Thriller Idea 3 Development

Today, after being grouped with Genny, Lauren, and Chris for our Thriller pening Sequence Project, I had a discussion with Mike, one of the media teachers, about my thriller Ideas and how I could develop them. Idea 3 is my definite favourite due to its simplicity and potential beauty. The opening, to my opening sequence, is very strong, with a powerful image of a man carrying a dead teenage body through the woods. 

My teacher and I thought we could develop the man's character into someone very mentally damaged and strange while being very straight and assasin-like. We came up with the idea of presenting him as someone trying to help the boy, at first, as he gasps for breath, choking on blood. Then we get closeups of the two characters and realise that the boy is crying out for mercy. The man then puts him on the ground and hits the hell out of the boy who then dies. He picks him back up and then continues on walking. 

We thought it would be very effective to have the man whistling some contrapuntally happy music to emphasise how mentally deranged he is. Then we could fade in the actual song he was whistling for the rest of the scene. I love the idea of using contrapuntal music to emphasise his psychotic characteristics.

However, when it came to the time of day, and the use of fire, we had to think about a few issues. Firstly, why would the man wait until the night to burn the body. Therefore, the burning and the carrying through the woods had to take place at the same time of day, to eliminate those questions. Also, I am still not sure if I will be allowed to use fire in the shoot, due to certain health and safety, and continuity issues. So, we decided it would look just as well shot, if the man buried the boy instead of set him on fire. This meant, if we were aloud to use fire, we would shoot in darkness, and if we went with the burying idea, we would shoot during daylight hours. 

As a result, we came up with a few great shot ideas for the burial scene. Firstly, we could place a plate of clear perspex over the camera lens pointing up at the sky, and then get a shot of the man shovelling dirt onto the camera and get an effect similar to this...

... when the dirt is out of focus, splattered on the lens, with the man shovelling above in the background, with the trees and sky behind.
As well as this, a variety of close-ups could be used. For example, a close up of dirt covering the face while it coughs/splutters/twitches. 

I really like the idea of using really strong colour grades throughout the scene. For example, when shooting during both the night and day, i want the shots to look harsh and cold. I love the idea of using chiaroscuro lighting, like in the photo above, during the night time scene, but then mixing that with really fiery, red hot shots of the burning body, to emphasise the heat. 

Whereas, when burying (in daylight), a cold, harsh and desaturated colour grade gives the effect of death, age, and darkness...