Possible Ideas

Destination: Graveyard, Local Park, My House.

I chose the graveyard as one option because my character is caught in a nightmare. Most common nightmare scenes are graveyard scenes in my opinion. it would help enhance the mood i'm attempting to create and hopefully it would reach the audience and create a sence of unease and wearyness (but in a good thrilling way).

I chose a local park as my second choice of setting for the nightmare scene. Another common scene I believe is accustomed with nihtmares. It seems I was captivated by the thought of creepy sounds of laughing little girls/ girls playing in a park echoing through the wind.

I chose my house for the bedroom scene for basic conviniece and the fact that its easier for me to assemle the scene i've got in mind using my own room at close proximity for inspiration. Also I wouldn't have to ask for permission to arrange certain features in my own room.

Scene Settings: Daytime/Nighttime.

All of the above scenes are set at night but the problem i'm challenged with is the use of lighting at night to get a clear view of the scenes. I'm not confident in the use of artificial light to light my scenes at night hence why I will film during the day taking advantage of the natural light and editing the lighting conditions later to suit my vision of the film.

Props: lots of leaves, cobwebs, red bed covers, white curtains, Costume - white/cream flowy gown, glass (to break), black ski mask and gloves 

The leaves are to indicate the end of a season and the beginning s of another - Autumn.
The red bed coves are going to be used as mise-en-scene of the creeptic/dangerous atmosphere i'll be trying to illustrate. The red bed covers are also going to be used as a connotation of danger and blood and evil intent.
The white curtains however, are going to be a clashing factor with the covers to imply the innocence and victimisation of the character. Also to suggest perhaps the innocence of the victimisor (unintentional or confused intent).
The white/cream flowy gown will be worn by the protagonist and it will show her innocence and purity and indicate her possible venture out of innocence due to the cream colour envading the gown.
Black ski mask and gloves to create mystery at the beginning of the film or also used as a connotation of the boogeyman.

Storyline: A teenage girl, lost in her fragmented life manifests a relationship with a girl everyone knows as the 'popular girl'. Confused and manic twists and turns bring these girls together leading to a battle to stay alive. 

Shot concise and to the point. It tells you a typical story of cat and mouse without exposing the whole story. I think it is a audience grabber! :)

Actors: Both sexes exibited, teenagers, focused primarily on the female casts.

Expand on the audience range by including different sex orientation but focusing on teenagers. This is because teenagers are seen to watch more films than the average adult or child. Also I think I enjoy thriller movies about teenagers they have more thrill factor whereas, I believe adult thriller movies are more action packed or should be.
I just want to make a movie to relate to my age group. Also the casting for an adult thriller movie would have been inconvinient for me.

Thriller Movie Opening Idea (not my chosen opening idea)

My interesting attempt at a vlog.

This vlog is focused on the first ever idea I had for my thriller movie opening. As well as practicing some amateur editing techniques, I got to represent my ideas in a different way. Its main features include why I chose to go along with this idea and what the idea is in a nutshell. The fact that I felt as if my idea wasn't concrete enough and felt overwhelmingly cliché I decided on another idea. However i had fun creating this short clip and hope to further produce my editing skills, this aiding me in my future filming and editing skills.

The idea of using a standstill camera made it easier to film because there was less shaking visible when the filming was done. This helped improve the quality of the filming and keep the focus on what was happening on the screen. I had deliberately placed the camera at mid shot level and distance so the audience can maintain their concentration on the dialogue supplemented by my hand gestures illustrating different points on the poster placed behind me. I felt that limiting the distance and emphasising the space of focus helped the audience refrain from diverting their focus, for example on insignificant occurrences such as where I got the bunny slippers I was wearing or why my puppy was pulling at my pant leg.

A problem however came from my presentational skills when filming. I debated whether or not I should have written a script to assist me explain my poster because at points it seems the dialogue becomes informal/ repetitive. Also, sound issues came up because of the distance between me and the camera hence, why I had to speak louder and clearer to be comprehensible. In the end it was an effective solution because the dialogue was audible.

The editing was interesting because I got to experiment with different transitions and effects. I also got to play with different sounds working out timing and synchronisation. A problem came when deciding on the appropriate sound bite to include in my skit. Whether it should go where and for how long, in the end I succumbed to amusing myself with any song just to open the video and end it – to keep it simple.

Next time I plan on implementing a script possibly to improve the dialogue itself and remove and disruptions from the filming area before I decide to begin and plan the music and timing to complement the whole piece in completion.

Thriller Movie - Mood Board

Anotated Mood Board

With my mood board I tried to convey what I think when the genre ‘‘Thriller’’ comes to mind.

The different colour filters - black, greys and reds - give connotations and denotations accustomed to this colour and also imply the thriller genre in an objectified view point.

The black could be used to imply dark moods; dark practices, to hide things, to create mystery, or to introduce something unexpectedly resulting in a thrilling response (occasionally).

The red could be used to convey danger, blood, evil characters/atmosphere or harsh emotions such as anger.

I liked the colour filters I saw used in the opening sequence of the movie 'Vertigo' which we evaluated and I have adopted this into my own opening. I will be using a Black and White filter. I believe it will imply exactly what I’m aiming to convey to the audience. A cryptic feel of walking along in a cemetery through an illusion, either from a memory being revisited or a dream state and this displays an interesting dynamic being explored to open my film - as to grab the audience's attention.

I identified that the different Camera shots - especially close ups and extreme close ups - are mostly associated in indication and emphasis of facial expressions (eyes, mouth, hands) and sometimes body language (body trembling, shift of suspicion) when involved in a thriller movie. Another use for these camera movements is to convey mise-en-scene and imply on an object in a scene as example ''a gun'' in a thriller/action - to imply the importance that gun will play in the scene whether it is about to be used to kill someone or has killed shot someone.

The mood board was easy to create after the research I’d done on the thriller genre. I was able to generalize the main aspects of the genre and represent it on my board accordingly to how I felt the genre was all about.

I do believe that it was difficult to summarise everything however the summarisation I have done on the mood board is in my opinion effective enough to convey to the audience what my research has imprinted on me as the thriller genre.

Film Genre

Film Genre

For the film genre research I wanted to make sure it was clear what genre was in film and the different aspects of genre in film e.g. action films, drama films to war films.


I attempted to make sure that I covered a range of genres. In doing this I ensured my understanding of what I observed through the term genre also the range it belongs to is mentioned and made clear, and hopefully also helps the reader reach the same outcome as I. That they reach an understanding of what each genre is about and that in film there are a range of genres to contend with and that those genres can be combined to create a film with a variety of characteristics to make it more interesting.

Thriller Genre

Thriller Genre

For my thriller genre research I looked at how the genre is constructed as a whole. I did this by addressing questions such as, ‘’what is a thriller?’’, and ‘’what elements constitute to the construction of the thriller genre as a whole’’. These characteristics interlink with what happens in thriller movies, clichés in thriller movies and identifies the memorable illustrations of how thriller movies are usually portrayed.

This research inspired me to construct a psychological thriller. Psychological thrillers appealed most to me through the response they roused from me when I watched a few - for example, Psycho, Prom Night and my all-time favourite Phone Booth. The responses I got from these films include shock, thrill, tension, suspicion, questioning and anticipation. This research has now given me an idea of how to use different elements and characteristics e.g. lighting or costume towards  the construction of my opening thriller.