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...

Film distribution in Norwich

Odeon
Total number of films being exhibited: 19
Total number of screenings: 74
This is on average 4 showings per film, each day, obviously this varies on how long the film has been released.
Hollywood films: 63%
British films: 31%
Foreign: 6%
Australasian or Canadian: 0%

Vue
Total number of films being exhibited: 10
Total number of screenings: 31
This is on average 3 showings per film, again varying on age of the film.
Hollywood films: 70%
British films: 20%
Foreign films: 10%
Australasian or Canadian: 0%

Hollywood
Total number of films exhibited: 8
Total number of screenings: 30
This is on average 4 showings per film which is the same as Odeon cinema, the largest of all the multiplexes in Norwich.
Hollywood films: 87%
British films: 13%

I found out that the majority of films shown in multiplexes are American this is largely down to Hollywood’s amount of resources and money. Also, the most famous actors/tress are American. This means that most films shown in the UK do not always relate to the audiences watching them and are often unintelligent and made quickly.
Nevertheless British films are still shown in all cinemas but there are not enough opportunities for British film makers, actors, directors and technicians, which is why there are fewer released than Hollywood.
Bette Midler on Hollywood Films: "Look at the movies that they put out... It's so junky. So much junk, it's like the food. No content. Nothing."

Continuity Preliminary task: Shot list

Shot 1 Shot behind when Jonny is walking (low angle shot)

Shot 2 Jonny walking, shot from the front (medium shot, eye level)

Shot 3 Door knob being turned (extreme close up)

Shot 4 Cuts to behind katie, shot of hands tied up from behind the chair. The camera then pans around right towards the door.

Shot 5 Mid shot of Jonny (the abductor)

Shot 6 Over the shoulder shot of the abductor over the shoulder of the prisoner.

Shot 7 Shot-reverse shots of Jonny and Katie speaking (Jonny Left/ Katie Right) Dialogue takes place here.

Shot 8 Jonny leaves the room. (Long shot)

Continuity preliminary task: Script

To set the scene: Jonny is a capturer and Katie is the one being captured.

Jonny:[Shouting] Remember me!
(pause)
[quieter, persuasive] Now then, are you ready to talk? Or will I have to bring in Big Bob to make you!

Katie:[angry] I will never talk, not to you scum.

Jonny:[annoyed but trying to stay calm] Well, there is a price on your head but this may just magically disappear all forgotten if! You give me or my friends some information.

Katie:[definant] I will not utter a word even if it’s my last breath.

Jonny: [Irritated] So be it. I see a more vigilant technique is needed! I think I will bring in big bob to make your acquaintance. Then you might change your mind my dear.

Film making techniques

180 Degree Rule
This technique is crucial in film making and without it you will break the flow of the scene and disorientate the viewer.
The basic idea is that each character must stay on the same sides of the frame at all times. For example: if in a dialogue situation a man and woman were sitting at opposite sides of a table and the camera was position so that the woman was on the right and the man was on the left, if the camera cut to the opposite end of the table the actors would have to swap seats so as not to confuse the audience. If you break the 180 degree rule you are 'crossing the line'. In only one case are you allowed to 'cross the line' and that is if the camera is moving and you physically see the camera 'cross the line'.

Shot-reverse shot
shot-reverse shot is a technique where you have an over shoulder shot of one person looking at another and then it cuts to and over shoulder shot of the first person. It can be used in the same way if a character is looking at a newspaper, for example, and then cuts to the newspaper from their point of view.

Match-On-Action

Match on Action is a technique used in film editing when a cut connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. You have to carefully match the movement across the two shots to make it seem as though the motion continues uninterrupted.

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.

My questionnaire into Audience Research

Age:

Gender:

Occupation:

Student

Full Time

Part Time

Retired

Unemployed

Aspiration:

Get a job

Travelling

University

Moving abroad

Other

Of these three which do you most prefer?

Thriller

Comedy

Horror

Which British films from this list have you seen?

East is East

Anita and Me

About a Boy

Chocolat

Love Actually

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

Calendar Girls

This is England

Billy Elliot

Snatch

What attracts you most to watch a film?

Word of mouth

Director

Actor/ress

Advertising/ Marketing

Other

Which radio station do you listen to?

Which newspaper do you read?

Which film viewing setting do you prefer?

At the cinema

At home on the sofa alone

At home with friends/family

Round a friends house

Don’t care

How often do you go to the cinema?

Never

Once a year

Once a month

Twice a month

Every week

Other

Which type of cinema do you go to?

Multiplex (Like Odeon)

Independent (Like cinema city)

How often do you watch films in general?

1-2 times a week

Once a month

Less

More