Psychological Thrillers - Context

Psychological Thrillers

According to my research, the term ‘Psychological Thriller’ is one of the sub-genres of thriller (the rest are mystery thrillers and crime thrillers). Thrillers merge mostly with the action genre as there is a strong chase element, but in regard to a psychological thriller, it deals with aspects relating to the mind or the mental state (rather than physical – action). A common narrative would be two people playing dangerous mind games or one or more unknown sources slowly deteriorating the mental state of one character (usually the main character). The main themes deal with – reality, perception, mind, existence/purpose, identity and death (credit to Wikipedia).

Most characters used are

1.) The main character, usually in an unstable mental state of mind – suffering from amnesia; suffering from PTSD; suffering from schizophrenia; suffering from multiple-personality disorders; breakdowns. They often have to deal with conflicts of their mind – their upsetting past, crimes they have committed and often suppress; crimes they have witnessed and suppress; dealing and resolving with a restless memory; going on a journey, looking for unanswered questions from the past

2.) Someone by their side, someone who acts as a support (emotionally or physically) and aids them throughout the film. Usually is there as a medical professional; detective; someone similar to the main character, but less affected; a friend or a family member.

3.) The antagonist(s), main source of their suffering, caused their suffering a long way before the main narrative of the film has begun. A single person or a large group that may have traumatised the main character (and several others) in some way and are going to certain lengths to silence them.

4.) A back-up, mainly authoritative figures – the police. These are used so the main character’s actions can be justified and prevents them from being imprisoned.

Techniques:

1) Stream of consciousness – a  technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thriller films, the narrative usually tries to manifest the character's psyche through voiceover or point of view filming.

2) Unreliable narrator - only showing us part of the person's story so we do not totally trust what we are seeing - we only see the kidnapping through the eyes of a small girl

3) Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the viewer is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions - our opening is the backdtory explaining why the sister is a disturbed individual when she grows up.

Examples:

Don’t Say a Word (2001) trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV-eFMgSOAw

Shutter Island (2010) trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybpWKMcTZ0U

Researching your chosen Genre

Thriller (psychological)

Analysing Genre- What is a psychological thriller?

A psychological thriller is a sub-genre that branches of from the genre of ‘thriller’. It is known as ‘psychological’ because of the way it can be quite disturbing to the audience watching it, is based around psychological manipulation and can rise questions as to what is, or is not, real. This genre of film can also be based around the relationships between characters as well. 

Quite a lot of characters in films have got psychological problems.  They have a heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters and can have a lot of mystery and twists to them. They look at many issues such as paranormal activity and other ‘scary’ elements such a stalkers, murderers etc. 

Thrillers are quite different to other genres such a comedy and romance because many people can feel intimidated and nervous and don’t find them enjoyable whereas most people can ‘have a laugh’ with a comedy. 
The genre thriller can also be mixed about with other genres such as sci-fi, horror and romance. 

Key elements/themes

      Ghosts- ‘Paranormal Activity’ ‘The Others’

      Psychological- ‘Shutter Island’

      Action - ‘The Fast and the Furious’

      Conspiracy- ‘The da Vinci Code’

      Crime- ‘Seven’

      Techno- ‘irobot’

Iconography

Thrillers can be set during all types of times meaning the iconography  can vary quite a lot. In our modern age when many people have the fear of cyber stalking or having their identities stolen, technological iconography is common. For example, to portray the 2000’s, there would be mobile phones, iPods, laptops, CCTV etc.

Characters and narrative

By looking at ‘thrillers’ my group and I discovered how they can vary quite a lot. The target audience is aimed towards teenagers from the age of 13 and upward. We think this is a suitable because our film is supposed to be relatively ‘scary’ and we think it would not be suitable for children under that age because it might be too scary for them. They also might not be able to understand the plot as because it has twists in it. There are also shadows in thrillers and dark corners and heavy breathing in thrillers so we decided to add a few elements of those into our first 2 minutes. A lot of psychological thrillers are based around a house and when it comes to ghost stories, it’s either the house that’s haunted or someone that lives there. The type of setting for a film like this would maybe have an establishing shot of the house and sometimes there might be a prologue narrative. The camera angles normally have quite a lot of close up to extreme close up shots to show that something is significant. In thrillers there are normally quite a lot of POV shots going on to give the audience an idea of what they are going through because they are normally based around an individual.

