Casting

• Michael Mann will act as the homeless man
• Junaed Badat will act as the frightened boy
• Andreas Kavallares will act as the leader of the group
• Aidan Scoutter will act as the ditsy boy

MICHAEL MANN - THE HOMELESS MAN
Our group decided to choose Michael Mann as the homeless man because he's good at doing intimidating voices which will be important in creating tension for the audience.
Our group decided that the costume of the homeless man will consist of a black scruffy coat (to show that he is poor) and a red shirt underneath to connote danger -seeing as he will be acting as a potential killer in the thriller opening.


JUNAED BADAT - THE FRIGHTENED BOY
We chose Junaed Badat to act as the frightened boy because he is good at making facial expressions and this will be vital in order to show a clear range of emotions. These emotions will be highlighted through close ups or extreme close ups to show their significance. It will also give the audience more knowledge about the personality of the characters; for example: a character that often has a worried facial expression denotes that they are a character that is quite tense and on edge all the time.



ANDREAS KAVALLARES - THE LEADER OF THE GROUP
We chose Andreas Kavallares to act as the leader of the group because he has the natural quality of being quite a bold and assertive person. In order to emphasise that he has higher status we all think it's best to use a lot of confident body language such as: walking tall with his head and shoulders back - to show confidence or cockiness , using his hands a lot while talking to show his authority (emphasizing his points while speaking by firmly shaking his finger or palm in beat to his words) and walking with wide, long steps to show a powerful stride.


AIDAN SCOUTTER - THE DITSY BOY
We chose Aidan Scoutter to act as the ditsy boy because like Michael Mann, he is good at using his body language and facial expressions - which will be useful in order to convey the simple-minded, over exaggerated ditsy character that we would like to portray.

All of the casting characters have been chosen based on their ability to show good body language,facial expressions as well as other aspects like how well they use their tone of voice; we wanted the cast to be chosen this way so that the acting skills are good enough to make the thriller opening realistic.

Production schedule

Film Treatment of Silent Night - Thriller Film Opening

One evening three daring teenage boys walk through a deserted park late at night.
As they are talking and walking they come across a range of unusual objects. One is a hand which is covered in blood and many cardboard boxes with traces of blood on them. The boys are all slightly frightened but they continue to walk, not wanting to be seen as wimps.
As they continue to walk they come across a homeless man lying on the bench. He is dressed in a black scruffy coat and a red t-shirt and is using cardboard boxed to keep himself warm.
The fact that there is alcohol on the bench is clearly looking for trouble; the boys notice this and all three have different reactions. One of the boys is extremely terrified and wants to go home, the other boy wants to steal the man's alcohol, the third slightly ditsy boy just goes along with the idea. The first boy is dared to take the alcohol.
The first boy, despite being unsure about whether he should take the alcohol or not, decides to go along with it anyway as a result of being pressurized.
After succeeding in his dare, the boy is then dared to take the man's hat as well; this time, however, he is unfortunate as he wakes the homeless man. The other two boys run off, leaving their friend behind looking shocked. He drops the hat and begins to run away but fails as he trips down over the hand. The homeless man is now fully awake and is standing over the boy. Our film opening then ends with a grin on the homeless man's face and him signalling to be quiet by putting his finger over his lips.

Research On Codes & Conventions

The General codes and conventions often used in the thriller genre:
• Quick cuts and camera angle changes
• Music that gives tension
• Lighting is dark and shadows are used a lot
• Mirrors and stairs
• Isolated suburban settings, cities or quiet country villages (rural areas)
• Flashbacks
• Jumpy moments
• The plots are scary
• There is usually a damsel in distress – a character at great risk
• Near-death scenes
• Large threatening weapons or props e.g. knives
• Themes are usually based around the fears of society, e.g. being isolated, entrapped, murdered, terrorism and pain

Key films of the thriller genre: Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Funny Games, Taxi Driver, The Game, The Shining, The Manchurian Candidate, The Sixth Sense, Fatal Attraction, Seven


EXAMPLES OF CODES & CONVENTIONS USED IN THESE MOVIES
The films above use a range of codes and conventions mentioned above. One example we can look at is Psycho. The opening of psycho uses a lot of symbolic codes – for example the on screen credits; the typography is broken up and this could connote the idea of mental illness (being a psychopath), the text is broken which suggests it is trying to portray the broken mind of a psycho and the unnatural mental state they have. This uses a convention of thriller movies because it represents a certain theme, in this case, a mental illness – the separation of the letters could also connote being isolated from society and being alienated. Another convention of thrillers that is used in psycho is the music that gives tension throughout the film; an example of this could be the music (technical & symbolic code) heard at the start of the film which is sharp and racy – it proves to effective in setting the mood for the film as it puts the audience at the edge of their seats.
In the sixth sense there is a sense of desolateness in the film. The troubled little boy often wanders around at night by himself in the dark and this creates suspense because the audience is already encouraged to think that something or someone will pop up unexpectedly; a character being deserted often leads to jumpy
moments when something or someone appears and it is a effective and convention used in thrillers to shock the audience.




EVALUATION
Based on previous thriller’s I’ve researched, I can use the knowledge about codes and conventions of thriller movies and the movies I’ve watched to develop ideas for the thriller movie opening I will be doing in the future.
Here are some of my ideas: