Pitch
Monday 11 January 2010
For my pitch, I presented the class with my three story ideas 'Graveyard Shuffle', 'Blind Rise Masquerade' and 'the Magic Elixir'. After explaining that I was stuck between 'the magic elixir' and 'the masquerade' story ideas, the class voted on which they thought would be the better idea to use. 'Blind Rise Masquerade' proved to be the more popular idea with the majority of the classes vote while I was told that my other idea was still good, but didn't seem like much of a thriller. This helped me greatly because I have made a final decision on which film would be my main idea.
Story II
Thursday 7 January 2010
Graveyard Shuffle
This is a story that I developed for my film coursework, but thought would be a good storyline to use her as well. It follows a gravedigger named Danny.
A girl named Danny lives and works in a graveyard. She digs graves in the cemetery that her uncle owns and keeps it looked after for him. She has a habit of watching/attending burials to assess how wealthy the person that died is and late at night, she digs up the coffins to take anything she can pawn that they are buried with - clothes, jewellry, shoes, watches, gold teeth etc. One night when she has no money to buy any food for herself or her pet lizard, she digs up a fresh grave and hopes for the best. When she pops the lid off the coffin, to her surprise, she doesn't find the coffin full of a body; she find it full of drugs and money. Sensing that she could get into trouble if she takes it, she puts the lid back on the coffin and buries it again. She decides to dig up a different grave the day after and leaves the one filled with drugs alone. A few nights later, she has a little money from another grave, she's in her house listening to records when she hears some loud noises and scurrying of feet. Knowing that the graveyard is off limits at night, she puts on her boots and coat and picks up her shovel to scare off the intruders. When she leaves the door, she is pulled out by a bunch of shady figures. A bag is put on her head and she is driven away somewhere in a van. It turns out she has been taken by the mob! And they want to know where the money and drugs they were storing in the graveyard are. Unfortunately for Danny, one of her enemies was watching the graveyard that night and waiting to get revenge on her (she beat him up with her shovel when he wandered into the graveyard while she was grave robbing). He saw Danny dig up and re-bury the coffin filled with loot and took it all for himself. Meanwhile, Danny is in a tight spot, a lot of buried treasure is missing and she doesn't know where it is. After a good beating, the mob give her a few days to come up with the foods or they'll bury her alive in her own graveyard. Danny, unphazed by the threats, begins to find a trail to where the loot could be. To begin with, she digs up the grave during the day and sees that all of the drugs have been taken, but half of the money has been left. She stores the leftover cash under some loose floorboards in her shed. While at the coffin, she finds a few clues - a huge, muddy boot print on the lid which has a unique logo on it. She also finds the shovel which the thief used in the hole beneath the coffin. She could tell it was an amateur grave robber who did the deed. The first person she finds is the local drug dealer and asks if anyone is trying to move a large quantity of drugs in the area. He sends her in the direction of an alcoholic named Miranda who was barely any help at all on account of the fact that all she ever spoke about was her bitter divorce that happened three years ago. However, she does say she saw a dodgy looking guy in the local pub a few days ago with a pretty hefty duffel bag hanging from his shoulder. Danny goes to the pub and asks the owner if he has seen anything strange around. The owner takes Danny into the male toilets and pulls off the lid off of three toilet basins to show her the bags of cocaine floating in each of them. Danny takes the drugs and tells the owner that she'll deal with them. She asks about a dodgy looking guy with a duffel bag but the owner had been on holiday all week, she she has a barman named Frank. Frank said he saw the guy come in and walk mud all over the carpets, his hood was up and he walks straight into the toilets. He couldn't see the guys face though, but he did order a glass of soco and lemonade, then he left when he had finished it. Danny stashes the cocaine back in the shed. She realises that she's hit a dead end and she doesn't have a lot of time left. She decides to take a walk to clear her head. She ends up at her friends house to cool off and watch some TV (a possession that Danny doesn't own). While there, her friend's dad is constantly bitching and moaning about his garden. He keeps throwing all sorts of crap out of his tool shed and making a racket. He finally comes in and sees Danny - he asks her if he can borrow a shovel to dig up his flowerbed because his is missing. Something clicks in Danny's mind and she says she'll be back in 20. She goes home to the graveyard where the she gets the shovel she found in the hole and takes it back to her friend's Dad. During the exchange, her friend comes downstairs and recognizes the shovel. She asks if Archer gave it back after borrowing it the other night. Danny leaves the house to find Archer - She realises that after the beating she gave him a few weeks back, he was probably getting payback. She finds him asleep in his Mother's basement with his filthy boots still on his feet. She grabs him by the scruff of his neck and ties him to the bed where she forces him to tell her where the drugs and money are. He points her in the direction of his bathroom where he stashed the goods in his bath tub. He admits the he left some of the drugs in the pub and couldn't carry it all from the coffin. He also bought on packet of cigarettes and some beed because he didn't know what to spend it on. She takes the stuff and waits for the mob to come calling. In the early hours if the morning, she is picked up in the same van to take the stuff back. She gains the respect of the mob and forms a new ally. The mob sends a few men round to Archer's house to rough him up for taking their loot. Everything is finished, Danny solved the mystery of the missing loot and now she can get back to doing what she does best, digging graves!
This is a story that I developed for my film coursework, but thought would be a good storyline to use her as well. It follows a gravedigger named Danny.
A girl named Danny lives and works in a graveyard. She digs graves in the cemetery that her uncle owns and keeps it looked after for him. She has a habit of watching/attending burials to assess how wealthy the person that died is and late at night, she digs up the coffins to take anything she can pawn that they are buried with - clothes, jewellry, shoes, watches, gold teeth etc. One night when she has no money to buy any food for herself or her pet lizard, she digs up a fresh grave and hopes for the best. When she pops the lid off the coffin, to her surprise, she doesn't find the coffin full of a body; she find it full of drugs and money. Sensing that she could get into trouble if she takes it, she puts the lid back on the coffin and buries it again. She decides to dig up a different grave the day after and leaves the one filled with drugs alone. A few nights later, she has a little money from another grave, she's in her house listening to records when she hears some loud noises and scurrying of feet. Knowing that the graveyard is off limits at night, she puts on her boots and coat and picks up her shovel to scare off the intruders. When she leaves the door, she is pulled out by a bunch of shady figures. A bag is put on her head and she is driven away somewhere in a van. It turns out she has been taken by the mob! And they want to know where the money and drugs they were storing in the graveyard are. Unfortunately for Danny, one of her enemies was watching the graveyard that night and waiting to get revenge on her (she beat him up with her shovel when he wandered into the graveyard while she was grave robbing). He saw Danny dig up and re-bury the coffin filled with loot and took it all for himself. Meanwhile, Danny is in a tight spot, a lot of buried treasure is missing and she doesn't know where it is. After a good beating, the mob give her a few days to come up with the foods or they'll bury her alive in her own graveyard. Danny, unphazed by the threats, begins to find a trail to where the loot could be. To begin with, she digs up the grave during the day and sees that all of the drugs have been taken, but half of the money has been left. She stores the leftover cash under some loose floorboards in her shed. While at the coffin, she finds a few clues - a huge, muddy boot print on the lid which has a unique logo on it. She also finds the shovel which the thief used in the hole beneath the coffin. She could tell it was an amateur grave robber who did the deed. The first person she finds is the local drug dealer and asks if anyone is trying to move a large quantity of drugs in the area. He sends her in the direction of an alcoholic named Miranda who was barely any help at all on account of the fact that all she ever spoke about was her bitter divorce that happened three years ago. However, she does say she saw a dodgy looking guy in the local pub a few days ago with a pretty hefty duffel bag hanging from his shoulder. Danny goes to the pub and asks the owner if he has seen anything strange around. The owner takes Danny into the male toilets and pulls off the lid off of three toilet basins to show her the bags of cocaine floating in each of them. Danny takes the drugs and tells the owner that she'll deal with them. She asks about a dodgy looking guy with a duffel bag but the owner had been on holiday all week, she she has a barman named Frank. Frank said he saw the guy come in and walk mud all over the carpets, his hood was up and he walks straight into the toilets. He couldn't see the guys face though, but he did order a glass of soco and lemonade, then he left when he had finished it. Danny stashes the cocaine back in the shed. She realises that she's hit a dead end and she doesn't have a lot of time left. She decides to take a walk to clear her head. She ends up at her friends house to cool off and watch some TV (a possession that Danny doesn't own). While there, her friend's dad is constantly bitching and moaning about his garden. He keeps throwing all sorts of crap out of his tool shed and making a racket. He finally comes in and sees Danny - he asks her if he can borrow a shovel to dig up his flowerbed because his is missing. Something clicks in Danny's mind and she says she'll be back in 20. She goes home to the graveyard where the she gets the shovel she found in the hole and takes it back to her friend's Dad. During the exchange, her friend comes downstairs and recognizes the shovel. She asks if Archer