For my AS Media coursework, one of the main projects we have to do is to create our own opening to our own thriller film which means we have got decide on a plot, characters, scenes, settings, sub genres also including filming and editing.
But before we start the creating this in our groups we have to individually come up with our own ideas to make it easier when plotting our own thriller in our group.
above is a xtranormal video of my individual idea, below is the same in more content
Sub Genre
After extensive research (watching some of my favourite thriller films) I had to make a decision, what sub genre was I going to use as my individual idea? Was it going to be, psychological, political, crime?
My first hurdle was what sub genre was actually do-able, as obviously we do not have an unlimited budget like the Hollywood production companies; we have a couple of quid saved from our part-time jobs and pocket money.
After all these considerations I decided to go for the sub genre: Crime
A crime thriller if done cleverly can be done on a low budget; all you really need is some decent actors, any location and a fake gun/ weapon.
Crime thrillers appeal to the 18-28 year audience significantly these are male.
Plot
The film opens with a shot of a girl (teenager 13-19) tied and gagged to a chair, she is beaten and badly bruised, and she is wearing distinctive and recognisable clothing.
The next scene shows two adults, later revealed parents of the girl who is in scene 1. The two adults are in London, walking around and enjoying themselves, the male answers his phone.
The scene changes to the girl in scene 1, before whatever happened to her, she is on the phone to the couple in scene 2 she explains she’s home alone and that she’ll be fine, the couple are her mother and father, she is wearing the distinctive clothing so the audience can recognise her from scene 1.
I do not want to show the actual kid-napping of the girl as I think it would look amateur and a tad ridiculous.
The next scene is of a man wearing all black including leather gloves holing a chord telephone in a phone booth in London looking upon the couple in scene 2. In the distance the couple answer the phone, it is clear that they hear devastating news as the couple fall to the floor in despair.
The man in the phone booth co-ordinated the kid napping, he explains to the couple the kid-napping of his daughter was revenge for what “you” did.
The wife asks her husband what he means by revenge, the husband breaks down.
This beginning scenes will be cleverly edited and shot to create mystery and suspense, the plot will defiantly create mystery as the audience are asking question during the whole opening scenes, who is the girl? Why is she there? Who are the couple? What’s their relation to the girl? What did the man do to spark revenge?
Characters
Teenage girl- 13-18 years old, long hair, distinctive bright clothing
Mum and Dad/ Husband and wife- mid 40's
Kid-Napper- dirty looking, un-shaven, mid 40's, i want the mystery form the first photo with the black gloves, but as the film moves forward the identity will be revealed
Natural Extras (the scenes in London will be shot form vantage points, so we will get the natural extras of people doing their everyday life without creating a disturbance)
All the characters are iconic to thriller films and especially crime thrillers; the theme of the plot is similar to the work of the iconic directors in my collage above.
Inspiration My inspiration is form the film Taken, it is a famous crime thriller that features a kid-napping, i want my idea to be different from taken as its based around revenge and the kid-napper has the upper hand. I also like the mystery of the film Phone Booth, but i would have it switched around so the the criminal will be inside the phone-booth at a vantage point and the parents cannot see where the criminal is.
Above is our Script, we were the only group on our AS class who wrote their own, we decided to do this to have more freedom and also we wanted to be more creative, we decided to make the officer a little aggressive as in typical thriller film, you usually find a dirty cop, one that doesn't follow the rules but gets the job done. When shooting the short film, we changed a few of the lines to make the scene flow easer and to make it more professional rather than amateur. When we shot the preliminary task each of us took turns in controlling the camera also we all adjusted the exposure, white balance and focus to make sure we could all do it, we made sure that we all had a chance to use the camera.
This task taught us to importance of framing and how a mis-framed shot could ruin the rest of the film and if a shot is framed well, how effectively it works. We all had a go at editing the final film and we all had a go at editing the match on action scene so when it comes to our thriller film opening, we all will be able to edit at a good standard.
This is the final video
(Some lines in script were changed on shoot)
This is our Directors Commentary/ Evaluation
Below is my individual proof of work for the preliminary task
This is me and Rosie coming up with ideas on the content of the script
This project taught me alot, it taught me how crucial every shot is, and how it has to be framed perfectly to create th eperfect illusion fr the audience, it taught me the importance of continuity. If i was to re-do the project id make sure the shot was white balanced and exposed perfectly also id do a longer roll in and out to make it easier when editing, id also get the actors to project their voice more as its kind of quiet in the final video.
This is all three of us, editing the final project
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace
and Famke Janssen
Warning Spoiler Alert
“I don’t know
who you are, but if you don’t let my daughter go. I will find you. I will kill
you.”
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a CIA operative who
retired to spend more time with his beloved eighteen-year-old daughter, Kim
(Maggie Grace).
The film opens with a
grainy home video of a young girl and her family. The scene changes to Bryan
awaking on a sofa with a photograph of his daughter in hand. Bryan is driving
his car when he enters a small electrical store and buys a home karaoke
machine; he takes it home and raps it in a brightly coloured child-like wrapping
paper. He turns up at a large house with music thumping and people everywhere;
it’s the scene of his daughter’s birthday.
He gives his daughter
the present and she looks pleased with what is inside, her mother and Bryans ex
wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) on the other hand has a look of dismay, Stuart
enters and the audience are introduced to Kim’s stepfather who is obviously
rich and owns this large estate, he calls over to Kim shouting happy birthday
and brings in a large well groomed horse, Kim squeals with excitements, Bryan
looks like he’s been outspent.
Bryan leaves the
party and goes homes, where there’s a knock at the door, three men stand at the
door who are introduced to the audience as Bryans friends and also CIA agents,
They drink bear and play cards and grill Bryan about his early retirement, he
explains how it was to be closer to his daughter and explains the events of
that day, They convince him to do one last job, he reluctantly agrees.
The job is a gig,
Bryan and his 3 friends are escorting a pop-diva from her car to the dressing
rooms, fans are screaming on his busy scene, and Bryan is told he is the one
who is escorting the pop singer inside her dressing room. While being primed
Bryan tell her how lovely she sounds and that his daughter wants to be a
singer, she replies by telling him the best thing for his daughter is not to
become a singer, with that the singer journeys to the stage. Kim rings and
Bryan explains he is at the singer’s concert doing security work; Kim is
impressed and invites him to lunch the following day.
As the singer leaves
the stage and Bryan escorts her to her car, the fans break the barriers and
charge for her, a man with a knife jumps in front; Bryan shows off his CIA
training and beats the man to a pulp. The singer and Bryan run into the car,
the singer breaks down into tears.
Once the singer is
safe in her hotel, she explains that as thanks she will arrange a meeting for
his daughter and her singing coach and she will pay for all the lessons as its
least she could do.
That following day he
turns up at the large house and Kim answers the door, Bryan gives her the
signed form and she is ecstatic, he gives her a list of rules and that he is
the one driving her to the airport.
The scene changes to
Kim and Bryan driving to the airport, Bryan is giving his daughter the dos and
don’ts, they arrive at the airport and Bryan sends his daughter away.
Kim and Amanda arrive
in the French airport, they are taking photos outside when a man introducing
himself as Peter, asks if they want a photo taken together, he takes the camera
phone and takes the picture, he then asks if they are getting in a cab, they
reply yes and he says that it is very expensive and if they want to cab share,
they agree and arrive at their apartment, Kim lets slip that they are here on
their own, so know peter knows they are young, on their own and where they are
staying.
Peter walks away on
the phone saying he’s found two girls, he gives the person on the opposite end
of the line, that they are roughly 18, where they are staying and that they are
alone.
Amanda tells Kim that
her cousins are actually away for the whole period of time that they are
staying here, Kim is immediately distressed at this new information.
When they enter the
apartment, Amanda exclaims that they have the whole top floor. Amanda put son
load music, Kim’s realises that she has had many missed calls form her father
and goes the opposite side of the building to ring her dad and get away from
the loud music. While on the phone to her dad, Kim sees three men enter the
building opposite her, where Amanda is; the men kidnap Amanda and look like
they are searching for Kim.
Kim frantically asks
her father for help, he tells her to enter the next room and go under the bed,
he then tells her that the next part will be the hardest, she’s going to get
kidnapped, but she has to shout out everything about the kidnappers appearance
and anything noticeable about him, in a high suspense scene the kidnappers
enter the room and speak a foreign language, Kim and the audience think the
kidnappers have missed her when she is violently dragged out of under the bed,
Kim screams and shouts out the information.
Bryan is still on the
phone when one of the kidnappers pick up the phone, Bryan tells him “I don’t know who you are, but if you
don’t let my daughter go. I will find you. I will kill you.” the
kidnapper replies “Good luck”.
Bryan had recorded the telephone call and sends
it to one of his CIA buddies to get it translated.
He then goes to Lenore’s house and tells them
what has happened, Stuart asks if there is anything he can do, he asks for a
flight to Paris an hour ago.
Bryan arrives in Paris with the information that
he asked his CIA friend for, the kidnappers are Albanian and that they are big
‘bosses’.
Bryan breaks his way into the girls apartment and
reviews the situation form the perspective if his daughter. Bryan finds the
phone with the memory card intact, he develops the photos taken and in the
reflection of the photos is peters face. Bryan travels to the airport and finds
peter and a black guy performing the same trick on some other girls, Bryan
confronts peter and beats him, the black guy steps in and Bryan beats him to a
pulp, Bryan chases after Peter who runs into the road and gets torn apart by a
high speeding lorry.
Bryan goes to a police station and follows a man
down the street, turns out it is an old friends form the CIA, Jean Claude,
Bryan explains his situation, Jean says its going to be difficult as there is
so many Albanians in Paris, he also asked Bryan not to tear up Paris in trying
to find his daughter, Bryan replies she will tear down the Eiffel tower if he
has to, Jean give shim a starting location, The Albanian men are sex
traffickers.
The scene changes to a construction site, a line
of men is queuing up with small pieces of card with a number on it. Bryan
queues and gets a card, he goes inside, it’s a brothel, Bryan frantically pulls
open the curtains to see if he can find his daughter here, she snot there but a
girl is wearing the denim jacket that his daughter was last seen in. He beats
up the man who was trying to sleep with her and grabs the girl, he runs out
with many men chasing and firing at him, gas canisters explode and its really
‘dramatic’.
The girl explains a nice girl gave her the
jacket, the girl tells Bryan where to possibly find her.
He goes into the location and introduces himself as
Jean Claude, giving them the business card that he got from his former friend
when they first met. They take him up into a kitchen where the Albanians
are seated. He pretends to negotiate a ‘new rate’ for police
protection/silence and they give him some money after some wrangling. He
sees a tattoo on a man’s hand that is similar to the one that Kim screamed out
and as they’re talking, one man says, “Good Luck.” It’s the same voice
from the tape.
Bryan looks around, scoping out the men and asks
the man if he recognizes him, the man doesn’t. Bryan then starts beating
and shooting every Albanian in site, only stunning the man who helped kidnap
his daughter, but killing everyone else either with his fists or guns.
After all the Albanians upstairs and downstairs are dead, he starts looking
through the rooms. 20 girls tied to beds, drugged. He finds Amanda;
she’s dead with vomit on her face, a needle and bloody cotton swab at the side
of the bed where someone gave her too much. Kim was nowhere to be found.
Bryan returns downstairs and finds the stunned
Albanian, he tie shim to a chair and electrocutes him, till he finds out his
daughter was sold to Saint Claire.
After Bryan visits Jean Claude’s house and shoots
(flesh wound only) jeans wife in order to get information from Claude about
Saint Claire. Claude give shim a location.
Bryan gets into the party Saint Claire is holding
in his estate by presenting Jean’s ID with his picture on it. He walks in
and finds Saint Claire going into a special elevator. He kills the guard
and goes down the elevator. Looking around, he sees that there are all
small rooms with men bidding on the girls being shown on stage. A waiter
comes and he kills the waiter, taking the champagne and going into the booth
where an Arab is bidding on a woman and serves him champagne. The light
is very dim.
Kim is the last one shown, a specialty. Bryan
pulls a gun on the man and makes him win the bid. As he escorts the man
out of the booth, a man hits Bryan over the top of the head, making him pass
out.
Bryan wakes up, his hands chained to a water pipe
above him and Saint Claire asking who he is. Bryan says that he’s Kim’s
father and Saint Claire says it’s all business and tells his men to kill him
quietly as he leaves. Bryan rips the pipe down, spraying the men with hot
steam and kills them all, including the guard that Saint Claire sent down to
see what was making so much noise.
After Bryan has killed all the men, he goes and
finds Saint Claire in the elevator and shoots him in the arm, asking where his
daughter is. Then he shoots him in the other arm, and then in the
leg. The man says she’s at a pier on a boat. Saint Claire says its
just business and Bryan empties the clip into his body before stalking out.
At the pier, Bryan sees Kim getting loaded onto the
boat and the large yacht sail away down the river. He gets into his car
and starts racing it, trying to catch up. After some insane driving, he
gets to a bridge, just in time to jump onto the yacht.
This is supposedly the climax of the film, Bryan
jumps on the boat and sneaks past a few guards when he is finally spotted, he
kills just about every guard and only getting shot himself once, he breaks into
the room where Kim is being held, he fights one last guard where Bryan nearly
gets killed himself but obviously he survives and the final guard is dead, he
then shoots the buyer and reclaims his daughter.
The seen changes to a wild contract, they are at
the airport back in America coming through the gates back home, Kim runs to hug
her mother and stepfather. Lenore thanks Bryan and gives him a long
hug.
The film ends with Kim and Bryan standing outside a
door. The singer from the beginning answers the door with her coach in
the background near a piano. She looks at Kim and asks if she wants to be
a singer and Kim nods.
This film is high intensity suspense throughout,
the key thriller moments are the kidnapping, the construction scene, the
storming of the Albanian building, the Saint Claire party and finally the yacht.
These are all key thriller moments in the film as they are pact with suspense,
tension and the mystery of is Bryan going to survive and find his daughter.
The locations of this film are perfect for a
thriller film as the majority is filmed in large cities, this is because
thriller films are usually set in Adult Worlds, also the characters are all
either CIA operatives, Kidnappers or powerful organizations, which are very
typical of a thriller film. Many of the scenes contrast each other as some the
lighting is dark usually build suspense as when the scene is dark it is when
Bryans life is in danger or his daughters life is, then when he has the upper
hand the light is bright.
From looking at reviews and my personal opinion
this film satisfies the action and plot of thriller audiences but many people
including myself feel the climax on the yacht was far too short as the film is
building up to the climax for over and hour then the climax lasts for what? 20
minutes. It was slightly disappointing but itis still an amazing film pact with high intensity scenes,
interesting plot and Liam Neeson at his best.
This is my individual proof of contribution to the group presentation on Thriller Narratives that is presented our Group Blog, we all took part in creating this presentation by putting together all our notes and taking turns in typing, we all chose a category and researched it while also finding video tutorials and examples of out chosen category.
These photos show me actively taking part to the creation of our group presentation.
Benn Kelly peer assessed my blog, he went through each post and evaluated it against the marking criteria, he left a comment on each post with what level he would give me and improvements.
Overall with each level he gave me was : Low LEVEL 4
Improvements:
Apply classwork to homework e.g. specific terminology
Tasks 11 & 9 outstanding
Presentation for titles time line and 9 frame analysis
This is my groups presentation on Thriller Narratives and Sub-Genres, we wanted to present the information in a inivative way to spark interest and aslo as this is media we wanted to present our work in a form of media. From doing this task i learnt all aout thriller narratives and sub-genres in a lot of detail, also this form of presentation will help me when revising as i only have to watch a short video. Below is a photo of me as proof of my contribution to the task.
This my group falling down foley. We had to watch the original beginning and mark down when each individual sound comes in and then import the movie into Garage Band and delete the original track and then import sounds that would go with the marking we made. This is important as in our thriller opening we will need to create a foley. We had to put in a variety of sound techniques for example; we used Diegetic sounds for the heavy breathing, children playing, car motors and the fly, all this together creates the perfect ambience of the movie. If you want to see more sound terminologies, i have a post named Sound Terminologies with all the information on.
Teenage girl- 13-18 years old, long hair, distinctive bright clothing
Kid-Napper- dirty looking, un-shaven, mid 40's, i want the mystery form the first photo with the black gloves, but as the film moves forward the identity will be revealed
