Thriller Brainstorm, rational and storyboard

Porcia Armitage

14th Feb 2021

For my Thriller I have chosen option 2, where a kidnapper watches a child at a fun fair. The parent and child are separated while the kidnapper moves in for the abduction.

This will be an opening to a thriller movie.

Here is my initial brainstorm:

Brainstorm of what I am adding to my thriller to make it more suspenseful:

Rational:

The opening shot of my thriller will be an establishing shot of the fun fair. This will be an extreme wide shot so the audience will be able to have a vision of the settings location which is the fun fair. The main objects that will be seen in the establishing shot is a big bumper cars pool full with kids driving around and banging into each other. The Ferris wheel also takes up the shot known as mis-en-scene. Among these joy rides are groups of people standing and smiling around along as a few big food trucks. The people are chatty, friendly and humorous as we can see from their facials and body language. These are all symbols of joy which relate to the fun fair as fun fairs are places people go to have fun and let their adrenaline run. The beginning of the thriller spreads the mood of joy as such things like the bright sky, trees and flowers factor in to make the fun fair a really family friendly and enjoyable time. During this opening shot the camera will slowly be zooming into where Issac and Kristen are. (the mum and son) During the first shot there will be loud happy music to set the scene.

My second shot will be a more clear image of Issac and Kristin such as what they are wearing, their emotions and the game that they're playing at the funfair. Issac the son is aged 5 years old and is is wearing a red Hoody with blue shorts and a hat. Kristin the mum is aged 32 years old and is wearing a bright pink floral shirt along with some blue jeans and ballet flats. Both of them seem to be having a wonderful time at the funfair playing dodgeball in a little inflatable cage. Issac and Kristen both have big beautiful smiles on their faces and are laughing their hearts out enjoying their day. This is the scene where we meet 2 of the main characters of the thriller. This shot is going to be a mid shot of the two characters playing the dodgeball so we can see both what's happening/ what they are doing and their facials. 

The transitions between these takes are fades as they are calm and create a sense of peace in comparison to the fun fair which is joyful, loud and not too peaceful. Here, will be a mid shot of after the mum and son are off the dodge ball game and the boy is staring at the food and has a look on his face like he is hungry. Issac looks down at his stomach and rubs it and taps his mums arm to point to the food trucks implementing that he is hungry for food. Kristen answers not right now we can wait till after we leave the fun fair to make lunch at home. Issac looks around him and sees a whole lot go kids his age laughing and smiling with their candy floss and hotdogs. 

This shot will quickly transition to a close up of the food trucks and the kids eating food and putting the food in their mouths while the sound of Issacs hungry tummy rumbles in the background. This is using non-diegetic sound which is sound not in the world of the movie. These quick cuts are overwhelming and make Issac even more hungry for the fun fair food. 

Here, the mood seems a little more sad and heart felt for Issac cause he didn't get his way. This next shot transitions into a fade to black and suddenly to a man sitting on the park bench near the bushes starring at all that is happening. The shot from here will be close up shots quickly changing to all of the things the man is watching. This man also known as the kidnapper has no name, he is very unfamiliar , aged 58, looks normal but is actually mental. He wears a black Hoody with blue jeans and a beanie. This shot contains obstruction as the old man's face is covered by a shadow which doesn't allow the audience to see his real appearance until later in the thriller. The old man has long greasy grey hair which gives us the idea that he is unhygienic and does not take care of himself or does not care about his appearance. we get a weird vibe and mood when seeing him like something is off. While the quick shots take place of showing everything that the old man is looking at, the music is very suspenseful in the background which is diegetic sound. The sound mainly consists of kids laughs and screams and people chatting. By this, the diegetic sound is used so we can see that the old man is very strange in which he senses everything like he can hear everyone and see everything. This contrasts to the shots before hand which are very happy, joyful and humorous where as this shot is creepy, dark and ultimately strange and weird. During this shot the lighting is very dark and has a dark blue Hue behind it. Overall this shot is very dark and introduces the audience to a very strange new character who will bring suspense to the thriller. 

Suddenly a fade to Black transition will happen. Now the camera is back on the boy and the mum where the Mum has bumped into a friend and has gotten sidetracked from everything else surrounding her. Here we can see Issac still looking around at all of the food and kids eating food. This shot contains eerie music which is diegetic sound, as the audience now feels uncomfortable with the new character (Old man). 

Suddenly there is a quick fade to Black and then we see in the shot that the boy has walked away from his mum walking closer and closer to the food. Here there is faster more suspenseful music as a young five-year-old boy has walked away from his mother and has no supervision as the mum is sidetracked. This shot shows at the boy has been isolated from his mum. 

This next shot quickly transitions to the old strange man standing up and walking closer from the bench to the food stands and trucks. The music is very fast and suspenseful giving the audience fright and is questioning the audience whether the boy is going be kidnapped now. Suddenly the music stops and is silent. The camera is on a dolly and going in circles around the young boy. As the camera is spinning around the boy we can see the old strange man in the background staring at him with his hood up and his face still covered in the shadow. The music picks up again to eerie suspenseful music. The lighting is very dark and has a black hue to it like the sun has gone away and the clouds have come over the funfair. This contrasts to the shots before where it is fun, sunny and bright where as now the funfair which is supposed to be joyful is now scary and an unsafe environment for unsupervised kids. 

