Final decisions on production and distribution companies.

The distribution company I am going to use is Pathe international, as they distributed the british independant thriller 'Hush' which has a dark and eerie mise like my film. They also distribute small independant french films, so I think they would be interested in mine.

The production company I am going to use is Warp X its a small British production company who produced 'kill list' which is a hitman films, which relates slightly to my trailer and it's got a slight thriller mise and the quick, dark shots inspire me to use those sort of things in my trailer.

Filming schedule for Wednesday

11.00 - 12.00 - shots from Easthill - sea and old town



1.00 - 2.00 - shots of neighbourhood



3.00 - 4.00 - shots of extra characters (family)


5.00 - 6.00 - shots of road in darkness

Distribution Companies

Open publication - Free publishing - More companies

Shane Meadows

Open publication - Free publishing - More meadows

Story Board

Open publication - Free publishing - More films

Production Companies

Open publication - Free publishing - More films

Location development

I filmed birds flying in a group above the pier, this will go with the voice over as I want my main character to be talking about the importance of freedom. I am using the birds as a symbol of being free.

Character development

My secondary characters are,

• The girls mother
• The detective

The focus of those two will be on the mother as I want to shoot a lot of scenes of her reaction to her daughters kidnap. Close ups of her face, looking out of the window.

I need to create scenes of the kidnapper going about his daily life.

• Going to the shop
• Gardening
• Hobby?

Also need scenes of the girls daily life.

• her hobby
• relationship with her mother
• relationship with friends

I also need a scene where the two main characters pass eachother before she is taken to show the tension and reaction from the kidnapper as she is close to him and his emotions towards her.

Shots from the Lovely Bones

I like these shots from the trailer for The Lovely Bones and I get inspiration and ideas for my own trailer from them. I like the shots of the murderer as they always hide his face and this is the sort of camera shots I want to use when filming my villain, as I do not want his face to be shown. I also like the close up of Susie's mother crying. This shows her true emotion and gives away the genre of the film (drama) straight away. My favourite shot is of Susie looking around her school locker, it looks like she is looking over her shoulder and it scared.

Film synopsis feedback

'Genre Horror, psychological horror maybe?
Villain needs to be explained and explored more to make more of a psychological film.
How will it end? a damaged person escapes, moves on, but always looks over her shoulder? Villain gets away?
Are their reasons behind the hostage?'


'Thriller psychological?
Enigma - will she escape? Why does he do this?
Will we get insights into their pasts. Does she get taken early on - if so, most of the drama is how they interact. Look at kiss of the spider woman
End - could be good if 1 kills the other? Or if he becomes completely destroyed by her?'


'Genre - thriller, horror
Remind me of Lovely bones
Mise - dark, disturbing
Appeals - narrative
Want the film to end - justice, neighbour caught and girl safe.
Trailer foreground - neighbour holding her hostage
Questions raised - What happened to her? why is he doing this?'


'Thriller, horror
How will you film this?
Lovely bones, tortured
Dark features and artificial light
develop conventions - will she die?
I would want her to escape but perhaps only just - maybe attempted murder? a bit different'


'The genre is drama/realistic, thriller
I'd want the film to end on a good note - escapism.
Inspirations - the lovely bones
Sinister feel about it.
Intense mood - plays with all three conventions - mood, character, narrative'


'Horror, thriller
Sense of community about neighbourhood? or strong feeling of no.
Need detail around main character. Why is he obsessed?
Questions need to be asked to draw audience in the trailer.
Ending - woman breaks free, challenge conventions.'


'meant to confuse audience?
Ending - do we know what happens?
Do we get justification for what he has done'

This feedback shows me that I need to think more in dept of my villians personality and work on how I will portray him. Also explain in the trailer why or how he came to be obsessed with the main character. Most of the feedback suggests that the audience wants the girl to break free, but as this is a physchological thriller so I want the audience at the end of the trailer to not know if she breaks free or not.

Thriller films

Thriller films are all about creating suspense, excitement and tension. Thrillers give the audience anticipation and terror. Hiding important key pieces to the mystery of the film are important to create a thriller film.


Crime thrillers mainly involve kidnaps, ransoms and revenge. Psychological thrillers usually involve mind games, obsession and stalkings. These two types of thrillers interest me the most in my trailer.


Thrillers usually keep the audience in suspense throughout the whole film building up to a revealing climax. Usually the threat or 'evil' character is hidden and unseen throughout the main body of the film until dramatic scene before the end of the scene when usually it looks like there is not hope of escaping from the situation. This gives thriller's mystery and tension.

Mood Board

Submarine Trailer

SUBMARINE

I like how the trailer has a lot of close ups of the main character and then contrasting shots of the beach and the welsh valleys. This sets the scene and lets the audience know that the film is about this character's life without giving too much away. I also like the dramatic french song as the soundtrack which clashes with the dry comedy and the dialogue in the trailer. I also like the fireworks and sparklers and I think they hint the passion between the two characters the film may be about. I like this trailer but the way it is made is not right for the genre of my film. I was a more fast pace and darker look.

I am You trailer

Once again this trailer has a female 'villain' and kidnaps another female.

Title - 'I am You' or 'In her Skin'


Director - Simone North


Country - Austrailia


I like how the trailer gets faster and faster during the end, it creates more suspense and impact.

The lovely Bones Trailer

The Lovely Bones (2009)

USA

Director - Peter Jackson

This film was originally a book. The story is narrated by a girl who was murdered by her neighbour. She tells the story of how she moves on to heaven and how her family deal with the grief.


I like how this trailer gets darker and more haunting and as it reaches the end the music becomes more powerful and the scenes are faster paced, creating fear and tension. I like how the trailer does this to attract its audience.


Peter Jackson the director uses the main character Susie Salmon as the voice over for the trailer. I want to use this idea in my trailer and I think it is useful to create a relationship between the audience and the main character in the trailer.

Hush Trailer

Hush (2008) 

British

Director - Mark Tonderai

  

This film is about a young couple of the motor way who get involved in a human trafficking gang as the girl gets kidnapped by a hooded man with a lorry after having an argument with her boyfriend. The film is based around how her boyfriend sets out to get her back,

The Loved Ones Trailer

This is one of the trailers I am looking at as it's 'villian' character is a female.

Title - The Loved Ones (2009)

Director - Sean Byrne

County - Australia

Genre - Drama Horror Thriller

Taken trailer

Taken (2008)

USA
Director - Pierre Morel

This film is about a young girl and her friend who go and celebrate graduation in Paris, where they are kidnapped by a organized gang. Her father sets out to save them and lets nothing get in his path.

Ideas

I was really inspired by 4321 and I want to create a storyline around a group of friends. I was thinking about doing the same thing by telling each persons story. I'm not sure what genre I want to focus on but I want the film to be based around this one girl in the group who has disappeared and how the group cope and try to find her unravelling more than they bargained for during the journey. I want to film around the Hastings area and create a sort of home made film look.

4321

4321

Directors: Noel Clarke, Mark Davis

Writer: Noel Clarke

Country British

Year 2010

4 Girls, 3 Days, 2 Cities, 1 Chance.....

This film is about 4 friends all female who get caught up in a diamond heist after finding a bag of diamonds in a packet on pringles. This film is made by telling each indidual story of the girls, which all ties together at the end. This is a heart racing and very clever film. I get a lot of inspiration by how this film is composed. This film represents female enpowerment and friendship.

Production Co: Unstoppable Entertainment, Retro-Juice Production, Atlantic Swiss.

I might look at these production companies and see what other films they do and whether they only produce british films.

All Boys Love Mandy Lane

All Boys Love Mandy Lane

Year - 2006

Director - Jonathan Levine

Genre - Horror Mystery Thriller

Country - USA

Story Line 

Mandy Lane is invited by a group of popular students at her school to a getaway ranch after becoming 'hot' over the summer. Things then take a turn for the worst as one by one the group starts disappearing.

Conventions

I think this film conforms to the normal conventions of a horror film, there is a lot of violence and mystery and at the end two people get away, a girl and a boy which is very normal.

Carrie

Carrie

Year - 1976

Director - Brian De Palma

Genre - Horror, Drama

Country - USA

Story Line

Carrie White is a quiet girl with telekinetic powers. She is abused by her mother religious mother and bullied at school. After pig blood is poured on her at prom she sets out to take revenge using her telekinetic power.

Conventions

This horror film was made in 1976 and I think it conforms to all the conventions of a horror film, there's blood and violence and references of the devil. I like this film even if the special effects aren't amazing because of the year the film was made, but it definitely creates fear in the audience.

Let The Right One In

Let The Right One In

Year - 2008

Director - Tomas Alfredson

Genre - Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Horror
Country - Sweden

Storyline

Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), a young boy who is bullied at school makes a unique friendship with a young girl called Eli (Lina Leandersson) who is a vampire.

Conventions

I think this film challenges and develops the normal conventions of a vampire film. With a vampire in a film, that the genre would be horror, but I think the film is more romantic as the director focuses on the relationship of Oskar and Eli. There is also minimum blood and violence apart from a few scenes compared to normal horror films. I enjoyed watching this film and it showed that the conventions in horror films can be developed and changed.