Searching for props and costumes

We had some difficulties finding appropriate props for or thriller becase with it being set in Vietnam, we had no access to original unirforms and weaponry. Therefore, we had to improvise with what we could find.

We managed to get hold of a replica rifle and a wooden gun off our teacher for the filming, and a camoflage jacket, the jacket was used for the second main character, although they did not wear this camo in Vietnam, it was all we could use.

This picture is what they would have worn in Vietnam.

For the main character, I found s pair of green combat trousers and a green jacket, along with a military belt and Vietnam war replica helmet. I also borrowed my friends boots from the army cadets. All this managed to create a convincing Vietnam war G.I uniform and overall looked very convincing.

 

For the Vietcong sniper, we used a ju jitsu martial arts jacket, as it looks very similar to a Vietcong soldier's uniform and then made a hat resembling a Vietnamese straw hat.

A few extra props included blood capsules, fake blood, a bandage and several playing cards to place in the band around the helmet. This was everything we managed to find for the Vietnam war scene.

Soundtrack for the thriller

I felt that the music in the thriller had to be realted to typical Vietnam war film soundtracks, with well known 60's tracks, such as the Rolling stones, or Creedence clearwater revival. But at the same time we needed music to add suspense during the flashback scenes.

I collected several different songs for the credits and for any other part of the opening that might need the music, these tracks were from my own itunes collection and included:

1. Fortunate son - Creedence clearwater revival

2. Hendrix (Becko) - Vietcong 2 (game)

3. The End - The Doors

4. For what its worth - Buffalo Springfield

5. Clapton - Vietcong 2

In the end we felt that ' The End by the Doors was most suitable to play at the end of the thriller as the veteran walks away from the graveyard, becuase it suits the mood of the scene perfectly so we chose this track for the scene and to play through the credits.

For sound effects in the thriller, we thought it was best to get rid of the original sound during editing and replace it with sound effects that we downloaded, this would provide much more realistic sounds and improve the quality of the peice.

Storyline

The Thriller's plot.

We now needed to decide on the full plot of the Thriller opening, we discussed different ideas and then decided which had the better story and which would be simple enough to do, becuase we didnt want to have an over complicated storyline to the opening of the film.

We discussed these ideas whilst looking for the actual locations, at school and we would meet after school at each others house to finalise the storylines.

In the end, we decided that this would be the plot.

A vietnam veteran, played by my dad, would be visiting his dead comrade's gravestone in a cemetary, the year in this part of th opening is 1988, he walks along and stares at the grave. This gives a sense of how affected he has been by his friends death.

He then sees a person walking through the graveyard, and he hallucinates it to be himself 20 years before when he was sent to Vietnam. The veteran immediately has a flashback to his time in Vietnam and the day that he lost his friend. 

The flashback  starts with a shot of blood running down some trees, the remains of an american unit ambushed on the same day just before the main characters arrive. Then the main characters boot hits the mud and we see him and his comrade walking through the jungle, not knowing what is in store for them. Nect thing we know, the second soldier is shot by a sniper in the shoulder, sending him flying to the ground badly wounded. The main character then flies to the ground and begins shooting back at the Vietcong sniper.

With the sniper pinned down, he gets up and runs for nearest cover in order to throw a hand grenade at the sniper, which explodes on target and kills them outright. He runs back to his wounded comrade, but as he tries to help more Vietcong begin firing and he turnes and flees from the scene.

The opening then flashes back to the veteran in the graveyard, as he turns and slowly walks away from the gravestone as the credits play...

Location scouting

We realised that we might struggle to find a good location to shoot our thriller, as we had decided to set the movie in Vietnam, and there is nowehere in Stafford thta really looks like Vietnam, so we went out looking for places that we might be able to use in the thriller.

Brocton - The first place I thought might be good for a location to shoot the thriller was at Brocton, where i knew there was an old abandoned building in some woods.

This location might be useful becuase of the abandoned buildong there and the woods located near by. However, in the end we decided this was not good enough to shoot our own thriller.

Cannock chase - The next best place we could access easily was Cannock chase. The massive size of the chase provided a bonus becuase we had so many locations to choose from, although a lot of groups decide to film on Cannock chase, we thought it would be fine becuase there are so many different locations on the chase that it wouldnt look the same as another group.

We managed to find an excellent location for filming in the bird sanctuary over the chase, just near Brocton. shown in the picture below is where we decided to film, this area had plenty of trees and was very swamp like, we felt it was the nearest we were going to get to Vietnam in the local area and chose this location to do the filming.

German cemetary - Just over Cannock chase there is a German war cemetary, we needed a war cemetary for the film becuase of the graveyard scene, and it had to look like part of a war cemetary, we felt this location was perfect for our thriller.

With the locations decided, we moved onto planning other parts of the thriller.

Thriller influences - Jacob's ladder

Jacob's ladder

Jacob's ladder is a fantastic psychological thriller about a vietnam veteran who is hallucinating deamons after he suffered a biological experiment gone wrong in the Vietnam war. He is battling to stay sane, when everyone around him further falls into the deamon's traps and is taken one by one, he must find the answer to why these things are after him before its too late. The films ending has a massive plot turn that completely changes the whole storyline for the viewer.

The film overall is very tense and builds suspense at key moments. We thought that this movie would inspure us in making our thriller becuase it is exactly what we planned along the lines of a vietnam veteran hallucinating after a horrific war experience. Jacob's ladder suited this perfectly.

Thriller influences - Platoon

Platoon

Platoon is one of the most famos war filsm ever made, it is set during the Vietnam conflict and follows the story of a young G.I's experiences through the Vietnam war. This movie gave us a lot of inspiration becuase we had chosen to set our thriller in the vietnam war, and this was one of the best depictions in cinema of the Vietnam conflict. We watched the film several times and discussed different scenes that we could draw inspiration from for our own video. 

The scene shown to the right is when the U.S squad find a vietnamese village they beleive to be harbouring Vietcong guerillas, thye also see it as an oppurtunity for revenge after they lost one of their number to the Vietcong.

Although a scene like this might be good for a thriller, perhaps one from a villagers point of view escaping the Americans, who give chase to them as they fle, we felt that this would be too hard to create.

The scen that had most influences on us would be when the squad is moving through the jungle, then at night they set up camp and are ambushed by Vietcong soldiers during the night. we thought we could do something along these lines and create a jungle ambush which leaves a scar in the main characters mind.

Thriller influences - Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam war had a major unfluence for us and our thriller, we felt that this would suit the theme perfectly. The idea of a veteran unable to escape his past experiences of war sounded brilliant to use. The thought of patrolling through such dense, harsh jungles not knowing where an enemy soldier or booby-trap could be sounded terrifying. 

I also felt that the Vietnam war is almost like a forgotten war becuase it is not in  many movies, or on TV very often, whereas conflicts like World War 2 have a whole range of movies themed around the war. We also felt Vietnam was a perfect theme for the psycholgical part of the film, becuase of the 60's era, drug use, rock music, and the development of new technology. This all sounded perfect for the thriller theme, whether we wanted to make a psychological thriller or just a conventional thriller movie.

The weapons used in Vietnam were very new and interesting, but at the same time, horrific. One new development was the use of napalm. This literally incinerated everything in its path. But things like the Vietcong's guerilla warfare tactics seemed to be a great theme for a thriller, the thought of fighting an enemy you can't see and could be waiting for you anywhere is terrifying.

The only problem we thought we would have was access to props and costumes for the thriller, becuase we had no access to original uniforms or weaponry, so will have to improvise...

Thriller Influences - saving private Ryan

Graveyard scene - saving private Ryan

I beleive that the opening scene from saving private Ryan is a very effective movie opening. It shows exactly how the veterans from any war would feel after what they have been through in war.

We felt that this scene could be used in our thriller very well, we wanted to show a veteran from a conflict visiting his dead comrades, and this scene gave us a lot of inspiration to do this. The shot of the main characters feet walking is also a good camera angle in my opinion, and we felt we should use this shot in our thriller opening.

We also thought it would be a good idea to have another clip of a graveyard scene at the very end of our thriller opening, again showing how the veteran would feel when visiting his fallen comrades.