section 5. Character Outlines.

NAME: Martin James Hallwood
AGE: 32
OCCUPATION: Senior manager of Markerstone Industries.


Martin is a level headed quick thinker who's ambition in life has allowed him to quickly become an important member of a high class company (Markerstone  Industries) although Martin is a completely rational man he has a darker side hidden within him. due to the constant demand of his job Martin became extremely stressed and depressed. searching for solution to his problems martin turn to alcohol but whilst under the influence his personality compleatley switches and he becomes reckless and violent. Due to this relliance on alcohol

Section 11. audience feedback.

After putting our thriller onto youtube it has been watched over 58 times. people who have watched it left some interesting comments below.

egnoring the fact that alot of them were just excited to see paul in my film they gave some very interesting feedback. they have commented upon hiow much they liked the lighting used as well as comments on how they feel the sequence could be improved if the actors showed a little more emotion. alot of people liked the theme of the paint crossing out the next victim wich i agree upon as it shows the killer being systematic as well as the red representing the blood of the victim. two people have said they enjoyed the camera angles we used as well as many people saying the soundtrack fit very well with it creating an intence atmosphere. another person discribed the sequence as being criptic wich is exactly the word for the armosphire i was trying to create. from what i know all of the people that commented upon the sequnce was within our target audience ranging between 18 and 30 years old.

Section 8. story boards

Story board part 9 missing. alternately watch this.

Section 10. log sheets

i have chosen the best shots to use out of those taken. when editing i plan on using fades to and from black, and dissolve fades to bring the map into the main part of the scene. i will also smoothly cut each shot so the every action looks smooth and that there are no continuity errors.

Section1. the Thriller Genre

The Thriller genre is a genre which is intended to excite, and almost frighten the audience. The narratives of a Thriller generally contain twists and turns which sends the audience in one direction but the answer could be down another path. This creates suspense and excitement for the audience; they like this because it takes them away from their everyday life. The plot lines usually hold excitement for the audience in the way of danger, murder etc which attracts the attention of the audience and holds it.
Their are many theories to what a Thriller actually is and most of these can be applied to the thriller genre as a whole. Most films within the Thriller genre conform to most of these theories and some films conform to all of them.

Partial Vision

This is where only some of the narrative information is giving to the viewer and hides the rest, leaving the audience to wonder what is going to happen; who is the attacker? how are they doing it? etc. This gives a chance for the audience to think of their own theories about the rest of the information that is hidden. A strong example of this is in Se7en where the audience only see the murder scene and not the murder actually taking place.

Question Answer Model

This keeps the audience in suspense asking questions; what is going to happen next,who is the next victim? These are mainly used in mystery thrillers as their could be an element of surprise at the end. A good example of the Question answer Model is in Final Destination 1 the audience continue to ask questions about who is going to be the next victim. the audience will be trying to figure this out with the photo clues taken at the theme park.

The Transformed City

The transformed city is the idea that an ordinary place can become extraordinary for the purpose of a thriller. Most Thrillers are set in an urban enviroment such as a town or a city and they usually become more extraordinary from a killing or something bad happening. For the thriller to be successful the society must change and adapt to become more different to others and more exciting.

Concealment and Protraction

Concealment and Protraction pulls the audience in different directions. The concealment is used to create suspense and deliberatly hiding information from the audience. This leaves unanswered questions creating suspense and leaving the audience to wonder. Protraction is also used to create suspense and does this by deliberatly delaying an outcome from the audience. For example this could be delaying a bomb explosion in a big city; the audience knows what is going to happen but the suspense is increased by delaying it.

Mazes and Labyrinths

Mazes and Labyrinths is the idea that the Protagonist finds themselves in a predicament and the "mazes" which they must find their way through to reach the ending. The narrative of the film is usually filled with twist and dead ends, this makes it difficult for the Protagonist to resolve. The audience is always presented with the problems that the Protagonist must solve and how they do this.

The Exotic

This is the idea that buildings and objects have been placed within a Thriller which we would not expect to see in day to day life. These objects or buildings are usually placed in the Thriller for a purpose; objects may be used to symbolise the characters personality. Often props from another culture will be added to the Thriller to create difference to the film. This introduction of something unfamiliar is something which the audience enjoys as it holds their attention and reinforces the idea that the world within a Thriller is different and yet more exciting than the real world which the audience love.

The Heroic Romance

This is the idea that the Protagonist (hero) of the film is shown to be an ordinary person who is forced to act in extraordinary ways to survive during the film. In the Thriller genre this hero is usually portrayed as having an ordinary job and an ordinary life but they must adapt to survive. In Thriller films movies the ordinary Laws and Nature of the film are slightly suspended which allows them to perform extraordinary which would be impossible otherwise; this can include diving out the way of a car or jumping off a cliff and surviving.

Section 5. Synopsis

High rise business man Martin Hallwood expected this to be like any other, until he discovered a mysterious envelope. Now Martin is part of a sadistic race across town searching for the ware about of his missing sister. But this is no ordinary race. In this game Martin must face his past one step at a time to unlock the secrets held in the clues he finds. But what will be at the end of a game that he knows he can never truly win.

Final Cut of Thriller: Masquerade

Section 5 Treatment

Beginning.

The title sequence shows a mysterious character wearing a black robe placing pictures onto a map. The identity of this person is unknown as they are wearing a mask as well as there face being obscured by there hood. The character cuts out a final picture and places it onto the map with a self satisfied smile. Thefinal picture is then revealed to be the main protagonist Martin Hallwood sat at the desk in his high rise office when he discovers a mysterious letter in his desk. He opens the letter to find a picture of his sister kirtsy tied to a chair and gagged. The sight of this makes him start to breathe erratically so he takes some pills to calm him down. Also inside the letter is a piece of a map and some words telling him what time he has to be there bye. Seeing he has little time left he rushes out of his office to the surprise of his subordinates. He matches the piece of map from the letter with one on the office wall. He then enters the lift and exits the building. Outside martins Personal car is waiting for him. He enters the car and tells the driver to take him to the location marked on the map. The driver cannot be seen due to tinted glass and his voice is muffled also.

Middle. Part1

Martins car arrives at the location marked on the map. He cautiously leaves his vehicle and makes his way towards the building. Checking his watch he realises there isn’t much time left so runs towards the door. The building is an abandoned house in the middle of a council estate. He enters and sees a bare room full of dust. He turns on the light but it doesn’t come on. He makes his way to a door on the other side of the room. As he approaches the door he can hear a strange scratching sound coming from behind it. He picks up a plank of wood left on the floor. He reaches the door and the scratching sound grows louder. He finally builds up the courage to open the door whilst raising the wood ready for anything. The door swings open and a tide of rats swarms around his feet past him and disappears into the room behind. Martin finds himself in a long corridor. He can’t see through the haze of dust left behind and he has to trudge through a floor laced in rat droppings. He takes out a handkerchief and places it over his mouth. He gets to the end of the room and finds an old chair covered in a white cloth those trials across the floor. Martin rips away the cloth expecting to find Kristy beneath it. In stead he finds the body of a man nailed to the chair and devoured by the rats. The corpse wares a plain white mask and a pair of glasses. Martin starts having a panic attack at the sight of this and falls to his knees then whites out (faints)

After he faints martin has a flashback that depicts a series of white rooms that are hazed although they were within a storm. In this flashback martin becomes an uncontrollable character which he perceives in 1^st person.. A figure lies on the floor in front of him she has no features is completely white and has no face only dark eyes. By her hair and figure you can tell that the figure is female. The figure on the floor weeps into her hands then looks up her face streaming with black tears she cries “no more!” in an otherworldly voice. Martin’s character then looks at his own hand which is completely black and featureless and swings at the girl on the floor. Just before the blow makes contact the image flashes white and martin regains consciousness.

Martin continues to panic and breathe heavily until he takes another pill from the bottle in his pocket. His breathing returns to normal and he rises to his feet. He inspects the body and finds the glasses which he immediate recognises to belong to his old friend Lewis. Some words have been painted onto the lenses of the glasses and they read “Orion Hardware 6:00pm” martin turns to levee the abandoned house when he gets a phone call. The voice of a little girl is on the phone she says “ringer ringer roses. Get it?” martin shouts down the phone asking who it is and ware his sister is. The girl on the phone simply replies “your fired” then hangs up. As she hangs up the door behind the dead man starts to beep. Martin opens the door to find a stash of gas bottles and a timer counting down. Martin runs out of the house and stands outside as it sets on fire. Martin then returns to his car and orders the driver to take him to Orion hardware.

