Media 6F yellow group film opening pitch.

1. The Pitch For
‘stranger mind’
6F YELLOW GROUP

2. Overview
 Our sub-genre is Psychological Thriller
 The simple plot of our opening is about a girl walking home
from school who feels like she is being followed.
 Our film will contain themes of insecurity, danger and
madness.

3. Locations
 For an interior setting we are going to use Castlefield house as one
of our locations as that’ll appear to be the main characters house in
the film.
 We will use different areas from inside of the house to show that its
an ordinary home that the person lives in; which is why we’ll use and
have shots in the bathroom, bedroom, and living room.
 For exterior settings we are going to have shots of the main
character walking down a road and looking very worried as they think
they’re being followed by someone, so we will use various shots and
effects to show how nervous she is when walking down the road.
 We will also use a shot of her walking into her house to show that
she’s home and back at her house as she uses a key to open the
door.

4. Structure
 Act 1 – in the first act the audience will see the girl that is the main character walking down a road to go
home where she is frantically looking around at everything and at every car passing by to see if she’s being
followed by the person that she thinks is coming to get her. There is various shots and effects in this to show
how nervous and worried she is, whilst also using it to bring out the psychological part of this thriller to try
and show what she’s thinking.
 Act 2 – in the second act we see her arrive home and she is still panicking. She looks in every room to make
sure no one is there. She goes into the bathroom to wash her face and when she looks in the mirror she
sees a mysterious figure behind her, but when she turns around there is no one there. She calls her friend to
come round and she is scared.
 Act 3 – her friend come round to comfort her and tries to calm her
down telling her that the person isn’t real. Her friend tells
her she needs to stop behaving the way she is before she
gets herself into even more trouble. The friend leaves her as
she goes to sleep but when she wakes up again there is a large
mysterious figure looming over her.
 Key dramatic moment – this comes at the end when the girl
opens her eyes and looks at the person from a POV
shot, but is it real or is she just dreaming about it? Is the person
actually there?

5. Represetation:characters
 The Girl - the main character in the film. She is the
protagonist, and throughout the opening hints at signs of
mental instability
 The follower - never fully seen, this character follows the girl
home. The films antagonist, is unclear whether the character
exists beyond the girls mind.
 Friend - heard briefly during a phone call, helps develop girls
character and offers insight into the girls mental health state.

6. How?
 The genre conventions for a psychological thriller are: Dark lighting, character
driven, ambiguous plot, intense scenes.
 Target audience: Psychological thrillers tend to be aimed at 51% male and
49% female viewers. Despite this statistic, females are generally more
interested in the genre. This is why we have a female main character, so a
majority of the audience can feel relatable to the character. Most films of this
genre are certificate 18, however people in the age range of 25 and under
make up a large percentage of viewership. Because of this our film is aiming
to receive a certificate15 rating by the BFI (British Film Institute).
 We are aiming to build and create lots of suspense. We are aiming to create
an intense atmosphere which will ensure viewers cannot look away from the
screen as they are hooked in the entertainment unfolding before their very
eyes. As the tension builds, their interests will reach sky high and begin to
climb towards its peak. When all the tension is released during the phone call
scene, the audience will breathe out a deep sigh of relief as they appreciate
the brief escape from the action.

7. How? Mise en Scene
Set/location
 The location of our psychological thriller will begin in the grounds and outside of college showing
the characters journey walking home. Our film will also be set in case grounds house which will
represent the characters house. Our film will be filmed in the day time and will represent tense.
Costume
 The unidentified man will be dressed in dark, black clothing representing the nature of him. The girl will
be dressed in ordinary every day clothing depicting her normality.
Characters
 One character will be male, he will be a man so middle aged, but unidentified through the film, no real
shot of his appearance. He will have unnerving mannerisms and unusual body language depicting his
abnormality. His voice will not be revealed he won't be included in dialogue. The audience will be able to
tell how the man is watching and following the girl by the way he is positioned in relation to her as well
as the sightings we get of him. The girl will be a teenager who shows vulnerable and anxious behavior,
she's aware she's being followed we can tell this by her jumpy, on edge mannerisms. Her observing
actions show she feels she is threatened or in danger. when we hear her voice its tone and volume will
depict her mood and emotion. We can tell she's being followed by the relation and positioning between
her and the man.
Setting-
 Castle field house/around the college grounds/next to a road
 rooms; bedroom, toilet, sitting room
Props:
 Mirror
 Mobile phone
 Car
 Front door
 Sofa
 Window
 House hold objects- domestic setting

8. How? Camerawork
 In thrillers there’s usually a lot of shaky camerawork to create
tension and to give off a mysterious feeling to the audience.
Different angles and shots will be used along with special
effects in the editing of it so that it becomes as intense as
possible to show that its clearly a psychological thriller.
 We will be using the POV shot when the girl wakes up from her
sleep where she then thinks she sees the mysterious man.
 We’re going to use long shots to establish the setting and show
where the characters are. As well as this we’re going to get
medium shots of the main girl so that the audience can clearly
see who she is and become familiar with how she looks.
Furthermore, we will get extreme close ups of the mysterious
man so that the audience can see him but can see his whole
face so that it creates more of an intense atmosphere around
him.

9. Sound
Diegetic – Our opening sequence will include the following diegetic sound:
 Car engine (as if its driving)
 Phone calling tone
 Footsteps quickening in pace
 Water running
 Loud knocks on the door
Including these sound effects will enhance the sense of realism in the sequence and helps the
audience to become more immersed.
Dialogue – We will include dialogue in these instances:
 A short phone conversation between our main character and her friend as she’s walking home
 A startled gasp from the main character as the door knocks suddenly
 Another small reassuring conversation between the main character and her friend.
These small sections of dialogue in the opening sequence will help make it clear that the audience
should question whether the person following her is actually real and the conversation at the end
gives the audience a false sense of security
Non-Diegetic: The Non Diegetic sound we will be using will mainly be an ambient/ suspenseful track
with no melody which will be playing alongside the visuals. This will help to increase the
uncomfortable and tense atmosphere we are aiming for.

10. Post production
 We will edit it to make it look even more intense and mysterious so that we
have clear conventions of thrillers in the film opening. For example, we
might use special effects to change the lighting of the shot to make it more
eary.
 We will add in different sounds and music to create suspense in intense
moments so it gives the audience a nervous feeling as they will be worried
over whatever is going to happen next.
 We will have titles put into it in the first act of the scene to get them out the
way. We will incorporate the titles in with what's going on in the scene and
make the titles look relevant to the film as well.

11. Influences from research
 We have taken our main influence from the film opening of the film Zodiac
(Directed by David Fincher)
 The opening follows a couple as they are being followed, and one is eventually
killed and the other seriously injured.
 Although our film opening contains no violence, we still want to take inspiration
from the techniques used when the characters feel uneasy that they are being
followed.
 The film used low key lighting, echoed sound, jumping scale of sound,
shadows on the character's hiding identity and emotion, panning shots, and
the main antagonists identity being hidden by shadows.