Development of Ideas: Secondary Ideas, Positives and Negatives

After deciding our first idea was too hard to develop, we have decided to embark on a whole new storyline altogether. Instead of setting my location in a forest, we have decided it should be set in a house. Your home is a place where you are meant to feel safe, and it is by disrupting this equilibrium that this film could become more scary and it would enhance the thriller genre we are trying to create. While a girl is at home with her parents out to eat, she begins to hear different noises around the house. These noises get louder and louder and eventually as she goes to see what the noises are she goes into a room, where someone is hiding behind the door. As the enters the door slams shut and there is an ear-piercing scream to begin the film.

Personally, the idea of a girl being home alone was very plausible. We could set the lighting up easily and position different camera's around the house. It would be an easier location than a forest because instead of transferring a lot of equipment to different areas, we can simply keep it in one house which would save a lot of time. The final reason we thought it would be a better storyline is because thriller's seem more scary when there is only one helpess victim instead of a group.

After looking back at our storyline we thought it was a great idea but it was too common. After talking to our colleges we found out a few of them were creating a similar storyline and this put me off our idea. The main purpose of my film is for it to be unique. By creating a thriller storyline no-one else has explored, it would give our audience a new experience. As a result we knew we had to change our sotyrline but the idea of a character home alone was something we could expand on.

Development of Ideas: Initial Ideas, Positives and Negatives

The first vision of my partners film and mine was to be set in a forest. In the forest 3 boys and 3 girls go out to camp and when 2 of them go missing the remaining 4 kids go and look for them. Whilst searching in the woods in the darkness of the night and psychotic man is hiding in a tree waiting to leap onto his next victim. As one of the remaining 4 children gets lost on her own, the psycho finds her and jumps onto her, startling the audience.

Initially we thought this was a very goods storyline. It incorportaes fear, suspense and keeps the audience on their toes. It fits the typical connotations of a thriller where a character usually comes into conflict with an outside force being abstracts or creepy and potentially ruining the character's life. we had props for police lines, tents and even camping gear.

As we looked closer into the storyline there were many drawbacks for us and as we realised it would be a lot harder to implement. We would only get the chance to film for about 1 hour a day. Reason for this is that it would be impossible to film in pitch black in the middle of the forest, some light would be required. With too much light, it would make the film less scary so I would have to make sure we filmed at twilight. Furthermore it would be extremly difficult to balance and position my camera's in such a way that they would sit on top of tree branches whilst tilting and panning.

Although our initial idea was good, because of the dilemma's we would have faced, we decided to change the location of our storyline which in turn meant we would have to look at alternate ideas for my thriller film.

Planning: Sound

In order to gain a lot of experience of different sounds we can use in thriller, my partner and I have decided to use a number of packages and methods. Firstly we will use the 'Garageband' application and see how effective their distorted music is and if it will fit in with my film. Secondly we will use my previously bought CD's, cut sections out and add them into my film. if both of these efforts fail we will finally resort to creating the music by myself through the piano or guitar.

Planning: Non-Diegetic Music

We am aiming to add in non-diegetic creepy music which would hopefully make a more tense opening. With eery music playing, its keeps you on the edge of your seat. Seeing as this is very typical in most thriller films we can use it to our advantage. With expectations of creepy music to appear at the start of the film by taking a different approach it would make the audience more tense as this thriller doesn't follow the typical layout. We are aiming to use non-diegetic rattling music. Making the noise of animals eating away give connotations of 'decay' and objects 'rotting.' We feel that this is a different style of music than the typical high-pitched sounds usually played at the beginning of most thrillers.

Planning: Auditions

We have held auditions for the various parts in our films and advertised them on social networking websites to people who are local to my area. We will shortly be uploading the video footage we took at the auditions, and when we have done this we will explain why we've chosen the actors we have.

Planning: Location

Finding the location for our film was not really as difficult as we first imagined it to be. We needed a typical, ordinary house. because it would mean the audience would be more shocked; that someone living in such a typical house could be capable of the things the character does. We needed to film it around a suburban area which is why we chose our set location and furthermore lighting could be enhanced as a house is full of lights, as opposed to a film set in a forest which would be much harder to capture perfect lighting. Finally because the area isn't a busy, metropolitan area there wouldn't be a lot of background sound that would detract from the quality of the film.