The Missing

The Missing

The Missing is a British television thriller which was made in 28 October 2014. It was created by director Tom Shankland. The main actor in this drama is James Nesbitt. The story of this British thriller is that a family go on holiday in France and while in a crowed pub the son goes missing and the father is looking to find him. Me and my group have been inspired by this television thriller to create something similar as an opening. We will design our opening to make it similar to The Missing.

 The Missing opening sequence starts with the father and the son in a crowed pub while the father is trying to watch to football game on the TV. This is when the son disappears. This happens by his father being distracted by the football game on TV. The father is then looking frantically for his son.

We have taken a few ideas from the thriller. For example we will take a the idea of someone going missing. We will also adapt on the idea of the distraction and how one person is distracted long enough for the other person to go missimg.

Theorists In Media

Theorists In Media

Todorov Theory

Todorov theory was that all story's follow the same plot line or path.

There is 5 steps in the path.

1. Equilibrium - This will show the story as happy and calm and everything is as it should be.
2. Disequilibrium - This is where there will be a disruption in the calm atmosphere. 
3. Recognition of the disrupted - This is where the characters realises the problem.
4. Restored Order -  This is where the characters attempt to restore the damage that the problem has caused.
5. Equilibrium Once Again - This is the final step, this is where the equilibrium is brought back again.

Levi-Strauss Theory

Levi-Strauss is theory was that all narratives could be reduced down to binary opposites.

For Example

• Weak and Strong 
• Old and New
• Light and Dark
• Peace and War

Propp Theory

This theory was created by Vladmir Propp. His theory was about the typical characters in the story. 

The typical characters were:

• The Hero - A character that seeks something (main protagonist)
• The Villain - Who opposes the hero and try's to block him seeking something 
• The Donor - Who provides the hero with something
• The Dispatcher - Who sends the hero on the quest 
• The Helper - Who helps the hero
• The False Hero - Who disrupts the hero's success 
• The Princess - Acts as the reward for the hero and a plot of the villains 
• Her father - Who acts to reward the hero.

All these theories will fit into our opening sequence.  But Levi-Strauss's theory of binary opposites will affect our opening sequence most because the binary opposites play a big part in a thriller opening. For example dark being the antagonist and the light being the protagonist. Another theory which will fit into  the opening sequence is Propp's theory. This will fit because the opening sequence will included the 'hero' or main protagonist. The theory what wouldn't fit an opening sequence as well as the other theories is Todorov theory. It wouldn't fit into our opening sequence because this theory is meant to fit a whole film not just the opening sequence. 

Industry Research

Film Production Companies

British film production company : Film4

 The company was set up in the 1980's.

Film 4 budget is rising, There budget is now at £15 millon a year.

Film 4 has said that they do not develop films for family audience, they also do not look at development into period pieces.

Some of the top films they have made

• The Inbetweeners Movie
• Slum Dog Millionaire
• Trainspotting
• Danny Boyle's 127 hours
• 12 Years A Slave

Film said that "We aim to fund eight feature films a year witha mix of license fee and equity and all our films are co-finaced with other financing partners.

Slum Dog Millionaire is one of Film 4's most popular production it was made on the 25th of December 2008. This film was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 8. Some of the Oscars they won was 'Best Motion Picture of the Year', 'Best Achievement in Directing' and Best writing, Adapted Screenplay. The budget for this film was $15,000,000 and the gross of the film was $141,319,195.

Another one of their popular productions is '12 Years A Slave' Their budget was $22 million and he got $187.7 million in the box office.

American Film Production Company :Paramount Pictures

The company was set up in 1914 and is one of the biggest Amrican film production companys.

They put a very high budget towards each film they make, a recent film they release is Interstellar and that film has had a budget of $165 million and the box office had around $186,000,000.

Paramount makes a range of film genres and and doesn't have a specific target auidence.

Some of the top films they have made are:

• Shutter Island
• World War Z
• Transformers
• Mission Impossible
• Forest Gump

Their budget for 'Shutter Island' was $80 million and the box office brought in 294 million. This is one of Paramounts most successful films. This film won 5 santurn awards, one of the awards they won was Best horror/thriller film. 'Shutter Island' was made on February 19th, 2010


A independent film company is Patchwork-Productions

Patchwork-Productions are a independent film company in the UK founded by producer Christine  Hartland. It was founded in 2004. They have a low budget to most of the films they make. They have some films such as 'WMD' and 'Life Just Is'. They get most of their funding from crowd funding. They don't get much funding, so they don't release many films. They don't have a target audience.

Independent film companies are more suited towards my opening sequence. They are more suited to our opening sequence because their films have low budgets and our opening sequence will not fit American company because their budget is to high

Analysing The Questionnaire

I asked 10 people to answer my questionnaire and the majority of people who answered my questionnaire said that enigma codes are the most important. This means that I will add more enigma codes into my opening sequence. I will put other convections into my opening sequence but I will put more enigma codes in. 70% said enigma codes but diegetic and non-degetic and narrative have 40% which means i will also include this into my opening sequence.

The 10 people who have answered my questionnaire said that the title of the thriller show at the beginning of the opening sequence. I will now include my title at the start of the thriller rather than the middle or the end. Titles are an important part to an opening sequence, so it was useful that I found out when the titles should show.

