Equipment List

  For our thriller, we will have to use a tripod for the camera, along with spare batteries and a charger for the batteries. Once we have finished all of the filming with the camera, we will have to use iMovie on the Mac computers to cut and edit together all of the necessary clips and add in the music we have chosen from freeplaymusic.com. We used freeplaymusic.com because, as the name suggests, all of the music is copyright free and we can use it with no harm.

The tripod will allow us to shoot steadily and without camera shake, it also means that we can completely control the angle of our shots to the minutest degree.

Although I could not get a photograph of the exact camera we are going to use, the important information is that they record onto tapes, instead of simply onto a memory card, this is because the tapes allow greater volume of storage at a better quality level. The cameras are also quite small allowing for ease of transportation and also making it easy to carry for shots in which we do not require the tripod.

We will also need a number of battery packs. These allow us to move from place to place while filming without having to be connected to an electrical plug. They have a relatively long life and as long as we don't leave the camera running then we should be able to do all our filming on the power of a single battery. But if we need to we can use the second battery pack which could be left on charge while we are using the first.

Although there is also a way to charge the battery when it is still connected to the camera, this charger allows us to use one battery pack for filming while the other is charging, cutting down on our filming time.

 

We will use a soft professional photography light to make the shots of the stalker writing in the book clearly visible without making the light too over-powering and giving away too much detail and mystery of the stalker.

 

Once all the filming is finished we will use iMovie for editing our opening together, we chose this program because we are very familiar with it as we have previously used it when producing our preliminary task and can work quickly when using it. One of the other possibilities would to use Final Cut Pro, but since this would be our first time using it we feel it will be more time saving to use iMovie, and for the kind of editing we need to do, iMovie will be fine as will will only need a few features. iMovie is also compatible with other software that we might find useful such as iTunes (which is the portal through which we will need to get our music.)

Written By Kieran, Edited By Me.

Rough Draft Of Our Thriller Opening

Kristy Fricker:
Starred as Hannah Warren, filmed the shots of the stalker and edited the clip.

Beth Taylor:
Filmed shots of Hannah Warren (me) and edited the clip.
We both did an equal amount of editing, taking it in turns to have control of the computer. We both came up with different ideas of what scenes we should keep/cut-out, and other ways that we could edit scenes to give certain conotations or make shots shorter. We worked really well as a team and came to decisions together on what we thought would work best and create an opening that would best for-fill the thriller genre.

Beth came up with the brilliant idea of cutting the action of each character closing the door to seem like one scene. We achieved this by cutting the scene where the girl is closing the door part of the way through and adding in what would be the same moment but with the stalker pulling the door behind. As there is a refelection on the glass when the stalker is closing the door, the audience will be disorientated when they first see this. They will then see the stalkers hand as he pulls the door closer shut and will hopefully get the idea that we were trying to achieve - that the stalker and girl are getting closer and closer together. We start by showing them doing some similar things, which then icreases when we see them both walking down the stairs, doing the exact same action. This is then intensified again by the split shot of the girl and the stalker closing the door - not only doing the same action, but also doing it at the same time. The fact that they walk out of the door at the same time, shows that they have both definatley left to meet up and heightens the fear the audience have for the well-being of the girl as the stalker gets closer.

As our opening is supposed to be only two minutes long, and previously its length was double this, we had to try to find ways to cut it down without loosing any importance of the storyline.
We both felt that the opening with the zoom-out from the clock was too long, but too effective and important in the lead-on to the next scene to cut out. I came up with the idea of having a few jumps in the zoom-out to save time inbetween. We cut the scenes at certain intervals so that when we had another jump-zoom the music got to the end of its current pattern each time, which made the zoom-outs match up with the music and together work really effectively.
In-between each shot, we used a blending transition so that the jump seemed more natural and was a lot easier for the audience to view without getting confused - it was much less of a shock to the system and didn't look unnatural.

Coming together as a group to share editing ideas

   As Kieran was not involved with the filming of the thriller, we decided as a group that it would be better for him to do an edit of the opening on his own so that he could try to show his editing skills and capabilities as well as his envolvement - as this was not current through-out the task of filming.
   Beth and I have got fairly far with the editing of our opening and have come up with many ideas between us. We gave Kieran a preview of what we had so far. As he was struggling with what clips to use and what parts to cut out and shorten, we gave him an idea of what parts we had previously cut as we thought they were less important and effects that we used such as the blending between shots to cut out parts of zooming at the very beginning.
With the group support that Beth and I provided, Kieran was able to continue his editing with a clear idea of what the opening may turn out like, and what the main important points to the story were.

Filming Shots For Our Thriller Opening (20th November)

Yesterday Beth and I began filming shots for our Thriller opening at 2PM. Filming was very productive and went very well. Beth managed to film all of the shots with me in playing ‘Hannah Warren’ by 5PM, I then carried on filming the shots of the stalker after this until about 8PM. With these shots, I put up a dim photography light so that the setting was still fairly dark, but the stalkers book etc could still be seen easily. The cover on the photography light makes it very soft and doesn’t give a harsh reflection off objects such as the keyboard or other shiny objects in the shot.


We managed to get all of our filming done in the time, so now we are ready to upload and edit our shots and put together our final Thriller opening!

Shooting Schedule

We shall be filming the entirety of our thriller opening at Kristy's house, so we will not need to include time for travel from place to place. We want to film from 2PM onwards so that the very last scenes will be dark so that throughout the opening it will be gradually getting darker, suggesting the danger the stalker poses, not just the time of day. To achieve this, we will need to record in almost the exact same order that the story plays out, besides parts where the camera will need to remain in the same place in another shot, for example on page two of the story board, shots nine and thirteen where we see the shower head switch on and off, and also on page four, shots twenty three and twenty five. We shall be continuously filming until perhaps 5PM to have a break and allow it to become slightly darker. However, we also want to film the parts where the stalker is preparing his book and to also be using the computer, so that the room is completely dark except for the single light emanating from his screen. Finally, we will film the shots of both the stalker and the girl walking down the stairs and out of their doors.


We plan to start shooting at 2PM on Sunday the 20th of November; we will try to shoot the entirety of the shots on this date, but may possibly need extra time.

Actors used for our Thriller opening characters

The girl, Hannah Warren is cast as me (Kristy)

As I know the story line of of our Thriller opening well, and how we want scenes to be acted out etc it will be a lot easier for me to act it rather than explaining to someone else how we want things to be done, and they will probably not understand the scenes even if explained to them as well as I do.

I also have an A* in drama GCSE so I should be capable of performing the part.

It is also more convenient to use someone in our media group as we can keep in contact and plan things out easily in media lessons, rather than sorting out how we are going to do things with someone outside the group separately.

The stalker is cast as my dad (Karl Fricker)

As the setting location will be filmed in my house and my dad and I will be there anyway, it is convenient to use him. We will only be filming the stalkers hands, so who is being filmed is not majorly important. If we used a younger member of the group for example, their hands wouldn't be very aged, so it would seem unrealistic to the story line as the stalker is an older, wiser and stronger man who is capable to get away with the girls murders.

Thriller Name Possibilities

Our original movie title was The Meeting, but we felt that this title had rather business like connotations and not the scary obsessive connotations we wanted for our thriller opening. So this mind map shows our thoughts about what could contribute to our thriller opening names, such as the fact that the stalker has killed a large amount of girls and will go on to kill more. Eventually, we came to the name Fixation. We chose this because it had the connotations of obsession that we wanted and is short and snappy.

Props List

This props list shows the props we will be using and what they represent in our plot.

Mobile Phone:

 The mobile phone will be used to show the connection between who the girl thinks the stalker is (which will be a picture of a teenage boy) and who the stalker actually is.

Facebook Profile of the Girl:The profile would be used near the start to show the audience who exactly the stalker is targeting.

Facebook Profile for the Stalker:The use of a profile for the stalker is similar to the use of the phone in that it shows the alias the stalker has taken up in order to deceive the girl.

Towel:The use of the towel would be when she drops it as she enters her bedroom, suggesting an immediate vulnerability and weakness, amplifying the powerful nature of the stalker.

Tights:The tights would simply be used to show the audience that the girl is getting ready to go out and that she wants to wear nice clothes.

Mascara:While the girl is applying her mascara, the camera will be zoomed in on her eyes which adds a strong sense of voyeurism to the scene.

Blusher:Blusher would be used to show that the girl is preparing to go out and wants to try and look her best.

Dress with a Zip:The main purpose of the dress is the zip itself. The closing of the zip suggests the sealing of her fate, hinting that everything has already been decided.

High Heels:

Further adding to the sense of her fate being sealed, high heels would prevent the ability to make a quick escape, adding to vulnerability and weakness.

Red Nail Polish:The red nail polish will be used together with the photo of the girl with her friend in which it will spill over onto the photo to signify the threat that the stalker poses.

Photo of the Girl and a Friend:The photo of the girl and her friend will be used in conjunction with the red nail polish in that it will be spilled over onto it.

Photo of the Girl:The girl will be cut out of the previous image of her with her friend to show that she is the focus of the stalker. This is the photo that will be used in his book.

Red Marker:

This red marker will be used to circle the girl's picture (above) and finally cross it out to suggest that she has been murdered or 'crossed off his list'. It would coordinate would the scene involving the nail polish spilling over onto the photo, once again amplifying the major threat that the stalker poses. Also, as both the nail polish and marker are red, it even further adds to the threat as people would generally associate red with blood and death.

Large Boots:The stalker wearing large and heavy boots suggests his far superior strength over the girl and that he is a powerful, frightening man.

The book is a very important prop in the entire task, perhaps the most important. The stalker shows great care when handling this book, which shows that perhaps he's proud of it or obsessed with it. There are photos of many girls throughout the book and that shows just how mentally unstable the stalker is, from both the amount of girls in the book and the quality of the book. The whole idea of the book is similar to that of the opening to 'Se7en'.

This prop list was made by Kieran, annotations were added from all members of the group.

