Thriller Films

Examples of Thriller Films:

The Great Escape - A large group of POW’s plan an escape from a German camp in World War II.

The Silence of the Lambs - An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, in order to gain Lector’s assistance in the hunt for another serial killer.

North By Northwest - Mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies, an advertising agent travels cross-country trying to survive.

Crime Thriller

Crime Thriller film is a sub-genre that incorporates the suspenseful aspects of a thriller with a crime film plot. This sub-genre's plot usually centres on a serial killer, murderer, robbery, or manhunt. As opposed to traditional crime films, the storyline focuses both around the criminal and the protagonist. Crime Thrillers use both action and psychological aspects to build tension and suspense.

 Psychological Thriller

In addition to the traits of a regular Thriller, a Psychological Thriller incorporates elements of drama and mystery film. The suspense in this sub-genre comes from the mind, rather than from a psychical threat. The protagonists in Psychological Thrillers must rely on their mental resources to solve the situation. Because of their nature, many Psychological Thrillers cross over into the Horror genre.

Examples: Memento, Rear Window, Taxi Driver.

http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/thriller

Moodboard

Mood Board - Joe Sheldon

Psychological thriller and horror research

Psychological thrillers:

A psychological thriller is a story that emphasises the abnormal psychological state of its characters. It is a sub-genre of the broader thriller genre. Psychological thrillers often incorporate other genres such as; mystery, drama, action, slasher and horror. 
Psychological thrillers often contain a plot twist. 'Psycho' directed by Alfred Hitchcock contain a plot twist. These are used to completely shock the audience. Another psychological film that does this is 'The skeleton key' but a bad plot twist can completely ruin the film, for example 'The Village' did terrible and suffered at the box office and this was all because of their predictable and cliché plot twist. Some consistent themes of the new psychological thrillers are; reality, perception, mind, existence, identity, death. Characters often battle their own minds. A example would be 'Memento' directed by Christopher Nolan.

In memento, Leonard is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife however, he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can remember what happened before his accident he cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going or why. Leonard uses Polaroid's and tattoos to keep track of important information.

Another example of a psychological thriller is 'The Stanford Prison Experiment'
The plot tells the story of the Stanford prison experiment in which students play the role of a prisoner or a prison guard conducted at Stanford University under supervision of psychology professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971. This experiment last for 14 days and mocks a prison environment to try and get the participants to act in their roles. During the film, the student who are the guards become abusive and violent - hitting the prisoners even when they've been ordered not to.


Horror:
The horror genre's goal is the get a negative emotional reaction from its viewers. In order to do this, they play on the viewer fears.They deal with the situations that the viewers themselves would not want to be in as well as the fear of the unknown - evil forces, extraterrestrials, demons, killers, ghosts, zombies, cannibals, vicious animals, gore and torture. Horror films have existed for more than a century and are normally inspired by literature, some examples of horror writers are; Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly. 

An example of a horror film is Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Despite there being many different adaptations (both old and modern) they all follow the plot line. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who is obsessed with having control over life and death, he sews body parts together, creating a monster which then comes to life. The monster escapes from the laboratory and disappears until hes found in the Swiss alps. He was rejected by society because of his inhumane features. Eventually the monster kills Frankenstein best friend and Frankenstein seeks revenge but fails as his creation drifts away.

A more modern example of horror films is 'The Blair Witch Project' directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. The film shows video footage found from three film students who go to a small town to document the famous local murder. Over several days, they gather clues which lead them to the woods.It takes a turn hen they get lost and begin hearing horrific noises and they capture it all on tape.

This film focuses on the scenarios that the viewers would not want to be in and this is what creates the horror. Compared to Frankenstein, its much more modern and appealing to audiences while Frankenstein is based off of a Gothic horror novel. 

Genre Research

Drama/Thriller/Action

Drama - an exciting, emotional, or unexpected event or circumstance

Thriller - film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.

Action - exciting or notable activity

 Panic Room (2002) Crime, Drama, Thriller

     Recently divorced Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah have bought a new home in New York. On their tour around the mansion, they come across the panic room. A room so secure, that no one can get in. When three burglars break in, Meg makes a move to the panic room. But all her troubles don't stop there. The criminals know where she is, and what they require the most in the house is in that very room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would You Rather (2012) Thriller, Horror

      A young woman, desperate to help her sickly brother, accepts a dinner invitation to what seems to be easy money. As soon as she arrives to dinner, she realizes that playing the "game" is deadly for its losers. She and several others spend the night being terrorized in a game of would you rather?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken (2008) Action, Thriller

     Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. When his daughter and her friend arrives in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend.

Group Film Idea Change

At this point, the group idea was changed from a sport drama to a psychological thriller.

Mood Board

Mood Board

Sport Drama Titles

Sport Drama titles are a demonstration of the seriousness of the sport. They show the determination, competitiveness, the focus and the strength of those fighting to win. Many Sport Drama films are displayed in this way to show, those who would consider buying the film, how much this competition means to them and therefore makes the main characters likeable because they drive the audience to want it as much as they do. The main character or characters are shown to be the biggest on the covers to show the focus of the film is on them.

Music and Sound in Sport Films

In sport films, there are, typically, similar sounds and music used across all of them. Examples include the build up to the big event, during the title of the films, the big event(especially in at the critical stage), end of the game, when a prize is given and the celebrations. I have a number of clips in which each number below is a brief description of the clips in chronological order.

1.  This iconic music from Rocky is a very well-known song in which he trains and builds up to be bigger and stronger than ever before!
2.  The next piece of music is called Vangelis, also an iconic song from the film Chariot of fire which is a very commonly known song but was used for the theme tune of this particular film.
3. The third clip is a scene from Youngblood which demonstrates sheer drive and competitiveness as players begin to player very aggressively due to them wanting to win so much, the song in this is called stand in the fire.
4. This fourth scene is a demonstration of sounds and music. The sound in the background is diluted and therefore, softer than what the actual sound would have been. This shows pressure in the game and emphasises the importance of this particular shot. After they win, there is a break out of positive music to bring a buzz to the film. This will engage the viewer to feel good just like the players on the winning team.
5. The fifth clip from When the Game Stands Tall has music edited in a way that the viewer feels the adrenaline that the rest of the team feels and makes the film more immersive.
6. The sixth clip is from Game Plan. Dwayne Johnson had finally accepted both Ballet and American football all for his daughter. They both show progression in their relationship and proves to drive their game to be stronger. The song Mr. Blue Sky brings a positive vibe to this scene.
7. The final clip is from Karate Kid and brings both the adrenaline of the big occasion as well as the 'never say never' inspiration to the scene to demonstrate how far he has come and how he cannot throw it away after all his hard work. At the end, the sound of the screaming and shouting crowd show a clear sign of accomplishment.

Types of settings/locations in Sport drama films

In sport drama films, there are several settings and locations that would typically be involved within these films.

 A Place Where The Main Character Would Train-

This setting/location would usually be at the start or middle of the film where the main character trains for their big moment towards the end. This usually consists of a quick-fire montage of clips that show progress and results of the character.


 The Team Dressing Room-

This is the place where the main place where the main characters and their team would prepare for the game and get into the mindset to win the game. This is a vital scene where it shows the true personality of the players leading to the must-win game.





The Big Venue-

This is the location where the team needs to perform and is the time, all of them and the fans have been waiting for. The place where their life can change forever on this big, televised stage.

The Press Confidence-

This particular setting is the place where the sportsman can create a fan base off the pitch, where the media can ask questions to be published in newspapers, online articles, television and social medias.






Team Bus-

The journey to the big venue starts here, this can be demonstrated to be a long time period regardless of the distance they go. This is because the trip can feel long as it can show to nervousness of the big event and also emphasise the mindset of the team.

Iconography in Sports Drama

Iconography is when a film's genre can be recognised based on the appearence of an image from the film or anything representing it such as a logo or props.

A Sport- A sport based film cannot be what it is without a sport being shown, it instantly portrays that the film is sport based if it contains anything to do with it. Examples may include any iconic figures in sport or sport equipment such as a baseball bat or a football.


A Big event- Usually in a Sport film there is that one big moment in which the main character wants to step up and prove himself/herself. This creates a big story line in which the main character leads up to this very significant moment that means so much to them and would only mean better things from that point.

Success and Failure- In a sport film, there is always both success, and failure in which some characters are on the side of failure in which viewers would normally feel sympathetic for (unless they are demonstrated to be negative characters.) Success in sport dramas usually takes place at the end of films as the rest of the film demonstrates their journey getting there.

Money- Sport makes huge money nowadays and the biggest stars have the biggest endorsements with the best lifestyles




Nice Cars- The biggest stars in the game love to demonstrate their wealth and status with amazingly nice cars, films use this to, sometimes, demonstrate the importance of a certain character.


The Sport Fans-  The fans in sport films demonstrate events as important and portray to audiences watching the film, the pressure the character has on them, knowing they have to do their very best in front of all these people.








The big stake- In a sport film, there is usually something that the teams want desperately, whether this is promotion, winning a trophy or for pride, this is usually the biggest thing on the character's mind.

Jake Lawson - Film Continuity

Film Continuity is how consistent and how well a film flows between cuts and transitions between scenes. The following techniques allow for scenes to have good continuity and is key to contructing a successful film.

The 180 Degree Line of action is line of guidance that the positioning of cameras follow. This usually is used after an establishing shot when a conversation between two or more characters begins. The idea of the line is to prevent the audience being confused of the positioning of characters and objects so as a result, in the film, they remain in the same position throughout the scene. In some cases, scenes are deliberately positioned so that characters are next to a wall or an object that would obstruct cameramen if they were to switch their camera positioning, therefore making it impossible/very difficult to break the 180 degree rule.

Match on action is the cutting of clips whilst an action is being performed. This technique is to make a film flow more smoothly and can make the action more clear in the film. An example of a match on action would be a person walking to a bench and sitting down on it. The cuts would occur mid-way through the person walking closer to the bench, followed by another mid-way through sitting down and switching to a different angles each time. This allows a cut to be less noticeable by the audience. The only problem may be that if the clips switch angles too quick or the clips are not long enough between switching of angles, the film can appear jumpy and can ruin the flow of that specific scene.

Shot Reverse Shot is a filming technique used in conversation. This involves the switching of filming from people's perspective looking over to the person who is talking, this is usually done by placing the camera over one shoulder of the person who is being spoken to. The reason this is done is to show emphasis on emotion through facial expressions of the person speaking. It is called "reverse" because the camera then switches over to the shoulder of the person who was originally speaking, to show the reaction and response of the person who was originally being spoken to. This is used to clearly show who is speaking at what time and also helps cover up continuity issues the scene may have.

Preliminary Film Idea- Jake Lawson

Genre- Sport

Following those famous footsteps

Main character background- Theo Donovan, from a young child, has always wanted to be a professional footballer. He has, from a young age, has shown his unique ability and passion for the game and wants to follow the footsteps of his grandfather Sir John Donovan, who scored over 250 Goals for club and country with Manchester United and England.

Plot- As a young child, he had trails at several professional football teams, with no luck, didn't achieve success despite his outstanding displays at Sunday League level. He has always played alongside his best friend, Joshua Murdock, who also wanted to achieve his ambitions to have a professional career in football. As he gets older football starts to distract him from school and he begins to lose his relationship with his father. By the time he is a teen, his father splits up with his mother, who was left to support Theo as well as his ageing grandfather. This is an emphasised moment of Theo's life in which he suffers greatly from but only makes him stronger as a person. A stroke of luck finally hits Theo and Joshua, they both are given the chance to attend English trails to later get offered a contract at Manchester United, where they have always dreamed to be. Being together as well as following those famous footsteps of his Grandfather made it very special. But suddenly, playing at a professional level of football, brings out the competitive side of Theo and Joshua, who now contest to make the starting 11 of the team. Joshua successfully breaks into the first team, leaving Theo behind. Manchester United felt that the best option for Theo was for him to be transferred elsewhere to fulfil his potential as a footballer. He transfers to the newly promoted side Sheffield Wednesday but struggles to settle into the side as he feels he is too good for the club after being at the Premier League giants in Manchester United. He later begins to appreciate the sheer quality that surrounds him and allows him to grow as a player more than he ever did at Manchester United. After months of heart, soul and determination, Theo and Sheffield Wednesday reach the FA Cup final. He meets back with Manchester United and his lost friend Joshua to score the last minute winner to lift Sheffield Wednesday's first trophy in years. This teaches his lost friend Joshua how much he underappreciated Theo as a person and player. At the end, Theo lifts the cup to bring emotional scenes to fans faces for him to now be the new famous footsteps in football.

First two minutes- Starts off with Theo playing as a young child in Sunday league. At this point, he is already attracted the attention of professional clubs. He scores many goals, demonstrated through quick transitions of clips to show time is progressing like his ability in the game. He gets approached by a scout telling him how his ability in the game is ecstatic and he would offer him a chance to play for Everton academy. He attends his first trail to go on to not get into the academy as he crumbles under the pressure. Theo is heart broken as he doesn't take his opportunity to play at such a good football team. A transition takes Theo to him crying in his room. He nearly quits football but his grandfather walks in to talk to him to convince him to carry on, after explaining how he had these minor setbacks but look where it put him.

Camerawork/Cinematography in Sport Drama Films

Cinematography-The art of making motion Pictures.
Camerawork- The way a camera is used in a movie or television program

• A low angle shot is a shot where the camera is positioned underneath the eye line of a character to face upwards. This way, the character is being displayed as powerful or superior. In this case, the lower angle shot shows the horses to be strong and powerful.

• An Extreme long shot is a very far away shot that usually establishes a scene or sets a scene. This is usually a film of an exterior such as buildings or in this photo, a large boulder with a climber on top. This specific photo establishes achievement as the camerawork demonstrates the size of the boulder in ratio to the size of the person.
  
   

• A high angle shot is where the camera is positioned above eyeline and looks down on something or someone to demonstrate little power or venerability. This specific photo clearly demonstrates that the hoop is more superior, compared to the children looking at it from down below. This is because the hoop appears to be tall in a way that the children wont be able to reach it no matter how much they try.
  

• An over the shoulder shot in films are a shot over the shoulder of someone or something to look from the perspective of the person, who's shoulder the camera is looking from. This is usually to then face a person opposite to them to emphasise facial expression and emotion.
  

• A close up shot is a zoom-in or tight framing of a person or object. This is usually to show emphasis on the facial expressions or specific detail that the viewers will notice. In this shot, the woman is getting ready to set off in a sprint, this shot demonstrates her nervousness but more noticeable her concentration.
  

Preliminary Exercise

Ashleigh Lovitt - Film Continuity

The 180 Degree (line of action):
This rule is a basic guideline when filming between multiple characters or an object in a scene. There is a hypothetical line, and the camera has to be on one side of this line and cannot change its position on the line.

Match on action:
This is an editing technique for continuity editing. This is where one shot follows on from another shot and it carries on- creating an image of continuity. The two different shots are matched up.

Shot reverse shot:
This is also an editing technique that is mainly used in conversations where characters are talking to each other. Using a 'point of view' shot or a 'over the shoulder shot' is a way of doing this. The camera looks over the shoulder of one character while the opposing one is talking, then it is followed by the other character doing the same

Techniques to retain continuity in editing - Joe Sheldon

Techniques to retain continuity in editing - Joe Sheldon

Film makers use a variety of techniques to keep continuity in their films. Any abrupt change in audio or visuals is breaking technical continuity. A result of breaking it could be that the viewer is taken out of being immersed in the action; it's highly important the film flows well, so these techniques help retain this.

The 180 degrees rule:

This regards how film makers use the placement of the camera to not confuse the audience as to what side of a conversation we are seeing. A conversation usually begins with an establishing shot to show which characters are speaking. A line then should be mentally drawn between the characters and during filming of the conversation, the camera should stay on only one side of the line. Switching the side can be confusing as it looks like the characters are swapping places when they talk. However, breaking the rule can be purposely used to show characters moving in opposite directions.

Match on action:

This technique surrounds when the video is cut during editing. Showing a character moving between shots can be a risky technique, as a major change in their positioning or speed of movement is highly obvious to an audience. However, cutting when the character is moving can make the flow seem more natural. An example is a character sitting down on a chair; if cut at the right time sitting down, it can look like it was all one movement and not two separate shots from two different angles. With this, the audience tend to notice the change in movement less.

Shot- reverse shot:

The third continuity technique is another method of keeping a conversation between two characters concise and clear. You shoot from behind the head of each character that isn't speaking, focusing on the person who is. You swap between them each line of dialogue to get a clear showing of who is speaking.

