Costume

For the present day scenes in the cafe the witness and killer will be dressed in ordinary clothes; jeans, top and jacket. The witness will be wearing the same coat as he was wearing during the estate scene, as will the killer be wearing the same shoes. These items of clothing may seem everyday but will allow the audience to identify the different character between the scenes. This will be particularly useful when the pace of the opening scene is at it's quickest showing second long shots.

In the estate scene, which will be shown as a flashback, the mob members will be dressed in dark clothing; jeans, hoodies/jumpers and balaclavas. The mob all wear the same type of balaclava, which I must admit I first thought wouldn't work due to the unlikely organisation. However once we got our cast together the look of them all having the same balaclava works really well, and creates a sense of unity and solidarity. A crowbar and metal pole will also be used as props in the scene, the main killer will have one of these props to highlight his importance.

The use of guns was discussed, but it was felt they would take away the realistic features violence scene. Also making it more an action thriller rather than the psychological thriller that we are aiming for. Clothing of the cafe and estate will be different apart from the witness's coat and the killers shoes, as mentioned before. The reason for changing the clothing is to show a change in day between the two events.

Sound In Thrillers

Sounds are used in thrillers to create a certain atmosphere for the audience, so they know what type of emotion to be feeling as each stage. A thriller film can control how the audience react with what type of sound or music they decide to use. Some sounds are used to build tension, others to build a sound bridge, some are even used to emphasis the reaction the audience has to the actions of a character.
The most common type of sound associated with thrillers are dark eerie pieces of music which build suspense, they tend to start slowly and then gradually grow. Such as this scene from Inception, which begins with slow music and on-edge tones and then the pace quickens the action becomes more intense. Also in this scene there is the use of non-diegetic sounds, such as the rain and gun shots, these are non-diegtic so the sound is emphasised so the audience takes more notice of them.

In this scene from The Departed there is no music or sound scape playing. The focus is on to what the two men say. Here the dialogue is more important. The scene also uses non-diegetic sound to emphasis the noise that the elevator is making and the gun shots. This scene isn't as suspenseful as the inception clip but shows how thrillers can use dialogue to be suspenseful and how they can have a dramatic twist.

Here the film The Dark Knight uses a range of sounds to build suspense. There's the music of strong deep notes that links to the actions and follows the pace of the action, the use of non-diegetic sounds such as gun fire, punching and batmans cape to emphasis these actions, and the use of dialogue to inform the audience of what's at stake, as we learn that the hostages have been mixed up and that Gorden's family are in trouble.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task is set by the exam board OCR to allow us to show our skills both filming and and on Imove editing the footage. The preliminary exercise was; to create a video including;

•  Continuity - a system of cutting used to suggest a progression of events in real time and space (no flashbacks, fade out dissolves etc JUST CUTS)
• Match on Action - where a shot of a character starting an action and the completing the action in the next shot  
• Shot/Reverse shot - this is an editing pattern that cut to the view in the opposite direction (used most often for dialogue)
• The 180 degree rule - Camera should be positioned on one side of the line of actions (within the 180 degree arc). Do not cross the line of action (place the camera on the other side of the line line of action).

Additional features where set by the teachers;

• Shot Variety – size and angles 
• Good Framing of shots
• Make us laugh!
• Music
• Everyone must have an appearance on screen
• Random object from the box!

Final Cut Practice

As I am A bit of  novice with using Final Cut Express I decided to practice using the program, editing a piece of footage. This also gave me the opportunity to using my Camera, which I will be using during filming as it is a higher quality then the schools cameras, so I also got to play around with the cameras filming functions.  Below are a series of effects that I applied to the video, I found practising using final cut was really helpful and has me more confident for when it comes to editing the actual thriller opening.

Opening Sequence

Shutter Island

The scene starts with the ship coming out of the fog heading towards Shutter Island, this creates an enigmatic atmosphere around the Island with out actually showing any of the island. Once on the island clues are left for the audience to take notice, some are very subtle for only the keenest fanatic will notice, where as others are shown to the audience either by the use of the camera directing the audience with close ups of objects/settings or by Teddy mentioning things, such as the barbed wire on the wall of the building.

In the opening sequence we are introduce to the main character Teddy Daniels on board the ship, the important feature about the ship is that it's a prison ship, and Teddy is willingly staying in the prison courtiers. The audience will be questioning why he is in this section of the ship. We see that the suit Teddy is wearing is slightly scruffy and ruffled, suggesting that he is not use to what he is wearing or is uncomfortable in the environment he is in.The lighting on Teddy's face has a chiaroscuro effect suggesting that the character has a split personality, or a hidden maybe darker side to his personality.
The establishing shots of the boat through the fog creates an enigma to the narrative and who is on the boat. This is continued with the close up shots of Teddy talking to himself in the mirror. 
Editing of the opening scene is relatively slow paced, as the film is just establishing the narrative and locations.

Reservoir Dogs

The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs is unconventional in comparison to what is expected of thriller films. The Film starts with A group of men in an American dinner, just finishing and about to leave. The costume of the men ranges from suits to casual wear, this suggests a variety of personalities with in the group, but nothing overly enigmatic or tension building. 
The as the men are walking down the street ,the fairly upbeat song Little Green Bag by George Baker begins to play and the credits begin. This music is again not connvetional for music used within a thriller, as it does not build tension and make the atmosphere eerie instead it makes the group seem cool and friendly to the audience. 
The the screen goes to black as the rest of the credits shown over the song. Yet as the credits are finishing, we hear in the background a person in pain screaming out. You can just about make out "I'm going to die". Suddenly the film has taken a dramatic turn, and created a confusing narrative. This will keep the audience interested as they will want to find out what happened to the man. 

Psycho 
The opening of this film relies heavily on the use of music of the opening credits which instantly creates tension with its high notes. The lines that go across the screen symbolises  prison bars and highlight at this early stage of the film the sense of entrapment, warning the audience someone will be in danger. 
When the film starts the camera goes through the window of the building and connotes the the idea of voyeurism  the audience feel as if they are looking in on someone, this can suggest that the people in the room may be doing something they shouldn't, as it feels as though the audience is spying in on them. 
As we are introduced to the character no real information about them is told to the audience and it make the characters more mysterious. The audience will be wondering who these people are and why they are there. Building tension around the couple. 

From analysing these films I have notices four key conventions of thriller openings.

Titles -
The opening titles are very important to set the tone of the film.

Storyline -
This is important with an film opening, however with thrillers the directior has to capture the attention of the audience with action and suspense, with out giving to much of the narrative away.So they still build tension.

Camera angles/shots -
How the camera is used is important in the opening of a thriller as it can tell the audience a lot about a location or character quickly. And when used effectively can build tension.

Music/Sound-
What music or sound scape is played at the start of the thriller can tell the audience a lot about the mood and tone of the film and can also build tension, like in Psycho. Or the film can challenge building tension and tell the audience that its going to be different, like in Reservoir Dogs.

Shutter Island Mindmap

Thriller Conventions

This was a task to test how much we know about thriller conventions, we made two lists one for General narrative theory and the other specific narrative theory for thrillers.

Brianstorm Narrative

In class we were given a set of different situations and features of thriller films and had to make different narrative stories for them. The task was to help us think about thriller conventions and narrative.

The Witness Powerpoint

Here is a Powerpoint which summarising our thriller opening.

Thriller from musicmakesmonet

 Today in class we were set to identify different audience types within the thriller conventions. To do this we looked at two different lists and descriptions of character types of audiences. The first was from media researcher Nielsen and the other was unknown.

Both broke the audiences up depending on the audiences spending, likes and dislikes. The two lists conflicted so when placing the character into a criteria only one of the list could be used. After deciding to use the unknown list we placed the characters into there section.

Street Location

 Another scouting job was for the location of the beating and murder, that will feature as our flash back. For this we decided the best location would be on a street or estate type location.  This location will include all the typical features of an area in poverty.

This is the proposed sit for the beating location, it is an unkept area with cracks in the pavement and road, overgrown weeds, broken fencing and walls, and bleak grey buildings. It's important that this setting looks rough so the action fits into the area. Also having it as a scuzzy environment will hopefully make it a more believable piece, making the audience feel that the area is actually unsafe. This will hopefully and to the thrilling aspect of the opening sequence. 

 As far as filming is concerned to get a dingy appearance, I think it would be best to film during and adding an effect later in the editing stage using final cut. This will mean that we can get the clarity of the shot during the day, as shooting when it is actually darker out may prove difficult without sufficient lighting, of which is not available to us. And the fact it is a flash back will mean we can add other effects then just making it darker, such as contrast adjustment and burring. A quick test I tried just using iPhoto with the image was to see how just by altering the contrast and saturation can create different effects to the photo. Obviously when using imovie the effects will be able to change it much more giving me further freedom to change the shot.

Cafe Location

The group and I decided to look for possible locations for the setting of our cafe scene, we decided to look at the cafes our local town, Bury St Edmunds, offers. Before looking the group and I set out a criteria of what we wanted for the cafe, it would have to resemble the grimy events happening. Yet we also decided to keep a relatively open mind for other cafes. 

With this in mind we looked at a range of cafes, from the high end shops such as The SO Bar, The Wilcroft and even the well know Starbucks. The reason we looked at these coffee shops was that even though they didn't fall into the criteria of being a grimy, lower-class environment. They would contradict this, a confront the stereotype. This would create mystery as if characters would not fit into the their surroundings, this could refer to the fact that the characters are in an uncomfortable place, a situation they are not use to. Yet it was thought this idea was too complex for the opening of the thriller so it was decided to not use a high quality coffee shop. 

This meant that we were going for a cafe, not coffee shop. And one that looked run-down, and cheap. It is important that the location incorporates these features as it will be the location our characters have their conversation. Therefore the location will be linked to the uncomfortable confrontational nature of the conversation and the type of people our characters are - low classed, one a vandal and thug, the other caught up in the wrong game because of his social class. 

From this we found two possible cafes, that could be used for our thriller opening. The first is 'North End Cafe', this cafe was a great example of what we were looking for. From the outside the building was starting to look very run down with an unkept outside eating area, chipped and dirty wall and the sign was broken around the edges. Even if the sign was in perfect condition the front and colour used on it have a cheap characteristic. Which links to the fact that the characters either have a dirty past or are breaking under the pressure/confusion. 

Inside the cafe, the furniture is dated and the general decor looks to be from another decade as the cafe has not undergone any developments or improvements. The lighting inside is also naturally dim, creating a natural shadowing effect. This is shown with both images inside, but in particular the one with Lew as he has been silhouetted by the restricted lighting. This will work we with the concept of hiding the killers face throughout the opening scene until the very end. 

Another cafe that has similar features to 'North Gate Cafe' was 'St. Andrews Cafe & Take Away'. This cafe also has features of cheapness, such as the cheap aluminum table and chairs and run-down building. 

Both of these cafes are on the same street, which in itself is poorly kept. This will mean that we will be able to use the surrounding area if we wanted outside shots. 

Director Study - David Fincher

David Fincher is a music and film diector, he is best know for his dark stylistic thrillers. After leaving Ashland High School in Oregon, Fincher did not go straight into directing film school but entered the film industry by getting a job at Korty Films, a film production company,  where he loaded cameras and did other hands on work.

David Fincher says he was first inspired by the 1969 film Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. The film is an adventure biographical film of the train/bank robber Robert LeRoy Parker better known as Butch Cassidy. 

Fincher has worked with various recording artists directing music videos for Madonna, Billy Idol, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. 

David Fincher's most noted awards in his time directing music videos and Express Yourself and Vogue both songs by Madonna. Express Yourself was the first time Fincher and Madonna collaborated together, the video was nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards, in 1989 winning Three; Best Cinematography, Best Direction and Best Art Direction.

 The Vogue music video was nominated for nine MTV video music awards in 1990, making it Madonna's most nominated. The video came away with three awards; Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Cinematography. 

Fincher was also awarded a Grammy for his music video Love is strong by The Rolling Stones. 

Fincher has also made a number of commercials, for Coca Cola, Nike, Converse, Hieneken, Levi's, and Phone companies. 

This advert for Coca Cola has a Ridely Scott Blade Runner feel to it, with the way it set in a Japanese future. 

This advert for Levi's shows David Fincher's unique style and use of an urban environment and night and lighting. 

This Hieneken advert features Brad Pitt, one of Finchers favourite actors and features in a number of Fincher's films. 

David Fincher has now moved on to making feature films, building a good reputation for himself with many of his films have been nominated for Awards. The five films I am going to focus on are; Seven, The Game, Panic Room, Fight Club, and Zodiac. All of these film fall into the thriller genre and a good examples of showing Finchers style. 

Se7en - 1995

Two detectives, one newly transfered the other soon to retire, work together on a case. A serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins in picking his victims.

• A thriller film, with elements of horror and neo-noir
• Seven was released on September 22, 1995
• In it's opening weekend it grossed $13.9 million in 2,441 cinemas
• It went on to gross $100.1 million in North America and $227.1 million in the rest of the world. That's a total of $327.3 million
• This made Se7en the seventh-highest grossing film in 1995
• The Film was Nominated for the Oscar of Best Film Editing, 1996
• Awards for Se7en
  

  Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
  1996	Won	ASCAP Award	Top Box Office Films
  1996	Nominated	Oscar	Best Film Editing
  1996	Won	Saturn Award	Best Make-Up  Best Writing
  1996	Nominated	Saturn Award	Best Action/Adventure  Film  Best Actor  Best Director  Best Music  Best Supporting Actress
  1996	Nominated	ASC Award	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
  1997	Nominated	Award of the Japanese Academy	Best Foreign Language Film
  1996	Nominated	BAFTA Film Award	Best Screenplay - Original
  1997	Won	Blue Ribbon Award	Best Foreign Language Film
  1995	Nominated	Best Cinematography Award	Darius Khondji
  1996	Won	CFCA Award	Best Cinematography
  1996	Nominated	CFCA Award	Best Actor
  2001	Nominated	Video Premiere Award	Best DVD Audio Commentary  Best DVD Menu Design
  1997	Won	Empire Award	Best Actor
  1996	Won	International Fantasy Film Award	Best Film  Best Screenplay
  1999	Won	Golden Trailer	Best of the Decade
  1996	Won	Hochi Film Award	Best Foreign Language Film
  1996	Nominated	Image Award	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture
  1997	Nominated	IHG Award	Best Movie
  1997	Won	ALFS Award	Actor of the Year
  1995	2nd place	LAFCA Award	Best Cinematography  Best Music
  1996	Won	MTV Movie Award	Best Movie  Best Villian  Most Desirable Male
  1996	Nominated	MTV Movie Award	Best On-Screen Duo
  1995	Won	NBR Award	Best Supporting Actor
  1996	2nd place	NSFC Award	Best Supporting Actor
  1995	Won	NYFCC Award	Best Supporting Actor
  2001	Nominated	OFCS Award	Best DVD  Best DVD Commentary  Best DVD Special Features
  1996	Won	Universe Reader's Choice Award	Best Horror Film
  1995	Won	STFC Award	Best Supporting Actor

The Game - 1997

A film were a wealth business man is brought into a live-action game that takes over his life. 

• The film is a psychosocial thriller.
• The Game was released on the 12th September 1997
• In it's opening weekend it grossed $14.3 million in 2,403 cinemas 
• It went on to gross $48.3 million in North America and $61.1 million in the rest of the world. That's a world total of $109.4 million. 
• Was nominated for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film at the Saturn Awards. 
• Though the film did not win the Saturn Award, it received a good reception from the critics. 

Fight Club -1999

A man suffering form insomnia and a mystery soap maker form an under ground club where people come to fight, this soon escalates into a violent revulsion.

• Fight Club was released 1999
• In it's opening weekend it grossed $11 million in 1,963 cinemas
• In went on to gross $37 million in North America and $63.8 in the rest of the world. That's a total of $100.8 million
• Awards for Fight Club

Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2000	Nominated	Oscar	Best Effects, Sound  Effects Editing
2000	Nominated	Brit	Best Soundtrack
2000	Nominated	CDG Award	Excellence in Costume  Design for Film -       Contemporary
2001	Nominated	Video Premiere Award	Best DVD Overall Original Supplemental Material
2000	Won	Empire Award	Best British Actress
2000	Nominated	Sierra Award	Best DVD  Best Editing
2000	Nominated	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing - Effects & Foley
2001	Won	OFCS Award	Best DVD  Best DVD Commentary  Best DVD Special Features
2000	Nominated	OFCS Award	Best Actor  Best Director  Best Film  Best Film Editing  BestScreenplay, Adapted
2000	Nominated	PFS Award	Democracy
2000	3rd place	SEFCA Award	Best Screenplay, Adapted

Panic Room - 2002

A  woman and her teenage daughter become imprisoned in the panic room of their own house by 3 criminals.

• Panic Room was released March 18, 2002
• In it's opening weekend it grossed $30 million in 3,053 cinemas 
• In total the film grossed 96.4 million in North America and $100 million in the rest of the world. That's a world total of $196.4 million
• Panic Room was nominated for; Young Artist Award - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress, OFCS Award -  Best Editing,  Golden Reel Award  - Best Sound Editing in Domestic Features, Golden Trailer - Best Horror/Thriller, Black Reel – (Theatrical )Best Supporting Actor, Excellence in Production Design Award -  Contemporary Film and the Saturn Award -  Best Actress 
• Panic Room Won, ASCAP Award - Top Box Office Films

Zodiac - 2007

A San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer.

• Zodiac was released march 2, 2007
• In it's opening weekend it grossed $13.3 million
• In North America it totalled $33 million and $51 million in the rest of the world. That's a world total of $84 million.
• Zodiac was nominated for 27 Awards in various categories.

Features Fincher uses; 

• Fincher has used Brad Pitt in 3 of his films to date
• Typical genres are dark drama, pyschological thrillers and crime
• Voice over - The Social Network, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Down beat endings
• Low angle shots
• Tracking