Storyboard - First draft

During shot 1 there is an establishing shot which is a fade in from the credits, in the background of this shot and up to shot 14 our music choice "icy weather" will be played. During the fade in between shot 1 and 2 dialogue will be heard which then leads into shot 2 which is a long/mid shot which is a slow pan, low angle of one of the victims. Shot 3 is an action shot which is also filmed as a mid shot of one of the policemen and a forensic, shot 4 shows the body being carried off leading to a zoom in on the victims arm whilst there is a voiceover of the forensics report. Shot 5 leads on from shot 4 as it is a close up of the photograph of the victims arm, these two shots should transition smoothly and should look almost like one shot.

Shot 6 is a shot reverse shot of the conversation between the policeman and forensic. Shot 7 is a closeup/pan presenting the murderers footsteps and there is a voiceover of the nurse reading over the murderers file. Shot 8 is a long shot continuing on from the previous shot of the murderers feet, the voiceover is also continued throughout this shot. Shot 9 is an extreme close up of the murderers hands containing a bible, this can be presented in slow motion, with the voiceover still heard in the background. Shot 10 is a slow motion/mid shot of the Bethlem sign and the murderer leaving the grounds. Shot 11 is a mid shot of the murderer and following on from that is a shot of the nurse as she opens the door to the murderers room, this can be an over the shoulder shot.

Shot 12 is a point of view/long shot shown from the policeman's point of view as we can feel the same surprise that he does as the shot shows the writing on the wall of the room. Shot 14-16 has a different soundtrack which then contains extreme close ups of the words "Thou shall not" "spring park" "murder" "ten commandments" and finally "the prophet" these are all jump cuts which are quick and tense.

For shot 10-11 it could be possible to use parallel shots in order to show the murder leaving Bethlem and then a shot shortly afterwards of the policeman entering the hospital.

Final Music Choices

Opening Scene
http://soundcloud.com/blaketothefuture/icy-weather

We have decided to use this music in the opening of our film because it fits well with the mood and tone of our opening sequence and reflects the genre of the film. The eerie tone of the music also gives us goosebumps which is the effect we want to give the audience.

Closing Scene

http://soundcloud.com/shaumon/fantastically-depressing

We have also chosen music to end our opening sequence as the detectives reveal the psychiatric patients cell wall, displaying the plans and designs of the murders/suicides of the 10 victims. The music reflects the mood in the fact that the patient has been exposed and the shock of his plans.

Final Logo Designs

Final Logo Designs on Prezi

Possible Titles

The Prophet
The 10 Messages
Forced
Uncontrollable
Thou shall not
Psychopath

After discussing possible names for the sequence we have decided to use the name 'The Prophet' as it is quite a powerful title and links to the genre and plot of the film. The title represents the delusions that the psychotic man is experiencing of the idea that he is the 'next prophet'.

Initial Logo Designs

Using a combination of the first letters of all our names, we came up with the name FLJW Studios for our film company. With this and the genre of our film, we came up with 3 potential ideas for the company logo.

The first idea was designed because it reflects the genre of the film as it is mysterious and creepy. It also becomes clear by the name 'The Prophet' that someone is watching over him. The black and white colours shows that the film has a very depressing aspect.

The second idea started with a cross because of the religious aspect of the film. With this, we put each letter of the company name in the cross and a rose accross the centre. However, we decided against this idea because we felt it made us look like a "Christian film company" which is not the image we were hoping to put accross.

We liked the rose in our second idea as we felt it could be seen as a dark and mysterious flower, just like the genre of our film. We therefore feel this would reflect the tone of our psychological thriller. Over this, we put the name of the company to show who it was made by.

Screenplay

EXT. SPRING PARK WOODS. 8AM

WOMAN walking dog in the woods. Looks up to see a hanging body and screams.

EXT. SPRING PARK WOODS. 8:30AM

Police arrive on the scene and POLICE OFFICER 1 questions frantic WOMAN.

POLICE OFFICER 1

(reassuring WOMAN)

Are you okay ma'am?

WOMAN

(panicking, barely able to speak, pointing at the body)

Over there!... Over there!

EXT. SPRING PARK WOODS. 9AM

POLICE OFFICER 2 and FORENSIC watch the body being carried off.

POLICE OFFICER 2

What is the situation?

FORENSIC

(reading from clipboard/file)

Name: Karly Anne Hayden

Age: 31

Cause of Death: Still waiting to be identified but was found hanging from a tree in Spring Park Woods at 08:02 am. Suspected forced suicide although her left arm appears to be branded with the words "Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery".

