Film plan: Half term Idea

1. A girl is looking after her cousin, and he goes missing in a shopping centre.  I think the genre is physcological thriller, as the film focuses on her emotional state and contrast her calmness at her aunties, to when se is hysterical, trying to fin her cousin.  Opening: For the opening I want it first to be of the main girl frantically running around the shopping mall, calling her best friends saying ‘I’ve lost him’, and maybe shots of a man holding a child’s hand, and that scene builds, focusing on her face and zooming in.  Then it flashes to her at her aunties, where the girl is collecting the cousin, and saying ‘we'll be fine wont we, were going to go to the toyshop aren’t we’. Then they leave and start walking down the road and it is very innocent, but keeps very quickly flickering to her panicking in the shops (mainly jus her face or point of view shot of the people in front of her walking very fast (could be a time lapse)). And the beginning end with her walking into the shopping center then switching to her looking straight at the camera saying ‘he’s gone’
2.  I think the target audience would be young adults or mainly people aged 17 and over.  When looking at the plot, I thought at first the certificate would be 15 as the idea of a child being taken may be upsetting to younger children.  But after looking on the BBFC website, for a film to be 15 it tends to include strong language, violence and sexual references, which my film does not include.  So for now I think it would be a 12 but as the opening is being made, I may notice parts of the filming that is more suitable for a 15 certificate.  After doing a bit of research it seems like the target audience for most thrillers is 17 -30 year olds.  This is similar to what I thought my target audeicne would be.  But as it doesn’t contain violence and isn’t too aggressive I think it could appeal to an older audience aswell as I don’t think it will be as harsh to watch as some other thrillers.
3. Narrative/Plot: Summary: GIrl (who is the aunties niece) is asked to look after her auntie’s son, for the day.  Girl looses son in shopping mall.  She then has until the aunty wants him back to find him. (The end of the day).  Audience thinks a man has taken child but in the end the girl finds him in a toyshop.
4. In my opening scene I want the flashbacks to create a mysterious tone.  I also want the switches between time zones to create a tense cliffhanger effect.  I think seeing the main girl being calm then frantic will play with the audiences emotions aswell and will make them feel on edge.  I want to use an open frame in the shopping mall when she’s looking for him, as this will make the scene feel more hectic, which mimics her emotions.  When she’s at her aunties I want the lighting to be warm and bright to create a comforting feel.  Also the camera shots will be steady and clean, whereas in the shopping center I think the camera can be more sharp in its movements and a bit shaky/ never still.  Films that inspired the plot are: Alice creed, Prisoner.
5. The characters will be the main girl, the aunty (and maybe uncle), the little boy, and then a man who is suggested to be the man who takes the kid.  I want it to be quiet with few people when she is walking to shopping center, but then it suddenly is very busy in shopping centre to show they’ve entered a different place.  The Aunty and Uncle would be about 35.  The girl will be about 17; blonde wearing leggings and bright jumper (just a normal girl) then the boy is wearing trousers, t-shirt, jacket and hat (to accentuate their vulnerability and youth). 
6. I want the titles to be in capital letter and clean font.  For example ARIAL or BANGLA SANGAM MN.  The opening title music should be tense to tell the audience something bad is going to happen.   I want the ident to quite short and to the point, and I think I want it to be quite plain and simple, with dark colours and bold fonts, as I don’t think happy or comforting indents, such as DreamWorks, as I think this wouldn’t fit with the opening.
7. I want the sound to be contrapuntal when she’s walking to the shopping center as this will cause tension between the music and sound and will warn the audience that something’s going to happen.  There will be dialogue between the aunty and girl, aswell as the girl talking on the phone and to others in the shopping center.  Depending on the quality of sound of the crowd, I will add diegetic sound of crowds of people murmuring to add to the atmospheric sound.  But I want some non-diegetic sound of mood music building.   The sound will be parallel when she’s trying to find the child as this fits with what’s going on in the scene