Initial Thriller Plan
Plot
Two sisters – one unstable, unsuccessful and jealous of the other who is grounded, successful and attractive.
Jealousy leads to a heated argument where the unstable sister’s insecurities are highlighted. The other sister walks out of the house and through an un-glamorous location.
As the girl is walking, she pieces together previous events through flashbacks that together conclude that her sister is inevitably jealous of her and wants to be family favourite.
Sequence ends with successful sister being kidnapped by jealous sister
Location
- Grimey
- Un-Glamorous
- Empty, Secluded Street (generic thriller location)
- Bridge by Water
Lighting
- Dark Chiaroscuro
- Ambient Street Lamp
- Reflection in Water
Sound
- Non-Diegetic dialogue at beginning (previously recorded)
- Diegetic Footsteps and Cars passing by
- No music – adds to suspense
- Crescendo when girl looks into water and sees a second figure appear beside her
Titles
- Titles on different surfaces of area during sequence
Basic Thriller Plot
Shot of window, two female voices can be heard arguing, one accusing the other of being a psycho.
Door slams, victim sister walks out. Girl enters Kings Street. Flash back of girl finding defaced photos of herself with in sister’s journal etc by using depth of field a close up of a ring and then focuses on girl flicking through journal.
Girl walking down same street – horrible locations – dirt litter etc. Girl looks scared, due to bad area. Second flashback of nasty sister staring at her without talking, this scares the victim and highlights nasty girl’s insanity.
Noise brings the girl back into reality from her flashback. She stops and appears surprised and startled, but calms down and carries on walking down by river to sit.
Whilst by the river girl looks into water and thinks she sees another figure in the reflection beside her. When she looks around (with a gasp) she sees no one only for a hand (with ring on) to clasp over her face, concluding the scene in darkness.
Darkness merges into another scene with flickering light bulb, sees the girl hanging or in a similar state.
Characters of Thriller
Victim: Marion Rose
Age: 17
Marion is a successful and confident young adult, who appears intelligent, bright eyed and unflawed. Due to her success in academia and life so far, she is obviously favoured over her sister by her parents. Her character is calm, collective and intuitive. We can see these qualities shine through in the opening of the short sequence where we hear her voice trying to calm her sister down, although the audience cannot link her voice to her appearance for definite, It is obvious that viewing her matches her to her calm dialogue. As she walks down the deserted street after leaving her house, her flashbacks of previous events highlight her sister’s evils and she realises that her sibling is unstable. When she believes there is something behind her at the end of the sequence, she believes herself to be the unstable one, though in fact there is someone behind her. This exposes a slightly vulnerable side to her, and allows the audience to perhaps see that her confident and perfect exterior is some what fragile.
Marion’s appearance is unflawed. She is attractive, of good proportions and possesses blonde hair, which connotes her purity. Her dress sense shows the audience that she is reserved, stylish and sophisticated at a young age. Her suit like outfit shows confidence and success. Although Marion appears the perfect girl, her hair is ruffled and she walks out onto the street with her shoes in her hands, she is ruffled from the misunderstanding she has just had with her sister.
Unstable Murderer: Ellie Rose
Age: 20
Although the audience does not find out so much from Ellie her character still occupies depth. The first encounter with Ellie is not necessarily with her form, but with her voice. Her choice of wording and anger indicates an unstable, perhaps violent character. Although she is older than her younger, better looking sister, she is certainly not first choice. Her sister got the intelligence, success and looks that she so desires, not to mention the attention from her parents.
In one of the scenes, the audience sees Ellie defacing pictures of her sister and writing remarks about her in her diary. This indicates she has an unstable personality and detests her sister. In another scene we see her staring at her sister with a look of sincere hatred in her eyes. Once again the audience see that she wants to reap revenge on her sister for becoming the household favourite.
Ellie’s appearance leaves something to be desired. She is untidy and her jeans are ripped, connoting imperfection and violence. The T-shirt she wears implies she is second best or insignificant in comparison to her well dressed sister. Her hair is dark, down and un styled, this connotes that she does not care about her appearance to the extent her younger sibling does, and perhaps gives the indication that she has given up trying to succeed her.
Location of Thriller
We have chosen to film our sequence in and around King Street in Norwich. This is the street where our main character Marion Rose will walk down, and where she will get kidnapped by her unstable sister.
The street is infamous in Norwich for being a rough area (it backing on to the red light district anyway) and so we thought that it would add an extra aspect of a real dangerous area to our Thriller. The housing in King Street is run down and badly maintained; it is comprised of many derelict buildings, shut down pubs and council flats. These all connote a dangerous, unsafe environment. As it is un-glamorous, it is a generic convention of the thriller genre. At night time the street becomes further more unsafe and the yellow glow of the street lights give it an uncomfortable feel.
We believed that we could use the river that is near the street to our advantage. The water is murky and the bridge is rusty, these once again connote an un-glamorous location and make the viewer feel uneasy when viewing.
Another reason for choosing this location is because of its low activity. The quiet street makes it perfect for a secluded setting.
Props
Ring – In our thriller, this is used to distinguish the unstable character Ellie Rose. The ring is not on the ring finger, indicating that she is not married. It is used in the following shots; when Marion is trying to find something in Ellie’s room, when Ellie is looking intently at Marion in a flashback and when Ellie’s hand goes over Marion’s face by the water.
Journal – This is used in the first flashback. Marion finds it whilst she is in Ellie’s room. Inside the journal shows defaced pictures of her sister, along with violent remarks and her feelings towards her better sister. The journal supports Ellie’s deranged mentalities and insecurities as well as showing her obsession and jealousy of Marion’s favoured position in the family.
Noose- This is a signifier of death which is made of rope. It is used by Ellie to kill Marion. The noose is an uncommon thriller prop, as most thrillers use guns, knifes and other such modern technology to kill, therefore we believed that it would be a more original method.
Intertextual references in my Thriller
Character Names –
We decided to give the characters in our thriller names that relate to famous thrillers of the past.
Our victim, Marion Rose, is named after Marion Crane from Psycho. Although Marion Crane is a villain in Psycho, she is also a victim. Her ignorance shines through as she steals the money without acknowledging the consequences, this ignorance relates to our victim, who does not see how jealous and unstable her sister is until the last minute. Marion Crane’s flashbacks and voices in her head also associate her with Marion Rose who recalls previous events that have occurred with her sister that highlight how unstable and jealous she really is.
Our unstable psychopathic sister, Ellie Rose is named after Ellie Driver from Kill Bill.
1 comment:
hey OLI
your film looks wicked.
your planning is soo good !
katie :D
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