Broken- New and Improved Treatment

What is Broken?

Broken is a Psychological Thriller involving a woman, and a little girl. The opening involves a woman waking up from a bad dream, which she suddenly erupts from. Through the flashbacks a sense of enigma will be created, as many unanswered questions will be raised such as who is she and who's the little girl in reference to the woman and who is the man.

Themes

The main themes of this thriller will be: Confusion, Regret, Greed, Selfishness, Pain, Love-loss and Family. As it follows the life of a distraught and broken women who has been corrupted by media after downwards spiral from fame.

The Narrative

Debby suddenly wakes up in an unfamiliar place with a case of amnesia. The bright sunlight causes her to get severe headaches which causes her to have flashbacks of her past but she can ’t make out what it means. A sense of voyeurism has been created through the people on the streets that she tries to interact with as they just stare motionless at her. Through this idea there is already the sense of unease and questioning which is often created by psychological thrillers, therefore this is bound to intrigue audiences. This thriller represents my view of people who will do anything to be in the spotlight, Debby represents the negative sides of all the women who sell their soul to be famous. The reason why the people on the streets are emotionless is because they represent the fickleness that comes with being famous as her 15 minutes of fame is over and she is no longer relevant to them, she can’t connect with them because they’re not her family. She embodies the brutality and dark side of fame that most “celebrities” often fall into:The loss of her family Destruction of her intelligence.The need for more as nothing is ever good enough, they crave more attention until it finally destroys them.

 The Characters

There is one main character in my thriller opening- an 18 year old woman, however, there are other characters that will play apart in my opening such as little girl who is an enigma in herself as the audience are unaware to whether she is my main characters sister or her when she was younger and innocent. 

Setting
The opening will be filmed mostly in my house as she is waking up in a home from home. I'll be using three different rooms, bedroom where she wakes up and the little girls room. However, this room will be shot twice once with the little girl inside it playing and another time when it is completely empty.

Mise en Scene

Mise en scene is crucial for my thriller as I'm relying on it to build the story due to the lack of dialogue. In the woman's bedroom there will be a photo frame of her and a man and this is what triggers her first flashback. For the scene that involves the little girl I want her toys to be on the floor and I especially want to focus on a teddy bear as I want that bear to be a motif that runs throughout my opening as thats the bear that connects her with the child because the bear will also be on the sofa with her in her flashback.

Editing
In my thriller, the editing will be key to its success as I'm using a lot of flashbacks and I want the editing to be jumpy as it resembles my main characters dysfunctional mind.

Audience

My target audience for my thriller are people 15 - 45 as these are the people who will be able to relate the most to the storyline and would understand it better. I feel the younger generations would enjoy it the most, however people in their 30's and 40's will understand the deeper message more.

 Storyboard

Seen below

Planning

Before I can film I'm going to need to plan my setting, lighting, props and the overall filming in terms of story.

Lighting: For lighting I would want to close the curtains  to create an eery dark atmosphere however lighting is crucial as the audience needs to be able to see the room so perhaps I'd only pull one curtain. Moreover, if it is still unclear, I would hopefully borrow a LED light from media to highlight important props and moments in this first scene, i.e. the photo frame and the pills. 

Setting: For the setting I require three different bedrooms as my film takes pace in a woman's room a child's room and an empty room, however the location that I have found is an empty house so it fits in perfectly for the empty child's room but I've had to adapt my initial plan as the woman no longer wakes up on a bed but on the floor suggesting she might be squatting, this then actually helps to give my opening more depth, story wise.

Costume: 
- I want the character Debby to be wearing a red dress as red is often associated with passion, sex and promiscuity.
- I want the man in the opening to be casual, in jeans and a top.

Sound: 
- I've already started to editing my sound by using sound clips from a copy right free music site called PurplePlanet.com. I've used two different sound bites and fused them together to create something original and in the later stages of my editing I will be using Garage Band to help me create non diegetic sounds to help create tension throughout my opening as sound is crucial in Psychological thrillers as the action could be fairly ordinary but the background music suggests different, which helps to create an enigma. 


Props: I need many props for my thriller opening including:
- Photo frame.
- Pill bottle with pills spilled on the floor.