Script

1. EXT: Antagonist Basement (Dark Room) - Midnight

 

Gradually the music begins to play, as a point of view shot shows the book made by the Antagonist called "The Agenda". The face of the Antagonist is not seen, the audience will only see his hands flicking through the book as the music begins to play louder.

2. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Early Evening

The scene switches to a medium long shot of the swing alone, as the swing will be swinging on its own. as this happens there will be a spooky sound effect descending, gradually the sound effect will stop and all you can hear is the squeaky swing getting louder.

3. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Early Evening 

This scene contains dialogue. The victim is talking to her guardian as they walk into the park.

Jaanvi:

(laughing)

Ravi: How was your day at school?

Jaanvi: It was good Daddy

Ravi: (echoing laugh)

4. EXT: Antagonist Basement (Darkroom Flashback) Midnight

This scene is another point of view shot. This scene is shot in the Antagonists basement once again and it shows a birds eye view angle of the book the villain has written.The audience get a slight knowing that something bad is going to happen.

5. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Later On That Evening 

This scene is of the antagonist sitting on the park bench. This is an overhead shot of the antagonist watching his target as she swings. By this time it becomes obvious to the audience what the antagonists motive it. 

6. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Later On That Evening 

This scene is of the little girl (Victim) sitting on the swings. This is a straight shot of the girl on the swing. 

7. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Later On That Evening 

This is a birds eye shot of the antagonists watch. It clearly shows the time in which he is going to take his crime forward.

8. EXT: In The Park (Heath Park) - Later On That Evening 

This shot is a straight shy of the swing after the antagonist has kidnapped the child. Also, this is the last shot that we will be shooting. After this our thriller movie trailer finishes.

Ammended Storyboard

After we had recieved feedback from our interviewes, we had to ammend our storyboard, and the thing we ammended was that we had changed the time from 10pm to 4.30pm. This is because as our main character was was a little girl, we thought 10pm would not be appropriate. Also, we needed the time to be when it is dark, and now as it is winter, the sun starts to go down at 4pm, therefore, 4.30pm would be a good time to film.

Film Company Research

There are many different film companies such as:
- Anchor Bay
- Capitol Films
- DreamWorks SKG
- DreamWorks Animations
- 20th Century Fox
- 20th Century Fox Animation
- Blue Sky Studios
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Triumph Films

These are just a few film companies that make different genres of films. Our film we had made would be produced and made by DreamWorks. This is because they made a similar film which can be compared to ours called 'The Lovely Bones'. This film consists of a unusual villain who has a diary which he keeps under his floorboard in his room, consisting of different items from a little girls, such as hair, hair tie etc. We have replicated this idea and made our villain also have a diary which he keeps pictures of his victims, and it consists of a hair bow of a little girl. DreamWorks would like our idea as it is replicated from a film they had worked with, however we have a complete unique story line, which has a thriller genre.

Focus Group

For our focus group, we had to ask some people from our target audience (14 - 19 Year Olds) about what conventions they would expect in a thriller movie. We chose 4 open ended questions to ask our target audience. We did this so we could improve our story boards and character profiles.

Questions Asked:
1) From looking at our storyboard what would you expect the genre of the film to be?
2) From looking at our storyboard what do you think will happen in the film?
3) What do you think will happen next?
4) What do you expect to see in a normal thriller movie?

These were the questions asked, you can see by reading at them that they are very vague, however this was done purposely so we could get as much feedback as we could.

Analysis:

From question one, 5/5 people from our target audience said they would expect the genre of our film to be a thriller after looking at our story board. This was a good thing, as this is what we expected everyone to say. Also, it proves our storyboard is precise and clearly indicates the genre of what the movie is.


In Question 2, 3/5 people said they thought the little girl (the victim) would get kidnapped.  Which links to the character profiles as we said that men dominate over females, and from this question, the little girl is picked to be kidnapped. This shows our story board was accurate and explains the plot effectively, and that the audience could understand what we were hoping to achieve. However, 1/5 people said they think the girl was going to fall off the swing. This shows our storyboard may not be clear enough. To improve on this aspect, we decided to write more descriptive captions to ensure they understand the plot properly.

Question three was answered differently by the everyone in our target audience. One person said they expected there to be a hero to save the little girl from the kidnapper. Another person said that the little girl manages to escape from the villains trail. Someone else also said that the little girl ends up dying.

Question four was an interesting question as it helped us pinpoint what the audience would expect there to be in a normal thriller movie. 5/5 people said they would expect to see some sort of weapon used by the antagonist. Our group wanted to show originality through our thriller movie so we decided to not have a weapon in our film. This shows we did want to add a unique aspect to our film. 

Overall, our focus group was very useful as it helped us target what conventions we could use and add to our movie, also, it helped us on what everyone would prefer to watch, and the answers we had recieved from our questionnaire proves that our story board was interesting and did make sense. Lastly, it also helped us alter our storyboard to fit our criteria of a thriller film after we had recieved feedback from others.

Overall, we will not be changing our storyboard as the feedback we recieved from our focus group was postive, and it did not require us to make any ammendments to our movie.

 

Character Profiles

  

  

This is the villain that will be playing in our short opening of our thriller film. We have drawn him out to show how he will be dressed, black hoodie and black trousers. We've chosen black as this is a morbid colour. Also the colour black connotates evil and can show an element of the dark side in the character. The villain we also be wearing a black hoodie as hoodies are frowned upon in society therefore this will add suspicion so towards the character. The actor who is performing as the villain is a 5 foot 7 male. The reason for this is that the male gender shows dominance and height may add fear to everyone in the audience and generally to everybody in society. 

Next, this is the victim that gets kidnapped in our thriller. This image at the bottom shows a typical young girl whom would wear bright coloured dresses and have long hair. The idea that the girl is young makes it realistic about the fact that she would be easy to kidnap due to the size, age and gender. The actor will be dressed in a flowery dress with pony tails as a typical 3 year old would like to dress. This child will be a girl, as it will contrast with the fact that the villain is a male, and males are the more dominant sex.

Storyboard

This is a drawn image of our storyboard. It shows the opening from the left of the book named 'The Hidden Agenda' and it shows the villain looking at this book that he has written and it shows the time and date of this kidnapping. Next, the storyboard has short descriptions that explain briefly what is going to happen in each scene. from the storyboard you can see that the angle the book has been drawn in is a Bird's Eye View shot. Also alongside that, we will be using a Point Of View shot alongside the Bird's Eye View shot. 

As the scene goes on, the audience understand what is going to happen. From the story board you can see that the day of the kidnapping is a Thursday. The audience know this as in the book and in the storyboard the day is circled in a red pen. Also, the audience can easily identify the villain and victim due to the way they dressed, and as they are the main characters being recorded. 

The location that the film will be shot is in a park based in Hounslow. The park is close to The Heathland School, and is called Heath Park. We have chosen this place as there is a play area for kids, which will be used. Also, next to the Park there is a very big area which consists of only trees which is called the Heath. This will be a great location as the villain would be able to take the child into to heath to grab an easy escape, if he does. 

Overall, we will not be changing our storyboard as the feedback we recieved from our focus group was postive, and it did not require us to make any ammendments to our movie.

Shot Log

We will be using a number of different Shots in our film we will be creating. The camera angles that we will be using are:
- Zoom/Reverse Shot
- Stead Cam
- Focus
- Handheld
- Tilt

The shots we will be using are:
- Long Shots
- Medium Long Shots
- Close Ups
- Over The Shoulder
- Point of View

These are a few camera angles and shots that we are planning on using when we create our film. We will be using these as these are the most common shots and angles used in filming, and to keep the audience engaged so they don't get bored of seeing one angle and shot over and over again.

Film Treatment

Film Treatment
- Film treatment is similar to that of an often overview or synopsis of the film idea.
- What character might play the parts
- Are there any archetypes? e.g. Frankenstein or Dracula influences the characters to act the way they do.

The first shot of our film will contain a point of view shot of what the antagonist is looking at, a book that he has written called 'The Agenda'. While the villain is looking at the book he has written, there is a picture of a little girl, and a date being shown. The audience do not know who this girl is and what the date represents  but they get an idea that something wrong is going to happen. While the villain is looking at the book, the camera angle we will be using is a Bird's Eye View and a Point of View shot. We have replicated this idea from a film called 'The Lovely Bones'. 

The scene opens with a little girl wearing a bright dress walking to the park with her dad (protagonist) and the villain is seen to be looking at her. However the audience do not recognise the villain as his face is covered. The villain wears dark clothing, black trousers and a black hoodie. This is because villains are usually portrayed in the society in this manner. While the little girl is on the swings, her dad realises that he has misplaced his phone, so he goes to find it and tells the girl to stay there till he returns. When the dad is telling the little girl to stay where she is, we will be using the 180 Degree Angle. The audience get to know the setting through the camera movement. The setting is in the park. The villain is seen to be looking at the time as he realises that the little girl is now on her own, so he gets ready to make his move on kidnapping the little girl.

Timetable

Preliminary Task Editing

Editing is important as it keeps the audience engaged whilst watching a film or programme. If a video was not edited, the audience would not understand what is going on as the scenes being played would not make sense. Also, editing helps to get rid off parts of the video which are not wanted.

After we had finished recording our Preliminary Task, we had to edit it to  make the scenes videoed fit in. When editing the Preliminary Task , it was fairly difficult as it was the first time trying to edit a piece to make it go well. When the audience had watched our Preliminary Task, they had given us feedback to improve on, which we took into consideration so we could amend these mistakes in the final piece.

Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task. This short clip shows different clips put together. Also, we did this to  practise on how to use different shots to use in our real task. 

I have learnt that when filming, make sure that everyone around are not talking so you do not have to mute the sound. Also, I have learnt how to film different camera angles such as: Match on Action, 180 Degree Rule, Point of View and a few others. A strong aspect of our videoing was that we used correct dialogue which was clear so everybody could understand, also we included all the camera angles we were supposed to. 

I learnt how to edit different clips so they could fit together, I also learnt how to trim shots which were not needed and put them together using different transitions. 

We showed our clip to the media class, and they told us that our target was: that the actors should not look at the camera whilst performing. Also, another aspect that we could improve on is that whilst filming, to make sure that the camera is steady, and is not shaking. 

Thriller Movie Director Research

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing humanistic issues such as The Holocaust, The Transatlantic Slave Trade, War, and Terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.
Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films:
- Jaws (1975)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
 These films achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.3 billion.

Film Noir Research

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black and white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.

The term film noir, French for "black film'', first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noirs were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of on going debate among scholars.
 

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid is a dramatic action movie. This is identified through the opening scene. The opening contains Diegetic Sound of the instrumental music being played. This gives the viewer a dramatic feeling. Also, the font used during the opening scene is used throughout most of the opening, and this bold font is in Sepia that foreshadows action and drama. The opening scene is also slow paced and includes illegal activity of gambling, which hints to the audience that auction is involved. Also, the opening scene is shown to be very dark and the setting is of a old western cowboy setting.

Schindlers List

I had watched a film which was a very old film, and that was Schindlers List. The setting is from a very long time ago, during the mid-early 1900s, the film is shown in black and white which results in the audience knowing it is a very old film. During this film, there is a vast number of camera angles such as: Close Ups, Extreme Close Ups, Over The Shoulder, and many more. All these camera angles used create a sense of confusion in the audience as they do not know what is happening. There is a lot Diegetic Sound used during the opening of the film. When the people are lining up with there families, the audience do not know what is happening therefore creates confusion.