Shutter Island Official Trailer

This is the official trailer to the thriller Shutter Island, it is a very gripping, edge of your seat film that will confuse you but make you want to keep watching and unwind the plot twist.

Thriller films over the past 50 years

 

From Russia With Love

1963

Anita

1967
 

The French Connection

1971

Jaws

1975

Alien

1979

 



The Shining

1980

First Blood

1982

 

Die Hard

1988

The Silence of the Lambs

1992

Single White Female

1992

Pulp Fiction

1994

Se7en

1995

The Sixth Sense

1999

Memento

2000

The Others

2001

Hannibal

2001

 

The Bourne Identity

2002

Collateral

2004

The Dark Knight

2008

Orphan

2009

Black Swan

2010

Chloe

2010

Shutter Island

2010

Drive

2011

Mission Impossible:- Ghost Protocol

2011

The Woman in Black

2012

Skyfall

2012

Fast and Furious 6

2013

 

Mama

2013

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire Official Trailer

This is the trailer to the thriller film Catching Fire, I really like this trailer because it is almost like an opening to the movie. It grabs the audiences attention and holds it from the beginning right through to the very end.

Questionnaire Result Analysis

We created a questionnaire to hand out in order to find out what different people find to be important in thriller openings. We included questions about how often people watch films, what sub-genre of thriller they prefer, what props they find to build tension, etc. The three of us each had ten of the questionnaires to hand out for a range of people to fill in. From looking at the results, we have learned what we think would be suitable to use in our thriller in order to create a suspenseful and professional opening.

We ensured that we gave the questionnaires to a range of ages and to both genders in order to understand what different target audiences expect from a thriller. Despite asking a range of people, we realized that each of us did end up giving questionnaires to mostly people from between 10-20. We took advantage of having more results for this age group by starting to consider using this as our target audience. We thought this was helpful because teenagers tend to be prime viewers of thriller films. We think that this may be because after being a child and watching childish movies, they want to mature and see those that are more shocking, and tense- the thriller genre is right for this. Even though we asked people who seldom watch films to people who watch them almost daily, they were mostly people that watched films often. This would give us more valuable results as they are more likely to be sure of what they believe works or does not work in thriller openings.

The first question we asked to do with thriller films was ‘What is your favorite thriller sub-genre?’. It was a closed ended question, and we gave the interviewees a large choice of thriller sub-genres to choose from, also giving an ‘Other’ box, in case we had not included their favorite. The most popular choice was ‘Psychological’, especially among teenagers, which is convenient for us as we now know what is appealing for our target audience. Because of this, we plan to create a psychological thriller opening. Other popular responses were ‘Crime’ and ‘Religion’, so we will therefore try to include aspects from these genres in our movie. This will work as these three sub-genres have similarities. For example, they are related with the mind and death/murder.

For the next two questions we asked them to give reasons why their chosen sub-genre was their favorite, and to name their favorite of this sub-genre. The reasons people liked psychological were: ‘I love the tension of a psychological’; ‘they have a lot of plot twists making it impossible to guess the ending’ ‘I find them exciting because they are eerie to watch’. From this, we learnt some aspects that would be important to include. For example, we could include a plot twist which in turn would create tension, like the death of who we think is the main character.  Eeriness is of obvious importance, and making the opening eerie will be one of our primary goals.  

The next question was about what techniques are best to create tension. We gave suggestions, and the individuals would tick which ones they think were most important. The three options to get the most ticks were: ‘Little/no dialogue’, ‘Tense music’ and ‘One/two main characters’. These options all work together very well; by having very little dialogue the tense music will be focused on more. Also, having fewer characters makes sense because if there are only one or two people, there won’t be much talking.

‘What gender do you expect the antagonist to be in a thriller film?’ and ‘What gender do you expect the protagonist to be in a thriller film?’  were our next two questions. We gave the option ‘Doesn't concern me’ as well as ‘Male’ and ‘Female’. For both questions, the majority of people said that they weren't concerned by the gender of these characters. After finding this we chose to use a female as the protagonist, because it is a popular convention of thrillers to have a female victim. We have also decided that the gender of the antagonist does not have to be revealed in the opening of the thriller, because this is something that would be revealed later on. It would build tension to keep the identity of the villain a secret. 

The last question in our survey was ‘Which props do you think will help to create tension in the opening of a thriller?’ The three most popular options were: ‘Gun’, ‘Victorian Doll’ and ‘Disturbing images’. The gun and disturbing images will work well together, because shooting someone can create a disturbing image; blood and/or a dead body. The Victorian doll was an idea that we thought would bring a strange atmosphere because it is an old-fashioned object. It is quite sinister, because it is supposed to be a pleasant toy for children to play with, but we plan to give it a darker undertone by implying that it could be responsible for the death of a character.

