Developed Idea

After asking around to gather feedback about our idea, we made a decision as a group to orientate our idea around the killer. The killer will no longer attack the male runner out of nowhere, he will shoot the male runner with a rifle. This idea came from different groups of people we asked to review our ideas, the use of a rifle would enable us to create tension through following the girl with the scope, making the viewer believe that the girl will be killed. We will be able to play with the emotions of the audience by stressing that the girl is innocent.

We are keeping the two running characters as we felt that we didn't want to change our entire idea and we wanted to keep our own unique feature that has been there since the start.

Location

1.The Woods- in Hurtwood

This is where most of our shots take place shots 5 - 15. This will take us approximately four to five hours to film as it is where most of the opening sequence takes place. We have chosen this location due to it being close to the location we will all be at so it shalt not take us long to reach it in the morning also as it has both thick and thin areas of the woodland which we can use. We can also drive in particular areas which we need to do. To film here though we would need to get permission from Surrey County Council as it is public land.

2.The road- The Close in Ifold, West Sussex, England

A good place to situate our thriller film on a road could be The Close in Ifold, West Sussex, England.

This is because it is a private estate and therefore there aren't lots of cars and people walking around getting in the way of things.

This particular road - The Close is very smooth and flat it will consequently be easier to film on. Another advantage is that I live on the road so it hopefully will be easier to get permission to film there and we also will have somewhere safe to park and to get ready and leave our things. To get permission to film here we will have to ask permission of Ifold Estates Limited.

Whilst at this location we will enable ourselves two hours to set up and get the shots we need, these are shot 1,2 and 4.

3.Place to wash blood off the killers hands, we will do this at my house as it is in the road we are filming in and my parents have already given us permission. It also will reduce the amount of time spent transporting equipment around. This shot should only take us an hour to film as there  is only one angle to film and it is extremely close to where we have been filming. (Shot 3).

For location 1 and 2, there is one huge issue which we need to consider, this is the weather. As we will be filming outside in January, which is the winter. It is therefore likely to be raining so we will have to prepare ahead for this bringing the necessary equipment and maybe have to relook at our story board so that there is the correct continuity.

Another issue is that passers by, especially dog walkers will walk onto our set, consequently we will have people watching out so that this doesn't affect our film sequence.

We have picked the woods due to them increasing the tension of our thriller. Woods are also a convention of a thriller, therefore we are enticing our audience in, appealing to our target audience. It is also realistic, as the woods is often a place where murders and horrible events take place.

Props

We will need a small amount of extra props to bring the scenes to life and to make the opening sequence more believable. We will need:

- Ipod with Headphones A key part of the opening sequence plot line, the female runner must be oblivious to world around her 

- Knife needs to look realistic, it cannot be rubber or plastic as the material will easily be deciphered by the viewer, it should be a metallic replica that looks lifelike. 

- Fake Blood Is relatively cheap and accessible, I can purchase some off Amazon for a good price, i would need this for the blood on trees and items of clothing and ultimately the dead body of the runner

- Crime scene tape would set the scene very well with a realistic aspect, making the scene more believable.


- Camera(s) with big extra flash For the extras in the opening sequence, the forensic crime scene investigators. The school could easily provide these.

Costume

FEMALE RUNNER:

      

- Black Running Leggings

The running leggings should be basic, but not boring or disinteresting. This can be done by using skin tight leggings rather than loose running tracksuit bottoms or shorts. If we were to use loose fitting running shorts our main running girl would seem more masculine and less attractive, this would play against the stereotype we are aiming to put across.

However if we were to use tight running shorts to dress our female runner in it would play to far to the stereotype and would add a sexual aspect to the character, we do not wish to objectify the young woman as that would detract from the professionalism and credibility of our opening sequence. Also the practicality of the clothing would be ineffective as we will be filming in the midst of winter, the temperature will be very cold which may affect the acting ability of our actress, so we need to make her as warm as possible without making her look like an eskimo. 

White leggings would also work well with the innocent and vulnerable colour connotations of the girl.

- White running top

We would not want to use a top with any form of advertising or noticable decoration to dress our runner in as this would distract from the actress, her facial expression and/or other actions that are significant to the piece.

For the same reason we wouldn't use tight running shorts to dress our actress in we also wouldn't dress her in a short, sleeveless, cropped running top. It would be objectifying and sexualising, and would be uncomfortable sue to the cold of winter. 

Our ideal costume would be a plain white t-shirt-like running top, or a long-sleeved running top, this would be white to amplify the purity and innocence of the running girl, whilst maintaining an interesting dynamic and also making our subject attractive. I have access to this style of top already so we would not need to purchase an additional one, however if the other members of my group or the actress doesn't have another one then we may need to buy one from amazon.co.uk or SportsDirect.com for a small amount of money as a back up.

- Black/White running shoes

If we were to use black running shoes they would need to have elements of white in them otherwise they would look clumsy and clunky, this would draw attention away from our actress once again.

White trainers would be ideal for our actress as again they put across the idea that the girl is pure and innocent, also they are basic, (providing there is little extra colour or pattern or colour on them) which would mean that they wouldn't distract from the character and her movements, actions etc.

An example of a trainer that would be distracting due to the extra colour.

A fully coloured trainer would be unusable in our opening sequence as they would severely distract from the actress, also the colour connotations of for example pink would suggest an extreme element of femininity but in a childlike state. We need a white or black shoe to maintain the professional look of our piece.

MALE RUNNER: 

- Black Running Top

Our male runner would wear a long sleeved running top, however it couldn't be any running top, it couldn't be a skin tight lycra running top as the character would appear to be very keen about running, and wouldn't necessarily look like a potential killer. Also the top couldn't be white as that gives connotations of good rather than evil. We want our male runner to look like a bad guy so that the viewer expects him to kill, or at least harm the running girl in some way.

