Thriller Brainstorm

Practice planning before preliminary task one  

Rationale 

Plot:

A new family who moves into town,  a neighbour who seemingly is an ‘all-round nice guy’ and a family member who is murdered. 

Intense scene:

Ian breaks into his neighbour’s house. Kath is the only one home. 

These are the thriller conventions that will be used in the scene: shadow, eerie music, ironic music choice, zoom in, tracking shot and a vulnerable character. 

1. Who do you introduce character-wise and why?

 The scene begins with a black background where dialogue is heard. A fade-in shows an extreme wide-shot of two adults walking out of a house. The audience will identify them as parents because of the dialogue, “We won’t be gone long honey,”  and affectionate manner with their daughter whose face the audience has not seen yet.

 Next, the extreme wide shot focuses on the daughter showing her closing the door. It is taken from the perspective of the mentally-ill man’s eyes.  The camera zooms in giving the audience a glimpse of the daughter’s face. She appears to be an adult. She will appear to be the vulnerable character because when the man breaks into their house the audience will feel worried for her safety. 

The mentally-ill man is shown last in the scene. A tracking shot is used throughout to follow the man's movement. In this scene, his costume is dark and baggy hiding his appearance. He acts suspiciously by hiding behind a tree in front of his neighbour house and by carrying a bag which the audience will find is filled with metal tools.

2. Where do you set your film scene, why?

The film is set in a small and quiet town it gives the impression that it is isolated.

This scene occurs at night, the source of light comes from street lights and the lights from inside the houses. The darkness creates suspense and shadows in the background. 

Inside the house, there will be a zoom-in shot of a family photo in the hallway, of a collection of photos of Casey on the door and of Casey’s certificate in university. These three will be briefly given attention and are hints to the reasons why the man has broken into the house. He is obsessed with Kate’s older sister and this is confirmed in the movie through this scene where he breaks into her room and wanders around, smells her stuff and peels off her certificate from the wall and takes it. Afterwards, as he shines his flashlight in the dark it shines on Kath’s face who has suddenly appeared. The setting of the house is ironic because a house is a place of safety and love. Therefore, this will intensify the feeling of worry within the audience.

3. What iconography and symbolism will you include?

Contrapuntal music will be used to contrast the visual elements and music of the scene. The music will be playful to reduce the tension which has been created by the atmosphere of the night. It suggests that Sam is unaware of the intruder and therefore reflects her state of mind. 

Eerie music will first be used shortly at the beginning of the scene where the man stalks Kath from the tree indicating something is wrong. It is also used near the end of the scene. This will help to create a suspenseful atmosphere.

Shadow will be used to show the duplicity of Ian representing the two different sides he has: the ‘nice guy’ and the obsessive mentally-ill side of himself which he doesn’t show anybody. The shadow displays his ‘dark side’. It is linked with the dark, it will be used in the scene to evoke the audience's fear of the unknown.

Storyboard

Research 

Thriller Inspirations  

Movie: Citizen Kane

·       There is a good link between music and visual 

·       Fade transitions are used

·       The theme of dark colour

·       Montage editing

Movie: The Dark Knight 

·       The opening scene gets straight into the action- zipline up to the room

·       Fast-paced music (non-diegetic sound) to match with the story convention

·       Props of guns and masks which signify violence

·       Dialogue sets up the characters

AS Media: Excemption 

·       Absence of dialogue is effectively used

·       Close up shots to show facial expression which acts as the 'spoken language'  

·       Jarring music intensifies the stabbing scene  

AS Media: The First Degree (film opening) 

·       Canted angle to reflect the character's state of mind

·       Title design matches well with the story

·       Interesting choice of music 

·       The subject goes out of focus