Middle part2

Martin’s car arrives at Orion’s hardware in the centre of town and looks at his watch the time is 5:42. Martin goes to the front entrance but the shop is closed. He walks around the back and sees a strange flickering light coming from the upstairs window. He climbs the fire escape and enters through the fire door that had been left partially open. The room he enters is full of computers and wires. He checks his watch again 5:50. He stumbles into a computer lying on the floor which attracts a faint cry for help from the next room. Martin enters the next room to find a man suspended from the sealing by his hands. Several wires come from machines all around the room and have been inserted into he mans body. The man is warring a mask and has a timer attached to his chest. The man mumbles “help me” martin walks over and is about to start pulling out the wires when the man shouts “no! It’ll go off” Martin takes the mask off of the mans face and immediately recognises him to be Marcus his old business partner. Martin takes a step back and checks his watch noticing that it is in synch with the timer attached to the Marcus’ chest. He only has 2 minuets left until the timer counts to 0. Martin asks the hanging man what he should do and Marcus replies “The blue wire” then passes out. Martin starts to search the man being careful not to disturb any wires but he can’t see any blue wires. He shouts in frustration and panics as he watched the countdown. 3.2.1. The man jerks into life as the wires pass electricity through his body. The computers around the room start to spark and buzz loudly and explode as. Martin notices something in his periphery. A thin length of blue wire hanging from the roof. Written on it are the words LIZZIE 7:30. Martin pulls the blue wire from the ceiling and as he takes it he hears a thud from above. Water suddenly starts pouring out of the ceiling and into the machines making them buzz and set aflame. Water slowly creeps towards martin’s feet crackling with electricity. Martin runs for the fire escape pushing computer parts out of his way. He clambers down the stairs of the fire escape but falls at the bottom. He rises with the phone ringing in his pocket. He answers it and the same voice from before answers “pop goes the weasel hahahah” the phone rings dead. He notices a lick of flame on his shoulder and throws his jacket to the ground. He runs back into his car and the driver speeds away.

Middle part3

Martin asks his driver if he knows what Lizzie means but the driver doesn’t know. He looks at his phone the time reads 6:20 he searches for the name Lizzie but nothing comes up. He then phones his office and asks for a list of employees under the name Lizzie. The report comes back with 1 person working in his office building called Lizzie Dupree. Looking at her file martin instantly recognises her as his old girlfriend under a new name. Knowing that long ago Lizzie had cheated on him and the relationship ended violently martin decides that she must be the killer. He orders his driver to take him to the address marked on Lizzie’s file. The clock reads 7:10 as the car screeches to a halt outside the apartment. Martin slams through the door and runs up the stairs tripping slightly in his rush. He reaches her apartment. He knocks on the front door hard and as he does so he knocks it open. He can here a muffled voice coming from the other room. He picks up a lamp to use as a weapon then cautiously enters the bedroom. As he stands in the doorway he can see 2 people tied to the bed with there hands bent behind there backs. There both gagged and have a mask placed upon there groin. One is female and martin instantly recognises her as Lizzie and the other is Phil one of martins closest friends. In shock at what he sees he drops the lamp onto the floor. As the lamp hits the floor it breaks a string that was stretched across the room. A beeping noise comes from below the bed and the 2 gagged people try to scream. The beeping stops and a metal spike fires from beneath the bed and impale Phil from below. The room is covered in trip wires all crossing over and intertwined across the room. Martin shouts to the girl “don’t worry il get u out of here” he checks his watch it reads 7:25. He starts to manoeuvre himself between the trip wires towards the girl. He manages to get most of the way across the room and is almost within reach of the girl when his phone rings in his pocket making martin jump. He knocks one of the strings and the beeping begins. Martin throws his phone to the floor and runs over to the side of the bed to untie the girl’s hands but before he could undo the rope the beeping stops and Lizzie is impaled from below. Martin starts to cry and collapses on the bed next to Lizzie’s body. He has another flashback this one shows a black door within the white world martins character approaches the door and it swings open to find the bedroom and a woman writhing on top of a man. The woman stops as she notices martins character. Martin’s character then launches himself towards the couple but he wakes up before he reaches them. As he wakes he sees a sheet of paper between the 2 bodies.  He flips the paper over, it reads “YOUR WELCOME”. Martin leaves the apartment taking the piece of paper with him and runs for his car. He repeatedly scans the piece of paper for clues but he can find nothing other than those words “YOUR WELCOME” Confused that the murderer left him no clue martin sits back and thinks. Then he realises that usually by now his driver would have asked him ware he wanted to be taken next but the driver hasn’t said a word. Martin calls out to the driver but there is no reply, martin knocks on the tinted window but still none answers. “What the hells going on?!” the doors of his own car lock around him. The screen that is set into the roof of the car switches on. It shows a masked character on a black background. The character speaks with a distorted voice “its time for the final Challenge Martin are you up to it?” the screen goes blank and the car drives away.

