Costume: Backup

POLICEMAN

As a backup for the police uniform, we will ask the actor to wear a suit and we can provide a badge for them to show during the scene to let the audience know that they are police.

VICTIM

The backup idea for the costume for the victim would be a stereotypical school uniform which would provide the connotation that she is a student which would reinforce the fact that the fact that the character is young.

The school uniform would also set the time period as well as reinforce the location in terms of whether the film is set in the UK or the USA.

The costume of a school uniform would also create a sense of vulnerability and innocence, however it could also be confusing because of the setting of the church as it could lead the audience to pose questions such as why is she in school uniform if she is in a church?

I believe that the idea of having the victim in the school uniform could be a good back up idea if we cannot facilitate the costume of the white/light blue dress.

I don't think it would make a difference as to what colour the school uniform consists of however my personal opinion is that navy blue and dark green would work best at complimenting he setting/mood and atmosphere of the church.

VILLAIN

We have two backup costume ideas for the villain. One is the rock biker look with a leather jacket and one is the joker style outfit.

I think either of these would be a good choice for the character because they both express different elements of the character. 

Costume: Final Choice

POLICEMAN

I think that a British police uniform will be the best choice for our thriller because although the actor we intend to use has an American accent, I think a church is more of a British environment and so it would make more sense to have a British policeman.

I also think that a British police uniform is good because it is just black and white and so it will stand out clearly and it will be more recognizable to a British audience.

VICTIM

As a group we have discussed what we think the costume should be for the little girl who is the vulnerable victim. In order to portray the vulnerability I believe that the costume for the victim should be a white dress which is appropriate for going to church.

The use of the colour white provides the connotation that this character is innocent, naïve and vulnerable as well as pure and young. However, we also need to be careful to not make it appear as though she is wearing a wedding dress. The idea I have an idea for the dress is that it is like a pinafore with lace and embroidery.

I also think that the use of ribbons would provide a visual aid of the little girls innocence and naivety.

As well as the white I think that the use of light blue could work effectively as well because the colour also provides connotations of youth and innocence and also long life which is a juxtaposition against the plot. We also need to be careful not to make the actress look too young as the type of dress we have in mind is quite youthful.

VILLAIN

The costume that we have chosen for the villain is the polite leader costume. From the sketch, we have developed that the villain will be wearing a suit to give the character more power and make him more intimidating for the audience and for the other characters in the scene. This also sets him apart form the other characters in the scene. 

Costume: What

For our opening sequence we need a variety of costumes. They are essential to our sequence because people will judge the character by what they are wearing, so we need to make it clear for the audience,

POLICEMAN
One of our characters will need to be in a police uniform so I have researched various different police uniforms to see which one would be best.

American Police Uniforms:

British Police Uniforms

VICTIM

We have two options for the victim; we can either have the victim wearing a white dress or school uniform. I think a white dress is a good choice because it shows the purity and innocence of the character and clearly shows the audience that she is good.

The other option for the victim is school uniform. This is good as like the white dress it shows the character's innocence and youth, however I think a school uniform would make the girl look too young and so would not be right for the age that we want this character to be. 

VILLAIN 

We have a number of options for the look of the Villain. Victoria has done some sketches of possible ideas for the villain in our opening sequence:

The rock biker look gives a threatening look and persona for the villain. Him wearing a leather jacket and clothing with studs makes the audience feel intimidated by him and so would be a good choice for the villain as it gives a youthful and threatening vibe to the character, However, I feel like this outfit is too informal for the villain as we need him to look less youthful and I think that there is something more creepy about a more formally dressed villain.

This outfit is inspired by the Joker from batman. This has a sort of clown vibe which I think is great for the villain because clowns are often associated with fear. Because our victim is a child a clown like villain would also make it more scary and more creepy because there is a child-like element added to it. However, I'm not sure if this is right for the villain because the rest of the scene doesn't have colour and bright colours on the villain would contradict the character. 

The polite leader design is ideal for the villain because I think it suits the calm persona and silent creepy attitude of the villain. By him wearing a suit, it gives the villain ore power and so makes him more intimidating over the younger victim. It also implies that this is like 'business' for him and that he probably does things like this regularly.

Profit & Target Audience

• Our film would make money by initially being released in the cinema, we would then release it on a DVD. This would make us a profit as people would come to see it and then buy the DVD a few months after it has been released into the cinema. 
• Publicity is also a good form of making a profit and so we would include adverts in magazines and possibly make a television advert if the budget permitted it. Giving the film publicity before it is released into the cinema would be extremely beneficial as it would mean people would be more aware of it and so more likely to come and watch it. 
• We could also use our opening sequence as a trailer or a teaser for the film before it comes out to add intrigue and make audiences interested to come and see the whole film. 

Warner Brothers makes around 18-22 films a year for a wide variety of target audiences. I think that the target audience for our film would be roughly 16-35 year olds, which is important to consider when thinking about how to advertise our film because that effects the media we use to advertise and make a profit from. 

Warner Bros: Films and Genres

Warner Brothers have a wide variety of genres of films that they produce and make every year. Warner Brothers are mainly involved in high budget blockbusters and therefore our film would be able to be made on a large scale and we could use a large number of actors to create the impression of the danger of the situation, which in turn adds more tension for the audience and so makes it more of a thriller. 

Warner Brothers have made a large number of films that have a similar concept to ours. For example:

1. Mad Max
2. Sword Fish
3. Inception
4. Conspiracy Theory
5. Se7en 

One film that has given us inspiration for our thriller is Sword Fish. This film is about a counter-terrorist, the opening of the film is particularity effective and something that we want to try and incorporate into the opening sequence of out film because it sets tension and suspense for the audience and gradually reveals the answers to them- which is an element that we would like to include in our opening sequence.

What Institution Would Make Our Film?

I think Warner Brothers would choose to make our film. I think that it is an original idea and is something that the studio has not done before, but it is also quite similar to a number of films that they have produced which shows that they would like to produce it because it is along similar lines to films that they have produced before. 

Warner Brother Ethos: 

"Warner Bros. Entertainment has been entertaining global audiences for more than 85 years and strives to be a responsible and active corporate citizen. We recognize that our company is an influential member of society, and we seek to have a positive impact on our employees, audiences and communities worldwide."

They also state that creativity is one of the key areas of the institution and say that they make sure their films are; "Supporting the production of and access to diverse content for worldwide audiences."

Source: http://www.warnerbros.com/studio/about/responsibility

I think our film fits very well into the ethos of the institution as it is a creative and imaginative idea that would have a positive impact on the people that watched it. 

I think our film would fit well onto the website for Warner Brothers and I definitely think that there is a category that it would fit into with many other thrillers that the company has made. 

https://www.warnerbros.co.uk

Possible Target Audience

I think that our target audience is most likely to be males. This is because our thriller is quite fast pace and there are also elements of action within it which I think would be more likely to appeal to a male audience.

I have already researched some films that have inspired ours and that I think will be quite similar to our final product: 

These are films that I think are much more likely to appeal to a male audience who are interested in mysterious, thrilling and action based films. A lot of these films, like ours, have a male villain (antagonist) which i think will also appeal more to a male audience. Our film adheres to the stereotype of a female being weaker than a male because we have a female victim. This is quite a well known format in films, especially action films and thrillers, which stereotypically appeal more to men.

I think that our target audience will be around 18 years old and probably go up to 30's. I don't think that our thriller would appeal to teens, however many of the similar films are a 15 so it could appeal to a younger male target audience.

Our Storyboard

We then changed the style of our storyboard, using an app called; "Tayasui Sketches" so that we could do it in colour and make it more visual. This also helped us to work on mise-en-scene.

I prefer the second half of the storyboard because I think it gives a much more accurate representation of how our sequence will eventually look. 

Storyboards

What is a storyboard?

It is a basic sketch of the entire film/scene or sequence.

Why are storyboards important?

Today: they save cost. Nowadays films are bigger and more expensive and so using a storyboard saves time and money. Especially now when we have CGI, it limits the waste.

In General:

• They are a visual aid which simplify your idea.
• They help to plan your idea and be creative.
• They save time.
• They plan the technical elements and how they will approach the filming.
• It is more effective to spend the time in pre-production.
• You can change the order around.
• Visually, everyone is on the same page. 

Who are they Important for?

Everyone involved in production.

Why are they important for our thriller?

They are important for our thriller because they will enable us to all visually see what the idea will look like and it means that when we come to filming everyone will be on the same page. This in turn will save time when we come to film the opening sequence because we will already have idea of what we want the shots to look like. It also gives us more freedom because we can change the orders of the scene around if we think that they don't work well in that order.

What's on a storyboard?

