Research: European Detectives

Eastern Europe?

Here's some research I conducted on the setting of our thriller.
Since I lived in Eastern Europe for four years of my life (Romania and Lithuania), I already had a good idea of the region, but here are some more detailed facts!

Eastern Europe by maggiecampbell72

More Thriller Work

After much more discussion, we decided that we need to change our idea from our first "psychopathic boy walking down street reflecting on his crimes" idea.

Taking inspiration from "Trans-Siberian Express" we want to create a detective-style sequence, with the detective arriving on the scene.  The victim would be in a warehouse (which we would create in the studio) sitting up in a chair, a knife in the back of his head.   It is not obvious that the victim is dead at first, which makes for an interesting camera effect and adding a twist for a thriller effect.  We might have a simple non-diegetic soundtrack of just slow beats.  From the film, we were mainly inspired by the actual setting as well as the incredible detective.

Narrative Plot of Our Thriller

We have decided to go with a very contrapuntal theme, having everything very fake and unsuspecting, releasing a quaint atmosphere. It will be filmed in a hyper-real way.

We will have a very symmetrical shot of an innocent looking teenage boy walking down a long street or driveway, a fair distance away. We might include overlapping flashing clips of the street when it is empty and when he was present.

A voice over will begin of him casually talking, almost humorous, about is average day. For instance it may begin like this “I had wheetabix for breakfast"; this will continue and will be told in a sinister way portraying his psychotic personality.

As he gets closer and closer, dark contrasting distorted images with pop up of dead bodies and guns and things to do with his murders.

An occasional slow one with an abstract spooky background will come up with some subtitles, then will snap back quickly to the fakery. this contrast will make his world seem even more unrealistic, highlighting his strange mental state.

Subtitles will also appear as he walks down the path in the corners.

Eventually he will come close up to the camera and say, "so i killed her/him/them. Now they want to catch me. So I'm on the run. They won't catch me. And I won't stop". He will start to run off. This will leave enough suspense for a good storyline.

Another Thriller Meeting

 

Today, we had another meeting to further our ideas for our thriller.  We discussed the font that we may want to use for our opening credits, and came to the conclusion that monotype corsovia or another loopy/cursive font would be desirable.  We experimented by filming things around the school to get a general idea of what we want to do on the day of filming.  It was useful to do this, as we found that having a dutch angle on a dead body (I was pretending to be the dead body while Leila filmed) would add that element of twistedness that we were looking for.  I finished writing the narrative action line, and we are in the process of consolidating the storyboard with the narrative action.  Simon finished writing the narrative plot, too.  We briefly discussed the back-story of our thriller, but have yet to come to an agreement about who our character kills.  Another interesting idea we had was to have the boy playing with a Rubiks cube as he walked home, to add another strange factor to the situation. 

Researching Title Ordering: American vs. British Title Sequences

Dorian Gray
Budget: £20,000,000    -    $31,898,000

Time	Text which appears	Role
0:07	Ealing Studios, Alliance Films and the UK Film Council Present	Funding, independent film production companies
0:13	A Fragile Film	Company that helps facilitate actors, aids in production of film
0:19	In association with Aramid Entertainment and Prescience	Funding, investment (one of the UK’s leading film financiers)
0:27	Ben Barnes	Lead actor
0:33	Colin Firth	Supporting actor
0:41	Dorian Gray	Film title

Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter
Budget: £43,262,900    -     $69,000,000

Time	Text Which Appears	Role
0:00	Directed by Timur Bekmambetov	Director
0:04	Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith	Screenplay
0:09	Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith	Novelist/inspiration for the film
0:12	Produced by Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, Jim Lemley	Producers
0:19	Executive producers Michele Wolkoff, John J. Kelly, Simon Kinberg, Seth Grahame-Smith	Executive producers
0:23	Director of photography Caleb Deschanel, ASC	Director of photography from the American Society of Cinematographers
0:25	Production Designer François Audouy	Production designer
0:28	Film Editor William Hoy, A.C.E.	Film editor from the American Cinema Editors (an esteemed film editing society
0:30	Costume Designers Carlo Poggioli, Varya Audyushko	Costume designers
0:34	Music by Henry Jackman	Musical director
0:37	Associate producers Kathleen A. Switzer, Derek Frey	Associate producers
0:41	Benjamin Walker	Lead actor
0:44	Dominic Cooper	Supporting actor
0:47	Anthony Mackie	Supporting actor
0:50	Mary Elizabeth Winstead	Leading actress
0:53	Rufus Sewell	Actor
0:56	Marton Csokas	Actor
0:58	Jimmi Simpson	Actor
1:01	Joseph Mawlie, Robin McLeavy	Actors
1:05	Casting by Mindy Martin, CSA	Casting
1:10	A Twentieth Century Fox Presentation	Production company/funding
1:12	In Association with Dune Entertainment	Funding company
1:15	A Burton/Bekmambetov/Lemley Production	Production company/studio
1:18	A Timur Bekmambetov Film	Director
1:22	Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter	Film title

There is a definite difference between the opening credits to British films vs. the opening credits of American films.  In "Dorian Gray", a British film, the opening credits are more focussed on crediting the production and financing companies, followed by the actors, and does not acknowledge the creative team (director, casting, costume) at all. They were very short, only about 45 seconds. In contrast, in "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", the opening credits concentrate on first recognising the actors, directors and creative team and end with the production/financing companies. The opening credits were much longer, almost two minutes long. Both opening sequences showed the title of the film at the end, which was probably the only similarity. "Dorian Gray" was funded by numerous companies, however it still had the lower budget of the two films. "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" was only funded by two main companies, though its budget was more than twice the size than that of "Dorian Gray".  This is important to note, as it explicitly demonstrates the difference between the two film industries; the British, with lower budget and need for numerous financiers to get a decent budget, and the American, funded lavishly with the need for only a couple of financiers.

 

Narrative Action of Our Thriller

1.     Establishing, wide, almost birds eye view shot of a suburban road. Non-diegetic music playing. The road is bright and hyper-real coloured. There are a few cars, houses on either side.

2.     Wide pan shot down the street, giving more perspective to the scene.

3.     Wide shot of the back of a boy walking on the street.

4.     Close-up shot of the shoes of the boy, as a non-diegetic voiceover begins.  He may begin by saying something freakily normal, such as “Today, I had Weetabix for breakfast.”

5.     The voiceover continues as the shots shatter in and out from each other. We see a wide shot of the boy from the side, still walking.

6.     Wide shot of the boy from the other side, as he continues walking.

7.     A shot of some plants or other suburban features.

8.     Extreme close-up of the hand of the boy, twitching and bloody fingers.

9.     We now see a mid-shot of the boy, from the front, for the first time.

10. The shots continue to shatter in and out of each other, this time pausing on a slightly closer mid-shot of the boy.

11. An extreme close-up of the lips of the boy, strangely red (bright) and twitching.

12. A close-up of the boy’s face as he bites his lip.

13. A tracking shot, going behind the boy from left to right, shows him continuing down the road.

14. A mid-shot of his feet/legs as he trips, walking on to the curb.

15. The shatter effect cross cuts to more brightly coloured flowers.

16. An extreme close-up of his fingers, twitching and drenched in blood, is shown. 

17. The shatter effect is used again, now switching to an extreme close-up of bright flowers and plants, maybe a mailbox or two.

18. An extreme close-up of his eyes is shown, also a bit twitchy, showing his nervous disposition.

19. The screen blanks out as he turns a corner.

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper, born 1962 in Salem, Massachusetts, is a master of the main-title sequence.  He has directed over 150 film title sequences.  He is known for being the man who "single-handedly revitalised the main-title sequence as an art form".

Some of his most well-known main-title sequences include "Se7en", "Dawn of the Dead", "The Island of Dr. Moreau", "Godzilla", the "Spiderman" movies and the Marvel flip-book sequence, which received a standing ovation when first shown as well as several awards.

Kyle Cooper believes that the opening sequence acts as the prologue of the film.  His work is based around fluid dynamics, extreme close-ups, and fascination with cells and details.  He doesn't map out all the shots for his sequences meticulously, as he thinks that imperfection is interesting.  Many of his shots have been "planned accidents", accidents that have a cool effect on the titles.


"The title shouldn't be an afterthought; it should be integrated."

Kyle Cooper did not always aspire to become a main title sequence director. Not many people do, it's a bit of an obscure job title.  The "To Kill A Mockingbird" main title sequence changed all that.  It inspired Kyle Cooper to pursue his career.  He was fascinated by the close-up shots that acted as a prologue to the film, the symbolism of all the objects relating to the story. 

Looking at Kyle Cooper's work has really drawn my attention and helped me appreciate the main title sequences of films.  I've become fascinated with main title sequences! It's something I would really enjoy doing.  It's given me a lot of inspiration to add to my thriller!

"A great title sequence sets an expectation."

Moving Forward With Our Thriller

Today, our group had another meeting about moving forward with our thriller.  We discussed how to film it and came up with the idea of making it hyper-real.  To do this, we will exaggerate the colours, like in the film "Blue Velvet".  The hyper-real quality will give the sequence a creepy, contrapuntal feel.  It will also add to the suburban atmosphere, the "fake" utopia.

In all the interviews that we did to the general public about thriller films, we found that most people were more likely to enjoy a film if there was a good-looking lead in it.  We discussed who could be our attractive, young male psychopath killer in our meeting as well.

All in all, we had a successful meeting and will be thinking about more ways to add to the hyper-real feel (perhaps with the use of props?) and trying to find our actor.  Next time, we will be discussing locations for filming and other props that we might need.

The Thriller Genre!

From this survey, we I found that the male and female audience, as well as different age groups, look for different things when deciding to watch a thriller (or a film in general).
The male audience was interested in seeing action scenes: gunfights, car chases and explosions!  They wanted a more physical film.  Many also expressed interest in seeing attractive women in a film.  James Bond films were a favourite in this target audience.
The female audience were more interested in seeing a film with an attractive male lead or a female character that they can aspire to (such as The Bride in Kill Bill).  Not many were interested in the thriller genre, most were fans of comedy, tragedy or romance.  They wanted a film that they could emotionally relate to.
Many of the older people interviewed expressed an interest in