Planning - MES - Mr Smith

"MES" (Mise en scene) is very important to actors in the film industry. It gives each character their own flavour and style and sets up their personality in the film.

Setting; ordinary black room in a house, both living room and bathroom, we picked this location because we needed low-key lighting and an enclosed area to suit the scenario. 

Iconography; Blood, to put on the bodies to show traces of the violence that took place beforehand. Glass and frames to show the damage of items that were violently used by the main characters. Lipstick for the antagonist to represent her as a confident, feminine character. Finally, guns to show the final violent part of the opening, Which is a major item for all the characters in the thriller.

Character 1: Carlie.

•Costume - Grey, casual clothing. 

•Natural make-up, smeared mascara etc.

•Curly big hair.

Character 2: Lashane.

•All black.

•Hair and make-up is all natural as it's stereotypical for a man in reality to have a natural look, no matter what make character it is.

Character 3: Zelal.

•All black. 

•Dark lipstick/nails.

•Straight, long, attractive hair.

The lighting is low-key, forming a smokey atmosphere for the audience. Light resources like dim lights and candles create this effect for the audience. 

Colour throughout the opening consists of dark colours like black and grey to represent evilness, negativity and violence.

This is beneficial to our thriller because it helps us show our target audience a major difference between each character in the scene and shows their personalitys in a clear way.

Planning - Character Representation - Ms Begum

Name: Carlie Cokell-Smith

Character Role: 1

Age: 21

Gender Stereotype Of Role: Female, attractive, innocent.

Costume: Grey clothes, casual.

Hair and Make-up: Big hair, ordinary make-up, quite pale.

Body Language and Facial Expression: Confidenr, upright, slightly weak, and vulnerable.

Represented As: Angry girlfriend who is hurt about her boyfriends actions.

Role Within Narrative: Arguing with boyfriend as hearing he has cheated, attempts to kill him as he is unconscious. Stopped by mystery girl who walks in.

Name: Lashane Williams

Character Role: 2

Age: 21

Gender Stereotype Of Role: Male, attractive, dark side.

Costume: All black clothing.

Hair and Make-up: Neat hair.

Body Language and Facial Expression: Confident, masculine, strong, built, superior, angry, frustrated.

Represented As: Sly boyfriend who denies his wrong actions of cheating.

Role Within Narrative: Argyes with girlfriend (Carlie) over him cheating, denies his actions and gets the girls caught up in a bad situation. Almost gets shot by Carlie and Zelal.

Name: Zelal Keskinbisak

Age: 21 

Gender Stereotype Of Role: Female, attractive, intelligent, arrogant, selfish,

Costume: All black clothing, choker, hoody hiding identity. 

Hair and Make-up: Long, straight hair, dark lipstick, pale, nails dark.

Body Language and Facial Expressions: Upright, confident, bland, mysterious, emotionless.

Represented As: Crazy girl in love with character 2 (Lashane), trying to get rid of girlfriend in violent way. 

Role Within Narrative: Getting ready, looking good/proud as she is going to attempt to kill character 1. However, audience doesn't know if she succeeds. 

Planning - Production Roles - Ms Begum

Production Roles.

Emine has the roles of being a camera operator, location manager and editor. We put her for these roles because firstly, she has experience with operating cameras because she done her work experience at a photography shop and they showed her how to use the camera effectively. Secondly, she is location manager because where we are filming is all at her own home so she is responsible for this. Lastly, we put her for editor because she done a lot of editing in her music gcse and she was successful in doing this due to her final grade.

I have the roles of producer, storyboard maker and sound maker. This is because I'm good at keeping great communication amongst the team. Also, I was responsible for the storyboard because my narrative was most creative and organised out of the 3 of us. Finally, I have experience in mixing music for my dance lessons and dance sets, so I have ideas on what is suited best in certain areas of the scene in the sound category. 

Katie has the roles of director, lighting, costume hair and make-up. We put her for this because firstly, as a director she is very good at organising and making sure her vision is clear for the actors and she is very good at managing the scene. As for the lighting, she has helped In showcases when they needed help for lighting so her experience is good when it comes to this. She also has a steady hand to hold the light for a long period of time at a certain angle. Finally, she is very creative when it comes to costume hair and make-up and with experience of practicing on other people she knows how to do hair and make-up correctly in a professional way. 

 

This is beneficial for our group because it gives us an equal amount of jobs to do so we can get things done in a more quicker and organised way. This will help our thriller become very successful and our experience as individuals will make our thriller a lot more professional. 

Planning - Storyboard - Ms Begum

Storyboard

This storyboard shows the narrative in different camera shot and angles in an effect way, showing the thriller in a thrilling and scary way. Here is some images of the storyboard me and my group have created. 

Planning - Final Idea - Mr Smith

Final Idea

 

Narrative/Plot: Pictures and images of the crime scene scattered across the floor, showing victims and their families. The sound of flash on camera's, whispering and sirens are muffling in the background. Then, the scene changes to a girl in an interview room being interviewed by the police. The girl is hearing whispers in her head and she looks messed up but confused in why she is in this room. Her hair is messy and her face looks pale. the police is talking to the antagonist and asking her questions, this voice eventually muffles as all she can hear is the voices in her head. Tension increases, the voices get faster and louder in her head and she eventually has a fit. When she wakes up, she's on a chair with her hands cuffed, she hears her own thoughts in her head about what she done and how she feels. When she's done with her thoughts, she's hears a door open in front of her. Audience sees flashback of girl killing her boyfriend saying "Our love died so I guess he had to."

 

Narrative structure: Todorov, Aristotle - provoking emotion which is conventional to a thriller.

 

Characters: Antagonist (teenage girl), 2 police officers, nurses, dead boy on the floor.

 

Mise en scene: (Lighting)  Low-key/under lighting (when she wakes up) , top lighting (interview), Colours should be dark, however interview room should be white. 

(Settings) Hospital, forest, police station.

(Body language & facial expressions) Antagonist physical appearance is quite petite however can come across quite confident.

(Costume, hair & make-up) Costume of antagonist = dark colours to represent evil. Police and nurses will wear uniform like reality. Hair of antagonist is messy, curly, big, etc. Her make-up is pale.

(Iconography) Blood, knifes, ropes, pictures, and medicine.

 

Film influences:

Memento
Identity

Se7en
Shutter Island

 

Why is this opening conventional to a thriller? This is conventional because it sets a frightening and uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience and the rest of the thriller. Also, the narrative revolves around an investigation, leaving the audience confused and wanting to know more.

What themes does your thriller present?

Psychological 

Death

Obsession

Envy

Crime

Violence

 

What response will you get from your audience? The response I want from my audience is to be curious, frightened and disturbed. I would like the audience to be attracted to the narrative and enjoy watching it. Also, to be intrigues in the narrative in deep thought.

Planning - Inital Ideas - Ms Begum

Initial Ideas

 

 

In my group, we have 3 members meaning 3 of us had different ideas to what our opening to a thriller could have and also what the narrative was about. Even though our ideas are quite different, there are a couple of similarities like with the antagonists and what they look like and portray themselves.

 

IDEA 1!

Narrative: girl being interviewed by the police, she killed both her parents.

Sub-Genre: crime-thriller.

MES: White room (police station for the interview room). Bedroom (for killing).

Characters: 2 police officers, teenage girl, parents.

 

IDEA 2!

Narrative: crime scene, someone's dead, eye witness cant explain what they saw? mental person, schizophrenia, controls him.

Title: the unknown.

Sub-Genre: psychological/crime thriller.

Characters: victims/antagonist, no protagonist, maybe the police?

Narrative Structure: Aristotle, importance of plot structure, arouse emotion, within tragedy.

MES: forest, abandoned places, dark, blood, knifes, tools, low-key lighting, back lighting.

 

IDEA 3!

Narrative: a young girl who loses her way in life and ends up spiritually possessed.

Title: the red flag.

Sub-Genre: psychological thriller.

Characters: female victim, children, crazy man, police.

MES: urban setting, city, flashing lights, dark, leather clothing.

 

In conclusion, this has helped us all as we discussed each others ideas and plotted each idea out to see what works well and what doesn't. Then we linked them to see what works with each other and what could make a unique thriller within the 3 ideas. This has helped us create our final idea.

 



Planning - Open Scene Narration - Ms Begum

Open Scene Narration

 

My thriller opening scene will start with pictures of a crime scene, with police tape, evidence of the killer and people investigating the crime. Someone is dead on the floor covered in a white sheet showing that they are officially dead and has not been identified yet to the audience. The audience can hear picture shots and sirens in the background, with some non-diegetic sound of eerie music. Then there is an interview scene with a medium shot of the antagonist, wearing dark colours. The police is talking to the antagonist however she is not listening due to the voices in her head, this shows that maybe she is going crazy and has something wrong with her mentally. The voices get louder and she starts having fits and cannot control herself, this builds a lot of uncomfortable tension for the audience. She eventually can't take the noises anymore and faints which fades to black. When she is awake she can hear shuffling noises and is tied down to a bed or to a chair in a room. The girl starts seeing flashbacks of the crime she committed. The first one is of her boyfriend dead and her sitting in the corner shaking and panicking. Then the scene goes back to her sitting on the bed again close up to her face to show her panicking after what she did. Then the second flashback shows her actually killing her boyfriend and ending the scene with her smiling and saying "Our love died so I guess he had to." This ends for the mystery of what she meant by that sentence.