We were inspired a lot by this film. Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/plotsummary
We really liked the way that the film was in black and white because it is very effective. Also, the bit with the blood going down the plug with the water still running was really inspiring for us because it is so simple and yet so effective. It gives the impression that the evidence of the crime or bad action is being removed so that it does not exist by going down the plug hole. We really wanted to use this in our opening sequence so we came up with the idea of washing the blood down the sink after the girl has cut herself. We will also do this shot in black and white.
A lot of our inspiration came from this film. The plot line is about Nina, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily, who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/plotsummary
We really liked the way that Nina was looking into the mirror and her reflection 'doubled' into almost good and evil as the evil one in the mirror scratched her back. We really wanted to incorporate this into our filming so we came up with the idea of having the main character in the mirror, while the 'evil' girl was also there in the background. She will then look around and then the girl will be gone. However, we tried to do this and we couldn't get it to work and look professional. Therefore, we came up with the idea of the main character going into the toilet and then showing a shot of her like she is looking in the mirror, but in the dark and her face is lit so it looks sinister.
Lots of different films have influenced our planning in making the opening sequence to our film. One of these films is Skyfall. Skyfall opening sequence:
This is the opening title scene to the film 'Skyfall'. This title sequence is typical of a bond film. We really liked the fact that it was 'dreamlike' as it has Bond falling into a river, sinking. We thought that this would fit in really well with our concept of going back in time, through the main characters memories. This therefore influenced our planning as we wanted our opening sequence to have this quality. Another thing that we liked about this opening sequence was the fact that at one point, the camera goes right though Bond's eye. We really liked this and thought that it would be really good if we could go through the main characters eye and back into her memories. However, we again didn't have the equipment or experience to do this and so we zoomed right into her eye instead. This worked just as well and had the same effect we were looking for.
While we were researching our thriller storyline, we looked at many different sub-genres and decided that we wanted our film to fall into the horror-thriller subgenre. We looked at many different thriller films and we tried to decide what factor they had to make us like them and want to take inspiration from them.
A lot of our inspiration came from the film Mirrors (2008). It is set in New York, where Ben Carson, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is hired to
work as night watch man of the remains of the Mayflower Department Store that was
partially destroyed by fire many years previously. Ben sees the employment as a chance
to rebuild his life. When he goes to the rounds in his first night, he finds
that the mirrors are impeccably clean and his colleague explains that the
former night watch was obsessed by the mirrors. After a couple of nights, Ben
sees weird images in the mirrors, but due to his history of alcoholism, his
ex-wife Amy believes he is having hallucinations as a side effect of his medication.
When his sister Angie is found brutally murdered in her bathtub, Ben discovers
that there is an evil force in the mirror that is chasing him
and jeopardising his family.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790686/plotsummary
This film plot line links in with our theme of good and evil. The idea is to have a female lead who plays the role of an innocent girl. she will be very vulnerable, as most girls this age are, to peer pressure and is influenced to do bad things, like cutting herself by an 'evil' girl who is stalking her. We really liked the idea of her looking into the mirror while her reflection looked back. The reflection then does something sinister and different to what the person looking into the mirror does so you know that something bad is going on. We wanted to incorporate something similar but we were not able to use the same person to be on both sides as we didn't have the experience or technology required to perform this shot. Therefore, we decided that we would get the the main character to go into the toilet and then show a shot of her like she is looking in the mirror, but in the dark and her face is lit so it looks sinister.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott Glenn, the film is based on Thomas Harris' 1988 novel of the same name, his second to feature Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.
In the film, Clarice Starling, a young U.S. FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Lecter to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill".
The Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, and grossed $272.7 million worldwide against its $19 million budget. It was only the third film, to win Academy Awards in all the top five categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). It is also the first Best Picture winner widely considered to be a horror film, and only the second such film to be nominated in the category. The film is considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2011.
Seven is a 1995 American psychological thriller film written by Andrew Kevin Walker and directed by David Fincher. The film stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, with Gwyneth Paltrow, R. Lee Ermey, John C. McGinley, and Kevin Spacey in supporting roles.
The newly transferred David Mills (Pitt) and the soon-to-retire William Somerset (Freeman) are homicide detectives who become deeply involved in the case of a sadistic serial killer whose meticulously planned murders correspond to the seven deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy.
The film was released in the United States on September 22, 1995. Grossing $327 million at the box office internationally,Seven was a commercial success, and received positive reviews.
Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh. The screenplay is by Joseph Stefano, based on the 1959 novel by Robert Bloch based on the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.
The film is about a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and what happens as a result. The film was very different to Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but did exceptionally well at the box office and this made the critics reconsider which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.
It is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behaviour and sexuality in American films. It is particularly recognised for being filmed in black and white and also in the way the music is used to heighten the tension and exaggerate the terror particularly in the renown shower scene
In 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
When people think of thriller movies, this is most likely the first film that will pop into their minds. It is also one of the best thriller film of all time
_poster.jpg)
.jpg)
