Have you ever been decapitated and cooked in your grandma’s pot?
Well a few weeks ago, to continue on the thriller project, we got to create our own thrillers! Before actually starting to plan and make our own movies, we watched several mentor videos. By watching these videos we learned what makes a good thriller. One of the main things I learned was the 3C’s, Contract, Clock and Crucible. Contract is an implied promise at the start of what is going to happen or be solved or fufilled by the end. Clock is the feeling of pressure due to the lack and speed of time. Crucible is the challenges, often of increasing difficulty. We also learned 8 key concepts that contribute to creating an amazing thriller. Having a lot of suspense builds anticipation and keeps the viewer engaged and thinking of what will happen. Thrillers should include a main character – the hero and an enemy, either a real person or just an idea or feeling or problem, as well as sometimes a sidekick for the hero. Including plot twists (unexpected events), red herrings (false alarms or clues), cliffhangers (endings or cuts that leave the viewer without explanation or conclusion of what happened or will happen next) and an exciting climax are also very important parts of making an excellent thriller.
After learning about thrillers, we started to create our own, in small groups and I worked with Alva and Aiya (amazing group members!). After brainstorming, we put together our main idea and created a title, logline and plot overview for our movie.
TITLE: time for dinner
LOGLINE: On a dark night, Antonio tries to find his missing girlfriend, only to find her where he would have never expected.
PLOT OVERVIEW: (1) There is a TV with a news report about a cannibalistic kidnapper and then the scene cuts to Bella and Antonio, on a late evening stroll down a dim alley. (2) Antonio stops to tie his shoe and while he is looking down, a cane comes out of the bush and pulls Bella into it. (3) Antonio finishes tying his shoe and looks up, realizing his girlfriend is gone. (4) He screams her name and immediately starts running and searching for her, when he trips and falls, landing right beside a severed hand. (5) He manages to get up and keeps running, until he finds her necklace caught on the branch of a bush beside a pathway and looks up at the house and gasps, as he sees a high heel on the porch. (6) He approaches the house with an anxious and confused and knocks on the door and an old woman opens the door a moment later – his grandma. (7) She takes him for dinner and lifts the plate cover to reveal his girlfriend’s head.
After this, we worked on character development. Here are the 3 character charts we filled out.
Next, I created a storyboard and included the timing and audio and angles so that we would be organized for filming and editing.
After all the planning, we filmed all our clips, however the next day going over our videos, we realized that the clips had weird lighting, angles and audio and in general didn’t look or sound good or professional. As well, Aiya as Antonio looked very weird and funny. So we revised the plot overview and changed the script so that there was no talking, because many of the mentor texts that we liked were the same way. We also changed our film’s title to Grandma, to imply that the old woman seen was actually the main character’s grandmother, without saying so in the film. We re-filmed everything, specifically making sure that the audio and lighting were better. We decided to wait a bit longer before filming so that it would be darker without having to change the exposure. The rain was not planned but I think that it actually really contributed to the dark creepy atmosphere. This time we were all much happier with the quality of our videos. Alva and Aiya found music and sound effects and then me and Alva edited the videos and audio together. I think that our revisions and reflections helped us create a really good horror movie! This is our final video:
In conclusion, this was both a super educational and fun (I love moviemaking) project! And our film was so good that we even traumatized our other friend to walk down that alley in the dark anymore ;P That’s all for this post.
Kaia out!