Questionnaire

1. How old are you? (circle one)
10-20   21-30   31-40   41-50   51-60   60+

2. What gender are you? (circle one)
Male   Female

3. On average how often do you watch films? (circle one)
Never   Rarely   Sometimes   Often   Daily

4. What is your favourite type of thriller sub-genre? (circle one)
Psychological   Action   Crime   Religious   Conspiracy
Disaster   Legal   Medical   Gangster   Mystery   Political
Romantic   Spy   Supernatural   Sci-Fi   Dystopian   Other

5. Why?

……………………………………………………

6. From your answer to question 4, what is your favourite film of this sub-genre?

...............................................................................

7. From the following options, which do you think are the most important in a thriller opening? (Circle as many as necessary)
Little/no dialogue   Tense music   Dark lighting   Confusing plot  
One/two main characters   Narration   Establishing shots of Location

8. In a thriller film what gender do you expect the antagonist to be?

Male  Female   Doesn’t concern me

9. In a thriller film what gender do you expect the protagonist to be?

Male   Female  Doesn’t concern me

10. What props do you think would help create a tension in a thriller opening? (Cicle as many as necessary)

Knife   Gun   Police car   Victorian doll   Mask
Newspaper clipping   Blood   Holy text   Disturbing images
Axe   Alcohol   Drugs   Dead body   Body parts

Story Board for our Thriller Film

Shot list for our Thriller film Opening

Justification on the props and costume for our thriller opening

* A sliver bracelet- The girl character in our opening is wearing a silver bracelet. During the opening the audience discover that the two dead bodies photographed are wearing the same bracelet. We have done this because it connects the character to the dead bodies, creating mystery and adding tension. It is common in thriller films for a prop to be a main part of the storyline as it is something for the audience to notice and work out for themselves- making a more interesting storyline.

* A white dress with black pumps- This is the costume the girl is wearing in our opening. We have chosen this costume because it gives the impression that the girl is innocent and pure. Also it is not a normal outfit for a teenage girl to be wearing creating more mystery and making the storyline seem more abnormal. It is normal for a victim to wear white in a thriller films as it make the audience sympathise with them more.
 
* Old fashioned doll- This doll is going to appear and disappear throughout the opening. We have chosen this prop because it fits in well with our setting of the Red Hall as both are very old. Not only this but the old fashion doll is very creepy and gives a sinister feeling and because it keeps disappearing and appearing emphasises the fact our thriller is psychological/religious. This isn’t a common prop used in thriller films as it can only work in certain genre of thriller film, so we are using it to be original as we believe it’s a great prop to use to add tension and mystery.

* A tatty Bible- The girl is going to pick up this prop when looking around the room. The Bible is going to be very tatty- with missing pages, rips and ink covered in it. We are using this because it gives clues to the audience about what kind of person owns it, as it’s not normal for a bible to be tatty. It also emphasises the fact our thriller is psychological/religious. This prop would only be used in a religious thriller but can be very significant to a storyline which is something we wanted to do in our opening.

* Empty packs of food and alcohol bottles- These are going to be scattered around the room that the girl is looking around. We are using these to suggest to the audience the person who owns the room is a messy person and not ‘normal’. If relevant to the storyline, this sort of thing is done a lot in thriller films as it help to show the audience what kind of person lives in the space and create the feeling of abnormality.

* Newspapers clipping relating to death- These props are going to be placed on the table the girl looks at. We have chosen these props because it create mystery and add tension for the audience. Also it makes the character who owns the room seem more sinister. This is done a lot in thriller films (especially crime thriller) as it can help keep a character identity secret and help create more mystery.

* Images of two dead bodies (Jessica and Beth)- These props are going to be placed on the table the girl is looking at. We have chosen this because it helps develop the storyline and create more mystery for the audience. As they will realise that the person who owns the room has something to do with the death, suggesting the girl looking around the room is danger. Also we are using these images to help film our credits. This is very typical for a thriller to show at least one dead body in a film because it disturbing for the audience to watch and can really help create an atmosphere in the storyline.

* A mattress and sheet- these items are going to place in the room that girl is looking at. We are using them because it suggest that person who owns this room sometime sleeps there, which isn’t normal- adding more mystery and tension for the audience. This isn’t a common thing seen in a thriller film but we want to have it in to make the storyline seem less normal that real life.

* Images of the girl in the opening- There are going to photos of the girl in our opening which look like they have been taken by a stalker. We are using this because it connects the girl to the person who owns the room. Also it helps create more mystery and suggest the girl is in danger. This is commonly used in a crime thriller as it helps to suggest danger and there is a bad person in the film.

* Two bloody white tops- There are going to be two bloody white tops place in the room which are the tops the dead bodies are wearing. We are doing this because it connects the person who owns the room to the deaths of these girls. Also it suggest to the girl looking around the room is in danger. It is very common for there to be blood in a thriller films as it make the audience uncomfortable to watch and help show the danger on this scene.

Justification of the Actress in Our Thriller

Only one actor is necessary for the filming, and that is one teenage girl. We have chosen to use Mia Shaw to play the character of the girl who finds the items in the house. This is because she is currently taking A-level performing arts so we know that she will be sufficient for the acting. Also, it is useful that she is in the media group because she will have knowledge of the type of film we are creating, and of media technique in general. For the plot, it was important that it was a teenage girl, so Mia is suitable for this. Also the character must be innocent, naïve and wholesome; as Mia has blonde hair and is quite short it will give connotations of these characteristics.

Justification of the Title of Our Thriller

The Title of our film is going to be ‘The Revelation’. We decided upon this title because it is appropriate for the plot as the identity of a murderer is dramatically revealed. It also has connotations of religion because there is a book in the Bible called ‘Revelations’. This is suitable, because when the girl is looking around the old fashioned house she finds clippings from the Bible, with highlighted parts about death, sins etc. The title will appear at the end of the opening, in the credits. We will show it in clippings from newspapers, spelling out ‘The Revelation’. This will look effective because the room will be covered in rubbish, and it will be quite unusual and strange that the letters are arranged like this on top of the litter.

Pitches

We have desided to call our production team 'JEM PRODUCTION' as it is the first letter of our names- Jessica, Elizabeth & Mia. Also we think it a sterotypical name for girls as 'jem' suggest jewelry, glitter and pretty thing, so we want to show a more daring and edgy side to it. We have a couple of ideas of how our title will apper in our opening. The first is have a different newspaper letters cut out to spell our title. The next is to have written on peice of paper which goes up in flames. Or have the title typt out on a typewriter. Or have it apper on old film tap. To make sure our names are in it, there are going to be images of myself and Jessica looking dead (which relats to our storyline) and an image that looks like a stalker has taken it of Mia. All will have our names and candidate with it.

Why we chose our Location

Our location that we chose was the Red Hall in Bourne on South road. We decided that we would use this location because it is known to be notorious for being haunted by a woman that once lived in the house. We also picked it because it is a very old building with a beautiful stair case and old fashioned rooms and windows that we can use in our thriller film opening. There is also a big open green space that if we decided we needed to use the space.

This relates to our subgenre we are doing for our thriller, the subgenres we have chosen are crime and psychological thriller. We have chosen this because it is a popular this is a popular subgenre of thriller that audiences enjoy watching. This all relates to our storyline that is of a girl that wonders into an abandoned house where there is a mystery atmosphere about the whole mise-en-scene, and we figure out why as the film goes on.

We are the first AS media students that will record at the Red Hall, so we thought that this gave a sort of mystery of the location because they won’t know if we have re-arranged anything in any room or corridor.

We emailed the Red Hall to ask if they would allow us to film our thriller there, they gladly agree that we were able to shoot there; they also asked if they could have a copy of the completed film as part of the agreement of shooting inside the building. We wanted to see what rooms we could use and how we could go around setting out the rooms we could use. So the Red Hall committee agreed that it would be okay to go to the hall on 14/11/2013 Thursday a week before we was due to film, to look, take pictures and ask any questions that we might have to ask the lady that showed us round. I took photos of every room we were allowed to use and the stair cases, windows and other features that might be useful for us to look at and to help us plan. We also used these pictures to do our shot lists and our equipment list.

We are very grateful that they agreed to the filming.

Written by Jessica Hammond 

Items we need for our thriller film

-         Dress (preferably white)

-         2 matching bracelets

-         Theatrical blood

-         Creepy Looking doll

-         Location: The Red Hall

-         Newspaper clippings

-         Bible clippings about murder

-         3 white tops

-         Bottles of alcohol

-         Food wrappers

-         Photos of Beth, Mia and Jess

-         Sound affects

-         Creepy noises

-         Jess’ laptop

-         Jess’ camera

-         Beth’s camera

-         Beth’s Tripod

-         Mattress

-         Pillow

-         Sheet

Written by Jessica Hammond 

Se7en Analysis

This is a very dark setting; with a close up shot of some strange, orderly arrange items. This looks as though it is someone’s route that they have done for many years every day. They look like they are very old; however, they have been kept in very good condition. The first item on the left looks to be some sort of napkin or handkerchief it also has a floral pattern on it, this could represent some kindness that is the character. The second thing in the line is a police badge, this gives us the clue that the person these items belong to is a police man or detective or something higher. The third item is a lock knife; this doesn’t mean that they use it for a weapon. It could be used for a number of reasons; also it has some sort of decoration on the handle. So they could carry it around with them for religious reasons. The fourth in a row is a pen; this is a logical reason for carrying this item around if you are in the police. The last thing in the row is some sort of case. I cannot make out if it is a gun case or glasses case.

This is a mid shot of one of the main characters played by Brad Pitt. This character has a quite brightly lit; he has light hair, wears a bright white top so it stands out against the dark background. He could be seen as the immature, inexperienced cop. He looks very young so he won’t have as much experienced as we sensed from the cop that ordered his items of the day he needed. This character is wearing a shirt and tie but he is also wearing a leather jacket, so this looks like he isn’t taking his job very seriously by the way he is dressed.

This is a mid shot of the two main characters. There is a big difference visually about the two characters; they are both wear the same type of things however, the cop closes to the camera is wearing darker clothing than the second cop. They are also different in age; the young cop is in a slouched posture with his hands in his pockets with his back slouched also. However, the older cop, is walking with his hands behind his back and walking with a straight back. This shows the difference in the generations, how they are so different in many different ways. They are walking together down what looks like a rough street, even though they are walking together you can tell that there is a distance between them, like they don’t know each other that well.

This is the start of the opening title sequences in Se7en, there is a lot of over lapping of images in this shot. There is a cloth that looks to have wet blood all over it, there is also some sort of book with writing all over. There is also some sort of paper sticks that are structured in the middle of the shot as well. In this shot it shows that someone is planning something. They are trying to confuse the audience and make them wonder why they have decided that this is a good idea to put these together. They are trying to tell the audience that these series of shots all have meaning to the story that the film will take.

Shot list

Shot	Location	Shot Description	Framing	Action	Dialogue	Actor	Props	Notes
A	Along the corridor by F11	Jess is walking along a corridor, away from the camera	Long shot			Jess
B	Along the corridor by F11	Jess feet walking along the corridor to the right	Close up			Jess		Camera need to be on the right side
C	Outside F11	Jess walk into shot; turn right to face the camera, the camera tracks up wards on to her face.	Close up	Camera tracks upward from the feet to face.		Jess	Ring on finger.
D	Outside F11	Freeze on Jess face, with her looking nervous, so the title ‘The Exchange’ can appear on screen	Close up			Jess		Shot must be in black and white
E	Door of F11	Jess reaches for the  door handle with her left hand and pulls it down	A high angle close up			Jess	Ring on finger
F	In F11	Jess enters thought door  and door shut behind	Mid shot			Jess		The door handle must be down when shot starts
G	In F11	The shot is over the shoulder of a character we a yet to meet, we see Jess walk across the room and sit down a on a chair.	Over the shoulder mid shot			Jess and Mia		Shot need to be taken over the left shoulder

H	In F11	Close up of Mia’s lips, where she as ask Jess a question	Extreme close up		“Have you got the money?”	Mia	Red lipstick
I	In F11	Jess replies and get out the money, as the camera pans from Mia’s left shoulder to Mia’s right shoulder.	Over the shoulder Mid shot	Camera pans from left to right	“Yes”	Jess and Mia	50p	Shots need to start on Mia’s Left shoulder
J	In F11	Jess moves her hand across the table, where Mia’s hand meets it and she takes the money.	Bird’s eye view shot			Jess and Mia	50p and rings	The ring must be on Jess’s left hand Mia’s right hand
K	In F11	Mia looks at her hand and relives the 50p	High angle shot			Mia	50p and ring	Shot must be taken from over Mia’s right shoulder
L	In F11	Mia though the bag on skittles across the jess, which she catches.	Mid shot			Mia and Jess	Skittles	Shot must be taken on the right
M	In F11	Jess catches the skittles.	Extreme close up			Jess	Skittles and ring	Jess must catch skittles with left hand
N	In F11	Over Mia’s right shoulder, jess ask Mia a question	Over the shoulder Mid shot		“Same time next week?”	Mia and Jess		Shot must be taken form over Mia’s right shoulder
O	In F11	Over Jess’s right shoulder Mia nods	Over the shoulder Mid shot			Mia and Jess		Shot must be taken from over Jess’s right shoulder