Filming ERROR

Unfortunately i have jut been told that i cannot be in my own film, after filming all my movie, so i have to do it again over the christmas holiday.

For this i will have to make several differences, as i first filmed with me being the main character. I have already had some thoughts on who the main character will be and i have thought about where i will set it, as i thought my house was not scary enough for the average thriller film, so i have thought about filming in a friends house, who lives nearer to the school.

This is a huge setback and i will try to recover over the christmas holidays.

Main Character

DENNIS NILSEN

The Main character, Dennis Nilsen, is based upon a real serial killer with the exact same name, i have done extensive research on this man to learn about his methods and why he did such horrific things. The reason why i have based my movie on this man is that my mother had actually looked at buying a house next door to his, but her friends advised against it as there were reports of disgusting smells disturbing the street.

As i was running out of time to find actors to play in the movie, i decided that i would play Dennis Nilsen as i had a very strong image on what i wanted to character to look like, I'm very disappointed that i cant film the whole movie!

The interesting thing about the way that Dennis Nilsen would perform his horrific deeds is that he would go to a pub or a youth hostel and invite young boys or men to stay at his house for a few days, and when they would say that they have to carry on or leave, Dennis would kill them either through asphyxiation or drowning. Then he would leave the bodies in different locations around his house, which is where the 'Killing for Company' title came about. He was known to have killed 15 young boys and men.

AMY YOUNG

This is the main twist to the story of Dennis Nilsen, to make it more interesting i have made the main character kidnap a girl and keep in his garage, even though he normally targeted boys and/or young men.

She is a young girl of 16, not from a wealthy family nor is she anything special. She is simply a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although i never would show how she was kidnapped, i would make Dennis hint at the audience to how she might have been, or used small flashbacks.

The film would be based around how her friends go looking for her and come upon Dennis Nilsen's house, as that is where she was last sighted. And also her struggle to stay alive within Dennis's home and possibly developing Stockholm Syndrome, which is where someone who has been abducted begins to show signs of loyalty and affection towards their captor.

These are my only main characters within my opening sequence, but the film would contain more.

Storyboard/Animatic PART 2

Well howdy there.

Below this post is my animatic, i would have written this within that post but for some reason it mucks up when i try to type. So, this animatic is a basic outline (including overall time) of what my movie is going to contain, which will hopefully be conventional of a thriller movie.

Enjoy.

Storyboard/Animatic

Initial Ideas

Name: Killing For Company

Baseline: Story based around a serial killer called Dennis Nilsen who invited homeless people/travelers to stay at his house, and when they wanted to leave, he would kill them and place them around his house.

Outline of plot:

Alarm clock ringing. Shape turns over in bed and hit alarm clock to make it stop. Gets out of bed. Walks into bathroom and closes the bathroom cabinet, proceeds to brush teeth. Bends down to spit and in the split second he bends down we see a figure leaning against the wall in the background. Bends back up and leaves room. Cuts to a scene of him walking into the kitchen and making 3 bowls of cereal. Takes two bowls to table and places them in front of two figures, figures stay still. Picks up other bowl and sits and eats. Eats a couple of mouthfulls and goes and places bowl in sink. Proceeds to walk outside to the garage. Enters garage and sits down in chair, low light. Stares at camera for few seconds. Switches to a shot of a girl, tied up with messed up make up, slowly coming out of unconsciousness. Starts to wimper and cry, cuts back to man + he says "You're special..." then zooms out into a establishing shot of his garage and you can see bodies about the place.

Titles:

To show the titles im going to have a black shot with typewriter writing saying the title and with several titles coming through.

Sound:

For sound i have decided to create a simple soundtrack for the movie, it is dark and menacing and is typical of a thriller movie.

If i can figure out how i will upload the file to a website and provide a simple player that will let you preview the soundtrack.

Questionnaire

My Questionnaire consisted of several questions which would influence my final decision on my movie. I have a rough idea of what i am going to do for my movie, but this questionnaire can make minor adjustments to the final piece that will hopefully make it better.

I had a total of 7 people fill out the final questionnaire and this is my feedback:

QUESTION ONE

Age (Open) 

This i put in so i could determine the average age of the people who might watch this movie and for also how much this would influence my movie. Because my movie might be an 18, 16's and 17's wont be watching this so it might not have a huge influence on the final production.

The average age of the people who filled out my questionnaire:

16-17

QUESTION TWO

For A Serial Killer Thriller, would you prefer to have...?

A. The character loosely based upon a real killer

B. The character strongly based upon a real killer

C. The character is fictional

I used this because i wanted to know how i was going to film the killer. If i was going to base it very strongly on a serial killer, i would have to research a lot about the killer and learn what he did to his victims, how he did it and why did he do it. If i were to loosely base it upon a real killer, i would still have to research about the killer, but not to such a great extent. Finally, if i were to completely make up this killer, i could make up a lot of the story line.

2 People chose A

3 People chose B

0 People chose C

This shows that people would prefer the movie to be strongly based upon a real killer.

QUESTION THREE

What does the name 'Killing For Company' mean to you? (Open)

I had chose this name prior to making this questionnaire so i wanted to see what impression it gives to people.

2 People said Lonely

1 person said Mentally messed up

3 People mentioned killing to gain bonds or to be with people

1 Person mentioned old man

This shows that the killer might be killing because he's lonely or because he wants to be with people or kills for people, so a hit man.

QUESTION FOUR

What kind of locations are you expecting to see?

A. Normal Home

B. Old Shack

C. Abandoned Factory/Big House

D. Major City

E. Countryside Cottage

I asked this to people to find out where they think a thriller should be located, especially if it is based around a serial killer.

1 Person said Normal Home

0 People said Old Shack

5 People said Abandoned Factory/Big House

3 People said Major City

1 Person said Countryside Cottage

This shows that people associate thrillers with big cities and huge houses/factories.

QUESTION FIVE

What do you expect when you hear the genre 'Thriller'?

Im using this question to help gain an insight into the publics view on the genre of Thriller?

2 People said Adrenaline

2 People said Jumpy

1 Person said People to die

By this i can see that not only do people expect adrenaline junkies and fast paced action scenes, but also quiet scenes that will make the audience jump.

QUESTION SEVEN

Im going to miss out six because it isn't relevant to the creation of this piece.

If there were to be music what would be the most appropriate for a serial killer thriller?

A. Fast Paced Techno

B. Heavy Metal

C. Blues

D. Jazz

E. Pop

F. No Music

G. Other (please specify)

I used this question because if i were to include music into my production i would like to know what kind of music my audience would associate with thriller and what would help create suspense.

3 people said Fast Paced Techno

5 people said Heavy Metal

0 People said Blues

1 person said Jazz

0 people said Pop

2 said other as Orchestral

QUESTION EIGHT

Do you think there should be a high number of enigma codes presented at the start or just enough to keep the audience gripped?

A. High

B. Low

C. None

D. Just Enough

I used this question to think about how much i am going to make the audience think during the opening sequence, do i want them to have many, many questions in their mind or do i want to have a few things in their mind that will bug them for the rest of the movie until they are revealed.

2 People said High amount of Enigma codes

0 People said Low

0 People said None

5 People said Just Enough

QUESTION NINE

If i were to base this movie upon a serial killer, should i give information on the killer through narrative/text during the opening sequence or leave the film to fill in the gaps?

A. Give information through narrative

B. Give information through text

C. Give information through both

D. Leave the film to fill in the gaps

I put this question within my questionnaire as as i was unsure whether to take the route of a movie like Texas chainsaw massacre, where it is like a criminal record with the typewriter kind of text at the start, or to go down a less (thriller) conventional route of using narrative, like Notting Hill.

1 Person said Use Narrative

2 People said Use Text

0 People said Both

3 People said Let the film fill the gaps

CONCLUSION

From my questionnaire i have gathered sufficient information from nine relevant questions, i shall be sure to take the answers into account when making my movie.

Initial Thoughts And Ideas

In this blog I am going to be noting down my initial thoughts, ideas and speculations as to what I think my movie should be about and how I should go about making it.

Introducing the brief: Produce the titles and opening sequence of a new British fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes.

When we began this task i was stuck between 2 different genres to do my opening sequence in. These were;

(Name & Advantages/Disadvantages)

Horror

As soon as i had seen that horror was one of the genre's available for our work, i immediately took that as my idea while different sequences filled my head. This genre could be seen as being relatively easy to film, as in many horror films such as 28 weeks later and saw, the usual locations used within the movie are not hard to find. One example could be from 28 weeks later, in the opening sequence all it is, is just several characters living inside an old wooden shack, with some props and mise-en-scene dotted around the place to make it look like they have been living there.

A disadvantage to this genre is that for my horror movie, i would create a zombie survival opening sequence, as i feel as though i have seen enough of these movies to film one myself, but the disadvantage is the amount of people you would need to film a few minutes of it. During the opening sequence you want to be able to define the main character among other characters, and to do this, many zombie movies use the zombies to help pick out the strong and heroic-like characters, and pick off the weaker characters. Yet again we can see this in 28 weeks later in the opening 5 minutes when the main character is the only person, out of the other few, to get to the boat unharmed.

Thriller

If i were to do a thriller, i would base it upon a serial killer. The serial killer it would be based upon is a man called Dennis Nilson, who would kidnap his victims, kill them and place them around his house as if they were still alive and guests. To do this i wouldnt make it exactly how it was, i would base it loosely on his acts, like the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that movie is based upon a man called Ed Gein, who would wear the skin of his victims, hence the name of the movies killer, Leatherface. 

This was my second choice, since i didn't think i had seen many thrillers, as i was unsure how to define a thriller, as Horror and Thriller are very much alike. Then i found out, on a helpful online forum, that a Horror Shows and Thriller Implies. This means that where a horror could show a person being physically tortured, a thriller would imply that someone is being tortured, or that someone will be tortured.

An advantage to a thriller could be that it would be relatively cheap to film the opening sequence. As i am doing it about a serial killer who has his victims in his house, it doesnt need to have any special effects, just a normal house in a village, and for the dead people around his house, all it needs is dirty clothes and make-up, to make the people look dead, and possibly a low light. So for this i could use my own house.

A disadvantage to thrillers is that it is hard to create that creepy atmosphere, the one that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. To help myself work out how to create this atmosphere i have watched an opening sequence to a movie that is also centered around a serial killer, se7en. The opening sequence is peculiar in this movie, it is choppy and has a low light, with disturbing images flashing every now and again. Also we see what we think is a killer slicing off the skin on his fingers with a razor blade, presumably to not leave fingerprints on the things he is touching. All these images and enigma codes being created at the start send a chill down your spine and make you think "Why is this person doing this? What is his reason?"

After much thinking and speculating, i have come to the decision to make my opening sequence on a Thriller. I feel as though i have seen several thrillers about serial killers to help me create my own. I feel it will be challenging to produce, but easy in the choice of locations as i can already think of where its going to be set and whats going to be used.