Alternative Sequence Ideas

Alternative Idea 1

Opening close up shot of a scruffy looking man sat with his head down leaning forward tapping his heels nervously with clearly audible band music. The shot zooms out to reveal him in a bar with his guitar surrounded by people looking to a stage. The woman sat beside him comforts him reassuringly, kisses his cheek, they exchange a glance and he joins in watching the stage looking somewhat calmer. There is a faint sound of the bar door opening and he peers over.

Next, a low angle, medium long shot of bar door as two burly, aggressive looking men in matching suits and black leather jackets stand at the bar entrance looking around, searching for someone.

Another close up shot of the man’s face looking shocked which cuts to a medium shot of him quickly finishing his drink, grabbing his bag, whispering in the woman’s ear, kissing her goodbye and swiftly moving off camera.

Then a high angle long shot of the bar, as if perceived from a corner or CCTV camera, of the man making his way through the crowd to the back exit avoiding the men searching through the other end of it.

A long shot of the exit corridor as the man, whilst trying to move down the corridor, reaches in his bag, kicks off his shoes, pulls off his jeans to reveal a pair of trousers, changes his shoes, removes his shirt to reveal a different t-shirt beneath and puts on a suit jacket from his bag.

A medium close up shot from the side of the bar back exit door as it opens and the character pokes out his head to look around. He then steps out, the camera panning to follow him and slowly zooming out to medium shot as he looks around further and spot some nearby bins which he throws his bag in. He then reaches into his inner pocket, pulls out a wig, puts it on, pulls out a pair of glasses, puts these on and walks off camera.

The man walks around the corner and smirks as he passes the unknowing, confused looking, burly men outside the bar. He turns into a nearby alleyway and just begins to jog away as he hears a scream. He swiftly presses himself against the wall and peers around the corner just in time to see the men dragging the woman he was with at the bar into the back of a van and it driving away.

The man’s phone rings, he looks at it horrified for a little while until eventually silently answering and pressing it to his ear to hear a sinister voice saying “Clearly you didn’t take our first threat very seriously, sir. And now look what’s happened.” followed by the woman’s voice crying out “Get off me!”, “Help!” etc. until it is muffled out. The sinister voice then continues; “And so it appears I have something of yours and you something of mine, so why not let’s make a trade, eh? I wouldn’t take too long deciding though if I were you, or else maybe your little ‘friend’ might have some kind of ‘accident’. She certainly seems like the clumsy type to me... You’ve got 12 hours.”

End Scene.

Preliminary Task

To get a feel for a camera and get used to filming we were asked to write up a storyboard of a short, approximately 30second long, Continuity Piece on whatever we wanted so long as we concentrated on sticking to the 180degree rule and the piece contained a match on action and to film it. The filming being the trickier part of this task, as we were not allowed to edit the footage in any way but instead had to use a precise stop/start recording method between all shots used and had to get the timing just right in order for the piece to flow well, which proved to be difficult, but also taught a valuable lesson of not wasting screen time and making each shot more efficient. I chose to not have dialogue in my script, partly because it was easier, partly because I dislike the birmingham accent on film but mostly because it just seemed really unnecessary.

(Storyboard not yet uploaded but has been scanned, is just on home desktop so have not yet had chance to access the file)

Cinema Box Office Grosses for Thrillers

This here is a list of the Top 25 bestselling Thriller films of all time and how much they made in their time at the box office. From these listings I can gather what sort of thriller films appeal to the majority of the population of the audience the best and what style of thriller film people enjoy most.

  1. Airport -$100, 489, 150
  2. Rear Window - $27, 559, 601
  3. Sixth Sense - $293, 506, 292
  4. The Fugative - $183, 875, 760
  5. Signs - $227, 965, 690
  6. Fatal Attraction - $156, 645, 693
  7. The Firm - $158, 340, 892
  8. The DaVinci Code - $217, 536, 138
  9. Wht Lies Beneath - $155, 464, 351
  10. The Silence of the Lambs - $130, 726, 716
  11. The Hunt for Red October - $120, 709, 866
  12. The Bodygaurd - $121, 945, 720
  13. Basic Instinct - $117, 727, 224
  14. Airport 1975 - $47, 285, 142
  15. In the Line of Fire - $102, 243, 874
  16. War Games - $74, 433, 837
  17. Se7en - $100, 125, 643
  18. Sleeping with the Enemy - $101, 599, 005
  19. Taken - $145, 000, 989
  20. Presumed Innocent - $86, 303, 188
  21. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle - $88, 036, 683
  22. Angels & Demons - $133, 375, 846
  23. Witness - $65, 532, 576
  24. The Village - $114, 197, 520
  25. Vanilla Sky - $100, 614, 858
From this information I've been able to gather that people appear to thouroughly enjoy a Thriller containing some sort of a conspiracy (eg. The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Village, Signs, The Sixth Sense, Se7en) so I will strive to include this into my own piece. It is also apparent people enjoy thrillers to possess some of the aspects of Horrors without having the full set of fearmongering, bloodcurdling artillery they have but to still have a certain element of the shock factor and to be sinister and dark so I feel this may also be a useful component to add.

