Section 1- Background the the thriller genre.

Background of thriller genre.

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and overlapping sub-genres. Films such as The Bourne Identity, Phone Booth, Se7en, Kiss the Girls and Red Eye are key examples of classic thriller films. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must destroy the plans of more-powerful villains. Thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are usually "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. There are many ‘Sub-genres’: action-thriller, crime-thriller, drama-thriller, eco-thriller and spy-thriller. Thriller was discovered by ‘GK Chesterton’ in the early 20th century, he determined the whole thriller concept and that it was a modern genre. He was know to say that thriller was an attempt to find ‘poetry in modern life’ and that excitement was in everyday life. Although Chesterton came up with the thriller concept he could never explain it well so ‘Northrop frye’ took Chesterton’s theory and adapted it. He did this by going into more detail and he brought in that it would be more exciting if an ordinary nine to five man could inevitably be the hero. The public was happy to believe in the situation as it could relate to romance fiction. A quote from Frye read ‘the hero of romance moves in a world which the ordinary laws or nature are slightly suspended.’ the public likes this, it could relate to them as they are all ordinary people, not aliens or superheroes. a lot of theologises picked up and tried to adapt the original theory of Chesterton after they saw how successful Northrop Frye was, John Cawelti basically just took both Frye’s and Chesterton’s thriller theory’s and combined them. He transformed the modern industrial city into an enchanted place full of mystery this was achieved by introducing ‘the exotic’ into the everyday world. W H Matthews took a different type of approach to thriller, Matthews work relates to mazes and labyrinths, an underground maze full of twists, turns dead-ends and puzzles. When you are creating a thriller narrative you must add twists and turns so that the audience doesn’t solve the problem too easily. Pascal Bonitez thought that Matthews was describing ‘partial vision’ when he was avoiding mazes, he believed that the audience should only be able to see so much so it gives a shock factor. As what the audience doesn’t see is part of the system of thrillers. The narrative acts like a maze for the audience giving them clues along the line as if they are the hero trying to solve the mystery. Lastly Lars Ole Saurberg believed that there were two different ways in which suspense could be added. Such as deliberately hiding something away from the audience or delaying or protecting and expected outcome. Thrillers will always evolve as time does and more theologises will be made to back up different theory’s.

Section 2- Research into examples of thriller opening scences.

SE7EN-
The 1995 film seven from David Fincher is set in a rough unnamed busy city. The weather is never changing and its often raining to give the city a dreary dull feeling. The gritty urban setting holds four main characters. Detective summerset and detective mills are the protagonists. These two males are rather opposite in many ways, the representation of black and white and the fact that summerset is a lonely old man who is experienced within his work. Where as in comparison mills is married, white, young and has little experience with high cases such as the one they are set. Brad Pitt and Morgan freeman are Hollywood stars so its nice to see well known actors working so close together. The villain within seven is a Mr john doe, he kills people in the pattern of the seven deadly sins- hence the name. his name is ironic as it is what they call unknown body’s founded upon. Doe is very religious and feel he is doing gods work. Mills had a wife named Tracey, for the hot headed detective she holds everything together whilst he is dealing with this vulgar head scratching case. As we can tell mills loves her a lot there for she is an easy weakness and target to get to mills as we see later on in the film when doe kills her for the jealousy sin. Seven is a Lina narrative, it flows in chronological order once again it is ironic about how long it lasts as summerset is supposed to retire in seven days and that’s how long the killings last for.

The title of the films flashes from what you realise is john doe, he is cutting the tips of his fingers off so that he is unknown and will not leave fingerprints. It cuts between research on the murders straight back to doe preparing for them. Each book he creates could refer to a new book, a new chapter. a lot of images to do with god is shown such as crosses and bibles to show the religious authenticity of the film. Graphics within the title are used well, ghostly images are destroyed to add an uneasy effect. As john writes in his books his hand writing is scruffy and joined up almost child like, the hand writing puts you off trying to read it, its like writing you can only read when its your own. But that might be the point. He could never get caught them.

RED EYE-
Our first research into opening scene started with Red Eye, I noticed that it had typical codes and conventions of classic thrillers. It was places in an urban landscape which was rainy and very busy, not much is given away so this helps the audience become intrigued. The camerawork within Red Eye is very fast, there are a lot of close ups on the wallet with the letters ‘JR’ on, this show that the wallet holds great importance. Also a lot of close ups keep is in the dark within this opening scene so we know that there is a lot more mystery to be reviled. The narrative structure of this thriller is linear, it follows her journey. We know nothing serious is going on yet because nothing important had happened to her yet. There are lots of fast cuts from different scenes this shows that whatever plan has been made about the wallet has been planned very precise and correctly done.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN-
Strangers on a train was produced in 1951 Alfred Hitchcock directs Farley Granger as Guy Haines, an amateur tennis player who is on his way to see his estranged wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers) to ask for a divorce so he can marry his new love, Anne (Ruth Roman). On the journey a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) strikes up a conversation with him. Bruno knows all about Guy's and Anne's romance and how difficult Miriam is being, because he's read about in the society magazines. He also knows that Guy's life would be much easier if Miriam was out of the picture full stop. He knows it would be easier because he has a similar problem with his domineering father, and this leads to his suggestion to Guy: if Bruno killed Miriam, then Guy could kill Bruno's father, and they would each have perfect alibis. After all, why would either kill a perfect stranger? Guy laughs this off, but doesn't realise just how seriously Bruno is taking this idea until it's too late. The filming is very authentic and the camera work is slight uneasy but this makes it loved by many, as it was such a break through for its time. They are dressed rather smart In suits almost like the detectives in seven. There is no non-diegetic music within this scene its just them having a conversation which takes a turn. There are no graphics, sound visible editing. The film overall is very basic.

THE FINAL DESTINATION-
The Final Destination series gets a kick-start with this fourth outing, director David Ellis realised this in 2009. The New film was presented for the first time in 3-D with this instalment focusing on a teenager that dodges a trip to the grave at a racetrack, only to find that death has a way of equalling the playing field after the fact. Shantel VanSanten, Bobby Campo, and Hayley Webb star in the sequel. The opening scene has a lot of fast moving tracking shots of the cars it helps you stay on the edge of your seat as if you have seen the other final destinations you know what I director has installed. Within the film a women is the hero as she is the one who gets the vision, Ellis swaps around with different heroes and heroines to show that it can happen to anyone. It starts off with non-diegetic sound, heavy rock music takes over while the rev or the cars slowly take over.

HANNIBAL-
Women in Hannibal are represented differently to most films. Ridley Scott- the director portrayed Clarice Starling as a strong independent female. This film is Part four of the Hannibal Lecter Quadrilogy. Having escaped the asylum in "Silence of the Lambs," Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence, Italy. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor's, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling. The opening scene starts with sweet delicate piano music, tricking you into believing that everything is fine at this moment in time. A key convention of a thriller is police and police are involved rather a lot within all of the lecter films. Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. the basic themes of this film are romance, Retribution and Punishment and corruption.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS-
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. The film tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey)a small time con-man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator, Customs Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat. The scene began with John Ottman's resplendent classical score backdrops some eye-popping Panavision images of an unseen man shooting Gabriel Byrne and starting a huge fire dockside in San Pedro. The widescreen frame remains superbly filled for the entire picture, which then jumps back in time six weeks to begin piecing together the tricky details of a plot that will bring an assortment of characters together for the fateful conflagration in California. Singer provides what are sometimes called real movie-movie moments, scenes filled with live-wire acting, dramatic confrontations, startling action and surprising twists. pictures moves along at just the right pace to keep the suspense tingling but also to permit the characterizations to take dimensional shape.

Section 3- Brainstorm of ideas for your film.

The first scene sees the credits running through a scene of a man murdering a woman, who holds an important piece of information scribbled onto some paper. The scene cuts back and to from the night before (the murder) to the day after (where the murderer puts the woman into a sac).
throughtout the film, we look at the murderers character (edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowladge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but edward needs to help his country and assasinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this infrormation. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between edward jin. the secret is spilt (to the viewer) and edward eventually murders jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now, he ends his own life so then the secret is burried and dead.

Section 4- Audience research- and reasearch into BBFC film classification system.

Thriller Questionnaire – Audience Research

How old are you ………

Gender - Male Female (please circle)

Do you watch Films? If so on average how often do you watch films a week? (Please circle)
0 1-4 5-10 10+

What is your favourite film and why?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What is your idea of a thriller film?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Which is your favourite thriller?
………………………………………………………………………..

What is your preferred type of thriller? (Please circle)

Action Conspiracy Crime Disaster

Drama Political

Do you prefer a male or female hero? (Please Circle)

Male Female

Your preferred characteristics of the protagonist (Hero)?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Do you prefer a single hero or many? (please Circle)

Single many

Do you prefer a male of female villain?

Male Female

Your preferred characteristics of the Antagonist (Villain)?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Do you prefer a linear storyline (story follows itself) or a non-Linear storyline (Story flicks
through time)?
…………………………………………………………………………….

Out of these plots which is your favourite? (Please Circle)

1. Political women running through the woods from the killer as she has something concerning the government the killer wants

2. Average business man working in his office when he gets a phone call from a man who has his son hostage and says his son has 48 hours to live.

3. Old house occupied by a strange. The man was a doctor who got fired for an operation that went wrong and ended in the patient dying. he get people to come inside so the man can ‘operate on them.’

