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.

Thriller Research // Essex Boys Opening Shot Analysis

Essex Boys Opening Analysis by LarsosMedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ05xM4bhB0 (0:00-5:46)

Go Watch // Quadrophenia

"Mod is youth subculture of the early to mid-1960s, Focused on fashion and music. The subculture has its roots in a small group of London-based stylish young men in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz."

Quadrophenia By Franc Roddam, is a highly influential youth drama film following the highly notorious mods and rockers subculture of the 1960s. Produced and scored by classic mod-affiliated rock band the who, the film follows Jimmy, a mod living in 1965 London, who by day works as a mail-boy at a publishers and at night parties and drops pills with his friends all members of a mod gang, united by a taste in suits and R&B. The film not only works as a hedonistic, portrait of one of the most celebrated subcultures in the world, but also as a commentary of youth identity and materialism. There are many iconic moments within the film from the infamous "We Are The Mods!" scene to the ending upon the white cliffs, this film is exemplary of how to make a high quality youth drama, a film I believe anyone who has ever been or still is a teenager should watch.

Thriller Research // No Country For Old Men (2007)





"In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart. - --IMDB user Kenneth Chisholm

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Written and directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Starring: Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin