PLANNING: DEVELOPING IDEAS IN GROUPS- MISS BEGUM

What is an initial idea? Why is it important?

In order to create the thriller opening our class was divided into groups which mostly consisted of 3 members. This would help later on during the production so everyone is given a role and will work together to create the product. In my group there are three members who all came up with an initial idea for an opening thriller and critically discussed why it would or wouldn't work thus allowing to analyse which idea we should go with. An initial idea is the basic construction of your intended product. This is used to organize your very first plans and intentions so then it is easier to decide whether your aim is realistic, unique and will be effective. Initial idea can be used to build up on and develop later during the further stages of production. It can also be compared with the initial ideas from your other group members which will be beneficial as it can help to create a better and original product. Initial idea is important because it can allow a stable base for your production which you can later develop and change if necessary. Also initial ideas are easy to amend because they are just simple plans. This was our first task to complete as a group in order to familiarise with one another as well as see the different plans we have come up with which could be then  developed upon. This is important when working in a group because you have to compromise with other members in order to create something that everyone will be satisfied with.

These are the Initial Ideas from other members of my group as well as my own:

 

INITIAL IDEA 1: NATALIA

Narrative:  I want to divide the opening into 2 sections that will both make sense and work with one another. In the first section the opening credits will be presented with little narrative in order to establish the mood, atmosphere and genre of the film. This section is an intertextual reference to the opening of Seven where we don’t see the characters but can tell what is happening and what this could resolve in. In section one the main focus will be the anonymous letter that someone is creating by gluing and sticking newspaper cuttings together to create a whole. The newspaper cuttings will also become the typography for the opening credits. Section 2 on the other hand will have a clearer story line. It will start with a female character simply jogging in a forest until she finds a mysterious letter which is the one from the first section. She then feels unwell and takes medicine which causes her to hallucinate and hear things that are non-existing. She spots a weird ritual where an unknown figure does something to a child’s dead body. The sequence ends with an image of a female who wakes up on the floor with blood on her face leaving the audience with wonder whether the ritual was just a hallucination or reality.

Sub-genre: Psychological/ Mystery thriller.

Themes: Mystery, Supernaturalism, Death, Medicine, Chaos, Darkness.

Characters:

·         Female Protagonist

·         The Supernatural antagonists

·         The Child Victim

Narrative Structure and Theory: 

·         Todorov: in section 2 there will be a clear start, middle and end. The equilibrium when the female simply runs for leisure. Disequilibrium when she takes the pills and sees things. New equilibrium when she wakes up.

·         Aristotle- the theme of child’s death should draw the audiences’ emotions and make them feel pity and distraught. The theme of mystery will make the spectators feel engaged with the narrative more and make them intrigued.

·         Propp- the female character as a hero and the supernatural figures as the villains and the victim is the child.

Mise En Scene:

·         Iconography- the pills are the key iconography in this opening. This is because they are one of the causes of the visions and they give meaning to the narrative and character. The letter which is another stimulus for the protagonist is also important as the audience can see the effect it has on the narrative and character, thus being intrigued by it.

·         Lighting and Colour- low key and natural lighting which will help to make the scene much more threatening and scary for the viewer as naturally we connote darkness with danger and threat.

·         Setting- forest. Forests tend to be isolated and have connotations of mystery and danger. This will help to establish the thriller genre as well as draw an audience response as they know that no one is around to safe the protagonist out of oppression.

·         Facial Expression and Body Language- the antagonist should slouch a little bit to show that they are mysterious and will not open up to anyone. The female protagonist will have a steady and firm body language and facial expression so the audience can put their hopes in her. The child victim will lay on the floor with open hands to show that it was a welcoming and good child who should be pitied by the viewer as well as exposed to danger.

·         Costume- the antagonist will wear a black cloak with white or black masks. This will help to hide their identity and show that they are in fact a supernatural character rather than humans. The hidden identity will scare the audience. The protagonist on the other hand should wear something casual to show that she is a typical person who the audience can relate with. The victim will wear a white to represent its purity and vulnerability.

Title: ‘Can You Hear Me?’ – This title will fit this opening because it will reinforce the idea of suffering from schizophrenia which is what the protagonist tries to fight. Also this is a direct question that aims at the audience too. The spectators will question themselves which will be engaging for them.

Advantages for choosing this idea:

·         It is original

·         Isn’t cliché

·         It will draw the right emotions from the audience

·         It has accurate thriller themes

·         The characters are untypical

·         The setting can be easily accessible                        

·         The typography for the opening will be original and will not be added but it becomes a part of the scene which is also unique.

 

Potential problems and how I plan to overcome them:

·         The natural lighting can be an issue as there needs to be a right balance so the scene isn’t too dark and still seems believable. However this could be tackled by editing the sequence and making it darker in Final Cut.

·         The pills can be hard to access. This could be overcome by simply using sweets that look like medicine.

 

INITIAL IDEA 2: GULUSTAN

 

Narrative: A young lady is lost and finds herself in Liverpool Street Train station at 11:45 pm. While turning around on the spot, trying to figure out where she is, she realises a little girl sitting in the middle of the empty train station playing with a doll. As she approaches the little girl and is about to sit down to see if she’s alright she hears a voice of a foreign/ Russian old man saying “isn’t it a little too late for a young girl like you too be out here… especially here.” As she turns around to ask why, there is no one there and she and the little girl are the only ones there. Exactly at 12:00 the big grandfathers clock bongs and she hears chants and a loud drum beat coming from outside. She is afraid to go take a look but doesn’t want to show her fear to comfort the girl, but as she looks back, she is gone and her doll is still there. She picks up the doll and moves the arm, but weirdly when she does her own arm moves, almost as if the little girl controlled her and brought her precisely at 12:00. She slowly and steadily takes steps towards a window to see what’s going on and she sees a crowd of people in ranks marching and chanting words in a different language. First she thinks it’s some kind of creepy festival but as she becomes conscious that something is controlling everyone she sees figure in a black cloak which she can’t make out due to it being dark and the figure being camouflaged.

Sub-Genre: Psychological, Mystery

Themes: kidnap, mystery

Characters:

·         Female protagonist

·         The little girl

·         The Foreign man

·         Cloaked People

Narrative Structure and theory:

·         Todorov’s theory of start-middle and end. Start being when she arrives at the train station, middle when she sees a little girl and hears the old man, end being when she hears the chanting and tries to work out what is going on.      

·         Aristotle’s theory of themes. The theme of mystery will engage the audience as well as intrigue them because they will be eager to find out more as well as solve the mystery as if becoming part of the film.

·         Barthes’s theory of cultural references. This being evident through the character of the Old Russian man. Stereotypically, foreign characters such as Russian, are antagonized and presented as a threat to the society which reinforces Barthes’s theory as naturally the audience fears foreign people simply for the lack of their knowledge. 

Mise en scene:

·         Costume- black cloaks for the group of walking characters. Black connotes evil intensions and darkness, thus suggesting that the audience should loathe them because they are more likely to bring harm rather than happiness. Also cloaks help to hide the characters identity thus implying that they have something to hide, conventional of an antagonist.

·         Iconography- the doll that controls the damsel. This proposes supernatural powers which are often the case in thrillers because they’re still a mystery and point of argument in today’s society thus making it seem threatening for the audience.

·         Setting- Liverpool train station, because it is a famous place and many viewers will be familiar with the setting thus having own perception of it which will be ruined by the film. Additionally, it will have a double effect on the viewer who will now feel threatened when walking down the station on a normal day (It will leave an psychological effect in them)

·         Lighting- High key, to make the setting look harmless and keep the element of surprise as the audience is more likely not to expect anything bad to happen because we connote light with warmth and peace, therefore the audience are left with more astonishment.

·         Facial Expression and Body Language: the little girl will have an emotionless expression on her face as if being possessed by a dead soul, thus making the audience feel sorry for her but at the same time afraid, knowing that she can be capable of ruthless acts because of the possession. Because she will be sat down, her body language will be slouched as if she is careless about what happens. The female protagonist will have a confused, lost and scared facial expression throughout the sequence because she is unaware of her situation and what is happening around her. This will have an impact on the audience because they want to support her but at the same time worry for her and feel confused as they are unaware of the surroundings just like the protagonist.  Her open and uptight body language will make her look exposed to the awaiting danger which yet again scares the viewer. The Old man will have a firm and proud body language as well as facial expression to show he is arrogant and sure in his actions or evil intensions. Lastly the cloaked characters will have the same slouched body language and slow, monotonous movement which makes them even more mysterious. Their face will not be shown because of the costume.

Title: It’s Time 

Advantages of choosing this idea:

·         It has its originality

·         It's characters are conventional

·         The setting is easy to access

Potential problems and how I plan to overcome them:

·         Hard to find a large number of people to play in it which could be solved by asking as many friends as possible or reduce the number of the characters.

·         Train stations are hardly empty which could cause the most issue, however we could access a less known train station.

 

INITIAL IDEA 3: BIBI

Narrative: The scene begins with a man sleeping alone in his bedroom. It's the middle of the night and the house is silent. The man hears what seems to be a sound of glass fall in the distance. He opens his eyes, but ignores it. Several heavy footsteps thud outside of his room. He sits up on his bed. A light shines in from beneath his door. He hears more footsteps approaching and heavy objects falling to the ground. Completely awake now, he turns his bedroom lamp on. The man is petrified. He hears two men approaching his door, and shuts off his light. He decides to hide under his bed. From underneath he can see two men in combat boots pace around. From the untidy sheets on the bed the criminals assume that they are not alone in the room. They find the protagonist and kidnap him. They wear clown masks, covering their identity. Moreover, the antagonist covers the victim's eyes with a band, tapes his mouth and throws him inside their van. The criminals drive for 1 hour with an unknown destination. At last they pick up the protagonist and tie him up to a chair in a dark place. The two antagonists start preparing knifes, thus scaring the main character. One of the antagonists come closer to the chair. The protagonist tries to scream and shout loud as he possibly can. The antagonist approaches to shut him up, takes off his mask and starts laughing. The protagonist is shocked, screaming with more anger. This is because the two antagonists are his best friends and decided to prank him. They untied the protagonist and go to a club near the location to start drinking and dancing. As they are having the last shot, one of the friends puts LSD in the protagonist drink. He starts hallucinating and a fade to black is displayed. He wakes up the next morning from a hangover. He feels dizzy so he goes to the toilet and looks in the mirror. He is confused as he is covered with blood. He starts panicking and begins to be nervous as he finds an axe next to where he was lying.

Sub-genre: Crime, Psychological thriller

Themes: Kidnap, violence, torture, hang over

Characters:

·         Protagonist

·         2 Antagonists

Narrative Structure and Theory: 

·         Todorov: there will be a clear start, middle and end. The equilibrium when the protagonist is lying in bed and he starts to hear noises. Disequilibrium when the antagonists kidnap the protagonist and tie him up to the chair. New equilibrium when he wakes up and finds blood and an axe.

·         Aristotle: the theme of kidnap should draw the audiences’ emotions and make them feel pity and distraught because they assume that the protagonist is innocent as well as know that the antagonists violated his privacy. The theme of mystery will make the spectators feel engaged with the narrative more and make them intrigued thus being impacted by the story much more.

Mise En Scene:

·         Iconography - Knife, Mask, Van, Drugs and Axe.

·         Lighting and Colour- low- key lighting throughout the opening to show the evil intensions from antagonists and propose danger. It will also create a chilling response for the audience because naturally we are afraid of the dark.

·         Setting- Apartment which will cause the audience to feel scared because they’re very familiar with the setting and can start feeling afraid that something like this could happen to them. A warehouse is an isolated location, conventional to the thriller genre, thus making the audience feel worried for the protagonist because no one is there to help him out of oppression. Another location would be the club which will help to make a false perception for the viewer as we connote clubs with relaxation and leisure but here we see that it can be risky.  

·         Facial Expression and Body Language - Firstly the protagonist will be terrified and anxious as he does not know what’s going on in his apartment. As the narrative develops his body language will be vulnerable and weak as he cannot counterattack the antagonist. Moreover, when he arrives at the club he will be relaxed and joyful thus contrasting his previous situation and making the viewer relaxed too. Lastly as he wakes up, the protagonist will be confused and terrified discovering the blood on his hands and face. On the other hand, the two antagonists will be presented as strong and firm as they need to carry the protagonist in the van. They will also be muscular and threatening as they will cover their faces with masks, keeping their identity hidden.

·         Costume – The protagonist will wear a white shirt and grey sweatpants. The white connotes innocence and vulnerability. However, the two antagonists will wear clown masks and black shirts. The mask will make their identity anonymous and the black clothing shows their evil actions and danger to society.

Title: The Last Shot

Advantages for choosing this idea:

·         Original and unique

·         Creates suspense

·         Theories can be applied

Potential problems and how I plan to overcome them:

·         It will be hard to tape because we do not own a van. This could be tackled by asking an adult to hire theirs or cut this scene out.

·         It has too much narrative, often openings do not reveal as much. This could be tackled by cutting down the narrative.

Conclusion:

Overall, creating and sharing these initial ideas was highly beneficial for our group because it has allowed us to gain different recommendations and possible improvements that could be made to create the best opening. Moreover it was interesting to see the different plans that everyone came up with which allowed to enhance each idea by adding them to one another thus creating something truly unique and original. I think that this post is important because we were able to organize all these ideas and therefore we can always build upon these in future. Our next step is to pick one idea and amend it so everyone is satisfied and will know exactly what kind of opening we will create. From our discussion I think that we are likely to create a whole new idea for our thriller opening because our initial ideas are so different that it will be hard to compromise and settle on one thing. We decided on creating something original as well as taking some aspects of each initial plan in order to comfort every group member.