The 10 people I asked the questionnaire said that the colours in the opening scene should be normal and not be monochromatic. I will now leave out monochromatic colours from the opening sequence or I will not put the whole scene in a monochromatic colour and only a small part of the opening.

60% of the 10 people who answered my questionnaire said that the main protagonist should be in the opening sequence. I will try to include the main protagonist in my opening sequence if not, I will include the antagonist in the opening.

90% of the 10 people I asked said that they think music is important to the opening sequence. I will include music that builds tension in the opening sequence. The music will fit the atmosphere to create tension. This question was also a opening question and most of the responses said that it creates tension.

This question was a multiple choice and the two films which got the most answers was Silence Of The Lambs and Shutter Island. I will make my opening similar to both opening sequences. I will make my opening similar to Silence Of The Lambs because it fits in with thriller and horror genre. 

Codes and Convections of a Thriller

Codes and Convection's of a Thriller

Most of the convection's are based on editing, sound, lighting, cinematography and mise-en scene. Some convection's of a thriller are:

• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound - This is used to show what is going on in the scene. They also do this create tension in some scenes. Some diegetic sound will cause audience to think that something bad will happen soon. Diegetic sound is sound which is visible on the screen. Non-diegetic sound is sound which has been edited into the scene

• Narration - They do this to describe what the character is thinking and also sometimes to describe location.

• Atmospheric music- The atmospheric music adds tension to the scene 

• Flashbacks- This is used in thrillers to create a feeling of confusion with the audience. But the main reason is to show a characters background and it will some of the enigma codes. 

• Low Key Lighting- This is used to create a dark atmosphere that can be seen as scary or mysterious. The lighting will reflect on to the main character. This is also use to create tension within the scene.

• Fast Cuts- Fast cuts are used in thrillers to increase the feeling of tension and to create suspense within the audience.

• Enigma codes- They are a big prat to the codes and convection's. They are used as a mystery for the audience to try and work out what has or will happened. 

• Use of camera- Different camera uses can create different atmosphere for different scenes. In a thriller genre they mostly use close ups to show facial expressions of the characters. They use medium close up to show the body expressions of the character. Another use of camera is tracking. The use tracking to make the seen look fast paced, this also links in with fast cuts. They do this to make the audience curious as they are unsure what will happen next.

A Short Analysis of 'Parity - AS Media Thriller Opening'

A Short Analysis of 'Parity - AS Media Thriller Opening'

It starts with showing the logos of the production company, They do this in a transition to make it look like it is on a spotlight. It then shows the title of the thriller and then fades out. After that it is darkness and a suddenly diegetic sound of a man screaming then close up of a mans face. It then pans down to show he is holding a knife and it then pans to a body leaned against the wall. It then shows us that they are in a bath room from the props and the location. The man then rush's around searching and then him washing his face in the mirror. It then shows a quick flash back to when he killed the man, in the mirror.  It then shows him moving the body to the toilet, then he also cleans up the blood. Most of the scenes in this opening so far has created enigma coeds for the audience. After that he picks up the knife and leaves. Then the main characters voice comes over and narrators for a short bit. All through this they use monochromatic colours such as blue,grey and white 

I have researched this opening because it has good use off diegetic and non-diegetic sound.  

A Short Analysis of 'AS MEDIA Thriller Opening Sequence - Inner Evil'

A Short Analysis of 'AS MEDIA Thriller Opening Sequence - Inner Evil'

It beings with a few company logos to introduce this opening sequence. The next shot is the main character lying on the floor. It then pans up to her head an it shows that there is blood on her head, which suggest that she is dead. The next shot explains it to be a dream by showing her waking up and looking distort about the dream. It then shows her getting dressed and going to the bath room and drinking a glass of water. As she is going down the stairs a title appears and fades. The she picks up a key and walks out of the front door. There is a close up of the key and then a flash back to someone killing her with the key. This is done to create enigma codes. They do another flash back in the next scene showing some one grabbing her. It then shows that some one is following her as she is walking down a path, when she looks behind no-one is there. When she turns around the person appears but the camera is blurred to create tension, when the person gets closer it shows that it is her. This creates enigma codes for the audience. The last shot was the title of the opening sequence 'Inner Evil'.

I have chosen this for my research because it creates a lot of enigma codes.

A Short Analysis of 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' Opening Sequence

A Short Analysis of 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' Opening Sequence 

The opening scene show a old barbed wire fence and a mist background. The title of the film then appears in between the fence. The background music sounds like a child's music box which adds enigma codes to the scene. It then shows a shot of a corn field and other crops to set the scene that it is in a farm. Then it shows an establishing shot of the farm house. It uses monochromatic colour's such as grey and black to create an atmosphere. It then shows a medium close up of a man knocking on the farm houses door, this creates enigma codes like 'why is he there'. The man then walks away from the house and looks around at his surroundings. It then show animals moving away from the house and it also shows a barn in the back ground. It then goes into a close up of a bee hive in the comer of the house, which will create enigma codes. Then the final scene shows that there is someone looking at him through the upstairs window they use a match-on-action shot to show the man looking at the person in the window. All through this scene they only use non-diegetic sound. 

I have chosen this for my research because it has a good use of monochromatic colour's that create tension and enigma codes.