initial ideas

We have been split in to groups of 4 and in these groups we had to come up with 3 different sub genres of thrillers for our thriller opening, we chose;

• Psychological thriller
• Action thriller
• Crime thriller

in our thriller we had to make sure that there was use of the Hitchcock techniques which were;

• McGuffin- starts/sets the action going. seems important at the start but has no importance to the rest of the narrative. 
• Cliffhanger- Scene/action stops. The audience is left asking questions.
• Enigma- Someone or something that is hard to explain.

During our discussion, we listed the things that we wanted our thriller opening to contain. We decided that we wanted a death, lots of camera angles, quick-action and intense. For each idea we thought it would be good to have a normal atmosphere to start with and then a sudden change into an intense action-packed atmosphere. 

Idea 1:

The first idea was; Crime Thriller. For this sub-genre, we decided it would be about a character who has returned home from somewhere which hasn't yet been decided, they notice blood along the staircase and up the wall. as they make heir way up the stairs the spot the criminal and the person that they had murdered. 

We decided to use this as an opening because we thought that it was a very simple idea but with the right camera angles and use of the Miss-en-scene, we could make this opening really exciting and interesting. We tried thinking of a number of different thriller films and how they created intense atmospheres and the settings film the opening scenes. 

We wanted it to have an atmosphere of suspense and fear. As the character is walking up the stairs we planned to use a point of view angle shot so we could create that intense feeling and make the audience feel as if they're in the film. 

idea 2:

For our second idea; We came up with an action thriller. For this sub genre we decided it would be about a character who is in a hurry packing their bag and in that bag they have a file which we chose to be a Mcguffin. The bag is then stolen and there is a chase for the thief to get the bag back. the scene will end with a cliff hanger that is taken place in a warehouse with a group of criminals against one person, holding them at gunpoint. 

We decided to use this as an opening because we wanted to make sure we kept the audience engaged in the thriller and by having action right at the start and finishing the opening with a cliff hanger, this would keep the audience interested and wanting to find out what happens next. We wanted this opening to be filled with excitement, our idea of camera angles was to use tracking shots, point of view shots, wide shots and also middle shots. By using these we can make the audience feel involved in the chase and feel a part of the film.

idea 3:

Our third idea was going to be idea 2 but in the form of a dream that a character has but then later wakes up to find out that the dream was real. 

We wanted to use the dream idea to create confusion for the audience, but not in a bad way. By turning the opening into a dream, it will cause the audience to focus on the film and really try and understand whats going on. For idea 3 we planned to use an enigma, we are currently trying decide what it is as this idea is not clearly constructed and still needs a bit of further discussion on.