Development Of Ideas

For our primary research we put up a questionnaire to be answered by the public pertaining to thriller-mystery movies- this helped us to decide which group we should target our film to. After analyzing the data we received we learnt about popular tropes, such as; the use of suspenseful music, adult themes and a more dialogue driven slow burning plot. These tropes can be applied to our film and to draw in a larger audience who have enjoyed their use in other films. The average age for the people who responded was 19 so after coupling that information with the factor that viewers typically enjoy darker themes, we decided to make our film an 18.

For our secondary research, we spent a lot of time researching the success and failures of other thriller-mystery movies, we learnt that films such as 'Zodiac', 'Memento' and 'Se7en'  were not only critical successes but financial ones too. This helped us feel confident in presenting controversial and adult themes in our own project because we now knew that if they were done right we wouldn't have to sacrifice our own artistic integrity in favor of a higher box office return. It also influenced us on some of the practical decisions in our film and showed us some of the popular themes and conventions of the genre which could be applied to our own film, for example; we noticed that the films mentioned above used dark and bleak Mise En Scene and often used both diegetic and non-diegetic sound to help create suspense.

The media language that will be used in our opening sequence will work to captivate our target audience by showing them interesting themes and an captivating narrative. Our opening sequence is set in a dark and secluded forest- this will convey to the audience that the film's world is cold and dark, it will also work as a metaphor on the mental isolation of our protagonist. The use of props will also connote dark themes of there will be a weapon, blood and dirtied clothing- these will help show the themes of violence and brutality in the film to the viewer. The sound will be used to create tension and suspense in our opening sequence. the sound will predominantly be diegetic with the use of sound to punctuate moments of the tension and will include sounds such as foot steps, birds chirping and the words of the protagonist. The non-diegetic sound will be mysterious and eerie to help put the viewer into a feeling of unease.The camera shots and angle will be the most important aspect of the opening sequence because it will be used to put the viewer in the shoes of the the protagonist and to help convey the themes of isolation, for example; we used quite claustrophobic shots, such as the over the shoulder shot as he walks towards the bodies. We also made use of high/ low shots to connote themes of superiority/ inferiority to the viewer- the most prominent example of the this a low shot from the POV from the perspective of one of the corpses.

Our film deals with mental illness in the working class because we believe it is an issue affecting many people worldwide. To a degree we further perpetuate the negative trope of the mentally ill being psychotic because in the twist ending it is revealed that he murdered his family. But, it could be said that we also subvert it with our humanizing approach to the development of our main character. This is emphasized by the final scene of the movie, where upon realizing he's murdered his parents, he breaks down and commits suicide, this humanization removes the label of a villain from him and places it onto the government and institutions that didn't give him enough support. This is also done by us showing that he has no control over his actions.

The finished film would have a regular cinema release followed by a Blu-ray, DVD and VOD release shortly after the films cinema run ends. This is our chosen format of release because it has proven very successful to other similar films in our genre over recent years, it also allows us to nominate the film for an Oscar if it achieves critical acclaim. This is backed up by the financial performance of 'Gone Girl' which tripled it's budget at the box office alone. We would need a budget of 50 million to cover the cost of props. pay for actors, locations and advertising, both online and in cinemas. We decided we would need a budget of around 50 million because this is the typical cost of high budget thriller-mystery movies and it costs quite a bit to get a film screened in a large chain cinema, like Cineworld, but despite the high cost we believe that because of the capacity of these cinemas we would be able to turn a profit. Our film could also fit well into film festivals, such as Sundance or SXSW, which would help give the film extra publicity.