IDEA ONE: Corpses
The
story deals with a new era in which the world has been cursed by hellish demons
who curse the dead into rising up and trying to dominate the world. God doesn’t
want to help humanity because he is fed up with the way that humans have been
treating the world. The storyline follows a religious family that consists of
the parents, the grandmother and two teenage kids, along with their struggle
for survivability against the dead.
The
opening sequence for this movie starts off with an establishing shot of a
lonely graveyard at night. In this establishing shot we spot a man doing
something in a grave. We then get close-ups of this mysterious man dressed in
black finishing up burying a corpse. We are unable to get many details of this man’s
face since he is wearing a hat, a coat which covers most of his face and
sunglasses. When his job is done, we get a long shot of him through his back
and we see him drop the shovel. After this we get a low angle which enables us
to see the pile of dirt from the grave and the man walking away from it. When
the man reaches a good distance from it he turns around and takes a look at the
grave. After this we get a point of view shot of his vision looking at the
grave. Then the camera returns to the low angle before and we see the man
turning back around and walking away again. And a few seconds after he is off
scene a hand suddenly comes out of the ground. There is only a very soft
muffled non-diegetic soundtrack playing along this entire sequence. And also the
diegetic sound of rain. As soon as the hand comes off the ground there is a
strong thunder sound meant to jump scare the audience.
Feedback:
It has a good opening sequence, but the movie idea falls more towards the horror side than to the Thriller side, therefore it wouldn't work for my thriller opening sequence coursework.
IDEA TWO:
The Black Masks
This
story deals with a bank robbery from extremely experienced robbers who are
greatly wanted in the United States, they are known as the Black Masks. The
story is in the state of Los Angeles in
a fairly popular bank. The robbers quickly put some people in hostage while the
others go get the money from the safe. When the police arrive they fear to get
in because the robbers threaten them and planted explosives by the doors. The
whole movie is about the police planning new strategies and getting killed by
ambushes made by the robbers. The police end up having to call extra forces to
try and rescue the fewer and fewer hostages.
The
story opens with all the robbers in a van making their way to the bank. They
are all in complete silence and all we can hear is the vehicle’s motor running.
We start with a close-up of one of the robbers sitting down at the end of that
back of the van. The camera slowly pans to the right introducing the other
robbers. We then get a close-up of the driver who is the leader of the Black
Masks. Followed by a point of view of him to the street. This is when the title
of the movie shows up. We then get a low angle long shot from the street of the
van just passing by. Then an over the shoulder shot of the driver as he pulls
up the van. We then get a close-up of the leader as he says: Ready? . After this we get a Mid long shot of the
entire group putting on their masks and loading their guns.
Feedback:
Once again, this does not completely follow the concept of Thrillers. This would be more of a crime movie with a slight touch of the suspenseful thriller genre.
IDEA THREE: Pinkie
An
African American who comes from a poor family is the hero of this story and the
main character. The storyline follows the concept of murder, which a murderer
is on the loose and he is wreaking havoc in the city of London. Every time he
kills someone he cuts off the victim’s pinkie finger and keeps it as a trophy
in his basement. The killer is named pinkie by the police since nobody knows
his real identity.
The
opening sequence basically starts off with an over the shoulder shot of a yet
to be discovered person wearing a hoodie. This person has an African skin
colour is following a woman down the
streets of London. The woman then recognizes that this individual is following
her and suddenly gets attacked by another man who shows up out of nowhere. The
black person who was walking behind her jumps in and saves her. The killer then
walks away.
IDEA FOUR: Hotel
Manager (working title)
The
idea for this thriller opening sequence basically consists of this hotel
manager who runs a very successful company. He has gotten a psychological
trauma after his wife was murdered and he feels the need that people need to
feel what he felt. So he becomes a killer himself. He starts murdering his
customers making it look like suicides. The police investigate the cases but don’t ever find out it was him.
The
opening sequence to this film would start off by The hotel manager getting rid
of all the evidence of the murder. Using close-ups of him cleaning up the blood
from knifes. Removing his gloves with blood stains. Or even closing up on a
sink and show the blood mixed with the water when he is washing his hands. The
opening sequence ends with him putting on his suit, and walking out his house
to make his way to the hotel.
Feedback:
Pinkie was more likable than the other ideas, mainly for the fact that
it does follow the thriller vibe. The group said that they really liked
the whole story but disliked the opening sequence. So we modified it to
where it would mix Hotel Manager and Pinkie, starting off with this man just cleaning a hotel room, making
the bed, etc. and then we would suddenly see him picking up a bloody
knife and cleaning it in the bathroom and , and grabbing a pinkie finger
from his last victim and then putting on his suit and walking away from
the room. This way, the opening sequence was able to build a lot more
tension, due to the fact that we start off by seeing him just normally cleaning up a room and then tension rises as he starts picking up the knife, etc.
Thrillers are already a category of films, or a genre of films. But Thrillers have such an immense variety of styles that it can be categorized even further. (i.e. Psychological Thrillers, Action Thrillers, Medical Thrillers, and the list goes on...) In my opinion, the most interesting thriller sub genre would be psychological thrillers. There are great psychological thriller movies in the film industry. Three of them would be "The Machinist" a movie about a man who hasn't had any sleep for over a year and starts going insane, "Black Swan", and "Copycat" a movie about a serial killer who copies past serial killers.
All three of these psychological thriller poster share some things in common, though they are all within the same sub genre. All of the film posters include a person in the middle as the main focus. In terms of character, all three posters depict the main character (who turns out to be the bad one). All of whom suffer the psychological trauma. Not all the posters share the same theme. The don't even share the same main colors. "The Machinist" is brownish, "Black Swan" is white, and "Copycat" is black/blueish. It is worth pointing out that the characters all have the same kind of look. Looking both generally relaxed and having that evil sort of look in their faces. As if they were targeting someone or something. All posters are fairly simple and don't contain much factors of mise-en-scene. I believe this is because they want the audience to focus on the psychos and nothing else around them. The lighting in "The Machinist" and "Copycat" are quite similar, only the colors differ. Both of them have a dull and poor lighting, which symbolizes night, and evil. However the lighting from "Black Swan" is a lot more present and the colors are more peaceful, yet we still get a sort of an evil vibe from it, which is a very nice contrast made by the institution. 