• Shot Number
• Location
• Action
• Shot/movement
• Sound
• Lighting
• Transition
• Timing

Updated Scene Outline

We have revised our scene outline and made it more detailed, this is what we are creating our storyboard from. 

1) a zoom out + pan/tilt from a close up of a gravestone to the wide shot of a church with graveyard around it

2) a shot of crucified Jesus’ statue

3) a shot of candles burning in a rack

4) a shot from the side, revealing police officers standing behind the trees (actor A on the foreground of the shot)

5) a shot from behind the tree showing two officers (actor A, actor B) preparing for the raid; one of the officers (B) saying “INSERT” in the walkie talkie; the other officer asks (A) asking him (B) “ever dealt with psychos before?”

6) a close up of the officer’s (B) face, him saying “no, never had this honour”

7) a close up of the other’s (A) face, responding with a laugh

8) return to the first officer’s (B) close up, him saying “I wouldn’t be underestimating these people, you never know what’s going on inside their head”

9) a close up of the walkie talkie and a sound of someone speaking on the other side

10) close up of the officer’s (A) face, him rushing, saying “c’mon, we gotta go”

11) a wide shot of all the police officers running out the bushes/trees into the graveyard (A,B on the foreground)

12) PoV following a spotlight from a torch rushing through the graveyard

13) frame of a police officer (A) stopping with his finger up - all the other officers freeze to his command

14) a tilt up to the window of the church - an organ music starts playing

15) a return to the policemen - the main officer (A) says “let’s move on” and all the officers run past

16) a handheld shot from behind the wall/any other stationary object framing the officers creeping towards the church’s door

17) a mid long shot of the two main officers standing on two sides of the door

18) a close up of the officer (B) looking through the door gap

19) PoV looking through the door gap

20) back to the close up of the officer (B) looking at the other officer (A) and giving him a short nod

21) a close up of officer (A) turning around to the other officers

22) a mid long shot of the same officer (A) facing the officers, showing “3,2,1” and giving a gesture to go in

23) a long shot of the group sneaking inside the church and walking down the hall

24) a close up of the psycho’s hand with a knife, scratching it against the wall as he walks past

25) switch back to the group framed from the side moving through the hall

26) a tilt down from the knife down to the floor where the blood drops

27) a mid long shot of the group stopping at the corner and the officer (B) looking around it, seeing the psycho from the back

28) a wide shot of the group surrounding the psycho in a semi circle as he stands still

29) police officer (A) shouting “put the knife down”/“get on the floor”

30) a low angle of the psycho as he turns around

31) a close up of him looking up on them in a bent down pose and hysterically laughing after a pose

32) a quick wide shot of astonished officers

33) a mid shot of the two main officers (A and B) exchanging glances

34) a close up of the psycho blowing out the candles as he stares at the officers and a cut to a blackout

Our Pitch

Films That Are Similar To Ours

Our film is about a dangerous psychopath who is holding a girl hostage in a church. 

Taken
Taken was released in 2009 and was produced by the French production company; EuropaCorp. The film was directed by Pierre Morel.

Genre: action thriller

Plot: A retired CIA agent travels across Europe to save his estranged daughter who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

Characters:

Bryan Mills (the father & retired CIA agent)

Kim (the daughter)

Sam (the kidnapper)

Setting: Europe

This film is similar to ours because it is about a girl who is held hostage. The hostage victim is a prominent part of our thriller. Taken is an action thriller which is again similar tot the genre of our film. I would describe our thriller plot as being more of a psychological thriller however there are elements of action within it. 

Se7en
Se7en was released in 1995 and directed by David Fincher.

Genre: crime, mystery and thriller

Plot: Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his way of solving the mystery

Characters:
Somerset
Mills

Setting:
New York City

This film is similar to ours because it has the element of crime in it. In our thriller, the victim gets saved by a policeman, just like the detectives in Se7en. There is also an element of religion in Se7en because the detective uses the seven deadly sins to try and solve the crime and our sequence is set in a church. 

As Good As Dead
As Good As Dead was released in 2010 and directed by Johnathan Mossek .

Plot: Seeking revenge for the murder of their religious leader, fundamental loyalists kidnap and torture the man they believe responsible.

Genre: crime and thriller.

Characters:
Helen Kalahan
Ethan Belfrage.
Aaron
Jake

This film is similar to ours because it again has an element of mystery and crime within it. There is also the action element and the brutal side of our sequence that is similar to it as well.