Thriller Planning // Mise-en-Scene

Thriller Planning // Sound Design + Soundtrack

The soundtrack is one of the most important aspects of an effective thriller, whether it be a gritty modern thriller or a classic film noir, a soundtrack (or lack thereof) is incredibly important in setting the right tone and getting the audience's blood pumping. A well made and well matched soundtrack can make a sequence much more exciting or tense, but if the sound is lacking, the film can just be made to look amateurish and cheap. When planning this aspect of the film, as with any other part of it, I felt it important to first evaluate the resources available to me, and then develop my ideas around that. I could only use a soundtrack without copyright, which meant using a piece that was either original, from a copyright free sit, or from before 1956. I felt that this was extremely limiting in terms of sound design, as many soundtracks would likely clash with the gritty tone of the film, clash with on-screen action or be too recognisable (many productions use free, creative commons tracks).

Thriller Planning // Plot + Narrative

The plot is the rigid backbone to any piece. Without solid narrative development, no matter how good your Cinematography, acting etc. is, you will be unable to make a cohesive or interesting text, and therefore anything of any quality. For this reason, there was much deliberation over the plot of our thriller, with many revisions and changes before settling on a final idea. The initial idea was a simple pursuit sequence set in a wide open space such as a marsh or field, inspired by No country For Old Men, with a psychopathic murderer chasing down and executing a helpless victim. The idea of this was to provide a simple basis on which to build up the other aspects of our thriller, such as cinematography and editing, which would have worked but it was felt that the idea was too simplistic and defied justification, logic and any hooks or cliffhangers for the audiences interest.

Thriller Planning // Locations

Based on Earlier planning and discussions it was decided that our piece would use a wide open space as the primary location. Most thrillers, particularly modern ones, fall back on the genre convention of urban, claustrophobic spaces and this was a cliché I felt particularly mindful of avoiding, largely due to a shortage of gritty, urban and reasonably empty areas within Norwich, which is not particularly urbanised. For that reason I began to think about more rural locations which could be used. This location type was chosen because it was reflective of the moral vacuum of the characters as well as carrying connotations of exposure and isolation, something used to effect in the opening sequence of Essex Boys, but especially in No Country For Old Men. In addition, it would be a fairly practical location type to shoot in as it is usually comparatively empty. Fortunately, I live within reasonable distance of several open areas, such as parks and fields, that could be shot in. I scouted several locations and evaluated them for their appropriation to the task, the level of traffic and ease of reach. PowerPoint compiling and evaluating possible locations after the jump.