Film Pitch: A2 Film Contradiction

USP

What makes our film trailer unique compared to other crime thriller trailers is that we have a strong female lead as the detective, we did this in order to challenge thriller conventions as they usually have male lead roles and female roles are usually just secondary characters.

We also have a young male as one of the lead roles, we wanted  a large age gap of the lead roles because they will have different life experiences and different perspectives in life. By having two different ages in the film, this may attract an older and a younger audience.

These are two actors who are the inspirations for our lead characters, FBI agent Dana Scully from X-Files and Cartoonist Robert Graysmith from Zodiac.

Target Audience

Males and females aged 18-30

Thrillers appeal to young adults, due to their complex narratives, violence, gore etc.

Crime thrillers are usually rated 15 at the lowest, this is because of the violence, sexual references and many other things. So a crime thriller film would be inappropriate for anyone below the age of 18.

Our film trailer will be rated 15, as there will be violence and gore as expected with most crime thriller films.

Production Logo
We wanted to reuse our production logo from last year to save time and concentrate on our film and blogs. However, if we have time we plan to alter it to become a moving production logo.

Plot

A family murders occurs in Cambridgeshire, only one survivor is left in each murder as the murders continue and It has been 10 years since the last murder and a man was imprisoned all those years ago, but now the homicides are happening again and so someone has been falsely accused and imprisoned for a decade. Detective Maria Jones was in control of the homicides all those years ago and now she has to start from scratch and solve the case all over again, but this time with the help of a young male journalist who is need of a great story. If he can help Detective Jones solve the case once and for all, she can maintain her reputation as a well respected detective.

Characters

Female Detective – Maria Jones

Young Male journalist/photographer – Peter Stone

Falsely accused prisoner – Mason Carter

The Survivor – Joshua Philips

Police officer – Jessica Woods

Generic Conventions

Dark lighting

Weapons

False accusation

Blood

Murder

Action/violence

Rough streets and neighbourhoods

Prison

Crime scenes

Press and reporters

Crime scene evidence

Bad weather (pathetic fallacy)

Police HQ

Trailer Conventions

Fast pace editing in the second half

Synchronous sound in time with editing

Dramatic pauses

Short dialogue from the film

Slow music (preferably piano)in the first half

Soundtracks

We researched non-copyrighted music and we tried to find music similar to the style of the soundtrack in The Girl on the Train trailer, but we have realised that this is too difficult and may have to settle for ordinary film soundtrack.

Settings and Locations

Our film trailer will be set in Cambridgeshire and the following settings used in the trailer will be:

A house and the interior (crime scenes)

Prison and cell

Interrogation room
Police HQ
Second house for the second murder
Prison cell
Office/Study
Abandoned warehouse building