Thriller Title Name

The initial idea was to call our Thriller opening 'Unsettled' to reflect the unsettled lifestyle of the homeless man, and also to reflect how unsettling the crime is.
However based on feedback, I have decided to change the name to 'Norma', the name of our female murderer. This then presents a focus on the character who is progressive and references the 'femme fatale' of the 1940's. This then adds more dramatic effect being only two syllables and was inspired by other films such as 'Carrie' and 'Christine' who feature thrilling characters titled the same name.

Casting for our Thriller

Our homeless man is played by Razzaq who has recently come over from Malaysia and therefore was very unfamiliar with Norwich making him seem more vulnerable, in which is depicted in our homeless character.

In 'The Times' online newspaper, there was an article written by Janice Turner who talks about who commit crimes such as murder. She states that 'men are responsible for 85% of all indictable crimes in England and Wales,  88% of crimes against the person, 90% of murders, and 98% of sexual offences (all for the year to June 2012).' This only leaves 10% of women who murder and therefore for our Thriller, we had to make the murder and murderer convincing. 

Turner then goes on to write 'In the case of homicide, men are more frequently the perpetrator. For those suspects where proceedings concluded in 2011/12, 89% were male (210 suspects) and 11% were female (25 suspects).' In our thriller we feature a shot of the female murderer crossing out pictures of homeless men implying she has murdered them and therefore she is the minority of murderers meaning she is less likely to be able to commit the murder.

Therefore the vulnerability of Razzaq having just moved from Malaysia, gives him a disadvantage making him defenceless and ideal to portray a vulnerable and weak homeless man.

Problems encountered during filming

Due to our Thriller being set during nighttime, we encountered problems of lighting. For example with medium long shots, we were unable to show the two characters involved within the same scene and therefore a solution was to use a torch that was available on our phones. This was more subtle than an actual torch that appeared like a spotlight  and therefore was suitable as it looked like lighting from a lamp post. We were able to focus and highlight the murderer's face so as to signify importance and danger.

Non-ambient lighting can be seen in films such as 'The Third Man' -particularly on the staircase scene- in which artificial lighting was used to mimic natural lighting thus creating the effect of chiaroscuro lighting. Though our lighting still mimicked non-ambient lighting, the effect was used to appear something it was not. Therefore our solution was effective and worked well in order to present our plot clearly.

Character Profile: Sam

Our group decided to call our victim 'Sam' as he is a homeless man and therefore his name needed to reflect his lifestyle. It is monosyllabic and simple as oppose to flamboyant to signify that he is poor and he leads a simple life. There are many stereotypes of homeless people, e.g. they are drug addicts, they sit on the street under a blanket, they wear neutral colours - nothing to bold etc. Whilst some of these may be true, it is not the case for everyone and therefore cannot be stereotyped.

However, because we had a maximum of two minutes to portray our characters, we have followed a few stereotypes to get our message across of a hate crime. For example, we have dressed Sam in a khaki jacket to signify nature as he has been living in the streets. We have chosen to film very few shots of him sitting down - particularly none of him under a blanket - purely to not offend others who are in this situation and do not want to be stereotyped and linked with certain associations. However we have followed some stereotypes as hate crimes are a serious matter and need to be made aware of as they are becoming increasingly common.

We have also shown him carrying a carrier bag as these are free objects that people take for granted and are therefore unwanted. To show him with this suggests that it is functional and a necessity as oppose to a useless, everyday object to people who take it for granted. This furthermore suggests his rough lifestyle where things are a necessity not a luxury.

Thriller Opening: Rough Cut

Positive:

• Good close-ups of the murderer when preparing
• transition of shots to clearly show the story
• link between Norma and Sam

Negative:

• Soundtrack needs to be added to make the opening more suspenseful and dark
• Title credits need to be added
• sound of the murder needs to be added to make it appear more authentic and realistic

Hate Crimes : Homeless People

For our Thriller opening, our group have decided to have a homeless man as a victim. Though some may find it unethical, it is a serious issue that shouldn't be hidden and should be made more aware. People make the assumption that homeless people are not a target, but in actual fact their vulnerability and weakness makes them the most likely victim of a hate crime. 

Statistics show that over the past 13 years (recorded in early 2013) there were 1,289 attacks against the homeless. In 2011, there were 105 attacks alone, resulting in 32 deaths. It has also been recorded that the crimes are getting more lethal over time and therefore our thriller opening portrays a real matter that is increasingly occurring. Not only is the amount of the crime taken into account, but also the age of those who commit it. For example, the majority of those committing these crimes are between the ages of 13 and 24 and are poor and uneducated. Norma, our murderer, is a young female in her 20's and her background is not
revealed as it is only an opening.   However, the name 'Norma' suggests that she has psychotic tendencies and is very influential much like 'Norma Bates' from 'Bate's Motel' therefore presenting her as someone likely to commit a crime against vulnerable people.

In order to clearly show that our Thriller is about a hate crime, we will show establishing shots of Sam (homeless man) to imply that he is in fact homeless i.e. sitting down, rough and grim locations. We will then cut - using transitions such as fade to black - to Norma (murderer) to imply that she is about to murder by using close-ups of her getting ready and preparing a weapon. Then we will replicate shots with different characters to suggest that they are both in the same place.

Murder Weapon

For our Thriller opening, we were inspired by the murder weapon used in Heavenly Creatures. This inter-textual reference has connotations of psychotic tendencies as the two girls in the film were obsessive which resulted in the murder of one of the girls mother. 

Our murderer is a female and we have challenged generic conventions, much like Peter Jackson, in doing so. The use of this weapon is then feminine in that a stocking is used which is a common female item. This then tells the audience that the murderer is a woman without revealing too much of her identity. 

Our cliffhanger is that we don't know if the homeless man is alive or not and we also don't know the motive for the murder but it is suggested that it is a hate crime. The choice of weapon could suggests similarities between the murderer and the two girls in 'Heavenly Creatures', for example they murdered Pauline's mother as they felt she was trying to seperate her and Juliet and therefore had a psychotic hate for her mother. Our murderer may be prejudice towards homeless man which is implied in the shot of her crossing out pictures of her victims.

Soundtrack

This soundtrack was titled 'Redletter' and we felt it was ideal as it appeared dark, but was subtle up until the end where the murder will happen. It signified to the audience the genre of the film as it appeared threatening and suspenseful. However I did not feel the end matched the end of our Thriller opening and therefore I overlapped it with another soundtrack.

I liked the middle section of this soundtrack where it reminded me of the soundtrack in Psycho and therefore would be an inter-textual reference. The sharp, short repetitive sounds mimicked the murder scene which was appropriate to create more of a tense cliffhanger. The combination of these two soundtracks then created a subtle but ominous atmosphere which transformed into a suspenseful and thrilling end.


http://soundbible.com/1479-Splitting-Wood.html
In order to make the murder scene more believable, I decided that a hitting sound was required. This was the one that went most with the action and therefore was a good choice. I had to slow the speed in order to be in sync with the murder in order to make it appear diegetic and as if it was the actual sound made.

Practice Footage

This shot was for our previous plot of the homeless man witnessing a murder. We planned to use a rule of thirds of the homeless man, the wooden planks and the murderer. However, due to poor lighting, we were unable to clearly show each individual section. The murderer could not be seen in the background and therefore would be confusing for our audience.

The solution we took was to remove the witness plot and instead have the homeless man murdered in order to make our Thriller opening more easy to follow.

Similarly, we had problems with lighting in this clip. We used other source of lighting to create a focus on the murderer's face however this was only effective when she was near the camera, therefore we decided this clip would not be a good one to use in order to make our opening clear enough.

This shot was an inter-textual reference to Heavenly Creatures and we felt a close-up was required to clearly show the weapon that will be used to murder the homeless man. We were happy with this shot and therefore will use it in our final cut.

We used this shot to mimic the previous shot of the homeless man walking up those stairs in order to show our audience that they are now in the same place, implying that he is the next victim. I particularly liked the tilt shot at the end which connotes psychotic tendencies by the camera not staying straight. It suggests that she is not normal which visually presents her as threatening, along with the weapon in her hand.

Character Profiles: Norma

http://prezi.com/r2k2yhcw5lea/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Updated Shot List

Shot:	Character:	Location:	Camera Angle:	Lighting:	Type of Shot:	Action:
1	Sam	Underpass (city)	High angle to low angle	Non-ambient	panning	Sam – Homeless man – is sitting insinuating he has been there the night
2	Sam	Underpass	Low-angle	Non-ambient	Close up
3	Sam	Underpass	Eye-level	Non-ambient	Extreme Close up
4	Norma (murderer)	Her room	tilt	Non-ambient	Extreme close up	Norma crosses out a picture of somebody implying she has murdered them. She then taps her fingers on the picture of Sam to suggest he is her next victim.
5	Sam	Underpass		Non-ambient/ ambient	Long shot	Sam is walking away to show he is now moving to next place
6	Norma	Her Room	Eye-level		Close up	Norma is getting ready to suggest she is now leaving to murder her next victim, Sam
7	Sam	Shed Area	High angle	Ambient	Long Shot to close up	Sam sits down to suggest that is where he is settling for the night
8	Norma	Her Room	Perspective of murderer	Non-ambient	Close-up	Norma is preparing the murder weapon
9	Norma	Shed area (step)	Low-angle	Non-ambient	Close-up/tracking	Norma is holding the weapon to clearly show she intends to murder
10	Norma	Shed area	Eye-Level	Non-ambient	Extreme close up/ tracking	Norma is now walking towards Sam
11	Sam	Shed Area	Eye-Level	Non-Ambient	Extreme close up	Sam wakes up and gasps when he sees Norma (fast pace)
12	Norma	Shed Area	Low angle	Non-ambient	Medium shot	Norma swings the weapon- ends before we know if Sam is alive or not.

Fonts

We have decided to call our Thriller 'Unsettled' as the homeless man is always unsettled as he moves each day. The cliffhanger does not suggest that he is either dead or alive and therefore suggests that he is of importance.

This font is called '28 Days Later' which is gritty and unglamorous and therefore suits our Thriller well. It represents both the homeless man and the murderer.

Though this would be suitable for our thriller, the other font -'28 Days Later'- is more rough which makes it stand out more as a title. However this may be suited for smaller writing such as actors names.

Though our thriller does depict unglamorous locations of graffiti, it doesn't focus on the grittiness of the murder and does not suit the character profile of our murder. However the first font represents the homeless life of the man, and the dirtiness of the murder.

Storyboard for revised Thriller plot

Further revision of Thriller plot

Our group had created a rough cut of our Thriller and felt having three characters was too confusing for an opening as there wasn't enough time available to make it clear. Therefore we have changed it to two characters and created more of a focus on our murderer also. Our current plot is:

1. Sam (homeless man) is walking to where he will settle for the night
2. Cut to Norma (murderer) who is crossing out a picture of her previous murder victim and circling a picture of Sam (suggesting he is her next victim)
3. Cut to Sam who is sitting
4. Cut to Norma who is preparing for murder
5. Cut to Norma with the weapon in her hand implying she has murdered Sam

Our cliffhanger is the ambiguity of whether Sam is dead or not.

Revised Thriller Plot

During the beginning of editing, our group discovered that there wasn't enough time spent on the murder scene. Therefore to lengthen it, we were inspired by the murder from 'Heavenly Creatures' in which allowed more of a plot and a wider variety of angles to be used. Therefore we spent another day re-shooting and this is our current plot:

1. Our murderer will place a watch as an allurement on the ground then hide
2. The victim will then come and begin to pick it up
3. The murderer will sneak behind him and kill him
4. The murderer will then put the watch back on
5. The witness (homeless man) will turn around

Practice Shots

 This is an example of a tilt shot which creates a distortion that suggests a lot visually about the subjects life. In our thriller, our main character is a homeless man and the effect of this angle then shows how his life is not so straightforward.

 This is an example of a close up which is essential to tell the audience of the emotions of the main subject. It is particularly key for our Thriller as he is meant to witness a murder and therefore the facial expression is crucial in order to make it believable and more suspenseful. The other close up of the brick shows in detail all the key features of the person that tells the audience what sort of person they are. For example, in 'Kill Bill', where we only see Bill's watch and handkerchief in which, without revealing too much about himself, already suggests that he is bold and confident. This can be linked to themes of misogyny, like Eminem who displays many flashy jewelry which along with his explicit lyrics, suggests his hatred of women.

