Planning

Storyline:

The idea for our film follows the psychological journey of a woman driven to kill her daughter. The film will explore the murder in hindsight, beginning with the events prior to the murder, using flashbacks to tell the story. However, we want to instil a sense of what the story is about straight away in the opening sequence, so we have set it in the present day, years after the murder when the story is being told. The sequence will initially not make sense, the flashbacks she experiences will be in a random order, indicating confusion and fear, but eventually will assemble into a more coherent order, revealing what has happened.

It should make the audience aware of the crime, and make them wonder why.

Location:

House: bedroom, bathroom, landing, hallway and stairs, garden.

Possibly theatre for lights.

We will use my house because it has lots of space and a large garden, which will give our opening a more thrilling feel, creating a sense of isolation.

The theatre will be good for creating the lights sequences because we can control which lights are on and what colours these are.

Prop list:

Bed

Doll

Kitchen Knife

(Sink/Bath)

Fake blood

(Lighting Rig)

Order of Shots:

1) Woman lying in bed. (close up)
2) Flashback of birds pecking at the ground. (medium shot)
3) Woman getting out of bed. ( medium/ long shot)
4) Flashback of bright, blurred lights. 
5) Flashback of woman digging with hands in some soil.
6) The woman then walks onto the landing, and pauses. She is afraid.
7) Flashback of young girl laughing. (extreme close-up)
8) Pans 360 degrees around the panicking woman.
9) Flashback of more bright, blurred lights. 
10) Flashback of young girl picking up a doll, then dropping a doll.
11) Flashback of blood splattering onto a wall, or dripping on the floor. (gradually the camera fades out)
12) Fades up to the woman running down the stairs, you can hear her daughter saying "I love you mummy" in the background. 
13) Flashback of the girl holding the doll in her hands. 

14) Girl playing in the garden.
15) Quick flashback of the womans hands digging in the soil. 
16) Flashback of the girl holding the doll, and dropping it, however, this time the doll hits the floor. Sound of daughter screaming "I HATE YOU!" in the background.
17) Woman is standing in the hall. (close-up of her face)
18) Flashback of knife/shadow of knife in action.
19) Flashback of blood running down a plughole. Sound of child's laughter.
20) Bird pulling up a worm in the garden.
21) Woman turning, scared - looking for something behind her. Snippets of laughter can be heard. 

(The following will be quick cuts)

22) Child holding doll

23) Bright lights

24) Digging hands

25) Child dropping doll

26) Birds pecking at ground

27) Doll smashes on floor

28) Hands digging

29) Knife Slashing

30) Blood spatter

31) Woman stood still in garden staring straight ahead. (fade out)

Shoot Schedule:

We will film the shots of the woman walking through the house at the same time, repositioning the camera but ultimately filming in sequence, for continuity of appearance, for example, position of hair. We will also film the shots of the knife and plughole because they require artificial light.

We will film the shots of the woman's hands at a different time because it has to be daylight for that shot.

We will film all the scenes of the girl at the same time to minimise the time she has to spend on set. We will also record voice samples at the same time.

As the early bird catches the first worm, we will have to film the birds in the garden very early in the morning.

The bright lights will be filmed in the theatre at another time.

Storyboards

Storyboarding for our thriller opening:

Preliminary Excercise

Preliminary Exercise

For this continuity exercise we had to film a scenario where someone entered a room, sat down and briefly conversed with some fellow or other.

I apologise for the poor quality, it should be sorted out soon; a stern letter to 'whomsoever it may concern' should do the trick. jubbly.

The Machinist

Textual Analysis

The Machinist is a psychological thriller which follows Trevor Reznik, an insomniac industrial worker, who is alienated from his co-workers due to his strange behaviour and emaciated appearance. He is involved in an accident where a worker loses his arm, and subsequently the others turn on him. He suffers from paranoia and flashbacks, and hallucinates situations with his alter-ego Ivan, and a woman and child. He believes that the bizarre occurrences in his life, such as a series of post-it notes on the fridge, are an attempt by his co-workers to drive him insane. The only comfort he finds is in the arms of a prostitute, who becomes almost his girlfriend. Driven mad, he attempts to track down Ivan, throwing himself in front of a car to report a false hit and run incident, who was driving his own car. When he finds Ivan, he kills him, but when he attempts to throw the body into the sea, Ivan is alive on the pier near him.

Finally realising what is haunting him, Trevor remembers the hit and run incident he was involved in, when he hit a boy, identical to the child he had dreamt of, and drove away from the accident. Ivan was in fact a manifestation of his conscience, and he accompanies Trevor to the police station to confess. He is arrested and finally falls asleep in the cell, after a year without sleep.

The characters appearing in the film are:

Trevor Reznik, a paranoid delusionist who loses his job and believes his work-mates are to blame

Stevie, his prostitute lover, in whom he confides his fear

Ivan, an imagined worker from the factory, who acts as Trevor's conscience, leading him to accept his crime.

Maria, The mother of Nicholas, who Trevor imagines is a waitress at the café he visits

Nicholas, The boy Trevor ran over, and who Trevor hallucinates taking on the carnival ride

Miller, The man at the factory who lost his arm in the accident

Jackson, Jones and Reynolds,  Workers at the factory, who Trevor suspects of plotting against him.

Mrs. Shrike, The old woman who lives above Trevor

The Machinist is an example of a modern thriller, as the movie bears many characteristics of the genre. The film is about the psychological journey of the protagonist Trevor, and his paranoia and insomnia are a successful tool for the tension filled plot. His isolation intensifies the audience's connection with him, and we seem to get more inside his mind as the film goes on, experiencing his hallucinations as if real, we share Trevor's fear and paranoia, though we gradually begin to grasp the reasons he is this way. The plot is typical of a thriller as it continues to shock and raise questions, as soon as we think we have an answer, another clue to a different answer is given, for example, he goes to see Miller, and emerges more suspicious of his co-workers than before, but then he sees Ivan again, and thinks it is him instead. These sudden changes of mind characterise Trevor, he is frantic and never seems to understand anything, thus the audience become entangled in his franticness, which drives the movie forward, through Trevor's process of finding his cure. The film has been called a 'superior psychological thriller', as it is less about plot, and more about conveying a state of mind, which it does brilliantly.

Many conventions of the thriller are shown in the filming techniques. Pathetic fallacy, and the fact many scenes are shot at night, add to the tension and mysterious feeling of the movie. Often, a blue filter is used, to make the scene seem cold and dark. These scenes are interspersed with bright, glaring scenes in the sunlight, in which we find Trevor never really fitting in, as if he is better off in the dark, where he eventually retreats entirely.

The score adds to the tension, using such instruments as a theremin, to add eery, thrilling atmospheres to the scenes. It also uses classic thrilling music, which builds the suspense. 

The use of recurring imagery, such as the post it notes and the photograph, are also typical of a thriller, and help tie the plot together in examining Trevor's mind, the images must be relevant, must lead to something. The bathroom scenes, and his face in the mirror, are also often used in thrillers, to show the character's self examination. In this Trevor asks 'who are you?', as if he doesn't know himself anymore. This idea is continued as he asks who Ivan is, and who the person tormenting him is, when in the end it is himself, so he actually has his answer staring at him all along.

The Machinist received good critical acclaim and it was said it is a 'film you will not forget'.