Week Two - Research

Unfortunately, film ideas don't come to me as easily as other forms of art. It's frustrating and although I seem to be forming some kind of an original concept, I still feel dissatisfied with it. It's even more frustrating because I really enjoy thrillers, and I want to capture these genre characteristics in an effective way.

I want my film opening to be a thriller with the main characters established as a couple. My problem lies in what I want the conflict to be within their story. I've gotten outside counsel from friends and family members and they were able to give me ideas for a conflict, but they all sound like things that have been done before. I want to create something different that can incite emotion in the viewers, but not be too outrageous that it's just weird and turns people off. Maybe I'm just biting off more than I can chew, but I want the end result to be impressive, or at least something I'm proud of. 

My first instinct was to have this couple kidnap somebody or try and get away with a murder, but I know this has been done before and I'm afraid my film will be too similar. I thought of ways to skew that, for instance where the couple accidentally murders someone/is acting in self defense, or one of them ends up killing the other (whether it's established as premeditated or not) to throw my viewers off guard. Or I could establish that one of the characters is imagining their partner and hint that something's obviously wrong up until that point using camera techniques and sound elements to create unease. I want to focus on the couple and their interest in each other while still including elements of a thriller, playing with lighting and camera angles/shots to make a normally romantic scene seem eerie, like something's off.

An idea that I was seriously interested in using is making these couple of characters be at a picnic or a date of some sort. They're at a setting such as a park, where there's still people around but there's still open space to talk/move freely, or perhaps they even isolate themselves from everybody. Their dialogue and comfort with each other will be established early on to establish they're in a relationship and have been for some time.

I'm playing with different concepts in this setting, such as one of the characters begins setting up objects for their date while waiting for the second character to arrive; a picnic blanket or tablecloth on the ground, an assortment of different foods, drinks and their bag. My plan is to make this scene look playfully innocent as opposed to what the couple is actually meeting there for to discuss. When the second character arrives they greet and begin unpacking notebooks, pencils and different colored pens, maps, pictures, etc.

Depending on the music choice, I could edit shots matching the beat of the song, switching between shots of the characters doing cutesy couple stuff and planning the elaborate murder of another person. I've also considered putting a speaker or mp3 player of some sort in the scene to play the music of my choice, showing that the music is diegetic although it may sound at times non-diegetic.

I think that this juxtaposition between the thriller/romance scene contents can be effective in bringing out certain feelings of unease in my audience, especially if the music is chosen correctly; in terms of music I'm thinking about something simple.

I do have certain songs in mind, such as Tongues by The Frights, Michelle by Sir Chloe, Where Evil Grows by The Poppy Family, or Colour Fade by Funeral Suits. I would have to contact them and get permission to use their song in my film opening, but because I haven't settled on a specific song yet I've yet to contact them. I'm aware that I have only a certain amount of time to do this project, and it may take a while for them to approve of me using their music, but I tend to take a long while to consider all of my options thoroughly. I thought of these songs specifically not only because their meanings connect to my film content, but the beat of each song brings something different to the table in terms of how I'll edit. I've also seriously considered using more lowkey, instrumental music to make certain scenes silent to emphasize their dialogue or certain actions.