First storyboarding ideas for our final treatment

We all came up with some ideas afor our first storyboarding. We decided to locate it on school grounds to emphasize that she is isolated in a busy environment. We decided to start of with a tracking shot of a clock that would zoom out to a shot of our character sitting down in a classroom with her work out, the shot then changes to a over the shoulder shot of her writing. The fourth shot is a close up of her fidgeting with her hands to show she is stressed, we then decided on having a extreme close up of her staring at her watch. A high angled shot to show her looking down at her exam timetable to a close up of her timetable. We then chose to do a close up of her facial expressions looking nervous and stressed out, this shot then changes to a close up of a alarm display on her mobile phone reminding her of her exam. There's then a mid shot of her putting her headphones on to a close up of her hands, packing away her things to a longshot of her going through the door to the corridor. When she is outside in the corridor there is a high angled shot of her standing whilst she has her headphones in. Whilst she is standing in main focus everything around her (school children) is blurred. There is then a intercut between her music and the ticking sound of the clock in her mind. When the corridor is empty there is a longshot of her walking, as she gets to the end of the corridor there is a back view of her walking. There is then a over the shoulder shot of her looking into the classroom to a view from inside the classroom of her looking in. Lastly we decided to have a tracking shot of her walking into the classroom and sitting down with the clock in view, we then end with a close up of the clock and everything else out of focus.

Clockwork Orange

Clockwork Orange

You are lead into the opening shot by what appears to be distorted, haunting and slightly disturbing piece of classical music. The music sounds futuristic which suggests the director's movie takes place in some impending time.

The opening shot is focused on what appears to be a young male dressed in a bowler hat, but your attention is fixed on his menacing stare which is highlighted by one eye with mascara streaks. The imbalance of the stare imposes a disturbing hint of femininity to the air of threat. An essence of innocence is preserved by the youth putting a glass of milk to his lips instead of a stronger drink such as whiskey. The scene continues with a dolly out shot which shows a group of four similarly dressed youths in a uniform of bowler hats and white suits. As the camera moves away from the strange group of youths, they are seen to be drinking around a group of naked female manikins being used as tables.

As the shot pans out to show a futuristic milk bar a non-diegetic voice comes who calls himself Alex. Alex himself sets the scene, by explaining that he is in a milk bar one evening with his three 'droogs' which is Russian for friends. He describes a menu of milk+ and all sorts of other ingredients which hint at being drug like stimulants. He states that his beverage of choice is good for violence which he hints will form part of his evening.

Film Treatment - 'Mind Clock'

Annie Moore is a 17 year old London student. With her exams coming up, Annie is feeling the pressure, and an internal clock starts ticking in her brain. Annie conjures up the idea that she has to complete daily tasks, such as walking to school, in a certain number of minutes. If she doesn’t complete these in the time her brain has set, a chain of bad events will begin to happen to people around her. In reality, these ‘bad events’ happening are usual daily tragedies which Annie thinks are down to her losing track of time. As Annie’s time keeping gets worse and the chain of bad events get more life threatening, she confides in her family and teachers, who blame this ‘internal clock’ on the stress of the upcoming exams, leaving Annie isolated and alone with this clock still ticking. As one bad event takes a turn for the worse, it enables Annie to work out the conspiracy as to why these clocks are only ticking in her mind - is this just her fantasy, or is she the only one in reality?

Possible Titles:
Time
Ticking time
The Trick of Time
Mind Clock
Time control
Timeless

We came up with a few title ideas for this treatment, however all decided on 'Mind Clock' as we felt it was the best fit and the simplicity of it is quite intriguing.

Film Certificate '15'

As our target audience are between the ages of 16-18, we felt a certificate of 15 would be the best for our film to keep them hooked, as we could include certain elements we wouldn’t be able to in a 12A, for example, however won’t include explicit things you would find in an 18 rated film. We've looked on the bbfc (British Board of Film Classification) website to determine what we can and can’t include in our film, and picked out the guidelines we felt would link to our project the most:

Discrimination:
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Horror:
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour:
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language:
There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme:
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence:
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

Ideas for Final Treatment

Me and Conor spent our class time today coming up with a range of ideas for our film treatment. As our audience research conveys a ‘Psychological Thriller’ is the preferred sub-genre, we have tried to come up with ideas that suit this style. Along with this, our knowledge of watching other Thriller films have helped us develop our ideas, and so when we come together as a group of four in our next lesson, we will discuss the ideas on this sheet and decide on a final one so our planning can begin.

The ‘number obsession’ idea came to me after watching a few clips from ‘The Number 23’ (2007) starring Jim Carrey – a humorous actor, something that entertains our target audience. The opening credits of this film are by far the best I’ve seen, as I found them to be very clever, and the blood flicked across the sequence could be easily replicable for our product, as it could be done with paint, something resourceful and easy to use. The secret facts incorporated into the title such as ‘There are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet’ and ‘The witches Sabbath is June 23rd’ flash by very quickly, possibly missing them in a blink of an eye. This secrecy intrigued me and the constant facts surrounding 23 sets you up for the rest of the film, in which is centered around the protagonist’s obsession with the number.

Treatment Task

Harry is a school teacher, who grew up in Yorkshire. His parents worked full time when he was young which led him to be brought up by a nanny. He now lives alone and has formed a close bond with one of his students named Sarah. One afternoon he shares a bus ride with Sarah, the next day it's reported that she's missing. A detective is hired to find Sarah, on his journey he discovers shocking information about Harry that reveals the deep secrets Harry holds.

Audience Research Results