Initial Ideas Blog Task

Blog Task: Initial Ideas

1. Create a mind map of initial ideas for your thriller opening with your group.

2. You need to take pictures of this mind map and upload it to your blog.

3. You then need to use a camera to record yourselves talking through your initial ideas as a group. Upload this video into the same blog post.

4. Finally, write a short paragraph explaining what your overall initial ideas are, and your top three ideas that you are going to choose from. You will write more about these three ideas later.

Due Date: Monday 28th November 2016

Examples of mind maps:  

Some guidance on initial ideas

Here are a few pointers as to what does and doesn’t make a successful opening…

• You are only producing an opening to a film. In the past, many groups have spent a long time thinking about plot twists and turns that would make a good film, but that are too complex to be used in a two minute opening.

• Keep ideas simple. Someone once said that ‘less is more’ and this is certainly true in terms of your thriller opening – the more successful openings are ones based on a simple narrative structure. Remember: it’s not necessarily the story that provides suspense but the way this story is filmed.

• Think about using everyday locations/characters/events. Audiences are far more affected by something happening in scenarios and with characters they can recognise than something they have no experience of.

• DON’T use ANY of these props/storylines in your opening:

• Hoodies
• Knives, guns, blood
• Mobile phones
• ‘Stalking’ storylines (i.e. no dark figures following people through parks/shopping centres/along canals)
  We have decided to ‘ban’ these things because they are not only overused but also tend to make for a predictable (and quite boring) opening. Bear in mind how many other colleges and schools there are across Britain that are making an opening – we want your work to stand out!