Special Effects

In this video it teaches us how to create an enlarging pupil effect. This video gave us inspiration to create a simpler way to create the same effect for our opening of a thriller film. We are planning on filming Fraser opening his eyes and then reversing the shot. We will do a few tests of this to see if we like the results.

We did one test with a torch and one with natural light. The torch one was more effective but the pupil turned red so we will have to use the lighting carefully so that we still have the dramatic effect but the eye won't be discoloured.

This link helped us to edit our shots. We took a screen shot of the link and first three steps to help us with our editing.

Synopsis


We are breaking Todorov's theory to create a dramatic effect as our film does not begin with a state of equilibrium. The story begins with our main protagonist (Fraser) being drugged but we thought we are only going to do a flashback of this in the plot so that the film is more fast paced and dramatic.
If we were to continue our film Fraser would wake up in an unfamiliar location beaten up. He still wouldn't know why it is that he was drugged and beaten. As he explores the location memories of what Sophie and Alex said while he was unconscious come back. Through this he begins to figure out that he has something that belonged to them. He walks aimlessly until he gets some idea of where he is and finds his way home. He finds his apartment ransacked. On the bed is an address and Alex's ski mask.
He begins searching his room as he knows he only has 7 days to return whatever they want from him. He grabs a bagful of belongings that he thought could be of use and gets ready to leave but before he does many masked people with guns run in. They kidnap him and put him in the back of a van. When he is taken out of the van he is escorted into an abandoned looking building. In here he meets a man that explains they are a top secret agency trying to track down Sophie's group. They explain that the group are wanted criminals so whatever they want from Fraser he shouldn't give it to them. They then ask him to work as a double agent. They teach him how to use a gun and then give him one as they say he might need it.
He goes to the address left on his bed next to Alex's ski mask. It's the same dark place he was taken to at the beginning of the film. They reveal that they are looking for a piece of paper holding top secret information and threaten to kill him if he doesn't have it in 7 days.
The secret agency trains him up so he's ready to kill if he needs to all the while they are all trying to figure out where the piece of paper could be.
After 7 days pass Joe and Reece take Fraser to the secret location. When he reveals that he doesn't know where the paper is Joe tries to shoot him. Fraser shoots him with the gun the agency brought him. Reece calls for security. This results in a big fight seen. Fraser manages to fight them all off. The only ones left alive are him and Sophie. He asks her what's so important about the paper and how he got it with a gun to her head. She explains that it's the secret of where the worlds deadliest weapon and that it was invented by his ancestors. He shoots her then walks out. He sees a crack in the watch he wore for the whole film. Inside is a small slip of paper with co ordinates on it. He rips the paper up knowing what it is and goes back to being an ordinary guy who was in the wrong family at the wrong time.

Audience Research

We asked people in our target audience (all genders 17-25) whether they would watch our movie opening and whether they liked the concept or not. This is the results.

Many of the people we asked said they like the concept and idea of the film. The people we asked said they would go watch it in a cinema if it was a real film. The story line of the film was intriguing and the characters were all different unlike normal thriller films where the majority of the bad guys are faceless goons under a reckless leader. The audience feed back suggest they like the idea of knowing each antagonists and having multiple antagonists so their can be many different plot lines. However, a small percentage said that this could become too complicated to follow the line of each antagonist. We took this into consideration and made Sophie the main bad characters but kept the idea of having different smaller characters work for her.

The costume design of the characters too proved well. They said that the characters wearing different clothing showed their personality types and made them all the more dramatic. Alex, the character in the ski masked, proved to be threatening and the most intimidating.

Animatic walk through of our story board

Characters

Alex costume is all black. He is wearing a black ski mask to create an uneasy feeling for the viewer as they cant see all of his face. This makes people feel scared as the cant identify human feastures and this makes them vulnerable and scared.

Reece and Joe are both smartly dressed to show a more powerful element to them both. We decided to give these characters a dominant and over powering feeling to them. To make them act and look like their better then every one else. The suits also create a sense of mystery and conflict of what they are really doing.

Sophie is also smartly dressed. For this character I was influenced by, the TV'S Sherlocks, Irene Adler. Adler is a strong woman who is confident in every thing she does and doesnt stop until she has it. I wanted Sophie to act like Irene and be that strong powerfull woman who is in charge and is fearless and looks good doing it.

Fraser is dressed casually. He's unprepared. For his character I wanted a mix between Forest Gump and Rincewind from the Discworld novels. For Fraser I wanted him to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and get involved in all these huge problems and saves the day. It shows that he is just a normal character and makes him more relatable to the viewers. This makes him more likeable.

Location

Freya contacted the social club to see if we had permission to shoot the main setting for our thriller opening. Bradley agreeded to let us film in the social club. This allows us to use the bar setting in our film. The risk assement is rather simple. We have to be care of chairs and tables in the way as we may bump into them, to ensure our safety we will move furnature around to create the safest working enviroment. We also have to be carefull of people using the social club, to do this we will create signs to say that we are filming as well as bring our college IDS to ensure the people using the social clubs we really are students. If things do go wrong frist aid is avialble on sight with first aids kits.

Our second location is Freya's garage. We have written permission from her parents. As this is a garage there will be tools around, to lessen the risk we will get Freya's parents to clear it out before we start filming, there will also be a first aider on sight at all times as Briony is a first aider.