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My treatment for a thriller opening sequence = "Shadowed"

It’s not unusual if teenage girls are being stalked or followed around. It’s not uncommon for rapists to be living in the world. It only becomes strange when the rapist slowly torments, rapes and kills his victims in the same disturbing manner.

There is a male rapist hanging around on the streets of Manhattan. He is a psychotic rapist who rapes, torments and kills his victims before collecting information and writing up a record on the scenarios that took place during the rape. During the film, we observe how the rapist plots to rape girls aged between 11-15 years of age. as he stores a collection of photos and holds in his possession different types of machinery and weaponry. The film focuses on the rapist and his inhumane antics the majority of the time. However, he is only unveiled to us an hour into the film, for the reason that in the first 10 minutes of the movie, after the opening sequence, we witness a flashback ’10 years ago’, whereby the rapist is a 10 year old boy living at home with his Mum. We observe the Mum preparing dinner in the kitchen humming away to a melody, as the child is left in the living room playing draughts on the computer. The backdoor in the kitchen is slammed open as a masked figure emerges with a knife grasped in his right hand; he grabs hold of the women and slams her body against the kitchen table before raping her and stabbing her to death. As the camera pans across the room, we see the young boy emerge from underneath the desk as he looks on horror stricken at the death of his Mum. The film changes to ‘present day’ and we are presented with the police and different members from three separate families whom explain that their daughters have been raped, tormented and murdered in the same exact way as each other. The aim of the film is to uncover the identity of the rapist and to capture him before he succeeds in harming anyone else.

I thought clearly about the themes of my film and how they would affect the audience. I wanted the themes that I would choose to raise questions to the audience and to allow them to think about how significant they were to the movie. The issues which I particularly chose were ‘revenge, obsession, fear and apprehension’ due to the fact that they related to my storyline of the film, whereby a racist showcases the torment and murder he commits on teenage girls. The film draws close attention to the themes as they are continuously conveyed in virtually every scene of the film. I looked at 2 films in details these were, “The Accused (1988), Cape Fear (1991) and When a Stranger Calls (2006) and Se7en (1996).” All of these films are relevant to me for the reason that they each identify a rape or someone being harassed, stalked in alarming, unsettling settings. The majority of the films involve someone being raped, tormented or killed. I noticed that in the first couple of minutes of the opening sequences there are a variety of quick camera shots which cross dissolve into one another, this effectively grips the audience to the film and coincides with the “horror” genre exceptionally well. There is an increase amount of close ups and medium close ups used to draw attention to the characters expression and body language and towards other objects to build up anticipation and mystery which are two major themes of my film.

Revenge

Obsession

Fear

Apprehension

In the background of each individual film, a high pitched, unsettling, electronic musical sound is heard overpowering the images in the film sequences. Compared to the images on screen, the melody is clearly dissimilar. This implies to the audience that there is vast amount of danger surrounding them. The three films clearly include the conventions of horror films as they build up mystery, terror and fear. To conclude, I noticed that my researching into the three separate films, we can see that by using fast paced camera shots, dim lighting and an eerie soundtrack, they all build up to create a terrifying, unsettling atmosphere to coincide with the genre of ‘horror.’

The opening sequence of the film consists of 14 snap shots which cross dissolve into one another to illustrate an extensive range of weapons, machinery and collection of teenage girl’s photos pinned up across a wall, which may provide narrative information about the main concept in the film. As each scene flows into one another demonstrating the use of continuity, credits begin to appear glistening against the bleak backdrop in a faint white typography.

The first shot depicts the company presenting the film, mine is “Starlight Pictures Present.” The text will subtly appear in a faint white font onto a black screen before gradually dissolving into the backdrop.

The second shot illustrates the production company who is accompanying our film which is “A Keyhole Production,” again; the text will subtly appear in a faint white font onto a black screen before gradually dissolving into the backdrop.

The third shot portrays the names of the people whose film it belongs to, ours is “A Yasmin and Khushel film,” the text will subtly appear in a faint white font onto a black screen before gradually dissolving into the backdrop.

The following three shots depict the actors names in order in which they appear in the film, “Ashwin Dabasia, Mandy Thompson and Manan Vekaria” before they subtly dissolve into the backdrop. I decided that the credits should glisten against the bleak, darkened backdrop in a faint white typography for the reason that the simpler the design, the more effective and professional the credits look in the long run.

The seventh shot portrays a collage of numerous photographs pinned across a wall of one particular fair haired girl. The camera shot is of an extreme long shot and a pan shot as the camera gracefully pans across the room.

