SJFO pitch presentation

2. What is your final film idea?
Although we each had separate ideas which all sounded really
good, we couldn’t find a way to link them together and create a
final idea with an interesting synopsis.
However, after doing some research into existing movies (from
the PowerPoint's we each made) we realised some overlaps in
conventions. We also found relevant information within our
survey’s and this created the links between our ideas.

3. What is your final film idea? Why did you pick it?
We all agreed that our final idea would be about a psychopath
(being our protagonist) who was bullied in high school. This will
be brought out through the a series of montages and flashbacks.
In the present day, our protagonist will be taking revenge on
those who bullied him in high school by torturing them and
giving them a slow and painful death. The protagonist will be
unknown throughout the opening sequence to create mystery and
screen tension.

4. What is your genre?
We decided as a group to use the genre of crime/psychological
thriller as this seemed to be the most popular sub genre of a
thriller film. This was voted the most popular genre within our
survey and we decided as a group this would be the best genre
and we came up with some exciting ideas to use within the
sequence.

5. What key conventions are you going to use? Link to research.
Due to our selection of the genre crime/psychological thriller, we had
to consider including conventions which would exist in this type of
genre. The following are these conventions:
• Introduction of protagonist
• Low-key lighting/shadows
• Flashbacks
• Fast-paced editing
• Weapons (preferably sharp)
• Productions logo
• Blood
• Close ups
• Vagueness

6. What key conventions are you going to use? Link to research.
• Production Logo
The opening sequences to all movies have a production logo. Thus, to
add to the verisimilitude since it’s a fundamental convention
(regardless of the genre), we will include this in our opening sequence.
• Blood and Close ups (use of props)
The close ups will be part of a bigger picture/situation. For example,
we may use a leaking sandwich bag of fake blood which drops onto a
puddle on the floor. The bag will obviously not be shown as the close
up would be of the puddle.

7. What key conventions are you going to use? Link to research.
• Vagueness
The use of close ups, previously talked about, will have vague
elements. Furthermore, avoiding the filming of the protagonists’ face
creates vagueness and causes the audience to ask questions. Also, it
adds to the mystery which is a typical thriller convention
• Introduction of protagonist
Using low angles, the characterisation of the protagonist will be
developed. I.e. he will come across as superior and in control of the
situation and the audience will see him this way.

8. What key conventions are you going to use? Link to research.
• Low-key lighting
We aim to create a scene with low-key lighting since this is a very
effective convention in a thriller movie that adds to the suspicious and
eerie vibe given off. We aim to pull this off by filming indoors and
blocking doors and windows with black paper/sheets. This will darken
the room and give that mysterious feel.
• Flashbacks
The flashbacks will give an insight into the motive and reasoning behind
the torture and murdering. We will change the saturation and edit the
video to make it seem like a flashback.

9. What key conventions are you going to use? Link to research.
• Fast-paced editing
Editing will go from fast forwarded/speeding up to normal or slow
motion. For example, if the camera is creating a POV shot and following
a woman walking down an alley, we speed up editing to when camera is
directly behind the woman. This should disorientate the audience.
• Weapons
Use props which connote danger to have the audience link the protagonist
with danger (further characterisation of protagonist) and have them asking
questions

10. What characters will be shown?
• Protagonist – psychopath (previous victim)
• Woman – victim (previous bully)
• Other characters/woman’s friends (other previous bullies)
The opening sequence will be shown from the protagonist’s point of
view as he is shown collecting information and photographs of a young
woman (the victim stated above). Through the montage of shots and the
cross cuts between the flashbacks and present day, the audience should
understand the situation.

11. How does the protagonist compare to ‘real’ characters from the
genre?
We would most likely compare our main character to the serial
killer from the movie Se7en, a cunning and evil psychopath. We
will present the man negatively through the use of camera shots
and low-key lighting to show his darkness and inner evil. In the
movie shutter island the main character who is played by
Leonardo Dicaprio is a psychopath who kills his wife which is
revealed in a plot twist towards the end of the film. The film used
lots of cliffhangers and thriller genre conventions which we will
also being using to create suspense and mystery.

12. What will be your visual style (mise-en-scene, camera, editing)?
Discus some elements and explain why you have chosen them.
The following are some of the visual style elements we are to use…
Our overall visual style will include dark colours and low-key lighting
since this creates the mysterious vibe mentioned earlier.
Non diegetic soundtrack to accompany our use of close-ups and shaky
hand-held camera shots will build suspense and fear.

13. We will also use mise-en-scene elements such as blood which
connotes danger and rope to connote torture and other thriller
conventions.
We will create the movie scary but interesting, encouraging the
audience to want more. We will use the editing technique of cross-
cutting camera shots, as mentioned earlier, to allow the audience to
make links and understand the storyline.
We have chosen these since we have realised many of these
elements have been used in successful thriller movies and our
target audience believe many of these make up good thriller movie.

14. Our final idea has been influenced by the audience through the use of
our ideas mixed with the answers to our survey questions. For example,
when we first chose our movie genre we settled on the idea of a
psychological thriller but after receiving the feedback from the survey
from our target audience we decided to change the genre to
psychological/crime thriller as this was voted the most popular. We
also used various other answers from our survey to adapt our ideas to
what our target audience would like to see within the movie and to fit
their specific choices

15. Overall our film is going to be unique because we are planning on
centrering it on a protagonist who plots to torture old enemies from
his past, of which we will show how he has come to despise them.
We think continuously showing the past and cross cutting to the
present will create screen tension and mystery.
Another selling point is having minimal dialogue and instead having
the story told through flashbacks and the emotions of characters. Our
movie will be unique and like no other since dialogue often plays a
huge part in telling the story.