The Pitch For‘stranger mind’6F YELLOW GROUP

Overview

Our sub-genre is Psychological Thriller The simple plot of our opening is about a girl walking

home from school who feels like she is being followed. Our film will contain themes of insecurity, danger and

madness.

Locations For an interior setting we are going to use Castlefield house

as one of our locations as that’ll appear to be the main characters house in the film.

We will use different areas from inside of the house to show that its an ordinary home that the person lives in; which is why we’ll use and have shots in the bathroom, bedroom, and living room.

For exterior settings we are going to have shots of the main character walking down a road and looking very worried as they think they’re being followed by someone, so we will use various shots and effects to show how nervous she is when walking down the road.

We will also use a shot of her walking into her house to show that she’s home and back at her house as she uses a key to open the door.

Structure Act 1 – in the first act the audience will see the girl that is the main character walking down a road to

go home where she is frantically looking around at everything and at every car passing by to see if she’s being followed by the person that she thinks is coming to get her. There is various shots and effects in this to show how nervous and worried she is, whilst also using it to bring out the psychological part of this thriller to try and show what she’s thinking.

Act 2 – in the second act we see her arrive home and she is still panicking. She looks in every room to make sure no one is there. She goes into the bathroom to wash her face and when she looks in the mirror she sees a mysterious figure behind her, but when she turns around there is no one there. She calls her friend to come round and she is scared.

Act 3 – her friend come round to comfort her and tries to calm her down telling her that the person isn’t real. Her friend tells her she needs to stop behaving the way she is before she gets herself into even more trouble. The friend leaves her as she goes to sleep but when she wakes up again there is a large mysterious figure looming over her.

Key dramatic moment – this comes at the end when the girl opens her eyes and looks at the person from a POV shot, but is it real or is she just dreaming about it? Is the person actually there?

Represetation:characters

The Girl - the main character in the film. She is the protagonist, and throughout the opening hints at signs of mental instability

The follower - never fully seen, this character follows the girl home. The films antagonist, is unclear whether the character exists beyond the girls mind.

Friend - heard briefly during a phone call, helps develop girls character and offers insight into the girls mental health state.

How? The genre conventions for a psychological thriller are: Dark lighting,

character driven, ambiguous plot, intense scenes. Target audience: Psychological thrillers tend to be aimed at 51% male and

49% female viewers. Despite this statistic, females are generally more interested in the genre. This is why we have a female main character, so a majority of the audience can feel relatable to the character. Most films of this genre are certificate 18, however people in the age range of 25 and under make up a large percentage of viewership. Because of this our film is aiming to receive a certificate15 rating by the BFI (British Film Institute).

We are aiming to build and create lots of suspense. We are aiming to create an intense atmosphere which will ensure viewers cannot look away from the screen as they are hooked in the entertainment unfolding before their very eyes. As the tension builds, their interests will reach sky high and begin to climb towards its peak. When all the tension is released during the phone call scene, the audience will breathe out a deep sigh of relief as they appreciate the brief escape from the action.

How? Mise en SceneSet/location The location of our psychological thriller will begin in the grounds and outside of college showing the

 characters journey walking home. Our film will also be set in case grounds house which will represent the characters house. Our film will be filmed in the day time and will represent tense.

Costume The unidentified man will be dressed in dark, black clothing representing the nature of him. The girl will be

dressed in ordinary every day clothing depicting her normality.Characters One character will be male, he will be a man so middle aged, but unidentified through the film, no real shot of

his appearance. He will have  unnerving mannerisms  and unusual body language depicting his abnormality. His voice will not be revealed he won't be included in dialogue. The audience will be able to tell how the man is watching and following the girl by the way he is positioned in relation to her as well as the sightings we get of him. The girl will be a teenager who shows vulnerable and anxious behavior, she's aware she's being followed we can tell this by her jumpy, on edge mannerisms. Her observing actions show she feels she is threatened or in danger. when we hear her voice its tone and volume will depict her mood and emotion. We can tell she's being followed by the relation and positioning between her and the man.

Setting- Castle field house/around the college grounds/next to a road rooms; bedroom, toilet, sitting roomProps: Mirror Mobile phone Car Front door Sofa Window House hold objects- domestic setting

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How? Camerawork In thrillers there’s usually a lot of shaky camerawork to

create tension and to give off a mysterious feeling to the audience. Different angles and shots will be used along with special effects in the editing of it so that it becomes as intense as possible to show that its clearly a psychological thriller.

We will be using the POV shot when the girl wakes up from her sleep where she then thinks she sees the mysterious man.

We’re going to use long shots to establish the setting and show where the characters are. As well as this we’re going to get medium shots of the main girl so that the audience can clearly see who she is and become familiar with how she looks. Furthermore, we will get extreme close ups of the mysterious man so that the audience can see him but can see his whole face so that it creates more of an intense atmosphere around him.

Sound Diegetic – Our opening sequence will include the following diegetic sound: Car engine (as if its driving) Phone calling tone Footsteps quickening in pace Water running Loud knocks on the doorIncluding these sound effects will enhance the sense of realism in the sequence and helps the audience to become more immersed. Dialogue – We will include dialogue in these instances: A short phone conversation between our main character and her friend as she’s walking

home A startled gasp from the main character as the door knocks suddenly Another small reassuring conversation between the main character and her friend.These small sections of dialogue in the opening sequence will help make it clear that the audience should question whether the person following her is actually real and the conversation at the end gives the audience a false sense of securityNon-Diegetic: The Non Diegetic sound we will be using will mainly be an ambient/ suspenseful track with no melody which will be playing alongside the visuals. This will help to increase the uncomfortable and tense atmosphere we are aiming for.

Post production

We will edit it to make it look even more intense and mysterious so that we have clear conventions of thrillers in the film opening. For example, we might use special effects to change the lighting of the shot to make it more eary.

We will add in different sounds and music to create suspense in intense moments so it gives the audience a nervous feeling as they will be worried over whatever is going to happen next.

We will have titles put into it in the first act of the scene to get them out the way. We will incorporate the titles in with what's going on in the scene and make the titles look relevant to the film as well.

Influences from research We have taken our main influence from the film opening of the film

Zodiac (Directed by David Fincher) The opening follows a couple as they are being followed, and one is

eventually killed and the other seriously injured. Although our film opening contains no violence, we still want to take

inspiration from the techniques used when the characters feel uneasy that they are being followed.

The film used low key lighting, echoed sound, jumping scale of sound, shadows on the character's hiding identity and emotion, panning shots, and the main antagonists identity being hidden by shadows.