Filming Locations

I wanted to use the juxtapositon of technology and nature to symbolise the juxtapostion of my character and the other chracacters. I also wanted to feature a range of outdoor location shots to represent the common thread throughout the sequence monologue and the actual name of the sequence: "The Outsider." I also filmed inside my own home because, influenced by the movie "se7en," I created a picture wall with images of the antagonist's "victims" pinned up. I used a range of outdoor and indoor shots throughout the sequence to ensure my use of mise-en-scene was varied and to keep the title sequence interesting and engaging.

Second Edit

We visited the college again to utilise the editing facilities and complete a seond edit, now with the majority of my shots completed. I think that completing a first edit definitley gave me a clearer idea on how I wanted my finished product to look. I incorperated a range of extreme close ups of technology with panning shots of nature and trees to stress the juxtaposition of my character to the other characters.
I have editied in an omnious soundtrack of non-digetic music to play quietly over the entire 2 minute sequence.
 I also filmed a time lapse of each of the other cast members on siwngs together, to emphasise the closeness of the friendship group. When speeding this up by X100, it gave the selection of shots an awkward and jumpy feel, typical of thrillers. I need to revisit the college a third and final time to edit in the monologue I have already recorded and create my titles.

I have also filmed and edited panning shots of pictures of the other characters and myself pinned onto a wall and have created a time-lapse of me physically pinning them to the wall. I have also then later in the sequence filmed an identical pan of the photos with the eyes of the characters other than myself crossed out in red pen, inspired by "se7en."

Voice-Over Script

"83 million social media accounts are fake. One of them is me. Every friendship group has an outsider - and that was me. We were a tight-knit friendship group, we always had  good time. We did everything together, until they pushed me out. Josh was always too busy for anyone, especially me. He didn't like being ignored back. Hannah was the pretty one, never me, and she knew it. Jasmine was the smartest. Not so smart these days though. I know more about them than they think. They have no idea. Caitlin was the leader of the group who made all the decsions, always. Not anymore. Together they thought they were so special. Me? I was the outsider."

Once I had completed my second edit of my title sequence I wrote a voice-over monologue from the antogonists inner thoughts which I will later edit in as non-digetic soundtrack. My voiceover will provide viewers with a more clear narrative as there is no digetic sound in the sequence. I wrote the monolgue in time to correspond with certain shots.

Casting

I selected four people aswell as myslef to feature in my thriller opening. I play the antagonist which is unconventional as i'm female and typically antagonists are male, so i'm challenging typical conventions of thriller.





I also cast Hannah Martin as one of the "victims" as she has the appearance of a very stereotypical young female and I had pictures of the two of us together to already feature in the sequence.








The only male I cast in my opening sequence is Josh East becuase I also had photographs already with him and he studies drama a level so is a skilled actor.










I also cast Jasmine Greene because her aesthetic and look are unique because of her hair and I thought she would be an interesting feature of my opening sequence.






The final person I cast other than myself is Caitlin Elward because she was available to film in any location and we have multiple photographs together that I could feature in my opening.

Analysis of "Se7en" opening sequence

Many elements of the narrative for my thriller opening were inspired by the movie "Se7en," where the protagonist, played by Brad Pitt, hunts down offenders of the seven deadly sins. The ways I have taken inspiratoion from the narrative are that the protagonist played by me is harrasing others online because of things they did wrong. I decided to analyse the opening sequence of "Se7en" to gain further inspiration for my own thriller opening.

Mise-En-Scene
Throughout the opening title sequence, some elements of mise-en-scene that were most prominent were papers, notebooks, writing and photographs. We see who we can assume to be the protagonist, based off of what we know as the narrative, to be profiling his "victims" through writing and photographs. Quite eerily, he crosses through the eyes of a photograph of a young boy with a marker pen, depersonifying the boy in the photograph and as we don't see the eyes of anyone in this title sequence, a quite isolated and eerie atmosphere is created. I will take inspiration from this in that I will have shots of photographs of my catfish "victims" and to make my own narrative more clear, I will have pictures of myself with this victims also, and of them together, to suggest there is a motive for my character. Also throughout the title sequence, we see a mise-en-scene of weaponry, suggesting death and violence are prominent themes throughout the movie. We also see some drawings of body parts, coforming to typical conventions of the thriller/horror genre.

Camera
Throughout this particular title sequence, there is a lot of use of extreme close up shots, typical of the thriller genre but perhaps untypical, because while usually extreme close ups are of faces and people to portray emotion, these extreme close ups were of the razor blades and inside barrel of a gun, highlighting these propps are improtant and significant to the narrative. We also see a sideways extreme close up of a notebook being written in, further suggesting the idea of profiling anf note taking on his victims. I find these narrative enigmas extremely engaging to the audience.

Sound
The entire sequence begins with a soundbridge of low, creaky music from a black screen to the extreme close up of a book. This music instantly connotes the thriller genre, setting the audience up with a tense atmosphere. The music throughout progresses to a high pitched screeching sound, that progresses to be louder and more intense as the sequence goes on. Due to the fact that my thriller opening will also feature a voice over monologue, I want my non-dogetic music soundtrack to be quiter but eerie and high pitched, but less intense as I want the atmosphere of my thriller to be on-edge and jumpy.

Editing
The typography of the titles we see throughout the sequence is a brihgt electric white, that connotes technology and is very sharp, the type of typography I want for my thriller opening as it will correspond well to my technological themes, and if I place them on top of outdoor shots showcasing nature, the juxtaposition of settings will alienate the audeince and keep them interested and on edge. While this is true for some of the typography, names are in a seeminlgy hand-written font, corresponding with the mise-en-scene of notebooks, pages and writing. The quick cut editing of shots is in time to the music, and the fast paced editing creates confusion and suspense.

First Edit

I went to Bridgend Collage campus for media to create a first edit of my thriller opening sequence using premier editing software. Due to weather issues, I have only been able to film the shots indoors, but throughout the next week I will be filming outdoor shots. When editing in the college this week, I used a variation of dissolve transistion effects to create an eerie effect, contrasted with quick cut editing to create the tense atmosphere typical of thrillers. I added a creepy, quiet non-digetic music soundtrack to play throughout the two-minute opening and a self recorded monologue voiceover for 1 minute of the sequence.