Now the shot is an over the shoulder shot to show the shoulder of the old man with the little boy in front of him faded out. Racking is now used to fade the shoulder of the old man and zoom in closer to the boy. 

Now back to the mother with a fade to Black. Here we have a vulnerable person in the thriller making this shot more scary and fearful. This is showing the audience that fears come to life. The Mum has a very worried face and walks away from her friends to shout "ISSAC", "ISSAC, where are you". 

The camera now pans to the right where we can see the boy and the old man. After the panning to the right the camera goes on a canted angle zooming into the boy while isolated before the kidnapping. There is obstruction used in this shot to cover half of the boys body by some random person who is faded out.

The camera quickly switches over to the old man's face who is still in shadow. The old man walks into the sun and we can now see his full face and facials. He looks very dark confused and angry as the camera is up to him. In the shot we can see that the old man is slowly walking up to the boy making the Thriller more suspenseful. The music becomes faster and faster almost like it is preparing the audience for what is about to happen. It almost sounds like a fast drum. 

In the next shot the camera is hand held to make the shot more distressed and suspenseful bringing a fear most mums have to life. In this shot we see the old man nearly touch the boys arm like he is going to grab him. The sound behind this shot is the non diegetic sound of the mums heavy breathing along as the old man's heavy breathing.

A fade to Black is used to transition into the shot where the old man grabs the boys arm giving him a fright. The sound used in this shot is the boys heavy breathing as he is very frightened from what has just happened. This shot is a close-up of the man grabbing the boys arm. As the kidnapper and the boy is surrounded by people the kidnapper tells him to be quiet and tells the boy that he is his mum's friend and he's going to take him back to his mum and get him food.

Now in the shot the camera is panning more to the right where the kidnapper is taking the boy into the other bush explaining to the boy that they getting food there. The lighting is getting darker and darker like the scene is getting darker and darker this is similarity. In this shot the boy is still very confused and we can still hear his heavy breathing behind all that is happening. 

In this shot the camera pans more to the right further into the bush where the kidnapper stands still holding at the boys arm. The boy asks where are we and the man answers getting food. Here the kidnapper and the boy are completely isolated with no one on site and can hear absolutely no one. The boy is very confused and starts to panic as his mum is not inside he lets out a scream which is very loud and suspenseful and gives the audience fear.  

Fade to Black is used to show extreme close-up on the Mum's face to show her facials. Her facials are very frightened scared sad angry and confused. Her mouth is wiggling like she is about to cry because she is scared that she has lost her son. Here she is screaming out his name and running around which is keeping the audience on their toes because everyone knows that this is a very scary experience for anyone.

The thriller ends with a fade to Black and stays black for a few seconds until the end.

Questions:

1. Who do you introduce character-wise and why?

I add in a mum named Kristen aged 32. A son Issac aged 5. And an old man the kidnapper who is 58. These are my 3 main characters in the thriller. I added a mum and son because getting your kid kidnapped is a very serious fear all mums have. I have made the son 5 years old because he is still dependant on his mum and is the age tat can walk well so they are most likely to walk away from parents. The main function of a character in a story is to extend or prolong the plot, make it readable and interesting. Many stories use multiple characters, and every story has a main character that affects the plot a great deal. Main characters are essential for thriller genres because getting to know a character and their relationships makes it even harder for the audience to see anything bad happen to them.

2. Where do you set your film scene, why?

My Thriller film is set at a fun fair during the day when it is hot and sunny ejecting positive and bright moods. The film is set where the lighting starts off a bright then gradually ascends down to dark hue. This as an effect on the movie overall. the setting my Thriller is based in helps set the scene of the movie and creates a place for his to have fun and go wild. Even though it would be more suspenseful to shoot at night I have chosen for the thriller to be set during the day because that is when you would least expect a kidnapping to take place especially with that many parents and kids running around. 

3. What iconography and symbolism will you include?

In my thriller lots of iconography and symbolism is included. Iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. 

Firstly, I have made the little boy Issac where kids clothes like a jumper and hat because it shows that the boy is very innocent. Issac also likes to spend time with his mum which gives us the idea that he is not sucked into the world of social media and technology like most kids are his age. from these 2 things we can start to get to know Issac as a character and take the little details into more depth to understand the thriller more. Therefore, making the thriller more suspenseful. Another thing I have done is added clouds to most of my story boards so we can see what the weather is. This helpers viewers determine the moods and feelings themselves. for example, when the mood is darker or lighter. one last thing is adding a shadow known as obstruction to the old mans (kidnappers) face. This almost acts as a mask on the old man to hide his true self from the audience. This also helps us see that maybe he is hiding something or hiding a smirk. Overall, the obstruction makes the old man even more stranger. 

Storyboard: