New Shot List: Opening to Thriller

• Longshot esablishing locations, scene and characters. This introduces the two characters to the film.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the girl walking towards the man, sat at a table.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of her approaching the man, and the man putting his newspaper down on the table.
• Cut to a high angle/Close up shot of the girl picking the empty mug up, close up (using the rule of thirds) showing the newspaper headline. (Relating to rape/murder)
• Cut to an extreme close up of the date, showing this part is in a flashback.
• Cut to a zoom out of close up into a high angle shot of the man and girl.
• Cut to a point of view shot of the girl walking away, using shot reverse shot between the girl and the man to connect them. Girl goes into the kitchen.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the mans feet as he gets up and starts to walk.
• Cut to a low angle shot of the man approaching the door.
• Cut to a worms eye of him opening and closing the door.
• Cut to an extreme closeup shot of him bolting the door.
• Cut to a panning shot of the man walking towards the counter and crouching, out of sight from the girl. The girl comes out of the kitchen, scans cafe and switches most of the lights off and walks towards the door.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of man walking towards the the girl whilst she's looking for her keys.
• Cut to a man standing directly behind her, cut to transition/panning shot of the girl to man, in a different scene/location.
• Cut to a transition shot continues to over the shoulder shot of the man attatching photo of the girl to a wall.
• Cut to a close up panning shot showing all the photos of different dead girls.

Further Development to our Thriller Idea

     As a group, we decided that our idea would be too complex just for an opening, as from our case studies we can see that a lot of Thriller films that conform to the genre have very simple openings with minimal changes to setting or characters. Therefore, we have taken our original idea of the cafe, but focus more on the interior of the cafe itself because a dark, ominous cafe will work very well in the Thriller genre. Also that if we keep to just one location, the audience will not be confused and it means that the audience can connect with a character more closely in one settings before it is changed - also just having one location will make it easier for us to maintain the 2 minutes we need.  

   

Developments:

• It will begin with the young girl working in the cafe, however the difference is that the man will be inside the cafe sat down having a drink, instead of being outside watching her.
• The man will be sat at a table reading a newspaper with 'murder/rape' headlines on it.
• The girl will go to collect his coffee and the camera will catch the headline of the newspaper - foreshadowing the rest of the plot.
• She will take the coffee from him and begin to close the cafe for that evening.
• The date on the newspaper will imply that the scene is a flashback once the audience has established the date later in the film.
• The girl will then return to the kitchen with the coffee cup - during this the man will approach the front door of the cafe, open and close the door to imply that he has left, leaving the girl to continue to lock up.
• An extreme close up of the bolt sliding across the door will be next - to show she has been locked inside the already small/claustraphobic space of the cafe.
• He will then walk to crouch behind the counter, so that the girl does not see him.
• Once returning from the kitchen, the girl will switch off all of the lights and slowly walk toward the door, searching for her key in her bag/pocket.
• We will show a shot of the man stood closely behind her, slowly closing in on her in a threatening way.
• We will then use a transition shot to conclude to the next scene - using the back of the girls head, fading into the back of the mans head. He will then place the girls picture on his wall of many other pictures of young girls.

We will have a shot of the man pinning up photos of girls and also the girl in the film, much like in the image (left) - portraying the man as a sadistic killer - the influence coming from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Thus the rest of the film will be an investigation into the murder/disapprence of the girl from the cafe and perhaps having the man as a very onmisent and enigmatic character in the film.

Overall - I think this idea is much simpler and will be able to fit into 2 minutes a lot easier as we have less to film rather than having to film a lot and then cram it into the time limit - which could confuse the audience because there is so much location change. Therefore, with only one location, possibly two if the man is filmed walking into the cafe at the beginning, the audience can see the narrative structure and characters much easier.