Treatment

We begin with the sound of a door clicking shut, before transitioning from black to a close up shot of the antagonist’s feet walking onto his gravel driveway. The weight of his footsteps is emphasised by the diegetic sound of the crunching gravel and its grey colour palette constructs gloomy connotations. This close up conceals details of the character, making him enigmatic so creating a sense of anticipation. We cut to an extreme long shot, establishing the location of a residential street, which reveals the house opposite. A shot through an upstairs window, creating a sense of intrusion, presents the protagonist in her bedroom. Within her bedroom, we cut to a close up of her face which conveys innocence as she calmly gets ready to go out. A close up of her table as she picks up her keys presents props which convey aspects of her character; schoolbooks convey that she is young and possibly vulnerable, plus photographs of family and friends signify that she is kind and innocent. A jump cut returns us to the antagonist, a close up of his watch and the emphasised diegetic sound of ticking presenting him as impatient and creating a sense of threat as it suggests that time may be limited for our protagonist.

Influenced by ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’, we aim to create an increasing sense of threat in the opening of our thriller film which is also about a kidnapping. We will use a similarly bleak colour scheme, containing greys, to create connotations of misery and we will also use close ups to create a sense of intensity. Also drawing influence from 'Se7en', our film will have an urban setting, suggestive of themes of immorality and violence, as is conventional of the thriller genre. Another influence from this film is that we will use close ups of props in the home of the protagonist to help establish her character (as was done for the character of Detective Somerset in 'Se7en').