Planning: Final Idea - Mrs. Quinlan

Final Idea

Group Discussion Final Idea

Introduction

For our final idea, we as a group had to merge all our initial ideas together to come to a final one where everyone was satisfied with it. My first and initial idea that I came up with myself involved supernatural elements as well as Pervin's. We wanted something that would create tension all the way through, further making the audience feel uneasy and terrified without giving too much away as it is just the opening. Dillan wanted something that involved more violence and mystery so we decided to use both the supernatural and mystery sub-genre together to create what we have now.

Title

• P.S. Your Stalker - Trang
• One Of Us - Dillan

Sub-Genre

For our final idea, we decided as a group that we wanted the two sub-genres of the supernatural theme and mystery, this was the only way to do so if we both wanted to include our ideas into one. The thriller opening follows a supernatural and mystery sub-genre as it portrays mystery through the use of hidden messages throughout and supernatural through the unexplained figure that seems to be following the man.

Narrative/ Plot

The opening scene begins with an antagonist slowly walking in a graveyard. He wears a black crimson coloured suit with a matching tie and white shirt that further indicates he has just attended a funeral. The weather is dark and gloomy just on the edge of raining furthermore reflecting on his current state and mentality. It may also foreshadow further events that will happen as the opening progresses. He arrives home to which it then jumps to a straight cut from inside a house. The man from earlier opens the door, still wearing his suit, he enters the house carelessly with his hands full and keys in his mouth, his back faces the spooky looking girl who is extremely pale and bruised. Her stance is still and she doesn't move, she just stands right behind him as the door shuts in her face. When he is fully in the house, its lit with high-key lighting that further portrays no abnormalities until a tilt shot is used to show him picking up a chair that is stained in blood. The man causally walks towards the staircase and we are able to witness the lifeless bodies that are scattered around the house. As the antagonist walks up the stairs which is portrayed through extreme close-ups of his shoes, bodies are becoming more noticeable.
As the opening progresses, there is a medium shot of the antagonist entering his bedroom. He walks towards his wardrobe whilst stripping his blazer off of him that lands on the bed. When he reaches his wardrobe, he takes out a black leather jacket but as the man closes the door of his wardrobe, we see a victim who is tied on a chair barely conscious, wounded and hidden at the other end of his room. We are only to witness this victim when the wardrobe door closes. When our antagonist exits out of the room, he carelessly turns his back and turns off the light and the spooky female figure appears again, hiding in the shadows however he doesn't notice the eerie, unidentified figure but when rushes back to get his phone he had forgotten, he switches back on the lights and the creepy girl disappears. As the man continues to walk around his house, dead bodies are becoming more visible as well photo frames on window sills that contain pictures of unidentified people.
Towards the ending of the thriller opening, we see the man walk down the stairs from a high angle medium shot. We are able to see the man walk away until he disappears from the camera frame to which the camera does not follow him. When the man is completely out of the frame, the camera tilts upwards to which the girl from previous shots appears again. The girl supposedly has been following the man. She stands still with a motionless face planted on her with one hand placed on the window looking in his direction. The camera then pans out and we see the man walking into the public in a casual manner. The scene fades to black and it ends.

Narrative Structure (Theory)

Our final idea follows a narrative structure of Aristotle. He believed that the importance of a plot is the whole focus of a narrative. He states that it is key to have a beginning, middle and end. Our final idea follows this structure by having a beginning, middle and end to portray its narrative, making it clear what is going from start to end. Moreover, he believes that it is important to arouse emotions and feelings through the use of themes especially themes such as a tragedy that would spark up the audiences mentality and emotions which is used when our spooky figure appears making it send shivers to the audiences spine, mainly focusing on their mentality and emotions. 

Characters (Theory)

The character in my opening follow Propp's idea of having the typical characters with conventional roles in the film. Propp's characters have a narrative function and they provide a structure for text. Propp's characters include:

• The Hero - A Character that seeks for better things.
• The Villain - Who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest.
• The Donor - Who provides an object with magical properties.
• The Dispatcher - Who sends the hero on his/ hers quest via a message.
• The False Hero - Who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims.
• The Helper - Who aids the hero.
• The Princess - Acts as a reward for the hero and object of the villains plot.
• Her Father - Who acts to reward the hero for his efforts. 

As seen by our narrative and plot, it portrays characters such as the villain, the false hero and princess which in this case are the victims held hostage in his house.

Mise En Scene (Theory)

The theory for mise en scene follows Barthes idea of having denotations and connotations of specific objects in the film that is presented in the audience. Furthermore, Barthes stated that the semiology theory within a narrative had to consist of the denotation, connotation and cultural understanding.  The connotation and the denotation of a narrative is always referred to symbolism through the use of iconography, themes and characters. For an example; an antagonist has the connotations of evil and power that demonstrates his or hers bad intentions and capability.

In our thriller opening, we decided that we want to use conventional mise en scene like conventional thriller costumes such as our 'villain' or 'false hero' who wears the colour black connotating that he is really and truly the villain in this opening,

Film Influences

As a group, we have taken many film influences form different movies that best take our interest, The one movie that really grabbed attention was 'The Stepfather''s opening scene. We took the idea of having a psycho killer on the run but who seems to be an ordinary man on the outside. We also really liked the idea of having him comfortable to the unpleasant surroundings that the audience are able to see.

Advantages of the Idea

This is very conventional to a thriller opening as it follows many different theories hat most popular thrillers follow. I think our idea is very interesting an will be successful as we considered some of the feedback we got from our research such as our questionnaires. We've included typical thriller themes and popular sub-genres that most people want to see which is why I believe that this idea will be very successful. I believe that because our thriller opening has such little dialogue, casting characters wont be so difficult as there wont be any lines to remember.

Problems that may occur and how you plan to overcome them

Problems that we may face when planning and filming our thriller opening is that the camera shots that we've considered may be hard to achieve. As a group with little camera experience, I admit that it'll be challenging to achieve fantastic camera shots that we want to use to portray our thriller. 

Why is the opening conventional to a thriller?

Our thriller opening is conventional as it follows theories that some of the most popular films also follow such as 'The Dark Knight'. We've also decided to go with conventional thriller elements such as the gloomy and rainy start we have of the antagonist walking through the graveyard. We also have the antagonist dress in black to portray his evil intentions furthermore according to my data, most people enjoy or like when they villain wears a suit rather than a costume or some other sort.

What themes does your thriller present?

The themes that are portrayed in our thriller are:

• Vengeance - Although not much is showed in our thriller opening which is actually more effective making the audience wanting to know more, the unknown figure is what presents vengeance suggesting that it has unfinished business with this man.
• Violence/ Murder/ Death - The narrative clearly portrays that violence is a theme that runs constantly throughout the opening. There are also dead bodies and a barely conscious victim to show this.