Synopsis of our film and brain storming of names

Synopsis:

After brain storming our characters we have officially come up with a story to our film:

Telling the story

Our story is about a couple that is in love. After years of searching for her match Adrianna finds the love of her life. As for Mike after a dreadful childhood he has found Adrianna who makes him better but this doesn't mean he has recovered. They decide to get engaged, as they are so happy. Waiting for their wedding and in preparation things start to change. Mike starts to come home late and Adrianna doesn't ask in the beginning, as she truly trusts him. Meanwhile dreadful things happen where women are found dead with missing spleens. These women are found raped, torched and murdered. As these murders are extremely horrific they are shown in the news and the murderer is given a name. Every headline says Spleen has murdered another woman, Spleen the horrific woman killer, Another Spleen missing from the victim. The name Spleen has become the name for this murderer. Adriana is so frightened about this murder and while watching the news one day remembers Mike having talked about how his mother was murdered and her Spleen was missing. Confused she decides to tell him and he is frustrated with her and replies " Don't be ridiculous this has nothing to do with my mother". This is the first clue for Adriana of Mike being Spleen but yet does not realize.

While these horrific murders are going on Mike tells Adrianna to not leave the house even to go to work because he claims he is frightened for her life. Adrianna is not delighted at what he has said because he believes he has the right to come home late and sometimes not even come without an explanation. They have an argument and Adrianna decides to do some cleaning while putting clothes in the washers she finds a piece of paper in his pocket in writing " I WILL KILL YOU". This is the second clue to him being Spleen but again she does not realize and as she does not want to loss him. So she decides to not mention this as they have just had an argument. During the next few days everything starts to get better and there relationship starts to feel stable once again. Nevertheless this does not last long and there arguments begin. Spleen is always acting weird the crimes are getting worse where some bodies are even found. Their relationship is getting worse and Adriana finds more arguments and clues. The thought of him being Spleen crosses her mind but she ignores this, as she does not want to believe in him being Spleen. Instead she convinces her self he is being unfaithful that's why he is acting weird.

As a result Adrianna decides to talk to her friend Jude. Meanwhile there are suspects of whom Spleen may be and the audience is not aware that Spleen is actually Mike.

Believing Mike’s friend John is the killer. The audience is convinced that Mike is demand possessed therefore having a corrupt relationship with Adrianna and not being able to be Normal. The truth is Mike is suffering from schizophrenia having two personalities making him kill these women. He is suffering from schizophrenia because of his horrific childhood where his mother was battered and abused by his father and was found murdered with her Spleen missing. This is the symbolic reason he takes Spleens from woman and chooses woman as his victim as this is what he has seen from his father.

Adrianna is depressed, as her relationship with Mike does not seem to be getting any better but getting worse. Although it is becoming horrific nor she or Mike break up with each other as they are still in love. Mike begins to become abusive towards Adriana as well. The murders at this point have stooped and the focus is Mike and Adriana's relationship. Jude significantly worried about Adriana, as she knows everything that is happening to her. Adriana has lost everything in her life since she has meet Mike her job, dignity, life and freedom. At this point John is taken into prison as being the murderer for the woman that has died. Jude can no longer stand Adriana's position and decides to speak to Mike. Mike decides his next victim will be Jude and at this point the audience will start to understand that Mike is the actual killer (Spleen) of the Woman. The next day Jude is found dead and Adrianna is called at the death scene. Adrianna is given a note where she is asked to have a look and speak to the police is she has any idea of what this note may mean. As the police believe she has committed suicide. Adrianna looks at this note where there are unexplainable images and then her eye catches a specific writing, which she notices. It’s the note she had found in Mikes clothes while washing "I WILL KILL YOU". This is the moment she realizes everything and puts all the clues together. The police have also found out that Jude did not commit suicide as her spleen is missing. Everything becomes clear at this point, that John is not Spleen but Mike is and Mike was not demand possessed but suffering from schizophrenia.

Adrianna decides to go to the police where Mike is aware that she has realized everything he goes after her to kill her and himself. He decides this will be the ending to his story. But will Adrianna be saved? Will they both die? Will Adrianna kill him? The ending will be left with a cliffhanger.

Name of film:


Now that we have a story to our film we need to decide what our film should be called and the names we have come up with is:

• Spleen
• Possession
• Beauty and the Beast
• Beastly
• Sealed with love
• Double life
• Love that cant be handled
• The man
• Stranger
• Evil
• Evidence
• The man at Dawn

Now we can only choose one name and collectively we have decided that we will go with Possession. This is because the audience are going to believe Mike is demon possessed. I think this tittle would work because it follows the forms and conventions of a thriller. As there is mystery in the film we are creating mystery and enigma by using this tittle as the truth is not obvious but will seem obvious to the viewers when they read the tittle. Using Possession will make the audience realise that the tittle isn't as obvious as they thought after watching the film. Hence the enigma will be revealed at the end where they are aware he suffers from schizophrenia.

Brainstorming of characters and the potential story

The main character could be Spleen, who is a guy who suffers from schizophrenia, which makes him have two split personalities.

Spleens role:

Therefore one of the personalities is where he obtains a normal lifestyle and the other is more complex and violent, he has two separate states of minds and memories for each of the personalities. Each of his victims has a spleen missing and there doesn’t seem to have a particular reason other than it could be symbolic (something personal to him)

The second character could be called Adriana, where she is a secretary in a law firm. Therefore she is in a middle class profession.

Adriana’s role:

She has recently been engaged with the love of her life that she has been with around 4 months. This is Spleen but the audience will not know this. Neither does she till the end of the film.  During their relationship a lot of problems start to emerge such as her boyfriend coming home really late without a genuine reason and he does not remember where he was. Over a period of time she starts having doubts and begins to wonder whether her boyfriend is being truthful and faithful to her. She will begin to notice certain things and then she decides to search through his stuff when he is not at home and she finds a note that says I will kill you.

Jude is Adriana’s closest friend and they share everything with each other.

Jude’s role:

Adriana begins to talk more about Spleen and the problems they have and Jude starts to get worried about Adriana’s relationship and decides to speak to Spleen without Adriana knowing. The next day she is found dead and Adriana immediately receives this information and is invited to the scene of crime for her to give any clues that the police could find useful. Adriana is given a note by the police, which they ask her to assess and let them know if she finds anything familiar being best friends with Jude. When she gets home, she picks up the note and sees many unexplainable images such as drawings of Spleen and then she notices the original writing, which she seen before in Spleen coat.

We could also have more female characters those who are the victims of Spleen because of his violent side that makes him kill women. Usually ones that are in a relationship due to the fact he is in a relationship himself which is one of the few connections that police actually found, but could not explain the reason for it. Also we could have an inspector or a detective who could represent the criminal side and a professional insight and opinions from the killings, which will be the main information source for the audience.

Audience research on thrillers

I have done some research on potencial audience for our thriller from conducting a survey and finding out if people go to the cinema to watch films. What I plan to find out is what age groups watch thrillers and genders. As a result this gives me an understanding of the link between thrillers, age, gender and potencially class.

Target market research

What I have learnt from watching opening sequences:

After watching opening sequences of thriller movies I have realised that sound, mise en scene, locations, lighting and costumes play an important role for the elements of a thriller. For example if you shot a man in a suit with a rose in central London and in high key lighting, majority of people will say he is romantic in an upper profession and probably assume he is a good person. But where you place the same man with a rose in an alley way dressed in ripped and black clothes with low key lighting, majority people will assume he is dangerous and a bad person. This is due to the way in which representations are made of specific people and places so therefore there is a connotation attached to costumes, lighting, mise en scene and sound. As a result when we are filming and editing we must think about the way in which we present the footage in order to provide the intended result. For example when we want to create suspense, enigma and excitement we must choose the right location usually dark places are ideal locations such as a park. The sound we are using must be mysterious, creepy, concealed and be horror like in order to give the audience suspense, enigma and excitement. Therefore everything we do during production, pre production, filming and editing must be thought through thoroughly and we must always think about the opening sequences we have watched in order to produce a good outcome. Additionally fast paste editing with short lengths of tittles work well as the audience can stay hooked into the film. I have also learned that white text with black background work well for tittles and make a film look skilled.

In conclusion I plan to use these elements of a thriller that I have seen in the opening sequences I viewed particularly Se7en.




 

Forms and Conventions of thrillers:

Genre which follows specific devices in order to create a certain effect.

Music: The music used is usually tense mainly concealed. Starts of slow and then quickens the pace becoming dramatic.

Pace: The pace is usually quick and fast especially when there are loads of events. But it is slower where the protagonist is trying to figure out what to do.

