Prop analysis

There was only one prop used in the entirety of our thriller product, and that was the photo held in the opening scene. 

There were two potential versions of the prop; a colour version and the grey-scaled version that we ended up using. This decision was made because we felt in the end that having the image in black and white better reflected the tone of the message the the prop is trying to tell. Colour would have been to cheerful, and while the image is meant to also represent a better time in the protagonists life, grey-scale better represented the theme of loss that it also conveyed when coupled with the reaction of the protagonist: the girl has been lost, and he has taken it upon himself to find her.

Upon closer inspection, it also becomes evident that the photographs in wrinkled and aged. We created the aged effect by simply folding and reverse-folding the image over and over until the image began to wear away, as well as simply scrunching up the photo. The purpose of this was to show that this is a meaningful image to protagonist, one he keeps about him at all times (he pulls it out of his coat pocket), and that he has had it for some time, throwing up the question as to how long she has been missing.

Auditions

Dan Page auditioned for the role of the protagonist in our thriller. Dan thought that he had the right mix of innocence and mystery to play the part, but with little acting experience in the past, and no experience with film making, and specifically thrillers, we decided that Dan would not be right for the part.

Josh Endersby applied for the the role of the antagonist. Josh has been in a school play before, so he thought he had the experience to play the part. However, for the antagonist, we wanted someone who was dominating and tall, and Josh didn't fit this.

 Tom Barden applied for and received the part of the protagonist. We thought that he had the experience in both acting and film making, and being part of our team, it was convenient to give him the part.

John Macdonald auditioned for and was given the part of the antagonist. He has acting experience and is a tall and dominating figure, so we thought he fit the description well. He is also a part of our team, so it seemed right to cast him.

Storyboard draft 2

Here is the second draft of our storyboard. We decided that this would be closer to the version we would actually use in filming, although there were still some changes to be made, such as certain shots we wanted to use, and setting the beginning inside, which isn't on this storyboard. However, this storyboard is what we went off of when filming, since it is the closest version to what we wanted to create.

Storyboard draft 1

This is the first draft storyboard we created for our thriller. We decided not to go with this version, as it was set in the day time, which we thought went against the thriller genre, and because we thought that setting a thriller in the woods was something that had been done too many times before, and so there was not much of a market for.

Storyboard - Animatic

One of the storyboards we had to make was an animatic, which we made in Adobe CS5. The animatic can be viewed here.

Costume analysis

Our thriller shows only two characters, the protagonist, played by Tom, and the antagonist, played by John.

Tom is wearing a simple white t-shirt, with a black hoodie and jacket over the top. The black is there to symbolise the mystery of the protagonist, as whilst he is a good character, at this point he is surrounded by mystery, and we wanted to portray this to the audience. Whilst conventionally it is the antagonist who wears black, to show evil, it can also be used to show mystery.

However, the white t-shirt the character wears is there to show that he is good, so as not to confuse him with the antagonist. We wanted it to be so that enough white was visible that the audience would know it was deliberate, and know that the character was good, but to also keep them shrouded in mystery.

The antagonist, however, is dressed entirely in black. We wanted there to be no confusion with this character, so the audience knew this was the antagonist, and evil, but also keep the character a mystery. Keeping the character entirely in black denotes his character type, in its entirity.

Steven Spielberg - Jaws

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is an American film screenwriter, director, producer and studio entrepreneur. His films have spanned from sci-fi to historical, over the course of 4 decades. He is considered to be one of the most influential filmmakers in history. In total, his films have grossed over $8.5 billion, and his personal estimated worth is $3.2. Spielberg has won Academy awards for best director for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's list.

Jaws

Jaws is the story of a great white shark attacking a summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt the shark, with help from a marine biologist and a shark hunter. Jaws was the highest grossing film at the time, earning $470.7 million worldwide. The film is often named as one of the best films of all time, and was even selected for preservation at the National Film Registry.
However, the film had problems during production, such as going over budget and over schedule. As well as this, there were several malfunctions with mechanical sharks, but Spielberg suggested implying the shark was there, rather than filming, and along with John Williams' musical score, this was an effective aspect of the film.