Props and Costume List

 Our film opening will show a teenage girl (Character A) awakening mysteriously in a house. As she progresses through the house, jump cuts will show that someone (Character B) is following her and approaching the home she's in; the audience don't know who this person is. A radio report reveals that people have been discovering demonic twin versions of themselves walking around; it's unknown where they came from or why they're here - but already there has been riots, death and destruction caused. As the girl sits in her room, she hears something, turns around and realises that it's herself staring back at her. 

 

The props we have devised are:

• Contact lenses

We need contact lenses because one of the main thriller devices of our thriller opening is the red eyes, signifiying the danger and impact of the alien situation that has occurred. Character A is incredibly confused over how she has awoken in her home without any prior knowledge, she hears frightening news but decides to ignore it and tries to relax. She hears something and turns around to discover herself with red eyes, which impacts her psychologically, this is always a good plot device: a protagonist losing their sanity. 

Location Research & Analyse

 Our film opening will show a teenage girl awakening mysteriously in a house. As she progresses through the house, jump cuts will show that someone is following her and approaching the home she's in; the audience don't know who this person is. A radio report reveals that people have been discovering demonic twin versions of themselves walking around; it's unknown where they came from or why they're here - but already there has been riots, death and destruction caused. As the girl sits in her room, she hears something, turns around and realises that it's herself staring back at her.

We decided to film in and around the outside of my house, as it's a familiar setting that the audience can relate to which in turn makes the film opening frightening. I have included some screenshots of my house from Google Maps.

Using a variety of close ups of the mise - en - scene helps introduce the setting without the use of a establishing shot; this is something we've seen done in many thriller film openings - as the audience are initially unaware of the characters surroundings and therefore so are they. Filming the main character from a variety of different angles will create a continuous match on action shot which will allow the audience to see more of the location; the mise - en - scene will subconsciously tell the audience where the location is set. This fits with the typical thriller convention as the location, is often set in a house; the camera shots and angles also stay within the thrill conventions as short shots are often cut very quickly together in order to speed up the action and increase the suspense. 

The mise - en - scene in my house helps makes the audience feel at ease due to the familiar location, with objects they're used to. A house is a good place to set a thriller, because it makes the ordinary setting, unordinary which can heighten the experience; as the audience can relate the situations to their own.  Using jump cuts to briefly show sinister scenes inside a house can unhinge the audience, because it takes place in a setting the majority of people live in and find relaxation in.
  During the film opening when someone is approaching the house; this is filmed just outside my house, this creates tension; because makes the audience feel on edge due to the fact that a victim can be preyed on in a place of safety.

Just outside my house, there is a large greenery, trees and a road; this makes it an effective place to film as the trees provide a barrier between the camera and the character. Using shots from behind the tree or where a character disappears for a short amount of time adds to the suspense; especially when it's paired with non diegetic music to create an atmosphere.

The mise - en - scene really adds to the shots as the natural surroundings provides a wall of secrecy; which means that the audience are unaware of the action. When filming in the winter, the light of day disappears very quickly which means we'll have to be quick when filming however filming during dusk into twilight is a good time period as the darkness once again heightens the thriller aspect. When filming in the dark; the audience's view is hindered and therefore with the use of camera angles; you can intentionally make the audience see less.

Pitches

Today, we did our pitches in front of the class and Miss Greene.

Unfortunately, Zeyna wasn't in and she hadn't completed the powerpoint she was supposed to create; which meant that Milly and I were left to give our pitch without a powerpoint, on our own with just a storyboard. 

As we did our pitch, it was clear our original idea was too complex for a two minute film opening so we changed some details, keeping it as simple as possible. 

I think we presented our idea very clearly, despite the idea being very detailed; the route we wanted to go down was very well explained. A positive piece of feedback we got was that our idea was very original and unlike most film pitches that had been heard that day.

I think we could improve our film opening by making it simpler, as quite a few people said that it'd be difficult for us to fit everything we had planned into two minutes. We took this feedback into consideration and changed our film opening slightly, opting to keep it simple so that later when editing we can make it much more complex.

At the end, when asked who gave the best pitch/who had the best film opening idea; our class voted for our group - which was a pleasant surprise as I didn't think they'd vote for us. We had to think on our feet when giving our pitch, because we didn't have a powerpoint, or at the time a title, and so for something that we wanted to make sure didn't come off as rushed; I think we succeeded.  

Thriller Storyboards

After finalising a story opening, we managed to write up our idea into a storyboard and plan our pitch.


We kept our storyboard quite simple, because we felt doing it this way meant that we had more chance to change our minds about certain frames, camera angles and shots. 

We felt that we worked best an almost blank canvas and then we could develop the ideas as we went on both when planning and when we eventually begin to film. 




When we begin to film, the storyboards will help us immensely as we can refer back to it when we work out the filming schedule and camera angles. Having a storyboard will also help us stay focused and on task.  

Also, by creating this storyboard it means that when the new member of our group, Leah, eventually joins she can refer back to this so that she isn't confused.




As we prepare for our pitch, having a storyboard will ensure that everyone we pitch to can understand our idea and film opening so that they can give their honest review and opinion. 

Zeyna offered to create the powerpoint for our pitch, as she didn't want to talk and so Milly and I decided to doing the speaking parts. I decided to explain the storyboard as I drew it and Milly is going through the powerpoint.