SCENE 1. EXT. WOODS, COMMON, SCHOOL GROUNDS.MATT WILLIAMS IS BEING CHASED THROUGH THE WOODS BY AN UNKNOWN ASSAILANT. HE RUNS OUT OF THE WOODS ONTO A LARGE COMMON CONNECTED TO A ROAD. WHEN HE RUNS UP THE HILL HE SLIPS AND FALLS AND THE ATTACKER SLOWLY CATCHES UP. HE GETS UP AND RUNS OUT ONTO THE ROAD WITH THE ATTACKER HOT ON HIS HEELS. HE JUMPS THE FRONT GATE OF THE NEAR BY SCHOOL, HE RUNS THROUGH THE SCHOOL PAST THE BUILDINGS TO THE REAR WHERE HE SEES AN UNSUSPECTING CIVILIAN WAITING ON THE CORNER LISTENING TO MUSIC.
MATT(SHOUTING)
Run! For God’s sake, run!!
THERE IS NO RESPONSE FROM THE MAN. HIS MUSIC IS BLOCKING OUT THE SHOUTING FROM MATT. MATT CARRIES ON RUNNING AND CONTINUES TO SHOUT.
MATT(STILL SHOUTING)
What are you doing?! Run!
MATT LEGS IT PAST THE MAN AND HE ONLY JUST NOTICES MATT’S PRESENCE. HE BREIFLY TURNS AROUND.
MAN
Wha…?
THE MAN UIS RUGBY TACKLED BY MATT’S ASSAILANT AND IS STABBED HORRIFICALY. AFTER FINISHING WITH HIS VICTIM THE ATTACKER STANDS UP IN TIME TO SEE MATT IN THE DISTANCE ESCAPING. THE KILLER THEN SKULKS OF IN THE DARKNESS.
The key to all good thrillers is fear.Thrillers use the primal fears of people to create a ‘thrilling’ movie. Fear of darkness, enclosed spaces, being alone, being followed and fear of animals such as spiders, these irrational fears are the foundation that directors build their films on.
But just as equally important are the conventions of thrillers, the basic guidelines if u like. E.g. characters, scene, setting, audio, lighting, camera work and editing.
The main characters of most thrillers is usually a woman, unless character driven behind the bad guy. Portrayed as helpless, vulnerable, small build, pretty, blonde; these are the main features of your average main character of thrillers. Hitchcock portrayed his female main character, ‘Marion Crane’, in just the same way. Small, blonde, pretty and vulnerable. The other main character and the villain of psycho ‘Norman Bates’ is shown at first to the audience as a kind, helpful man. A little on the peculiar side, which makes him seem a bit unnerving, and gives off the impression that there’s a lot more going on under his skin than he would wish to publicize.
Hitchcock, using his brilliantly warped mind, built Norman from this into a twisted psychopath. Creepy and unnerving in every scene by only having to say a few words. A bird stuffing, unstable ‘man’ with an unhealthy relationship with his mother, claiming that ‘ a mans best friend is his mother’.
Pycho Notes
Hitchcock, using his brilliantly warped mind, built Norman from this into a twisted psychopath. Creepy and unnerving in every scene by only having to say a few words. A bird stuffing, unstable ‘man’ with an unhealthy relationship with his mother, claiming that ‘ a mans best friend is his mother’.
Pycho Notes
Fast stringed instruments, that’s sounds sinister, to create suspense.
The opening titles use black backgrounds and white font.
The first shot is an establishing shot to show the city, music dies down to create a sense that everything’s ok.
They show the time and date so that the audience an relate to it, shows realism.
The female character is shown as vulnerable, because she’s small and shown in her underwear.
The male character tells us he has loads of debts and once he’s paid them they will go away and marry.
Male character says how he is going away, telling us that she’s going to be vulnerable, alone at home.
Most of the shots are medium long shots, so that it captures the scene and creates atmosphere.
She is told to put the money in the safety deposit box, which she doesn’t, instead she intends to run away.
She has a head ache, makes her seem more vulnerable.
