Final Propositions

Propositions are key to every film as they are classed as any article on scene except for costume and scenery and often used to define the possessor of the prop and gives the audience an idea of what that character is like, for example carrying a gun connotes a sense of danger surrounding the character. As I am creating a psychological crime thriller based around a serial killer and his helpless victims, propositions play a massive role in the narrative of the opening.

Weapons are key to establishing whether the character is the antagonist or protagonist of the story. In scene one of my opening, up until the point where the killer's knife is presented in a close up, the audience will be unsure on why this man has burst into this defenceless woman's room. By simply showing a close up of a knife, I have clearly told the audience that this man has the intention to kill the woman in cold blood without any clear reasoning other than a lust for blood. However other situations, this would depend on other elements of the film such as the narrative. An example of this would be a man aiming a gun at someone else, other elements of the film for example the costume would indicate the intentions of the character and the reasoning behind what they are doing. If this man were a police officer, the audience would assume they are trying to lay down the law and stop a dangerous situation whereas if it were a regular citizen, the audience would instantly assume that they are going to break the law in some way.

However weapons are not the only prop I plan to use in my thriller opening. I believe that theatrical blood will important in adding an element of realism to the murder scenes. Although there are ways to present murder without showing blood through the use of diegetic sound, I believe that the use of blood will make the audience feel uncomfortable about the two murder scenes and will give them more of an insight into the killer's life. This is typical of thrillers of a similar sub-genre to mine such as Se7en which rely on showing the sick nature of the killer who they cannot catch. Another proposition which I plan to use are cigarettes for the scene with the police detectives, cigarettes connote that an individual is suffering from a high level of stress which has led to them using this maladaptive behaviour to deal with the situation therefore the use of cigarettes will show the audience that these detectives have been looking for the killer for a while and are struggling to control the case. However cigarettes also carry connotations of relaxation therefore showing that these detectives are seasoned in dealing with corpses and killers, this may also act as a hint to the audience that the detective is the killer due to how comfortable around the body he is.

Propositions will also be used by minor characters such as the members of the press such as notepads and pens. These items do not serve a huge purpose to the story line but indicate their profession to the audience without having to blindly state that they are reporters. The small propositions work alongside the costume and dialogue to add to the audience's understanding that they are press reporters inquiring into why it is taking the police so long to catch the killer.

Use of Postmodernist Techniques

A postmodernist film attempts to subvert the common codes and conventions of cinema including narrative structure and characterisation to alter the audience's suspension of belief. Within the film industry, postmodernism plays a huge role in western culture in countries such as the US where postmodernist films often make reference back to classic films from earlier parts of film history. I feel that I am emulating this technique through my use of propositions. I have decided to place an old typewriter which I found in school in the back of the second scene where an extra detective will be typing, this will be a reference to the classic
1980 thriller The Shining, I feel that I am using a number of elements from The Shining apart from the typewriter as the killer in my opening was heavily influenced by the acting of Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance. Another film which I feel has influenced the writing stage and certainly the killer of my opening is American Psycho, I plan to show my killer's passion for murder through his movements during the opening scene and how he picks himself up so calmly after killing another human being, following in the footsteps of the twisted Patrick Bateman of both the film and the novel. Postmodernism can be seen in a number of ways including the alteration of the protagonist's mind. I plan for the protagonist to also be played by the antagonist showing a clear alteration in the mind of Hudson as his murderous side seems to just switch on and off which him even being aware that he is killing these people.

However the use of postmodernism in films such as Pulp Fiction often indicates to the audience not to take the film too seriously and point out to the audience that it is just a film. I do not intend for this to be the case for my opening as I still want to keep the audience on the edge of their seats as they witness this mad, well dressed killer slaughter innocent people for no apparent reason and a troubled police detective struggle to catch him although they look strangely alike. I feel that through only using the postmodernist effects of referencing to other films and showing an alteration in the protagonists mind set, I am not taking anything away from the codes and conventions of the thriller genre I am using to make the audience feel uneasy as they are only being used to present how gruesome and cold blooded the antagonist of the opening is.

The Use of Swearing in Film

In order to engage with my target audience and make the thriller opening appear more adult and not suitable for children, I have decided to include a small amount of swearing in the dialogue. In the 1960s swearing would be rarely found in film, seeing as the first swearword on British television caused national uproar in the 1960s. However I plan to show a distressed detective who is in the middle of a case which he cannot solve and he knows that every day that the case goes on, someone else is likely to die. I have decided to use dialogue in my opening to express the protagonists negative views on the situation and how angry he is about how other people doubt he's worthy of this case. Swearing also adds to the development of the character as the use of bad language connotes a low threshold for handling difficult circumstances and makes it seem like Hudson could just snap at any second. Due to the connotations that swearing carries, this is another subtle hint to the audience that the detective and the killer are in fact the same character. Although Hudson is the protagonist of the opening, his bad language and quick temper suggests he also has a dark side to him and can turn on a hostile mood like a light switch, perhaps how he would also turn on a killing mentality.

I have used swearing in my script to highlight the detective's frustration at those around him as well as with the other detective to show how other people are starting to doubt him. The use of swearing will also support the actions of the detective as he goes to attack a reporter at the end of the second scene who asks him if he 'knows people are dying'; this sends the detective over the age as knocks the reporters notepad out of his hand and shouts at him. By using swearing, I am showing how the detective is on the edge, swearing in film is no longer a taboo subject and is a common feature in films with a rating of 15 upwards. I have also used profanities in the script to offend the people around him who are only trying to do their own jobs, by using foul language I am degrading the characters around him, showing that the detective has a higher status than all of them as he gets away with swearing at them without any consequences.

Final Script - Duality

I have compiled a final script for my thriller opening 'Duality'. The script consists of five pages covering three separate scenes.

Scene One:

Scene 1 will start with the camera focusing on a brick wall where the credits including director, writer and actors will be superimposed. The scene will be set in a dark, dingy corridor which appears to be inside a cheap hotel with very low lighting. The antagonist of the opening will be dressed in a black suit, sunglasses, smart shoes with slicked back hair. The audience will not initially see him as a dangerous character as he is formally dressed suggesting he may be a target for theft. This idea will be supported by the large headphones he will be wearing which not only support the 1980's setting of the thriller opening, but also make the character appear susceptible to any dangers which may confront him as he will not hear them. The camera will follow the antagonist from behind through a mid shot, this suggests that he is being followed by someone and is unaware and could be attacked at any second.  However this view of the antagonist soon changes as he goes to knock at a door, steps back, and kicks through the door. The camera will quickly follow the killer into the room with a shaky, handheld shot remaining behind the killer. 

A blonde female character will then be introduced who will jump up from where she was sat. The room will also have very low lighting, in order to make the audience feel closed in and claustrophobic therefore they cannot escape, and the woman will be dressed in typical 1980's clothing which has not yet been decided upon. An extreme close up of the woman's face will indicate that she is frightened by this unknown character's presence, this is fully established through another extreme close up of the antagonist stroking a knife in a slow, sexual manner. This is followed by a wide shot from the killer's perspective, panning across the room checking for potential exits when the woman races into the shot. This then reverts back to the original mid shot from behind the killer in which he draws back the knife behind his head ready to launch in the direction of the helpless woman. The camera then ducks away into the killers back to obscure the audience's vision to make them confused about the whole situation and unsure on whether the girl has been murdered or just injured after the diegetic sound of the knife entering her body. However the character's death is confirmed to the audience as the camera draws back up to the woman falling to the floor. The camera then quickly switches from behind the killer into the victim's eyes as she watches the killer's feet walk closer and closer to her dying body, blacking out momentarily to create ellipses. The killer's headphones are then dropped right in front of the victim, the camera tilts up as the killer bends down, cutting just before his face is shown to ensure this killer remains anonymous. The killer then pulls the knife from his victim from a mid shot behind him and proceeds to slash her throat, splattering fake blood onto the wall behind her. At this point the camera will swiftly pan to the wall and present blood dripping down before showing the killer leave the room from an obscure shot by a puddle of the victim's blood on the floor.

Scene 2:

Scene 2 of Duality will start with the aftermath of the murder which the audience have just witnessed. Obviously because of the detectives working on the crime scene the room will feature more lighting and will include three detectives, two of which will be examining the dead body and one will be writing up a report on the typewriter at the back of the shot. A television in the room will have been left on and there will be three reporters outside waiting for the entrance of another police detective. I plan to start the scene with the flash of a detective's camera as he examines the female fatality, this will be quickly followed by a close up of the corpse, leading to a pan to the entrance of the room. A detective with dark hair, a shirt and a trench coat will enter the room and the camera will follow him from behind with a similar mid shot used in the opening scene, suggesting to the audience that this might be the same person returning to the scene of the crime. The detective walks up to a fellow detective, dressed in an open shirt with rolled up sleeves and no tie, who is already looking at the body. This will be followed by a two shot of the two detectives, quickly cutting to a close up the protagonist lighting a cigarette, reverting back to the two shot as he takes a drag.

This is where the first dialogue of the opening is introduced as the other detective asks the protagonist whether he believes it was 'him'. This line also tells the audience the name of the main character, Hudson, allowing them to form a closer relationship with him over the course of the scene. However Hudson's reaction to the question is hostile and includes profanities to assert dominance over his colleague and show that he is stressed about the case. This is then followed by a statement of doubt by the other detective which leads Hudson to walk off in disgust over being doubted by his fellow officers. As Hudson leaves the room, a wide shot from the door frame will show him walking. Diegetic sound of reporters calling his name will cause the detective to bury his head in his hands in frustration before he confronts three members of the press. The press also declare their doubt over his abilities to handle the case leading to the audience momentarily sympathising with the protagonist until he attacks one of the reporters who ask him if 'he knows people are dying'. This moment of anger will act as another suggestion to the audience that Hudson is also the killer as both have shown violent tendencies. The scene will fade out after Hudson has slammed the door on the reporters after the minor attack. 

Scene 3:

Scene 3 will start in a foul, filthy alleyway at around dawn. As I plan to film this scene first, I have looked ahead at the weather forecast which suggests the weather will mainly consist of rain over the coming weeks which may create some continuity problems when it comes to filming, however I have decided to include the weather in the script as it may be something I have to deal with on the day. the scene will start with a wide shot of the alleyway, similar to the opening scene the killer will walk through wearing the exact same clothes except this time without the headphones. A tramp will also be sat in the corner of the shot. The camera will then cut to a mid shot from the perspective of the tramp which will pan up the legs of the killer, again similar to scene 1. He will ask the killer for change as he walks past. I plan for the tramp to be dressed in an old army-like parka, black jeans, Chelsea boots and black fingerless gloves. The camera will then cut back to the original wide shot in which the killer will stop and drop his wallet as he reaches for his jacket pocket. A high, canted angle will be used to show the tramp as weak as he reaches for the killer's wallet but is unsuccessful as the killer stamps down on it. A close up of the tramp will present his fear to the audience as he, as well as the audience by now, have anticipated that the tramp is now in serious danger. The original wide shot will show the killer stab the tramp and lower him to the floor before kicking his to ensure that he has reached his demise. The killer picks up his wallet and calmly exits the scene as is nothing had happened. A close up of the tramp will present a pool of blood before the shot cuts to black where 'DUALITY' will finally be superimposed.

Initial Shot/Plot Plan

I have completed an initial plan on the opening two minutes of a thriller. However this is only a brief plan on what I expect to film in the coming weeks and there are a number of things that may have to change such as the use of a cigarette just in case we have to film in school. The opening will consist of three separate scenes all surrounding the killings of a psycho. However not all of the scenes will show the antagonist as the second scene will present the aftermath with the police from the murder in the opening scene. I plan to use scene three to show how the murderer has no boundaries and will kill anyone who tries to get in his way.

Scene 1

Opening credits – Superimposed onto wall

Pan into antagonist walking.

Antagonist costume – Trench coat, sunglasses and headphones

Mid shot behind the antagonist – follow until the door where the camera stops

Antagonist takes time at the door – goes to knock then kicks the door open

The music intensifies and the camera becomes shaky as it follows antagonist into the room

Woman has a paper with a headline referring to the killer

Mid shot of antagonist drawing out a knife

Close up of the woman’s face showing her fear – uncomfortably close

Close up of the knife with the killer touching it sensually

Shot from the killer's eyes – Woman screams, pans across to the other side of room where woman runs into shot

Reverts to mid shot- knife pulled back and camera ducks behind object to obscure view

Camera pans back up showing woman bleeding and the killer celebrating in the foreground

Mid shot of the woman slumping to the floor

From the floor – canted angle from woman’s eyes of killer’s feet approaching

Black outs creates ellipses as the killer gets close and closer

Headphones dropped into front of shot and the camera pans up as the killer bends down until the camera reaches his shoulders

Mid shot with tripod – killer rises from the corpse after stroking her face, pulls the knife out of her and she groans, wipes the blood of the curtain then puts it away, pulls out a bigger knife and slashes her throat.

Blood splatters onto wall spelling out DUALITY

Scene 2

Camera flash, close up of woman’s face/neck

Pan, circle around the room, protagonist, shot behind of him entering the room

Pulls out a cigarette – close up of him lighting the cigarette then mid shot of him turning around to talk to other detective

Protagonist speaks to second detective

Looks like a standard job, nothing stolen, two clean wounds, seven inches in diameter, what do you think chief is it him?

Of course it was him, why else would I be here?

