Thriller Opening Title Ideas

Brainstorming Ideas For My Thriller Movie Title

Health and Safety

Health and Safety

Health and safety are essential for the film industry to run. It ensures that there are no hazards, which can harm people in the industry on set. There are many strict rules and regulations the have to abide by.

I have made a list of rules that my cast and myself must follow to ensure our safety when shooting my thriller opening.

1. We should make sure that the camera is tightly connected to the tripod so that it does not fall off. The tripod should have all of its legs on the floor, it should be clipped, so the camera does not fall. When you are carrying the tripod, close the legs so you do not poke anyone (especially their eyes). Hold it securely on your shoulder with both hands. 

2. If we are filming with weapons (gun, knife, axe), we should consult the school - media teachers and find a location where there are no members of the public. 

3. If we are filming on a road in a car we should consult the traffic authority.

4. While we are filming in the car, everyone inside the car must wear a seatbelt, even if you're driving a small distance - which we are. The car must be insured and the person driving the car should have a license.

5. If we are shooting at night, we must wear suitable clothing - yellow vests - so cars/motorbikes can be aware of us filming, this will decrease chances of getting hit by a vehicle. We should have bright light so we can see what we are doing.

6. Catering - We should buy our food/lunch from the supermarket and not a fast food takeaway as it may not be hygienic. 

7. We should make sure that there are facilities that can be easily accessed such as the bathroom and clean water. 

8. While we are editing, we should take small break from the computer to reduce the risk of headaches and cramps in our hands. 

9. Litter should be disposed of immediately in the bin - if it is recyclable we will recycle it.

10. The equipment must be insured

11. A first aid kit will be carried wherever we go, if someone hurts themselves we can easily treat them.

10 DumbThings People In Horror Movies Do

10 DumbThings People In Horror Movies Do

10. INVESTIGATE WEIRD SOUNDS.

Hey, maybe take the Gates of Hell being ripped open as an excuse not to go check out that strange sound outside the creepy cabin you’re staying in. If Cheryl, from The Evil Dead, had followed that bit of advice, she might have avoided the worst first date with a tree since Saruman took one for the team in The Lord of the Rings. Time and again, these fools take any excuse to leave the safety of their homes, and go investigate the inky blackness on the other side of their locked door. I don’t know about you, but I could hear a marching band coming down the street at three in the morning, and I’m just locking my door and grabbing my gun. Then again, I hate marching bands.

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9. DECIDE TO GIVE THAT FREAKY HAUNTED HOUSE ONE MORE SHOT.

Sure, it’s built on an Indian burial ground, and demons have kidnapped one of your children and taken her to The Nethersphere, but have you seen the finished basement in this house? You don’t just walk away from something like that. Haunted house movies would be awfully short if folks did what any sane person would do, and hightailed it out of there the first time the wallpaper started bleeding. Instead, these white-bread suburbanites seem to always find some excuse to put off the big move until something really awful happens. I mean, maybe just let the poltergeist keep the kid, right? They could turn her room into a home gym!

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8. FAIL TO CHECK THE BACKSEAT.

How hard is it to take a peek in the backseat before you start up the car on a spooky night? Just a quick glance to confirm there aren’t any killers or old Starbucks cups taking up too much room back there. If there was a serial killer loose in my neighborhood, I’d be checking my backpack for him before putting it on. Instead, in everything from Urban Legend to Let Me In, pretty young people find themselves on the business end of something pointy because they didn’t just check to see if a maniac in a mask was crouched down in the back seat, uncomfortably waiting for his chance to strike.

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7. SPLIT UP.

If there’s a monster hunting you and picking off your crew one by one, maybe stick together. You’ve got a better chance of fighting it off, or at least shoving the guy you like the least into its mouth and making a run for it. And yet, time after time, the best plan anyone in horror movies can come up with is to split up, snoop around in the dark by themselves, and report back after they die. It’s insanity, especially in The Thing, which has a monster that can transform to look like anyone. Hmmm, maybe if you stuck together you wouldn’t need to spend the rest of your time alive guessing who’s your annoying coworker and who’s an alien with a taste for bearded men.

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6. TAKE OFF WAY TOO MUCH CLOTHING AFTER GETTING HURT.

Okay ladies, just because you got a scratch doesn’t mean you need to strip down to your undergarments. I know, you don’t want to bleed all over your good pair of jeans, but maybe consider the fact that you’re going to be running away from this killer or alien or desert slug for a good bit still, and you don’t want to have to do that in the near buff. Especially when your male friends are all suspiciously fully clothed.

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5. GO INTO DARK, SCARY BASEMENTS.

Look, unless your basement has a foosball table and some sort of neon signage, I’m not going down there. Dark, dank basements are for storing Christmas decorations and getting murdered. And yet, time and again, from The Evil Dead to The Blair Witch Project, people decide that heading down the stairs instead of out the door is their best bet. Worst case, there’s a demon down there. Best case, you get thrown in a pit and asked to put some “lotion in a basket.” Probably better to just stay on the first floor, where no one ever dies.

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4. HAVE SEX IN WEIRD PLACES.

We all like to mix things up. Skip the bed, and head all the way to the living room couch to get our freak on. But when you’re friends are being picked off one by one by a resurrected reject in a hockey mask, maybe it isn’t time to do the nasty in the abandoned mental hospital on the edge of town. Of course, when you get this many nubile young airheads together, they’re going to get a little frisky, but can’t they do it in a well-lit room with locks on the door? Safe sex doesn’t just apply to condoms, people.

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3. HIDE IN THE MOST OBVIOUS SPOTS.

We get it. You’re scared. There’s a creep with a knife hot on your tail. You just want to curl up in a ball and die. Well, not die, but hide. Then you see a closet, or a bed, and figure, he’ll never look in there. He’ll just march through the room, back out again, and be on his merry way. But that never happens. Michael Meyers always checks closets. Kidnappers always “taken” you if you hide under the bed. These are obvious places for anyone who isn’t a moron. And your whimpering and choked back tears aren’t exactly helping matters. Get out of there, for the love of God. Instead, you’re basically hiding behind a potted plant.

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2. TRIP OVER EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE WHILE RUNNING AWAY.

Why is it that the end of every horror movie has more pratfalls than a Three Stooges short? For some reason, a damsel in distress can’t run three feet without tripping over ever twig and crack she comes across. It doesn’t matter how much you yell “GET UP!” at the screen, they always end up on their knees. Look, just because you’re scared doesn’t mean you have to lose all equilibrium. Have some self respect. Stay on two feet. Most of these killers and monsters can’t lurch more than two miles an hour. A healthy jog is going to get the job done. Just keep it together, and remind me not to run a 5K behind you.

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1. SAY “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK” LIKE SCREAM NEVER HAPPENED.

Scream blew this one out of the water, but not without cause. There are countless examples in the Friday the 13th and Halloween movies where someone says, “I’ll be right back,” only to never be seen again. And yet, somehow, movies like Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones still have folks using the phrase unironically. You know what, if those characters haven’t seen Scream, they deserve to die.

http://www.ifc.com/2016/04/dumb-things-people-in-horror-movies-do

Inspiration From Other Media Products

Inspiration From Other Media Products

Media is all around us everyday, and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Whether it be TV adverts, poster, music, music videos or television programmes, it all plays an important part in everyone's life in the modern day. 

Coming up with a final Thriller idea proved somewhat problematic as I ended disliking whatever I came up with for various  reasons such as it being too cliché or too boring.

I decided to turn to the other forms of media, in hope of coming up with something more exciting as a result of inspiration from lots of different areas. 

The first place I have taken inspiration from is an American TV drama called 'Pretty Little Liars.' The reason this was so easy to take inspiration from is because a lot of it directly meets all the requirements of the Thriller genre, such as chase scenes in the woos with low lighting and high pitched, tension building music. This scene where Ezra is chasing Aria gave me inspiration for the idea of a man chasing a girl through the forest.

This is another clip from 'Pretty Little Liars' that has given me inspiration for my thriller opening. It simply gave me the idea of using an axe as the weapon of choice for the antagonist. I like the close up shot where the axe goes through the floorboard. The camera is framing the point of impact of the axe on the floorboard.

As the planning for my Thriller has been recent, seeing this advert on tv gave me the idea to use a Landrover as the vehicle of the antagonist as it is large and intimidating, complying to the Thriller convention. Although this only gave me an idea for a tiny aspect of my Thriller, this still helped so should get credited

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task!

Rough Storyboards 2

Rough Storyboards 2

I have produced a rough copy of the final storyboards so that I can rearrange the shots and frames if necessary when I produce the final storyboard that I will use on set.

Roger The Dog

This Is Roger

I wasn't sure whether to put Roger on the props or character list so I have just given him his own post.

He will be starring as the role of 'Dodgy Rog' 
He is a 2 and a half year old rescue Labrador Mastiff cross.
He is very playful with quite a docile temperament so I am hoping that with the right camera angles, editing and music that I can make him seem at least a bit intimidating.

A bit of a poser...

Could be scary....

...maybe not

Props List

Here Is My Props List

I have made sure to use all props that I already own as to reduce the overall budget of my film. The only exception being fake blood which I will order from amazon.

Axe

Canvas Tarpaulin

Shovel

Rubber Barbed Wire

Dog Muzzle 

 Fake Hand Gun

Fake Blood

Landrover 1965 Short wheel base Series 2a

Location

The Location Of My Thriller Opening

For the location of my thriller opening, I am using a country park near me called Trent Park. It has a large area of pine forest in it which is near a road so it is a perfect location to film at the large trees cause a low-lit and eerie setting.

Rough Storyboards

Rough Storyboards

These are only some very initial storyboards to establish the order of shots and also camera angles, I will be developing a more finalised storyboard to work from when filming.

Final Idea

Ok... This is actually the final idea, I promise!

After reevaluating all my ideas and the thriller opening I had come up with, I decided that it didn't really make any sense at all, even if it was just an opening.

I have decided that it seems silly not to take advantage of all the useful props/animals that I have access to. For example, I have a wartime landcover which will be used as the vehicle of the antagonist. I also have a reel of very realistic looking barbed wire which can be put to good use in a thriller opening. I will also be using my dog (called Roger) as the antagonists hunting hound. In my eyes, he is very cute, but silhouetted in a dark forest, I can understand why he would look very menacing. 

My Thriller opening starts a shot looking up through the trees of a pine forest in the early hours of the evening, that tilts down to reveal a girl in the forest who has clearly been running and ended up here. She is very on edge and almost trying to listen for something (we don't know what). We then see a clean point of view shot looking out over the calm and empty country road that runs along the edge of the forest. This will forbode what is going to happen. The camera will then cut back to the girl who is getting more and more panicked as time ticks away. We then hear the noise of a car approaching the forest, sending the girl into a crazed panic, causing her to break into a frantic run, stumbling over tree roots. I will include shots of her feet running and also film from the car to get shots running alongside her. 

I then cut to the the road where we see the landcover come over the horizon, with the headlights dazzling the camera. I will then be cutting between shots of the two scenes as the protagonist and antagonist have now been introduced.

We see intimidating shots of Roger the dog with a muzzle on. A hand takes off the muzzle as if to unleash danger.The girl is now hiding behind a tree and we see the man taking an axe out from under tarpaulin in the back of the car, under which is also a shovel, making the viewer wonder what he is saving it for.

As he kicks the door shut, the girl hears this, turns and runs. The running shots cut back and forth to a shot of Roger sniffing along the grounding the man coming over the horizon with the axe. 

As she reaches a fence, a shot of her hand grabbing the fence match cuts to a shot of the man's hand on the axe. She climbs over the fence. 

Youtube Videos That I Have Watched For Inspiration

Youtube Videos That I Have Watched For Inspiration 

During the process of planning my two minute thriller opening, I watch various videos on youtube for reference and inspiration. I wanted to see examples from real movies that had been particularly effective based on how I reacted to them.

Top 10 Powerful movie scenes with minimal dialogue 

Top 10 heart stopping movie moments

Top 10 horror movie opening scenes

Top 10 opening shots of all time

Idea 2 Overview

Idea 2

This idea is inspired by the film 'It Follows', as it is a totally unique thriller movie, gripping the audience from the first second.

I am doing it slightly differently as I am going to have my very first shot as an extreme close up that slowly zooms out. This is going to be a close up of my protagonist's eye, which slowly zooms out to a shot of her sitting on the edge of a sofa/bed looking terrified. The very next shot will be from outside of her running out of the house into the street as if she is being chased. As she gets to the road she will stop and walk slowly backward as if the person behind the camera is what is chasing her, but the viewer still does not know what is following her. At the point she starts running again, the music will pick up and she will run to the car that is in her driveway and open the door. We see a close up of her rummaging in the glove compartment and pulling out a gun and running into the house, slamming the door behind her.

In the next shot, we will see her sitting on the floor of the bathroom with her back against the door crying. This shot will slowly zoom into her face then suddenly cut to a shot of her face underwater in the bath.