My Second Horror Thriller Idea in Power Point

We were very impressed by the ideas used for the opening sequence of Se7en and Momento. So we wanted to create similar version of it.  Nevertheless, our ideas became unoriginal and there was not a proper storyline to it.


Due to musical rehearsals and falling ill, I was absent for several media classes. Therefore, I missed out the discussions with my teammates. However, I managed to receive a brief information on what has been happening in the class.  Despite all that, I came with an idea where we could use a similar style of Momento.

This is my powerpoint presentation:

Group media thriller__pp

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Unfortunately, it was turned down. So it was not very original. In addition, they wanted action and fighting. So we had to come with another idea.

 At last, we are finalised with our idea. 

Group Horror/Thriller Ideas

During our first meeting, we each shared our ideas to each other and finally decided to use Imogen's idea.
We were aiming to create mystery, fear, and spooky atmosphere to the audience by using a doll, a young girl, an old shady house, a playground and the swing. We chose these because this amplify the theme of the opening sequence: horror/thriller.

• a small girl in a park on a swing
• a woman watching her
• flashback of woman pushing her daughter on the swing
• woman looking at the photo of her daughter to indicate that her daughter has died)
• woman putting 'wanted poster' through the little girl's letter box
• little girl turns up at woman's house and we see that woman is going to kidnapp her.

After a while, we realised that it is not a good idea to develop further because it is too long to fit into the 2min opening sequence and it would be difficult to find a little girl (6-8 year old) for the part. It will be unrealistic to use 16 year old teenager to play for it. 

We then brainstormed some ideas and Isabel came up with a total different idea and we got the inspiration from  

Organ Theft.

"Dammit, that's the second time this—wait a minute..."

"Aww, they took my freakin' kidney!"

Charlie The Unicorn

Organ Theft, as the name would imply, is the practice of stealing people's organs via surgery, which can then be used for further purposes such as transplants or sold on the black market  ^* One particularly common variant of this is trope is the "kidney theft" Urban Legend, in which the victim is conned somehow and drugged into unconsciousness, and then wakes up kidney-less in a bathtub full of ice, often with a message attached telling them to go to a hospital.
This trope was popularized by, and originated with, Larry Niven's Known Space stories, in which Organ Theft is called "organlegging", a portmanteau of "organ" and "bootlegging." 

So this is the idea which we came up with:

• There is an extreme close-up of a girl's eyes. We see them open as she gasps.
• There is then a reverse zoom so we can see that she is in her underwear in a bath full of ice; she has a shocked/confused expression.
• There is then an eyeline match of her looking in the mirror. We see that there is something written on the mirror. The rest of the mirror goes out of focus and allows us to read what is written in red lipstick: 'call 0800......( a phone number)'
• The girl looks around and sees a phone lying next to her. She slowly types in the number and we see a close-up of the phone with the diegetic noises of her typing in the numbers.
• she puts the phone to her ear, but we don't hear what the person is saying on the other line. She has an extremely shocked expression and slowly lets go of the phone in fear.
• There is then a flashback. We see her dancing in the club holding a drink, she moves over to dance with a guy and when she's not looking there is a close up of him spiking her drink. We then see him dragging her into his car or something similar to this to show that she is the victim and he is the bad guy.
• It then cuts back to reality and she is in the bath. We are looking at her through the mirror. She looks down looks back up at herself in the mirror and screams.
• The screen goes black and the title comes up whilst she is still screaming.

We wanted to create something that is quite real as it has happen in the rural places before and kidneys are sold at hight cost. Through this idea, we are also conforming to the genre : thriller. 

It was a brilliant idea and no one has ever done it before ; It is new and fresh. However, we faced some issues regarding the girl being shot with bra but resolved that we use a guy shirtless instead and he being conned by a sexy girl from a club. We might also need to hire a make-up artist to make the the stitches believable. In order to film in a club, it requires for our group to write a permission letter for approval both from the Principal and the owner of the club. After several discussions with our teacher and staffs from the media department, our idea was rejected.

