Story Boards

It was incredibly important to organise our day into a shooting schedule to reach a maximum level of efficiency on the day of shooting. Especially since we only have one day to capture all the shots needed to create our peice.

We then decided what props we would need to generate an essential feel of realism in the peice. We also discussed what costumes the antagonists would need to emphasize a level of maximum "scaryness".

We came to a decision as a groupe to use the first three actors as our ideal people to play the characters. There was some concern about exams in January, and who would be available, so we researched some other actors as substitutes. If our ideal actors are able to be in our peice, then i believe the others will serve as extra's in one of the shots.

Our target audience.

Even though our peice could easily be rated an 18, i believe our target audience to be 15-29 year olds, mostly male. To see the film in the cinema, being under 18 may be tricky, but when it comes to DVD purchase, i believe it to be a realistic assumption that our target audience could stem to a younger age. Many under 18's watch films that are rated 18. I believe that our peice would also attract a mainly male audience, due to research suggesting that "gangster-thrillers" normally appeal to more men that women. The audience are most likely to be middle-class young adults due to the fact that they are the dominant movie going population.

Producing a written version of technicalities.

Camera movement, timing and dialogue were all major things to consider in depth. These are all factors that make up the film that we are shooting in January. I wrote the dialogue that the two antagonists would be acting with, using influences from the writings of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino. We also added in some trademark shots such as the POV car-boot shot, which is a personal favourite of mine. All of these factors were greatly considered to add to emphasize a sense of stylish film making along with key points in the narrative.

Research sources.

The internet was a major source for research in this project. Researching films by influential directors of the genre was a vital step for the project when looking at the content of the narrative and styles of cinematography. I researched directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Guy Ritchie and Robert Rodriguez. Each of these directors have worked on many torture sequences and incorporated extreme forms of violence in their films.

First production group meeting.

We were put into groups of four and given the thrillers that we would be working on for coursework. I was thrilled that my idea was chosen. We finalised narrative elements that were undecided, especially issues revolving around the double act of the two gangsters i.e. what was there motive for abducting the girl etc. A key part or the thriller is also a song that plays twice throughout the opening sequence, choosing the song was not an arduous task but there was some creative conflict

My presentation.

After some research and brainstorming, I was ready with an idea to present to my class in hopes of it being chosen as one of the thrillers that would be shot in January. My presentation consisted of a brief outline of the narrative, which explains that a girl would be abducted from a suburban country road, which quickly destroys a peaceful atmosphere set up at the beginning of the film, to juxtapose with the following events. She wakes up in the boot of a car, and is brutally tortured by two psychotic “gangster-types”, where she is prodded for information. I explained that Quentin Tarantino was a major influence when coming up with the idea. I wanted a major sense of irony within the torture scene which directly corresponds with many of Tarantinos films including, True Romance, Resovoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Mixing comedy with obscene brutality to create dark humour is something I find incredibly entertaining and I deeply admire the film makers that do this.

"What is a Thriller" Lesson.

We were given a lesson to establish the meening of the word "thriller", when relating to film genres. We discovered that there are many types of thrillers. To name afew:
Crime/Gangster Thriller.
Physcological Thriller.
Mystery Thriller.
These are all sub genres that fall into the genre. "Thriller" can be described as a meta-genre. We looked at the film "Pyscho" directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969. We discovered that this film used many techniques to shock and horrify audiences that set the bar for the genre.