Pre Planning/Planning Production:

Now our roles and responsibilities are established, we had to start thinking of potential narratives for opening sequences. There were a few I independently thought of before we had an agreed final narrative.  



Narrative 1 :
A young girl school girl has sneaked into an over 18's club, previously she heard on the news about a stalker who had been hanging around her home town. At the club she bumps into some of her older sisters friends and dances with them, a man comes over to her politely asking for her to dance with him, she dismisses him very rudely, and intends to avoid him the rest of the night. As she leaves to go outside for a cigarette he immediately grabs her from behind and takes her to a near by wood. Where he kills her and leaves her body, a police enquiry for her whereabouts begins.
Although I do like the idea of a serial killer with a fascination for killing, this specific narrative I do believe it is quite horror like rather than being a thriller genre opening.


Narrative 2 :
Opening storyline is based around a man who has awoken in an abandoned house. He believes his family have either gone to work or school and continues with his daily routines such as brushing his teeth and making breakfast for himself. At first this opening does not display any convention of a thriller and simple looks like a man getting ready to go out. The music is crucial for this opening as it changes as soon as he notices a DVD on the table, lighting changes to become lower key. He plays the DVD and it is of his family held captive in an unfamiliar location with a mystery kidnapper demanding money. The conventions of a thriller begin with the scenes taken place in the DVD, the mans facial expressions change as he becomes irrational from his once mellow mood. I think this could be a good opening as it is very polysemic and can be played around with to create a good opening. It has the psychological bases of a thriller film and a kidnapping story is very common.

After conducting my own idea, I thought it would be best to conduct a questionnaire within our school (available for both teachers and students), and bring back the results in our group so we can analyse all our research together. I made 20 questionnaires of questions relating to thriller films in hope of targeting our market and see a common preference within each participants answer. The results are as stated below.

Question 1 ) I put this question in to judge the film rating of my own film. By the results the most popular is aged 15 , this could however be a biased result as my questionnaire was left in a school and the majority are around that age group, However i can now look at thriller films that are rated 15 and look at the content such as sex, violence and apply it to my own.

Question 2 ) I put this question in to see what type of thriller is most popular , thrillers have a group in itself and psychological seem to be the most popular. I explained at the bottom what each category consisted of in case someone was un aware of the definition of the options. Psychological thrillers are those that have a challenging sinister storyline in most cases and looking at thriller like se7en can help me with that.  

Question 3 ) Surprisingly I thought car chasing would be the most popular option, however i did point out in a thriller opening and not an action. Flashbacks was rated the highest and this is something I did want to include in my film any. I chose to include this question because the opening is what I am creating adding some of the things that my audience prefer to see are important.

Question 4 ) This question someone else said i should include, at first i didn’t think of it but it was a good idea to include because it is an only a thriller opening. Depending on the individual, not everyone wants the whole plot revealed as it spoils the rest of the film, whereas others like the plot revealed and then can work out how it came to be that narrative. I do want to include the plot in some ways in my opening yet i do not want to give to much away.

Question 5 )  The narrative is the story behind the film, having a main narrative helps focus the audience and not make the opening to confusing. Murder is the popular. An ‘other’ option was ticked and the note that person left was rape, although that is a good suggestion I believe murder would be a more popular narrative as it can broaden into aspects of rape and other narratives.

Question 6 ) Narrative, music and cinematography scored equally the highest. I explained what cinematography was at the bottom of the question for those who would not know the media term. I asked this question as I believe keeping suspense in a thriller is an important factor in an opening as it keeps the audience excited to view the rest of the film.

Question 7 )  A challenging film seems to be the most popular, rather than it be detailed or explain what is going on. This may be because the audience do not want the plot revealed to them completely and what to maybe work it out themselves in cases like psychological thrillers. This question i thought to include for those reasons, some do prefer it to be explained.

Question 8 ) The elements in a thriller genre can make a huge difference to how the audience interpret and understand the film or how it can be close to the conventions of a thriller. As i am the props and make up person it was interesting to see how my target audience believe it is just as important to the setting and even more important than special effects.

    Our Groups Final Decision

Narrative

A mystery man is walking down a pathway with a sports bag. While he is walking down the road he has a flashback from the nights before. Then the audience sees what happens. He meets a woman , at the bar and they drink together , talk and start flirting. He takes her back to a hotel she thinks it is only a fling but a change of events happen he brutally murders her he then chops her up into small pieces and puts her in the sports bag and dumps the bag by the river. A missing enquiry for her disappearance takes off.

The Whole Narrative

The overall narrative is that this a married man with a perfect  lifestyle who lives is happy with his carer and children, yet has a sick obsession with women he thinks are dirty, he final snaps and murders a woman, the whole event takes place on a day in October. His flashbacks show the build up of his family life up to the point of murder.

Film Title

The reason we have chosen our film to be called October, was because we felt this was an appropriate title for our narrative. This helps us to follow the generic conventions because as the audience you expect the film title to match the film.  The title gives a sense of suspense of what actually happens in October before they have watched the opening sequence , there is no direct give away unlike most thriller titles like ‘ The kidnap’.

Location

Pathway- The pathway is the first location used in our opening sequence. We intend it to show the killer walking down wheeling a sports bag which contains the body of the woman he had killed the night before.

Bar- The flash backs of the killer consist of the bar scene where he initially meets the woman. It shows how he meets her and where, the relationship between the two characters are shown here before the killing happened.

Hotel Room- The hotel room is where the murder happens, the other woman believes she is going back with the male character to have a one night stand, this flashback will also happen in between the pathway walk.

Killers House - The killers wife calls from their home to see where he is, she becomes frustrated and angry when he does not pick up her telephone call, this is not a flashback, but shows what is happening else where during the killing scene.

 Mise-En-Scene

Costume : Business suit, smart conservative (Male), Little black dress, High heels (Other woman), apron, Baggy clothes (Wife) 

Lighting : Low Key Lighting during the killing scene to show darkness and terror.

Props: bag, fake blood, wedding ring

Camera work:  extreme close up

Sound : eerie sounds, upbeat music for the chase.

       These are all the things we need to consider when making our film, to make it as realistic as we can to our audience and follow the generic conventions of the film.

 Lighting

Low key

Natural lighting

High key

This is because most thriller films use these for example low key lighting is used to make the character look scarier and mysterious to the audience this is to make the audience for more involved in the film and make them one to watch more.

Natural lighting is used to make things look more realistic such as when our character is walking down the street natural lighting will be used to create realism to the audience

High key lighting will most likely be used in the bar to show that place is glamorous and expensive this makes it more realistic and more appealing to the audience and makes them believe that the place is real.

Sound

 On screen sound

Off screen sound

Non-diegetic.

Non-diegetic will be used for any music that is edited in which will most likely to be used to build up suspense and tension for the audience. This also helps keep the audience interested.

On screen sound will be for anyone that speaks or has a conversation such as a phone call or anyone who speaks face to face.

Off screen sound will be used in the bar, such as when you can hear people laughing and talking in the background this will be used to create a realistic environment within in the bar.