gave it back after borrowing it the other night. Danny leaves the house to find Archer - She realises that after the beating she gave him a few weeks back, he was probably getting payback. She finds him asleep in his Mother's basement with his filthy boots still on his feet. She grabs him by the scruff of his neck and ties him to the bed where she forces him to tell her where the drugs and money are. He points her in the direction of his bathroom where he stashed the goods in his bath tub. He admits the he left some of the drugs in the pub and couldn't carry it all from the coffin. He also bought on packet of cigarettes and some beed because he didn't know what to spend it on. She takes the stuff and waits for the mob to come calling. In the early hours if the morning, she is picked up in the same van to take the stuff back. She gains the respect of the mob and forms a new ally. The mob sends a few men round to Archer's house to rough him up for taking their loot. Everything is finished, Danny solved the mystery of the missing loot and now she can get back to doing what she does best, digging graves!
Story I
The Magic Elixir
This story follows a girl named Emma who is quite a laid back character, a little too laid back, she can't hold down a job and generally dislikes everything about being alive.
Emma wakes up and her apartment is a wreck, she looks a mess with her hair askew and make up smudged all over her face. She looks down and doesn't recognize the underwear she's wearing, she slept with her shoes on and her shirt inside out. This a normal hangover for a girl like Emma. She removes her shoes, gets up, stretches and cringes at the disturbing sound emanating from her stomach, she knows that her stomach shouldn't be making that noise but she won't go to her GP because last time she went it was for her hemorrhoids and now she's too embarrassed to return. Instead, she ignores it and makes for the fridge hoping that she can find something to ease the storm brewing in her bowels. Her attempts were in vain when all she can find is a lump of cheese that used to be yellow, but is now an assortment of vile greens and purples. She doesn't throw it away. Right before she goes to slam the fridge door shut, she notices a very strange bottle in the side compartment that she doesn't recognize. Upon further examination, she vaguely remembers buying it a week earlier from a bearded hobo for three quid and half a burger. He told her to enjoy it, so she takes a large gulp and slides it back into the fridge before letting the door shut itself. She blinks twice and a wave of euphoria runs through her entire body, she can see stars, there's music playing behind her eyeballs and the sky outside is purple. She opens the fridge door and finds it brimming with food; cakes, milkshake, quiche, flan, flapjacks, grandma's cherry pie etc. She stares at the food and decides not to eat it because it appeared out of nowhere, it is extremely suspicious. As soon as she turns away from the fridge her stomach twists and bile explodes up her oesophagus and all over the wall opposite. She gets vomit in her hair but as soon as she's done, she feels a lot better. She doesn't clean up the puke. She checks her watch, pulls a pair of jeans on and decides to go down to the job centre. She is a regular there. On her way out of her apartment building, she remembers that she's behind on her rent and tip toes past her land lord's apartment but Emma never had good luck, she trips over her feet and smacks her face off the door. She prayed to Lucifer that he wouldn't come out. He did. With a raised voice, the moustache clad man begins his verbal assault on his innocent tenant and tells her if she doesn't pay up, he will kick her out onto the streets. Emma wasn't fazed though, she told the man that he was extremely angry for a little person and to excuse her while she quenches her thirst. She takes a swig from the bottle, her eyes never leaving the light reflecting from her land lord's shining bald head. She replaces the lid and feels something uncomfortable in her sock, she reaches down to remove the debris from between her toes but finds that it is a giant wad of cash. She thrusts the money towards her land lord and leaves the building pronto, it is not a good idea to look back she repeats in her head. As soon as she gets to her green punto, she feels the euphoria rippling from her toes to her cranium and she suddenly blows chunks all over the window. It takes her a few moments to realise that she had left her car window open all night, the puke was resting peacefully on the driver's seat and her CD player had