The document provides a pitch for a 2-minute opening sequence for a psychological thriller film called "Paralysis". The sequence will introduce the main character, a teenage girl who suffers from sleep paralysis. It will show her experiencing an episode of sleep paralysis in which she dreams an intruder is in her house. Upon waking, she will discover things have been moved, hinting someone may actually be there. The sequence aims to set up the plot and leave the audience wondering if it was just a dream or reality. Locations, characters, genre conventions, and creative choices for filming and editing are discussed to bring this sequence to life convincingly.

1. THE PITCH
PARALYSIS
BY ZACK, ZAIN, LAUREN AND KEZIA

2. GENREOur Sub genre is PsychologicalThriller
“Psychological thriller is a thriller story which emphasizes the
abnormal psychological states of its characters. ... Psychological
thrillers often incorporate elements of and overlap with mystery,
drama, action, slasher and horror (particularly psychological
horror).”Eg. Black swan, Shutter Island, Inspection, Gone girl and
many more.

3. Overview
Our Film is called Paralysis
• It is about a teenage girl who suffers from sleep paralysis.
• (“Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which an individual, either during falling asleep
or awakening, briefly experiences an inability to move, speak, or react.This is a
transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by an inability to
move muscles.”)
Plot sequence
• The character in the opening scenes is dreaming about a situation that happened
that puts her on edge, she then wakes up and starts to notice a few things out of
place, its then revelled that she is not alone in the house and that the person in her
house was there the day that she was dreaming about, the day that she hurt herself.
• Things then pick up when she realises that she is not alone.
• Towards the end of the scenes she has one of her paralysis episodes whilst trying to
escape from the guy in her house, she then wakes up, recovers from her episode and
then realises that it was just a dream and that she is alone in the house She is not
aware that it wasn’t a dream and that there actually is a guy in her house trying to
harm her.

4. Locations • The location of our interior for our film will
be in castle field house, where we will make
up the room to match the characters
bedroom/personality
• For the exterior we will be using the outside
of the college grounds and around castle
field house for certain scenes.To make it
look more realistic/believable to the
audience
• As we are only filming on the college
grounds we already have permission to film
where we plan to.

5. Structure
• Act 1: Act one of our opening will be the start of our movie.It will begin with our main
character is attempting to go to sleep and her sleep paralysis will begin. It will also be
during her dream so the audience will be able to see what is happening during the
characters sleep paralysis.
• Act 2:Act two will begin with the main characters sleep paralysis and when she is
waking up from it. It will also show her realising that things around her have moved. It
will continue as things in her dream might be happening for real.
• Act 3: Act three is the final act in our opening sequence and key part for the rest of the
movie to go well. In act three the main character will realise that there is someone in
her house and they are after her.This will help the plot continue through out the rest of
the movie.
• Key dramatic Moment?What?When?:The key dramatic moment in our opening
sequence would be in act 3 when our main character realises that there is someone
after.This is a key moment as it shows what will be happening through out the rest of
the movie and it helps the plot to develop.

6. REPRESENTATIONS
• In our film we will be representing gender that stereotypically
would be seen within psychological thrillers through
clothing/makeup/ character personality e.gWomen wearing bright
colours/white to show purity/innocence and to show that she is the
protagonist
• We will also be representing age as the main character is a
teenager and there is varied amount of stereotypes with teenagers
as they are seen as rebels/ defiant towards elders
• Furthermore we will use typical codes and conventions of
psychological thrillers throughout our film

7. How?
• Genre conventions -
Set in a city or inside a building, antagonist clothing=dark, protagonist
clothing=bright, low level lighting for tension/mystery props used as clues to
get the audience to guess what's going to happen, high tension music –
soundtrack usually matches what is seen within the frame, mixes of shots,
quick/slow motion/fast past editing, flashbacks, etc.
• Mood/Atmosphere creation -
To create tension and mystery throughout the film.

8. How?
Mise en
scene• Setting – a teenage girls bedroom and what she envisions during her 'paralysis' e.g. walking home near a
woods; this is set in the modern day.
• Props – prop requests? Mirror, mask for antagonist? Items that are going to be clues to show that someone
is in the house e.g. frame, glass of water, poster, books and necklace.
• Lighting – we will use low-key lighting when she is in 'paralysis' as this is a code for the thriller genre, as it
creates tension and mystery. We can also do this when we are editing by adding a filter to show when she is
dreaming and when she is not.
• Costume/makeup - both characters will have natural makeup.Teen girl costume is conventional style for
teens within the modern day, like jeans and top.Whilst sleeping she will be wearing pyjamas; so this will
show when she is in a dream. Also this would be bright as they are showing the opposite to the antagonist.
So, the antagonist is going to wear something dark, as this creates tension and mystery.
• Performance and proxemics – the teen girl will be acting the naturalistic but also different because of the
paralysis.The antagonist will be mysterious and dangerous.They will also be shown close and far from each
other as the antagonist is trying to 'hurt' the teen girl

9. Camerawork
Genre conventions?
• High and low angle
Used quite frequently in theThriller genre, they are very effective in portraying to the audience the dominance
of each character. So for our opening sequence we could have a low angle for the villain to show power, and a
high angle shot on the victim to emphasise vulnerability and weakness
• Mixes of shots - e.g. changing from close up to mid shot.
• Generally set inside – Our film will have interior shots of castle field house
POV?
In our opening sequence, we will be using POV for effect in showing the audience the victims perspective. For
example: In the victims flashbacks and dreams , using POV shots will make it clear to the audience that it is not
in fact the characters reality, because you generally view your own perspective in nightmares you experience.
Particular key shots?
• Mirror shot – For example the Black swan mirror scare scene.
• In this scene the character is getting fitted for her costume and looks in the mirror and sees multiple of her
self but one is out of place and not the same as her reflection. Instead of our character seeing herself she sees
the villain that is tormenting her but she cant get away because she is having one of her paralysis episodes.
This can be linking with a psychological thriller as it’s the mind playing games with the character and not
reality like you would see in a genre such a horror.

10. Sound • We will be using mostly non- diegetic
sounds such as sound effects and
tension building soundtracks for effect
where appropriate with what’s being
revealed in the frame.
• Our opening sequence will have
minimal dialogue, we won’t be using a
voice over meaning we are not going to
use a script.

11. Post production
• Any ideas about editing, sound, sfx, titles?
• For the first part of the two minute opening for the scenes when the flash backs are
happening we had the idea to put a filter on the scene to make it look more like a
flashback/dream
• We also wanted to make it so that whilst the character is in the flashback it will be a
POV shot and when needed a middle shot to show what the character cannot see but
the audience can
• Within psychological thrillers the sound is rather important because of the fact that the
music builds up with the suspense that is occurring within the different scenes/ we
would have to use music that puts the audience on edge
•

12. Influences from research
• The scene from 'Black swan' in the mirror.
• Other student work
• Arlington road opening scene

13. Feedback
on pitch
After presenting our pitch to the class they gave us feedback on our pitch.
Positives
-Plot like one of a real film
-Ideas that we have props go very well with the way we intend to use them
Negatives
-The plot is quite confusing, audience may get confused as to what is happening- with this
point we will try and make each scene less confusing towards the audience, we will do this by
making it clear when she is awake, when she is asleep and we will also try to make the plot less
complex so that it is easier to follow.
-There is loads happening we may not be able to fit it all into 2 minutes- to solve this we might
have to cut a lot of what we already have as it may be harder to fit it all in the specific amount
of time. In order t make it all fit in we had an idea to do an Arlington road style scene so that we
can fit it all in but at a fast pace.