Working with the Weather

There are clear weather changes throughout our thriller. We decided that this will look very effective as it will create pathetic fallacy. At the start of the thriller, the weather is quite sunny but still cold, this fits to mood as it at this point in the thriller, nothing bad has happened. The next day we filmed, the weather was more cloudy which worked well as it give the audience a feeling that something is about to happen. We have therefore picked tomorrow (Thursday) as the next day we are going to film as it is will either be raining or wet. This will look very effective as the bit we are going to film next is going to be the most dramatic bit of the thriller, represented well by the fact that it is going to be raining throughout this scene.

Make-up

I have experimented with make-up and feel that it will be suitable for our piece; as our Thriller involves a fire in one of the flashbacks. My character re-appears towards the end of our thriller with a burn, the accident in the fire isn't filmed as we wanted the audience to link it all up at the end.

For the make-up I used:

- Different shades of purple eye shadow

- Red and black face paint

- Tissue

- Eyeliner

- Cocktail sticks

- Make-up brushes





Choosing the music

When looking for a track for our thriller we wanted a track that would enhance the atmosphere to create suspense for the audience. We had to make sure all tracks were copyright free, therefore, we looked on websites such as http://www.freeplaymusic.com/. After listening to many tracks we discovered a track that we felt would fit perfectly in our thriller. We adapted this track to create many 'music stings' throughout our thriller which is one of many conventions for a typical thriller.
We then decided to use another track for our flashbacks to differentiate the changes from past to present throughout the thriller. The track is called 'abandoned infirmary' which created and cold feeling when listening to the soundtrack. The soundtracks we have used are called 'Abandoned infirmary' and 'Spirit'.

Final Story Board

Researching Schizophrenia

I have done some research about Schizophrenia, as the main character in our Thriller suffers from this, gaining some research may help Anna (who plays the main character) get into her character and the role of a girl who suffers from this illness. This research will also help Alex and I understand Schizophrenia more to help us while we are filming.
 It is a mental disorder that mainly manifests as auditory hallucinations or paranoid delusions. A person who suffers from this illness may hear voices in their head, have disorganised thoughts that they may not be able to control, their thoughts may be hard to follow and make little sense to others making conversations with others difficult which can then lead to isolation and loneliness.

 The main character in our Thriller has a split personality, this is where a person can have multiple identities, these personalities can take over a person's behaviour and can lead to memory loss. Many sufferers are known to have a good and evil side.

Additional Influences

I have named a few films that have influenced our group with the themes and storyline of our film. These three films include characters that are Schizophrenic, whether this is shown by one character or cleverly played by two.

Secret window- The Secret Window is a psychological thriller starring Johnny Depp.  He plays a writer called Mort Rainey who is confronted by a stranger who is outside his house. He calls himself John Shooter and claims that Mort (Depp) had stolen an idea for a story from him however Mort claims he can easily prove he had written it first and Shooter becomes more and more violent as he waits for the evidence.  

Black Swan- Black Swan is a psychological thriller, like our film 'Nyctophobia'.  A Ballerina is cast as the lead role in Swan Lake, she is perfect to portray the part of the 'White Swan' however finds it difficult to portray the 'Black Swan'. Another ballet dancer who she knows fits the role perfectly of the Black Swan. However, as they go compete for the lead, Nina (played by Natalie Portman) finds her darker side.

Fight Club- After the nameless narrator (Norton) who suffers from Insomnia is on his flight home he meets a man called Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) after he  finds out his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion he calls Durden and meets him, outside the bar Durden requests the 'nameless narrator' to hit him. After further fights there appears to be a crowd surrounding them. The men decide to create a 'fight club'. Towards the end you start to realise that Tyler (played by Pitt) is the darker side to the 'nameless narrator.

Marketing our Movie

Marketing is arguably the most important factor in a production of a movie; without it producers find it hard to promote their film, leading to less people viewing & buying the movie leading to less profit made.
Unlike famous Hollywood directors, we are running this project on a limited budget. So we have to think of initiative ideas into promoting our movie and persuading people to watch it.
One Marketing strategy we have used so far is creating a page on the social networking site 'Facebook'
this gives people the chance to 'like' our movie, whilst doing this it appears on their 'news feed' which has
 a snowboarding effect which gets even more people involved.

Final Poster

                                                              



                                                                

Potential Poster Ideas

Here are some ideas for a poster for our Thriller. We think they are good as they represent the split mind that the main character has. They also look interesting and would make people want to find out more about the film. I chose this writing because i think it suits the story and it goes well with the pictures used for the poster.

I think this photo looks very effective in black and white as it makes it look cold and dark.

 This one is good because the colours make it look interesting and intriguing. It also looks quite dark making it look scary and mysterious.

This one is quite effective as it shows slight differences between the two people. You can also see how one of them has blue eyes, which is also featured our thriller and everytime this character has a flashback, her eyes change colour which represents the other side of her.

Draft Risk Assessment

photos from the second day of filming

                                                                    

Textual Analysis of the opening to 'Orphan'

Orphan is a 2009 American horror and thriller film directed by Jaumme Collet-Serra, starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and Isabelle Furhman in the title role. The film centers on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious 9-year old girl.

The movie starts with the iconographic Warner Bros.Pictures label, However, it's not in the traditional gold format, instead it's been edited using the 'negative' photography effect which inverts the colours, it's now U.V coloured blue and pink, this creates an ominous start.

