Title Font Research - Thriller Planning

When editing our final cut we looked to similar thrillers for inspiration. We decided a simple font has a better impact by intriguing the audience. Don't Look Now (1973) has a similar focus on water to our opening shot, thus this encouraged us further that a simple font would best.

American Psycho (2000) is also simple, yet affective. The font is very 'matter of fact' and leaves the audience questioning.

Se7en's (1995)font maintains being simplistic, whilst remaining unique. The font is easily legible yet looks scrawled, again readdressing the audience's curiosity.

Equally, Fight Club (1999) is unique in it's slanted cult type, yet it remains simple and memorable.

We also looked towards clothing brands for further inspiration:

Both Levi and American Apparel follow this simple trend, whilst maintaing their individual identity.

We found slanted fonts, although fitting with our natural setting, to be too over the top and illegible.

Eventually we chose a simple font much like Don't Look Now in order to make our title appear similar to a statement, and to further intrigue the audience.

Location - Thriller Planning

Location: Whitlingham Lake, Trowse, near Norwich.

Large expansions of water can be both intimidating and claustrophobic and are popular locations for thrillers, lakes especially heighten senses as you become more aware of your surroundings. They are also familiar to the audience thus making any unusual actions taking place even more chilling. For these reasons we wanted to set our thriller opening with the surroundings of a lake and greenery; our thriller is heavily influenced by Heavenly Creatures of which uses plenty of nature to contrast with its characters and their actions. We also wished the location to be peaceful and undisturbed in order to juxtapose the action.

The colours in the shot above are enhanced to give a (very) subtle dreamy gleam to the image. This is often used in order to disorientate the audience, encouraging them to believe all is not right.

The 1986 thriller, Blue Velvet uses this technique.

This may appear uncomfortably unrealistic and overly fake, a technique also used in the Truman Show (1998). This is similar to a children's television show; reverting the audience to the vulnerability of their childhood.

However, we prefer the grittiness of reality and wanted to portray this in our thriller thus decided against this technique.

We also considered filming our thriller in black and white as this made the location appear rather eerie. 

Despite this we preferred the dulled colours of the naturally foggy landscape as these make our thriller appear more realistic, therefore more relatable and alarming for the audience.

Below are some natural shots of our location.

Costume and Character Profile - Thriller Planning

Character One: Billy

Originally, we were going to portray 'Billy' as the stereotypical masculine antihero; the name 'Billy' is often associated with American outlaw Billy the Kid (1859-1881), perhaps causing the audience to be wary of him, creating a preconception. However, we found it far more intriguing to subvert this stereotype. We wanted to make Billy appear vulnerable within the large outdoor location. We accomplished this by giving Billy the prop of a camera. The camera limits Billy's eyesight, making his focus solely on what he can see through the lens, this also heightens the audiences senses as, as seen in this close up, they too have limited sight of the surroundings. 

The prop of the camera also indicates Billy is dedicated to his photography or perhaps that he is an arty individual, therefore connoting he is a deep thinker. Additionally Billy's character is mysterious as the audience are encouraged to question why he has been killed.

Billy's Costume: 

Billy wears a plain white T-shirt; white is suggestive of purity and therefore enhances his vulnerability. The T-shirt is somewhat of a 'blank canvas' as it gives little indication to his personality, this further makes him appear more mysterious as the audience wonders as to who he is, and what his personality is.

Additionally the audience sees Billy wearing a khaki parka coat. This covers Billy's white t-shirt, perhaps metaphorical of him covering his insecurities.

Billy's shoes are contemporary, making him seem modern and fashionable. This may comfort the audience as they are use to seeing such apparel.









Character Two: Danielle


Danielle is a masculine character who's qualities are reinforce through her costume; Danielle is a woman seeking revenge, within our Thriller opening we do not expand on the reasons why however if we were to develop the thriller into feature length film then we would make her murdering as a crime of passion /love. 

The audience sees little of Danielle, only little glimpses. One particular shot focuses solely on her hands. 
This shot is intended to make the audience cautious of Danielle as they have limited sight of her, they can see nothing other than her hands gripping rope. 

The prop of the rope, a typical workman's tool, enhances Danielle's masculinity alongside the Timberland boots. However it could also has connotations of suicide, and a sense of self deprecation for herself and her actions.

Danielle's Costume:

The first introduction of the female character 'Danielle' is via her Timberland boots; despite Timberland's fifty year history, it wasn't until 1990 that women's Timberland boots were introduced largely due to it being a typical workman's boot, therefore these make her appear a modern woman with masculine qualities. The muddied boots also suggest that she has been waiting for a considerable amount of time in the mud and, metaphorically, she's been waiting a long time to seek her revenge.

The close up of Danielle's hands shows some detail of feminine qualities such as her nail polish; this could suggest that she is a femme fatale or would portray herself to be, if the thriller were to continue.

