My Script

Script: My Best Friends Killer from pomegranatestudios

Script Breakdown - First Draft of Script

Scanned script breakdown

Script - Echoes - Second Draft

AS Media Studies - second draft of Echoes from SoniaTryphenaPal

Initial Ideas

My Two Psychological Thriller Plans

My Best Friend’s Killer

18 year old Leigh-Ann Summers, best friend (Sutton) was killed on her way to school, leaving Leigh-Ann feeling distraught. After the traumatic event she decided to attend therapy sessions, in which she meets someone (the killer) as she falls in love with him and the killer obsess over Leigh-Ann because of the similar traits the victims have which is short dark hair. Will she be his next victim?

Leigh-Ann's best friend was killed, which made her attend therapy, where she meets the killer unknowingly, in which he starts to obsess over her.

The Troubled Life of Mike Waters

22 year old Mike is an orphan and was kept in a basement for two years as child . He was beaten and starved, he ends up in the isolation ward of the psychiatric hospital. He makes fast friends with all of the new patients who come in but what happens when they all turn on him? He murders everyone who turned on him, his escapes leads him standing on the street, clothes drenched with blood, pockets full of money. Confused on what to do next. He gets into contact with an old friend which helps keeps his identity hidden.

Mike was kept in a basement for two years as child. He ends up in the isolation ward of the psychiatric hospital where he escapes.

script

Script mitali

Initial Ideas

Initial ideas

Research summary

Additional Research

Sound 

There are many sounds that are used in Psychological thriller movies. That's way they are chosen by the situation that the movie is based on. Although there are many different situations in every movie of this genre so we need to be more careful about the soundtracks as there will not always find the sound that the movie makers may need. Many of this soundtracks can be used in other genres for example horror, but it also depends on instruments to make some of the sounds which can be self made. I did some research about thriller movies soundtracks of a psychological thriller, it was very realistic but also less disturbing so it grabs more attention of audiences so they can also be more engaged with the movie. Which mean the soundtrack will be more tense which allows the audience to reflect with the movie more. 

Treatment

Treatment

Working title: Echoes

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Duration: 1:40:52

Target Audience: Middle class between 25-45, working class between 25-45, fans of the horror genre.

Outline: Our film is about a couple who have lost their child in a car accident (which is later revealed to have been plotted by the women’s deranged ex in order to murder the husband, but instead kills the child). 
Almost a year later, the woman finds herself pregnant again. She, already having to be the voice of her depressed husband, falls into despair and runs off to live with her parents. Now alone, the husband starts to hear baby cries on the baby monitor he had taken out in his dark solitude, challenging his already fragile mental state. Is he hallucinating, or is this something more supernatural? Desperate for answers, and closure, our protagonist is forced to investigate the true nature of his child's death.

Visual elements: Lighting, Camera movement, Editing, Setting, Actors, Props and Costume.

Audio elements: Soundtrack, Dialogue

Rationale: We developed this idea because the storyline features a psychologically challenging and even harrowing narrative, implementing the horror genre in some aspects, and we personally think it is unique. It features relatable topics such as angst over pregnancy and coping with loss, and this also makes it easier to portray as these themes are often portrayed so research isn't difficult to do, but it's also not too realistic or cliche so it's not too mundane or uninteresting. This storyline will appeal to a large target audience which will benefit our product into making it successful.

Directors

Directors

Job Roles - Director

Ah, the director. Arguably one of the most important and certainly one of the most recognised jobs in the film industry. Their job is to transform a script into a movie, with their artistic envisionments. Now, that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to be the director - being the writer, I kind of knew what I wanted to do and how to portray things in my head. That’s not to say that the director is also the writer. In fact, that’s quite uncommon. Then again, according to Auteur theory, the director is considered the “author” of the film.

But anyway, what does the director actually do? Well, according to Wikipedia:

“Film directors create an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of film production, as well as directing the shooting timetable and meeting deadlines...Moreover, it is necessary to have an artistic eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew...Omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating.”

Which I think sums it up quite nicely.

The skills of a director also holds vital importance.

