Ring ring...

Right. We came back on the Monday and of course non of the group members had a new idea. So it was my opportunity to take a risk. I didn’t want to let go of my idea just yet. So used my skills in deception and seduction to pull them back in, with a motivated and enthusiastic manner, I told the group how "You know what? Matt is just a failed filmmaker who’s just jealous of our sick idea, we should take a risk and do it” and like that they were back on board. Bring someone down and you appear taller. However there was still an insecurity of weather this could actually be an opening title sequence. So we waited for Adam to come to our table and give us his third party view.

And that was it. This is what I needed, to be finally rejected AGAIN by Adam. Ok I know I have been naive and immature with trying to persist with this idea, but I just knew how awesome it would look. But Adam said it again “An opening sequence establishes either the scene, character or context” and he was right. I had been doing it all wrong. Ok we know that, I already told you this last time, but I wasn’t ready to drop the idea. Ok so since the idea is based around a drug that is over proscribed and destroys people’s empathy (the worlds best war weapon)… Prozac. For an opening title sequence you would have to show the production of this drug. As it doesn’t really show you anything but it gives the audience an idea of what the film could be about.

Ok, so obviously it would be impossible to get behind the scenes of a large pharmaceuticals production stage, but why not take the risk. Ok so Hayden knew of local place called Pfizer. So I suggested with give these dudes a ring. However I made an agreement that if they said “NO” then we would drop the idea for good.

Here is a video of that call.

What now?

So what has been happening you may be wondering.
While the dilemma of breaking the mirror became more and more of a block for the group, as more issues to do with breaking it arose. For example, health and safety or weather it would even break.

The group began doubting there master, they were losing there way with the lord. Even with my mastery in deception and seduction I couldn’t maintain there motivation and passion for the idea. It was slowly becoming a dead and demotivated atmosphere. So Dasha rightly suggested that we go speak to Matt.

We walked in to Matt’s office, I am already feeling melancholic at the idea of loosing my amazing inspiring nothing like an opening sequence idea. I grabbed a chair. Matt stared scrutinisingly into my soul. Then he began bringing up all the points why my sick idea was pretty much just a cancer. And he had a point, instead of developing the idea we were just adding to it, making it more and more complicated, as the tumor grew. We needed to cut it off. It told us that most people get it wrong with the development process, and that most people just add to there crappy ideas, but the most effective form of development is to take away, get rid of all the crap in till you find the golden egg.

Ok cools, so what did he suggest. He hated the gimmick of it being backwards, which I had continually argued it is the perfect piece for a thriller, due to things being backwards anything could have due to it not be linear, creating intrigue and suspense, two the biggest factors in the thriller genre. But he shut me down and said no…. it’s just a gimmick. So I argued that the overlord Christopher Nolan had used it in Memento, however he shut me down again, explain that the whole film is backwards so it fits the film, but as well that no other opening sequence is any similar and yeah he has a point.

If we look at example of opening title sequence, they are so lame, and obviously people like me entering the course want to show all the best features and skills at once making an orgy of visual delights. However this doesn’t make it an opening sequence. As Adam our teacher has repeatedly said “An opening sequence establishes either the scene, character or context”. And that’s what I have been getting wrong. I have just been wanting to tell a story. A pretty sick story if I do say so myself.

Ok so where does that put me now. While Matt suggested this really terrible idea, that this dude walks into the scene says some stuffs, then the scene happens again but different till the characters catch on to what is happening. However that is the lamest thing I have ever heard and would hate doing that.

So I guess that was it. The group came to an agreement and the idea had to be cut out. It was draining to much of our time, and we needed to decide on something soon. As we will be filming in January.

At the moment I am super demotivated and ready to give up, my ideas have rejected too many times now, I am going to leave it to the group to come up with something and I will execute it as bad ass
as possible.

7 years bad luck!

After our group discussion with Matt, I began thinking of what would be an easier but more effective opening sequence. With inspiration from Memento and other elements from thriller films, I had it.


The Idea....
The sequence will be in rewound. It will begin with breaking glass rising from the ground and from a sink. The glass comes together into a mirror. Which a character is punching repeatedly and screaming spitting. Then the character is grabbing and shaking the mirror. Then the character is staring at the mirror. Then his eyes constrict. the artistic drugs taking shots. Then he takes the pill out his mouth and puts it into the prozac bottle. He then puts the prozac bottle back into the mirror draw. TITLES. Then the character is sitting in a doctor's waiting room, with his mum by his side. FADE TO BLACK

When I initially shared my idea with the group and my media teacher, Adam, he did not like it. He thought it was too short and wouldn't fit the 2 minute criteria. So he suggested that after the titles appear, that the opening titles would continue with the main character sitting in a waiting room. Which I thought was awesome! So I added it too the idea, and the group was convinced.

However one of the biggest and most complicated elements from this piece would be the broken mirror. I mean of course we couldn't have our talent breaking his knuckles in attempt to smashing a mirror, so what I thought we could do to keep the shot somewhat effective, but still sells the idea of the character breaking the mirror with his fist. Of course since it is in reverse we must of course have the glass returning back into the mirror frame because that will look sick, so how this should be done is by filming the bottom few inches of the mirror and then smashing the mirror at the top or middle with a hammer as the talent pretends to punch the mirror (for the reflection), then we will have the mirror glass cracking and falling down. Ok sick so we have the shot of the glass breaking, but how do we make it seem that it broke from the brute force of the talent? Editing, of course! So from the shot of the glass returning back into the frame, we can then have shot from the side of the mirror pointing at the talent acting out violently smashing the mirror while in fact he will be safely punch something... safe. But we will never see exactly what his punching do to the position of the camera, and the audience will assume it to be the mirror. Cools now finally to wrap it all together we will have a shot of him screaming and grabbing/punching the mirror from behind his shoulder. Now through the powers of editing we have a pretty sick looking scene... in theory.

Ok so now the research begins... How do we accomplish the look of the cracked mirror and then as well have shattered glass. Well this is what my group partner Haydon found.


On a filmmakers forum I came across here. They suggested to by a "candy glass" mirror.

However after researching and finding the price of this product.... It would be cheaper to use a real mirror, so that was the process we went with.

As well what we have to keep in mind when thinking about smashing glass is not only keep our talent safe but the safety of everyone on set. When we film the broken glass scene it must be done in a safe controlled environment. That is our next mountain we are going to need to conquer.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard I came up with for the idea. Alen did the write up, this is important as this document should be understood by anyone who comes across it, in theory it could be given to anyone and they would be able to make the exact same thing as if we gave to someone else. This document is important for validity, and accuracy.  But to be honest, on the real day of the shoot, most filmmakers don't follow this frame by frame, but it give them a rough sense of direction.

Cast List

	Name: Ben Radcliffe Age: 17/18 Character: Main role Contact Number: 07936697832
	Name: Adam Grant Age: 39 Character: Dad Contact Number: 07832455121
	Name: Mike Age: 30 Character: Patient Contact Number: 07770823936

Name: Sophie Jackson Age: 35 Character: Mother Contact Number: 07880439123

Name: Charlotte Mcgee Age: 16 Character: Patient Contact Number: 07950482712

MADE BY DASHA KOENIG

Matt (the dude)

Today Matt the man with mind and skills for film, came round are class, and we had to pitch him our ideas. So after making a crappy slideshow we were ready to present our idea. It was simple and easy. I knew he would love it.

So the first group went, now it was our turn. He slowly strolled to are table, with a grin on his face. Ashen’s sales man’s hat was on. So I began, the arm movements were animated, the facial expressions were expressed, the vocals were dynamic. I was a don. After a glorious intense 34 seconds it was all over, we sat back quietly, waiting for the judgments. 

He hated it.

Ok, thats a bit extreme, but yeah he hated it. He loved that the idea was relevant to our society now, but it just wasn’t an opening sequence. He didn’t like the different locations, and he believed my schema (the way I view the world and make judgement and decision, on events I have lived in the past) was too American, and obviously we couldn’t pull that off. 

So here we go, starting from day one again. Adam suggested that maybe the character could be waiting in a doctors waiting room. Which I kinda liked the idea but I had no clue how it would end, and how to make it an opening sequence.

It was time to go back to the writing board, and shoot out some new ideas. 

Thrillers

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

Alfred Hitchcock

The thriller genre is one of the most used genres within the film industry, although due to the thriller label being over used, the meaning of what a thriller is, has become diluted.

The thriller genre is the art of keeping one on the edge of their seat as the plot builds to a climax, stimulating the viewer's moods, giving them heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety

So what makes a thriller?

Suspense. Suspense is one of the most important characteristic of the thriller genre, fuelling the audiences fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension. Suspense is created through the use of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene, but one of the main techniques thriller films do to create suspense is through what is shown and what is note.

The emotions a thriller instigates is from ideas of hope and fear, which are aroused in anticipation for the conclusion.

Audiences experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen they are given a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening.

For example the shower sequences in Alfred Hitchocks psycho.

The thriller genre is compared closely and sometimes confused with the horror genre. While both of the genre's aim to evoke emotion, the horror genre evokes the emotion of fear, while the thriller genre evokes more of an exciting and exhilarating feeling. For example the horror genre involves a protagonist dealing with terrifying situations or entities. It can include, their own psychological fears, creatures, aliens, ghosts, serial killers, inner fears, and more. The protagonist usually endures psychological or physical traumatic experiences that are unusually strange and/or frightening to them. The focus is on dark, twisted, and nightmarish fears. 

While on the thriller genre involves excitement and suspense and is often plot driven. You may notice that all of the movies movies shown for the horror genre may also be considered thrillers since most horror movies are made to be exciting and suspenseful. Originally, thrillers were reserved for crime, spy, mystery, or espionage. However, the term today has nearly lost its original meaning as the label of thriller has been applied to almost all films for marketing purposes, creating the endless list of sub-genres, for example action/adventure thrillers, sci-fi thrillers, film-noir thrillers, western thrillers and even romantic comedy-thrillers.

One of the earliest thrillers was from Harold Lloyd’s comic "safety last", which to sum it up, is about a boy performing daredevil stunts on the side of a skyscraper. Yeah I know pretty sick. right? However, who really brought the light to the thriller scene was the man known as the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

The English film maker revolutionized the story telling industry, shaping the modern-day thriller genre. It all began with his early silent film Lodger (1926) which was a suspenseful jack the ripper type story, and since then he came out with the most impressive pieces of cinema till this day.

Hitchcock’s films often place an innocent, relatable, victim into a strange, life treating or terrorizing situation, in a case of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongfully accused. He would explore the darker side of hum nature through the situation, including sexuality and voyeurism, guilt and punishment, or paranoia and obsession.

While the thriller genre is consistently evolving, directors like Hitchcock and what they gave to the thriller genre, will not be forgotten. And with all the new techniques and ways of doing things I believe the quality and detail that Hitchcock and many more went through to create that final masterpiece is just not as apparent now a days. 

Thanks for reading… till next time...

this has been an Ashen Page essay.