Analysis of the opening sequence of a thriller ( Scream, The Shutter Island,

Scream

In the opening sequence, we see a lady alone in the house and this we expect to see her as a victim and she could be in danger.  In this opening sequence, the lighting is yellow orange colour which represents that she is danger. We have a wide a shot of her talking on a phone and quick cuts between her and the popcorn heating up  to reinforce that she is danger.  We also have see a mid close up shot of her to show her facial expression  which juxtaposes later with her feeling really scared about this stranger who turns out to be a killer.We hear their conversation of them talking about horror movies which suggest that this film's genre is under thriller/horror film. The tension is gradually developing for the audience as we begin to see an establishing shot of her boyfriend being killed outside of her house . Her being in the house and watcing her boyfriend died  signify that she is on a weaker side where she does not have the availabilty to help him. This also suggests that she herself is trap inside her own house. The mystery killer is in control and that she is the victim.




The Shutter Island

 In this opening sequence,  We see two people dressed up in a big trench coat which were brings out the stereotypical image of detective which immediately tells us that there might be a murder or something have happened and that they need to solve it.  We then see a point of view shot of them looking over at the people the other side who are waiting for them. They are dressed in police uniforms with guns which suggests that the place is a dangerous place.  This is highlighted again when we see a close up shot of patiens in chains to show that that particular place is dangerous. From this we know that this film involves horror.

My initial thriller ideas

First, we have a close up of a round clock hanging on the wall showing its twelve o’clock and then dissolve to a close up view of the red rounded house telephone to signify danger. During these shots, we have synchronous sound of a clock ticking and the telephone being press slowly producing ‘err..rre.er…’ sound.

Suddenly we hear someone banging the door. From then, we have clock ticking really fast and we see a close up of the red phone winding really quickly. As it is winding quickly, we have a very quick montage of a tray of surgery tools (knife, scissors, and tweezers), a hand with a white glove holding a knife which is covered in blood, we see a victim’s hand and legs and lastly we have a finger with long black nails stopping the winding of the telephone.

During this sequence of the montage, we have the non-diegetic sound of whispers and talking and it all stopped when the telephone stops. It ends with in black and the title shows in white- grayish ink ‘The Cycle’. For lighting, we have a very dim light for the clock and a very dark lighting for the red telephone. For the montage, we have yellow lightings.

Narrative theories in thrillers

Most of the thriller films often follw the 5 forms of narrative structure and they are assembled in this order:

EQUILIBRIUM =>DISRUPTION=>COMPLICATION=>RESOLUTION=>NEW EQUILIBRIUM

A good example would be Jaws:

• Equilibrium- Normal sunny day at the beach playing and relaxing, everyone is preparing for the 4th of July celebration

• Desruptive- Find pieces of the dead body ehich had been eaten by shark.

• Complications- Does the beach close or remains open? Is there really a shark? Another person dies. Are there more deaths?

• Resolution- The beach is open and they decide to look for sharks.

• New Equilibrium- Shark and shark hunter are killed. Everything returns to normal but there are slight changes because people in the area are affected by the cause.

Characters

There are particular set of five characters in the film according to Vladimir Propps Theory:

1. The Hero                   -  the one who saves the day
2. The Villain                 -  the evil one who causes disequilibrium
3. Side Kick /the Helper-  a person who helps the hero.
4. The Victim                 -  at the mercy of the villain
5. The Donor                 -  someone who has something special which will help the hero.

We can see it in film like Harry Porter:

1. Hero       - Harry Potter
2. Villlain    - Voldermort
3. Helper    - Ron and Hermione
4. Victim    - Serius Black
5. Donor     - Dumbeldore

Conventions of a horror/thrillers

In class, we brainstormed and listed the various conventions which we expect to see in horros/thriller films.

1. ghosts
2. death
3. mystery
4. water
5. bad reather (thunderstorms/raining)
6. contrapunctal sound
7. animals (snakes/cats/rats)
8. insects( coakraches/spiders)
9. blinding headlights
10. fog
11. paranoia
12. basement/store room
13. blood
14. bathrooms
15. mirror
16. weapons (knives/saw/scissors)
17. dolls
18. clowns
19. clock
20. pale skins
21. power cuts
22. demons
23. monsters
24. vampires
25. zombies
26. graveyards
27. dead body
28. forests
29. kitchen
30. old house
31. attics
32. floorboards
33. doors
34. screaming
35. isolations
36. windows
37. suspense music
38. eerie music
39. silent
40. whispers
41. car breakdown
42. claustrophobia
43. children
44. bedroooms
45. bath tub
46. dark long hair
47. white robe
48. dark robe
49. protagonist
50. antagonist