Brief-Lucy Billinghurst

For our Media Studies coursework, we were required to plan, create and edit a two minute opening to a thriller. Before actually considering our own thriller,we did some research into what a thriller consists of, and what makes a good thriller. We watched other thrillers; some made by Sixth Form students and some made by Hollywood directors. From these we were able to extract conventions and subgenres of thrillers. We also thought about the props and settings for these thrillers. All of these factors would need to be applied to our own thriller. We also did research into target audiences; we looked at psychographics and demographics, and we held a focus group. Our findings would also need to be kept in mind when producing our own thriller.

Our thriller will begin with an action before narrative, when a professional woman returns from work and is killed in her own home. The identity of the killer will remain unknown and this is the basis of our storyline. The story will then jump back in time to a few weeks before the murder. The woman is in a hotel or office with a partner and a briefcase. The woman sees a businessman, doing a deal with someone, and is handed a briefcase. The woman then switches the briefcases, stealing the one with the goods inside.

We decided that our thriller's subgenre is a gangster/crime thriller. It has elements of the connotations associated with both types of films. The heart of the storyline is centred on a complex and well planned crime, as well as gang involvement.

The certificate we have chosen for our thriller is a 15 certificate. We decided this because the majority of thrillers have 15 certificates and some even have 12 certificates, such as the Bourne Identity. We also thought that a 15 certificate would open our film up to a wider audience, and it could maximise the profit. Despite this, our age demographic is 18 to 25 year olds, as we have discovered from our research that this is the group most likely to watch a thrillers. In addition to this, although we want our thriller to appeal to both genders, a thriller of this nature is associated with males.

We would like our thriller to be produced by a big production company with conglomerate backing. We decided that the best example of this would be 21st Century Fox, which is the film branch of the insititution News Corporation. News Corp owns many newspapers worldwide, as well as owning popular satellite T.V providers. This therefore means that we could use synergy, and advertise the film the world over. As it is a big production company, we will be able to distribute the film into cinemas over the country and perhaps even around the world, maximising profit.

We believe that our film deviates the dominant ideologies in today's society. Although it consists of the usual gangster iconography and conventions, the main character is a middle class woman. The middle class is not associated with crime, and women are not one of the dominant ideologies.

Our film consists of long shots, setting the scene and close ups, establishing character emotions. Our film also includes the conventions of thrillers. It includes blood, suits, briefcases, crime and suspcious business deals.

We took the inspiration of our film from other films. Our idea of the murder in a house came from other thrillers such as Scream and Halloween. The action before narrative idea came from the film One Hour Photo that we watched in class.