Ashamae Swyer

Phoenix Productions

Planning Brief

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

Outline

Target Audience

Cinematographer
A young schoolgirl,
Anna, is waiting to be
picked up from school by
her mother. While
waiting to be picked up,
Anna starts to believe
that she is being
followed due to the
sound of footsteps.
However, whenever she
looks around her, its
clear that no one is
there. Suddenly, her
kidnapper grabs her and
drags her through the
forest, eventually
knocking her
unconscious. When Anna
wakes up, she finds
herself tied to a tree,
and is completely
defenceless against her
kidnapper. Two unnamed
young girls are tied to
trees behind Anna, and
serve as a warning that
things will not end well
for her. The opening
sequence blacks out as
the kidnapper walks
towards Anna, and all
that is heard is her
screams.
Through critical
research of the genre,

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Representation

we concluded that the

most suitable audience
would be those between
the ages of 15 and 25.
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 Kidnapper, is
a young white male,
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

Ashamae Swyer
Phoenix Productions

Overt Message

Measure of Success

gender, however, fits

with the conventional
stereotypes of males
being presented as the
physically stronger sex,
and females being
presented as inferior to
their physical power.
The obvious message that
we wanted to get across
is that people should
watch their backs,
because anyone can be a
victim.
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

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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.