The focus on Danielle's rings works as an intertextual reference to Jackie Brown within which there is a close up 

of the character Melanie's feet wearing rings - as seen below.

Danielle also wears a black hoodie. The black colour creates a direct negative contrast between itself and Billy's white t-shirt. This immediately connotes the good versus bad divide between the two characters. The 'hoodie' is also associated with youth crime, and used as a derogatory term to generalise groups of teenagers. Current British PM David Cameron famously introduced the 'hug a hoodie' companion in order to eliminate the negative stereotype, however the stereotype still remains. 

Possible Soundtrack Ideas - Thriller Planning

The soundtrack to a Thriller (or any genre of film) is essential in ensuring the motion picture is memorable. The correct soundtrack can enhance the audiences participation in the film by   reinforcing the emotions of which the film wishes to evoke. Thus we spent a lot time considering which style of music would best do this for our thriller. 

Initially we looked towards the 1994 thriller 'Heavenly Creatures' for inspiration. 'Heavenly Creatures' focuses its filming largely on the beauty of nature, and combines such with rather dramatic, orchestral pieces of music; it does so to enhance the said natural beauty, as well as to contrast with it. The music originally appears ironic as it mocks the (initially)insignificant movement of the characters within it. 

This piece, Pauline & Juliet by Peter Dasent, is comparatively less dramatic to the film's other choices, however we appreciated its melancholy tone.

Other influential pieces include: 




Daniel Perret's cover of Schubert's Ave Maria.

Similarly to Perter Dasent's piece, Ave Maria is rather somber and pensive. This piece encourages the audience to anticipate a distressing forthcoming event. 

The final piece we looked at is Pachelbel's Canon in D.




This piece is significantly upbeat in comparison to the previously suggested soundtracks. We considered a more upbeat pieces as often the juxtaposition between the soundtrack and the drama of a thriller increases the sorrowful feel. In turn, this too enhances the emotions of the audience which further engages them.

Films such as 'Ordinary People' (1980) use Pachelbel's Canon in D. 
This film specifically focuses on the past, using Pachelbel's theme to enhance such.





















Eventually we decided that our piece must contain a strong piano narrative and must convey deep, somber emotions. 



In our final edit, we used various cuts /sections mixed together of The Eternal Forest. The strong piano narrative infuses the many points we desired from the previously mentioned pieces in order to recreate our own melancholic soundtrack. We believe this piece, much like in Heavenly Creatures, increases our natural, lake location as well as heightening the characters emotions. Additionally, the pieces also encourages heightened anticipation within the audience. Once edited, the piece slowly builds up before climaxing with our cliffhanger, before returning to its normal pace; the 'normal pace' highlights our thrillers sense of life, and nature remaining constant, despite other's actions. Specifically, we used chunks ranging from 2 minutes 20 seconds to 3 minutes 20 seconds as this section best suited our intentions.

Shot List - Thriller Planning

SHOT	CHARACTER(S)	LOCATION	SHOT TYPE	CAMERA ANGLE	LIGHTING	ACTION IN SCENE
1.	N/A	Whitlingham Lake, edge of water	Panning shot/Establishing shot	Medium close up	Ambient	Camera pans the surface of lake.
2.	Billy	Whitlingham path way	Tracking shot/Establishing shot	Close up	Ambient	Camera films boy from a profile angle as he walks along the path (Jackie Brown intertextual reference).
3.	Billy, Danielle	Whitlingham path way, in bushes	Over the shoulder	Long shot	Ambient	Camera films from behind girl’s shoulder, watching whilst boy is seen walking ahead.
4.	Billy	Whitlingham path way	Worm’s eye/Low angle	Extreme close up	Ambient	Boy’s shoe is seen walking through the mud right next to the camera at an extreme close up (Heavenly Creatures intertextual reference).
5.	Billy	Whitlingham path way	Over the shoulder	Close up	Ambient	Camera now follows directly behind boy as he approaches the bushes.
6.	Billy, Danielle	Whitlingham path way, beside bushes	Medium close up/establishing shot	Medium close up	Ambient	Camera films boy standing still beside the bushes from shoulders and above as he gets ready to take a photo, girl faintly seen watching in the distance.
7.	Billy	Whitlingham path way	Low angle	Close up	Ambient	Camera films boy’s hands on his camera as he adjusts the lense and takes the photo
8.	Billy	Whitlingham path way, beside bushes	High angle medium close up	Medium close up	Ambient	boy crouches down beside the bushes to take a photograph, the camera films at a high angle.
9.	Billy, Danielle	Whitlingham path way	Over the shoulder	Medium close up	Ambient	The camera films behind boy’s shoulder after he takes the photo, footsteps are suddenly heard and girl’s arms, holding a knife/bat appear and the clip ends before she hits him (Heavenly Creatures intertextual reference).
10.	N/A	Whitlingham lake, edge of water	Panning shot	Medium close up	Ambient	Camera pans the surface of the water in reference to the first shot (Heavenly Creatures intertextual reference).