Storyboard

Today we created our storyboard collectively but I drew it.

Feedback from Matt

Today we talked to Matt about our thriller idea and he gave us some feedback on it. Overall he enjoyed the idea but gave us some pointers on how to improve the sequence.
His suggestions went two ways:


1. We establish the environment we are in, creating the world inside the shipping container. One by one the girls get taken out by big angry men, relying heavily on dialogue and mise-en-scene. The girls will be screaming, crying and trying to stand up for themselves which will involve close ups and hand held camera action, to exaggerate the movement. Matt told us in this idea to remove the undercover, confident girl in this idea because we will find out about her later in the film.


2. In this sequence it will be based upon an action-thriller genre, where there is an undercover girl and as in the original sequence, stands up for herself, knocks out the guy who try's to lunge towards her and gets the gun off him. She then leaves the container and shoots the unsuspecting people outside, involving hand held camera movement to also exaggerate the movement. She gets all of the other girls out and they try to get to safety.


We will most likely do the 1st idea because it will be more thrilling for the audience as they do not know what the film will be about, making them intrigued to watch more.

Step outline to our sequence

1. We will first do an establishing shot of the inside of the cargo container, with all the girls sitting on the ground in spaced places.

2. There will be many close up of the girls distress, tears and worried looks on their faces.

3. They hear Russian dialogue outside, which makes them panicked, including close ups of their faces and uncomfortable mid shot of their bodies swirming.

4. The container doors will then open with a silhouette of a big man, who comes strolling in to get a girl.The light blinds the girls as they have been travelling for days.

5. The big man grabs a girl viciously by tugging her by the hair to pull her out of the container while she is screaming and crying for help. They then leave and theres a pleonastic sound of the doors slamming shut.

6. It then goes back to the girl's faces of distress.

7. The man comes back in and all the girls stand up, two back away and one stands there dead still.

8. Here could be a pan going up the confident girl, to show her body language.

9. The man looks at her like she's very cocky and smiles sarcastically.

10. He goes to grab her but she acts quickly, grabbing the knife out of her sock and bending his arm backwards. She then puts the knife to his neck.

11. She leads him out of the container in the position of her behind him and him looking shocked as he is lead out into the daylight.

12. A final long shot of them exiting the container, and that is the end of the sequence.

Contact Sheet

Myself:
Email: Kate.Shillitoe@hurtwood.net
Telephone: 07557331


Sasha Gerry:
Email: Sasha.Gerry@hurtwood.net
Telephone: 07427609


Ollie Wills:
Email: Oliver.Wills@hurtwood.net
Telephone: 07837224

Mood Board

 

 

 

 

Feedback from Mike

Today Mike, one of our teachers reviewed our idea and gave us some pointers on it. He said that we have to be more realistic with our idea because in human trafficking the deal with money usually happens before the trade, making our test shoot unrealistic and glamourised. Therefore we have to create more tension in this sequence by making it based in a cargo container, where 4 girls will be, waiting for their fate.
There will be Russian dialogue from outside the container, which will not make sense to the girls or the audience, creating suspense. A girl is taken out of the container by a big man, screaming and crying. There is intense suspense to what happens next here, with heavy breathing and sobbing. Then a big, Russian man comes in to get another girl, and 2 girls cower and go to the back of the container, meanwhile the main character stays put and in front of the other girls. She lunges towards the man and pulls out a pocket knife. The sequence ends with her leading him out and into the light of outside the container.

The test shoot

We tried to do a test shoot on the cyberbullying sequence but we soon realised that it will rely heavily on miss-en-scene. This would be a very difficult to do and making props seem suspenseful without dialogue is a hard task to achieve. We thought of another back up idea which consists of two business men having intense dialogue about a human trafficking trade. In the sequence it will consist of 4 Chinese businessmen, one girl and 2 Russian businessmen.

Preparing for the test shoot

I will be using my Canon G7X, which is a camera which is specified to make HD videos to film the test shoot and then we will edit it with the programme iMovie. We will be needing a couple of used cans; tampons and lipstick to suggest femininity; a laptop and a phone. We will scatter these props around and the laptop and phone will be used continually used throughout the sequence to manipulate the victims. We are expecting to create a series of different camera angles, such as a pan into the scene; extreme close ups of the eyes, mouth and phone; mid shot of behind the femme fatale and a establishing shot of the room she is in, a dark, decaying place. It is important to have a test shoot because then we can figure out if the idea is worth shooting seriously, and if we got to the proper shoot day and realised the idea is not as good as we imagined, it would cause chaos.

Our initial ideas

At first we all put our ideas onto the table, then Sasha and Franeck came up with the idea of a having a 'femme fatale' as the main character, based on the idea of cyberbullying. We would have a female leading character because this is counter typical to the average criminal who is stereotypically a man. We chose cyberbullying because it could be quite thrilling for the suspense of seeing the other side of the camera, from the bully's point of view. The mise-en-scene would be quite messy, in a dark room because the main character is a nerdy, psychopath that wants to be anonymous to people and tell them to do dark and sick things to themselves. The feedback we've had back so far is good, we are now almost ready to shoot a test shoot to see how it may be, before we commit to filming an actual opening sequence based on this idea.

Getting into our groups

Katie (our teacher) put us into thriller groups, and in my group is Ollie, Franeck, Sasha and myself. I would say that Franeck is the brain of the group, Ollie gives us extra thrilling ideas and Sasha is the one with the camera angles locked in her head. I am very happy with my group because we all have our own input and are not afraid to say our own opinions and give a wide range of ideas for the final project.

Thriller ideas inspiration

Idea 1 inspiration:

Idea 2 inspiration:

Idea 3 inspiration:

Thriller Ideas

Idea 1:

A man in a dark clothes is walking down an alley way, he turns round to hear some noise, this would be a close up of his facial expression then he continues to walk. A man turns around the corner and stares at him, he could have a mask on. He then starts to follow him and they both start running and he gets tackled down then the screen turns to black, then theres a fade in of the films title.

After this, he will wake up in the boot of a car, get out a paper clip and unlock the car from the inside and get out, brush himself down, feel his head which is throbbing with pain.

Idea 2:

The location is a shop and a two men walk in, just pretending to browse at food, and they share looks and give a sign to each-other, then they whip out some guns and point them at the woman behind the counter, shocked expression on her face, fast-pace action scene of them fighting.

Idea 3:

A man has a gun to another guys head, close up of his facial expression and there is intense dialogue between the two, the gun harshly pressed on the mans head. The man withdraws the gun and starts getting really angry then puts the gun to his own head. The man shoots himself then the guy trys to escape by getting his pocket knife and cutting the rope which has bound his hands together.

What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a novel, play or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. The aim of a thriller is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats and the leading character in these films is set against a problem. For example an escape, mission or mystery. Sub-genres are involved such as:


Action Thriller


This type of film uses fast pace, stunts and physical action to create suspense. It still has all the action, chases and fights like a normal action film, but has constant danger occupying the main character. For example, Die Hard:

Crime Thriller

This type of film consists of a typical thriller, with crime film plot. This will involve a serial killer, murderer and a man hunt, and the film focuses on the criminal and the main character. They use psychological and action aspects to create suspense. For example, The Usual Suspect:

Film-Noir

This type of film involves black and white style and stark lighting effects and the main character is usually a cynical hero.

Psychological Thriller

This type of film incorporates elements of drama and mystery, the suspense is created in the mind, rather than in physical threat.

Science-Fiction Thriller

This type of film will involve villains, superheroes, fantastical quests and advanced technology. For example, Aliens:

Religious Thriller

This type of film uses religious themes, ceremonies and objects. They normally involve supernatural experiences like exorcisms, demon possessions and church cover-ups. For example, The Devil's Advocate: