Music Choice Update

We have decided to use the Tracks, Impromptu in Blue and Long Note Two as they are a perfect fit for the opening of our Thriller. Impromptu in Blue is a good composition for the protagonists scenes, as it is a lighter tune, but still has an unnerving feeling to it. Long Note Two fits in well with the antagonist clips as it has a darker more eerie feeling to it, which still has similar quality's to the first track, Impromptu In Blue, which means the transition between the two tracks is smoother, which is a benefit as it is an advantage to have well merging tunes, appropriate for our antagonist and protagonist.

Availability for Second filming day

We are filming on the 31st January because on this day we all have at least a three hour free slot in the day we hope to get the second half of our filming done. Everybody will be available for this day because one of the production team is going to be the actor.
Timetables

Availability for First filming day

We decided to film our first day of filming on the 22nd January, due to the fact that we as a production company all have a free 4 hour slot in our day. In this first day of filming we hope to have the first 50% of our filming complete due to on this day we will have our actress available to be in the opening.
Timetables

Lighting- Anna

As part of Mise en scene, lighting is important in any movie, it helps identify the scene and contributes to the genre of the film. In thrillers, we tend to see dark, gloomy lighting in scenes such as Se7en as in that particular film it not only features dim lighting at the beginning when the characters are looking at the murder scene, but also bad, miserable weather when outside the crime investigation. In this case, it shows that lighting will also include the weather surrounding the location however we won't be able to control that element. I think we should attempt in the scenes to involve not so bright and happy scenes as it will portray to the audience incorrectly.
For example, when we film the main male character in his room or study, we will probably just have a small lamp on the desk where he is sitting at to show the creepy side to the film. However when the young girl is getting ready to meet some friends, we will film this part in her bedroom where many lights will be on to show the bubbly side of a teenage girl.

Lighting- Aimee

For a Thriller one of the main sections of Mise-en-Scene is lighting as will build up tension and create different atmospheres for our opening. Our opening scene is set inside, firstly in the victim girls bedroom and secondly in the male stalkers room.We would like the girls scene to be at a mid-key brightness and open as it is a lighter situation than the male characters as she is in a safer area but it is not a completely upbeat scene. Whereas I believe the stalker should be in a darker area that looks more compact and unsafe so the locations show they have very different meanings and events. The males location should be in a low-key brightness for an overall darker picture to show the slow and edgy situation, parts of the low-key image should be brightened at the area of his work for the audience to be able to see it. The hue of the victims bedroom shot should be cooler colours because of the situation she is in and the warmer colours would created a more comforting and welcoming effect.

Location- Anna

The location of our thriller is an important aspect to think about. I think we should situate the story in two separate houses to demonstrate the contrast between the two main characters therefore in the rooms being portrayed, they need to be different for instance light and dark rooms.


When thinking about the female character's personality and role in the film, I think we should aim to present her in her bedroom which will look feminine and young to help present her lifestyle and how well off she is. The bedroom will be light and innocent with the pale walls against the purple features in the room to help show the vulnerability of the teenage girl. I would like to represent the girl in a typical teenage bedroom to portray her personality to the audience.

Whereas when the camera focuses on the male character's image, I would like the scene to be situated in a dark, small room to show the contrast between the two roles. This would help show the binary opposition between the two characters as well. By placing the antagonist in a dark, enclosed room it will help identify to the audience that he is the stalker and how mysterious and dangerous he is.

Location- Aimee

The Location of the Thriller is potentially one of the most important aspects along side the main plan and narrative of the film because it sets the scene. The key locations of our Thriller will be the Victims bedroom where we will see her computer, laptop and phone and the Stalkers room which will be a darker room with an old laptop/computer in it, very simple and murky.

We want to put the girl in her bedroom to show her lifestyle and how she is well off and in a nice looking environment  We also want her to be in her bedroom to show that the stalker can access and reach  her whilst she is in her safe environment, which makes her feel as if she is not a safe any more.

I would like the males room to be a smaller darker area to show the binary opposition between the two characters. I also think that the main focus should be on his laptop with his information about the girl all recorded on it. With the darker smaller room also it shows that the man is much more alone and possibly unable to cope. Which may be a reason for him approaching the girl.

I believe that finding a location to film the victims bedroom will be easy as there is two girls in our group, which will be a simple girls bedroom but quite well done and clean.

The Stalkers room can be in a study or a smaller room that you can block light out of.
This image is a representation of what I want the desk and area to look like, above is an image of the location we have chose for the antagonist, and the bottom right the protagonists bedroom.

Props- Anna

Props play a big part in Mise En Scene as they help identify the character's personality and the environment surrounding them. In our thriller opening, the scenes will feature a teenage girl's bedroom therefore we need to make her, as the protagonist, look innocent, young and kind-hearted. In the bedroom, we will make sure the outlook is feminine by selecting a purple duvet cover, placing mirrors around the room and scattering make up and magazines on the table.
However by including the technology aspect into our opening, it will be difficult to portray to the audience that the pieces of the technology shown like the Iphone, Ipad and the Laptop are hers in the sense that they are not someone else's. When showing the iphone and ipad on the camera, we will make sure to use ones that are white not black as for example the white ipads are known today as more feminine than masculine. We are also aiming to place the iphone on a woman's magazine to show it is hers.
We have decided to include modern day technology in the first few scenes to show to the audience that the protagonist is a young, modern girl and the thriller is produced in the 21st century due to the ipads and iphones being created at that time.

When the camera focuses more on the antagonist's point of view, the scene will show him at a computer typing through Twitter to the young girl. However the lighting will be very dim to identify the danger of that character and give an eerie effect to the audience, therefore the scene won't uncover much of the props situated in the room. the camera will hope to see the outline of the male character but from behind and show that the room he is in is very enclosed and mysterious.

The use of the smartphones and computers will give us the access to portray the main, most important aspect of the film, social networking. We will use to twitter conversations to help establish to the audience that this is a modern day film which will help attract our target audience. By not having music and a tv in the background will help focus the audience and camera on how the use of social networking has been used.

Props- Aimee

Props in our Thriller will help bring together the main theme of our film, Stalking. This will be done over social networking sites which without the props could not be done, or if the props were not in the scene it would illuminate the audiences knowledge of how the victim is being stalked.

The key props for the girl in our Thriller will be a smart phone, laptop and possibly other electronic devices such as a tablet. I think it is good for the girl to have many different electronic devices because it could mean that it would be harder for her to get away from the stalker, this then incorporates the convention of antagonist ensnaring the protagonist as she feels trapped by him. I believe that the girl having the expensive props will also show that she is of a higher class and possibly well off and treated well by her family, which will be an opposite to what we see with the antagonist. The props around the girl such as in her house or her bedroom will be neat and clean to show her happy content, well taken care of life. There will also be elements of a typical girls bedroom in there to show the extraordinary event in a ordinary situation also.

The key props for the male will be much more minimal to show that he isn't as lucky and looked after as the victim. An obvious prop for the male in this situation would be an electronic device which for him will only be a laptop and a  phone. The phone will be appropriate for him to have as he can take pictures of the girl on it and send it to her straight away. This will give a sense of voyeurism with the phone but also make the girl feel more trapped like he is all around. The laptop will be an important element as that is where all his main work will be done from whilst stalking her at his home, it is also an important element as we see his collection of sightings and messages from the girl that he has on his laptop in files. This will show how long he has stalked the victim for and how serious it is.

Costume- Anna

In our thriller opening, there are two main characters; a male and a young  female. The male character is the stalker of the story and the villain however we would like to disguise his personality and age to the young female by dressing him in trustworthy clothes. The female on the other hand will be dressed in clothes that present her vulnerability and innocence to the audience and make them feel sorry for her.

The girl's possible clothes:

                      
Navy/black skinny jeans.               A casual knitted jumper to                Ugg boots to show the innocence in
                                                     give the sense that it isn't                   the young female.
                                                     that warm in that location.              


The male's possible clothes:

                                          
I think a casual shirt and tie                    Perhaps a more scruffy                   Converses will show the normal
but presented in not the                         looking pair of jeans to                    side to the male character.
smartest of ways is appropriate            show the creepy side to him.
for the male lead as it will show
a sense of trust in him.



These ideas for clothing will help represent their personality in the opening and get the audience interested. The male clothing will show that he is a cunning man because he will be able to creep out the teenager in a smart way whilst the girl's clothing will show her personality in an innocent way but sophisticated at the same time.

Costume- Aimee

There are two main characters that are in our opening scene, in both we would like to portray the characteristics of the characters by their costume and show their distinctive and different personalities from each other.

The 2 characters are-

- The innocent Girl Victim who is being stalked.

- The second the Antagonist Male stalker.

The Girl-
With the teenage girl I want to incorporate a convention of a Thriller by creating the sense of an extraordinary event in an ordinary situation. I believe this can be done by the girl wearing clothes that a girl at that age would, to give the impression she leads a normal life but has her own personality. I don't want her through her clothing, to come across as rebellious or as acting to old for her age, I want to create an impression that she is nice and friendly and kind, and that she does not deserve what happens to her. I think the clothes looking clean and new gives an impression she is also the protagonist and is well looked after.

I want her in average teenager clothing such as-
Plain Jeans-                                                  And a Printed young T-shirt or Shirt-            
                                                                                

The Male Stalker-
For the stalker I think that to show he is the antagonist he would be more appropriate in darker tones such as greys or blacks to show he is the antagonist. The clothes would also look much better if they looked worn to show that he isn't in a very good state himself, which reflects what his personality and health is like. We also don't want the character to be too obvious to the people and situations around him and without the pop of colour they may not be as aware of him.

I would like the man in-
Grey Baggy T-shirt-                                                               Black Jeans-
                                                                                                                              

Our Thriller Conventions- Anna

Choosing the thriller conventions in our thriller opening is an important aspect of the planning. At the beginning of our thriller opening, the audience will view the introduction of characters, location and various other conventions. We will make the opening built up on suspense and avoid loosing the viewer's attention.

The first thriller convention to be included in our opening is themes of identity which will introduce the audience to the characters and the plot of the thriller. It will introduce the vulnerability of the teenage girl by portraying shots of her getting ready whilst the stalker is talking to her which makes her feel uncomfortable. The personality of the stalker will help be identified through the social network, Twitter, by showing the direct messages sent by him to the girl. This helps present to the audience about the male character's views upon the teenage girl.

Another convention I think we should use is Voyeurism. Voyeurism captures the viewer's attention as it builds up hype because the audience are interested in who the voyeur is and why they are watching that character. I think it will help the audience see through the male character's perspective and see two sides to the plot. By using Voyeurism in the opening, it will establish the obsession the male character has on the teenager and show what the character wants to watch in her.


The third convention I would like to include in our thriller opening is definitely Mise en Scene. It will identify the costumes, props which will establish to the audience the location and the personality of the characters by portraying what they tend to wear which will show their occupation. Mise en scene also involves the lighting in the scene and as the general lighting in thrillers tend to be quite dark and dim so I think in our opening we should aim to make the scenes and shots look gloomy and mysterious which will help give an eerie feel to the audience. In the opening we will use certain props to give a feel to the audience of what for example the male character is capable of, such as, we will present a notebook in the scene to demonstrate the obsession he has with the teenage girl.

The Conventions of Our Thriller- Aimee

There are four conventions of a Thriller that I would like to incorporate into our opening, these are just four of the many Thriller conventions that there are.

The first convention is Voyeurism. Voyeurism is a situation when someone is oblivious they are being watched  and the voyeur does not relate directly with the subject of his interest.  It is one of the top conventions I would like to see in our Thriller opening because our Thriller is about a girl who is being stalked but is unsure of it and the element of voyeurism will give the opening an eerie effect as the male character is spying upon her. A Thriller that I have previously looked at that incorporates Voyeurism is Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. This is a Thriller about a man who ends up with a broken leg and cannot leave his building so he spies on his neighbours through his window (making you an accomplice in his voyeuristic self-assurance, which I would like our Thriller to do) and unravels some private secrets of neighbours.

A convention that will be in our Thriller is Crime which is the main foundation of our film, the micro element will be mystery as I want the audience to keep guessing throughout the start of the film why the man is stalking the teenage girl. I think that featuring crime into the storyline will excite the audience as they know what is happening to the characters but they want to wait and see what will occur which keeps there attention drawn. The Thriller will start with a girl being stalked over a social networking site the police are then involved to reveal whoever is doing this. The audience know who the stalker is, they just don't know if the police will find him, so they carry on watching to find out.

A convention which I believe is an important aspect of our Thriller must be Mise-en-scene which involves lighting, costume, location and props. The situations that the protagonist is in will reflect how the Mise en-scene is and build up the scene to show the audience what is going to happen and if that scene is going to be positive or negative. In the start of our Thriller without the protagonist knowing the antagonist is watching and creating a book of the times he has stalked the female character, this will be a dark setting with a murky location and specific props to show us the situation is unsafe . The scene previous to this though will be the girl in her normal situation which will be a happier setting as the audience do not know the dangerous and dodgy situation she will be in. The different situations contrast each other reflecting the contrasts the protagonist is in.

Idea of the antagonist ensnaring the protagonist is another last convention that I believe will be a strong element to the Thriller. As the antagonist's stalking motives get stronger the character getting stalked starts feeling more trapped and feeling as if the stalker is catching her until she feels isolated and helpless. This will incorporate a side to the Thriller which makes people worried about the girl and creates a feeling of hatred towards the stalker.The hatred towards the stalker will make the audience feel snared as they are an accomplice in his voyeurism, and want to watch on to make sure that he is caught.