Mise-en-scene is also used in thrillers as well to give the audience information on what might happen and to add effect to the film. It also creates a mood for a scene for example, beige/yellow colours usually indicate that it set a long time ago and blue/grey usually indicates coldness. Costume/clothing also helps to set the scene because fashion changes and certain clothes are linked to a specific era. In the first two minutes of films there is usually background music playing to set the mood of what time of film it is going to be.

Narrative structure

Many genres have a typical storyline to them and for thrillers, it is usually based around one person on some sort of mission and while they try to complete their mission, there are always obstacles that get in the way of this happening but it ends alright in the end- mostly. In a psychological thriller, this narrative structure would take the form of the hero(ine) being on a mission to ridding themselves of a stalker / someone playing mind games with them and not succeeding / nearly getting killed many times until they are helped / kill the villain themselves.

Stock characters

A stock character is an emphasised character that represents a stereotypical personality usually portrayed in that specific genre. Depending on the type of thriller, it can range from a muscly, strong and handsome man to just an ordinary person. The ordinary person is normally the personality portrayed in psychological thrillers such as ‘Paranormal Activity’.  The man that is muscly etc. is usually the stock character in action thrillers; mostly spies or police officers that are high up in their job and have been sent on missions. There is normally always a killer as well for psychological thrillers. I have noticed that the main character is often female in the psychological thriller, and usually of the 'ordinary' stereotype. This is so the audience can relate to them and also so they feel that what the character is going through could happen to anyone. This is the case in our film.

Analysing genre - our techniques

Setting

The setting of our first two minutes is quite stereotypical of our genre because we’ve set it in the house where our person gets kidnapped. The house is supposed to be where the girl lives which add a thrill to it as most people don’t get kidnapped from their own homes. It is set in different rooms of the house and that shows how the two sisters are so different as the mise-en-scene reflects their personalities.

Costume

Due to the fact that there will be an age difference, we want to distinguish this by dressing the younger sister up in clothes that don’t coordinate well together because at that age, children aren’t that bothered. For the older sister, we will have her in fashionable clothes as the way you look can often reflect who you are and she is going to be quite a popular person.

 Lighting

To distinguish the difference between the times, we decided to put a beige/yellow filter on the lens of the camera to add an old effect to it. As well as this, we will have a light on in the porch to show the silhouette of the man who kidnaps the girl.

Props

We will be using props such as textbooks and exercise books to emphasise how the older sister was revising and didn’t want to play. We will also be using a table where the younger sister will hide and this will enhance the POV shots.

This is a two shot that emphasises the children’s terror and fear. The darkness also portrays negativity. The lighting and two shot work really very together to create a mood.
 

This is an establishing shot of the house that the film is set. It is also dark and foggy to show how something bad with happen here.

 

This is another two shot but there is a distance between the characters showing that they are not close because they’re at opposite ends of the frame. This shot also shows the type of clothes they wore in 1945 and the way the rooms used to be decorated.

Researching Your Chosen Genre

Researching your chosen Genre- Thriller

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a type of film genre. Its main aim is to put the audience on edge. It also has various elements such as tension, excitement and suspense. This then stimulates the audience’s state of mind resulting in them have a high level of anticipation, anxiety and uncertainty.

The main character in a thriller film is usually faced with several challenges in order, these my consist of a rescue, stereotypically saving a loved one. Thrillers always emphasis the amount of danger which therefore leads to an explosive ending.

Use of mise en scene in thrillers

Setting/ Location-

The setting of thrillers for the opening two minutes is usually set in a dark house with a haunted effect on it. Another stereotype setting for the opening two minutes would an alley. The reason that these are the common places that the opening two minutes takes place of a thriller is because the setting is quite scary which gives an edge on the location to make the audience be full of anxiety and uncertainty throughout the opening two minutes.

Costume-

When looking at the type of costume that is used in thrillers is quite normal and up to date. The reason for this is to make it seem more reliable and therefore will make the audience feel that it is more realistic than it actually is. This also brings the audience to believe that what is happening is reality.

Lighting-

The type of lighting that is used in thrillers is low key lighting. This creates sharp contrasts and deeps shadows to create an effect that allows the audience to feel suspense and a mysterious atmosphere. In thrillers another aspect of lighting that is used is back lighting, this is used to create a silhouette effect which also creates an atmosphere of mystery and keeps the audience on edge throughout the film.

Props-

When looking at physiological thrillers we can see that there are not that many types of props that are used. If there are any props that are used then it would be some sort of a weapon that we would see being used between the main character and the villain of the thriller.

Common Editing Decisions

• Transparent editing would be used in thrillers to make the audience feel part of the film. This also helps to engage the audience and keep them in suspense throughout the film. Whereas if non-transparent editing was used then the audience would not be in fear because they would be aware that it is not reality and therefore would take away the suspense and fear.
•  After a scene that has been full of action and suspense they may consider to use fade to black. This allows the audience to know that the scene has ended. It will also give them a moment to relax before the next scene begins.
• Ellipsis would also be used where some scenes may become too frightening to watch and therefore the audience will be able to guess what has happened.

Common Camera Angles and Movements

• In thrillers there are several close ups used to show facial expressions of the characters. This allows the audience to connect with the characters and feel their emotion. It also makes the audience feel fear and therefore keeps the audience on edge.
•  Tracking shots are used to show the movement of characters to show movement and action within a scene.
•  Lots of establishing shots are used so that the audience is aware of where the scenes are taking place. 
• Lots of POV shots are used so that it is in one of the characters prespective. This allows the audience to see what the characters can see.

Storyboard Second Draft

We have made a lot of changes to our storyboard based on feedback we have received and the experience of presenting our original storyboard. We have made some quite significant changes, the most important being moving into the POV of the younger sister to tell the story. This has a big impact on the way we present our narrative and although it was challenging at first, we now feel it is better.

You can see from the second page of the storyboard that the struggle / kidnao is seen from the younger sister's POV and therefore there is a direct connection with her which makes it clearer who she is when we switch to the older version of her.

Researching your chose genre

Psychological Thriller 

A thriller is a specific genre of film that uses suspense and tension as its main foundations. The key to a good thriller is to give its audience a sense of anticipation and uncertainty as well as having a tendency to be fast paced. Red herrings and dramatic plot twists are also used throughout adding to the thriller style.

There are many different sub genres of thrillers and our specific one would be a mix of criminal/psychological. This sub-genre looks at mainly the circumstances of a mystery or a crime itself in order to figure out what the clues are as well as involving the audience with this too. (We have the central mystery of how and why the older sister has been kidnapped and the clues provided by the brief glimpses we show of the event).This brings a more overall dramatic effect to the film during the investigation in order to know what the crime is. The psychological side of a thriller is based around the mind or the processes of the mind. The general narrative of this makes the main character exposed to dangers on a mental level rather than a physical one. (In our opening, the main character is not sleeping and we see later in the film that she is very disturbed by what happened).

The general narrative form ina novel would be from a first person narrative. This means that in film terms the story is told from the POV of one person.  (This is one of the key changes we made - making the story be told from the younger sister's POV).There is generally a back story that is the main reason behind the situation the main character appears to be in as the film continues. This would deepen the psychological side of the thriller since the audience is put into the position of understanding the main character on another level. (Really our opening is the back story - most of the film deals with the girl when she has grown up and has a lot of issues because of what happened).

The key theme of a crime thriller is mostly a person seeking revenge upon someone who murdered someone they knew.  (Our character wants the mystery solved and probably wantes revenge). In a stereotypical crime thriller it is mostly set in locations such as ordinary towns and cities with some scenes in an exotic setting such as a foreign city. The ‘hero’ is a normal person to whom extraordinary things happen to. (Our character is a very ordinary person, so then the audience fears it could happen to them). The ‘hero’ would have had someone close to them murdered which triggers the revenge upon the killer. They would too encounter problems which will make them face personal dilemmas forcing them to make sacrifices for others which will always be against a ticking clock. (Maybe the parents will blame this sister, maybe she can't move on with a relationship until she has resolved this). The ending would consist of the ‘hero’ confronting the murder and in most cases killing them (This might happen at the end of our film).

The key elements to a thriller would be an atmosphere at the beginning of a creeping threat which then escalates into a sudden burst of violence/crime. Withholding crucial information from the audience is also a key device that is used throughout to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats.(We don't let the audience see the kidnapper).Thrillers too present the world slightly different as they show society as a dark and corrupt place as the ‘hero’ would venture into parts of society which they wouldn’t normally. (Our heroine might have to deal with e.g. criminals to track down the kidnapper). 

Characters

•  Always  a killer/villain
• An protagonist, often a vulnerable female
• The person who gets murdered / victim
  

Facial Expressions and Body Language

• Non verbal communication can portray effectively key emotions to the audience without them being directly told e.g. if a character is scared- proxemics and body language will illustrate their emotions instead of the character saying that they are scared.

Common Editing Decisions

• Tracking movements to follow characters
• Close ups to show emotions of characters
• High angle shots/Establishing shots to show a wider view of the locations and actions the scene will have
• Quick changes in significant scenes to increase the feel of shock and fear
• Sound Bridges are useful to be used as transitions into the next scene
• Sound perspective- used to create a more realistic sense of space
• Voice overs – to narrate an event told in flashback

In most thriller films the ‘mystery/crime’ is set in the opening sequence of the film which is then complicated as the film goes on and then resolved at the end, this technique is used to engaged the audience more into the film and keep them watching.

Use of mise-en-scene

http://www.slideshare.net/GeorginaOSullivan/use-of-miseenscene-in-a-thriller

Dimmed lighting here with key colour use of black and greys. Back lighting here creates shadows giving the shot an eerie feel.

Mid shot/Two shot. Costume here sets the era the film is in. Car in background also sets the time era. Use of creams/yellows/oranges gives the shot an aged feel to it.

Establishing shot shows the people in the background to see their reaction to the main characters actions as well as the location which is a plane. Use of dark colours i.e blues and blacks give an eerie feel to what could happen next. Main character is dressed in black to highlight her pale face to show more clearly her emotions.  

Use of proxemics here show the claustrophobic conditions these characters are put into. Two shot also shows the bond between both characters which is suggesting a mother like relationship to the younger character. Use of low angles connects us more into the situation as this creates a vulnerability factor towards the characters in this shot.  

Camera Movements Task

TASK

Film a conversation using:

Establishing shot that zooms in

Panning shot to show character 2’s arrival

Shot / reverse shot not equal distance representing one character as less prominent / lower status

Arc shot / 360 shot – character 2’s reactions to dramatic news

Tracking shot as character 2 runs off.

Objective: to practise camera movements and evaluate technical issues around them / pros and cons for their use.

 

We were set this task because our original storyboard contained many camera movements. In particular, we had planned a lot of tracking shots to follow the younger sister round the house as she plays hide and seek. This task was useful because it has helped us see how difficult it is to work with a moving camera when you do not have the specialist equipment. Eliminating unwanted movement / shakiness is really hard. Even zooms require a lot of practise and a steady hand, and with panning shots you need to start from the end point and work backwards a few times so that you know where the camera is going to end up. This task has made us consider alternative shots with less movement so that we have time when filming to do many takes of the shots we decide do require movement.

Location Presentation

These short videos discuss the use of the locations we have planned:

Hallway

 

Older sister's room

 

 

 Younger sister's room

 

Table

 

Titles and Credits 2

When I started putting my titles and credits spider diagram together, I decided to think about the type of films that I would watch as my research therefore I focused on dark and psychologically thrilling type films.

Titles and Credits

Notes on Titles and Credits

All of the titles and credits that I watched had non-diegetic music whilst they were going on. This is effective because it sets the mood for what the film is going to be about. They all had smooth transitions. Also, they lasted up to 20 seconds or more, which is much longer than I had realised. In our genre (which is mainly what I researched) the credits tend to be quite small and to appear on screen as the action is going on in conevnient spaces.  Maybe this is why I haven't noticed them much before. The simplest effects can add a mood to the film such as 'The Cabin in the Wood'. The title is suddenly shown with a red title against and blue and grey background which is very effective because it's a surprise for the audience. For our film, I think we would want the appearance of the title to make an impact, but for the credits (apart from the production ident at the beginning) to appear without drawing attention to themselves.

Shannon Dunne

Titles and Credits

This photo shows the notes I made while researching titles and credits in opening sequences. You can see that I chose films that are similar to our genre and the highlighted areas show that I focussed on colour, font, order of appearance, how long on screen and general impact. These are all things I felt I needed to find out about to make sure our title and credits look authentic.

This research showed me that the colour and font are supposed to match the genre of the film. Different films present a different number of credits, but they follow a similar order that we should follow too. They can be used to break up the action or be fairly unobtrusive depending on the director's decision, this is quite flexible.

Production Company Logos and Idents + Summary

Please double click on this in the view window to open a larger, readable version.

Here I have been watching production company idents and logos and making notes to find out the similarities that we should bear in mind when making our own. This is what we have decided:

- lasts around 15 seconds
- has strong, triumphant non-diegetic music
- has some kind of animation (the antlers slowly appearing on the stag? Photoshop?)
- font for name is quite elaborate to reflect antler shape

Titles & Credits

We spent some time looking at film openings in our genre with a specific focus on the title and credits to get ideas for how and when these appear and how our genre manages them.

Summary:

• In some thriller films, the classic white text against a black background is used to give the film a more serious atmosphere. If it's this type, it's usually in the middle, for titles and credits with images or videos as a background, titles and credits may have to be placed somewhere else to make both the titles & credits and background visible.
• In conjunction to the previous point, another factor to give the film a serious atmosphere is sometimes silence or very subtle music.
• Fonts for the credits are usually uniform to the title's film.
• Sometimes, actors (sometimes just the main actors) and director's names are used to keep it brief - our genre does not seem to use a long credit list.
• Each credit does not appear for more than 4 seconds.
• For our film, I think the white font with black background and  probably some old photos is suitable for our genre.

Research Into Titles and Credits

Please click to view in larger readable format.

One thing I noticed was that it says in one examiner's report that film credits do not use 'starring' to introduce the actors, but from the films I selected, starring was used twice.

Both films where I looked at the order of the credits had 18 titles and credits. I had no idea it would be so many. There are some consistent elements (studio, production company, director) and then other less consistent ones.

The film title position varies with Splice being at the end and Cirque du Freak being towards the beginning. This is obviously left as an artistic decision. (Again, one examiner's report said that putting the title at the end was more like a trailer, but I would have to disagree from my research).

Font and colour are obviously important to help establish the genre and mood. Our credits need to be relatively unobtrusive but still in keeping.

Presentation of Initial Storyboard

Order of speaking: Hanisha, Shannon, Shannen, Georgina

 

Here we are presenting our storyboard first draft to our teacher. Talking through our ideas to someone else has helped to clarify them, and the discussion at the end of the presentation has given us a new direction to take our work in. It is always useful to stop at key points and see what an outside person thinks of your work, as it is easy to lose perspective on it and to miss some kwy points because you have forgotten how an outside audience may see it.

Prelim Task

 

This is the Prelim task that we have to present as part of the coursework. We were given a set brief to follow and had certain techniques that we had to display.

 

We will be analysing the success of this task as part of the evaluation, but have added initial comments so that we don't forget our first reactions.

 

 

Discussion of Initial Ideas

From left to right: Shannen, Hanisha, Shannon, Georgina

 

We have begun to think of our film outline and discuss ideas for what could be shown in the first two minutes. This is still an early stage of the work and we have a lot of other ideas that we need to think through.

Ideas for Opening 2 Minutes

I have decided to present my ideas for the opening two minutes to my group as a storyboard:

First 2 Minutes Ideas

a)      Establishing shot: a house decorated for Halloween. Night time. Music from the inside can be heard. Cut to a Sally’s room facing a closed door, music is louder. Door opens and Sally in a bathrobe and a towel on her head rushes in. Camera pans from door to a vanity where she starts to get ready. Multiple shots of her getting ready, mirror images (can see person in front of mirror; deep focus – real person is out of focus but mirror with reflected person is in focus; person in mirror). She puts moisturiser on (mid-shot) and the faint knocking of a door can be heard. Cut to view of the front door from the top of the stairs (knocking is louder in this shot). Cut to Sarah (close-up) with headphones on (muffled music can be heard). Cut back to Sally listening and frozen then her moving to her iPod speakers. Close-up of the iPod speakers and turning down the volume. Cut back to Sarah and her headphones. Next door, Sally can be heard saying, “Sarah, can you check downstairs please?”. Sarah turns up the volume. Cut back to Sally waiting and finally coming out and going herself (panning from speakers to door). Cut to shot of the door outside her room opening and her going to the stairs. Cut to her going downstairs from the top. Cut to her going downstairs from the bottom of the stairs and pan to her hand opening the door. Long shot from behind her opening the door. Long shot from the outside with her looking from the inside (similar to the establishing shot). Over the shoulder shot of her closing the door and pans as she goes up the stairs. Cut to shot of her coming up the stairs and into her room. She doesn’t close the door – shot of her doorway giving light to the dark hallway. Mid shot of her breathing heavily, silence then her phone from her vanity rings (music from speakers also starts), startled, she runs to it. Cut to profile close-up of her saying, “Hello” on the phone. Then front mid shot of her saying, “Sorry, sorry, I’m getting ready now.” (Real live call, can hear other person – one camera with Sally and one camera with Andrea). Close-up of her putting her phone back down on the vanity. She starts to put on her make-up; close-up of her doing her eyeliner, when she does her other eye, a loud knocking resumes, she smudges her eyeliner and she screams, frustrated. Mid shot of her back with her slamming her hands and the make-up down. She turns her head back and screams at her sister to get the door. Cut to Sarah and her headphones, rising from the bed and walking towards the door. Cut to over the shoulder shot of Sally looking at the doorway. Sarah appears. “What?” Cut to OTS of Sarah, “Can you answer the door please?”. Cut to OTS of Sally, “Why?!”. Cut to OTS of Sarah, “Because someone’s knocking on the door”, “No one’s there!”, “Can you please just look?”. Sarah is frustrated and cut to shot from top of the stairs and her walking downstairs and opening the door. No one. She shouts from the bottom of the stairs that no one is there. OTS shot of Sally removing her smudged eyeliner. Front shot, deep focus shot of sister walking past Sally’s doorway. Sarah sits back down in exactly the same place and puts her headphones back in. Sally starts to put on a red lipstick (close-up) then incessant knocking begins. Sally stands up (front mid shot), she yells, “FOR F-”, cuts to Sarah who takes off her headphones and hears her sister grumbling and stomping her foot. Cut back to Sally angrily going down the stairs (from top then side of stairs) (side of stairs shot – shadow of a hand can be seen). Same shot, she comes down, still grumbling and stomping, heading towards the door (but quite far from it).  Cut back to Sarah listening, with her headphones in her hand and Sally grumbling and stomping outside. Silence outside. Sarah stands up from her bed, worried and confused, “Sally?”. Cut to black. Credits and Titles appear.

Overall Film Plot

a)      Film plot: Sally is getting ready for a Halloween party – she’s running late and she’s panicking. On the other hand, her sister (Sarah) next door is listening to music and reading a magazine. While she gets ready, someone knocks on the door. Sally asks Sarah to answer it but she ignores her. She answers it but no one is there. She goes back to get ready and gets a call from her friend asking her where she is. The knock on the door starts and this time Sarah answers the door (although she claims that she cannot hear the knocking) – still no one there. Sally continues to get ready. The knocking resumes, but this time more violently and Sally is getting frustrated. She storms downstairs, cursing and assuming that it’s a Halloween prank. The sister listens in to her sister grumbling but the grumbling suddenly stops. She calls out, “Sally?” and the screen cuts to black for the title and credits.
Later that night, Sarah is in a police station, waiting for her Aunt to pick her up since her parents are away on a business trip. The killer’s motives are to hunt down the girls that bullied his sister and drove her to suicide. His targets are: Sally, Andrea and Jane. Sally is dead, so throughout the whole film, Andrea and Jane are being hunted down. This is shown by a paper left at Sally and Sarah’s front door with their three names and Sally’s is crossed out. [Plot twist: The brother who was the killer never existed; it is in fact Jane who killed Sally. The victim of the bullies (Sherry) is still alive and helps out her mother, the school matron at the school clinic. She has access to medical records and found out that Jane is schizophrenic. In revenge, she secretly doses Jane with a delirium drug (liquid) by mixing it with placebos (instead of Jane’s medication) – causing the latter to be severely unhinged. In her unstable condition, Jane’s extremely suggestible. Sherry starts to take over the therapeutic sessions Jane has with the matron in order to drip-feed her false memories and suggestions.