The music shows her intent.
The mirrors are like her conscience , and they are also important because people can appear in them e.g. psycho.
Boss thinks she’ at home, but sees her, the music enhances the suspense, quick loud music, stringed, she’ running away and it reflects that.
The establishing shot shows her location.
She seems anxious when speaking to the police officer, wanting to leave, makes her look suspicious.
The officer is wearing dark glasses to make him slightly disturbing, and is made to look powerful, using camera angles.
When she drives away the music makes it sound as though she is being chased/followed to create more suspense, but changes dramatically to a slower pace, that’s gentle, but still sounds sinister and edgy.
Slow long stringed notes, makes it sound sinister, creates the atmosphere.
Another shot of mirrors.
The police officer pulls up, so she gets in the car, as she’s driving away she is stopped because she forgot her stuff, the police officer gets closer and closer building suspense.
When she’s driving, you can always see a car in her back window.
Non-diegetic dialogue of what’s happened, as if she’s replaying the memories over in her head. Time passes faster.The rain makes it hard for us to see, as well as the darkness and the positioning on the lighting on her face, we can only see her and nothing around her, so something could be lurking in the darkness.When she looks up at the only 2 light windows, you see someone walk past, a silhouette.
The man at the hotel, asks her to join him for dinner.
The camera is positioned so that you can see a mirror behind them.
You can hear ranting, it is the mans mother and the man, in the house, she stares out of the window at it, the man then shouts at the mother to shut up, then the scene is eerily quiet.
The man brings her food, then asks if he wants to come into his office, as if he’s luring her from safety, he seems kind but at the same time sinister
He says he’s not hungry, but tells her to eat, which is suspicious
The camera shows birds behind him, then he says has a hobby of stuffing birds.
He tells us that he does jobs for his mother and that his mother is his best friend.
Little things like that make him seem a bit strange, but nice at the same time, but underneath seems suspicious.
The camera shot of the man and the bird behind him high on the wall, the bird seems a lot higher than him and looks like its attacking.
“Cold and damp like a grave” … “ I hate what she has become”.
He describes a psychiatric ward as cruel, but that says his mother is gentle and harmless, he says how she needs him.
“ she just goes a little mad sometimes, we all go a little mad sometimes”.
Suggests that he and his mother are a bit crazy.
Tries to get her to stay when she wants to go to bed.
Making her uneasy
When she leaves he stares at her signature in the book, strangely.
Lighting effects make him look creepy in his office.
Then he goes to a wall and stares through a hole in it to stare at her.
He knows that she is just about to go and have a shower.
A shot of the house, standing high … makes it more sinister.
Psychological corridors.
She’s enjoying the shower as is its washing everything away.
Makes her vulnerable.
We see the door open, and a silhouette approach the shower.
When the person is stabbing her we never see the knife near the women, just the thrusting, and her screaming.
Thriller
Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.
Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas.
The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men.
Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots.
In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain.
In thrillers influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process.
Ominous or monstrous element has become common to heighten tension.
Many thrillers involve spies and espionage, but not all spy stories are thrillers.
Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they elicit: fearful excitement. In short, if it 'thrills', it is a thriller.
Sub-genre
Action thriller - In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place.
Conspiracy thriller - In which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes.
Crime thriller - This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients.
Disaster thriller - In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster.
Drama thriller - In which the story consists of the elements of a thriller and drama film. These films are usually slower paced and involves a great deal of character development along with plot twists.
Eco-thriller - In which the protagonist must avert or rectify an environmental or biological calamity - often in addition to dealing with the usual types of enemies or obstacles present in other thriller genres. This environmental component often forms a central message or theme of the story.
Erotic thriller - In which it consists of erotica and thriller.
Horror thriller - In which conflict between the main characters are mental, emotional, and physical. What sets the horror thriller apart is the main element of fear throughout the story. The main character(s) is not only up against a superior force, but they are or will soon become the victims themselves and directly feel the fear that comes by attracting the monster's attention.
Legal thriller - In which the lawyer-heroes/heroines confront enemies outside, as well as inside, the courtroom and are in danger of losing not only their cases but their lives.
Medical thriller - In which the hero/heroine are doctors or medical personnels working to solve an expanding medical problem
Political thriller - In which the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him.
Psychological thriller - In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.
Spy thriller (also a subgenre of spy fiction) - In which the hero is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists.
Supernatural thriller - In which the conflict is between main characters, usually one of which has supernatural powers. This type of thriller combines tension of the regular thriller with such basic horror oriented ingredients as ghosts, the occult, and psychic phenomenon; the supernatural thriller combines these with a frightening but often restrained film. They also generally eschew the more graphic elements of the horror film in favor of sustaining a mood of menace and unpredictability; supernatural thrillers often find the protagonists either battling a malevolent paranormal force or trapped in a situation seemingly influenced or controlled by an other-worldly entity beyond their comprehension.
Techno-thriller - A work that usually focuses upon military action, in which technology (usually military technology) is described in detail and made essential to the reader's/viewer's understanding of the plot.
Most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, with horror, conspiracy, and psychological tricks used most commonly to heighten tension.
Location recce
the location recce was made so that we could disscuss where the camera could be placed, where the lighting could be, power placement, the size and look of the room, also so we could disscuss the character movemnt and if we would have to move any objects of the room.i created the location reece and the rest of the group collected the rest of the tech. detail.
the story board was created so that we knew the camera positions, character positions, the shot sizes, the amount of shots, length of shot and scenes and editing detail.each person did a section of the story board and the tech. detail was made between us.
Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
“Still” uses traditional thriller conventions. As in the film “Scream”, the assailant is masked for mystery and to make him seem not human, and wielding a weapon, dresses dark and has a desire to kill. The person he is chasing is a typical brit teen, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, however traditionally the victim is a girl, vulnerable and pretty. But the use of a teenage boy can be acceptable, as long as he’s portrayed as vulnerable and weaker than the killer.
Also as in with scream, there does not seem to be a particular reason for the killer to be lusting after the blood of the helpless victim, and will kill anyone in the way to get to him, this is also similar to the “Friday the 13th” movies, in which the assailant Jason is bloodthirsty, ruthless and simply psychopathic.
In many films of this particular genre the aggressor seems somewhat ‘super-human’, no matter how much they gets stabbed or shot, they get right back up, they can appear out of nowhere and seem impossibly fast, however in “Still” the killer seems unordinary, aside from undying lust for carnage. He is masked for the added mystic, which makes him more terrifying because the victim can’t tell who or what is attacking him. The weapon is a sign or power over the victim. Knifes are the most common weapon wielded by killers in mainstream thrillers, quiet, easy to hide and owned by anyone, these are the tools of psychopaths who enjoy the thrill of a slow gruelling kill, as gory as the come, or a quick vicious kill. Some killers have signature styles such as a slash across the throat or mangling the face. Also in most thrillers the killer uses a single type of weapon for all his kills like in “no country for old men”; Anton chigurh uses a bolt gun and silenced shotgun, and in “nightmare on elm street”; Freddy Krueger uses his
His clothes are dark, this is common for most typical thrillers such as scream, some people believe that black is the colour of death, so it’s a fitting image for a murderer.
The setting of the product is typical to the thriller genre, set in a residential area, to show a glimpse of normality, and the woods, for dark jumpy thrillers. In the woods the killer could be hiding anywhere, the woods seems endless and immense, this can create a feeling of being trapped, even though there is plenty of space to run and hide, its as if they cant escape. Even though the film was recorded during the day, most thrillers are recorded in the dark/night, the woods are dark and unpleasant, a perfect place for a midday killing spree, where they cant be seen.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The victim is a typical brit teen, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a belt, just and ordinary looking guy. This is typical of teen social groups. Because the victim is depicted in this way it attracts the target audience of that particular group, also attracting the interest of other groups that may enjoy someone of this particular social group being attacked and tormented.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Teen brit thriller- low budget
UK distributed
Word of mouth success and distribution power
Targeted market plan- urban release
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience, for any typical thriller, is late teens and young adults, between the ages of 16 and 25. Males are the main target area, as statistics show that generally men watch more movies at the cinema, and also watch more thrillers than females. The social group that is represented in “Still” are also enticed, as well as other social groups who enjoy the suffering of social groups they dislike. Also audiences that like a bit of gore, some people need that bit of gore and action in their life to make up for the lake of it in there own life.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of the constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt that a proper schedule is essential, and deadlines should be met at all costs to meet the deadline.
