New Idea Treatment

1. The Action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place)?

A detective is assaulted is his own home and appears to the view to be dead. The villain then escapes the scene of the crime via the garden and an alleyway before being confronted by he detective who now has a gun in hand.

2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what 'issues' will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed ect). The opening is associated to:

crime, enigma, suspense, death, motive, justice and retribution, secrecy.

3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/non-diegetic sound?

It will be a linear sequence set in one time frame and filmed in real time except for one brief flashback that explains the link between the characters. There will be no dialogue as we feel that this would ruin the atmosphere. All sound will be diegetic except for the doorbell at the start and the gunshot at the end.

4. The character(s) who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?

Anti-hero, villain, detective/gangster, male, trench coats and matching hats, red roses, guns, violence, calm and collected, slightly nervous.

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?

The setting is the villains house and specifically his office space where he does his work and has all of his evidence and files around him. The alleyway will be dark and creepy with low key lighting as opposed to the inside. The actual location is Nick's house, back garden and alleyway. We stumbled over this location after brainstorming new ideas at his house.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look.

Low saturation but contrasting colours which stand out e.g light and darkness. The outside shots will have a low saturation mixed with various filters such as a low glow effect which brings out the white/light in the shots, also maybe some colour correction to make it look exactly as we want. The characters will be dressed as gangsters with trench coats and the overall feel will be very 1970/80s to create a traditional film noir look.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for.

The camera work will be quite slow paced with lots of close-ups on the characters in order to show little background as this will clutter the shot. We only need to focus on the protagonist and his workspace anyway. This will help to create a montage sequence in th emiddle which we are looking to include to show time passing. As the villain starts to escape, however, the camera work and cuts will quicken up slightly to build tension and to be able to keep up with the action.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?

The opening will feature non-linear editing, edited as a continuous sequence which focuses more on the aftermath of the attack rather than on the event itself. The editing will be quite slow paced and we want a lot of the shots to linger on-screen to create a relaxed and artistic effect so the audience has time to take all of the mise-en-scene in which is important in an arty film. As we mentioned before we will be looking to include a montage sequence.

9. Has your idea been 'tested' against the question on the previous brief sheet?

Yes, it has and it appears to be very workable provided we work hard and focus on every detail to create this film noir genre. We have had issues with the story and are correcting them but there is nothing wrong with the general idea of the film.

10. Group responses?

We all agree that the idea is a very good one, considering that we thought of it in one day and that if done right it could potentially look very good.

11. Teacher responses?

We contacted Ms Blackborow while at Nicks house at the weekend and she agreed that it would be wise to now put our efforts into this idea as our other seems dead in the water. This one seems equally strong if not better than our previous idea as it is simpler but should still contain a good story and eventually a good sequence.