Thriller Treatment Research

1. Explain how the treatment for your film fulfils the conventions of the thriller genre

The use of an imaginary friend that is only seen by one character puts the audience in an uncomfortable position, as they cannot see this character and so have to use their imagination to create an image in their minds. They are constantly not shown the whole story by having this invisible character, which also may cause a sense of frustration. An integral part of the thriller genre is using suspense, and throughout this film the audience will be questioning things such as whether or not this girl is possessed, if she has a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, or if she is an innocent child whose loneliness has unfortunately driven her to creating something evil.

2. Do you intend to challenge the conventions in any way? How and why? Although the narrative of this film leans more towards the psychological aspect of the thriller genre rather than, for example, using a thriller-horror hybrid, there is a single death, which slightly defies the psychological-thriller genre, which usually involves characters with mental disorders, such as the main character in this film. However I think that the rest of this film follows the main conventions of the thriller genre.

3. Which real media texts do you think have influences your creative choices regarding narrative? No direct sources of inspiration were used for the writing of the narrative, however once the narrative was totally complete we noticed similarities between our film and a book by Henry James called The Turn of the Screw, which also involves young children and ghosts, and also similarly to our film takes place mainly in a forest.

4. As an institution, what king of Film Company do you see yourselves as? What kind of work would you like to be known for? Our institution is a small independent company, and if we were known for a certain type of work or film, it would be dark but simultaneously light-hearted films, such as Moonrise Kingdom, Submarine, and Amelie, which are all dramatic romantic-comedy type films but address darker issues, such as depression or suicide. I think in terms of filming styles, Tim

Burton would be an influence as well as Guillermo del Toro, who directed Pans Labyrinth. Both of these directors use surreal versions of everyday settings.

5. Who is your intended audience? Our intended audience for this thriller would be teenagers and people in their twenties; however it would also be directed at older people who enjoy thrillers. Because we plan to shoot it in a relatively easy-to-watch style, and overall the narrative is not overly sinister, people with older children, such as twelve/thirteen year olds could take their family to see this film. If we were to rate it with an age restriction, I think it would be a 12 or a PG film.

6. How might that affect distribution and box office takings? Because this film is directed at people of many different age groups, I think that box office takings and distribution will not be as restricted as films directed at, for example, only teenagers.

7. What technical skills do you think will be improved by the making of this film? I think that although our understanding of basic camera and editing techniques was already used in the making of our preliminary tasks, it will be expanded in the making of this film. I also think that understanding the effect that using different shots can give a different mood than, for example, using all straight over-the-shoulder head shots during an onscreen conversation.

8. What difficulties do you envisage for example weather, location shooting, casting? Because filming will take place late in the year, weather will be a big issue as it is very unpredictable, however I think that we are prepared for most weather types as bad weather would cause a sense of pathetic fallacy on screen and reflect the dark themes of the film. Almost all of the shooting of the opening will take place in a forest, and some issues cause by this will be the fact that there will undoubtedly be people walking through this public area, and so filming would have to stop and start continuously. Another problem that this causes is the fact that it is technically private property, and so if we are filming with a lot of gear, the owners of the land could choose to revoke our access to this area.

9. What ideas do you currently have regarding: Sound: I think that using ethereal sounds and music in the background of the scenes with no dialogue would be effective for making the audience feel on edge and also reflecting the inherent darkness and surrealism of this film. Lighting: Because most of the opening will be filmed in a forest in the daytime, no extra lighting will be needed. Although I want to include more surreal aspects, the natural lighting of the forest will be enough to provide enough light to be able to clearly see the characters, but also creating dark spaces and interesting shadows that will reflect the darkness of the narrative. Location and setting: The opening will be filmed in a forest near school, because not only is it easily accessible, but it also looks rural and overgrown enough to be in the middle of the countryside. Another reason why this area was chosen is because it is far enough away from a main road and will not be affected by noise pollution from traffic that it seems even more isolated.