Our thriller film:
The opening minutes of a film are always
the most important, as they should grip the audience straight away. Once the audience
are interested, the film should remain entertaining and retain some level of
mystery - especially if the film is a thriller. A thriller film should excite
an audience, keep them on the edge of their seat and leave a certain amount to
the imagination.
Throughout the progression of our practical
work we aim to create a two-minute thriller opening which will be typical of
this genre of film. During the completion of this work we will record and
document all of our ideas, which hopefully will flow during the project. The
opening sequence of our thriller film will be set in a dark wood of the English
country side. Although this is not immediately typical of a thriller film, we
believe that we can link it to the genre through our use of mise en scene,
clever camera work, editing and sound. This sequence will feature a chase scene
between two characters who both are antagonists.
Synopsis:
During the cold winter of 1983, England saw
a dramatic increase in the level of crime. This was due to a lack of policing
and therefore a fall in the prevention of crime itself. As policing became more
relaxed, people became aware that the limits of what they could get away with
were expanding.
The most common example of people acting on
this was the formation of gangs - particularly as a large number of people were
left without jobs due to massive numbers of redundancies. Street gangs remained
on the outskirts of cities - often based in empty warehouses, flats and even
petrol stations.
In our film opening, there are two protagonists: Bruce and Spark. They are the main characters in this film.
Following the murder of their gang’s previous leader, they are seen to be in
rivalry over the vacant position of head gang leader. Although policing proves
to be a problem for these gangs, trust and brotherhood ultimately is shown to
be a bigger issue.
Bruce and Spark try to find out who killed
their previous gang leader. They know this act was committed by a rival gang
member - known by the nickname ‘JD’ - who can be identified by his trademark
characteristic of fluency in German. This proves to be a more difficult task
than expected due to a lack of information about the culprit and the protection
that JD’s own tightly-knit gang provides. Ultimately, the fate of this man is
left unresolved, as it is never fully revealed if Bruce and Spark complete
their assignment.
In the opening stages of this film we see
the capture and the possible murder of Bruce as it appears that he is shot in
cold blood in the woods by a masked figure (JD). This opening sequence features a chase scene between
JD and Spark, which is later revealed to be due a Bruce and Spark finding out he was the man who murdered their fellow gang mate. The
two minutes will grab the audience as the end of a fight scene and a possible
shooting illustrates a fall out between these two characters, with dialogue
aiding this.
It is unclear what happens to our characters after the opening finishes as the screen fades to black after a gun shot is fired. We believe that this is the perfect opening to a thriller film as it includes a lot of action, suspense and enigma to keep the audience guessing and on the edge of their seats the entire way through. As the audience are dropped into the middle of a key scene in the film, they are completely oblivious as to when the scene occurs. This creates a lot of mystery surrounding the opening as the audience are unaware of how the characters ended up in that situation. It is only when they connect the dots of the events throughout the film that they understand why the events in the opening happened. The intentions of this opening are to keep the audiences' eyes glued to the screen so that they can figure out how the opening of the film occurs.
Brief Discussion with Harry about Synopsis
Good. Like the thread of conversation.
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