Planning Day 5 & 6: Location Hunting

Location Hunting

On the 8th day after starting this project, Ten, Nano and I went to HydePark, a village near our school to look at locations to film our movie "Obsession". During the lesson, we walked from school to HydePark to look at empty houses that can be used to film. For each house, we will be looking for; how abandoned the house is, the condition of the house, does the house have all the qualities needed for setting up props and does it suit for a psychotic girl living alone with her dead boyfriend or not.

Here are some photos of the houses we looked at in HydePark:

All the houses that were taken came from a variety of photos from 6 houses within HydePark. All of which have different pros and cons. For Example the Sample House (Clean looking photos) have one advantage is that it is clean, safe and has a full working kitchen however, a drawback from this house might be that it is too "normal" for a psychotic person and the house might be too clean with furniture that we do not want.

Location 2:

After looking at the location in HydePark, we drove all the way to Bang Na to a Lakeside Village to look at another house which is abandoned and a little "dodgy" which is nice for a location that suits a psychotic person. However, inside the house has no kitchen and the staircase is really old and can fall apart whenever which can be a big hazard. But, one thing that I really like about this location is that the houses in this village are wide variety and there is a security guard base on every road (last photo) and the barbed wire fence which gives a feel as if it was a prison or part of a mental hospital.

Nano made a vlog on our location hunt in HydePark to briefly explain further and show moving images of the houses that we've been to.

Planning: Actors

Cast and Crew...

After a long meeting with the team, the 2 main agendas were finalized, we agreed on what jobs each of us are specifically doing and we also decided who will play the two main roles in the movie opening as the psychotic girl and the dead boy. 

For our team:

Ten Virapuchong: The script writer and props manager
Nano Tanongsakmontri: The editor and cameraman 2
Pooh Suwannakarn: Director and cameraman 1

These are the main jobs for each person on the team, but in the end, we all helped each other out with all these positions in order to get the job done quicker. 

As for the role of the actor and actress:

Ching Ching Runcharoenwikrai: The psychotic girl
Too Virapuchong: The dead boy 

OBSESSION Planning : Costume and Props

Costume Planning: Research Inspirations Designs

After meeting up with the crew and planning for a couple of lessons, we came up with the costume plan right after we thought of the script and the characters that will be in our movie opening. From what we planned, before, both of our character inspirations; Jennifer (Jennifer's Body) and Yuno Gasai (Future Diary), these two girls have something in common, they are both girls who study in highschool and the anime character (Yuno Gasai) already has a sort of "school uniform" or a dress code to her, so why not just give our girl character a go with wearing a school uniform. The reason why we decided to make her wear a school uniform is because it makes the character have an innocent look on the outside and the audience will get a "sweet" first impression of the girl as she walks on camera. In addition, after the audience has seen the girl's true colors, wearing a school uniform will make the whole  character itself look and fell more psychotic. 

Here's what a Japanese school uniform looks like. Now, what we decide was to give a little fusion to the uniform and make it more folk and traditional by adding a Thai touch to the uniform. 

School Uniform:

College Uniform

Prop Research

Our opening consists of lots of house scenes and a small mall scene during the beginning. After planning with the group, we thought of playing with objects to create semiotics behind it and to build up tension as the movie progresses. Also during the montage near the end, we had to think of different objects and things people are normally obsessed or addicted to. Here is the original list of what objects that we thought we needed:

1) Axe
2) Pots and pans 
3) Shoes
4) Bags that holds suits
5) joystick
6) bottle of alcohol
7) lighter
8) paper rolled up to make cigarette
9) chair
10) Ropes
11) Groceries

NRS Grid

NRS Grid




After looking at this table, I went on YouGov.com to search for 3 thriller movies and research what sort of person (target audience) would watch the movie. 

Thriller 1: Mad Max: Fury Road

Thriller 2: Captain Phillips

Thriller 3: Limitless

Similarities

From then 3 audiences of 3 different Thrillers were examined, there were similarities in gender, income and professions that each audience had in common. All of them were mainly male audience of the average age of around 40 years old who gets an income of around $100,000 and work in the economics and financial field. 

It maybe possible that each of the three audiences' occupations highlight on what they will watch at the cinema because all 3 of the Thriller films mentioned have something to do in a financial and economic point of view and builds tension in the economic problem area. 

Thriller Conventions

Thriller Conventions:

These conventions are considered to be a vital importance to make a film a "Thriller" genre:

  

1) The antagonist ensures the protagonist in an increasingly complex web, until the protagonist feels isolated and helpless.

2) The narrative centres upon a crime

e.g. theft, murder

3) The protagonist is fallible and has an Achilles heel that is exploited

4) Themes of identity are common mistaken identity, amnesia doubles.

5) Themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring - manipulation of   perspective

6) A series of enigmas are set up - only to be slowed at the end

7) The audience is placed in the ambiguous position of "Voyeur"

8) Protagonist will be in Peril / danger

9) The narrative presents extra-ordinary things in ordinary situations / settings 

10) The micro - elements are used to be build suspense.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

Sub Genre Thrillers

Sub Genre Thrillers

Thriller films do not have only one type, there are multiple types of Thriller films because the genre itself is very wide range. A film that creates tension and suspense already counts as a Thriller. But, it is the concept, script, characters and the story that categorizes different types of Thrillers. 


https://docs.google.com/a/harrowschool.ac.th/presentation/d/1nmYp-H6637EHLOyj1CP4IgpFJNx1OpLiL4Z_btBtrUk/edit?usp=sharing

Making our own sub-genre film

Planning

So in groups of 3 [Au, Smart, Me (Pooh)], we came up with several ideas on what kind of sub genre films that we wanted to do. In the end, we came up with an idea of combining 3 sub genres (Spy Thriller, Psychological Thriller and Crime Thriller) into one short film mainly highlighted on Spy.

Storyboard & Script plan



Cast and Crew

Casts:

Police 1: P Pasavich Songjitsomboon
Police 2: Pooh Intanon Suwannkarn
Thief: Au Kanisorn Panichpichetwong
Hooded Man: Ten Warit Virapuchong

Crew:

Camerawork: Smart Wongchindawest, Pooh Suwannakarn
Editing: Smart Wongchindawest
Props: Au Panichpichetwong

Final Product

Above is the final outcome of our Sub-Genre Film. The mixture of all 3 sub genre thrillers can clearly be seen through the characters in the short film. The 2 police represent crime, the thief running is seen as a spy and near at the end, the hooded figure who beats up everyone in the scene is an example of a psychological thriller.

Se7en and Rear Window

Se7en vs. Rear Window: Similarities

Se7en and Rear Window are both great Thriller movies to discuss on. They have many similarities to one another and that's how it makes the film really good. 

Firstly, the writers for both Se7en and Rear Window built their antagonists very well and used the micro elements in addition to the antagonists to build tension, suspense and enigma to the audience such as the killings in Se7en and how the killer in Rear Window constantly goes in and out of his apartment.

Second, the main protagonists are all weaklings. They have to think their way through and make tough choices in order to be strong even though sometimes they are the wrong choices like when Mills decides to kill John Doe in the end of Se7en and Jeff making quick decisions in order to save Lisa's life. Also, our protagonists have other weaknesses and flaws such as Mills who needs to control his temper and Jeff who has a cast on his leg. 

Both films are Crime Thriller sub genres and they build tension very well due to the crimes the antagonists have committed. What makes these two films unique is that the movie is based in a world full of crime. However, the people in "it" do not seem to care about what is going on in their world. For example; the people in the world of Se7en don't care if a crime is committed near them (the scene when Somerset and Mills were talking as a corpse was being gurneyed out of the apartment), no one walking around them seemed to care or stop to look in shock. Similar to the people who are isolated in the apartment buildings. They have their own private worlds and doesn't care about whose dog died or what's going on below them. When it is obvious that there is crime, people do not take action. That is how the movies are great Thriller movies to discuss on.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY