Planning: Final idea

Once we developed our ideas as a group, we then sat down and decided on a final idea and what conventions we would use. We also had to make key choices here so we had an idea and script to follow. As a group, this is our final idea.

• Title: The Only Child  
• Narrative/plot: It will be about a young girl who is locked up in a mental home. The audience will not know too much about her as they will just see her in distress, however they will see her having flashbacks where they will learn that she has had a baby who she trying to get back. We will also see images of the baby being in the same establishment as her, they are just separated. The rest of the film will be showing her escape to her child and finally, she finds her baby and manages to escape the mental institution.
• Narrative structure: We will use Todorov’s theory of equilibrium as I like the idea of having a clear star, middle and end so it easier for the audience to follow. At the start of the film, we will see the female in a mental home. The middle of the film will be about the female planning her escape route.  The end of the film will be her getting her baby back and escaping the building with her baby. We will also use Aristotle as we will use themes that evoke emotion from the audience such as innocence, mentality and pregnancy.
• Characters: We will have the female victim, a baby and maybe the girl’s boyfriend. This is to show the connection of the family and have characters that people can relate to and identify easily.
• Mise en scene:
  Setting: in a mental home and busy streets when she escapes
  Iconography: a teddy bear, a frame with the baby in, some important jewellery
  Lighting and colour: low-key when she is in the mental home and high-key lighting to show her flashbacks.
  Body language and facial expression: when she has flashbacks, she will look happy and content with life but when she is in the mental home, she will be upset and fragile. This will show the difference of her life.
  Costume:  she will wear light clothing in her flashback to emphasise her innocence but when she is in the mental home she will wear a white robe as it is conventional and she will be labelled to show she might be dangerous.
• Film influences: Orphan as it shows a tormented female character who is in a mental home.
• Why is this opening conventional to a thriller? This will be conventional to a thriller opening because it will cause suspense and tension amongst the audience and they will want to know more about what it happening and the themes apparent within the film. It will introduce the characters but at the same time their roles will be quite unclear which will make the audience want to watch more.
• What themes does your thriller present? The themes that will be present are childhood, innocence, family and mentality. These are all themes typical to a thriller.
• What response will you get from your audience? I hope to create fear and anticipation amongst my audience. Also, I will hope to show feelings of uncertainty which I think will be effective by my montage of images.