4. A man killed someone with witnesses watching it now he stalks the witnesses trying to kill them off before the police catch on to him.

What is your ideal death?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Should the killer be known or unknown? (Please circle)

Known Unknown

Should the opening scene consist of the graphics (Credits)? (Please Circle)

Yes No

What colour scheme should be used in the credits?
…………………………………………………………………..

What soundtrack would you like to hear? (please Circle)

Orchestral Recognisable song up coming artist

Which film title do you prefer? (Please Circle)

Piece of Paper above the law 48 hour Phone call Dead end

Any other opinions?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Thank you

Section 5- Treatment

Treatment
Dead End is a political thriller showing world leaders and how corrupt they can become when change is approaching.

Concept
An upcoming MP is set to killing government officials who plan to kill a world leader which plans to make change. If the assassination of the world leader is successful it will lead to global war among countries.

Synopsis
The beginning shows the killer, Edward Fisher, murdering a political women who holds key information about an assassination to a famous world leader who plans to make changes.Throughout the film, we look at the murderer’s character (Edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows Edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowledge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but Edward needs to help his country and assassinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this information. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between Edward and Jin. The secret is spilt (to the viewer) and Edward eventually murders Jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now and the famous world leader is safe, he ends his own life so then the secret is buried and dead.

Opening scene
The opening scene isn’t too revealing to the audience as it shows a man dragging a bin bag through a park with the graphics flicking between the frames. The graphics consist of the man reading the political section of the news paper and cutting out articles. We also see women’s features yet the audience don’t know why in till the end when the woman is revealed to be in the bin bag and the killer is throwing the bag with the women in away.

Target audience
Dead end is aimed at 15 year olds and over as it depicts how tyrannical politics can be and how corruptive MPs and world leaders are. We chose to pick ‘Certificate 15’ as young adults and adults themselves realise how deceiving our government can be. The film consists of violence and heavy swearing.


Other details
There are no notable stars in this film as it is only a short production; also we have chosen to shoot the opening scene in a park to show how a peaceful and ‘fun’ place can be disturbed by the government, which can resemble society in some ways.

Section 6- Character outlines and script.

EDWARD FISHER-
The killer is a lonely 22 year old male named Edward fisher. He’s a normal looking man but with a such a passion for success who knows what crimes he could commit. Other than the occasional beating from his father when he was younger there was nothing traumatic about fishers childhood. He is a new up and coming member of parliament, with straight black hair and a smart appearance, well sometimes. Edward will walk over anyone to get in power, he feels no sadness or regret for the crimes he commits as it is only getting him closer to success.

SOPHIE KING-
Sophie King is the female victim that Fisher kills for information. Her father is the highest in the business therefore she is vital for fisher as she’s the one who can get him ahead in the game. Sophie was a quiet young girl but enjoyed how much attention she got from her fathers prestige role, sometimes she may have got too much attention. She didn’t know Edward well and would have never guessed that he would ever be her killer. Working as a receptionist her father trusted her with all of his deepest secrets and fundamental information- which she kept in a file. One night Sophie was transferring the information, but fisher followed her. When she was reluctant to give him the information for money, he took it into his own hands. The endless torture was too much for her and fisher killed the young female.

MATHEW KING-
Mr King is the best in the business whatever he wants, he gets. Although he may not seem it King is a huge family man and when he finds out about the death of him beloved daughter it almost kills him. Matthew king will walk over anyone to get where he wants to be and cares not about feelings or friends, just success and money. There is no one who can become higher than him without getting into and discovering all of his messy secrets. King is fishers arch enemy, even though Edward would love to be in Matthew’s place. He is the world leader and everyone looks up to him. He devises a sick plot to damage the world as it is now. When he finds out that fisher holds this information he hires hit men to take him down and publish the secrets to evidently destroy humanity.

JIN KOUENG-
Jin is one of Edwards companions but he knows too much of the secret. He tries to help fisher but his good heart stops him and he attempts to tell the authorities as it is killing him inside. He never helps with the killings but knows when and where it is going to happen. Towards the end, Jin can’t contain himself and needs to tell someone, but fisher can’t allow this as there relationship brakes down he has to do what’s right for his country and his uncontrollable need to kill means he kills Jin Koueng.


SCRIPT-
The first scene sees the credits running through a scene of a man murdering a woman, who holds an important piece of information scribbled onto some paper. The scene cuts back and to from the night before (the murder) to the day after (where the murderer puts the woman into a sac).throughtout the film, we look at the murderers character (edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowladge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but edward needs to help his country and assasinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this infrormation. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between edward jin. the secret is spilt (to the viewer) and edward eventually murders jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now, he ends his own life so then the secret is burried and dead.

Section 7- Production material- storyboards & shortlists.