Thriller Opening Story Board

By making the very first scene a clock face accompanied by a ticking noise, we are following the effective thriller convention with the concept of time running out, but we are also not giving much away, which makes the audience ask all sorts of questions about the location, keeping them involved. The scene in which we see 'the girl' in wide shot sitting on the sofa is to create the feeling that the girl is small in the plot (because there are so many other girls he has and will kill) and to show that she is completely alone in the house. (there will also be a clock on the screen of the phone so that the audience is constantly brought back to the idea that time is running out.) We then go on to belittle the audience with the low angle shot up the stairs, showing that they are also vulnerable.

In this part of the opening we keep the audience asking questions. To start with we have seen the girls face but now we go back to only showing the bottom half of the body, so the audience does no know how the girl reacts to certain things. Also we get the first scene from the stalkers side, and this raise a whole load of questions about his identity. By having running water we follow another Thriller convention and we create not only a sense of being watched but also a situation where 'the girl' is vulnerable.

By continuing the low camera angle while filming 'the girl' we create a feeling of being spied on and watched. We then exaggerate this by connecting the way the stalker looks up 'the girl's' address on google maps with what the girl is doing at that point by using a birds eye shot that mimics the angle on the last shot. This is then further enforced by the close up on 'the girls' eye as she applies mascara.

By having the medium wide shot of 'the girl' applying make up, we are able to include the door in the background which again reminds the audience that the stalker is 'watching' her. The purpose of the book is to communicate the fact that the stalker is obsessive about what he does and the neatness of the book reflects this and makes the stalker even more threatening because he seems less human. The stalkers book is is very much like the one found in the opening scene of Seven, in the same way we wanted to communicate a worrying obsessive aspect of our stalker. (note, the stalker will place down the book very gently as if it is a precious artefact.)

The red nail vanish, obviously, represents the kind of threat that the 'stalker' poses. This is shown by the way we first see the nail varnish spill over the exact same picture that the stalker has just stuck into his obsessively neat book, and then the red of the nail vanish is mimicked by the next scene in which the stalker circles her picture with a red pen. Once again the audience is belittled by the camera angle up the stairs.

By placing the shot of the stalkers feet walking down the stairs directly after the shot of 'the girls' feet walking down the stairs, we exaggerate how much bigger the stalker is than the girl, again making her seem more vulnerable. By having 'the girl' do the first half of walking out of the door and 'the stalker' doing the second half we enforce the idea that they are going in a similar direction (meeting). When we film this, it will be getting progressively darker through out the opening, so by this time both 'the girl' and 'the stalker' will be walking out into the dark, and for 'the girl' and unknown danger. By ending the opening just as sharply and decisively as we started it we will leave the audience wanting more, which is exactly what is needed in a good opening. (Note, all transitions are straight simple cuts. We thought about it and decided that the way we quickly cut between the stalker and the girl, creates the exiting tense atmosphere that we wanted to achieve, so adding transitions would make it fussy.)

Drawn by Kristy and annotated by Beth

Photographs of Thriller scene locations

The computer desk where the stalker will be filmed

The living room where the girl will be on the sofa looking at the picture of the boy on her phone

The grandfather clock that will be filmed. This scene will then lead into the lounge where the girl is

The stairs that we will see the girl walk up to her bedroom to get ready

The girl's vanity table where she will get ready to go out

The shower that the girl will be in when getting ready

The chest of draws that the girl will get her tights from to put on

Thriller Opening Locations

When coming up with the initial thriller idea, I kept in mind where scenes could be filmed and I could relate certain scenes to certain places around my house. My house has a computer area suitable for the stalker, a desk for the girl to get ready at and has a Grandfather clock placed in the perfect position for smooth filming from the clock to following the girl in the lounge. As I could picture how the scenes would look in my house and how they could be achieved while making up the initial idea, it seems sensible to work with the location I have built the story around in my mind rather than trying to link it to a different location and trying to make certain scenes work that probably won’t.
Using my house for the location is also convenient for the group.

Music possiblities for our Thriller opening

While Beth and I were drawing up our story board, Kieran created a list of possible music tracks that could be used in our thriller opening. We went through the tracks as a group to pick out tracks that we thought would work best. We wanted something that would mimic the solemn and tense atmosphere that would compliment the tone of our opening. For this we chose the track 'In Remembrance' which we all thought was perfect and had an eerie quality without being over the top. We also wanted a slightly higher tempo track that would up the excitement near to the end of our piece. For this we chose a track called 'dark nightmare' which had a really effective tone of urgency. However, we are well aware hat we might change our minds when we have filmed and edited our opening, so just in case we also chose 5 other tracks that we felt weren't quite as good as the first ones we chose but might be usable if the final product is slightly different to how we imagined it.

Thriller Final Plot Summary

The story is set around a young girl who is the target of the stalker. The opening focuses on the similarities and differences between the girl and the stalker getting ready to go out, and it ends with both characters exiting their own front doors. However if it were to continue and be made into a full length movie, it would follow the exploits of the stalker as he hunts down victim after victim and his final realisation of his crimes and suicide. By following not only the nasty deeds of the stalker but also his everyday life, we force the audience to relate to him and understand his motivation.