Soundtrack:

For the rough cut of my thriller I used a track called 'Forest Walk'. The songs fits what is going on in the action, but doesn't quite build up enough suspense. The music could be seen as comical due to its slightly high pitch tone that is similar to the Harry Lime theme.

So, for the actual final cut I used a track called 'Man Hunt' which is a very appropriate title due to the subject of our production. This soundtrack worked a lot better because it slowly builds up over the time of the production and helps to build suspense which finishes with the climax of the opening. This soundtrack also works very well with the timing in our production because it changes in the correct moments which help to create transitions between the sequences of cuts that are edited together. 

Props and objects:

For our thriller we won't be needing that many props because most of the storyline concentrates on the chase between the the hitmen and Eve. So, one of the main props we will be using is the diamond necklace that Eve will be stealing. We took some time to work out what item she would be stealing because it needed to be realistic to the storyline. Jewellery is a common prop that is used in a large amount of thriller texts due to their attractive look and representation of wealth. They also are used as a sentimental object which is usually passed down in a family. The diamond necklace was perfect for this because it not only showed wealth, it also would help to create contrast to the dark background behind it. Necklace's in films are almost always used to display something. For example Eve's pearl necklace in 'Once Upon a Time in America' is used to display her innocence and it foreshadows that something bad may happen to her. However, an example of a film which uses a necklace as a sign for wealth and meaning is 'Titanic'. This film was directed by James Cameron in 1997 and has been considered to be one of the best romantic story films of all time. This obviously doesn't make the film a thriller, but a necklace with a blue heart shaped Sapphire at then end of it is used as in important prop and part of costumes. The necklace is seen as having a large about of meaning and sentiment to it which relates to the necklace used in our thriller.

         The only other props to be used in out thriller is two 'weapons' that Hazel and Cha cha will be holding whilst chasing Eve. We tried to use baseball bats for their weapons because this is a generic weapon that is used in a large amount of films, but when filming we were unable to get access to two baseball bats. We would have liked to use baseball bats because they have been used in many thriller texts before which means they would have given our hitmen a more stereotypical look. Baseball bats are mostly used in zombie films and TV shows such as 'Zombieland', but thrillers like 'Fight Club' have also used them. Instead of using baseball bats we used a wooden stick and a short piece of copper pipe, which roughly gave us the same effect, but didn't quite achieve the archetype that is managed when using baseball bats. 

Story Boards

Lighting:

For our thriller we will mostly be using ambient lighting. This lighting is natural so it will be provided by the sun. The reasons most of our thriller will have this type of lighting is because over fifty percent of our opening is shot outside. Due to this we are unable to get any artificial lights outside. The ambient lighting will provide us with slightly unpredictable tones in our shots because we are unable to control the strength or direction of it. This could also be seen as an advantage to us though because it will make each cut in the final production look more natural and to an extent less staged.
          Throughout our thriller there will be one sequence in which non-ambient lighting is used, this is the flash back section of our opening. These few shots will be done in black & white and at night, so the lighting needs to be as strong as possible. For these cuts we will use a small lamp with an adjustable neck so that we can focus the light onto the particular prop or person that is featured in the flash back. This will be classed as chiaroscuro lighting due to the high level of contrast. This type of lighting is used mostly in noir thriller's. An example of one is 'The Third Man'. This shot (right) of Harry Lime is a good example of chiaroscuro because the background is mostly black with a few other dark greys tones and his face is a mixture of much lighter tones in the foreground. This effect and type of lighting helps to bring the audiences attention to one main area on the screen. It also helps to highlight one particular important feature of the movie. This lighting is used in many other genres, but it woks particularly well in noir thrillers.

Rough Thriller Cut

This is what I have produced so far in terms of my edit. There are several different things that need to be changed in this edit. I need to:
-Remove the long shot (shot 2) which is featured at the start
-Place the titles somewhere else. Also make them smaller
-Make some of the fades to blacks shorter
-Cut from 00:11:02 to 00:12:15
-Use some dissolves, instead of fade to black
-Shorten walking shot
-Less scenery shots
-Try different music
Hopefully by changing these few things in my edit, it will look better, create more suspense and flow a lot better.

Revised Shot List:

Title of film:

We have discussed a few different titles for our film. We wanted the title to catch people’s attention so it needed to be short, stand out and intrigue the viewer. One way we did this is by putting the title of the film into a different language. This automatically creates a kind of suspicion and confusion to what the storyline will be about. After deciding on that we needed to actually decide on what word to translate and into what language. We came up with three small words that were a possibility for the title. These were:

· Eve

· Thief

· Fire

We next decided on the language that we would translate the title into. We thought that French would be the best language because normally words translated into this language are at least still readable to somebody who does not speak that language. When translated the words are:

· Eve- Eve

· Thief- Voleur 

· Fire- Feu

Eve was then out of the question due to the fact when translated, it did not change. This left us with Voleur and Feu. After a few more discussions, we finally decided on Voleur. We think that this word represents what are film is and it would look good in the opening scene and on a movie poster. Due to the fact we chose this as the title we needed a reason for French to be used, this led us to creating a deeper plot for our Thriller. Eve's dad is going to turn out to be French, which ends up getting her into trouble with a French gang boss.

Locations:

Shooting technique:

For our Thriller movie we are going to use as many camera angles and movements as possible. These will shots such as: high angle, low angle, birds eye, close up and extreme close up. We will use movements like; panning, tracking and even shot reverse shot. I then had the idea of maybe using a slightly more original filming technique which is stop go animation. I saw the technique used in Doctor Who a while. This allowed the director to show a large amount of small details in a small amount of time very quickly.


 I thought that this would be a good idea for establishing the characters of Hazel and Cha Cha. It would allow us as the directors to show the small details about them that are significant to characterisation. These will be the shoes that they are wearing, the gun tucked into their suit trousers, their name tags, their ties and the gas mask that will cover their face. We all agreed that this will be the best way of achieving the best characterisation possible in such a short amount of time.
          In today's lesson Liam, Tobias and I had a practice at using this shooting technique. We spoke about how many photos we will actually need to take for this process to work properly. My camera can take roughly 3 photos a second, so I would need to move the camera slowly to ensure the amount of detail we want is captured and the sequence doesn't look rushed. The camera will follow an almost 'z' formation, switching between the two hitmen. This is the practice video:
This video took a while to edit due to the fact I had to edit the time each individual image lasted for. Most of the pictures lasted for 1/10th of a second  which is only a small amount of time. The most important parts where the small details will be featured lasted for 2 seconds. I think that this is a sufficient amount of time for the audience to register what the main details is in that shot. In total there are 55 photographs here. When I edited all the images together I added a sound clip in of a camera shutter to add to the effect of the stop go animation. The small sound clip really ensures that the audience know that every photo in the sequence has been taken individually.
          By testing this technique we now know that the sequence will actually work. It captures a high amount of detail and it will give contrast to the other shots that will feature in our Thriller. One problem with this technique which I found out when editing is that the process is very tedious. It took me close to about 45 minutes to edit this all together. This means that when doing this for our Thriller task it will probably take considerately longer to edit together. We will make sure the movement is smoother and that more images are taken. This means in total the final editing for this sequence alone will take probably just over an hour. We have decided as a group though that it will be worth it if we can pull it off perfectly.

Plot:

This post will include two sections. The plot for the opening of the film and the plot for the entire film.

Opening: Since the initial planning of our thriller we have changed the plot due to the filming being very impractical and slightly too ambitious. We kept elements of the original plot and extended on those. The original plot was:

For the plot of our Thriller task we have decided on the main part of the short film being an interrogation. The rough storyline we have come up with so far is that a girl steals a mystery item (which won’t be revealed)from a house. On the way out of the house she starts a fire to attempt to cover her tracks. She is then found and chased down by two ‘henchmen’. After being captured she is question about her actions and crime. The two henchmen don’t stick too their given instructions which results in a cliff hanger ending when an unknown character (the henchmen's boss) turns up and shoots somebody. 

This is featured in 'Planning for our Thriller task'

The scenes included in the original plot would simply be included in the later parts of the film, just not the opening. So the plot for the new opening is as follows: Eve is shown running at beginning but what she is running to or from is not revealed (build of suspense), then you are shown the two hitmen getting ready. Hopefully at this point the audience will get the connection and realise who Eve is running from. We will then show Eve stealing the mysterious item from an old jewellery box and then show a burnt down house to indicate that is what she has done to cover her tracks. We will then cut to a chase scene between Eve and the Hitmen until she finds an abandoned barn. This is where she will film herself saying what she thinks may be her final words, before someone finds her and we cut to black with a scream to create a cliffhanger. 

          This is the basic outline for what the plot of our opening will be. We think this opening will build a lot of suspense and use the generic elements of the thriller genre. We also hope that all the inertextual references that are included are noticed and help to create a sense of foreshadowing.

          The rest of the film: The rest of the film will be based around finding out what the Eve stole from the unknown boss, her interrogation and possibly learning the back story of Hazel and Cha Cha. The film would stick to using generic locations like dark ally ways and streets, wide open areas and other locations which create mystery or portray danger. The opening would be for the introduction of all the main characters and to initially grab the attention and focus of the audience like any other Thriller film. We want the opening to bring emphasis onto how dark and thrilling the rest of the film would be.                          

Characters:

At this moment in time we have decided on who all three of our characters will be, these are:

• Eve (Main character)
• Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)

The character named Eve will be the main character in our film. She is going to be aged around 17 for our film to ensure that person we use for the film fits correctly into that age. We chose the name Eve because it is a reference to 'Once Upon A Time In America'. Eve was killed within the first scene of the film, so we decided to use this as an inertextual reference in ours. However our character doesn't get killed, we are using the name to signify that she has bad luck. The name itself holds a sense of sin from the bible. We originally spoke about not giving this girl a name which would have added an inertextual reference to 'Fight Club'. The character played by Edward Norton isn't actually given a name throughout the entire film, he is simply referred to as the 'Narrator' when looking up the film online. We spoke about using this idea as a group but soon realised that the plot of our film couldn't be carried our without the name of the female being revealed.

          The next two characters are Hazel and Cha Cha. These will be our two hitmen who chase Eve to retrieve what she has stolen from their boss. The age of these two characters isn't going to be that significant to the plot. We wanted to concentrate on the point that they are ameatures so if the actors were a little young it will only really add to the realism of their character development. I actually came up with name of the two men. It is an intertextual reference to the Graphic Novel 'The Umbrella Academy, Dallas' by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba. This is a the second Graphic Novel in the franchise. Each novel is made up of six sections (originally released as individual comic books in America) and was released by the publishing company 'Dark Horse Books'. In this novel two psycho hitmen/assassins are introduced which is who we are going to take reference from. The names almost sound childlike which then adds a sense of nightmare, they seem like something that a child would come up with for the 'monsters under their bed'. The way the characters look is also taken from these characters. They aren't big or muscly hitmen like the stereotype for that kind of person. They are either an average build or moderately skinny.
          These are the only three characters which will be featured in the opening of the film, but technically there could possibly be a fourth. The hitmen need a boss, so this character will have to be incorporated into the opening somehow to grab the audiences attention and add a larger sense of mystery. The way that the boss will be incorporated is either through a phone call with Hazel/Cha Cha, or just a mention in dialogue between the two hitmen. This character would be revealed later on in the film along with the introduction of other characters (these may be mentioned in the plot of the film in later planning).    

Costume:

So far we have had a few different ideas for the costumes that our characters will wear during our Thriller opening. There will be three characters, so that means three costumes needed to be designed. The two Hitmen will have very similar costumes to ensure that audience know that they're together and are trying to do the same thing. The girl character (now named Eve) is going to be wearing all dark clothes to contrast with her bright hair. If the girl(s) we want to use can't make the filming we are going to use a male character instead. His outfit will have more colour than what the girls would.

Specific ideas for costumes:

1.Hitmen: We wanted these characters to look good at what they're doing so we think a full suit would appropriate. This shows that they are proffesional at what they do and it uses the generic of hit men wearing a suit like in other movies such as Pulp Fiction. Jules and Vincent both wear suits during the opening to this film. It shows that they have the power and it gives a sense of professionalism that only a suit can provide. We want our hitm en to have this presence on screen so we don't want them wearing something like jeans and a hoodie. We aren't that bothered if the suits aren't the same colour because it shows that our hit men are ametures that are trying to look and be proffesional. This means our hit men could be wearing a grey suit (right) and possibly a black one. The colour of the suits will be whatever suits we can get our hands on as a group. We discussed maybe getting one of our hit men to wear a bow tie, but this took the professional and generic look away from them so we've decided to stick to using plain black ties. After deciding what the hit men will be wearing we needed to find a way to cover their faces. This was for two reason, one being a thriller generic and another being due to our choice of actors. It is sometimes generic in thriller movies for the dangerous character our killer to hide their identity so that nobody can identify them. An example of a film whereas gas mask is specifcally used for this reason is 'Dead Man's Shoes'. The other reason we are going to use masks is to hide the fact that the hit men are only young. This helps to make our thriller look and feel more realistic because you don't really see two 16/17 year old being hit men. We think a gas mask would be the best mask for use to use because it not only hides their identity, it also makes them look more threatening and horrifying. The last part of the costume we decided on was what shoes they'd both wear. We thought that leather shoes would obviously look good with the suits that they were both wearing, but then we thought about what would really be practical for somebody chasing down a girl. Running in leather shoes wouldn't be comfortable so they'd wear shoes like  trainers. This would look wrong with the suit but it helps to add to the idea that these two are amateurs who don't really know what they're doing. It also looks and will feel a lot more practical for when they are running.

2. The next outfit that we had to design was for the main girl character of out Thriller who we have decided to name Eve. This is because the name portrays sin and lets us include an intertexual reference to Once Upon a Time in America. We wanted this character to having special about her, something that made her unique. There was a discussion for a few different ideas like maybe giving her some form of scar or mark, but we decided on her having bright coloured hair. We thought this would look good because it would make her character stand out in the locations that we're using. Her bright coloured hair would create a large amount of contrast that should look good when filming our thriller opening. We've thought about using red coloured hair because it represents danger and evil. To increase the contrast of the hair and add another intertextual reference we decided to take inspiration from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' for the rest of Eve's look. We want her to wear something dark because this portrays the darker side of her character. It also makes her look link a punk. The dark clothing gives a bigger visual difference between her hair, which will stand out quite well when watching the film after it's been completed. The person who plays Eve will be wearing tight black trousers, a black t-shirts and a black leather or other material jacket. This is to give her the same status that Lisbeth Salander had. As a group we also had a big discussion about shoes this character would wearing. Again we had to think practical, so anything like black plimsolls or any other weak shoes were put of the question. The girl needed to be wearing something which she can run in, but also suited the rest of her costume. This left us with something like dark coloured boots or possibly black converse. These two shoes would suit what Eve would be wearing and would also support the idea that the character that she is playing is a punk. Finally we came to the conclusion that boots would be the best shoes to wear because they're relatively easy to run in, would be able to cope in the situations that we are filming in and they go with the rest of the costume/character.
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Shot List (In Progress)

Shots	Characters	Location	Camera angle	Lighting
1	Eve (main girl character)	Field/dike	Long shot/ rule of thrids	Ambient
2	N/A (shot of record player)	A bedroom	Close up	Non-ambient
3	Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)	A bedroom	Close up	Non-ambient
4	Eve (main girl character)	Another bedroom	Close up	Non-ambient
5	Eve (main girl character)		Exetreme close up	Ambient
6	Eve (main girl character)	A burnt down house	Long shot (pan)	Ambient
7	Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)	Empty road	Medium shot	Ambient
8	Eve (main girl character)	Field	Tracking shot from behind/ medium close up	Ambient
9	Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)	Field	Tracking shot from infornt/ medium close up	Ambient
10	Eve (main girl character), Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)	Field	Birds eye	Ambient
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Planning for our Thriller task

Since creating this presentation our group have changed the plot and lighting of our film, but the locations, characters, costume, music/sound and title options have stayed the same.

Thriller Planning (Early draft)

- Locations:

• Empty barn
• Burnt down house
• Empty field

- Flashback to build story.
- Day and night, either could work, but night time would work better for our plot. Also, depending on the weather, snow would look good.
- Black and white
- Chiaroscuro lighting (strong contrast)
- Two actors; interrogator and interrogatee
- Interrogation
- Two interrogator (male)
- Interrogatee (female)
- Classical music (contrast of elegant music to rough actions).
- Plot: She burnt down the house after taking something from the house. She is then caught and interrogated.

Title options:

• Voleur- 'Thief' in French
• Varas- 'Thief' in Finnish