PLANNING: FILM OPENING BRAINSTORM

Today we discussed as a group our ideas for our film opening and were able to discuss certain aspects of our opening. Members of my group include Sophie Bennet, Demi Collins and Kate Bradford.

We have brainstormed ideas for the genre of our opening and settled on a thriller/horror genre. We were particularly influenced by the Amber Alert Warning used in the USA. This consists of alert messages relating to child abductions being sent to all mobile phones in a state. It was initially created when a Amber Rene Hagerman went missing in 1996.

Our storyline

• a missing girl is held captive and escapes from a basement
• she runs and finds herself in the middle of a forest 
• her family is concerned and have contacted the police
• the search begins - we will show scenes of the first stages of the investigation into her disappearance 

Locations

• we have considered using my house to shoot scenes in the basement as it particularly old and dusty and unused 
• the door and steps are very battered and will help to establish the mis-en-scene effectively 
• I have also looked at places we could film around our school as the woodland area could work particularly well for us 
• we established other locations we would require such as a living room whilst the members of the family speak to police and we would also wish to show a fake news clip on the television

Shots/effects considered

• shooting close ups of aspects of face which are bruised or cut however avoiding showing full face of the missing female to create suspense
• darker lighting to be used to establish mis-en-scene
• fast pace with lots of cuts
• tracking shots to show running 
• wide angled shot of basement door being hit as its locked 
• I have considered that we could use a crane/high angle 180 degree shot to show the vastness of the woodland the girl finds herself in. This would create suspense and build tension 
• I have felt it is important to use sound effects of heavy breathing to establish emotions of the main character and we discussed using sounds of slamming or creaking doors 
• Another key sound effect would include the sound of the emergency operator's voice. I  felt we could replace the sound of a gun going off to escalate tension and keep the audience interested as it is not what they expect to happen
• makeup to create fake blood/cuts/bruises 

Characters

• missing female
• suspect killer
• news presenter
• emergency operator (audio)
• police officer(s)