More clips..

These unedited clips include me practicing the tracking shot around the back of the actresses head. It was difficult to do it effectively without catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror but eventually I managed to get the shot I wanted.

Raw Clips from filming

These are some of the raw, unedited clips from filming. 

Props;

I have had to create two props for my opening scene:

• A letter from 'Southgate Sixthform'.

• A birthday card from Emma's old "best friend" George, which will later be revealed to have been written by Emma's mother. The card is ripped up to intrigue the audience, they can question why it has been torn and ripped in two.

The Settings.

My opening scene will take place in:

• Emma's bedroom
• Her bathroom
• Hallway of her house
• Dining room
• The roads she walk on the way to Sixth Form
• The Heath she walks through

Here are some pictures of the Settings:

I placed some of my old things in the room that I used to have as a child. Again, I did this to emphasize her naïvety and child like life. For example, I placed the toy horse next to the mirror, as seen in the picture above. Also, I placed this poster (picture below) as it is child-like and fits in with Emma's social problems and also contains significance in that she cannot get rid of Jane, she seems to want to prove that "A Friend is Forever". Also, I have a couple of mirrors in my bedroom and I am going to experiment with possibly inserting a few subtle reflections of Jane in the background of a few shots to enhance the sense of a supernatural force hidden behind the ordinary exterior.

My Storyboard:

Overview of my opening sequence;

I want the following sequence of events to happen in the opening of my film:

• Emma, nervously, getting ready for her first day at her new Sixth Form.
• Emma's mother giving her her medication- Emma believing they are for her "weak immune system" when in fact they are to stop her hallucinations.
• Emma looking at a birthday card sent to her by her old (imaginary) best friend George. It will be later revealed in the plot that she unknowingly wrote it herself.
• Emma seeing Jane for the first time.

My plan is for these events to intrigue the audience and build a foundation so that throughout the plot secrets of her medication, her old best-friend and new best-friend can be revealed to the audience.

Meeting the Audience's Expectations.

A few months ago I conducted a survey to find out what the target audience expects from a thriller.
To see the results please click here.

My protagonist is female, as suggested by the audience.
Also, I learnt from my survey that the audience expect an unhappy, cliff-hanger ending and the ending to my plot is a cliff hanger (as it is unclear whether Emma has truly let go of Jane) and it is unhappy in the fact that Emma has lost two of the closest, and only, friends she's ever had.
The plot includes many Red Herrings, which are the clues to George's and Jane's real existence that prove to be false.
Death plays a part in the film in that Emma takes an overdose after she believes she has murdered Jane- this affects the protagonists mental state greatly.

Character Functions;

In my opening two minutes I want the audience to feel a connection with the main character Emma and I want to make some of her personality traits very apparent:-

• Outcast- Has been treated badly by people in the past.
• Shy- as a result of being bullied previously.
• Does not have any strong relationships, not even with her mother.

Character Functions

Heroine- Emma

Donor/Helper- Psychiatrists (give Emma advice to be rid of Jane)

Object of the Quest- The boy Emma likes but is rejected by, and to be wholly accepted by people.

Blocker- Jane

The Narrative Structure of my chosen idea;

As in most thriller films, my plot revolves around the single protagonist Emma and her own personal battle she has to fight on her own. The battle is a psychological one against Jane, a seemingly unbeatable opponent who plays with Emma's thoughts and mind. Also, Emma has a 'back-story' which is revealed in parts throughout the text to deepen the psychological aspect of the story and the reader shall be able to understand Emma more specifically and see how her previous experiences have shaped her perceptions on life. The solution of the problem never becomes fully clear, as we have a cliff-hanger ending in that we never discover if Emma is ever truly rid of Jane.

To also fit in with the thriller genre, I want this text to be a first person narrative. Therefore, the audience can develop a relationship with Emma and fully understand the workings of her mind. I could achieve this with using voice-overs, like in 'Fight Club' so the audience are always aware of the protagonists thoughts, feelings and perspective on the situation she faces.

Synopsis for Film Idea 3.

A young girl, Emma, starts a new life at a new school where no-one knows anything about her. Exceeding the expectations of her parents, she quickly makes friends with Jane; a girl in her year at school.
However, the secrets of Emma's past soon come to light and we discover that a number of the people she has held close to her are purely figments of her imagination, including Jane. Battling through her mental health issues means battling with her own mind, but Jane puts up a strong fight and is determined to stay with Emma forever.

My chosen idea;

I asked a range of people which of my film ideas they liked best and here are the results;

The majority of the people I asked chose Idea 3.
Personally, Idea 3 was my favourite Idea as I believe it contains many interesting elements and themes of the thriller genre i.e. mental health issues, murder, mystery, suspense, red herrings and a cliff hanger ending.
Therefore I shall choose this idea for my opening scene.

Film Idea (4)

• A girl and her twin brother do everything together and have no other friends.
• The twin girl begins to make friends with other girls at school and her brother becomes jealous.
• The girls she becomes friends with are each mysteriously murdered one-by-one and the girl fears that she will be next. The girl is mentally affected by the deaths and has flashbacks of her past as as a little girl when she pushed her childhood friend in a lake when playing and she drowned. She was treated horribly by people who judged her as a "devil child", which lead to a very insecure upbringing and having to move towns every time a resident found out about the death.
• The boy becomes increasingly protective over his sister and she begins to suspect him to have committed the murders. Though she keeps her suspicions to herself as she believes he would never do such a thing.
• One day the twin sister finds a knife in the bedroom she shares with her brother but still she protects him and he tells her to never tell anyone about what he has done because he knows a secret about her that no-one else in the town knows; the murder at the lake.
• However, one day the girl decides to tell her mother about her suspicions of her brother. The mother becomes very distraught and tells her they will deal with it the next day.
• The following day, the girl is woken up in a hospital and a doctor explains how they had to perform tests on her. They discover that her mental health had deteriorated over time and she was having frequent hallucinations. The girl is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, one day the girl asks why her brother hasn't visited and her mother explains to her that she had no twin brother, he was just a figment of her imagination that she conjured up after her distress of the treatment she received after killing her friend. She asks if she will ever leave the hospital and her mother tells her that she cannot, as she has murdered, and not just murdered the little girl at the lake, but she murdered  her friends too.