Treatment

Attached - Trailer


Length: 

2 mins approx.

Target Audience:


The target audience is aged between 20-40. The reason for this is because upon research i found that this group of people includes the largest age group who attend the cinema and also people of this age are more mature and tend to enjoy a film that challenges their mind. They start to watch more thrillers as these challenge the brain into solving the puzzle. However this genre of film could entice a younger audience or a more mature audience as well.

Blurb:


Can't let go, won't let go. Don't let go.


Character Profiles:

Natalie Hunt

Age: 20

Height: 5' 1"

Hair Colour: Blond

Eye Colour: Green

Style: Eccentric/Quirky

Character Biography:

Natalie Hunt just appears to be your normal average girl who's a little bit out of time with her age group. She had a tough upbringing with her Father leaving Natalie and her Mother alone when Natalie was just seven. Since her Father left Natalie's mum starting drink and smoking, she often went out of dates on Friday nights and would stay in bed most of the day. Natalie had to make her own dinner most nights and often sat watching films on the television dreaming about marrying her future prince one day and leaving home. Due to the lack of love felt by her parents Natalie often was considered clingy and needy by her friends, which often left her on her own. Natalie had never had a serious relationship as most men broke away from her after a few weeks. All of these events had left Natalie with mental scars. She subconsciously loathed men and blame them for everything bad that happened to her. Natalie also often took revenge on her co-workers or friends by pulling 'harmless' pranks which started to get more and more out of hand. Natalie's mental stability at the start slowly spiralled out of control but started to rapidly spiral out of control when she turned in her 20s.

Alex Foster

Age: 23

Height: 5' 5"

Hair Colour: Dark Blond

Eye Colour:

Style: Relaxed

Character Biography:

Alex Foster has grown up in a loving family with a mum that adores him and has done everything for Alex and still does even though he is in his mid twenties. Alex has always had a close relationship with his mum and any woman he brings home has to be approved by mummy otherwise he ends the relationship. Alex still lives at home with his mum, his dad isn't often around so he has mainly been brought up by his mum. Alex is naturally good-looking and he knows it, Alex doesn't spend much time on his appearance but that's because he thinks he doesn't have to. Alex has always found things go his way and he has personally never had to deal with a problem as his mum always steps in to help. Alex just works in a dead end job in an office, he just generally deals with filling and never has a challenge. However this doesn't affect him, he wants his life to be easy and Alex only has a job because he wanted the money for clothes etc. As Alex has been brought up by his mum his whole life he is protective over women. With his girlfriends he tries to be the stereotypical 'man' as he is slightly affected by his dad not being there. This protectiveness shines through in his personality and often cause arguments with partners. Alex is just the guy who secretly wants to settle down with a wife and have children.

Lisa Williams

Age: 21

Height: 5' 4"

Hair Colour: Brown/ Blond

Eye Colour: Brown

Style: Girlie with a tom boy twist

Character Biography:

Lisa is your stereotypical middle class girl. Lisa is an only child. Lisa's parents are still married and have been there all her life. Her mum and dad both work and work 9-5, Her mum was her teacher during primary school so Lisa has always been close to her parents. They often took Lisa out on trips and her dad often came home with presents. Lisa went to a well performing school and achieved better than average GCSE results, however she didn't go to uni but is a trainee manager at her place of work. Lisa is very down to earth and often speaks her own mind. She is always up for a laugh and goes out on the town every couple of weeks. She has always had people wanting to be her friend but Lisa often just keeps a few close to her. In relationships Lisa has had one serious relationship that lasted just over a year and ended on average terms. Since that Lisa has been dating and being unsuccessful to meet a new partner until she meets Alex. Lisa has been slightly spoilt growing up and this often shines through, she has a slight bullying trait by taking jokes on people too far and insulting them, or she gets snobby about people as she just stereotypes them. Lisa isn't afraid of confrontation and her big mouth has often caught her into trouble at work. However Lisa has secretly been the "princess" and wants to settle down with a man but isn't so keen on children but it has always been an idea.

Statement of Intent:


This film shows how society can treat people and cause all sorts of problems. It allows the audience to identify with all the protagonists as each character has been raised in a different way. The film shows how different personalities struggle to get along with each other and the type of conflicts it can cause. This is a large problem in society today and many people are subjects to bullying, harassment and broken up homes. Stalking in the world today is still seen as a minor crime but the laws are changing as it is problem for more and more people. Also in today's world 1 in 4 people have a mental disorder there for psychological films tend to be more real with today's world. This film however does show these on the extreme side to create more a dramatic effect but it still allows the audience to identify with the characters and get right into the story. I have done thorough research into this genre and have known a few people with mental disabilities. I personally have always had an interest in psychological thrillers as i found it a challenge to work out the narrative. In order to make a quality trailer the interest in the genre must be there and sufficient knowledge of the genre as well. I naturally had the interest and have refined my knowledge of this by doing further research and i will keep refining it as i produce the trailer in order to produce the best quality i can.

Storyline:

A month ago Natalie and Alex went on a date together to a family pub, the two of them got on alright but Alex felt no 'spark', Natalie on the other hand was infatuated with Alex and wanted to see more and stole a picture of him and his mum out of his wallet. Alex never rang Natalie like he promised. Natalie being Natalie started to follow Alex from his work to his house to the gym etc... A couple of weeks ago Alex met Lisa. You can call it love at first sight if you want to but either way they both wanted more. They have been on date after date and officially became a couple not long ago. Natalie clearly wasn't pleased, she has been festering and getting angrier and angrier but blames Lisa not Alex. Natalie decides to cause trouble between the two of them, spilt them up so he can be hers again. She sends texts to Lisa's phone to look like Lisa is cheating she also sends a stripper over to try and tempt her but it all failed. Time for her plan B. Natalie chooses to kidnap Lisa and imitate her moves and actions and even the way she speaks so Alex will love her instead. However Alex is too distraught and doesn't want to see Natalie until he finds Lisa. Natalie snaps. Her anger has just been building up and she now must make Alex believe he is insane. She destroys all of Lisa's belongings, photos and phone number out of his phone. Natalie tries to convince Alex he has made her up and this entire time he has been with Natalie. She nearly succeeds until Lisa's mother rings Alex to ask where she Lisa is. Alex is too late however as Natalie is already with Lisa screaming at her , blaming her for everything. Natalie's rage has built up to much and her anger comes rushing at Lisa and pierces right into her skin. A knife of course has been forced into Lisa and Lisa ends up dying. Alex can not live with the guilt of him believing that Lisa wasn't real and ends up becoming a new man and depressed and stays alone for a long time. Natalie is arrested and sent to an institute for the criminally insane and continues to write Alex letters talking to him as if they are still together.

Further Research into My Genre

Fatal Attraction  is a well known psychological thriller. Fatal Attraction was released in 1987 and the term 'bunny boiler' was produced was this film. This films narrative follows a similar narrative to mine where a married man has a one night stand and the other woman because obsessed with him. The music in this trailer stays the same throughout, it doesn't increase in pitch or drop. This constantly puts the audience on the edge as they are waiting for the music to drop just like in horror films, the audience is waiting to see what the 'crazy' woman does. This is very effective as again this creates curiosity in the audience and they will want to see the film.

Again narration is used to tell the story. This is so the audience can understand the narrative properly and not be confused by the trailer. The voice also creates some suspense as his voice is quite deep and unemotional. A lot of the noises heard in this trailer are diagetic ones, for example car alarms, the noises used are those you hear when trouble has occurred. These noises the audience recognize as trouble and therefore can understand the trailer better without giving away too much information about the trailer.

After the story is created the editing becomes very fast paced which shows you the obsession the lady has with the man. The trailer goes slow, fast, slow then fast again. This puts the audience on a mini roller coaster ride. It makes the audiences heart pulse quickly and then gives them a breather before make it pulse even faster. At the end of the trailer it leaves the audience with a cliff hanger as you see her try to attack him with a knife but failing but you don't see the rest of the scene so the audience does not know if she succeeds. The acting in this trailer is very vital in creating the atmosphere. The crazy lady's acting is very believable, her facial expressions send chills down the audience's spine. I will not have such quality acting so this will be a limitation in my filming and i need to ensure that my actors are sure of their role and play it out as best as they can. The costume, hair and make up is also vital in this film. Her crazy out of control hair immediately tells the audience that this woman is the insane one. It also makes her quite scary to the audience as it just connotes that she is wild and untamed by anyone.

Further Research into My Genre

Se7en is a psychological thriller. The narrative of this story entwines more horror elements in this film than other films of the same genre. I was looking at this trailer to see how the narrative of the film is portrayed in it. I was looking at this because in my trailer i wish to leave a cliff hanger at the end of the trailer so the audience are not disappointed when they actually see the film. A trailer needs to entice the audience with some of the action, horror and narrative but not all of it otherwise you spoil the story. Se7en does this very well in its trailer. The narration on the trailer is to ensure the audience get told the information they need to, for example in this trailer about the detectives personalities. The actual clips of film feed the audience parts of the investigation, enough to wet their appetite. The murder scene scenes are only briefly shown, this allows the audience to only memorise that part of the film and makes them curious which is a natural human instinct.

The music in this trailer is what brings about the atmosphere. The music comprises of diagetic and non diagetic sound. The music which is non diagetic is the main song and creates an eery atmosphere with its mid slow tempo and eery sound. To create more of an insane feeling a metronome is used to add more of a suspenseful atmosphere. Music is very important for my trailer as this is what creates the genre. If this type of music wasn't used then the audience would be confused as to what the genre is and also think that maybe it is a spoof.

The narrative of this film is shown in a difference sequence than the film. The deaths are shown in order but the detectives shots are all different sequences. The shots changed quickly but the shots linger longer than a horror trailer. There are a lot of shots in psychological trailers so in order to make my trailer good quality i need a variety of shots.  The shots also do not include the ending of the film and the audience never see the killer, there is only one quick shot of the killer where he fires a gun but the shot is so quick that the audience don't have the time to absorb how he looks. This sticks with the audiences curiosity and therefore achieves its objective of getting the audience member to want to go to the cinema and spend the money to watch the film.

Proposal

The initial idea is to create a two minute trailer approx, the film being shown in the trailer is a psychological thriller and is influenced by other psychological thrillers such as Psycho, Rear window and Fatal attraction. The film would be following three main characters, one man and two women. The film would be a twisted love triangle between the characters with one character reacting abnormally. The film follows the struggle of a girlfriend and boyfriend trying to live a normal life but the other woman is trying to ruin it. The audience will follow the mistakes made by the couple and the consequences and effects this has on the other woman. The audience will witness them try to solve the situation but it just seems to spiral more and more out of control. The story is fast paced and gripping. The ending will be the most fast paced part of the film and will contain horror film conventions. This will be able to be seen in the film trailer. Every moment is filled with something that will intrigue and disgust the audience.

The film follows a similar storyline to the film 'Obsessed' which was released in 2009 and directed by Steve Shill. However this film entwines more horror conventions than 'Obsessed' while still keep the psychological hold on the audience. This would be created and kept by the intense storyline, the audience would have to watch every detail in fear that they would miss something crucial. The film will not be too in depth where the audience will be lost, they will be able to identify with two of the main characters as they are not expected to identify with the mentally ill one. They will also be entertained throughout, both of these follow the Uses & Gratifications theory.

The budget for this trailer will include props, costume, hair and make-up, transportation, film and tape stock, music and contingency. There will be a budget plan in place to keep finances under control.

The audience demographic is quite wide, it will mainly be 20-40 which is a large age group. This age group includes the main spenders that go to the cinema so this film should receive large box office sales. The genre is also beneficial because it has a large target audience which means it will be received well with a large number of people in society. It excludes age 15-19 as the stereotype of this age group is a little immature and that they prefer slasher movies or comedies, more of the mature films are not received well with this age group, however a select few will be interested in this film as it connotes horror.

The trailer will have narration so the audience watching understand what they are seeing as psychological trailers can be confusing. In the film there will be no narration however. The trailer will have both diegetic and non diegetic sounds, the non diegetic sound will be the music in the background which will create the suspense and tension that will be seen throughout the whole film. The diagetic sounds would be similar to those heard in a horror trailer, 'creepy' noises, such as creaky floor boards, doors slamming or footsteps. These will also help create the suspense and tension, the diagetic sounds will probably be heard in a pause in the music as this exaggerates the sound. The trailer will have fast cuts, this represents the film genre and also creates a good visual effect to capture the audience eye. All of these factors should create adrenaline to pulse through the audience giving them the incentive to go and watch the film.

Film Choice & Why

I have now chosen to produce a psychological thriller. A psychological thriller is when characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to over come their enemies but use their mental abilities instead. The suspense created in psychological thrillers often comes from two characters preying upon each others minds, either by playing manipulative mind games or simply by trying to demolish the others state of sanity.

A psychological thriller is a sub-genre of thriller and it often involves conventions of a horror, which can be seen in films previously discussed such as Obsessed and The Experiment. This genre of film can involve conventions of mystery and drama genres and sometimes, very rarely, comedy, with just a few parts of the film that are humorous. While researching i noticed that there are themes associated with psychological thrillers, the one i have chosen is Mind. This is where its all about the characters mind and personality and intelligence and just basically everything to do with the character.

I am taking inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock. He is a world famous director of psychological thrillers the main one being Psycho. I personally studied Psycho in my GCSE's and some of Alfred Hitchcock's other films. Alfred Hitchcock believe in a film technique called the Mcguffin. This is where he attracts the audiences attention to particular objects, dialogue or characters to try and make the audience pre guess the ending. However these things have no relevance to the ending of the film and by doing this he allows himself to put a big twist in the story and surprise the audience and shock them as they didn't see it coming. I wish to also follow a long a similar line in my trailer. By making something in the trailer seem like the whole narrative of the film and then leave the audience with a cliff hanger at the end of the trailer. This would therefore achieve its goal of grabbing the audiences attention and making them want more and ultimately spending their money in seeing the film at the cinema. I haven't yet decided my whole narrative of my film but i do know that i will involve two/three main characters with a woman who is craving after this man because of a fling ages ago. It will involve horror elements and i have been considering killing of a main character in the film to cause a twist and suspense. However its all still progressing in ideas and can hopefully only get better.

Research into Film Magazines

Part of my media A2 level course is producing a film magazine front cover featuring my film. In order to produce one of quality and having the conventions and codes of a magazine front cover i need to research into other film magazines, mainstream and underground, to understand how to produce one and also to choose what type of magazine i wish to produce.

At first glance on the Internet the two major film magazines appear, Empire and Total Film, these two are both very similar in the actual features of the magazine, choosing similar film genres and major Hollywood films to try and promote their product and get it to sell. By choosing to use big budgeted Hollywood films they therefore target a large target audience, by having a large target audience it allows them to maximise sales and allow their magazine to grow. As both magazines are well known they usually compete with each other to get the exclusive on new films. Both magazines this month have an action film on the cover which has not been released yet. This is usually because the consumers are excited about these new films, both the films being featured are sequels of a previous successful film, this is makes it less risky and easier to sell as the consumer is already with the first film and are excited for the next one. It also acts as a tease to the person walking by as they know this film and they knew there was another one coming out, but now its here and the only way to know about it is by buying there magazine. Obviously both magazines are about selling to produce a large volume of sales and gain market share from their competitors, they do this by catchy titles, exclusives and pictures of famous celebrities.

Both magazines use a dark colour as their main colour on the front, however they brighten it up with vibrant colours this attracts the persons attention and draws them towards their magazine instead of any other. These colours also make the magazine appear different to the main other genres of magazine like fashion, women and health magazines. These magazines tend to sit either slightly above or below the eye level of the consumer. The magazines racks are all stacked with magazines in a different way, there is a theory about the eye level of the consumer that the consumer is more likely to buy a product at eye level than below or above, superstores often follow this rule and it costs more for a company to have their product at eye line level and less expensive the further above or below. Which is why you will find the most common products at eye level such as coca cola and walkers crisps. The same rule applies to magazine stands, fashion and women's magazines are at eye level and then above this or below you find the other popular genres such as film. Therefore these magazines have to catch your eye and both magazines try to do this with dark colours which contrast with the bright and simplistic women's magazines and then having vibrant eye popping colours. I will have to think about the positioning of my own magazine and where it will be on the stand as this plays an important part in the design of a front cover.

However there are underground film magazines that aren't as popular, or well known magazines that focus more on indie films such as Little White Lies and FilmMaker. These magazines try not to follow so many conventions of a mainstream magazine. As seen below the Little White Lies magazine uses cartoon images on its front cover. This is attract a particular target audience of comic book fans, on every one of their front covers is a cartoon image, so quite gory and some more normal. They have little writing on the front, which doesn't attract an audience member. Me personally looking at this magazine believes it is more 'word of mouth' magazine, they don't want to be mainstream and only let it grow slowly by the general public. It is a fairly new magazine and has only had 37 issues and the kiss-ass issue is number 28. The FilmMaker magazine is a little bit more conventional.  It has all the subtitles and main image and layout however they aren't standing out and achieving their main purpose. This is because this magazine is more independent and about making the film than promoting it. The titles seen on the front mention the directors of the films rather than the actors names. The magazine cover gives off a more sophisticated look and aims at a different target audience such as independent film makers and consumers of a more mature film. Where as Little White Lies seems to aim at a much younger audience. FilmMaker has differentiated itself from its competitors very well and aims more at a niche market. Both these magazines seem to want to be seeked out by their target audience than promoting themselves, i personally have never heard of either of these magazines today but will consider buying one now after looking at them. However i am more of a mainstream target audience member and known Total Film and Empire quite well.

All of these magazines that i have spoke about are also online. All of them have an app that allows you to read their latest magazine on your smart phone or digital device. This i believe is actually important as their target audiences like everything new, they like new films and new technology and keep up to date with it. It is vital for the magazine to stay alive with this technology, even the more independent magazines have this app. The Little White Lies magazine had an online magazine version of it where you can skip through the whole magazine online, this keeps with their ideology of being independent and in it for the art making not the money making. All these film magazines have given me ideas for my own and i will take influences from them in my own one. Films are also features of many other magazines including mens, women's, technological ones and motors. However they don't often feature on the front of these magazines, usually the actors involved in them, but film is a major part of the magazine industry. 

Research

This is the film 'The Experiment' I could not find the film poster in English, just the covers on the DVD case, however I wanted to analyse the poster. The Experiment is based upon a true experiment on how people are affected mentally when given power or have it taken away.

This poster follows the main conventions of a film poster, title towards the bottom of the image, names of actors and when its out. There is on this film poster which wasn't on the Obsessed film poster is a slogan. The reason i believe that there is one of this poster but not the other is because Obsessed was a clearer image in delivering the genre and a slogan would of taken away the enigma in the story. However with this image its a little more difficult to understand and the slogan just helps the audience understand the film poster better.

The main focus on this poster is the image, which is why i chose this film poster to analyse. Within in the main image is other smaller images, looking from afar the main image i can see is flames on the bottom left of this chest this connotes to the audience danger and violence and a turbulent film basically. The rest of images that i can see appear to be clips from the film, i can see another man in this chest who appears twice clearly. This connotes the audience that he may be the cause of the turbulence as his is on the chest with the flames which ties the two together and the fact that he appears more than once suggests he is of importance, having all the other images on a blokes chest makes the audience confused as the images appear to have no relevance but all have a connection.

The bars behind the man connote to the audience that they are in a prison of some sort. As i have seen this film i believe that the slogan on this poster would somehow tie the prison theme together as the audience would be too confused without it. By suggesting to the audience that the film is set in a prison it ties in the images on the mans chest as many people associate a prison with violence and anger.

So far the poster seems very angry and violent which could suggest to the audience that the film genre is an action film, but it the top left corner of the poster there is another person with his head slumped down, this connotes that he is upset or given up almost. This all confuses the audience which plays on the genre of psychological thrillers. However the audience may notice the similar tattoo on the two men, around the neck and chest there is a tattoo of a necklace, this therefore connotes that the man is the same person. This therefore shows the audience two sides of this character in front of them, but never lets them see his head, this creates enigma, for someone who has seen the film this is relevant to me as i know that the film is all about the mind and how they change, so therefore this image is trying to suggest that to audience, whether they notice that subconsciously i do no know but i believe that they would notice this and be concerned as to why they can not see his face.

This image of this poster gives me a few ideas on how to create enigma in my own poster. I believe i will still need more research on how other films of this genre create their enigma.

Research

I have decided to a do a psychological thriller film. Films of this genre are almost a hybrid genre of drama and horror, a lot of them do tend to be considered 'scary' as there is always a character for is considered insane and performs actions that the audience find 'scary'.

The film 'Obsessed' was out in 2009 so it is quite recent. I personally have watched the whole of this film and was kept intrigued by the narrative. The synopsis of the story is a love triangle between Sharon, Derek and Lisa. Sharon and Derek are married and Lisa is a temp at Derek's work, she becomes obsessed with Derek and believes that are romantically involved, eventually she kidnaps Sharon and Derek's child and breaks into their house. The film has a dramatic ending as Sharon and Lisa fight in the house, Lisa ends up falling through the ceiling and a chandler landing on her. The film has conventions of a horror film at the end and thriller conventions throughout the rest of the film.

Part of my coursework is to produce a film poster for my chosen film. As i am doing a psychological thriller this film is good to analyse as it is a recent film and has the same target audience as mine will have.

This poster doesn't follow the main conventions of other posts. The text of this poster is slanted, this could be because it connotes at the fact that the film isn't your standard drama film and that there is a 'twist' about it, having the text like that basically gives the audience a clue about the films narrative. Also it splits the characters up, keeping them on 'sides'. Also the obsessed is over Ali Carters face which connotes that she is the one who is obsessed. However the poster does have the same convention of using the actors names on the poster. This attracts the audience to watch it as they are already familiar with the actors and are willing to see them in something else as they associate them with quality (if they like the actors anyway), Beyonce Knowles however is known as a music artist, therefore this gives the film another twist as there is something else in the film you wouldn't suspect to be there. Fans of Beyonce's Music would probably go and see the film as they want to see and hear everything she does and at the end of the day the whole point of making a film is to make a profit and produce quality. 

The positioning of the characters I find interesting and very clever. It creates enigma to the audience, by having them dressed in black and the background black it forces the audience member to focus on their facial expressions, both Beyonce and Idris are facing the same way and have similar expressions, Idris has a slightly menacing look and has 'watching eyes' which are turning to face Ali, Beyonce has a more relaxed look than that but is also watching Ali. Ali on the other hand is facing in the other direction looking back at the other two. The lighting in her eyes makes her eyes look cold and piercing, the red lipstick makes her seductive and connotes blood as well. 

Also all three of them are positioned into a triangle shape which connotes to the audience a love triangle. As the audience looking at this would of not seen the film, as a film poster is supposed to promote the film and get people to go see it, it creates enigma of the narrative. The audience see that there is drama between all three and also sense that Beyonce and Idris are together on one side and Ali on the other as the positioning. 

I believe that this poster is successful in delivering in getting the audience to be intrigued and go see the film. It is also successful in suggesting the films plot and storyline without giving too much away. It also shows the audience the genre quite clearly from the image and the Title of the film which is equally as important as if the film title was too scary sounding or too light then it would give a completely different message to people, for example if it was called 'The Psycho' it would make the film more menacing and scary whereas if it was called, 'love triangle' the audience would believe it was more of a romance drama film.

Taking all of this into consideration it gives me a better idea on how to produce a quality poster keeping in fit with my genre, however I will need to look at other posters to get a complete overall idea.