General Survey Results / Mini Pitch Natalia Compa

The results that I have obtained from my survey have shown me that the majority of 17-20 year old's enjoy action / adventure films and they are all mainly informed about films through trailers. Everyone agreed that the storyline stand out the most in thrillers and that the credits are not too important. In their opinions, music creates the most suspense in thrillers and the best way to start a thriller is with flashbacks, while some others chose action. Majority said that an introduction to characters is not too important in the opening.

I will be creating an idea for an opening to a thriller based on the results from the survey which I composed, aiming to create something for an audience aged between 17-20, as the majority agreed that a thriller based on psychological issues would appeal to them the most, with teenagers and drugs coming up second; I merged the two together and came up with the storyline.

Title: psycho-teen
A group of about 5 teenagers, aged 17 and located in London had come across drugs for the first time at a festival about 6 months before where they are now (as the opening will be based on current time) their experience was frightening though magical at the same time. Since then these teenagers have taken many more drugs, and it is gradually becoming a regular thing for this group, this introduction has brought many arguments and anti-social behaviour to this group who were quite civil before. As some have fallen out, others left the friendship group while the rest were being taken over by drugs. They've encountered many problems on the way with parents, police and drug dealers. On a few occasions the use of drugs became slightly out of hand and the teenagers were not taking it too well, with violence and sickness. Eventually one girl ended up in hospital, with serious injuries and was strapped up to life support, at this point they owed some people money which carried on building up. This left the rest of the group in a lot of danger, the drugs began to eat into their minds and they became very delusional however they never stopped taking drugs. People started to notice their behaviour and informed their parents and police about it, the teenagers could not take control of their own bodies. One evening they decided to go to an abandoned building, the police became aware of their location, of course they were doing drugs. It became silent and very suspicious until the police broke in, the teenagers made a run for it into a forest. They had used a large amount of drugs, became unaware of their surroundings. They found themselves in cells the next morning.

Visuals:
Most filming will be located around London, and it's outskirts showing the contrast between the two. I want to capture the busy life that Central London creates. But I also want to capture the hidden areas of London that aren't so popular, where the teenagers are hanging out. E.g. parks
Lighting will vary throughout, during actions scenes, lighting will be low-key to create suspense and an eerie atmosphere, whereas scenes during the day there will be natural lighting and during the night it will be dark with artificial lights (e.g. lampposts) to show a contrast between London at night and day.
Costume will be quite basic to start off with, jeans and tees. As the opening progresses costume might become more revealing as the teens take more drugs and become more violent and misbehaved.
Make-up on females will work similarly to costume, normal day make up at the beginning, as it progresses darker and more make up will be used e.g. dark lipstick and dark eye make up
As introduction to characters is less important to audience, we will focus more so on camera shots and angles rather than specifically filming the actors and their lives.
Close ups on teenagers to show difference between how they start and finish, to show differences in make up and facial expressions. Special FX make up will be used to create more believable wounds.
Within editing there will be many jump cuts especially during the action scenes to increase the pace and intensity of the film, almost building up to a climax.
In terms of music we will use tracks which are popular within the audiences who will be watching our opening do that they can become more immersed in our opening, these tracks will play quietly under the action or the dialogue, the audience will be able to relate to our opening and will enjoy watching as they would be eager to find out more.
Sounds effects of police sirens may be used to help create more believable crime scenes.