The Title

We had many ideas for a title for our thriller, which we listed in our 'our idea' post. In the end, we came up with the title 'LOST' as this relates to many aspects of our idea. Firstly, it relates to the idea that the stalker (Jack White) had a troubled childhood and lost a child who was called Beth, which is why he chose to stalk me. These factors make him a lost person, because the child was the only thing he had in his life, but now he has nothing so he is lost. The word lost also links to how my character is beginning to feel more and more paranoid and lost throughout the sequence. We wanted to use a single word for the title because we didn't want to make it to complex, and we didn't want the title to give away the idea of it.

Soundtrack

For our soundtrack for our thriller, we wanted to create something that added to the tension of the footage, and something that fitted with the genre of thriller. We made it quite slow to add suspense in important scenes, and quite loud. We made our soundtrack in Garageband, which we have all used before so this wasn't a problem. We compromised ideas and were all happy with the end product, and i think it links to our product well.

My Initial Idea:

My initial idea was about a murderer with a troubled past who has murdered 10 people from the same university, but after discussing this idea we decided the idea was too harsh and it would be too graphic to film. We also wanted to come up with an idea which was more psychologically chilling, rather than frightening to look at. Also, the idea is very common with thrillers, so it would not be able to stand out. We all came up with different initial ideas, but a few of us thought of the idea of basing our thriller around a stalker, so we decided this was the best decision.

Scene at my house:

We wanted to film a scene at my house because it would emphasise how obsessive my stalker is; he has followed me to my house. This scene ends with Jack White knocking on my door and then as i answer, i see his face and then have a flash back of everything that has happened and then i suddenly realise who he is. This leaves a cliff hanger, and the audience will want to see what happens in the film. This scene is filmed with a medium shot, but there is a close-up of my face when i realise who he is. Just before i close the door, we have included a montage in which we used a rewinded, faster version of whole sequence. This adds suspense. After that, i slam the door door and that is the end of the product.

Following scene:

We filmed me walking up some stairs so it shows how obsessive the stalker is: he follows me everywhere. This is a medium shot. as i start going up the stairs, I stop and turn round to face the camera because i suspect something. This creates suspense and as it is coming towards the end of the trailer it makes it seem as though everything will be resolved. As soon as i turn round, the camera turns off and the screen goes completely black which leaves a cliff hanger.

Swing scene:

we decided to film me on a swing laughing bacause it emphasises how young I am compared to my stalker. we handheld the camera to get the effect that I was being seen through my stalkers eyes. We also filmed me through the bars of the park to make it seem as though the stalker was hiding so i couldnt see him, and again it looks like I am being viewed through his eyes. We wanted to film ot to make it look like this because it creates intensity and tension - he is also in the scene but i dont notice. This is a medium shot, and when we edit it we are going to slow down the footage and make it slightly blurred to make it look creepy.

Mise En Scene

The mise en scene for our sequence was one of our main focus areas whilst we were filming, it was important that we included important features in the background, and made sure certain features wern't included. We wanted to fim mostly in unknown areas so our audience would not get distracted whilst watching, we want the focus to be completely on whats going on in the scene. Many of our scenes have been altered with the 'day to night' effect, and so you cannot clearly see what is in th background anyway so we didnt concentrate on the mise en scene for these scenes. The main scene where mise en scene was important was the scene which is of me in my house, we had to make it clear to the audience that i was in my house answering the door as this wil add tension for the viewer. We often had problems when we forgot to take the camera bag or the tripod bag out of the shot, so we had to do these shots again.

Main conventions

Main conventions of a thriller:

-Extordinary events which happen in ordinary settings

-A Crime in which the thriller is based around

-Redherrings

-A Protangist with a flaw

-Narrative patten which the views expect to be resolved

-Violence



We wanted to include some of these conventions to make our thriller as much like an actuall good thriller as possible. We analysed scenes from the thriller 'Bourne Identity'. This gave us a true insight into what we should include to make a successful thriller opening sequence. We also watched a lot of thriller opening sequences on youtube to give us some ideas of what other thriller opening sequences include to give us some ideas.

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas;
-Serial Rapist
-Stalker
- Hidden Identify

My first initial idea was to have some sort of hidden identify behind one of the main characters, this was because I am familiar with the 'Born Identity' thriller films, as I had watched them recently I knew the storyline well and thought that we could use some of the ideas and conventions of the 'Born Identity' thrillers. One of the main conventions of a thriller usualy involves a hidden identify too and I thought it was important to use some main conventions in orfer to make a successful thriller opening sequence. However we decided not to use this idea in the end because we felt that too many thrillers use this convention so it would be hard to actually compete with the original good thrillers and it would show ours up.

Another idea was the idea of a serial rapist. It was immedietly decided that this idea would be too dificult and it would be too dramatised, it would be very hard to come up with a storyline which we could fit in to a short 1-2 minute opening sequence witout giving the story away too soon. We thought that it would be too graphic and fake, which would make it unrealistic. In conclusion this idea would be too dramatised and wouldn't be like a thriller.

Our final idea was the idea of a stalker which we agreed was the idea that we were going to use. This is because we came up with many ideas that would give us a range of shots, a variation of shots is something we all wanted to inculde as we were explained this was needed in order to gain a good mark. We also came up with the idea of using our original idea of 'hidden identify' throughout our thriller based around the stalker as the stalker would have a hidden identify; this meant we could include a main convention.

Photos scene

This scene was also filmed around college, as we only needed a wooden table and the photos which we printed off ourself. We chose to have the photos in black and white because we thought this created a more eery atmosphere. We handheld the camera in this scene to giv the effect that the stalker is looking down at the photos giving the idea that the stalker had possesion and power over his victim

The obsessive "Beth Beth Beth" scene.

This scene was quite hard to actually get right, and it took many takes. This is because as we were filming an over the shoulder shot, hand-holding the camera we kept getting Tom's shadow in the way, making it hard to read what he was writing. What he was writing was the whole importance of the scene. We chose to have "Beth" written over again to illustrate the stalkers thoughts that Beth is always on her mind and that he is obsessed with her.

Analysis of the facebook scene

This scene could easily be filmed at college because asitwas just a close-up of a computer; it did not matter about the scenery around, we chose to have a close-up of the facebook friend request because then it is able to be read by the audience easily. Facebook is used in our thriller because it is a typical website which teenagers use, therefore it is connecting to the audience that our thriller is aimed for.

Filming in college

Some of our scenes could be filmed in college and still be effective. First is the scene when Beth is running along on the field. This was just as effective as if we didn't film it in college because all that we needed was an open space which is grassy and this case it was the college sports field. We were careful not to get any of the college buildings in the background because we wanted to give the impression that Beth was in an empty, deserted setting. Tom was filming and he panned the field to follow Beth running. The type of shot is a long shot and this is to show that the stalker notices Beth from a distance. We didn't use the tripod in this scene as we thought it would be mroe effective if the camera was hand hand - therefore giving the impression that we are watching the scene from the stalkers eyes.

Filming outside of college

We decided to film a few of our scenes outside of college so we get a different atmosphere, and to get the impression that Jack White follows me everywhere i go; which includes to my house. It was quite difficult to decide on a convenient time for us to do this, as our group all have different free periods and we all live in different places. Me and Rosie booked the camera overnight and went to do some filming in Cambridge. This included filming me in a park on a swing, running on a green, walking home and at my house. This was easy to do as there was only two of us, and we work well as a team. Filming outside of college meant we could include some interesting mise en scene from our location, as in college our audience would get used to the location and it would be as frightening.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard with our initial idea of what we want our thriller to be, we will base our scenes on the different scenes in the storyboard. We will keep refering back to our storyboard when we are filming our thriller.

Costumes

Beth:
A white coat- this is because the colour white represets innocence and purity.

Tom- He will be wearing mainly black because he is the opposite to innocent and pure. This is mysterious because he is creeping around al the time in the dark.

Locations List

The location of the whole thriller sequence is a small lonely village in the countryside called Coton. We have decided to chose to use a location like this because it is very empty and calm which will make it easy to create the right atmosphere for our thriller- eery. This adds to the idea of the stalker in the sequence to being strange.

A Church will be used in one shot- This is a religious place which is ironic because such a strange act as 'stalking' can actually be taking place within a calm, content, religious setting.

A House( The character Beth who is being staked home)- This is to make it realistic and shows the audience that the stalker is watching Beth from the comfort and safety of her own home.

A Park- To represent youth, young people spend times in park.

Our Idea

We came up with a couple of ideas for the name of our thriller such as; The Stalker, Follower, Beth, a date for example 12th September, Obsession, Desire, Within Temptation, An Number Adress ie. 56.

We decided to base our thriller around a stalker, this is because we feel that this an issue which is a typical scary/thriller film will be based on. We have come up with the idea of using two main actors who the thriller opening sequence will be based on- Beth and Tom. We are going to use clips of photos. we are going to use clips of Beth being stalked in public. And props such as a computer, MSN Messenger and Facebook. Tom is going to be pretending to be a youngster and talk to Beth. We are going to be using MSN and Facebook because almost every teenager uses it to connect.


Cast line: project, also we all can actually edit, because we will all be around the computer, where as we cannot all film and act at the same time.

Analysis of 'Usual Suspects'

We watched the opening sequence of usual suspects which is a classic thriller, this gave us some insights into what a good thriller needs to include. It included many of the classic thriller conventions such as; Weapons, fire and darkness. A man had been shot in his legs and had then lost all feeling in them, this led the film onto the first element of crime, which is a main theme of a thriller. There was a man who had a gun, and a victim which is very typical of a thriller as one of the main character types is good and evil. The opening sequence's music automatically creates suspense and is eery music. Although our thriller will not have a similar story line the main conventions used will give us some good ideas and help us to film and edit our thriller.

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