Focus Group Findings

We made a focus group of three adults and three 16 year olds. We chose these ages because it spanned our entire potential audience, bearing in mind our film was predicted to be a 15. This revealed that the people we interviewed and gave our questionnaire to most wanted:

• Suspense
• Chase scenes
• Elements of comedy
• Scare scenes
• Romantic elements
• Horror elements

They listed their favourite thrillers as:

• Shutter Island(2010)
• Salt(2010)
• Sherlock Holmes(2010)
• Silence of the Lambs(1991)
• Psycho (1960)

Using this information, we will try to craft our thriller to meet the needs of a modern audience by watching these films and studying the elements they liked.

By Bart Lang

A Diary Of A Days Filming

We started off our day in Brentwood High Street. We all met there at 09:00 and then immediately moved onto our first location; an industrial estate just behind a petrol station.  When we walked onto our first location we checked for any hazards and they were in abundance, so we tried to lower the risk of getting hurt by the glass and industrial traffic by warning every member of the group and then clearing away the majority of the glass that we would be walking on. After we cleared some of the hazards we got the camera set up on a tripod and scouted out where we were going to run and how we would frame the shots to get the best effect possible.  On our first take of the first scene it ran smoothly but we decided to try it again to see if our second attempt would look better than our first.  On the second take I ran again and turned sharply onto the pavement and ended up slipping in the middle of the road inches away from a moving car. This shook me up so we had a five minute break while I calmed down and another member of our group (Josh Thomas) went back up to town to get some anti-septic wipes for the minor injury sustained in my left leg.  After the incident was resolved we went to film our second shot which consisted of my character jumping over a concrete block and running away. This gave the impression of a high tension chase scene.  Our next scene was of me running down a straight road, we obviously couldn't do this without it getting boring so we had to do some intense tracking shots and a close up of my face as I was running. This also added to the atmosphere.  These shots served the purpouse of filling the gaps and keeping up the tention in between important events. Once we had lots of footage ready for editing, we decided to go and speak to the local Police force as we were attempting to film in a public area using a fake knife. After speaking to the Police Sargent he told us that we could film as long as there was no public in the vicinity which could become distressed.  Once we had talked to the police we realised that we had run out of time in wich to film, so we went to finish our last few shots and made arangements to continue shooting another day.  After this we went back to our original location and found a shot which we could make look like CCTV so we set up the camera and filmed and then later edited with black and white blur and harelines in the footage to give the impression of CCTV. The last scene we had was difficult as we had to film in the woods. This was awkward because we had to make sure we did not trip over branches which provided health and safety hazards That we had not foreseen.  We come up with the idea of doing point of view shots which was difficult as i had to stay still until Bart got to me and stood in my place.  The last shot of thriller proved tricky because someone had to jump out from behind a bush, grab my back and pull me into the undergrowth. This took several attempts as we had to find a place where the man wouldn't be seen. Also to make it life like the other actor (Ian Slade) had to yank me back hard.  This took several attempts to make it look believable, whilst avoiding injury. After all this we went back to school and imidiatly edited it.

By Scott Cawkwell   

First Location – Brentwood Industrial Estate

For the first day of filming and for the start of our thriller our group and Alex Wright went to Brentwood Industrial estate to shoot our first shots of the thriller. We immediately found a great place to start filming; a small car park in front of a disused warehouse which had been boarded up and had smashed windows. This provided us with the perfect setting to start filming. The warehouse is supposed to be the location of a poker game but obviously the warehouse is supposed to look like it is all done up inside with the perfect facility for playing poker. In our thriller we have tried to portray “The Boss” as a proliferant gangster. As the warehouse looks very abandoned and smashed up with broken windows and glass everywhere, it was very helpful to us portraying  the character of “The Boss”. As the industrial estate is quite large we did have some trouble with cars which Scott found out about quickly. Other shots we took were just outside the Car park and onto a road which leads through, then out, of the industrial estate. Another shot we took was at the bottom of the location; a walkway to a busy road. This was another good spot to carry on our chase scene, however we made sure to be carefull of the cars. The last location in the industrial estate we used was a small wood just behind the warehouses. This was a good place to film as we could show that Jason (played by Scott) had escaped the bouncers which were chasing him. The woods made Jason look very vulnerable because it looks like he has nowhere to run to, which was shown as Ian or Derek catches him unexpectedly.

This Industrial estate is where we filmed.

