Thursday 30 November 2017

Filming Schedule Planning


We recording ourselves discussing the possible schedule for filming our different actors. Also, we mentioned non continuity editing and what parts of the synopsis to film in daylight. In addition, we think that one day will be enough to film the character Sophie (friend who goes missing) and her mother, another single day will be enough to film the shots that include the character Jenny (friend who goes psycho). The montage clips which will include establishing shots of settings and props, we are able to film these in our own time as long as we edit them into all of the footage appropriately. These montage clips won't be clear to the audience which adds an element of mystery so the trailer will be enticing as the audience will want to understand the context. We plan for these clips to be fitting to the psychological thriller genre; linking back to our research on The Snowman and The Girl on the Train.

Furthermore, Zoe and I believe that  filming in the dark will enhance the thrilling atmosphere that the audience will be apart of when watching our trailer. However, we may face some technical issues as the DSLR camera requires light to capture good quality footage. So, to overcome these issues we will film inside scenes when it is beginning to get dark outside, allowing the camera to record in good quality. To ensure that our trailer isn't categorised as a horror we will include psychological thriller conventions throughout and film in dim light. When editing we will add a filter to create an eerie mood.

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Props used in Left Behind

Zoe and I texted each other when deciding what props to use within our trailer. This collage of photos displays what props we will be using for our film. The bed can also be categorised as a setting because it is in a bedroom, which is where the key psychologically thrilling events take place in our trailer. Alcohol and pills will be fake to ensure that our trailer is filmed safely and no one is harmed. The candle will be used to bring a mysterious element to the trailer. Also, the iPhone will be used for when the mum character rings the police, and when the main girl is looking through photos with her friends that have gone missing. When the girl drinks the (fake) alcohol it connotes that she is under distress, similarly to when she takes the (fake) drugs. A stereotypical psychological thriller convention is to show the leading role, who is usually female, under a lot of distress through using props with negative connotations.    


Thursday 23 November 2017

Storyboard of Left Behind Trailer -Zoe Firth

This is our storyboard for our Left Behind trailer. It clearly shows the synopsis for our film, with drawings that display the settings within the scenes.

Planning of Characters in Left Behind

From our research we found that psychological thrillers include a vulnerable female role as the main character. For example, in 'The Girl on the Train' and 'The Snowman'. Due to this research we chose to make our main character a female. We decided to keep our character list quite small so we don't confuse our audience, especially as we plan on using non continuity editing. The police and the news reporter will be featured in our trailer to include a sense of verisimilitude and to make the film feel more real for the audience.

Props for Left Behind

We discussed what props we would want to use in our trailer. Some of the props, likes beds, we chose as they are important to our narrative. Also, we chose to use phones and alcohol in our trailer as these props were quite common within the psychological thriller trailers we looked at in our research. For Example, 'The Circle' and 'The Girl on the Train'.

Key Settings with Explanations




Settings in Left Behind

 

These are the settings we will be using for our psychological thriller trailer because they all are recognisable locations. This means that our audience will be concerned that events in our trailer could take place in their local areas/own houses. The locations we have chosen link back to our research on 'The Snowman' trailer as in this trailer the audience sees a lot of scenes that are in the characters houses. Also, from our research we found that the horror genre is known for using rural areas so, to ensure our trailer is categorised as a psychological thriller, we used urban areas.

Friday 10 November 2017

Left Behind Pitch with Feedback

 
When we presented our pitch to our teachers and our peers they gave us some feedback on areas to improve:
  • Include specific locations we plan to use and why
  • Mention and explain our USP
  • Talk about potential props
  • Link everything back to our research
  • Don't include screams in our film as it is a cliché convention from the horror genre
To take on this feedback we thought that making extra slides would show clear improvement. If we were given more time to create a PowerPoint then we would have included these slide to add more specific detail to our pitch:


 
We have planned to use empty and abandoned locations as in our research we found this element was frequently used. For example, in 'The Abandoned (2015)', the featured setting is an abandoned apartment block which is creepy as it makes the audience wonder how it was abandoned to begin with. Thrillers usually use locations that the audience can relate to as they seem familiar to daily life. This is effective as the audience will be concerned that a chilling event could happen to them. An example of this is 'The Girl on the Train (2016)' because commuters will be concerned about events from the psychological thriller becoming reality.

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Script for Left Behind Pitch -Zoe Firth


These pictures display mine and Zoe's script which we will read off during our pitch for our psychological thriller trailer 'Left Behind'.





















Monday 6 November 2017

Title Ideas for Psychological Thriller


We made a list of potential names for our thriller. These names listed sound vague but link to the synopsis of our trailer. From this range of names we thought that 'The Missing' and 'Left Behind' were most suited to the thriller genre as they are ominous and vague so they will intrigue our audience.

We  have decided on the title 'Left Behind' because 'The Missing' could be mistaken to be a TV documentary. 'Left Behind' sounds more suited to the psychological thriller genre.

We experimented with which title would look best by typing them out and editing them on Photoshop. This meant changing the font, colours, and adding different effects to them. The connotations associated with these titles are very ominous and mysterious as the colours we used were grey, neutral red, dark blue, and black. We decided that Left Behind looked best in a handwriting font called 'Biro' on PowerPoint because it is creepy and makes the audience ask lots of questions as they are intrigued to why the font looks so personal. 'Left Behind' has negative connotations. Also, the two words connote neglect and isolation which links to our narrative because our locations are abandoned so they're isolated.

Saturday 4 November 2017

Complete Narrative for Psychological Thriller Film -Zoe Firth

Zoe and I thought it would make more sense to create our own complete psychological thriller synopsis so we could then pick key impactful scenes to include in our trailer. This allows us to construct a non continuity structure easier as we know the full chronological order first.

We draw out a timeline on a whiteboard which depicts the key events within our film.

For clarity, the whiteboard reads;
  1. Girls playing in the playground (Best friends) 
  2. One girl comes home, has dinner, goes to bed like normal
  3. Mum can't find her in the morning
  4. Mum rings police
  5. News report... (several kids have gone missing)
  6. Mum tells the girls best friend that she's missing
  7. Best friend goes crazy looking for her friends (psychological) (Drawn out main part)
  8. She is convinced she is next
  9. Hands come out form under her bed... she ignores it 
  10. It happens again but no one believes her
  11. The hands get her
  12. She goes missing





Wednesday 1 November 2017

Initial Ideas and Inspiration for Psychological Thriller Trailer -Zoe Firth

To begin planning our trailer of the psychological thriller genre we created a mind map including initial ideas on;
  • the trailers narrative
  • settings we will use
  • actors we could enrol
  • cut to black editing technique
  • having inspiration from the Alton Towers 'Swarm' ride for sound
This is a photo of our initial ideas mind map.



















In order to make our psychological thriller trailer appealing, we decided that sound has a massive impact on the audience. So, we have taken inspiration from the ride SWARM at Thorpe Park due to the sound effects it involves. Also, we took inspiration from the rides post apocalyptic mise-en-scene as we are capturing empty roads in our trailer. The sounds of cars crashing and sirens are impactful as they imply that the world is in an apocalyptic state.