Thrillerwork - Slighlty Changes

There have been slightly changes in our opening sequence idea:
Before we just wanted to show the cooking show in our sequence, which would've been filmed from different shots like a professional show.  Now we decided to present the show to the audience just through one wide-shot of a camcorder to turn it more into a self-made show.
We were afraid that just the show for two minutes could get a bit boring so we decided to show the killer preparing his kitchen for the shoot with professional looking angles and camera movements.

Influence on our thriller - Serial Killer - Issei Sagawa

Issei Sagawa served time in French prison for the murder of Dutch student Renée Hartevelt, a classmate of Sagawa's at the Sorbonne. On June 11, 1981, Sagawa, then 32, invited Hartevelt to dinner at his 10 Rue Erlanger apartment under the pretext of translating German poetry for a class he was taking. Upon her arrival, after convincing her to begin reading the poetry, he shot her in the neck with a rifle while she sat with her back to him at a desk. At that point he began to carry out his plan to eat her. His first attempt to bite into her buttocks met with failure so he went out to buy a butcher knife. Sagawa has stated he chose Hartevelt for her health and beauty, characteristics Sagawa believed he lacked. Sagawa describes himself as a "weak, ugly, and inadequate little man" (he is just under 5 ft. (1.52 m) tall) and claims that he wanted to "absorb her energy".

Sagawa said he fainted after the shock of shooting her, but awoke with the realization that he had to carry out his plan. He did so, beginning with her buttocks and thighs, after having sex with the corpse. In interviews, he noted his surprise at the "corn-colored" nature of human fat. For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of the body. He described the meat as tasting like raw tuna. He then attempted to dump the mutilated body in a remote lake, but was seen in the act and later arrested by French police, who found parts of the deceased still in his refrigerator.

Sagawa's wealthy father provided a lawyer for his defense, and after being held for two years without trial Sagawa was found legally insane and unfit to stand trial by the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who ordered him held indefinitely in a mental institution. After a visit by the author Inuhiko Yomota, Sagawa's account of the murder was published in Japan under the title In the Fog. Sagawa's subsequent publicity and macabre celebrity likely contributed to the French authorities' decision to have him extradited to Japan. Upon arrival in Japan, he was immediately taken to Matsuzawa hospital, where examining psychologists all found him to be sane, stating that sexual perversion was the sole motivation for the murder.  Japanese authorities found it legally impossible to detain him because the French government refused to release court documents (which remain secret) to Japan, claiming that the case had already been dropped in France. As a result, Sagawa checked himself out of the mental institution on August 12, 1986, and has been a free man ever since. Sagawa's freedom has been questioned and criticized by many.

Influence on our Thriller - Serial Killer - Andrei Chikatilo

Andrei Chikatilo was a Ukrainian serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov and ‘The Red Ripper.’ He was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. In 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty, a small coal mining town near Rostov, where he committed his first documented murder. On December 22, he lured a nine-year-old girl to an old house which he bought in secret from his family and attempted to rape her. When the girl struggled, he stabbed her to death. He ejaculated in the process of knifing the child, and from then on he was only able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm through stabbing and slashing women and children to death. Despite evidence linking Chikatilo to the girl’s death, a young man, Alexsandr Kravchenko, was arrested and later tried and executed for the crime.
He established a pattern of approaching runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations and enticing them to leave. A quick trip into a nearby forest was the scene for the victim’s death. In 1983, he did not kill until June, but then he murdered four victims before September. The victims were all women and children. The adult females were often prostitutes or homeless tramps who could be lured with promises of alcohol or money. Chikatilo would usually attempt intercourse with these victims, but would usually be unable to get an erection, which would send him into a murderous fury. The child victims were of both sexes, and Chikatilo would lure them away with his friendly, talkative manner by promising them toys or candy. In the USSR at the time, reports of crimes like child rape and serial murder were often suppressed by the state-controlled media, as such crimes were regarded as being common only in “hedonistic capitalist nations.”
In 1988 Chikatilo resumed killing, generally keeping his activities far from the Rostov area. He murdered a woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and went on to kill another eight people that year, including two victims in Shakhty. Again there was a long lapse before Chikatilo resumed killing, murdering seven boys and two women between January and November of 1990. He was finally caught when trying to approach young children whilst under police surveillance. He went to trial on April 14, 1992. Despite his odd and disruptive behavior in court, he was judged fit to stand trial. During the trial he was famously kept in a cage in the center of the courtroom; it was constructed for his own protection from the relatives of the deceased. The trial had a very disturbing atmosphere. The relatives kept shouting threats and insults to Chikatilo, demanding the authorities to release him so that they could execute him on their own. He was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offense.

He was executed by firing squad (shot in the back of the head) on February 14, 1994 after Russian president Boris Yeltsin refused a last ditch appeal by Chikatilo for clemency.

 

Influence on our Thriller - Film Characters

Our killer will be presented , although he is killing and eating humans, very charismatic, sympathy and even funny. So we are looking for serial killers on TV, who are not the stereotypical bad guys like Harlen Maguire in Road to Perdition and not the stereotypical insane guys like the Joker  in The Dark Knight.

Ben, the serial killer from Man Bites Dog, has a big influence on our thriller, because he is not behaving like an evil guy. He is always in a good mood and stays very objective all the time. Our killer will be presented strongly like him in the cooking show



Although our killer doesn't get presented and doesn't presents himself as a very serious or bad guy, he is actually incredibly intelligent, cunning, cruel,sadistic and calm. So another big influence on our thriller has the Character of Hannibal Lecter, who is like our killer a cannibal, because he is very, very smart and always two steps ahead of the police.    

Another big influence on our thriller has Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, because, alth-ough he is a very seriously thinking charac-ter, he has this very fun side when he kills people. He listens to Phil Collins or Katrina & The Waves, shows a nice smile and has this playful way of doing it. That fits really good with our killer profile as we want to have a killer, who pretends to be playful and zippy, but is actually a very serious and calm person like Hannibal Lecter. 
Although our killer is presented and presents himself as a not really serious and dangerously calm person, he still is an absolutely serious,intelligent and cruelly brutal character. Patrick Bateman is very inventive varied and very brutal in the ways he kills people. This spontaneity and brutality of him killing people has a lot in common with our killer.
  




 

Influence on our Thriller - Film concepts, shots and sequences

The biggest influence on our thriller have the french film Man Bites Dog and the Hurtwood thriller  Deadmendotcom, because their concept and film idea is exactly what we want to do in our thriller. A very objective and documentary way of explaining how to kill and cook people, which creates a strong black humored, but also perverse tone. 
The main factor, which creates the funny tone and the humor, is the non-diegetic and contrapuntal music. We will definitely use a similar contrapuntal music to create the same comedian and showy atmosphere.

Another influence on our thriller has   the TV-Drama Hannibal and the other Hannibal movies. 
The series shows a lot of sequences where Hannibal cooks, which will influence a lot by choosing the props.
The TV-Drama as well as the movies have  some very cruelly black humored scenes and sequences, which make you feel sick. Our thriller might include a lot of comical elements, however we also want to make the audience feel very uncomfortable, when they have watched the entire clip.











































 

Influence on our Thriller - Serial Killer - LUKA ROCCO MAGNOTTA

For the research on our thriller, we looked at different serial killers:

                         Luka Rocco Magnotta

A Canadian porn actor accused of dismembering his Chinese lover and mailing the body parts to political parties and schools. Eric Clinton Kirk Newman was born on July 24, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario. He attended  Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay. He legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta on August 12, 2006

Luka Magnotta, 30, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the gruesome slaying and dismemberment of Jun Lin last May. As well as first-degree murder, Magnotta is also facing four other charges relating to the case. He is accused of dismembering Lin, having sex with the dismembered corps, and mailing to schools and political parties parts of his body across Canada, Lin's hands and feet were mailed in May to the offices of political parties in Ottawa and to schools in Vancouver, before leading police on an international manhunt . On May 25, 2012, an 11-minute video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick was uploaded to Bestgore.com depicting a naked male tied to a bed frame being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick and a kitchen knife, then dismembered, followed by acts of necrophilia.[26][27] The perpetrator uses a knife and fork to cut off some of the flesh and gets a dog to chew on the body.[26][28] During the video, the 1987 New Order song "True Faith" plays in the background,[26] and a poster for the 1942 film Casablanca is visible on the wall.[29] Canadian authorities were able to obtain a "more extensive" version of the video and confirmed that cannibalism may have been performed.[6][30] Materials promoting the video appeared online at least 10 days before the murder took place.

His torso was found in a pile of garbage behind Magnotta's Montreal apartment, and his head was discovered in a Montreal park in July. Magnotta flew from Montreal to Paris on May 26, using a false passport under the name Kirk Trammel. His cell phone signal was traced to a hotel in Bagnolet, but he had left by the time police arrived. Pornographic magazines and an air-sickness bag were found in the hotel room. He had contacts in Paris from a previous visit in 2010, and police were following a large-framed man who had been in contact with Magnotta. Another man he stayed with for two nights did not realize who he was until he had left. Magnotta then boarded a Eurolines bus at the Bagnolet coach station bound for Berlin, Germany. He was finally arrested in Germany.

In his previous life, He was  sought by animal rights groups for allegedly uploading videos of himself killing kittens. Many profiles on various internet social media and discussion forums were created over several years to plant false or unverified claims about Magnotta. Magnotta himself repeatedly dismissed such accounts as hoaxes and part of a campaign of cyber stalking against him. According to police, Magnotta set up at least 70 Facebook pages and 20 websites under different names. Also, rumours claimed that Magnotta was in a relationship with Karla Homolka, a high-profile Canadian murderer.

"Truth Faith" by New Order:

Influence on our Thriller - Serial Killer - Jeffery Dahmer

For the research on our thriller we looked at different serial killers:

                           

                            Jeffery Dahmer

Jeffery Dahmer was an American serial killer, necrophiliac, and cannibal from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dahmer, an extremely disturbed individual, would lure young men to his apartment where he would murder and dismember them after sedating them with alcohol or drugs. After disposing of his victims he would consume or experiment with their remains. By the time of his trial he was charged and convicted of 15 murders and given numerous life sentences. On November 28, 1994 Dahmer was beaten to death at the Colombia Correctional Institution in Milwaukee. Dahmer could be an inspiration to our character in our Thriller. After watching a series of interviews with Dahmer we picked up on his manerisms and behaviours which we would later insert into our character. e gave us an idea of the disturbing sinister impression we wanted our character to portray.

Influence on our Thriller - Literature - A modest Proposal

A very big influence on our thriller will have the essay A Modest Proposal published by Jonathan Swift in 1729, because the actual idea for the thriller was developed from this essay. 
This text will mainly influence our script, which is one of the most important things in our thriller. In his detailed descriptions of cooking children in a proper and good way he hits exactly the objective tone we want to get in our thriller and so creates this very satiric black humor.

A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.    

Film Production Company - Hammer

The "Hammer" film company is a company, which is specialised on the horror and sci-fi genre. It was active between the 1930s and the 1970s. In 2007 it got refunded. The biggest successes are the Dracula films with Christopher Lee and The Woman In Black with Daniel Radcliffe.

 The Woman In Black
The movie The Woman In Black was the biggest Box Office success in "Hammer-"history. It went to 3267 screens in America and the UK. By a budget of $17,000,000 it made £19,829,610 in the UK and  $54,322,273 in the USA. As of June 2012, it has made $127,730,736 worldwide.

The main companies, who contributed the movie are "Cross Creek Pictures", "Hammer Film Productions" and "Alliance Films".
"Cross Creek Pictures" is a quiet new American film company, which participated in productions like Black Swan and Rush.
"Alliance Films" is a big Canadian film company, which was involved in productions like Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers and Mr.Brooks.

The Star of the movie is Daniel Radcliffe, well known as Harry Potter in the Harry Potter films. The Director of the movie, James Watkins, just directed one other movie, Eden Lake, in which he worked together with stars like Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly.
He hasn't worked with one of the companies before.

The Woman In Black is a Horror-film and mainly made for all the Harry Potter fans. They tried everything to make the movie watchable in cinemas for twelve years old and. It also is made for fans of the book and the play as well as fans of the classic horror genre. The movie was also released in Germany and Spain. 

I've learnt from this that films that I think are maybe British are actually Co-productions with other international companies and that British films rely on additional investments to be made.

Titles - High Budget Hollywood vs Low Budget Independent

SPIDER MAN 3

- ...presents

- A ... Production

- Title

- Leading man (image)

- Important supporting actor (image)

- Important supporting actor (image)

- Other actors (without image)

- Casting by ...

- Visual Effects Supervisor ...

- Original Music Themes ...

- Score by ...

- Costume Designer ...

- Film Editor ... 

- Production Designers ...

- Director of Photography ...

- Executive Producers ... 

- Executive Producer ... 

- Produced by ... 

- Based on ... by ...

- Screen Story by ... 

- Screenplay by ...

- Directed by ...

 

This Is England

- ... and ... present

- In association with ... and ...

- A ... production

- In association with ...

- A ... film

- Title

- Main actors (one name)

- Supporting actors (two names) 

- Other actors (three names)

- Script Supervisor ...

  Casting ...

  Hair and Makeup Supervisor ...

- Costume Designer ...

  Makeup and Hair Designer ...

  Production Designer ...

- Music Supervisor ...

  Original Music ...

- Director of Photography ...

- Editor ...

- Line Producer ...

  Co-Producer ...

- Executive Producers ...

- Produced by ...

- Written and Directed by ...

The titles of the low budget, independent production "This is England" mainly includes all the people, who spent money on the film. This stays in a big contrast to the high budget Hollywood-Blockbuster "Spider Man 3", whose titles mainly include all the famous actors and people, who have done the special effects.

That clearly shows that Films made by film companies like the "Big 6" usually have no financial problems at all and are using the main titles to show the audience how much money they have and how much expensive actors and effects they have bought with that money.

The small production companies have huge problems to get enough money for their movies and so need to mention their sponsors in the titles to get more of them.  

Trailer Analyse (Without Sound) - Man Bites Dog

The trailer of Man Bites Dog mainly represents the thriller genre through elements of Mise-en-scene. The use of props like guns, etc. and showing  the main character  beating up, strangling and shooting people and deposing their dead bodies  shows us that this movie is about a serial killer and will include lots of  violence, which is a characteristic feature of a movie from the thriller genre.
Moreover although most of the shown violence is presented in a dark lighting, which stands for t, the use of  bright lighting showing him strangling the woman, deposing the corpuses and obviously talking and explaining things about it to the camera and other people of screen gives the whole trailer a kind of documentarily and objective tone, which gives us the feeling that this is not just a serious thriller about a serial killer, but also includes elements of a black comedy.
The camera time spent on the killer shows us that he is the main character and that the story will be told from his perspective.. This and the complete absence of policeman or any other protagonists  trying to catch or to stop the man let us know that this movie won't be about trying to stop a criminal like in a stereotype crime thriller, but show us the life of a serial killer and what he is like as a person.