Full House Script.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-TWndOsTchfNWFpc29hZzJ6cE0/view?usp=sharing

Two Minute Storyline.

The film begins “2 months earlier”, a young women is in the library just reading a book when she gets a phone call from her mother. Her mother tells her she needs to get home quickly because something is wrong, at first she just shrugs it off but as her mother sounds more panicked she asks what’s happening, then it cuts to 2 months later.

There is then a news broadcast that explains that there is a rising number of missing people, the broadcast has a very weak connection and keeps cutting off until it eventually cuts off completely.

The young woman is then seen lying on the ground in the middle of nowhere, the surroundings are bare, no one is in sight and she is completely alone. She's lying by a tree with a lake in the background to emphasise her isolation. After a few seconds of the camera being on her, she wakes up, she doesn't have any memory of who she is, her life and how she got there, she then gets up, she is still slightly disorientated from waking up and takes a while to come fully round. At first, she can barely stand up, she’s still in the process of waking up and obviously hasn't eaten for a while, when she pulls herself together, she begins to walk down the long, endless path to try and find help and figure out what happened. After a long walk, she comes into an empty wooded area. She walks around the area looking for clues and an explanation, she keeps walking, as she wonders more around the area, she then comes across a group of people, who are the other survivors. The group appears quite strange, they're dressed looking a little scruffy and are quite hostile to new people. She doesn't know what’s going on and needs help to find out where she is so she decides to go towards them. She over hears them talking and discovers that they have no idea what happening either, she finds out that everyone’s missing and they're potentially the only survivors. They all have their own individual theory of what happened. They believe that there is a conspiracy theory that has caused all the devastation, the conspiracy theories of the group vary from aliens to the government. The group discusses these theories while playing a game of poker and betting who they think is right. As the girl comes in contact with the group and they notice her, they immediately become hostile and cautious of her. The group searches her to see if she's hiding anything, they find a small knife which they then become angry and suspicious about. The group then tries to find out what the girl is doing there and then discovers she's one of them and allow her into their group.

Character Outlines

In our film we have decided that all of the main characters will be aged around 17 or 18. We have also decided that none of them will have proper names, just nicknames as they either want to keep anonymous or do not know their real name. All of the nicknames are gambling related.

Main character
Nickname: Tilt
Gender: Female
Personality: Confused, strong willed, sarcastic, easily frustrated, short fused.

Second in command 
Nickname: Kicker
Gender: Female
Personality: Authoritative, hopeful, focused, short fused, doesn't have a conspiracy theory (too serious).

Other group member
Nickname: Wild Card
Gender: Male
Personality: Loose cannon, a bit out there, joker, not serious, thinks the conspiracy is aliens.

Other group member
Nickname: Twist
Gender: Female
Personality: Quiet, dark horse, intelligent, overlooked, random outbursts, thinks the conspiracy is the government.

Narratives we plan to use

Our film will have a restricted narrative as the audience will learn about the goings on at the same time that the lead charcter does. We have decided to use a restricted narrative as it will help to build suspense and further the mystery within the film. This will further the link with the thriller genre and keep audiences engaged with the film.

The film will also use an episodic narrative as when the main character starts to remember her past she has flashbacks about before the incedent and the actual incident itself. We decided to use flashbacks to help the audience understand more about the character and also to show how suddenly these memories are coming back to her.

It'll be an open ended film as we have decided to end the film after they find out who caused the dissaperences and why but before they do anything about it. This will highlight the futility of the situation and the hoplessness they feel after discovering that the government is to blame.

Mise-en-scene in the mystery-thriller genre

Mise-en-scene in the mystery-thriller genre from MelissaMinshull

Target audience

Subverting Gender Stereotype.

Subverting Gender Stereotype 

After coming across the following article on the normalization of male dominance in 2012 films and  reading Buzzfeed posts on age gaps in current films (which usually see older men paired with much younger women), I decided to write a post on the subversion of gender stereotype and how we were going to include it in our film.

http://griid.org/2013/02/12/normalizing-male-dominance-gender-representation-in-2012-films/

According to Google, a stereotype is 'a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may not accurately reflect reality.' There really should be an emphasis on that 'not', considering the fact that for decades women have been delegated to the roles of 'damsel in distress' or 'love interest', when in actuality they're successful business women, hard working mothers, courageous soldiers and powerful advocates for equality.  Just like men can be over masculinised as brawny heroes or emotionless villains, women can suffer from a complete lack of physical and emotional strength with their only 'positive' attribute being their beauty.

