Research & Planning

Alfie, Caitlin & Jasmine’s Presentation

SynopsisA Psychological Thriller set in modern day – Alice, a young teenager in need of some money after a series of failed babysitting attempts, must resort to dog-sitting at the house at the end of the street. However, after hearing about the mysterious death of the only son of the people who used to live there, she begins to have doubts. After a walk with the dog by the local pond, she finds a toy that looks oddly familiar. When supernatural events start to happen in the house, Alice must find out what happened to the boy, and who the culprit was, before it is too late.

Rough Storyboards

Teaser Plan - Shot List

Key Questions How reliable is the mind? Who can you trust? Who is the boy in the hat? How did the boy die? What is the significance of the toy?

Location MoodboardsHere are the mood boards for the locations we

could use, both for the house and secondly for the lake for the drowning scenes. We have decided to

film it in an older house to set a good authentic creepy atmosphere, and so that it will also fit in

with the codes and conventions. For the pond we have decided to use the lake in

Hampstead heath as it is large and eerie, especially with the trees in the background.

This is the mood board we made of characters in psychological thrillers. The characters are made to look creepy, shown through plain/dark clothing and pale skin. Therefore we are hoping to find an actress with quite a plain face that we can make up in a perfect way to make her look creepy. We will then find plain dark clothes, that will become more worn out and filthy throughout the film, reflecting how she feels. The lighter clothes

Actor Moodboard

getting dirty, turning dark reflects how the girl changes from the protagonist to the antagonist. The boy who drowns will wear a bright red hat as red is a conventional psychological thriller colour and it also very eye-catching and recognisable, showing that he is a significant character.

MoodboardsThis moodboard was made of specific shots from psychological thrillers that we liked. We used the codes and conventions to look for iconography, such as knives and mirrors, as we wanted to see a range of examples with how each of these things were used. This was so that we could also have ideas about how to show each of these things using different types of shot, and also how other psychological thrillers

had used the iconography, in order to make the audience tense and uncomfortable.We also wanted ideas on how to frame shots from psychological thrillers, so that we could see if there was any pattern in how shots used in psychological thrillers were framed.

Target Audience & Research Young adults 15-25 yr olds https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=HKPy5RWuqNA

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http://web.archive.org/web/20041126235053/http://www.sawmovie.com/

Genre Conventions

Actors/Locations/Costume/Props

Characters/ Actors

Locations Costume Props

Alice – Flora Higgins

Park, House Casual clothing - starts off brightly coloured, as film progresses her clothing colours get darker

Alice’s Brother (Jack) – Tommy Souter

Park, House Casual clothing - Red hat, light clothing

Teddy bear

Alice’s Friend (Kevin) – Alfie Souter

Park Casual clothing

Dog (Colin) – Missie

Park, House Collar and Lead