Treatment

To help us understand our thriller more, we planned out the entire story despite the fact that we will only be filming the opening sequence. This will allow us to have a better idea of what and what not to include in our opening as there may be something that should be kept concealed until later in the film and there may be key elements that could be foreshadowed in the opening. Looking beyond the opening will also allow us to develop the characters and their traits.



Synopsis:
Nigel keeps finding Janet acting suspiciously and plans to get rid of her. In in the meantime, in their everyday day lives, strange and dangerous things keep occuring which raises tension between the two. As their relationship falls apart, how will their two teenage children cope, and what is the source of these attacks?




Treatment:
At the beginning, Nigel is shown returning home in his car. A long panning shot shows his car driving up to his house and parking up. A tracking shot shows him as he slowly approaches the front door, and an extreme close up is used to show him opening the door by turning the key.  Upon entering the house his face is focused on with a close up as he hears Janet laughing upstairs with another voice - at which point a shot is shown looking up the stairs. Janet is shown laughing in her bedroom but most of the shot is concealed to keep the owner of the other voice concealed. Assuming that she is up there with another man, a close up again shows Nigel's face as he becomes enraged. He is shown moving to lock the door with an extreme close up of the lock again but choosing not to lock it, so to not make much sound. He is then shown sneaking upstairs quietly with a tracking shot whilst Janet's laughing gets louder to show that he is getting closer. He approaches the bedroom door stealthily with a mid shot and bursts into the room in an attempt to surprise Janet. As he bursts in a mid shot is shown from inside the bedroom as he enters, and Janet's shocked face is shown with a close up. Janet is shown to actually just be on the phone with a mid shot that shows her lying on the bed, and a close up of the phone is shown as the person on the other end asks her what has happened and as she ends the call. She is seen trying to hide something with a mid shot - a photograph or letter that she hides in her bedside table - and she acts suspiciously. A mystery character is then shown looking upwards at the house from outside, seeing Janet and Nigel arguing in the bedroom. They enter through the unlocked door, the lock again shown with an extreme close up. This unknown character is never seen and point of view shots are used to track their movements. They are shown entering the house and looking around before sneaking about, going through letters and Nigel's wallet. Nigel and Janet are then shown arguing with a low shot which creates the impression that they are being observed before the shot switches back to the mystery character still sneaking about. They accidentally knock a glass of a table and it smashes on the floor it makes a loud noise, so they panic and are shown hurridly heading for the exit. The noise is heard upstairs and Janet and Nigel stop arguing instantly, and a shot reverse shot shows them questioning the mystery noise from downstairs to each other before they rush out of the bedroom, again showed by a low shot. The mystery character downstairs is shown running towards the door and swinging the door, and an over the shoulder view of Janet and Nigel shows them seeing the door slam shut from the top of the stairs. The opening sequence will end here. The rest of the opening of the film will consist of the man in pursuit of the mystery character and the man and women arguing about their relationship issues and wondering who entered their house uninvited.

In the middle of the film Janet will continue to be caught acting suspiciously by her husband and children (one boy, Paul, 18 and one girl, Alice, 16), and Nigel will be shown boiling up to a point that he starts plotting Janet's downfall whilst at the same time a mystery source is shown planning things also. In the meantime, strange occurrences will happen in the man and women's everyday life in which they narrowly avoid serious or fatal injuries on a number of occasions. On a night out the couple will be walking home and a shadowy figure will keep appearing in the distance that will be followed by another strange attack each time. When they return home they will begin to question how all these strange things are happening before Janet starts to accuse Nigel which triggers his rage and causes him to try to kill her, but as he attacks the house sets on fire without warning and they are both forced to escape. They are taken to hospital with their son Paul and learn that their daughter Alice perished in the fire, which Janet blames on Nigel. Upon their release from hospital the couple divorce and Janet tries to get Nigel blamed for the accident. Nigel goes to live with his brother whilst Janet goes to live with her mum with Paul, who soon reveals that he would rather move into a flat with his friend which raises suspicion of whether the fire was his doing or not. The couple are shown getting on with their lives, but are still under attack and more mysterious plotting is shown. Soon after, the home where Nigel is living also is set on fire - he just about escapes again but his brother's life is taken. When in hospital everyone - including his ex-wife Janet - come to visit him, apart from his son Paul which raises suspicion again that he created the fire. Paul's everyday life is then briefly shown for the first time and it is made clear that  he is a very violent, threatening and aggressive character but also that he is the victim of some odd occurrences like his parents.

Some weeks later, at the memorial for the daughter lost in the first fire, a few artefacts that belonged to her and survived the fire or were not in the fire are on show as mementos of her tragically short life. Nigel and Janet mourn the death of Alice away from each other but meanwhile Paul has sneaked off with some of his sister's old possessions. He is shown studying them - it is not shown what he reads but he reacts to it, leaving the memorial without giving a reason which confuses his parents. Nigel follows him in his car, assuming the whole thing to be his fault. When he eventually catches up and confronts his son he attempts to choke him whilst Paul tries desperately tries to explain something. Just as Paul is about to pass out he manages to break free of Nigel's grasp and explains that his mother cannot be left unguarded as he found detailed plans to kill her in his sister's diary once she was unprotected, and that he had left the memorial to alert the police to create a trap for the killer. Nigel does not believe any of it and once again becomes enraged which results in a violent fist fight and Paul leaving his father unconscious in the road. Stealing his father's car he hurries back to where Janet is to find her lying on the floor surrounded by a few other mourners, almost dead. Upon asking how it happened Paul is led by the other mourners into a trap where he confronts his sister Alice, who is revealed to have created and escaped the fire. She reveals that Janet has only a few minutes to live due to the wounds she has sustained but if anybody alerted the police she would eventually kill them too. She then reveals plans to kill Paul and Nigel and just as she approaches Paul to stab him she is stopped by Nigel who engages her in a fierce battle which ends up with them both suffering severe wounds. Alice prepares to deliver the finishing blow when she is knocked unconscious by Paul. He then calls for ambulances for his parents and his sister. His parents recover fine but Alice dies on the way to hospital, and the films concludes with the family mourning their daughter's loss for the second time.

Evaluation of questionnaire results

Questionnaire Analysis

After conducting our questionnaire and retrieving forty sets of data for each of our twenty questions, we analysed the results - this would help us in making our thriller as we would know what our target audience's opinions on various aspects of the thriller are, and be able to adapt the more popular elements whilst avoiding the unpopular ones.

Question 1: What is your gender?

 The results of question 1 show that we asked for the opinions of more males than we did for females - as a result we can see that the rest of our questions will be generally answered from the viewpoint of males.

Question 2: Out of the following, what is your favourite Thriller film?

The results of question 2 show that Se7en was the most popular thriller out of the ones which we evaluated, and as a result this is the thriller that we should take the most inspiration from when making ours, adapting ideas from Se7en into our thriller more so than the other thrillers to make it more appealing to our target audience. 

Question 3: What is your age?

 The results to question 3 show that we asked people from a varied range of ages which makes our questionnaire a fairer test as we are not just getting all of our results from one age group. The majority of the people we asked were in the 15-25 age boundary as our thriller's age rating is 15 and this age boundary is our target audience.

Question 4: What is your favourite genre of music to hear in a film?

Most people preferred to hear classical music in a film due to it being the genre which creates the most tension and fits in with almost any genre of film. As a result, we will consider using the classical music genre when inputting music into our thriller to make it appeal to the target audience.

Question 5: What is the most appropriate music genre for a thriller?


       

Most people decided that rock or metal were the most suitable genres to use in a thriller film with these two genres combined taking just under 75% of all votes. As a result, we will be sure to consider the rock or metal genres when selecting music to use in our thriller.

Question 6: What is your favourite colour?

Red and Black amassed a vast majority of the votes, so we will use black or red - or both - as the colours for our graphics in our thriller to appeal to the target audience.

Question 7: What scares you the most?

Spiders were the option chosen most frequently as the thing that scares people the most - we will take this into consideration when making our thriller whilst also noting that darkness was chosen almost as many times: it would be much easier and more suitable to include darkness in our thriller than it would to include spiders.

Question 8: What is the most suitable time of day for a thriller to be set in?

Nearly every person who completed our questionnaire agreed that the best time of day to set our thriller opening would be in the evening or at night, due to it adding to the tension of the scene and being scarier at night than it is during the day. We will certainly incorporate this in our thriller opening as it would be difficult to film during daylight; due to the group having college and the actors working most during days, and the fact that we will be filming during the winter when it gets dark earlier - it would be very difficult to film in daylight anyway so it is almost certain that our thriller will be set in the evening or night.  

Question 9: Would you prefer the narrative to be slow or fast paced?

75% of people who completed our questionnaire said that they would prefer a fast paced narrative in a thriller, and as a result we will be sure to use a fast paced narrative in our own thriller opening.

Question 10: What location do you think would be most suitable for a thriller?

Most people (50%) said that a house would be the best setting for our thriller opening, and as it would be both difficult and impractical to use a forest we will certainly set our thriller opening in and around a house.

Question 11: What font is most suitable for a thriller?

Simple(17 votes), Bold (10 votes), Scary (7 votes) or Detailed (6 votes)?

Simple font was the most popular option, and as a result we will keep the font in our thriller simple and easy to read.

Question 12: Would you prefer the title of a thriller film to be short and simple or long and detailed?

People preferred a short thriller title as it is easier to remember and simpler which would appeal to our target audience more. We will consider this when deciding on a title for our thriller.

Question 13: What is you least favourite thriller?

Jaws was shown to be the least favourite thriller of our target audience, probably due to it being the oldest of the four thrillers - as a result we will make use of modern technology when making our thriller to make our thriller look and sound better than Jaws does.

Question 14: Should the editing of a thriller be slow or fast paced?

People generally preferred fast paced editing as it suits the frantic atmosphere of a typical thriller and as a result we will try to use fast paced editing in our thriller to make it more appealing to our target audience and to make it seem more tense. 

Question 15: Would you rather characters remain concealed during the opening of a thriller or not?

Most people preferred certain characters to remain hidden in the opening to a thriller as it creates a sense of mystery and tension. We will try to keep at least one character's identity concealed during our opening sequence to please the target audience and make it more tense.

Question 16: Would you prefer the narrative of a thriller to be linear or non-linear?

Linear narrowly beat non-linear in terms of votes, which suggests that the target audience does not have a real preference but it may be better to use a linear opening as it would flow better and be easier to understand.

Question 17: What of the following scares you least?

Clocks and footsteps were chosen as the least scary things as they are things that are quite normal and heard in everyday life all the time. As a result it may be better for us to avoid focusing on including these sound effects and use other means of scaring the audience.

Question 18: What is your least favourite colour? 

Yellow and purple were chosen as the least favourite colours due to them not being very suitable for a thriller film. We will make sure that we do not use these colour in our thriller as a result.

Question 19: Do sound effects have a positive impact on the atmosphere of a thriller?

Nearly all people decided that sound effects do have a positive impact on a thriller’s atmosphere, so we will be sure to include them in our film as it will please our target audience and make our thriller’s atmosphere more tense and realistic.

Question 20: Would you prefer low-key or high-key lighting in a thriller?

Low-key lighting more popular that high-key as it creates a better mood and atmosphere and makes the thriller seem tenser. We will be sure to use low-key lighting in our thriller.