Simon (main character)
Age: 16/17 years old
Hair colour: Light brown
Skin colour: White
Height: 5ft 9/10
Attitudes: Naive, clever, witty, quick- thinking.Background: Simon started off from a young age attending a boarding school, but never really fitted in. He was often getting into trouble and eventually convinced his parents to let him move school. At the start of his new school life, he was quiet and was slow to make friends, and didn't really settle in. Some boys in his year to decide to pick on him, and an older crew of boys notice and stand up for him. That is when he got involved in the wrong crowd and his life went on a down hill.Jitmal (Follower of the gang)Age: 17Hair colour: BrownSkin Colour: TannedHeight: 5ft 8/9Attitudes: Under the gang leader
Gang leader
Age: 19
Hair colour: No hair
Skin colour: Black
Height: 6ft
Attitudes: Has respect from the gang although he is not particularly nice to them. Left school early because he thought it was a waste of time, but has been at college for a while instead.Background: Distant with his family as they are often working throughout the day and late night. He has had to look after himself so he has become very uptight and self-centred as he is not usually around people. He often hangs around friends as they are more like his family.
Middle-aged guy
We have made no information as we want to make the older guy very mysterious that we do not wish to give anything away. The idea of him being mysterious is based on making the film intro have a mysterious atmosphere, as this is a classic thriller signifier. He will be kept mysterious as the camera will never show his face, only his silhouette.
Jitmal (Follower of the gang)
Age: 17
Hair colour: Brown
Skin Colour: Tanned
Height: 5ft 6
Attitudes: His status is under the gang leader and like his crew doesn't have an interest in school. He felt safer and fitted in with them because they didn't have many cares. He often has arguments with his family, purely because they are worried and think the gang is a bad influence.Background: Jitmal was brought up well but similarly to Simon, he fell into the wrong crowd, therefore he can relate to Simon more. He is not the main member of the gang, so he does not receive much respect from the gang leader or his fellow followers. He is more sensitive than the gang leader so he lets them push him into doing things he doesn't want to do. He is trusted by the gang.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Initial Ideas for what makes a thriller opening SUCCESSFUL:
- Originality/Individuality
- Mystery and intrigue
- "Hook" the audience - engage them
- Readable narrative - possible cliffhanger??
- Establish characters/settings/themes/styles
- Effective and clever editing
- Clear direction
- Steady camera work/shots
- Effective framing, compostion (rule of thirds)
- Effective mise-en-scene
- Lighting.
Thriller Script
Shot 1:Dim light, small lamp on in the room. Streetlight from outside through the window. Simon rummaging through a chest of draws, fast and hurried. Finds a gold watch that looks expensive.Simon: (whistles) S*** man! Simon stuffs the watch in his pocket.
Shot 2:Crew standing on corner outside, glancing at their watches. Street lamps light the street dimly in some places.Crew member 1: (moaning) Pfft, takes his time don't he.Crew leader: (Impatiently and slightly worried tone)I know man, what's the kid doing in there?Crew member 2: (Impatiently)I'm not waitin for this s*** much longer, that geezer will be home soon. I told you we should have gone in with him.Crew leader: (Quickly cuts into last comment, quite loud)And risk us getting caught? Nah you idiot!
Shot 3:Simon in the room, rummaging now in the wardrobe, he drops a load of boxes on the floor. Dim lamp still lighting the room.Simon: (Cautiously, worried, uneasily)F***! He searches through the boxes, looking for more valubles. His phone rings.
Shot 4:Close up of the phone, which shows "Mum" on the screen.Simon: (Talking across mobile phone, anxious, trying to finish conversation quickly)Hi mum...yeah...i'll be home soon...ok...love you, bye.
Shot 5:He hangs up and sighs with his head in his hands. He starts putting the boxes back.
Shot 6:Mans legs on the pavement, shoes clicking and cane on the floor. Streetlamps light the feet faintly.
Shot 7:Simon rummaging in more draws, slower, picking up small things and putting them in his pocket - mainly jewellery, dim lamp still lighting the room. He see's an expensive ring that looks special but puts it back into the back of the drawer.
Shot 8:Shot of the crew hanging out, with the old man walking up in the distance. The crew notice the man and watch him wearily.Crew member 3: (Worried)Is that the old geezer? The old man turns into a driveway.Crew member 2: (Shouting, worried)F***! thats him.Crew leader: (Realising it is the man's house)I'm outta here, f*** the kid!
Shot 9: The crew starts running away from the street, in and out of streetlamp shadows, they run to the end of the road, and split up, footsteps and yelling "bye" and swearing.
Shot 10: Close up of the old mans feet walking up to the door, and stepping infront of the door. Keys jingling and being put into the door.
Shot 11: Mid shot of the old man's body, footsteps and keys unlocking the door, walking into the house, streelamp light washes into the hallway.
Shot 12: Bottom midshot of the old man walking in from outside, door nearly shut, turning on a dim light.
Shot 13: Simon hears a bang from downstairs and looks around and freezes with a scared look on his face. The lamp is still on.Simon: (whispers, anxious, frightened) S***!
Shot 14: Old man hanging his coat and hat, still no veiw of his face, this is from behind, weak light of the hallway prevents any main features being shown.Old man:(Annoyed tone)B***** kids.
Shot 2:Crew standing on corner outside, glancing at their watches. Street lamps light the street dimly in some places.Crew member 1: (moaning) Pfft, takes his time don't he.Crew leader: (Impatiently and slightly worried tone)I know man, what's the kid doing in there?Crew member 2: (Impatiently)I'm not waitin for this s*** much longer, that geezer will be home soon. I told you we should have gone in with him.Crew leader: (Quickly cuts into last comment, quite loud)And risk us getting caught? Nah you idiot!
Shot 3:Simon in the room, rummaging now in the wardrobe, he drops a load of boxes on the floor. Dim lamp still lighting the room.Simon: (Cautiously, worried, uneasily)F***! He searches through the boxes, looking for more valubles. His phone rings.
Shot 4:Close up of the phone, which shows "Mum" on the screen.Simon: (Talking across mobile phone, anxious, trying to finish conversation quickly)Hi mum...yeah...i'll be home soon...ok...love you, bye.
Shot 5:He hangs up and sighs with his head in his hands. He starts putting the boxes back.
Shot 6:Mans legs on the pavement, shoes clicking and cane on the floor. Streetlamps light the feet faintly.
Shot 7:Simon rummaging in more draws, slower, picking up small things and putting them in his pocket - mainly jewellery, dim lamp still lighting the room. He see's an expensive ring that looks special but puts it back into the back of the drawer.
Shot 8:Shot of the crew hanging out, with the old man walking up in the distance. The crew notice the man and watch him wearily.Crew member 3: (Worried)Is that the old geezer? The old man turns into a driveway.Crew member 2: (Shouting, worried)F***! thats him.Crew leader: (Realising it is the man's house)I'm outta here, f*** the kid!
Shot 9: The crew starts running away from the street, in and out of streetlamp shadows, they run to the end of the road, and split up, footsteps and yelling "bye" and swearing.
Shot 10: Close up of the old mans feet walking up to the door, and stepping infront of the door. Keys jingling and being put into the door.
Shot 11: Mid shot of the old man's body, footsteps and keys unlocking the door, walking into the house, streelamp light washes into the hallway.
Shot 12: Bottom midshot of the old man walking in from outside, door nearly shut, turning on a dim light.
Shot 13: Simon hears a bang from downstairs and looks around and freezes with a scared look on his face. The lamp is still on.Simon: (whispers, anxious, frightened) S***!
Shot 14: Old man hanging his coat and hat, still no veiw of his face, this is from behind, weak light of the hallway prevents any main features being shown.Old man:(Annoyed tone)B***** kids.
Influences for our Thriller
Last lesson with one of my teachers, we looked more closely at our own thriller introductions- or the plans and ideas we had. One of the these certain things was: the themes of our thriller. The themes that are going to be obvious in our thriller is:
- Betrayal: as the young boy, Simon will be left on his own as the gang/crew run away after realizing that the mystery man is going into the house Simon is in.
- Corruption: stealing
- Mystery: as the mystery man is mysterious... the audience is not let in to who the man is, all possible questions arise once he enters the room. For instance, the audience will wonder what he'll do if he finds Simon, and IF he actually does, how he will react.
- Moral Ambiguity: Who is right and who is wrong... Simon will obviously be in the wrong but then it is not entirely his fault seeing as it was the gang leader who told him to do it.
Next, we looked at the styles of our thrillers, as a group mine decided that the style was gangsta and modern. It will appear modern as the style of clothing, speech/dialogue, possibly setting will be more up-to-date, rather than old-fashioned. The possibility of having the film in black and white is yet to be decided, but if it was, I think it would be a good contrast showing how there are different time periods combined.
The sub genre is gangsta as the gang are gangstas and are dressed in that particular style of wear and speak in that certain way.
The influences for our thriller intro is:
*Kidulthood and Adulthood are a great influence as the main characters are young teenagers going into their adult years. The characters are acting as though they live in gangster lifestyle but the truth behind them is that not all gangstas live in the same environment, some will have different life's' at home due to the fact that their families are different. This therefore makes it relevant to Simon's side of the story as he was at a private boarding school before wanting a different type of lifestyle.
*Football Factory is another influence because one of the characters is in someones' house and he is about to get caught without knowing.
*Layer Cake is another influence as the shots used are quite similar to the ones' we are planning to use. The locations we are planning to use will be relatively urban seeing as a common and easy thriller signifier is urban settings.
*Miller's Crossing, because the themes of deceit and loyalty.
*Sin City is our final influence seeing as the sounds in the background are very urban, and we may use similar sound effects. Another thing is the number of phone calls occuring and how you can hear the person on the receiver on the other end.
Thriller Meeting schedule
Meeting Schedule is:
Week 1 – Wednesday, Period 2.Thursday, Period 3.
Week 2 – Wednesday, Period 3.Thursday, Period 3.
Weekends – Saturday mornings, Café Nero’s.
In these first couple of weeks we focused mainly on planning, using mind maps to collect ideas regarding plot, narrative and themes. We discussed films which had influenced our ideas and in turn specific scenes, signifiers or conventions to help mould together a basic understanding of how our thriller would be. The next stage was to go through individual sections of creating our thriller in detail.
A list of what we were asked to cover:
IDEA STAGE- Initial ideas - Films that have influenced our ideas- Genres and styles - What we are trying to achieve ~ themes and ideas.
PRE-PRODUCTION which included:-Meeting schedule -Synopsis of film -Detailed storyboards -Character profiles-Location scouting/decisions on locations -Cast auditions/choices-Shooting schedule -Deciding on props.
The pre-prodcution stage enabled us to get a detailed understanding of how our thriller was to develop and gave us the ideas to start the penultamate stage of our thriller which was shooting. Many from the list above were decided before the start of shooting although some subtle changes were made during the shooting stage an example: there was a change in the cast, the actor of Simon was changed and i believe the thriller as we didn't have one actor playing two of the main roles. The cast auditions were easily completed as most of the actors were selected from our friendship groups and i decided as i knew the roles the best as i created them i would also act in the thriller. Also with a limited cast needed selection was never a problem as there are only 4 characters in the opeining of out thriller.
The shooting schedule is:
6th December, 4pm - 6pm;
16th December, 4pm - 5pm;
17th December, 4pm - 6pm;
12th January, 5pm - 6pm;
21st January, 4pm - 7pm;
our final filming session: 23rd January, 4/5pm
As you can see the shoting took place during the winter period wihch mean't we could start filming relatively early around 4pm and still get the atmosphere we needed. The main reason for the choice of time for our filming was to have it done in darkness this helped add the effect of mystery in the location and the characters are less easily recognisable. We had to do more filming than expected and many of the dates in January were extension dates due to some technical errors we came across in the editing the first time round of our thriller. Although this put us a little behind on our deadlines it was not a massive problem as it allowed us to recalate on the first piece of filming and improve and develop our skills and ideas resulting in a better thriller second time around.
Week 1 – Wednesday, Period 2.Thursday, Period 3.
Week 2 – Wednesday, Period 3.Thursday, Period 3.
Weekends – Saturday mornings, Café Nero’s.
In these first couple of weeks we focused mainly on planning, using mind maps to collect ideas regarding plot, narrative and themes. We discussed films which had influenced our ideas and in turn specific scenes, signifiers or conventions to help mould together a basic understanding of how our thriller would be. The next stage was to go through individual sections of creating our thriller in detail.
A list of what we were asked to cover:
IDEA STAGE- Initial ideas - Films that have influenced our ideas- Genres and styles - What we are trying to achieve ~ themes and ideas.
PRE-PRODUCTION which included:-Meeting schedule -Synopsis of film -Detailed storyboards -Character profiles-Location scouting/decisions on locations -Cast auditions/choices-Shooting schedule -Deciding on props.
The pre-prodcution stage enabled us to get a detailed understanding of how our thriller was to develop and gave us the ideas to start the penultamate stage of our thriller which was shooting. Many from the list above were decided before the start of shooting although some subtle changes were made during the shooting stage an example: there was a change in the cast, the actor of Simon was changed and i believe the thriller as we didn't have one actor playing two of the main roles. The cast auditions were easily completed as most of the actors were selected from our friendship groups and i decided as i knew the roles the best as i created them i would also act in the thriller. Also with a limited cast needed selection was never a problem as there are only 4 characters in the opeining of out thriller.
The shooting schedule is:
6th December, 4pm - 6pm;
16th December, 4pm - 5pm;
17th December, 4pm - 6pm;
12th January, 5pm - 6pm;
21st January, 4pm - 7pm;
our final filming session: 23rd January, 4/5pm
As you can see the shoting took place during the winter period wihch mean't we could start filming relatively early around 4pm and still get the atmosphere we needed. The main reason for the choice of time for our filming was to have it done in darkness this helped add the effect of mystery in the location and the characters are less easily recognisable. We had to do more filming than expected and many of the dates in January were extension dates due to some technical errors we came across in the editing the first time round of our thriller. Although this put us a little behind on our deadlines it was not a massive problem as it allowed us to recalate on the first piece of filming and improve and develop our skills and ideas resulting in a better thriller second time around.
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