A vest wouldn't be ideal as the costume for the male runner as again we are using a 40 year old man as our actor..I'm not sure it would suit his age, a vest is more of a youth attire so therefore it would look out of place, and the cold temperature would affect the actor more.

A coloured top would  be inappropriate for the character as he is meant to look dark and sinister, and for example if the top was blue the connotations would suggest that the character was  innocent and boyish which heavily contradicts the actor we are using.

If we were to go with a running jacket, hoody or jumper it would have to be black, baggy, sporty and without advertisement or a bold company logo/emblem. A hooded jacket would work nicely as a hood makes the character seem suspicious and sinister as we can't fully see him, he is shaded by the hood. Or we could use a ring necked jumper, again black. This would be almost as effective as the hoody if we combined it with a black beanie hat. This would be a likely route for us to pursue as I am in possession of a totally black ring neck jumper and a black beanie.

The ideal costume for the character would be a black turtlenecked tracksuit as it would look like the character is a consistent runner, and the style of the top would make him look dark and sinister at the same time.

                                

- Black Running Shorts

The running shorts would be loose fitting as it is masculine and also it would suit the age of the actor/character in our opening sequence. To the left is a good example of what we wouldn't use as they are too tight fitting and would look very unnatural and feminine.

Tracksuits could work work very well as they would make the character look a little bit more masculine and also marginally more threatening. However unlike the picture to the left the tracksuits wouldn't have any logos or patterns on them which could distract from the character.

Another style of bottoms that we wouldn't be able to use would be the old school style of running shorts as it would be too comical and again wouldn't suit the actor..I don't think Adam has the legs to pull them off.

The bottoms I intend to use for the male runner's costume would work best as loose fitting black  running shirts as they are basic dark, easy to access (and cheap) yet would look good and professional

-  Black Running Shoes                      

We wouldn't use the weird extremely keen running shoes for the male runner as again this would make him look like more of your average everyday fitness Guru rather than a stereotypical killer.

In this case all black shoes would look good as they are deliberately clunky and resemble boots or heavy footwear, they would work as a nice substitute. These would be the ideal footwear.

If the shoes were to have a band of white along the bottom then they would also look good, as the have all the connotations of black yet look very professional at the same time. However they slightly lean towards the keen runner side. They would still be usable and I have a pair that we could use. These are expensive shoes and it would be difficult to acquire a substitute though.

The runner would not be able to wear high tops as these would stick out very clearly and are the type of footwear that you would associate with a youth rather than a middle aged serial killer. 

The colours of the shoe are also important in the same way as for the female runner, bright pink or green shoes would severely detract from the professionalism of the opening sequence.

Male Detective:

- Suit

The suits to the left would be very inappropriate for the costume for the male detective in our Thriller as the bright, fluorescent colours would heavily contrast the dark mood that links in with murder and mystery,again a comical aspect would be added which would degrade the professionalism.



A white suit would look odd, almost like an 80's disco vibe which just wouldn't suit the role. Also being in a forrest the trousers may get damaged due to the most likely event of rain.




The ideal suit to dress the detective in, despite only being in the opening sequence for the last shot would be a plain black suit like the one to the right as it looks professional and also would resemble what an undercover police officer would most likely wear.

Storyboard

The first few slides were basic to create, The only specialist symbol I used was an arrow to show that the subject was travelling forwards.











The second slide in this section was hard to create, I needed to show that two wheels of the car were coming through the frame, so I drew the frame and used arrows to show that the car will be moving through the frame.

I drew the female runner in a very basic way as to not to overcomplicate the storyboard, and to fit in with the basic style of the rest of the storyboard. Likewise with the knife and the fist clenching the handle.

I labelled the sides of the picture "trees" and "grass" to show what we would ideally have in the shot without having to draw the whole thing.

I also included a P.O.V note at the bottom to make it clear that we would be in the perspective of the killer,and also a distance between the camera and the female runner also.

To make it clear what is coming out of the suspected killer's mouth I labelled it "Warm Breath" so that it is easy for the camera crew to understand what needs to be filmed.

Similarly with this slide, I labelled the drawing P.O.V and also gave a judgment of the distance between the subject and the camera.

This was a technically challenging slide top create due to the fact that the action of the camera was very advanced and it had to be explained in one shot so I drew a small box around the siren of the police car, then drew four arrows from the corners pointing to a larger box and captioned the box "Zoom out" this makes it very clear that the camera zooms out of from the siren to reveal a wide shot of the car. I also drew an arrow on the ground in front of the car to show its movement.

To show a sudden take down from behind I drew a pair of hands with a box zooming in on them to show that the hands would be covering the camera lens as if they were eyes, this shot would be P.O.V, as i said on the slide.

The last shot is the longest shot , and most definitely the most complicated shot. It is of the detective getting out of his car and walking towards the crime scene. That sounds quite basic, however the whole shot is a close up tracking shot from behind, followed by a camera pan around the head to show the face. this shot would definitely be pulled off by a drone due to the steady capabilities and also the ability to follow the subject through the car...probably. 

To represent this shot on the story board I used three slides. The first slide comprised of of a long shot, again I drew a box to represent what we see on camera, I used the long shot so that I could include the whole movement of the camera. I showed the detective getting out of his car by using an arrow, then a larger arrow along the ground to show his direction of travel. I then drew lines from the corners of the first box to the corners of the second box to show the movement of the shot, where it started and where it ended.

I then drew a slide which showed where the tracking in the shot ended, and what we were left with once the detective stopped walking, again i drew two boxes with lines leading from corner to corner to represent the pan of the camera. The camera pans around the head of the detective at 180 degrees to then show his face.