In the eight shot, the viewpoint on the camera changes to a close up as the camera focuses on to three essential photographs overlapping one another. Each photograph shows the teenage girl in different surroundings and scenarios. This shot is presented in black and white, whilst the edge of the shot is slightly blurred out.

In the ninth shot of the film, the title of the movie appears onto the screen “SHADOWED,” in large capital letters and in a strong, eye gripping font and colour. The text displayed upon the backdrop begins to fade away, as each letter fades into the darkness. As the title dissolves into the background, a white flash of light flashes across the screen before cross dissolving onto the following shot.

In shot ten, the camera changes to an extreme long shot of a pair of disfigured, inhumane hands, sharpening a blade and wiping away any excess blood onto a towel

In shot eleven, the camera pans across the room and focuses on the collection of photographs pinned onto the wall, but this time a different girl is portrayed. The masked figure slowly places his fingers onto the photo and marks an ‘X’ across the girl’s face in blood. As if to mark the death of the girl he has successfully killed.

In shot twelve, the camera changes to an extreme long shot of a notebook with a collection of photographs of the teenage girl stored inside. The camera swiftly moves on changing to a bird’s eye view shot as the camera re-focuses on the same notebook scripted with lettering inside but this time the disfigured hand re-emerges creepily writing alongside each of the photos.

In shot thirteen, the camera focuses on a pack of condoms. The masked figure slowly removes one from its pouch and begins to pierce it from the bottom upwards by using a needle.

In shot fourteen, the camera changes to a medium shot and focuses on the same pair of disfigured, inhumane hands as they begin to remove a lock of hair, a girl’s bra and knickers from inside his holdall. He slowly places them into a jar and locks it away in a nearby cupboard. The camera pans across the room and begins to track the masked figure as he collects his belongings which consist of a knife, a condom, a photo of the teenage girl and a metal dog leash. The camera continues to track the figure across the room and out of the back door.

The main character in the film is the rapist who is continuously dressed in black as a masked figure. Unfortunately, we never actually get to see what he looks like. I decided that the character should be discreet and unknown throughout the film for the reason that it builds up more anticipation and fear.

The entire opening sequence has been slowly building up each frame of the film to identify the danger, worrying, isolation based on how the character thinks and feels. The audience should begin to have a better understanding of the weird and unsettling events which may feature in the film and how dangerous and true to life the masked figure is.

The setting of the opening sequence is going to be set in the basement of the rapist’s home, due to the fact that the audience will feel closer to the rapist as they will have an insight into his home and they will be provided with a closer look at how the character thinks and feels. Additionally, I thought that this would be an exceedingly strange setting for the opening sequence for the reason that the character would become eerie and mysterious, keeping the audience gripped to their seats and wanting to indulge in the film more.

The mise-en-scene of the film is somewhat eerie, creepy and troubling due to the fact that the rapist, also identified as a ‘masked figure’ is continuously hidden from the audience, apart from the exception of seeing his disfigured, inhumane hands and the lower section of his body. (From the waist down) By not having a clear perception of who the rapist is and why he torments and kills his victims, the audience might feel threatened as they might feel as though they are being watched as well.

Additionally, I decided that the majority of the scenes should be filmed with dim lighting to darken the movie since I wanted the film to express the conventions of a ‘horror’ film. If the lighting appears to be dimmer and the scenarios are usually filmed during the night it creates a sense of trepidation and fear as the audience is unsure as to what events is about to take place and whether they are necessarily pleasant or not. Furthermore, as each scene flows into one another demonstrating the use of continuity, the credits appear glistening against the bleak backdrop in a faint white typography. As each scene follows on to the next, the letters fades away from the frame before slowly re-emerging in the subsequent shot.

I have decided that my movie is going to be a low budget film which will most likely be placed onto DVD/Blue Ray to be sold in the major shops and department stores. The main reason why I decided that I would prefer my film to be placed onto DVD than to be shown on a cinema screen is due to the fact that it will probably receive more ratings on a DVD than at a cinema, as the movie would be filmed as a low budget feature film.

What is more is that the editing of the film is almost certainly going to involve cross cutting and continuity for the reason that I want each scene to flow into one another elegantly demonstrating the use of continuity and match on action so that it illustrates how no time has passed between the shots. In addition, the use of cross cutting will build up terror and nervousness as the audience will be unsure and wary as to what is about to take place in the following scenes. It will hopefully engage the audience and keep them gripped to the film.

Rape and Abuse

Faint white typography