• Good communication skills are necessary to explain to the cast and crew their ideas accurately.
• Being able to cope with stress is very important. A director is one of the few roles that have a direct involvement in every process of the film’s creation, and often there are long hours.
• Strong teamwork, leadership skills and the ability to make tough decisions, not to mention self motivation and being able to motivate others holds a project and it's contributors together.

Pitch Feedback

I pitched our storyline to a few different people. Below shows their opinion and feedback on our storyline:

I believe it’s a good storyline because it’s very intriguing as it grabs the viewer's attention if it will be filmed properly. -Pragati

The Storyline is very interesting and very unique as i haven't watched a movie like this so the final product will be interesting. -Mehul

The genre you have chosen is very good. It may be hard portraying this with limited equipment. However looking at your storyline it may work out. It’s very attention grabbing and fits the genre well. -Nikil

Directors

Script - First Draft

AS Media Studies - first draft of Echoes from SoniaTryphenaPal

Initial Ideas

Directors

One director known for psychological thrillers is Christopher Nolan. Directing films such as Inception, Insomnia and Memento, Nolan is known to often focus on the themes of personal identity, memory and the construction of time, as well as exploring morality, and philosophical, sociological and existential concepts. His use of metafiction, a term that links to the relationship between fiction and reality, allows him to emphasise the psychological aspect of the film, so that it affects the audience as much as he proposes to. Auteur theory states that the director and his or her style influences the film as if he or she were the author. He shows this through his use of nonlinear storytelling. Putting a film in non-chronological order can change a film’s response from the audience considerably because it can change the significance of particular events as they can be arranged much closer together or further apart, for example. His protagonists are also known to be psychologically damaged, such as Dom Cobb in Inception, due to the suicide of his wife, which can reflect how particular events or objects can affect people.

His use of mise-en-abyme in the film Inception is one of the most well known in the modern era of film. In film, mise-en-abyme describes the idea of “a dream within a dream”. This emphasises the psychological aspect of psychological thrillers as it leaves the audience with a dark feeling that everything around them may not be real. Other ideas that Nolan uses that can affect the audience is leaving the protagonist’s fate ambiguous, meaning the absence of a happy ending, and unreliable narrators and switching points of view, so the audience doesn’t know fully who to sympathise or empathise with.

Target Audience Research

Story and Narrative

Story & Narrative from SoniaTryphenaPal

Target Audience

Target audience slide new (1) from pomegranatestudios

Representation – gender

Most psychological thriller movies have females and males actors. Sometimes the male characters are seen as evil, but also as main characters, this can be stereotyped as the female characters are less likely to have the main role. For example, in the movie "Secret Window" the main character was a [powerful man, this was showing the audiences stereotypes but also making  women looking less powerful as the movie went on, this was shown by giving a high-level expression which were making other surrounded him less powerful and also scared of him.

This all links to the target audience, mainly are male audiences, as this type of genre will be more about crime, horror, etc. Also, as males like seeing them very selfs strong and dependable. But on the other hand, this will discourage female audiences to watch the movie as it will be seen as stereotypes, also as the film will be making them look weak which will look wrong and discouraging the female audience to watch the film.

Representation of Class in Psychological Thrillers

Poster Research

In the past few decades, it has become more the norm to market movies by their director rather than genre. For example, Alfred Hitchcock may have his own section in a film store, rather than a section for psychological thrillers with many Hitchcock films in it.

In the 1990’s, it was popular for psychological thrillers to be crossed over with crime thrillers, like The Silence Of The Lambs, for example, and in more recent years, the horror, fear, and brutality aspect of psychological thrillers has been emphasised. As we can see above, dark colours are often used in marketing such as posters, post-2000, possibly because they make the film seem scarier and elicits anxiety and fear in the audience. We can also see that the focus is in the middle of the poster, such as the house in Misery and the post-it note in The Machinist, while the rest of the background is a block colour and/or not much is happening. This could emphasise the idea of being trapped and isolated that often appears in psychological thrillers. The title of the film is also in capital letters in all three examples, which could be coincidence, or it could mean that it is common, possibly due to it highlighting the "extreme" feel of the movie, that it is pushing the audience's mind to the limit, or even simply to emphasise the meaning of the words, or what they could symbolise.