Treatment

Faatima Ahmed, Yasmin Falahat, Mala Lal

Treatment ‘If you Run’ The title of our film is ‘If You Run’. This was inspired by the song ‘If You Run’ by the band YouMeAtSix. It contains song lyrics such as “you had us all convinced you were something, something we couldn’t miss,” this reflects the storyline of our thriller as the protagonist is not suspected as being the antagonist. ‘If You Run’ connotes that it is a sort of threat that will result in consequences. This also connotes that however much the protagonist runs, there will be an unexpected result. This also has another meaning because as the protagonist is her own antagonist, she’ll never be able to escape. This title is conventional because ‘running’ and trying to escape from trouble are very common conventions of the thriller genre. Our title appeals to our target audience as they would have an interest in thrillers and it would spark a question in the audience’s mind of what ensues. Our target audience is about 15-30 year olds because our thriller has the themes of murder and Dissociative Identity Disorder in which children under 15 years old may not understand the depth of the mental illness. Also, the target audience would be mostly female as the main character of our thriller is female. We will target this film at middle/working class people as the occupation (policewoman) of the main character is quite a middle class job. Our target audience would also have an interest in independent thriller films, specifically ones that subvert the expectations of a conventional crime thriller. Our film has a USP of an unusual narrative which subverts the stereotypical character representations and it includes themes of split personality, crime and murder. These will attract our target audience as it will appeal to their interests of unconventional independent thrillers. From creating a survey on ‘Survey Monkey’ we have got over 20 responses on the types of films our audience enjoys, and what they think of the short summary of our thriller. 88.2% of the people were aged between 15-18yrs; this falls in the age group we are targeting, so their information would be relevant. 41% of the votes chose Crime Thriller; again this is good as our film has a narrative falls under the Thethat Psychological crime thriller sub-genre. thriller is one of the bottom three, but our story has a mix of both elements, Crime and Pychological, so our target audience may find this enjoyable.

Scream (75%) and The Bourne Trilogy (68%), were the two most popular films, chosen. This is good as it shows us that the public would like ‘If you Run’ as it includes elements of both Crime (The Bourne Trilogy) and Psychological (Scream). People also responded on why they liked the films, “I like them all because of the actual storyline, they're all different.” Our film has quiet an in-depth storyline, so our target audience may find this appealing.

Faatima Ahmed, Yasmin Falahat, Mala Lal We got some responses on the short summary of our ‘If you Run’ including quotes like, Response 1:“seems like a good plot that would make me want to find out what happens next....it also has elements of other things such as mental health etc which is good and different”, Response 2:“It has a good plot, If I were to make the film; I would have to be careful not to make it a little hectic as viewers may find it hard to follow.” Response 3:“it sounds really interesting and definitely something I would consider watching but maybe it's a bit too cliché so it might be predictable at some points”

From these responses, we know what our audience want. Although ‘Response 3’, said there are some points which are too predictable, this still gives a thrilling effect. Music plays a big part in every Thriller, if the music is good, though the parts will be slightly predictable, they will be suspenseful. Though ‘Response 2’ said we shouldn’t make it too hectic, this may be for the course of the film, however, the opening sequence create enigma, so it has to be hectic, even though we will balance this with slow long shots, so it should be easy to grasp. For ‘If you Run’ we would use technology to give greater effect to the story. We will maybe use depth of field on the DV Digital camera, to get a blurry vision effect, from the woman’s Point of view, this may be enhanced on iMovie to make it fuzzier to create more suspense on what she sees. We will also create music on garage band, for sound effects as well as the soundtrack for this opening sequence. This would be good as it will be our own music, so we will follow the brief on having copyright-free music. We are going to make some animation on Macromedia flash for the production name. We are also going to make changes to the London Tube map, and we will use either Fireworks or Photoshop to do this. We were also thinking we could have some shots in black and white, with only the woman’s police badge showing in colour. The black and white will reinforce to the audience that this is a flash back of the woman. We will use Final Cut Pro, to maybe create this effect. However we have not researched properly how to use the program, so this may be a limitation. The key characters in our thriller challenge Vladimir Propp’s theory of typical stock representations. Our protagonist is a policewoman who has recently had a miscarriage which triggered a form of D.I.D. She is first interpreted as the hero, but she is actually unknowingly the villain – this makes her the false hero. The other key character is the policewoman’s friend and colleague who eventually finds out her friend is the villain. Therefore she starts out as the helper but becomes the hero. There will also be another character who we all expect to be the murderer – this will act as a red herring and will throw the audience off the track of suspecting the protagonist. Our film will challenge the typical representation of the police because in most societies they are seen as the heroes who always save the day. By the end of ‘If You Run’, this representation is subverted as we find out that the policewoman is the antagonist. ‘If You Run’ is about a policewoman who has recently been put on a case of a murderer who kills children at certain train stations. They think they have caught the murderer but they later realise it isn’t that person when another child dies whilst the suspect is in custody. Towards the end of the film, we find out that the policewoman who we believe is the protagonist, has a split personality and commits these murders unknowingly; she still thinks that there is someone else out there. The

Faatima Ahmed, Yasmin Falahat, Mala Lal policewoman is attacked by the ‘murderer’ in her bathroom. It is actually herself trying to commit suicide but her friend comes just in time to save her and she sees the policewoman cutting herself. We find out that the policewoman was committing these murders whilst suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder which was triggered by the time when she had a miscarriage at a train station. Our resolution is when she is sent to a mental hospital. The opening sequence will start with a quick shot of the police woman chasing the ‘murderer’ in a train station. Then it will cut to a flash-forward of a close-up of the police woman in the mental hospital, talking about when the murders first started. After this shot, it will cut back to the chasing where we just see their feet running by – all the time we are not able to see either person’s face. We will then have credits in the form of a London underground tube map but we will have our names replacing the train station names. Then there is another shot of the chasing but this time the camera will quickly pan as the two people run by and the ‘murderer’ will get away whilst the police woman stops to catch her breath. It will then flash-forward again to the mental hospital scene and the police woman will talk a bit more. Then there will be another tubemap credit shot, this time with the actors’ names in. The next part of the opening sequence will start with the police woman walking up the path towards her house, she will be unfocused to start with but as she gets closer to the camera, she will be in focus. The next few shots will contain ellipses of her going into the house up to her bathroom, so we only see her close the door behind her and then a shot of the tap being put on. Then, she is tying up her hair before she washes her face and she thinks she sees a shadow under the door when she looks at it in the mirror. We see a close-up of her rubbing her eyes and she turns around to look at the door again – but there is no longer a shadow. As she is washing her face, we see a dark figure behind her, but in the next shot – which is looking in the mirror (as she is drying her face with a towel) the figure is gone, this then pans to directly behind her whilst she is looking in the mirror and as she looks up, the dark figure is there once again. As soon as she notices the figure (who has a knife), he/she grabs her suddenly. The policewoman elbows the person in the stomach and makes her way to door as fast as possible. We see a close-up of the police woman’s hand on the doorknob forcefully trying to open the door – but it is locked. In the doorknob, we see the reflection of the policewoman with the attacker recovering and getting up behind her. As she turns around to try and shield herself from the attacker, the knife cuts into her arm and this is where the shot cuts off. The final shot of the opening sequence is the title shot which is also on a tube-map. The map gets blood splats on it from the woman’s arm being cut. We will go against Todorov’s theory as we will start with distribution, like the film Momento, through having the near end at the beginning, since it will entice our audience to watch on and find out why that incident happened and what the resolution to it is. “If You Run”, has a narrative structure of disruption, equilibrium and resolution. This indicates that our thriller opening sequence begins by creating a lot of enigma. The disruption will create confusion, suspense, action and tension which are all conventions of the thriller genre. However, the movie, will subvert from

Faatima Ahmed, Yasmin Falahat, Mala Lal the thriller genre, to the Physiological Thriller, as one character will play the part of the hero and the villain. (This also refers to the USP). “If you run”, does contain a lot of disturbing content, as well as some action, which falls into another sub-genre, Action thriller, which also helps as this is our target audience’s favourite thriller genre. Our movie will not have any hybrid elements, as the contents and storyline fall under the thriller genre. Elements within the thriller genre such as, suspense, tension, and enigma will occur in the movie etc. We will use restricted views to create this. We will also use depth of field to maybe make the antagonist not in view so it creates suspense. Canted Angles will also be used to give a sense of disorientation to the audience. The editing will be quite fast paced at the start of the opening sequence. This will grab the audience’s attention. Then it will have a long take of the woman washing her face. This will also create suspense as we will slightly see the antagonist in the corner. This bathroom scene is influenced by the Alfred Hitchcock thriller ‘Psycho’, where the woman gets murdered in the shower. It is also influenced by ‘What Lies Beneath’ where a long pan was used to create suspense when the woman is walking towards the bathroom. Black and white shots will be used to bring greater emphasis on the flashback to the audience, with maybe her badge just in colour to highlight the fact she is a policewoman. We will use blood splats on the map, this would add to the fact that it is rated 15 as there will be a lot of blood involved. The main protagonist (Cassie Wilson) will wear light, white and blue clothing, whereas the ‘Antagonist’ will wear dark, black, conventional clothing. The antagonist will have their hair directly over their face, so their face is hidden, as not seeing something is more fearful, many other films have included this for their antagonist, e.g. Grudge and The Ring. The music will be fast for the quick running shots but then will stop when the woman is washing her face. Just the sound of the running water and her heartbeat will be heard in the bathroom scene. The fast music at the beginning will be made up of electric guitar, edgy drum kit and bass (on Garageband) to create this suspense. There will be some dialogue, but not too much as this will make the scene seem boring, and it leaves the audience in question in to what the story behind the few words she says. ‘If you run’ will be produced through an independent film industry, as it includes themes that wouldn’t approach a mainstream audience. DNA Films would be an example of a company to produce ‘If you Run’ as it has helped produce the thriller ’28 Days Later’. Though the film is being made by an independent film company, we will try and distribute the film through a Hollywood company. We will go to many film festivals, and if we can get enough awards, we will try and get a Hollywood company like 20th Century Fox to distribute our film. This would be a good company to distribute our film, as it has also helped distribute the independent film ‘28 Days Later’, which came out on DVD as well as in cinemas. The opening sequence of if you run will be posted on YouTube, and Facebook, this will create a buzz for the film as well as getting some feedback on what people think of the film. The film will be exhibited in

Faatima Ahmed, Yasmin Falahat, Mala Lal independent cinemas like the Curzon in London as well as being available on DVD in big movie rental places like Blockbuster. The film will also be available on LoveFilm.com, as this is a popular film downloading site.