Treatment

Hightail

The writers’ name for this film is Kathryn Sammon, George Stott and Harrison Lambert. They can be contacted at their private emails.

After the tragic death of Molly's parents, with accusations being thrown in her direction, she realises that her life will never be the same. Escaping to the country to live with her Grandparents, a completely new life awaits - as she battles her own mind to persuade herself she is not to blame.

Molly proves to herself she isn’t to blame for the death of her parents.

Act 1: After the car crash resulting in the death of her parents, Molly moves to the country to get away.

Act 2: She battles flashbacks and previous life tasks to prove she’s not to blame.

Act 3: Molly finally proves to herself just because she caused the argument she isn’t to blame for the car crash that resulted in her parent’s death.

Molly (aged 16), a typical outgoing socialite that enjoys interacting with her friends and surroundings. Good grades and a perfect attendance in school however outside the gates she won’t tell her parents anything.

After being tracked down by her parents on a late Friday night, she is picked up and begins to drive home. However her perfect world is rocked when an argument breaks out causing her dad to lose focus whilst driving. Not looking whilst taking a turns results in a car going straight into the car.

After being the only one to survive the crash, she blames herself for the outbreak of the argument. Leading to her leaving her home in Ilkley to move out into the country town of Malton, York to live with her grandparents.

After battling flashbacks and nightmares of the event, she embarks a journey to prove to her own mind she isn’t responsible for the death of her parents.

BBFC Rating

We have decided that our psychological thriller will be rated a 15, meaning is suitable only for 15 years and over. We have decided this because our primary target audience age range is 16 to 21. It also fits into the criteria of a 15 rated film (using the BBFC website) this includes:

Another reason why we chose to rate our film a 15 is because most of the psychological thrillers we have studied, and reached have been rated a 15 or 18, and rarely are below this rating (12/12A for example). Due to this we decided that our film would not be suitable for persons under the age of 15, primarily due to the psychological damage of the protagonist that the audience is exposed to. As I mentioned, there are hardly any psychological thrillers that are rated PG our film also reflects this and would not be rated a 12 due to the following reasons:

•  Our film may include some strong language (this is no aloud in a 12 rated film as stated by the BBFC)


•  We may be using some scenes blood and and self harm during the film.

We believe that a 15 is the most suitable rating for our film 'Hightail' and we have decided not to rate our film an 18 due to the absence of sexual scenes - which is present may have meant we must higher the rating.

Our Target Audience

Primary Audience

Our primary target audience would be specifically aimed at:

Age - our primary target audience age would range from 16 to 21, which we decided after we had completed our audience polling (which can be seen in a separate post). This is because, as we found, this age range would be ones to typically watch and also enjoy a psychological thriller.

Gender - The specific gender for our primary audience would be a female as there is a female protagonist.

Sexuality - There is no romance in our film and the female protagonist is heterosexual therefore we will not appeal to any specific sexuality

Ethnicity - We will focus mainly on the ethnicity of white British as our protagonist is white British.

Secondary Audience 

Our secondary target audience would be specifically aimed at:

Age - our target audience age would be 21-35 as this is the same age range as the primary target audience. This is because this age range would be ones to typically watch a psychological thriller.

Gender - The specific gender for our secondary audience would be male as our primary gender is female as there is a female protagonist.

Sexuality - There is no romance in our film and the female protagonist is heterosexual therefore we will not appeal to any specific sexuality

Ethnicity - We will focus mainly on the ethnicity of white British as our protagonist is white British.

Appealing to our Target Audience 

Age- We have appealed to our target age by having our protagonist to be a 16-year-old girl which will appeal to younger ages as there is someone they can relate to.

Gender-We have appealed to our target genders by having our protagonist to be a female. This is because when girls tend to watch films they watch films with female protagonists as they are “girly films”.

Sexuality- We won’t specifically try and appeal to any one on a sexual level as there will be no sexual tension between any 2 people throughout our film as it is focused on an individual mental journey.

Character types- We appeal to our audience as we only have one protagonist meaning the story will not be difficult to understand from the audience point of view. Our film will not have an antagonist during its screen time so we will not need to worry about that. Our protagonist will be in 2 character types as they will embark on a journey which will change them mentally. We will have a few people that will be static that will help to make the plot easier to understand to the audience.

Narrative enigma- We will have a few mild narrative enigmas throughout the film to keep the audience involved with the plot. In our poll, we have results that show people have an interest in that part of thrillers.

Pace of editing- Our pace of editing will be at a normal pace with no quick jump-cuts which will appeal to the age we are focusing on as they can keep up with what is happening with the motion of the film.

Locations- The location will appeal to the audience watching as they will be looking at modern places and current times which they can relate to as it is in the present.

Commercial Success

Comercial Success

Both 38. The Girl on the Train, and 40. 10 Cloverfield Lane fall under the Psychological Thriller genre. Although most of the top grossing films of 2016 were of the Adventure, Action or Comedy Genre, these films still had a lot of success - their 2016 total gross both being over 70 million dollars.
With both of these films appearing in the top 40, shows that this type of film (with the storylines and conventions of psychological thrillers) have been both popular and successful in 2016.

On a bigger time scale, from 1995-2017, there is surprising many films in the top 25 movies that fall under the psychological thriller genre. Arguably within this list there are at least 5 films that would be considered a psychological thriller, however some of the films have more prominent conventions of more popular genres. For example the movie 'The Sixth Sense' , that impressively holds the 2nd spot, is a psychological thriller but is more known as a horror film, as its conventions fit also with this genre (e.g. ghost-story).

