Shot ideas for Thriller opening

Storyboard for Opening

My group looked at how we could include conventions of other thrillers to make sure that our thriller worked linking into the genre. We want to create an eerie atmosphere which is very eerie and spooky and gave us more of a feel that is expected in a thriller opening sequence or within the whole film.

Synopsis of Plot

Here is a synopsis of my plot:

Plot Synopsis! by Molly Sandford on GoAnimate

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Picture of location ideas for thriller

PICTURES OF LOCATIONS FOR THRILLER

Alley

I chose to look at an alley for a possible location for a thriller because I thought that this particular alley could be used to add some haunting shots of a protagonist walking away from the shot to create some mystery and suspense because we could make the character's identity unclear.

Gates/Inside of Graveyard

I took pictures here because I thought that the architecture of the gates and the house could be inkeeping with the sort of atmosphere we want to evoke through our thriller opening. They are not the types of places you would feel safe in as they seem very solitary and this may make our viewers feel more uneasy about the events they see taking place in these areas.

Industrial Estate

I looked for a location which I thought would emphasise the idea that a thriller could take place in a normal location but with a few lighting changes it could appear more threatening and leave the unsuspecting viewer scared that this sort of situation could happen near them.

Bridge/River

I looked for a bridge because a tracking shot across it may look effective in showing the characters rushing somewhere or walking across to again build suspense and leave the audience wondering where they are going and what the bridge is leading to. Also, I thought the river would work well if we shot something floating a way giving a sense of loss.

Conventions of a Thriller

Prezi explaining what I thought were the conventions of a thriller movie:

Research Questionnaires

Research Questionnaires

From these two questionnaires we can see that there is a considerable difference between the male and female audience's interest in Thriller movies. The female here is less interested in thrillers than the male taking the questionnaire and this is very stereotypical as thrillers are normally aimed at a more male audience, this gives our group the idea that we should be aiming our thriller opening at a male audience rather than a female audience because generally the males we asked showed more of an interest in our ideas and also more knowledge in thrillers themselves. We can see this from the questionnaires that the male has chosen more appropriate answers than the female regarding location, music and feeling of a thriller so it shows we should aim at a more male audience because they have a better idea of what a thriller should be.

Vox Pops

These specific vox pop questions taught my group about what other people outside our media class thought should be included in a thriller opening. The first question showed us that people will expect to see an introduction of the main characters in the first few minutes of thriller openings. Secondly, it taught us that we should also quickly introduce the premise of our thriller, giving people an idea of what the rest of the movie will entail.
The second question 'What setting would you expect to see?' showed us that we could include unsuspecting settings in our opening that people wouldn't think anything bad could happen in and where people would generally feel safe in such as a high school. We also found out that we need to make these settings scary in a way so we could use low key lighting to achieve this. Some people gave us obviously scary setting ideas which could also work well but I thought that it would create more mystery if we didn't use obvious settings such as abandoned areas or forests.
The people we asked 'How do thrillers make you feels?' mostly answered with the same sort of question. They said it would make them feel 'jumpy' 'scared' and 'nervous'. We need to try and convey this feeling by not giving away the whole plot in the opening or telling our audience who the killer is so they ask more questions while watching through our sequence.

Research

se7en

This is my analysis of the 'Se7en' opening;

Se7en opening analysis from mollyly

Silence of the Lambs Opening Analysis

This is my analysis of the 'Silence of the lambs' opening;

Silence of the lambs opening analysis from mollyly

Order of Titles in an Opening

Order of Titles in an Opening

Order of the titles in an opening sequence shown in a title sequence before the actual film or TV show are often chosen specifically so the audience reads them in the certain order. I have observed that they come in a certain order;

1) Normally the distributors logo is first: 

these companies were most involved in the making of the films or tv programmes.

Next there is often the producton companies but not always.

Finally, the actors are listed in a certain order, this is often the order of 'importance' in the film; the actors are listed in order of most important to least important in the film.

This also applies to listing the crew members in the film, the order is usually the most important crew members to the least important.

Silent Hill 3D: Revelations

Although in some more recent films I see the opposite thing happening with the more important cast and crew appearing last in the sequence.

Panic Room

Buried