Ideas for First Two Minutes

Story board

There are the credits and name of the production company and when it starts there is a caption saying ‘1992’...

1.       Starts by zooming into a normal house and then zooming into a girls room

2.       At the girls room, a girl is getting ready for presumably a party

3.       There is then a knocking at the door. The girl notices but dismisses it

4.       There is then a knocking again and the girl accuses her sister of creating the noise. Whenever there is a knock, their dog barks

5.       The girl then finds out the knocking is coming from outside

6.       She tells her sister to stay upstairs while she investigates downstairs

7.       There is a shadow at the door and the girl opens it

8.       Upon opening it there is a scream from her and a close up of her face (which is terrified)

9.       Then cuts to present day which is her younger sister at the age of 27

Value of Research So Far

Research

-          First I learnt that the majority of films start with the opening credits for the production company involved in the film. They are shown at the start because they have nothing to do with the film and it basically introduces the film. We will introduce our production company ‘Antler Productions’ first as well.

-          I also discovered that many film start with establishing shots; this gives the audience an idea of where the film is going to be set and an idea of the type of characters.

-          The first 2 minutes of a film also tend to show the main characters involved in the film to give the audience and idea of the people.

-          I also noticed that the opening on a film sometimes contains the names of the actors in the film. 

-          The order of the openings is the production company, actors and the introducing the film title its self

-          I also discovered that there are sometimes mid shots as well. This is an informative way of showing the audience the characters and setting because that is basically what the shot is off.

-          There is sometimes a voiceover as well in the first few shots to give the audience an idea of what is going on and to help them identify the main character. This is non-diegetic sound and I think it would be effective in my own film.

-          There is also important use of mise-en-scene in the first two minutes because there is normally a specific lighting / setting to set the mood of the film

Ideas for Film Outline

Outline of the film plot

The genre of our film is a thriller. The film starts by showing a young girl (teenager) in her room getting ready for a party.

The plot is that she is being haunted by something paranormal or maybe just one person in general. I think it would be quite effective to make the audience believe that it is something paranormal but in fact create a twist and there being more than one person involved in haunting the girl. I think either one will be effective.

Whilst getting ready, the young girl hears knocking from someone/something and firstly puts it out of her mind. It happens again and she accuses her younger sister of making the knocking sound. She then finds out that is isn’t her sister that is making the knocking noise. There is also some sound motif because when there is a knocking on the door, her dog barks as well.  

The first 2 minutes of the film is very important because the audience finds out the type of film that it is. After the girl discovers the knocking is not her sister, she realises that it is the door. She then opens the door and there is a shadow there which gives the scene a lot of suspense.

I think that there should be a scream from her after she opens the door and then the scene should be cut  to the present day which is the younger sister discovering what has happened to her.  

I also think it will be quite effective to have a caption of the year because this gives the audience some background information of the film.

The girl that is getting ready should also be in a mental asylum because I think that makes it more of a thriller.

The age limit should be from age 12 and up.

Ideas for Opening Two Minutes

Two minute opening scene:

·         The older sister is getting ready to go to a party. She is waiting for her friends to come because they are going to go together. She has her phone on her dresser, and she keeps checking it because her friends are late.

·         All of a sudden there is a knock at the door, so she goes down to open it because she thinks it is her friends. However when she opens there door there is no one there. She thinks nothing of it. She then goes back upstairs and carries on doing her make-up.

·         She then hears a knock at the door again. This time she thinks that her friends are going to be there. However they are not, she goes outside and looks up and down her road. There is no sign of anyone being there. So she goes back up stairs and checks her phone. Once again she ignores it thinking that she made it up

·         Another five minutes later she hears the knock, this she shouts down to her sister ‘stop knocking you freak’. Her sister replies ‘I’m not?’ she then says ‘what is that knocking then?’ her sister then says ‘what knocking?’ then the whole house goes silent.

·         She hears the knocking again, she slowly walks down stairs breathing heavily, opens the door and sees black silhouette of a man. She gasps.

·         The younger sister calls out ‘it’s him, isn’t it?’ and the lights go out and a loud scream is let out by the older sister. The scene then ends.