End.

Martin bashes at the locks and tries to smash the darkened windows but he knows that his car can’t be broken in to or out off. He takes a handful off his pills and calms down. The car comes to a halt in an unknown location. The door opens into a dark room. Martin exits the car cautiously. The room is dark and has bare concrete walls with pillars standing around it. Martin stumbles forward in the darkness then a bright spotlight shines down in front of him. The circle of light illuminates his driver chained to a chained and bolted to the floor with iron shackles. A television set is on the floor above his head. It comes on and shows the same masked figure as before. The character speaks. “One final challenge, before you is a choice. Kill him or I kill her? The character turns the camera to show Martins sister beaten and tied to a chair. “if you look on top of this screen you will find a knife. Use it. When your done I’ll show you Ware your precious sister is” Martin picks up the surgical knife nervously.  He leans over his unconscious driver and puts the knife to his neck. He is just about to cut it when he losses his nerve and pulls away. He begins to panic and takes another handful of pills. “Ok here we go” he says to assure himself. He leans down again and is about to cut the helpless driver when the television crackles on again. “What’s wrong Martin? The voice wasn’t distorted anymore. Now it was distinctly female. “To hard? I put a little something in his pocket to help you” the Character laughs and the screen goes blank. Martin looks in the pocket of his drivers jacket and pulls out a bottle of Whisky. He has a flash back of him drinking multiple times and pouring drinks out then the sound of glass smashing. He stares down at his driver then drinks the entire bottle. Martin takes some deep breaths then cuts the mans throat

Section 12.1 Editing Diary

Editing Diary.

07/01/2011

Today we began to cut out each shot and move it onto a clear location on the timeline so that they will be easier to find when it comes to the edit. I have also been through every take of each shot decided which was best and cut out the bad shots. I did this by stopping the film at the start of each shot then isolating the 1 good take then using the razor tool to cut it out. Then I selected the chosen shot and moved it up onto a bar so that i could easily see which shot is which.

07/01/2011

I have finished cutting each scene and editing out the bad takes. Next I will begin to blend each shot together in order to make the movement of the whole film consistent. Also i have noticed that in some shots the tripod we used has been left out. I plan on cropping the image to rectify this mistake. I have now edited out all of the shots ware the tripod in shot. In future I will make sure I levee all equipment behind the camera.

10/01/2011

I have finished the rough edit so now I will cut down each shot to make sure the characters have smooth movements. I’ve now done half of this and so far I am very happy with the results.

11/01/2011

I am continuing editing the shots so that the whole film is smooth and has no continuity errors. I should get this stage of editing finished by today then I can add effects.

12/01/2011

 Today I’m continuing to make the film more fluent. I have now finished the major part of the editing process all I need to do now is add in the split shots of the map then I can add effects. I have finished adding in the split shots of the map. I may re-do some of this at a later date and make it completely accurate to the story board.  

14/01/2011

Last lesson we added a soundtrack to the project. The music was not long enough so i have cut and looped the end of the audio. This still isn’t synched perfectly so i intent to alter it some more at some point. Today i plan on adding different fades and dissolves to the project.

17/01/2011

Last time I added several dissolves including fades to black and cross dissolves. I also spent a long time looking at the audio bar finding the perfect places to cut the music so that the listener cannot tell that it has been looped. I am very happy with the result and also how the music flows nicely with the visual as well as the transitions and fades being well synched with the visual. Today I completely finished the visual editing by adding one final cross fade on the last shot and sharpening some shots that earlier I had previously zoomed into to cover continuity errors. Today I added the titles and added effects to them causing them to dissolve in and out of the shots. The edit process should now be complete though I am considering making the final shot cut to a title screen instead of the 1^st shot of the film which was the original idea.