Institution Company

Artisan Entertainment began in 1982 and did movies such as 'The Blair Witch Project', 'Novocaine' and the 'Punisher'. Originally it began as USA Home Video and turned into 'International Video Entertainment' in 1986 branching into film distribution in the late 80's. In 2003 the company announced, linked with microsoft, their firt HD DVD. In the same year Artisan was aquired by Lion's Gate and video releases from Artisan are now released under the Lion's Gate banner.


Their Filmography as 'Live Entertainment' was:
-Reservoir Dogs
-Trees Lounge
-The Arrival
-The Substitute
-Dirty Dancing
-Hotel De Love
-Critical Care
-Wishmaster
-Caught Up
-Suicide Kings

Their Filmography as Artisan Entertainment was:
-Pi
-Permanent Midnight
-Belly
-Blair Witch Project
-Grizzly Falls
-Book of Shadows- Blair Witch 2
-Requiem for a Dream
-Startup.com
-Soul Survivor
-Novocaine
-Jonah- A Veggie Tales Movie
-National Lampoon's Van Wilder
-Step into Liquid
-House of the Dead
-Dirty Dancing- Havana Nights
-The Punisher

I think that Artisan Entertainment would be good to sell 'Askew' due to the style of the movies which they did previously. They do quite arty and abstract movies which is a category which our thriller fits into and I believe that their normal audience would be our target audience. Because it is a similar style probably most of the people which have watched their previous films would come and watch this one and I also believe that they woul be prepared to risk showing this film as it is the sort of film which they show, sell and advertise. Our target audience would probably be people aged 16-24 or people which enjoy abstract films. This film might not be suitable for small children as they might not be able to deal with the subject of the film.

Our original Shot List:

1) Blackout with title...
2) Into panel two with man walking in medium/mid shot. Tracking shot, done twice once with good background one with bad background...
3) Blackout with title...
4) Over the head shot with hands rearranging the fruit, with hands then pulling out. Shot done again, same action but the fruit is rotten...
5) Blackout with title...
6) Straight shot, medium/mid shot of healthy flowers, then same shot done again with dead flowers...
7) Blackout with title...
8) Medium shot of printed wallpaper with frame of painting and a small table with a lamp. Shot done again with everything messed up...
9) Blackout with titles...
10) Over the shoulder shot with man looking out of a window with a tarantula on his shoulder...
11) Blackout with title...
12) Extreme close up of an eye with all the previous images flickering into the iris and pupil of the eye...
13) Blackout with main title...

Mood Board

Mood board thrillers nd

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I did this mood board to gather different ideas for my thriller. To show this I found certain images on the internet linking these pictures to ideas which sprung to my mind. I thought I would go into the direction of reflections, masks/dolls, optical illusions and strategy. This selection of pictures might help me come to a more accurate idea of what I want my opening sequence to be like.

Props List

This was the original prop list for our thriller sequence:

-Men’s suit
-Square table with cloth
-Fruit bowl with fruit
-Flower vase with flowers
-A door to be closed
-A decorated wall with, wallpaper and a cheep painting and a small coffee table with lamp
-Tarantula-Pink toed tarantula (http://www.twobytwoltd.co.uk/pages/inverts.htm)

Analysis of Opening sequence of Thrillers

Powerpoint thriller

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What is a Thriller?

In one of our lessons we looked at the aspects of what makes up a thriller. In our terms a thriller is a movie which is designed to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats through suspenseful actions and excitement. The genre thriller is a wide genre which is defined by many different aspects. These are often things such as twisted plots, violence and gore which makes you able to split it into different kinds such as psycholgical thrillers and violent thrillers.

Twisted plots create suspense and tend to keep information from the audience up to the point at which the tension and suspense becomes unbearable for the audience. This creates the scary aspect of the thriller and often constitutes another interesting aspect to the storyline. Without tension thrillers would not have the wished effects and probably tend to become a bit dull. The stories of thrillers can very strongly. Some are supernatural, involving mystical creatures; some are scientific or medical involving a journey into the future or causing the death of a whole species whilst some are just plain scary, dealing with mental disorders and instability of the mind. One genre which can also be seen often is the spy thriller where your protagonist in a somewhat heroic way has to face the villain at the end.

Some thrillers are very intellectual adressing a very smaller audience often involving a psychological aspect whilst on the other hand some thrillers are more crude and have less of a twist which then adress a much wider audience.

Codes and Conventions of thrillers are the things which people expect to see in a thriller to make up the story line. For Example: Restricted narrative, violence, psychological twist, injuries, etc... Some of these things make up the stereotypical thriller. A tool often used to increase the tension is editing by having quick cuts and loud sounds. All of these in a way torment the audience and make them feel uncomfortable.