Thriller Opening - Animatic

Today we presented our final animatic for our thriller opening - Tracker. We were late at submitting our piece due to frequent conflicts of interest between group members. We were eventually able to work together as a group to produce a piece that combined aspects of all our ideas, enabling us to satisfy everyones requirements. This malfunction allowed me to reasses how our group work together, making it clear that all future areas of the assignment would need to be discussed more thoroughly and for meetings between group members to be more scheduled and time efficient.

To maximize the effect of our thriller opening we have decided to make a few amendments following feedback from our subject teacher. To create a more vivid sense of environment we are now going to open with an establishing shot of the area, making sure that it is focused on the street corner which the protagonist passes round. We are then going to edit the speech said by the shopkeeper from "He's onto us" to "He's left the building". This will help to un-complicate the plot without removing the sense of realism and suspense. We are also going to include more titles and actors names throughout the production ensuring that the final title is the director. Also we have decided that we are going to close with an Establishing shot of the train leaving with the protagonist highlighted in shot. This will create a more definite and dramatic ending. Finally we need to make sure that we include more diegetic sound to reinforce the verisimilitude of the piece.

Costume/ Prop list - Actors

The theme of our opening is Tracking. Therefore the image we are going for is slick, sophisticated business men. Therefore their attire and props will have to reflect that image upon the audience. To do this we are going to use the following actors in the following attire.

Protagonist:

Jacob Grimshaw - Black trousers, White Shirt, Black tie, Long Black coat and a bowlers hat.

- Jacob has the perfect image for the lead role. He has sleek black hair and is of a tall skinny build. He also happens to suit the business image perfectly and looks convincingly professional in his given attire.

Trackers:

------------- - Black trousers, Black tie, White shirt.

We have chosen this costume to help portray the sleek business man look we are aiming for with all three trackers.

Shop Keeper:

Sara Cracknall - Black skirt, White shirt, Name badge, high heels.

We have chosen this look to make sure that Sara blends in as a genuine shopkeeper whilst maintaing a business like look. We chose to use Sara for this role as she is an actual shop keeper for WH smiths on the weekends so was able to gain us access and  play the role convincingly. 

Amended shot list

Shot List

Tracker

Person A: Protagonist
Person B C D: Antagonists
Person X: Computer Guy and Voice of Caller

Basic Profile Stats to include:
Name:
Age:
Skills:
Years known to be active:
Evidence Against:
Missions Failed:

• Production company
• Black screen
• Tracker appears typed in, Central in stereotypical thriller font.
• Zoom in from behind a Person X using a high tech laptop
• Person X POV of the screen
• Clicking a file to open
• File loads
• Search comes up
• Types in T R A C K E R S
• Person Bs Profile opens
• Jump shot to Person B buying a newspaper
• Pause as he exits the store and folds the newspaper under his arm.

Actors Name Appears across screen

• Jump shot back to Person X POV of computer screen

Hear him press Spacebar

• Person Cs Profile Opens
• Jump shot to Person C Clearing Table outside a Café.
• Pause shot as Person C looks up towards the camera

Actors name appears across the screen

• Jump Shot Back to Person X POV of computer screen.

Hear him press Spacebar

• Person Ds Profile Opens
• Jump shot to Person D down a street smoking.
• Drops cigarette on the floor.
• Pause shot as Person D stamps it out and looks up.

Actor name appears across the screen

• Jump shot Back to Person X POV of computer screen.

See him Click the logo in the top left corner of the screen

• Search comes up
• Types in T A R G E T
• Clicks Search
• Profile appears
• Instructions are typed across the middle of the entire screen – DESTROY
• Zoom back to shot of the back of Person X head.
• CU of Person X reaching for his phone.

CUT TO

• Panning Shot of street

Person B,C and D all in Shot - LS

• Panning stops at a shot of Mans Feet.
• Tilt Shot from Person A’s feet up to torso
• Person A POV of watch

Actors name appears as watch make

• Person A’s phone Rings – Cutting all background music.
• CU of Person A taking phone from his inside Jacket Pocket
• CU of person A’s face answering phone

‘RUN’

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This is The amended version of our shot list. we decided to re-do our shot list after discussing our initial ideas with our subject teacher. He suggested that our filming intent was far too ambitious and virtually impossible to do well with the size of our production team and the equipment available to us. After taking his comments into consideration and examining our shot list thoroughly we agreed that not only was it ambitious, but was quickly forming the demeanor of an action movie as opposed to a thriller. Taking all point into account we concluded that it would be most effective to keep our opening as the ending and incorporate more technical features and imagery typical to that of a thriller and finally to cut out the chase scene altogether.

Location

Audience Research

Thriller Opening - Brainstorm