Nina Balaj - Film Continuity

The 180 degree line of action is an imaginary line between two characters in which the camera must be kept one side of that line, the line of action allows things such as the shot reverse shot take place as separate shots of each character are needed in order to have film continuity and in a sense make the scene flow and makes sense. During this the filming will only take place in a 180 degree angle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEZjvs7oh60

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Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in things such as conversations between characters , the camera shoots in one direction and then another direction, during this the camera will get closer and take separate shots in order to see the characters expressions and understand how the characters are feeling during the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvVhr34Mfu0

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FvVhr34Mfu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Match on action is an editing technique used in film continuity in which one shot cuts to another shot showing the action of the object taken from the first shot, it creates a continuous sense of action rather than portraying two different things. This technique can draw the attention away from any continuity issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv93covb53w

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mv93covb53w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

EXAMPLE OF ALL –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7GC4962cYE

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Nina Balaj - Preliminary Film Idea

KIDNAPPING STORY – DRAMA/THRILLER

 First 2/3 minutes

Scene starts at an abandoned alleyway on a foggy Friday afternoon. A young teenage girl is making her way home from school, walking at a steady pace with earphones in her ears. She begins to turn suspicious as a shadow is lurking at the corner of her eye, trying to brush it off she speeds up and turns up her music. That unsettling feeling in her stomach sends her into a slight paranoia, she clutches her bag tightly and speeds up once again. Not only does she see the shadows come and go she can now hear the slight crunch of leaves from behind as if footsteps where approaching ,as one earphone drops from her ear. She turns around and scans the area, pulse quickening. There she sees a hooded figure in the distance. Pupils dilated she runs, her breath unsteady and frequent. The figure then too speeds up following behind. She turns its closer. She sprints, and clings onto her bag with a death grip causing her knuckles to turn white. Camera shot jumps from her to the figure, her to the figure until the figure catches up. Everyone pauses, music stops, her hyperventilating breath stops. Slow motion closes up on the girl, face of horror. Camera blacks out. End of scene.

Middle 
 Story continues on as girl finds out she’s been kidnapped, her entire journey carries out through a blindfold , all she can do is trust her senses to find her way out. 

End  
 Story ends with a teenage boy finding her a few miles away from her kidnapper. After girl gets admitted to the hospital, camera follows the boy into the hospital bathroom and reveals he was the kidnapper/stalker. Camer blacks out. End Scene

Ashleigh Lovitt - Preliminary Film Idea

Genre - psychological thriller/horror

Plot:

After staring an anonymous blog, Taylor's main goal was to draw people in until he started dragging them down.

Taylor is a young aspiring writer. He is constantly sat behind a keyboard, alone in his room, writing folders upon folders worth of ideas and almost finished stories. One day, he decides he wants to move on from non-fiction and begin writing something more appealing, something that everyone would want to read. He tries his hardest to think of ideas and fails for many weeks until he stumbles upon a social media platform that allows anonymous pages. Not a second after finding this, the perfect idea becomes clear to him – an anonymous blog.

To begin with, the blog turns out to be very dull and relies on the ramblings about teachers and how much the school meals suck. A couple days later, Taylor is walking through the hallways at school and over hears a conversation between two girls. ‘Isabel cheated on Matthew last weekend at Alex’s party’. Immediately Taylor brings up his phone and begins typing his new post. Once he had done, he posted it under the school’s tag so everyone could see it and by the next day he had had over 250 views with so many comments and shares, it was then that Taylor realised that this is what they all wanted to read.

The blog carries on for almost a year. During this time three people had moved schools because of Taylor's exposing but this didn’t bother him, in his mind they are all getting what they deserved. Throughout that year the rumours got worse, the people got worse. Childhood friends began to throw each other under the bus. There was no trust anymore. After a long period, the blog becomes dead so Taylor decides to publish a secret that he thought he’d take to the grave. Head cheerleader, straight A student and old childhood friend, Natalie wasn’t prepared for what was about to come.

Natalie immediately realises who is behind the blog as she remembers that the only person who knows this secret it Taylor. Natalie finds Taylor and tries to convince him to delete the blog before they both get into trouble with the police. Taylor says no which forces Natalie to go to extreme measures to stop out of control Taylor.

