Planning documents For thriller coursework

Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: The Chase Client: Writer: Sarah, Shelby and Louis Producer: Sarah, Shelby and Louis Director: Louis Date: 09/01/2016

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note: The Chase Country Park is a large park reserve for wildlife and nature. Full of trees and some lakes and hills, the park is accessible to the public with pathways leading throughout the park so there is easy access to all parts of the chase. Access to location via: Main road Path through central park Name and number of location contact: The Chase Nature Park Reserve: 02082272332

Health and Safety Issues to note: ●      Steep hills ●      Drowning ●      Wildlife ●      Body parts found in lake

Potential Filming Problems : ●      Weather (rain, wind) ●      Lighting ●      Pedestrians and animals ●      Uneven ground ●      Disruptive sounds

Additional Notes:  (map of area/weather forecast etc)

Costumes and Props

Character Name: Lucy     Actress: Sarah
Costume: Lucy wears a top a skirt and boots, her hair style is natural and straight.	Props: Lipstick and blood
Character Name: Chloe Actress: Shelby
Costume: Chloe wears jeans and a casual top, and her hair is natural and straight.	Props: Keys , bag and blood.
Character Name: Billy       Actor: Kelvin
Costume: Billy wears a hoodie and black jeans with black gloves.	Props: Knife, picture and blood.

Treatment

Group Roles Cinematography: Louis Mise-en-scene: Louis Sound: Shelby Editing: Sarah

Title:  The Chase  Tag Line: You can run but you cant hide

Synopsis: This a thriller based on a serial killer targeting a group girls his aim is to wipe them all out one by one. But why?

Key Genre Conventions: Thriller  Action The antagonist is revealed in opening  Suspenseful  Crime  Blood Kinfe Murder

Risk Assessment

Group Members: Shelby , Sarah and Louis    Location: The chase and Shelby’s house

Hazard	Person(s) at Risk	Likelihood of Hazard 1 – Extremely Unlikely 5 – Extremely Likely	Severity of Hazard Outcomes 1 – Very Low Risk 5 – Very High Risk	Risk Level (Likelihood + Severity) 2	Measures to Take to Manage Risk	Risk Managed? Y/N
Knife injury	Shelby	3	5	4	Make sure the knife is as blunt as possible and that distance is kept between the two people.	Yes
Drowning	Shelby, Sarah, Louis	1	5	3	Stay clear of the lake and be careful with your footing	Yes
Tripping	Sarah, Shelby and Louis	3	2	2.5	Keep pathway clear and be aware of surroundings	Yes

Contacts

Emergency Service:    999 and 111
Robert Clack School:  02082704222 

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen	One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten  Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen	A Pan shot of the Chase nature park sign with no dialogue. Straight shot of Sarah and Shelby walking in the chase nature park with no dialogue. Straight shot of Sarah and Shelby walk down the chase to sit on a bench no dialogue. Over the shoulder shot of Shelby and Sarah talking dialogue. Sarah notices guy in the hoodie but Shelby does not believe her. A medium shot of guy in bushes watching Sarah and Shelby. Shelby notices the hooded man and gets paranoid. Shelby and Sarah start running away and hooded guy starts chasing them. Sarah trips and Shelby don't realize and carry's on running however when she realizes she gets scared and just carries on running anyway. Close up a graphic match of Shelby's hand exiting the chase park. Graphic match close up of Shelby's hand unlocking her front door. Cut to Shelby walking into her bedroom and turning light on seeing Sarah dead on the floor and Shelby screams. Then the hooded guy comes out of nowhere with a knife and stabs Shelby and murders her. A medium shot of Shelby and Sarah  both dead in the bedroom with knife wounds in their chests Close up of a picture of a group of girls including Shelby and Sarah and the hooded guy crosses Shelby and Sarah's faces out with blood on the knife he just killed with.

Shooting Schedule

Day	Scene	Location	Equipment	Costumes	Props	Cast +Crew
17/1/16 17/1/16	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11. 12,13,14,15,16	The Chase Shelby's (Chloe's) house	Tripod, Camera, The boom pole and the sound system   Tripod, Camera, The boom pole and the sound system	Shelby's costume  Jeans, top and trainers basic outfit  Sarah's costume  tights, skirt , top and boots.  Kelvin  black hood, black gloves, black jeans and black trainers   Shelby's costume  Jeans, top and trainers basic outfit  Sarah's costume  tights, skirt , top and boots.  Kelvin  black hood, black gloves, black jeans and black trainers	A lipstick and a bag A bag a knife, keys a picture and blood.	Shelby Playing Chloe  Sarah  Playing Lucy  Kelvin  Playing Hooded guy  Louis  Directing  Shelby Playing Chloe  Sarah  Playing Lucy  Kelvin  Playing Hooded guy  Louis  Direcgtin

Moodboard

This is our mood-board which is used as a sort of brainstorm  of different components for our final thriller. We decided for our mood board to use a variation of different pictures that we felt were appropriate to the thriller genre.

As you can see this mood board has our title for our thriller in the middle of the page and different pictures related to our idea surrounding it. It contains some pictures of woods/ forests as that is the type of setting that we are going to use for our thriller. It also contains some images of knives and blood as in our thriller we have the idea of having the characters killed off by a serial killer by them being stabbed. The other pictures on the mood bard also relate to different ideas that will be in our final thriller.

This is just another way that we are establishing our initial ideas with different components that can then be expanded upon in further detail during future planning.

Audience feed back

Today we pitched our potential ideas for our final thriller opening to our class. First we went over our idea sheet and discussed our three best ideas giving the pro's, con's and synopsis of the idea. Then we presented our top three ideas to the class and collected all of the feedback given in order to decide which idea to continue with. 

Idea 1:

Starting with the first idea on our sheet which was a prison/ psychological thriller with romantic aspects. This idea wasn't received very well and we were given resoundingly bad feed back surrounding this idea. Mostly our audience decided that this idea would be too hard to pull off as it required prison related props, a set that appeared to be a prison and some other things that would have been difficult to acquire. The idea in itself wasn't alls that bad but after pitching our other ideas this one was put to the bottom of the pile due to the feedback we received. As this idea would have been hard to pull off because of it's complicated plot and if not executed properly with the right set and props would not have made much sense. However if we could pull it all together would create quite an interesting and though provoking thriller due to it's complex nature, although our group agreed it would be best not to risk it and go with something a little simpler for our first real attempt at filming.

Idea 2:

The second idea on the sheet was a crime thriller where two girls were followed and eventually murdered by a serial killer. This idea required very little props and the set for this particular thriller could be found easily. Due to this the idea of our crime thriller was received fairly well. Our audience provided great feedback and enquired on a few things such as the time of day that we would film which got our group thinking more about the possibility of filming this thriller. The class also thought that the idea for this thriller could be quite suspenseful and could potentially be a successful thriller opening as it managed to contain key thriller conventions such as a murder.

Idea 3:

Our third idea was also a crime thriller but more of a jewellery store hiest. This was given quite critical feedback with questions being posed such as to how many people we would need to produce this thriller and how we would find a set that looks like a jewellery store. Our audience also remarked that this idea was rather generic and unoriginal. The plot was quite complicated to explain and so it was assumed that it would be complicated to follow if filmed causing problems with filming and editing it together in order to make sense of it all. For these reasons we decided against doing this as our final thriller as it would be hard to produce and still be boring.

Final choice:

The class unanimously proffered our second idea as it was the easiest to produce in the end and also sounded like it would be the most effective at conveying the thriller genre. So we chose this one for our final thriller.

First Production meeting: Idea generation

Last week we were divided up into groups of three's to come up with ideas for our thriller opening. 

Shelby, Louis and I were put together to discuss three possible ideas. 

Idea 1:

The first idea that we came up with was a romance/ psychological thriller.

Key points 
-It would be set in america.
-Police/ FBI themed
-Prisoners/ inmates on death row.
-A race against time.
-Male protagonist & Female antagonist.