Codes & Conventions

Codes are a system of signs and symbols, usually organised in sequences, to create a message or meaning. Conventions are the accepted ways of doing things and could be seen as being almost ritual. They are also genre specific as each genre has it's own set of codes and conventions that it adheres to, otherwise the genres would not be individual or distinguishable from one another in any way. Codes and Conventions of Media can be divided into three groups:
  • Technical -In which camera techniques and shots are used in order to put across or amplify certain emotional influences eg. A shakey handheld camera being used in horror to amplify fear or a low angle shot being used to display a person as a figure of authority/power.
  • Symbolic - In which clothing, setting, props, colours and other visual stimulus are used in order to influence the viewers feelings and opinions eg. dark, greyscale shots used for a more morbid tone or brightly coloured clothing and props being used to appear more upbeat.
  • Written & Audio - In which the scripted text and sounds (diegetic or non) used will effect the audience's response eg. Quick, sharp, high pitched sounds in thriller and horror movies that will jolt and suprise them or the scripting itself of what must be said and in what way, the body language and actions being used.
Codes and Conventions of Romantic Comedy (or Rom Com):
  • Appeals to mass audiences of those in love or wishing to be.
  • Shows an obvious couple who and put through some sort of testing or series of misfortunate adventures designed to keep them apart until the happy ending, which is usually marriage.
  • Characters in love are probably going to behave in strange or odd ways - Comedic value.
  • Typical Male-Female heterosexual relationships.
  • Attractive protagonists, especially usually the female.
  • A lot of flirting involved.
  • Very cliché in their ideas of what 'Love' is.
  • Scenes of nudity, sex and intimacy.
  • Colour use - Red is a colour of love, sexuality and passion, White is purity and innocence, Pink is love, intimacy and femininity.
  • Male protagonists will make a first few failed attempts to impress the female protagonist, which provides more comedic value.
  • Characters start out as strangers and seperate storylines until their paths meet.
  • Soft, Romantic or catchy music used throughout.
  • Usually known for being 'Chick Flicks' as they tend to have more female than male fans and followers.
Codes and Conventions of Horror:
  • Lots of Sharp, quick, singular, high-pitched or disturbing noises.
  • Lots of darkness and shadows to hide the unknown.
  • Designed to create fear, panic, alarm and dread.
  • Invokes our hidden worst fears.
  • Captivates the audience enough so that they are still interested in watching and seeing what happens next regardless of all the fear and shock induced.
  • Usually build suspense towards concluding in some grand shocking Finale.
  • Commonly known to attack human fears of: Alienation, Vulnerability, Nightmares, The Unknown, Death, Sexuality and Loss of Identity.
  • There is always a protagonist who may not be, at first, apparent to the audience but will inevitably survive to the end scenes.
  • The antagonist(s) will always follow a trait or certain way of doing things which is specific to them eg. The way they kill.
  • Will usually involved murder, maiming and gore.
  • Seen as a battle of good and evil where good will often stand victorious even after times have seemed darkest and most inescapable.
Codes and Convention of Thriller:
  • Involves lots of cut shots and different angles used.
  • Music that can be calm or tension building when needed.
  • Harsh and abrasive sounds
  • Uses a lot of darkness and shadows in lighting.
  • Blurred, flickered, distorted or faded shots.
  • Psychological; keeps the audience thinking and guessing and so keeps the audience's attention.
  • Involves ordinary characters in extraordinary situations.
  • Clues laced into the plot/script throughout the film, sometimes focused on in a grand flashback montage in the final scene, an epiphany.
  • There is often a twist at the dénouement of the text.
  • Audience gets to view itself as detectives - trying to work out what will happen and where the plot is leading to.
  • Explores the darker sides of human emotion - Revenge, obsession, hatred, greed, regret, concealment, escapism, passion etc.
  • The tone of the piece is usually a Dark or Sinister one, giving a feeling on the whole of being mysterious, cold or bleak.
  • Involves a protagonist or two facing a great challenge at high costs, which will usually be at the cost of someone's life, in a short or limited time.
  • Should open with revealing some of the significant theme/a later, intense scene from the text and/or a character introduction, but making sure not to reveal too much or any crucial information.
  • Physical violence and obscenity and usage of prop weaponry eg. guns and knives.
  • Should seek to indulge the audience into the world of the film and encapsulate them in it.
  • Plot must grip audience attention and entice them into wanting to watch the story unfold and wait, hesitantly, for the final outcome.
  • Usually given higher age approvals of 15 or 18 as are directed more at an adult audience than children; delves into the darker depths of the human psyche.
  • Opening Titles/Credits - Bold, Deep Colours with a block or fragmented font, with some sort of distortion or aggression about them.
  • Begins with Protagonist introduction (Victim/Hero/Villain)
  • Villain is usually male due to a sexist view of power and dominance and a stereotype of a killer/evil being. Victim is usually female, or a child, or both (Commando) as they are seen as being more helpless, innocent and vulnerable.
  • Storyline not necessarily in chronological order.
  • Dark costume; represents evil, sinister, dark side of a character.