Photos Of Locations - Justification

The typical setting of a thriller is in an urban city. Usually the main colours used will be grey, black and white to emphasise the helplessness of the first character we see. Thrillers can also be set in quiet country villages, where everyone leads poor and simple lives; often the villain will come from a small village. Usually only a small range of colours will be used, the main being black or grey if it is set in a city environment, to show how normal and mundane life is. However other strong colours are often used at particular plot points; for example if there is a lot of blue we can assume that someone has or is going to die, and if there is a recurring theme of red (i.e. alarms) then we understand the characters are in danger. The camera shots are usually either very steady or move around a lot. If there is a scene with a lot of dialogue, or a character is being shown as having a quiet or intimate moment, the camera will be still and focus on the characters more than the background. If there is more than one character in the shot, the cameraman will use a medium (or close up)- two shot to show how they relate to each other, i.e. if they are standing close and being intimate or not. If the camera is moving around a lot then an action scene is typically taking place; the increased cut rate allows the audience to feel more involved in the action and keeps them on the edge of their seat as they do not know what is going to happen next. The reason we picked our location is because it is out of the way and easy to get. The main reason why we picked the spinny bridge is because its warn out and abnormal. Also we will use the actaul spinny because it is practical.
Because of recent healthy and safety reasons we will have to film some of the opening titles in our own private land. we have decided to film the fire in the back garden because it isn't practical in a public place. Also the props which we cant take out such as knife and the gun because if the public see us with these weapon we would be in a lot of trouble with the police and would breach the rules. So we have decided to film in Peters garden because it is practical.
Why we picked this location.
We picked this location because it fits the thriller genre because of the broken down bridge could connote a worthless place where not many people want to go. Because of the fact not many people go there it is practical for filming there. Also it is surrounded by fields which makes the location stick out and it looks different.   

Props - Justification

  Props For Our Thriller Opening

For our thriller opening sequence, we shall be using several drama and military related items as well
as generic everyday items of interest as shown below:

1. Shell Casings

  

The reason why we are going to use shell casings is because of our opening  shots is of shell casing son the floor to represent carnage that previously took place there to add a sense of mystery to our mise-en-scene. This links in to the thriller genre because thriller films set after the industrial revolution often have guns as the antagonists and the protagonists weapons of choice alongside other characters.

2. Watch

  

There will be a shot of a watch included in one of our scenes, that's why we chose it to represent that time is almost counting down to build tension for the viewers and audience. This links in with the thriller genre because characters often use watches to keep track of time to solve a case of escape.

3. Drink Cans/Bottles

We Will Include bottles and drink cans, crushed , partly crushed and just generally scattered around the floor in one of our shots next to a sleeping bag to signify that someone's been there before. The shot will then transition to a high-angle shot of the mattress with newspaper clipping son it as I mention below. These link in with the thriller genre because the characters usually visit dark, abandoned places that have fallen into a state of disrepair, adding a more sinister feeling to them.

4. Newspaper Clippings

These are key props for introducing the characters as will edit our photo's onto these to say things like "Starring Harry Sandall with Conor Durrant". These items fit the thriller genre due to many characters being wanted for something that they either did or did not commit and is told through media, i.e. newspapers.

5. Gun Magazines

We Will alongside the shell casings have a shot of magazines empty on the floor. The reason why is because many thrillers include the aftermath of a gunfight of a gunfight which a tragedy took place in because we will include drops of paint to realistically portray blood.

6. Cigarette Packets

In one shot there will be several discarded cigarette packets on the side of a road. This follows the thriller genre due to many areas of degradation are used as crime and murder scenes. 

7. Tie

We shall be using a tie like this one In an extreme close-up of a tie being adjusted. This prop is appropriate to the thriller genre because many characters such as detectives are smartly dressed and often war ties to look smart and to connote authority or status of an individual.


8. Photograph In Photo frame

For one of our shots, there will be a picture of one of us in a photo graph frame. This fits the thriller genre because the protagonists are often  introduced by images or pictures contained within photograph frames.


9. Airsoft Gun





One of our props will be an airsoft gun with a full black finish to make it look as realistic as possible whilst not having the dangers of having a real gun as one of our props. This fits in with the thriller genre because almost all characters that see combat whether they are protagonists, antagonist or just others, use firearms as their weapons of choice.

10. Swiss Army Knife





In one shot, we will have a Swiss Army Knife in the palm of a presumably dead persons hand. This matches the thriller genre as many murder victims or other characters often have an item of interest on them or in their hand at the time of their deaths.