 This is an example of a vanishing point which can connote detachment from society or emotion. It also highlights the surroundings which is effective for our Thriller by presenting an unglamorous and dull setting which is a thriller convention and can be seen in films such as 'Essex Boys' and 'Jackie Brown'.

 This is an intertextual reference to 'Jackie Brown' and is an example of a worms eye view. Like Melanie, our character displays signs of vulnerability - with Melanie being inferior to Ordell and Louis, and with our character having no food or shelter therefore making him weaker due to deprivations. The worms eye view therefore has many connotations by it being nearly level with the subject suggesting that he is at a low point in his life.

Soundtrack

The first clip is from 'Kill Bill Volume 1' which features a whistling tune and is an inter-textual reference to the second clip, 'Twisted Nerve'.

'Twisted Nerve' is a film based on a man called Martin who retreats into an alternate personality of a six year old called Georgie. He befriends Susan Harper and then friendship turns into a obsession, seeing Susan distancing herself, causing Georgie to embark on a killing spree with Susan as one of his targets.

This psychotic individual then resembles the female character in 'Kill Bill'. They both use a slow-paced walk to suggest their detachment from emotion due to not panicking or rushing. They are staying calm and showing no empathy and compassion which is why the whistling tune is much more effective than a soundtrack that would have already hinted to the audience something is going to happen due to the change in pace. The whistling tune stays the same tempo which adds more suspense by making the next move more unexpected which appears more chilling and cold.

The costume is also key in these two clips as the female character is wearing an eye-patch which adds mystery and suggests a life of danger where an incident occurred, causing her to lose her eye. Other characters in different films who wear an eye-patch are Snake Plissken from 'Escape from New York' and 'Escape from L.A.' whose best friend is war buddy Bill. This is similar to the female character as she is loyal to the character Bill in 'Kill Bill'. Both characters where an eye-patch due to a life of crime and danger which is linked to breaking the law in some form. The associations therefore imply to the audience that they are the villainous characters.

Georgie in 'Twisted Nerve' however wears casual clothes that disguises himself amongst others so as to not stand out. This then makes the villain more unexpected as clothing is a key visual part that hints to the audience of their life. Therefore the soundtrack of whistling helps for the audience to understand who he is by making it simple but creepy to suggest his psychotic tendencies.

For my Thriller, my group and I discussed a soundtrack and felt whistling is a simple but scary way to create a chilling atmosphere. A song for a soundtrack would lose that atmosphere that creates suspense and therefore whistling would be subtle but tense. It would begin from earlier on in the opening but would then be revealed that the murderer is actually the one whistling, much like these two characters in both clips. This would be revealed nearer the end of the opening. This would then be an example of a sound-bridge which can be seen in films such as 'Once upon a time in America'. This then links two scenes together, providing a story that the audience can understand.

Shooting Schedule

DATE:	TIME:	LOCATION:
Tuesday 14th January Thursday 16th January	11:00am-1:20pm 9:00am-11:00am	City Centre City Centre
Sunday 19th January	1:00pm-4:30pm	Shed area

Location ideas

 This place looks dirty and grim which suggests the poor lifestyle of our main character as he is homeless.

 The planks can symbolise the bars of a jail cell in which the homeless man witnesses a murder through showing how the murderer lives a life of criminality.

 The non-ambient lighting provides limited lighting which then makes the scene more dark and dull which ties in with the murder as it is a dark act of violence.

 The graffiti and dirty walls and floors yet again show the poor lifestyle of the homeless man visually and without the use of dialogue. The tunnel soon vanishes making it seem never-ending and the walls make you feel claustrophobic which suggests a life of entrapment and he cannot escape his situation.

This is similar to 'A Clockwork Orange' with the scene where a drunk man is singing under a bridge and cannot escape when he is about to be murdered as there is nowhere to run due to enclosed space. The lighting limits the view for the audience as a shadow is fore-casted  thus creating a mystery.

Storyboard