POLICE OFFICER 2
Looks like some kind of religious nut then?

FORENSIC
Most likely.

EXT. GATES OF BETHLEM HOSPITAL. DAY

Flashback of PSYCHIATRIC PATIENT walking out of the gates of psychiatric hospital as he escapes.

PSYCHIATRIC NURSE (V.O)

(reading out the patients file to the police officers)

Name: George Marcus Meadle

Age: 36

Major cases of schizophrenia and a diagnosed psychopath 

He is highly religious and has spent a majority of his time in the "rubber room" due to violent religious outbursts.

INT. PSYCHIATRIC WARD. DAY

POLICE OFFICER 

I know you have all this, but what makes you think its this guy?

PSYCHIATRIC NURSE
(opening the door to patients cell)

Take a look at his room.

PSYCHIATRIC NURSE shows POLICE OFFICERS 1 & 2 the walls of escapee patient's cell. Walls display drawings of plans to kill 10 victims according to the 10 Commandments.

A Detailed Study Of The Usual Suspects

Detailed Study Of The Usual Suspects on Prezi

Mood Board 4

I made a mood board based on our initial ideas for our opening sequence. I included photos of rooms in a mental hospital and a photo of a church with the ten commandments, showing that he is religious. We also  talked about how the setting of our scene was going to be in a forest. I put the man in the centre of the mood board to show that he was my focus point and everything else besides him links in with him.

Possible Music Options

As it is not allowed for us to use copyrighted music, we have decided to try and find appropriate music from an unsigned artist from either youtube or soundcloud. The music should be fitting with the psycho thriller genre and should be slightly creepy and unnerving. However if we do not find anything appropriate, we may have to create out own music using garageband.

Opening Music

http://soundcloud.com/blaketothefuture/icy-weather
http://soundcloud.com/ourbandcanbeyourlife-77/fant-omas-rosemarys-baby

Closing Music

http://soundcloud.com/eolicasjanaosevem/creepy

http://soundcloud.com/shaumon/fantastically-depressing

For this scene, we need creepy, jolty music that will help unveil the plans that the police officers find on the psychiatric patients cell wall.

We have also looked at covers of Paramore's song "Decode" by several unsigned artists as we think it would suit the opening sequence of our film well as it is slightly haunting and fits the genre of the film. The original version of this song was also featured in the film "Twilight".

Original cover of "Decode" (Paramore)

Here are several different cover versions of the song by different unsigned artists:

http://soundcloud.com/charlemagnems/decode-cover
http://soundcloud.com/sonnenheld/decode-paramore-cover
http://soundcloud.com/dreic/decode-piano-and-string-cover

Another opening credit that has been inspirational when deciding the genre and plot of our opening sequence is the series "American Horror Story". The music during the opening credits could be a possible option for something similar in our opening sequence.

Influences

The film that inspired us the most to choose a psycho thriller genre is the David Fincher film, Seven. The opening sequence of the film is dark and disturbing, much like we wish ours to be. The idea of a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi inspired us when planning out the plot of our story. With this, we decided to base our film on a recently escaped psychiatric patient who believes he is the next prophet, sending messages from God by killing 10 people who do not obey the 10 commandments.

The opening sequence of Seven involves the killer carefully planning each of the murders. We planned to use a similar approach in our sequence consisting of a number of shots, possibly a long shot, of a wall in our killer's room containing similar plans for the 10 murders.  

The credits themselves are interesting in terms of the type of font which was used, contrasting with the background. This may also be used in our opening sequence although we haven't looked for any specific fonts yet. 

Target Audience and Plot Development

We decided that the target audience would be male and female aged 15-25. This is partly because of the genre and plot of the film. We believe that the film would appeal to both males and females because there is a good variety of different characters in the film i.e. the main character is male but his victims are all females. However the target audience can depend on the way in which we film the opening sequence. If we decide to do it with a more religious aspect, it may appeal to an older audience of both male and female. Although, our initial idea was to focus more on the killing of the victims rather than the religious reasons why. We have used the 10 Commandments purely as a link between the murders rather than as a focus point of  the film. This will possibly rule out older audiences as it has a slightly niche storyline but gives it a horror aspect that people under 25 will enjoy.

In terms of developing the plot, we are considering altering the ways in which the victims are killed. Initially we planned that a mentally deranged man kills ten people who do not follow the 10 Commandments, however we came to the conclusion that this contradicts the man's agenda as one of the 10 Commandments is "Thou shall not kill". We now believe that it will make more sense for the man to psychologically force the victims into suicide. We will develop this idea more so that we will have a clear idea by the time we compose the opening sequence.

Music and Location Choices

Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJkP2C8Bg6Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCtgTpxgwjc

We chose these two pieces of music as we wanted something classic but creepy, as these will be very affective and reflect the genre of the piece.

Locations

Bethlem Psychiatric Hospital - We thought that possible shots could be used of the killer leaving the hospital and this would make the shots more realistic.

Spring Park Woods - This can be used as a possible setting for the first crime scene which is the opening scene.

Pitch

A psycho thriller inspired by "Seven". A mentally deranged man believes he is the next prophet, killing 10 people who don't follow the 10 Commandments.

Moodboard 3

I chose these images because i think they represent the genre of the film well. The dark dull colours represent a thriller, and the 'psycho' text explains the films character. The picture of a person in woods explains a particular scene which we have in mind which is filmed in a foggy woods. I think looking at this mood board makes the genre become clear. 

Moodboard 2

Although we have decided on the genre, psycho thriller, we still need to look at various examples (some shown in the mood board such as Seven, The Usual Suspects and Taxi Driver) in order to develop more detailed ideas for our opening sequence.

Moodboard

The colouring of this mood board represents the tone and mood of the psycho thriller genre we have chosen. Several of the dark and disturbing images are also representitive of the genre in the fact that they are both psyschologically and visually disturbing.

Office Space

At the start of Office Space opening sequence they used a font that represented the genre of comedy. Up beat music was used so that we can tell that the audience should find this amusing rather than frustrated like the characters used during the sequence.

The main character was a typical working class man who is shown to be frustrated with the traffic he is stuck in, which shows us that throughout the film he has constant bad luck. The next man shown is portrayed as being weak and timid however he doesn't act it whilst by himself. This specific part provides amusement for the audience, which highlights what may happen during the rest of the film.

The title reflects the opening sequence due to the compact setting of the cars in the traffic jam, this can suggest the main character is not happy with his job.

Trainspotting

Unlike a lot of opening sequences, there is only one credit during that of Trainspotting. After the singular credit of the production company, the sequence instantly begins with fast, upbeat music in sync with the movement of two men running away from policemen. Within the first couple of seconds, this immediately gives the audience an idea of what the story line of the film could possibly be.

The fast paced music is up-keeping with the running of the characters and follows through as the story splits into two simultaneous events of a friendly football match, and the main character, Renton, inhaling a joint in his run down apartment. These events are brought together when Ewan Mcgregor's character falls to the ground simultaneously in both stories, as he is knocked over by a football in the football match, and takes a long drag from his joint in his apartment.

The introduction to the characters in Trainspotting is unusual in the fact that the character's name is displayed as the film is paused at each character, identifying who they are. Some of these names, such as Sick Boy and Spud, give the audience an idea of the type of people they are going to be.

Meanwhile, alongside all of this and in sync with the music, is the voiceover of main character Renton, talking about what certain people choose in life and the fact that he was not going to choose life for reasons that he didn't need because he had heroin. This is effective because it draws together the events and gives clues as to what is going to happen in the film.

Sweeney Todd

The opening sequence of Sweeney Todd, starts with an introduction to the setting which has thunder and lightening shown in the background, this can be pathetic fallacy as it reflects to the storyline of the film which can be frightening for the victims of Sweeney Todd and dark and mysterious as others are unaware of what Sweeney Todd is doing.

 I liked how this is followed by the vibrant and therefore what stands out the most is the blood slowly on it's journey from death to eventually the pie shop. There are also small amounts of blood that seem to be dropping with the rain which then links the blood to the barber shop which is seen next.The blood then covers around two females in a photo frame which can present Sweeney Todd's wish for revenge. As the blood drops down the screen the title of the film appears with "Sweeney Todd" appearing in the same colour as the colour of the blood linking the character to the action of death. This highlights the importance of blood (and therefore death) in the film and can also imply what happens during the film.

The opening is more like a title sequence,which is more graphical/drawn than real life which portrays this sequence as more of an introduction to the audience rather than necessary in terms of the storyline. The music used throughout the sequence is dramatic and at points is in sync to the travel of blood, as the blood starts to quicken in pace so does the music, it also builds tension when there is a break in the music.