How can you be so sure, it’s a big city, you and me both know there’s at least a dozen murders a night in this part of town.

How do I know? *close up of his face looking at the body* I wouldn’t be good at my job if I didn’t know.

Talks to another extra detective – asks him a question

Protagonist walks towards door, camera panning around, close up

Mid shot from behind, protagonist takes one last drag

Focus pull over his shoulder, press come running towards detective, ask questions:

This is the ninth murder in the case so far, do you have any new leads?

It seems funny how you all seem to be taking your time about it.

Protagonist gets angry and throws reporters notepad to the floor

Fades to black 

Scene 3

Fade into scene 

Wide shot watching killer walk past a tramp sat on floor

Tramp asks the killer for change

Mid shot from behind of killer reaching into his jacket pocket

Close up of wallet falling onto floor

Over shoulder shot showing tramp reach for wallet and the killer's hand stamp on it

Close up of tramp looking scared

Back to wide shot of tramp being stabbed multiple times, kicks the tramp and takes the wallet

Mid shot of the tramp dead with footstep Foley 

Fade to black 

180 Degree Rule Piece

One of the basic guidelines for film making is the 180 degree rule. The rule regards to the on screen spatial relationship between a character and either another character or an object. This is often used in film making as crossing the line often makes the audience feel uncomfortable and is important for continuity editing. An imaginary line known as the axis connects the characters by keeping the camera on one side of the axis for every shot in one scene, breaking this is could 'crossing the line'. This line is drawn perpendicular to the camera's viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene.

In the example above, the camera can be placed anywhere within the green zone of the scene, this will make the scene more comfortable visually to the audience as even when only one character is in shot, they are still aware of the location of the other. 

Crossing the line often also affects the use of eye line match in a film as it frequently makes it look like they are not looking at each other whilst talking therefore when shooting a two shot, the characters should always be on the same side of the frame in each shot. There are very few ways to correct for breaking this rule, one way is showing the movement of the camera and carrying the audience with you to the opposite side of the shot and staying on that side for the rest of the scene; this ensures that the audience are not made to feel more uncomfortable and they do not lose focus in the film.

Although breaking the rule often looks unprofessional and does not work, it has been used by many directors including Stanley Kubrick in the bathroom scene of The Shining to make the audience feel unbalanced and disorientated as well as Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings with Gollum to show a divide between his two personalities. The only reasoning behind breaking the rule one could have is for the effect that it causes, like Kubrick and Jackson have done, otherwise it will not work with the rest of the scene and will only confuse the audience on where they are watching the scene from.

  

In order to demonstrate my understanding of the 180 degree rule, Zoran, Dan and I have created a thirty second piece highlighting my knowledge of how to use the rule. Although it is only short, I have shown my knowledge of using the angles and positioning of the camera to highlight my understanding of how to keep eye line match apparent and have not broken the 180 degree rule. I have also used ellipses at the beginning of the piece to highlight my understanding of the use ellipses within film and that I can apply my knowledge to successfully shorten the amount of time it takes to present something which would otherwise start to bore the audience.

Here is my short piece:

Enigma Video

The creation of enigma within film is a technique often found within the thriller genre. In my thriller opening, I plan to create an atmosphere of mystery to surround my antagonist; I want the audience to ask themselves why this man is going around killing people who, to them, will seem innocent. In order to ensure that this sense of enigma comes across in my opening, Zoran, Dan and I created a practise enigma scene. The very short piece includes Zoran entering a building and opening an empty locker which he then slams. This creates a sense of mystery and enigma surrounding the character as the audience will not know who he is, where he is or what he expected to find in the locker, making them all interested in seeing more from the character. However the time in which we would have planned and story boarded the piece, we were performing a recce for the thriller opening therefore on the day we quickly planned out the basics surrounding the piece. As we only had an hour, we were unfortunately unable to edit the sound of the piece therefore throughout the film there is sound of other groups creating similar pieces. Time management was clearly key to this exercise because the sound of other groups filming takes away part of that sense of enigma and mystery as it suggests this character is actually in a friendly environment and makes the piece look unprofessional as it needs a lot more work done.

However although there are a number of things that I feel could have been done better in this task, such as time management; I believe that this task has taught me that I need to take more control over how I use the time I have in which to film. This is a concern as I plan to film two of the three scenes for Duality in a classroom therefore there will only be a certain amount of time I will be allowed to use the room. On the other hand I feel that there are also a number of successes to the piece as I feel that I have successfully created an enigmatic atmosphere around the character and I believe that the audience would be intrigued to see what he will do next in search for the missing object.

Here is my short enigma piece: