Film Plot Development

Brainstorming some possible storylines…

Ideas

Kidnap / Abduction

Torture

Murder

Mental Health

Supernatural

Revenge

The unknown

After careful consideration and messing around with lots of different ideas I decided to incorporate the idea of stalking, mental health and the unknown.

Stalking

Imprisonment

Zombies

Accidental death

Natural disasters

Slasher

Disease

Initial ideasWhen it came to deciding upon an original storyline for my film I knew it was going to base around mental health. This is a very personal subject to me and I want to inform the audience just how severe mental health can be and how is can affect someone's life for the worse and how it’s possible for you to lose control.

Sienna is coming to terms with her recent schizophrenia diagnosis. She begins hallucinating and hearing bizarre noises and everyone around her attributes this to her mental health. She tries incredibly hard to convince her loved ones she is being harassed and when they don’t believe her they demand she gets sectioned under the mental health act.

The stalking and idea of the unknown intertwine within my narrative. My protagonist, Sienna, is convinced she is being stalked and when abnormal things begin to happen to her she sets out to uncover the truth and gets stopped in her path. Whereas her friends and family attribute this to her schizophrenia. This is where the aspect of the unknown creeps in, the audience are in the same boat as Sienna, neither know if she really is being targeted or is she losing her grip on reality and losing the battle with mental health?

Aside from the schizophrenia the other major attribute to my film is the ‘masked stalker’, throughout the film it’s unclear to Sienna and the audience whether this is a real person or just an hallucination. I’m trying to keep my film intriguing and the fact the protagonist and the viewers have to come up with their own conclusion as to whether the masked stalker is real or just a work of fiction keeps them captivated and keeps the narrative fresh and incising.

The element of being stalked relates heavily to the horror genre, this act of insanity represents ultimate fear and distress. I decided to follow this theme because it can lead down many roads and allow me to be creative with my decision making. I decided the stalker would always be wearing a mask, this hides their true identity and links in with the convention of the unknown. Keeping their face covered with a mask stops Sienna and the audience figuring out who is pestering her. I’m unsure yet just how far the masked stalker will push Sienna however I can reveal that they will play a huge role in the overall plot of my film.

At this stage of the planning I haven't decided on what the mask will look like yet, I will list a few suggestions and put it to my target audience through my focus group and questionnaire, and see what’s the most popular with them. The input of my target audience is very important to me, after all they are the ones who will be watching my film.

Unique selling point From very early on I had two original ideas for my film’s unique selling point. I hope to incorporate the harshness of mental health and the recurring use of alcohol, both of these factors affect members the human population, this in turn represents realism.

Mental healthThe majority of horror films centre around the supernatural and strange occurrences. As an audience, they know roughly what is causing this chaos, whereas with mental heath they can never be sure which way things can go. It’s very rare for a horror film to base their narrative on the issues of a mental illness and I believe I can portray this subject tactfully and efficiently.

AlcoholIt’s important for the unique selling point to be a memorable aspect of the narrative. In my film alcohol dependency plays a huge role in Sienna’s life. It’s unusual for someone in a horror film to always have a drink in their reach because they are usually trying to escape a form of torment. However I hope to challenge this and show that although Sienna believes alcohol may help her it really makes matters a lot worse.