Mood Board

The next task was to create a mood board of initial ideas for our film. The type of images we were looking for when creating our mood board were images of locations in which successful action thriller films had been set that we had watch or knew about. The genre of film we have decided as a group we want to base our film on is an action thriller film therefore this is a hybrid genre film. In addition to this, we had to collect images of existing films, props, costumes and iconic stills from films. By creating a mood board and collecting numerous amount of images the imagery helps set the theme and tone therefore it gave us inspiration as a group and individually what we aim our film trailer to look like and include the conventions of the action thriller films we had collected images of. 

Here is my mood board I have produced and I am now going to explain why I have chosen each picture in more detail.

1) This image is from the film Inception and this particular image is set on an aeroplane. This gave me inspiration for ideas of a potential plot storyline of our action thriller film we are going to create; for example setting our film in an airport or somebody travelling abroad. In addition to this, the main focus is on the man situated sitting at the front and the image is a medium close up shot as well as a two shot. From this, we are able to tell the relationship between the two characters and in some aspect the type of personality they have from their facial features in the image. Both male’s facial expression have a stern look on their face which gives the audience an impression they are determined to succeed in whatever lies ahead of them as well as they are strong men who have authority over people.

2) This image is from the film The Bourne Identity. This image shows the protagonist character Jason Bourne holding a gun. Therefore from this image, this showed the protagonist character being a male who's costume is all black from what we can see as it is a medium close up shot. He is currently holding a medium sized gun, positioned ready to shoot someone. Thriller action films are known for being fast paced films, giving the viewers a sense of thrill and suspense from the start to end of the film building anxiety for the viewers. The protagonist character is normally meant to be a "hero" character, therefore even though he is holding a gun ready to kill someone he is also trying to save either himself or someone else to. This left me with ideas for my group's film that our film needed to have the main protagonist character as a male as he is the one with authority.

3) I then decided to look at locations in which successful action thriller films had been set that I had watched as our film's target audience is females aged 16-24, as I fit into this target audience I decided on an iconic, memorable location from a successful action thriller film I have enjoyed and appealed to myself. This image is of a building in Paris in which the girls from the film Taken starring Liam Neeson stay in when they go travelling in Paris and shortly after they arrive they get taken. This image is mostly dark lighting which implies that something bad has occurred here and that made me think that maybe the images we would take for our magazine front cover and film poster need to be images of low key and dark lighting which is a connotation that the location is mysterious.

4) This image is of the protagonist character Liam Neeson who is globally known for playing Bryan Mills in the successful action thriller film Taken. This is an iconic still image from the film where he is on the phone to the man who has taken his daughter and he states the line “I will find you and I will kill you”. This is a close up image so the viewers are able to clearly see his facial expressions and can see that he is stressed out, worried but yet is still thinking ahead about what he is going to do next. This gave me inspiration that as a group we should think about including close up images of the protagonist character leaving an enigma.

5) The next image is also from the film Taken of his daughter hiding underneath a bed on the phone to her father Bryan Mills. This image comes before the picture situated above (number four) as she is telling her dad the truth about where she is and the audience are able to see her facial expressions clearly and can tell she is absolutely petrified. This image left me with the inspiration to include the start and potentially middle of the plot storyline of the film to leave the audience on a cliff hanger encouraging them to go and see my film more.

6) I decided to use another image from the film Taken as it is such a successful film that appeals to me so much and from what friends have told also appeals to them to. I decided on this image as it shows a prop in which the man is holding which is a knife from a particular type of culture so this shows the audience that she is a foreign country, currently in an environment she is not comfortable or used to. As this image is a two shot, the viewers are able to see clearly the relationship between the two characters and see the male standing behind her is about to slit her throat if somebody else in the scene gets any closer to them. This is a conventional scene that is seen in the majority of action thriller films as it builds up suspense for the audience.

7) This image is from the film Orphan and denotes a young girl with black makeup coming down from her eyes which implies to the audience that she is either the antagonist character or that something bad has occurred. As she is a young girl, this is not the sort of thing you would expect from a young girl. Orphan is a thriller film and this image enhances confusion to the viewer’s encouraging them to go and see the film to find out what has actually happened to the young girl. This gave me the inspiration to maybe include a character like this in my film.

8) The image denotes a male with a mask on with the word “God” situated on his forehead written in a black marker. This image is from the film The Purge Anarchy and is a film I have previously watched and it is not until near the end of the film you find out who this male really is. You would expect him to be a character who tries his best to save people especially with the word “God” on his forehead as God is known to always help and watch down on people and try leading them to good things in the future as he doesn’t want to anyone to suffer. Yet this image potentially in some aspect makes viewers think that this male is a bad character as he is hiding his identity and doesn’t want to be known for whom he really is, creating confusion for the audience.

9) This image is also from the film The Purge Anarchy, the characters in this film are also wearing masks with ginormous gleaming smiles but the male character is holding a large sword ready to attack anyone who comes in his eye line. This image is a high angle shot making these particular characters seem they have authority and power over people as they are the main focus in the image. As the masks have big smiles on, this could imply to the audience that they are happy and enjoying what they are doing in life as the sword implies they are going round killing people. This again leaves the audience thinking about what is actually occurring in the film leaving them in doubt. This gave me the inspiration to again have characters like this in my film as this image has two opposite elements to it.

10) This last image as well is from the film The Purge Anarchy, however I have decided to show this image to show the location of the film in which it is set in. The film’s location is in New York, America which is known as a city that never sleeps and as our initial ideas for our film is to set our film in London for numerous of reasons. These reasons being that London is mainly the only location we have access to easily as well as our target audience are all from London. Therefore, if it is a location the audiences recognise and know well for me it encourages me to go and see the film more as I want to see how they link the location to the film. By setting The Purge Anarchy in New York as London is a busy city as well there is a large population this means that many people could be affected who live in London in the plot encouraging more people to go and see the film.

Overall by creating this mood board it has given me inspiration and more ideas that I can bring to my group on what our film plot could be about and what to include.