Prop list

We included many different props throughout our thriller opening. As a producer, it was my role to keep track of these props to ensure the continuity of our film. To do this, I decided to create a list to know exactly what props we needed to include in our piece. The props included in our piece were:

• Camera
• Tripod
• tablets/pills
• Mobile phone
• glasses
• Photos for the picture montage
• Ring
• Ring box

Draft shot list

We decided to create a draft shot list in order to know what shots we need to include in our piece and to create a checklist for ourselves to ensure that we film all of the shots that we wish to. 

Inspiration for the title sequence

After we began editing our film, we started to think about what we wanted our titles to look like. A member of our group suggested the idea of having a photo montage to open the piece. We really liked this idea as using photos would help to give the audience a small insight into what they are going to watch and would help us to link the storyline to the piece. 

We used inspiration from the BBC drama/thriller, 'The missing' to help us to create the montage. 

Filming locations

All of the shots included in our opening sequence were filmed in or around Josh's house. We chose to film in Josh's house as it is very spacious and was easily accessible for us all. We chose to film all of the shots around one location as this allowed for the piece to become more realistic, therefore allowing the audience to become more engaged with the piece. 

Locations used:

Garage

We chose to film in the garage as we wanted to create a dark and eerie atmosphere whilst filming the pans of Jasmine's body. We were able to create this atmosphere by adjusting the lighting so that the shots were only very lowly lit, creating a sense of suspicion around the death of Jasmine's character.

Hallway

We chose to film the argument between mine and josh's characters in the hallway of Josh's house. We chose to film here as we felt that it was a very fitting location for an argument to take place. The layout of the hallways also allowed for easy filming, and the placement of the mirror also helped to add some depth to the shots that we wished to capture. We also wished to create a complete comparison between the light shots in the house and the dark in the garage and filming in this area helped us to achieve this.

Garden

We filmed a range of shots in the garden. We filmed the low angle shot of mine and Josh's characters leaving the garage, the close-up of the garage door closing, the 360 shot of Jasmine and also the medium shot of Josh. We chose to film these shots in the garden as it helped to link the shots in the house and in the garage together, allowing the viewer to more easily understand that everything occurred within the same house.

         

Scripting

Picured below is the script for our opening of a thriller film. We didn't include much dialogue throughout the piece so we included information about sound, camera shots and angles and the locations that we used throughout the sequence.

Title

Deciding on a final title of the piece served to be a bit of a challenge for the group throughout the planning process for our film. 

Whilst developing the narrative, our opening piece was set to conform to the typical structure of a medical thriller, very much inspired by medical dramas such as casualty and Holby city. We had the idea of basing the piece around a single heartbeat that was set to flatline at the end of the opening, initiating enigma codes for the audience as to what has happened for that the occur. This lead us to coming up with titles such as 'Pulse' to represent the heartbeat. We also came up with the title, 'beaten', which would mirror what has happened to Jasmine's character throughout the piece however, 'Pulse' was our preferred title out of the pair. 

Throughout the planning process, the narrative of our piece changed and began to conform more to the typical conventions of a crime thriller. This change of narrative then lead to the title of 'Pulse' to become quite irrelevant to the path that our piece ended up taking. We soon decided that we wanted our title to very much resemble the narrative of our piece, inspiring the final title, 'Jealousy.' We felt that using this title was very suitable as it didn't only help to draw together both the title and narrative of the piece, but also helped to link in the music very well. 

Group roles

To ensure that our film will be as successful as it can be, we decided to allocate different roles within our group. This will ensure that each person will have designated tasks to complete which will help the process to run as smoothly as it possibly can. 

These roles are:

Director: Caitlin Elward

Editor: Josh East

Producers: Hannah Martin and Jasmine Greene

The first day of editing

We decided to begin editing the opening of our thriller film together. We have spent the last few weeks gathering a range of shots in different locations to give us a lot of footage to work with. We decided that we would use the facilities in the college to do this as the editing software that they have there is far better than the software that we currently have in school. The software we used was premiere pro. 

We followed the storyboard that we had created previously to ensure that we included all of the shots that we wanted to. As a group, we decided that Josh would be the editor for the piece as he was the most confident using the software.

Music

We looked on youtube for some music that we could use throughout our thriller film opening. We found track titled, 'G321-Thriller opening music choice 3.' We decided that this track would suit our piece very well as the contrast between high and low pitched synth sounds used is very common in thriller films. We will use it in the scenes where Jazz's dead body can be seen, encouraging a tense and eerie atmosphere throughout the sequence.

We also decided to look around for another song that would be suitable to use throughout our piece. We decided on the song 'Jealousy' by Frankie Miller. We decided on this song as the lyrics matched our storyline very well. It speaks of jealously within relationships which is a theme that our piece is very strongly based upon.

Permission for the music- Jealousy

Seeking permission for the use of Frankie Miller's 'Jealousy' served to be quite challenging. We tried on many different occasions to contact him, but we have not received a response as of yet. Jasmine found an email for him online so chose to try to reach him this way. We also found a verified Facebook page of his music so we chose to post on this also in hopes that we could receive a response. We are hoping that we will receive a reply soon.  

Permission for the music- G321-Thriller opening music

To gain permission to use this track in our piece, we chose to comment on the youtube video that we originally found the track from. We quickly received a response and were very happy with the reply that we received. 

Inspiration for our thriller

We took inspiration from different dramas that we have all watched on TV. These dramas include Broadchurch and paranoid. These dramas inspired the crime/murder element that is featured very strongly throughout our piece. We really liked the theme of crime as it allowed us to build up a sense of mystery throughout the piece. We represented this idea through the death of Jasmine's character in the piece and the mystery over which character was the true culprit of the crime.

We also took inspiration from the AS level thriller piece, 'Captive.' This is because of the mystery that is built up through the opening sequence. We see that the protagonist has been captured and tied up however, we are not told who has done it and it leads us to begin trying to work the story out for ourselves. We wanted to include this same sense of curiosity in our piece over the death of Jazz's character. 

Whilst researching ideas for our narrative, we also came across the film, 'Double Jeopardy.' The film is about a woman who chooses to run away once she has been framed for the murder of her husband. We saw inspiration within the film as the wife is seen to have been framed for murdering her husband. We very much liked the idea of including someone being framed for the death in our piece so decided that we would like to look into this topic further.