The Shooting of Beaumont

6.00 - 7.43 (The killing of Beaumont)
The killing of Beaumont starts with one of the main characters sat in the car, a generic thriller convention, it is a confined space, slightly claustrophobic spaces with no escape if it is locked. It is a close up shot of him in the car. The character looks at his gun and polishes it a bit as if it is his child, saved his whole life for that moment. There is a ray of light shining off his face, probably non-ambient lighting unless a well-positioned street light. There is no music just the sound of him twiddling his gun about. It is a close up shot of him in the car.

It cuts to a shot of the front of a car with the headlights beaming, another generic thriller convention. As the car turns in the road the light bounces off it and shines into the lense of the camera. The car races off down the road which we think is the vanishing point. However while this is happening tghe camera is panning out from the low angle shot of the car, to a high angle long shot of a small park. In a way it is also like a tracking shot of the car as it follows it around as it travels. As the shot becomes a high angle long shot, the car enters the park, in it is has a love level lighted building, which it is not clear as to what it is. The car pulls up beside it and the killing takes place.

The camera does not zoom into this scene, it leaves it to the audience's imagination as to what really went on in that car in the amount of time it took them to drive round to the park and what motivated the man to kill him.

Even when the man gets out of the car to kill the guy in the trunk, he still leaves his headlights on, this could represent the man in the trunks life, and as the car drives off you see the red lights fade out into the distance, eventually they disappear alltogether possibly representing Beaumont's life disappearing too.

Jackie Brown Title Sequence

Jackie Brown was directed by Tarantino in 1997. It is about a Black middle aged air hostess who gets involved in the police and an arms dealer. Jackie's role as the Femme Fatal is a generic convention of a thriller film. For the first one minute and fifty seconds of this opening sequence, the camera simply tracks the character along a moving carpet, typically found in airports. It shoots a profile view of Jackie Brown and follows her all the way to the end of the conveyor. The lighting looks natural however it could well have been studio lighting creating the extra light rays so it could be non-abient lighting. We watch Jackie travel along this conveyor in a medium close up, with the non-diegetic sound laid over the top of the clip, '110th Street'.

The music then speeds up into a high tempo stacato moment of the song, it reaches a climax and the changes the shot to the scanning proceedure of the bags they have to carry out in the airports. It is showing high security proceedures that everyone had to partake in, and the character Jmackie Brown simply walks behind the security desk and carrys on. This could suggest that later on in the film, no one suspects her of committing the crime or helping the criminal and so she does not have to go through the s ecurity proceedures.

It then cuts so a low angle tracking shot of her walking through the airport, however she is walking the opposite way to everyone ele. This could foreshadow that she will be turning against society in order to do what is right, maybe what is wrong. She also does not make eye contact witgh anyone in particular and therefore is inconspicuous to many. This may reflect that no one would suspect her of doing what she does for her boss.

It cuts to a medium close up of Jackie walking towards the camera and the camera tracks her going forwards.The focus of the camera is on her, everyone else is blurred out suggesting that she is the most crucial and vital part of this film.

Soon it cuts to a side on view again highlighting her profile, foreshadowing that she has to look out for herself and only herself as everyone else is still blirred into the background.

It then cuts to a low angle long/medium shot of her continuing to walk through the airport, however this time she is walking faster than everyone else, suggesting that she is one step ahead of everyone in the film and that she knows their next move.

It cuts to a side on medium close up again yet she is standing in the shadows, possibly suggesting that she will become involved in crime and she may be wanted by the police of some other form of felonic person. During this shot she alsdo starts to run, implying that she will be running from someone or trying to hide from someone at point in this film.

Eventually in the clip Jackie reaches the gate, this could suggest that in the end, she comes out on top and the truth outs reaching her safety barrier.

FINAL shotlist

1. Over the shoulder shot of a man walking into the cafe.
2. CUT TO, tracking shot of girl walking towards the man sat at a table. 
3. CUT TO, over the shoulder shot of the girl approaching the man sat at the table. 
4. CUT TO, high angle close up shot if girl picking up the cup and saucer and turning away.
5. CUT TO, close up and pan out to high angle shot of girl walking away.
6. CUT TO, point of view shot of girl walking away.
7. CUT TO , shot reverse shot between the man and the girl walking away.
8. CUT TO, tracking shot of mans feet getting up and starting to walk.
9. CUT TO, low angle shot of man approaching the door.
10. CUT TO, close up shot of man bolting the door shut.
11. CUT TO, panning shot of man standing in the shadows/hiding behind the counter. 
12. CUT TO, point of view shot of girl walking towards the door.
13. CUT TO, medium close up shot of girl trying to find her keys with the man stepping into the shot just behind her in the shadows un-noticed.
14. CUT TO, black screen with the title on and fade into a medium close up shot of a wall of photos of the girl.

Research into the Amish

The Amish are a group of Christian church fellowships. They are best known for their simplistic living and plain dress. The Amish people feature in the film Witness and also more recently on a VO5 advert for hair wax. They are best known for their reluctance to accept many conviniences of the modern world.

The histroy of the Amish came from a church in Switzerland in 1693. Today there are over 25 different Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren church groups in Lancaster County, all holding slightly different traditions and their own interpretations of the Bible. The more traditional groups are called 'old order'. They do not use electricity or telephones in their homes. By restricting access to television, radio, and telephones, the Amish are better able to keep the modern world from intruding into their home life. They isolate themselves from modern society.
The Amish have long preferred farming as a way of life. They feel their lifestyle and their families can best be maintained in a rural environment. While they do not permit the use of tractors in their fields, these old order Amish groups do use modern farm equipment pulled by teams of horses or mules.
 "Amish lifestyle is dictated by the Ordnung (German, meaning: order), which differs slightly from community to community, and, within a community, from district to district." Amish people are true believers in community and they believe that all families are a blessing from god. Their separation from the rest of society helps strengthen their community. The old order Amish groups do not own vehicles, they believe that cars would provide easier access to the ways of the world. You will often see their horses and buggies on roads.

The use of Amish characters in the film Witness means that the characters are very trusting of one another, especially as I wrote that their community is strengthened by their voluntary isolation. The fact that the mother lets her little boy go to the toilet on his own accord did not phase her as they live so far away from society that they are not knowledgeable of the dangers that he was faced to in that toilet.

Re-visited Characters & Costumes

In our thriller we will feature only two characters. One will be an older man who will feature as our killer. We will also have a young girl who will play the victim in our thriller.

The Killer

We have cast a middle aged man to play our killer. He is of an average height with Dark hair.

I imagine this character to be wearing quite simple clothes of a monochrome colour. My vision of the character should be that he is quiet and subtle, I think this should be reflected through his costume. I think when he gets up to leave, he should place his hat on his head to show that he is disguising himself for what he is about to do, it is a form of mask to protect him from the real world.

I think this choice of clothes also foreshadows what is going to happen in our thriller, it casts a view into the future via the clothes. Even though our thriller has a chronological plot line, it will give the audience a chance to think about what will happen.

I was influenced by some of the characters in The Third Man (1949), the costumes were cast by the director, Carol Reed, they consist of monotone clothes, hats and long coats. I think  the vintage style of the film will show through our character in our opening.

The Victim

The girl will be at work so she will be in her waitress clothes. Her costume will consist of a white shirt, to signify her innocence in the situation between her and the killer. She will also be wearing a black tailored skirt of trousers and some black shoes, we will also feature a coat in her outfit, possibly highlighting a bit of her character to the audience. Her costume will show her innocence and foreshadow that she is not the one in the wrong. Hopefully the audience will pick up on the fact that, that is what we are aiming to do.

For this character, when she is in work I think she should look quite regimented and strict with her uniform, much like Jackie Brown is in Quentin Tarantino's movie 'Jackie Brown' (1997) I think it would fit in with the opening of our thriller.

New Shot List for Opening of Thriller

• Longshot esablishing locations, scene and characters. This introduces the two characters to the film.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the girl walking towards the man, sat at a table.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of her approaching the man, and the man putting his newspaper down on the table.
• Cut to a high angle/Close up shot of the girl picking the empty mug up, close up (using the rule of thirds) showing the newspaper headline. (Relating to rape/murder)
• Cut to an extreme close up of the date, showing this part is in a flashback.
• Cut to a zoom out of close up into a high angle shot of the man and girl.
• Cut to a point of view shot of the girl walking away, using shot reverse shot between the girl and the man to connect them. Girl goes into the kitchen.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the mans feet as he gets up and starts to walk.
• Cut to a low angle shot of the man approaching the door.
• Cut to a worms eye of him opening and closing the door.
• Cut to an extreme closeup shot of him bolting the door.
• Cut to a panning shot of the man walking towards the counter and crouching, out of sight from the girl. The girl comes out of the kitchen, scans cafe and switches most of the lights off and walks towards the door.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of man walking towards the the girl whilst she's looking for her keys.
• Cut to a man standing directly behind her, cut to transition/panning shot of the girl to man, in a different scene/location.
• Cut to a transition shot continues to over the shoulder shot of the man attatching photo of the girl to a wall.
• Cut to a close up panning shot showing all the photo's of different dead girls.

Changes & Further Developments to Our Thriller Planning

We decided that our previous idea for our thriller was becoming a little complex, in terms of ideas leading on from the opening scene, also we would have to use a lot of locations which involves longer time to film.
Using our original idea, we will still film within the cafe, however more will go on inside the cafe. However we will still use the idea of the wall of photos, this will be in a different location yet it will be anonymous. We made this decision due to the limit on time, of 2 minutes.
The changes in our thriller have been triggered after analysing the task, what is expected of us and after gaining a wider knowledge the thriller genre by watching films and researching.

• Much like our last idea the film will begin with the young girl working in the cafe, however the difference is that the man will be inside the cafe sat down having a drink, instead of being outside taking pictures of her.
• The man will be sat at a table reading a newspaper with 'murder/rape' headlines on it. The girl will go to collect his coffee and the camera will catch the headline of the newspaper, foreshadowing the rest of the plot and she will take the coffee from him, implying she will soon be closing the cafe. The date on the newspaper will imply that the scene is a flashback.
• The working girl will then return to the kitchen with the coffee cup. During this the man will approach the front door of the cafe, open and close the door to imply that he has left, leaving the girl to continue to lock up. An extreme close up of the bolt sliding across the door will be next. He will then walk to crouch behind the counter, so that the girl does not see him.
• Once returning from the kitchen, the girl will switch off all of the lights and slowly walk toward the door, searching for her key in her bag/pocket.
• We will show a shot of the man stood closely behind her, slowly closing in on her in a threatening way.
• We will then use a transition shot to conclude to the next scene,using the back of the girls head, fading into the back of the mans head. He will then place the girls picture on his wall of many other pictures of young girls.

The man will/is a sadistic killer, and the rest of the film will continue to proceed in modern day filming. The aim and plot of the rest of the film will be an investigation into her murder and disappearance, an influence came from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' which inspired the wall of photo's.

I think this idea is much better than our previous idea, it is simpler yet in my opinion a lot more effective.