Problems with Filming

Due to an unexpected down pour of rain on Sunday, we were unable to start filming our time lapse. We are however, planning the next date to do so and we should begin filming within the next two weeks.

Film Classification

This is a piece of our group work. This research was effective in helping us decide on what age was most appropriate for our thriller. It's important to understand this in order for us to appeal to the right target audience. If we were to advertise our film with the wrong age rating, it would attract the wrong people and therefore result in unhappy customers.

Story Board Part 1

These are the first four shots that we have storyboarded. We've wrote down what setting, shot, angle, movement, action, lighting, props and sound we plan to use in these four shots.

First Draft of Our Thriller Story

This was the first draft that I completed as a summary of our story for the thriller. After creating this, we had to edit the story based on what we were going to include in our thriller opening. We have now changed this story slightly after further work on the task.

Overall Story of Our Thriller

This photo shows the overall story of our thriller (Marshlands) that I wrote. I decided that it would be a good idea to think of the whole storyline and not just the opening as it would help us develop a better thriller opening if we have more understanding of the storyline. 

 

However, the opening of our thriller will only show the three friends preparing for their trip and setting up there. It will also include a monologue from the last remaining character in the film with flashbacks from the night that the group camped there.

Film Production Companies

I researched brands that have produced film companies in order to find the best and most suitable to produce our thriller. Naturally, my mind first thought of Warner Brothers with it being one of the most successful brands of its kind. However, I soon discovered that its not the most appropriate due to the lack of Thrillers that they have produced (the only two on the website are Red Riding Hood and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride). Furthermore, these two thrillers don't fit our criteria in the sense that one is 12 and the other PG. This differs from ours as we've decided to have our thriller as a 15.

I next researched other various companies that may be suitable for our thriller. For example, I searched who produced the Bourne films. However, I thought that selecting an English company would be more suitable rather than American based.

I finally came across Hammer Films. Known for their Gothic films having produced many successful thrillers and horrors I was intrigued to find that this particular company may just be the most suitable for our thriller. Hammer Films was previously sold after their previous success and then sold again in 2007 where production went into action again. Since then Hammer has produced the highest-grossing British horror film in 20 years, making $127,730,736 as of June 2012; The Woman In Black starring Daniel Radcliffe. Hammer is also now in the process of producing The Woman In black sequel Angels Of Death (with great expectations, having read the book written by Martyn Waites myself).

This particular success caught my attention as a lot of the inspiration for our thriller was based on this film. Having personally studied the opening to this film, I learnt what to expect in the opening of a thriller as well as various other aspects such as how exactly the directors create a tense atmosphere without giving too much away (a very important aspect in determining the success of a thriller).

I finally decided that Hammer Films is the most appropriate production company not only due to its success worldwide but because of its success with the appropriate genre (thriller/horror). I feel that even though The Woman In Black is a different age rating to our thriller, it is relatable as there is a similar theme to the film as both are meant to mildly scare viewers with the sense of an unknown presence. I therefore feel that we could potentially gain the same success with the right Company should we have to choose one.

Hard at work Storyboarding

we've started to storyboard our Thriller Opening to enable us to start filming this Sunday! Our group have also come up with the title of our thriller: Marshlands.

Monologue Script for Thriller Opening

This is the first draft script that I wrote yesterday for the monologue of the main character in our thriller opening. We decided to start to write the monologue before storyboarding so we could get a realistic idea of when the narration would stop and so what we would then inlude in the opening in terms of camera angles and different scenes.