Proposal

Idea Summary:

Plot: Antagonist (brother of victim's boyfriend) stalks victim in order to try and find 'dirt' on her that will ruin his brother's relationship, as he is jealous of the two. Instead of finding bad things about her, he develops an obsession over her, learning the exact details of her everyday life. Upon the antagonist's brother discovering his obsession, he lashes out at him and tries to go and warn his girlfriend as quickly as he can, however agonist has already got plans to finally be with the victim.

Opening sequence: Victim is going for a run through a field leading up to the woods, unaware that the antagonist has followed her there and is watching. She begins to slow her run down in order to have some water and stretch but suddenly gets the feeling someone is watching her. As the audience, we know that the antagonist is there however when she slowly turns around to look, nobody is in sight. Upon turning back around, the victim notices a strangely familiar necklace on the floor and picks it up, looking at it extremely confused as though she may recognize it. A flashback then occurs, showing that when the victim took this necklace off during school for PE, a figure came in after her exit and took it although it is not revealed to the audience who this person is. When the flashback ends, the victim is shown to look round one more time still to see no one, puts the necklace back in her pocket and starts to run again, heading closer to the woods. The mysterious male is now seen to be getting closer to the victim and the opening finishes with the victim entering the woods.

Characters:

The victim in our opening sequence will be played by Katie Preece. She will play an upper class teenager (16 years old) and follow the victim stereotype of a thriller – vulnerable, innocent etc. The antagonist will be played by Jake Griffith and he will be portraying a mysterious, older man that within the opening, we will know barely anything about.

See character profiling for detailed information regarding the characters featuring in our opening sequence.

Locations:

There will be two locations used within our opening sequence. Mainly, the opening will be based in a field which leads up to the woods (specifically Sulham Woods). This location is appropriate because it’s a large, open and empty space which is usually only used by the occasional dog walker; therefore naturally it gives off quite a creepy aura which will be perfect for the tension we aim to build in our opening. The second location we plan to film in is school changing rooms, which will help portray the fact that our main character is a teenager. It will also add to the eeriness of the sequence, as Katie’s stalker clearly knows a fair bit about her life.

We will explore our locations further when creating a locations recce.

Costumes & Props:

Scenes shot in woods: Katie will be wearing gym/sportswear as she is going to be on a run and fashionable running trainers to show not only her youth but her wealth. The props she will interact with will be her phone/iPod, headphones, a water bottle and the necklace she will find on the floor. The majority of these props will be used to create verisimilitude in the scene, as it is unlikely you would go running without music or water etc. In terms of Jake, he will be wearing dark clothing to make him seem mysterious and the audience will find it harder to identify him as well as the fact it’s more likely he would be able to blend into surroundings to prevent Katie seeing him in darker clothes. The dark clothing will also be a portrayal of the side Jake is showing when Katie is concerned, others may see him as a fairly normal boy but around Katie his dark side is brought out.

Scenes shot in changing room: Katie will be wearing school PE kit, as she is meant to be doing exercise during the school day in this part of the opening. The only prop Katie will directly interact with is the necklace involved in the woods scenes too, which she will be putting inside her bag. The necklace will look expensive and connote Katie’s wealth. Although the audience will not be able to see his face, Jake will also be involved in this scene. He will be in dark clothes to create only a dark figure which helps show there is darkness in his character/actions and what he’s doing is a secret.

Soundtrack:

At the start of the opening, when the scene is fairly normal, we will be able to hear the music that Katie is listening to whilst running. This’ll be upbeat music as this is what most people run to, therefore realistic, and shows the audience that if the music is loud enough for us to hear, Katie obviously would not be able to hear her surroundings.

Throughout the opening, tension building music will be used to build the audience’s emotions up in order to prepare them for something bad to happen. From research, it is clear all thrillers use creepy music to build tension and we plan to use it within the opening scene to have the audience on the edge from the very start of the film. Not only this, but the audience will instantly be able to identify the genre of the film and know that the sound being used has negative connotations, and something bad is going to happen.

We will also try to pick up the natural noise within the field we plan to film in. This is because, as previously stated, the location is usually empty and therefore already has quite a creepy aura. Often, when walking through the field the only noise is the wind, your own footsteps, birds/other animals and the grass swaying. This noise will not only help add to the creepiness of the scene as it shows how desolate the area is but will also create realism for the audience and may help them relate to a time they have too been somewhere similar alone, and whether they felt uneasy or not.

Effects:

One of the most important parts of our opening when it comes to editing will be the flashback of the scene in the changing rooms. We will dissolve the scene in and out as this is typically used in editing to convey a flashback and it is essential the audience know this is a flashback, otherwise the link we are using with the necklace may not be connected by the audience. Within the changing room scene, we will aim to use low lighting the darkness of it will create a creepy and sinister atmosphere. When Katie is running there will be several long shots of her to show how empty the location is and make her seem more vulnerable, especially being shown as such a miniscule part of the environment. Shots that are showing Jake will not linger on him too long as there is meant to be a mystery kept about him and the audience will be more intrigued to know who this mysterious character is.