Ashamae Swyer

Phoenix Productions

Planning Brief

Project Name
The Cold One
Project Deadline End of February
Production team Sophie Laxton Director
Ashamae Swyer Editor
and Roles
Joshua Hurst -

Outline

Target Audience

Cinematographer
A young schoolgirl,
Marissa, is waiting on a
park fence to be picked
up by her mother. Her
mother suddenly calls
and tells her that the
car has broken down,
meaning that Marissa
will have to walk
through an eerielooking, abandoned farm
to get home quickly. As
she walks past the
opening and past the
barn, she hears a noise,
and begins to run,
dropping her bag. An
unknown figure begins to
chase after her. She
comes to a clearing by a
forest and drops her
blazer, but is caught
and grabbed by the
monster.
Through critical
research of the genre,
we concluded that the
most suitable audience
would be those between
the ages of 15 and 25.

Representation

The majority of
thrillers are rated 15
on the BBFC Certificate,
because the strong sense
of violence will not
influence persons aged
15 and over, whereas
anyone below the age
rating is vulnerable to
copying actions seen in
thrillers of this
rating. The target
audience for our
thriller has a maximum
age of 25 because
thrillers have always
been shown to be most
appealing to young
adults, and if the
maximum age were lifted
any higher, the thriller
would have to be
marketed in a way that
appeals to mature and
young audiences.
In our opening sequence,
we present the
representations of
gender and ethnicity.
Our antagonist, the
unnamed creature, is a
young white female,
which goes against the
stereotype portrayed in
the media of young black
males being the most
dangerous and prone to
committing crimes. Our
representation of
gender, however, fits
with the conventional
stereotypes of females
being presented as being

Ashamae Swyer
Phoenix Productions

Overt Message

Measure of Success

less able to defend

themselves, as the
protagonist is also a
young white female.
The obvious message that
we wanted to get across
is that people should
watch their backs,
because they never know
what could be lurking
around.
Once the final product
has been completed, we
will organise a private
screening of the opening
sequence with a focus
group of 10-15 people,
who are all within the
target audience. They
will be given a
questionnaire after the
screening and the data
will be input in graphs.
From this data, we will
be able to calculate the
success of our opening
sequence in terms of
overall reactions and
being able to portray
the codes and
conventions of the
thriller genre.

Budget: 20
Food (10): We will be providing the
cast and crew with refreshments on the
day(s) that we shoot the sequence, to
ensure that everyone involved is
refreshed and fully focused throughout.

Costume and props (10): To keep this

area of the budget as low as possible,
we will be purchasing any additional
clothing from charities shops.