Development of Idea

Here are some of the notes from our first two meetings which show how our ideas have developed and some of our new ideas and inspirations.

Some of the keywords that have sparked off developments and changes to our idea:

• Hysterical laughter

• Candles

• FBI

• Walkie-talkie crackling sound effect

• Choir singing hymn

• Graveyard

• Organ music

• Church

• Blood dripping from knife

• Suicide

• Crypt

• Alone in church

• Digging grave

• Blowing out candles

We considered doing a split scene/montage between a man walking down the aisle of a church holding a knife which has blood dripping off it and a scene of the FBI or police searching for someone in a graveyard in the dark using torches. We wanted to achieve the juxtaposition between the calmness of the man walking down the aisle of the church and frantic nature of the FBI searching in the graveyard.

When discussing our idea we talked about using the sound effect of the blood dripping off the knife onto the cold hard floor of the church. 

We particularly liked the slightly psychotic idea of a man hysterically laughing whilst holding a knife as this would be a very uneasy image for the audience and would put them on edge whilst creating tension and suspense within the opening sequence. We also liked the idea of the man's hysterical laughter being powerful enough to blow out the candles at the front of the church creating a natural blackout for the scene.

  We also discussed using religious imagery or conventions of a Church in our first shot to establish the location and atmosphere for the audience. We also considered how some statues seen in graveyards can be quite creepy and unsettling and so would aid us in the creating the mood and atmosphere for our opening sequence. 

However, when discussing our idea we talked about the importance of not giving too much information away ad also keeping our sequence as simplistic as possible, therefore we decided that the location would be a Church and that we could have the FBI waiting outside the church discussing their plan of action and then they break into the church and then the last shot would be of the man with the knife laughing hysterically in a psychotic manner and then his laugh causes the candles to blow out. This would also ensure that we didn't have too many characters or too many confusing elements in our opening sequence, which would maintain a simplistic quality.

We were influenced by the following clip from the Baz Lurman's Romeo and Juliet as we were inspired by the use of the elaborate church setting and the use of the candles. Here are some screenshots from that clip: