We decided that it would be important to research into Thriller Soundtracks and the ways that sound could be used before we started filming our Thriller Film:

Diagetic sounds

Diagetic sounds will make our thriller opening seem more realistic, this is the overall purpose of them. Below are some of the sounds we plan to incorperate in our film.

Footsteps – these will be used when John walks down the stairs

Camera sound – e.g. the clicking of the camera when Charlie is following John

Phone dialing sounds – these could be used when John is calling Charlie.

Letter box – used when the letter box is opened, and a noice when the letter box slams shut

Ripping of paper – a “ripping of paper” sound would need to be used when John rips open the card posted through his letter box

_______________________________________________________

Speech/Dialogue – We have decided to use some dialogue in our thriller opening. We are aiming to make our speech scene vague/distant, so that it is loud enough to hear and understand but not extreemely loud and clear (the effect you would get from speaking close to a microphone). We also want the shot to be fairly unclear, for example, looking through a peep hole.

Radio – incorporating a radio would allow us to use a song in our thriller opening. Story should follow beat of music. Using some form of song/continueous music often allows a film to be introduced and engage the audience, enableing them to get a sense of what the film is about.

This is a piece of music found on youtube. The music is very eerie and creates suspense and tension, which would be helpful to our film opening.

The songs lyrics fit in well with the storyline of our thriller opening. The sad tone of the song would help introduce the films element of sadness and help the audience to feel sypathy towards is characters, despite barely knowing anything about them.

Sounds in our film

In order to discuss the sounds we wanted in our own thriller film, we thought that it would be more practical and clear if we created a narration to our animatic storyboard, to show exactly when and when we wanted each sound. This was also a good way of demonstrating our media skills and to practice using Serif MoviePlus, the program will use to edit our final opening sequence.

Ideas/Treatment :

John is an ordinary, middle aged man from Emerson Park, Essex. He loved the nice things in life and his kind natured personality meant he was adored by all who knew him. His life was comfortable, his hard work meant a job promotion and he was able to pay off his mortgage on his larger than average house as well was being able to afford luxury’s he only dreamed of as a child. Although kind John saw more to life than money, he lived happily with his fiancé, Melanie, and their families lived nearby. Life was going well for John, until his world was turned upside down upside down when Melanie is tragically killed.

Letters and cards expressing sympathy for John’s loss flooded in over the following week. John was grateful for the support but knew cards weren’t going to bring Melanie back. One card puzzled him in particular, it was not signed, however with much more important things to concentrate on such as his fiancés funeral, John thought no more of it. John then is heard on the phone to his brother-in-law explaining he is confused about Mel’s death and is not sure it was an accident. He did not realize that this was to be the first of many indirect clues to follow.

Shortly after, John is given the belongings of Melanie which were found and the scene of her death. Among these items is a bracelet with her surname engraved which she had had since a child. However, when looking through Melanie’s memory box in mourning, John stumbles upon an exact replicer of the bracelet found at her death.

After a sleepless night and feeling confused, John begins searching through, with the assistance of his brother-in-law Harry, receipts and bank statements but cannot find any evidence of Mel paying to have a copy made. After much thought and debate John decides to head to a jewelers to find out as much as he could about the two bracelets. John is shocked by what he discovers; the two bracelets are from the same time period of around 30 years ago. What could be going on?

When John begins looking through his online banking, he comes across some unaccounted money which had been taken from cash points. John feels he has stumbled upon clues, and that his wife-to-be’s death was not a tragic accident. What was the money for, drugs? Pursuing his curiosity John looks through his wife’s purse, also found at the scene of the “accident”, he finds cards such as law firms and solicitors. Was she going to leave him?

John, feeling hurt and confused, decided to read through Mel’s phone to remind himself of the connection they had. However, he is horrified to discover texts from another man. Raging and upset John searches through Mel’s address book, finds the mans address, angrily starts the car as a tear rolls down his cheek, he wipes the tear and aggressively makes the journey to “Charlie’s” home, followed by Harry who is asking John to “let it go”. Upon arrival John bangs on the door and an argument breaks out, and despite Harry’s earlier discouragement he stands by John. “What was going on?!” Shouts John in rage, “Nothing, mate, I don’t know what your talking about!” replies Charlie “Mel, Mel – you and her!” shouts a devastated John. “She loved you, she was an amazing woman and I’m distraught that she’s gone, we were friends” replies a confused Charlie, “You were jealous weren’t you, what did you do to her!” As John eventually leaves Charlie’s home he is convinced that Charlie is involved in his wife’s death and begins to feel clues link to Charlie. The texts, a guilty card sent un signed. She may have been leaving him for Charlie? In the following period of time, John intercepts mail to Charlie’s home and finds that he has claimed on his car insurance, and also reads a statement from a jewelers. John is convinced that his wife’s death is linked to this man and continues to follow him, and seems to see clues which no one else can (imagined, perceived differently).

The final straw comes when John stumbles upon threatening letters made from magazine cut outs under the spare room mattress. After all of the drama John appears a broken man, obsessed with the case. However, with John’s collective evidence, he now feels his case is strong enough to show to the police, who decide to reopen the case (despite not believing John in past times) as a murder investigation and John returns home.

A few days later, John receives a knock at the door, it is the police. They ask to speak to John and remove their hats at the all sit down in his living room. “We have found the murderer of Mel, sir.” One says. “Were afraid it was a Mr. Harry Baites”. John’s brother-in-law and Mel’s brother. John is horrified, but feels he can now mourn his wife’s death as everything fit into place.

CLUES:

Harry sent the card and the bracelet was his, they were both given matching as children. The law firm cards were because of the threats Mel has been receiving, but she did not want to worry John and the money had been to pay for them – she took it from a cash point so John would not see where the money had gone. Charlie was innocent, he had simply hit his car when reversing and the jewelers statement was in-fact about a ring for his girlfriend, him and Mel were simply friends from school and he was seeking advice from her. Harry was jealous of Mel’s luxurious lifestyle, and clearly had some mental health issues developed from a childhood of what he felt was “neglect” from his parents, for Mel as she was the star child and he was a failure and disgrace, with the wrong crowd.

How did we work on our treatment?  Reasons for our choices :

When we originally started to discuss ideas to include in our treatment we found it difficult to include aspects of Thriller films we had enjoyed. Our research showed that people enjoyed Thriller films, especially ‘Crime Thrillers’ and ‘Psychological Thrillers’, and that suspense and mystery were what they looked for in Thriller Films. We thought that it was very important to listen to our peers and their opinions, so we decided our Thriller film would involve Crime, in our case a unsuspected murder, and would involve psychological manipulation, murder is actually her Brother – has some kind of psychological problem to want to do this. This would all be filmed to create a high level of mystery and suspense, and with such an unsuspected twist at the end of our film the mystery would be kept until the very final scene.

Some films which we watched during the Secondary Research process helped us to define what we wanted our Thriller to be like, however we were very clear that we could not produce anything on such a high level with such skill and so we tried to take any specific ideas from any other films as this would result in a very ammeter final product.  A film that influenced us was ‘Inception’, with crime at the core of the narrative and the high level of mystery and suspense throughout. Another film which we  would like to recreate the ‘on the edge of your seat’ atmosphere from is ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

Audience Feedback: