This mood board shows the over all mood of our title sequence. The use of silhouettes shows he mystery in the title sequence. An older man is yelling at a young girl, this shows our plot where the father blames the teenager for the death of her brother, which is why we have included a car crash as well as the word guilt, murder and careless. The train station shows how the girl killed herself and the words depression, murder and the photo of the girl clenching her head with papers stuck to the wall giving a depressing tone. We have also included images of alcohol as alcoholism is a strong theme in our film idea which is why we have included the word alcoholism. The use of police shows that something has happened involving crime, which is why we also included the word crime. The father has lost himself and lives in a mess therefore we included an image of a broken family photo and piled up papers and envelopes.

13th January 2015

1. what did you do?

- today we worked on finding and listing each and every prop that we will need for our final shoot, and creating a Scene Outline, giving us a visual idea for when we film our opening sequence.

2. targets/to do list

- Buy the props that we don't already have, as well as completing our Scene Outline. Also asking our main actors and back ups if they are free for our shoot.

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- getting all the props together and finding where to buy them. as well as making sure our back ups don't back out as well as our first choices.

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15th December 2014

1. what did you do?

- today we worked on finalizing our decisions on the actors we will be using, the props, location and the durations we will spending in each location, set design etc. 

2. targets/to do list

- finish the task as we need to include greater detail in each section

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- getting all the props together as well as making sure our back ups don't back out as well as our first choices

 

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1st December 2014

1. what did you do?

- today we worked on our story board and decided what kind of shots we want as well as the action in the shot for the whole sequence

2. targets/to do list

- finish story board drawings before Friday

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- making sure that the story board is clear and all the shots included will create enough suspense
- we made good progress 

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25th November 2014

1. what did you do?

- today we pitched our idea to matt. we got good feedback that led us to change the point of view for our story instead of changing the whole thing. We decided to tell the story in the point of view of the father instead of just as a general story, we needed to make one character likable to the audience and have a personal connection with. This then meant we had to change our opening sequence completely, which we did. We decided to have a sequence in the character house, this will involve a lot of mise en scene, then there will be a pan of family pictures, as well as many more of his work and files etc. Then we see the character sitting down then getting frustrated at some noise outside, showing his angry and aggressive character. He then receives a phone call and his facial expression changes, he drops the phone and sets off running and we are left with a voice on the phone going 'Hello? Hello? Are you still there? HELLO?!?'

2. targets/to do list

- complete the story board for our new opening sequence

- decide on location

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- building the tension correctly and effectively is a concern

- we managed to quickly and efficiently find a solution to the problem and came up with a better idea

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24th November 2014

1. what did you do?

- today we came up with a new story line and opening sequence that made our thriller more unique. We decided to have an opening sequence that includes a depressed teenage girl walking through a train station and eventually jumping in front of a train, as well as having a shot where her father receives a call about the girl building the tension further.

2. targets/to do list

- do the story board of our new opening sequence

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- being ready to present to matt by tomorrow

- we managed to come up with a good story line and opening sequence quickly and we did our rough shoot of it in activities

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21st November 2014

1. what did you do?

- we went through our rough shoot and realized that we needed more detail and context within our narrative. We brainstormed new ideas for our thriller but have not made a definite decision yet, hopefully we will communicate over the weekend and work out what we want to do

2. targets/to do list

- make a definite choice about the story line of the thriller

- look at story board and how it will work

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- worried about getting it done in time, we are falling behind because were still unsure about our plot as well as the fact that we need to pitch our idea to Matt on Tuesday

- we brainstormed some good ideas that could potentially work and be very effective

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20th November 2014

1. what did you do?

- we filmed our rough shoot and focused on camera angles and movement. We filmed behind the tennis courts and found that we want to change our location 

2. targets/to do list

- look through the shots we created and see what worked and what did not

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- location is still a concern as we are undecided about whether or not we want the scene to be inside or outside

- we managed to get it all done, because we knew what we were doing and finished quickly

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19th November 2014

1. what did you do?

- we finished the story board for rough version of the thriller opening sequence

- we abbreviated the story line, due to the fact that the idea of having a vampire in the sequence was bordering on a horror supernatural genre we decided to change the antagonist to a murderer

- we decided on two locations that we will be evaluating which is best, one of which is behind the tennis courts and the other is behind the lodge. We will film two different versions at the different locations to contrast them and see which location is more effective

- we decided to meet in activities so that we can try filming when the sun goes down

2. targets/to do list

- make sure we manage to film both sequences in time

- find actors

- bring and find props

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- worried about the fact that it is more difficult to film at night rather than during the day, but it would be much more effective to do at night

- we got a lot done in this lesson which was needed however we still need to resolve the issue about the shadow which will hopefully be taken care of when we go out and film tomorrow

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18th November 2014

1. what did you do?

 - we worked on the story board. We worked on the first 4 shots, they are rough ideas as we still don't have a clear idea on what our location would be and we wanted to make sure Georgina could have some input in the decision as well. We need to decide what we are going to do for the shadow shot as we will be filming in the daylight.

