The document summarizes the creative choices made in developing an opening scene for a student thriller film project. Locations, characters, costumes, sound design, lighting, and narrative elements are discussed. The opening scene is set in an underpass and introduces the main characters - Sam, a homeless man, and Norma, the eventual killer. Creative decisions are influenced by references to other thriller films to help establish genre conventions and create suspense.

1. Homeless
Our thriller could be described as gritty and contemporary due to the use of
modern locations (e.g. the underpass, featuring graffiti), characters and
costumes (which kept with the style of contemporary fashion). Although, we
attempted to include generic aspects of Noir thrillers by creating shadows,
inspired by ‘The Third Man’.
The opening of our thriller demonstrated conventions by establishing the
theme. Our theme was immediately recognised with the opening shot of
‘Sam’, our homeless character, and then ‘Norma’, our killer, crossing out
pictures of her victims – confirming the hate crime.

2. LOCATIONS
We chose to open our thriller with ‘Sam’, our homeless man, sitting in the underpass. This allows
us to represent the generic convention of a gritty and unglamorous area. Furthermore, we were
influenced by the tunnel scene from the opening of ‘Essex boys’ and wanted to create a similar
vanishing point effect, allowing us to connote detachment from ‘Sam’ and the rest of society as
well as claustrophobia. Additionally the unappealing and gritty location also adds to the
entrapment felt by ‘Sam’ in the location, as well his position in society. The use of the underpass
also establishes an inter-textual reference to ‘A Clockwork Orange’, where a homeless man is
attacked.

3. CHARACTER AND COSTUME
Razzaq played Sam, the homeless man who’s the victim in the attack. Razzaq, who at
the time of shooting had recently moved from Malaysia, was helpful in portraying the
character of Sam's vulnerability as he himself was new to Norwich.
We chose the name ‘Sam’ as it’s an average, everyday name that’s not specific to a
gender. This implies that his circumstances could happen to anyone, creating a sense
of fear and concern. Furthermore, we kept his costume basic including a white T-shirt,
jeans and a green parka jacket. The earthy colour of the jacket gives connotations to
the outside as well as enhancing the stereotype of our homeless character.

4. CHARACTER AND COSTUME
Mollie played Norma, our killer. We chose the name Norma as an inter-textual reference to
Norma Bates, the mother of Norman from ‘Psycho’ and ‘Bates Motel’. The character of Norma in
the above films is portrayed as psychotic and controlling, aiding the profile of our killer. In our
opening, it is unclear what Norma’s motive is creating a tense and uneasy atmosphere, as well as
her unusual name suggesting that her violent act is unexpected. Though ‘Norma’ in our opening
isn’t wholly a 1940’s ‘femme fetale’, we tried to develop the role through the deviance and
danger created by her. By having a female killer and a male victim, we also hoped to challenge
conventions of male dominance – however, we made this seem more realistic by having our
male character already in a vulnerable state.
We chose a dark and masculine costume for ‘Norma’ in order
to make her appear threatening and strong. Furthermore, the
leather jacket draws a threatening feel as the material is cold
and hard. This aided our attempt at challenging the generic
conventions of thrillers by having our killer be female, as only a
small percentage of killers in Thrillers are. The character of Norma wore red nail varnish and
lipstick to explore danger and deviance as the colour ‘red’ is associated with these themes. As
well as this, red, being the colour of blood, could be foreshadowing the later deathly events of
our opening.

5. SOUNDTRACK
We chose a suspenseful soundtrack to play over the entirety of our thriller to
reinforce the genre. We also featured both diegetic and non-diegetic sound to
add realism to our production. In first shot of the homeless character in the
underpass, the diegetic sound adds realism as well as creates an urban, fast
paced atmosphere due to the hustle and bustle of the city centre. The
overlapping of this and the soundtrack also creates a claustrophobic feel, with
no silent escape. For the murder scene, we used the non-diegetic sound to
make the shot appear authentic and create a stronger impact with the harder
sounding hit of the brick.
Whilst building slowly, our soundtrack had sharp piercing which we
strategically placed over shots of high tension in order to create a thrilling
atmosphere.

6. TRANSITIONS
We frequently used ‘dip to black’ in short use to create a smoother transition
from shot to shot as well as quicken the pace, as well as lengthened out to
create ellipsis and build suspense. The ellipsis allowed us to first of all: keep
our opening short and cut out irrelevant shots, as well as create a sense of
unknowing and confusion.
We also used dip to black when the character of Sam began to close his eyes,
placing the audience in his position, allowing them to empathise with him
and retain their attention as they wanted to know what would happen to him.

7. LIGHTING
In our thriller we attempted to create a binary opposition of light and dark
demonstrating the change of day to night, in order to show the passing of time.
Furthermore, we tried to create chiaroscuro lighting by using the torch on our
mobile phones, in order to inter-textually reference the iconic ‘Third Man’.
NARRATIVE
We wanted to create a narrative which was realistic as well as referencing other
thrillers. Therefore, a hate-crime against the homeless was a plot which is both
present in society today as well as featuring in thrillers such as ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ and ‘American Pyscho’ (in which a homeless person gets stabbed by
Patrick Bateman).
PROPS
Our murder weapon is heavily influenced by the murder scene in ‘Heavenly
Creatures’, where Pauline and Juliet kill Pauline’s mother with a brick in a
stocking. This inter-textual reference also connotes psychotic tendencies through
the obsessive personalities of the girls.