Pre film planning

Before we begin filming we thought it would be a good idea to plan ahead what we would need for the filming of each day to help us not forget anything. This also helps us keep track of what props we have used each day and when we will need them and the equipment necessary to film.

Thriller Genre: Camerawork/Cinematography

Cinematography and camerawork from ThemSlater

Influences of our film

There were many influences that helped us toward many aspects of our film, once the story had been created we thought we would use certain influences within our film , this led to the research below.
(Note: This research is shown in an almost bullet point fashion explaining a reference and what influence it ha within our film, this will not at all be detailed due to the shear quantities of research and themes that share common aspects of with our story)



Shutter - Shutter has an overall  theme of photographs within its plot, with how the photo being destroyed determines how the person dies



The Ring - The ring makes use of the idea spirits an people can get trapped within things such as photos and films, for example the creature being trapped within the VHS and the television, this inspired our idea of people disappearing once a photo had been taken of them.



Native american indian belief - that photos used to steal a part of the person that was within them

the third man, white heat - These two films both make use of the black and white aspect within their films to make them seem more mysterious and unusual



The painting in the witches- Within the film "The Witches" there is a painting that a member of the family seems to randomly appear within suggesting people are trapped of contained within paintings and photos



Ghost paintings in films (The haunting) - This, more of a generic comment, suggests that ghosts are trapped within paintings and photographs and have eyes that watch you, suggesting there is still something within them. Spirit inside the camera used as a familiar



Dorian grey - the picture of Dorian grey suggests that things that happen in real life happen to photos or paintings of them suggesting that they or a part of them is trapped within the media and is affected by things.



Old timey police photographers -

The others, photo albums of dead love ones to remember them.



BlowUp, peepin' tom takes photos



Nightcrawler - ethics of taking photos




Horcrux's - fragments of a persons soul attached to an object, this suggests that a persons soul may be trapped or attached to that of a photograph



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243133/
Black and white modern noir - above shows a link to "The man Who wasn't there" showing influences and ideas that a modern black and white film should include.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401792/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Sin City - use of neo-noir elements keeping the film within the boundaries of black and white but only colouring certain aspects of the film which are of importance



Ethan Hawk film, photos of dead people, ghost in a projector - Similar to that of the ring



Mary celest - The boat that was found with all the crew



Roanoak - colony in americas where everyone disapeared overnight , The work "Kroatoan" etched into a tree



Someone who wants to go missing actually does Red Herring - this is the ideas that gave us the use of red as our main plot points



8mm nick cage - missing girl, snuff film



Super 8, reference of terrible monsters in cameras and films, and ghost.



7 - city thats assumed to be newyork but its nonsense imaginary place


other films with references

Bling Guy

texas chainsaw massacre intro flash imitation

Omen - preist comes to dad with line over his body, gets peirced by a church spire
line through neck - killed by glass pane to the neck

Black hole - man in office, takes photocopy of a black hole thats real, Similar narrative

Noir-y surreal imigary: eraser head david lynch did twin peaks

Thriller Genre: Characters

The thriller genre includes a wide range of characters depending on the sub-genre of the thriller.
Throughout the psychological thriller, there tends to be a few constant characters that seem to appear as concepts to a successful story, this includes:

• convicts,criminals or stalkers - such as in "one hour photo"
• People down on their luck/homeless
• Psychotic individual - Such as "The Shining"
• Odd or unusual characters that seem off yet relatable of sorts

In the horror storylines of the thriller genre there tends to be the inclusion of:

• femme-fatals and icy blondes that tend to be the victim of a serious event or are plagued by an evil spirit
• potentially betraying/cheating women. - Such as in"Sleeping with the enemy"

In the conspiracy based modern thriller there are more specific roles such as:

• Assassins - such as in "JFK"
• Innocent/on the run victims - Such as in "Hear no evil, see no evil"
• Terrorists 
• Cops and police

The protagonists in thrillers tend to be either b
rave male (sometimes female such as in "atomic blonde") who seeks to restore an equilibrium within the story.

The opposite to this can be those antagonists ten to have a hidden identity, until the climax of the film and the uncovering of this progresses the film.

This tend to be the same for crime and action thrillers as well as in conspiracy and modern terrorist plot thrillers. Whereas in psychological thrillers and horror thrillers, this is more than often a female in which is plagued by and evil spirit/murderer who is out to disrupt the equilibrium of the story and potentially is never defeated only warded off.

Filming schedule

Thriller Cinematography

The art of cinematography revolves around the use of shots, angles, and movement of characters within a film. Cinematography builds a tension vital for thriller films when done correctly.

SHOTS:

• Thriller films most often use close up shots to convey emotion from the character in moments of fear, wrath and suspense. Close up shots allow more emotion to be conveyed because people can recognize the small movements on the face of the actor, as well as the larger facial features.
• Often in thriller films, small details in the foreground of a shot can make a large impact like a piece of evidence. Therefore, deep focus is often used to emphasis foreground items and blur the background. This can also be used to blur characters or items behind the foreground to build up to the reveal.
• thrillers avoid wide and long shots in times of tension as it as more impact up close, however they are regularly used to set the scene or show intense conversation. 

ANGLES:

• Low angles are often used in thrillers to convey the superiority of certain characters. This can help the audience determine where characters function within the overall narrative. For example, a criminal about to kill someone would be shot from below them to show power.
• High angles are often used to convey the opposite of a low angle; they often show vulnerability and lack of knowledge of power. The victim of a crime could be shot from a high angle.
• Eye level shots can be used to portray some form of stand off or tension between characters, a convention derived from westerns. However, in a thriller they can also be used to convey friendship or the equality of characters.

MOVEMENT:

• In a thriller film, it is often important that we know as little as the character does so that we can understand and empathize with their fear. Tracking is used to follow the character on screen and reveal only as much as they see, not ruining the surprise for the audience
• Panning and zooming out can be used in the same way to create tension, slowly revealing the danger to increase suspense. For example, slowly panning toward a monster from the camera would leave the audience in suspense for the duration of the shot.
• Zooming in can be used to focus on a specific detail that a character has missed to make the audience aware of the danger.

Thriller Genre: Storylines

Thriller films have story lines that are highly based upon the inclusion of thrill, suspense and build up of emotions to further draw the audience in. The use of anticipation in thriller story lines is to build up and prolong the events within a story. Many of the events used are to help provide an enigma to the viewers allowing them to anticipate events that are about to take place, when these events are prolonged viewers are gained with a thrill and edge of seat experience in which the audience almost feasts upon.

This prolonged pausing of the action or thrilling moment is used to make the viewer feel they were wrong about the enigma created through build-up and tension. then once the thrill has taken place,viewers are given either a sense of  pleasure and satisfaction if they figured out where or what the thrilling or story centred event was, or those whom haven't figured this out are drawn deeper into the story by the twisting and sudden change of pace in the story line.
There are a few story lines and narratives that count as conventions for thriller genre plots. In current years this has been the use of conspiratorial based plots, or the more classic murder mystery or action film.
In more classic depictions of thriller films story lines consist of a battle between either a protagonist and antagonist in which there is a disruption of a normal situation, with the aim of restoring this.
Other storylines tend to be based on the horror elements that involve a main character, mainly female, in which is plagued by a maleficent spirit in which provides a shock and thrill of the viewer by restricting what perspective of the narrative they can see.
However more recent depictions of thrillers involve the use of government conspiracies and the development of terrorist plots with the use of action. This action type of thriller uses builds up of criminally insane people either kidnapping or trying to commit a illegal act such as theft of large amounts money and hostage situations to draw the viewer in, with acts of violence and bravery to further the story. They tend to follow many plot points to further the narrative such as in "die hard", in which John Maclain is told to cure jet lag by rubbing his feet on a carpet. This later proves to be his weakness when Hanz Gurber tells his terrorists to shoot the glass, which weakens John and leads to the terrorists finding him. 

Thriller Locations

Thrillers take place mostly in ordinary suburbs and cities, although sometimes they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or the high seas. This is done for 3 reasons

1. Making obstacles and sharp corners
2. Close enclosed areas that could trigger claustrophobia
3. Bringing the feeling of a thriller to the audience.

For starters, the thriller and horror genre THRIVE on using acute and 90 degree angles when illustrating tones of tension and horror when using corners and walls. A common stereotype found in cinema is, what I like to call, the "Sword through the wall" scene, where a sharp object penetrates a wall or door as the person on the other side tries to get through. This can be used as a comedic scene where the main character hides behind the door, and the sword just misses their body as it tries to cut through, but it can also convey realism panic famously demonstrated in "The Shining" by Stanley Kubrick.

Secondly, Continuing on using towns and cities, there are a lot of closed off areas within cities such as alley ways and huge buildings that you can easily get lost in. Die Hard 1 used a giant building for the characters to get lost in, and The Shining used small rooms to make the characters feel trapped and helpless, shown in the bathroom scene as well as the snowy hedge maze. With that being said, not every thriller need these conventions to be scary for the main character. For example, huge open areas can convey isolation and no areas to hide in. A common place to convey this is within West America where there are flat lands for miles on end, showing in the movie "SE7EN" with the box scene in the end.


This also appeals in the Manga "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run", where the author had intended the story to set out in a wide open area with very little area to hide from enemies, aside from a few small hills and trees.


Lastly, Most thriller films take place in towns and cities and villages because the film wants to apply the thrill of a thriller directly to the audiences, tackling locations that normal people live in to say that "anyone can be effected by the events we are about to show". Films like Scream and The Shining and use these locations to demonstrate that normal people can be effected by these events, and the audience will feel relieved to see the victims fighting back using wit and intellect.