Megan had a troubled childhood and turned to prostitution to survive when she left home. Her life as a prostitute became dangerous as she was constantly abused. Due to her traumatic past and current situation, Megan developed a hatred for men. She began killing her clients by shooting them. She would then steal their possessions and money. Megan killed five men over the course of a year before being identified through fingerprints and recognized on security footage. Although she claimed self-defense, Megan was convicted and faced the death penalty.

1. By Jemima Wright
PLOT NARRATIVE

2. BASIC SYNOPSIS
Megan experienced a troubled childhood of neglect and abuse, when she finally left her hometown to discover
herself and free herself from the burden of her past she found herself alone, broke with no means to survive. As
a result of this she turned to hitchhiking for transport and prostitution for her essentials to survive.
Life as a prostitute became extremely sinister for Megan, she was constantly beaten and raped and although
financially she could be raking in up to £300 a day, her mental state was far from rich. Combined with her bad
memories of her brothers and dad from her childhood and her current situation, she had grown a hatred for
men, she despised everything about the.
Her psychiatric state had eroded, her hatred had built up, her need to survive started to thrive on revenge and
her career underwent a few changes. Megan would get picked up from the side of the road by her clients of
whom were usually middle aged business men or labourers. They would drive to a quiet place which was in
most cases the enclosed woods just 1 mile away from civilisation. When the car stopped and intercourse was
due to take place and the male would start to touch her and attempt to engage in sexual activity, Megan would
shoot them with her shot gun and murder them in cold blood. In some cases they would go to the male house or
private property and the same events would occur. She would then steal their valuable possessions to sell at
pawn shops and take their money in order to gain her profit and pay her rent every month. The would take
their bodies, sometimes strip them and leave them in hidden places, for example in a ditch at the side of a
motor way or deep in the woods buried with leaves.
Megan killed 5 men in the space of one year and there bodies were not found until months after the attacks
happened, this is where a case started to take place and connections were made between the murders. For
example they were all shot by the same shot gun and gun wounds were found around the torso and head.
Finally her fingerprints were found in the victims cars and her face was recognised in the pawn shops where the
males possessions were found, they had enough evidence to make an arrest. Although Megan denied charges
of murder and claimed it was all in self defence of the men raping her and taking advantage. However she was
convicted and faced the death penalty.

3. HOW IM GOING TO PORTRAY THIS IN MY TRAILER?
It is absolutely crucial that I do not give to much of the narrative away in my trailer, however it important to
plant clues within so the plot looks full of depth and interest. I have to be clever when recording my trailer to
make sure the storyline doesn’t look simple and straight cut so therefore I will have to incorporate misleading
footage. This is my basic outline of trailer, I will give you a more detailed on when I come to create my story
board;
• The establishing shots of my trailer will be of my protagonist, in her day to day life. This could include her
walking down an alley, drinking in a bar, sitting at home alone doing drugs, having a bath. This will almost
set the seen to the audience can gather as to what kind of person she is.
• When the character is established, I am going to show her ‘in action’ standing at the side of a road. As we
see the journey from a variety of point of view shots and long shots, it is going to be clear she is on a job.
This is where more sinister elements are incorporated I am going to show flash cutting of her being
abused, this will link back to her when she was younger, leading the audience to believe that she is the
real victim in the film and therefore planting a seed.
• I am going to incorporate part of the male driver combined with shots of her being touched, this will
insinuate that he is going to abuse her. From a wide shot of the car, the audience will be able to hear a
gunshot, the audience will be left ignorant as to who has died.
• This is where to action picks up and more thriller conventions are incorporated such as fast paced editing,
I will show a variety of shots of which will confuse the audience such as someone washing blood of their
hands, stilettos walking down a road, different cutaways shots of a corpse, a shotgun and so on.
• The main aim for my trailer is not to tell the story line, I want them to be clear that my film is based on a
prostitute who has clearly suffered some abuse, I also want it to be insinuated that she may be involved in
killings although this wont be directly told to the audience.

4. TODOROVS THEORY
• A state of equilibrium
• A disruption of the equilibrium
• Recognition that the disruption has occurred
• An attempt to repair the damage
• Restoration of a new equilibrium
In my trailer I am intending to show a state of equilibrium at the beginning, this is where we will see the main
protagonist living an ordinary life, as a result it will give the audience a sense of reassurance at the beginning
of the trailer. I think if my trailer were to go straight into the disruption of the equalibrium, then it would disable
me from creating any suspense and therefore my trailer would simply be filled with action and the narrative and
thriller elements would get lost within in it. The disruption of the equalibrium will start to occur through the flash
cutting of her being tortured and abused and also shots of a gun and the murder scenes, this will leave the
audience confused as to who's actually disrupted the equilibrium, is it her or her clients? I hope to portray the
recognition of the disruption through a voice over of a news reporter claiming that bodies have been found, this
will add a sense of realism to my trailer and is likely to add a chilling touch as the audience may believe it is
based on true events. I could also incorporate an attempt to repair the equalibrium by showing a variety of
shots of a crime scene, including finger prints and equipment. Finally I definitely will not show a restoration of a
new equilibrium, this is because I don’t want to reveal to much and I want the audience to keep wondering as to
how the movie concludes. If I were to include it in my trailer then the novelty would be ruined and the suspense
would be gone, it is important to leave the audience wondering who committed these crimes and if they got
away with it.

5. BARTHES THEORY
Barthes believed that every media text is like a tangled ball of thread, when you untangle to ball, multiple
meanings can then be depicted from it. You can look at a text from one perspective and viewpoint and gain a one
meaning, however you can look at it from a different angle and gain completely different meaning from the same
text. He broke a text down into 5 codes which can be built into any narrative;
1. The hermeneutic code; avoids revealing the truth by withholding facts and adding subtle clues.
2. The Enigma code; The way tension is created, leaving the audience to make predictions
3. The symbolic code; Any element which suggests an additional or alternative connotation
4. The cultural code; New meanings arising from conflicting or opposing ideas
5. The semantic code; Plays around with the audiences prior cultural knowledge, morality or ideology.
I intend to include elements of each of these codes, however there are a few I am definitely going to place more of
an emphasis on. The hermeneutic code will be present throughout, this is a vital element of my trailer as I do not
what the audience to leave knowing what's going to happen, I want to ensure they are mislead and believe
alternative things are going to happen through the subtle clues misleading them to believe different things. The
enigma code is also a key aspect as tension is absolutely vital in thriller films as its what unsettles the audience
and makes them feel on edge. As I mentioned before about the audience having multiple interpetations, it is
important for me that people do make predictions, this is because when they go to actually watch the film they will
be surprised. The symbolic code will be present through the disorientating flash cutting I use as they will be of
items which they audience believe have no relevance to the plot, however they may change their ideas completely.

6. STRAUSS’ THEORY
Levi Strauss proposed an idea that the way we understand a word is not due to our understanding of
that words meaning, however the big difference between the word and its opposite. He believed all
narratives are built around conflict of these oppositions. There are a variety of ways I want to include this
idea into my trailer;
• The idea of ‘strong vs weak’ between the protagonist and her male abusers
• The idea of ‘good vs evil’ as she is painted in a more positive light at the beginning, we almost feel
sorry for her, however elements of evil are shown to us.
• The idea of ‘Men vs women’ is going to play a key role in my trailer as they are in clear oppositions
of each other so it is important I emphasis that.
• The idea of ‘Sane vs insane’ this is going to be a tricky aspect to include as what is in fact reality is
not going to be betrayed to the audience, by that I mean even though she is insane I need to still
portray a sane character profile but slyly hint her insanity through mis-en-scene and facial
expressions.
• The idea of ‘poor vs rich’ I want to emphasis the wealth of her clients by showing how bad her
financial position is, hence why she's doing this as a job in the first place. This can be hinted by
meticulous selection of miss-en-scene.
• The idea of ‘happiness vs sadness’ I want to show the difference between the sadness and pain she
experiences being the victim and the thrill she gets from being the agressor.