Production Planning: Opening Thriller

Foundation Production Planning Sheet: Thriller Opening

Who is in your group?

1.       Natasha Shadat (me)

2.       Grace Pengelly,

3.       Chloe Daniels

4.       Kirsten Johnson.

 

What sub- genre of thriller are you planning to make/ why this sub-genre? What ideas do you have?
The sub-genre that I am planning to create would be a psychological thriller. This is because I enjoy watching them and they always attract my attention due to the narrative. Psychological thrillers are quite realistic and somewhat relatable because of some of the situations put forward. One of my ideas for the opening thriller is that it presents the life of a teenage girl; however she believes she has no parents because she supposedly murdered them herself. She then eventually becomes fostered by a couple who were fairly friendly with her parents; however, these foster carers are not who they seem to be and continuously cause mental pain for the teenage girl.

 

Which location(s) will you use and why?
The location that I am planning to use would be predominantly a household. This would make it much easier for our group because all four of us can contribute majorly in this factor, by using some areas of our house. I believe that if we film most of it in a household it would therefore create the ideology of a ‘close-knit community’; on the other hand this anti- stereotypical nuclear family would be disrupted as the opening progresses. It is known that a house connotes a family and a welcoming atmosphere; this is what I’d want for the audience to see at the very beginning of the opening.

 

Who will your actors be and why? What roles will they play? What
costume/makeup?
For the actors we would need a male and a female to play the stereotypical characters of the foster carers. The foster parents would have typical jobs such as an office job for the husband and the wife to be a housewife; this would be portrayed further through their costume and props within the thriller. The man would wear a suit to represent his occupation and the wife would be wearing an apron, washing up gloves and other stereotypical props necessary to uphold the ideology of a housewife.

 

Will you use a chronological narrative/flashbacks/dual narrative?
In the opening the narrative would not be presented chronologically to reinforce the chaos within the thriller and to disorientate the audience. Flashbacks would be incorporated to reinstate the past events and this would also allow the viewers to understand the narrative fully without being too perplexed.

 

 

What titles will you include?

The titles we would include would be all the traditional ones seen in a real, authentic thriller opening, for example ‘Directed by, Music by, Edited by’ etc. To introduce these titles I feel that it would be most effective and suitable if they were on items around the house such as a title written on a door knob.

What sound will you include?

Most of the sound that we chose to include would be primarily non-diegetic sound; however, there would be some aspects of diegetic sound like the door slamming or footsteps. The non-diegetic sound would be a thrilling soundtrack to make the genre more evident and distinct.

Which thriller openings have influenced you? How do you plan to use these influences?

The thriller opening that has influenced me the most would be ‘The Conjuring’. The opening of this film had many features that grabbed my attention for example one of them had to be at the very beginning, It was when a black screen was displayed whilst two people were having a conversation. Then an image of a creepy doll appears suddenly as the music got louder (crescendo). The image was slowly zoomed out from, alarming the audience even more. I plan on using this influence in my very own opening by featuring the black screen for a few seconds to confuse the audience and represent mystery.

How will you attract your audience and make them want to watch the rest of the film?

I would ensure that the opening is interesting and exciting. It is known that man y people enjoy watching unusual events take place in a film so therefore I would use this idea to attract my consumers. Also I would prefer it if there was a little confusion to make them want to carry on watching and get to know the stories behind each character. I believe sound and editing plays a big part also, this would make me put a lot more time and work in this section as well as the narrative.

 

What problems do you anticipate with the planning/shoot? How will you overcome them?

It would be difficult to create the ideology of this film to be psychological because I feel that it’s hard to show the mental state of someone however we can overcome this by using characters to reinforce this theme. The characters would have to show their vindictive yet inncoe3nt side to show clearly how they experiment with the girls’ mental state. When it comes to shooting I feel that it may get a little tedious in terms of location, on the other hand we could solve this issue by slightly changing some areas in order to attract the audience and give them what they want as a consumer. We could also expand on where we shoot by using parts of a neighbourhood to record brief scenes in the thriller opening.