Rationale behind final 'Thriller' plot

We thought it would be best to both approach out final thriller pitch by each creating our own idea and concept of what we personally would like to have seen included in our thriller. By individually creating an idea from scratch it allowed us to clearly present our idea in detail and then compare, contrast and most importantly understand what we each wanted the thriller be. This is exactly what we did and for good reason, we were able to see clearly what each other wanted to be included within our piece. After hearing both ideas we picked out what we liked and disliked and from that were able to combine the best from both, which eventually built up to create our final thriller pitch. 

My idea focused mainly on the effects of drug abuse. I decided this would make for a good thriller as I could use typical thriller conventions such as flash backs and black outs to help create the atmosphere and build up tension and suspense, effectively killing two birds with one stone.  A simple idea that could incorporate a wide variety of shot types and angles very easily and most importantly effectively. Lorry’s idea was more typical to the thriller genre using common conventions such as a dark, shady killer, cold dark surroundings and victim casually going about his day unaware of the terror about to unfold. Although the idea was simple, he had included some very unique and clever ideas and after a ten minute discussion we decided to go with the main plot of my idea with the addition of different points of suspense creating moments in his. Doing this allowed  us to create our final thriller pitch and both be satisfied with the end result evenly contributing to the piece... smart thinking as any issues we may have had could have proved disastrous on the set filming days.

It is because of this we were able to come up with a clever and effective plot that we hoped would keep our target audience engaged.

Steven & laurence, Thriller break down, plot and script

Scene 1: Steven’s conservatory                                                                3 characters total

                                                                                                                   John- Jake

1, multiple shots of Ryan working                                                                 James- Lorry

                                                                                                                   Ryan- Steven

Outside shot

Inside shot

Kitchen window shot

2, character appears fine, normality, quiet

First flash back

Second flash back

Third flash back

3, first flash back

Running through the woods, high speed, multiple angles

Over head

4, cuts back to conservatory,

Character begins to look distort, worried, phased

5, Second flash back

Running, first person shot, breathing heavily, looking about frantically

6, Cuts back to conservatory

Close up of Character, eyes, book, losing focus

7, final flash back

Side angle, branch brakes beneath feat whilst running, trips falls, close up, fade to black

Scene 2:  wood Ponds? Cold, bright, normality

1, pan shot of pond, fishing, camp

3 characters sitting around camp, fishing, quiet, peaceful

2, second character reveals a small bottle containing unknown pills

Script:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

James - (revealing bottle of pills) I picked these babies up off a friend up In Stamford

Ryan - so this was the little surprise you were talking about earlier

John - What surprise, what are you guys talking about!?

James - (shows john the bottle) now I’ve been told they got quite a kick, so if your too much of a pussy john, u can fuck off now

John - (hesitant, cautious, looks at Ryan) Ryan, a.a.are you sure we should be doing this?, I don’t like this at all

Ryan - (grabs the pills of James) quit being such a little fag john, u gotta try everything once right? (opens bottle,  hands James one, holds another out to john)

John - …

Ryan – You gunna take it then? (john reluctantly takes the pill from Ryan)

James – atta boy, guess you’re not such a massive fag after all…

Close up of the three characters hands, with a small white pill in each, camera rotates around the three characters, they take the pill

3, Cuts to black

4, first person shot, vision blurry, Ryan laying on the floor, looks about

Ryan sees john with a fishing knife held to James’s neck against a tree, fades to black (losing consciousness)

5, ( Ryan regains consciousness) first person shot, camp is destroyed, no sign of James, blood in the water

John walking over slowly, close up of knife by his side covered in blood, Ryan’s vision begins to blur and fade again as he losses consciousness)

6, Ryan back in the conservatory, he looks down, and reveals a clean shiny knife, runs his fingers along the blade, a single tear rolls down his face and hits the blade, cuts to black

The END

Power point - Thriller plot ideas (from bottom - up)

Vertigo Films (UK)

Vertigo Films UK

In 2002, Vertigo Films was created by producers Allan Niblo (producer of Human Traffic and South West 9), James Richardson (producer of Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang)), director Nick Love(screenwriter and, prior to company formation, director of Goodbye Charlie Bright and The Football Factory), distributor Rupert Preston (distributor of Chopper, Chasing Amy and Bride of Chucky, among others), and entrepreneur Rob Morgan. The company was formed for the express purpose of distributing and producing two films, The Football Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong; its current stated goal is to produce and distribute four films per year.

I have selected vertigo films (UK) for the distribution of our thriller for a verity of reasons. Firstly it is a UK based film company which for obvious reasons is a good starting point. This company has also released a multitude of films that relate to our thriller, the most obvious being ‘Shrooms’ (2006) a film also based around the psychological effects that drugs can have on one’s mind.  ‘Shrooms’& ‘Monsters’ are just two thrilling films vertigo films have distributed and I think our thriller could do very well with this company. It would however be difficult to use this company to distribute our film as it is only a short two minuet trailer & Vertigo films only distribute four films a year.