Thriller Research // Representation of Suburbia In Hollywood Film

"this is my neighbourhood, this is my street, this is my life"

Suburbia and the associated culture of superficiality, consumerism and ennui it is intrinsically linked to is a common feature of post-modern cultural criticism, and this extends and features extensively in film, especially those made by and about members of the post war, post baby boomer generation of the eighties and nineties, also known as generation X. Though there are many films dealing directly with these themes of angst and existentialism, many films link back heavily to these films using techniques and images such as lines and lines of identical uniform houses, bright colour filters, connoting hyper-reality and superficiality ,and stereotypes of nuclear families, pristine homes and bored consumers buying and smiling their ways through mid life crisis.

Thriller Research // Stereotypes In Jackie Brown

'Jackie Brown' (1997) is a crime thriller directed by Quentin Tarantino and Within its 154 minutes, many thriller conventions and stereotypes are referenced and subverted, particularly in relation to stereotypes of women, criminals and African Americans within Thrillers and within society. Tarantino, known for his referential style and wit, plays with and satirises many of the hallmarks of the films from genres as diverse as Film Noirs to Westerns, weaving a diverse tapestry of inter-textuality and film history. Jackie Brown is perhaps one of the best examples of Tarantino's directing at its most referential, calling back heavily to the Blaxploitation film movement of the 1970s, with its primarily black cast and funk and soul soundtrack. A diverse range of narrative and visual techniques are used to reference a wide range of conventions within the genre and film history.

Thriller Planning // Characters

With such a short time limit available to produce the piece, there was unfortunately little or no room for characterisation and back story, as attempting to flesh out the characters would distract too much from the action and leave little time for other more thrilling aspects of the piece. Also, the limited pool for acting talent restricted our options at more emotionally intense scenes. These factors limited the piece to characters who had to be immediate and simple, which was unfortunate. This made it harder for to write interesting, engaging, and unclichéd characters to set the piece apart. To counter this, we had to think about character types that were by definition, different and engaging, rather than building upon other ones, something we're not able to do. 3 character types were developed in mind of these guidelines, with many possible ideas being discussed.

The Photographer/Voyeur-Grace Weiss(Witness):

• Called Grace in reference to Grace Kelly in 'Rear Window' (1954) who plays a similar, innocent witness character. and also peaceful, calm nature of the name. Surname Weiss in reference to white, the colour of purity and innocence.
• Innocent and unknowing? stumbles upon murder accidentally, doesn't want to get involved in incident but is drawn in.
• male or female, unimportant, but vulnerable to female character, so must have feminine qualities. could be male to challenge stereotypes (man weaker than woman) but female should be used, as harder to present man as feminine to audience.
• has quality photographers equipment, devoted to photography, skilled in photography but less so in other things.
• less carefully dressed, more vulnerable and weak.
• can see the murder happening and want to pry into it, cause own fate by staying and attracting attention.
• Accidentally photographs/witnesses murder like Thomas in Blow up or Jeffries in Rear window.
• Teenage, similar age to target audience, relatable.
•  Protagonist, easy for audience to relate with and fear for character.

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.