Storyboards

Reflections and amendments from our original plan

As expected our original plan took some changes in the process of creation. Most crucially, we had to change protagonist actress at the last minute after finishing all filming at the terraced house location. This was due to the fact that our original actress was not able to film at the second location before our filming deadline, our only option was to find a second actress and start filming again. This ended up being a positive thing as we were much happier with our second filming at the terraced house and the shots produced were more proffessional.

Our second amendment was that we had to change our soundtrack as originally we wanted to use Safe From Harm by Massive Attack, however, we couldn't due to it being copyrighted. Instead, we decided it would be good to compose our own music and therfore mould it around our plot and ambience.

Finally, we decided against making our actress walk into the sea at the end of our opening as on the day of filming it was about -4 degrees. Alternatively, we decided not use the shot at all as it was not key in the plot.

Titles

We wanted our titles to be fairly simple so as to not distract from the other narrative present, however, we did want our titles to be noticed. We used a white font over the black voice-over at the beginning and over a black background after the dialogue has finished. Our titles included our film production company 'Reel Films Production', 'Directed and Produced by', 'Music by' and finally 'Safe From Harm' at the end of the opening.
Our titles are very minimalistic and are comparable to titles such as Alfed Hitchcock's 'Birds' or 'Pyscho' which also had very simple titles.

Shooting schedule

For our entire opening we only needed to use a total of two settings this made it easy to decided the shooting schedule.
Our settings were at a terraced house in the centre of Norwich and at Haulkham beach on the north-Norfolk coast.

20th December 12.00 noon-5.oopm - terraced house, college road, norwich, norfolk.

4th January 1.00 pm-4.30pm - Haulkham beach, north-norfolk coast.

Evaluation Of Costumes

Jack Mullane (Drug Dealer/Murderer):
Green hooded top
Dark jeans
Trainers
Grey scarf

Jacks costume connotes conventional aggression,

potraying a typical thriller character much like those from 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Adulthood'. His scarf covers all of his face apart from his eyes and his hood is pulled up, this adds suspense because the character is unknown. The fact that he is trying to hide his identity suggests that he is a menacing character and may have caused trouble in the past. Furthermore, by wearing dark colours this also denotes a feeling of trouble and foreboding.

Katie Boyer (Mother)

Jeans

Yellow jumper

Casual shoes

Scarf

Katies costume was the least important of all of the characters. This was mainly because she had the smallest part to play. Her mundane attire implys that she is just an innocent victim and that she has nothing to do with the situation.

Meghan Summerfield (Alice/Protagonist)

White top

White Jeans

Blue scarf

Black shoes

Meghans costume was oen of the hardest. We wanted to connote purity but at the same time show her in her normal clothing.

Evalutaion of locations

Our Thriller Opening is set in only two locations: Holkham beach on the Norfolk Coast and a terraced house in the centre of Norwich.

We chose Holkham beach in particular because it is visually effective as it is a very striking landscape, it has also been used in previous films such as Shakespeare In Love. Further reasons to use a beach in our opening is that, especially in winter, it is a very isolated setting. Moreover, beaches and coastlines connote natural danger and disaster. Also, beaches can be perceived as the edge of the world because you can't walk any further. This is why our protagonist walks to the beach after the tradgedy of her family's death.

We decided to use an average terraced house to emphasise the girl's nomality and to portray the girls background. This will make clearer to the audience that she is not the stereotypical drug taker and that she has been sucked into this world.

Soundrack for our thriller opening

Initially, our idea was to use the song 'Safe From Harm' by Massive Attack however we later discovered that this would not be possible due to copyright laws. Instead we had the option to search the internet for appropriate soundtracks free of copyright or to compose our own music. Coincidently, two of our three group members are studying A-Level music and thus opened the opportunity to compose something completely original for out thriller opening. This will be very beneficial as it can be created to fit the emotion within the opening and we can convey the exact message and atmosphere we desire. Our soundrack will consist of string instruments, drums and possibly electric guitars to create an atmospheric yet modern sound.

Colour and filtering effects

Saturation is used to change the colours of the shot. It can be used to change the mood of a shot, for example: de-saturating a shot would make it look dull and bleak. It can also be used to highlight particular colours in a shot, as is demonstrated in Dont Look Now where the effect is used to draw out the red in the young girls coat.

Filters are sometimes a film placed over the cameras lense so it is not always a post-production effect, they effect the mood and atmosphere of a shot. To create a cold and bleak atmosphere a blue filter would be used, etc. This effect is clearly demonstrated in Minority Report to highlight coldness.

Lighting is a crucial effect when filming as it ties together the look of the film. There are many types of lighting: Naturalistic (outdoor or anything natural), Artificial (indoor lighting typical in hospitals etc), Low Key lighting (dim lighting), Chiaroscuro (heavy contrast between blacks and whites), Spot Light (a single light aimed directly at something to highlight or isloate it). The use of a spot light is used in the opening of Leon above the table where Leon and another man are sitting.

Script for Thriller Opening First Shot

Boyfriend: [Annoyed] What d'ya want me down 'ere for then?

Alice: [Desperate] I can't do it.

Boyfriend: [Confused, angry] Do what?

Alice: [Begginning to cry] You, the drugs, everything.

Boyfriend: [laughs nervously] Don't be so stupid-

Alice: [Stubborn but still sad] No! It was only meant to be one time and now look at us, look at me. It's got to end...

Thriller Opening Treatment

Our first shot is of a 17 year old girl from behind. She is wondering down a beach (holkam beach on the north-norfolk coast, shown right) along the waters edge, the day is bleak, windy and cold. We chose this setting as, especially at this time of year, it is very isloated and the beach we chose is especially vast. The shot is in black and white and is in slow motion to emphasise the bleak atmosphere. The medium shot is moving along behind her and after 3 seconds begins to pan down and left around her body so that you can see her walking as well as the sea next to her. The camera is eventually situated at her feet from the front. It then pans slowly up her body revealing her distressed appearance, she wears black tights, but no shoes, they are ripped and dirty. She also is wearing shorts, because of the cold weather the audience will feel uncomfortable and already suspect something is not right. A black strap top underneath an oversized white shirt is all she wears on her top half and her make-up has run down her face as if she has been crying, her hair is down but unkempt. When the camera has reached her face it zooms in to a close-up as she is still walking, the frame is then disrupted by intermittent flickers of real-time shots in colour. As this is happening the girls face changes from emotionless to as if she is in pain, then the flickering shots cut over the image of her face and we are in the past. This, although is not the usual thriller way of doing flashbacks in black and white and real time in colour, connotes the girls emotion; when she is on the beach she is an empty shell, colourless and dispondent but in the flashbacks she is a fairly normal teenager living her life.

The flashbacks continue with breaks of the girl walking along the beach in between. The story is then revealed that the girl is a drug addict, born into the world by her boyfriend. Drowning in a world of debt the girl separates from her boyfriend hoping for the debt and drugs to dissappear. Unfortunately, without her boyfriend to keep the dealers off her they start to send threats which she ignores. When the girl is walking home one day, the audience see's a tall man dressed in black walking infront of her. He then turns left into the front garden of a house and the girl stops at the same house, it is then realised that the man is going to her house. The man walks up to the door and kicks it open, the girl's mother is in the kitchen with her younger sibling. The man starts screaming at the mother and pressing a gun on her neck, asking her where her daughter is. When the mother says she doesnt know and that she hasn't seen her for days the man gets angry and kills her. Meanwhile the sibling has run upstairs and hidden in its room, the man decided to go upstairs and look for it. The camera follows the man up the stairs, he has the gun down at his side, finger on the trigger. It then cuts to inside a cupboard slightly ajar, the shot is from the siblings point of view, the man walks into the room and is looking around (similar to the scene in Leon when the 4 year old boy is hiding under the bed). It then cuts to the girl still standing at the front garden and she looks up at the top window, it zooms in on the window (shot reverse shot) and there is flash and a bang that echoes as it zooms in on her face, her eyes are scrunched shut it fades into black and white and we are in back at the beach. The girl is standing still, wind blowing, alone. Her feet are in the water, the camera is behind her as she walks into the water and goes up to her waist, the frame then fades into complete darkness.