Treatment -The silence

The title that we have chosen for own thriller production is ‘The Silence’ The title of our thriller does
connote some aspects of the theme and content within it. In our 2 minute opening sequence not a
lot of sound will be used within because we want create a lot of tension and a wary atmosphere and
leave the audience interested and excited about the film. I personally think that the title is
conventional to a thriller because it has the audience asking questions, and making them think what
it may be about because ‘The Silence’ doesn’t give a lot away. I think this will appeal to our target
audience because people are interested in films that are a mystery and make them ask a lot of
questions such as “what is the film about?”, “why certain camera shots have been used within the 2
minute opening sequence?”, “why has the music chosen been used?” and because it doesn’t give a
lot away the audience can create many sub stories among themselves. Another reason why we have
chosen the name ‘The Silence’ is because it relates to the ‘mental’ and ‘psychotic’ themes that are
trying to be portrayed with our thriller.

The target audience that we have chosen for our own thriller are aged around 15-30 and of both
genders and mainly of a working class background. Our Thriller will attract people who enjoy
watching psychological television programmes and don’t mind a challenging storyline to unfold. I
think that the film will appeal to our chosen target audience because the narrative that we have
chosen is quiet different and unusual and something that you would not usually see within a thriller
and therefore appeal to a mainstream audience. Information that was found during our primary
research suggested that many people enjoy a psychological based thriller which included some
aspects of horror within; therefore we will be creating a film that consists of these two main
conventions because this is what audience want to see within a new production.

The technology that we will be using within our thriller will be the use of effects that will give the
effect of a flash back, we are hoping to change the colour to black and white and distort the image
so it gives a different and unusual effect (like a flash back). Our editing will be done of a fast pace
and therefore the camera shots that are going to be filmed have to be very short and quick because
by the end of the opening sequence we want a montage effect to be created with a whole load of
random clips but has a meaning which is not given away. We are also filming our opening sequences
using mainly close up’s and extreme close up’s because we don’t want to give too much away to the
audience and therefore they will be more drawn in to what is going to happen and make them
interested and want them to continue to watch the film. This may make the audience slightly
confused but even more interested to see what the film is actually about. We will be using a variety
of different lights and gels to created different atmospheres that are trying to be connoted with the
thriller, for example when filming the scene in ‘the white room/ mental room’ we want bright spot
lights on the main character so that the audience are aware that he is the main focus. At this point I
personally don’t think that there are many limitations because we have decided to keep everything
quite simple and easy to do with the technology have we have accessible.

There will be two key characters in the film, one of whom is the protagonist and the other the will be
antagonist. The protagonist will be a young boy named John who is getting bullied at school and
someone that is not very popular with the people around them. The antagonist will be a black magic
physic which who conducts a evil voodoo ceremony of the young boy without him knowing. Within
our thriller production only a few props will be used, examples of the things that we are considering
using are; a room full of candles that will all be lit around the room, a stray jacket, a voodoo doll
which will be made by hand using newspaper and bandages, cloth/ fabrics to be put around the
physic room and make up. Face paint. I don’t think there are many major reasons why our thriller
should subvert or challenge typical representation of any groups in society.

Narrative
• A young boy aged about 15 is getting bullied and seeks help from a psychic, however she is
involved in black magic and bad things start to happen to the boy. However we do not know
whether the boy is going crazy because he is sick and tired of all the bullying or whether the women
has something to do with this, whether there is a supernatural reason behind him losing his mind
• Regarding the opening sequence we will see:
1. Ending – Boy in straightjacket, voodoo doll on chest, smears of blood on various parts of his body
and the voodoo doll
2. Flashback – someone on the floor getting kicked by a group of people
3. Flashback – boy walking down a road, entering a door
4. Flashback – Close up of voodoo doll, pins being stuck in it
5. Goes back to the beginning shot of boy in straight jacket

The sub-genres within this thriller are:

Horror Thriller which is represented by the use of the Psychic women and the chants,
& Psychological Thriller which is represented by the Voodoo doll, the pins being stuck into it and the
boy in the straight jacket, in a white room.

Conventions
• My thriller will fall into a couple of sub genres such as Supernatural – movies such as the 6th sense
and a Psychological thriller – such as Red Dragon as in the 6 th sense the storyline is about the
supernatural and there are elements of supernatural within our thriller such as the voodoo doll and
chants. Regarding Red Dragon, the lead character is a serial killer and is imprisoned and in a straight
jacket, this relates to our thriller as the main character is also seen in a straight jacket.


• The typical conventions in a thriller which will be used in my production is foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing will be shown when the camera zooms in on a shot of a Voodoo doll having
pins pushed into it and then blood on the voodoo doll. This is straight after we see the boy
talking to the Psychic women, so this is hinting towards the Voodoo doll having something to
do with the boy and the pins have something to do as to why he is in a straight jacket.

Style and Iconography

 The opening sequence shots will be edited in such a way that they will be shown quickly,
giving away some of the storyline but not much. We have decided to edit in this way as it
will be weird and confuse the audience, which is what we aim to do, as this will draw the
attention of the audience.
  Lots of close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots will be used as this will not show too
much information such as the location etc and will show the audience the character/s
emotion.

Institution
Production:
• Regarding my film I think it will be produced by a subsidiary of a Hollywood Company, such as ‘Fox
Searchlight Pictures’.
• Regarding distributing the film, a Hollywood company would, as they would have a lot of money
and would know how to advertise for their specific audiences. For example if the film was to be
distributed in other countries then the company would think about the specific country, what they
are interested in and what would grab their attention, for example if a film was being released in the
USA, the company would see which character in the film is the most well known throughout the USA
and then they would use them as the main focus in their campaign to grab the audiences attention
and make them aware of the film.

Distribution:
If the film is to be distributed in different countries, then the Hollywood company would use
different distributors for different countries as they know how to market their audiences better.
An example of a film which was distributed in lots of other countries was The Boat That Rocked,
when it was distributed in the USA and Canada the name was changed to ‘Pirate Radio’ as this name
was thought to appeal to the audience in these countries better.

Exhibition:
My film will be shown in most mainstream cinemas such as 'Vue cinemas, which have a chain of
cinemas all over the country and tend to show Hollywood films. Once shown in England the film will
also be shown in America, as the film will be produced from a Hollywood subsidiary, however it may
be adapted to appeal to the American audiences.

I think my film would be realised through home exhibition by the use of DVD, as the second time
when people are watching  thriller films, they see more clues than they did the first time, therefore
still capturing the viewers attention.