By Joshua Thomas

Why We Should Have Listened to Our Health and Safety Risk Assesment

The location for our first scene we filmed outside an abandoned warehouse.  There was glass all over the place and the floor was damp and slippery.  When I was running in the first scene, I tried to turn the corner and slipped onto the floor, just skimming the bumper of a moving car. This was painful; I was in shock for a while and left leg was grazed.  We sent one of the members of the group back to the highstreet so he could get me some antiseptic wipes so I could disinfect and clean the wound.  We were lucky as this was the first scene of our thriller so we could easily do it again. My jeans were ripped and i had the big cut on my knee the whole way through the thriller so this kept up the continuity.

By Scott Cawkwell

Character Details

Bouncers

There are two bouncers, Derek and Graham who are employed by “The Boss”. The two bouncers are there to protect the boss in case of emergencies.  Both of these bouncers are very strong and both smoke cigarettes within the film. Derek is played by Ian Slade and Graham is played by Alex Wright.

 Main Character

The main character in this film is called Jason. Jason is involved in a real poker game which is worth a lot of money. In the poker game Jason cheats by dropping a card under his foot and replacing it with another card up his sleeve. This is why Jason is in trouble with “The Boss” and why he is running from him. Jason is played by Scott Cawkwell.

“The Boss”

The Boss is a very wealthy and powerful man within the film. "The Boss's" name is Mr Kowalski. He is after Jason as Jason cheated in a game of poker which “The Boss” was involved him. We can see that “The Boss” is powerful as he has two bodyguards and also smokes cigars throughout the film. The Boss is played by Josh Thomas.

By Joshua Thomas

Planned Locations for our Thriller

Brentwood Multi-Story car park: We plan to film the scene where the bouncer is dead on the floor, with the main character standing above him with a knife.

Bond's Snooker/Poker Club in Brentwood High Street: We plan to film the poker scene here, where the main character cheats the mafia boss out of his money.

Brentwood Industrial estate, behind police station: We plan to film the chase scene here, where the main character is on the run from the bouncers and gets dragged into an allyway.

By Ian Slade

Risk Assessment

Where we have chosen to shoot poses minimal risks for our group. However, certain risks are unavoidable. Such as:
Industrial Estate:

• Broken glass on the floor- Risk: Medium- We will kick any broken glass out of the way before we start to film.
• Risk of tripping during chase sequence- Risk-High- We will also remove any trip hazards and be careful to look where we are going.
• Risk of accidentally tresspassing on private property- Risk: Low- We will make sure to stay off any privatly owned areas.
• Risk of falling off various ledges- Risk: Medium- We will scout the area first and make sure that we know where any ledges are.
• Risk of bieng hit by a car- Risk: Low- We will make sure to not film in the road and if we need to film there, we will make sure to have someone looking out for traffic.

Multi-Story Car park:

• Risk of being run over- Risk: High- We will film on the top level of the car park where traffic is at its minimum. We will also have someone to spot for cars.
• Risk of being thought to have commited a real crime- Risk Medium- We will talk to the owners of the multi-story car park first before we film.
• Falling out of the edge- Risk: Very low- We will be careful not to wander towards the edge and will employ the use of common sense.

By Bart Lang

Bond's Poker/Snooker Club

This club is found in the middle of Brentwood High Street and has the appropriate and right atmosphere for our poker scene.

We plan to film the poker scene here, we sent Josh Thomas, a member of our group over to the club to ask if we can film there. They told us that we can film there providing we pay £10 each in advance as a normal fee. Along with letting us film there, they have additionally lent us the chips and the deck we will need as props in our thriller. Providing we pay the £10 each we are allowed to film there for however long we want during the day as no one is there during the day. The poker tables and chips are also like the ones you can find in casinos in Las Vegas etc which will make the scene more life like and realistic.

By Ian Slade

Characters

We have decided that if there are two people acting in one scene, then the other two people in our group will be filming and directing. However if there is one person acting, everybody else in the group will be behind the camera filming and/or directing.


Ian Slade: Bouncer
Scott Cawkwell: Main character who cheats and runs
Bart Lang: Cameraman
Josh Thomas: Boss

Extra Bouncer: Alex Wright

By Ian Slade

Our Argument

When discussing our ideas we had a major argument over what idea we would like to go with; the first idea we had was to kill the boss at the beginning, whereas other members of our group had the idea of having a bodyguard getting stabbed in the first scene. After 30 mins of arguing between both of the ideas we decided to film both of the ideas, this would not take much longer and we could decide which one looks the best and then go with that idea.

By Scott Cawkwell

Mood Board

 

 

 

For our mood board i come up with the ideas of what alot of people associate thrillers with, for example, car chases, explosions and guns.  Above are the photos that we associate with thrillers and scenes we would like to see in a thriller

By Scott Cawkwell

Thriller sub-genres

Conspiracy Thriller

A Conspiracy thriller is where a hero (maybe led into the situation) uncovers a big conspiracy caused by bad guys. The film would often be all uncovered or “go all the way to the top”. The bad guys are defeated in this kind off sub-genre. Good examples of a conspiracy thriller are The Da Vince code (2006) and Salt (2010).

Crime Thriller

A Crime thriller is where the film focuses on a successful or failed crime. They normally focus on the criminal rather than good guys or victims. Main topics of this type of sub-genre are Killers/murderers, robberies, chases, shootouts etc. Good examples of a crime thriller are Seven or Se7en (1995) and No Country for Old Men (2007).

Disaster Thriller

A Disaster thriller is where within the film a natural or artificial disaster happens e.g. floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes as natural disaster. An example for an artificial disaster is a nuclear disaster which can be caused by humans. Examples of a disaster thriller are Earthquake (1974) and 2012 (2009).
 

Erotic Thriller

An Erotic thriller is where the film consists of erotic scenes but with also the concept of a thriller.  Examples of an erotic thriller are Basic Instinct (1992) and Chloe (2009).

Legal Thriller

A Legal thriller is where the film normally focuses on the lawyer trying to prove a case inside the courtroom but also confront their enemies outside the courtroom. He or she may also be in danger of not just losing the case but also losing their lives. Examples of legal thrillers are To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Presumed Innocent (1987).

Medical Thriller

A Medical thriller is where the film normally concentrates on the hero who could be a doctor or employee within a hospital saving someone’s life, or to solve a medical problem. Examples of a medical thriller are Extreme Measures (1996) and The Experiment (2010).

Mystery Thriller

A Mystery thriller is where the film is normally full of suspense. Characters normally attempt to solve or are involved in a mystery. Examples of a mystery thriller are Fightplan (2005) and Shutter Island (2010).

Political Thriller

A Political thriller is where the hero/heroine must save or protect the government that employees the person and to keep it stable. Examples of a political thriller are Seven Days in May (1962) and They Day of Jackal (1971).

Psychological Thriller

A Psychological thriller is where a conflict between two characters within the film is mental and emotional, rather than physical. Examples of a psychological thriller are Suspicion (1941) and Pyscho (1960).

Rape and Revenge Thriller

A Rape and Revenge thriller is where the film focuses more on suspense, tension, some action and fast pace rather than scares and supernatural. Examples of rape and revenge thrillers are The Last House on the Left (1972) and Irréversible (2002).

Religious Thriller

A Religious thriller is where the plot closely relates to Religious beliefs, objects etc. The film normally focuses on something that is involved with a religious belief. Examples of religious thrillers are The Da Vinci Code (2003) and Angel Heart (1987).

Supernatural Thriller

A Supernatural thriller is where the film brings in an aspect of other worlds with also suspense, tension and twists within the plot. In some films the hero/heroine may have special abilities like being psychic. Examples of a supernatural thriller are Lady in the Water (2006) and Fallen (1998).

Techno Thriller

A Techno thriller is where the film brings suspense with also sophisticated technology playing a big part within the film. Examples of a techno thriller are Jurassic Park (1993) and I, Robot (2004).

By Joshua Thomas

Getting on with work

Scott getting on with our influences, writing about both the trailer for the game Dead Island and the film 21, to show where we have got some of our initial ideas from.

Josh is researching sub-genres to put on our blog, he is doing this to show out knowledge of different sub-genres, to show that we understand which each one means and to show that we have made the right choice.









By Ian Slade

Our Influnences

We as a group had many influences for our thriller.  Weirdly enough our main influence came from the trailer of an animated video game called 'Dead Island'.  The bit of the trailer that influenced us was the beginning.  The first shot is of a eye, this then pulls back to reveal a dead body lying on the floor, we used this as we are thinking about having our first shot as a close up of a knife in a body, from this we will then pull back to reveal a big man on the floor with a smaller man above him.  Also in the trailer for 'Dead Island' there are alot of flashbacks, this also influenced us as we have decided that after the first scene in our thriller there will be flashbacks. 

This is the poster for the game 'Dead Island'.

This is the pull away from the little girls eye which influenced our first shot.

This is one of the flashbacks that influenced the idea of us using them.

We decided to use these elements in our thriller because we felt that they added tention, drama and suspese to the trailer, as well as intrigue. However we had to be careful to distinguish our opening as the beginning of a film and not the trailer.



Another influence in our thriller was the movie '21', this is a thriller which is based around poker, all our group liked this movie so we decided to base the start of the movie around a poker game in which one person cheated in.  We took no other ideas other than using poker from the movie '21'.

                               

This is the poster from the movie '21'.             



By Scott Cawkwell

Analysis of a Thriller Poster

This poster conveys the genre of the film effectively because we straight away see the face and building and wonder who and what they are. The bleak cold weather further conveys the mystery and fear surrounding the themes shown to you. The font the film name is written in looks old, worn and mysterious. All these elements attempt to pique the curiosity of the audience and make them want to go see the film.

The close up of the main character causes you to recognize that he is the most important person in this film and also people who know about him will realise who he is. This gives the film an heir of quality initially before people have even begun to watch the film.

Bart Lang

Top 10 Thrillers of all time according to The internet movie database

Rank    Rating  Movie Name     

1.            8.9         Pulp Fiction (1994) 
     

2.            8.9         Inception (2010)  

           

3.            8.8         The Dark Knight (2008)  

       

4.            8.8          Goodfellas (1990)

5.            8.8         Fight Club (1999)

6.            8.7         Rear Window (1954)

7.            8.7         Psycho (1960) 

   

8.            8.7          The Usual Suspects (1995)

9.            8.7         The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

10.          8.6          Se7en (1995)

 

These Films have been voted the top ten thrillers of all time according to IMDb, The Internet Movie database, ranging from the year 1960 to 2010.

By Joshua Thomas

Our First in Depth Thriller Idea

There is a dying man lying on the floor with a knife in his stomach and blood on the floor and his stomach.   Standing above the dying man is a smaller man whose expression is very nervous/powerful the man is breathing heavily and you can hear this as the sound will be accentuated.   The standing man then hears a siren and flea’s the scene and hurdles a fence.   There is then a moment where it is quite obvious that we have gone back in time to see how this story happens.  there are two men who are playing a game of poker,  as they are talking the smaller man switches his low card to an ace (this gives the man a winning hand) we will show this on the camera by maybe including some slow motion of the card dropping and the man’s foot covering it.  The next scene is of the cheating man winning, getting up and walking out taking a briefcase with him.  One of the questions we hope to covey is ‘what is in the briefcase?’ this would be good as it adds a lot of tension.  After the cheating man has walked out the man who has lost walks over to the other side of the poker table and see’s the card that was dropped by the man.  The loser shouts for the two guards to chase the man with the briefcase.  After this we were not too sure which way to go, we are either going to have a foot chase or go into the next bit.  The next bit of our thriller in which we are sure about is that as the man with the briefcase is walking past an alleyway a man is going to reach out and grab him and put a bag over his head, at this point we will fade to black and the title of out thriller will appear in white writing.  Just before the title disappears there will be a scream of “help” that will happen and fade out, this will be to add suspense and question’s to our thriller and this will hopefully make the viewer want to watch more   

By Scott Cawkwell

Rough Outline of Our What Our Thirller Will Be

Guy lying in the road 

Poker game

Cheats

Walks away with briefcase

Man see’s he has cheated by looking at the floor

Gets guards to chase man

Man walking down a road

Bag gets thrown over his head and he is dragged into the shadows

Fade’s to black

Name of the movie appears

And you hear in the background shouting out HELP!!

By Scott Cawkwell

Importance of the opening to a thriller

The opening to a thriller is very important to set the scene and mood for the thriller. It gives the audience a snippet of what is going to happen and makes them want to watch on to see it all unfold. It makes the suspense start before the thriller actually begins.

Also during the opening of a thriller, we have the title sequence, the title sequence is important to the thriller because, for one it informs the audience who is actually in the thriller, secondly you can tell a lot from the title sequence from the font and size of the writing used. For example if red, italic, jagged writing is used together, it gives the audience the idea that this could be a eary/bloody sort of horror thriller. If the size of the font is bigger it stands out more because if it is big it is more then likely going to catch somebody's eye.



By Ian Slade

Initial Plot Ideas

When we started coming up with ideas for our plot, we brainstormed them on this word document.

We decided not to keep this as our final idea, but to use it as back up if we preferred it to any other idea we had.

By Bart Lang