Heavenly Creatures

Heavenly Creatures is based upon the true story of two young girls, Pauline and Juliet, who plot to murder Pauline's mother after she tries to end the two girls friendship. Throughout the finale scenes we see many close up shots of clocks and watches, this is to show the audience the importance of time and the detail that the two girls have put into their plan. The use of time also leads to the idea of suspense within the scene, the audience know what is going to happen, this leads to the generic conventions of thrillers, where suspense leads the narrative. Another reason for clocks to be constantly shot is that is links to the police asking suspects where they were at the time of a murder, this therefore shows the audience that the crime is about to take place and that the girls will go through with there plotting.

When the two girls and their mother go for a walk the we see that the shot is far from that of classic thrillers like reservoir dogs, where the location (a damp dreary warehouse) links to the personality and deviant actions of the characters. Instead the shot juxtaposes the idea of a lively walk in the wildlife with the gruesome death of Pauline's mother.
Another reason behind the location of the murder is that the audience do not expect the murder to take place, this therefore creates suspense for the audience because they wonder whether or not the mother will be murdered. The two girls and the mother walk down a very tight pathway into the wildlife, this pathway shows the audience that the mother is walking into the unknown. This relates back to the enigma surrounding the possibility of murder.

When the three women are walking down the pathway the mother is in the middle, this shows the audience that she is in the middle of their plan and also that she is the centre of their problems. Throughout their walk the characters feet are constantly shot, this links to the journey there lives are taking and the idea that it is them moving forwards that has brought this tragedy into their lives. The walk is shot mainly in slow motion, this leaves the characters feeling dizzy and creates a quite dreamy atmosphere, this links back to the idea that the two girls are fulfilling there dreams of murder.
The lighting within this scene is ambient lighting, this is because the light is coming from behind the characters, this idea that the light is behind them links to the idea that they are walking to far into there plot. The lighting also creates a halo behind their heads, this shows the characters purity because they have no yet committed their crime, once the two girls have murdered their mother their halos cease to exist.
When the mother decides to stop walking the scene stops being in slow motion, this links to the decisions they are about to quickly make. Both Juliet and Pauline show there hands held tightly, this links to the idea that they are nervous. The mother, tells the two girls that they should go back up the path before the go to far. This not only shows that the mother is unaware of the situation but also that the two girls have already taken her two far and that they must complete there journey/dream.

Initial Story Board

This was out original story board for our thriller, we decided that it was not good enough because it was not thrilling and lacked supsence and tension.

This is the first 6 shots of our original thriller, shot one shows Tiffany, the main character, looking at a photo of her and a barely visible man, this man is the enigma throughout and therefore is hard to recognise even within the photo. Shot two shows Tiffany's face at low angle tilt, this makes us feel uneasy and generally sets her mood. The third shot shows a hand pressing a button to call a lift, we know it is Tiffany from the clothes but we are cannot see her face or expressions. The fourth shot shows Tiffany within the lift, she is looking at the camera and slowly goes from happy to sad, this shows us that she is worried about something. The next two shots are tracking shots and they help to identify where tiffany is.

Tiffany then walks into her bathroom, this relates to psycho, where the victim is caught unawares in the shower. Tiffany then takes the picture out again, in the background of the shot we see the male character, he is hard to recognise and is the definite enigma within the shot.

Costumes for Thriller

The thriller opening sequence for our thriller has two characters, the main character of Sarah who the plot revolves around and the minor character of John who is causing distress to Sarah due to unknown actions in their relationship. We see John at the end of the thriller and also in a photo which Sarah looks at in the opening and ending shots. This photo shows John and Sarah together looking quite happy. The clothes worn in the photo will be the same clothes that they wear in the thriller, this will show the audience that not much time has passed between the photo being taken and the events of the thriller. It also allows the characters in

the photo to be easily linked with the characters of the thriller.

Blake: Being seen as the deviant character we need his clothes to portray his evil nature or allow the audience to understand why he became part of the evil party of the thriller. The character will wear a black leather jacket to link him to being hard natured and commonly dominant over women. The leather jacket is seen most commonly from the late 60's were men still had dominance over women in relationships and marriage. A leather jacket would create the effect that this male character is a misogynist. The head of the character is not seen in the thriller and only slightly in the photo so no classic trilby hat will be needed.

To man will be wearing black jeans to show that he combines the colour scheme of most men in working around the age of 30 (commonly in black suits working in common office jobs) The jeans aspect shows that he is more of a casual dresser and that this links with the leather jacket to give the audience the idea that this man is a punk, leading the audience to finally see that he is the deviant of the two. He will also be wearing a black hood in order to hide his identity, this will make the scene more realistic because a murderer would never expose who he is.

Tiffany: She will be dressed in a large orange coat, this is in order for her to stand out from the crowd, the orange contrasts with the white snow in order for her the audience to understand her significance within the scene and the importance of the murder. The idea that she is wearing a bright colour that stands out helps to symbolise the idea that the murder is hard to cover up. Tiffany wears very vibrant colours in order for her to contrast with the snow and to stand out as a target. A signifier throughout the scene is her bracelet, which she falls off of her corpse in the snow and is later linked to the crime.

Peter: the third character is Blake's opposite, this is because he is searching for tiffany whereas Blake is trying to hide her and get rid of her. In many ways the fashion of the two characters must be opposites, this is so that they will target each other and label the other as an enemy, for example the fashion of Mods and Rockers symbolised their personalities and the two gangs could easily identify each other by fashion. Where Blake wears cheap a cheap black hoody, Peter wears a large coat, this helps to separate the two characters into class, with the working class fashion worn by the murderer and the middle class fashion by the hero. A jumper also helps to create the divide between the two characters. Both characters however wear the same style shoes, this links to the idea that peter and the man are linked, or to add suspense to low shots wear the characters feet are the only identifying characteristics.

'Thelma and Louis' image analysis

The Characters: The shot shows a woman holding a gun to a mans head. This challenges the typical stereotype of men being in control. This shot shows her standing up for herself which is uncommon in most classic thrillers because the man is normally in charge. The clothes that she wears within this shot shows the change in gender roles because she is dressed in a large coat which would commonly be worn by men. The male character within this scene is holding his figure very tight which shows that he is scared and also shows his loss of power. This links well with the character of Perrier Lapadite in 'Inglorious Basterds (2009)' who is seen to be very compacted with his body language after losing his power to the nazis.

Location: A car park at night, a car park is quite an ordinary place and normally a very dramatic place for this ind of situation. You see that this is a car park within the shot because of the van which is visible behind the male character. The use of a car-park is generic to thrillers because car-parks are very tight claustrophobic locations, we see this used in the opening shot of essex boys With the character of billy sitting in a car in a tight garage. 

Lighting: Non ambient lighting is shown within the shot, this shows that there is no natural light and consequently no help or escape. the brightest item within the miss en scene is in fact the gun being held. This allows the audience to see clearly the most important aspect of the shot is the weapon of violence being held.

Camera angle: a long shot is used to give full perspective of the scene, we see the characters faces very easily and this allows the audience to relate to them and understand the situation clearly. The woman who is seen to be more dominant takes up the majority of the scene. This shows the power she has over the man who is taking up only a small amount of the scene. The mans face portrays that he is calm at the same time as being wary, this leads the audience to thinking that the man has been caught in this situation before and that he is commonly a deviant villain.

Final shot list

1st shot) an over the shoulder shot of a female character called Sarah, looking at a photo, the photo shows Sarah and a Male character called John. the key features of this shot will be the photo and the hair. Much like the shots in 'Another Earth (2011)' the shots of the long hair will emphasise the gender and the innocent stereotypes that come with the female gender. The sound throughout the scenes will be diabetic of the woman sniffing and crying. This will enable the audience to feel for the character, there will also be non diabetic music very silently playing as well, the music will be soft and orchestral to show a link between classic thrillers and our own.

2nd shot) We see a shot of Sarah's face, the shot shows her crying and looking down at the photo, she wipes her eyes from time to time and pushes her hair, this shows that she is trying to overcome the situation. The idea that this character is overcoming a situation allows the audience to become more involved with the plot and the characters. when she pushes her hair back we see an bracelet on her arm, the bracelet shows a cross, this adds religious imagery and leads back to her being innocent (the innocence of christ).

3rd shot) we move to a shot of a metal panel on a grey concrete wall, the metal panel has buttons and is the buttons for an elevator. Sarah's hand reaches into the scene and presses one of the buttons... we see the bracelet again to continue to imagery of her innocence within the scenes. The music still continues to play in the background very quietly. The sounds of machinery and the elevator dominates the music to show corruption. we then see Sarah's waste walk across the screen after a few seconds to show that she is entering the elevator. The wait will add effect to the scene to add urgency to the situation

4th shot) the shot is brighter than the others and we see the characters face and hair lighter than before. the shot is equal to the second shot where we see Sarah's face straight on. Sarah looks happier but slowly deteriorates throughout the scene until she is look as sad as before. whilst she deteriorates we see the scene become dimmer and all sound will slow and become fainter. This will symbolise her change of thoughts from happy to the distressing situation involving the photo.

5th shot) cuts to a long shot of Sarah walking out of the elevators and to the left out of shot. This shot will create the journey link from the evaluator to the home.

6th shot) shows another long shot of a door, we see the character entering her house and closing the door.

7th shot) a tracking shot along a corridor within her house, this tracking shot will link too the tracking shot in 'Jackie Brown', this will show that she is deviant like the character or Jackie Brown. Sarah places her religious bracelet down on a cabinet/table as she is walking, this shows that she is shedding her protection/innocence. We see her walking into her bathroom, the non diabetic music has become louder than before.

8th shot) point of view shot off sarah looking down at the photo from her toilet. A point of view shot allows the audience to become more involved with the situation and allows us to feel the same fear as Sarah feels.After a few seconds we see a figure appear in the entrance. We only see torso and lower body of the man creating suspense. the photo is lowered to show the change of situation. The man in the photo is dressed the same as the man in the bathroom door. The music is still getting louder by this point.

9th shot) the music final hits the climax. we see a side on shot of the mans hand, we know it is him because we see his distinct shirt from the previous shot and photo. within the hand is the religious bracelet. this shows that he now controls her/has her innocence. At this point in very basic font we see the title hit the screen, the font is in yellow to show that we are linking our thriller with most of Quentin Tarantino's thrillers were he uses his classic yellow font.