Thriller Treatment - Handle with Care

PLOT: 

Our plot is what you get when you combine the greatest thrillers into one short 2 minute scene. Elements of Zodiac, The Chumscrubber, Cape Fear and Memento have been pulled together to create our plot.

A young adult female (17-18 years old) is seen sat in a car. She looks directly at the camera and addresses the audience giving a brief outline that has an essence of mystery so it's quite not clear what she's talking about, but we learn she's in trouble. We're using this to trick the audience to sympathize with what is potentially the villain. 

During the girls speech close-ups of sinister objects are seen, such as hair, bloody clothes and possibly a weapon. We want the audience to understand that something is wrong, the girl is in trouble and it's serious. 

As she delves further into her speech the car begins shaking and a banging is heard from the back. It is revealed to the audience that there is someone in the boot of her car and some sort of abduction has taken place using the weapons seen and it is clear somebody has been injured through the bloody clothing. 

As the female character begins to close her speech as third character is made aware of when someone knocks on the car window with a weapon. The main character then looks at the weapon with pure fear on her face. The scene then plays in reverse from this point, so audiences are pulled in as they want to learn who the person is that knocked on the window, why the girl was so scared, and are they going to use the weapon against her.

The audience is then taken through the scene backwards ending with a point of view shot from the character in the boot of the car though we don't see who it is, the shot will be of the main female about to close the boot of the car.

The reversing of the scene makes audiences aware they are going to be taken back through what happened, as we are using the technique by showing the end of the film at the beginning so the audience will want to watch and find out how they got there. 

Characters: 

There are three characters in the opening sequence but only one of them is actually seen by the audience. 

The leading female is the only character seen as she addresses the audience. She is shown as a delicate and vulnerable person who is in a state of fear, we want the audience to connect with her and sympathise her. If it were a feature length film we would reveal that the girl is actually very disturbing making the audience feel guilty for sympathising her. 

The second character is another young character we hear calling from the boot of the car. The character is very two dimensional in the opening sequence as we know very little about them.

The third character is suggested to be threatening as we only see a hand and weapon and the main character is terrified of them. the audience aren't aware of their gender, personality or background and we suggest that this character is someone they're not in the opening sequence.

Props/costumes: 

There will be very few props needed for our opening sequence as the whole scene takes place in one location. Props that will be needed are bloody clothing, a possible weapon and strands of hair. We will also need a prop for the third villain character to use as a weapon to knock on the window.

Again as there are so few characters the costumes only need to be simple. the leading female will possible need to wear casual clothes, maybe torn to suggest she's been in a struggle with blood spots, smudged make-up and her hair tousled as though suggesting something sinister has recently happened. The third villain character will also need costume to obscure their hand so it's unclear whether they are female or male.


Through the costume we can suggest that something is not right and drop subtle hints to the audience

Locations/Settings: 

The opening sequence takes place in one location. The scene takes place in a car, however it will need to be parked in a slightly deserted car park, however this will be easy to come across especially as the scene takes place late in the evening.