Not everything goes to plan; things need to be flexible to change if needed, things need to be added and taken away, the shots don’t always work and everything takes more than 1 go.
More time should be put into preproduction so that everything runs smoother and so that when we come to filming and editing we have all we need on paper so its faster.
“Still” uses traditional thriller conventions. As in the film “Scream”, the assailant is masked for mystery and to make him seem not human, and wielding a weapon, dresses dark and has a desire to kill. The person he is chasing is a typical brit teen, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, however traditionally the victim is a girl, vulnerable and pretty. But the use of a teenage boy can be acceptable, as long as he’s portrayed as vulnerable and weaker than the killer.
Also as in with scream, there does not seem to be a particular reason for the killer to be lusting after the blood of the helpless victim, and will kill anyone in the way to get to him, this is also similar to the “Friday the 13th” movies, in which the assailant Jason is bloodthirsty, ruthless and simply psychopathic.
In many films of this particular genre the aggressor seems somewhat ‘super-human’, no matter how much they gets stabbed or shot, they get right back up, they can appear out of nowhere and seem impossibly fast, however in “Still” the killer seems unordinary, aside from undying lust for carnage. He is masked for the added mystic, which makes him more terrifying because the victim can’t tell who or what is attacking him. The weapon is a sign or power over the victim. Knifes are the most common weapon wielded by killers in mainstream thrillers, quiet, easy to hide and owned by anyone, these are the tools of psychopaths who enjoy the thrill of a slow gruelling kill, as gory as the come, or a quick vicious kill. Some killers have signature styles such as a slash across the throat or mangling the face. Also in most thrillers the killer uses a single type of weapon for all his kills like in “no country for old men”; Anton chigurh uses a bolt gun and silenced shotgun, and in “nightmare on elm street”; Freddy Krueger uses his
His clothes are dark, this is common for most typical thrillers such as scream, some people believe that black is the colour of death, so it’s a fitting image for a murderer.
The setting of the product is typical to the thriller genre, set in a residential area, to show a glimpse of normality, and the woods, for dark jumpy thrillers. In the woods the killer could be hiding anywhere, the woods seems endless and immense, this can create a feeling of being trapped, even though there is plenty of space to run and hide, its as if they cant escape. Even though the film was recorded during the day, most thrillers are recorded in the dark/night, the woods are dark and unpleasant, a perfect place for a midday killing spree, where they cant be seen.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The victim is a typical brit teen, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a belt, just and ordinary looking guy. This is typical of teen social groups. Because the victim is depicted in this way it attracts the target audience of that particular group, also attracting the interest of other groups that may enjoy someone of this particular social group being attacked and tormented.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Teen brit thriller- low budget
UK distributed
Word of mouth success and distribution power
Targeted market plan- urban release
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience, for any typical thriller, is late teens and young adults, between the ages of 16 and 25. Males are the main target area, as statistics show that generally men watch more movies at the cinema, and also watch more thrillers than females. The social group that is represented in “Still” are also enticed, as well as other social groups who enjoy the suffering of social groups they dislike. Also audiences that like a bit of gore, some people need that bit of gore and action in their life to make up for the lake of it in there own life.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of the constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt that a proper schedule is essential, and deadlines should be met at all costs to meet the deadline.
Not everything goes to plan; things need to be flexible to change if needed, things need to be added and taken away, the shots don’t always work and everything takes more than 1 go.
More time should be put into preproduction so that everything runs smoother and so that when we come to filming and editing we have all we need on paper so its faster.
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