Our presentation

Media Presentation

View more presentations from Dunraven.

Film Opening Research

Film Opening Research

For us to create a successfull thriller film opening, it was neccesary to research some other mainstream films, that are obviously acclaimed for their success in capturing the thriller genre successfully.

The initial thought in this case was Kill Bill purely for the reason that it is a thriller film with a strong female lead roll, and has a big director behind it (Quentin Tarintino), acclaimed for his success on the film. It gave us something to aspire to.



Sound

The foremost thing noticed in the opening titles of Kill Bill is the sound, or in this case, lack of it. No music was used, but rather digetic sounds. The lack of music makes the viewer pay attention to the digetic sound, which in this case begins with eerie footsteps building up. Both these in effect create tension.

Although a voice over isn’t used, the voice of the perpetrator is apparent throughout, and it does have a narrative like effect as he educates the viewer with some background information. We incorporated this into our film, and a voiceover was used.

Mis en scene

Close ups are used to portray the victims emotion, and emphasise it further. In addition, the constant cut away to the close up of the boots create a contrast between the two, and show who is ultimately in power, and who isn’t. We added this technique to our film. A close up on the victims face, and a cut away to a characteristic of the perpetrator (in this case his boots, in our case her knife) where both used.

Camera angles

As in most film genres, the weak is presented with a high angle shot to signify weakness, and the strong with a low angle. Uma Therman (the victim throughout the opening) is throughout in a high angle to portray her weakness. This inspired us further, and showed even mainstream directors use common camera angles that we too can use, and we did.

Entry Three: Pitch Feedback

From our pitch, Ms Taylor gave us some very important feedback, which we have incorporated into our final thriller film plan.

Firstly we where told that the knife scene may be hard to carry out, as trying to portray a believable knife slice scene on a small budget may look unbelievable or tacky. We took this feedback, and now the knife scene will instead be from behind the victim, therefore removing all problems of trying to create a gory death scene. This in addition works to our advantage as it in effect creates more tension as we don’t see the death scene itself face on.

Secondly, Ms Taylor suggested that we have the main girl wearing glasses in certain scenes. This is to portray her as closed and that she sees the world in a different light to other people. We have incorporated this into our final plan also.

Finally we where going to use Juliet, a friend of the group member Hattie for the lead roll. However from feedback from our pitch, we realised that she may not be the best choice to use as she could be unreliable, and therefore a strain on our group. We have since elected Nicola as the female lead roll, which has so far worked for the better. We can be sure that she is accessible, and does not need to be briefed on the story line, thus making the overall working process easier.