Planning: Developing ideas in groups - Miss Begum

What is an initial idea? Why is it important?

An initial idea is a plan or scheme designed for a main target. This is usually used to organize your first idea and judge whether it's realistic, original and successful. This is also beneficial to use as it build up and develop the product, when you compered them with members of the group. The members of my group are Natalia, Gulustan and obviously me. The first task that was assigned to us was to create a initial idea that suit the thriller genre. From here we were able to combine our idea and judge which one was the professional and realistic. This will evolve and make a better and innovative product. Initial ideas are important because it allows you to have an idea and later on change it if necessary, also because working in a group it will be easier because you have to compromise with other component of the group to create a product that will fulfilled everyone. 

IDEA 1 - NATALIA:

Narrative:  I want to divide the opening into 2 sections that will both make sense and work with one another. In the first section the opening credits will be presented with little narrative in order to establish the mood, atmosphere and genre of the film. This section is inspired by the opening of Seven where we don’t see the characters but can tell what is happening and what this could resolve in. In section one the main focus will be the anonymous letter that someone is creating by gluing and sticking newspaper cuttings together to create a whole. The newspaper cuttings will also become the typography for the opening credits. Section 2 on the other hand will have a clearer story line. It will start with a female character simply jogging in a forest until she finds a mysterious letter which is the one from the first section. She then feels unwell and takes medicine which causes her to hallucinate and hear things that are non-existing. She spots a weird ritual where an unknown figure does something to a child’s dead body. The sequence ends with an image of a female who wakes up on the floor with blood on her face leaving the audience with wonder whether the ritual was just a hallucination or reality.

Sub-genre: Psychological/ Mystery thriller.

Themes: Mystery, Super-naturalism, Death, Medicine, Chaos, Darkness.

Characters:

• Female Protagonist
• The Supernatural antagonists
• The Child Victim

Narrative Structure and Theory:  

• Todorov: in section 2 there will be a clear start, middle and end. The equilibrium when the female simply runs for leisure. Disequilibrium when she takes the pills and sees things. New equilibrium when she wakes up.
• Aristotle- the theme of child’s death should draw the audiences’ emotions and make them feel pity and distraught. The theme of mystery will make the spectators feel engaged with the narrative more and make them intrigued.
• Propp- the female character as a hero and the supernatural figures as the villains and the victim is the child.

Mise En Scene:

• Iconography- the Pills are the key iconography in this opening. This is because they are one of the causes of the visions and they give meaning to the narrative and character. The letter which is another stimulus for the protagonist.

• Lighting and Colour- low key natural lighting which will help to make the scene much more threatening and scary for the viewer.

• Setting- forest. Forests tend to be isolated and have connotations of mystery and danger. This will help to establish the thriller genre.

• Facial Expression and Body Language- the antagonist should slouch a little bit to show that they are mysterious and will not open up to anyone. The female protagonist will have a steady and firm body language and facial expression so the audience can put their hopes in her. The child victim will lay on the floor with open hands to show that it was a welcoming and good child who should be pitied by the viewer.

• Costume- the antagonist will wear a black cloak with white or black masks. This will help to hide their identity and show that they are in fact a supernatural character rather than humans. The hidden identity will scare the audience. The protagonist on the other hand should wear something casual to show that she is a typical person who the audience can relate with. The victim will wear a white to represent its purity and vulnerability.

Title: ‘Can You Hear Me?’ – This title will fit this opening because it will reinforce the idea of suffering from schizophrenia which is what the protagonist tries to fight. Also this is a direct question that aims at the audience too. The spectators will question themselves which will be engaging for them.

Advantages for choosing this idea:

• It is original
• Isn’t cliché
• It will draw the right emotions from the audience
• It has accurate thriller themes
• The characters are untypical
• The setting can be easily accessible
• The typography for the opening will be original and will not be added but it becomes a part of the scene which is also unique.

Potential problems and how I plan to overcome them:

• The natural lighting can be an issue as there needs to be a right balance so the scene isn’t too dark and still seems believable. However this could be tackled by editing the sequence and making it darker in Final Cut.

• The pills can be hard to access. This could be overcome by simply using sweets that look like medicine.

IDEA 2 - GULUSTAN:

Narrative:A young lady is lost and finds herself in Liverpool Street Train station at 11:45 pm. While turning around on the spot trying to figure out where she is, she realises a little girl sitting in the middle of the empty train station playing with a doll. As she approaches the little girl and is about to sit down to see if she’s ok she hears the voice of a foreign old man saying “isn’t it a little too late for a young girl like you too be out here… especially here.” As she turns around to ask why, there is no one there and she and the little girl are the only ones there. Exactly at 12:00 the big grandfathers clock bongs and she hears chants and a loud drum beat coming from outside. She is afraid to go take a look but doesn’t want to show her fear to comfort the girl but as she looks back at the girl, she is gone and her doll is still there. She picks up the doll and moves the arm, but weirdly when she does her own arm moves, almost as if the little girl controlled her and brought her precisely at 12:00. She slowly and steadily takes steps towards a window to see what’s going on and she see a crowd of people in ranks marching and chanting words in a different language. First she thinks it’s some kind of creepy festival but as she becomes conscious that something is controlling everyone she sees figure in a black cloak which she can’t make out due to it being dark and the figure being camouflaged.

Mise en scene:

Costume - black cloak.

Iconography - the doll that controls the damsel.

Setting- Liverpool train station.

Lighting & colour - High key back lighting  to make the setting look harmless and glamorous to defy the audience from the coming events.

Sound:

Diegetic sound: Chants and drum beat, Grandfathers clock bong, The old foreign man’s voice.

Non-diegetic: The unpleasant humming sound before and after the old man speaks.

Parallel sound: Chants and drum beat

Narrative theory:

Todorovs theory: There will be a clear start, middle and end. Start being when she arrives at the train station, middle when she sees the little girl and hears the old man, and end being when she hears the chanting and is trying to make out whats going on.

Themes: Kidnap and Psychological

Sub-Genres: Paranormal, Psychological, Mystery

Advantages of my opening thriller:

• It's unique
• The setting is easily accessible

Disadvantages of my thriller opening:

• Hard to find a large number of people to play in it
• Train station are hardly empty
• It hasn't been influenced by any other film

IDEA 3 - BIBI: 

Narrative: The scene begins with a man sleeping alone in his bedroom. It's the middle of the night and the house is silent. The man, half asleep and stirring around, hear what seems to be a shard of glass fall in the distance. He opens his eyes, but ignores it. Several heavy footsteps thud outside of his room. He reluctantly sits up from his bed. A sliver of light shines in from beneath his door. He hears more footsteps approaching and heavy objects falling to the ground. Completely awake now, he turns his bedroom lamp on. The man is petrified. He hears two men approaching his door, and shuts off his light. He decides to hide under his bed. From underneath he can see two men in combat boots pace around. From the untidy sheets of the bed the criminals assume that they are not alone in the room. They find the protagonist and kidnapped him. They wears a clown mask covering their identity. Moreover, the antagonist cover his eyes with a band and tape his mouth and throw him inside their van. The criminals drive for 1 hour to an unknown destination. At last they pick the protagonist and tied him up in a chair in a dark place. The protagonist already knows that he is going to be tortured end up dying. The two antagonist start preparing knife and trap to afflict and abuse the main character. One of the antagonist come closer to the protagonist facing him. The protagonist try to scream and shout louder as he possibly can, with anger. The antagonist approach him to make him shut up, takes off his mask and start laughing. The protagonist with a shocked and surprised facial expression start screaming with more anger. This is because the two antagonist are his best friends and is the protagonist’s birthday. They untied the protagonist and go to a club near the location and start drinking and dancing. As they are having the last shot, one of the friend put LSD on his drink. The protagonist start hallucinating and a fade to black is displayed. He wakes up the next morning from the hang over. He feels dizzy so he goes into the toilet and looked him himself to the mirror. He is confused as he is covered with blood and it’s not his one. He start panicking and begins to be nervous as he finds an axe next where he was lying.

Sub-genre: Crime, Psychological thriller

Themes: Kidnap, violence, torture, hang over

Characters: Protagonist - Antagonists

Narrative Structure and Theory: 

Todorov: there will be a clear start, middle and end. The equilibrium when the protagonist is lying in bed and he starts to hear some noises. Disequilibrium when the antagonists kidnapped the protagonist and tied him up in the chair. New equilibrium when he wakes up and finds blood and an axe.

Aristotle- the theme of kidnap should draw the audiences’ emotions and make them feel pity and distraught. The theme of mystery will make the spectators feel engaged with the narrative more and make them intrigued.

Mise En Scene:

Iconography - Knife, Mask, Van, Drugs and Axe.

Lighting and Colour- low key lighting to suggest evilness and danger and create a chilling response for the audience.

Setting- Apartment, Warehouse, Club, Room

Facial Expression and Body Language - Firstly the protagonist will be terrified and anxious as he does not know what’s going on in his apartment. Then has the narrative develops his body language will be vulnerable and weak as he cannot counterattack the antagonist. Moreover, when he will go to the club he will be relaxing and joying himself by dancing and drinking alcohol. Lastly as he wakes up he will be confused and terrified discovering blood in his hands and face. On the other hand, the two antagonist will be presented as strong and agile as they need to carry the protagonist in the van. They will also be muscular and treating as they will cover they face with a mask.

Costume – The protagonist will wear a white shirt and grey sweatpants. The white connote to his innocence and vulnerability, whereas the grey contrast his persona as being capable to do evil things. However, the two antagonist will wear a clown mask and black shirts and treasure. The mask will make their identity anonymous and the black clothing to their evil actions and danger.

Title: 'The Last Shot'

Advantages for choosing this idea:

·         Original and unique
·         Create suspense
·         Theories can be applied
·     Makes the audience have response and meaning on opening thriller

Potential problems and how I plan to overcome them:

•          It will be hard to tape

Conclusion:

In conclusion, after creating and sharing these initial ideas, me and my group came up with an original project that had covered most of ours ideas put together. This was helpful and satisfying as the idea is original and credible and will meet the audience expectations and create a professional opening thriller. We decided to rely on Natalia's idea as it was more easy to film, however we combined my idea and Gulustan's one to create the new plan for our thriller opening.