Genre and setting: 12
hours in the city of London (Southbank).
Psychological
thriller theme, stalker vibe
Opening: It is early morning; sound bridge
of rippling Thames water is heard with a black screen before revealing the
scene. A young woman sits on shingle at the Southbank beneath the bridges,
visibly beaten up and bruised. You can hear the surrounding traffic noises from
the railway above (Hungerford bridge?)
She shudders and breathes deeply to calm herself down. She looks around
in distress, clearly not knowing her location. Her clothes (nightclub attire)
are damp and her makeup from the night before is smeared down her face.
(a secluded area like this on the shingle would be perfect for shooting).
There is a
sense of calm, relief, after an obvious ordeal through shots of the slow Thames
water lapping the shingle, the ripples in the distance and the surrounding area
– vast buildings and office blocks. Next to the woman lies a body bag, ripped
open and empty – viewer sees she must have escaped from it.
Close-up of
closing her heavily bruised eyes and the screen fades to black, sound bridge of
pumping bass music from a club. 2:00AM. Inside the club the same girl is
dancing and takes a photograph of her and another male in the club, wearing a
distinct plaid shirt. They engage in conversation amongst the other clubbers
and he says something like ‘that’s a mint photo, make it your background’, he
obviously tries to flirt with her as he touches her and dancers with her, she recoils
and is obviously disinterested but agrees and makes the photo her phone
background, laughing politely.
Her friends are leaving the
club and shout to her to join them. She swiftly bids farewell to the man. Shot
of girls emerging from the club, laughing and obviously drunk/oblivious to
their surroundings. Close-ups of faces and vivid colours of the London
nightlife as cars and taxis swoop past, chaotic fast paced shots suggesting
something bad might happen.
Intimate
close-ups of the various girls’ faces, including our main character- Holly,
showing their smiles and laughter and the way they grasp onto each other in
amicable drunkenness. The voices are muffled apart from the odd blast of
laughter or shriek, swamped by the sound of traffic and commotion around them.
As the girls
walk away from the nightclub there is a close-up of her phone vibrating in her
pocket – an unknown number, she steps underneath a nearby parapet of a bar to
answer it as well as to shelter from the rain.
The rest of
the group, unaware of their apparent desertion stride off and hail a cab, Holly
leans against the wall of the cab with one hand over the ear she isn’t
listening into – struggling to hear what the speaker is saying – “What?” “I
can’t hear you” “Who is this” etc.
In the
distance, the viewer is unaware at first but a man wearing a dark parka slowly
approaches, rain falling heavily on and around him leaving a reflection on the
pavement. Holly, unaware and completely isolated heads into a darker alleyway
to try to hear what is being said.
Shot of
Holly leaning against wall in alleyway, man turning the corner and locking her
in a head brace, then slowly leading her down into the depths of the alleyway.
She grapples with him, screaming into his jacket. At one point she swings round
and in an attempt to pull him away from her grabs his collar, which rips off.
He responds by punching her square in the face, knocking her out. Mid shot of
him carrying her towards the car in his arms.
Screen fades
to black. Sound bridge of an engine starting and cuts to Holly bound in the
boot of a car, tied by the wrists and gagged. The original soundtrack fades out
and we are given a mid shot of the man wet with rain in the black parka. Shot
of him turning on the radio and playing extremely contrapuntal music e.g. Bach
or Band of Gold by Freda Payne. We see point of view shot of headlights turning
on, rain coming down – we hear the man hum cheerily to the music. Shot of Holly
reacting to this song, increasing in volume but muffled in the boot – we see
her eyes glisten over in horror as the car starts to move (shot of tyres
skidding on the wet tarmac as the vehicle reverses)
Shot back to
Holly sitting on Southbank in the first scene, she picks up very cracked phone
and taps it to see if it’s working, swearing in despair when it doesn’t turn
on.
Shots from above, the
surrounding building in the city as the car slides along London’s streets. The
same happy music is playing as the camera tracks the vehicle along the city’s
roads.
