First Treatment

A TREATMENT FOR A TWO MINUTE OPENING

By

Rebecca Wheeler

Dean Turner

Laura Gardiner

Jess Jones

January, 2012

Present.

United Kingdom.

Small village.

Late Afternoon.

A MIDDLE AGED MAN, wearing black trousers and a black hooded coat walks past a poorly lit secondary school. He walks into a garden opposite the school, mysteriously gazing at the entrance.

A group of mixed sex TEENAGERS walk out of the school gates, gripping their folders. Laughing and joking about detentions, they wave bye to one of the TEENAGE GIRLS as she is walking in the other direction over to her STEPDADS red car which is waiting to pick her up.

As the TEENAGE GIRL is walking up to the car she suddenly feels eerie as though somebody is watching her. She is correct; the MIDDLE AGED MAN is in fact peering at her through the bushes in the garden opposite the school. He is trying to be quiet, although unable to control his heavy breathing.

Seeing the GIRL draw closer to the car, the STEPDAD angrily gets out, clutching a letter from the school. He starts shouting at her “Another Detention” “I didn’t raise you like this”. The TEENAGE GIRL now forgets about the weird feeling she had just felt as she is more concerned about arguing back with her STEPDAD. Voices are raised and arms are flung about as the argument progresses.

The MIDDLE AGED MAN watches on, his breathing increasing, as he starts to have a flashback. His flashback consists of a YOUNGER VERSION OF HIMSELF being shown a painting done by a LITTLE GIRL at school, the LITTLE GIRL being a younger version of the TEENAGE GIRL. “Daddy Daddy, look what I did at school”. It is at this point we realise that the MIDDLE AGED MAN is actually the TEENAGE GIRLS real DAD.

Then the MOTHER of the GIRL walks down the stairs, struggling to carry two suitcases. She looks angry and has quite obviously been crying as she has mascara running down her young fresh face. “We’re leaving”. The GIRL cries as the mother drags her out of the house, she desperately stares at her dad confused and distraught. This is the moment that his daughter was taken away from him.

The DADS flashback ends and he once again witnesses the argument between the GIRL and her STEPDAD. The argument becomes ever more intense and the volume of their shrieking voices multiplies, until abruptly, the DAD hears the GIRL call the STEPDAD “Dad”. This is all too much to handle for the DAD, his heart begins to pound louder and louder. His breathing becomes heavier and he becomes enraged…

Our First Pitch

Me, Rebecca and Dean presented our treatment to Mr.Hood, explaining our ideas as we went through. We the decided that this idea would too confusing and some people may not understand the idea of our story, we then together created a different plot which is easier to understand
and create.


Feedback- after listening to all the feedback we recieved and realising it would prove more difficult than we had first imagined, we have had a long discussion about it we have decided to no longer carry on with this idea so we have thought of another.

thriller sub genres

CRIME THRILLER
- Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstreamfiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred. It has several sub-genres, including detective fiction  legal thriller, courtroom drama and hard-boiled fiction.


TECHNO THRILLERS
- Techno-thrillers (or technothrillers) are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on its subject matter (typically military technology); only science fiction tends towards a comparable level of supporting detail on the technical side. The inner workings of technology and the mechanics of various disciplines (espionage, martial arts, politics) are thoroughly explored, and the plot often turns on the particulars of that exploration.Techno-thrillers tend to have a broad scope in the narrative, and can often be regarded as contemporary speculative fiction; world wars are a common topic.


DISASTER THRILLER - these types of thrillers usually include some sort of disaster for example a tsunami, earthquake or volcano, this could also include a man made disaster for example global warming or a nuclear explosion.


HORROR THRILLER
horror thrillers seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes thatstartle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with the thriller genre.

Film Openings

I have looked at different openings to films to see which type of openings would be appropriate for my film.

The first film i am going to be looking at is Psycho(1960), this is the first clip of the movie.




A brief description of the storyline -Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

Director:  Alfred Hitchcock Writers:  Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel) Stars:  Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles When watching the opening of this film it creates an erie feeling due to the dramatic background music and the close up  shot of the woman, because of this close up shot you can see the feelings in the woman's face which then makes the opening give you a tense feeling. Also during this shot you get to see a view point from the from of the car and as the pace increases so does the speed of the car and the music. As the increase of music pace it makes you feel more tense and awaiting what is coming next. This is a good clip as it leads you wanting more and to watch the rest of the film. The second film i am going to be looking at is A Cinderella Story (2004), this is the opening clip.

This is a short description of the film -Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Sam Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.

Director: 

Mark Rosman

Writer: 

Leigh Dunlap

Stars:

 Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray and Jennifer Coolidge

This film has a very different opening to the Psycho as this is a chick flick and has a very different feel than to watching a thriller. This opening to the film explains the whole story line and has many establishing shots to show the viewer where the film is set and gives lots of background information into the film. The music gives a happy cheerful feeling at the beginning and then when the dad dies and he music changes you begin to feel sorry for the characters and feel involved in the storyline.

When creating my film opening i will take notes from the first film i analysed ( Psycho ) as it gives a scary effect which i could use in my film, i can use the same sort of music to create an eree felling to the beginning of the film and leave you wanting more.