Mr Palindrome

The Treatment• Mr Otto Palindrome is a man who believes and sees the world as being

backwards, everyone walks everywhere backwards and talks backwards and he feels alienated in this strange backwards world. It becomes clear that Mr Palindrome is mentally unstable and has serious delusions as it turns out the world is not backwards and it is all in his head. He is really the one doing everything backwards.

• The opening five minutes of the film will be about introducing the film’s main premise, that Mr Palindrome sees the world as being backwards. It will not be revealed that in fact it isn’t backwards, so the audience will believe that it is for the beginning of the film. It starts with him waking up and is generally just his average day doing normal things like waking up, eating breakfast, travelling on a train, walking in the city. The main entertainment will be from the fact that everything around him will be backwards. The title sequence will be narrative.

What subgenre is it? What real film openings inspired you?

• Our film is a psychological thriller, due to the insane nature of Mr Palindrome’s brain.

• A real film opening which inspired us was ‘Memento’ by Christopher Nolan, the opening scene is played entirely in reverse, this gave us the initial idea of reversing footage which inspired us to take it one step further.

Locations

The Millennium bridge

West India Quay DLR Station

And Kris’s house

Mise En Scene

A shirt that has a label like this

Needed for the match cut to indicate that the protagonist has his shirt back to front.

Digital Alarm Clock

To denote the progression or reversal of time.

Bread and a Toaster

One of the shots will feature a reversal of toast to bread in a toaster to indicate time going backwards.

DLR notice board and train

The DLR notice board will show us where Mr. Palindrome is bound and the train is what he will get on. The scene will also be in reverse so trains go back and the board also has time.

Dark Clothing

Steven can wear anything dark but probably has to wear it scruffy. Possibly a baggy jumper, black skinny jeans and black trainers to give him that mentally unstable look.

Storyboard

Preliminary Ideas about Sound

• Originally, I had planned for the opening sequence to feature some original music but coming up with a unique and fitting composition would be very challenging and time consuming.

• Instead, I have thought up of a few ideas.

• The sound recorded from the video can be given a muffled effect by lowering the high and low frequencies on the EQ, accordingly.

• Any talking can be played backwards so it can emphasise the time-reverse effect. This would be a nice idea for when someone is speaking to the protagonist as recording sound is difficult and so the muffled effect and the reversing can give off an acceptable, distorted voice.

• Reverb and echo are some good effects to add, especially to foley sounds like doors closing.

Production Schedule

Production (Filming):3 Weeks – Mon 4th Feb to Sun 24th Feb

Post-Production (Editing):1 Week – Mon 25th Feb to Sun 3rd March

Final weekMon 4th March to Fri 8th March

• We will be filming during Mary and Dan’s lessons at the locations previously stated for the next two weeks. First at Kris’ house, then the DLR station and finally on the bridge.

• The weeks after, editing will be the main priority followed by the sound.

• In the final week, we will evaluate the final product and if needed, we will redo the problem.

Risk Assessment

• Theft• Falling on the train tracks• Dropping the equipment• Getting the equipment wet• Getting the equipment stolen• Falling in the Thames• Falling down the stairs• Getting hit in the face with some toast• Getting electrocuted by the toaster• Getting beat up by station officials• Getting run over• Being assaulted by people

Skills

• So far, we have learned how to use the camera, we know all of the basic skills such as focusing, zooming, switching SD Cards, as well as the amount of time in which we should leave after pressing the record button before acting the scene out. We know how to safely set up, take down and carry around the tripod without anybody being hurt or, more importantly, the camera being broken.

• We have also learned a lot of blogging skills, these are seen on our blog. They include including sources, pictures, videos, links and even recording our own videos to put up, or taking our own pictures to further explain our point.

Institutional Details

• Our film will be produced by CandI Studios which would give us a lower budget but would also allow us to retain all creative control over the project. It wouldn’t affect much for the better, apart from the fact that we gain the love and support of Mary and Dan.

Audience

• Our target audience will be teens to young men, who are the target audience for most thrillers. It is a psychological thriller and therefore we will hope to aim it at people interested in thinking during movies, or as they are known, ‘smart people’. These will largely be young men aged around 20. We hope they’ll have seen many psychological thrillers in their lives and therefore have some idea of what they are in for.