The movie title 'Orphan' has also been edited in an interesting way; at first it appears to be a simple, basic title but seconds after a music sting is used and the title changes to the U.V colours previously mentioned to emphasis the eeriness. The title is also symbolism for the plot which is a different person hiding underneath a fake person.

After the opening sequence the movie fades in from white to a blurred clip of a couple, this has been done to show it's a flashback from the past. The Non-Diegetic soundtrack played throughout the flashback also heightens the suspense of the opening.

A high angle shot looking down on the woman makes her character seem vulnerable, the fact the she is also being pushed in her wheelchair because she in pregnant makes her seem even more insecure.

There is then a close up shot of her bleeding from the wheelchair, it's quite grotesque which suggests to the audience this is going to be a gruesome film, because there is blood we automatically judge this to be a horror as blood is convention used in them.

I feel that the opening of this film is very effective; straightaway it's conveying the genre to the audience through the suspense in the music and the gruesomeness of the blood.

The Importance of opening titles.

A diary of a day filming.

Our second day filming:

09:00 = We all met up at the filming location and began to set up
( Setting up the tripod, applying make up to Anna and Discussing how we will adapt our storyboard further)

09:20 =  Myself and Ellie did a quick risk assessment check to see that everything was safe.

09:30 = Once all set up, it was time to start filming!

12:00 = After a few hours of filming, we all sat down and reviewed the shots we had just taken, most of them were good however there were a couple of shots which were slightly unstable and not still - there was also a lighting issue in one of the shots in which light reflected of the windows into frame; we re-filmed these shots.

12:40 = After clarifying we had enough footage to edit, we snapped some still shots of Anna around the house in which we could adapt for posters and other marketing resources.

13:00 = Filming over! - for now at least. :)

Alex Wright.

Props

We will be using many props in our opening to help portray messages and symbolism.
Without the use of props our piece would be dull and lack interest.
Contact lenses

Anna will be wearing be wearing light blue contact lenses in some scenes to convey a different side to her character, We chose not to use extreme colours such as "red" or "black" as this would not be realistic for the audience.

Mirror

We will also be using a mirror to symbolise the split personality she has.

Key necklace

The key necklace is the most vital prop in our piece, it conveys an enigma for the audience foreshadows scenes in our piece. The necklace links Anna's character to Ellie's.

Titles

We have been discussing a name for our thriller. Our initial idea was 'Nyctophobia' which means a fear of being alone. We wanted a name that relates to the Schizophrenic character Anna plays. We have been researching other pyschological thriller titles such as:

- Eisoptrophobia
This means a fear of mirrors. We thought it was a good idea as it relates to her split personality, however, we feel is too long and not sharp enough.

- Aberrant
This means a diversion from the normal type. We feel this could be a good  title because it relates well to the themes within the thriller.

- Optophobia
This is a fear of opening one's eyes. We thought this would be appropriate as Anna closes her eyes before she changes. Her changed personality is shown by her different colour eyes.

-State of mind

This means a temporary psychological state. This fits really well as Anna's character in the thriller keeps changing.

Diary/First day of filming

Alex setting up for the first scene

This picture shows Alex setting up for our first shot and Anna putting on her make up for her character

This image shows on of our shots for the thriller, it is an important as it shows the significance of the prop.

We found this TV at our location and thought it would be appropriate in our thriller

- Ellie Sutton

Our first day of filming went really well. The weather was perfect as it looked cold which fits our thriller, also it wasnt raining which meant that our filming was clear and there was not too much backround noise. Also, we started filming quite early in the day meaning we would have pleanty of light to carry on filming throughout the day. As we were filming, we came up with alot of new ideas to improve our thriller as we found that one scene could lead onto many different scinarios, we therefore added alot of shots to our thriller that we did not originally plan on, adding to the intensity of our thriller. 

-Anna Dunk

Cape Fear Analysis

As a group in class, we sat down and looked at the opening of the film 'Cape Fear'. Everyone came up with a lot of good ideas as we looked deeper into the meaning behind different things in the clip.

Here is a screen shot of the very first clip of the opening. The fact that the image is blurred because of the water, represents the way that the main character sees the world. Also, the Eagle is a bird of prey which reflects the fact that he is also a predator and a dangerous character.

Next we see the image of an eye. We can tell that this is the victims eye because it is wide and looking around, showing that this person is scared.

The colour red in the water gives a sense of danger and can represent blood. It is also warning the audience that somthing bad is going to happen.

Here we have a silhouette of the mans body. The fact that it is a silhouette suggests mystery and intrigues the audience. Also, the tinted green water could represent the feeling of jealousy and envy.

The director then uses direct addressing as we are introduced to a woman talking to the audience. We assume that this women is the victim as she is wearing a white top, representing her innocence and purity. The fact that all the buttons are done up on her top also show this.

We are then introduced to as man working out in prison. The 'scales of justice' tattoo on his back could reflect the fact that he wants to get revenge.

The way that the prison guards follow him instead of lead him through the prison, and that way that they move out the way for him, suggests that he is a dominant figure and that other people feel threatened by him. This indicates that he is in prison for a serious crime.

The dramatic music and the storm that occurs when he gets out of the prison indicate danger. Also, the fact that he is leaving the prison alone links back and imitates the nature of the eagle in the first scene, suggesting he is on a hunt for revenge now he has been released.







Analysing Cape Fear has been a very useful task as we have learnt a lot about the way we can represent things in our Thriller. It has also taught us how to look deeper into the meanings of things in movies, and how to apply that to our own.