Treatment 2

Title:

Snuff

Plot:

A relatively average mid-20’s man who works in an office and sees very little merit in communicating with the outside world other than when he has to. He spends his free time reviewing movies on DVD and writing down his thoughts, opinions and his ratings in a notebook he always keeps on his person. One day after reaching his 100th review Derek treats himself by buying a HD digital camera with the delusion that he “may” want to create his own film one day. A work colleague (Ben Arnold) notices and starts conversation with Derek at work where they go into a discussion about Derek and his list to which the man makes a comment about what he’ll do when he’s seen all the films out there. Derek is left pondering this all day and when leaving for work Ben notices Derek dropped his DVD and after the words “hey boyo you dropped you film!” hands it back, Derek can’t remember dropping a DVD but takes it anyway assuming it’s all the excitement of the new camera. On returning home Derek continues to ponder Ben’s words and after setting up the camera decides to look through his book to reminisce of all the films he’s seen to see if he feels any different about his decisions. However upon reading through his notebook Derek comes upon an entry marked 0 / 10, this is unusual since Derek only even went to 1 / 10 once before and that was a particular bad film, but never 0. Curiosity piqued Derek searches for the film which was titled Chinese Blank which means little to Derek but actually finds a blank case for a DVD with a Chinese symbol inserted between the front sleeves. Derek remembers it as the film Ben returned at work and decides to watch it again. After watching it for a few minutes it’s clearly a poorly made home movie, shot in black in white in a dark room with what appears to be a chair and a noose in the centre, a hooded man enters the scene and goes through the process of hanging himself making it a snuff movie, but what scared Derek more was the fact Derek recognises this man, infact it looks almost like him and when the man stands to take his last breath on the chair he takes off the hood to reveal it to be him and as he jumps Derek’s screams are cut off as his own neck is snapped by the noose wrapped tightly around his neck with his newly purchased digital camera on a tripod in the corner, the record button flashing. After a few seconds of the camera recording Derek’s final breath a hand reaches over and clicks the camera off and a man walks over the retrieve the DVD from Derek’s player and after fading to black we (the audience) here a thud and a familiar voice saying “hey boyo you dropped you film”. Cut !

Characters: 3

Derek Smith

Benjamin “Ben” Arnold

Various extras (add to the shot)

Rating: 15

Scenes of a disturbing nature with an emphasis on the subject of acute psychological unhealth and suicide, as a result it is unsuitable for ages under 15 years of age due to the disturbing imagery present throughout the film, mostly catered towards teenagers and parents so they can view it, be entertained or shocked and hopefully learn something from it they can take away.

Target Audience: Mystery / Horror / Psychological

Someone into intrigue and mystery with a tint of a twist. Someone who likes to try and work things out for themselves but sometimes never quite gets there. a person who never gives up trying and will always give it a shot on working out what in happening, yet still loves the element of surprise.

Psycho thrillers are generally particularly popular with the under 25's and have a slight female skew. With moviegoers in an attentive and focused mindset, they provide a highly effective, distraction free advertising environment. However it can also be viewed by a parent of a child so that they can take the message the movie tries to bring and prevent it from happeing to someone in their family or to someone they know and vice cersa for any teenagers watching it.

Style:

Quick cuts, fast pace and camera angle changes, music that gives tension and is passy when appropriate. It can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of thriller movies.

The codes and conventions are mainly what the audiences expect to see within a thriller this includes all types of thrillers, such as cross genres in action, adventure, sci- fi etc.

What audiences expect to see is what producers need to include in attracting their audience. The codes and conventions of a psychological thriller that are genres which play with audiences minds by manipulating a character and the film will show this from a very subconcious angle by using voice overs and never allowing the audience to know much outside what the main characters know so as to build tension and shock.