Soundtrack

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Originally, we were going to use music from Mogwai, a Post Rock band who have an ominous, ambiguous sound which is full of texture.  We tried to get around this problem by using another, lesser known Post Rock band, but again, copyright issues relating to Creative Commons Licences stopped us from using them. 

Due to the fact that these first choices for our soundtrack were copyrighted, we decided to use a track  by Nine Inch Nails from either  the album 'Ghosts I-V,' or 'The Slip', as they are both  free to use under Creative Commons, as they are being used in a non-profitable production.

http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup

As there is no dialogue during the interior bathroom shots, the music will play a prominent role, with very often little other than the sound a running water or traffic to compete with. However, this will change during the interrogation scenes, where we are likely to only use diegetic background noise with the dialogue between the three characters.

Due to the fact that our first choices for our soundtrack of were copyrighted, we decided to use a track  by Nine Inch Nails from either the album 'Ghosts I-V,' or 'The Slip', as they are both free to use under Creative Commons, as they are being used in a non profitable production. Nine Inch Nails' industrial sound is perfect for the ominous, disconcerting nature of Thrillers.

As there is no dialogue during the flashback shots or the interior bathroom shots, the music will play a prominent role, with very often little other than the sound a running water or traffic to compete with. However, this will change during the interrogation scenes, where we are likely to only use diegetic background noise with the dialogue between the three characters.

The piece we used for the bathroom scene (01 Ghosts I from the Ghosts I-V album) is sparse due to the individual piano playing dissonant chords. We thought this fit the main character's (Max) personality as he is vulnerable and trying to rid himself of his previous life, and start anew. Additionally, the track could be said to evoke a 'classical' style of music, similar to some of Chopin's pieces on the piano. Seeing as classical music is more upmarket, and stereotypically it's listeners are more 'intelligent', it punctuates the persona we try to create of Max's character being successful in his work.

The tracks we ended up using for the interrogation scene were 'The Four of Us Are Dying' and 'Corona Radiata' which are both from The Slip. The former worked well for the action part of the interrogation as it has a sinister, sneaky sort of sound; emphasising the fact that Adam sneaks up on Kieran with a knife. The music is also more foregrounded in the sound mix to give build tension and atmosphere. 

The latter on the other hand is much more suited for dialogue driven scenes, as it is atmospheric and does not rely on riffs or ostinatos. It is backgrounded in the mix to connote an uncertainty in the atmosphere of the opening. The track relies mainly on pedal notes and so it is very slow, which works much better on the first part of the interrogation as the action following it is much more fast paced.

Costume, Cast and Props

I was cast as the 'victim' as I am 6' 3" and skinny, making me appear the most vulnerable out of the three of us.











Kieran Brooks plays the 'brute' of the situation acting as Max's thug doing his dirty work. He fits in well with this role because he is the biggest one of us and the most intimidating. During the film he wears all black, whilst wearing a hoody to relate to 'gang culture' and the negative stereotypical view of hoodies.

 Max Lake plays the 'mastermind' behind the whole abduction and fits in well with his enigmatic role shrouded with mystery regarding who he is and what is he doing. Max is wearing a suit during our entire production connoting professionalism and that he is an intelligent man which helps enforce his 'mastermind' role.

  

As we couldn't obtain cocaine due to financial and legal restictions, we made a mixture of flour, baking soda and sugar. Glucose powder and powdered milk is often used in Hollywood films, but as it wasn't being snorted it in our production it didn't reallymatter what it was made from.

We also used a toy .38 revolver as it connotes danger and death. .38 revolvers are also really cheap to purchase and are a common weapon worldwide for civilians which makes the film seem more realistic as it would be harder for a group of young adult males to acquire armaments.

 As the revolver was blue so therefore obviously didn't fit our production, we used a more realistic  black M9 Raffica BB gun in the re-shot bathroom scene.

Locations

 Front room
We used Max's house for one of the scenes within the film. His lounge helps show that he has a family or a history of one due to the number of pictures around the room, but as the house is empty apart from Max, it makes you wonder where they are or what happened to them. One of the other locations that we used is Max's bathroom. The reason we used the bathroom is because it is a common preparation area for people getting ready for work and it helps shroud him with enigma as he has a nice house but yet, he stores a pistol in his cabinet.

Bathroom
Max's bathroom was chosen for convenience and because it contains a mirror in which his gun could be hidden and withdrawn from. However, the small size created a problem with setting up the tripod and some shots had to be filmed from within the bath.






 












  
Max's garage 
The main location was Max’s garage which we used for the interrogation scene of our opening. The room was very dark and was lit by one light which therefore made it chiaroscuro lighting. The fact that it went dark very quickly also added to the effect. The garage was also unsettling and made it seem like a thriller as it was filled with power tools which are possible items which are dangerous and could be used in an interrogation, reinforcing our reason for using the garage.                                                          

 


 Office
We also used his dad's office for the match-on-action shots in which Max and Kieran enter the garage

 

















 Street
The street outside of Max’s house provided an ideal location for our car following/chase scene due to the road being straight and very long. Not a lot of cars come past either as the house is at the end of the street providing us the ability to film undisturbed.
 

Title and Credit Choice

We will use a Sans-Serif font for the titles and credits due to the informality as opposed to Serif fonts which are much more formal. This informality works well with the informal and seemingly everyday themes covered in the film. We will also use black and white for the credits, motion overlay, smoke-like text which comes close, zooms in and disperses and hence links well with the subject matter of drugs. There are three flashbacks and in each will be one actors' name. The title of the film 'The Tester' will be shown in this smoke like font, and will be blown out adding a stylized look and mysteriousness, leading the audience to question the themes that will be covered in the film opening.

 

The Sixth Sense font above is similar to what our fonts for our titles and credits will look like. As you can see, the font is Sans-Serif lending the text an informal look and it looks almost handwritten. During the opening credits for Sixth Sense, the font zooms in to making it larger and clearer before dispersing, leaving a black screen awaiting another name to appear. This idea would be good to replicate slightly whilst adding our own touches to it as it helps create an enigma behind it all. We could make the text look like smoke in which it then lingers before dispersing off the screen.

 

The film Se7en opening credits font is similar to the Sixth Sense in that it is done against a black background with a white, handwritten style font. The way it is done creates enigmas as the font is shaky within Se7en which helps create uncertainty to the audience.

We can use the same style font in our production as it it is eerie and ominous which helps create atmosphere.

Whilst all of the above is all well and good, we have found that in our video editor Pinnacle there are technical limitations relating to animated fonts. Our smoke idea therefore might not be possible so we have come up with some alternatives. Firstly, we tried Avid studio as it contained more titles than Pinaccle but we found that it could not meet our needs as far as a good, ominous title for a Thriller goes.

One of our ideas is a ransom note style font, this relates to actual events in the opening as the hostage is kidnapped, thus enhancing the actual narrative of the opening regarding enigmas and how the ransom note might relate to the story.