Treatment

TREATMENT:

At the start, all we see is darkness, a deafening silence over powers the scene, until its eventually broken with a women’s breath.  She lights the scene with her cigarette, and inhales deeply and pauses for a moment. All we hear now is the sound of a car passing on the wet road and a black bird singing, it’s becoming dark, and it’s getting late.  The young girl stands alone, her silver hair tied into two cute tails, while the rest of her hair remains down and straight. She’s dressed in a scarf and buttoned coat, wearing placid heads and ripped jeans, she remains still, looking around her as if she’s waiting for something. Next, all we hear is her cigarette bud hitting the ground and her shoe bottom scraping the ground, for her then to walk off and we hear her heels heading into the distance. She heads to her house now, closing in, she opens the front door, but due to being small, with some struggle. Once into her home, she heads to her room, where she sits, all remains still. From here, we have cut shots between what the female character known as EVA and the two kidnappers. At points where one kidnapper ties up her hair, Eva will be taking her two pony tails down. This will create a sense of danger with in natural, due to the fact two such evil people will be casually getting ready as would a young woman, this will create a great establishment of our characters. After a few of these cut shots between the two locations and three characters, it will have a sudden cut after the kidnappers finally get hold of Eva. It’ll then cut straight into a shot of Eva in what seems like a shed, injured and afraid. We’ll conclude with a close up on her blood shot eyes, to create the fear into the shot and to have the audience connect with the character, to then cut into the end to the name title straight after a single tear falls down her bruised blushed cheek.

Taking to influence of films, our film is very like ‘Alice Creed’ which is also a film which a young girl is kidnapped by two men (but in our case, it’s also a women). Like Alice Creed, which is a thriller, of which we are also doing, we have a young girl named Eva, who is kidnapped due to the purpose of payment. Again, our film will be like Alice Creed due to the set pace between cuts and shots, they’ll be quick and fast paced throughout, always letting the audience understand what is happening. Again, the colour pallet of Alice Creed is very musky and cold looking, which ours will also be based upon, due to it being filmed in the dark and in a damp environment. Finally, we’re going to aim for the same idea of their intro by not having any dialect and having the characters and mise en scene establish the scene and feed forward any connotations.

Location Ideas

Thriller Mood Board

 

A Garden Shed – The inside being dirty, dark and damp. Creates an uncomfortable and uneasy atmosphere. Will reflect the tone we want to achieve in our opening. Shed would preferably have no windows with a source of low ambient lighting (i.e lamp). Cluttered shed with a variety of objects that offer possibilities for weapons/or torture.

A full-length mirror – most of shots of the girl in the opening of our thriller will be through the full-length mirror that we want to be in her bedroom or her bathroom.  She will be sat at her mirror taking off her make-up and getting ready for bed in front of this mirror and we will see the assailants appear behind the girl in the mirror. With a full length mirror a shot will be able to include the facial expression of the victim as well as the kidnappers behind her. A larger mirror will also allow us to incorporate objects that tell the audience about the character, i.e flowers or books.

Dust Sheets & plastic gloves – The location the assailants get ready will be covered in see through plastic sheets. This is to make the audience elude to the idea that the kidnappers have made a conscious decision to avoid possible DNA traces of them or their victim, i.e the sheets can be easily gathered and disposed of.  This creates a sinister tone and makes it look like they know what they are doing, which could mean they have committed a similar crime in past. The assailants will wear blue disposable gloves which will

further show that they do not want to traced/detected.

Dark wet street – the girl that is abducted will walk down a road that is artificially lit by street lights after having a cigarette and is heading home. Lighting will create big shadows which should disorientate the audience. We will aim to film when the street is empty to create an eerie feel to the scene. Filming when raining/wet will add an uncomfortable tone and will make the audience feel empathetic towards her.

Characters in our Thriller

Character One:

The focus of the opening of our thriller film is on a character name Eva. She is a young adult living in a house with her parents. This character is anxious and reserved which is shown through her smoking and being alone in the opening. We chose to have this character smoking in first shot as smoking is a common convention of film noir that conveys anxiety. The first location we see Eva go to is her family home. We she her enter the safety of her family home in the first few shots and by the end of the opening she is in a shed which is in an unknown location. The locations alone reflect the change in this character’s emotional state as she gets taken from the safety of her home, which is a clean and pure location, and ends up in a dark gritty shed.

