Location

For our location we wanted simple empty room with a table and a chair, because we decided to film in school to make it easier we looked at classrooms and year areas

.


We decided that these places were unsuitable because in picture one the room was very dark with little natural light which would look really bad on the camera. In picture two it was a very unsuitable because there is constantly people walking through which would risk continuity errors and also it doesn't give the kind of atmosphere we wanted.

Our location:





This room that we found the house at our school was perfect, it had the table, the chair, it was away from interruptions meaning we were less likely to have continuity errors and we were allowed to use it!
This room also gave the feel we wanted from the film, it was very claustrophobic which is the way we wanted the audience to feel.
It feels quite isolated, by only using just the room and no other scenes in other locations, the opening will give the audience a feel as though there is no possible way out.

Storyboard

After making the script we then made the storyboard to decide the shots we would use and the way we wanted it to be set out, we made the StoryBoard Quick 5, which has enabled us to make the storyboard professional and also very simple to make.

Shot one:



Part two of shot one:



- CU- this shot we want to use a close up and also use a tracking shot of the wall. The close up will show the specific newspaper articles of the murders that the killers committed

Shot 2:



- CU: the close up will focus on Imogene's hands tied up, the close up will show the struggle on the hands. We got the idea for this shot from the film Taken

Shot 3:







- MS: Panning shot will show the feet of Kerri walking around the table, this is the point that the audience will realise its a woman that's the killer so using a medium shot will also focus on the heels the killer is wearing.

Shot 4:



- MLS: the medium long shot of Kerri's feet will link the next shot of the book, it will focus on the feet/legs and will show that she's stopped linking to when she looks at the book.

shot 5:



-CU: the close up of the scrapbook will focus the audience on the photos of the girls she has murdered.



- close up of Kerri slowly flicking through the book showing the girl's shes previously murdered, focusing the audience on the photos



- CU: close up of the page where Imogene's name is,the close up will concentrate the audiences attention of the name and the previous photo of Imogene, giving a sense of shock.

Shot 6







- MLS/CU:medium long shot to a close up of Kerri's feet walking round to Imogene,this shot will give the audience a sense of anxiety of the murder getting closer to Imogene

Shot 7:



- CU: close up of Kerri taking off Imogene's blindfold this will concentrate on the emotions on Imogene's face, creating a sense of fear for Imogene

Shot 8:



-POV/CU: Point of view shot from Imogene's perspective to Kerri, this will give the audience the perspective of what Imogene can see, the close up will show the killers face almost making the audience feel as thought they are in Imogene's position.

There will then be a FLASH which will then cut to the next shot.

Shot 9:



- CU: another close up of the book where Kerri will stick in the photo of Imogene and will place a blooded knife on the table once again focusing the audience on the particulars such as the book, photos and knife, It will also be an over the shoulder shot.



- CU: Kerri will then turn the page to another photo of a young girl before she dies, the close up will also focus the attention on the photo

In our storyboard we took on the idea of using a lot of close up shots we decided to do this so that we create a claustrophobic atmosphere and also using close ups of faces we can emphasise their emotions like Imogene's to show how scared she is.




The next stage of the pre-production process is to research appropriate locations that fit in with our genre conventions and are appropriate for our plot.

Script

Now that the treatment was done and we knew what we wanted our film to be like we came together and wrote our script. We used Final Draft AV 2.5 to produce our script and to create something professional.



When shooting the film we will give our actors a copy of the script to learn and to get familiar with. The next stage of the production process is to produce the StoryBoard.

Certification

To find out what certification our film should be I visited the BBFC website for certification to look at the guidelines for certification.

I have come to the decision that our film is definitely not a U film (universal) for the following reasons:
A universal film is a film that-
- shouldn't contain horror and if it does should be brief and mild that doesn't cause any anxiety to children and violence should be mild, this therefore wouldn't be appropriate for our film.


i have also decided that our film isn't a 12a for the following reasons:
Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. - our film does focus slightly too much on the violence and blod is emphasized on the knife.


I feel that our film is suitable for a 15 because a 15 is a film that allows strong threat and menace and the boundaries for violence are that violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. I think that our film sticks to these boundaries.

The treatment

After the class discussion on our pitch we came together and wrote our treatment



The treatment idea came from one of our group members idea about having a psychotic killer who had kept memorabilia i.e the newspaper cuttings of the murders they had committed. Through discussion and adding onto the original idea, all the suggestions we made seem to come together to create the start of a really good storyline, the pitch went really well, with a lot of people thinking it was thought out well and worked with the theme of a thriller. The next step of the film is to write the script.

Our Pitch

Our main idea is that there will be a female murderer who kidnaps a young innocent girl who after seeing the victim tied up on a chair, the audience will become aware that she is in danger. The female killer then murders her, but during our film it becomes apparent that this murder is a serial killer, this will come across through the killers scrap book of people he has previously killed.

Suggested ideas to our plot were:

- woman killer
- a lot of close ups to be used to create a claustrophobic feeling

Overall everyone thought it was a well thought out idea and said they would watch a film like ours, after we knew that we has effectively produced a plot that the audience liked, we then moved onto the treatment.

