Location REVISED

These are a few images of the location we are going to shoot our film. It gives the sense of a tunnel like the sewers in The Third Man. This is an unglamorous location so therefore suits the genre. It is also much more murky in the evening and could even be described as slightly scary. This is definately an appropriate place to shoot a film about theft and assult.

Soundtrack

Below is a video which includes our chosen soundtrack song. It took ages trying to find a song that really fits with the film itself and was especially difficult finding a song old enough. We played through tons of classical music, such as the song from Madame Butterfly, and some jazz and ended up with this. The song itself is mainly linked to our thriller opening via lyrics. Even though at first you wouldn't expect to hear anything quite like this when watching, if you concentrate on the lyrics they tell a story which is easily related to Faye. One line in particular - "We'll take a boat to the land of dreams..." - emphasises that this is Fayes dreaming song, and the spirit which the song expresses is the life she is aiming for.
Some people immediately think the song is too happy for the film, as we found in our feedback, but it is purposely made to be ironic. So overall i am pleased with the song but it would have been good to experiment with many more or maybe more than one. Also adding diagetic together to see what kind of effects could be given.

Narrative Sequence REVISED

Shot 1: Close-up of Faye applying red lipstick, zooming in on the bright red.
Shot 2: The red then fades into the red blood as the camera zooms out canting slightly to establish a dead body, gradually reaching birds eye view of the body.
Shot 3: Camera pans down to bodies hand to emphasise the necklace he is holding.
Shot 4: Still, low angle shot of Fayes legs walking towards Robert.
Shot 5: Cut to medium close-up of Faye taking wallet out of Robs pocket.
Shot 6: Cross dissolve to close-up of her taking the money and cards.
Shot 7: Extreme close-up of Faye fanning out the money.
Shot 8: 90 degree canted mid shot as Faye throws down the wallet.
Shot 9: Cuts to scene of Faye walking towards camera.
Shot 10: Low angle of feet as she then walks away from camera.
Shot 11: Canted view as Faye reaches the new character.
Shot 12: 180 degree rule applied with focus on facial expressions, no dialogue.
Shot 13: Extreme close up as Faye slowly reaches into her pocket and pulls out money.
Shot 14: Medium shot of passing over the money. Emphasis on body language.
Shot 15: Close-up of Rose stepping closer towards Faye.
Shot 16: Medium long shot as Rose walks away.
Shot 17: Extreme close-up of half of Fayes face as tension rises.
Shot 18: Cuts to medium close-up of Faye.
Shot 19: Cuts to worms eye view as scene reaches climax.
Shot 20: Keeping camera in same place, slight shaking effect as someone puts a bag over Fayes head. Slow motion.
Shot 21: Cuts to extreme close up of Rose's eyes as if she's watching.

Props REVISED

Similarly to previous planning ideas we have incorporated money as this plays a big part in the plot of our film. This is also a major reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Marion Crane wrapping up the stolen money.

Again lipstick is going to be needed for our thriller as both contrasting femme fatales will be wearing it. Red was a definate shade as it is more seductive so fits the role better and also the colour of blood. We want to have red being the only bright colour in our film and to keep it appearing all the way through.

The blood is a prop were going to need to add to Jack at the beginning to show his wound. The more we have the better and the more intense red the better.

A new prop in which we incorporated and started off the basis of our new ideas was the idea of a necklace, big, bold and noticable, linking in with the characters and with deaths. The necklace is planned to appear with different characters throughout the film, not just the opening. Itself is a micro detail but after watching it more than once it becomes more of more revealing of the plot.

Shooting Schedule

Unfortunately filming is going to be limited to once a week due to various complications. We will make the most of our time shooting as much as we can at a good standard.

First shoot: Monday 1st December - 4 hours
Went well, got a lot done but could be better, if we have time we will re-run some of this filming to improve.

Second shoot: Monday 8th December - 4 hours
Went extremely well. Almost finished filming all sequences.

Third shoot: Monday 15th December
Unfortunately this shoot had to be cancelled due to illness of group members. We are going to have to reschedule this final filming date to finish, hoping that cameras will be available.

Final shoot:
Unfortunately after reviewing our filming so far, due to season and weather our film is too dark in most places and won't be submitted so we have to revise our thriller, also whilst reviewing some adjustments were made to improve it overall. Our shoot straight after christmas went extremely well and we have all the film we need from old and new. Now we can start editing.

Thriller Storyboards REVISED

Thriller Storyboards

Characters REVISED

Our first character is Jack Edwards (above), who is playing the character Robert who we see initially lying dead in the film. We used fake blood on Jack to obviously show blood but i don't think it was this messy during the film. Jacks costume was all black for a couple of reasons; 1 that black is a dark shade and can reflect the character he is playing, and 2 is that lighter colours wouldn't be taken as seriously and would draw attention from the main focus of the blood and action. Another reason is that this way the blood can stand out to its best. Jack does A level drama and would therefore have the confidence to be on camera and look professional. Jack is also very reliable for this part as he is part of the group and it counts towards his AS media studies.

One thing we stuck to in our ideas for filming was Nicole Dyke playing a femme fatale character. Her characters name is Faye which is also the name of the film itself. We were inspired to use this costume and makeup from Marion Crane in Hitcock's Psycho. We have used bright red lipstick and bright red nails and smart and sophisticated wardrobe with a hint of 'slut'. We have deliberately made her clothes neutral colours so that the red is much more enhanced. Nicole is very reliable for this part as once again she was getting graded on the outcome.

Our other character is Rose, who is played by Jennie Stone. Rose is another femme fatale character who deceives Faye. Jennie is doing A level drama so she should have the acting skills to pull off this performance.

Characters

This is our main character Nicole Dyke who plays Adalia in our thriller. She is wearing the costume we chose that we thought would portray a typical femme fatale character whilst keeping it contemporary.

Plot Summary.

We have 3 characters in the opening to our thriller; Adalia, Rob and Faye. The main character in the opening is Adalia. The scene starts off with our femme fatal character applying a bright red lipstick in the mirror, which will be shown as an extreme close up on the lips. The mise-en-scene then fades into black and white shots of the other 2 characters in bed with one another, implying a sexual scene, and then pans over to show Adalia watching with the look of anger on her face. The camera then cuts back to Adalia applying mascara, with an extreme close up on her eye and as she blinks it cuts to another black and white flash back of the couple, Rob and Faye, in bed with blood on the sheets and open wounds. All of this will be accompanied by a soundtrack which will hopefully be selected soon and no diegetic sound until the flash back ends and a bottle of red nail varnish is knocked over. As Adalia goes to the bathroom to wash her hands another flash back occurs where she is washing blood off of a knife. Diegetic sound of running water present.

Adalia then goes back to the room where she wraps up money in newspaper and puts it into her handbag. She then puts her shoes on, camera angled to see the flat bottom of her shoe as she zips up her boot, soundtrack to be entered here too. As she walks out of the house you hear a door slam and then as well as the soundtrack the sound of heels walking along the pavement, camera at a very low level and street lamp light only. Slowly as she walks away diegetic sound fades and non-diegetic sound becomes louder as the camera watches her walk away. She walks down an alley way which is deserted and unglamorous towards a car where she edgily enters into the claustrophobic atmosphere of an enclosure, closer to her escapism. Finally the mise-en-scene shows a point of view shot when Adalia looks into her rear view mirror and sees the face of Rob who is supposedly dead. Everything then turns to black as the opening is concluded.

Planning

Costume ideas for main character:

As I don’t have images of the real costume I have searched on the Internet and found some, which I would like to find similarly to include as the real costume. My idea for the character is sexy, whilst elegant clothing to suit the femme fatal.

My first idea was the skirt. I chose a skirt as it’s feminine and suits the character that has high standards when it comes to appearance.

This pencil skirt would show a vintage style, businesswoman type and can portray to the audience that she likes to dress smart and been seen highly to others. This could also show that she is living a lie – the skirt is misleading people to believe she is an honest, hard-working woman.

I also chose to use black as it is a dark colour, which could represent the character.

This was another skirt idea I thought of in case a pencil skirt wasn’t available. This skirt is also vintage style with a modern twist. The item would give the idea impression of a 'tart'. The only problem with this is that it is quite a young look and immature. But would be good because red is an aggressive, angry yet the colour represents love also.

Fishnet tights were an attachment to the skirt as they give an edgy daring look with a hint of tartness. But any tights would be ok, as fishnets may be a bit over the top.

Here is an image of some shoes I have thought about using for my character. Obviously not these exactly, but some similar if possible. I chose these as they were red which shows us deviant, devil like woman with the sexy touch. Also the fact that they are high healed makes them very feminine and also make noise when walking which fits into an idea of sound at some point during the thriller opening.

My alternative shoes are these boots which portray some same aspects as the shoes with the high heels. Again there is a consistent colour of black or red as both these colours reflect the characters personality of hidden darkness and deviance. Another reason why I chose these is because they may be easier to get hold of.

Location ideas:

This is one of the possible locations, which will feature in our thriller film. It is a bedroom clip that is shown a couple of times to reflect betrayal and murder in flash back mode. The mise-en-scene shows a normal bedroom – every day casual. The reason we chose this bedroom is because it has available usage for filming. When filming this there will be hopefully be spotlighting coming from a lamp so there is a lot of shadows present which can give scary and spooky effects. If we don't use lamp spotlighting there is low light anyway which can give similar effects.

Here is another point of view of the same bedroom location. We have taken this picture to show a shot of the mirror as we plan to use a mirror shot of the same flashback using editing to make it quick and effective. The mise-en-scene shows a lot going on and we would centre the spot in which we were targeting to attract attention.

Props:

This is one of the first props that will be shown in the very first shot. The mise-en-scene shows our main character, Adalia, putting on her bright red lipstick. This is a signifier for our femme fatal woman as it shows sexiness and deviance and also confidence.

This is another prop we plan to be using which will be shown in a flash back scene of Adalia washing blood off of this knife in the sink. The reason we chose to include a knife is because it is a thriller aspect as it implies violence (along with guns). It is also a reference to Psycho in the shower scene when Marion Crane is murdered.

Other prop’s we will be using is mascara for another mirror shot we will be taking, with an extreme close up on the eye. Newspaper and money for Adalia to wrap up and put in her bag with a reference to Psycho again, and also shows us that she is running away from someone/something.