Plan, Plan, Plan

Location
Although many aspects of our film changed, being the main plot or who was filling what job, the one thing that stayed the same was our location.Firstly, we planned to work outside, but being Winter filming season, unpredictable weather quickly changed our minds after experiencing some heavy snowfall, we didnt know what to expect. Then, we thought that a house would be a perfect atmospheric place to set a thriller opening and convenient to use, as whatever the weather we could use it and it would remain constant. One of my group members, Lauren Rogers, suggested we film at her house, in which we all decided was the perfect setting for the introduction to our thriller, it was my decision to use a house as i personally felt that it would reflect the right atmosphere around this filming. We used inspiration from Thriller films we viewed for research, as it seemed the more realistic the location the more involved the audience began to feel and also the feeling of being involved with the plot and storyline as you can empathise with it.

Actors
It seemed a strong idea at the beginning to ask volunteers to participate in our opening, but with a time limit we decided it would be easier for one of our group to be the main lead character, our lead was acted out by Lauren Hunt. In our plan there would only be one chracter visually seen, so in order to get it done the way we had visualised.
There was a voice actor needed also within the opening, in which we got another member to complete the short script, a mans voice was preferred therefore Michael Burnett took on the role. Looking at the ages of other characters in thriller films, and the target audience the film is attracting to, it seemed the characters are of the same age as the target audience- this is used to create the realistic situations making the film seem so realistic you could see yourself in one of these surreal situations. We used this element when deciding on the character for our thriller.

Costumes
For our opening we wanted to create a very normal average situation as that tends to make a thriller more enticing, in which wanted our 'babysitter' character, played by Lauren Hunt to appear an average middle-classed girl. Lauren toyed with the idea of having our babysitter dressed dark in an attempt to foreshadow danger that would face her character. I decided a hoody and jeans would fit more appropriately, in which it did,as they would be easier to find, costumes were provided by the actor. Like characters it seems in thriller films the clothing is reflective of the type of character it is. More flamboyantly dressed for a confident person, very fashionable for someone more wealthier. For our character in particular we wanted a more casual, relaxed clothing choice- that any 16/17 year old would wear.


Props
In regards to props, we simply decided any household items would fit fine. Seeing as our main set was within Lauren Roger's household, this helped. For a section of our main events we used a kitchin, in which a refrigerator was used, therefore everything used within our opening was genuine. We made no props ourselves, but improvised with the ones that surrounded us within the house. A few ideas were given as to what props to use within the house, there was a suggestion of using a photoframe, to then have it smash on the floor. This seemed too messy. Also the use of kettle to create strong, loud noises but this all included too much re-filming as the noise appeared grainy through the video camera. So we stuck with the refrigirator idea. With having only a few minutes of footage props were not a huge aspect of our opening- but there were of course some objects used to create a realistic approach to our thriller opening, such as a sofa, refrigerator, glass, can of Diet Coke. So very minimal but still very much used.

Watching and analysing...

To give more inspiration to put forward into the editing and production of my thriller opening I watched a few film openings. This enabled me to understand more what was needed in the first two minutes of a thriller film.

The Fog



The main titles as the film starts are foggy, this coincides with the theme and main title of 'The Fog'. A variety of shots are used at the beginning which show different scenes, with tension building music accompanying the shots. Zoom in, Zoom out shot is used frequently as the zoom out shows the action surrounding them but the zoom in shows the reactions of the characters faces closer up. A dark background is show with white writing which contrasts light to dark effectively. Also there is a air of mystery created as we see only dark silhouettes, and no peoples features can be seen.


When a stranger calls



There is the sound of a phone ringing at the start, with a black background with white credits contrasting each other and creating an air of atmosphere. There is a variety of weird screeching noises, as the shot moves from a house to a fairground, where everything at the fairground continues on in a slow motion style. The shot resembles another persons view, as if someone were else were looking onto the scene- which also adds to the atmosphere and creates tension.

Bourne Ultimatum


At first you just see a black background with white writing, contrasting yet again. The next shot you just see feet moving with noises of sirens in the background. It establishes the tension by moving onto a scene with a man limping which gives a hint of danger, and an ill silence with small signs of water dripping which also creates the tension and an atmosphere.

Taken


Starts with a child laughing, accompanied by sad music with an analepsis of a previous point in their lives. The next scene shows the present day of which a man is in a dark room, but the sad music continues, leading on to a shot of a busy street- showing life outside this characters depression.