2. targets/to do list

- finish story board -> making sure everything within it is possible 

- decide on a location for the shoot on thursday

3. worries/concerns vs. good & went well

- figuring out how we will be creating the shadow shot, as the shadow makes the scene more of a thriller rather than a horror

- we have a good story line and a creative team with exciting ideas to make our piece individual and thrilling

Horror Thrillers

There are several similarities in the 3 horror-thriller films, Friday the 13th, The Woman in Black and Insidious: Chapter 2. In relevance to the characters the protagonist in all three of the movies are male characters, this gives us an idea of the institution's target audience. As well as both Insidious and Woman in Black include a young boy at around the age of 8-10 who both get hurt throughout the film. Friday the 13th include teenagers who also either get killed or are hurt, similar to the other two films. When looking at themes and moods, all three movies use similar colour schemes of dark blue and black to emphasize the tension and the horror in the films. In relation to setting both Friday the 13th and Woman in Black are set in the forest and the country side to show isolation which therefore conveys horror. The old house in Woman in Black is very dark, melancholic and far from picturesque, similar to the 'demon's' house in Insidious and the cabin in Friday 13th. All three movies use intense, loud and dramatic music throughout the film to show suspense and add to the drama, making the audience apprehensive and scared. All three movies use the themes of death and murder.

The sub genre that would coincide with the opening sequence that my group decided on would be Crime-Thriller. It is also one of my favourite kinds of thriller sub-genre because it has clever story lines that make the audience think instead of being disgusted by the horror and gore played in horror thrillers.

 Genre is a relevant concept for audiences because not only does it allow them to recognize the plot of the film, but it gives them the opportunity to either watch the trailer, browse the film web page or view the posters of the film and decide whether or not the film will suit their interest.

The film production companies rely on genre heavily to find a target audience. It allows them to know who will be watching it and how much they might make from the film. They are also able to know how to advertise their film and go about the media text distribution.

Genre enables film distribution companies to choose a specific target audience that are most likely to go and watch the film, as well as aiding them in designing the campaign posters and the webpage for the film seeing as they are aware of qualities that need to be included in portraying the genre of the film. For example, thriller posters usually include dark colours to convey tension such as in the Insidious: Chapter 2 Poster. However, a comedy movie like We Are the Millers use bright colours to suggest an entirely different mood.

There are several different thriller films that have key differences that make them unique for example The Silence of the Lambs is a horror thriller and includes a lot of gore and blood however Into the Storm is a disaster thriller which includes tornado seekers and creates a thrilling effect through the characters playing with life or death.Other thriller films that are very different would be Constantine, The Name of the Rose, The Exorcist because they have a religious aspect to them, making them unique and interesting for the audience. 

The two different thriller films that I chose are The Cabin in the Woods and Insidious.

Cabin in the woods and insidious share the trait of the same genre however the characters differ very much. In cabin in the woods, by the end of the film we see the reason behind the chosen characters, being the athlete, the scholar, the virgin, the whore and the fool however in Insidious we are shown a typical family of 4 who then become introduced to several characters in the boys head. 

 

Ghoul

Lipstick Face-Demon

The Virgin

The fool

The athlete

The scholar

The whore

Another aspect that differs in the two movies is mise en scene. In cabin in the woods we see a close to empty cabin, where there is very little mise en scene, however we do see a lot of props and things in the basement where the characters begin to see the creepy aspects of the house. They find a diary, toy chest, puzzle, amulet, tape recording, an old sword etc. The interesting aspect of mise en scene that is used in cabin in the woods is all the objects that they find are a subtle symbolic way in which they will die i.e the music box meant they would be killed by the sugar plumb fairy. In Insidious, however a main part of mise en scene that affects the narrative are the drawing that the young boy draws. They create a dark atmospheric tone to the film and give the audience a sense of being on the edge.

When comparing narratives you can see the difference as Cabin in the Woods almost has a comical aspect to it where as Insidious is more on the horror side of thriller. Both movies have gory moments however insidious is scarier where as the gore in Cabin in the woods is relatively comical. Cabin in the Woods also can be identified as a comical thriller due to the fact that there are two realities in the film, one relating to thriller and the unknown and the other is controlling the later.

The similarities however between the two films would be that at the beginning there is a sense of normality and calm and it slowly escalates into a greater, thrilling narrative. Both films are similar in the tone that they create in the creepy rooms, the boys room has dark lighting and it is hard to see which is also the kind of lighting used in the basement when the 5 characters in Cabin in the Woods are discovering the objects. From an audience's perspective we can see that both films have a normal beginning then a climactic build up to the tension filled climax. The Virgin in Cabin in the Woods fulfills the same function as the father in Insidious as both characters have to sacrifice themselves and are left alone to do so to resolve the issue in the narrative.

Today we had our first production meeting, we all shared our ideas and contributed to what our final thriller piece would be. I shared my idea about the teenage girl who gets possessed and turned into a vampire, my group quite liked the idea and thought it would be a piece we could work with in all aspects. i.e. the editing would be black and white with red lips or her white vampire teeth with blood on them. We also talked about the possibility of doing it at brick lane or in the woods, but we felt that the streets would be more effective as a type of location for the story line. We bonded in our first meeting and I'm very happy with the group I was put in as we all have very creative minds but we work well together.

In our group we talked about possibly filming the thriller sequence at brick lane, so I took the liberty of going to brick lane and taking some photos for future reference.