At the end of the film, Taylor completely loses it and has an ‘episode’ regarding the blog. He murders Natalie on the school football field (at night with an axe) and is sent to a psychiatric ward, the blog is taken down and Taylor lives out the rest of his life in the ward.

The first three minutes:

The film begins with a zooming in shot of Taylor from behind hunched over a computer screen (in his bedroom). He is furiously typing a story. The camera zooms in on some of the words being typed and these are quite creepy, for example 'death'. The next shot is on a pile of rejection letters on the desk which cuts to a close up shot on Taylor's face. The opening sequence begins which is the title of the film being typed out on a keyboard.

After the title sequence, we see Taylor mumbling to himself (while still being sat at his desk) tapping pencils. He’s trying to think of new ways to write, this is shown in a shot of his notebook and his lack of ideas. Next, Taylor logs into some off his social media accounts and scrolls around for a while, then he comes cross the website which gives him his new idea. 

Joe Sheldon - Preliminary Film Idea

Genre: Crime Drama / Thriller

Overview:

Three 17 year old students return from a trip out and walk through a field to get home. They are Gemma, Thomas and Charlie; they’re all fairly high achieving students with a long lasting friendship. Upon walking through the field, they find a dead body between the trees and attempt to phone for the police. However, none of them have phone signal and it’s late at night, so they attempt to move the body somewhere lighter and out of the woods so that the authorities can see it when they come. Not thinking, all three of them touch the body to move it and as a result all three of them become suspects in a crime none of them committed. Under pressure from the police, his family and his own consciousness, Charlie takes the blame for the crime and is sentenced to life. Both Gemma and Tom go on to do well at university.

In prison, Charlie is often kept away from people because of his crime at such a young age. He begins to suffer psychological torment and his two ‘friends’ become the figures representative to him of how his life went wrong. He befriends CJ, Georgia and Frankie in prison, hatching a plan in his insanity to find and kill his two childhood friends. Despite his urges to hurt people and his declining mental state in prison, he keeps the pretence of normality to be let out on good behaviour, which charlie gets at age 30.

However, out of prison Charlie realises he loves Georgia and his thoughts begin to become clearer. Sometimes he begins to question his motives, and is in two minds about whether to kill either of his childhood friends. Charlie finds Gemma in her London home and initially thinks he’s going there to apologise. However, he find’s that she’s sleeping and takes a look around her apartment, finding she’s got great wealth and many pictures of her and Thomas from their university days. This angers him, and so he smothers her with her pillow and kills her. He rummages around in her kitchen draws to find Thomas’ address. Upon checking into a central London hotel, he cries over what he’s done and attempts to take his own life, although he wakes up the next morning having failed.

He finds Thomas, hitchhiking to Manchester to find him. Charlie turns up to the road and is surprised to find it’s a council estate. Thomas is surrounded by needles and rubbish in a dark and dingy home. Thomas is pleased to see Charlie when he turns up, which adds to his moral conflict. They have a long one to one chat in which Thomas explains how he couldn’t get a job because of his involvement with Charlie before he was convicted and turned to a life of petty crime and drugs. Charlie begins to hate himself and in a bad fit of guilt that night, he kills himself.

The film ends with a soliloquy from Thomas about how resentment is in the human condition but it doesn’t have to consume you, and how friendship is always meant to be something helpful. A bad friendship is no friendship at all.

Opening two minutes:

The friends are on a train, with an establishing shot from the window of the train. There is a brief conversation about the day and then the train comes to a halt, slowing at a platform. The opening credits are on black title cards placed between shots. It uses a bold red font to stand out and create an unnerving effect for the audience. I am hoping this will help set a tone of danger,as the opening scenes are meant to be somewhat distressing in nature.

They are walking across an open field with shopping bags, with brief laughter between them to contrast the darker tone. The field has dark tones, with sweeping shots from ground helping to set a slower pace before the crux of the opening two minutes.

They find the body and they react to it, with individual facial reaction shots. I plan for them to linger for a little longer than they should to build suspense. Gemma and Thomas are in action, talking about phoning authorities in panicked voices. The teenagers have a conversation collectively about what to do and attempt to call the police, only to find they have no service. They move to find service and bring the body with them so that the police can find them easier.

Group photo