Five minute film treatment - Unpredictable

Title: 
Unpredictable

Duration of the film: 
5 minutes

Detailed synopsis:

A man called Brian is just normal person, living a normal life. This is until one day however, when he wakes up for what should be a routine day consisting of college.It is after waking up when he falls over and bangs his head on the wall. Consequences are soon to follow, of course. Brian then begins a run of luck that see's him win bets and things seem to go his way. We see his friends, oblivious to his new-found 'skill'. They believe it to be pure luck that Brian is having. But of course, no one is this lucky. All seems well for him. This, of course, has to end at some point. On such a good run of luck, Brian fails to predict what is going to happen next. After winning at a poker night, he is hit by a car and killed. This gives the film an ironic twist, in which he predicts all of the good things that are to happen to him, yet fails to predict his death. 

Audience:
We distributed a questionnaire on the internet, giving the participants an idea of our synopsis and what the film is in general. Our results showed that the ages of 15-20 years old preferred our idea. Also, 70% of the participants who liked the film were male, as opposed to the 30% of females. 80%  also said that they would find short films at the cinema, before a film. Most said, having looked at our idea, that it was a drama. 

Suggested elements:
Black and white overlay when he has a vision of the future

Storyboards

Other Main props for short film

Short Film Props

This prop will be used in the Heads or Tails game when Brian and Neil are in the house scene.

This prop will be used in the house scene where Brian, Neil and Lewis play poker in the 2nd to last scene.

This prop will be used on the first day when Brian and Neil are  playing poker and chess  etc.

This prop will be used in the House scene when Brian and Lewis play poker in preparation for the following night.

character profile and props- character Brian

Brian's Character Profile 
Name: Brian Foster
Age: 18
D.O.B: 23/11/1994
Birth place: Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Hobbies: Football
Friends: Lewis, Neil

Brian's Props 


Morning props

Bottom PJ's for morning scene inside the house 

Morning T-shirt which will be in the opening scene. This costume will be  worn with bottoms this is part of one costume which will be in our short film 

Town scene props 



1st Daytime costume part.. This is to be worn as part of the external scenes for the first day.

1st Daytime costume. This will be the bottoms for Brian on the first day  scenes from the external scenes  of the  lane and town.



both Daytime costume. This will be the coat for Brian on both  scenes from the external scenes  of the  lane and town and internal scene of Lewis's house

This is part of the second day costume which brian will wear. He will also wear the grey T-Shirt with these chinos.

This is part of the second day costume which brian will wear. This will be worn with the sandy chinos

both Daytime costume. This will be the pumps for Brian on both day  scenes from the external scenes  of the  lane and town.

Brian props 

The first prop will be Brian's bag which will be introduced at the end of the  internal house scenes.  This prop will be used in the lane and town scene. 

This prop will be included in the internal house scene at the beginning and then in the town scene 

Revised film script

possible distributors

As our film is an independent film production group we will have to find a suitable low budget film distribution company.


Metrodome distribution

Metrodome distribution is a London based film distribution company that funds low budget films in the UK. They are based in London In England. From researching into Metrodome distribution I found that they have distributed a large amount of low budget films in the past. This is why I consider them as a possible film distribution company. They also have a lot of experience in making distribution a success in films such as 'The Chaser' this film follows a male who is involved in life debts (left behind from his friends that vanished) which he is left to fix. The Male is left to find out why his friends vanished the story folds on. This has aspects of a supernatural thriller. Metrodome distribution would be a good company to use as they have great experience in this genre area whilst working with a small budget. Metrodome distribution would be a great distribution company to use for our film production as they would give us a big advantage in the independent short film market as they have great connections to other distribution companies in other countries around the world. This would then enable to expand our audience to world wide. This would then result in a higher gross which we would make from our short film production.

http://uk.imdb.com/company/co0076345/

Independent Cinema Office distribution/ Icon film distribution

Another low budget distribution company that I found whilst researching into possible film distributors was Independent Cinema Office. This distribution company was one of my other considerations. The reason for this was that they are a local distribution company based in London UK. This is a useful aspect to having a local distribution company as it would be easy to work closely with them on future films made by our Independent film production company. Another advantage of using ICO distribution is they have worked with production companies from the area of Barnsley this film was KES. They also have links to other distribution groups around the world.

http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/

Optimum releasing studio canal



Studio Canal UK is a film distributor company working in the UK. When the company was named Optimum, the company's image was of a modern, independent new release and back catalogue distributor. Films were released under many types of film Release (Theatrical New Releases), Optimum Home Entertainment (DVD, Blu-ray Disc Releases) As optimum releasing currently distribute just over 200 films a year, this is a great level of releases for a an independent film distribution company.

http://www.studiocanal.co.uk/

However, after researching into these chosen distribution companies I found independent distributor metrodome to be more suitable for our independent production company as they have high level of success and experience in the genre of thriller which happens to be the genre of our film being a supernatural thriller.

In conclusion, my final decision was to use metrodome distribution as our distribution for our independent film. The reason for this is that they have previous experience and success of distributing supernatural thrillers with small budgets in the past. Also they are a local distribution company so it will be useful for future use as we will be able to work closely on distribution to ensure our films are successful.

Genre and Sub-Genre

What is a film genre?

Film genre refers to the range of methods based around similarities in the narrative elements from in which films are constructed from. However genre is a debateable subject based upon opinions made by people over how to define genre types with it being a horror or a thriller for example. The reason for this is that people’s views may deflect others as some genres have close similarities to one other.  

What is the Thriller genre?

Thrillers are a broad genre of film. That uses suspense and excitement as the main features. Thrillers are made up of great elements that really draw in the audience with the use of surprise, anxiety and surprise. Thrillers are often made from use of cliff-hangers which engages the audience more and more.

What is our film genre and sub-genre? 

We decided that our film fits within the thriller genre. Once we discovered this we then further researched around sub-genre in the thriller category. It was here where we discovered that our film fulfilled the genre type of supernatural thriller. The reason for this is we use paranormal events and a fictional narrative which cannot be defined by science however by its supernatural explanation. This being in our film a paranormal activity from the main character, this being the ‘Gift’ which He inherits at the start of the film. Throughout our film there is a series of events where we see an appearance from this paranormal activity when he sees into the future to predict the outcomes of the gambles which he makes playing the different games. Thriller films often tend to be gritty and use plot twisters and give the audience experience of cliff-hangers. Our film fully fulfils these criteria as we have a film based around paranormal experience and use massive plot twisters to ‘WOW’ the audience.

Supernatural Thrillers films/TV research?


Alphas, is a good example to use from the same supernatural genre as both our film and this silm have similar uses of paranormal activities. This film also use real human being characters that have special abilities (gifts) to do certain things. This is really similar to our film as our main character also has special abilities to see to the near future to predict certain outcomes which give him fortune.



Another example of a film which uses supernatural thrillers aspects to creating the narritive is 'The Gift' created in the year 2000. 'The Gift' uses similar aspects to creating an narrative by the use of paranormal event of a gift which give the character an ability to see into to the future to predict certain outcomes.

First draft script for short film

Here we have a rough idea of how our film is going to be. As a group we created a script from both our ideas which we combined to make this script. However we are now going to revise it and make some changes where we decided to either add or change things. Then produce a written up version for the final thing.