The costume for this character was quite simple with our goal being to establish the comfort of her being in her own home. When the character enters her home she is wearing jeans, a long sleeved top, a scarf and a jacket but when she gets in she changed into baggy tracksuit bottoms and a loose jumper. This brings light to the idea of her feeling comfortable in her home. At home she also removes her makeup and takes down her hair displaying that she is now vulnerable as she is more exposed which emphasises the idea of having a lack of power. This is exactly what we wanted to achieve in the opening of our thriller.

Our Thriller is loosely based on the film ‘Alice Creed’. This character however is not like the girl that gets abducted in Alice Creed. Our character is comes across as more immature and vulnerable, whereas Alice is a dark, strong and mature girl that is taken which shows the vulnerability of every type of person as you would not expect such a strong character to be put such a compromising and dark situation. Our character is wearing light coloured clothing with blue eyes and blonde hair which is tied up in two ponytails. This shows her innocence and will make the audience empathise and feel sympathy for her.

Characters Two & Three:

These two characters abducted Eva. These characters have clearly gone through the act of kidnapping previously as they are very precious in the way they prepare. We made sure this was very clear in the first few shots we see of them and we focused on the details of what they were doing to reflect the level of concentration they had to their task. The objects the character’s handle consist of hammers, cable ties, knives, and other sharp objects. These props elude to danger as they are recognised offensive weapons. This creates a threatening atmosphere. The female assailant is the more dominant of the pair and this is noticeable when she is clearly ordering her accomplice to do things and when he does something out of line she is quick to correct him. In turn this makes the male character seem clumsy, inexperienced, and ignorant. The fact the male assailant is clumsy further emphasises that the female character is obsessive about detail and order. It also makes it apparent to the audience that she is efficient with a clear goal, but at the same time a sinister character.

Both of the assailants wear identical clothing. This is black jeans, black boots and a black zipped hoodie. The dark colours reflect the darkness and dangerous act they are going to carry out. The black clothing was chosen to make the assailants inconspicuous and not easily identifiable. The dark clothing also makes the characters seem unwelcoming which is perfect as we want the audience to feel uneasy about these characters and feel discouraged to feel sympathy for them. The use of dark shadowing also associates with corruption and criminality.

STORY BOARDS

How does the sewer scene in ‘The Third Man’ reflect the themes of Film Noir and post-war Europe?

 The city of Vienna was bombed 52 times during World War Two which left the city in wrecks. Vienna symbolised division, separation and mistrust. The director of The Third Man cleverly chose Austria's capital for the location of this Film Noir. Vienna was not only perfect because it symbolised darkness but also because it was/is an aesthetically stylish and breath-taking architecture. The darkness that this location portrayed is an obvious parallel to the core concept of film noir but even more importantly the beautiful fallen buildings is a great reflection of the typical anti-hero or femme fatal who show both glamour and gloom. The fallen architecture and rubble from the bombing also represents the destructive nature of humanity. The atmospheric use of black-and-white expressionist cinematography, with harsh lighting and distorted “dutch angle" camera angles, is a key feature of The Third Man. 

 Vienna’s sewers were also cleverly used in The Third Man. The grand sewers reflect the evil underneath Europe and the waste of mankind. The underground sewers are like a labyrinth and the director used geometric composition to create a sense of chaos and disorientation. The director also creates a paranoid atmosphere through the use of echoes in the sewers. When the anti-hero is being chased he can hear the echo of voices of the police coming from every tunnel in the sewer and this left the character disorientated and panicked about where the police were coming from. 

 The Third Man also uses mise en scene, framing and composition techniques and cinematography to create a claustrophobic and paranoid atmosphere. This classic film noir portrays the tension and paranoia in Europe at the time by creating an uncomfortable and trapped tone. The sewer scene especially promotes this, using the sewer setting to illustrate the evil and darkness that enclosed post-war Europe and the people within.   

This shot uses aggressive shadowing and sharp edges to create a German expressionist like composition. These techniques creates connotations of paranoia and claustrophobia and the physical act of the character crawling up an enclosed and narrow staircase create an uncomfortable atmosphere. The light coming from beneath the anti-hero reflect off of the bar of the staircases that symbolise a prison, therefore emphasising the character being trapped, the light illuminates and strengthens the tight and claustrophobic atmosphere created by the shot. The high camera angle of this shot make the character of Harry Lime seem helpless as he is struggles to pull himself upwards and as he looks up directly into the camera it seem like the viewer is the only one that can help him. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable and involves them in the paranoid shot.

