Idea's for opening scene of a thriller

Within our group we have been discussing certain area's of a thriller that we would like to include within our opening two minutes of a thriller We have thought about such things as the types of shots we will be using, a rough plot line, location and editing.

Shots:
- Point of view shot
- Long shot
- Over the shoulder shot.

Plot:
- Girl having flashbacks of her past
- Scene of the girl in the bath; goes underwater and has a flashback, comes shooting out from under the water.
- beaten when younger by a man unknown .

Location:
- House
- Bathroom
- Street

Editing:
- Fast
- Jump-cuts

Elements of a thriller:
- Suspense
- Mystery
- Fast editing
- Quick Pace

Images to show certain locations :

No Country For Old Men 2007

No Country for old men is one of the thrillers that i have seen myself and it carries many elements that are must needed in a thriller of which i have mentioned previously in other posts.

Here is the opening to no country for old men.

No country for old men is directed by the Coen brothers in 2007 starring Tommy Lee Jones, Jarvier Bardem and Josh Brolin.

This film tells the story of a man coming into contact with a foutune which is not his. It is a cat and mouse drama constant chasing and unknowing when three men cross each others paths in the desert landscape in the 1980's west texas.

The opening to this thriller includes the man finding a group of people dead possibly drug dealers and then finding the money, the suspicion he has keeps building as every character is continuously trying to find the same thing. It is a highly praised film by critics. It has increasing scenes of voilence and disturbing scenes of which are portrayed so casually to the characters.

Conventions of a Thriller

Thriller is a broad genre of literature,film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers can often overlap with mysterious but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. Thrillers must cause exhilaration and apprehension of excitement and breathlessness. If a thriller doesn't thrill it isn't doing its job.

In thrillers the killer is known by the audience all the way along, or in a murder mystery where we don't find out who the killer is till the end, therefore the whole point of the story line would be simply finding out who the killer is. Many films can be applied to the todorov theory, which is equilibrium, disruption, resolution and new equilibrium.

Conventions os a thriller include a crime normally at the heart of it which illudes into something serious yet rich in suspense. A complex narrative structure, with clues but plenty of restrictions to keep the audience guessing but having a sense of fear to keep the story going. A thriller will always have a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist who is systematically disempowered and drawn into a complex relationship with the antagonist. Extrordinary events must occur in a thriller which is actually going to thrill people, and usually they would happen in an ordinary situation.

preliminary exercise explanation

As part of our media coursework me and two others in my filming group did a preliminary exercise to get used to using the camera using different shots and then going onto imovie and editing the short clips into a small movie.

Different types of camera shots we used were: over shoulder shot to show the conversation between louise and jaye. Whilst editing we cut all of the clips that we didnt need so that the ones kept fitted in with each other and we made sure that the sounding was right and that it matched the clip. Effects such as fading in and out and using dissolve was able to be used because of imovie to give the short film a bigger effect.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock known as the master of suspense famous for his notorious thrillers such as North by North West tht of which i watchedwith my media class and analysed.

Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone in London in 1899 on the 13th of August soon becoming an American citizen in 1956 . He is offen reguarded as one of the greatest british filmmakers ever and more than fifty films of which he directed spanning over six decades.

A list of Hitchcocks Movies

The Lodger (1926 silent)

The Ring (1927)

Easy virtue (1927)

Champagne (1928)

The Farmers Wife (1928)

Maxman (1929)

Blackmail (1929)

Juno and the paycock (1930)

Murder! (1930)

Skin Game (1931)

Rich and strange (1931)

Number 17 (1932)

The man who knew to much (1934)

The 39 steps (1935)

Secret Agent (1936)

Young and innocent (1937)

The lady vanishes (1938)

Jamaica inn (1939)

Rebecca (1940)

Many more including Pyscho and North by North west.

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a genre to a film which consists of different sub genres in itself and the conventions of different thrillers are:

A fast pace thriller

Sub genres

There will always be an antagonist and a protagonist in the movie. A antagonist is the villan of the movie and a villan is what drives a thriller to its purpose which is to thrill the audience. An protagonist is the hero of the movie but yet can usually be the one to die and the villan will live on.

Also there are moral choices

danger

suspense

mystery and conspiracy

special effects

car chases and dramatic music with of course plenty of weapons, plenty of which belong to the antagonist, the villan will always be stacked against the hero.

A thriller would be made up of fast pacing, rapid action and a constant sense of suspense. Thrillers can typically take place in exotic settings such as the desert, polar regions, or the high seas. Heros in most portrayed in thrillers as hard men ready and attracted to danger.

Thrillers are usually overlapping with other genres and mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of the plot.