Main Task - Music

We decided that the music that Jack listened to on the radio should be 'How d'ya like your eggs in the morning?' By Dean Martin. We made this decision based on the thriller Vanilla Sky in which Tom Cruise suffers from a mental breakdown to the song 'Good Vibrations'. We felt that this created a dramatic irony that created a sinister atmosphere typical of thrillers. For this reason we felt that 'How d'ya like your eggs in the morning?' would be perfect as it is a cheerful song that would contrast to the father's disturbing dream and threatening phone call, making these scenes seem more sinister.


The drones used in our media piece helped to add suspense, engaging the viewer. We used two drones: 'Drone Dark Suspense 1' and 'Drone Dark Suspense 2'. We also used 'Pulsing Sweep' as we felt that this added a sinister atmosphere to the title of our movie, enhancing the action that is about to take place through out the film.

Main Task - Filming

Location
We decided to film the last part of our sequence at Calum's house. We decided this as his house is a typical family home, one in which we imagine a Father living with his family. It is quite a big house with a lot of space enabling us to take good shots for our main task as well as enhancing the loneliness of Jack as he now lives alone after the effects of his daughter's death.

Actors

We chose Jack as our actor as he has quite a strong, deep voice that would be perfect for the end of the sequence as the father threatens his daughter's murderer. With only 2 weeks left to film and edit our main task, Jack was one of the few options available at such short notice, this was another factor in choosing Jack as our protagonist.

We chose Lauren and Tilly as voice overs for the beginning sequence as Lauren took drama at GCSE and Tilly takes A Level drama. Tilly had a voice suitable to be a room mate as it sounds like the voice of a teenager rather than a mother. Her experience of drama helped her to sound convincingly distressed which was perfect in making the audience feel disturbed at her room mates death. Lauren has a voice that sounds more mature and therefore fitted the role of the mother perfectly. Furthermore, Lauren's previous experience with drama also enabled her to sound distressed and devastated at the news of her daughters death again giving the flashback a more sinister and engaging atmosphere.

We chose Calum and George as our other voice overs as George has a sympathetic voice that doesn't sound too young, so could fit the role of a police officer that has to deliver bad news to a family. The sympathy he expresses helps the audience to also feel more sympathetic towards the family of the dead girl. Finally, we chose Calum as Jack's boss. A lot of this was down to the fact that we only decided to add the part of a boss firing Jack in at the last minute. We chose Calum because his voice again sounds sympathetic and reluctant to let Jack go as well as sounding old enough to be the boss of the protagonist. Information on all our actors can be found in the actors section.

Mise-en-scene

We asked Jack to wear a shirt and jeans for the shoot as this made him look like a typical father with a high status. This also implies that he has efficient and intelligent methods of dealing with his daughter's murderer. This was important as we wanted our thriller to be quite psychological in order to engage our audience.

We decided we wanted Jack to be an alcoholic as this shows the effects of his daughter's death and is typical of a male who has been through a traumatic experience in a thriller. For this reason Jack is seen asleep on the sofa with a half empty bottle and glass of whiskey. This indicates that he is a strong drinker.More mise-en-scene can be found in the Costume and Make up section.

Roles

As with every section of our thriller, we all took part in every aspect of creating the film to make sure that every one had a say in the mise-en-scene, actors, filming and editing.

Camera Shots and Angles

All of the camera shots and angles we used, were filmed to portray Jack's character as an alcoholic who has had his life ruined by the death of his daughter and to explore the aggression he uses in his threatening phone call in an effective and engaging way. We also tried to make shots flow smoothly by going from one shot to another with the use of fade to blacks improving our continuity. The shot where the camera is in the fridge and Jack opens the door was an idea we had taken from Ellen Crane's group as we felt that this was a very effective and interesting shot to engage the viewer.

The New Idea and Script

During the half term, our group met up to try to gather some new, simple ideas for how to adapt what we had filmed so far. We decided on a vengeful father and searched through the internet for inspiration. In the end, we came across the opening of a well known thriller, Taken.

The scene we watched was one where the father is on the phone to his daughter's captors. We felt that the speech made by the father was chilling and gave a sinister atmosphere that is typical of the thriller genre. For these reasons we started to make a new script in which there is a flashback of the murder of a girl and the investigation into her death. The girls father then wakes up and goes into the kitchen to make his breakfast. His phone rings once and he then dials the number of his daughter's murderer telling him that he will kill him. This is the end of the opening and prepares the audience for the rest of the film.

After making our decision, we decided to start scripting it. This script can be found below:

Beginning of Flashback:

'Phone rings'

Girl's Room Mate: It's my room mate, please help, I don't know what to do. She's not breathing!

Police Officer: Mr and Mrs Watson, I'm sorry to have to inform you but, we've found a body and we believe it's your daughter.

Girl's Mother: Oh God. No!

[old script used in the investigation used]

End of Flashback:

Girl's Father: Have you found out who did this to my daughter?

Police Officer: I'm sorry Mr Watson, but we can't find him, we're going to have to drop the case.

Girl's Father: You can't do this!

Father's Boss: I'm sorry Mr Watson but I don't think you're cut out for this work line anymore

Girl's Mother: You've got to stop drinking Jack, I need you.

Girl's Father: I will find out who did this

Girl's Mother: It's been 4 years, can't you just let it go?

Girl's Father: It's our daughter! How can you say that?!

Girl's Mother: I'm sorry Jack, I just can't do this anymore, I'm leaving

The script did not get ordered in this way until we started editing. We asked the actors to do voice overs for us and then experimented with which order was most effective. We decided on the order above that features in our film.

More Changes

After this section had been filmed, I tried again to edit the video. After starting to edit the new thriller video, I started to realise that the changes from past to present were slightly confusing and that some audience members may not be able to understand them as the dead girl, the flashback of her murder and the police investigation would all need to have different effects. Furthermore, I felt that we didn't have enough camera shots to make a smooth and flowing police investigation and that the whole atmosphere of the film was not sinister and dark enough to be considered a thriller. I showed the film to my group and they also agreed that something more needed to be done. For this reason, we decided to yet again change our storyline only 2 weeks before the deadline. The second edit of the main task, can be seen below: