Treatments

Treatments

Aim

Our aim is to produce a psychological thriller. Our film will appeal to adults and will be completed by the 4^th of November. We want our film to be gripping and exciting we want the audience to feel as if they are part of the story themselves and to feel strongly towards the main character. We aim to achieve this by giving the audience an insight to her life so that you feel as if you personally know the character, and to make the opening scene gripping we will be using non-diegetic sounds and also by adding diegetic sounds to add emphasis on certain noises which will help to build tension. We want our audience to get that this character has been wrongly accused, we also want the audience to understand that she is in danger and that they should feel sympathy toward her. We also want the audience grasp the moral of the story which is that you shouldn’t judge a person before you know what they’re really like, as in this context you learn that she actually doesn’t have paranoid schizophrenia.

Structure

Psychological thriller

Anna Dylan is the main character of our film who has run away from a mental institution. She is believed to have schizophrenia due to her  that someone is after her, therefore she runs away from the mental institution.
 

However due to the fact she has ran away from a mental institution the audience is lead to believe that she is mad and that no one is actually after her, however as the story progresses you find out that someone is really after her and that she is in danger, she isn’t mad.

The reason she is in the mental hospital is due to her being charged of a murder at the age of 12. However, she was framed by a real psychopath called Richard Grayson who works for the prime minister. However, Anna Dylan knows that she has the proof of the diary, therefore she runs from the mental institution to find it and prove her innocence.

 

Opening scene:

The opening scene will include enigma codes and realism. The realism in the opening scene will be that it is filmed in a place which the audience can relate to as it's an alleyway. The setting of the opening scene is also modern, not old fashioned or in a fantasy setting.

The opening credits will be shown first. They will be in black and white, and cut in with footage of a graffiti wall. You will then see a close-up of a phone which is a code, as it shows people that this phone must be an object of importance as it's the first shot you see. When she is typing on her phone, you will see titles come up by the side of her phone to tell you who is starring in the movie.
 
The next shot is a long shot of her typing on her phone. This tells you who was typing, and also what the character looks like. I found this shot to be blurry when I took it, however, I wanted to keep it in otherwise you wouldn't know who was texting. This shot is where the title comes up. I think it was important to put the title here as it shows you the character, a suggestion to why she is running is because she "needs help" which is what she types on her phone.

You then see her walking further into the alley, and looking round as if she is scared someone is after her. This is the first insight of what's happening and why she needs help. Once you see her in the alley, the voiceovers begin. The first voice over consists of her saying "im not mad - im not - I don't belong in a place like that" the worry on her face portrays how scared she is to the audience, furthermore making the audience feel sorry for Anna and sympathising with her. A sign of a mental institution then fades into shot. This shot is in black and white which is crucial otherwise the audience wouldn't know where she "doesn't belong" and what she is talking about.

Another voiceover is shown next, followed by a fading in of a diary shot shown which is a close-up. This is another crucial part to the opening scene as it shows you what she is looking for and why.

Anna then gets a call from someone. Due to the worried look on her face the audience are lead to believe that it will be the mental institution are after her, however, as I pan the camera you see that there is someone else behind her called Richard Grayson. The way the character dresses and how he speaks portrays him as being the antagonist of the movie. The panning of the camera to show Richard is an enigma as it draws in the audience to find out why he is after Anna.

Richard is wearing black which is a connotation to symbolise darkness within him as he's not a good person, allowing the audience to perceive him as the villain.

Richard takes Anna to his car and shows her that he has the dairy that was shown earlier on within a flashback. As Anna and Richard talk I used over the shoulder shots to show the other person, making it look like it is from the characters POV.

Non-diegetic music begins as Anna takes the diary from Richard while he is distracted. You then see a long shot from up high angled downwards of her running away with the dairy. The music ends on a loud note and then cuts of leaving a cliff hanger of what will happen next? will Richard catch up with her? will she be able to use the diary to prove her innocence?
 

Style and technical features

Horror movies:

Woman in black - already done in folder.

Fantasy:

The hobbit opening scene =

Candle being lit is the first scene, then the candle being carried down a corridor, a voice over being used throughout.

Walks to the chest located at the end of the hall and opens it to retrieve the writing equipment.

Hobbit goes into a study, and sits down, looking at a picture of what seems to be his son (if you watched previous lord of the rings movies you will know that this is indeed his son), the voice over (narrative) explains to you that there is something that he needs to tell ‘Frodo’ his son that he hasn’t told him yet, and he sits down writing this story.

