What is a thriller

As we would be preparing te opening title seqence of a thiller, I thought it was important to know what the actual meaning of the word thriller was. Therefore I searching into google asking what the long definition was and this is what came up:

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

Having read this, it made me aware of some of the ideas that I should carry towards our piece. For example building excitement as well as tension. We should also aim to make the audience anxious and uncertain. We also need to make the villain obvious, in our case the villain is unknown and so therefore will exphasise the concept of a 'thriller' to a greater extent.

String trap idea

The idea of the string strap is basically hundreds of different types of string surrounding the tent in all different directions. It will then be attatched to a bell. The idea therefore is that if someone touched any one of the strings, it will trigger the bell so he will hear it and wake up. The eeriness of the trap also emphasises the potential mental illness this man could posses. This idea was largely influenced by a spider web and a lazer alarm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The positioning of the tent

We have discussed many potential places for the tent to be located, such as the hard shoulder of a motorway, in the middle of a field and also the idea of the tent balancing above the ground. Eventually we came up with the idea of the tent being in a hallway of a large house. We believed this would add mystery to the scene as it would be difficult to work out why he was sleeping in a tent when he was in a large comfortable house. It also would suggest to the audience that there could potentially be something wrong with him mentally. It could also suggest that there is something outside that he is scared of. This is supported by the fact that there will be a trap going all the way around the tent. This also shows fear.




This could be potentially what the hall way could look like and there would be a tent placed in the middle of it. It is important that the hallway is nice and looks like part of a nice house, this adds to the mystery of why he is sleeping in the tent.

Example of potential camera work

Here is an example of the potential use of camera we could use. It is taken from the end scene of  'The Long Good Friday'. This could be used at the beginning of our thriller when he is waking up in the tent. His facial expression is also helpful to us as he would be confused about the noise he had heard from outside the tent, he would also be showing fear.

The importance of building tension

There are 3 main ways in which tensions can be built within a scene, these include:

-Unfolding the action more deliberately
-Slowing down the scene
-Building stonger characters

In the type of piece we are doing, being a thriller, it is extremely important to build tension because it atracts the audience attention and makes them want to watch on. Our group idea was to mix the concept of isolation with that of tension. We did this because we thought the idea of being completely alone with no one around was scary in its self. We then thought intoducing some tension would be useful, one way we have done this is by using slow tension building music. This multiplies the feelings of the audience and makes it much more thrilling.

Examples of isolation films

Isolation Films

Taxi Driver

The Conversation

Repulsion

Rear Window

Sátántangó

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Diary of a Country Priest

The Passenger

Wendy and Lucy

Whisky

Sombre

A Scene at the Sea

The Other One

Blank

Mother and Son

El Otro

Barton Fink

The Shining

Persona

Rosemary's Baby

Sounds research

One of my tasks of the group was to reaseach what potential sound could be used. In our thriller, there is a scene in which the character hears a noise and wakes up. The sound is designed to build tension, so to find suitable music i searched into google 'tention building music'. I looked through a few but wasnt really happy with any of them. So i decided to type isolation into google and scrolled few some films, I then looked at the music for these films and this was much more productive. Eventually i found a piece from the film Satantango that i liked, I then showed the others in the group and they all liked it

Prop list

Mens clothing:
hoodie (dark)
trackies (dark)
leather boots (old and dirty)
contact lenses
fake scars

Others:
small tent
duvet
pillow
string
tea making stuff
cigerette and lighter

Character development

As we have an idea we are happy with, we wanted to focus on smaller things to add extra effect when filmed. Firstly we wanted to develop the Character. We had some specefic ideas that included:
-Facial injury, such as scar with a different coloured eye.
-A weapon, eg. an axe.
-Boiler suit, scruffy run down.
-Beard.
-Very scared and scared personality.
-Clever.

We wanted these aspects of our character to give off the impression as if he is being hunted by something and he knows how to fight it off, however he has been injured once as we can see through the facial injuries. We are still yet to decide on what is hunting him, however we are thinking something along the lines of a viral outbreak that has killed off a large population of the world.

Plot narrative

Thriller opens with shot of man in tent sleeping, from his facial features, scruffiness and clothing we understand that he has been hiding in the tent for a while. Outside the tent there is a series of strings everywhere that is a trap. The man then hears a noise coming from the trap and wakes up to go and check it out, outside the tent he picks up an axe. We see he has a facial scar and something wrong with his eye. He walks to where the noise was coming from and stands by a door, as he puts his face to the door the noise stops and he raises his axe slowly. Big bang on the door followed by a blackout.

Shots

We then decided to develop each point and put a camera shot that suited it.

• The man is sleeping in the tent and a close up of his face
• A sound makes the man stir and wakes him up. From a close up shot fear is shown within his eyes
• Shot of the trap consisting of all the strings and one of them vibrating signalling there is something there
• Shot from outside the tent, his shadow being shown and we can see him picking up the axe
• He unzips the tent, close up of the tent zip
• As he stands up with the axe in his hand there will be a close up of his face showing facial scars and an odd eye (different colour) indicating he has been attacked by something
• He slowly approaches the door the bang from the door getting louder
• Close up of the mans face showing fear as he walks towards to the door
• Long shot of him walking towards the door
• Over the shoulder shot of him standing by the door waititng
• Extreme close up of reaction face when the noise goes off.

Storyboarding

In the last few lessons we have began to storyboard. This process consists of planning out each step of the sequence, this includes; the shot number, location, action, shot/movement, sound, lighting and edit transition. It also leaves a space for us to draw a small image of what is happening, this will give us an indication of time. After completing an initial draft, it came to our realisation that there were many fundamental parts in which we had missed.  This was helpful to us because it allowed us to creat a complete storyboard with no gaps. The next step for us was estimating the time each shot would take, this was important because the recommended length was between 2-2:30. Storybarding also helps you to select the pace of the action. This is because the climax of the sequence needs to be at the correct point, this needs editing.

Potential tension building sound

This soundtrack could be very useful for our thriller. I found it by searching 'isolation films' into goole and watching clips from the films that came up. This is one I found.