Not being able to see the central vanishing point in this shot makes the audience feel uneasy and trapped. The light is symbolic of hope and the figure is blocking the hope and the only way to escape, the tunnel also portrays sense of claustrophobia. The vanishing point being blocked makes the audience look elsewhere and they are forced the look at the darker points in this shot making the viewer’s feel like they are also involved in the dark and evil that the sewer symbolises. The use of intense Key lighting as well as slight backlighting creates a silhouetted figure. The black figure reflects the darkness that mankind went through during the time of war and shows that the effect of the war is still prominent in people at this time. The man is positioned in the centre of the shot making him the main focus and emphasises the unknown vanishing point and the darkness of the man.

All of these points run parallel with the themes of Film Noir maintaining senses of paranoia and aggression, giving it continuity with the scene and the film.

In the upper half of the shot, you can see the police searching for Harry Lime while in the bottom of the shot you can see Harry Lime running away from them. The use of quadrants emphasises the chase and intensifies the tension. By doing this, the audiences is forced to look at both parts of the shot which also intensifies the chase. The police being on the higher level and Lime being on the bottom also creates connotations of good and evil or heaven and hell. There is a hint of German expressionism in this shot as the railing has sharp angles in at the top of the shot, this creates tones of paranoia and aggression which is relevant to the context of the chase. The clear contrast in harsh black and bright white tones in this shot also represent good and bad creating a metaphor of morailty. The chase itself is a metaphor for the fight against evil that Europe was facing at this time

Se7en:

Se7en's opening credits are in a montage format which means there is a lot of different clips that have been put together to create a singular clip. The opening credits are non-chronological with the clips jumping to extreme close ups of different types of detective work (finger-printing, filing etc). The fact the opening is non-chronological sets the tone/mood of a choas but also reflects of the hectic lifestyle of the detective we follow. The opening credits also establish the genre and theme of the film and it is very apparent that this film is a thriller as tension is built through the low light shots and eery music. The plot of the film is not established in the opening credits and is leaves the enigma of what criminal activity is being investigated.

The props used are clearly associated with investigations and detective work. These include books, photos, flies, pens and paper.

The colour palette used is reasonably dark, this and the low key lighting gives connotations of danger and death. Most of the colours are black and white, however when the photos are shown being developed you see the red light that is used develop them. This dark red connotes danger, but also shows that they are just being developed.

The transitions of the opening sequence vary. Some are straight cuts and some cross fade or fade to black. The Fading give the effect of the clips being linked together and creates an eery feel, and the fade to black reflects the sincerity and darkness of the overall film. 

This shot reveals the character of Somerset in a few moments. The shot shows his main possessions laid out in perfect order in an overhead shot. The badge tells us he is a detective of some description which a typical of Neo-noir. The pocket knife connote the conventions of violence and danger in film noir as well as telling the audience that the characters life involves violence. The old look of the knife suggests the character may have a violent background. The flowery paper is a powerful enigma and leaves the audience wondering the reasoning behind its place in the shot. The feminine flower contradicts the other brutal objects in is sat with. This shows that there is a sensitive side the character but as the flower seems worn down it suggests this sensitive side is being deteriorated as a result of the cruel aspects of his life.

 The ambient lighting in this photo is typical of film noir, this with the diegetic sound in this scene of sirens and shouting creates a disturbing and uneasy atmosphere. The dark shadows in this shot also adds to idea of immorality. This shot emphasises the loneliness of this character in the city through like being in the darkness and being trapped by the two light sources either side of him. The character not being in the centre of the frame also emphasises his loneliness. The fact he is in a double bed and he has a double bed suggests he has lost a lover and the two lights represent two people which also strengthens this theme

                                                                                   

 

This metronome is used to counteract the chaotic sounds of the urban city. The beat the metronome creates gives a sense of calm and shows the character is trying to distract himself from the chaos of the city, the city noises represent his crazy lifestyle and the metronome represent him trying to calm and control his hectic life.  It also connotes dull themes and could be a reflection of the characters bland home life.