the 4 ideas

IDEAS FOR THE THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCES

1.)  “Taped”

The thriller starts with a wide shot of the small narrow street. With the use of wide shot, it shows the audience where the thriller will be taking part, it is as if introducing the audience to the surroundings. From the beginning we realize that the person who is holding the camera is the main character in the short film because he takes the initiative in hands. As he begins to walk uphill, he begins to breathe more heavily, the audience realizes that and the tension begins to slowly build up. He continues walking but now talking to himself, as if planning. He increases his paste as I he needs to get somewhere on time. He passes the town clock, checks his own watch on his wrist but panning the camera at the same time. He finally reaches his destination, and he begins to spy from the corner (in order not to be seen) on the man who is hitting brutally young woman, as the woman screams loader and loader for help the man hits her harder until she is on the floor lying. The main character films the happening with his camera, as the man finishes beating the woman (we assume he killed her since she is lying on the floor, unmoved, bleeding) he realizes that he was filmed this whole time and starts chasing the main character, as the main character is running away the CCTV camera is filming the whole chase. The man who was beating is screaming in disbelief but the camera cant pick up on it so the audience can’t tell what exactly he is saying, it is obvious that during the chase scene the man’s hands are full of blood (this adds to the terrifying factor) as he the “potential murderer” reaches the “filmmaker” he knocks him and the camera out. The camera goes black and the titles for the film appear.

Thriller mixed with art/house

Time this opening sequence is set: around 7 pm in the evening

2.) “The Act”

The thriller opens with the girl running back to what we assume is her house. The camera shows how she goes into her house. Then the camera will be already placed inside the girls house in order to show how she opens the door and lets herself in. She makes sure the door is shut with the key and all the curtains are closed. That’s when the audience picks up on her trying to hide from someone or something. She runs quickly to her bedroom, starts looking nervously through her documents and folders (but she knows exactly what she is looking for), she stares at her controversial poster that the audience can’t make of because it will be a little blurred (in order to keep the tension and the curiosity of the audience at it’s peak) In that moment an older woman unexpectedly comes in, we think that it’s the main characters mother. She looks very worried and starts asking her daughter (the main character) if there’s anything wrong. She answers that there not time to explain and that she needs to leave but doesn’t know for how long. She says to take care of Bobby (her little brother) and asks to keep a big black folder in safety no matter what. The camera does an extreme close up on the file for few seconds. The girl turns around as if she saw something that made her realize she needs to leave. She kisses her mum and leaves the bedroom, as she goes downstairs to the exiting door, we see green light sparking vaguely as if trying to look for our character. As she reaches the door she sees a powerful light appear that even the closed curtains cant hide, the door that she supposed to exit opens by itself, the girl passes the door and goes outside onto the lawn. She stands there and looks somewhere up in the sky. We recognize the light but cannot see anything but the powerful light and the night sky, on the background we hear technologic spaceship sounds. As soon as when she closes her eyes (from looking at her face, we can tell that the character is in agony and pain and treats the whole situation like a punishment) the screen goes black and the titles of the film appear.

Time this opening sequence is set= nighttime

3.) “Seventeen”

The opening sequence starts with a teenager talking on the phone with her boyfriend in the living room and having an argument about him not caring enough about her, the call ends up with her hanging up the phone. This whole time the camera was filming the character from the second floor using the high angle.  Then we see a close-up of her face that shows that she is actually pretty sad about her fight with the boyfriend. She goes into the bathroom to take a bath. The camera slowly follows her and the next events. The character places her clothes on the floor (the character never appears naked throughout the sequence) and climbs into the bath. As she turns on the water crane, there is an extreme close up of it to represent to the audience that actually something is going to happen right now. As the girl turns on the water, she begins to sob uncontrollably. As she lies on the bottom of the bath, underwater she thinks she sees a black mysterious figure in the corner of the bathroom (the audience sees it too) she quickly rises up but realizes that she was alone for this whole time, she continues to take a bath. The sequence ends with her going underwater again but this time the screen goes black and we hear her screams on the background.

4.) “The Mental”

The sequence opens with the wide shot of what looks like a mental hospital. We see an older woman dressed as a nurse walking through the corridor of the quiet and abandoned mental hospital. The nurse is carrying the tray with medications. Although she leaves the corridor the camera is still in the same spot as if waiting for someone else to enter but no one is entering the corridor, yet. The next scene is happening in the room where all the medications are kept, as she begins to put the medication from the trolley to the cupboards, we feel that the nurse has a “shadow”. She feels that feeling as well and quickly turns around but nothing is there. She continues her task but the next time she opens the cupboard, in the small cupboard mirror she sees a man with the knife. She screams but that scene is quickly cut and the sequence ends with the prescription hallucination pills lying around the room with the nurse on the floor dead (she lies unmoved with her eyes still open).