away nothing,
building suspense as people want to know the story.
|
Friday 6 December 2013
Opening Titles Development 5; Script no. 2
New Script
Long shot of the UK police station. (MD1 Filled with students, looking as if working hard and typing fast, using “hackertyper.com”)
Another camera shot of the entrance of the police station, with muffled voices heard of a police chief shouting. Camera follows an IT guy jogging down a corridor with a small cardboard folder, which appears to be full. As we enter behind the man, the Chief shouts.
Over shoulder shots of police on computers and 3rd person shots, combined to create match-on-action.
Police chief: Have you traced the IP yet!? We need that IP tracked immediately; we have no time to waste!
Police: I’m trying sir!
Police chief: Then try harder!
Just as the police chief finishes his sentence all the computers start shutting down and there are gasps of disbelief.
Police chief: (Demanding tone) WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!
(Silence)
Police Chief: TELL ME!!!
(Short pause before officer pipes up)
Police: (nervously) They’ve shut us down… Sir…
Scene switches to another building of a Hong Kong police station. Scene then changes to inside the station where a Chinese policeman is at a computer with an over shoulder shot. A man is handing him a satellite photograph.
C. Police: (In Cantonese) I’ve printed it off.
C. Police Chief: (In Cantonese) Thank you, I’ll ring them now.
Chinese police chief picks up a phone next to him and starts inputting a phone number.
Phone rings in UK police station and UK police chief is seen picking it up and talking. The Chinese police chief speaks in English and the UK police chief is informed of theobject. As they talk, the conversation is heard, while the camera shows investigators getting into a car. The shots are relevant to what is being said. Conversation ends as the investigators are standing where they were told to go.
Investigator 2: (holding laptop) I am sure, in fact, the signal is coming from… right… above us?”
Camera switches to POV to show investigators as they look up, and just as they see an object the scene cuts to a black screen with the title fading in.
Tuesday 3 December 2013
Opening Titles Development 4; Reserch on web
As a group, we have found a website called http://hackertyper.com/ where you can spam the keyboard/ write anything, and the site (black screen, green text will make you look like you are hacking/ coding) which we could film ourselves doing without audio, as we would want to keep the identity of the hacker a mystery until the hint right at the end of alien intervention.
Opening Titles Development 3; Script no. 1
Simple Script by Sam
Long shot of the UK police station.
Another camera shot of the entrance of the police station, with muffled voices heard of a police chief shouting.
Over shoulder shots of police on computers and 3rd person shots, combined to create match-on-action.
Police chief: Have you traced the IP yet!? We need that IP tracked immediately; we have no time to waste!
Police: I’m trying sir!
Police chief: Then try harder!
Just as the police chief finishes his sentence all the computers start shutting down and there are gasps of disbelief.
Police chief: (Demanding tone) What just happened?!
Police: Sir, they’ve shut us down.
Scene switches to another building of a Hong Kong police station. Scene then changes to inside the station where a Chinese policeman is at a computer with an over shoulder shot. A man is handing him a satellite photograph.
C. Police: (In Cantonese) I’ve printed it off.
C. Police Chief: (In Cantonese) Thank you, I’ll ring them now.
Chinese police chief picks up a phone next to him and starts inputting a phone number.
Phone rings in UK police station and UK police chief is seen picking it up and talking. The Chinese police chief speaks in English and the UK police chief is informed of the object. As they talk, the conversation is heard, while the camera shows investigators getting into a car. The shots are relevant to what is being said. Conversation ends as the investigators are standing where they were told to go.
Investigator 1: It’s here right? I don’t see anything.
Investigator 2: (holding laptop) I am sure, in fact, the signal is coming from… right… above us?”
Camera switches to POV to show investigators as they look up, and just as they see an object the scene cuts to a black screen with the title fading in.
End
We will be altering this simple script to fit an opening e.g. typically barely any dialogue and more of a 'actions speaking louder than words' situation, so that the audience can wok out what's going on by using their heads.
Opening Titles Development 2; title names & storyboard
Final Main Task Idea
Short Summary:
The entire world’s computer systems are being hacked by an unknown source. As data on practically everything is being taken, police forces are struggling to stop it. Shortly, a space satellite picks up something and investigators are sent to the location to find the source. Upon arriving, they are able to pick up a signal… directly above them.
The entire world’s computer systems are being hacked by an unknown source. As data on practically everything is being taken, police forces are struggling to stop it. Shortly, a space satellite picks up something and investigators are sent to the location to find the source. Upon arriving, they are able to pick up a signal… directly above them.
Title Suggestions
|
Reasoning
|
Beyond
|
The hacker is from an alien source up in space, with technology beyond human capabilities and is literally beyond their reach. A title this vague also makes the film seem more mysterious.
|
Hacker
|
So you get the general idea of what the film is about before seeing it- and it is basically simple. The audience and their expectations are going to be surprised to find out what the hacker is/ where it is.
|
Titles and Opening
The film starts off with British police on computers actively working on computers as they are being hacked. A police chief is yelling angrily such as ‘hurry up, track the IP!” and then a scene is shown in Hong Kong as they receive something from a space satellite showing something in Britain. They phone the British police and tell them of this. Investigators are seen walking over to where it is, one carrying a laptop, and a signal is picked up right above them. They camera then cuts to a point-of-view shot of the investigator as they look up, and an object is seen for a split second before cutting to a black screen with a title.
Here's a storyboard I have made to convey me and Sam's Hacker/ Beyond idea. This mainly displays the story and several ideas for the camera shots and the audio (music increasing volume when the scene becomes tense).
I haven't included much on the titles appearing throughout the opening, but we'll be improvising the font/ style and the transition of these titles when we finally come to the editing where we would obviously pick a font to be c
onsistent throughout the 2 minute opening.
Thinking about the task at hand, we considered the fact that this is an opening to a film, and plan to make it start off in an office like room as if nothing out of the norm was happening then with the sudden shutdown and corruption of computers worldwide in an instant the whole atmosphere is going to change. Our idea is that the Hacker hacking worldwide authorities is actually from out of space, but is only slightly implied right at the end before the film title as a police squad notice the signal has taken them into the middle of nowhere and realize there must be something above them...
If the film was ever fully made, it could delve into a very typical alien invasion story, but for our task we don't even need to mention that.
Here's a storyboard I have made to convey me and Sam's Hacker/ Beyond idea. This mainly displays the story and several ideas for the camera shots and the audio (music increasing volume when the scene becomes tense).I haven't included much on the titles appearing throughout the opening, but we'll be improvising the font/ style and the transition of these titles when we finally come to the editing where we would obviously pick a font to be c
onsistent throughout the 2 minute opening.
Thinking about the task at hand, we considered the fact that this is an opening to a film, and plan to make it start off in an office like room as if nothing out of the norm was happening then with the sudden shutdown and corruption of computers worldwide in an instant the whole atmosphere is going to change. Our idea is that the Hacker hacking worldwide authorities is actually from out of space, but is only slightly implied right at the end before the film title as a police squad notice the signal has taken them into the middle of nowhere and realize there must be something above them...
If the film was ever fully made, it could delve into a very typical alien invasion story, but for our task we don't even need to mention that.
Monday 2 December 2013
Opening Titles Development 1; 1st Ideas
Ever since the Preliminary Task, me and my peer Alex have been talking about the potential locations for outside thrillers if they were to take on board a particular gothical, dark theme.
Where I live in Poole, East Dorset, there's a good area of heathlands; Holton Heath, Upton Heath, and Canford Heath.
We have a list of things we've been told not to include in any of our tasks;
-Using actual guns; even if unloaded
-Cars in motion
In Holton Heath there is an old explosives site from WW2 that was closed down after the war by the Royal Navy and left as a nature reserve that is open to the public which would be great as it is a good place to film shots where you shouldn't have barely any sign of civilization apart from pylons and possibly the sound of distant cars on a dual carriage way. This Image to the left is from wiki of a particular rusty, old site for a potential scene in our opening titles.
This is a birds eye view of Holton Heath from Google Maps where the brown/ green areas in the center of this image are permitted pretty much to the public but surrounded by zones like the industrial estate (bottom right) and the greenery land (mid right) owned to an organization that is pretty much a creative day care for disabled people.
One of my peers, Alex, is planning to get an HD camera for our filming if we ever decided to film outside school boundaries e.g. in Holton Heath or somewhere of particular natural outside world interest, as we aren't allowed to take the schools' HD cameras outside the school.
To begin with, I was thinking of my group producing a thriller that falls into a simplistic sci- fi due to my love for sci- fi in general and the possibilities of the fictional world, although it would have to be a good idea to do on an extremely low budget of almost nothing. Then I had the idea of a psychological thriller of a girl being killed on the way from school by a dark mysteriously supernatural character.
