Idea for Opening Sequence of Thriller - 'Stalker'

The opening sequence would start with a slow panning shot of a lamp lit wall. the wall would be covered with pictures of a certain man in different situations, with his family, not knowing he is being photographed, or even smiling and looking innocent. the photos would be in a sort of collage form with writing in pen, such as harmful words and the scribbling out of past lovers, done in a violent way. whilst we are panning, a hand with a marker can appear from beside the camera and write on the wall, or scribble out another character in a photo beside the man. the names of the directors and team behind it would feature at random points throughout the collage. then the diagetic contrapuntal music would pass over a cut to a woman walking down an office corridor. we would have a tracking shot following her smart high heeled shoes in a side on angle. another cut to her finger pressing a button on a lift and then a quick cut to a long shot of her. as this cut happens the music stops and the lift opens, revealing the man we have seen so much of on her wall at home, as she stands next to him she says 'going up?' and the doors close, finishing the opening sequence.

                     I like this idea as by the time the collage ends, the audience knows a lot of information about this victim of a stalker, that he has a wife and children for example. Anything we see in these photos we will remember about this man, we can even guess what his personality would be like from pictures of him with friends or in a bar or club. But, we know nothing about the stalker apart from the fact that she works with the man in an office. The end part of the sequence leaves the audience guessing as to what will happen next in the lift, a cliff hanger. And for the time the two people are in the lift together, the sense of suspense and terror would be overwhelming. The fact that we know something that the man does not know is the key idea of the sequence, which I believe works well.

Idea for Opening Sequence of Thriller - 'Miners'

I based my idea around the mining accident which happened a few months ago now in Chile. I thought the sense of entrapment was a scary thought and the sense of the unknown is also a fear many people share, this is why I would film the opening scene on top of the land in the shanty town which was constructed over the collapsed mine named ‘camp hope’ in real life.

                The first shot would be of a young boy, filmed in a tracking over the shoulder shot, he is putting a battered teddy bear and a letter to his ‘papa’ into a black bin liner type bag, as he does this he is waling through crowds of people, the audience can notice there tattered clothes even from the low height of the boys eyesight. He squeezes passed bodies with his bag in hand, he can see the debris on the floor symbolising a hot climate and we can notice people’s dusty sandals. Finally he comes to a clearing with a large black pipe coming out of the ground, as he gets closer to this pipe the camera rises over head using a crane shot and into a birds eye view looking down on the boy and down the pitch black pipe line. As the boy drops his bag, the camera suddenly drops down the pipe, following it and into blackness. The title ‘Miners’ would then be shown and the opening sequence is finished.

                I have noticed some problems with this idea which might hold it back from actually being my teams thriller. We would have to find a willing parent who would let there 7 or 8 year old boy skip school for the day and children are always harder to work with as they are not as focused. Another problem would be the deserted landscape of a country with a hot climate which I was interested in having. Although this would make the sequence more realistic, I don’t believe there is anyway we could get this effect from the English countryside in winter time, or in the studio. I think the shanty houses and camps would also be difficult to create on the school budget.

Conventions of a Horror/Thriller

Woods
Screaming
long silences
chasing scenes
Darkness
scary people
blood
struggling scene

suspence

Ghosts, spiders, snakes, the unknown, the deep sea, cramped spaces, sharks and abuse are just a few of the many things people nowadays are afraid of. this is why they are commonly used in Thrillers and Horrors.

Editing

When editing, we used the rushes from our camera and created a log bin for them, making it easy for use to refer back to them at any time. When doing the editing process in ‘Final Cut’, we selected a handful of rushes to work from over others. the ones we used, we thought would have a high suspense factor and also make the storyline easy to follow at the same time. We thought if we did too much cutting of the rushes, the cuts would be too quick, not giving the viewer a chance to feel the thrilling feeling we were trying to get, so we tried to find the ‘best fit’ which would make the cuts slower and smoother.                                                 Referring back to the story board, we noticed that the audience are clearly supporting the victim due to the privilege he is given because of the amount of screen time he gets. Shots like the over the shoulders and close ups are used to show the intimidating tactic this person is trying to use to get the other to ‘do it’. The close ups can tell the audience that the intimidation is working significantly, so we feel for the victim more. We tried to keep this aspect as true to the script as we possibly could as we realised that anything else would lessen the feeling of anxiety we feel for the victim.

Shot order was also important when making the sequence as it is key to the audience understand what is happening. We started with the prosecutor walking in and the victims reaction to seeing this person would come shortly after, revealing that the person who has just arrived is a problem. The conversation rushes are then used, linking voice to face to keep the action easy to follow. Then the rush of the phone is used showing the item which is being argued over. The footage when the persecutor walks out is then used to show that a character has left the scene, and then the last footage used is of the victim’s reaction to seeing him leave.

            The final touches in the editing process where what figuring out what times we cut at in the rushes. we had to cut just before some one touched something or someone picked something up, and then start the next piece of footage with them touching the object, to make the movement which cuts over believable. We this is why we asked the actors to keep there movements to a minimum, so later on in the editing stage, the cutting can be identified by obvious movements.