Synopsis 

We decided to do something centred the police force/ FBI. This would be set in a prison following one of the inmates who is on death row. We wanted to focus on gender roles with this idea so decided on a male protagonist who is a prisoner on death row and a female antagonist who is a corrupt police officer- as a motive these two characters would have an intertwined past. The male protagonist used to be in a relationship with a detective but after forcing her to have an abortion, she becomes bent on getting revenge as she can no longer have children. This causes her to become obsessed with revenge and making the protagonist suffer, so she sets him up for a crime he didn't commit which puts him on death row. The antagonist however soon starts to see that she made a mistake and that really deep down she still loves him. From then on she takes it upon her self to do all she can to get him free, facing great struggles in the process doing all she can to try and beat the clock. Just as she thinks she has succeeded we see it is all too late as he is already dead. Slowly all the focus draws onto the body zooming in on the necklace that is sticking out of his shirt, the woman then also pulls out the other half of the necklace. 

We thought this was a good idea as it would manage to be a psychological thriller while incorporating violence for the crime, suspense and a death when the main man dies. Also due to the fact that this idea contained both romance and violence means that it would be enjoyable for both genders. However we concluded that this would be too much content for just an opening, it's more like a whole movie. Even if we managed to condense it down, we would still have to worry about the plot as it's pretty complex. This means that it could be hard to follow and potentially confusing to film. In addition the money needed to make this thriller a reality would be a problem. We would need to buy props and costumes and it would all be too expensive so we probably wont be able to pick this idea to do as our final course work.


Idea 2:
The second idea was a crime thriller.

Key points

-Serial killer.

-Set in a forest/ woods.

-Girl victims.

-Stalking / hunting down the girls.

-Murders.

Synopsis 

 Our second idea was more of a crime thriller which consisted of two girls out for a walk at a local wooded area while being watched by a hooded psychopath. We wanted to focus on something that felt isolated so the two girls being alone in the middle of nowhere with no one to help them if anything went wrong felt like a good way to achieve that. Also we felt if the two girls were separated and picked off one by one this would add to the isolated feel. When the girls decide to stop and sit down one of the girls see's someone hiding in the tree's, however she is lead to doubt herself when her friend cant see him. However with much persistence from the first girl she convinces her friend that there is someone watching them in the tree's. With this information the girls decide to run away however while in the process of getting away the first girl trips and falls and the other keeps running leaving her behind. The second girl keeps running until she realises that her friend is no longer with her then makes the decision to just go home and hope for the best. 

However when she gets home she finds he friend dead on her bedroom floor. Suddenly afraid the girl looks behind her and see's the hooded person from before just as she is about to run he pulls out a knife and stabs her repeatedly. The girl falls to the ground next to her friend. As she dies the hooded guy pulls out a picture of the two girls among some friends and slowly crosses them of the list hinting that they will not be the last killed. 

We liked this idea as it contained some key thriller conventions such as deaths and violence. We also concluded that this would be an easy idea to execute as it wouldn't cost all that much money and the set would be easily accessible as we live near several wooded areas that we could shoot our film in. This idea seemed to us to be simple enough for us to be able to pull off while not being too simple that it would be boring. It would still contain suspense  that would engage the audience when they begin to wonder if the girls will get caught by the psychopath. So we came to the conclusion that this was a good idea and could potentially work for our final footage. 

Idea 3

And our last idea was an action thriller 

Key points 

- Jewellery store robbery 

- Gang 

- Mcguffin

- Murder

- Cliffhanger

Synopsis

In this idea we decided on a basic thriller idea with a twist. When the idea of thriller came to mind the majority of the time they are based around bank robberies so we wanted to do something similar so we chose to have this idea centred around a jewellery store robbery. A major gang decide to go and clear out a jewellery store, but the leader of the gang tells some members to go home because they're not needed. These people are not happy and end up arguing about it because if they leave they wont get any of the money. Eventually they leave saying that their boss will regret this decision. Leaving the audience wondering what they plan to do. However this is quickly side tracked by the event of the jewellery store robbery taking place. This involves criminal activity and suspense as the audience don't know if the gang will make it out before the police get there. But they do make it out on time and the audience thinks everything is fine but when the gang leader gets home you see his wife lying on the ground dead as he drops the necklace he stole for her you hear their baby cry up stairs. 

