Ideas for Hurtwood House Media course classwork. Developing a Thriller sequence.

1. Ideas for an Opening Sequence
By Elena Escalante

2. 1st
Idea
Inspiration:
•“The Third Man” (1949) last scene.
•“The Elephant Man” (1980) fair sequences.
•“Leon. The Professional” (1994) characters and
action scenes.

3. 1st
Idea
Plot of the Opening Sequence:
Two couples enter a cabin in a ferris wheel. The
man from one of them is an assassin who kills the
other two due to a disagreement with the mafia. The
contrast between the four people entering the cabin
and the two leaving must be emphasised. The ferris
wheel keeps turning as if nothing had happened.

4. 1st
Idea
Plot of the whole Thriller:
An assassin is hired by the mafia to kill a drug
dealer who has been causing trouble. From that
moment on, he has signed a contract and ends up
getting involved in too many problems. He tries to
scape from the spiral in which he is in with the help
of his wife and, after a massive fight in a club, they
manage to escape.

5. 1st
Idea
Pros
•Beautiful
aesthetic
•Visually
descriptive and
innovative
•Effective in
building tension
Cons
•Difficult to film
•Setting requirements
•Technical and time
problems
•The idea itself is only
attractive if carried out
in specific conditions

6. 2nd
Idea
Inspiration:
•Escape games
•Opening sequences from previous years
•TV shows with risky, extreme situations

7. 2nd
Idea
Plot of the Opening Sequence:
Five people are trapped in a room and someone has
told each one of them in secret, as if they should not
inform the others because they are the only ones to
know, that there is a bomb in the room. They try to
sort out the situation in different ways. Finally,
someone shouts that there isn’t any bomb. The rest
look at him/her in astonishment.

8. 2nd
Idea
Plot of the whole Thriller:
A science experiment is carried out by the government
to understand human behaviour in a situation of
emergency. One of the participants knows too much,
and a chase starts to take place in order to find out
his/her secret. Espionage thriller with touches of sci-fi.

9. 3rd
Idea
Inspiration:
•Comedies like “Some Like It Hot”(1959).
•The surrealism that Fellini suggests.
•Psycho (1960). Norman Bates as a character, in a
different context.

10. 3rd
Idea
Plot of the Opening Sequence:
A psychopath is alone in the woods, yelling that he
doesn’t know where he left his corpse. A policeman,
alerted by his screams, comes round and tries to make
him reason and finally drag him into a mental hospital,
until he finds a surprise under some leaves: there is
actually a corpse there.

11. 3rd
Idea
Plot of the whole Thriller:
A psycho has committed a murder and returns to
the scene of the crime due to a feeling of
remorse. A policeman finds out. The rest of the
film would be the reconstruction of the life of the
psycho through flashbacks.

12. 4th
Idea
Inspiration:
•“Taxi Driver” (1976)
•“Sweeney Todd” (2006)

13. 4th
Idea
Plot for the Opening Sequence:
Two killers who have just committed a crime enter a
taxi, after leaving a suspicious bag in the trunk. They
talk about their crime trying to be discreet. In the end of
the journey, the taxi driver turns and blackmails them,
insisting on the fact that he also wants to keep the
corpse.

14. 4t h
I dea
Pl ot of t he whol e Thr i l l er :
A t axi dr i ver i s obsessed wi t h
t axi der my —even human—. He f i nds hi s
oppor t uni t y t o cont i nue wi t h hi s
par t i cul ar hobby when t wo ki l l er s
r i de hi s t axi . Out r aged because of
t hei r l oss of money, t hey t r y t o put
t he t axi dr i ver i n j ai l cover i ng
t hemsel ves t hr ough di f f er ent
per sonal i t i es.