A2 Media - Pitch of Ideas

By Josh Tills

Mood Board

The Idea

• An action/drama film highlighting and expanding on the work of Raine and how he thinks that people with a lower heart means a lower arousal level and therefore means these people will turn to crime to raise their arousal level.

• My film aims to expand on this idea and look at how if we were to look at children's heart rate, see if they had a lower arousal, and therefore see if they would turn to crime.

USP• The reason why I am making this film is because I find this study in

psychology particularly interesting. I feel it is necessary to outline and indicate the flaws with this study and how you can’t predetermine someone to be a criminal. The way this will be shot in the film would be through having a child with a heart murmur and therefore has a lower heart rate. This indicates how there is a flaw with this system and therefore the study is weak.

• The reason why people would want to see this film would be because there no films which express the same conventions as this. With the closest being The Island and Surrogate and The Changeling.

• This film is also very rare in the sense of it exploring both the genre of drama and action, with the action being in the spark of the human rights of this secret institution, and the drama being the emotional content of the characters and how they adapt to the outside world.

The Name

• The name of this film would be Arousal Level. The reason for this is because Raine found a correlation between a persons arousal level and criminal activity.

• http://prezi.com/ryxgfy2xxg_f/raine-biological-explanations-for-turning-to-crime/

Target Audience• The target audience that I have chosen for this

film is that of 20-35. This is because the age of this target audience would be able to imagine and comprehend with this idea and I imagine would feel compassion for a lot of the characters (i.e. family, kids, etc.). This is not to say that my film would be rated as an 18+. I would aim for film to be a 12A, meaning that kids could too could watch this film. I feel some kids would be intrigued with this film and would feel empathy for the children in this institution.

Style

• Like other drama based films, my trailer would include slow shots, lots of dialogue, slow music which gradually builds, lots of close ups, voiceovers, etc.

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824747/

Location

• The majority of the filming will be hosted in St. Mary’s High School due to it replicating an institution. The family scenes will be shot in a house (mainly a living room). The member of parliament, human rights, and newspaper scenes are all yet to be decided on.

CharactersChildren• Character 1 – 1106• Character 2 - 2053• Character 3 - 1491• Character 4 - 0872• Character 5 – 4010MP’s• Steven Jones• Ken Adams• Harry Smith

Family Members• Vicky Aylott (1)• Sam Aylott (1)• Jenna Marbels (2)• Chris Marbels (2)• Kristy Beamont (3)• Matt Beamont (3)• Sav Georgiou (4)• Natasha Georgiou (4)• Elliot Martin (5)• Trevor Martin (5)

Inspiration

• I aim for my trailer to be very slow and dramatic with Joel Cox (Changeling, Gran Torino, million dollar baby) being my inspiration for how I want my trailer to be edited and finally look. In terms of directing, my inspiration is Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, Big).

Todorov’s Narrative Theory

• My film aims to challenge the theory that Todorov proposed as I am for it not follow the five stages set. Firstly, in the beginning of my film, everything will not be in a state of equilibrium, there will already be disruption with the sense that children are forced into an institution.

Enigma Code

• Why are these children being put into an institution?

• What have they done to deserve this?• What does their heart rate have to do with

criminal behavior?• How are these kids going to adapt?

Propp

• My film aims to heavily challenge the theory of Propp and the eight spheres of action as instead of showing particular roles within the film, my film aims to focus on the journey of the children.

Active or Passive

• I would wish for my audience to be an active audience as I would want my audience to see my trailer and think about it. Think about a world where this actually exists and where children are treated this way. I feel this would be a crucial part of my film in getting the audience to empathise and comprehend with my characters.