Themes: Pain, isolation, revenge, obsession, love, passion, psychological, outcast, corrupt childhood, jealously, vulnerability etc.

Mystery: Enigma will run throughout the film and it is usually answered right at the end of the film. The antagonist or protagonist will work out plot in the end.

Mise-en-scene: To make the film look realistic thrillers are usually based in cities that contain diversity and culture so lots of action can take place. This is done so the crime committed can be seen normal. The costumes are mainly casual so the antagonist and protagonist can look like the rest of city where the audience cannot distinguish who is who. Therefore all characters are everyday people. Additionally the props used are usually knifes, guns and weapons.

Gender: Stereotypically the male is usually the main character being active and saving the female. Usually the antagonist is usually a male. The protagonist can be a mixture of female and male.

Brain storm of forms and conventions:

·         Enigma

·        Suspense

·        Violence

·  Blood

·        Darkness

·        Low key lighting

·        Crime

·      Guns

·        Weapons

·        Action

·        Protagonist and antagonist

·        Mystery

Opening sequence of Taken

This is Taken which is a Action thriller. This film starts of with the logo of the Distributor, which is 20th fox century. Then it moves on to a tittle which has white writing with a black background. This is precisely how Se7en and Frozen uses tittles. Through viewing the tittles in all three films and seeing how they are all presented (all presented in the same way) shows that using white text on a background makes the opening sequence of a film idealistic, skilled and factual.

The film moves onto a little girl who is opening a present meanwhile there is tittles in the shot as well. We can hear the girl laughing and voices with music in the back ground. As the film shows this girl the viewers can understand that she has an Importance in the film as it starts of with her. The music and editing creates mystery and suspense because we do not yet understand what relevance this shot has with the film. The tittles are still shown while we are watching the film (little girl). This allows the viewer to be interested in the film rather than being disinterested because there are so many titles being used. Therefore tittles are shown with the film making the viewer interested as well as providing inf formation When we are watching the little girl celebrating her birthday the fast editing of the mother bringing the cake makes us wonder if its an illusion or dream. We are reassured that it is a dream when there is an immediate transition from the birthday scene to a man opening his eyes and jumps as if hes just seen a dream. The sound also creates mystery and allows the us to wonder if the birthday is a dream or illusion as it is calm and enigmatic. The tittles are quite plain and written in white. We then see the man putting a photo on the table where the final tittle is the placed right next to the photo, which is the name of the film Taken. The fact that the name of the film is the last tittle is effective because we are able to focus on the name and watch the film trying to make a link, to the narrative. Also because the name of the film is put next to the photo we are being told something about the narrative that we yet do no know. At 1.33 till 2.00 the film has began with no more tittles needed.   

This is where I viewed Taken. Again this is the entire film but I only watched two minutes of the film to help me understand how they have created there opening sequences.

Opening Sequence Frozen

I have watched two minutes of the film Frozen since our film can only be a maximum of two minutes. Frozen is a psychological thriller whereas se7en is a thriller. This link below is the entire but i have only viewed the two minutes of the film. During the two minutes I realised that the film does not provide a lot of information about the production company, cast and crew. By contrast Se7en has a lot going on providing the production, cast and crew as well as using forms and conventions within the opening sequence. However this film only uses three titles including Anchor Bay Films presents, In Association with Bigger Boats and An A Bigger Boat/ArieScope Pictures Production. From there, there is close up  and extreme close up shots of a wheel turning and things attached to the wheel, such as the rope. This is done to make the viewers feel mystery and suspense and because it focuses on the wheel, this shows it has an importance for the future so it will help the narrative as they have focused on this. Alongside we are shown a mountain and a appear transition is used where we are shown another tittle which says Frozen. Therefore only four tittles are used including the tittle of the film. After we are shown the mountain through a pan and from there the film begins.

 

This films opening sequence is very different to Se7en where there is little information about the the production such as who the music is by, the editor and director and so on. Also the film does not necessarily grab the audience into the film within the two minutes. There also isn't a lot of elements of a thriller apart from the close/extreme close up shots of the wheel which creates suspense and mystery. Se7en creates mystery, suspense, enigma, excitement and a thrill through various ways. Such as music, editing, mise en scene sound and camera angels. In conclusion of making a comparison between the opening sequences of Frozen and Se7en I preferred Se7en and would like to create my opening sequence by using the forms and conventions used in Se7en of thrillers.