My 1st Sci- Fi Thriller ideas
My 1st Psychological Thriller ideas
My Peer Sam had this 1st idea;
Where I live in Poole, East Dorset, there's a good area of heathlands; Holton Heath, Upton Heath, and Canford Heath.
We have a list of things we've been told not to include in any of our tasks;
-Using actual guns; even if unloaded
-Cars in motion
In Holton Heath there is an old explosives site from WW2 that was closed down after the war by the Royal Navy and left as a nature reserve that is open to the public which would be great as it is a good place to film shots where you shouldn't have barely any sign of civilization apart from pylons and possibly the sound of distant cars on a dual carriage way. This Image to the left is from wiki of a particular rusty, old site for a potential scene in our opening titles.One of my peers, Alex, is planning to get an HD camera for our filming if we ever decided to film outside school boundaries e.g. in Holton Heath or somewhere of particular natural outside world interest, as we aren't allowed to take the schools' HD cameras outside the school.
To begin with, I was thinking of my group producing a thriller that falls into a simplistic sci- fi due to my love for sci- fi in general and the possibilities of the fictional world, although it would have to be a good idea to do on an extremely low budget of almost nothing. Then I had the idea of a psychological thriller of a girl being killed on the way from school by a dark mysteriously supernatural character.
My 1st Sci- Fi Thriller ideas
•Taking the idea of Doctor Who/ Stargate
combined
•A portal between worlds/ planets
•Portal could be a door
•The protagonist (a psychic) locates the
whereabouts of strange energy in a school
•This psychic is a student which is trying
to skive off a lesson in order to solve this energy signal in his head whilst
being looked for by his fellow pupils; who think he is weird/ a problem child
•He finds a door that leads to a destroyed
world/ wasteland where he is met by a guy in worn out clothing telling him of a
time where his world was destroyed by a psychic who mastered his abilities but
used them for the sake of revenge and power making him incredibly corrupt
•This guy is suddenly killed by the power
of thought by the parallel version of the protagonist who then realises he is
in danger of himself taking over the world, and has to somehow overcome his
anger in order to prevent his world being destroyed
•Somehow this parallel will have to
be revisited and not just a plot devise at the start
My 1st Psychological Thriller ideas
•A girl is walking home down a dark path
off the reaches of a residential estate from school
•Is texted all of a sudden by an unknown
contact saying “I’m here”
•Turns around to see a dark figure in the
trees staring at her
•She starts to speed walk down the path as
this figure seems to be jumping from one spot to another
•Tries to get back off the path but is
blocked by the figure and ends up taking a long cut through the trees until she
stops under a bridge breathless
•Suddenly she turns towards the horizon
and sees the figure jump towards her closer and closer until it disappears and
she breathes in relief but then is attacked from behind in a headlock and then
a blank screen from her POV as her neck snaps
•Bit of a dramatic/ graphic ending?
:P
My Peer Sam had this 1st idea;
Film Title: Hacked
Characters:
Hacker
Police Detective
Victim
Hacker
Police Detective
Victim
Plot:
A hacker is hacking into major banks across the globe, stealing large sums of money for personal gain. The police are actively hunting him down, but he is constantly on the move. As police raid where places he’s been staying previously, their computer systems are also getting hacked as the anonymous hacker removes their files on him. A victim – now homeless – is interviewed, describing the effects of losing everything. After a long and desperate hunt he is cornered and police prepare to invade his last hideout. Then, things take a turn for worse when the hacker has stolen all information from British banks, including personal information of customers and accounts. A choice is then given to the British government; a sum of £10 million to be paid and he leaves the country, or all information is given to major criminal organisations around the world, causing a massive economic collapse in Britain.
A hacker is hacking into major banks across the globe, stealing large sums of money for personal gain. The police are actively hunting him down, but he is constantly on the move. As police raid where places he’s been staying previously, their computer systems are also getting hacked as the anonymous hacker removes their files on him. A victim – now homeless – is interviewed, describing the effects of losing everything. After a long and desperate hunt he is cornered and police prepare to invade his last hideout. Then, things take a turn for worse when the hacker has stolen all information from British banks, including personal information of customers and accounts. A choice is then given to the British government; a sum of £10 million to be paid and he leaves the country, or all information is given to major criminal organisations around the world, causing a massive economic collapse in Britain.
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