Changes and developments to my thriller

Changes and developments to my thriller

We wanted to make sure our thriller would be effective and our audience would understand the plot. This is when we began to question how we would approach our thriller. We thought of a second idea which would include a similar idea of a high school massacre but we thought of other ways to film the opening sequence and how to end the sequence.

For our initial idea, we were going to film a variety of shots which would follow the killer around the school filming from different angles. This would be effective because it shows a wide use of shots and a clear understanding of our target audience and what they want to see in a thriller. We came up with a different idea in which we would use the school cafe. We would have children sitting around tables having fun with their friends filming each other on phones and then the killer walks in and kills them. We would therefore use point of view shots from the victims which would give a realistic emphasis to the sequence. However, we thought that this  would limit us to the locations we could kill people in. Therefore, we decided to stick with the original idea and push it really hard by using a number of locations around the school and paying close attention to the angles we were using and the shot type.

Another vital part to our opening sequence that was disputed was how we were going to end the sequence. We wanted to use the effect of leaving it on a cliff hanger as this keeps the audience guessing and makes them want to see what happens next, or in our storyline who? and why? Our initial idea was to have a guy playing basketball and the killer walks into the sports hall where the guy is playing and the guy says something similar to "is it done?". As this shocks the audience because they are likely to think the killer is about to kill him but then it turns out they're working together. One of my group members is a basketball fanatic and is quite forceful and not the easiest to get along with. He was adamant that basketball had to be included. Personally, I thought the second idea we came up with was better. I had the idea of instead of the killer walking into the sports hall, in fact he walks into a classroom and a teacher asks "is it done?". The only problem with this is that it puts the teenager in more control that the teacher, which is not believable.

Storyboard of my thriler and what I learnt from it

Storyboard of my Thriller and what we learnt from it

Creating a story board for our thriller opening sequence has helped give us a clear idea of how it was going to pan out. It also gave us an idea of what shots we were going to use and the duration of it. It is similar to a script in the idea that if we forget about shots we can look back at the storyboard which will show us how we set it out.

We tried to draw each shot as similar as possible to what we want it to look like in the thriller and the scenery behind the character. The good thing about doing a school massacre means it is hard to make the scene look fake when you are filming in a zoo whereas if you were filming it on an island, a lot of the scenery would be fake. 

The storyboard also made our story easier to understand as it helps when it is broken down. When doing the story board we weren't 100% sure how the character would be standing so we gave a rough idea of how we wanted it too look.

Real life incidents similar to my thriller

Real life incidents similar to my thriller
1. Virginia Tech Shooting (32 killed, many more injured) - The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many more, before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

2. Columbine High School Massacre (15 died, 24 injured) - On April 20th 1999, two students stormed Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and murdered 12 other students aged 14 to 18 as well as a teacher. A further 24 people were injured before the attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed themselves.

3. Dunblane massacre (18 killed) - Unemployed former shopkeeper and Scout leader Thomas Hamilton walked into Dunblane Primary School armed with two 9 mm pistols and two .357 Magnum revolvers. He killed sixteen small children and a teacher. The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of fully metal jacketed and hollow point ammunition. This event led to the banning of handguns in the UK.

Possible names for our thriller

Possible names for our thriller

"Blacksburg 32" - Our thriller is made on Virgina Tech's high school massacre. It took place in a town called Blacksburg which is something not many know and the 32 comes from the amount of people killed.

"Virginia 32" - We could use Virgina instead of Blacksburg as it is more mainstream as it is a much more well known city and less mysterious and more to the point.

"Is it done" - We are keeping speech to a bare minimum in our thriller and the only speech we may have is the boy playing basketball saying "Is it done?".

"The Baller" - In our thriller there is a mysterious boy playing basketball and we only learn why he is in the opening sequence until the end.

Evaluation of run through

Evaluation of run through

There were many good and bad points to our run through but there were mostly bad which means we can now film our opening sequence adding in all the parts we missed out or did wrong. 

Firstly, we filmed the whole run through incorrectly. We used an iPhone where we should've used a professional camera, with a dolly and tripod. Also we didn't do enough cut scenes or walking scenes to the next killing. As a result of this, our run through didn't flow very well as we see Itamar in a different part of the school just after killing someone. By adding in scenes of him walking to the location of the next killing it adds more suspense and makes the scenes flow better. By using a phone we sometimes recorded in portrait which meant that it looked distorted. As well as this we didn't include any classical music as it would've created a more comical effect as it acts as a juxtaposition to the murders. By not using a camera with a tripod it means that when you are tracking the walking of Itamar, the camera shakes a little as the phone is a lot more sensitive as you can't balance it as well. Also when we film the real opening sequence we will use an actual gun and special effects to make it more realistic so the audience believe the people are really dying rather than Itamar's hand. We can also add more editing techniques like blood and we will be more careful that when people fall and die they will make it more realistic. On the topic of actors, we will recruit a better main antagonist rather than a 17 year old boy which again makes it look like a real high school massacre. However, when we chose the people to die in the run through we chose some good actors. For Example, Mrs O'Connor was a very good actor and made her death more realistic. We also left out a scene where after the massacre, the main antagonist walks into a classroom where it looks like he is about to kill the teacher (who is on their own). When we film the opening scene we will make sure the main killer is fully dressed up in his suit and gloves again to make it more real. We are also gonna include a wider variety of camera shots such as over the shoulder. close ups and wide shots. Lastly, regarding editing we are going to enhance the gun shot sounds to add more tensions and make each killing more dramatic. 

