Research into thriller title

Cellar - Basement; Subterrane; Vault
Trapped - Circumvent; Ensnare
Light - Fluorescent
Void - Deprived; Abandoned; Obstruct
Bunker - Fortification; Shelter; Dugout
Alone - Abandoned; Forsaken; Forlorn; Solitary.
Cellar-subterranean vault
Trapped- rapt
pain- persecute, gouge

obsessed
Trapped persecute
enduring - ever lasting
force- vigour, exertion

Above is a messy mind map of ideas.


We then took our favourite four, and sent a questionnaire out for people to pick their favourite.

Persecute
-To oppose or harass with ill-treatment.

Circumvent
-To avoid or get around by artful manoeuvring.

Ensnare
-To trap or gain power over someone by dishonest or underhand means.

Forlorn
-Pitiful; unhappy because left alone.

We printed these names out for our thriller, and sent around a tally for people to choose which ones they preferred. We sent these around two media classes.
These are our results;

Target Audience

Our film will have an fifteen certificate


I want to aim our film to an audience that loves a good thriller story and a grossing horror to keep them on their toes at the same time almost cringing at the screen to create tension and excitement.
I think our opening will appeal well to 16year old - twenty five. Although the certificate age is an fifteen, i still think they will enjoy this and will not find it that disturbing in the short period of film time they will see.

Ideas for our thriller and storyboard

Our Thriller storyline.

Beginning; flash back in black and white.
Set in the woods. Man/woman running away from someone, camera focuses in front to makes the audience feel they were her/him when running, then an over the shoulder shot, the person looks behind to see if the man running after them is there. Then from the front gets knocked out.
Next image is where they are on the floor, focusing on mans feet (black big boots, dressed in black also). Then image fades as they pass out.

Next image is in a cellar, photos and notes covering all the surrounding walls.
Pictures of dead people, and notes on planning to kill them, camera focuses on a few (close ups).
The cellar has very dim lighting, maybe a flickering or flashing lights in the background to confuse and keep audience on edge as the lights flashes on images then disappears.
Never see mans face, only hands.

Text; dripping, or flashing (suggests blood or fear).

Music
Flash back scene; digetic sounds- heavy breathing, foot steps. Background music when being dragged away.
Cellar scene; background music (like Se7en or SAW) a scratching, screaming music, with a strong deep sound, makes the audience on edge.




This is our original story board for our final opening sequence.
We planned the first part of our opening. We changed allot because we thought our changes were better. And some of the things we wrote originally were impossible to do.
We did not need to do a story board for the other part of our film; the flashes of images and recordings, because we know our locations in which we wanted to record and we couldn't put what we planed to do down on paper, as it would be so hard to express, and take alot of time because we had so many shots to take which we sped up, so our decsision was to go out and film which would give us alot more time rather than spending days and days drawing something that we would most probally developed and made changes throughout filming them anyway.



Shot 1 - Behind shot of the girl walking through woods
digetic sounds of footsteps and wind through the tree's in the back ground
very dim lighting; dusk.
We changed this shot in the end because we wanted it to be darker and use flash lights. We changed the shot to a blank screen at the very beginning with a girl speaking, fading into a black and white shot of trees and bushed being shown on by a torch; establishing shot.

Shot 2 – This is an over the shoulder shot, of the girl running; looking over her shoulder to see if the man following her is anywhere close.
Digetic sounds of footsteps and wind blowing through trees.

We changed this also to a hand held shot in the woods, very heavy breathing and panicky dialogue 'oh my god oh my god', and little screams or panic. We decided to change it because it was more chaotic and came across a lot better than this shot, this shot was also hard to capture with the dark setting.

Shot 3 - Shot reverse shot of girl being followed, this time you can see the shady character. The pace speeded up, and the dialogue builds up to create a tenser atmosphere.
We changed this shot to what shot 4 would of been a behind shot of the shady character holding something in his or her hand, a medium close up to ensure you cannot see his face.

Shot 4 - behind over the shoulder shot of a silhouette figure with some sort of pole or weapon in their hand, possibly a brick.
Digetic sounds of footsteps and the wind blowing through the trees again.
We changed this shot to a hand held shot, the girl running with it in her hand, with very heavy breathing and even more panicked dialogue.
We changed it because it was more face passed, not keeping the same shots all the time as it is a chase scene.

Shot 5 - Shot of girl turning around and being hit in the head with a baseball bat
again hand held and the sound of the weapon hitting her head and the body dropping to the floor. The camera would have acted as if she had been hit, so would have shaken a bit and dropped to the floor, capturing the man’s big bulky feet and possibly the weapon rolling on the floor. Then the shot blacks out.

We kept shot pretty much exactly the same, except you do not see the camera shake too much and the weapon drop. It does fade into black

commentary on directors from the thriller genre

David Fincher started making short films with a video camera he received for his eighth birthday. He was influenced by films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Instead of going to study film at school, David Fincher went straight to work on films, getting a job handling cameras for director John Korty and later joining Kortys boss, George Lucas as an employee at Industrial Light and Magic. At the special effects company.

Fincher worked in the matte department, getting his hands in two of the '80s most popular films; Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

He is now an Academy Award-nominated American film maker and music video director, he is liked for his stylish dark movies such as Se7en which came out in 1997, Fight Club and Zodiac.





Alfred Hitchcock was an English filmmaker and producer, he developed and reveled the suspense in thrillers. His career which lasted over six decades gave him enough experience to direct more than fifty films.
Hitchcock's approach to film was different, it was narrative and suspicious as he kept information secret about characters, he included twists and surprises for the audience and he loved to engage the emotions of the viewers.


Hitchcock's first British film was 'Blackmail' it was produced by British International Pictures, it was a major success. Hitchcock then was making on average a film a year, his 1935 film 'The 39 Steps' has recently been re-released for cinema and is also being shown in London.
In the 1940s Hitchcock broke through to America and Hollywood. He made several successful films, including Rope which was his first technicolour film.
After the 1940s, Hitchcock's work in the late 1950s to early 1960s may have been the highlight of his career, with blockbuster successes such as Vertigo, The Birds and world renown Psycho.