Potential Audience

We decided on the genre crime thriller for our film. One of the most important things we needed to keep in mind when planning our film was our audience for they are the ones who are going to be watching our film and will be our biggest critics, so to find out who our potential audience is I decided to carry out a questionnaire on my friends and family- so that i have a range of ages- and find out what their favorite elements of a crime thriller was.

This is the questionnaire that i gave to friends and family to fill out:



From the answers that people gave a crime thrillers typical audience is:

-People of all ages
-Male and female
-Favorite crime thriller plots were Murder and Kidnapping.

However, this doesn't really tell me WHO the thriller audience is, it just tells me what their favourite plot is. To find out the age range, Ive decided to research the audience of similar films.

One of these films will be Taken. From the website Rotten tomatoes many of the comments are from males. Also with the film being also action as well as thriller, this is likely to attract a male audience more than a female.
Another films audience I have decided to research is the sixth sense, from the website rotten tomatoes, it is again males. This seems to be a consistent trend of males commenting on films, so maybe this isn't as reliable as I thought.
Dependent on the genre, then the audience changes. So, for an action thriller, the audience are more likely to be male, 16+ whereas a psychological thriller is more likely to be female, 16+. However it is very hard to determine the audience because it's never going to be just one group of people going to see the film.

It's important for us to know what our audience is, so that when the film is made, they are inclined to watch the film as it's something they will enjoy.

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock is regarded one of the most influential and best film maker of all time. He is also known as "The Master Of Suspense"

Hitchcock directed almost more than 50 silent and early talkies films. Some of his most famous works are Vertigo 1958 and Psycho 1960 which had him nominated for the Best Director prize.

Alfred Hitchcock is also known to have many consistent themes throughout his films. Some of these themes are;

- In almost all of his films there are countless images of Birds or even references to birds. For example in Vertigo Gavin's last name is Elster which is German for mocking bird.

- One of Hitchcocks favourite devices to drive films and create suspense is MacGuffin. Many of his films revolve around this device in which by inciting curiosity and desire, this drives the plot and motivates characters, but whose specific nature and identity is unnecessarily to the plot of the film. For example in Vertigo, Carlotta Valdes is a MacGuffin, she never appears and details of her death are unimportant to the viewer but her ghost's haunting of Elster is what the drives the plot.

- Another one Hitchcocks unusual themes throughout his films is blonde women he claimed the audience would be more suspicious of brunettes

-The "nice" criminal. The villain in many of Hitchcocks film are percived to be nice and charming, rather than your typical vulgar criminal

- One of Hitchcocks most useful plot devices in my opinion is the use of Suspense, Hitchcock himself prefered the use of suspense rather than surprise the difference being as he stated "Theres two people having breakfast and theres a bomb under the table, if it explodes its a surprise if it doesn't ....

Hitchcock became famous for his expert and largely unrivaled control of pace and suspense, and his films draw heavily on both fear and fantasy. The films are known for their droll humour and witticisms, and these cinematic works often portray innocent people caught up in circumstances beyond their control or understanding.

Thriller Conventions.

It is important that we know thriller conventions so that we can involve them into our film. By involving them into our film, it creates an authentic feel of a typical thriller. To find out some of the thriller conventions i watched some clips of the opening 2 minutes of thrillers and noted down some things they had in common.

- There is normally a crime in the narrative, normally a murder but not necessarily. This keeps the viewer hooked.
- A protagonist who is usually a male
- An antagonist who is usually female
- goodies vs baddies
- The setting is usually dark and isolated
- violence
- flashbacks
- Young people are usually victims
- twist to the narrative
- the person(s) who the viewer is most suspicious of is usually innocent

To enable us to make our treatment as effective as possible and to also enable us to make other elements of the film making process effective, we researched the conventions of our genre so we could incorporate the important conventions into our pre-production.

Our chosen genre

In our group the first thing we decided on was the type of genre we would use.

We disscused in our group what our favourite type of films were, what films we had watched and finally decided on thriller. The reason we decided on thriller was because we all liked these type of films, we would be at an advantage.

Thrillers are movies which can be fast paced, exciting, suspenseful, and give the audience a feeling of tension, anxiety and generally keep them on the edge of there seats.

Sub-genres

Action Thriller:
These films are usually fast paced with a reasonable amount of violence. An example of a action thriller is Taken (2008)



Crime Thrillers:
These films often focus on the criminals rather than the police. An example of a crime thriller is The Fugitive 1993



Disaster Thrillers:
These films are usually based around natural or artificial disasters for example tornados. An example of a disaster thriller is The Day After Tomorrow



Legal Thrillers:
This is when the legal heros not only tackle the criminals inside court but also out of court. An example of a legal thriller is A Time To Kill



Psychological Thrillers:
This is when the film not only focuses on violence but on emotional and psychological issues.
An example of psychological thriller is Sixth Sense



After choosing our chosen genre, we were then able to take the next step in our film making process and start to make a start on our treatment.

My Group

One of the first things we had to do was decide the group we would be working in. 

Our group consists of;

Melissa Moore 

Saskia Halford 

and me Lucy Cluley