Final Cut

Here is our final cut for our thriller project.

Dark room - Problems

When filming our thriller in the dark room we came to a few problems. The first of these occurred before we even started. The photographic paper that we planned to use to print the picture on to was too thick to be put through a printer so we could not get our picture for the dark room. We decided just to use a blank bit of paper for our developing just to show the process.
Our second problem was that we left it very late to film our last part of the film. so we had to re-edit the whole film after we had finished filming. The soundtrack was not long enough, due to this issue we decided to put some more non diagetic sound over the top but not to edit the actual soundtrack.
Once we got into the dark room we needed to do an over the shoulder shot of the photo being developed. This turned out to be more complicated than first thought. The tripod did not extend high enough to come over the shoulder of Ed. So we had to hand film which turned out to be shaky but not to bad as it looked like a view shot from the person developing the photo.
The final problem that we encountered was the gloves. They weren't quite big enough for Ed's hands and so in the clip of him putting on a glove it looks like a struggle to get the glove on. However this does not look to bad as it is blurred and looks like the developer is in a hurry to get on with his job.

Thriller Mise-en-scene

The costumes in our scene are very naturalistic, they are just normal clothes that a teenager out and about would wear.
The two props that we used are the camera and the vodka bottles. We used the vodka to represent age and social groups. Controversial issues such as under aged drinking can be seen here as the three teenagers drink and become more vulnerable.
The camera brings the idea of paranoia to the film. The idea of being watched is associated with the camera. This is exaggerated at the end of the opening with the close up on the camera. Then comes the flash as the photo is taken.

Thriller Rough Cut

This is our thriller rough cut. We have used a night filter to make it look more like night and achieve a better mise-en-scene however we chose to film in daylight for better quality causing it to look more like dusk than night. During this project, a few problems occurred with filming due to the dark rooms being closed when we wished to film and having to re-do arrangements more than once.

Possible Titles for the thriller opening sequence

• Development
• Developer
• Photograph
• Depth of field
• Obsessed
• Obsession
• Digital Night

Thriller Animatic Sequence

Here is our animatic sequence showing a rough outline of the scenes we are going to shoot. Each storyboard still is in place of each scene. We have added in some transitions to show how our final video will switch from scene to scene. Our draught soundtrack has been added to the Antimatic sequence to give a feel of how our thriller opening will build suspense and work.

Starting Ideas For Thriller Opening

Our main idea for our thriller is photography. The idea originally came from the student thriller opening "negative" but the theme is used in may other thrillers such as "momento". The idea of using photography is a more psychological approach to the thriller genre. The opening sequence will start off set in a dark room with the camera focusing on a picture of one dead women. The scene will then flashback to the three women walking down a street in Cambridge. The camera will then follow the three women down the street for a few seconds. The camera would then change to a view of the front of them as they laugh and stumble down the road. After this shot the location will change back to the the dark room. The next photo will be on a table, it is a picture of the three women together, and a hand will come from the side to put crosses through two of the women's faces. There will be one girl left without a cross, which starts to ask questions. The location again switches back to the three women as they split up. one walks in one direction and the other two leave in the other.

The lighting will be low or coloured red (for example in the dark room) to effect the viewer via the mise-en-scene. Also the editing pace will be slow until the events in the opening start to un-fold. We have chosen the setting to be Cambridge and the surrounding villages to make a more natural environment which will make our clip more natural and the viewer will find more to relate to and will raise complex questions.

Generic conventions in "face off" opening sequence

Face off has alot of generic conventions that a thriller should have. The very first that is noticed is the idea of paranoia. When the scene is first set there is a man and his son being watched over through a gun sight. The next is more complicated as although there is nothing the father can do to prevent his son from dying it is him that is to blame for his death. The non-diegetic sound in the opening sequence mirrors the characters feelings wich is also another convention. In the opening there is a very clear good guy bad guy theme but as past viewers will know the film twists and turns so that none of this remains clear. The final convention is the idea of equilibrium. The equilibrium is completely shattered in the first opening minutes of the film after the child dies. Bringing in the start of revenge.