Political Thriller

This is a political thriller.
A political thriller is a thriller tat is based on political power struggle. The idea of this is to show somebody trying to gain political power, through means which are rarely legal whilst their opponents try to stop them. Although they mostly follow the same base plot lines, they all vary in many ways to make each one individual and much more interesting. The films are usually based around international or national political scenarios, but issues surrounding war and elections are the favourite scenarios because they leave the most room for conspiracy, action and just general elements that could be thrilling.

What’s the Plot?

The story of our film is about this guy called Daniel Moore. When he was young his parents were killed by a serial killer who was granted freedom, this has had a dramatic change on Dan’s attitude, he now follows his own path of his eluded justice where he keeps old news paper articles on released criminals and he hunts them down and murders them. Our story is of the secret peril he is actually going through and of the unlucky policeman who was handed his case.

We are only planning on shooting the beginning scene where a criminal who he has revealed is threatening him but unknowingly the criminal is out thought by Daniel and is killed himself.

More Refined Plan

On the desk is a computer and phone, and it fades the sound in with the phone ringing. It then keeps showing shots of the room until the phone goes to the answering machine, there Daniel’s friend will be saying things like “Daniel! Stop putting these claims on your blog! You are basically leading these murderers to you. What the hell are you trying to do? How did you even come up with these suspects? They’re going to kill you, you know?” ect. Whilst this takes place, the shots will be of the computer monitor, showing zoomed in areas of this blog Daniel has been writing. Panning along sentences such as ‘I finally figured it out, the killer is’ and pictures of suspects. This will then go into the scene of the killer coming into the house which was described in the pitch.

Thriller Introduction Pitch

This doesn't give all the information about the introduction or plot, but I tried to shorten it for the pitch:


Before I talk about the introduction, I shall talk about the basic plot of the thriller. It is a psychological thriller about a journalist called Daniel Moore, he is a 24-year-old man who used to work for a local newspaper for 2 years, but when he became 23, he set up his own newspaper. He called it ‘The Daily Reveals’, because this is no ordinary journalist, he reports on killers and murder cases in the area, giving out information about the cases which he shouldn’t. For example, he writes about who he suspects the culprit may be. After writing about them, he kills said suspects using tricks and blackmail to lead them to him.


The introduction starts in a dark room (Daniel’s bedroom), and we see the shape of a body lying in a bed, which we assume to be Daniel. On the desk is a desk lamp, and under it a copy of a newspaper, with the title ‘CLOAKED MURDERER REVEALED’, and a picture of a man in a cloak, with a suspicious pose. The picture then fades into a live action clip of said murderer, breaking into Daniel’s house by picking the locks on the doors. He then walks into Daniel’s bedroom, and sees the body lying down on the bed. There is then a close up of a gun pointing at the head of the body lying in the bed, and the gunshot; causing the audience to believe Daniel Moore has just been shot. The camera shot is then in front of the ‘dead’ body’s head, showing that it is in fact a manikin, but the murderer cannot see this. The shot then goes to behind the murderer, showing his triumphant pose, but then scrolls down to his feet, showing under the bed; there we see Daniel Moore, lying under the bed with a gun pointed up at the murderer. The screen blacks out with a gunshot, and a voice over of Daniel saying, “Kill or be killed”

By Dominic Noble

What Is a Thriller?

A thriller is a film that's true purpose is to thrill or shock you and uses different methods and conventions to excite you and doesn't try to horrify you like a horror film but doesn't much more subtly. A thriller focuses more on the plot than on the characters and this builds great tension on the film and makes the film more enjoyable to watch and to understand.

Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon others minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state.

evaluation - preliminary task by Stephen Pittuck

For our preliminary task we did a simple scene consisting of a conversation and quite a lot of walking. We used many shots in our scene first of which is the establishing shot and we had a few different variations of it where I’m walking through the camera then when I’m walking through the building and also when Dom is tapping on the table.

We then had our match on action shot when I started to open the door from the outside and then we did a quick cut to me walking through the door on the other side. We also used a match on action shot were I started to grab a chair and then we cut to me moving the chair to sit with Dom for the conversation shot. Our conversation shot also had a lot of reaction shots and close up’s as well as zooms for an intense scene. Close up’s were also used in the match on action shot.

The 180º rule is a very important concept in video and film production. It refers to an imaginary line that cuts through the middle of the scene, from side to side with respect to the camera.
Crossing the line changes the viewer’s perspective in such a way that it may cause disorientation and confusion. For this reason, crossing the line is usually something to be avoided. This is used to continually keep with the idea of continuity editing.

Continuity editing is were the majority of film sequences are edited so that time seems to flow, uninterrupted, from shot to shot. This is to make sure that everything fits together perfectly and sop that nothing seems out of place or it looks like sloppy editing.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task by Dominic Noble

For our preliminary task we used a variety of shots to show our understanding of continuity. Our first shot was an Establishing Shot, this is to show the audience what is going on and where the characters are. For our product it was the shot of Stephen walking down the path outside in the snow.

We then did a slightly unexpected shot, another establishing shot if you will; where we had me tapping my finger on a table, just to show that something is going to happen. We continue with the establishing shots as Stephen walks up the stairs, but then move on to a Close-Up shot. This is rather self-explanatory, but it means to have a shot, which is zoomed in or just close to the subject or object.

For our product our close-up shot was one of Stephen opening a door, it was a close up of the door handle and his hand coming down to open it. This then continues on to a match on action shot, is when you cut during an action to another camera angle, showing the previous action from the same point in time that you left it, in our case on the other side of the door.

We then have a reaction shot of first Stephen looking shocked at something in the room as he turns on the lights, and then one from me, where I stop tapping the desk and look up at him. This is also a long shot, as we are both in the shot as Stephen walks over and grabs a chair next to me; going on to a second match on action shot as we move onto a different angle and Stephen continues sitting on the chair from the point he left.

Our last and most important element was filming a conversation between us; when I talked, the camera was on me, and then when it went to Stephen talking the camera flipped over and looked at him. This had to strictly follow the 180° rule, which meant keeping the shots on one side of our conversation; it’s not allowed to cross over.

Preliminary Task

Here is our preliminary task made for the Thriller Project.

Preliminary Task Script

Stephen walking into building, walking into door over the camera. This is a long shot.

Goes to shot of Dom sitting at a desk, tapping the table with his finger. This is a low angle shot.

Establishing shot of Stephen walking down hallway towards a door, then starting to open it with a close up shot of the door handle.

Match on action shot of inside the room, looking at the other side of the door, with Stephen opening said door from where we left on the last shot.

Stephen grabs a chair and sits next to Dom, following by asking the question "What are you doing?"

Filming a conversation begins, as Dom says "I’m merely sitting here, poking this desk." This is done with the same low angle shot of him before, but this time looking from the side like a conversation shot.

Stephen looks puzzled and asks "That sounds boring, shouldn’t you go to lessons anyway?"

Dom looks up and stares at Stephen for a second, with an intense zooming in shot on his eyes, then it returns to normal as he states "No."

Stephen then says "Well, I have a lesson in here next, so would you please leave?" looking a little irritated at this point.

Dom looks back down at the desk and continues tapping, then after a minute of silent shots of the two, says "Okay."

Dom then stands up, with both in the shot, and walks off slowly.

We see a shot of the door again, and Dom opens it and walks out.

The camera is then looking at Stephen, who is facing the door, watching as Dom walks away; he then turns back to the desk they were on previously.

The last shot is a front shot of Stephen saying "That was weird.." as it fades out.

Preliminary Task, Location and Props

We will be filming around the media block and use the long hallways and the available rooms for our scenes.

We are going to be using a basic chair and table set and the impression of an office. This will show the work the student is doing and the vast amounts and lots of work will be spread around the desk. We will then shoot the conversation were we will add another chair and then we will close the space of the office into a small area were the 2 students are talking to show the little space between them.

Preliminary task

Our preliminary task is going to be a plain walking scene with few lines of dialogue. We are doing this so we have more time to focus on achieving the goal of taking all the correct shots.

We are just going to have someone entering a building to meet someone and we will get all the shots together from that.