Opening to a Thriller - Character Profiles

Caesar:

Name: Caesar Arjana

Actor: Caesar Mahamba

Age: 20

Birthplace: Trinidad & Tobago

Nationality: Black Caribbean

Occupation: Student

Religion: Christianity -Church of England

Back story:

Caesar was born in Trinidad to a small and humble family. When living in the Caribbean, Caesar showed great promise for education. His parents, wishing him to make a better life for himself, sent him to live with his uncle in Norwich, England, at the tender age of eight. Now studying law at university, Caesar has set out to prove himself with the support of his uncle, long time girlfriend Helen and his faith in God. He has rarely ever met Helen's father, but knows he disapproves of her being with him.

We chose Caesar to play the protagonist in the film because his connections with James allowed us to organise a number of shoots in which the full cast could attend. Caesar's true age is 29, but he can pass as younger. The entire context of Blind Faith required a non-white actor for the lead role, therefore Caesar was perfect. We chose to reverse the stereotypes of race to highlight the unimportance of ethnicity and the evil of racism emanating from Jason.

Jason:

Name: Jason Edmonds

Actor: Steven Webb

Age: 45

Birthplace: Norwich, England

Nationality: White British

Occupation: Part-time driving instructor, veteran of the Falkland's War

Religion: Christianity -Catholicism (extremist sect of)

Back story:

Jason is an extremely patriotic middle-aged man born and living in Lakenham, Norwich. His live is humble and at times difficult, especially after returning from the armed forces with shell shock. His wife left several years ago with an attractive young man from abroad, leaving him to bring up his daughter, Helen, alone. These factors have culminated in his right wing political alignment; he was a huge supporter of the National front, votes for the British national Party and holds an unjustifiable hatred for non-white citizens. He sees Caesar as a threat to Helen and wants nothing more than for him to be out of the way, and will use any means necessary to do this, whether legal or illegal.

Again, Steven was a perfect choice for our antagonist because of his close proximity, contacts (he is James' father) and appropriate age/ethnicity for the role. With the right choice of clothing and stature, Steven could be displayed as a very frightening character.

Helen:

Name: Helen Edmonds

Actor: Sorrel Lawrence

Age: 18

Birthplace: Norwich, England

Nationality: White British

Occupation: Student

Religion: None (Atheist)

Back Story:

Helen is Jason's daughter. She detests her overprotective father and would have much rather left with her mother to live abroad. She fell in love with Caesar two years prior to the events of Blind Faith and they have been in a passionate relationship for almost as long. Her father plots to rid himself of Caesar, but Helen is oblivious to this insidious planning.

Because Sorrel was already a member of both our class and our filming group, she was the easiest choice for an actor. She is easy to relate to for our demographic and dresses fashionably enough for the role to be f

Opening to a Thriller - Shot List

Shot list for 'Blind Faith' by Jack Sims

• First shot - Jason looks into the bathroom mirror. Fade out.
• Cut to Caesar and Helen walking up street, then feet up driveway, then walking at driveway.
• Door opens, Helen walks in.
• Caesar stands at door, Jason slams it shut on Caesar.
• Cut to Turning of tap, Jasonw ashes hands. Repeat from door opening 5 times.
• Final hand washing shot (after gradually revealing blood on Jason's hands) fades out.
• Cut from extreme close-up of Jason to Caesar walking in woods.
• Walking continues. Shot of Caesar's feet cuts between washing of army knife and cutting of pictures. Jason walks behind.
• Cut to Caesar walking up to photo in woodland. Picks up, then makes transition to 3 fast-moving shots of photos.
• 360 degree spinning shot of woods.
• Cut to burning candle. Candles begins to blow out, cuts to Caesar falling, then abck to extinguished candle. Fin.

Opening to a Thriller - Storyboard

 This is the storyboard to my opening to a thriller, entitled 'Blind Faith'

It charts the camera's intended shots throughout the film and explains briefly how each scene makes transitions and includes sound. (Shot 5 shot type is close-up x3, shot 6 shot type is zoom x3, 360 rotation and another close-up x3. By Jack Sims)

Original, rough ideas for Thriller

Location: derelict, deserted country road, far from civilisation, situated in a forest.

Characters: Friends of protagonist, delinquent and quick to betray
                  Teenage protagonist, follows the stereotype of delinquency
                  Following figure, appears 'normal'
                  Innocent looking character, appears vulnerable or disabled
                  Driver of suspicious white van, up to no good

Story:

• Boy is dumped on the side of a deserted and overgrown country road by his friends, who then drive away, leaving him to make his own way home.
• Boy begins walking in the night, then begins to fear for his safety. Unseen eyes are watching him, similar in shot to Halloween.
• Boy becomes increasingly paranoid, hears footsteps, and looks behind on the path to see an inconspicuous young woman, presumably on her own way home. Infront comes a man feeling his way about the pavement with a cane, faking frailty or inability to see.
• Boy is reassured, but then enter the white van. Man with cane reveals himself as nimble/able to see as he comes from behind and throttles the boy with his cane. He and the inconspicuous woman haul the boy into the van and drive away.

Eventually we used elements of this first story (such as the victimisisation of a teenager) to create whatw as to become my film, Blind Faith.

Thriller Storyboard 1.0

Original storyboard for Thriller opening/concept, "Drop-off Point", Jack Sims

Preliminary Task Storyboard, Reverse Shot, Over the Shoulder & Match on Action

 This is the storyboard for my preliminary task, entitled 'Bag Combat', in which we were required to create a short film that utilised the 180 degree rule, match on action, over shoulder and reverse shots.

Before filming, we had to create a storyboard to draw out the rough outline for each shot. We were required to explain in detail what each panel involved, specify the shot type and illustrate the action.

In the sixth panel I have illustrated a plan to use a reverse shot. A reverse shot is a filming technique in which two separate shots of conversing actors are edited together so that they appear to be talking to one-another off screen (an example of this is Holly and Major Calloway's conversation at the bar in The Third Man). We arranged for our two characters to confront eachother in a reverse shot.

Eyeline matching is used to show the contents of a shot through the eyes of a certain character. The camera takes a shot of the face of a character as they look at something off screen. This shot cuts to one from their point of view, looking at the intended item. An example of this can be seen in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, in which the film's star James Stewart looks out across the block to various other homes, as shown in the film's cinematic trailer. We planned to use this within our preliminary task to highlight what the protagonist is looking at, specifically the culprit character. Using eyeline matching presented some technical difficulties, so we opted for over the shoulder shots instead. Over the shoulder shots, as the name suggests, are shots taken from a third person view over the shoulder of a character, taking a shot of what they are facing toward as well as part of their body.