Account of research sources that you considered/used and what they taught you

When we began to form our thriller concept there were several sources which I considered for our idea.

One of the sources which influenced our thriller was the movie, American Psycho. American Psycho’s use of casting, and atmosphere provided a very vivid insight into the mind of a killer. These effects provided the basic concept for our ‘bad’ guy, even though our mise en scene does was not going to match at all with the urban location which American Psycho is set, we did plan that the cold, shady, and dead forest were we did set our shoot would create a grey lifeless attitude to the thriller as the city did with American Psycho.

The series, Dexter, provided wonderful resource because of their use of camera shots and how making the actors move from the right side of the shot to the left makes the audience feel uncomfortable about the sequence as usually we would have the actors on the left moving to the right.

When we began researching for music for our thriller I came across a song named “the red violin” it provided the basis for the death sequence to be sad rather than overwhelmingly chaotic and horrific. We might not use music like it for our thriller however it did provide a glimpse into the more miserable side to a thriller sequence.

Storyboard part 4

Shot: 12
Action: We pan the trees again, however this time we see the chaser and the chased with a tree in between them.
Camera Shot: Wide Shot Pan

Shot: 13
Action: We go back to the chased point of view and watch as they fall to the ground and then turn their head to see where they fell from.
Camera Shot: Point of view pan

Shot: 14
Action: We open with a medium close up of the chasers chest.
Camera Shot: Medium Close up

Shot: 15
Action: We tilt up to see the chasers face.
Camera Shot: Medium Close up Tilt

Storyboard part 3

Shot: 8
Action: Point of View shot again of person getting up and continuing running.
Camera Shot: Point of View

Shot: 9
Action: Extreme close up of feet running past.
Camera Shot: Extreme Close up

Shot: 10
Action: Point of View shot of person tumbling to a halt on a tree.
Camera Shot: Point of View

Shot: 11
Action: We look at the person falling onto the tree from the back, to suggest we are looking through the eyes of the chaser.
Camera Shot: Wide Shot

Storyboard part 2

Shot: 4
Action: Pan of trees again, however now we see the chased running in slow-mo.
Camera Shot: Long Shot – Pan

Shot: 5
Action: Blackness, we hear the panting of the chased. (To Be Decided)
Camera Shot: None

Shot: 6
Action: Back to Point of View shot of the chased person. The person falls over.
Camera Shot: Point of View shot

Shot: 7
Action: Point of View Pan of the chased person to look back at the part of forest where she just ran from and then panning back to position for the next shot.
Camera Shot: Point of View Pan

Storyboard Part 1

After processing several parts of the production of the thriller we set out to create a storyboard which we would follow for most of our shooting. That storyboard was as follows:

Shot: 1
Action: Person running through forest being followed by someone.
Camera Shot: Point of View shot

Shot: 2
Action: Pan of trees (maybe having titles on trees, to be decided)
Camera Shot: Extreme Long Shot – Pan

Shot: 3
Action: Continuation of Person running through forest
Camera Shot: Point of View shot

Choice of institution

We would like to have an institution from America to make our movie, so that we would be able to make our movie with a lot of money to work with. Time Warner has the type of financial backing to make our movie and to help us distribute the movie as effectively as possible. As for producing we would like to use Evolution Entertainment and Lions Gate as they have been working with movies like Saw and American Psycho which resembles the type of work we want to create, they have successfully marketed movies which is the same type as our own, with the same target audience as us, so it would be a very fitting choice for us to work with them. Together with these groups it would be quite possible to make our movie the way we wish to make it without being too restricted because of financial issues.

Our Target Audience

When we started coming up with ideas for our thriller sequence we also began to focus on who we would like our thriller to attract. We agreed that we would like to have our audience between 18 and 24 as it is this age group which has the highest ratio of horror movie goers.
However, we did intend to add a few elements which would catch the attention of the 14 to 17 age group so that together with the 18 to 24 group there would be a possibility of having up to 72% of the movie going audience watching and paying for our movie, gender wise we wished to capture more of the male population as mostly men watch horror movies. We would like to attract the type of audience which will have watched or would be interested in watching such movies like, Saw, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Psycho and American Psycho, as these movies would catch the type of audience which would be interested in our thriller as well.
I wished to design the sequence in a way that would capture the audiences’ attention from the start. I wanted to create a sequence which would place the audience in a vicariously, shocking thrill which would shortly transform into a confusingly petrifying psychological game that would make them question if what they were watching was possible and could happen in the real world. I want the audience to sit at the edge of their sits while they are caught up in a vivid realisation of the cruelty of the human race as well as experience the pure, vicarious, explicit nature of a horror film.

First Production Meeting

When we had our first production group meeting we finalised some key ideas for our production. First, we decided upon which idea we were going to use. In the end we decided to use an altered version of my idea which was going to take place in the forest with one man running away, while dying, from another man who is carrying a knife who is walking in a slow pace. We gave out designations for each other so that we all knew what our main role in the production would be. They were as follows:
Producer: Charlotte Clark
Cinematographer: Sophie Evans
Sound Engineer: Adam Leon
Director: Victor Stromberg
We discussed what we were going to include in the sequence, I mentioned that I thought it would be an interesting idea if we had the titles etched into the trees as we passed them in an almost thriller font style. To incorporate this idea in the sequence we would have several pans of trees with the main character of the scene running in slow motion behind them, and as we passed the trees we would see the titles as an extra. However, the final title opening sequence, I also stated, should stand out, so rather than having the title on the trees like the rest I came up with the idea that we could have the final title appear with a slash effect of light disrupting the final blackout. We discussed all the necessary equipment to carry out our sequence and then we called it a day.

Possible Thriller Ideas

When we began to form our thriller ideas, we all had to go away and design a few ideas by our own. The essential plot of my thriller idea was to have a stereotypical group of adult teenagers going to a party up in the surrey hills when all of a sudden their car breaks down; because of this they decide to stay at an old abandoned hotel they happen to find while walking through the forest as the sun started setting. However the hotel is haunted by a ghost and is terrorised by a woman who is driven insane by the ghost. My target audience would be the younger audience, by including cast who they would consider attractive as well as a story which is revoltingly and disturbingly twisted like the ‘Saw’ series. As this would be a psychologically sickening movie as well as physically disturbing I would like to have the movie distributed with a movie company which is know for producing abstract movies so that the audience can, in a way, tell what is coming, an example of such a company could be Lion Gate studios.