11. Sleeping Bag




For one shot, after the previous newspaper clippings shot said above, it will then transfer to a sleeping bag with more on top of it to give the impression that somebody has been sleeping rough. This fits in with the thriller genre because often in degraded area's the protagonists often encounter homeless, hostile individuals who sleep rough.

Auditions For Actors

Images of Actors (And Why We Picked Them)

Images of Actors

Pitch (Analysis)

The reason why we decided to do a pitch to promote our opening titles was to get constructive feedback. The way we would do that is by asking our peers to fill out a little slip which had questions connected to our pitch. The questions we asked were:

• Do you like the name? why?
• Would you watch the film? why?
• What do you like about the story?
• Are the titles clear?
• What would you improve?
• Rate the film out of 5*s (5* being the best)?

We thought these questions would give us a good insight on how to change the opening titles to make it better for the audience, and covered all the topic we needed to. We got 10 feedback sheets back and we have analysed them:



The first question which was asked was. Do you like the name?
We asked this because we didn't actually have a name at this stage because we decided to do this at the end so it related to the plot and the genre which we wasn't sure on at this time. So what we decided to do was ask our peers to think of a name after our pitch which they did a few example of what we got were names such as. Lifestruck, The walking Conor, Hunted, The life of PJ. We took these names into discussion.

The second question we asked our peers to talk about was. Would you watch the film?
We decided to ask this to see if the plot sounded interesting or to see if we sold the opening title well. 7 out of the 10 said that they would watch it. We then asked they why in which 5 out of the 7 said because it looked interesting. the other 2 that said yes was because it was a good style. But we will also take the constructive criticism which was that it sounded boring. We are looking closely into why someone found it boring and try and sort the problem out, but we understand the thriller genre isn't for everyone.

The third question which we asked our peers was to talk about was. What do you like about the story?
We thought this was a good question to ask because if gave use an idea on how affective the story line was and improvements we could make on the story line. The feedback we got for this question was very positive it seemed that most of our peers thought it was an interesting storyline and well thought out.

The four question we decided to ask was. Was the titles clear?
This was an important question to ask but at this stage of when we did the pitch, we didn't have a title we only had our production company name. So our peers couldn't answer this question, but later on when we get our titles sorted we will get the to review it and hopefully get some feedback on improvements.

The Fifth question we asked was. What would you improve? 
We decided to pick this question because it is ok getting the positive feedback but it is important we get feedback in which will make us improve and widen the target audience. From the feedback from the peers we have decided to improve the storyline because two people said that it sounded boring. We have decided to increase the storyline and make it bigger because it was very short and wasn't it enough detail.

The sixth question that we asked was. Rate the film out of 5*s (5* being the best)?
We asked this question so we knew where we stood and how well we sold our opening titles. The feedback for this question was very good as 8/10 and 2 put 4. I believe this is good but there is still more for improvement.

 



List Of Props For Opening Titles

Props For Our Thriller Opening

 

 

 

List:

1. Shell Casings on floor (side of one has a title on it)

2. Tie (Being adjusted by person)

3. Photographs in photo frames

4. Crushed drink cans

5. Newspaper Clippings (has titles written on them)

6. Ammo Boxes ( Has text written on an ammo belt)

7. High-Angle shot of guns sight (Text written at an angle on the side of it)

8. Pocket Watch

9. Cigarette lighter and empty packets

10. Gun Magazines empty on floor (Has titles written on the follower)

Production Company

History

The history behind Lions Gate Entertainment is that it is an American-Canadian company that was founded in 1997 in Vancouver, Canada. It is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California in the USA. it is overall the most commercially successful mini major movie production company and as of 2013 is the seventh most profitable movie studio in the world. Since its founding in 1997, the company had produced over 200 feature length films and had gained over 5 billion dollars in profits.

Notable Films Produced

Lions Gate Entertainment has produced several notable films, among them are:

1. The Hunger Games

2. Dredd

3. Abduction

4. Safe

5. The Cabin In The Woods

6. Hostel

7. Lord Of War

8. Max

Why Are They A Suitable Company For Me To Chose?

Lions Gate Entertainment are a suitable company for me to produce our thriller film due to many of its films being thriller and have a dark theme, such as Saw and the Hostel franchises. Alongside dark and satanic themes, they have also produced many films that have deep plots, such as Abduction and Safe. They overall also have a good reputation and a stable way of working so they are also worthwhile selecting due to them having more wealth and subsequently a bigger budget for us to work on if we did chose them. Finally, the films mentioned above have similar themes and our ideas are inspired by them, which is ultimately why I chose Lions Gate to be the suitable company for producing our thriller opening.