Progressing on from my initial set of ideas, I decided to pitch this Thriller Opening Sequence to my class: The idea:
Within a dimly lit confessional booth kneels a young nun, eyes closed in prayer. A rosary is clutched within her grasp, her fingers toying with each bead as she whispers the accompanying “Hail Mary”s aloud. Very quietly, diegetic ambient sounds of monks singing can be heard in the background as she continues her prayer which quickens and gets louder - her tone becoming increasingly more desperate. Here, a non-diegetic soundtrack begins to play quietly in the background, thus creating tension. Around her, the three or so candles which light the booth begin to flicker and we receive shots of scratches and odd runes carved into the wooden room. The nun screws her eyes shut, her prayer no longer a calm whisper but practically a hiss. As she comes to the end of her rosary, the non-diegetic soundtrack crescendos to its climax and she finishes her prayer with a final, abrupt hiss. Silence fills the scene and the candles within her booth are blown out by a sudden gust of wind, leaving the mise-en-scene as nothing but a field of darkness. After a short pause, the pleonastic sound of a match being struck is heard and we see from straight-ahead as the nun lights a single candle - her eyes (which haven’t been seen for the whole sequence) finally revealed to be a dark and threatening crimson red, the flickering of the orange candle reflected in her gaze. A somewhat happy (yet oddly creepy) piece of non-diegetic music begins to play, adding a contrapuntal element to the scene as the nun offers the camera an incredibly sinister and seductive smile. “Hail, Satan” she purrs, before breaking out into manic hysterics.
Inspiration for the idea:
I thought that the song, 'Tonight You Belong To Me' by Patience and Prudence [linked below], would be really effective for the final piece of music within the sequence, as it adds a very contrapuntal element to the concept, which is exactly what I wanted. Equally, I thought it tied in very well with the idea of feigned innocence and naivety which I had in mind for the nun character that we see praying (who in turn is heavily based off of "Sister Mary-Eunice" from the tv series American Horror Story: Asylum). I also decided to pitch this idea due to the fact that having come from Catholic school, it is a concept that I know I can bring some authenticity to.
Feedback for the idea:
Most people really liked the idea, given how un-cliche it is for a thriller opening sequence. Some people were worried about the pace and how long the sequence would go on for, but those are, at least in my opinion, just small technical problems which I don't doubt I'd be able to adjust accordingly should I (or rather, my group) go ahead with the idea.
In my preliminary task, my group wanted to show the narrative of the sequence in an interesting way that was easy to understand.
It starts out with my character (seen from outside) going into the room where Millie's character is already waiting - indicating that perhaps the pair had decided at an earlier time to meet in such a place.
Once within, the dialogue immediately begins - thus denoting the urgency of the situation, and the diegetic, almost pleonastic noise of the door closing sounds perfectly in sync with its corresponding action on screen.
Whilst starting with an over-the-shoulder shot of Millie, we see the struggle on her face as she internally fights with herself as to what she should do (What the subject matter is? We'll never know). As her expressions were really helpful for the sake of the audience understanding the plot, we decided to have a close-up of her face.
From there we go into a side shot, making sure to obey to the 180 degree rule.
Throughout the sequence, we chose to do a number of conventional conversationalist shots so that the audience could receive a sense of verisimilitude - and so the next shot is one of myself replying to her rather dismissive comments.
An interesting shot we chose to do next was that of my character's feet as I walked away. We thought that in a sense this added to the enigmatic nature of the scene, as well as the fact that it provided a fluid transition of my character getting from his conversational spot and to the door. In our opinion, it was much more interesting than simply having a wide-shot of my character leaving.
We then have a close-up of my face as I say the line, "...I won't wait for you." Whilst my face isn't entirely in the shot [in retrospect we should have assured that it was before moving on when filming], it does nevertheless add to the drama and suspense created in the scene. Why does the character care so much?
As my character turns and leaves, the cuts are clean and simple yet successfully create a fluid transition between the shots.
Once again, the diegetic sound of the door closing serves to add an almost eerie, suspenseful atmosphere to the scene, and the fact that we chose to see the door come to a close added to the drama - the pause in dialogue allowing the audience to absorb the narrative.
The scene finishes with Millie's character left alone in the room where she bites her nails nervously to denote an awkwardness to the audience - as if they are now watching something that they perhaps shouldn't be seeing.
An important thing for us was to make our preliminary task fluid and without any cuts that looked out of place. For the majority of the sequence, I think we successfully achieved such.
In the first few edits, we simply put too many unnecessary shots in the sequence in attempt to show off - the end result being very 'clunky' and 'choppy' - but by taking some of these away, I think our final product [shown below] is far better off.
I also think that that throughout the sequence we had a lot of variety in our shots without any of them being too quirky or confusing - this as such helped us to achieve our aim of making the prelim interesting yet understandable.
In general, the task has seriously helped me with understanding the basics behind making a short film and I now feel very comfortable with both shooting and editing. I am also very pleased with the high standard outcome of the process.
With these new skills, I look forward to filming some longer and more complicated sequences in the future.
