Thriller rationale #2

Rationale (thriller) 

The scene starts with our young female lead walking in front of the camera almost starting off with an over the shoulder shot. She is walking at a hastily pace as if she needs to take care of something that is in dire need of her attention. The scene will start off in darkness with a dim white light surrounding our first character. This immediately gives the audience an impression of sketchy movement as the darkness is being used as a convention alongside shadows which creates the effect of fear and anticipation.

We have chosen to film our scene in an underground looking car park, this makes the atmosphere look and feel grungy so that the audience gets an impression of a lower class status from the two main characters. Our second location is set in a working shed so that the tools are used as a convention to show danger and a sense of mystery. Before our female character reaches the inside of the “shed” she is shown to be opening a white door. By using the colour white, this almost acts as a false sense of security for the audience thinking she’s going somewhere peaceful and calming, when really it is a false image leading her into a world of dismay.

An authorised personnel only so will be displayed on the right side of the screen as we see our character walking through the door this can be used as iconography as we get a feeling that our characters are not where they’re supposed to be. Our character will be wearing grungy simplistic clothing, again representing status and class and how even though our characters are doing something they should not be we get the feeling that is most likely related to money/financial problems. 

The door will be used to represent our match in action shot when filming we will see our female leads hand reach for the door handle and turning it, the camera position will then switch to see her walking through the other side of the door frame so that she is walking inside the shed. This will all be put together with continuity editing so that all the shots line up with the story/plot line. Another camera technique we will be using is shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Our shot reverse shot will be shown when our female character enters the ‘building’ and has a direct conversation with our male lead. It will show them exchanging dialogue and the camera will be on a close up of the girls face then will transition to the male leads face so that we can see his response and facial expressions. The 180 degree shot rule will be used so that the screen balance of the film maintains its positioning, e.g. the camera doesn’t pass a certain point when filming, so it always stays on a straight line axis as if only moving in half a circle. 

When our male lead is introduced he will be seen to be doing “human-like” activities as if he is trying to almost ignore the fact that he has just taken a young girl hostage and locked her in the back of his ‘average’ car. The hostage will be seen to be a female adding the representation of male dominance in how she is tied up and helpless acting as our ‘damsel in distress’ except this time there is no hero to save her. Our female hostage that is presented to be in distress will have her face covered adding to the mystery of what she actually looks like whether she is older in the fact that she may have money that our two kidnappers want or is she younger and has wealthier parents and is most likely being held for ransom. 

Close up shots will be used frequently throughout the scene as it adds to the emotion used in the ‘short film’ we will get a sense of how our different characters are feeling and will keep the mysterious tone as we will never really see the full ‘picture’ of what is actually happening on the screen. Darkness and shadows are being utilised as they both represent thriller conventions building the tension and making our ‘film’ more realistic and professional.