Filming Locations

This is the House we are filming in and it is an old farmhouse which is ideal for our film opening.

This is the sitting room where we are going to be filming the babysitter watching TV and on her phone

This is the kids bedroom and we can add some toys to make it even more childish

This is the farmyard where we could do some filming as it would be easy to give it a scary  atmosphere

This is the spot where we filmed the time lapse from and that is the field where  the antagonist is walking

This is the bathroom where we have decided now to do some filming in.

Storyboards for Main Task

Conventions of a thriller film

The conventions of a thriller film

It is difficult to state a clear definition of a thriller as thrillers cross over many different genres, however the single most recognizable characteristic of a thriller is a obvious one- it has to ‘thrill’ the audience. The plot has to be scary and exciting but not as scary as a horror but the characters are at great risk with a fascinating story line. The film is constructed in a manner that makes the watcher really want to know what is going to happen next.

There are many different formulas for a thriller, other than that most thrillers follow on of the few common narrative structures. For example, they may use the Todorov theory where the narrative structure is composed of three main parts: order and normality then something happens where disorder occurs such as a super villain and finally everything gets restored to normal because a super hero comes to save the day.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtYmWb9FQA  (copy and paste url if link doesn't work)- Spiderman 1, this follows the Todorov Theory

Many examples such as Spiderman, Batman, Super Man etc., and these films all follow the same story line.

Thrillers can also be divided into countless categories, i.e. action thriller, spy thriller, psychological thriller, military thriller and the list goes on. It is easier to recognise a thriller than to describe it due to the countless categories.

Child's (Ben) Costume

Child's Costume

We have chosen for the character Ben in our film opening who is a child to be wearing his pyjamas because we are going to have a scene where the babysitter is putting him to bed and we are having the scene to establish that she is a babysitter.
                                         

Here is the pyjama top that the child is going to wear and we have chosen this particular top because it is casual and doesn't attract attention. We have also chosen some pyjama bottoms as well even though you will not see them in the scene we may change our minds during filming.

Production Audience

Who would be an audience for our media production?

 This is my personified target audience, who was created in open office by me. His name is Alex Williams and he is 22 years old. He is the average person we have aimed our opening sequence as a specific target audience is key to create a well-constructed, effective opening sequence. He is composed of many factors that we considered in order to create an opening sequence that appealed to a varied audience in order to earn as much money as possible in the industry.

The first thing that we considered was his occupation, shown by his belt. He is a skilled working class manual labourer, more informally known as a plumber/handyman. I have chosen our characterisation of the target audience to be a plumber, as this shows motivation towards money, as he has put in the time to learn the necessary skills needed, in order to become a plumber, which is a fairly highly paid job. Our opening sequence being a horrorfilm is likely to appeal to someone like 'Alex' as he will enjoy the type of story that engages him- normal family being terrorized. It’ll also allow him to relate to this modern day setting in a house.

Secondly, I have considered his clothing. He is wearing highly fashionably clothing and therefore he is likely to take pride in his appearance, but more importantly, it shows that he is just an average person living in London. He is likely to appreciate the story behind our sequence, as our main character is dressed similarly to him, and this will allow him to relate to our story, perhaps making it more engaging as he will feel that this could happen to him which will make him feel more scared when watching our opening because this is happening in today’s society therefore this could happen to him. So maybe by having the murderer’s clothes similar style to the audience clothes will make our opening seem more realistic and therefore will make the opening more terrifying. The aim of our horror is to frighten the audience and the choice of clothing plays a big part in our production.

Also, 'Alex' is holding a newspaper, which is in fact The Sun. He enjoys to read tabloid newspapers and this represents the fact that he is likely to enjoy a good story in which he can speak to his friends about, and this will mean that our story will not only be a good 'gossip' story that he can talk about, but also be an effective means of advertisement for our sequence as word of mouth is the most effective method.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Scene	Date/Time	Location	People	Equipment	Props	Notes
1	17/03/2012 3pm-7pm	Field	-	Camera, Tripod	-	Time lapse
2	17/03/2012 7pm	Field	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Shots of antagonists feet walking towards the house from the field
2	17/03/2012 7.10pm	Farmyard	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	CCTV shot (wide shot, low angle)
2	17/03/2012 7.15	Old Milking Shed	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Long Shot-mid shot
2	17/03/2012 7.20	Old Milking Shed	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Match on action of opening door
3	19/03/2012 7.00pm - Finish	House	Babysitter, Child, Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume, babysitter costume, child costume	Fake blood needed

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Date	Location	Potential Risk/ Hazard	Level Of Risk (L/M/H)	Action Needed to reduce Risk
17-03-2012	Field	Bumpy ground and someone could injure themselves on the pitchfork	L	Wearing suitable footwear
17-03-2012	House	We are filming out the window so camera could fall out	L	Put the camera on a secure tripod
17-03-2012	Farmyard	A shot requires a high position which could potentially end up someone falling	H	Make sure the high ground is secure and stable. Also have people spotting the cameraman.
19-03-2012	House	Someone hurts themselves on the pitchfork	M	Do not run with the pitchfork and hold the prop properly
17-03-2012	Old Milking Shed	Hurting yourself on debris	L	Clear the debris before filming
19-03-2012	House	Trip on wires	L	Tape the wires down
19-03-2012 & 17-03-2012	House, Field, Farmyard, Milking Shed	The mask reduces the vision of the actor and may trip.	M	Clear the pathway for the actor

Script

The Unexpected

Script:

1.     INT. NIGHT – FARMHOUSE – BEDROOM

Babysitter walks in the bedroom and sits down on the bed and takes the games console off the child.

WS

OTH

BABYSITTER [JESS]

Go to bed now

CHILD [BEN]

Oh!

POV

Babysitter gets up and walks towards the door

BABYSITTER [JESS]

Night!

CHILD [BEN]

Night!

…

CUT TO:

2.     INT. Night – FARMHOUSE – BATHROOM

MS

Babysitter walks into the bathroom and there is writing on the mirror in blood [Turn Around]. The babysitter turns around and the antagonist comes in grabs her by the throat quickly and then puts her against the wall.

CUT TO:

OTH [BEN]

 The child then is standing in the doorway looking at the action.

BABYSITTER

[Shouts] Ben run

FADE OUT.

Babysitter Costume

Babysitters Costume

Here I have chosen to keep the babysitters costume casual so we could have a calm atmosphere so we can build tension starting with a calm atmosphere

Here we have chosen for the babysitter to wear a simple white top which is casual. We also chose this because it is a typical top that a teenager would wear for a casual evening.







            Here we have chosen a pair of black leggings and we have chosen clothes which are plain so the audience will not be focusing on how nice the clothes are but what is going to happen next.















Here we have chosen ankle socks for the babysitter to wear because she is going to be inside and she wouldn't be wearing shoes inside so these socks will also add to the calm atmosphere.

We have also given the babysitter a phone so it will make her oblivious of her surroundings and will give the antagonist a chance to get inside the house.

Antagonist Costume

 This is the chosen mask for our main task and it has been chosen because it has scary features to it and it is realistic which will scare the audience when watching the movie.

This is the chosen shirt and we have chosen it because it fits the scene as it is checkered.

We have chosen some old jeans for him to wear a pair of old jeans as it will fit the scene and our character will seem as a demented farmer.

Our chosen weapon is a pitchfork and we had to think a lot about the weapon as there is such a wide range to choose from but we settled on a pitchfork and we also thought of him using multiple weapons but as we are just doing an opening we just chose one.

We have chosen old boots to go with this costume as he will be walking on bumpy terrain and it fits the characters image.

Film Actors & Costume Research

Film Actors & Costume

Our movie is based around a farmhouse which is in a secluded area and I have decided to research into characters which will be entailed in our movie. I have chosen to research antagonists of horror movies and the venerable people in the horror movies. This is because in our movie we are going to have a babysitter looking after a child which is the vulnerable characters and a threatening suspicious character.

Antagonist Research  1. Strangers – In this movie there are three killers and they are terrorising a couple that are trapped inside a secluded house which is surrounded by forests. What is good about these antagonists is that the masks are scary and the two women have china doll masks on which is stereotypical of horror/thriller movies

 

2. Saw – This horror movie only has one antagonist which again has a doll character but this time it is not just the mask the killer is a small person which has a prop of a tricycle. What is good about this killer is that they have made it scary by giving the doll red eyes and exaggerated its facial features.

3. Scream – This movies killer has a black cloak with a white mask and is taken from a famous piece of art called the scream by Edvard Munch. This adds to the scariness and his weapon is a knife which is stereotypical but I don’t think it will fit the character in mind for our main task.

Decision - After our research into our inspiration for our antagonist we did a survey in the class and got them to choose which character will suit our movie the best. The movie that most people thought would suit our movie the best was option 1 (strangers). We are only going to have one character antagonist though in our movie instead of three because it is hard to get people to act for us.

Vulnerable Character Research

1.       The Hills Have Eyes – All these characters are young around 18-25 and there is a dog as well which is always a bonus in a horror movie as they seem to be the protagonist of the movie but the problem is that you will need a trained dog to act if we were to get one. What we are mainly looking at is the women and the baby because a typical babysitter is a young woman/teenager wearing casual clothes and a baby/child is key in the movie as there screams can add tension.

2. Scream 4 – In this movie there are mostly older people who are the vulnerable but they are women and the older men try and be the protagonists. These people are also wearing casual clothes which seem to be a key aspect in horror movies to have a relaxed atmosphere so they can have juxtaposing scenes.

3. The Cabin in The Woods – In this movie to is a group of teenagers which go to cabin in the woods and there are two girls and three guys and they are all wearing casual clothes. I think it is a must to have a young actor such as a teenager in our movie.

Decision - Our decision for our vulnerable people in our movie was chosen by another survey that we have done in the class and most of the people chose option 1 (the hills have eyes). So we are not going to include all the characters just a young girl and a child/baby. Also a lot of people said that we should have a dog in our main task but it might be difficult to get a dog to act in our movie.