Target Audience Research

By using both BFI Exit Polls and the website 'YouGov' we are researching our target audience. We will look at the audience of films that we think are similar to our film (due to its genre, characters and storyline) and from that we will find out who's attention we should be aiming our film at.

BFI Exit Polls

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.

Similar to our film, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is a Crime Thriller with aspects of the Psychological Thriller Genre. It contains a female protagonist which could be the reason that there were slightly more Women who were surveyed than men. In terms of Target audience for our film, this could suggest that we also will have a mainly female target audience. The age of the people surveyed are mostly Over 35, with the 'Under 35' category being only 33%. Initially we thought for our film the Target audience would be early 20s however this has shown that it would be the incorrect decision to aim our film at this age group - as it seems to be slightly older people who are most involved in the viewing of Psychological Thrillers.

YouGov

Gone Girl

The website YouGov gives you an average profile of the people who like and have watched Gone Girl. In this case, it is a 25-39 year old female or a high social grade. This female is left wing in terms of politics.

Momento

For the film, Momento, it mainly has a Male audience, but still with the age of 25-39. Again they are left wing, but more so than the audience of Gone Girl.

Donnie Darko

The audience of Donnie Darko has a very similar audience to that of Momento, we can guess this is due to the similaritly of male protagonists.

Looking at all of the profiles we have researched, we have come to the conclusion that most of the audience of psychological thrillers are of the age of 25-39. They are all also Left Wing and of a relatively high social class and wealth. Another similarity that we noticed is that many of their professions are revolved around entertainment and media.

Detailed Synopsis

Start
Our Film opening will begin with a flashback. This Flashback will first contain a point of view shot from 'Molly' in the back of her parents car. We see the two parents (without sound) shouting at each other, distracted from the road. The next shot will be from a camera on the road, moving forwards, asif it were the car. This camera will be met with the blinding lights of another car. We see another shot from the inside of the car, of the parents panicking and braking (with the sound of screeching brakes). There will then be a sound of a crash, as the screen goes Black.
Close up, overhead shot of 'Molly' waking up suddenly from her flashback/nightmare.
There is another overhead shot of 'Molly packing her suitcase which is laid on the bed. The last thing she packs is her parents funeral leaflet, which me see close up (allowing the audience to know what has happened). From overhead again, 'Molly' closes her suitcase, revealing the edited title of the film, on top of the case - 'Hightail'.
From when 'Molly' starts to pack her suitcase, we hear various different voice mails from family and friends:
Example
"Hey Molly, hope your okay, where were you last week? I didn't see you at school, ring me when you can"
"Molly, Ive tried to phone you, but you won't answer, you can't hide forever, you can speak to me, it will be okay"
"Good Afternoon Molly, its Mr Stott, I hope you are well. We are concerned of your attendance in he past week, would you kindly have your guardian call us back, to discuss the reason for this. Thank you"
GAP
"Hi darling its Grandma, hope your up and packed, let me know when you are safely on the train, me and Grandpa are excited to see you, we have everything sorted for your new school. See you soon"

Flashbacks - Go pro
Younger brother shouting, crying, "Why did you have to live and not them?!"
Walking through hospital (MAYBE)
Shots back to original crash (heavy breathing, blurred)
Shots in cemetery, Molly at grave placing down flowers.

The journey
First there will be a shot of 'Molly' walking from the platform of Leeds station, onto the Ilkley train, with her suitcase.
On the train there will be multiple shots from out of the window, at scenic views, with 'Mollys' reflection in the window - developing from the city into the countryside.
There also will be shots from outside of the train, watching the train pass through the countryside.
She will then get off the train, at Burley in Wharfdale (there is nothing around except the station).
The train doors close.

Psychological Thriller History and Conventions

History

The film that started off the Physcological Thriller genre was the 3rd silent movie made which was called The Lodger (1926), which was a Jack the Ripper story. The director of this film was Alfred Hitchcock who also produced films such as Blackmail (1929). 

Technical Codes

- A very important aspect of the genre

Many psychological thrillers have emerged over the past years, all in various media (film, literature, radio, etc.). Despite these very different forms of representation, general trends have appeared throughout the narratives. Some of these consistent themes include:

•         Reality

•         Perception

•         Mind

•         Existence/Purpose

•         Identity

•         Death

Music - is used to create a mood of suspense throughout a psychological thiller. Most of which will be purely instruments rather than including a singer.

Shadows and Low Light - are used as a convention of all thrillers, to again create tension. Low lights limits what the audience can see and therefore brings a sense of mystery. In a psychological thriller low light can be linked to the dark thoughts that the character is experiencing in the deterioration of their mental state

Quick Cuts, Obtrusive and Montage Editing - are used mainly in important scenes of psycnlogicical thrillers. The condense time and information given in these short editing techniques helps to build suspension.

Flashbacks - this convention is particularly useful in this genre as it helps give the audience an insight in the characters past without it having to be directly said. It ca also help to portray the mental state of the character.

Mirrors - and their reflections are used to allow a character to reflect on their 'inner self' and also portray and 'dark side' i which they may posses.

Mis-en-scene

- Majority of scenes set in busy places (citys etc)
- Country side not used as often

In our film opening we will be incorporating most of the conventions used in a psychological thriller, however it is difficult to fully portray the genre with only the opening (of a couple of minutes). This is because most psychological thrillers show a steady deterioration of a characters mental state, such as a development of a haunting memory, therefore showing this journey of the mind within the opening would be impossible. However we will still be able to portray the genre particularly through our use of Flashbacks. We are also defying the genre by using the country side for the vast majority of the film opening (scenic shots), an example of another psychological thriller that defies the genre in this way is 'The Shining'.