The fact that he sat down writing a story after saying he needs to tell Frodo something it tells you that what he is writing will later be given to his son.

Our film genre:

We have decided to choose thriller as our genre because we think that it will be fun and exciting to do. We have taken some of the ideas that were used in the hobbit and developed those ideas so that we can use them in our film.

Technical features:

These features in our opening scene would be:

Angle shots such as: long shot, medium shot, close up and extreme close ups. 
We will be filming during the day therefore we can see what we are filming and we will be able to spend longer on the film and use natural light instead of needed artificial lighting which would be too hard to get hold of.

Locations

We will be filming our opening scene in an Alleyway located in Burnham, we are filming it here as it’s a place that will portray how the character is feeling, dark and empty with a lonely feeling.
We will be filming the flashbacks in the street so it looks like she has been running from somewhere. This will be filmed just outside the alleyway on the street.

Films analysations

Psychological and mystery thrillers

This type of thriller the conflict between the characters is often mental and emotional rather than physical, which would attract more of a female audience slightly more than a male audience. Psychological thrillers also have some kind of mystery to work out and there can also be an element of horror in them as some can be very disturbing. Therefore would attract an older, more intelligent audience because if the audience because if the audience were not able to work it out, they might find it boring. Examples of psychological thrillers include Shutter Island, Phone Booth, Blue velvet and suspicion.

The Cell

The Cell is a psychological thriller film. It’s about a psychotherapist (Catherine Deane who is part of a revolutionary new treatment which allows her mind to literally enter the mind of her patients. However the FBI asks for a favour from her as the FBI have just tracked down a notorious killer Carl Stargher whose motive is to abduct women one at a time and place them in a secret location, which they are kept for 40 hours until they are drowned. However, the killer has fallen into an irreversible coma which means he cannot confess where he’s taken his latest victim before she dies. So it’s up to Catherine Deane to enter the psychopaths mind to retrieve the location on his latest victim before the victim dies. She must enter the mind of a twisted killer, but Stargher’s personality poses dangers that threaten to overwhelm her.

This film fits this genre because the plot is about serial killer who’s mind is entered by a psychotherapist, it is about insanity and trying to find someone who is missing. The plot is challenges the audience as its difficult to figure out, therefore would attract a more mature audience.

Saw 2

Saw 2 is about unlucky people who have been trapped in a jigsaw like puzzle, surrounded by booby traps, and they must follow the puzzle in order to find their way out before they are all gassed and they all die.

This film is a psychological thriller as well as being a horror movie, it’s psychological thriller due to the emotion pain the victims must endure while they are stuck in the shelter.

The audience feel as if they are a part of this movie as they have to look what the victims are going through and think what they would do in that situation making them feel emotional, because of this the film will attract an older audience or teenagers who want to be scared.

The characters have mental conflict as they have to think for their own lives as it’s a battle between them living or someone else living.

The hobbit opening scene analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5k3X9huWVg

Fantasy:

The Hobbit opening scene =

The candle glows as a hand lights it with a flickering match in the darkness, this is the first shot. The camera films the hobbit carrying the candle through a tunnel like corridor inside of a home, this is a long shot filmed from behind of the character, you have not yet seen the face of this character but from his style of clothing you can tell that he is old fashioned which is in keeping with his surroundings.

The first shot of the candle being carried is a close-up, there is music in the background and a deep friendly sounding storytelling voice that is using an orchestra non-diegetic soundtrack. The use of this soundtrack and the voice over makes the atmosphere seem both magical and comforting with the use of stringed instruments. The soft golden glow of the dim candle lighting in this scene makes the atmosphere seem very homely and welcoming. This is letting the audience know that this is a friendly type of film such as a PG rating, not a horror or an action type film. Also, the fact that the setting is very old fashioned with dark wood panelling on the walls and that the character is holding a candle which he lighted with a match tells the viewer that this isn't a modern type of film.

The voice over (narrative) that is being used throughout  the opening scene talks about his adventures and says that he may not have told ‘Frodo’ everything.

In the next part the viewer sees a medium shot of the hobbit character, where he looks like a pleasant middle aged male.  Then there's a close-up of the Hobbit opening an old chest full of interesting and mystical looking objects. First he removes a brown aged letter and then it looks as though he is reaching for a sword but he reaches underneath and retrieves a red leather bound book tied with red ribbons.  This shot makes you automatically realise that this is a fantasy film due to the magical music used for atmosphere, and also the old fashioned sword, book and other objects.

The Hobbit goes into a study, and sits down, looking at a picture of what seems to be his son (if you watched previous lord of the rings movies you will know that this is indeed his son). The voiceover suggests that this is his son in the very beginning when it says "My dear Frodo", and speaks to Frodo as if they are very familiar and close.

When the Hobbit sits down in the study to write in the book, you see a close-up shot of the inkwell that he uses to dip his quill into. The fact he is using a quill suggests that it's from a different period of time and the type of feather looks to be from a bird that isn't from our world. As he writes into the book the voice over reads the words out aloud.  The audience like this type of storytelling as it keeps them informed as to what's going on and it also acts as if it is a mother reading her child a story to fall asleep to, this element and all the magical suggestions make the opening scene seem more of a fantasy.

Also The Hobbit is dressed in clothing from the past and is not modern. Other films such as Harry Potter also use a quill to write with and an inkwell, and are also dressed in clothing from the past, this links them together as they are both fantasy films.

Another close up you see is of the characters script style handwriting, and it looks different from ours, suggesting a slightly different language, even though the words are in English he has used acutes and accents over some words that we don't use.

As the Hobbit begins to write, the camera begins to back away from him, and the rear view you have of the Hobbit on the chair slowly disappears behind the doorframe as the camera takes you into the darkness. It's as if you are now entering a different time zone to what you were into before, similar to slipping back into sleep. This gives the effect of the place they are in as being like a dream world, and also the non-diegetic music gets louder as the camera backs away which builds tension to what his story might be, keeping the audience interested.  Then there is a close-up of a map, and the narrator talks about a land unknown to us called Middle Earth. This makes you instantly feel that this story is going to be a journey and an adventure. The fact that he sat down writing a story after saying he needs to tell Frodo foreshadows that later this story will be given to his son.

After you have seen the map, the voice-over introduces a city called Erebor, which is a Kingdom that is ruled by Thror.  I chose not to analyse this part of the opening scene as it would have been too difficult to recreate, and we didn't need it for our film.

How it links to our film:

We have decided to choose thriller as our genre because we think that it will be fun, full of suspense and therefore exciting to create. We have taken some of the ideas that were used in the hobbit and developed those ideas so that we can use them in our film.

We used the hobbit in our movie by copying the idea of having the first shot of a extreme close-up and we also copied it as we are using narrating over what is happening, like storytelling.

From the hobbit we also like the idea that they use flashbacks to make the story he is telling easier to follow and imagine, therefore in ours we are using flashbacks too, but they will be between pieces of present moment shots.

We also like the idea that they used that was of someone walking down the corridor and you saw them getting further and further away, therefore we use this in one of out flashbacks.

Overall, this particular opening scene is the one which we took the most ideas from, as it was the first one we watched and was most enthusiastic about due to us originally wanting to create a fantasy movie. However, as we saw in this opening scene, they used many different effects and very unrealistic setting which meant that we would have to make a similar atmosphere. It would be difficult for us to recreate in such detail as we don't have the money to buy props and sets like that, including the range of outfits that would be needed in order to create our characters. Instead we have chosen a suitable urban area to create the setting for our film.

Brief

We were asked to make a two minute opening film, with a genre of our own choice. Firstly we looked at The Hobbit opening scene which is a fantasy film, from this film liked that they used narrating to tell the story. At this point we wanted to do a fantasy film genre as one of our favourite films is a fantasy film, therefore we thought it would be fun to do. However, once looking at films like Harry Potter, we realised that they used many special effects which would be hard to create for us.

Therefore we chose a different genre which interested us which was Horror. We decided to look at film openings such as Woman in black and Scream, this gave us ideas of what we could do for our opening scene. However, we realised that we liked the storyline for Woman in black as it wasn't just a simple slasher Horror movie, it was more complex which we wanted ours to be.

Therefore, from this we looked at sub-genres within Horror which included Psychological thrillers. This appealed to us as we liked the idea of having a mental institution and being able to introduce a complex character with a background. We also liked the idea of a psychological thriller as it would be fast paced and it contains elements of Horror such as a protagonist, antagonist and someone trying to discover who is behind the crimes.

We took many ideas from The Hobbit which is a fantasy movie as we liked how they narrated  over what they were doing to inform the audience what was happening, and also we took the idea of the object of importance being shown in the first shot in the opening scene.