This document summarizes the creative choices made in developing the opening of a student thriller film project. It describes the characters, location, transitions, and props used and how they reference conventions of the thriller genre. The murderer Lizzie is portrayed as a strong female character in dark masculine clothing, while the victim Fred is in dark clothing to imply questionable character. The isolated marshland location was chosen for its bleak atmosphere. Transitions like "dip to black" build tension. Props like the knife and plastic sheeting make the murder seem planned. The opening establishes characters and tension to hook the audience, as is typical of the thriller genre.

1. FLASHPOINT
Our thriller could be described as a contemporary, gritty thriller
due to the modernistic style of characters, costume and props.
However, we also pay homage to other sub-genres within our
opening such as the noir genre, in particular reference to the
use of shadows in noir thrillers, such as Double Indemnity. We
included a shadow of the murderer crossing the victim's face
just after he has been murdered.
Also, due to the cold, picturesque landscape that we chose to
shoot in and the often blue, muted tint of the shots, the thriller
makes reference to contemporary Scandinavian thrillers such
as The Bridge and The Killing.

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our choice of characters were heavily influenced by our knowledge of and research into other
thriller texts. We chose our characters and their names because of the following reasons:
(taken from planning presentation)

3. LIZZIE, THE MURDERER:
Because of the unusual nature of having a female psychopath within our thriller opening, we
needed to conform to other stereotypes of killers to keep the character believable, having
already subverted a very common stereotype. This resulted in finding an actor with dark hair and
who was tall, to give this character more masculine features: keeping the murder realistic. Also,
we chose to put this character in an all black costume which connotes mystery and darkness of
morality. The costume chosen was black boots, black jeans, a black t-shirt and a black bomber
jacket. Not only are these masculine items of clothing but also practical, which could suggest a
calm, calculating killer.
The character of Lizzie wore red nail varnish,
as can be seen in the shot, to explore the
idea of deviance and also danger, as this is
what the colour red is often associated with.
Red is also associated with lust, and because
we don't know the motive of the murder, we
could perhaps guess that Lizzie and Fred
could have been in a sexual relationship.
The character of Lizzie came mainly from other dominant female characters in other thriller
films such as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Barbara Stanwyck's
character in Double Indemnity. Using a strong female lead in our thriller was important to us
because we wanted to subvert the generic stereotype that women are the weaker gender,
which is commonly used across all varieties of media texts. There is also a type of binary
opposition created between the characters of Lizzie and Grace e.g. good vs. bad or victim vs.
predator.

4. FRED, THE VICTIM:
Because the character of Fred features very little in the opening to out thriller before he dies, we
needed to establish certain ideas about him immediately.
Despite Fred's role as a victim, we chose his costume of dark clothing to suggest that although he
has been murdered, we question his 'goodness' of character. This makes the murder more
believable because we could be led to think that he has done something wrong, rather than him
being murdered due to a random killing.
We needed to chose an actor that
wasn't taller or appeared much
stronger than the killer, to make the
action feasible This resulted in us
choosing Joe to play Fred as he was
slightly smaller than Lizzie and of a
similar build.

5. LOCATION: MARSTON MARSHES, NORWICH
We decided on Marston Marshes because of its picturesque
setting, which creates a stark contrast to the violence of
what happens in our thriller. Also, the isolation and openness
of the space creates vulnerability for the witness character.
This type of bleak, featureless landscape is a reference to
similar landscapes used in the beginning of Essex Boys and
throughout No Country For Old Men.
Because of its isolated setting, there were few people, cars or background noise which eased
shooting. Also, there was a good mixture of wide, open primeval space and more confined spots
within the woods that connote claustrophobia and entrapment.
When shooting the establishing shots of
the landscape, it was very frosty and
misty, as can be seen in the picture
above. This idea of 'coldness' could
symbolise the coldness of Lizzie's
character – possibly in relation to her
psychopathy.