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley (Alien)

The film industry has attempted numerous times to correct their past mistakes, replacing Snow White and Bella Swan-esque characters for more independent, ruthless, heroic types. Buffy Summers, Princess Leia, Black Widow and Lara Croft are all examples of women subverting gender stereotypes in favour of proving that women are just as capable at saving the world as their male counterparts. However, their sexualisation (let's not forget Carrie Fisher's trademark gold bikini) can sometimes cause rifts amongst audiences who believe that just handing an attractive woman a gun, isn't enough to earn them the title of 'strong female character.' Instead, people are looking to more flawed personalities such as Ripley from Alien, Sarah Connor from The Terminator and Erin Brockovich from Erin Brockovich as more appropriate poster girls for this new craze. 

John Scalzi (2011):

"She's not a sidekick, arm candy or damsel to be rescued. Starting with Alien, Ripley was a fully competent member of a crew or ensemble - not always liked and sometimes disrespected, but doing her job all the same. As each film progresses, she comes to the fore and faces challenges head-on - she's the hero of the piece, in other words (...) Ripley isn't a fantasy woman. Science fiction with hot kick ass women doing impossible things with guns and melee weapons while they spin about like a gymnast in a dryer. As fun as that is to watch, at the end of the day it's still giving women short shrift, since what they are then are idealised killer fembots rather than actual human beings. Ripley, on the other hand, is pushy, aggressive, rude, injured, suffering from post-traumatic syndrome, not wearing makeup, tired, smart, maternal, angry, empathetic and determined to save others, even at great cost of herself. All without being a skinny killbot.'

It seems that as much as physical prowess impresses, so does being relatable. If a character, male or female, can show that they're human and showcase a character arc of discovering oneself and forfeiting their own needs for others, then you have a formula that should prove satisfactory to critics and equality advocates alike. 

How This Impacted Our Film:

Researching into this topic helped us make key decisions about what our characters were going to be like. Of course, anyone who had to wake up to a world full of unknowns would experience panic and terror but how they handle coping with these feelings would be integral to determine whether our characters were weak or strong. Instead, we focused on making our characters as human as possible, giving them all flaws and strengths, which would both benefit and shape them. We decided that we would not give the characters genders until we had stretched out their personalities, preferring to randomly pinpoint their sex after we'd created them, thus giving us a unique and equally intriguing group of individuals to work with. 

Narratives used within Mystery-Thriller films

The narrative is the order in which the characters find out about the events of the film.

A narrative commonly used within Mystery-Thriller films is the restricted narrative. A restricted narrative is when the audience and the protagonist learn what’s going on at the same time. This helps to build suspense in the film as the audience doesn’t have any more information than the characters in the film do and therefore do not know what is going to happen next. An example of a Mystery-Thriller film that uses a restricted narrative is The Maze Runner.

However some Mystery-Thriller films use an omniscient narrative. This means that the film allows the audience to know more about the characters and their situations than the characters do themselves. This narrative may be used to further the story and explain their goals. Another reason it may be used is when a character has memory loss. An example of this is The Bourne Identity.

Another narrative that is often used is a linear narrative. This is when the film follows the story from start to finish. This is the most common narrative used in films. This is because it is the natural way to experience a series of events. One film that uses this is National Treasure.

Some Mystery-Thriller films have circular narratives. When a film has a circular narrative it starts at the end of the film and then goes back to the beginning to explain how they got to the end. This helps build suspense as it makes the audience wonder how they got to that point and how it’ll actually all work out. Contagion is one Mystery-Thriller film that has a circular narrative.

Films narratives don’t always cover the entire film, some narratives are just about the ending.

Open ended films are films that do not have a clear ending. This strengthens the mystery element of the film as the mystery never gets resolved. One example of this in the Mystery-Thriller genre is Inception.

Closed ended films are films where the narrative ends and the story has a clear ending. This allows all of the loose ends to be tied and all problems are resolved. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an example of a closed ended film within the Mystery-Thriller Genre.