Costume For Our Opening Sequence

For our main character, we decided to use clothes such as tracksuit bottoms and a plain t-shirt, as these are casual items of clothing and therefore fitting to his personality. This is due to the fact that our protagonist is suffering from mental illness and addiction, including depression and alcoholism, and that he would therefore not be particularly bothered about his appearance unless he has to be. In addition to this, this clothing is also fitting because the scene opens on the protagonist asleep on the sofa, and so it is reasonable for him to be wearing comfortable clothing due to the fact that he is home alone and has no intentions of going out. This is relevant until the end of the scene, when he changes into work clothing.
For our antagonist, on the other hand, we chose dark clothing such as the black hoodie, bandanna and chinos as we want him to appear intimidating and also blend into the shadows easier. This will work to create more unease within the audience, as the black clothing will make him appear more mysterious and will also give the effect of a 'shadow', which is fitting due to the fact that the antagonist is following the protagonist throughout the scene. Finally, the hoodie is an important piece of clothing as it will hide the killer's face from the camera, leaving the audience questioning who he is.

Filming Schedule Of Our Opening Sequence

Props For Our Opening Sequence

We have used a variety of different props for our opening sequence, each with different motives, such as conveying something about the character to the audience or progressing the scene further, and it is for these reasons that they are important to the scenes. An example of this is the pills and alcohol bottle, as they hint to the audience that the protagonist suffers with mental illness and addiction, and therefore provokes them to question why. For our alcohol bottle, we used a Bulmer's cider bottle as, because this is not typically the type of alcohol you would see someone get drunk on, it is clear he is so addicted he will simply drink whatever is present. This therefore highlights the severity of his addiction. 

Choosing Our Location

Casting For Our Opening Sequence

Animatic Feedback

Our Animatic

The video above is our animatic which shows, using a storyboard of our opening sequence, the order that we plan to take and edit our shots in. It also shows the length we require each shot to be, as well as some of the sound effects we would like to use in our opening sequence. An example of this is the crackling fire when the photograph is burning, or the murmur of the radio in the background as the protagonist goes about his daily routine.

Initial Ideas

Opening Sequence Font Final Decision

 

Opening Sequence Font Options

(Best readability is in full screen)

25 Word Pitch

This is our pitch for our film, providing a small synopsis of what we aim for it to follow and be like. Our goal is to create a shocking, adrenaline-pumped opening sequence for a thriller without giving away too much information too soon, in order to ensure there is an unexpected plot twist and that the audience is left asking questions at the end of the opening. We believe that the storyline we have chosen will be ideal for creating this.

Decided Distribution Company

For our distribution company, we decided to choose Rogue. Founded in 1997, and later re-launched in 2004, Rogue is a subsidiary of Relativity Media and is involved in the creation of a large amount of thriller and horror films, such as A Perfect Getaway and The Unborn, and will therefore be fitting to our genre.  In Rogue's film A Perfect Getaway, there are some aspects to the story, such as the typical mystery of 'who is the killer?' and the mixture of both female and male characters, that are similar to what we would like to include in our film. This suggests that the aims we hold for our film are similar to those of Rogue's, and the audience that Rogue has attracted will also be a similar audience to who our film is aimed at -- under 25 male and females. This shared ethos of our film and Rogue indicates that the company would be a good choice for our distributor. Furthermore, the overall design of the company's logo is quite gritty and gloomy, due to it's popularity in thriller and horror films, and therefore provides the audience with a mysterious, solemn atmosphere that is fitting to the genre long before the film has actually started. The company is also a fairly small one, rather than being the type to create Hollywood blockbuster movies, and this is fitting for the type of classic, independent film we would like to create.