Location Scouting

Location Scouting

Production Schedule

Production Schedule

Auditions Idea

Planning for Actor Auditions

Timeline Plans

Production Ident

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Production Pitch Video

Actor Auditions

Here we auditioned a range of people knowing their individual skills, and even played with the sex of the victim and antagonist but came to the conclusion that a male victim and antagonist can make the scene slightly more tense and violent. We did consider using a girl as victim to show the difference in power but Ronan's audition grasped the role of the victim perfectly so in this case we decided to look at the quality of the acting seeing as that has an impact on atmosphere also,

For the antagonist we came to the conclusion that Jordan was the best actor, despite not looking as rough as a typical torturer and psychopath, but we don't plan on showing the torturer's face and he is most imaginative and promising for this role since he is doing A-Level drama and has the ability to adopt any character and persona.

Production Pitch

Pitch

Inspiration and Ideas

 For inspiration we took a look at the top 10 movie interrogation scenes as it would give us some ideas as to what the most popular and famous interrogation scenes include so that our own scene would be effective.

In this video, we looked at what sort of camera shots had been used so that it would show the necessary details of the scene, the mise-en-scene as a whole and we paid attention to the atmosphere so that we could somewhat re-create it to, again, make our scene effective.

We came to the conclusion that close-ups and the use of framing is the most effective in torture scenes so the viewer is either in the dark about what's happening out of the shot, or feeling uneasy in place of the victim. Our inspiration was from this video since we noticed a pattern in the common thriller conventions in it.

Sound Presentation

Shot List

Shot List

Actor Choices

Actors

Mise-en-Scene

Mise en Scene

Storyboard Plans

Job Roles

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Sound Planning

Sound planning

We have three different options for backing sound for our thriller opening, one being asynchronous sound, the other synchronous and finally using nothing but diegetic sound.

For asynchronous sound, inspired by Casino we have decided we could possibly use Rock ‘n’ Roll style music. This doesn’t match our torture scene in any way since it is usually used in fight scenes to match the action of each punch or strike of an object. Casino inspired us because it is a slow torture scene much like ours and makes the antagonist seem much more crazy than they already are.

On the other hand, it is used when fast paced editing is used so we can only introduce it for a small portion of our thriller opening since the middle to end of it will be the more fast paced part.

When using synchronous sound we have decided that dramatic classical or orchestral music would be best, as the sound crescendos louder and more instruments join the ensemble, as it gets louder. We could use this more effectively since it could build up as the pace of our editing increases, which is where it clashes with the asynchronous sound. We intend to make it as psychologically unnerving as possible yet we wish to build tension using sound too, Rock ‘n’ Roll can’t add tension as effectively and orchestral can’t make the antagonist seem psychopathic as effectively.

The use of nothing but diegetic sound can build tension and create the psychological effect but can’t make the scene as psychotic as asynchronous would. It can create tension but it can’t build on it, so all of the different uses weigh each other out. Using no soundtrack and nothing but what the victim hears creates a sense of perspective and actually makes the viewer feel as if they are the victim. Ideally this is the effect we wish to create with any sound we choose, so we must consider and evaluate these options further. 

Thriller opening: plans and ideas

Target Audiences

Demographic and Psychographic audiences

Demographic audiences are audiences targeted with the use of statistical data such as income, age on average and education. This can allow interests such as events specific to a particular time that these people were in, so an event based in the 80s would appeal to people born in the 70s/80s most. Historical and political background can tie in with demographics due to the wide range that occupation, education and income offer. High income audiences are stereotypically more formal, especially if they are of an older age. If they took part in higher education like attending prestigious universities they will most likely be more formal and wise, so political and historic films will be targeted at them. Films like 'The King's Speech' for example, that will appeal to the more rich and old audiences of around age 40-60. This means that the audience will be around the B/A classes on the socio-economic scale. 

For a thriller movie such as 'The Rock', I would consider aiming towards people in the C1/C2 classes as they are typically civil servants which the police and military come under. With it being an action-thriller I would associate those kinds of workers to be interested in the film. 
Also, people of working ages between 30 and 65 would be interested in the film, the older people because of the history of Alcatraz, where the film is based and of course how it closed with minor details of its most notorious inmates. The younger ages because of its action packed military and police foreground which is a common use in action/crime-thrillers. 

Psychographics are more based around lifestyle, opinions and values. It is more focused on categorising individuals for their personalities as opposed to their statistics and classes. Psychographics give a wide impression on individual interests instead of categorising a wide range of people, but nonetheless both are effective ways of identifying audiences. Using the psychographic scale, aspirers would be more likely to watch films such as 'The Wolf of Wall Street' due to it being about sales, dreams and of course aspiration which slots in perfectly with their personalities. Psychographics tie in very much so with demographics, especially when it comes down to lifestyle. Aspirers would most likely be in class C due to their young age, but they would be in clerical and sales jobs meaning that all they can do is dream for growth and image so films like this would appeal to them most.

A psychological thriller on the other hand would most likely appeal to people such as succeeders. They are more established and have their heads in the right place. Demographics tie in here as the succeeders are centred around a managerial role so they would be in class A of the socio-economic scale and around the ages of 40-60. 
So, in my opinion a thriller of such sort would be 'Silence of the Lambs', it's what would be considered nostalgic yet also complex and rather difficult to follow so someone of such an open and down-to-Earth mindset would be attracted to a film such as this.