been ripped out. She reaches down to her sock again and pulls out a few leftover notes, she decides to walk to the job centre instead and grab some smokes along the way. As soon as she gets to the shop, she feels something funny in her hand. She opens it and finds that the money has turned into a pile of dirt, she wipes it on someone's back on her way out. Down at the job centre it's the usual situation, the woman at the desk telling her to get a job and keep it, Emma telling her to get laid. She phones up about a waitressing job and they ask her can she work immediately, damn right I can work immediately Emma explains. On her way to the job, she feels extremely woozy. She can't walk in a straight line and has forgotten what her name is but remembers that it's sewn into the inside of her underwear. When she looks, she remembers that she's wearing unknown undies but the name sewn inside says 'made in china'. She has an insane urge to eat chow mein. When Emma arrives at work finally, a half hour late, she is thrown into the deep end. She has always been a clumsy girl and when she smashes a few plates, the supervisor tries to be sympathetic since it's the first time she has worked there but when Emma vomits all over a plate of full english and then serves it to a customer stating 'extra scrambled eggs', that is the last straw. Not that Emma didn't see it coming, but she was fired. There is only one choice left for Emma, the last resort, the one thing she promised she would never ever do unless she was in the most pathetic state of desperation that she will ever be in. She phoned her parents. When she asks to borrow money, her Mom says that they won't give her a penny until she proves to them that she has cleaned up her act. Come over for lunch said she, your Dad aint seen you in a while. Emma agreed, she quickly dipped into a Tesco Express on her way where she sprayed herself down with Febreze and shoplifted a packet of chewing gum. Before knocking on her parent's front door, she takes a quick swig from the bottle in her pocket because her mouth felt crazily dry. Inside, things were going well for a while. The nostalgia that her parent's home brought was quite calming and Emma felt as though everything would be okay. That is until she anticaptes that she's going hurl all over her Mom's expensive Persian rug. In a panic she gets up and makes for the bathroom but she can't walk, her ankles feel like jelly and she smashes into walls and knocks down an urn holding her Grandma's ashes from the mantle on the wall which sprinkles down from the air like pixie dust. Her Dad grabs her to stop her from moving and she empties out the contents of her stomach all over his face while his mouth is open. Needless to say, her parents were not happy after this incident and kicked Emma out, telling her to leave for good. In her ever increasing state of despair, Emma decided to walk around for a while to calm herself down. It didn't work. She went to take another sip from the bottle but realised that it's the bottle that keeps getting her into trouble, the drink is what is making her sick! She hurls it as far as she can throw and it shatters about 3 feet in front of her on the ground and splashes up her legs. She walks for a while longer, trying to take the shortest route home. Keep in mind that Emma hasn't eaten all day, she's a complete stresshead at present and she's been drinking something that can only be described as acid all day. She passes out up a wall. When Emma is shook awake, it is nightfall. She looks up the man shaking her, he was wearing a dicky bow and long johns, but his teeth were mangled like they'd been pulled out of his face and shoved back in again. Emma hated weird teeth. She began to scream and he clamped his hand, which tasted of feet, over her mouth. Just calm down he said, calm down and tell me what has happened. Emma is notorious for her verbal diarrhea and tells the stranger about the elixir and her money problems and her hunger. He laughs and tells her he will buy her some food, she follows him into a shop where he buys her a kit kat and a scratch card then bids her farewell. What a nice man Emma thought. She munched the kit kat and scratched the grey bits from the scratch card. She must have stared at the card for ten minutes straight before she worked out that she'd won the jackpot. I'll cash it in the morning she thought as she went to bed with a smile on her face for once. END
This story follows a girl named Emma who is quite a laid back character, a little too laid back, she can't hold down a job and generally dislikes everything about being alive.
Emma wakes up and her apartment is a wreck, she looks a mess with her hair askew and make up smudged all over her face. She looks down and doesn't recognize the underwear she's wearing, she slept with her shoes on and her shirt inside out. This a normal hangover for a girl like Emma. She removes her shoes, gets up, stretches and cringes at the disturbing sound emanating from her stomach, she knows that her stomach shouldn't be making that noise but she won't go to her GP because last time she went it was for her hemorrhoids and now she's too embarrassed to return. Instead, she ignores it and makes for the fridge hoping that she can find something to ease the storm brewing in her bowels. Her attempts were in vain when all she can find is a lump of cheese that used to be yellow, but is now an assortment of vile greens and purples. She doesn't throw it away. Right before she goes to slam the fridge door shut, she notices a very strange bottle in the side compartment that she doesn't recognize. Upon further examination, she vaguely remembers buying it a week earlier from a bearded hobo for three quid and half a burger. He told her to enjoy it, so she takes a large gulp and slides it back into the fridge before letting the door shut itself. She blinks twice and a wave of euphoria runs through her entire body, she can see stars, there's music playing behind her eyeballs and the sky outside is purple. She opens the fridge door and finds it brimming with food; cakes, milkshake, quiche, flan, flapjacks, grandma's cherry pie etc. She stares at the food and decides not to eat it because it appeared out of nowhere, it is extremely suspicious. As soon as she turns away from the fridge her stomach twists and bile explodes up her oesophagus and all over the wall opposite. She gets vomit in her hair but as soon as she's done, she feels a lot better. She doesn't clean up the puke. She checks her watch, pulls a pair of jeans on and decides to go down to the job centre. She is a regular there. On her way out of her apartment building, she remembers that she's behind on her rent and tip toes past her land lord's apartment but Emma never had good luck, she trips over her feet and smacks her face off the door. She prayed to Lucifer that he wouldn't come out. He did. With a raised voice, the moustache clad man begins his verbal assault on his innocent tenant and tells her if she doesn't pay up, he will kick her out onto the streets. Emma wasn't fazed though, she told the man that he was extremely angry for a little person and to excuse her while she quenches her thirst. She takes a swig from the bottle, her eyes never leaving the light reflecting from her land lord's shining bald head. She replaces the lid and feels something uncomfortable in her sock, she reaches down to remove the debris from between her toes but finds that it is a giant wad of cash. She thrusts the money towards her land lord and leaves the building pronto, it is not a good idea to look back she repeats in her head. As soon as she gets to her green punto, she feels the euphoria rippling from her toes to her cranium and she suddenly blows chunks all over the window. It takes her a few moments to realise that she had left her car window open all night, the puke was resting peacefully on the driver's seat and her CD player had been ripped out. She reaches down to her sock again and pulls out a few leftover notes, she decides to walk to the job centre instead and grab some smokes along the way. As soon as she gets to the shop, she feels something funny in her hand. She opens it and finds that the money has turned into a pile of dirt, she wipes it on someone's back on her way out. Down at the job centre it's the usual situation, the woman at the desk telling her to get a job and keep it, Emma telling her to get laid. She phones up about a waitressing job and they ask her can she work immediately, damn right I can work immediately Emma explains. On her way to the job, she feels extremely woozy. She can't walk in a straight line and has forgotten what her name is but remembers that it's sewn into the inside of her underwear. When she looks, she remembers that she's wearing unknown undies but the name sewn inside says 'made in china'. She has an insane urge to eat chow mein. When Emma arrives at work finally, a half hour late, she is thrown into the deep end. She has always been a clumsy girl and when she smashes a few plates, the supervisor tries to be sympathetic since it's the first time she has worked there but when Emma vomits all over a plate of full english and then serves it to a customer stating 'extra scrambled eggs', that is the last straw. Not that Emma didn't see it coming, but she was fired. There is only one choice left for Emma, the last resort, the one thing she promised she would never ever do unless she was in the most pathetic state of desperation that she will ever be in. She phoned her parents. When she asks to borrow money, her Mom says that they won't give her a penny until she proves to them that she has cleaned up her act. Come over for lunch said she, your Dad aint seen you in a while. Emma agreed, she quickly dipped into a Tesco Express on her way where she sprayed herself down with Febreze and shoplifted a packet of chewing gum. Before knocking on her parent's front door, she takes a quick swig from the bottle in her pocket because her mouth felt crazily dry. Inside, things were going well for a while. The nostalgia that her parent's home brought was quite calming and Emma felt as though everything would be okay. That is until she anticaptes that she's going hurl all over her Mom's expensive Persian rug. In a panic she gets up and makes for the bathroom but she can't walk, her ankles feel like jelly and she smashes into walls and knocks down an urn holding her Grandma's ashes from the mantle on the wall which sprinkles down from the air like pixie dust. Her Dad grabs her to stop her from moving and she empties out the contents of her stomach all over his face while his mouth is open. Needless to say, her parents were not happy after this incident and kicked Emma out, telling her to leave for good. In her ever increasing state of despair, Emma decided to walk around for a while to calm herself down. It didn't work. She went to take another sip from the bottle but realised that it's the bottle that keeps getting her into trouble, the drink is what is making her sick! She hurls it as far as she can throw and it shatters about 3 feet in front of her on the ground and splashes up her legs. She walks for a while longer, trying to take the shortest route home. Keep in mind that Emma hasn't eaten all day, she's a complete stresshead at present and she's been drinking something that can only be described as acid all day. She passes out up a wall. When Emma is shook awake, it is nightfall. She looks up the man shaking her, he was wearing a dicky bow and long johns, but his teeth were mangled like they'd been pulled out of his face and shoved back in again. Emma hated weird teeth. She began to scream and he clamped his hand, which tasted of feet, over her mouth. Just calm down he said, calm down and tell me what has happened. Emma is notorious for her verbal diarrhea and tells the stranger about the elixir and her money problems and her hunger. He laughs and tells her he will buy her some food, she follows him into a shop where he buys her a kit kat and a scratch card then bids her farewell. What a nice man Emma thought. She munched the kit kat and scratched the grey bits from the scratch card. She must have stared at the card for ten minutes straight before she worked out that she'd won the jackpot. I'll cash it in the morning she thought as she went to bed with a smile on her face for once. END
Box Office Research
The research that I have done into the thriller genre has shown me that thriller films are one of the less popular genres of film, ranked as the fifth most popular genre of film since 1995 to present.
The Dark Knight (2008) an action thriller, was ranked 5th between Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone in the top 20 grossing films of all time in the US. The Dark Knight has raked in £1, 000, 245, 358 globally since it's release with an estimated budget of over £180m.
Top 20 Serial Killer Thrillers 1980 - present
1. Hannibal '01 - $165m
2. The Silence of the Lambs '91 - $130m
3. Basic Instinct '92 - $117m
4. Se7en '95- $100m
5. Red Dragon '02 - $93m
6. Saw II '05 - $87m
7. Saw III '06 - $80m
8. The Bone Collector '99 - $66m
9. Saw IV '07 - $63m
10. The Cell '00 - $61m
11. Kiss the Girls '97 - $60m
12. Sea of Love '89 - $58m
13. Saw '04 - $55m
14. Identity '03 - $52m
15. Natural Born Killers '94 - $50m
16. Psycho II '83 - $34m
17. Monster '03 - $34m
18. Zodiac '07 - $33m
19. Taking Lives '04 - $32m
20. Copycat '95 - 32m
Although thriller films may not be as popular as romantic comedies or animated films, this evidence makes it clear that the genre is still popular and brings in a lot of money with it's fans.
The Dark Knight (2008) an action thriller, was ranked 5th between Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone in the top 20 grossing films of all time in the US. The Dark Knight has raked in £1, 000, 245, 358 globally since it's release with an estimated budget of over £180m.
Top 20 Serial Killer Thrillers 1980 - present
1. Hannibal '01 - $165m
2. The Silence of the Lambs '91 - $130m
3. Basic Instinct '92 - $117m
4. Se7en '95- $100m
5. Red Dragon '02 - $93m
6. Saw II '05 - $87m
7. Saw III '06 - $80m
8. The Bone Collector '99 - $66m
9. Saw IV '07 - $63m
10. The Cell '00 - $61m
11. Kiss the Girls '97 - $60m
12. Sea of Love '89 - $58m
13. Saw '04 - $55m
14. Identity '03 - $52m
15. Natural Born Killers '94 - $50m
16. Psycho II '83 - $34m
17. Monster '03 - $34m
18. Zodiac '07 - $33m
19. Taking Lives '04 - $32m
20. Copycat '95 - 32m
Although thriller films may not be as popular as romantic comedies or animated films, this evidence makes it clear that the genre is still popular and brings in a lot of money with it's fans.
Genre: Thriller III
The Machinist
The Machinist is a thriller film following the character Trevor Reznik. He works in a factory as a machinist and has many psychological problems including extreme paranoia and insomnia. It is obvious that Trevor has been affected by a bad past experience and the point of the film is to unveil what has happened.
The film starts out somewhat eerily, there is a black screen with slow and heavy breathing heard in the background. This fades out into an unfocused blur through a window where the viewer can easily recognise the shape of a man rolling a dead body up in a carpet. From the reflection in the window, you can see that it is night time - when most bad things are known to occur in the thriller and horror genres. The music used in the background is quiet and creepy, it is made obvious now that the heavy breathing is coming from the alleged murderer in the film. The man calmly collects himself when he's done rolling the body up and it gives the viewer a minute to wonder across the screen and notice the metallic rusting window frame, as well as the reflection of the dark city outside. Already you can recognize that the setting is in a city and the first character introduced is probably a working class man considering the state of his apartment. The man gets a cigarette and wonders closely to the window where his face is seen on camera for the first time. He is extremely thin, pale and tired looking. His clothes are worn and his face is all cut up and bruised. It is clear that this man is very troubled - this immediately gets the viewer's attention as they become interested in this character. As the movie title comes up, the character lights up his cigarette and the title seems almost like an introduction to the person's identity.
Throughout the entire scene, the camera has stayed in the same position with the same lighting. The camera angle is effective because it forces the viewer to focus on the actions of the main character and become curious about the circumstances of the scene. The lighting is equally as effective, being extremely dark outside and dimly lit inside the apartment with a grey undertone to the scene.
The Machinist is a thriller film following the character Trevor Reznik. He works in a factory as a machinist and has many psychological problems including extreme paranoia and insomnia. It is obvious that Trevor has been affected by a bad past experience and the point of the film is to unveil what has happened.
The film starts out somewhat eerily, there is a black screen with slow and heavy breathing heard in the background. This fades out into an unfocused blur through a window where the viewer can easily recognise the shape of a man rolling a dead body up in a carpet. From the reflection in the window, you can see that it is night time - when most bad things are known to occur in the thriller and horror genres. The music used in the background is quiet and creepy, it is made obvious now that the heavy breathing is coming from the alleged murderer in the film. The man calmly collects himself when he's done rolling the body up and it gives the viewer a minute to wonder across the screen and notice the metallic rusting window frame, as well as the reflection of the dark city outside. Already you can recognize that the setting is in a city and the first character introduced is probably a working class man considering the state of his apartment. The man gets a cigarette and wonders closely to the window where his face is seen on camera for the first time. He is extremely thin, pale and tired looking. His clothes are worn and his face is all cut up and bruised. It is clear that this man is very troubled - this immediately gets the viewer's attention as they become interested in this character. As the movie title comes up, the character lights up his cigarette and the title seems almost like an introduction to the person's identity.
Throughout the entire scene, the camera has stayed in the same position with the same lighting. The camera angle is effective because it forces the viewer to focus on the actions of the main character and become curious about the circumstances of the scene. The lighting is equally as effective, being extremely dark outside and dimly lit inside the apartment with a grey undertone to the scene.
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