This was an interesting idea as it had a death, criminal activity, suspense and a twist. All things that make thrillers more interesting however when we thought about the set we decided that this would probably be quite hard to film as we would need to find a set that looks realistically like a jewellery store. Also we thought this idea may be a little complicated to pull off and potentially confusing for the audience if not done right. Although this seemed like a really interesting idea it would probably be too hard to execute as such would not be the best idea to choose for our final thriller. 

These are some pictures of our planing process one is of our group discussing the ideas and the other is of our idea sheet. 

Preliminary evaluation

In my preliminary task the basic plot was that Character A (Sarah) had borrowed a dvd from Character B (Shelby) and was returning it. So Sarah found Shelby where she was gave her back her dvd and asked if she could borrow the next one before leaving.

The first technique we used was a match on action. Match on action is when a character on screen is caring out an action and then there is a cut and the character continues the action in the second shot. In this task the match on action was demonstrated by me opening the door to a class room in one shot and in the next walking through the door and closing it. Match on action is a good way to reduce filming time of a character caring out a full action by splitting it into two shots. This is also a good way of making sure that there is no break in continuity because in most film studios the two shots will be filmed in different locations so through the door you may see a different room to the one that is filmed in for the second shot.

The next technique we used was an eye-line match. An eye-line match is when a character is looking somewhere at something off camera and we are shown what they are looking at. For our task we used an eye-line match after I have come through the room I look over to Shelby, then in the next shot the audience are shown who I was looking at. When an eye-line match is used effectively it cause the audience to wonder what the character is looking at then shows them which can create different effects depending on the content of the footage.  


The third technique we used was shot-reverse-shot. Shot-reverse-shot is when footage cuts back and fourth between two characters while they are having a conversation within a scene. In our task we used shot-reverse-shot while me and Shelby were having a conversation. We did this by having over the shoulder shots of me and Shelby that were cut together to make a full conversation of us talking. When done effectively it allows us to see both characters, their facial expressions and body language this is good as it means that you get to see the reactions of both characters so the conversation is double sided.

The final technique that we used was a graphic match. A graphic match is when two different but compositionally similar objects are cut together between two shots to create the effect of continuity between the shots allowing the film to run smoothly. We did this in our work by having two shots of pens that were cut together. As I walked out of the class room I pinned a pen to my jacket this was then followed by a shot of Shelby writing with a pen. We cut these together with a dissolve to make the two shots connect seamlessly. 

One thing that we had to keep in mind while filming was the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule dictates that the camera must not cross over an imaginary axis maintaining any character on screen's left/right relationship to everything else on screen. In our film we managed not to break the 180 degree rule which meant we did not cross the line, so our footage kept with continuity and ran smoothly. 

In conclusion our preliminary task managed to effectively use match on action, shot-reverse-shot and a graphic match. The use of these techniques done accurately helped to maintain the continuity in our footage and help it to run smoothly. However our use of eye-line match was not as effective. From this process we have learned some valuable skills from the mistakes we made, ones we will be able to transfer to our thriller coursework in order for it to be as effective as possible.

Preliminary task

This is our preliminary task. 

The specifications for this task are to shot the demonstrate the following :

- Match on action

-Shot/reverse shot

-180 degree rule

-Eyeline match

What is match on action?

Match on action is when someone is doing something in one shot (e.g. opening a door ) which is then carried onto the next shot (person keeps opening the door but from the other side). 

What is shot/ reverse shot?

Shot reverse shot is a back and forth between characters. So one shot one character, next shot the other character and repeat. This is usually used during an onscreen conversation to show a back and forth between the characters. 

What is 180 degree rule?

The 180 degree rule states that two character in the same scene should always have the same left/right relation to each other. Basically the camera should not go more than 180 degrees around the people being filmed as it appears that the people swap sides of the screen while having a conversation. Crossing this 180 degree axis is called crossing the line. 

What is an eyeline match?

An eyeline match is when in one shot you see someone looking somewhere off screen then in the next shot it is shown what the person is looking at.

Instructions for preliminary task:

Character A walks towards a closed door. 

Character A enters a room through the door and crosses a room to where character B is seated.

Character A and B converse - dialogue.

There is an eyeline match.

Character A or B leaves the room.