Film Ideas

Created With Mindly

• Recurring Themes - for example,water or fire. Can be used to build tension and to give hints to the audience about a character's thoughts and feelings.
• Mirrors
• Using local news as a basis for ideas - for example, a missing persons case.
• POV Shots to make chase scenes appear less staged. The audience feel more involved.
• Lifts/Escalators
• News Extracts
• Low Key lighting and chiaroscuro make the most professional thriller shots.
• Using everyday items and making them appear sinister.
• Unusual weapons, rather than guns.
• Silhouettes
• Train Stations

AVAILABLE LOCATIONS:

• My group live around a large town. We all live in smaller villages.
• Churches in our villages could be an original location for a thriller.

Thriller Director Study - Quentin Tarantino

Famous Thriller Directors - David Fincher

Notes on famous the famous Thriller director David Fincher.

Creative Response to Stimulus - Timothy Horton-Wells

This is my first, informal, attempt at creating a Thriller narrative:



When given a stimulus, in our case it was basic information about a fictional character named Tim Horton-Wells, we had to come up with a basic storyline that features many of the key narrative concepts of Thriller films.

My idea features plot twists - when Tim murders his twin brother; psychotic individuals, and a misleading plot.

What are Thriller Films? - Technical Aspects

Mis-En-Scene - Lighting

• Low Key Lighting - making the most of dark tones in a shot. Important for creating a chiaroscuro effect. 
• Over Exposure - when a shot appears very bright.
• Chiaroscuro - high contest between light and dark. 
• Strong Directional Lighting - harsh lighting projected on a subject. Can create high contrast between light and dark as it produces shadows.

An example of Low Key Lighting and Chiaroscuro

Editing

• Parallel Editing - alternating between two narrative events that link but are occurring in separate locations.
• Jump Cuts -  a cut in film editing in which two shots of the same subject are taken from slightly different camera positions. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.
• Colour Manipulation - altering the appearance of colour in a shot for dramatic effect.

Camerawork

• Dramatic Angles - high or low angles that make a shot more interesting and exciting.
• Reveals (Tracking/Zooming) - when narrative information is revealed through a zooming, panning or tracking camera movement.

Dramatic Angles

Sound

• Exaggerated Sound - used to draw attention to something, or away from something.
• Silence - the absence of sound which can build up tension and suspense.
• Eerie, Tense Music - creates the atmosphere for a thriller film.

What are Thriller Films?

Through my research into the Thriller genre, it is clear that no two thriller films are the same. There are many sub genres within the genre which allow for variation between every thriller film - Crime, Mystery, Psychological, and Action, for example. Tension, suspense, and mind games are commonplace for most thriller films.

Psychological

Mystery 

Crime / Psychological

NARRATIVE CONVENTIONS:

• Plot twists - an unexpected change in the predicted direction of a film.
• Narrative Retardation - when key narrative information is held back in order to build up the suspense.
• Psychological Themes - some thriller films are based on characters with mental illnesses, other films play mind games to explore psychological themes.
• Mind Games - when a series of events in a thriller film are designed to confuse the audience. This can mislead the audience or just add to the audience pleasure.
• Death Traps - sometimes the protagonist find him/herself in a situation in which death is almost guaranteed.
• Mis Direction - when a narrative leads the audience to predict future events incorrectly. Like plot twists, this will completely throw an audience and will lead to audience pleasure.
• Multiple Lines of Action - when two or more narrative events are unfolding simultaneously and can often come together at the conclusion.
• Revenge - when one character seeks to 'get back' at another. This can be effective for making an audience sympathise with some of the most immoral acts - such as murder.
• Investigation - can be an effective way of making the audience follow the narrative as it unfolds through a detectives eye.
• Kidnap & Ransom - when a character is taken and appears to have gone missing to other characters. Often kidnappers will request money from loved ones.
• Crime
• Confinement - characters can become trapped, limited, restricted etc

CHARACTER CONVENTIONS:

• Private Eyes - a private detective.
• Psychotic Individuals - characters who are mentally disturbed; have a mental illness and/or are insane and psychopathic.
• Cops  - the police. Usually the protagonist.
• Captives - characters who have been imprisoned.
• Stalkers - a character who harasses and/or follows another.
• Menaced Women - women with evil intentions (for example, Kathy Bates' character from Misery).
• Escaped Convicts - when an individual who has been declared guilty escapes the law.
• Criminals
• Innocent Victims - can be effective for creating emotional responses within an audience.
• World Weary People  characters who are 'done with life'. For example, Morgan Freeman's character from SE7EN.