Man parks car on middle of
Hungerford Bridge in the early hours of the morning. Unlocks boot, shot to him
throwing a heavy bag over the railings – hear the splash of water.
Shot back to current time,
Holly realizes she is still clutching onto a piece of sodden plaid fabric in
her right hand. The phone turns on and she sees her background of her and the
man from the club, wearing a shirt of the same distinctive plaid pattern.
Atmosphere: At the beginning of the film, I want there
to be a sense of mystery and relief, feeling like the end of an ordeal, with
the shots of the calm Thames and deep breaths. Showing escape etc.
Then, with
the nightclub scene I want to create a sense of unease with the blurry chaotic
filming, although the situation is happy – I want to portray an undertone of
something’s-not-quite-right – especially when Holly gets deserted from her
friends.
The sense of
amicable atmosphere but with eeriness still in there I took from the first
episode of the UK TV drama Glue, which aired a couple of months ago. In this
particular scene a group of friends share a laughter/fun filled night with
their friends, doing scandalous things, but there is a sense of unease, rightly
so as by the end of the night one of the group is murdered.
I obviously
want to create terror during the kidnapping, of blind panic and stress for the
viewer, especially using the ‘we can see the baddie before the protagonist’
idea.
My main
inspiration for the boot scene where the girl is trapped came from a film I
watched recently called The Call – a 2013 American crime thriller by Brad Anderson.
this is a shot from the call, where he places the girl into the boot of his car.
Genre: I would like my film to
lean more towards psychological thriller, focusing on the main character and his
‘inner demons’.
Characters: I want the main antagonist to be your
run-of-the-mill male in his early twenties, not the kind of psychopathic killer
he really is. I want him to be quite greasy though, with a creepy kind of demeanor
that makes Holly repulsed by him in the club. I want Holly to be a bleach
blonde hard edge clubbing girl, like all of her friends. Think Michelle
Pfeiffer in Scarface or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
Props: I need; a bodybag, lots of
fake blood and cuts and bruises, a phone for her to call the police on, a plaid
shirt and a car.
Costume: The killer must be in a plaid
shirt, slicked back hair and have a kind of greasy, unnerving appearance
portrayed through his actions like staring at Holly in the club etc. Holly should
be in some sort of clubbing outfit, I need to decide what kind of time period I
want to film it in (I wish I could do an 80s gangsta movie!)
Graphics: For psychological thrillers, the
type in the opening I feel must be slightly creepy like at the beginning of ‘Seven’
by David Fincher. This title sequence is really eerie, with clips of the killer
shaving off the tips of his fingers to avoid leaving fingerprints and leafing
through books on the seven deadly sins, and people that he’s killed etc.
those are various shots taken from the opening of seven, you can see the eerie looking writing and the action of shaving off his fingertips etc.
Sound: I need an overall soundtrack
that I will create on Logic. I’ll have to change the part where the killer
sings along to a ‘classic’ song on the car’s radio because of copyright
infringement.
Audience: I think this film would appeal to a
lot of different types of people, ranging from 15+ (due to the certification)
to elderly, I know my grandparents watch a lot of thrillers. I think as long as
it has a gripping storyline, it will be attractive to lots of people.
The opening to the film Memento by Christopher Nolan is
very simple yet extremely effective. The credits begin on a black screen, and
as the title MEMENTO comes up the black fades away to reveal a close-up of a
hand holding a polaroid photograph of a dead man, with blood covering the walls
and floor. This immediately sets the tone for the whole film and establishes
the narrative structure the film takes, because as the hand shakes the
photograph it fades instead of developing (representing how the film begins at
the close of the story and returns to the beginning). This opening shot also
creates an immediate sense of mystery, and as the shot lingers on for almost a
minute, the viewer is left asking questions – Who is the man holding the
photograph? Why has he killed someone? Who has he killed? It also creates a
sense of unease simply due to the length of the shot, which gives the film an
immediate eerie atmosphere.