Chasers Production is a newly established film company focused on a psychological thriller titled 'Conscience', featuring a troubled character named Katie Hale. The film explores themes of trauma and mental illness through flashbacks, and is targeted primarily at an audience aged 15-24. The production plans to utilize specific locations and techniques informed by research on existing thrillers to create an engaging opening sequence.

1. Chasers Production
We have come up with the production company name of Chasers
production. We chose this name after we researched pre existing company
names such as Dreamworks and Marvel, and we liked the way they had
one short sharp word. Also the word ‘Chasers’ coincides with our
psychology thriller theme.

2. We have researched films which have the same sub genre as
us which is psychological thriller, and have found examples
such as Se7en, Knowing, Shutter Island and Frozen (not
disney). We then decided that ‘conscience’ would be an
appropriate name for our film because it’s highly memorable
and relates to the story line we have in mind.
Conscience

3. • Katie Hale – 17 years old, dark hair, brown eyes, average
teenager. She is quiet and keeps stuff to herself, quite
lonely.
• She is a confused teenager with many issues which
becomes will be made clear in the opening of the film.
Description of key
character

4. • Katie Hale is living in fear of her abusive boyfriend, and keeps
having flashbacks to a night that cannot be forgotten. At this moment
in time the flashbacks seem as though she is a victim and is suffering
from a traumatic experience the audience do not know whether she is
imagining or dreaming this or if it really happened.
• The flashbacks start to become clearer, and suggests that she
murdered her boyfriend out of self defense.
• However, it is then made obvious to the audience that Katie is not a
victim of an abusive relationship but of a mental illness instead, she
never had a boyfriend and was never abused, except she did murder a
male which she believed was her abusive boyfriend.
A brief storyline.

5. • Interior –We are going to film part of our film in Charlie's
house, particularly in the bedroom and the bathroom.
• Exterior –We have chosen to film another part of our opening
in the woods at Priory Park. We chose the woods because it
fit’s the scene perfectly for a specific shot we want.
• Permissions – We don’t need any permissions apart from
Charlie's parents allowing to use the house.
Locations

6. This is the target audience for a thriller
in the cinemas called Black Sea. From
this we can see that the main target age
groups for a thriller is 37% of the
audience is 15-24 year olds, with 25-34
year olds following behind at 29%.
There are 0% 4-14 year old, primarily
because thrillers have a higher age
certificate and parents wouldn’t want
their children to view it.
Also the predominant gender is male
with 60% of viewers. This has helped
us develop our target audience profile
for conscience. For our target audience
it is mainly 15-24, with a mixture of
boys and girls, this is because the main
character in ours is a girl.
This is Tom and he is
our target audience as
he is 18 and a boy.
Target audience profile

7. We have taken elements from many different opening sequences and are
going to incorporate them in to our final piece.
We want to include the titles in to the mise en scene so that it blends into
the background as this has been seen in a lot of thriller openings and seems
to be very effective. We will be using dark effects and lighting to build
intensity and create a scary atmosphere. When filming we will have all
lights on to capture the whole shot as we aren’t using the studio lighting
facilities.
We looked at SE7EN, this influenced us as it has dark lighting which
creates suspense. It also had deep music that played throughout which we
liked. Another opening we looked at was Jacobs ladder. We liked how the
titles were blended into the shot instead of being placed onto the shot it
looked like they were there anyway. However we wanted to add more of
the character into our sequence and Jacobs ladder did not add any
characters which is why we also looked at Shutter Island. It starts without
the character but introduced him at the end which engages the audiences
attention more as it indicates the film has started.
How has our research influenced our ideas?

8. 1. Establishing location and setting. Long shots of house
and long shot of bedroom. Nothing key happens.
2. Character wakes up and gets up as normal. Key
dramatic moment is the two flashbacks she has in the
bathroom but the character continues as normal.
3. Goes downstairs and starts to prepare breakfast. Key
dramatic moment is noticing the object on the kitchen
table she thought she had destroyed.
Structure

9. In our opening we will meet the character and start to give the
audience an insight into the troubles she is experiencing, however
they are unaware of the reason.
We will be showing the audience that she is having a traumatic
time by including a series of flashbacks filmed in the style of
Arlington Road. The flashbacks make the audience question what
has happened to her and why is she having them. She tries to
block the flashbacks out of her mind and ignore them which
suggests to the audience she is trying to forget something but it is
still on her mind. This is where the title makes sense as
something is on her Conscience.
Our opening.

10. We want to make our opening sequence as original as we
can however we also want it to fit with the other thriller
sequences as that is what attracts the target audience we
have researched. We need to include elements of our
research but also make it unique to our ideas and what we
think works well.
Thrillers are a popular genre however they need to cause a
sense of adrenaline for the audience and the audience needs
to be gripped. We don’t want to over complicate our
opening as it is only 2 minutes long but we need it to keep
the audience engaged and keep them watching the film.
How?

11. • Setting: The opening will be filmed in a real house. The house
is in Reigate , surrounded by normal everyday life which adds
a sense of normality.
• Props: As we are filming in a house, getting props will be a lot
easier than filming at college. We need everyday teenage
appliances, clothes, radio, laptop, etc…
• Lighting: All filming will be filmed with lights on, even shots
we want dark. This is because we don’t have the studio
facilities and so we need to make it light so that we can darken
it when it comes to editing whereas if its too dark it will not be
able to be lightened.
How? Mise en scene

12. • A lot of the shots we are creating are close ups, this is
because we are focusing on a particular object a lot of the
time and close ups of an object usually suggest they are
significant.
• Long shots will also be used to establish location and any
room changes so that the audience are not confused.
• As there is only one character we wont need to stick to
the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot as they are only
relevant with more than one character.
How? camerawork

13. • Diegetic sound will be included throughout the opening
sequence. We will need it for when the character opens a
door, walks, turns on a tap, turns on a radio and anything
else that will make a sound coming from the shot.
• Non diegetic sound will also be used. We will have music
playing when a dramatic moment is about to happen, it
will be introduced subtly but as the moment is about to
happen the music will get louder creating a tense
atmosphere. The music will be quite repetitive and played
over to exaggerate the moment.
How? sound

14. • Did the opening make you want to continue watching the
film to find out what happens?
• Did you find the opening sequence engaging and easy to
follow?
• Was the opening sequence similar to those of other
psychological thrillers you have previously watched,
what was the same/different?
Audience feedback