Target Audiences

Target Audiences

In order to get a rough idea as to who our target audiences are going to be, it's worth looking at similar film ideas from ours, and look to see what types of audiences are attracted to them.
There are a few films similar to our idea, and those are: 'We need to talk about Kevin', 'The United States of Leland' and 'Elephant'.

'Elephant' is a crime and dramatic thriller about 2 boys who commit violent acts in their school. The film is rated a 15, therefore it is similar to ours as the concept is very similar about school massacres. Also, our film will appeal to teenagers until people at around the ages of 35.













'We need to talk about Kevin' is also a 15 rated film of the dramatic thriller genre. It features a boy who has been acting strangely and ends up committing crimes at his school. This film is similar to ours as stated before, it features a crime in school.

'The United States of Leland' is another 15 rated crime and drama film. It is about a boy who acts very violently and has been in juvenile detention. Along with the reasons stated above, it relates to our film as we have a protagonist who commits dangerous acts.













The target audience for our film will be teenagers throughout to people in their mid 30s. This is because we believe that this age range will enjoy more watching our film, than people who are over 40 or under 12. From this we have learnt a number of things about our film. Firstly, the casting is vitally important, if we cannot get someone that suitable for the role then we will have to cast someone with a balaclava over their face. The second point that we learnt is that we have to get the right location. E.g we need to film in our school. Without this our film will not be effective. Thirdly, we need to have a reason for his actions, therefore we have decided to include the scene of the characters perspective of the killer, although we don't want the audience to sympathise with him we want to see his motivations.                                                    

How we used Non-Copyrighted Music

How we used Non-Copyrighted Music
Most audio of people speaking, such as videos on YouTube of blogs or commentaries are non-copyrighted. In order for a YouTube video to be copyrighted, YouTube scans the video once it is uploaded for specific waves of sounds that match certain music videos. If the video scans a match of a copyrighted audio or song, then it will be stated underneath the video description, as shown below, for the original song with the lyrics that we chose:

We decided to look for the instrumental version of this song, which luckily, was not copyrighted, as it did not have the music tag underneath the description. This is not the case for all instrumental videos of songs, as some of them do contain copyrighted material. Here is the video of the audio we chose to use for our thriller, which is the instrumental version of the song above. As you can see the picture below isn't copyrighted:

Initial idea of my thriller and feedback

Feedback for our Thriller 

• The feedback we got from our idea was very positive as our idea of a high school massacre will create the suspense and tension that a thriller should have. As well as this it will make it appeal to a wide audience as children from around the age of 15 and up can watch it. The main point of constructive criticism we got was that the person playing basketball in the gym is just unnecessary and pointless. 

Research into Props

Research Into Props for our Thriller - My group and I put a lot of thought into what props we should use to give the best effect in our thriller:

Scary Mask - Either Clown or Duck
Based on the idea of our thriller being a school massacre, we wanted the antagonist to help give the thriller a subtle horror idea to it. By using a scary mask this does that as it makes the main antagonist look more scary and frightening. As well as this, it helps to create a more of a cliff hanger as you want to find out who is under the mask which helps to create thrilling moments which is what we are aiming for as a whole.

    

Shotgun - The main antagonists weapon 

We chose a shotgun as the main antagonists weapon of choice for a number of reasons. Firstly, by using a gun it creates a more tense affect and creates a more massacre feel as the ant(antagonist) is going in without a silencer or pistol and shooting anyone who steps in his path. The explosive sound of a shotgun helps to portray this. The recklessness of the sound of a firing shotgun helps to emphasise the violence of the character rather than a little pistol.

 Gloves - The main antagonist wears leather gloves

The main antagonist wears leather gloves for two reasons. Firstly, he wears them to cover his identity, so you cannot see what colour skin he is or any other hand feature. Secondly, so that he doesn't get any DNA on anything he touches which makes a more exciting film as the police will find it harder to catch him as he leaves no evidence. This helps to create a more exciting thriller as you cannot see who the person is as they are wearing clothing on any part of their body to stay covered.

Headphones 

Whilst on his massacre, the ant will be wearing old walkman headphones. This will create a small comical effect and is very contrasting. This will be comical as the ant will be listening to classical music as this helps to keep him concentrated as if he doesn't to the music, he goes out of control rather than staying relaxed walking round a school shooting people. This is very contrasting as the calm peaceful classical music is nothing like the loud gunshots and cries of people dying beyond the sound of the headphones.

Research into costumes

Research into costumes
In our thriller we will have a few costumes. This will include, a black suit, a duck mask, a basketball kit and a school uniform.

This is similar to the duck mask we will use in the thriller. We are making the killer wear a duck mask to hide his identity and to hide any emotion he may show when killing people without the mask. My wearing a duck mask he is made to look more 'freaky' and 'mysterious'. A duck mask has a similar reaction as a clown mask does in that many people get scared.

This is a similar suit to the one the killer will use in the thriller. We want the killer to wear something smart which will contrast with the harsh reality of him killing the students. The killer won't be rushing around the school on the massacre, he will be walking which shows him trying to remain smart.

The basketball player will wear a kit similar to this to add to the reality of the storyline. Also it makes him look more professional, rather than just being in normal clothes.

Research into location

Research into location

Since my group and I already go to one of the largest high school's in Europe, our filming location was very easily decided. As our school is so big, we were able to make full use of the spacious corridors and rooms to create all the effects we wanted to. 

This is an image similar to the sports hall we used to film in. As you can see there is very good lighting which allowed the shots to be filmed clearly and for us to white balance easily. You can also see its very spacious so we were able to film experiment with some more difficult, action shots.

News articles for Thriller ideas.

Poppy seller burned in aerosol attack in Manchester

A 15-year-old Army cadet who was selling poppies for Remembrance Day suffered burns to his face in an attack with a lit aerosol can.

The boy, who was wearing his uniform, was at a bus stop near Manchester Art Gallery at 18:00 GMT on Saturday when he was attacked.

Police said a man lifted an aerosol can and a lighter and sprayed him with lit fumes.

The cadet suffered burns to his face and singed hairs, officers confirmed.

Greater Manchester Police said the offender, described as black or Asian, 5ft 8in tall and wearing a dark hooded top, then walked off without saying a word.

• Taking inspiration from this news article I have an idea to create a thriller in which a religious extremist believes the people who do a lot for those who aren't as fortunate deserve to go to heaven earlier as heaven is meant to be paradise. He goes round stalking them and murders them at the best given opportunity. The rest of the public see this differently.
• The antagonist will believe he is doing the people a favour by killing them and sending them to heaven.
• This could create an interesting opening sequence as it could introduce the man and show like a news programme saying ' Another charity worker killed' . Cuts to man and goes to dungeon to kill next victim.

Former Severn Vale teacher John Fleck jailed for obsession with disciplinarian and sadistic child pornography

A 53-year-old secondary school teacher and scout master obsessed with sadistic child pornography featuring boys being spanked and caned was jailed for 10 months today.

Many of the thousands of illegal images and videos in bachelor John Fleck's possession were of children receiving corporal punishment, Gloucester crown court was told.

The material, collected over a 16 year period, was not only on Fleck's two computers but also on a collection of so-called 'naturist' DVDs - one of which, called 'A Century of Discipline', was a compilation of eight hours of child punishment scenes, the prosecution said.

The court heard Fleck had worked as a teacher and served as a scoutmaster for the last 28 years but there was no suggestion he had ever abused any of the children in his care in any way.

• Man teaches at a secondary school. His daughter died at 16 years old.
• First day of the year, girl in his new class looks very similar to her.
• He starts to develop feelings for this girl.
• He stalks her and follows
• She doesn't know who the person is and gets very scared and becomes timid and anxious.

New Mobile Phone software

• New mobile phone from company no one has ever heard of.
• It is very well marketed and has all these new features that teenagers ream of having on a phone.
• The phone during the first phone call each make releases a gel into the persons ear and turns them into zombie like students and totally chnages them into the opposite of their usual personality.

Introduction to a Thriller

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.

Conventions and ideas normally associated with the Thriller genre

• Low key lighting
• Quick cuts
• Shadows
• Tension related music
• Angle changes of shots
• Diegetic sound of breathing
• Non-diegetic sound of dimming to represent heartbeat
• Greyscale shots
• Protaganist at the mercy of the Antagonist

Subgenres of the Thriller genre

• Action Thriller
• Comedy Thriller
• Crime Thriller
• Medical Thriller
• Mystery Thriller
• Romantic Thriller
• Spy Thriller

Examples of Thrillers

Action Thriller - Taken 

Comedy Thriller - Silver Streak

Crime Thriller - The Usual Suspects

Medical Thriller  - Side Effects

Mystery Thriller - Sherlock Thrillers

Romantic Thriller - The Phantom of the Opera

Spy Thriller - The Bourne Identity