Group Thriller Ideas

Today I had been grouped up with 3 other students from the class; Lauren, Genny and Jonty; to work together for the next few weeks to produce our own thriller opening sequence. First we discussed on whose idea to use as it is very vital to choose something we will enjoy editing and filming in the future and that it is something that is actually good. We couldn't choose between anyone's idea so we decided to kind of merge all of our ideas together where the opening sequence contains bits and pieces of each of the ideas in it. The plot that we came up with is basically a mentally unstable boy who lives in a boarding house with a roommate whose kind of a popular and cool kid. The room will be half decorated as being very childish for the mentally unstable boy and the other half will be decorated as the typical teenage boy room, with poster of girls and cars and those sort of stuff. The plot is just basically the mentally unstable boy is trying to find various different ways to kill his roommate. We thought of the ideas of having flashes and shutters between the mental state of the boy plotting to kill his roommate and the reality state of him just doing normal daily routine. This means that we could combine scene from inside the dorm room with the scene outside the dorm room, for example, there could be a wide shot of the mentally unstable boy casually walking down the corridor with books in his arms- this could flash to the same boy carrying the dead body of his roommate in the woods in the same scene. We have many different ideas for this type of editing, here are some of the ideas we came up with: Close-up shot of the boy scooping cereal from a bowl with a spoon- flashes to the boy digging the shovel into the mud, close-up shot of the milk splattered on the lens flashes to the mud filling up the lens as the boy started burying the body, Close-up shot of roommate's face sleeping in the dorm room flashes to the close-up shot of the roommate's face covered in blood while being buried and finally a wide-shot of the boy dancing to the song 'September' alone in his room flashes to the boy dancing to the same song around the dead body to create contrapuntal sound effects. The opening sequence would end with the lens being totally covered in mud and the sequence blacks out, showing the title of the sequence afterwards.

Feedback for Thriller Ideas

Today we shared our own individual's thriller opening idea with the class. I presented my idea and got some really useful feedback from Katie and my classmates. Firstly I wont be able to use a clown mask because its way too mainstream and our main producer, Matt, isn't particularly a fan of clowns either. The shot may not be able to shoot realistically as we need a dead body which is pretty hard to find a prop that will look super realistic. However, there were also some positive feedback such as the camera angle i decided to use in the car's trunk as it works nicely to create tension. Also the idea was quite simple and straightforward which will be an advantage when it comes down to shooting the actual opening sequence and editing them.

Analysis of Video Sequence

We edited the sequence using Adobe Premiere, experimented around it so that it consists of many different camera shots, angles and movement. We also added post production sound after we finished filming.

We started off with a close up shot of character B's finger on the keyboard. This gives a good representation of what the character is doing and gives a clear idea to the audience of what is happening on the scene. We then switched to a long shot of character A about to enter the room. This gives the audience the feeling of control as they see character A before the character B sees him. We also did many close up shots of the character's face. This is to highlight the emotion of the characters and gives the audience the connection with the character.

We also included over the shoulder shots. This shot gives the audience the feeling of being in the actual conversation in the scene as it puts them into the character's position- sees and hear what the character is experiencing. Wide shots are self explanatory. We included it to show the audience the overview of the surroundings and what is going on in the scene.

We added the post production sound of the fart noise during the editing. This is to emphasis the 'pull my finger' joke that we decided to add into the scene, just to make it more fun and less boring. The sound was added using Adobe Premiere after the shots were put together.

I think we have been quite successful with editing and filming these sequences despite some little continuity issues. I learned many key skills from this lesson such as how to edit videos, add sounds, cut from frame to frame, basic use of cameras, being a director and overall it was a really useful and amazing experience.

However, for next time I would pay more attention to continuity as it can be a big issue in the bigger production.

Studio Lesson- Video

Use of Sound in Thriller/Horror Movies

In most thriller and horror films, sounds are used to build up tension and suspense as well as mysteriousness to the audience to make them feel curious, scared and frightened to what may come next in the scene. The music usually indicates that the climax/jump scares in horror movies is about to happen. For example:

The Insidious franchise. The music really builds up the tension and mysteriousness of the scene. Every time when a ghost is about to appear or the character is about to face something really frightening, the non-diegetic sound of sharp violins and strings are played to build up tension. Also, silence works really well in horror films as it makes the audience unaware of anything that is about to happen. They also use a lot of pleonastic sound to exaggerate and build up tension such as footsteps and door creaking. This creates a really good effect to the audience as the producer may include fake jumpscares by building up the sound to make the audience really scared but then discovered that nothing scary is happening in that scene at all.

Studio Lesson- Filming a sequence

In this lesson, we were divided in 3 groups of 4, each one assigned to a particular job: 2 actors, 1 camera man and 1 director. We were set to film a short sequence following a script (a story board) that we were given to while choosing our own setting and create our own scene. We used the Sony NX5 as the camera and it produces really good quality shots.

I was the director in this lesson. I learned the process that the director has to do before every shots is being filmed- for example: stand by, camera roll, action and cut. I also had to decide the angles for each shot to maximise the full effect of each scene. We also experimented to try and shoot outside the storyboard by trying to shoot little details such as footsteps or close up of the character typing and etc. I also made sure that we stuck to the 180 degrees rule to prevent the scene from being messy.

Development for thriller opening sequence

Thriller elements- Suspense, tension, crime, mysteries, physical actions, fights, murders, unsolved events, scary, usually involve blood and violence.

Thriller movies- Kill Bill, The Purge, Dead Silence, Saw, Sherlock Holmes, Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight Rises, Fight Club, Shutter Island.

Plot of the opening sequence: A psycho serial killer wearing a scary clown mask walking towards his car while dragging a dead body, put the body in the trunk and drove off.

The walking scene could be a shot of his feet walking on the small pebble rocks which creates some really interesting sound- the camera moves along with the footsteps. The scene then slowly fade cut every time the shot changes. The second shot my show his hand holding on to someone's leg and slowly pan down to reveal a whole dead body. When the killer gets to the car, he open the trunk and throw the dead body inside. This shot could be done by putting the camera inside the trunk and when the body is inside and the killer closes the trunk, it blacks out. The killer then open the door and sit on the driving seat. He took off his mask. After that, he adjust the driving seat's mirror which only shows a corner of his eyes with a scar on his face. Blacks out.

All of this could be shot in our school, using the space of the lower carpark which gives the isolated- forest kind of feelings.