6. Transitions
Straight cut
Dip to black
Within our thriller, we frequently
used a dip to black transition
combined with pauses of black
screens. The dip to black followed by
a pause could appear as someone
blinking, literally over the footage.
This reinforces the idea of a 'witness',
as someone is viewing the action.
Also, it places the audience in
association with the witness
character as they are also a witness
to the scene. This was beneficial for
us because we wanted the audience
to identify and empathise with the
witness character, which retained
their interest as they wanted to know
the fate of that character.
The use of these ellipses, although
the audience can guess what is
happening, also created a sense of
confusion, building up tension and
the audience's interest as they want
to find out what will happen.
In addition to our use of the
dip to black transition, we
used a number of straight
cuts. We used these to keep
up the pace of our thriller
opening, to stop it becoming
too slow, reducing the
tension. The straight cuts
were effective in the cross-
cutting between the two
seperate scenes, as we
needed to build up speed
here.
These were the only two
transitions that we used
because we wanted to keep
the scene concise, without
breaking it up too much.
With a longer opening, there
would have been time for
experimenting with more
transitions.

7. Props
Knife
Camera
A very important aspect of our
witness was that they were a
photographer by way of a
hobby. This explains why they
are in the location of the
murder, as they are out in this
landscape taking photographs.
We chose to use a sophisticated,
professional looking camera to
highlight the witness' interest in
photography and to make the
storyline more believable.
The knife prop is only used in
one of our shots, where
Lizzie is standing over Fred,
after she has killed him. We
chose a medium sized
hunting type knife, to make
the murder look planned. A
hunting knife is a more
serious looking knife, and
better suited for a murder.
Weapons, such as knives are
a convention of the thriller
genre. An example can be
seen in Witness, where the
police officer's throat is cut
with a knife.
Tarpaulin/plastic sheeting
To cover up the body of Fred, Lizzie uses a grey plastic sheet, to wrap
his body in. He is dragged onto it and then covered. Like the knife, this
makes Lizzie look more calm and calculating, as she has planned this
murder beforehand. This prop was also important as Grace has to
unwrap this sheeting to discover Fred's body. The plastic sheeting can
also be seen in the TV series Twin Peaks, where Laura Palmer's body is
found in plastic on the beach.

8. Conventions of a thriller
OPENING
Building up tension/
cliffhanger
Titles
All openings to a film need
titles including the name of
the film, and accredited
actors and directors at the
very least. We included these
within our opening, over less
important shots as we didn't
want to take away from the
action.
The build up of tension was
aided by our choice of
soundtrack, as this faded up
surrounding the action at the
beginning when Fred is being
murdered and also at the
cliffhanger when Grace is
discovered and therefore in
danger. A cliffhanger is a vital
convention of the thriller genre,
as it leaves the audience
wanting to watch the rest of the
film.
Establishing
Within the opening to our thriller, we included some establishing shots
of the landscape to set the scene and also introduced the actors.
We also sought to establish characters' personality briefly in the
opening, for example this low angle shot of Lizzie shows her strength
and dominance, a key piece in our thriller.

9. Conventions of a thriller
OPENING
Building up tension/
cliffhanger
Titles
All openings to a film need
titles including the name of
the film, and accredited
actors and directors at the
very least. We included these
within our opening, over less
important shots as we didn't
want to take away from the
action.
The build up of tension was
aided by our choice of
soundtrack, as this faded up
surrounding the action at the
beginning when Fred is being
murdered and also at the
cliffhanger when Grace is
discovered and therefore in
danger. A cliffhanger is a vital
convention of the thriller genre,
as it leaves the audience
wanting to watch the rest of the
film.
Establishing
Within the opening to our thriller, we included some establishing shots
of the landscape to set the scene and also introduced the actors.
We also sought to establish characters' personality briefly in the
opening, for example this low angle shot of Lizzie shows her strength
and dominance, a key piece in our thriller.